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PART THREE: VICTIM OF LOVE
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“So…the great Carus has become a victim of the sin called ‘love’. I never thought I’d live to see the day when even you got taken down by it.”
Carus stiffened for a moment but turned the movement into a lazy stretch as he pushed himself up from the bed. He didn’t flush in embarrassment as he stood bare-assed in the middle of his room and smiled amicably at the intruder.
Inside, however, he was raging at the very gall of the man to enter his gods-be-damned room.
“Well hello, Dabbs,” he said casually. He stretched, wings extended to their full-length, then relaxed and gave the man a smile. “And to what do I owe the pleasure of your company?”
Grieven Dabbs had a snake’s smile and he gave it to Carus as he intoned carefully, “There are those that think your…indiscretions…with this girl should be ceased. They think you’ve…”
“Lost my touch?” queried Carus. He chuckled darkly at that and sat on the edge of the bed, legs splayed out with his hands behind him to prop him up. Carefully he touched Kara’s wrist, felt the quick pace of her pulse, and tapped his fingers in the old thieves signal for ‘quiet’. Her fingers curled against his in acknowledgement and she shifted, making a contented little noise that made him want to gut Dabbs so he could get back into the damn bed.
So what if he was in love with her? She’d stalked the streets with him for over a decade now and she knew every trick he did plus a few others. Any man (or woman) that thought her an easy catch or kill was quickly proven wrong; she hid her skills ever damnably well. Always playing the still innocent girl – woman, he amended mentally – just following her personal hero.
There weren’t many that paid enough attention to her or looked her in the eyes to see the sparks of cunning that twinkled in the dark. Sparks he’d personally stoked and turned from a dull needle into a damn fine sword.
“Yes,” confirmed Dabbs. His eyes, dark and beady like a rats, flickered across the smooth expanse of Kara’s back and Carus mentally marked him up from just Someone To Kill to Someone To Kill Soon.
“And what would make them think I’ve lost my touch?” asked Carus. He picked dirt out from under his fingernails idly, continuing, “I’ve been here from the beginning – before we started calling ourselves a Guild. Never been caught. Barely even been seen. Hell, there’ve been times when what I pulled in kept everyone in this damn place fed. So how, dear Dabbsy, have I lost my touch?”
The sappy nickname made Dabbs’ pale countenance flush red across the cheeks. “Her,” he growled out. Carus allowed himself a mental smirk at that – Dabbs was just three years younger than him but he still hadn’t learned anything since he’d joined up with their little group. He still let the littlest things get to him and let it show. When things got to Carus, he made it look like they rolled off of him like water and smiled. And marked a notch on his mental tally for the person.
“Her, huh? Well…that reminds me, Dabbsy, I think my girl here got you out of an arrest a time or two.”
The flush darkened to crimson at that. It amused Carus to know that when Dabbs got really angry, the tip of his upturned nose turned red.
“Damn girl could’ve left well enough alone. I’d have killed that copper…”
“Ah, but we all know how much murder is really looked down upon. If you’re in a real bind, sure, but guards are off limits.”
Dabbs scowled and spat, “Look, Carus, just get rid of the damn girl. Elsewise someone might have to get rid of her for you.”
“That’s a very clear threat there, Dabbsy. You sure you want to make it?”
“Yeah. Not like you’re gonna…mmrggh!”
Dabbs stood, staring open-mouthed at nothing for a moment, then tumbled backwards. Carus tilted his head, regarding the angle and depth on the knife in his head with a smile.
“That was a fine throw.”
“Thank you,” said Kara as she rolled over to curl up against his back. She smiled and pressed a kiss against his hip that made him growl in anger. “What?”
“I have to get rid of the body,” he snarled.
“Mmm, so?”
“And go explain to Ventin just why the idiot’s dead. Oh, I have to go threaten to be very murderous to anyone that thinks I’ve gone soft.”
Kara chuckled and said, “But you love threatening to be murderous!”
“Yes, but right now I’m rather distracted by the astoundingly detectible nymph laying my bed. Damn him!”
“I think its more ‘Damn me’ for killing him.”
Carus smirked at that and ran his hand through her auburn hair. “Oh, no,” he disagreed, “that was beautiful. Plus I was going to kill him anyway. Honestly, he called you ‘girl’!”
“You call me girl,” she pointed out.
“Yes,” he agreed, “but I do it to annoy you.”
“You’re lucky I love you.”
“I know,” murmured Carus as he leaned over to kiss her. Then he dragged himself away from the bed with a groan and started pulling on his clothes. As he tugged on his boots and secured them, Kara asked, “Why did he call you a ‘victim’ of love?”
He frowned and replied, “That’s what we’ve always called it when a thief falls in love. He becomes the victim in a very large crime that he’s probably going to fall for – and that usually gets him killed.
“And what if the woman’s a thief herself?”
He grinned at that and turned to steal another kiss as he fastened his tunic over his bare chest. “Well then she done gone and stolen his very soul,” he said in a joking tone, “and he’ll never be a good thief again.”
“Pff, superstition.”
“Superstition makes the world run, girl. Now you just lay there looking lovely until I get back to hear you scream again.”
Kara chuckled at that and arched her back, sheets clinging to the lines of her body – purely for his benefit. Carus leered appropriately then grunted and lifted Grieven Dabbs body up onto his shoulder, knife still embedded deep in the socket of his left eye. As he trudged out the door with his burden and pondered just where to dump it, he snorted.
“ ‘Victim of love,’ ” he said as he stomped down creaking steps. “HA!”
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PART FOUR: PILLOW TALK
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Kara woke as Carus shifted restlessly next to her, his arm tightening where it gripped under her breasts. She looked down at him and found him staring wide-eyed at nothing, his face pressed to the bare skin of her shoulder, sweat beading on his forehead. His wings spasmed across their spooned bodies, as they always did since it was nigh impossible for him to sleep on his back, and she reached up to touch his cheek.
“Rus?” she queried gently.
The blank amber eyes shifted up towards her and she felt the shudder of relief ripple through his lean frame. “Gods,” he gasped. Turning his face so his eyes were hidden, he breathed, “A damn dream.”
“You mean a nightmare.”
“Yes.”
Kara frowned then asked, “About what?”
Carus was silent then shifted his head to where his cheek was pressed to her shoulder, face cocked to the side as he looked up at her. “You,” he replied. “And…”
His arm around her shifted, moving downward so his hand pressed possessively over the small bulge of her stomach. The nightmare had been about him losing her and their child, then.
“How?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” he growled in response, hugging her tightly again. “You both were just gone and I knew it. I knew it with such a clear certainty, lil’bit, that…for a moment I thought it had been real.”
Kara wrapped her arms around him then, tugging his lean frame close, and ran her fingers through his dark hair. He leaned into the touch, kissing her skin, and mumbled, “I thought I’d lost you.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” she assured him. “It was only a nightmare, Rus.”
“Nightmares can become reality so very easily.”
“You don’t believe that.”
“Don’t I?”
She frowned then asked, “Well what are you going to do about it?”
Carus shoved himself out of her grasp abruptly, one elbow underneath him so he was half-upright. His eyes flashed as he snarled, “I’ll damn well leave here if it’ll keep you safe.”
“Carus…you love being a thief.”
“I can be a thief without the damn Guild that’s sprung up around us,” he hissed. Slowly he laid back down next to her and stroked her cheek as his left wing shifted to covered her entirely, soft feathers caressing her skin like silk. “I…I love you more.”
Kara blinked then smiled, pulling him close to her again. He rested half on top of her now, his head and chest fully pillowed across her breast with his arms around her neck, but his lean frame was lighter than it looked; sometimes she suspected that he had bones as hollow as a bird’s. And she knew what those words cost him every time he said them.
Carus had had feelings for nothing before she’d come into his life. He hadn’t changed much in the time they’d lovers but since her belly had begun filling with life, something had come over him. A fierce need to protect her and their child had taken over him and he was fighting it because thieves took the advantages they saw. And if he were seen to truly care for her, she would be used against him.
But if they left the Guild…disappeared into the world – to another city…
“Ventin will be disappointed,” she observed quietly.
“The old man will just have to deal with that,” he growled back. Once upon a time he knew disappointment well…had been so very familiar with it he nearly welcomed it as family. Now…now he didn’t think he could bear to be disappointed.
He could bear to lose her. To lose them both.
“We’ll leave day after tomorrow after sunrise,” he continued. “Be gone before any knows it and out of the city before they can find us.”
“We should start packing now then.”
“No,” hissed Carus, clutching at her tightly as she made to move. Kara stilled and wrapped her arms around him again, carefully moving down his back to where the skin started to fade into the feathers and hard muscles of his wings. The spot just between them was tender and she ran her fingers gently across it now. He arched in response, fingers digging into her shoulders, and gasped, “Gods!”
“This has been horrible pillow talk,” she said firmly. “Make love to me.”
“The babe…”
“Will be fine, Rus. Babe’s know to get out of the way and women’s bodies conform to such problems.”
“Who told you that?” he asked, one eyebrow arched. But she could see the lust forming in his eyes as she continued to play her fingers across his feathers.
Kara smiled, replying, “Jirra after she had her boy.”
“Jirra was raped!”
“Yet she was with Gideon after she recovered from the trauma and her boy birthed fine. Now, Rus, make love to me. Wild, mad love. I want the whole building to hear!”
I want them all to know where your heart is, were the words that rang silently in the air between them, something she wouldn’t say but that he knew she thought.
Carus smiled and purred, “You’re certain?”
“I am,” replied Kara, smiling as he shifted so he was above her. “Carus…I…”
“Later,” he hissed as he dived down, silencing her mouth with his. As he drew back, sucking on her lower lip, he growled, “I want to hear you scream.”
“Make me,” she challenged with a smirk.
“I will,” he assured. With a negligent flap of his wings, he blew out the last candle that had given light to the room they shared then set to making his words truth.
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not sure
Posted Sep 9, 2008
i like that even though we didnt get to see the transition, that the characters deep love for each other is extremely clear.
i also like your writing style in general
this section needs more editing than the last. its nothing major, but you should look through it once... (
read more)
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