To Crown a Caesar (The Praetorian Series: Book II) (25 page)

I
chuckled.  I knew he had to have been experiencing one of those dreams meant only for the movies.  The ones where the girl walks in slow motion, her eyes locked with your own as she slowly removes her clothing, purring that she wants you.  It was always a great gimmick in the movies because few men could honestly deny not having had one of those dreams at one point in their lives.

Helena walked over and put h
er hands on my right shoulder, resting her chin upon them and tilting her head to give me a kiss on the cheek before scrutinizing Xenophon.

“So, dear, what should we do with this young thief?”  She asked.

“I’m not sure,” I replied, turning my head back towards Xenophon.  “I hear authorities further east would cut off his hands for such a crime.”

“Oh my…” Helena purred.

The boy scoffed, unimpressed at my threat and turned to simply walk away, but before he could take another step, I reached out and grabbed his shoulder, pulling him to a stop.

“Heel,” I ordered.

I reached into my bag, and felt around for the last piece of gear I had brought with me.  Finding what I was looking for, I pulled out my Balisong knife, more commonly known as a butterfly knife.  I’d found it on a dead South American mercenary during an Op that took my SEALs and I deep into Brazil.  Taking prizes from dead enemy combatants was frowned upon in the modern military, but it wasn’t a trophy, it was a tool, and I had no problem admitting it wasn’t the only thing I’d taken from the dead.

Philippine designed Balisong knives were pretty flashy in their presentation, especially when opening and closing.  A skilled handler, which I’d become after a bit of practice, could manipulate the blade in a way that made it appear like
they were twirling it in fancy patterns, known as “flipping“.

So, j
ust to scare the kid a bit, I pulled it out and twirled it in a figure eight pattern a few times before allowing the safety latch to catch the two handles together, securing the knife in its open position.  I looked him in the eye, waiting for him to meet my inspection before I shifted my look towards his hand, Helena still casually hanging from my shoulder.  I gently gripped his arm and tapped the blade against his wrist.  I nicked him on my third tap, drawing a bit of blood to pool around the injury, and I felt Helena’s hands tighten upon my shoulder.  I ignored her and continued looking the kid in the eye, noting as he winced at the quick jolt of pain.

But on
my fourth tap, I released his hand and went through an intricate pattern to close the knife.  Once it was closed, I tossed it in the air and caught it in my other hand, holding it there for a few seconds before tentatively extending it towards the boy.  Xenophon gazed at it with glazed eyes, not knowing what to do, so I shook it a bit to grab his attention.  He held out his hand cautiously and took the knife from me, looking at it in wonder.  He held it in both hands, opening it carefully before closing it again.

“Why?”  He asked.

I cocked my head to the side.  “Honestly, I haven’t got a clue.  Just take it and get the hell out of here, kid.  And leave the pick pocketing to the professionals from now on.”

Xenophon smiled and quickly ran off to find someone to show his new toy.

“Why did you do that?”  Helena asked from my shoulder.

I shrugged her off, stepping
around to face her.

“Like I told him, I really don’t know.”  I sighed.  “Maybe I’m just getting soft
, but at least he knew his history.”

“If only we could all show such promise,” she joked
as a thought came to her.  “You do realize you just gave a piece of modern technology to a child… not to mention that it was a sharp knife.”

“I think he can handle himself
,” I said.  “Besides, what’s the worst that can happen?  Some inventor doesn’t make his millions from the patenting of his precious little knife two thousand years from now?”

“Well, yes, as a matter of fact.”

“I…” but I couldn’t think of a response.  Maybe I actually didn’t care what happened to the timeline anymore.  Was there even a reason to care?  “… Whatever.  Let’s just go.”

She nodded silently, but her look said enough. 
We turned and walked out onto the main street in the direction of our apartment.  She tried to hold my hand as we walked, but I pulled away and looked off into the crowd.  A hurt look crossed her face.

“Are you all right?” She asked.

I didn’t look at her.  “I’m fine.”

“Still upset about what happened on the barge.”

Her comment came out like a statement rather than a question.

“It’s not just that
,” I replied honestly.  “I mean, yeah, that part weighs the heaviest, but it’s not everything.  It… it doesn’t excuse the way I treated you before it ever even became a problem, nor how I’ve treated you since.”

“
Sometimes people just need their space and that’s okay.  This is one of those instances, but how many times do we have to go over this?  Everyone makes mistakes.  Even you.”  I felt her fingers attempt to intertwine themselves with mine once again.  Her hands were so soft and welcoming that I accepted the gesture this time.  Her fingers slotted between my own and she squeezed fiercely.  She leaned in close.  “
Especially you
.  At least you
seem
to be learning from them.”

I smirked at the quip, knowing without seeing that she was smiling as well, and allowed myself to relax.  I brought our joined hands to my lips and kissed
her hand gently, looking down at her as I did so.  She was in fact smiling and decided to use that moment to snuggle her head against my shoulder.  Despite everything, I decided that, for the moment, it was best to just keep my mouth shut and let it be just that: a moment.

We strolled casually through the streets of ancient Byzantium, the surrealism one would expect gone after years saturated in a surreal world.  There truly was nothing right about the life we had been thrust into, but if one thing felt natural it was
having Helena on my arm.  To quote an empty platitude – life’s too short – something I should have realized long ago because in this moment, life certainly felt complete, and I allowed myself the opportunity to absorb it.  The sky was blue, the sun warm and no one was trying to kill me.  That alone was reason enough to…

Suddenly and without
warning, Helena shoved me into a door frame with enough force to knock the wind out of me.  I stumbled forward a step as I caught my breath, but before I could ask her what the hell she was doing, she tackled me into the door again, planted her lips on mine, and started making out with me like a drunken prom date.

Without another thought, I closed my eyes and drank in long lost smells and tastes that had eluded me for far too long.  They were intoxicating, possessing my mind with happier thoughts than I deserved, but there was something particularly different about how Helena was currently kissing me. 
It lacked the passion and intensity she normally brought with her, as though it were all just for show.  I opened my eyes and noticed how her own weren’t focused on me, but on the street.  I decided to roll with it and wait for her to make the next move.

N
early a minute later, she tugged on my tunic to pull me from the door, making it appear like we were passionately switching positions, with me pressing her against the door this time.  She continued raining kisses on me, but with less vigor now, just enough for me to speak.

“Not that I mind, but…”

“Shhh,” she whispered, as her teeth tugged at my lip.  She moved her head to the side of my neck and spoke softly into my ear.  “I noticed two men down the road staring at us.  Don’t worry, I didn’t make eye contact, but I knew they were looking at us.  I figured we could play dumb and duck in here.”

“How very James Bond of you,” I said, the first joke I’d told in months.

She pulled away from my ear and planted another long kiss on me, this one with the feeling and intensity I’d come to expect over the years.

She pulled away again.  “I
swear, if we ever make it home, we need to watch these movies because I never have any idea what you’re always talking about!”

I
chuckled at her ignorance of movie gold.

“What about your two marks?”  I asked.

She glanced over my shoulder again, scanning the passing traffic as she nipped at my neck.  Besides a pair of giggling teenage girls pointing at us and a mother shielding the eyes of her two young children, no one else seemed to be paying us any attention.

“Looks like they’re gone,” she reported, pulling me out of the doorframe by my tunic and dusting off my shoulders.  She wiped the corners of her mouth and l
ooked at me naughtily.  “Let’s save some of that for later, Lieutenant.”

I always loved it when she called me by my rank.
I smiled and inhaled deeply, trying to determine what part of my mind had convinced me that I couldn’t trust this woman.

I wanted to know so that I could have Wang surgically remove it
after we found him.

I fought for an answer to a question that demanded
one, but could find nothing.  There wasn’t a rational part of my mind that could explain away the fact that I had been simply too dimwitted to trust her.  The only things I’d needed were a few kisses, a rush of adrenaline and the use of my rank to turn my whole life around.  It made me wish Helena had taken the initiative on her own earlier, but I trusted that she knew better than anyone when I needed space and when I was ready for help.

I reached out to grab her shoulders and pull her close
again, but out of the corner of my eye, I noticed two men who could only be the ones she’d spotted earlier.  One was staring right at us while the other scanned in the other direction as though he was covering his friend.  I tried to look away but like an idiot, and unlike Helena, I couldn’t help but make eye contact.

The man
reacted instantly, yelling to his friend as he rushed towards us through waves of busy locals.

Aw, shit.

“Come on!”  I yelled, pulling Helena’s arm as I took off.

Her confusion lasted all but a
second as the men approaching left subtlety behind with their first step, and Helena fell into pace with me immediately.  She only made it a few yards before she stumbled, her loose outfit flowing over her feet and tripping her up.  In response, she tore off the outer garment, revealing a shorter silken skirt she wore beneath that flowed loosely along her upper thighs.  One of her first lessons in survival had been to always be prepared, and it was nice to see she came ready to bug out quickly if needed.

The two men were dressed like any other local but something in their faces seemed familiar as well.  Their eyes were cold.  Calculating.  Roman.  Praetorian.  I knew I had the means to stop
them at any time with my Sig, but that would defeat the purpose of us lying low.  I pulled out my radio instead.

“3-3, 3-1, over.”

Nothing.

“3-3, come in.”

“No, Santino?”  Helena asked, sidestepping a small child and his mother before returning to my side.

“Guess not,” I said, tos
sing the radio back in my bag.

“Never around when you need him, always around when you don’t.”

I didn’t answer, but kept running as I followed just behind her.  We’d moved well beyond the bazaar and into a more residential area of the city, but there were still hundreds of people lining the streets going about their daily business.  I didn’t waste time looking behind me as I tried to maintain a good pace while simultaneously avoiding civilians.  Helena grabbed my hand and yanked me down a side street with nothing but a single vendor stall.  As I ran by, I pulled it to the ground with a small exertion of strength.  It toppled easily and would maybe buy us another few seconds, but the screams of an angry merchant was a price I was willing to pay for them.

Helena pulled out in front of me again and I saw her hop onto an empty crate, followed by a jump to a second story balcony, before making a final leap, just far enough to get a grip on the ledge of the roof.  Haulin
g herself up effortlessly with a simple exertion of strength, she waited for me to join her.  Having passed the first crate, I kept running until I reached the wall that dead ended the alleyway.  Instead of turning right down another alley, I leapt and planted my foot against the wall, pushing myself off with all my strength.  I found a handhold on the frame of a window and hauled myself up, Helena helping me scale the wall and onto the roof. 

I took a moment to analyze the terrain, noting that the rooftops around us were of different height, but mostly at our level.  Like many homes in the Middle East during the modern age, they were close together and easily traversable.  I looked back to see the pair pursuing us trip and fall as they ran full boar into the vendor stand, tangling themselves in the stall
’s wooden beams and cloth canopy.  I considered taking them out with my pistol when Helena yanked on my sleeve and I saw other figures on a rooftop a few homes away from us.  They were dressed in the same black ninja suits as the men who attacked Santino and me on Agrippina’s barge.  Helena’s attention had shifted to the right, and I noticed another group of four there as well.