Scarlet Dawn (11 page)

Zane felt a growl rumble in his chest but fought to keep it in as he forced himself to turn away from the pub. “So what is it that you wanted to tell me?”

The excited smile that Raith had been wearing when he’d first entered the pub returned then.

“I got us a job!”

“I still don’t understand,” Celine called from the door, “Why exactly do you suddenly have to leave for the weekend? I thought we had plans?”

Zane didn’t need to turn around to know that she was frowning at him.

And though he didn’t boast any psychic abilities, there wasn’t a doubt in his mind that her arms were crossed and her jaw was locked.

Sighing, he finished packing the last of his supplies and secured his bag before daring to turn around to face his fiancé.

Her arms were crossed.

Her jaw was locked.

And, as an added bonus, she was tapping her foot.

He sighed again. He didn’t care how dangerous the job Raith had gotten them was; it was certain to be a
cake-walk in comparison to that moment.

Assuming Celine let him live long enough to get past the door…

“Look,” Zane set down the bag, being gentle to not let his knives rattle and draw attention to their presence—he wasn’t sure which was worse, Celine getting more nervous about his need for weapons or the potential for her to get more upset and
use
them. “I know you wanted to go out, but this job is big;
really
big!”

“What sort of job is it?” Celine’s face shifted to concern and Zane felt the first wave of guilt hit him.

“It’s…” Zane sighed and sat on the bed, “Well, it’s not entirely legal. I guess it’s—”

“‘Not entirely
legal
’? Zane, what are you getting mixed up in? Does this have anything to do with that Raith-dog again?”

Zane sighed, “Don’t call him a dog.”

Celine glared and took her first few steps into the room, “I
knew
it! That mongrel’s been trouble for you since the day you met him!”

Zane narrowed his eyes at that, “He
saved
my life! If it hadn’t been for him, the vampires who turned me wouldn’t have left enough to wake up!”

“So when is your brain going to wake up, Zane? Just because some stray therion showed up in time to chase off some delinquents doesn’t mean you have to be his best friend, and it
certainly
doesn’t mean that you need to tag along on his little—”

“Enough,” Zane kept his voice low, but the anger towards her words drove the single demand with enough force to achieve the desired effect.

Celine stopped.

A painfully silent moment drifted between them, making the distance that much more obvious.

Zane looked at her, taking in the beautiful vision. She was hardly made-up for the quiet evening in, but, in her rawness, he saw exactly what he’d fallen in love with. Wild, copper-red hair and blue-green eyes as deep and promising as ocean waters; she was a wild flower of a sangsuigan vampire.

He truly loved her.

And that was why he needed Raith’s jobs; jobs that brought power and wealth.

Jobs that would secure him with an official warrior status and enough money to promise her the kind of life he wanted to offer her.

She would never understand how much that sort of life meant to him—what that sort of life could mean for her—and she’d never see the jobs as anything more than a reckless danger. She’d turn down the offer of the “fairy tale” life just to keep him from taking on the jobs.

Zane sighed and rubbed the back of his neck.

Maybe there was more to it than the power or the wealth…

Maybe it was the thrill…

Maybe he needed—

“I just don’t want to see you hurt,” Celine finally offered.

Zane blushed and, finally, nodded. “I know… but this is important to me. I need you to understand that. And Raith
is
my friend—my
best
friend—and I can’t
not
be there when he needs me,” he sighed and looked down, “Please understand…”

Another long silence.

“You’re taking our weekend,” Celine scolded him.

He nodded, “I know, but I’ll make it up to you.”

Her fingers captured his chin and raised his face to take her in. As she came into focus Zane became aware that she was no longer wearing her blouse, and as her pert, puckered assets appeared at the level of his eyes he could no longer bring himself to worry about anything else.

“Oh… Evening, ladies, I wasn’t expecting to see you two out and about tonight.”

Celine giggled and pressed her breasts closer towards him, “They’re disappointed to hear about you leaving this weekend, too.”

“Oh my,” Zane frowned and offered a nervous glance upward, “You don’t think they’ve told the kitty yet, do you?”

Another giggle slipped free before Celine adopted a stern expression and shook her head, “I can’t make any promises. Word travels fast in these parts.”

Zane whimpered in mock-guilt, “Maybe I should talk to her myself…”

Celine nodded, “Perhaps you should,” she leaned in and slammed her lips to his before moving her mouth to his left ear. “Just remember that she’s hard of hearing; be sure to talk
real
slow, and don’t forget to annunciate clearly.”

Zane smirked, “Oh don’t you worry about that, dear,” he wetted his lips as she joined him on the bed, “I’m a truly cunning linguist.”

Raith checked his surroundings for easily the hundredth time as he pulled himself onto a ledge on the cliff and slunk into the familiar chasm. Though it was too dark to see through to the other side, he’d navigated this particular passage enough times to know to duck his head eight paces in—the jagged stalactite that had been the cause of many previous night’s headaches rustling through his hair as he passed underneath—and braced himself for the sizable step down that indicated the halfway point to the secret cave.

Their secret cave.

Before he could even see her, he could see the glow from her tattoos. Though she’d offered on several occasions to explain how the ink of her people’s sacred tattoos worked, Raith had refused to let the magic be explained as anything but just that.

Magic.

Just like her.

“I thought you wouldn’t come,”
Nicc’oule’s voice echoed all around him in the small cave.

Raith smirked, “Really?”

“No,” Nicc’oule giggled, the intricate, body-shaped network of glowing tribal shapes that was Raith’s only clear view of his lover bobbed towards him. “I was certain you’d be here sooner or later. I just hate waiting.”

“They say it’s the hardest part,” Raith chuckled.

“Do they?” Nicc’oule’s hand brushed the crotch of his pants and she cooed at the find, “I don’t think they were waiting for the right thing.”

Raith chuckled and brought his hands to
Nicc’oule’s hips, pleased to find that—as he’d suspected—she was already naked. With her tattoos’ magic glow illuminating her, he took a moment to quietly appreciate her dark skin and all the splendors it had to offer before locking his gaze on her own and kissing her.

Unfortunately, though it hurt him to pull himself away from what they’d already begun, the visit was, first and foremost, one of business.

Nicc’oule’s tattoos faded slightly as he stepped back and she offered a solemn nod as she retrieved her jacket. As she shrugged her naked body into the garment—a sight that Raith felt was even more distracting—she focused her powers towards an oil lamp that they kept in the corner and the small cave was soon awash in light.

As
Nicc’oule’s features came into focus, Raith felt another tremor of regret at having broken the embrace with such a tantalizing creature. Everything about Nicc’oule reminded him of earth; her strength, her fluidity, the deep, dark richness of her brown skin and the perfect, flowing mane of black hair that framed it all. She was built every bit as beautiful and powerful as a panther with all the mystery and majesty of moonlight in her enchanted tattoos.

And now he was expected to ignore all of
that
to talk business…

“So…” Nicc’oule leaned against a large rock, “I suppose things worked out then?”

Raith nodded, pausing on the rock and recalling the many times that he’d laid Nicc’oule on top of it in far less serious encounters. Remembering how she’d looked below him on those occasions made him realize how impatient he was to get the formalities over and done with.

“I’ll have to pay my friend out of my own pocket just to get him to come along, but it’ll be worth it,” he explained.

Nicc’oule frowned, “He doesn’t know the truth?”

Raith shrugged, “As much of it as he needs to. If he thinks we’re being paid by some wealthy, faceless members of some hoity-toity vampire clan to rob from your tribe, then he won’t see a problem with it.”

“But if he knew that you were doing it as a favor for your lover…?”

Raith nodded, “Then he’d be worried about me and try to talk me out of it. Look, he’s a good friend; he’d rather think we were stealing from the taroe because somebody he’s never met is greedy. He’s trying to save up some money for him and his lady, anyway.”

“Then wouldn’t he understand your need to help
your
lady?” Nicc’oule frowned, clearly unsettled by the conditions.

Raith shook his head, “Then he’d want to know why my lady was asking us to steal from her own people; something that
I
can barely understand!”

“I told you already,” Nicc’oule stepped away from the rock, “this relic is”—she shook her head and tossed her hands into the air—“I don’t know, Raith, it’s evil; just
evil
! The damned thing seems to have put a dark cloud over the hearts and souls of all of them and every day it sits on that shrine they just seem to sink even lower because of it! That thing
needs
to be taken away, and I hope once it’s gone you’ll destroy it before it has a chance to poison you or anybody else.”

Raith nodded, “You won’t have to worry about that. Zane and I have done plenty of jobs like this—easy in-and-out robbery—and as long as Zane sees his cut of the profits he never asks any questions about who has what we stole.”

Nicc’oule bit her lip, “So how much are these ‘mystery clients’ paying him, exactly?”

Raith shook his head, “I don’t want to tell you that.”

“Oh?” Nicc’oule frowned at him, “
That
bad, huh?”

Raith nodded, “Bad enough that you might not let me finish this boring talk and bend you over that rock.”

Nicc’oule glanced over her shoulder at the site of countless other romantic encounters and smirked, “My… that
is
bad.” She nodded and slipped out of her jacket, her tattoos beginning to glow again and the lantern’s light suddenly snuffing out. “Well then, I’d say it’s best if you don’t tell me.”