Megan's dark eyelashes fluttered against her cheeks, she stared at me in disbelief. "You...have fallen for me? You love me?"
I chuckled, laughing for myself. "Yeah..., I know it's hard to believe. We barely knew each other and we've only known each other for a week. I also quite surprise with the fact, since I always have this trust issue. Even when I was with Irene, sorry to bring her up, I needed a couple of months to start liking her. With you, it was so easy and effortless..." Of course, now that I knew, I had some guy's scheming power that I had to take into account, but I was pretty sure the biggest part of my feelings to Megan was genuine, and it definitely wasn't one-sided. That guy power was only boosting things a little bit.
Megan was flustered once more, but she still had this hesitation to reveal her true self. "You may not love me anymore if you get to know the real me."
Who on earth had beat confidence out of this gorgeous and remarkable girl, that she resented herself to this extent? I took Megan's hands and squeezed it gently. "Megan, for heaven's sake, you don't know how adorable you are and what kind of effect you have on me. Just tell me one thing. Do you like me too?"
With a blush, Megan nodded.
"Will you have faith on me, then? Faith that I will love you the way you are, however or whatever you are?"
"But Danzel, you may not believe me even if I tell you about the real me..."
I sighed desperately. Now I knew what was holding her. I was right; she wanted to tell me that she was a witch and afraid I won't able to chew on the fact. Well, I guessed I need to confess about my power first to her; hopefully she would be motivated to tell her story if she knew that I was also a power user.
"I also have something I needed to tell you." Megan tilted her head. Curiosity had replaced the anxiety in her eyes. I took a deep breath. I never liked it when I had to expose myself to others. However, in order to get this girl's trust and confident, I had no other way. "I was raised in an orphanage. I never knew my real parents or siblings, until these past two years when my brother finally found me and took me in. During my stay at that orphanage, I learned a lot about human's character, mostly the shadiest part of it. I was lied to and betrayed for so many times that I lost count of it. Eventually, I lost faith on humanity due to it. To me, people are liars and hypocrites. I learnt to use them for my personal gain, but never wanted to have real connection with them. When I was in my first year of middle school, I learned that I have power to detect if someone was lying to me. It made my life easier, because I don't need to do any mind-chess anymore. I could just tell if someone was lying and reciprocate to them.
On my second year of middle school, Meng's group came visiting our orphanage for some school project. That was the first time I met him. I was cynical to him when we were first introduced, but it came as a surprise to me that I never found him lying to me, or to others. That was the first time I could lower down my guard to another person and start real connection with him. That's also why, he is my one and only best friend. In all of my life, I only have two people I trust with all of my heart and they never lie to me. One is Meng and the other is my older brother, Abel. I hope..., I hope you can be the third one, Meg. I assure you, I can chew on any kind of fact, as long as it's not a lie. In fact, that's the only thing I'd like to ask from you. If you ever have true feelings for me, will you promise to never lie to me? If you have something that you don't want to tell me about, just say so. But never lie to me, because I will know if you did. For me, lying is an act of betrayal. So, no matter what reason you do that for, I will never forgive you if you ever done it to me."
Tears stormed down Megan's chubby cheeks like pouring rain. She hugged me once I finished my story and cried on my chest. "Oh, my Danzel..., my poor Danzel..."
I never liked it when someone took pity of me after they heard my story. That was also why I never tell anyone about it, if I could. But, I could only feel my chest warm upon seeing Megan's reaction. A smile even breached my face when I heard her call me her Danzel. She cried for me. No one ever done it for me before. I guessed she would be the death of me and I certainly would blame that schemer Markelli for this. If I ever got a chance to meet that Schemer, I would make sure to drill a square on his jaw. But now, I let myself to indulge in Megan's affection. I carded her long hair with my fingers, enjoying the silkiness of the textures and planted kisses on it, until she finally collected herself. Megan straight herself up and wiped dry her tears with apologetic smile.
"You said...you will know if someone's lying to you?" She asserted.
"That's my power. Now I even able to dig out the truth out of someone's head if I want to," I added, and smiled smugly to her. "So, Megan Lukas, don't make me even more curious. Otherwise, I'll make a way into that pretty head of yours myself to find what exactly you are trying to tell me."
Megan pouted. "Don't you dare~!"
"Don't tempt me then," I said, and leaned forward to brush my lips to hers. I was planning to tease her only, but when I was there, with her lips opened to my ministration, we eventually making out again.
"S-so..., you're a Schemer..." She said when she pulled away to breathe.
I frowned. "Never understand about that. No one knows about my power except Meng and you."
She finally laughed. "I don't really understand about that too, only knew that it's one type of Esper powers that had something to do with the brain. But I know someone who's an Esper. I'll introduce you to him one day and he could explain it to you better than I could."
"Can't wait for it," I grinned. Oh yeah, I certainly couldn't wait, since I knew the 'someone' she meant was that Markelli boy. "So, if you also have power, I surely will believe you."
Megan beamed. Her eyes lit up so beautifully. She suddenly stood up. "I'll show you, but I need to change first," she said. "Will you wait for a bit? Oh right, where's my manner..., what do you want for drink, Danzel?"
I smiled to her enthusiasm. See, she was prettier when she was full of confident. "I'm fine with anything..."
Megan hastily checked her fridge and took out two cans of orange juice. She set the two cans on the coffee table in front of me. She then dashed to her room, grabbed one of her clothes from the cupboard and shut herself in the bathroom. I waited for her to finish changing by skimming through collection of newspapers she had, skim-read the headlines and took a sip of my orange juice. I almost choked on it when Megan went out from the bathroom in a ridiculously short, sleeveless, spring-green, mini-dress. She might be small and petite, but I knew her body was all curves with remarkable good proportion. Now, that particular mini-dress had certainly confirmed it.
"Megan Lukas!" I groaned and moved to grab a wipe from the table to wipe the juice I spilled. "Do you want to seduce me with it?"
Megan's face flushed as red as tomato. She stared down bemusedly to check her dress. "What? No! W-what are you thinking?"
"Well, I'm sorry! I'm a healthy and normal seventeen-year old boy, what do you expect me to react when you decided to wear that? Even to sit here just with you alone has required all self-control I ever have, Missy. And I'll tell you up front, I don't really have a lot of it."
My girlfriend reached for the cushion and hit my arms with it, then used it to cover her thighs. She still flustered heavily. "I just grab this with no other reason than this is the only sleeveless dress I have, because I wanted you to see my secret clearly."
"I see that alright..."
"Oh, shut up, Danzel!" Megan hit me again. "Do all boys always thinking about that?"
I wiggled my eyebrows playfully. "I think it's normal, especially when the other party is the one we love." I laughed when her cheeks got even redder. "Okay, I'll stop teasing you, at least until you show me what you wanted to show me."
Megan straightened up her body, being reminded what she should've been doing. She turned her body to me and said, "Watch closely."
She did not have to ask me twice, because I had started to ogle her obnoxiously and shamelessly. She had the most beautiful ivory-white skin I ever seen in my life, a great combination with her jet-black long hair, and I ... Holy-shit! My train of thought was suddenly stopped when I saw circle-shaped tattoos suddenly emerge on both of her upper arms, back of her hands and on the middle of her chest, just under her collarbones. The circles had different patterns and curves on it, with something looked like some kinds of script surrounding each one of them. I unconsciously raised my hand and touched one of the tattoos on her upper arms. I could feel Megan was shivering when I traced its patterns with my fingers.
"I-is it ugly?" She sounded like she was about to choke on her own words. I tilted my head and looked at her gently.
I never gave much thought about girls in tattoo, but after seeing Megan in them, I was thinking it was kind of hot. Hence, I told her that and awarded by heavier blush on her cheeks.
"Really?" She asserted.
I cupped her face in my hands. "Megs, you really have to be more confident about yourself. You are a far cry from ugly. You are beautiful, flawless. Okay?"
She nodded and flashed a smile. "Now, will you tell me about these tattoos? Do they have any meaning? And how do they suddenly emerge on your skin?"
She smiled once more. "They are always on my skin, but I use veil spell to cover it from layman's eyes. I just took down the spell so you could see it. They are my power, Danzel. They are my signifier. I'm a witch. An alchemist, to be exact. I could make magical instruments with my spells."
"I thought witches carry wands for their power," I commented, drew a pleasant laugh from my girlfriend.
"Maybe they used to. But as far as I know, nowadays sorcerers always tattooed their strongest spells on their body; hands, arms, back and chest, mostly."
"All of you did?" Megan nodded to my question. I traced her other tattoos again, made her shiver once more. "I think they are beautiful, Megs," I commended sincerely.
Megan beamed. She reached my face and placed a kiss on my cheek. "Thank you, Danzel..."
I smiled. "So, does your family also have magic?"
Her beaming face promptly turned gloomy, made me want to slap myself for asking question that drawn that kind of reaction out of her. But, on the other hand, I also really wanted to know everything about her. Megan needed few more seconds before she finally found back her words.
"Had," she whispered. "My parents died when I was still a kid, so I don't remember much about them. My brother practically raised me, but then he died from illness four years ago."
"Megs, I-I'm sorry. I don't mean to...," Darn it, Danzel, did you have to spoil this moment with your stupid question? I cursed myself harshly.
She shook her head and squeezed my hands that I placed on top of hers. "It's okay. I'm okay now. It's just I missed my brother sometimes, but I'm okay. And..., one thing I need to tell you. My real name is not Megan Lukas. It's Megan Aramanth. Megan Lucille Aramanth..."
Aramanth..., I repeated it silently as if it was a chant.
"My brother was a warlock, the leader of our Trevelyan Order from Western Europe. After his demised, our Order was shattered because other Orders invaded our territories and stripped us out of our authority. We used to be one of the five biggest Orders in sorcery community, but now it's only has three out of its seven Covens left. The family friend I mentioned to you previously, the same one who rented this place for me, Jasmine Markelli, is the new leader of our Order. She's my brother's best friend and she loves me like her real sister. She and her brother are the ones who're protecting me."
"Protecting you? From the other Orders' attack?"
"Not only them." Megan paused. Shed of bitterness was in her eyes, her lips pursed tightly and slightly trembling. "We still don't know who, but there are people, also sorcerers, who wanted to use my talent in alchemy for their own evil merit. They tried to kidnap me in the ruckus of battle when the other Orders tried to occupy our territories, but Ken and the Markellis saved me. They brought me here because they think this archipelago is quite safe and far from those people's reach. The archipelago also has a lot of Shamans who protect various sacred spots here. Shamans are people who could summon sacred spirits as their guardian and as the guardian of a community. They are powerful because their power came from supernatural realm, so no sorcerer would be crazy enough to put down a tantrum here. If they do, the Shaman community will certainly unleash the hell out of them to reciprocate. There was this pact, you know, between the two communities, which no sorcerer could access lands that Shaman community considered as sacred. And we all silently acknowledge that Shaman's power is slightly above us. That's why, Jasmine took this chance. However, they're still keeping me under the radar and allowing me to go to school only. Not that I mind, since I'm more of a house rat, fortunately, so I'm fine with the arrangement."
I frowned with the familiar tern. Meng was a shaman and I had certain understanding about shaman community more than what I knew about the sorcery community. Meng's family considered me as one of their own and taught me a lot of thing about Shaman culture. Meng told me that Shamans and sorcerers were natural enemies, because sorcerers often altered elements of nature for their personal objectives, while one of Shamans' duties was to maintain the stability and the harmonious state of the natural and preternatural realm. Shamans considered the sorcerers' power was filthy, whereas the sorcerers considered Shamans as hypocrites. That's why, they could hardly stand the presence of each other. But, they also agreed to a pact, as Megan described, a pact for not invading each other's territory.
"Is that why you use fake name and have Kencana by your side all the time?"
Megan nodded. "Ken has taken an oath to protect me with her life. She's my sentry, the head bodyguard, in laymen's term. That's why, she's always protective about me. She offended you for doing so, right? I'm sorry..."
I stroked her head gently. "No worries. If she's gone too far, I'll just kick her ass. She's also a witch right, so she could defend herself?"
"She could, but I hope the two of you can get along. The two of you are very important to me, you know?"
I sighed. "Okay, I'll try to be more behave..."
Megan smiled appreciatively and leaned her head on my shoulder. I wrapped my hand around her shoulders and rested my head on top of hers. "Thank you, Danzel," she whispered.
"I want to protect you too, Megs."
My girlfriend tilted her head and stared deeply to my eyes. "I don't want to drag you into my problems..."
"It's my call, Megan. Anyway, it's too late now. I've become your boyfriend, so I certainly will put your safety as priority. I think I can protect you with my own power," I insisted.
"Your power...how is it feel like to be in someone's head?"
I shrugged. "That would not be a nice experience, if I could say. Human are complicated and most of the times they are obscene. If I use my power to people like that, their dark thoughts and nasty experiences would be playing in my head too, it would become part of me too. That's also why I don't use my power too often to dig out other's skeleton from their closet. I only use it at the upmost necessary time. I also took an oath to Meng before, which I will take one for you too. I would never get into the head of people who're never lie to me. I'll respect their integrity and trust their word. That's why, never lie to me, Megan. I really don't want to invade your privacy like that."
Her cognac eyes stared at me so beautifully. She stroked my cheeks gently and then placed a gentle kiss on my lips, which I gratefully welcomed. We were kissing again, even gentler than ever, longer, and more intoxicating.
"I promise to stay true to you forever, because I love you, Danzel Lee," she whispered when we broke the kiss.
"I love you too," I replied and kissed her again.