Immortals Of Byolla Bay

Dinner is almost done. The smell of chicken and Alfredo sauce filled the kitchen. I did pretty good if I say so myself. Mom came home an hour ago and helped me set the table.

She walked into the kitchen, “Hey look baby, I found a pumpkin spice candle we can light and set on the table.” I nodded, that would be perfect. Mom pulled the salad I made earlier out of the refrigerator, “I cannot wait to meet him! I think I’m more nervous than you are.”

I laughed, “Mom, why? You are the one he needs to impress, right? So you aren’t the one who needs to be nervous, that’s his job.” Suddenly a strange feeling came over me. I knew without a shadow of a doubt that Rikki was walking up the driveway. He didn’t announce himself or anything, but I just knew in my gut that he was here. Weird.

Then there was a knock on the door and mom excitedly said, “I’ll get it!” It was him. The gorgeous man who occupies my every waking thought. When did I acquire the ability to sense him?

Storing the thought away for a time when we are alone, I turned to smile as they walked into the kitchen. Mom came in with a bouquet of white and red roses, “Look Kinsley! He even brought me flowers! I have to go find a vase for these! Oh thank you Rikki, they are beautiful!”

She sat them down on the counter and walked in the hallway to the storage closet. I took the opportunity to jump in Rikki’s arms and wrap mine around him, “I can’t explain how much I’ve missed you. Is it always going to be like this?”

He gently kissed me, “My love, I know just how much you have missed me because I obviously couldn’t wait any longer for your call before I came. To answer your question, yes we will always miss each other when we are apart, but normally, if you were in my world, I would have already married you and we would have moved in together. Here, however, it’s different and we have to move at a pace comfortable to your mother. Speaking of..”

He sets me down just as my mom comes back in the kitchen with a light yellow vase that hadn’t been used since I bought mom flowers for mother’s day. The yellow brought out the white roses beautifully and the red added the perfect amount of color to the kitchen. Rikki did a great job, not that I would have expected anything less out of him.

We sat down to eat and mom started asking Rikki about where he came from plus his whole life story, which he expertly answered in a way suitable to someone who knew nothing about what he really is. He told her about what growing up as the middle child is like and how his father has to move them around a lot because of his job as a fisherman. “It’s hard for him to find stable work in the bigger cities because everyone is moving to commercial boats and my father is independent, so we decided to try our luck with a smaller town. He found a job at the docks and moved us in a few weeks later. He has had quite a good streak of luck with his business here. Thankfully we won’t have to continue moving because we get pretty tired of it. We are only human, after all.”

He winked at me on that last part and I chuckled silently. I could see in mom’s face that she was completely charmed by Rikki. I know just how she feels. There are times when he looks at me that I forget how to breathe.

After dinner Rikki impressed her even more by offering to do the dishes. Mom just looked incredulously at him and said, “Well that’s a sweet offer, but no. I’ll clean up. You and Kinsley may go watch a movie or whatever you like, but I’m afraid she’s not allowed to have boys in her room.” Rikki nodded, “Understood, a movie is fine.”

I put on some independent film my mom got from her secret Santa at work last year. I wasn’t paying attention to it. My focus was on Rikki. He seemed interested in the movie until my mom walked onto the porch and out of ear shot. That’s when he slid his arm around me and lifted me onto his lap.

“Rikki, my mom..” He smiled and shook his head, “I can hear when she comes back in.” He points to his ears, meaning his super hearing would alert him. “What do you want for your birthday?” Rikki asked. I shrugged, “I don’t know, I hadn’t really thought about it.” I had already been gifted the best present ever, the man who’s lap I’m sitting on. “You won’t even give me a hint?” Rikki whispers as he brushes his lips against mine. I felt my face flush, “I swear, I haven’t thought about what I want. You can always surprise me since I know telling you I don’t want anything will be out of the question for you.”

Rikki chuckled, “Exactly. At least you know.” He quickly kissed me and put me back down on the couch just as mom walked back around the corner, “What are you guys watching? Oh it’s that one movie I can’t pronounce that I got from Tessa last year as a secret Santa gift. Why did you pick this movie when we have a ton of others to pick from?” She sat in her chair and I could tell she was going to stay there for the rest of the time Rikki was here. The movie turned out to be a drama where the main character ended up dying from cancer. Mom was in tears as the ending credits started rolling. I got up and turned the TV off and looked at Rikki apologetically, who looked like he was trying not to laugh.

“Well I believe it is getting late and I should go. Dinner was delicious and it was so good meeting you, Ms. Preden.” My mom giggled, “Oh please, call me Erin. It was great to meet you too, Rikki. Please have a safe trip home.”

I walked Rikki out on the porch. As soon as I shut the door, he scooped me up and kissed me. “I’ll be watching the house tonight a long with every other night I have to be away from you. I will see you in the morning. Pleasant dreams, my love.”

Monday started out normal. The first two classes were mainly outlines and book work about what will be on the final exam Wednesday. The first two periods exams were on Wednesday, my third period is on Thursday and even gym has a final exam, though I’m not sure what it consists of at the moment.

Everything was going off without a hitch until lunch. “I’m telling you, they were huge. We were on my parent’s yacht and they were up on the cliff. There were two of them and had big glowing eyes.”

I walked over to Meshella, who had her arms crossed with a look on her face that showed she no more believed the story than she believed in the Easter Bunny. “Hey bestie! Presley here had a little too much to drink on his parent’s yacht the night before last and swears he seen two huge wolves or dogs with glowing eyes standing on the cliff watching him. Do you hear how crazy it sounds when it is said out loud, Presley?”

Presley was adamant, “Look I’m telling you, I know what I saw. Ask Tommy, he seen the same thing. Lucas was passed out by then, but swears he heard growling in his sleep.”

Meshella pointed to Tommy, “Are you sure you seen two behemoth wolves, which we have never seen ever in Byolla Bay, on the edge of the cliff, while you guys were plastered?” Tommy looked down. “Well, when you put it that way..” Presley cut him off, “No dude, she wasn’t there, we were and we know what we saw.”

Meshella raised her hands in defeat, “Fine. Whatever. You guys want the whole town to think you’re nuts be my guest. It’s still not stopping me from throwing my bestie the best party in the world! Girl, you should see the plans Maggie and I have came up with, you are going to die!”

I started laughing, “I don’t doubt it. It’s starting to get really cold though, so is it at least going to be indoors?” Meshella shook her head, “No, but don’t worry, we have a solution to that. Now all I need you to focus on is passing your exams and looking beautiful, Maggie and I have the rest covered.”

I was a little self conscious walking down the hallway holding hands with Rikki and getting looks from all the girls in school, but Rikki held his head high like he just won an academy award. We walked out of the gym, with Maggie and Meshella behind us, then down the trail to our houses. “So what do you guys think about the gigantic wolves that are taking over our town?” Maggie asked.

Meshella scoffed, “Oh, earlier today it was just two, apparently there are more now?” Rikki chuckled, “Some girls in my 3rd period said they were almost as big as a house and had sharp teeth with blood dripping from their fangs.” Meshella shook her head, “Damn Presley, Tommy and Lucas hallucinating and sharing it with the whole school. What were they thinking? This is going to be the talk of the school year and I’m already sick of it.”

We walked all the way to Meshella’s and I hugged her goodbye. After that we walked to my house. Maggie was staying with me tonight. I’d already asked mom if she could stay the week with me while her parents were away, which my mom said yes to. Keri and Ty weren’t going anywhere, but mom didn’t need to know that.

Maggie walked outside to do a perimeter run around my house, leaving me alone with Rikki. It gave me a chance to talk to him about some things that had been on my mind, “Hey Rikki, can I ask you something?” He trailed kisses from my cheek to my lips, “Anything.” He answered. “Let’s say we get you guys back home, what about us? I’ll never see you again, will I?”

Rikki tensed, “That’s a complicated question. Technically I’m next in line for the throne so I need to go back at least to make sure Drakkar’s terror is ended, but my heart, soul and body is attached to you so therefore wherever you are that’s where my home is. Gene could take my place, but he already said he wants nothing to do with the throne. I guess this is one of those we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it situations. All I know is this Kinsley, I will not be separated from you. All I am is yours for the taking and I cannot live without you.”

I sat up and looked into his emerald eyes. They were overflowing with pure love and I knew in that moment I would never love anyone else in my life more than I loved Rikki. I also knew he would never love anyone else, but me, though I still don’t understand what I’ve done to be blessed with this Adonis. My Adonis.