The Templar's Legacy (Ancient Enemy) (6 page)

Now I was the proud owner of an amoebic splat of corruption enclosed in a golden sphere. This was the tricky part. Since my innate instinct was to pull away from the contact, it took me a lot of concentration to keep it enclosed.  I got up silently and shepherded it out of the room to its new resting place. Speed was of the essence since both my endurance and concentration were finite. One slip, and the shadow escaped. That was always very inconvenient.

I came in from the barn after having loaded down a new cow with its new shadow. The doc now had a small herd of cattle that could never be slaughtered. It’s not like you’d end up with shadow-tainted burgers—I hoped, but the death of the host freed the shadow to find a juicier new one.

My mental concentration and expenditures translated into physical exhaustion and hunger. Happily, a big, carb and fat-filled meal did miracles for me. I was planning to check in on Janice and then feed the need when I ran into Colette with her open, happy face.

“Bonjour, Monsieur Finn.”

“Colette, hi!” She glided up to me, and we exchanged air pecks on the cheeks.

Janice could wait. My plans for lunch instantly changed. I had been headed for the facilities kitchen to see what was around, but suddenly I felt like going out to lunch with a certain sexy intern.

“Hey, can I buy you lunch?”

Her eyes twinkled at me. “Yes, of course.”

After a quick negotiation, we settled on Frankies again. We didn’t always go there, but I felt like I owed Franky for hosting the wake for Gregg when we were forbidden from attending his funeral. On top of that, Franky was a good guy, made great pizza, and more importantly, he offered an all-you-can-eat lunch buffet. Glenice, the day waitress at Frankies and single mother of two was my friend and always teased me about eating them out of business. I always made sure to tip her well.

As usual, we had a nice time. We talked about all sorts of little stuff. She got excited when I mentioned our upcoming Appalachian Trail hike. Before I knew it, I’d invited her along and she’d agreed. One thing we Americans don’t realize is the sheer amount of space we have, especially when compared to France. She was quite eager to get in some wilderness time.

The talk turned to other things. When we compared relatives, I had to admit that she won in the numbers department. I had a handful of aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins, but her extended family was practically a town. Many of them lived together in a large stone mansion in France that had more in common with a castle than a house. There were around twenty-five people living there at any given time.

I came back from the buffet with my plate piled high and stopped when I saw her eyes widen. I glanced down at the mountain of greasy goodness piled on my plate and then back to Colette. I stopped to think how many trips I’d made to the buffet and realized, though I hadn’t been counting, it must have been more than three. I blushed as I considered what it must look like to her.

“Sorry, Colette, I’m just hungry.” Truth be told, I was storing up for another shadow session in the afternoon. They always left me famished.

When I sat down with an apologetic grimace, she broke out into a fit of giggles, which made me squirm.

“What?”

“You are so cute when you are embarrassed.”

Lucky for you, since it seems to be your native state,
commented Spring.

She was right, waiting for my embarrassment fuse to burn out had been as productive as waiting for water to boil. Food was the answer. The gustatory bliss of my pizza offered me its refuge. It lasted approximately two bites.

“Hey, Tiger!” I almost spit out my pizza. That breathy, draping voice was unmistakable.

I whipped to my right to see Max approaching the table. To my surprise and relief, the tall, slender man was comparatively tastefully dressed in tight black pants and a light pink dress shirt open at the neck with a high collar. Of course, clothes could only take him so far. His shocking white Mohawk, lip stud, and large gold pirate’s loop dangling from one ear revealed his usual flamboyance.

“Uh, Max, hi.”

He stopped at our table. “Darling! How’s my favorite house clearer doing?” I opened my mouth, but he didn’t even slow down. He shook his finger at me. “Just where have you been, you naughty boy? We all miss your moves, Tiger! It’s safe to come back now. I’ve got my boys keeping Timothy out, so you don’t have to worry about him anymore.”

“Uh, well, I’ve been busy.”

He raised one razor sharp eyebrow at Colette. “Really dear boy, I didn’t know you swung this way. Who’s your tasty little bon-mot here? Seriously Tiger, I despair of ever teaching you manners.” His eyes twinkled. “I think you may need to be spanked.”

“Uh Max, this is Colette. She’s visiting from France.”

Max’s mascara lined eyes widened, and he gave Colette his first real look. “Oh, I adore the French! I’ve such fond memories of Le Marais! A few nights there, and I could barely walk. It was glorious! Have you been there, dear girl?”

Colette smiled slightly. “But, of course. I love the dancing.”

“Oh darling, I envy you!” He looked at me again. “Tiger, they would just eat you up in gay Paree! You’d never have to pay for a drink, or go home alone!”

He weighed me with his eyes, and I squirmed under his stare. I desperately wanted him to leave, and couldn’t think of anything to say.

“Well, I’ve a date with a
university
boy. He is sooo luscious. Smart is the new sexy you know! It was glorious meeting you, my little French truffle. Ta ta!”

I started to breathe a sigh of relief. Max was like a dervish. He came out of nowhere, hit you, then spun away. I’d been lucky to get off so lightly.

Or not.

Max spun in place and said to Colette, “Do not leave our beautiful little country without having young Tiger show you his moves. When he dances, my heart just stops! He’s shameless!” He twiddled his fingers at me and then headed for the counter.

I hunched over my plate and buried my head in a slice of pizza. When I risked a glance up, Colette was eyeing me with her own eyebrow raised.

“I’m not gay!” It just blurted out of me.

Colette broke into a laugh. “You are so cute!” She flapped her hand at me. “But
tiger
, you simply
must
take me to the dancing.”

Hey! I think I’m starting to like her
,
Finn! Let’s take her dancing.
Spring’s proclivities for dancing with anyone and anything while I was asleep was what had garnered me Max’s attention.

The double-pronged attack from the two females surely had my face matching our red and white checked tablecloth.

“Uh, I’m really not much of a dancer.”

Colette watched Max at the register as his arms waved flamboyantly in the air.

She looked at me speculatively. “It is not a bad thing to be a good dancer. Good dancers are very sexy.”

“Oh. Well... maybe we can go dancing sometime,” I admitted.

“And you can show me your moves.”

Her enthusiastic smile made me laugh self-consciously. “Don’t hold your breath. I’m really not very good.”

She raised an eyebrow at me and glanced back to Max.

“Perhaps yes, perhaps no.”

“Oh, he’s just messing with me.” I searched for a change in topic. “So, what’s Paris like?”

She was happy to oblige my curiosity. Apparently, Le Marais was Paris’s gay district, but the nightlife there was good enough to attract lots of straights, too. Amazing, the things you learn.

We had just left the nice cool air-conditioning in Frankies and stepped into the hot muggy summer day when she stopped and froze in her tracks.

I stopped a step later and looked back her. “Colette?” She was staring across the road and scowling. I wasn’t used to seeing an expression like that on her face. She looked fierce and dangerous.

When I tried to trace her gaze, the only thing I saw was a tall, well-built guy with curly black hair and that rugged, manly dark shadow of a beard around his chiseled jaw that I’ll never have. He leaned back against a telephone pole concentrating on the slim cell phone he held in front of himself. It looked like he was texting or playing a game.

“Finn, don’t leave!” Colette bounded across the road at high speed, leaving me gaping on the sidewalk.

The man started when he saw the little French rocket coming at him and took off down the sidewalk. She angled her trajectory and, like someone out of a spy movie, jumped onto the hood of a car like a gazelle. She yelled something, launched herself, took the man down hard, and rolled past him. Another leap and she landed on the man’s back as he was just getting up onto his hands and knees. He went down again.

My brain half kicked in, and I almost got run over by a minivan when I ran into the road. I held my hands up to placate the angry soccer mom and rushed across the street. By the time I got there, Colette and the man were both standing. She had him backed against the brick wall of a store and was assailing him verbally and gesticulating wildly with sharp, abrupt moves.

The man, with a nice case of road rash running down his handsome and rugged right cheek, was yelling back at Colette. She was yelling in French, and he was yelling back in a different language.

Now that I was there, I didn’t know what to do. It was obvious that Colette didn’t need, or want, rescuing, so I stuck my thumb up my butt and stood there. The fight soon broke up after tall, dark, and handsome stabbed at me with his finger a couple of times while yelling into her face.

His mouth curled up into an angry sneer, and with one glance my way, he stalked away. Colette called some angry words after him and then turned to me. The angry, dangerous look on her face instantly got replaced by one more apologetic and concerned. As usual, stress brought out Colette’s French accent.

“Oh, Feenn! I apologize you saw sat. I was veree angry.”

I tried to wave it off as nothing. “Don’t worry about it. Who is that guy? What did he do to you?”

She scowled, pursed her lips sensually. “He is Pietro. He was my... boyfriend. He is... why I came here to America. I needed to get away from him, but he is jealous and followed me here.”

My eyebrows rose. “He flew all the way from France to find you here?”

She shook her head tightly. “
Non
, he flew from Italy.”

“Wow.” I looked down the sidewalk after him but he was already gone. How could I compete with something like that? Tall, muscular, with chiseled features and thick brooding eyebrows was not something I did. He looked like he should be playing the part of some vampire in
Twilight
. I was so far out of his league that it wasn’t even the same sport.

My mind was wrenched back to Colette when she put her hand up to my face and guided my attention back to her. Her jaw stuck forward in determination. “You do not have to worry for me. He is a cow-ward and will not bother me again.”

Her assumption that I was worried about her when I was actually worrying more about how I stacked up to her ex left me feeling embarrassed and lacking.

I tried to smother my guilt with a smile and a quip. “I’m not worried. You kicked his butt, but good. Remind me not to make you angry.”

She blushed prettily. “I am so sorry, I was too angry when I saw him. I should not have lost the temper.”

I smiled more genuinely this time. “Hey, sometimes you have to tackle someone and scrub the sidewalk with their face to make them get the hint.”

That put a twinkle back in her eyes, and her lips curled up into a smile, which ignited a fire within me, leaving me feeling all fuzzy and warm inside.

I looked down at knees that sported their own road-rash.

“You’re bleeding! Come on, we’ll get you cleaned up.”

Twilight was leaching the color from the lush forest the four of us hiked through. Jim and Dave had planned the trip, and when I told Colette, she was eager to come along. The entire day on the trail had been a literal breath of fresh air to me, and after walking all day, I still felt great. I was in the best shape of my life. Being in shape really made all the difference in the world to me. Apparently, wheezing, feeling like I could vomit, fall over, and die had really interfered with my enjoyment of the great outdoors. Go figure. It also helped that Spring was glorying in the hike as well.

Because of a late start, we had only gotten as far as Rainbow Lake before we decided to call it quits. We had to follow a small trail around the lake to look for a campsite that wasn’t already taken. We finally found a beautiful little site nestled in a nice grove of trees with a clear view of the lake and plenty of room for our camp.

After we pitched our tents, I still felt the need to be moving. “Hey guys, I’m going down to the lake, anybody want to come along?”

Dave looked at me crossly. “Sorry mountain man, I’m too tired. Us mere mortals can’t keep up with you super-hero types.”

Colette crawled out of her tent. I was sad to see that she had changed out of her hiking shorts and tank top into more sensible, but less intriguing, sweats. When we first saw her on the trail, all our eyes were in danger of popping out of our heads. Though short, she was slender, muscular, and sexy as hell. “I will come with you, Finn.”

Jim looked up from where he was rummaging through his pack. “While you’re out there, pick up some deadwood for a fire.”

I saluted. “Aye, aye, Capitan.”

We walked for a short way through the green trees and riotous undergrowth till we found a nice grassy place to sit on the gentle bank of the lake. We sat down, and the peaceful silence pressed in around us, broken only by the screeching call of the occasional jay. The smooth waters of the lake were unruffled by any waves and reflected the few clouds in the deepening sky catching the last rays of the sun with a burst of orange glory.

I took a deep breath of the invigorating scent of the forest around us, and tried to open my mind to its peace and beauty. I was only partially successful. I was much more aware of Colette sitting right next to me. I swallowed my nervousness and searched for something to say.