A Pleasant Yet Dangerous Life Chapter 14

A PLEASANT YET DANGEROUS LIFE

CHAPTER 14- TANITH

"Dear," Ghastly calls from the front door.

"In here," I reply from the kitchen. I turn around just to bump into him. "Hi," I say.

"Hi," he says back kissing my cheek.

"How'd last night go?" He, Skulduggery, Ravel, and Arturius all stayed at the Sanctuary all night working on the new designs for the Soul Catchers.

"Good. Art really knows what he's talking about." I smile and put my arms around my love's neck.

I'm always asked why we aren't married. My answer is not just because he hasn't asked me, but also because we're happy like this. I wouldn't mind being married at all, but everything in our lives are amazing. We're happy together, we have two great kids, and we've adopted Gothica. I do wish he wouldn't work as much though, that's the only complaint I have.

"Do you think we'll actually get her back?" I ask.

"If the stories are true, yeah."

I can feel the coldness next to me and I know that Val's there. I hadn't told anyone about her, but I don't think it's going to matter. I know I said I'd let Gothica go, but honestly, that's not going to happen.

"Well, what changes are there?" I ask.

"We'll have a timer on each of them. They'll all go off at six o'clock tomorrow night," Arturius says groggily walking in to the kitchen. I walk over to my sleepy boy.

"You know, Gothica is going to love you forever right?" I say. He blushes and pushes my arms off of his shoulders. "Aww, is my baby boy getting embarrassed?" I tease. Suddenly, Ekaterina is laughing her head off.

"Can I kill her?" Arturius asks me. I shake my head and put my arms around him again. "I won't be able to work if she's hanging around," he grumbles.

I look at Ghastly. "Kat, can you come here for a moment?" I call to her. I see her pale face peak out from behind the doorframe. She looks a lot like I did when I was thirteen. She looks like a ten year old with her cute round face. "Come here silly," I say.

"Am I in trouble?" she asks.

"No," I tell her.

"Yes," Ghastly says sternly. I look at him confused. "We need to have 'the talk' about boys, missy." I smile knowing that he's referring to her kissing that boy the other day. Ekaterina's nose scrunches up in disgust.

"I'll pass," she says stepping into the room. Ghastly smiles and walks over to our daughter. He hugs her and she hugs him back. "So, mum, what's up?"

"Let's go wake up Gothica and then the three of us can go on a girl's day so your brother can work." I can see her eyes light up at this. "Go wake her up, I need to talk to the three fine gentlemen in the house." I out the kitchen door and watch Ekaterina run up the stairs. "Lev!" I call.

"What?" he snaps like normal.

"Can you come down here for a moment?"

There's a slight hesitation. "No,"

I sigh, knowing that this is going to be a hard battle. "Lev, get your ass down here now!" I yell just like our mum did when we were teenagers. I made my voice sound as much like Mum's and I am surprised with how well it turned out. Suddenly, Lev comes rushing down the stairs and looks around.

"Where's Mum?" he asks franticly.

"In London, Sherlock," I tell him. He looks surprised.

"Then who was . . .?" his voice falters for a moment. "I hate you."

"No, you love me," I remind him. "Anyway to the point I called you down here for. Lev, I need you to help Art fix the Soul Catchers so we can get Valkyrie back. But after Arturius gets some rest. Got it?"

"Alright," Lev says suspiciously.

"Mum, I need someone who can work with electronics and things like that," Art tells me.

"And your uncle is extremely good at that. Now, I'm going to take the girls out and
let you to do what ever it is you boys do."

Suddenly, Ekaterina runs down the steps and runs behind Ghastly. "She's going to kill me," she whines.

"I am not," Gothica says rubbing her head.

"Are you alright?" Ghastly asks, walking up to her. She looks at him.

"Nope. My head feels like it's about to explode."

"Ewww! Brain guts would be all over then!" Ekaterina says. I look at her sternly.

"Just get some sleep, love. The boys will be as quiet as possible right?" I ask looking at Lev and Arturius. They nod and I smile. I look at my daughter. "You ready to go?"

* * * *

"Mummy?" Ekaterina asks wrapping her hand in mine. I look down at her. "What if it doesn't work?"

"What do you mean, love?"

"What if we can't get Valkyrie back? Do you think Gothica will leave?" I tense up at this thought.

"She won't leave," I say. Ekaterina nods. We walk down the street from the shop we were just at down to the park.  

Suddenly, she's running in front of me. I watch as she tries to jump over the huge puddle from the rain this morning. She doesn't make it and lands in the middle of it. The water sprays up and gets her soaked. I can't help but laugh. She walks back towards me and I bend down to look at her.

"Why can't I be like you or Art or daddy?" she asks.

"What?" I ask, wiping a strand of hair out of her face.

"I don't have some awesome power like you guys!" she whines. "You can run up walls, and unlock or lock doors without a key. Arturius can through fire and run really fast because he's still trying to figure out wither he wants to be Elemental or Adept. Daddy can control the air, and fire, and water and he can sew clothes that nothing can pierce! Why can't I do any of that?"

I sigh and lead her to a near by bench. I knew this talk would come someday soon. "Did you father not tell you the test results from what . . . a week ago?" I ask. She shakes her head. This doesn't actually surprise me much. When Ghastly knew what she was, he was terrified.

"What were they?"

"Have you ever had a dream or a flash of something like an event and then a few days or weeks later it happens? She thinks for a moment then nods slowly. "The tests say that you're a . . . a  natural Sensitive." Her eyes widen at this. "You're grandmother on your fathers side was one too. That's where you get it from."

"Wow, really? Why didn't I think of that?" I smile sadly. Then her surprise goes to complete shock and terror.

"Kat, what's the matter?"

She looks at me and suddenly her eyes are filled with tears. "Gothica, I think . . . I think she's going to die."

"What. When?"

"I don't know. I saw this in my dream last night. It was Gothica and this man and he killed her with some kind of magic I've never seen before."

"What did the man look like?" I ask.

"I didn't see his face, but he had a red right hand." I relax at this.

"That was just a nightmare, love. The man with the red right hand is dead. Skulduggery killed him when Valkyrie was twelve."

"Oh, all right!" she says cheerfully. I smile and watch her stand up and run after the birds.

The rest of the day is sweet and amazing. I realize that I never really get time with my daughter. It makes me happy to see her running and playing and laughing and talking.

But for some reason though, it makes me sad.

* * * *

Ekaterina and I walk into the house laughing at a really bad joke we heard in a restaurant earlier. We walk into the living room and see Gothica and Arturius kissing. Ekaterina makes a sound of disgust. "Not again!" Gothica and Arturius look up at us surprised. "Get a room! Oh wait, even in a room I walk into . .  this!"

My son glares at his sister and she just sticks out her tongue. "So," I say interrupting the opportunity for a fight breaking out. "How'd the Soul Catchers go?" I ask.

"Oh, um there's a slight change. We can't just place them and let them run until the time goes comes for them to go off. It was just too big of a pain to try to figure out. So instead, we put a different time limit on each of them. Gothica will have to go to each place in a certain order and press a button that starts the seconds to tick down," he explains

"That seems more confusing," I point out.

"Well, it's the only thing we can think of."

"So explain it like you're explaining it to Finnbar Wrong." I say. He looks at me puzzled. "Never mind about that reference. You don't know him. So explain it like you would a really stupid person so I can actually understand it."

"Fine, Gothica will have all the Soul Catchers and place them one by one at each place. She'll start with the Catcher that has the longest time limit and she'll place it in her grandparents' house. Then she'll go to China's library and place that one there, then the Bentley, then Skull's house, then Gordon's house, then here, and lastly at her house in Colorado. We calculated how long it takes her to get to each place and then used those calculations and figured out how long to make each timer. Do you get it now?" he asks me.

I nod slowly. "Alright." I look around letting the plan sink in. "Do you know where
your father is?"

"In your room," Arturius tells me. I smile and walk up the stairs to my room. I knock on the door and walk in.

Ghastly looks up from his book. I smile and walk over to the bed. He doesn't say anything. I sit and lean my shoulder against his chest. He wraps his arms around me and kisses the top of the head. I look at the clock and see it's seven.

I shift my body and sit on his lap. He smiles and kisses my nose. Our lips meet and the feeling of new love spreads over me- just like every time he kisses me. I pull back and move next to him. "Are you okay?" he asks.

I shrug. His hand wraps around my hip. He strokes my cheek with his other one. Suddenly, I'm crying for no reason. He doesn't seem surprised by this though, which doesn't make sense because I rarely cry. "I was waiting for this," he whispered to me.

I look at him, and he wipes a tear from my cheek. "W-what do you mean?" I ask between sniffles. He holds my hand and looks me in the eyes. "Tanith, we're getting Valkyrie back, Fletcher isn't dead, and there's some wacko out there after Gothica and Valkyrie. Things are going to get difficult and my job's going to get a lot more stressful." Of course I knew this, but I didn't want to believe it. "I know I tell you how I feel a lot, but I still feel like I don't say it enough. I love you, Tanith Low. I love you and nothing will ever change that."

"There's a 'but' coming isn't there?" I ask. He looks away and I squeeze his hand. "What?" I ask.

"There isn't a but, Tanny." That's his nickname for whenever he's sorry about something. "I just, want to say I'm sorry."

"For what?" I was scared about what was coming. He kisses me gently. "Ghastly, what's going on?"

"For not marrying you yet." I feel my eyes go wide at this. He leads me to the edge of the bed and I can feel the butterflies in my stomach come to life again. I watch as he kneels on one knee and slips a small box out of his pocket. I resist the urge to just say yes and let him say, "Tanith Low, I've loved you since I turned back from stone. It's been sixteen years since we became a couple. I've been trying to ask you this for a long time now, but every time I want to, we suddenly get into a life threatening situation or I was just too scared to ask you."

I bite my lip in happiness. "Tanith," he takes my hands and continues, "will you marry me?"

"YES!" I squeal. I tackle him and he starts laughing until I shut him up with a million kisses. "Yes . . . yes . . . yes!" I say between kisses. After a few minutes, we sit up and he grabs the small box and opens it to revile a beautiful diamond ring. "Oh my god, it's beautiful," I say.

"It was my mother's engagement ring," he tells me. I look at him and smile even bigger (if that was even possible). I let him put the ring on my left ring finger. I wrap my arms around him and he picks me up bridal style. I laugh a girlish laugh and he chuckles. "I love you," he says placing me on the bed.

"I love you," I tell him, pulling him down closer to me. I kiss him just as the bedroom door opens.

"What the hell's going on in here?" Lev asks. I groan and look at him. "What?"

"Oh, guess what, Big Brother, I'm getting married!" I say gleefully. He just looks at me, then at Ghastly, then at me, and back to Ghastly.

"Dad's not going to be happy when he hears your marring a man he doesn't know," Lev says. Then without another word, he turns around and walks away.

"Just ignore him. I do all the time," I tell Ghastly. He smiles and kisses me again.

* * * *

I wake up, wrapped in my new fiancé's arms. I knew this day couldn't get any better. Then I remembered that we were getting Valkyrie back.

So maybe I was wrong, this day could get better.

I shift and see Ghastly looking at me. "Morning," he says.

"Hiya," I say back. He props himself up on his elbow.

"You ready for today?" he asks. I nod. "We still need to tell the kids."

"Then what are we waiting for?"  

* * * *

The day is hectic, but worth it. Ghastly and I told the kids that we were getting married and they jumped for joy (Ekaterina literally jumped and hit her head on the railing she was under at the time). All of us were busy getting ready for Val's return. Gothica teleported from place to place once every hour so she would memorize the path, Arturius made sure each of the Soul Catchers would work right, and Ghastly, Skulduggery, Ekaterina, and I calculated the most likely place Val would show up.

We decided that she would be put together in the middle of all the places or somewhere near there. Let's just hope we're right.

Time was quickly passing and before we knew it, it was already five o'clock.

"Hey," I say to Gothica. She's standing on the front porch, holding that doll of hers.

She doesn't respond.

"You okay?" I ask. I walk up to her and see her shaking. "Goth?"

"Tanith," she says, her voice small. "I'm scared." I put my hands on her shaking shoulders.

"Everything's going to be alright. I promise. We're going to get her back, don't worry." She looks at me, her eyes the most beautiful color ever. I take her hand in mine.

"What if . . . she doesn't want me like my father? What if she is like the ghosts that tried to attack me? God, Tanith, there's so many question I need answered before I see her again," she says.

"Hey, shhh. I'll answer them, but you need to know that your mother was the most amazing woman I knew and she defiantly passed that trait down to you, Gothica Rose." She smiles at this. "So, what dying question do you have?"

"Who's Darquess?"

I tense at this. "Darquess was said to be the destroyer of the world."

"What does she have to do with my mum?"

"You mother . . . was Darquess. Er, Darquess was her. The best way, we found to describe her is, that she was Valkyrie's mood swing." I explain. "None of us like talking about it much."

"Alright," I can tell Gothica's uncomfortable with this.

She asks me more questions and I answer them. Some of them were about; missions, magic, friends, lovers, and enemies.

After an hour, Ghastly comes out and tells us it's about time to start the mission. I turn Gothica around so she's facing me. "I love you," I tell her, kissing her forehead.

She wraps her arms around my neck and I can feel the tears on my shoulder. "Thank you, Tanith, for everything," she whispers in my ear.

We walk into the house and see Fletcher. I look at him and he nods at me. After ten minutes, it's time for Gothica to start.

"Well, ain't we an interestin' crowd gathered," a Texan accent says behind me. I spin around and see Billy-Ray Sanguine.  I feel the immediate anger.

"Gothica, go," I hiss.

"But."

"Go!" Out of the corner of my eye I can see the teenager disappear. Out of the other eye I see Fletcher disappear too. "What do you want?" I growl at Sanguine.

"I think ya know, darlin'."

"You aren't getting anywhere near Gothica," Ghastly says in a threatening tone.

"That's not what I was talkin' 'bout, Elder." He looks back at me. "I want my love back," he tells us.

"I'm not your love, Sanguine! Get with reality you idiot!" I yell.

"Mummy, who is this?" Ekaterina asks me. I look at her to tell her to be quiet.

The next things happen to fast for me to process.

Lights explode in front of my eyes as something hard hits my head. I hear fighting around me. A scream and an evil laugh. When I come to my senses, I see Sanguine outside holding Ekaterina by the hair. His straight razor at her neck.

I run outside, anger welling up inside of me. My back is burning but I don't care. I lunge for Sanguine, but he sinks into the ground with my daughter. He comes back up a few feet away. I look at him just in time to see his razor split Ekaterina's neck.

"NO!" I scream.

Sanguine starts laughing. I run to my daughter's body on the ground. I kneel in her crimson blood that's spilling out of the wound. She's not breathing, she's not moving, she's not alive. I feel the tears start to spill immediately. My daughter, gone? I couldn't imagine it, yet here it was. I stroke her curly blond hair gently just like I used to do when she was asleep.

My back is burning. I know I need to calm down or else all hell will break loose. But, I couldn't control it.

"Tanith, don't!" Ghastly calls out. He knows what's coming. "Tanith!"

I can't stop the feeling of evilness rising, just like I couldn't the first night it took over me.

The remnant is rising again.

I scream, though I know it won't do anything. I can hear Skulduggery and Ghastly yelling my name though they know it's useless.

Ghastly, the man I love. I promised him I would never let the remnant out, no matter how angry, or upset I got. Now, I broke that promise.

Billy-Ray Sanguine did it. He killed my daughter, broke the seal on the remnant, and by the look on Ghastly's face, he made my lover hate me. He finally got what he wanted- he ruined my life.