Double the Trouble and Twice the Blessing

I took a deep breath just as I sat down next to Lord Gates. His eyes, which I realized were a beautiful chocolate brown instead of that evil black, watched me smooth out the dress on my legs and leave my hands limply in my lap. I could feel his eyes still on me, making me shift uncomfortably in my seat. It didn’t help that my chest had that tightening, slightly painful, you’re-too-far-from-Korie feeling in it.

“Nicole, may I ask you some questions?” I lifted my head and hesitantly looked at him.

“Why are you asking?” He shrugged.

“I’m not a completely rude brute. I have some manners, believe it or not.” I nodded as his voice took on a sharp edge.

“Right, yeah. Uh-g-g-go ahead.” He watched me for a few more seconds before his interrogation began.

“How old are you and your sister?”

“Seventeen.”

“And your birthday?”

“December sixth of 2422.” He nodded and leaned back in his chair a bit. I let my eyes wander of him before he noticed. He was wearing a black button up shirt, the material looking as if it cost more than I’d ever see. Lord Gates had baggy, black jeans on for pants. I couldn’t see if he had shoes on or not. His right wrist had a silver watch on it; a ring with some kind of skull with wings on it rested on his fourth finger on his right hand. His dark hair was spiked up, just it had been earlier, but a bit more tamed at the same time.

“What were you doing in the vacation house?” I tensed up and let my eye meet Korie’s figure at the other end of the table. It looked like she was undergoing the same treatment as I was. I looked back at Lord Gates, finding him now leaning on the table, waiting for an answer. I gulped.

“We were looking for shelter and warmth and food. Our last shelter started to leak and we were constantly wet and cold from the rain.” I looked away quickly. “Its been three days without food now.” My stomach seemed to want to emphasize the point by growling and giving me a cramp at the same time. Gates looked at me questioningly. “There’s no food out there. We’re two of the many starving to death.”

Just as I said that, a man came out of a door in the back of the room with a cart of plates. He served the Overlord and Korie first, taking the lids off the plates. The man walked down to us and placed our plates in front of us, taking our lids and leaving quickly. In front of me was a caesar salad. Not what I wanted, or expected, but I guessed it was only the first course and would have to do for now.

“Eat.” Lord Gates encouraged, taking a bite of his own salad. I was hesitant in taking my first bite. What if it was poisoned? You know, the whole, gain our trust then kill us kind of deal? Or maybe it was just an easy kill for them. Either way.

Eat, twin. We both know we need it. We’ll have to take the chance of drugs or poison being in it. Korie’s voice of reason echoed in my mind.

“Its not poisoned, if that’s what the two of you are thinking.” The Overlord’s voice was at a normal level but it echoed across the silent room. “There’s no point in killing either of you, let alone both of you. Enjoy the hospitality while it lasts.” The last bit of his sentence held a growl and made me take that first bite.

I had obviously forgotten how much I loved food, let alone salad. It was gone in a matter of seconds, my stomach barely protesting to the sudden substance in it. I used my napkin to wipe my mouth and laid it back in my lap. Lord Gates was smirking at me. My face started heating up, making me aware that I was turning red from the embarrassment of eating like a savage.

“I’m sorry. That was…” my face scrunched up, “disgusting; how fast I ate that.” The lord next to me shrugged it off.

“Just keep answering my questions and we wont have a problem.” I nodded. Anyway I could prevent a problem, I would. His eyes wandered down my body. The dress looked as good on me as it did on my sister, which was pretty good. But the dress wasn’t ideal for our body type or we didn’t have enough curves right now to fit it just right. My hair was clean for the first time in days; my white, pale skin was showing, rather than dirt. But, this meant the bruises I’ve gained, the scars, the little cuts and the nail marks were all visible. “Who did that to you?” He lowered his head, indicating the fresh nail marks in my arm.

“Lord Vengeance did it.”

“When?” Lord Gates’s voice held a harsh growl. His eyes started fading into that darker, almost black color.

“Whenever he takes me places. He grabs my arm and digs his nails into me.” My voice was low, not really wanting to get the other Lord in trouble but, at the same time, being too afraid to lie. Lord Gates stood up and looked to the other side of the table.

“We’ll be right back.” He told the Overlord and motioned for me to get up. I followed him out of the room and down the hallway just a bit, to a bathroom. “Sit on the counter.” He instructed as he began digging in a drawer. I jumped up on the counter and sat there just as he switched to digging under the sink.

Where did he take you? I jumped at my sister’s sudden intrusion.

Bathroom.

Why?

“Found it.” Lord Gates stood up grinning, a bag in his hand. On it, it clearly red ’First-Aid Kit’.

First-Aid Kit.

Oh. She paused for a minute. I could almost hear the smirk growing on her face. Nikki and Lord Gates are playing doctor in the bathroom. I nearly laughed out loud, biting the side of my cheek to keep from doing so.

“Hold your arm out, Nicole.” My name rolled out of Lord Gates’s mouth like it was something he did all the time. It made me shudder, and not in a bad way. I did as I was told and held out my arm. Lord Gates cleaned up the cuts and wrapped my arm up with some bandages. “I should have asked earlier how you got the nail marks. The bacteria and poison from a demon’s nails can kill a person slowly from the inside out.” He stopped talking, his eyebrows furrowing together. I tried to pull my arm out of his hand. Only to find he had a pretty good grasp on it. He looked down into my eyes, confusion swimming in his own. “Let’s go back to dinner.” He whispered. The lord helped me off the counter and opened the door to the dining hall for me.

“Took you long enough, Gates. The chef is about to serve the main course.” The Overlord spoke again. I could feel his eyes on my new bandage. Self-consciously, I put my had on it, crossing my arm over my chest. He looked away a few second later.

Our food was set in front of us by who I assumed to be the chef, the lids be lifted off and her disappearing quickly. I didn’t blame her. This dinner seemed to be going on entirely too long. Lord Gates began eating as I looked at the food.

"What’s this?" I asked timidly.

"Lobster." He said quickly before eating a bite. I sent a look down to Korie at the other end of the table.. She caught it and shrugged. I glanced at Lord Gates and realized he had been watching. He put his silverware down and wiped his mouth on his napkin. "What’s wrong with the food, Nicole?" His voice was low and it scared me.

"We're allergic to seafood." Lords Gates tsked, in obvious annoyance, and sent a look down to the Overlord. I watched the Overlord smirk out of the corner of my eye.

"Told you seafood was a bad idea, Gates." He spoke normally but his voice carried across the room once again. Korie's eyes met mine and we bit our bottom lips, trying to hold in our laughter. Smiles broke out across our faces. In sync, we covered our mouths with our hands and laughed as quietly as possible. Lord Gates glared at Overlord Shadows, us still laughing quietly.

“How allergic to seafood are you two?” He asked, not glaring at the Overlord any longer.

“Deathly.” Korie answered from across the table.

“And how’d you find this out?” The Overlord asked, pushing his own plate away from him a bit.

“It had been one of the days we were desperate for food. Neither of us-”

“Are good at fishing at all. But, it’d been-”

“A few days and we were really hungry.”

“We ended up catching fish and cooking them and such.”

“But we got sick really fast, our faces-

“Turned red and swelled and-”

“Our throats started to close. We had to get-”

“An adrenaline shot so we wouldn’t suffocate.”

“The hardest part was getting to the hospital to get an adrenaline shot.” Korie finished after our twin moment.

“Do you two do that often?” Lord Gates asked, obviously referring to cutting off each other’s sentences and finishing them.

“Yes.” We answered at the same time. The Overlord cleared his throat. Korie and I looked at him, eyes suddenly wide.

“Well, if you two can’t eat seafood, why don’t we go up to the library and discuss business while the chef prepares something you two can eat.” We nodded, suddenly very quiet and scared again. Its not like we could have said no to going to the library. And what business did he want to talk to us about?

This may not end well. This may be the end.