Dame of Owls (11 page)

---

              Chris stared at Sid in dumb silence, and she felt only a bit vindicated that he shared her shock. She’d wrapped herself around his arm, played the simpering maiden, and hauled him back to her room. He’d probably been expecting a blow job right about now, not a mortal blow to his idealism.

             
“Where will we go?” he asked.

             
“I don’t know.” Sid’s heart was in her throat and her stomach lost somewhere around her knees. “I don’t fucking
know
, okay? Where is there to go?”

             
Away from Court. Away from the queen she’d pledged her loyalty to above all else, duty uncomplicated and unthinking. Sid was no general, no commander to look ahead and plan seven steps in advance. Put a sword in her hand, point her at the enemy. She was a
knight
, not a guard, not a shepherd –

             
“Hey.” Chris wrapped an arm around her shoulders, drew her close. “Hey, it’s all right. How did you get a car, when you first came to find me?”

             
“I have a human I.D. I rented one.”

             
“Well, we’ll probably have to go with a different company, since you did go and forget to give it back, but a car is a start. Speed’ll help. You know the Thoroughfare points, we’ll steer clear of those and plan as we go.”

             
And in his crooked smile, his shaky attempts at reassurance when his life was the one on the line, in the weight and shape of him she found her answers. A knight’s duty was not in taking orders unquestioned, but in raising the shield for something truly beloved.

---

             
Chris wasn’t the sort to question other people’s choices. Sid had made the decision to help him flee, to come with him, and she probably knew the dangers better than he did. Still, he couldn’t help but marvel at her in the passenger seat, her face flush with humanity and her hair featherless. He respected choices, but he’d never expected to be anyone’s first choice. As she’d packed her bags, as she’d led him quietly out of the palace, taking him by the hand and pulling him into the wide and sprawling forest, he’d expected her to leave.

             
“There’s a Thoroughfare point here,” she’d explained, “it’s hidden, and so protected it will only let you into the Thoroughfare, never out,” and he’d expected her to push him through with well wishes.

             
They’d walked briskly through the Thoroughfare, barely breathing, and he’d expected her to wave him through some spot to the mortal world and that would be that, forever. But she’d stopped at some ineffable point, squeezed his fingers, and pulled them both into an unknown place in his own world. She had, indeed, rented a car.

             
“Stop at this gas station,” Sid said, calm and firm. “I don’t think they’ll close my bank account, but I want to grab cash before someone mortal enough to know better gets around to reminding them.”

             
Sid was a steel pillar. It was good to have that solidity back, but he hardly blamed her for having freaked out a bit. If she needed to go soft every now and then, he could be there for that.

             
She got her money and they stopped for the night in a small city. The hotel was seedy and cheap, surrounded by concrete and cold iron. Chris didn’t bother thinking about how far they were from the bookstore or anyone he knew. Thinking about the danger they were in wouldn’t do any good. He just thought about Sid and how hard she could kick anything’s ass.

             
Maybe you couldn’t watch a lady kill a unicorn without falling for her. Maybe that was a universal rule.

             
Sid came out of the shower in pajama shorts and a tank top, as comfortable in normal clothing as she’d been in tunics and gowns. Her hair tumbled damp around her shoulders, and purple exhaustion smudged itself under her eyes. It occurred to him that there was something he had yet to make clear about the romantic powers of unicorn slaying.

             
“I love you,” he said, graceless and clear.

             
Her shock was clear as day. She stared at him, her shoulders suddenly stiff, her mouth barely open. She swallowed. “Chris –”

             
“I love you,” he repeated. “And maybe that’s sudden and odd, so you don’t have to say anything back, but I do love you.”

             
Sid dropped her towel and walked to where he sat on the edge of the bed. She clasped his face in her hands and bent down to kiss him deeply, insistently. He barely had time to appreciate it before she was pulling away and pressing a kiss to his temple.

             
“You say the sweetest things,” she murmured, then dropped to her knees between his legs. It was Chris’s turn to swallow as she ran her hands up his thighs, her nails skittering over his jeans.

             
He clenched his fingers hard in the worn bedspread as she stroked him through the denim, teasing him into hardness before she even pulled down his zipper. She did take pity on him, finally, quickly undoing his button and fly and pulling his pants down around his thighs. Sid wrapped one cool hand around the base of his erection, and Chris saw stars when she took the head in her mouth.

             
With her clever tongue and fingers, she took him to the very edge of orgasm, then backed off. She pressed light kisses to his stomach, to the muscle definition leading down his abdomen, to his thighs. Only when his breathing had slowed again did she lick him slowly from root to tip, tripping sparks in all his nerves.

             
“Do you want to come like this?” she asked, all teasing. “Or – ”

             
It took every ounce of will power, and the knowledge of things to come, for him to breathe out, “get up here.”

             
She smiled. “If you say so.”
              Sid stood up, coming to her feet in one swift, graceful motion. She shimmied easily out of her pajama shorts, her powerful legs on perfect display, and pulled her tank top over her chest. Chris, feeling a bit clumsy, pulled his pants off and kicked them across the room. Sid climbed onto the bed, straddling his lap and catching his hardness between them.

             
He kissed her, she nipped at his lips and pushed him back on the bed. Sid knelt over him, one hand on the mattress, one hand rubbing delicious circles around his right nipple. Then she pulled that hand away and pushed it down between them, brushing his cock when she fingered her own sex. Chris hadn’t thought he could get any harder, but the sight of her proved him wrong.

             
And then she lowered herself onto his erection. He didn’t bother to stifle his moan, just wrapped his hands around her perfect hips and thrust up into the sweetness of her. Her shout was more of a laugh, full of delight, and she rode him with such little effort.

             
The upside of an athletic woman. He’d never let that go.

             
He took one hand off her hips to find her clit, rubbing it in time to her thrusts. It was difficult to concentrate on, with pleasure pooling in his belly and sending warmth rippling through every inch of him. Sex had rarely felt so good.

             
When Sid came with one more laughing shout, he gave himself permission to let go as well. He shuddered and let the heat overtake him for long, blissful moments. He only returned to himself when Sid pulled herself off of him and knelt beside him to press small, mocking kisses to his every inch of his face except his mouth. She even peppered his stubble with tenderness.

             
“I love you, too,” she said, smiling wider than he’d ever seen. “Don’t think it’ll always get you a blow job, though.”

---

              They savored five days of freedom before the inevitable caught up with them. The Summer Knight found them on a lonely highway when they stopped for gas. He was impressively tall and impressively loud, with a sword the width of Chris’s spread hand. Sid drew her own sword and stood her ground even as a hapless employee ran out into the harsh neon shouting for them to stop, demanding to know what drugs they were on.

             
Sid broke all of the man’s fingers, and he still didn’t surrender until Chris doused him with gasoline and the station employee called the cops. A brief reminder of all the convenient lighters to be found inside was enough to send the knight back to his queen with a succinct message: fuck off.

             
Sid and Chris followed their own advice before the cops showed up.

             
That first blow wasn’t harsh. The second left them both reeling.

             
Sid ate a bit like a barbarian, mostly with her hands and a dedication to licking the salt off her fingers. Knightly table manners, Chris assumed, and teased her for it. She flicked a french fry at him.

             
They were in some state far away from where they’d begun. This bed and breakfast was nestled among disconcerting pine trees, but Sid promised it was far away from any safe entrances to the Thoroughfare. Only a madman would follow them this far so quickly, so they sat on the stone steps of their lopsided cabin and ate fast food without much concern.

             
And Juniper stepped out of the woods wearing hiking boots and a pea coat, her wild hair suddenly an innocuous brown. Chris almost didn’t recognize her, but there was no mistaking the way Sid froze.

             
Juniper strode towards them, and Chris couldn’t place her intent. She wasn’t smiling. Maybe she was here to help. She was probably just pissed off about how long it had taken to find them. They’d been shaking off allies just as thoroughly as enemies, after all.

             
“Juniper?” Sid called. “What are you doing here?”

             
“Sid.” Juniper’s expression softened. “I was going to ask you the same thing.”

             
“Did Ruby talk to you?”

             
“Sweetheart, the
queen
talked to me.”

             
Sid was on her feet in an instant, food tumbling out of her lap.

             
“Chris, my sword is under the bed.”

             
Juniper wasn’t even armed. “Sid – ”

             
“Chris. Get my sword. Please.”

             
Chris stood up and went to get Sid’s sword. Juniper’s eyes never left him, and silence reigned as he entered their cabin. He didn’t hear a word as he fetched the weapon, and when he returned and handed it to Sid the two knights were still staring each other down. Sid didn’t draw, but she gripped her scabbard tightly.

             
For the first time in his life, Chris really wished he had a gun.

             
“I really am sorry about this,” Juniper said. “You’re an all right guy. But the queen’s word is law.”

             
“Juniper,” Sid said, faltered. “Juniper. You’ve known me all my life. You know you can work with me or go through me.”

             
“For a mortal? Come on, Sid, he’s as likely to die next Tuesday as anything. No offense.”

             
“None taken,” Chris managed.

             
“Bullshit,” Sid spat, significantly more offended. “I love him, so fuck you.”

             
Juniper frowned. “This isn’t what I meant when I told you to have a little fun and relax. You don’t love him. You’ve known him little more than a month. He’s cute and you were hard up. I understand, but you don’t love him.” Then she sighed. “Maybe you do. I wish you didn’t. I think you know why we need him.”

             
“My sister thinks that’s idiocy.”

             
“Your sister thinks a great many things are idiocy, as you have told me time and time again. This could end the war.” Juniper turned to Chris. “
You
could end the war. Imagine how many could go home and stop fighting, could settle down to their lives and rest. Your life is fleeting. Let it mean something.”

             
Chris shook his head. “Sorry, no. I didn’t start your war, and I'm not dying for someone else’s cause.”

             
You didn’t have to live very long to know that didn’t work out. He’d seen it before, on a smaller scale. Men or women he considered friends lashing themselves to a cause or a loved one, giving and giving until they bled out. And the sickest thing was, the problem marched on after them, without them. More than enough problems had marched on without him already. He wasn’t taking some vague prophecy and a fucked up magical promise and holding that knife to his neck.

             
“I have permission to use force,” said Juniper.

             
Sid scowled. “And I don’t need permission.”

             
The leaves stirred at Juniper’s feet. Chis braced himself, but instead of the Knight of Pine’s fists in their faces, there was an almighty crack. Juniper’s eyes rolled back in her head, and she hit the ground hard. Chris wouldn’t want to be her in the morning, though his sympathy was somewhat…tempered.

             
Bors dropped the baton and held his hands up in surrender, but Sid didn’t look like she was in the mood to negotiate. She was, in fact, so angry that she was practically vibrating. Chris tucked an arm around her shoulders before she could tackle the guy who had just saved their asses.

             
Juniper would be okay. At least he hoped so. He could see her breathing.

             
“Your sister sent me,” said Bors, back to his languid calm. “Lady Ruby might be upset if you kill me.”

             
“But you’re not counting on it,” Chris realized, perhaps more out loud than he should have.

             
Bors shrugged. “Of course not. But she sheltered me, and seemed earnestly concerned for her dear baby sister’s safety.”

             
“Ruby – ” Sid snapped her teeth shut on whatever she’d been about to say.

             
“Is a very persuasive speaker. Calm. Sensible. Unwilling to let a man rot to his death slowly, no matter his crimes or where he hails from. Though for the knife, thank you. My companion was…beyond saving.”

             
“Still,” said Chris, “why would you help us?” It was a question that needed to be asked, and Sid was a bit beyond words.