Carnage startled, turning to him with a snarl. Glared at him for a moment, before returning to his work.
“You know, she may not. She may not choose any of us. She may decide that she wants to be alone,” Destroy said.
Carnage looked up at the frame he was building, to his left and his right at the stacked lumber and tin. Destroy was right; she may not choose him. But at least she’d have a safe home to call her own.
Not turning around, he nodded, then went back to working.
“You’re just going to keep building it anyway?” Destroy asked, then, “You’re wasting your time if she doesn’t choose you.”
Carnage shook his head, turning around to look at Destroy. “Leeenah, safe,” he said, gesturing behind himself at the frame he’d started.
Destroy just looked at him, then at the beginnings of the structure, realizing that Carnage wanted this female because he wanted her. Not because she was a female, but because of who she was. He really cared about her.
This is why being friends with someone was generally more trouble than it was worth, he thought. You had to try to remember to put them before yourself. This was a new thing for him, but he’d try. Carolena had been nice to him. He owed her at least this much — after all, he’d told her he’d go after Carnage.
“She wanted to come after you, but I convinced her to let me,” Destroy said.
Carnage lifted an eyebrow, then just turned back to his work, trying to nail the support beams to the posts he’d already driven into the ground.
“You should go back and speak with her. If you don’t, she’s likely to head out into the woods alone and get herself lost again. Then we’ll all have to search for her. It will be a big mess. Go speak with her,” Destroy said.
Carnage glanced at him over his shoulder, but kept hammering.
“She gets what you’re saying, even without words. Haven’t you noticed?” Destroy remarked, losing patience with the whole situation.
Carnage stopped working and looked at Destroy.
“She does. She understands you better than most. Go talk to her.” Then Destroy decided that this was not working. And honestly, he’d done what he’d said he would. He’d found Carnage and told him to go to Carolena. He’d fulfilled his promise. He was done. He looked at Carnage, shrugged, “Or not. Actually it’s better if you don’t. Gives the rest of us a chance. Make no mistake about it, Carnage. If you don’t want her, there are others who do.”
Carnage rumbled deep in his chest.
Destroy tilted his head as he regarded Carnage, “Well, I’ve fulfilled my promise to my new friend. I am done here,” Destroy said as he spun on his heel, spread his wings, and took to the air.
Carnage watched Destroy as he disappeared from view. Destroy was an ass, but he was right. Carolena did seem to understand him. And if he didn’t let her know that he cared for her every chance he got, someone else would.
He placed his hammer with a stack of nails he’d sorted, then headed back to Enthrall’s house. He needed to speak with Carolena. He looked up at the sky, dusky as the sun began to set. He decided to hurry so that maybe he could share dinner with her again.
Chapter 13
Carnage emerged from the woods and found Carolena sitting on the steps of Enthrall’s porch, staring in his general direction. The moment her eyes recognized him, she jumped up and ran to him. He smiled at her rushing to him. Carolena paused just before she got to him, and said, “I’m sorry, Carnage. I didn’t mean that the way it sounded. I didn’t mean to make you run away from me.”
His smile got noticeably smaller, he nodded, and reached a hand out toward her. She took it without hesitation, him pulling her in for a hug.
“I like the way you talk,” she said into his chest as he hugged her. “And I think we communicate very well. Don’t you?” she asked, trying to look up at him though he still held her tight.
He released her just enough for her to angle her head up at him. When they made eye contact, he nodded. Then with one arm still around her, he used his other hand to pat his chest. He said, “Mine, Leenah,” in his gravelly voice.
She smiled at him and cupped his jaw with her hand, but she said nothing. She wrapped her arms tighter around his waist and rested her head against his chest.
He held her head to his chest and tightened the arm around her waist. He knew she didn’t agree with his statement, was acutely aware of it. But she was holding him, and if that was all he could get for now, he’d take it.
The stomping of her foot broke the mood, and he looked down to see why she was stomping her foot.
“Sorry — mosquitoes,” she explained.
Carnage took her hand in his, and together they walked back to Enthrall’s home. He walked her inside, and once inside she led him to the kitchen.
Carnage took a seat at the table as she made them cold, thick sliced beef sandwiches, making an extra for Enthrall for when he got home.
They ate in silence. When she got up to clean the dishes, Carnage wandered over to the couch she’d been seated on earlier in the day and picked up the book she’d left there. He looked at it, smiled at the picture imprinted on the front, but had no idea what the words said. He didn’t know how to read. Finally she finished cleaning the kitchen and joined him on the couch. He handed it to her reverently and lifted his chin at her.
She looked at the book she now held and back at Carnage, “You want me to read it to you?” she asked.
He nodded yes, very enthusiastically.
She smiled and said, “Do you know what it’s about?”
He smiled back and raised his hands above his head, curving his clawed fingers into hooks and snarling.
She laughed and said, “Yes! It is about monsters, beasts, creatures of legend. Are you a creature of legend?”
Carnage snorted repeatedly, she guessed that was his laughter, and then nodding, said, “‘Es!” between even more snorts.
Carolena laughed, but didn’t start reading.
Carnage gently nudged the book in her hands toward her and said, “Leenah saaay.”
She marked her place with a dried pine needle she’d been using for just that purpose and turned to the first page. “Let’s start at the beginning, okay?”
Carnage nodded and settled in to listen to her read him the story.
“It’s called, ‘La Belle et la Bete.’ Do you know what that means?” Carolena asked.
Carnage smiled widely; he knew exactly what it meant. He’d spent a great deal of time in France and understood the language well. He nodded.
“It translates to, The Beauty and The Beast.” She turned it over in her hands, admiring it, “It’s more than one hundred fifty years old, published in 1740. It’s always been one of my favorites. I was surprised to find it in Enthrall’s library.”
She looked up to find that Carnage had slipped from the couch onto the floor, where he now sat at her feet, his chin resting on his arm where it was draped relaxedly on the seat of the couch he had just occupied.
“You ready?” she asked, smiling at his eagerness.
He grinned at her and nodded, and she began.
<<<<<<<>>>>>>>
Enthrall stepped softly as he made his way up the stairs of his porch. He didn’t want to disturb anyone; Carnage inside, or Destroy who watched through the window, as Carolena read aloud from one of his books. He knew beyond a doubt that Destroy was aware of his arrival, but when he took a seat on the chair next to him, Destroy did not move, did not make a sound, or acknowledge him in any way. He was so caught up in the story that Carolena read, he did not want it to end. So Enthrall sat quietly, and himself listened. He knew the story well, but it was her voice that caught him up in her tale. She had a beautiful voice, clear, melodic, and she took on a different tone dependent on the character she was reading. Both Goyles were captivated, as was he.
She was three chapters in and stopped to clear her throat. Carnage jumped up from his spot on the floor and went into the kitchen. He fille
d a glass with cool water and rushed back to her, handing it to her. Carolena took it from him, smiling her thanks, and drank deeply from it. She licked her lips and drank again before handing the glass back to Carnage. He watched her with a pained expression on his face and reached to take the glass from her outstretched hand. “Are you okay, Carnage?”
He nodded, “‘Es,” he mumbled. He hurried to the kitchen, rearranging himself in his breeches as he went. Being this close to her, inhaling her scent, listening to her voice, and watching her lick her lips had him swollen and throbbing. He took a deep breath, let it out slowly, gulped down the remainder of her water before placing the glass in the sink, and took his place at her feet once again.
“More?” she asked him.
He nodded, but held his fingers up, pinching them almost together, but not quite, leaving a little space between them.
“Just a little?” she asked.
He nodded, smiling. See? He thought to himself; we can talk perfectly well.
Carolena read another chapter aloud to him and to Destroy and Enthrall who she’d noticed had recently joined them. When she got to the end of the chapter, she removed the pine needle from her earlier marked page and placed it in the last spot she’d read to them. There was no way she’d read the rest without them.
Just as she leaned over to place the book on the arm of the couch, Carnage touched her wrist. She paused, looking down at him.
He lifted his chin, raised his eyebrows, and gently touched the end of the pine needle where it stuck out of the book.
“I’m using it as a bookmark. I don’t want to bend the pages. Books are very precious to me — they are treasures. So instead of bending the pages, I use this pine needle to mark my place. It’s not exactly a great bookmark, but it’s dried so it won’t get any sap or discoloration on the pages.”
Carnage nodded his understanding. He stood and shoved his hands in his trousers, waiting to see what they’d do next.
“I think I’ll take a bath. Do you mind?” Carolena asked.
He groaned. The thought of her naked in a bath almost brought him to his knees.
“Would you rather me not?” she asked, surprised at his reaction.
He shook his head and began gently pushing her toward the bathroom.
“You sure?” she asked. “I heard you groan.”
He stopped ushering her toward the bathroom and made a show of stretching his back, his arms above his head, letting out the same groan.
“Ohhh! I see, your back is sore. Well, next time sit beside me on the couch,” she smiled as she headed to the bathroom. “I’m going to soak for a bit; I’ll be out shortly,” she told him.
Carnage nodded his agreement and stood where he was until she closed the door behind herself.
Once she’d closed the door and the water started pouring into the tub, he spun and went straight to the porch. He pulled the door opened and glared at both men who jumped to their feet to meet his arrival.
He said, “Mine!” and dared either to argue with him.
Enthrall grinned at him, “She reads beautifully, Carnage. We were just enjoying the story as you were. We didn’t want to disturb either of you, so we listened from out here.”
Carnage didn’t respond, but his eyes moved to Destroy’s eyes. Destroy said nothing, just looked at Carnage with a sardonic smile in place, as though daring him to say anything.
Carnage stared for a moment longer before starting down the steps.
“You going to work on your house?” Enthrall asked.
Carnage nodded, pausing and looking back at where both males stood on the porch.
“We’ll stay with her while you go work,” Destroy said.
Carnage thought of his Carolena, soaking in a warm bath, and the males on the porch listening to her read him a story. He stomped back toward the porch, up the stairs and stopped at the screen door. He faced them, pounded his chest and said, “Myyy Pppprrroooooo - tec!” Then he went inside and planted himself outside the bathroom, and listened to the water splashing against the soft, sweet skin of his beautiful female. As his breeches became even tighter and the agony brought with his incessant swelling became even more unbearable.
<<<<<<<>>>>>>>
Out on the porch, Enthrall watched Carnage through the screen door, take up a position outside the bathroom door where Carolena now bathed.
He looked to Destroy, who was still standing next to him. “You know if you make any effort at all to get between them, he may kill you.”
Destroy didn’t look at Enthrall, just kept looking at the door behind where Carnage now stood. That door is where Carolena, the only female that had ever been kind to him, now lounged naked in a bath. What struck him as strange was that he didn’t want to rush in and fuck her. He wanted her taken care of. He wanted her fed, and protected, and sheltered and safe. He wanted her happy.
Destroy met Enthrall’s eyes, “Yes, I know. But if he doesn’t do right by her, then he has no one to blame but himself. She deserves to be taken care of. If he won’t do it, and do it the right way, someone else will.”
Enthrall didn’t answer at first — he was watching Destroy with new eyes; maybe this male was growing up. “True. And I’m sure I know a male who would be willing to step up,” Enthrall said.
“As do I,” answered Destroy meaningfully, just before he turned and walked away.
<<<<<<<>>>>>>>
“I don’t give a damn what your excuses are!” shouted the man seated behind the huge mahogany desk in the very expensively decorated office. “Find my daughter! Find her now!” Abraham Ashlar shouted at the grimy man in front of him.
“I’ve tried, Mr. Ashlar! There is no trace. I’ve spoken with all my contacts. No one knows where she’s gone.”
“What did the woman at the boarding house say?!” Abraham demanded.
“She said that Ms. Ashlar left with no word, just disappeared without any explanation of where she was going,” the man told him.
“And you believe that?” Abraham bellowed. “Idiots! I’m surrounded by idiots!”
Abraham got up and rounded his desk, causing the overweight, sweaty man on the other side to step back suddenly. Abraham eyed him disgustedly as he went by. He pulled open the door to his office and yelled through it to his secretary, “Ms. Staples! Make arrangements! I’ll be going to look for my daughter myself!” Then he turned to the man still stinking up his office, “Get out! I’ll find her myself.”
“Uh, Mr. Ashlar, sir — I have expenses. I went out there on good faith…” the investigator started.
Abraham stalked toward the man, now whining about money and tossed a handful of bills at him, “Take it! Get out of my office.”
The sweaty little man gathered up the bills from the floor and scurried out of the office, quickly slamming the door behind himself as he went.
Abraham went back to his desk, flopped into the huge leather chair behind it. He picked up the ledger he’d been reviewing and slung it across the room in frustration. He was going to have to go to Louisiana. He had no time for this, and it irritated him to no end. If his insolent daughter had done her duty by accepting any of the suitable choices he provided her for husband, he’d not have to be put out now. But naturally, she had to be difficult. She’d always been difficult. If not for the promise he’d made his dying wife, he’d have sent the girl to a boarding school years ago.
He sat back in his chair, his heart softening, only slightly though, at the thought of his wife. He’d adored his beloved wife. She’d been his soul. Then she’d taken her from him — the daughter he’d had to raise alone. He remembered the night the doctor had placed her into his hands. He’d marveled at the ability such a tiny creature had to thoroughly devastate his life. His wife had wanted a child more than anything, so he’d given her a child. Anything to make her smile. But as she came into the world, she’d caused so much bleeding that her mother couldn’t survive. His wife’s life was exchanged for the difficult, confounded, unconventional
girl child he’d now have to raise alone. His wife begged him with her dying breath to take care of their baby, to ensure that she’d be happy, always. If not for that promise, he’d have most likely been even less of a presence in the girl’s life then he was now. But he’d promised his beloved. So he’d hired her the best nannies, financed vacations that would provide her with culture, tutors that would educate her, and legions of staff that adored her. Once she came of age, he started the search in earnest for a husband who would take over. He wanted to be freed of his promise. He was done; he could no longer pretend to care for the child that had caused his wife to be taken from him. Only the damn girl wouldn’t cooperate. She negotiated for a time away, to oversee his business, to experience the culture of the people of the southern United States that she’d learned to love from one of her first nannies. The woman had been a mulatto woman, from south Louisiana. His daughter had learned the legends and superstitions of the region through stories that she never tired of hearing. He was glad for her attention being elsewhere, but in retrospect, perhaps he should have limited her exposure to the woman. She did so seem to love the child, though. At any rate, that’s where she was now or was supposed to be. In an effort to prove that she needed to give in and allow him to plan for her future, he’d let her go. Now she was missing. And he owed it to his beloved Clara to find her, bring her back home and ensure her security and well-being — then, he could wash his hands of her forever.
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