Elfin (25 page)

She grabbed the handles and held them like they were covered in flesh eating mucus as she pulled the bag open. She reached down into it and felt her fingers touch a handful of fabric. She bunched it up in her hand and pulled her arm out. She held out a piece of material and watched as it seemed to grow in her hand. She dropped most of it, only holding on to a small piece and the fabric continued to magically grow. Finally it stopped.

Cassie grasped
it in both hands and spread it out and saw that it was a beautiful, black dress with a black lace shell over the fabric. It had long lace sleeves that allowed the skin to be seen and a V neck that plunged a little lower than she would have normally picked. She held it up to her and stood in front of her mirror. The dress hit just below mid-thigh, short enough to be sexy, long enough to not have to pull it down constantly.

She grabbed the bag off
of her bed intending to lay the dress out while she got undressed and realized that the bag was not empty. She was sure there hadn’t been anything else in the bag when she had pulled out the dress. Peeking over the edge of the side she looked back into it and grinned. She reached in and pulled out black heels, the strappy kind that accentuate small ankles. She hadn’t thought about having shoes to match. Well Trik was good for one thing at least. She smiled to herself knowing that Trik was good for much more than one thing.

She undressed and quickly slipped the black dress on, eager to see if it looked as good on as it did lying on her bed. It slipped over her head and down her body caressing her too sensitive skin. She shuddered at the sensation of the cool material against her. Once the dress was completely on she felt the fabric shift and move, stretching here and shrinking there. She stood in front of the mirror watching in fascination as the dress fit itself to her very form, every curve and straight line. It was molding itself to her body. Finally all movement ceased and she stood their wearing the most elegant dress she had ever laid eyes on and couldn’t believe how amazing it made her look. She turned in the mirror looking at the back only then realizing there was an even more daring V cut than had been there previously. Apparently Elven clothes had more magical properties than even a Victoria’s Secret bra and she had to admit that it was pretty freaking cool.

She strapped on the heels, fluffed out her hair,
took one last look in the mirror and froze. There was a soft knock on her door.

“Come in,” s
he said softly as that was all she could manage as she took in the woman who stared back at her from the mirror.

Cassie’s mom
inhaled sharply as she entered the room and saw Cassie standing there.

“Is that what was in that little bag?” She asked.

Cassie nodded still unable to speak.

“You look grown, no longer my little girl.”
Sylvia looked into the mirror with Cassie and she met her daughter’s eyes. “You look astonishing.”

Cassie cleared her throat and smile
d. “Thank you.”

“Where is he taking you that you have to be dressed so fancy?”

Cassie was momentarily caught off guard by the question and stumbled before she finally got out an answer. “He wouldn’t tell me.”

Sylvia
nodded slowly, a hint of skepticism in her eyes.

The doorbell rang and Cassie rolled her eyes at herself when she thought
, Saved by the Bell .

She followed her mom out of the room and down the stairs just
as her dad was opening the door. Cassie stopped in her tracks, her mom stopped, time stopped. Trik stood at her door in a sleek black tuxedo. And just as she had thought many other times, she didn’t know how a man could look sexy in a suit with a bowtie, but he pulled it off magnificently. He was, of course, in his human guise so his hair was shorter than normal, but just as black. His silver eyes met hers and she shivered as those intense eyes traveled down her body, not bothering to hide his intensity or possessiveness in that look.

He held his hand out to her father introducing himself but his eyes never left her. She realized her dad was speaking and finally tore her eyes from Trik’s penetrating stare.

“What dad?” Cassie asked.

“I said why don’t we have a seat in the living room?” William Tate motioned in the direction of the living room.

Trik waited for Cassie to descend the rest of the stair
s and met her at the bottom. He held his hand out to her as she hit the last step. She stepped down and Trik pulled her close as they followed her dad.

He leaned down as they walked and put his mouth next to her ear. “There are not words that could describe how you look tonight.”

Cassie felt her face heat as the blood rushed into her skin. She looked up at him and he winked at her, which did not help her already dazed condition.

Her dad sat on the couch next to her mom
, making it painfully obvious that he did not want her and Trik sitting close, as the only chairs left were a rocking chair and a winged back chair. Trik smiled at her as he took the chair directly across from her dad. Cassie sat down and she was stiff with nervousness at what her father might do. She immediately buried her face in her hands when her dad handed Trik a piece of paper and a pen.

“Trik, this is just a questionnaire on things that I feel are important for me to know.
Your phone number, address, emergency contact info, that sort of thing.”

Trik looked down at the paper in his hand and scanned over it.
The first five questions were indeed generic information questions. Question six was a tad more personal and asked if Trik had ever consumed alcohol or smoked cigarettes. Question seven asked if he had ever tried or was currently using recreational drugs. It wasn’t until question ten that Cassie’s father hit his famous stride.

Under the pretense of trying to concentrate on the paper before him, Trik began to read aloud, knowing that it would only cause Cassie to cringe. “Number ten, have you ever participated in a sexual encounter.”

Right on cue, Cassie groaned.

Trik smiled to himself and continued reading silently.
He frowned at one question in particular and began to read out loud again. “If your mom asked you to buy her a bra and she said to get her a 34 C, would you know what that meant? If so what does the number 34 represent and what does the letter C represent?”

Cassie groaned when Trik stopped. She couldn’t look up for fear that he would tell her to have a nice life and walk as quickly away from her crazy father as he could.

Trik looked up at William Tate after reading the question and chuckled. “Mr. Tate, I think the better question would be what kind of weird relationship do I have with my mother that I would be buying her a bra?”

Cassie peeked through her fingers, first at Trik
, and then at her dad. To her surprise her dad was chuckling right along with Trik.

William held his hand out for the paper and Trik handed it over without having written down a single thing.

“Maybe I go a little over board in my protectiveness of Cassie,” he admitted.

Trik shook his head. “I can understand why,” he turned to look at her and she had finally dropped her hands from her fac e. He smiled at her as he spoke. “I feel very protective of her as well.” He looked back at her dad and the smile was gone and his face was serious. “I assure you Mr. Tate, I will treat her with respect and I will keep her safe.”

Cassie’s dad stood and everyone followed suit. He held his hand out to once again shake Trik’s hand.

“Thank you. It was very nice to meet you
, Trik. Have a good time and please be safe.”

Cassie took Trik by the hand and pulled him out of the door before her dad decided to ask Trik to pull out his wallet to see if there was a condom in it.

~

“What did you think?” Sylvia asked William after shutting the door as Trik and Cassie drove off.

He narrowed his eyes in thought and rubbed his chin. “He seems a lot older than eighteen, but doesn’t look older. I think he was telling me the truth about respecting her. He won’t touch her without her permission.”

“I have to agree. The way he looks at her, like she is the only thing in his world and more precious than the most beautiful diamond.”

“The question is, is that a good thing or not?” He asked her.

“They are young,” Sylvia agreed.

“We’ll see how tonight goes,” William said. “Heck, she might have a horrible time and hate him by the end of the night.”

She shook her head at her husband, “I don’t
think Cassie could hate anyone.”

“Everyone has their breaking point Sylvia, you know that.”

~

“That wasn’t too bad,” Trik told Cassie as they drove, to where Cassie didn’t have a clue.

“Trik, he asked you about
your sex life.”

“Or the lack thereof,”
he interjected, which earned him a fist in the side.

“He asked you if you understood bra sizing. What exactly would you consider
too bad?” She asked, obviously still very embarrassed by her father’s actions.

“Well it
could have been worse.”

“No I don’t think so,
” she said shaking her head.

“What if he had asked me to label pictures of sexual positions?”

Cassie slapped her hands over her ears. “You did not just say that. I am going to totally ignore that it even came from your mouth.”

Trik laughed and pulled one of her hands away. “Okay I’
ll conduct myself in a more gentlemanly manner.”

She lowered her other hand cautiously.

“Or what if he would have asked….”

“STOP!
Not another word.”

“Okay, okay,” he relented.

“So where’d you get the fancy car?” Cassie asked, changing the subject, as she sunk into the rich leather seats of the BMW.

“I’m not without my resources,” Trik winked.

Her eyes widened as she asked. “You didn’t steal it did you?”

Trik looked at her from the corner of his eye and then back to the road. “Cassie, I’ve been around for quite a while, surely you don’t think I haven’t the money to purchase a car.”

Cassie shrugged. “Dude, you work for an evil elf King hell bent on taking over the world. I don’t think it’s a stretch for me to consider that you might have illegally procured a vehicle.”

“Okay I concede your point.” He glanced at he
r then a crooked smile appeared. “What’s with the big vocabulary? Procured?”

“
I’m just trying to keep up,” she told him, “one minute you are throwing out slang with the best of them and the next you sound like Wilfred.”

“Who’s Wilfred?”

“You know, Batman’s butler.”

Trik laughed and butterflies danced in her stomach at the joy that shone on his face.

“You mean Alfred?”

Cassie’s mouth dropped open. “How do you know that?”

“I’m seriously beginning to be insulted, beautiful. You think that just because I’m old…”

“Ancient,” she interrupted.

He frowned at her. “Fine, ancient, and from another race, you think that I don’t know anything about your world.”

“Do you watch a lot of movies?”

“I have a human friend that I’ve spent time with and he often wants to sit and watch movies. He calls it male bonding.”

Cassie smiled.
“Do you like movies?”

Trik thought about it. “I guess some of them. I’m amazed that they create such worlds in their movies but can’t fathom that they might actually exist.”

“We are often scared of what we don’t understand and what we don’t understand we often chalk up to imagination, not reality,” she said.

Trik reached over for her hand and brought it to his lips. He pl
aced a kiss tenderly in the center of her palm. “Sometimes you seem so very young, and then you go and say something like that and I wonder if you too have been waiting for me as long as I have for you.”

The
y drove in silence, lights from the other cars shined into theirs and Cassie watched as each car illuminated Trik’s face for brief moments in time and each time she was caught breathless by him. She finally tore her eyes from him and began to pay attention to where they were. Her eyes widened as they pulled into the parking lot of her dad’s building.

“What are we doing here?” She asked.

Trik got out of the car without a word and came around to her side. He opened the door and helped her out, quickly wrapping an arm around her, blocking the cold night air from her exposed skin as he pulled her into the protection of his body.

“I have something for you,”
he said as they began walking.

Cassie’s brow
rose. “And it’s in my dad’s building?”

He nodded but didn’t say anything more.
He led her to one of the large glass windows and pictured the conference room he had been standing in when the Forest Lords had brought his Chosen to him. He stepped through the glass pulling Cassie with him.