The Mark of Cain (36 page)

She didn’t know when she’d put her hands to her
mouth, but they were there. Keeping one there, she slowly moved the other one
to lightly stroke the ring he offered. It was odd in the last light of the day,
because the round-cut stone appeared to be a sort of purplish-red.

She pulled her hand back and lowered her other,
saying, “Inac….”

“I know. Like I said, I know there are plenty of
reasons to say no to me—”

“Inac, please, let me say what I need to,” she
interrupted.

He shut his mouth.

“The only thing making me hesitant is your secrets.
You’re probably more secretive than the government.”

“What if I promised that you’d know all of my
secrets before the wedding? Would you say yes then?”

She looked into his earnest eyes. He really meant
that.

“Then of course I would say yes,” she finally
answered.

He took both her hands, though one not as much
because he was still clutching the box. “Then I swear to you, Hara, I’ll answer
all of your questions before the wedding.”

“Not
immediately
before, I hope. I’d like
some time to process them.”

He flashed her a small smile. “What if we make a
deal that you won’t let us set a date until I’ve opened up to you?”

Again, she scrutinized him, finally smiling back as
she said, “Then yes, Inac, I’ll marry you!” She was so happy that tears poured
unheeded down her cheeks.

He grabbed the ring and put it on her left hand’s ring
finger. It was beautiful in its simplicity with just the one large round stone
set in a white gold band.

“I wasn’t sure what metal to go with but decided on
the white gold because it’s like your hair; both silvery
and
golden.”

She looked at the band, contemplating that, before
turning her eyes back to the center stone. “It looks…” she said.

“Red with a slight purplish tint?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

“That’s because it is.”

“Oh. What kind of stone is it?”

“A diamond. I wanted your ring to be as unique as
you are as well as to match your incredible eyes.”

“It’s
real
? I didn’t even know they came in
this color…?”

“It’s real,” he said, nodding. “But they’re
extremely rare. This is the rarest color of them all.”

“I can’t…. It must have cost a fortune.”

“Hara, take it. Please?”

It seemed so important to him that she nodded.

“Good,” he said, moving the flower from her right
ear to her left one. “Now, unless you want to stay on this mountain all night,
we should start making our way back. If we’re too late, Tracker will have my
head.”

***

The entire helicopter ride and drive back to camp
was spent with Hara staring at her ring with a sappy smile. Inac
knew
this had been the way to go to get her to the next stage of his plan. And he
would
keep his promise…she was
bound
to figure things out when he murdered
her.

Lying by telling her that he loved her, followed by
the proposal, had gone perfectly. The only thing he
hadn’t
planned on
was the way that his heart had sped up as she’d gleefully played in the sun
with the butterfly. She really had taken his breath away in that moment…which
was exactly the reason he needed to hasten things with the proposal. He didn’t
know how much longer he could go before he would actually have difficulty doing
what he had to do.

“You know, love, it is yours forever, so you can
stop looking at it,” he teased.

“I know. I just…are we really engaged? Did that
really happen?” she asked with such a beautiful smile that he wished he could
kiss her, but he had to drive the car.

“It did. And we are.”

When he finally pulled into the mostly dark camp,
Tracker was waiting with an angry demeanor. In the state she was in, Hara
didn’t seem to notice.

“Hey Track!” she called as she hopped through the
door Inac had opened for her. Crystal and Ji soon appeared too, both looking
thoroughly annoyed…probably because of Tracker. “What are you guys still doing
awake? It’s getting late.”

“Where have you two been?!” Tracker demanded. “The
deal was two hours. You’ve been gone for
eight
!”

“Oh, we were just getting engaged,” Hara replied
with a nonchalance that had Inac impressed—she wasn’t very good at hiding her
excitement with things.

“What?!” Crystal yelled as she jumped forward in her
excitement.

“Are you serious?!”

“Yeah, really,” Hara said, holding her hand out for
her friend’s inspection.

“Congratulations!” Crystal cried. Then, grabbing
Hara’s outstretched hand to pull her toward the pitiful fire as Ji followed
with a large grin of his own, she exclaimed, “Now tell me
everything
.
Every little detail.”

Hara started the story as she followed Crystal, not
seeming to realize how upset Tracker was through the stars in her eyes—they
outnumbered the ones in the heavens above them.

Before the girls could sit down, Tracker silently
grabbed Hara’s left hand from Crystal and glared at the rock before flinging it
away and turning to run down the dirt road and out of camp.

“Track!” Hara called. He didn’t stop, or even slow.

After calling after him a few more times, Hara
turned to Inac, tears streaming down her face from a mixture of what he knew to
be hurt and worry.

“Inac?” she asked.

He nodded. “I’ll go after him. You three stay here.”
Without waiting for a reply, he began to chase after Tracker, certain that he
would catch up soon because of how much longer his legs were than the kid’s.

What Inac
hadn’t
counted on was how much
Tracker’s anger was fueling him to run faster than he normally would be able
to. Because of that, it took Inac a while to find the kid since he’d also gone
off the road and into the woods.
Deep
into the woods. When he finally
located Tracker, the kid was standing still, his back to Inac, breathing
heavily with his hands in fists at his sides.

“You trying to get lost so Hara will get all worried
about you?” Inac asked once he was right behind the shorter boy.

Tracker whirled around in surprise; he hadn’t heard
Inac. That had been Inac’s intent. He’d begun hunting thousands of years ago
and had learned to be almost silent. But, again, Tracker managed to surprise
him because, as Tracker turned, he raised one of those fists and punched Inac
square in the jaw. The kid had a pretty good arm, too—it turned Inac’s head,
though his body didn’t move a millimeter. But the pain barely registered in
Inac’s mind; he had also learned to not feel pain when there was such a
miniscule amount of it.

He could have hit Tracker back, but he didn’t.
Instead, he turned his face back to the kid and said, “Stop acting like a
three-year-old throwing a tantrum.”

This time, when Tracker swung at him, he was ready
to grab the kid’s fist in mid-air. Once he had it, he twisted it so that it was
toward Tracker’s back. He then, ever so gently, began to apply pressure as
Tracker called out in agony. Inac could easily break his arm, but he didn’t
want the kid to win any pity points with Hara.

“Are you going to stop acting like a child so we can
have an adult conversation?” Inac asked as he put a touch more pressure to
Tracker’s arm.

“Yes!” Tracker squealed.

Inac let go. Tracker then turned around to face him,
such hate emanating from his eyes as he rubbed his arm.

“Okay,” Inac said. “So why are you acting like such
a baby? I know you’re in love with her, but take it like a man.”

“You broke our deal,” Tracker accused.

“No I didn’t. Our deal is completely intact.”

“So you’re gonna take me on your honeymoon?”

“I don’t plan on even making it to the wedding.”

Tracker looked surprised, but that also seemed to
calm him down. “Then why propose?”

“If she feels like this is going somewhere, then
maybe she’ll let
me
go somewhere she’s afraid to go.”

“She won’t ever have sex with you. She’s a nice
girl; very old-fashioned.”

Inac felt like angering Tracker all over again so he
said, “We’ll see. She’s already let me feel her up…and while you were only a
few feet away too.”

“I don’t believe you,” he said through his teeth.

Inac shrugged. “Suit yourself. I’m a lot of things,
but a liar isn’t one of them.”

That’s when Tracker finally broke down and started
crying. “Why? Why is she so willingly giving herself to you?”

“Because
I
actually know how to play this
game. I’ve lived long enough to know how to play dirty while sticking to the
rules. I know exactly what to do and say to manipulate Hara into feeling
exactly what I want her to feel. You hear of Casanova? He’s
way
below my
skill level. Plus, it’s never hurt me any to look the way that I do.”

“But looks aren’t everything. And soon she’ll figure
out how fake you are.”

Inac shrugged. “By that time, she’ll be dead.”

“Not if you stick to the deal. Remember? If she
stays good, then you leave her alone.”

“Aye. But we never defined ‘good,’ now did we?”

Tracker spluttered, obviously at a loss for words.

Smiling as he turned back toward where they had
entered the forest, Inac said, “Now come on. Let’s get back to Hara so that you
can congratulate her on our engagement.”

“You won’t win,” Tracker’s voice said quietly from
behind. “Hara’s too good.”

All Inac said as he began walking was, “We’ll see.”

***

Hara paced around the campsite. Her tears had dried
up, but she was still worried about Tracker. What on Earth was wrong with him?
Why was he so upset? She looked toward Crystal and Ji sitting on a log by the
fire, wishing that one of them would have the answers. But they were both
silently watching the dancing flames that Ji had tried so hard to make; they’d
given up trying to console her.

Just when she was beginning to get herself worked up
all over again from her thoughts, she heard a crunch in the distance. Her tears
freezing, she turned and stared at the road, hoping that it was her two men
returning to camp—she’d been jumping at every sound, but so far it had only
been crickets and other campers, and not her men. Soon, a tall figure with
broad shoulders and a self-assured gait was outlined followed by another, much
shorter and less sure one. Inac was back, and he’d found Tracker. She rushed up
to her old friend, giving Inac a grateful smile as she passed him.

“Track! I was worried. Are you okay?” she asked as
she took him into her arms, which wasn’t difficult since he was an inch shy of
six feet, just like her. “What’s wrong? Why’d you run away?”

She was a bawling mess, but that didn’t matter.
Tracker was okay. He hadn’t been eaten by a bear.

Tracker didn’t embrace her back. Instead, he shook
her off like a duck did to water and stalked past her, saying, “I’m going to
bed. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

She stood there, too shocked to cry from the knife
she felt in her heart. Luckily, Inac walked over and pulled her into his arms.

“Oh, Hara…don’t cry.” He sounded solemn and a bit
guilty, as though he was blaming himself for her tears.

“Why? What did I do to make him hate me?” she
blubbered into Inac’s chest. Now that he was holding her, all the tears she had
left spilled.

“He doesn’t hate you. He’s just upset.”

She pulled back to look him in the eye, sniffling
the snot back into her nose so she wouldn’t disgust him. They weren’t married
yet so he could easily call off the wedding when he saw what a blubbering mess
she really was. “Why?”

“He didn’t say, but…I think he feels like he’s
losing his best friend. The more serious we become, the more he feels like he’s
losing you.”

“But that’s ridiculous. He won’t ever lose me. He’s
too important to me.”

“Maybe I should give you some space so you can spend
more time with him. That way, he won’t feel like he’s being tossed aside,” he said,
his eyes full of concern.

“But I don’t
want
space, Inac.”

“And I don’t want to give it to you. But I also
don’t want you to lose a friendship that’s so important to you.”

“Screw him. If he’s going to be a baby, then let
him.”

“Hara, I know you’re upset right now, but you don’t
really mean that.”

“Yes I do.” Though she already felt guilty for even
saying such a thing. That was the first curse word she had ever said. She’d
thought them before—especially the S-L-U-T word lately—but she’d never said one
out loud.