Thall morphed back and landed in front of Atropos. "I dare. I will not let you end Capri's life."
The sky darkened. "How can you stop me? I am a Fate and you are nothing. You are not a Fate, nor are you a pathetic human."
He pulled a small bag from around his neck, loosened the ties and poured the capricci onto his palm. The brown powder boiled on his palm. The stench of a thousand rotting corpses surrounded them. Atropos paled and moved away from Thall. "Is that..? Where did you find it?"
"In the darkness, where you banished me. It is the rarest element in our realm and the deadliest. All my life, I've heard whispered rumors that it exists. Ironic, part of its name is the same as the one who you threaten."
Multitudes of lights glimmered around him. Some Fates took their corporeal form, others didn't. Lachesis floated off to his right. Xyno settled next to him.
"Because of my humanity, this does not kill me. It burns my flesh, but does not cause me death."
"You dare to threaten me?"
"To protect Capri? Yes."
A gasp rippled through the Fates who surrounded them.
"Capri is to be allowed to live out her allotted time span and then she exists with me." Thall glared at Atropos.
"And if I refuse?"
He lifted his hand to his mouth. "I'll sneeze. I sense that you are afraid of this powder."
Her color darkened. "You do this because you love her?"
Thall twisted his hand and deposited the substance back into the bag. He checked that no particles remained on his palm then pulled the bag's strings taut. "Yes, I do this because I love Capri, and I will protect her from you. You are a force she cannot fight. But I can and will."
"Bah! Lachesis. This is because of you and your bonding with that human. See what you have brought among us." Atropos faded.
Lachesis stepped forward and waved the others away, then turned and stroked the cut Atropos had made on Capri's lifeline. It glimmered for a moment, then the cut sealed. The gray pallor faded, and a healthy pink rose from the depth and flowed along the length of the root. Lachesis nestled the root back under the tree. "She is safe. But what am I to do with you?"
Xyno moved closer to her mother. "Do you remember the love you felt for your warrior?"
A smiled crossed Lachesis face.
"Then allow Thall to experience that. Let him return and be with this Capri. He has fought to do so. He has challenged Atropos. No one, but you, has done that before. Thall is your son. Your spirit resides in him. But he is also your warrior's son. His human side wishes to love. Grant him that."
"Xyno." Thall smiled at his sister. "If you weren't a Fate, I'd say you were jealous."
"Unable to assist, I watched you suffer through the rocks and capricci. And the years you kept your word and sat with the void. You have proven your right to love Capri."
Thall tilted his head. "It was you who sent me this pouch." He tossed it into the air and caught it. Both Lachesis and Xyno backed away.
He laughed. "Do not fear. Prodomorbus is the only one who can use the capricci. If I blew it on you, all it would do is make you dirty. I am the son of Lachesis. We honor life. I cannot take it." A wide grin crossed his mouth. "But I can call a good bluff."
Lachesis bowed her head. "I fear my son that I may not let you return to Capri."
Chapter Twenty-Nine
"I so don't want to go." Capri rubbed her forehead as she stared at Kat.
"Like I haven't figured that out." Kat propelled her friend to the door. "This is the your last Saturday night in the big city, and I'm not staying here, sitting on the couch watching reruns of Dawson's Creek."
"But you like the Creek."
Kat placed her fists on her hips. "Capricious, I swear, if you don't leave this apartment with me, I'll tell the FBI about the flash drive you found."
"Fill your boots. I pounded the shit out of it with a hammer then flushed the various pieces all over the city. Let them find it and piece it back together. I don't know who's it was or how it got there. I didn't even check to see what was on it." She picked up her purse. "Oh, what the hell. Let's go party. One more time."
Capri led the way out of the apartment, to the elevator and out of the building. Kat hailed a cab and gave him directions to the Sexy Nights Dance Club.
After settling inside, Capri sighed. "You know, if you'd just move to Michigan, we could still party on Saturdays."
Kat raised one eyebrow. "Me? Out in the middle of nowhere?"
"The winery's not in the middle of…well, okay, yes it is. But did I tell you, the new head vintner is hot."
"How hot?"
"In your terms, fuckably hot."
Kat rubbed her chin. "Well, I could take my vacation and help you move."
"Oh, Kat." Capri threw her arms around her friend. "My apartment is a two-bedroom. You can stay with me. And I'll pay all the expenses getting there. My severance pay was very, very nice."
Pulling her cell phone out of her purse, Kat grinned. "You got a deal. I'll text Dr. Payne."
Capri hit her hand on the protective glass. "Stop the cab!"
The cab driver signaled, cut across a lane and parked by a curb.
"What's up?" Kat stuffed her cellphone back into her purse.
"Out." Capri pointed, after sliding a twenty to the driver. She climbed out, grabbed Kat's hand and pulled her to a storefront.
Mannequins in red teddys, black leather corsets and frilly, white negligées stood posed in sexually submissive and dominating positions. "What are we doing here?" Kat glanced sideways at Capri.
"Is it open? Is the store still open?" Capri pulled on the handle. The door didn’t move. She jerked it. "Damn."
"We can come back."
"No." Capri pounded on the glass.
A tall, brown-haired man crossed the store and jerked his thumb at the darkened OPEN sign. "Can't you read? We're closed."
Capri pointed at the item dangling from the black leather corseted model's hand. "I'll pay you two hundred dollars for those."
The storeowner raised an eyebrow. Capri pulled her carbon credit card out of her wallet. With a loud click, the door was unlocked and pulled open.
Ten minutes later, Capri exited with a pair of red, fuzzy handcuffs nestled in the shopping bag.
"Okay, will you tell me now why you freaked out and had to have them at this exact moment in time?" Kat waved at a cab.
"Thall said I had to choose the link between him and I. Red, fuzzy handcuffs became a sort of private joke. When I saw them, I knew they were the link that would've bound us together."
A cab stopped. Capri followed Kat and slid into the taxi. When they were seated, she told the cabbie her address then leaned back against the seat. "I don't want to party. I want to go home and wait for next Friday then get on with my life." She held up the bag. "But I am keeping these as a memory of Thall. My love. My Fate."
Kat chuckled. "Capri's Fate."
Capri sat on the bench, by the lake, in the warm late September sun and licked her chocolate ice cream. Life wasn't perfect, but she was content. Some of life's little wrongs had been righted.
Dickerman was arrested for corporate espionage—although, she was amazed that such a doofus could pull off anything that complicated. Much to the annoyance of the FBI, he swore there was no second flash drive. Capri suspected Atropos hid it in her apartment, hoping to cause her trouble. But she'd never know and had resigned herself to not caring how it got there.
She settled into working with her brothers and enjoyed spending much more quality time with her parents. Kat worked at the winery as a receptionist and tour guide. She had a new love in her life, and moved into an apartment not far from where Capri was living. But Capri suspected Kat would be moving into the head vintner's house before Thanksgiving.
Her cell chimed. Probably her mother asking her if she wanted to come over for supper. Capri swallowed the last bite of ice cream cone, wiped her fingers on a napkin then tossed it into the trash. When she opene
d her purse, the fuzz on the handcuffs tickled her hand as she searched for her phone. She always carried them in her purse, a continuous reminder of Thall, the joy he gave her and how much she loved him.
She closed her eyes and pictured his face. Dark hair, bright smile, constantly changing eye color.
A flutter of a breeze tickled her neck.
"Do you happen to own a pair of red, fuzzy handcuffs?"
Capri's heart skipped a beat. She snapped her face to the right. "Thall!"
Wrapping her arms around his neck, she kissed his cheeks, the end of his nose and his mouth. "I knew you'd come back. I didn't want to believe you were dead. You can't be dead. You're a Fate."
Thall started to speak. She placed a finger on his lips. "I have to say this now. Before something else happens, I love you, Thall. I want to be with you. Forever."
Thall cupped her cheeks and stared into her eyes. "I love you, Capri. I fought and challenged my way back. There was no way I was spending eternity alone. But you must answer my question. Do you happen to own a pair of red, fuzzy handcuffs?"
Capri giggled, pulling a pair from her purse. She dangled them on her finger.
He held them in his hand then clasped one of the bracelets around her wrist. "For eternity."
Capri locked the other around his wrist. "For eternity."
Thall raised an eyebrow. "That's a long time."
"Yup."
She leaned closer and kissed him. As she expressed her love with her mouth, the handcuffs faded. Breaking off with a gasp, she glanced down. "Oh, no. They're gone."
Tears welled up in her eyes. "Did I do something wrong?"
Thall shook his head. "No, you did everything right. We are linked. The bonds may be invisible, but they have the strength of eternity."
Capri stood and held out her hand. "Let's go home and make love."
"You read my mind."
The End.
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Capri's Fate
Copyright © 2013 Daryl Devore
Cover art by Kayden McLeod
All rights reserved.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All sexually active characters in this work are eighteen or older.
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