Post by Michael Raymond Shepard on Jul 12, 2015 2:08:11 GMT 8
So we were up
Thowin' dice in the dark
I saw you late, last night, come to harm
I saw you dance in the devil's arms
Thowin' dice in the dark
I saw you late, last night, come to harm
I saw you dance in the devil's arms
Promises weren’t something he made readily these days but Michael knew he’d be able to keep the one about keeping his teeth to himself. They really were a last resort for him, the last of his non-lethal weapons. Orlov had always encouraged him to embrace both sides of his new tri-nature, but there was a part of him that still had trouble with that. Most of the time it was easy to fool himself that there wasn’t a monster, or rather two, lurking beneath the surface of the still human skin. At the mention of her patrol Michael glanced back up at the cliff, checking yet again for incoming guards. Patrols could show you so much, just as intelligence could, but in the end you never knew until the day just what you were about to face. ”Wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t get tipped off by somebody. This stuff’s never exactly a hundred percent legal, rival collectors get a little possessive…” Orlov certainly did. Lose out on an auction, throw a little fit of temper and send your best thief after what you had been after. He’d never seen the appeal in that sort of greed but maybe you needed a few screws loose to truly understand that sort of mania. From what he’d been able to see of it the gem had been pretty but nothing that should’ve induced that sort of lust for it.
Michael knew he’d stepped into a conversational minefield the instant he’d mentioned the words pretty and beautiful. He’d never been the sort of guy who had those sorts of compliments flooding from his brain, he hadn’t romanced his way through college, charming a new woman every weekend. Studying had always come first, the girls were a secondary concern and up until Sara, it wasn’t like he’d been that close to that many. He had been around enough, however, to know that the look he was getting now, the one that had him pausing and frowning a little in consternation was weighted with something. The laughter had still been rolling free when he’d told her that and he forced the chuckle to continue now. ”I said guys saw someone pretty, slender and beautiful when they got a look at you,” he countered, not digging into what he thought himself. The words honestly wouldn’t have sprung to mind if that wasn’t his opinion though. He’d looked and seen those things, and so much more when he’d climbed that wall and attempted to spring to her rescue. Michael’d gotten a glimpse of more than that here down in the cove and knew that the looks that would’ve caught every guy’s eye weren’t half as important as the rest of what he’d seen of her. Hearing her laughter and her self-depreciating comment Michael shook his head. ”Maybe not to your face, they’re thinking it though.” You’d have to be blind not to look at that face and have those adjectives and more tripping over themselves to get off of your tongue.
For Michael relationships had always been a two way street, both parties equally responsible in what went on between them. He’d been the one to kiss her first, OK, there’d been a reason for that, at least in his head, but she’d responded and that’d been the last thing he was expecting. Any sane woman should’ve pushed him away but she hadn’t, she’d let him do it and she’d let him slip his hand behind her and make her comfortable in this crevice in the rock. If it wasn’t for the fact that there were still guards outside Michael might’ve let out the laugh that wanted to burst free. Instead he had to smother a grin, shaking his head down at her. ”But I was the one with the tongue…” And he wasn’t about to apologise for that, not when she’d been giving as good as she’d been getting there. All of it was bringing back memories though, the kiss, the banter over just what it would’ve been like with passion. There’d been no one like that since Sara and he was beginning to feel the first faint stirrings of guilt about having moved on, even for a moment. Michael swallowed hard again, shaking his head to try and clear it of the darkness before he tried to smile back at her. ”Right,” Michael whispered. Agree to disagree was the best he was going to manage under the circumstances, the best he thought he could manage until he’d sat somewhere where he wasn’t likely to die at any minute to think it all through. He couldn’t do that here, not with Ana pressed up against him the way she was.
It was obvious that if he gave her time to think about this Ana would try and stop him going outside. A part of him wanted her to, wanted her to stop him being a hero but Michael knew if he stayed here they’d both end up dead. The guards wouldn’t be delicate in prying them out of their little hide out and if they thought the gem was still in play they’d be vicious in trying to get it back. The only way out was for him to hand himself over, the guy with the empty pockets and the tale of woe. Kissing her was both a distraction to stop her argument and a final goodbye, just in case this went so badly that he couldn’t try and catch up with her later. As they’d done before her arms slid up around his neck and he felt himself slipping away into the kiss, letting everything else around them fall away. Feeling his determination slip, Michael pulled back, leaving them both breathless. He gestured for her to stay, indicated what he was doing and then turned to try and slip away.
Before he could go, she was stopping him, the whisper as effective as a scream in the cave. He stopped, turning back to her as she settled a hand on his cheek. Her other was moving then, slipping something into his pocket as she kissed him again, quick this time. ”Wait, make sure they’re gone before you move out.” Michael told her in the faintest of voices. He settled his hand on hers for a moment, gave it a squeeze and then charged out of the cave at full speed. ”Can you believe that?” he roared as he barrelled into the guard, carrying him down onto the beach with him. ”That bitch broke my neck and took it. She took the gem and she … Christ. Did you get her?” Michael was charging towards the water as if making to follow the guards that had gone out that way. He managed to get to his knees in the waves before two of the guards took him down. One cracked something against his head but Michael was already grinning as he dropped down in the water. Seemed they’d at least partially believed him.
The night kept coming
Really nothing I could do
Eyes with a fire, unquenched, by peace
Curse the beauty, curse the queen