Basima, Spain—June 3, 1968

The house is dark.

It’s been years since her last visit, but she remembers well. The spiral staircase the leads up to the second floor. The short hallway with its arch of a window that looks down upon the ocean.

She follows him, and her heart hitches into her throat, because she knows what comes next.

He turns to her, and she feels his hands on her hips. He’s moving her towards the bedroom.

She sways backwards, and now she’s guiding him. He’s pulling off his jacket.

Her shawl spills to the floor, a thin puddle in the darkness.

On the bed, he pulls her close and they move together, like they had never been apart. She tried to remember how long it had been since they last made love, and couldn’t .

Only that it was too long if it could feel this good.

She holds him with her nails digging into his back. Her own voice sounds foreign to her. She whispers and sometimes groans. He is single minded. She feels him tense against her as  his breathing grows ragged.

And then release. He calls her name, and turns onto his back.

Loaded silence. She is warm, but shivering. It takes a while for her heart to fall back to a normal rhythm.

“Fiona?” he says again, this time, softly. His face remains in shadow.

“Yes?” her voice sounds off. Edgy.

He pauses, just a moment. Instead of speaking again, he kisses her lips and lays back down.  

She nestles into his arms and closes her eyes.

“Okay. You’re awfully quiet,” he teased.

“You always say I talk too much.”

“I do think you’re remembering somebody else.”

Fiona was grateful for the dark, because she could feel her face turning red. He was right. She was thinking of Rafael.

“Justin,” she said, tracing her fingers across his chest. “Can I ask you something?”

“You just did.”

“If I’d met you before I met him….”

“Would we have been together?” he finished her thought. “ Maybe. But we’re together now, aren’t we?”

“That’s not the same.”

He smiled. “Doesn’t matter. I take what you offer.”

Fiona sighed. She was a believer in fate.  All things happened for a reason. Just then, she couldn’t think of any rational reason why she should go back to Rafael. Or why she couldn’t be happy being Justin’s… girlfriend, if nothing else.

Except the fact that Rafael could still destroy her. He’d overlook infidelity. Her not coming back… that was a different thing entirely.

Rafael  made it clear from the beginning that he’d do what he needed to do to keep her under his thumb.

Justin drifted comfortably to sleep. Fiona laid awake, relishing the warmth of his bare skin against hers.

Her memories of him would have to last, she thought sadly.

When Justin woke the next morning, she was gone. Her shawl still laid on the floor.

_________

©2010 Lori Titus

The Marradith Ryder Series, Part 67

Justin put the blindfold over Marradith’s eyes, and whispered into her ear. “Hold still.”

“How long does this last?” Marradith asked.

“It lasts as long as it takes,” he said, tightening the knot at the back of her head.

He kissed her cheek, and gave her a nudge forward.

Justin was gone. She felt the movement of air as he left.

Pausing, she stood, listening.

The woods were full of tiny movements. Branches swaying in the breeze. Birds cooing in the distance.

Leaning into the wind, she could sense Justin. Picking up the trace of his scent, she turned to the left.

The sound of a howl stopped her in her tracks.

A howl that was not Justin’s.

She ran.

Without the benefit of clear vision - she could barely see shapes of trees from beneath her blindfold- she moved swiftly, but clumsily.

The clearing was up ahead of her. Just on the edge of it, she paused.

The movement of air was different here, the scent of the Wolf stronger.

Marradith turned her chin upwards.

The Wolf hurtled down from the trees. She was knocked sideways. When she hit the ground, she pulled the blindfold off her eyes.

The Wolf growled, his pale fur shining like bristles in the sun.

His jaws opened and she saw the shiny maws of his red mouth.

She jumped forward, thrusting her knife into his stomach.

The creature cried out.

Marradith watched as the Wolf grabbed the handle and pulled it out of his stomach.

The animal fell to his knees, and began to shiver.

His snout began to recede, his claws curl under.

“Marradith.”

She jumped at the sound of her name. Justin stood behind her with a grin on his face.

She punched his arm.

“Ouch! Ryder, what…?”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

He laughed. “Well that would have ruined the point of the exercise, wouldn’t it? Turn around, give him a little privacy.”

Marradith shook her head and glared at her husband. She could hear the sounds of the Wolf behind her transforming back into a man: gurgling, cracking, and a long rattle from his throat.

When she heard the sound of steady, deep breathing, she turned around.

The man looked a good four inches taller than Justin, which would make him 6’5. He was fair with pale blue eyes. She guessed he was probably a blond, but his head was shaved.

Everything about him was thick: thick neck, muscular arms, a chest like a football player.

He extended a hand to her. “Marradith. My name is Cord. It’s nice to meet you.”

“I’m sorry about the…knife,” she said, and flashed Justin an angry look.

Cord shook his head. “Well, that was part of the plan. We replaced your knife with one that wasn’t silver, so,” he shrugged, patting his stomach where a scar had already formed. “No damage done.”

“Cord’s a Sojourner,” Justin said. “And a very old friend of mine.”

“I’m going to help out with some of your strength training,” he added. “Justin wasn’t lying when he said you’ve got a good start. But we could work on some things.”

“What things?” Marradith sighed. “And how old is old?”

“You should trust your instincts enough to know where I am by feeling your prey, not by seeing. Trying to see a form through that blindfold cost you a few seconds. And once I came down, you let me knock you off balance.” Cord said.

“Well, I disagree.”

Cord smiled. “Uh huh. Justin mentioned that, too. Well. It’s going to be a couple weeks before we start, I have another assignment I have to complete first. It’s nice meeting you.”

He turned and was gone back into the woods, just as quickly as he came.

“What’s this about?” she asked Justin.

“I could use some extra help getting you trained up, that’ s all. Besides. I never intended to be your only teacher.”

Justin’s cell rang before she could protest further.

It was Fiona.

***

Jenny was awake.

Syd knew because he could hear what she was thinking.

Could anyone love pop music so much? Syd wrinkled his nose as the water sent clouds of steam around him in the shower. She kept that one song in her head so much that he caught himself humming it:

 I got problems with authority/the right/the wrong/and the majority/ain’t got nothing right to do with me/ oh I go down down down/ until I get up get up again again.

 
 
Syd closed his eyes. He should be pleased. But somehow, he was in a mood. He wasn’t happy it all. Jenny’s eyes seemed increasingly vacant to him. And though she did whatever he asked, it just was not satisfying. Maybe, he should draw back some.

There was no fun in control if she wasn’t fighting him, just a little . He wanted to see fear there.

She just held herself stiff as a board and looked into space, with that damn song going through her head.

He was just about to turn off the water when he realized that he hadn’t heard anything for a few moments.

The silence was loud. And then a click.

He stumbled out of the shower and emerged from the bathroom naked.

The door of the room was wide open, and Jenny was nowhere to be seen.

Fumbling with the pants he’d tossed aside the night before, he ran out into the hall just as the elevator opened and she slipped through the door.

The doors closed before he reached them.

He took the stairs.

Syd had made it down to the third floor when he stopped.

She hadn’t gone all the way down. In fact, his senses told him she was going up…

He turned and started back up the stairs when he felt air rush into the stairwell behind him.

“Hey, Syd.”

He turned, and was faced with the business end of a gun.

“Will….?”

“That’s right mother…”

Syd never heard the rest. The gunshot cracked like thunder in the stairwell.

The world went black.

_____