30. Clash of Stone and Steel #2
“Two of the priests were rapists,” she said.
“The third liked to touch children, and the fourth had a habit of killing young women. I was hired to kill the fifth because he was the High Priest of the temple, and the next priest in line wanted his position. It’s not a job I’d normally take, but I discovered in my observation of the High Priest that he was skimming from the temple coffers to support his habit of hiring prostitutes. ”
“So you killed him, and the priest who hired you ascended to High Priest?” Samhail asked.
“No, the priest who hired me was the one who liked to touch children. I took his money, killed the High Priest, then killed him too.”
He gave a short laugh. “I’m almost afraid to ask about the priestess.”
“She was having an affair with a married nobleman,” Talyn said. “When the man tried to break it off with her, she killed him. The man’s wife hired me to take care of the priestess.”
“So you only kill those who you think deserve death?” he asked.
“Mostly. Early on I took whatever jobs I could get, but as I developed a reputation, I could be more selective about who I worked for. I now have a certain…code I live by when deciding if I’ll take a job.”
“Do you meet your own code?” he couldn’t help asking.
“You mean, if I was hired to kill myself, would I decide I deserved to die?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“Yes, I would,” she said without hesitation.
Samhail mulled that over. “Given that you tried to kill me last night, I assume I meet your code.”
“Yes,” she said, again without pause. “But we’ve gotten off topic. You were telling me about gargoyles.”
“I find discussing you far more interesting,” he said.
“I don’t. Now, I believe you were about to tell me why most temples no longer have a resident gargoyle.”
Samhail exhaled heavily. “Most haven’t had a gargoyle for hundreds if not thousands of years,” he said.
“Much of the gargoyle population was decimated in a series of religious wars several thousand years ago, and the rest were the victims of infighting. Gargoyles tend to have quick tempers, and like most perimortal beings, we don’t have many offspring, so we don’t replenish our population very fast.”
“Are Surgeon and Serise your only siblings?” she asked.
“My family seems to be the exception to the rule of procreation,” Samhail said. “I’m one of five. Surgeon and Serise are the youngest, and then I have an older sister, Sadira, and an older brother, Soldier.”
“Hmm. You’re a middle child. That explains a lot.”
Samhail ignored the comment.
“So then most temples don’t have a gargoyle because there aren’t enough to go around?” she asked.
“Yes and no,” he said. “It’s true there aren’t many of us, but the temples also decided they didn’t need us anymore.
At the end of the holy wars when there weren’t enough gargoyles to guard all the temples, many High Priests and Priestesses made alternate plans.
Some had stone gargoyles carved on the outsides and insides of temples, and they asked the Trinity to bless the statues to act as wards against evil.
When the temples remained safe, they assumed the substitute gargoyles were doing their jobs, and they decided having the statues carved was far less expensive than hiring the real thing.
Most of my kind now work as mercenaries, although I know a few who work as the personal guards for various monarchs and heads of state as well. ”
“And you,” she said, “you’re somewhere in between? As near as I can tell, you work both as a mercenary and as some kind of personal…I’m not sure what, for Lord Bressen.”
“I work mainly as a mercenary, but Bressen is like a brother, so I make myself available whenever he needs me,” Samhail said.
Talyn seemed to consider this. “So you’re not there just to give Lady Cyra fighting lessons?” she asked.
“Cyra asked me to train her months ago,” he said. “She was drugged one night by Lord Jerram, and I think she wanted to do something to feel more in control. Learning the basics has been good for her.”
Talyn was quiet a moment. “It’s kind of you to do that.”
Was it just him, or did she sound…jealous?
He shrugged. “It’s been more difficult for me to train her lately than I anticipated. She’s much smaller and weaker than me, so I’ve had to be careful not to hurt her. She’d probably benefit more from working with someone like you.”
Talyn’s head jerked. “Are you actually suggesting I help train the Lady of Hiraeth to fight?” she asked. “As if her husband will ever let me near her again?”
“I’m just making an observation.”
She was right. Bressen would never let Talyn within ten miles of Cyra, especially not with a sword. Whatever had made him imagine having her in Solandis, living there, working with him, was nothing but a fantasy.
“The merman, Axenus,” Talyn said. “He trains Cyra in magic?”
“Yes.”
“And has he slept with her as well?” she asked. “Do the three of you just take turns fucking her, or do you fuck her all at once?”
Samhail pulled hard on the reins of his horse, and Talyn pitched forward. He caught her around the shoulders and hauled her back against his chest before wrapping his hand around her throat. It seemed to end up there at least once a day now.
“That’s enough,” he growled against her ear. “It’s none of your concern who Cyra takes to her bed, although I can assure you, she’s not nearly as promiscuous as you seem to want to believe. Understand?”
Talyn let out a soft noise. “I understand,” she said. “I was just curious. You can tell a lot about a person by their sexual appetites.”
“Is that so?” he asked, letting his breath caress her ear. “And what are your sexual appetites?”
He shouldn’t ask, but now that she’d brought it up, he had to know.
He lifted her chin so he could brush his lips down her cheek.
He thought he felt her tremble, and he had to stop himself from trailing his lips lower to her neck.
Gods, her scent was driving him mad. He hadn’t had this much lack of control around a woman since he was in his teens and just discovering the joys of having a dick.
“How badly do you want to know?” Talyn asked huskily.
Samhail groaned and moved his hand from her throat to slide it down to her waist. He pulled her back against him so his cock pressed against her backside.
“Do you feel that?” he rasped in her ear.
“I assume you have an erection?” she said. “Unfortunately, I still can’t feel most of my body, so if you do, then it’s lost on me.”
Samhail frowned. “The toxin hasn’t worn off yet?” he asked, straightening in the saddle again. “You still can’t move your body?”
“I believe that’s what I just said.”
“Fuck.”
Samhail tightened his arm on Talyn’s waist and dismounted, pulling her down with him.
He lifted her into his arms and looked around.
He spotted a large bolder off to the side and carried her over to prop her up on top of it.
She swayed, and he put his hands around her waist to steady her as he knelt before her.
“Are you sure the toxin will wear off?” she asked, concern in her voice. “What if I’m like this permanently?”
Samhail shook his head. “The toxin shouldn’t be permanent. You likely just got too much and it’s taking a while. I may have…bitten you too long.”
“Bitten me too long?” she repeated indignantly.
“We can head to the next town to find a healer,” he said, concern shading his voice. “If we can find a perimortal healer, they should be able to draw the rest of the toxin out.”
Samhail looked over her body, as if he could somehow see whatever was preventing her from moving. His gaze snagged on her foot as he thought he saw one of her toes flex inside her boot.
Relief flooded him. Toe movement had to be a good sign.
“Did you feel your toe move?” he asked as he bent lower to look.
He caught movement above him, and something clenched in his chest as he knew instantly he’d made a fatal mistake.
He heard his swords being drawn from their scabbards a second before Talyn’s body disappeared from the rock and the sharp steel of his own blades crossed against the front of his throat.
A knee pressed hard into his back, trapping him between it and the blades.
Possum. She’d been playing fucking possum, and now she had him right where she wanted him, on his knees with his own swords poised to slit his throat. He swallowed against the blades and felt the sharp sting of the edge nick his throat.
Well, he’d told himself he’d deserve it if she succeeded in killing him, and he did indeed deserve it. He’d been doing monumentally stupid things since the woman first crossed his path.
Take that fight with Kostas, for one. He wasn’t the kind of man to grandstand, yet he’d had her tie his hand behind his back. It hadn’t been about impressing her but about punishing Kostas. He hadn’t just wanted to beat the man, he’d wanted to humiliate him after he’d threatened Talyn.
Samhail held himself unnaturally still so he didn’t accidentally slit his own throat before Talyn had a chance to do it herself. His blades were as sharp as steel could be, and any wrong move might open his neck.
Samhail almost laughed to think of all the warriors nearly twice Talyn’s size that had tried to kill him over the decades and died for their efforts. It was fitting his death would finally come at the hands of a beautiful woman with legs he’d never get a chance to feel wrapped around him.
He’d let his guilt over biting her distract him, make him lax, and she’d taken full advantage. Part of him had to admire her for that.
“Just make it quick and clean,” he said softly. “That’s all I ask.”
“I will,” she whispered behind him.
He wouldn’t close his eyes. He’d die with them open. He promised himself that much.
Samhail smiled then. He was strangely at peace as he stared straight ahead and waited to feel the searing slice of the blades across his throat, the gush of warm blood down his chest, and the chill of dark oblivion.