A Bride Worth Billions (6 page)

The silence was gruelling to Dembe but he was patient, they got home and Lara stared at his eyes for a short while. Dembe’s eyes were blue. Not the conventional blue of the sky, or the shade of the paint that flaked off of the old shack in the back of the turf, or even the tiny flowers that sprung up by the road side on her way to the hospital. His eyes were blue like the shade of the vast seas, a crystal clear blue which shimmered and crashed and churned. When she looked into his eyes she could hear the waves gently fall against the coastline, see the bubbly foam fly with ease into the air. Lara thought that there were blue, just like the sky right before the sun disappeared, a somewhat dark rich cobalt, with some speckles of some wild shade here and there. Lara held his hands still looking into his eyes, whose shade of blue was like that warm woollen pullover that she loved putting on when the air got that slightly piercing chill. She had always felt comfortable with Dembe and it was not about to stop just because of what she was.

Dembe’s grip on her hand tightened as he nervously waited in anticipation and Lara finally broke the deafening silence!

‘‘I am glad I now know what burden you carried, you no longer have to bear it alone, I am here for you…’’ she said.

‘‘I know you would never hurt me Dembe and I know how difficult it must have been to keep that hidden within you..’’ she continued

Dembe was about to respond when Lara, placed her finger on his lips and said ‘‘Shhhhhhhh..’’ as she leaned forwards tilting her head upwards. She gave him a passionate kiss…

All at once, there was nothing in Dembe’s universe but Lara’s kissing. He took over, touching, caressing and nibbling, every single inch of Lara’s intoxicating body with his mouth, his hands and his tongue. For the first time in his life, Dembe felt like his burden had been lifted off, that there was someone who completely understood him.

The bliss of the moment sent an earthquake through Lara’s skin, making her body to waver on the intensity of the moment.

Dembe did not hold back. Lara had never before been prepared for these new sensations or at least that’s what she felt; the tingle in her arms, her neck and even in her hands; the constriction of her belly, the moment an enormous wave of lightning overwhelmed it; the spurt of her dampness as it inundated her and swelled inside her. Once unrepressed, her passion was urgent and desperately critical, but Dembe forced her to cave to his slow but sure pace, his deliberately sensual touch, he continuously brought her again and again, to the brink of rhapsody and then denied her, until she begged for it.

Dembe went back to her lips, his tongue exploring her mouth and once again to her ears and then her neck.

With a movement that startled her, he took her, they merged and engaged in an astral encounter and with gentle and delicate motions of his body, he brought Lara close to the verge of eruption so many times that in delirium, she lost count. She could do nothing more than just hold him tight or occasionally squeeze the blankets.

Lara could feel herself blush and spikes of pleasure moved through her entire body.  And it went on and on until their bodies were frail with exhaustion but full of satisfactory pleasure.

** ** ** ** ** ** **

Never on earth had Dembe imagined that someone would make him this happy and Lara always felt lucky. She had always known that werewolves were dreaded by most people but she knew she did not have to be afraid of Dembe. He was her knight in shining armour and she knew that he will always protect him.

When Batian went back to his superiors he assured them that both Dembe and his partner had burnt beyond recognition in the explosion of the crash. He had always been an agent who was by the books but this time he made an exception. He had even seen that Dembe had had a shot at a normal life and he never wanted that to end for him. He was happy for him and he hoped that his future would only get brighter since no one would ever start hunting him again. To the Black Ops agency, he was long dead!

Dembe was quite grateful for the kindness that Batian had showed to him and he wished that there was a way in which he could repay him. He had never thought that he would have a life out of the agency and he had given it his all. He always missed and mourned his partner and he even understood what made him want to defect. Tunde had never told him anything about it but he realized what he wished to have and he never blamed him for that

Lara and Dembe grew even more inseparable especially now that they knew each other inside out. They enjoyed their strolls in the woods with the air that was always rich in the scent of leaves and damp loam. They loved how even after so many hours after the passing of the rains, how the soil remained wet and slowly released its heavy fog.

In the summer, they enjoyed the powerful rays of the sunshine where everything is cool and the colors had the softness of that time just before the crack of dawn. They would rise for hikes on early mornings where they could only hear the occasional chirpings of birds, the startling of tree branches caused by a squirrel sprinting up a nearby trunk. They would go for jogs together in the evening so that they would both enjoy the sound of running water in the brook where Lara would pause in her runs before the found Dembe.

‘‘It has the same hypnotic quality as music,’’ he would say sometimes when they stopped just to drink in the pacifying sound. Whenever they passed through the place where Lara first had his groans of pain, Dembe would take in all the air in his lungs, hold it and then slowly expel it and he was thankful that she found him that day. The day when his life turned over a new leaf, never to be the same again.

The time travel industry has been one of the true booms of the new American economy. Since its discovery and inception in 2074, the Rayland Corporation has made trillions of dollars for its investors and has created millions of jobs worldwide. In the United States alone, over 100,000 time travel agencies and services seemed to explode into existence overnight and offer travel packages ranging in the millions for the complete immersion into a culture, to low cost travel packages for entire groups who simply wish to witness such historical events such as the assignation if President John F. Kennedy or the crucifixion of Jesus Christ (Originally this was the most sought after experience for most Americans of Christian faith, but has since waned in popularity due to the sheer number of executions by crucifixion the Romans performed, making it next to impossible to identify the historical Jesus Christ.).

But perhaps the most significant change is the way Americans travel, because it isn’t a matter of where they’re going on vacation, but a matter of when? Do you want to vacation in Hawaii on the day of the Pearl Harbor attacks? Do you want to travel to Gettysburg to witness Lincoln’s history changing address? Do you want to go to 1920’s New York City to dance and drink your nights away as a flapper girl? You can do any and all of these things for a price. It also completely eliminated the need for historians such as myself. We are now, instead, either well informed travel guides, or we are time anthropologists, studying long dead cultures firsthand.

To be honest with you, when time travel became widely available to the public, I was just as excited as the next person. I had spent a decade of my life dedicated to earning my doctorate in ancient studies, and now all of the things I had studied and wrote about could now be confirmed. Us academics could travel and closely observe the cultures we so loved. But we could only observe and never collect physical evidence of our theories because of possibly disrupting the time line continuum. Yes, you may only be bringing back a water cistern or arrowheads or basic tools, but there was always the possibility that the absence of those simple tools may cause individuals to die and intern wiping out whole bloodlines of people. You walk a fine line as a historical anthropologist. You want to immerse yourself within a culture in the past, but you also must remain practically invisible within that culture so as to not inversely impact it development.

For those individuals who study and observe the 20th century, this isn’t a real issue because of the sheer mass of the population. Simply put, when there are more people alive and there is greater population’s center, the easier a culture is to observe. Unfortunately, I never had an interested in the 20th century. As a culture, it was already too well observed, particularly because of the mass communication devices that came about during the time period. Even before time travel, you could relive virtually any period in the 20th century with the click of the mouse.

No, my interest was in cultures where much of its history was oral and stories of significant events were passed down father-to-son, mother-to-daughter. My specialty as an anthropologist is Visigoth era Austria and Germany, largely because it was the true beginning of the end for the Roman empire, but also because the period is largely unknown because of the severe language barriers that existed within the region and much of the history is shrouded in mythology; it’s nothing but legends of dragon slayers and giant were-animals that stalked the woods kidnapping small children. It’s all really quite fascinating, but also equally frustrating because of the language barriers of the different regions. Plus, there really aren’t that many scholars who study the period, so it was a wide open field.

But my true passion, the culture which drew me to becoming a historian, is the so-called “dark ages” Scotland. My family is of Scottish descent, so my childhood was filled with stories of the grandeur of ancient Scotland. Of the battles against the Romans which created the nation-to-the times of Robert The Bruce’s rebellion against the English to gain Scottish independence. I remember as a little girl, sitting with my grandfather as he told story after story of the Bruce and the united clans. With his lilting and rich voice, I would be absolutely enthralled by the stories and it inspired me to delve deep into my roots, even going so far as to learn Gaelic.

But by the time I entered graduate school with plans to specialize in Scottish studies, I discovered that the field had skyrocketed in popularity and was so crowded that my master’s and doctorate in the particular field of study would enable me to become the best educated personal assistant in the world, so that was when I changed my specialty and I became of one of the few American experts on Visigoth history and culture.

But my passion was still rooted in my native people, which is why I’ve chosen to spend my next vacation in 12th century Scotland pretending to be a native. It will be a fully immersive experience and it’s costing me nearly a year’s wages to go, but I know in the long run that it will be entirely worth it and will be something I never forget.

“So, I know you’ve been told the rules a couple of million times already, Isabel. But legally, I have to do it again.” The time geek is obviously nervous around women and as he speaks, he’s completely unable to sit still or make direct eye contact with me. I find it to be both flattering and relatively uncomfortable.

“It’s fine, I don’t mind hearing it again.” I actually do mind because time travel is what I do for a living, so I know the rules of it backward and forward. But I completely understand his and his employer’s standpoint because they're the ones assuming partial liability in case something unforeseen happens.

“Okay then, rule #1: Absolutely no souvenirs whatsoever. I know it’s going to be tempting to want to snatch a pot or maybe even a weapon of some sort. But the fact is this may create a radical change here in the present, and what I mean by that is if somebody’s great-great-great granddad is attacked and killed because he was unable to defend himself because you ran off with his sword when he needed it most, this has the potential of altering the lives of potentially thousands of people because you’re directly interfering with history. Do you agree to adhere to rule #1?”

“I do.”

“Rule #2: No intimate contact with native populations. I know that this may be very tempting, but the fact is despite all of our advanced knowledge, there are certain things we don’t know and those things mostly have to do with sexually transmitted diseases and possible insemination. We basically don’t want you coming back with an itch that we might not have a cure for or with a bun in the oven. Do you agree with Rule #2?”

“I do.”

“Rule #3: Do not ever remove your transmitter. As you know, this allows us to transport you back and forth in time and communicate directly with you. The transmitter is fashioned to look like a piece jewelry native to the time period. It also has a panic button if you ever find yourself in a predicament where you feel in danger for your life and physical safety. Not that any period history has been all that safe for a woman, but the period you’re going into really isn’t safe. So I’ll remind you again, never remove your transmitter absolutely under no circumstances. Do you agree with Rule #3?”

“I do.” The whole conversation didn’t feel so much like a legally binding agreement as it did a marriage.

“Alright, one last thing before we get you going. You know that even though you’ll be immersed in your time destination for a full 31 days, you will not be gone in our current time for some length. The fact is I’m going to transfer you and then a couple of seconds later I’m going to be transferring you right back. It will be a month for you, but in the here and now, it’s going to be as if you’ve only been gone for literally seconds. It’s kind of a trip when you first get back, so just make sure you give yourself plenty of time to recover when you get back, because you’re going to need it after living without things like electricity and hot water for a month.”

“I fully understand. I’m taking a month off after I return.”

“That’s really good. Alright, now that we’ve got that done, let’s get you on your way, Ms. Kilryan.”