The Mark of Cain (43 page)

She finally found her footing. He could tell she had
by the fact that he no longer felt like he was holding her up. He let go and
skated backwards for a lap or two, hovering near as she became sure of herself.

“Inac! I’m doing it!” she called, obviously proud of
herself by the huge grin on her face.

He smiled before moving and wrapping his arms around
her tiny waist. “Don’t lift your feet,” he commanded before beginning to speed
backwards.

She put her arms around his neck, letting him enfold
her as he picked up more and more speed, gleefully laughing as he pulled her
along.

Still moving as quickly as he was through the people
in the crowded rink, he bent down to kiss her—adding to the rush—as he relied
on his hunter’s senses so they wouldn’t crash. When he pulled away, Hara didn’t
seem to know where or who she was as she slowly blinked over and over again.

Inac slowed down until they stopped.

“You okay?” he whispered when she still seemed to be
disoriented.

“Yeah…just….” She looked up at him, her luminous
eyes the color of globe thistle full of amazement. “Just when I think things
can’t get any better….”

He took the cue and kissed her again, rubbing his
tongue piercing along her bottom lip in the way that she liked. She shivered…and
he was pretty sure it wasn’t from the cold rink.

“Do you want to get out of here?” he asked, his
voice coming out huskier than he’d thought it would.

She nodded.

Once they were in his black Lamborghini Diablo, he
asked, “You hungry? Should we go out to dinner?” He really didn’t want to be in
public anymore. He just wanted to hold and kiss her in private, and he was sure
that she wanted the same.

“Let’s just go to your house and make something,”
she suggested. At that, he knew that he was right.

He got through traffic quickly and, before long,
they were in his kitchen, readying the ingredients for homemade butternut
squash ravioli.

Hara looked so beautiful as she cut the squash into
cubes that he walked over to set his arms around her waist and press his chest
against her back. When he couldn’t take it anymore, he nudged her hair from her
neck with his chin and moved his mouth to her throat, tasting the delectable
skin there. She tasted better than any food known to man….

Soon her arms wrapped around his at her waist and he
knew that she had ceased her chopping. She then cocked her head away from his
mouth, giving him access to the length of her elegant neck.

After moving his mouth around her throat and ear for
a while, he turned her around and kissed her mouth. She was so into this that
she kissed him back hard, her insistent mouth telling him that she wanted more.

His hands were just beginning to wander from her
waistline—one moving up as the other moved down to rub her upper thigh—when she
grabbed them and put them both back in a chaste place in the middle. That just
meant that he would have to push her other buttons a little more first. He was
planning on getting her tonight. He
wanted
her tonight so badly that he
was willing to do
anything
….

Pushing her buttons seemed to be working…at least
until he started moving a hand toward her breasts—he’d have to accomplish that
before he thought he could lower them to her thigh again….

“Inac…” she said, moving it away from its
destination yet again.

“What?” he asked, pulling far enough away to flash
her a grin, hoping to charm his way into her bra with it—or at least
on top
of her bra. Right now he was so desperate to touch and corrupt her that he’d
even settle for that….

She was breathless when she said, “We can’t.”

“You don’t want to?” he asked, lacing his words with
hurt. He wanted it to seem like she was saying with her refusal that she didn’t
love him anymore. It was a total jerk move—very manipulative—but she was so
trusting and sincere that it would make her feel guilty for hurting his
feelings.

It worked. Her eyes were as guilty as they would be
if God Himself had walked in on them with Inac’s mouth where his hands were
longing to go.

“Of course I
want
to,” she said, taking both
his hands in hers. “I just
can’t
.”

“Why not? If you want to, then
do
.”

“It’s not that simple.”

“And why not?”

“Because I was taught that it’s wrong before
marriage. You have to remember that I was raised by priests and nuns. The
things they’ve ingrained in me don’t just go away.”

“I know that, Hara. And I don’t want to pressure you
into doing something that you don’t want to do. But you
do
want this.
Maybe you should listen to your heart instead of your mind. I mean, what else
did they teach you that, by seeing some of the real world, you’ve since
realized wasn’t the way they said it was?”

She bit her lip. “A lot of things. But….”

With what he felt was a lopsided grin, he said,
“It’s not one of the ten commandments, Hara. Nowhere does it say, ‘Thou shalt
not be intimate with thy fiancé.’”

She gave him a small smile in return. “I know that.”

“Then just think about it. I mean, obviously the
mood’s been killed tonight, but….”

She gave him a small peck on the lips, in essence,
shutting him up.

“Okay. I’ll
think
about it.”

That was all he needed. He was getting into her
head. Soon, she’d listen to his manipulations and he’d be able to get into much
more than that. Maybe now was the time to start putting pressure on her with
other things. She was drinking outside of communion, had a newfound violent
streak, and was contemplating sex. He knew she’d never kill for him, but every
day she was moving further and further from her pre-ordained destiny. God would
surely lose this time.

***

Inac had barely put his car keys in the silver dish
by the elevator door when his phone rang.

“What?!” he growled. It had been two days since he’d
talked Hara into thinking about sleeping with him and now, having just come
from visiting her, he was no closer to getting what he wanted than he’d been
before. It was really starting to piss him off.

“Sir? It’s Santoni.”

Inac rolled his eyes. “I saw the caller-ID. Now what
do you want? Or is it only to waste my time with obvious statements?”

“No, sir. Sorry, sir.” Then, before Inac could get
angry over how much time the apology had wasted, Santoni said, “There was a
coordinated attack, sir. Six European cities. All attacked by suicide bombers.”

Inac froze mid-stride. “Where? How many dead?”

“London, Paris, Berlin, Venice, Stockholm, and
Dublin. They don’t know how many dead yet. This only happened about ten minutes
ago now, sir. During the morning commute.”

“I’ll meet you at headquarters in ten minutes,” he
said as he turned and grabbed his keys, their teeth scraping along the metal
dish with a sound like a sword being unsheathed. It was apt seeing as how he
was about to unsheathe his own sword of retribution on those responsible. Right
now they were celebrating, but soon they’d be wishing that they’d never crossed
Cain.

***

After a few days of bombings, they finally knew who
was behind the attacks. And who it was had surprised them all. He’d thought it
would be one of the extremist groups, but it was actually
all
of the
Middle Eastern countries outside of the Mokolios’ control going against him in
one large series of attacks. It almost made him laugh that they thought they
could win. Because he knew their weaknesses, he would drive his sword straight
into the heart of them. He only had to do one thing first….

He knocked on the flimsy door of Hara’s apartment. He
hadn’t seen her or talked to her since the attacks had begun, but he needed to
see her now. When it opened, Hara flung into his arms without hesitation.

“I’ve been so worried about you! With everything
going on. Inac, I’m so scared….” After a few moments she pulled away, her eyes
wet. Which really wasn’t surprising considering this was
Hara
. “What’s
going on? Are they going to come to America next?”

Inac shook his head, but not as an answer as much as
to tell her that he didn’t have the time for her questions.

“I have to leave, Hara. The Mokolios need me to stop
this.
Europe
needs me to stop this.”

He expected her to try to talk him into staying here
in the States where it was safe—his wives all would have—but she only looked
into his eyes for a while before giving a small nod.

With defeat and worry saturating her eyes, she said,
“Okay. Be safe. And call me all the time.”

Proud of her, he cupped her face in his hands and
kissed her, trying to stop the quivering of her lower lip that she’d failed to
hide from him.

“I will,” he breathed onto her lips. “I promise.”

Her bravery lasted as he turned away from her and
started walking down the steps, but as soon as he knew she couldn’t see him
anymore, he heard her sobs. Sobs that followed him all the way down the three
stories and into the car that would take him away.

***

“When are you coming home?” Hara pouted over the
phone two weeks into his trip—it seemed that she would get a lot more time to
think about what Inac had said than she’d planned on. He always said that he’d
tried to call as often as he could, but she usually went a few days at a time
before he would catch her. It made for constant sleepless nights filled with
nightmares about his death. “I miss you.”

“Baby, I can’t just leave when things are as
volatile as they are.”

“Why not? You’re just a bureaucrat. You can do that
here. With me.”

“No, I can’t. Because I’m
not
just a
bureaucrat. I’m the best gun we have.”

“You mean you’re
fighting
?!”

“Don’t worry. I’ll be fine. This will be finished
soon. Just give me another week. We’re really close to starting negotiations.”

It wasn’t until two weeks after his
“one more
week”
was over that she heard on the news that the short-lived war was
over. Iran, who had always been against the Western World, had suddenly changed
their mind and joined with their enemies of yesterday to crush the forces of
their old allies in the Middle East. Nobody understood the occurrence, but Hara
had a pretty good idea that it had something to do with Inac. She was expecting
a call any day now telling her that he was on his way home.

She was in the middle of what she hoped was another
nightmare because Inac was dying in her arms. She was bawling when she felt
something solid holding her.

“Shh, Hara. It’s okay, love. You’re okay.”

It was Inac’s voice, comforting her until the
nightmare faded away and a wonderful dream took its place. In it, Inac was in
her bed, holding her tight, protecting her from any and all of the monsters
that came out at night.

“Don’t ever leave me again,” she said into his
chest.

“I won’t. I promise you that I won’t.”

It was when he kissed her gently on the top of her
head that she realized this wasn’t a dream. He was really here in the flesh!
She clung to him, not wanting him to ever stop raining kisses down upon her.
He’d been gone far too long. She didn’t know how the families of soldiers did
this.

For some reason, the relief washing over her made
her physically
need
Inac, and she was prepared to go as far as they
could.

At first Inac seemed to be as into it as her but,
when she started pulling his shirt off, he grabbed her hands.

“Wait…Hara,” he said through breaths as jagged as
his abs.

She smiled and bit his lip. “I don’t want to wait. I
want you. Right here. Right now.”

He moaned for an instant and she was sure she’d won
until her hands were under his shirt, slowly moving up his rippling abdomen
toward his chest. Again, he grabbed her hands, lacing his fingers with hers.

“Hara….”

She pulled away, feeling rejected and upset. “What?”
she snapped, doing her best to find his eyes in the dark.

“Baby, I….”

“You
what
? Why don’t you want me anymore?”
she said, her throat tensing and her nostrils burning as tears roiled to the
surface.

“I do. You know I do.”

“Then why won’t you let us be together? I’m
offering
myself to you.”

“I know. And you don’t know how difficult it is for
me not to take it.”

“Then why won’t you?” she asked, the tears forming
in her eyes.”

Caressing her cheek, he said, “Oh, baby. Please
don’t cry.”