The Everborn - Nicholas Grabowsky [105]
Melony was speechless, but her alertness became far less stunned. All she could do was cower and curl herself up to shield her embarrassing nakedness. She expected and hoped for Andrew to appear from the hallway any minute and as she looked in that direction, he did.
He was wearing nothing but his chessboard boxers and his dick was peeking out the fly.
The moment Ralston saw him, Ralston went for him. “You rat bastard!!!”
But instead, Ralston altered his course and went for a quarter of a row of hardbound books inside the oak bookcase to Andrew’s left, grasped them firmly and removed them, and jettisoned them into Meat Loaf’s face on the projection TV.
Andrew gazed upon Ralston in extreme perplexity. “Ralston...Ralston, what the hell are you doing??” He then shot a questioning glance at Melony, who replied to his glance with a look of distracted humility and puzzlement.
Ralston gave Andrew his anxious reply. “I wanna know what the hell you're doing! What is this shit, a crafty way of delivering your own vindictive message to my world of fans? We had a deal! William called me, and he sounded like he wanted to kill you himself when he was telling me all about what you said in this....this ‘Everborn’ novel of yours!”
“But…but Ralston,” Andrew said defensively with a note of irritated sarcasm, “don’t you mean ‘that ever-born novel of yours?”
Andrew instantly wondered what Ralston had meant by ever-born novel. His time-induced ignorance as to what novel he finished for Ralston a few days ago resulted in nothing short of confusion for Andy. To him, Ralston was trapped in a state of mortal hysteria to have hopped in his car for a quick visit like this, drug-related without a doubt at all, and Ralston’s accusations and actions frightened Andrew. And by looking at poor Melony, the timing for such a display angered him.
Andrew’s reply pissed Ralston off enough to prove he was purely raging mad, enough to send Ralston lunging for Andrew’s collar bone. The impact sent both of them in a turbulent jolt into the hallway, smacking Andrew’s back and backside against the half-opened bathroom door and then into the bathroom, both stumbling and falling over the throw rug on the tile floor inside.
Andrew crashed down upon his back, Ralston on top of him and now gripping Andrew’s neck.
Andrew began to fight Ralston off, arms kicking and legs flailing. He could not protest vocally however he tried, did not notice Melony’s unclothed figure rising up in the distant living room beyond the view over Ralston’s shoulders to gaze upon the two in helpless contemplation.
Ralston shouted and swore and cursed, but before he could summon any reasonably audible phrase, Bari summoned herself above them.
Andrew never figured the night would go this way; in Ralston’s violent disregard for explaining himself and for talking things over, he had this one coming.
Melony wasn’t supposed to have had this one coming, however…the effort had been put out to redirect her from it.
But it happened.
Bari saw fit to defend Andrew.
***
From Melony’s viewpoint, the entire scene within the bathroom began to blur. It wasn’t the alcohol this time. Something celestial and massive took shape behind Ralston too rapidly to appear real, though its physical form when it materialized demanded authentic reality.
The next moment found Ralston hurdling backwards into the air so quickly his shoes missed the carpeting below by over a foot of space, so fast Melony was barely able to dodge his ragdoll body. Ralston’s left thigh connected with an arm of the leather recliner with a fwop, causing him to double rearward further and to plop ass-first into the recliner’s lap. The impact rolled his ass from the recliner and dumped him onto the carpet at Melony’s retreating feet. He struggled to twist his body upwards for a view of his assailant, witlessly expecting the possessor of such physical force to be Andrew’s naked playmate.
He blinked his rabid eyes