“Edeeeen.” Sariyah called sweetly.
“Yeeeeesss?” A sing-song voice replied from the other side of the door.
“She’s probably working on something.” Sariyah explained as she pushed into the room. Lucia understood instantly what she meant as they entered, the long rectangular room was crammed full with half-finished white marble sculptures on pedestals, dresses on dummies and pieces of jewellery scattered over stools and tables. Tools littered the floor and surfaces: pliers, chisels, blowtorches, sewing needles, safety pins. The room had a ladder that led into a loft conversion where a woman hung over the edge, letting her arms dangle down and her chin rest on the very corner of the wood. She had an easy, laid-back grin that felt refreshing just to view it, even though it was directed at Sariyah rather than her.
“Good evening, my love.” She greeted, allowing her head to loll along the edge to take in Lucia. “I smell a human.” Her lazy grin was still present, clearly teasing. Having met her mother already, Eden looked a little strange to Lucia, she had the same thin face and straight nut-brown hair but there was so much more life in her, her green eyes shimmered with excitement, her long hair loose and wild around her. “You must be my new sister-in-law.” She pushed herself up and leapt down, gracefully hopping along tables to reach them at the entrance to the room. When she landed in front of them she gave Sariyah a hug which the other woman happily returned. “You don’t visit enough.” Eden accused lightly.
“You could always try leaving this room once in a full moon?”
“No, thank you!” Eden turned away and reached her hands out to Lucia. She hesitated for a moment, this woman was a stranger, daughter of the creepy couple who had paid money to have her kidnapped, but if Sariyah trusted her… Maybe she was okay… maybe. She gave a small smile and put her own arms out, allowing Eden to give her a crushing hug.
“Eden, this is Lucia - Elijah’s fiance!” Lucia bristled a little at the ‘f’ word but kept her face in check when Eden pulled back with her full-beam smile aimed right at her, it was a little disorientating.
“It’s lovely to meet you, my love.” Eden kissed both her cheeks lightly and released her. Lucia blinked, blushed and looked away, taking in the chaos of the room around her.
“Is Elijah’s room… like this?” She asked.
Both women laughed heartily, “Absolutely not.” said Eden.
“I see it this way: Eden has outward intelligence, Elijah has inward intelligence.” Sariyah added.
Eden hummed, “I’m a messy learner, he’s a neat learner.” she offered.
“He sounds boring.” Lucia grumbled.
“Yeah, he can seem that way.” Said Eden. “But when he eventually lets you in, you’ll see he’s just a giant dork.”
“You’re not exactly selling him here.” Lucia snorted. “But then, I guess I’m the one who was sold so I can’t talk.” Both women had the grace to look embarrassed. “Whatever, my family made more money in that five minutes I was being stuffed into a car than they have their entire working careers to date, I hope it was worth it.” She shrugged awkwardly and thankfully Sariyah cut in to keep them moving,
“And with that, I think we should move on with the tour and let Eden finish whatever monstrosity she’s currently working on.”
“You should know by now that I never finish anything!” Eden laughed. “But I’m glad you dropped by, it was lovely to meet the newest member of the family. I hope we can become good friends, Lucia.”
“Thanks, it was nice to meet you.” Lucia said nothing about ‘family’ or the arranged marriage, it didn’t feel right to argue the situation out with this sweet woman, it wasn’t her fault.
“Next we’ll pop in with my other half and then we’ll see if Elijah is around to pester.”
“That’s okay, I feel like just your husband will be enough and then I’m ready for bed.”
“Then we’ll go see Elijah first and you can meet Reggie tomorrow.” Lucia groaned pitifully but allowed herself to be lead away and up to the other end of the house.
-
Sariyah knocked a funky tune onto the door she claimed led into Elijah’s living quarters. Lucia didn’t have time to breathe before the door opened and her arranged husband was peering down at her.
“Elijah!” Sariyah’s grin was a little too wide as she ushered Lucia in, forcing Elijah back into the room. Lucia dug her heels in but the other woman’s super-strength forced her forward. “I was just giving Lucia the tour of her new home-” Lucia’s expression turned venomous, she had no intentions of pretending to Mr Bonnet that she agreed with any of this nonsense. “and with that came a tour of the family!”
“And you know,” Lucia growled, “I still haven’t met your husband, I would love to be introduced to… Reginald, wasn’t it?” she tried to turn away but Sariyah clamped her hands down onto her shoulders, her tight smile still held in place.
“Plenty of time, dear.” She cooed. Lucia had to resist rolling her eyes, instead glancing round the room curiously. What? She was allowed to know what he was like! You can learn a lot about a person from how they live. From what Lucia could see, Elijah lived like a robot. His room had the same layout as Eden’s (with the other half of the loft conversion) but with maybe a third of the amount of belongings, half of which were books, lined immaculately on wooden book shelves lining the walls. A desk sat perfectly in the centre of the room facing the large bay window with a seat decorated with plain white pillows built underneath. If Lucia had been told she was taking a peek into a showroom from a home wares store she would have had no trouble believing it, nothing looked touched. “Elijah, what have you been up to today?” Sariyah’s question drew her attention back to the man ahead of her. He closed the door and walked to his desk, leaning against it.
“The same things I do most days, filling out paperwork, helping my father make decisions, mediating petty arguments, studying and more paperwork.”
“Aren’t you a bit old to be studying?” Lucia asked sharply.
“Not at all, it’s never too late to get your third degree.” He seemed utterly serious so she decided to change the subject.
“Why do you have to do so much paperwork?”
“We have to make a lot of money to keep the clan comfortable,” He nodded to his desk where there were three small piles of papers laid out immaculately and a laptop sat adjacent to them, everything was perfectly lined up and central. “that takes a lot of work which often involves a lot of paperwork.”
“Sounds incredibly boring.” She looked away, his expression had just a tint of melancholy and it hurt to see - what did he have to be sad about? He was in his own home, with his own family.
“It is.”
“Great!” Sariyah jumped in, she was good at that. “Well, I think it’s time we go see how much mess my husband has managed to make in the four hours since I last checked in on him.” She took Lucia by the shoulders again and turned her around, leading her out.
“Bye Elijah!” She called over her shoulder.
“Goodbye Sariyah, goodbye Lucia.” His voice was soft but she heard it, and she felt a strange squeezing in her tummy when he said her name.
~
Reginald Bonnet was exactly how Sariyah had described him: a walking tornado of paint, pastels, clay and ink. Even under his coating of mixed media, Lucia could tell that he also didn’t quite fit the ‘Bonnet look’, his hair was blonde and scraggly rather than black and curly, his eyes a warm brown rather than green and his features plain and unremarkable - if it weren’t for his brightly blotched clothes and skin, he was the type of man you could easily walk past and never look directly at. He had a pair of thick glasses sat askew on his nose that only added to his look of bewilderment when he spun to greet them, although his expression quickly melted at the sight of his wife. Pure adoration glowed from him as he watched her. Lucia couldn’t help but feel like she was intruding on a private moment but Sariyah didn’t seem to mind; she took his face in her hands, used her thumb to wipe a smudge from his cheek and kissed him there.
“Darling, this is Lucia, Elijah’s fiancee.”
“Ah, lovely to meet you!” He wiped his hands on his shirt before putting one out to her, she shook it. “I’m Reginald, Reginald Bonnet.”
“Lucia.” She replied. Sariyah plucked the man’s glasses from his face and began to clean the lenses on her cardigan.
“I don’t know how you manage to make such a mess, love.” She sighed exasperatedly, handing back the glasses carefully.
“Thank you, dear.” He put them back on. “I don’t quite know myself…”
“I didn’t think vampires could have sight problems.” Said Lucia curiously.
“Oh, he was adopted - born human and it became a habit.” Sariyah explained. “His sight is fine now but he struggles to concentrate without his spectacles perched on his nose!” She flicked said nose gently and he smiled at her. “Well, I’ll let you get on with your mess, Lucia is probably tired from being dragged around the house - humans, they’re like cats, always sleeping!” She winked cheekily at Lucia, who shook her head in return with a smile.
“Oh, yes, rest well!” He nodded and bumbled away to his canvases, each in a different degree of completion.
They left and Sariyah walked her back to her room, the door had been replaced in their absence.
“Same time tomorrow?” She asked with a grin.
“I might need to eat breakfast a little earlier than two in the afternoon,” Lucia laughed. “Any chance you could find some time for me in the AM?”
“Absolutely, I’ll see you at sunrise!” She announced with a thumbs up before hurrying away, closing the door behind her. Lucia began to protest but gave up quickly and flopped onto her bed, ready to fight her intrusive thoughts for the next eight hours… Maybe even get some sleep… Hopefully start to formulate her plan of escape… As much as she had warmed to Sariyah and Eden… and Reginald… She couldn’t stay - definitely couldn’t get married! No one told Lucia Adrienne Martinez what to do, where to go and certainly not who to love.
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