Stud (33 page)

Vertigan and Traldeck nodded and picked up the dranik. Terufen danced alongside them as they carried it up the slope, clearly tickled to death at the prospect of such a rare culinary delight. The others followed. Rufus, however, elected to remain.

As soon as they were out of earshot, Lucy helped Tarq to lie down so she could get a look at his leg. Whatever had cut him had been very sharp, slicing through his pants, leaving a straight cut through the flesh of his upper thigh. The edges were clean and the wound was already beginning to close, though whether from Tarq’s ability to self heal or from Bratol’s blue-green spit, she couldn’t have said. However, she had few doubts that Bratol was responsible for his current state.

As he lay there stretched out on the ground beside her with Rufus curled up against him, Lucy was reminded of the time she’d spent in the little cave in the valley, keeping watch over him and wondering if he’d ever awaken. She consoled herself with the fact that he wasn’t injured anywhere near as badly this time—he was only resting, rather than comatose—but nevertheless she found herself combing her fingers through his hair the way she’d done back then.

She sat there for some time, waiting for him to regain his strength. Gazing out at the mountains to the east, she was wondering how in the world they would ever get through them when Tarq’s stomach let out a loud, persistent growl. Lucy pressed her lips together, trying not to smile. “That’s what you get for going out hunting before breakfast.”

Tarq sighed and rolled onto his back, giving Rufus a pat on the head. “Yeah, well, you know how it is when you’ve got a new bow. You just have to go out and see how well it works.”

“And?”

“Killed a vrelnot with it, so I’d have to say it works pretty well.” He grimaced, rubbing his head again. “Need a slingshot, though—or something like it. With all these rocks lying around everywhere, there’s plenty of ammunition. Don’t suppose you’ve got anything stretchy in that bag of yours, do you?”

Lucy thought for a moment. “Um, the elastic in my underwear, maybe? It’s pretty stretchy.”

Tarq began chuckling uncontrollably. “I can hardly wait to tell Dax I killed a vrelnot—or anything else, for that matter—with a pair of ladies panties.”

“Actually, an elastic bra strap would probably work better, but you haven’t done it yet, you know,” she chided. Though somehow she suspected he would, even if he only used the slingshot to kill a rock rat.

“Got a spare bra?”

Lucy nodded. “Two of ’em.”

“Gonna let me have them?”

“Nope.”

“Hmm… Guess I’ll have to think of something else.”

“I guess you will. Feeling better?”

“Yeah. The effect is wearing off a bit.” Tarq sat up. “Remind me not to go out hunting too early next time.”

“I would have done that this morning if I’d been awake.”

Tarq gave her a conciliatory smile and then sat for a moment, his brow furrowed as though wrestling with a problem. “I’ve been thinking. If I can get more draniks, I can use the hide to make a bola. Might even be able to use vrelnot hide if we can cut through it. A bola will bring down a dranik without any problem—and if I make one that’s big enough, it might even take down a vrelnot.”

Lucy giggled. “Okay. I’ll bite. What’s a bola?”

“Another primitive weapon. Basically, it’s three heavy balls tied to three pieces of rope and you tie the ends of the rope together. You hold one ball and swing it around over your head and then let go of it. They’re used to trip animals by tangling up their legs, but I’ll bet you could tangle up a vrelnot, too—knock them right out of the air.”

“Maybe Bratol was right. Maybe vrelnots aren’t such insurmountable obstacles after all.”

“Maybe not. Let’s hope so, anyway.” He took a deep breath. “I think I can walk now.” He cocked his head and gave her a sly smile. “Want to see one up close?”

“A vrelnot? Sure. After you’ve had something to eat, we’ll go back down and take a look.”

“Nah, let’s go now. There’s something I’d like to check out, now that I’ve had time to think about it.”

“You’re sure you can walk okay?”

“Yeah. That slimy stuff actually makes you feel pretty good after a while.” He got to his feet and held out his hand.

“You
must
be feeling better,” she commented as he helped her to stand.

“Good as new,” he insisted.

He set off down the mountain, never releasing her hand. Obviously not requiring any support himself, Lucy was about to mention that he didn’t need to pretend to be her mate while they were alone, but the feel of his hand was so comforting, she opted not to mention it.

Lucy had seen a few pictures of vrelnots—and was mentally kicking herself for not mentioning the wings to Tarq—but seeing the real thing up close was even more terrifying than she’d anticipated. It was lying on its belly, its dull brown wings stretched out on either side. Based on the size of the trophy at the café she would never have guessed it would have such a wide wingspan, but it had to have measured at least five meters across, and its talons were as long as her forearm and hand combined. She didn’t have to ask Tarq how he’d been injured, either; the barbs on the wingtips and whiplike tail told the tale.

Tarq pulled out his knife and stabbed the hide. There was some resistance, but he
was
able to cut through it. “Huh. Wonder where Traldeck got his information. Granted, this thing has been dead a little while, but still… Well, I’m sure I can defend against them with a bow. Just have to make more arrows. Sharper, heavier points would probably help too.” He wiped the blade on the vrelnot’s skin and slipped it back into the sheath on his belt.

Lucy frowned. “But if they only come out at night, will you be able to see them?”

Tarq chuckled and gestured toward his eyes. “If I can find you in a dark cave in the middle of the night…”

“Point made. But you have to sleep sometime.”

Tarq shrugged. “We’ll post a guard in shifts. Trust me, those things make enough noise that we would hear them coming.” He glanced up at the sky. “The moon is waxing again too. I won’t be the only one able to see in the dark.”

Lucy wasn’t completely convinced, but his confidence was contagious, especially when he pulled the arrow out of the vrelnot’s eye socket. “It went in that far? How close
were
you?”

Tarq laughed. “About this close. It wasn’t in that deep to begin with. I fired from a few meters away and then rammed the arrow on through with a rock.”

Lucy felt the blood drain out of her face. “You mean you were standing right
there
while that thing was still alive?”

He walked away with a wink and a nod, nocking an arrow as he went. When he had gone about twenty paces, he turned and loosed the arrow, which sank into the vrelnot’s side with a good solid thunk. “Hmm. Obviously no one has ever tried shooting them with arrows before.”

Lucy still hadn’t quite recovered from the shock of Tarq being so close to that lethal beak and was surprised at how normal her voice sounded. “Or they shot at them from too far away. Once word got around that pulse weapons were useless and that they could only be killed with a laser, everyone else must’ve simply taken it on faith. I know I wouldn’t want to go up against one with nothing but a bow and arrow—though I’m a little surprised that some macho guy hasn’t seen it as a challenge and come up here to kill one with his bare hands or something equally ridiculous. There are always a few in every crowd.”

Tarq grinned. “Hey, at least I did it with an arrow and a rock.”

“If you
had
come out here to fight it with your bare hands, I’d—” Lucy caught herself before finishing that sentence, deciding that threatening to smack his butt might not be the best thing to say in this instance—made her sound too much like a wife.

He yanked the arrow from the vrelnot’s hide and then stood smirking at her with his head cocked to one side. “You’d… what?”

“Um, nothing,” Lucy replied. She glanced around nervously. “Didn’t you want to skin this thing or something?”

The smirk became even more pronounced. “Maybe.” He thrust the arrow through the loop that hung from his belt. “Or maybe I just wanted to bring you here to show you what a tough macho man I can be.”

“Why would you want to do that?” Her voice was much higher pitched than normal, something Tarq was bound to notice. Clearing her throat, she took it down a notch. “Anyway, I’ve never been impressed by that sort of thing.”

“So you think I’m trying to impress you?”

Feeling more flustered by the second, she brushed a stray wisp of hair away from her eyes. “Isn’t that what you just said?”

He shook his head, smiling at her in the strangest way. “I never said I wanted you to be impressed.”

“Well, what you did
is
impressive,” she said firmly. “Very impressive.” Nodding toward the cave, she added, “None of those other guys could’ve done it.”

Tarq shouldered his bow. “Why, thank you, Lucy. That means a lot to me.”

He took her hand and together they headed back to the cave with Rufus trotting along ahead of them. Tarq didn’t tease her anymore, and though Lucy was grateful for the respite, she had a sneaking suspicion that the game wasn’t over—not by a long shot. He’d simply let her off the hook. For now.

Chapter 22

Granted, it was only a sham, but Lucy made a damn good wife. Upon their return to the cave, she made sure Tarq got something to eat and then led him to a little niche at the rear of the cavern where water trickled down from above like a miniature waterfall. The water’s incessant dripping had carved a pool in the rocky floor over time which measured roughly a meter and a half from rim to rim, the overflow disappearing through another crack in the mountain’s heart. Shielded from the rest of the cave by a large stone slab that evidently had fallen from the ceiling, it was relatively private.

The water was icy cold, but when Lucy helped Tarq strip off his clothes in order to rinse the blood from them, he was surprised there wasn’t steam rising off him. Just her nearness made his temperature rise, not to mention what it did to his cock.

Bratol had told him to leave the healing fluid on his wounded leg until the sticky residue dried and flaked off. Tarq was doing his best to keep it dry and still get the blood off his leg, but it was difficult.

“Here, I’ll do that,” Lucy said. Leaving his clothes to soak in the pool at the foot of the waterfall, she handed him a wad of crushed leaves. “I’d never heard of it myself, but Crilla calls this stuff soapweed. It grows wild here in the mountains and sort of lathers up when you get it wet and mush it up with your hands.”

Without the benefit of soap or scrail cloths, Tarq had been a little concerned that Lucy might not be able to stand the stench of him before long and was pleased to find that the soapweed actually worked. It even had a fresh herbal scent.

Kneeling down in front of him, Lucy began soaping up his leg with the leaves, seeming not to notice his massive erection. “Believe it or not, I brought a needle and thread with me in case I had to repair the duffel bag, so I can probably sew up that split in your jeans—if the needle hasn’t gotten lost. It might’ve poked through the bag somewhere along the way.”

Her tone was merely conversational, but Tarq sucked in a breath when she slid her hand up his leg—more due to how close she came to his groin than her proximity to the wound. “What would you use in place of the needle?”

“I thought maybe I could use a thorn. There are some bushes just down the hill that have really sharp ones.”

“Good idea. And if that doesn’t work, I’m sure we can figure out another way.” He gasped again as her knuckles grazed his balls.

“Kinda touchy there, aren’t you?”

Since his cock was as hard as the rock he was standing on, Tarq would’ve thought the reason for his reaction was perfectly obvious. Then again, whenever he was near her, he was almost always hard. She might have been getting used to it, but
he
certainly wasn’t. “The water is making your hands cold.”

She nodded complacently. “Traldeck can heat up the water as it comes through the crack in the rocks up above just by staring at it, but he has to be standing here while someone else takes their shower. He said he didn’t mind—I washed my hair this morning while he did it; couldn’t stand that cold water on my head—but if you want any privacy at all… well, you’ll just have to tolerate the cold.”

Tarq made a mental note to make sure Lucy was well out of range of his nose anytime Traldeck was acting as water heater for him. Otherwise things could get a little embarrassing.

“No, wait!” Lucy jumped to her feet. “Hold on. Got an idea.” As she scurried off, Tarq could hear her calling out for Traldeck. Fearing the worst, Tarq retrieved his jeans and was at least holding them in front of his stiff penis when Lucy returned, waving the saucepan. Traldeck followed close behind her.

“Now, Traldeck, if you’ll just stare at that pool of water and get it really, really hot, the water coming down will cool it off some, and then I can dip it out with the pan and use it to rinse him off.”