Fantasyland 03 Fantastical (42 page)

“Jesus, babe, I cannot believe you convinced
your folks and your friend this shit is true,” Noc said quietly and
I looked at him.

“It
is
true,” I stated. “And, by the
way, they’ve also met Tor, the other Tor who is not you so they
will so
totally
corroborate what I told you when you see
them. That is, before you see me disappear to another realm.”

And this was true, so true, I should have
thought of it before; so true, I should have thought of it two
weeks ago and tried contacting Noc then.

Alas, I didn’t. But now, we were on our way.
So, God willing, all’s well that ends well.

He glanced at me. Then he glanced back at
the road, shaking his head.

Then he muttered an unconvinced,
“Unh-hunh.”

Whatever. He’d see soon enough.

I hoped.

We fell into silence and I broke that
silence because I was scared, nervous and excited so I had to do
something.

“Thanks for doing this,” I told him.

“We get this shit done then we get you to
someone who can really do somethin’ to help you,
then
you
can thank me,” he muttered.

“I’m not crazy,” I told him something I knew
he’d never believe until seeing made him believe.

Again, I hoped.

“Yeah, babe.” He was still muttering.

See. He didn’t believe me. He totally
thought I was crazy.

Whatever.

“I’m sorry you’re dragged into this,” I
said. “I’ve been cleaning up Cora’s messes for awhile and from
everything I gather, she’s unpleasant.”

“Unh-hunh,” he mumbled again. “
She’s
unpleasant.” The last he said like he was humoring a small
child.

I ignored his tone and kept talking.

“So, well, it sucks you met her and you’re
caught up in all this mess. I mean, maybe not, seeing as she helped
you bring down an illegal gambling racket, though, she kind of
didn’t know she was doing it. Still, you did it but, you know,
sorry if she was cold or unpleasant or a bitch.”

Noc was silent.

I was not.

“How
did
you meet her, can I
ask?”

“Baby,” he said gently, “you were
there.”

“No I wasn’t.”

“Right,” he muttered.

Okay, I’d leave that alone.

Then, I blurted (mainly because I was
stupid, curious and stupid curious), “Why’d you sleep with
her?”

“You’re hot,” he answered immediately. “And
there was the small fact you were all over me and not takin’ no for
an answer.”

Well, it was nice to know he thought I was
hot.

“Okay, then why’d you continue to sleep with
her?”

His hand came out and curled around my thigh
where he squeezed then let me go.

“Cora, babe, sorry but at first, it served a
purpose and you…” He shook his head. “You got somethin’ about you.
A promise. It just never was fulfilled and for some reason, signs
you gave me or things I wanted to believe, I kept thinkin’ it would
be. I gotta tell you, there were times when I hoped it would be,
when I thought maybe, no matter the fucked up way we hooked up, we
could sort our shit out. But then you would…” he paused, “be you.
You tried, I could tell you tried, but you couldn’t pull it off.
But, if it helps, I know you tried.”

God, he thought I was a mental case and was
trying to make me feel better about Cora failing to be able to play
him.

Totally a sweet guy.

I looked back out the front window and
muttered to myself, “I wonder why she’d give it to you and not Tor,
who’s her husband. That’s weird.”

“You said you were into me,” he answered my
question and I looked back at him.

“I did? I mean,
she
did?”

“
You
did.”

“I said I was into you?”

“Not in those words. When you’re her, you
don’t talk like you do now.”

“So, what did I say? Something like, ‘You’re
my moon and my stars, my love?’”

He was silent and I got the message.

I turned back to facing forward. “Sorry, I
shouldn’t ask about –”

“Fuck,” he muttered and I looked back at
him.

“What?”

“Fuck,” he repeated.

“What?” I asked louder.

He glanced at me then back at the road. “You
said I was perfect. Completely perfect. You said exactly that.
‘You’re perfect. Completely perfect. As you should have come to
me.”

He
was
perfect, as far as I could
tell (uh… mostly, when he wasn’t angry and saying jerky things that
was), though not as perfect as Tor (who could also get angry and
say jerky things, by the by, I just decided not to think about
that).

“That was a nice thing to say, right?” I
asked.

“It was nice and it was
weird.
”

“Weird how?”

“You said it while touching my face, where
you touched it earlier.”

I sucked in breath.

Noc kept talking and now
he
was
talking like it was to himself. “Later, when we were in bed, you
kissed my chest and whispered, ‘perfect, no scars, no bloody
scars’.”

Oh my God!

“Cora didn’t like Tor because he has scars?”
I asked him a question he’d already inadvertently bloody
answered.

“Babe –”

I twisted back to forward and snapped, “That
bitch!
”

“Cora –”

“Tor was only
scarred
while saving
his
people
from King Baldur’s tyrannical
rule.
He’s a
warrior. He had a kingdom to rebuild. Shit like that happens when
you’re at war!”

“Jesus,” Noc breathed out on a sigh.

“Tor was right. She so
totally
is
not
the other half to his soul, I’ll tell you that!” I
clipped.

“Do me a favor,” he said and I snapped,
“What?”

“Calm down, yeah?”

I crossed my arms on my chest and grunted,
“Yeah.”

Cora, so… totally…
a bitch.

I deep breathed and as I was deep breathing
I realized what my outburst must have sounded like, not to mention
all the other stuff I’d been saying, so I started to smile. Then I
started to giggle. Then I started to giggle harder.

“Oh shit,” Noc said, “you’re not cracking up
on me, are you?”

I shook my head and sucked in breath, trying
to control the giggles and I forced out, “It just hit me what what
I said must have sounded like.”

Noc was silent.

“It’s no wonder you think I’m crazy.”

Noc remained silent.

I fought the giggles back and took a
steadying breath.

“You all right?” he asked softly when my
laughter died away.

“Yeah,” I answered softly.

“You got a great laugh, babe.” He was still
talking softly.

“You’ve never heard me laugh?” I asked.

“Nope,” he answered.

I’d heard
that
before.

I stared at the dark, slick road, the
windshield wipers moving slowly to clean away the mist and I
whispered, “You are, you know, as far as I can tell.”

“I’m what?”

“Perfect.”

I heard him pull in a breath.

I ignored that too.

“Do you want kids?” I asked quietly.

He hesitated before he answered quietly,
“Yeah.”

“How many?”

This time, he didn’t hesitate. This time, he
spoke like he knew exactly what he wanted.

“Don’t care. As long as they’re healthy,
happy and I can provide a good life for them, I’ll keep goin’.”

I turned to him, looked at his beautiful
profile and whispered, “I hope you find someone really fantastic,
someone as beautiful as you who thinks you’re perfect, has a great
laugh and you want to keep going with her.”

He glanced at me again and when he did he
was smiling and his smile caught in my throat.

It was nearly as good as Tor’s.

“Baby, you just described you.”

“Shit,” I whispered and turned back forward,
“I kind of did.”

He chuckled.

“Though I’m not fantastic, I’m cold and bad
in bed,” I reminded him and he burst out laughing.

That caught in my throat too because it was
also nearly as good as Tor’s.

He quit laughing but declared, “Babe, you
made me laugh like that when we were together, I wouldn’t have let
you pack my bags.”

Hmm.

“Good thing I did, considering I’m crazy,” I
reminded him.

“I could handle crazy, you make me laugh and
you can kiss like you kissed me tonight.”

I felt my eyes get wide and turned to look
at him again. “Noc, are you
flirting
with a lunatic woman
you think has multiple personalities, a gambling addiction and is
pregnant with your child?”

He glanced at me before turning back to the
road, his handsome face even more handsome with his smile. “Cora,
if there’s anyone I
can
flirt with, I can flirt with the
woman who’s pregnant with my child.”

I faced back forward, muttering, “I can’t
argue with that.”

Noc chuckled again.

I finally (and belatedly wisely) fell
silent.

It was Noc who next spoke.

“Which one is you?”

I closed my eyes.

Then I opened them and replied, “I guess
both are me, Noc, in a way.”

“I prefer this you.”

Poor Cora. What an idiot.

“Everyone does,” I whispered.

“I could work with this you,” he muttered,
again as if to himself.

Oh boy.

I turned to him. “Noc –”

I stopped talking when his eyes narrowed on
the road and he started, “What’s…?”

I turned back and saw what looked like… I
leaned closer…
stars.
Little, glittering
stars,
hundreds, maybe thousands of them and they were dancing in a wide
line perpendicular to the road.

“What the fuck?” Noc whispered as the stars
started growing, glittering, increasing in number and Noc slowed
his SUV but we still kept driving straight at them.

Oh shit.

“Noc,” I breathed but said no more because
the stars exploded, shooting out to the sides, they burst in a
blinding light. I flinched against the sudden brightness, lifting a
hand to shield my eyes and when I recovered I saw that up their
middle a black seam had split through.

“Fucking hell!” Noc shouted.

Then a black horse with rider surged through
the seam.

Oh my God!

“Fucking hell!” Noc repeated as the horse’s
hooves hit the slick asphalt and came tearing straight at us. “Hold
on!” Noc yelled and swerved his SUV, narrowly missing horse and
rider.

I grabbed onto the dash but twisted my head
to look back, seeing the rider pull the reins sharply to the side
to round the horse and come back.

“Stop!” I cried.

“What the fuck is that?” Noc asked, looking
in the rearview mirror.

“It’s Tor! Stop! Stop.
Bloody
stop!
”

Noc stood on the brakes, his SUV came to a
sliding halt and I was out of my seatbelt and out of the car before
Noc could finish shouting, “Cora!”

I took off on a run and cleared the back of
the SUV seeing Salem galloping toward me, Tor on his back and I
kept right on running but I did it faster.

At the sight of him, the pain that had ebbed
with the promise of hope washed clean away.

Tor kept Salem coming at me and when he got
close, he leaned down to the side. His arm hooking around my waist,
he lifted me up and set me on the horse in front of him.

I didn’t hesitate. I wrapped my arms around
his shoulders, aimed my mouth at his and the minute our lips
touched, they opened and his tongue slid in my mouth.

Oh yes. There it was.

I was home.

I didn’t notice Salem slow to a halt under
us because Tor’s arms were around me, his mouth was on mine, his
sandalwood scent filled my nostrils and his strength surrounded me.
He kissed me hard and I kissed him back just as hard, pushing
close, draining him dry.

His mouth tore from mine and his hands came
to either side of my head where he held me still while his eyes
searched my face so I took that opportunity to allow mine to roam
his.

Then he let my head go, his arms crushed me
to him and he shoved his face in my neck.

“My love,” he said there, his voice low and
hoarse with unconcealed relief.

Feeling it, hearing it, my tears came
instantly and started to fall.

“Honey,” I whispered against his skin,
holding him tight but my arms still clenched in a futile effort to
hold him tighter.

In return, his arms gave me a squeeze.

“I was dying without you,” I told him, my
voice trembling with tears.

“I know, sweets,” he told me.

“You came to me,” I breathed. “I prayed you
would.” I pulled my face out of his neck, his head came up and I
smiled a tremulous smile into his beautiful face. “I prayed you’d
crash into me, but, honey, I didn’t mean it
literally.
”

A slow smile spread across his face and then
he snatched me back into his arms. I shoved my face back into his
neck and took him in with all my senses, opening them so I could
suck everything I could from him.

Which was why I immediately felt it when his
body went solid.

“Fuckin’ hell,” Noc muttered.

Uh-oh.

“By the gods, tell me you jest, Cora,” Tor
stated.

Uh-oh!

I pulled my face from his neck and looked up
at him. He was looking down but beyond me. I followed his gaze and
saw Noc standing in the drizzling rain with his arms crossed on his
chest, his feet planted wide looking a lot like Tor. Well, just
like him, actually.

Oh shit.

“Uh…” I started and stopped when I felt the
heat of Tor’s gaze so I looked back at him.

“You were with this man.”

“Tor, honey –”

“Jesus, Cora, babe, fuck me. You weren’t
lying,” I heard Noc say, his voice heavy with shocked surprise and
Tor’s eyes narrowed.

“Cora
babe?
” he asked.