Within minutes she was back, dragging the large sheet of canvas behind her. Folding the material so that several layers were between the book and the ground, she carefully lowered the volume onto the center of the canvas. After gathering her gear, she grabbed the four corners of her makeshift sled and slowly started working her way back. She figured it was close to half a mile to the house she shared with Talon. If she stayed on the grass as much as possible the canvas should hold out until she got there.
It took close to an hour to make the short walk because she didn’t want to risk damaging her precious find. Getting it up the steps was a little tricky but after that her emergency sled slipped across the wooden floors with ease. Once in her room she was confronted with the problem of where to put it. It wouldn’t fit into the chest with her other treasures and she wouldn’t consider putting it there in the first place since pulling it in and out might damage it. She finally settled on sliding it under her bed and using the canvas to move it when she wanted to read it—if she could read it.
“Only one way to find out.” She mumbled, carefully flipping open the golden latches. Holding her breath, Shadow lifted the cover. “Oh, my!” She whispered in awe. “It’s in a language I know.” Her fingers traced the words on the first page.
“Herein is recorded the annals of Ta’Londal-Ar including what we know of the Old Ones as passed down through oral histories.
“That date can’t be right.” She made the conversion in her head—twice just to be sure. “This record was started more than five thousand years ago!”
Chapter Fourteen
Talon caught up with the wounded eldorak at the edge of a small creek. Somewhere along the way the arrow shaft had broken, leaving the arrowhead and a jagged stump of wood. The animal struggled to breathe and could no longer remain standing. His will to live couldn’t defy blood loss.
Another arrow, into his heart this time, put him out of his misery. The knife Talon carried in a scabbard strapped to his ankle was commonly called a ‘gambler’ because anyone who thought it was good for self-defense was gambling with his life. The blade was about four inches long and folded over into the handle for safety. It was going to take hours to remove the head. Even longer to gut and clean the eldorak. He’d be lucky to get back before midnight.
“Guess I get to check out how my new eyes work in the dark.” After removing his boots and clothes, he dragged the carcass into the shallow creek and started his least favorite part of hunting. The process was every bit as bloody and nauseating as he expected.
Three hours later Talon washed the last of the blood from his hands and grabbed his pants and boots. The sun was already heading toward sunset and he had a good two to three hour hike back to the village. Walking upstream from his impromptu butcher shop he refilled the water skin and washed away the gore.
Using his shirt, he tied the bow and quiver to the eldorak, shoved the water skin into a cargo pocket on his pants and hoisted the carcass across his shoulders.
“Damn, you’re still a heavy bastard! I guessed you would dress out to a good hundred pounds, but I think you beat that by at least fifty more.” Shit! I’m talking to a frickin hunk of bloody meat.
He hadn’t gone more than a mile before the muscles in his back and shoulders burned with the strain of the extra weight. The edge of the ‘steppe’ was another hour away if he could maintain his current pace. No way in hell was he making it before dark.
“That bossy piece of walking aggravation is gonna give me hell for being late and it’s all your fault. I thought animals always ran downhill when wounded. Why did you run up?”
Darkness closed around him but he still managed to see well enough that he didn’t walk into a tree. Shifting the dead weight to a slightly different position to try and relieve the burning in his back, he was feeling pretty good about the day in general and his accomplishments in particular. Until the first fat, icy raindrop landed on his nose.
“No, no, no, no, no! Not today! Not frickin now!”
The weather gods weren’t listening or didn’t care. A few drops turned into a steady drizzle that lasted all of about five minutes before becoming a deluge. He silently prayed that the heavier forest growth would protect him from the worst of the storm. Forced to slow down even further, Talon strained to see through the watery, grey-green landscape. The slap of a small limb was his only indicator that he was near the heavier growth. Each step had to be deliberately taken on the decaying vegetation on the forest floor or risk falling on the slippery compost.
Drop the damned eldorak before you break your neck!
Common sense and a strong dose of self-preservation urged him to do just that but he couldn’t make himself do it. He would present Shadow with his trophy—proof that he wasn’t the same man she dragged out of Cypriana all those weeks ago—or kill himself trying. Stupid? Without a doubt. Crazy? Probably. Determined? Abso-fuckin-lutely!
* * * *
Shadow paced the length of the porch. The normal nighttime darkness was intensified by the sudden storm. She was so engrossed in reading the history of Talon’s people that she didn’t realize how late it was until the storm broke. He should have been back hours ago.
What if he’s hurt? I don’t even know which direction he went and this blasted rain has destroyed any sign of his passing. He could die out there…alone.
“Suck it up and quit whining!” She grumbled to herself. “He’s a grown man and he’s been taking care of himself for a long time.”
She strained to see through the heavy curtain of rain but could barely see the road that was just a few feet from where she stood.
He’s blind!
“Not as blind as he was last month.” Shadow slapped her hand against her forehead. “What the hell do you think you’re doing? Arguing with yourself? Do you really want to keep doing that?”
You’re answering yourself so what does that say about your mental stability?
“Grrrrr. That man is making me insane!” She yelled into the night. “Where are you, Talon?”
Needing to keep busy, she headed back inside to heat water. He would be wet and cold when he did get back. After making herself a cup of tea, Shadow began the slow process of filling the big wooden tub with water. Some of the houses she explored had indoor plumbing but the connections to any water or heating devices were long gone. With the extra cook pots she scavenged and the four hooks in the fire pit she could keep enough water boiling to quickly heat the tub. She was grateful that the hand pump worked. Hauling water from the sink to the tub was far enough.
“Get your ass back here.” She whispered. With nothing left to keep her hands and mind busy, fear quickly grabbed her imagination. Every what if situation she could conceive paraded through her brain in a relentless circle. It was now close to midnight and the rain showed no sign of stopping. She couldn’t search for him until sunrise and that was six hours from now.
Shadow had to calm down and quit pacing from the fire pit to the porch or she would be too exhausted to look for Talon. There was one ritual that never failed to bring her peace but she never…ever…started the process if there was the slightest chance someone could catch her at it.
“Why the hell should I care if he walks in on me? He’s blind—mostly.” With a shaky breath, she pulled a chair closer to the fire pit. She was proud there was only a slight tremor in her hands when she pulled her naughty pleasure from deep within her pocket. As far as she knew, no living soul had seen what she was about to do since she was a young girl.
“Dammit, woman, just do it!” Maybe it was a good thing that Talon wasn’t here or she’d owe him about half a dozen kisses. With a defiant snort, Shadow tossed the hat she always wore across the room and started pulling the pins that kept her hair out of her way and hidden from view. Muscles relaxed a little more with the removal of each pin. From neck to shoulders to arms and back, tension drained as the long, blonde strands curled around her body. If it didn’t have the slight wave at the ends, her hair wo
uld reach the middle of her back. It was her one and only vanity and her most closely guarded secret.
She pulled the brush from scalp to tip, relaxing as the snags and tangles disappeared. The one memory she had as a child was of someone brushing her hair every morning and night. She was very young, barely toddling around. Through her early childhood she would pretend that it was her mother’s hand on the brush but she had no way of knowing and no one alive to ask. As an adult, it no longer mattered.
Liar.
Time was meaningless as she slowly smoothed every strand, mesmerized by the multitude of shades shining in the firelight and the peace that filled her soul.
“Now that’s a beautiful sight to welcome a man home.” Talon’s soft voice flowed like warm honey into the room, heavy with desire.
Chapter Fifteen
“Talon! You’re home!” Shadow leaped from the chair and threw herself across the room into his arms. “I was so worried! Where the hell have you been? Are you hurt? Let me check.”
“Easy, Blue.” He laughed softly, wrapping his arms around her waist to keep her still. “I’m just cold, tired, and hungry.” Her hair slid through his fingers like the finest spider silk. “You’ve been keeping secrets, sweetness. This is magnificent.” He smoothed it across his cheek, marveling at its softness.
“Talon…uh…we can’t…where have you…?”
“I’ll tell you everything later. Right now, I just want to hold you.” Talon nuzzled her neck where it met her shoulder, inhaling the unique blend of vanilla, summer grass and gun oil. She must have cleaned her weapon today.
“Damn.” She whispered softly, pushing closer to him.
“That’s two kisses you owe me, Blue.” He could feel the hard nubs of her nipples digging into his chest and his crotch jerked. Sliding one hand along her jaw into her hair and the other to pull her lower body against the hard ridge straining his zipper, Talon slowly lowered his head. The first kiss was little more than the brushing of his lips against hers—an exchange of breaths. His second started by lightly biting her bottom lip before soothing the sting with his tongue. The hitch in her breathing pushed him closer to the limits of his control. Instead, he whispered against her mouth.
“We’ve done this before.” It was a statement, not a question, but the brief flash of guilt was all the answer he needed. He took his time, sliding his lips back and forth across hers before slipping his tongue inside to explore every delightful surface. There! He remembered that small round protrusion.
“What’s on your tooth?” He whispered between forays into her warmth.
“A diamond. It’s a gemstone on Earth used for ornamentation.” She pulled back until she could look him in the eye. “It’s been polished smooth so you don’t have to worry about damage to….”
Her eyes dropped to the bulge in his pants and he groaned. “Keep talking like that and this night will end way too soon.”
Shadow’s aura spiked bright red before she ducked her head and drew a deep, calming breath.
“I started filling the tub but I wanted to wait until you got here before adding the hot water. It will warm you faster than sitting in front of the fire pit. When you finish, I’ll get you something to eat.”
“I cleaned up at the well before coming here. Trust me, you didn’t want me walking in here covered in mud and blood, and things even I don’t want to know. Let me get into something dry and warm and I’ll eat anything that doesn’t bite me first.”
He reluctantly let her pull out of his embrace. When he reached the door to his room, she called his name. Shit. She’s gonna pull rank and tell me to piss off.
“I don’t bite.” She whispered and flashed a wicked grin.
He almost choked on his own tongue. His old eyes wouldn’t have seen her smile. Damned if she wasn’t the sexiest woman he’d met in…forever. He didn’t know what changed between them but something broke through Shadow’s carefully maintained control to free the woman she kept buried. He was in serious trouble and had no desire to change a single thing.
After hanging his wet clothes in the large, empty closet he pulled clean pants from his pack. With a wicked grin, he decided to go native and bypass any undergarments. They would just get in the way later. He grinned just thinking about her reaction when she slipped her hand beneath his waistband. For warmth, he chose a long-sleeved shirt made of spider silk. The material was thin, flexible, and almost as warm as a fur-lined jacket. The last time he wore the shirt—two years ago, at least—it hung loosely on him. Now he could barely pull the stretchy material over his chest.
“You’re feeding me too good, Blue.” He walked toward Shadow and the warmth of the fire pit, grinning and pulling at the clinging material.
“You can’t blame me for all of that.” She laughed, stroking his abs over the skintight shirt. “It’s all that cussin’ and the extra pushups. Keep up the potty mouth and you’ll be naked when you go after Draagon.”
Talon gripped her hand where it rested near his waist. “If you don’t want this to go any further, you need to tell me now.” If she said stop it would damn near kill him but he didn’t want any regrets tomorrow.
Shadow’s gaze was steady, never leaving his face. With slow deliberation she lowered their hands until she covered the bulge in his pants. Gods, if she squeezes me I’ll cum in my pants.
“How about as far as your bed?”
Where did that whiskey-rough voice come from? She could trigger an orgasm just reciting the ingredients of her kava stew. He was torn between wanting to know what changed between them and pushing her against the closest wall.
Why now? After all these weeks?
The part of his brain that lived south of his belt buckle didn’t care. With a deep sigh, he silently vowed to make the night as memorable as possible—for both of them—in case she retreated behind her blue wall tomorrow.
“That sounds perfect, sweet lady, but I have no way to protect you. Are you willing to risk pregnancy?”
A blind man couldn’t miss the flash of pain in her eyes.
“I can’t have children so there’s no risk at all; but first, you have to eat. Can’t have you fainting from hunger on a down stroke, can we? It’s on the table.”
Talon knew when a matter was closed and her rapid change of subject slammed a door on any questions he had. “We could heat it up…later.”
“Not this time.” She walked her fingers from his waist up over his chest to his chin. “Anticipation can be a powerful element of foreplay.”
Okay. He could do this. How hard could it be to sit and swallow a few bites of food before dragging her to the nearest flat surface?
“A midnight dinner with a beautiful woman and I get to choose the dessert.” He held her chair before moving to the other side of the table.
He was discovering he really enjoyed food now that he could see what he was eating. Before Kierin’s fix for his eyes he’d go hungry before eating in front of anyone. Humiliation was tough to swallow. Food had to be extremely hot for him to locate it on the plate. If he took a bite while it was hot enough for him to see it, he burned his mouth. Once it cooled enough to eat, he couldn’t see where it was and ended up using his hands and shoveling whatever he grabbed into his mouth. He was no better than a farm animal.
“This tastes amazing. Is that a leaf you used to wrap the kava while it baked?”
“One of the first things I do when I go somewhere new is to check out the local herbs and flowers, especially if I’m going to be there long. A constant diet of plain roasted meat would get old. Add a few sprigs of a local herb and it becomes a meal—not just food.”
“This is just spicy….”
His brain shut down when Shadow picked up the kava leg, dripping with juice, and slowly ran her tongue along its length. When she grinned and pushed the six-inch length of bone and meat into her mouth, he stopped breathing all together.
“If you want me to finish this meal, you’ll stop what you’re doing. I don’t have a probl
em with shoving everything to the floor and laying you out on the table.”
“I’m going to have to work on your staying power.” She whispered, placing her dinner back on the plate.
“Shadow….” Talon didn’t recognize the growling noise as his voice. The woman would kill him if she kept this up.
“Okay, okay. I’ll play nice. How did the hunt go?”
It took him several seconds to adjust. Gone was the sexy flirt and Blue was back in control. He spent the next hour describing his ordeal with the eldorak. Laughing with her when he described slipping on the muddy trail and sliding the half-mile to the valley floor on his butt. This was how he imagined couples spent their evenings—sharing their day while passion simmered quietly, building slowly until time to retire for the night.
“I assumed you’d go for a string of kavas, since the little buggers are hopping all over the place.” She wiped the tears from her face when the laughter stopped. “Why didn’t you cut it up and cache it in a tree until morning?”
He reached into his pocket and pulled out the knife. “I wasn’t prepared for big game. By the time I gutted it, this thing was practically useless.”
“So where did you leave the carcass?”
“Tied to a rock in the pool at the edge of the artesian well. The water is cold enough to keep it fresh until daylight and deep enough to keep any predators from stealing it.”
A comfortable silence enveloped them. That small part of Talon from before he lost his sight and before Draagon destroyed his life craved this feeling. Craved home. He’d never have another home, but he could remember and store these memories to feed his dreams in the long years ahead. Shoving the feeling away, he focused on the woman sitting quietly across from him.
“What color are your eyes?” He asked, softly.
“Blue.” She tilted her head like she was trying to figure out what to ask next. “What do you see when you look at me?”
“You mean besides a beautiful woman?” He shrugged. “The whites of your eyes almost glow. The rest is a dark greenish grey.”
The Men of Anderas III: Talon, the Assassin Page 8
