Honeyed Words (7 page)

“Sarah?” she cried, her voice rising into panic. “Holy shit, wake up and come see this.”

She stood up so fast she flipped the chair over backward. Sarah raised her head from beneath the blankets, mumbling something incoherent.

“Come on,” Katie said, peeling the blankets off Sarah. “Get up, already. Somebody’s murdered a dwarf.”

Seven

Katie ripped the blankets off me, pulling me from an exhausted sleep.

“What?” I asked. My mouth tasted like Muppet roadkill. I rubbed my eyes and rolled over onto my back.

I lay there, arms splayed to the sides for a moment, letting the AC wash over me. The blankets had gotten too hot and I needed to cool down.

“Get up. You’re not gonna believe this.” She bounced on one side of the bed, jostling me uncomfortably.

I cracked my eyes open and stared at her. She was up and dressed, and far, far too bouncy. And … I looked down toward my toes … I was naked—definite disadvantage.

I rolled over, catching her by surprise, and pulled her on top of me. Then I rolled us both over and landed on top with her hands pinned to the sides of her head. I’d show her for being bouncy in the morning.

She laughed, which was a good sign, because I hadn’t had as much to drink as she had, and I felt awful.

“Get off,” she grunted, wiggling her hips to try and dislodge me. “I gotta show you something.”

I leaned down and kissed her. “Only fair—I seem to have shown you everything.”

Her eyes held something. Hesitancy? She shuddered, and then pushed her head upward, kissing me again. We spent the next little while like that, making out and, well, you know. It wasn’t until I tried to undress her that she stopped me.

“Wait,” she said. “One, you smell like an ashtray, and two…” She pushed my arm off her chest and rolled to a sitting position. “I need to show you something.”

I sat back, pouting a little, and leaned back against the headboard while she grabbed her laptop and handed it to me. “I saw this while you were sleeping.” She pointed to a picture on the screen.

I clicked on the picture to expand it and saw a dead kid taped to a basketball pole. The sign taped to his chest read: D
RAGON
F
RIEND
.

That caught my attention. “Holy shit,” I breathed, sitting bolt upright and placing the laptop on the bed between my knees. “I think that’s a dwarf.”

“Right,” Katie said, handing me a coffee. “Not as hot as it was forty minutes ago, but there’s enough sugar in there to stop your heart.”

I sipped the coffee and read the article. Gang activity in the area last night. Eyewitness at the crack house across the street saw a couple of guys getting the crap kicked out of them well after midnight.

I immediately thought of the only dwarf I knew—Rolph. He’d been the one to point out the truth of Gram and helped me reforge her, back before I learned of the dragons. His was a tormented life, being the last to forge the blade and doing it badly, cursing him to a life of misery and regret.

One of the things I remembered most vividly was his constant fear of the rising sun. Shitty way to die. I didn’t know much about dwarves, other than their connection to smithing and such, but the fact that exposure to sunlight killed them had been pretty high on his list of important facts.

“Poor bastard,” I said, leaning back against the pillows. “I need to talk to Rolph, find out how a dwarf kid would be labeled a dragon friend.” Then I needed to ask why that was a killing offense all of a sudden. Just how much had changed up here since I’d killed Jean-Paul? That King of Vancouver I’d heard about last night. Did he really hate dragons enough to kill kids? What was the connection? And the guys who snatched Ari last night, they were dwarves I thought.

Katie closed the lid on the computer and stroked my thigh. “You think there’s a connection with Ari?”

I placed my hand on hers and squeezed. “Good possibility. Let’s see what Rolph knows.” I kissed her quickly, then rolled off the bed and grabbed my dirty jeans off the floor. I fished around for my cell phone and saw the battery was dead. You’d think I would remember to plug it in every now and again.

The charger should have been in my computer bag along with my passport, but it didn’t seem to be around.

Katie just rolled her eyes at me. “It’s probably on your counter next to a half-empty cottage cheese container.”

“Not funny,” I said, frowning at her. “Ever since Julie moved in, she won’t let me leave things lying around. She even makes me do dishes.”

Katie smiled. “Oh, the horror.”

“Hey, I have a busy life.”

Katie just smiled and shook her head. “How’s she doing?”

I shrugged. “Doctor says she’s healing fine. The physical therapy is going okay, but she won’t talk about what happened when…” I hesitated, not wanting to send Katie into a funk.

“When we got kidnapped?”

I nodded. “Yeah.”

“Give her some time,” she said. “Maybe she’s talking to someone else.”

“I hope so. Maybe Mrs. Sorenson, the cabbage lady in the next apartment.”

“She’s sweet. When is Julie going back to work?”

I shrugged. Couldn’t even get Julie to talk about it. “Good question. Not soon enough, in my book. I think she’d benefit from getting out, seeing our regulars. Swinging a hammer and dealing with horses.”

“I bet that would be therapeutic.”

“I’ll bring it up again when we get home. Can’t make her do anything, though.”

Katie smiled. “No, I imagine not. Not like getting you to wash the dishes.”

“Touché.”

But, I still needed to call Rolph. “Let’s stop and buy a new charger,” I suggested. “Rolph’s number is in my phone.”

“You should just upgrade your phone,” Katie offered. “I’d let you use my charger, but it doesn’t convert to older-than-sin.”

I squinted at her. She was always so damn funny. “I think I’ll shower,” I said instead. “You can stay out here and be miss smart-ass if you want, or you could join me.”

She looked at me for a second, checked that the door was locked, and began taking off her clothes. The hotel wasn’t the Ritz or anything, but the shower was pretty large. I set the water to a hard spray and turned it all the way to hot. I wanted to breathe in the steam. It felt like my lungs were full of sludge from last night. The mirror covered the wall behind the vanity, so I could get a good look at the bruises that were forming on my neck. Just below my left breast, a large one had already begun to darken. Likely a boot. I’d be pretty mottled by the end of the day. I was already stiff. The shower would help work out the kinks.

I heard muffled voices and looked around. Sounded like
naked
and
nipples.
I stepped into the door. “You say something?”

Katie was just pulling her sweatshirt over her head. “What?” she asked.

The television wasn’t on. She shimmied out of her sweatpants and began to unhook her bra.

“I thought I heard you say something.”

She shrugged, stepping out of her panties, and strode across the room to me. “Must have been the television next door. Wasn’t me.”

She pushed me back into the bathroom, shut the door, and climbed into the shower. She squeaked, before turning the water cooler. “Damn, Beauhall, you trying to kill me?”

“No ma’am,” I said, climbing in after her.

I thought I heard someone else a couple of other times, but I was pretty distracted there for a while.

We washed each other, slowly. Getting to know the curves and lines again after far too long. Her face clouded for a moment, then relaxed into a look of bliss as I ran my hands over her breasts. Her nipples grew stiff under my palms, so I bent my head down to take the left one in my mouth, tracing the areola with my tongue.

She brought her hands to the back of my head, gasping.

I moved my hand down her back, cupping her ass, allowing my fingers to slide between her cheeks while I drew my other hand down across her belly, strumming my fingers down the small patch of hair, parting her for the first time in months.

She stiffened against me, paralyzed for a moment, and then moaned, nearly falling. I caught her, wrapping my left arm around her waist and continuing to stroke her, bringing forth short, sharp gasps of pleasure.

I moved from one breast to another, lathing each, before trailing across her chest to the other nipple, nipping and suckling in turn.

Sooner than I expected she shuddered against me, whimpering and hugging my head against her chest as the orgasm spasmed through her. I held her, holding my hand against her, allowing her to grind against the heel of my palm.

After a few moments, she pulled my head up and kissed me. I could taste the tears that ran down her face.

“I love you,” she mumbled, over and over again, covering my face with kisses.

Then it was her turn to kiss her way down my neck, finding the spot at the base that made my toes curl. That one spot, just above the artery there where, with the right combination of teeth, lips, and tongue, I lose the ability to stand upright.

Luckily, I could lean into the corner of the shower as she kissed her way down my body, and the world disappeared in an explosion of pleasure.

Afterward, as we were getting dressed, I realized I was short a bra. Not something you just lose in a hotel room, right? We looked under the beds and everything, but no luck.

“I remember you undressing me last night,” I said. “But things are pretty fuzzy.”

“I put it on the dresser there,” she said. I walked over, catching my reflection in the mirror. There was no bra on, under, or behind. “Damn, and I liked that one, too.”

Katie was shoving dirty clothes into the dresser and closing up the suitcases. “I’m sure it will turn up,” she said. “Let’s go get some food.”

I rifled through my suitcase, pulling out another bra, along with jeans, T-shirt, and underwear. “With the amount of smoke in the air last night, maybe we should just burn what we were wearing anyway.”

We dressed, tidied up the room, and checked the essentials. Money, wallet, purse (for Katie), and tourist map. Oh, and Katie had a very cool digital camera. At the last minute, I added my knitting to my pack. It was damn annoying, but I needed the exercise with the right hand. It had healed up great after the battle with the dragon, but I was not getting the dexterity back as fast as I’d hoped. Yes, I’m stubborn, but knitting seemed so—grandma.

Katie said if I got good enough I could knit her a nightie. Always nice to have a goal.

Vancouver was in so much trouble. We were going to eat, shop, and explore the city into submission. I’ve been shopping with Katie. It was a distinct possibility. Should be a good day. Except for the dead dwarf kid, Ari missing, and my bruises blooming, the morning had started nicely, and I was feeling pretty relaxed, considering.

Eight

We prowled the Gastown–Steam Clock district—a touristy section of Vancouver down on the waterfront. Katie loved the huge steam-powered grandfather clock, and I relaxed, watching all the people wandering around, laughing and having a good time.

My throat hurt, and I was stiff all over, but I didn’t want to be a wet blanket on Katie’s birthday. It’s not everyday you turn twenty-five—quarter of a century. I remembered it like it was yesterday. I’d be twenty-seven soon and I felt damn old.

The shops were cool. I loved the one that sold Persian rugs, and Katie almost tried on a kilt. She decided that being descended from some French guy shouldn’t be cause not to wear a tartan. The price decided it in the end. She just couldn’t justify spending that kind of coin on a wool skirt. I picked up a cell phone charger from a little kiosk near the steam clock.

We wandered west and stopped at the train station to check out this really cool statue of an angel reaching toward heaven with one arm. A dead soldier draped over her other arm, face upward toward heaven. It was pretty moving.

The plaque read:

T
O COMMEMORATE THOSE IN THE SERVICE OF THE
C
ANADIAN
P
ACIFIC
R
AILWAY
C
OMPANY WHO, AT THE CALL OF KING AND COUNTRY, LEFT ALL THAT WAS DEAR TO THEM, ENDURED HARDSHIP, FACED DANGER AND FINALLY PASSED OUT OF SIGHT OF MEN BY THE PATH OF DUTY AND SELF SACRIFICE, GIVING UP THEIR OWN LIVES THAT OTHERS MIGHT LIVE IN FREEDOM.
L
ET THOSE WHO COME AFTER SEE TO IT THAT THEIR NAMES BE NOT FORGOTTEN.

1914–1918        1939–1945

“That’s what we should do at Black Briar,” I said, suddenly very determined. “We should erect a monument. Like they used to do in the olden days, you know, like the Vikings.”

Katie held my hand and leaned her head into my shoulder, staring at the statue. “That is very sweet,” she said quietly.

We stood on the sidewalk for a long time, lost in thought. I’m not sure what Katie was thinking, but I could not get the last moments of Susan and Maggie out of my head. That kind of love, that determination and dedication … I hoped I had that someday. Oh, I was sure I loved Katie, but we were newbs with all this. Maybe we’d grow into that strong a bond, and I was keeping my fingers crossed, but it didn’t come along very often in life. I kept my arm around her after that. It was a big step for me, being out in public and all, but it felt right.