CHAPTER SEVEN
Alad
She is, and she isn’t.
I try to control the rage welling up inside me. I don’t want to kill the woman who’s speaking with a pleading tone and chasing not-Karu. She seems harmless. Innocent.
“Seems” being the operative word. What do I know of her, or anything of the world in which I stand?
I woke to find myself in a strange room with an odd collection of tools, utensils, and furnishings encased in a clear substance stacked around me.
Woozy, as if hit in the head with a stone, I managed to take three steps before the human with the brown hair came running from across the room. Then the others showed up, and…
Where am I? When am I? There’s something about these people, the way they dress, the way they look, and their unfamiliar speech…
it’s all wrong. On the other hand, my heart beats fast as it hasn’t in ages.
My spine tingles with the unknown. This is an adventure; maybe not the one I looked for, but something decidedly other.
And then there’s Char.Lot. She’s Karu, but she’s not.
For one thing, she embarrasses easily, which Karu did not.
Judging by the comportment and attitude of the two women and two men, they are all well-born.
It seems the other blond is of higher rank from the way the men look at her and act around her. But Char.Lot also is given respect.
So, she’s not a whore, but she must be a whore, or I wouldn’t have awoken from Gil’s curse. I remember that much, though not what he said once I became stone.
Char.Lot squirms against me. “Stop! Mary… stop. I—I don’t think he’ll hurt me, but he obviously intends for me to leave with him.”
“Unacceptable,” Johnrutledge snaps. “To engage a virtuous woman in such a manner is intolerable.”
The other human male cowers in his chair. He can’t seem to rise.
Coward. Nothing about him interests me.
I look down at the small human female I’m clutching to me like a child clutches a wooden toy, except she’s soft and curved and everything I desire. My nostrils flare as I scent her perfume. Lilies. Just like Karu.
And just like Karu, this Char.Lot is built to deceive. I narrow my eyes, another growl slipping up my throat. I need to be away—somewhere I can learn her tongue and figure out how she fits into Gil’s curse.
There’s no doubt she does. After all, she awakened me.
***** Charlotte *****
The force of Alad’s exhale as he roars is so powerful, it ruffles Lord Peterson’s hair halfway across the room.
Against my body, he transforms back into his human head/beast body form, retaining the arms and hands that hold me, though his back legs are all lion and his long tail brushes the floor.
Grabbing me up in his arms, he turns and rushes through the door, his wings snapping shut just in time.
When he arrives in the hallway, he looks in both directions.
I point to the right. It’s the closest exit. Perhaps I should point in the other direction, which will lead him to multiple choices of exhibition halls, but I don’t. Even as terror coats my blood in ice, curiosity makes me lean into his heated hide.
I’ve never run from the marvelous. Now would be a ridiculous time to start, even though the moment we leave this building, I’m ruined forever.
I should care more than I do. It took everything I had to escape ruin once. The fact I’m not trying to now is incomprehensible.
When we reach the outdoors, Alad blinks. The most grievous look of sadness transforms his face as he gazes about the London night. His eyes flit over buildings, people, and gas lamps. He must be incredulous at the changes from his time.
My chest aches. I lift my hand and cup his chin. “It will be all right, Alad. Somehow.”
His gaze travels down to meet mine, his filled with sorrow but so intelligent that I feel my stomach clench again. Not with fear. With yearning.
Slowly, so slowly I could count to twenty if I had the presence of mind to count, he lowers his lips to mine. Soft, fuzzy beard and warm lips press gently. He breathes my breath, nipping softly until he lifts his head.
“An-ki.” His wings unfurl like the snap of masts and sails on a ship before he bends his lion’s legs. A powerful thrust takes us into the sky.
A scream rounds from my throat as the ground breaks away and the wind rushes against us. Icy air immediately chills my flesh everywhere he doesn’t touch, but where we meet, I feel his fire.
He tightens his grip. “Niginu anaku, Char.Lot.” And his tail wraps around my waist, another protection.
“I’ll have to trust that you’re correct.” I answer as if what he says has meaning, because saying something, anything, is better than acknowledging I’ve left the surface of the earth far below.
My eyes squint shut. I can’t open them as the world rushes by. My belly rolls, and I’m suddenly thankful I never ate my supper, else it would now be all over those who pass so far beneath us that I’ve no idea if the moving figures are actually people.
Unbidden, I weave my arms around his neck, the better to hold on.
In response, he snuggles his nose into mine.
We stay like that for the rest of the flight, though I don’t know how long we fly.
Eventually, Alad drops closer to the earth, and I open my eyes.
All is dark, so we must be in the countryside.
Occasionally, a dim light flickers, likely from a home.
I’m not certain what he’s searching for, but when we reach the wide-open seacoast, he follows the rim of earth for a bit until a greater flare of light breaks the darkness.
He drops down without warning, landing with a soft thump upon what looks to be a village road. Gently, he places me back upon my feet and waits while I find my footing. With his human hands, he caresses the side of my face. A loud rumble fills the air.
His expression transforms from loving to embarrassed. He clasps his hand over his stomach and rubs it. “Ninda?”
“Ninda. Oh, food? Are you hungry?” I mime putting food into my mouth as I realize the sound was his stomach growling.
He nods. “Hun.Gry,” he repeats in his accented, stilted English, but another frown of frustration quickly follows his confirmation.
Hunger is a problem. I don’t have any coin with me. It’s not that I don’t have means. Mary pays me an exorbitant sum to be her companion, even though she also pays for all my clothing, meals, and certainly the roof over my head. But on my person, I’ve nothing to offer in exchange for a meal.
My fingers move to my chest, and I realize I do have something. My rose necklace.
Once upon a birthday, my parents gave me a thin gold chain with a delicate rose amulet.
I’ve worn it every day since. The delicate chain is long enough to remain easily hidden beneath my clothing, which served me well when the bailiffs took the rest of my possessions to pay for my father’s debt.
It doesn’t have enough value to have saved me from the necessity of whoring, but it might be exchanged for a small meal for him.
I smile when I drag the necklace from beneath my robes, my fingers twisting around the delicate bud. “I think we’ll manage. Come.” I hold out my free hand.
He slips his hot fingers into mine before slipping them out again. He shakes his head and sighs before his arms transform back to lion’s legs. More sounds flow from his lips, but what does it matter? I can’t understand him.
When I begin walking, he flows beside me on four paws. The road leads to the village and will almost certainly take us through its center.
Sure enough, we don’t take many steps before finding a collection of storefronts, scattered at first but drawing more tightly packed as we progress. Down a side street stands a tavern bursting with merriment.
“You’ll need to be in human form to enter, even though you’ll still be far too tall. We’re in a village, and villagers, as a general rule, aren’t as progressive as London folk.”
Of course, he only looks at me blankly.
I gesture up and down my body before pointing at him and moving my finger up and down.
A broad grin splits his face. In the next instant, he rises on his two back legs. He’s so tall, almost as tall as his giant human-like form, that his member presses just under my chin. It probably brushed my skirts as we flew.
Locking me to him with one paw, he uses the other to cup my buttocks.
“No!” For good measure, I punch him in the leg. Of course, he misinterpreted my communication.
Alad backs away, frowning. “No,” he repeats. “No?”
I waggle my finger back and forth, shake my head from side to side, glower, and say it again.
“No. No touch. I mean, no touching me.” I gesture at his legs and then my own.
“Make your legs like mine.” And in a daring, disastrous move, I lift my skirt to point my nose at my revealed ankle and foreleg. “People legs. Please.”
My mother is likely turning clockwise in her grave. But sometimes, needs must.
He stares at me for a long moment, then understanding glimmers in his eyes. Before I can blink, he’s in full human form. His wings are gone, and though he’s bigger than most men, he’s not a giant like he was before.
But he’s still far too naked. Except for his leather braces, the gold medallion he sports that’s roughly the size of my entire hand, and two large pouches previously concealed by his wings, his magnificent form is on full display.
I can’t help gaping. Gads, he’s handsome. I’ve never seen muscles like the ones he sports. They’re boulders lined on top of other boulders.
And then there’s his firm member, longer than my hand.
This is never going to work.
Just as I’m ready to give up, his stomach growls again.
Right. Better food than me. Probably.
“Fine. We’ll find you clothing. You’re too tall still, but at least you look mostly human.” The lie tumbles from my lips, because I’ve never seen a human who looks like him, and not only because he’s naked. No, he looks like a statue. Like a god.
Maybe he is.