Linton
Ican hardly see straight. The Redcaps were going to hurt my female, and I dealt with them like I’d deal with any such threat.
Dismemberment.
It hasn’t helped the fog in my head or my desire to kill.
All except her.
My mark.
The one creature who was supposed to die, and she’s here, in front of me, all intoxicating scent and soft skin.
I touched it when I was tying her hands together.
I’m not sure I’ve ever touched anything as nice. It was smooth, slippery, supple under my fingertips. I can still feel them tingling.
As for her hair, I long to run my hands through it. The strands are like nothing I’ve ever encountered, the scent coming from it almost enough for me to exist on.
Putting a bag over her head was not something I wanted to do, but it’s insurance should we encounter any further clumsy assassins sent by Tam Lin to deal with her in case I failed.
Like I would ever fail.
The little female is mine.
And the way I have her now proves it to anyone who might risk taking her from me. Kaitlyn squirms a little in my grip, and I take hold of her.
“I can’t see where I’m going,” she says, her voice strangely strangled.
I toss her over my shoulder, but from the noises she makes, I’m not sure she likes it. Even if those noises make my spicket tingle worse than my fingers. One particularly guttural groan has the thing standing on end as if I have been encouraging it.
I rarely encourage my spicket. It’s far too much of a distraction.
But on this occasion, I have no choice. I ignore it and move swiftly through the streets of Moranick. The sooner we leave this place, the sooner I can get my little female to safety and deal with what’s going on in my trousers.
In fact, I can probably do without trousers altogether if I am not having to navigate the streets of a town.
If there’s one thing the inhabitants of the Yeavering dislike more than a Bluecap, it’s a Bluecap without trousers.
What their objection is to my lower half, I do not know.
After all, the Brag goes around without such accoutrements in his horse form and no one says anything.
We reach the town walls, and I have to shift the female from my shoulder into my arms in order to open my wings and dive off.
She squeals as we drop and then goes silent as I even out our descent to the base of the rock cliffs far below Moranick where I can pick up the rest of my belongings, so we can begin our journey.
Landing is easy enough as my little female weighs not more than a feather. She remains silent as I balance her back on her feet and then make my way into the cave where my weapons are stored.
When I return, she is shaking her head, and the bag falls off. I find myself spellbound in the glare from her bright green eyes.
“What do you want?” she fires out.
“I want you.”
“If you wanted me dead, I’d be dead.”
She is correct.
“I don’t want you dead.” I shrug.
“Then why am I here?” Her teeth are gritted, and my eyes are drawn to her mouth.
Her lips are almost as red as my eyes. I wonder what it might be like to touch them too. So, I put out a finger to see if they are as soft as the rest of her.
And she snaps her teeth at me.
“Stop that!”
“I like to touch.”
“Don’t touch me,” she growls.
“If you feel nice, I will touch you,” I respond, feeling the familiar thump in the back of my head which comes from having committed violence and also not having fed for a long time.
“Don’t you dare.” The words are a mere rasp on the air. She glares at me as if she’s hoping the ground will open up and I’ll drop into the underworld.
I’ve seen the underworld, and I already know I’ll end up there one day.
“Touching by permission only,” she says. “And you can start by untying me.”
“I cannot do that. Not until we get to my lair,” I respond.
“And how long will that take?”
I pick up the bag again. “Until the full moon,” I say, pulling it over her head once again.
And with that, I lift my weapons bag onto one shoulder and my female onto the other.
It is a long journey, but if I have her scent locked into my antennae, then it will pass very quickly.