Chapter 53: Sheath
She laid on her stomach in the tree, her weight supported by a thicker branch as her head rested upon her folded arms. The caravan had stopped for another break, the mid-sun light filtering through the dense golden canopy in beams to break the shade. The gentle rustling of leaves in the mild breeze covered any sounds she could possibly make as she adjusted her legs to cross one over the other.
Joseph was quietly eating his portion of the food cooked over a small fire that they could easily snuff out and cover before leaving, his continued self-imposed isolation growing more absolute as the suns passed. He continued to look for her during the moons, often wandering some distance away from the pack in search of the origin of what she could only assume was the ‘peppermint’ scent he claims to be able to identify quite easily.
Were it not for the fact that she had not reapplied it since the moon she marked him and herself, then he might have very well noticed how close she tended to remain, though always out of sight.
An absent paw rubbed her arm in remembrance.
“Mistress.” A Blade addressed her, landing in a branch next to her. The female held forward a fresh portion of meat, the warmth still radiating off the folded leaf Joseph had provided as a plate in their limited version of tableware.
Tel exhaled slowly, her eyes still focus on her male. “Speak.”
“The Grand Hunter has inquired if you would join them.”
A glance was afforded to the messenger. The dark leathers, both dyed and natural, obscured the colour of her fur and allowed her to blend into the shadows with greater ease. A common crutch for the newly-forged. Tel returned her focus.
“I will not.”
The female stiffened for a moment, but accepted the denial, handing her the portion that Tel knew was prepared for her in case she did not wish to descend from her surveillance. The constant consideration brought a small smile to her face. Her Human would always ask, but never insist. Even though it had been five suns since Sahari had admonished her for her phantasmal presence around the male, Tel couldn’t quite commit to a decision just yet.
She followed the path of the few; a bloody staircase built upon deeds that the Human would never willingly climb without just catalyst. She knew that he had fallen for her, the gaze he held now spoke of nothing else but longing and uncertainty when he began searching the trees in a futile attempt to locate her, but her way of life was tied to the tenets. A Sheath was to be found and claimed as soon as one could, lest they be stolen by another. If two Blades had chosen a single Sheath, then only one Blade would remain to claim them.
Yet Joseph held another. Not a Blade, to be certain, but another nonetheless. One whom could not properly mark their territory nor distinguish Tel’s. No issue beyond the social would befall her action in regards to the diminutive Paw that awaits her bond should Tel push her right against the one whom could not do the same.
No marking, no claim. Could she really embrace the letter of her teachings instead of the spirit? Was it a concession she was willing to make to her code?
She watched her male, his forlorn expression at an unsuccessful attempt to locate her causing Tel’s chest to tighten. He had not laid eyes on her since they departed from Loptr’s settlement, and each passing moon he seemed more and more worried. She did not wish to trouble him so, but she must have much time to ruminate and consider what she herself wished to do.
“Mistress, if I may...”
Tel flicked an ear in the Blade’s direction, her presence ever limited, but still obvious enough to the cook. “Speak.”
The female chose her words carefully. “Why must we serve that male?”
Tel blinked, a disinterested glance at the low one to her side was given as she laid the food aside. The Blade was crouched on a branch next to herself, one paw placed against the trunk of the tree to stabilize. She returned her regard to her male. “Because we must.”
“Surely you could simply obscure his demise as one of wildlife origin? You have marked him, yet are not mated. One such as yourself could easily claim continuance in his stead as a Grand Huntress.”
A series of soft clicks sounded from Tel’s back, each just quiet enough to pass below the volume of the leaves as her tail gently pulled line loose. “Tell me, dull one, what is the closest you have been to death?”
The Blade seemed taken aback to be addressed as such, but as one whom was unproven, they were little better than a bludgeon until proven otherwise. “The Trials, Mistress.”
Tel hummed in acknowledgement, unsure why she expected a different answer from one such as this. She flicked the dagger to her foot with her tail, kicking the tied blade behind the trunk of the tree and allowing the inertia to swing it around the circumference. A soft thunk accompanied the panicked choking as the line wrapped around the tree, pinning the female’s throat to it, the dagger securing itself by wrapping around its own rope. Tel pulled the line slightly with her foot to ensure that the Blade would not free herself as she lounged.
“The Trials...”
Tel could still freshly remember her own. Four hundred kits dropped into a ruined city, the remains from some war or such. It mattered not at the time. They were donned collars that would track their location and vitals for the benefit of Avalon observers to determine the results.
She remembered the rain. The running. The kinetics being let loose against her position as she scurried from cover to cover with nought but sewing needles embedded into her knee from a male who saw it fit to defile her before giving her the mercy of the Void. She remembered the light fading from that male as she used his own weapon to pierce his heart. The adrenaline and satisfaction that his last breath gave her.
Four suns were spent escaping the male’s companions, each on their own vendetta. The blood loss and occasional graze from guns that the others had found scattered throughout the skeleton of the city had left her weary. Her fur stood out in the environment, unlike many of the chosen, forcing her to silence herself. She learned at a young age what it meant to bear pain with little more than gritted teeth, lest a quiet whimper escaping as she removed shrapnel from her arm be the omen of her demise.
Four hundred became three hundred, then two, then only fifty. Many of which knew nothing but the last location she led them to suspect before their muzzle was clamped shut by her tail and their throats pierced by her needles. She would have been happy to hide from the hunt, but her lineage drew a bounty, and with it, numbers.
The last three suns were spent being hunted by kits who had found automatic rail-guns and plasma rifles. Their temporary leader acted as a spotter for the heavy kinetics operator who could decimate her cover from a building several blocks away. All they needed to do was end her and they could all pass as a group. Ten kits armed tooth and claw with more ammunition than they could ever need.
Tel learned a lot about those weapons over those suns. Exactly how long it took for the magnets to reengage between volleys. How quickly the plasma would reach its destination from the slight flash of light. How many rounds each weapon held, and the subtle differences in the near noiseless operation they functioned under. She began identifying manufacturing differences caused by even the slightest slip in tolerances. The smallest change in frequency that a minute deviation in calibration caused. She identified which gun was held by whom, as well as how long that particular kit took to reload, acquire their target, and how many rounds they preferred to send down range.
Ten became nine. Eight. Four. Two. Not a single one could alert their comrades. Not one knew more than the needle.
The snipers were the biggest issue, but even those were dispatched as she spent an entire sun carefully moving between debris. The last words of the spotter was his declaration that he would restrain her and use her to relieve the stress she had caused him.
The sniper didn’t even notice his spotter silently fade just two steps behind him. Nor did he feel the needle that severed his brain stem.
Out of the surviving six, only she had earned a name from those that had found the result of her struggle. Her hidden leftovers were all discovered with no noticeable cause of death, their fur hiding the punctures.
The Phantom
Never seen. Never heard. Never found.
The result of her plight was one of absolution. She became the heiress of Avalon upon the bodies.
She felt the reassuring presence of the quills she kept tucked away in her fur. The first gift her male had given her. Her first weapon that had ended more lives than any other she had touched since. How ironic for one so opposed to killing to bestow upon her such a proven item. The thing she ripped out of her own body to pierce the heart of the ones whom thought to soil her.
The muffled choking to her side ruined the satisfaction she felt remembering the collar dropping as the final kill solidified in her claws, the excitement of survival at the expense of the lives belonging to those who sought to end her own. The joy of elimination that had long since escaped her.
Tel removed her eyes from her male to gaze at the Blade, the female struggling to breathe, yet remaining as she was. Not completely useless, it seemed.
“The Trials are known to be a final test of the forged, though they are not the end of the Void that seeks us.” Tel plucked the taut line with her other foot, the low buzz being the only sound she cared for since her male remained silent.
“The true embrace of the Void is one most exciting, did you know?” Tel giggled softly as echos of the electricity she felt that moon arced within her. “The cold tendrils that paralyze your bones and freeze your blood. The ever-expanding black that threatens to consume you.”
She looked back to her male, her yearning growing as fondness dominated her vision. “That male would deliver upon you the purest that the Void might offer, though it is locked away until it is needed.”
The Blade seemed doubtful as she choked down another hint of air, her eyes growing dull as oxygen failed to be processed in any meaningful amount. Tel lowered her leg slightly to allow the female breath, a sharp gasp was permitted and used to speak. “He is of no natural weapons, nor proficiency in ones provided. We could easily claim your position by the moon. He is undeserving of your reverence, Mistress.”
Tel enjoyed the instantaneous silencing of the female’s critique when she raised her leg again, a chuckle rumbling in her chest. “You have not seen him at his base. I implore you to threaten harm to his kit, dull one. Your existence would be short, but even you might revel in sensation he would impart upon you as he used your very flesh as a weapon against you. The pleasure of release from the realm we occupy would be imparted swiftly and with little more than cool efficient brutality.”
Tel sighed, looking back at the female. “Though, if you prefer, you could speak of harming him again? I promise you not such a fulfilling end, but I would release you eventually. Perhaps I would sever your tendons and leave you for the sparse avian? Paralyze you and allow the wolves to feast upon your still, yet feeling flesh?”
Tel sat up onto the branch, displeased that she would need abandon her comfort for such foolishness, yet determined to send a message. She leaned forward, keeping the line taut as she caressed the face of the Blade. “Oh, dull one. You know not of the depths I have travelled for little more than a pursuit of what will be mine. I believe I have found it. Were you to so much as think about taking it...” She pulled the line violently, feeling the fine boundary between life and death that she held in her paw working against the female. “I will take many suns eliminating you. You will beg and pray. You will wish for swiftness. You will scream as pain turns to pleasure. I will leave you broken, mind and body. And only when you truly know how close we live to the Void, will I release you to it. Not one soul will know of what happened to you, just that you are no longer.”
The female kept her eyes locked on Tel’s, fear and veneration in equal parts visible through her widened pupils. The look of those whom travel the path. The lust that originates from walking the fine thread of the ephemeral existence of a Blade.
Tel tapped her dagger with a claw and released the ratchet with her tail, the line untangling itself and knife whipping back around the tree to be caught in her paw. The female gasped for breath, but Tel could smell the heat on her. Such a strange thing, though she had little room to critique. It afflicted most whom survived.
“Here, dull one.” Tel cupped her jaw with a paw, holding the dagger forward. The female didn’t even flinch as Tel cut a single line under her eye. A shallow cut, barely enough to bleed, but a symbol in its own right. The designation of one who had stepped beyond their station. It would heal, but scar. Tel held but one upon her own form, though it has faded since its inception as a kit. A single life spared. A single life that had to be ended after it rained death upon a city of millions. A single mistake. A single correction that had to be made.
“Thank you, Mistress,” the female managed once Tel released her.
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“I would be remiss to remove one from my retinue after a mere consideration of her better.” Tel waved it off with a casual paw, not bothering to mention how her male would despise her should she do so and sighing a bit when she noticed the caravan getting ready to continue.
The Blade bowed deeply, presenting her neck should Tel deem it fit to sever. “It was foolish of me to assume your Sheath lower.”
Her Sheath...
“They are departing,” Tel dismissed firmly, “resume your duties as the Grand Hunter has assigned.”
With a short nod of understanding, the female silently departed to her scouting, three others whom had been within earshot following. Tel looked at her male, the Human scouring the forest for the slightest hint of her before dejectedly moving out.
Tel knew that Trill had given her an impossible task. To return with a Grand Hunter or Grand Huntress was to leave their pack behind, which could only be done if they already had a Paw to oversee it while they were gone. They would fail the first verse of the Blade before she could present them.
Yet she did it.
No mark besides her own, yet still a person of proper station. So why did she not give her vow?
She was brought back to Sahari’s words, asserting that Pan did not hinder her claim to her Sheath. Perhaps not, but it still felt wrong.
She watched her male walk away as she stood upon her branch to follow.
Her Sheath.
She sighed deeply. It seemed to have been decided long before now.
First, she must fix what she had broken. Then she might claim him as her own properly.
She dropped from the tree with meat in paw and kicked off the trunk to land with a casual saunter while remaining hidden from the group. She would wait for the moon and privacy to speak to him.
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Joseph walked through the trees under the moonlight on his short journey to relieve himself. It was weird to take a leak while knowing there were several people constantly watching him, but he wasn’t about to piss himself just because of it. He found a suitable place out of view that seemed somewhat isolated and took care of the issue.
They were making decent enough time, though they were still far behind his expected schedule. If they had arrived at Trill’s, turned around, and left instantly like he had been planning to do, they would arrive sometime tomorrow. As it stood, however, they were still three or four days out. With no way to communicate that they would be late, he worried Pan would be heartbroken that he had taken so long. Worse still, they could assume that he died on his way.
Violet might be devastated, but Pan and the rest would look after her in his place. Rob would likely work with them to get them off the planet, if only because Joseph treated them as family.
Really, he worried about Nalah. She had asked him to bring her loved one back, and the tone she used spoke volumes to how hard it was for her to accept them parting.
He had his suspicions regarding the two for a while now, but the recent increase in intimate contact confirmed it. The only issue was that Sahari seemed to be refusing to acknowledge that she was so obvious about it. The ease that radiated from her when Nalah was close was enough for him to be pretty damn sure that the affection went both ways, just that Sahari didn’t want to ruin anything by admitting it first. Though, his few talks with her on the subject without mentioning Nalah specifically seemed to have pushed her in the right direction.
He sighed as his zipper broke off, chucking the mangled metal into the woods with little enthusiasm. His belt was about to give out as well, which didn’t make him excited for the rest of the trip. His shoes already had small holes worn into the rubber allowing water to soak into his socks. Luckily enough, no one minded when he took both off to dry over every fire they started. Not that it would stop him. The dampness lead to sore and bleeding feet rather quickly in his experience, and he wasn’t in a hurry to encourage it.
The only part of his clothing that wasn’t on the way out was his trench coat, but that was brand new. Fortunately, it covered the shirt that started to have holes worn into it though heavy use. He was kind of wishing he had packed more for the trip, but clothing took up valuable room they needed for food and healroot.
He did his usual scan of the trees on the off chance that he could find Tel, the elusive cook having made herself scarce for almost a week now. The only reason he was sure she was still alive was the occasional report handed in by one of Trill’s girls from her.
Finding nothing, he sighed, turning to return to the fire to sleep until it was his watch, speaking to the empty air in case she was close enough to hear. “Good night, Tel.”
He was pulled backwards firmly by a paw to his chest from behind him, himself pressing to a body. With no familiar scent, he felt his heart rate spike until a purred chuckle resonated through his back.
“The moon is young, my male.”
Tel’s voice startled him, if only because of how unexpected it was. He felt her nuzzle into his neck, her other arm wrapping around his stomach.
“Jesus, Tel. Don’t scare me.” He went to remove her arms from him before he got too comfortable.
She tightened her hold on him. “Is it so unfortunate that I appear? I thought you quite captivated by me before, surely I have not become so horrendous to your eyes, no?”
The breathy utterance into his ear sent a shiver down his spine as the tempting lilt played through his mind. He tried to remove himself from her again to little effect as she moved a paw to caress his throat. “You fucked off for like six days. You haven't spoken to me since Trill. I just wanted to make sure you were doing okay.”
His breath hitched as she traced a claw down his windpipe, teeth nipping at his neck. “And here I am, unharmed and well.”
Joseph’s mood soured as he forced distance between them, turning to glare at her. “I told you that you can stop fucking around with me.”
Tel held an arm outwards, paw stretched as if to stop him of leaving, before pulling it back, her expression pained and confused. “I’m not.”
He felt his face darken against his will. “We’ll get home in a few days. Then you can do whatever you want to instead of amusing yourself like this.”
She gripped his arm tightly when he turned to leave, a serious tone was pushed into her voice. “I’m not doing it for my amusement.”
He tore his arm free, a venom soaking his words. “Then what, Tel? Why the fuck are you doing this? I just wanted to make sure you were okay before I went to bed. What do you want? To rub it in?”
His chest hurt at the way she recoiled from his words, but his bitter resentment for himself was turning outward. “What would I ridicule you for?”
“Oh, I don’t know, maybe that I was fucking stupid enough to think you felt the same way. Maybe that I played along to your tune like an idiot.” He tossed his arms high, the repressed anger seeping out.
“That’s-” She started, but Joseph had more to say.
“How about all the fucking secrets that I keep learning about last minute? Your dad being some black market dealer or some shit, and the one we were going to see? Some fucking assassin shit that I’m dragged into and then promptly told I’m not good enough to be involved in?”
Tel’s voice took on a dejected tint for a moment. “Joseph...”
“How about being told I’m not good enough for you? Huh?” Tears formed in his eyes as he vented off his inner turmoil that he tried so hard to rationalize away. He stepped closer to the female, forcing her to back up until she was stopped by a tree. “Did you drag me along like that just so you could rub it in my face that I’ll never have kids? Is that it? Get someone else to deliver the news? ‘Hey, idiot! You’ll never be able to give her what she wants!’”
Tel’s eyes widened as his frustrations manifested as wet streaks on his cheeks, his voice growing cold.
“Well, you made your fucking point, Tel. Even if we were the same, I’d never be able to hold my own child. Thanks for the fucking reminder. It was nice to live without being haunted by that fact for so long, but I guess all good things come to an end, huh?” He choked out a wet laugh. “What a way to remember! Just have another woman dump me on my ass for the same fucking thing, light years away from the first. I can’t even escape it here.”
Joseph drove a finger into her chest. “That’s forgetting that I gave into everything, disregarding the fact that I have someone waiting for me back home. Were you trying to ruin that for me too? Fucking strip me of everything I’m trying so desperately to hold on to? Is that why you came onto me that night? Why you sounded so disappointed when I wanted to wait? You wanted to make sure I had nothing left before delivering the final blow?”
Tel’s expression hardened with determination as she grabbed his hand. “Joseph.”
“It’s all secrets and subterfuge with you! One minute you’re looking at me like I’m the most important thing in your life, the next you’re fucking off into the woods for days at a time without so much as an explanation. Is making me worry about you just that much fun?”
“Joseph.”
He closed his eyes to stymie the emotions that fell out of him. “Is this all you wanted? Make me give up my convictions and sensibilities, make me fall for you like the dumb-ass I am, then watch me flounder as I try to cope with it? Just insert yourself into my life and laugh at the hole you leave behind?”
A paw fell to his cheek, the pad wiping away the tears. The tender kiss was far too easy to surrender to, his arms losing the strength to resist as his heart viciously wrenched away reason. He felt her claws tease his skin as they slowly separated, his eyes opening, himself drained from the unexpected flood of emotions.
Tel’s smile was of a wistful nature, no joy was on display as she continued to glide her touch across his skin. “What do you wish of me, Joseph?”
“I don’t know,” he answered honestly, his voice harsh and his gaze fixated on her amber irises, the black portals in between the golden light staring through him to his deepest wants.
A dry huff of amusement was returned, the female pressing her forehead to his with heavy eyelids. “You do, my male. You just do not wish to voice your desire.”
He closed his eyes as he soaked in her touch. “I just want the truth. I can’t keep doing this.”
She pulled away slowly, maintaining their barely existent contact. “I’ve ended more lives than you have likely influenced, Joseph, and I hold no shame in such. Many were for my own survival, some for the survival of others, but most were for little more than to achieve the orders given to me. To satisfy the gains of people in possession of power and funds. Do you know why I was on a military vessel?”
Joseph listened quietly, shaking his head softly at her question.
“My blood-father arranged a pairing with a great power. I refused, for I wished not to bear kits of other than my Sheath, if at all. I wished not to discard the tradition... the reminder of my blood-mother. I became a Blade like she did. Wrote history like she did... I sought to find my own Sheath as she did before.” Tel laid her paws on his hips as a forlorn expression passed her eyes. “I made a deal with Trill, for he always honours his contracts without fail. I would bring him enough funds to exceed the value the pairing would bestow upon Avalon, and I would be free to pursue my desire... My credence, my standards for the contracts I accepted, faltered as I scraped for what I needed. I wrought more bloodshed than any other Blade in generations. All without a single identifier left behind.”
Joseph’s shoulder sunk as he absorbed the weight of what he was being told. Tel’s smile deepened with sorrow as she continued.
“When the Union attacked, it eliminated my final target, as well as the contractor. Trill bought and bribed his way onto that ship after I was conscripted. I was never supposed to exist, officially. Yet his insistence of his actions revealed me to them, and thus, they stormed my hideaway and pulled me in. At first I resisted, but I quickly accepted as it would free me.”
She closed her eyes and pulled him in closer. He allowed the touch, if only because he was already intoxicated by the presence that he had been denying his longing for.
“He was there. The contract still in effect. When the ship failed, Trill struck. His people sabotaged the ship, informing several on his payroll in the process whom informed others, and they escaped with whatever supplies they could abscond with, however little. I was given a choice, Joseph. I was to return with a Sheath, or I was to be assigned a suitable male. I slipped into the first-years that were abandoned to begin my search.” She stared into him, his reflection showing a thin line of moisture building upon his eyes. “I found you.”
“So, why toss me to the side? Assuming I’m following everything, you brought me to him for a reason. I mean beyond the treaty. You made a point of marking me and everything. What changed?” He replied weakly.
“The mark...” She averted her gaze, her claws digging into his skin as her paws tensed, a flat laugh escaped her. “It was for your protection. Were you not displayed as mine, you would have fallen with little concern for a treaty you were not protected under, and I would have defaulted on my contract.”
“So, that’s it? You saved my life again, I guess, but that’s all that was to this? That’s why you did... everything, just to back off so suddenly?”
Tel refocused on him, a gentle stroke of her tail graced his back as it coiled around him. “No. A requirement for a Sheath is to bear no mark other than my own. They are to be singularly devoted as I would be. Two with the will of one.”
He drew a breath. “Pan.”
Her paw rested back on his cheek.
“Your bond,” she confirmed. “I had vain hopes of claiming you from her, but you persisted.”
“So this was never going to work.” He whispered, defeat leaving him with little strength. His eyes widened as she pulled him in for a kiss, her touch firm yet gentle.
“No,” She admitted as their lips parted, a drunken feeling of need reciprocated. “Not if I was to hide behind the shadow of my predecessor.”
“Why all this then?” he pleaded quietly. “You could have just backed off and forgot about everything.”
The first genuine smile was given at his words. “I could have, but I would have suffered for it. I’ve suffered much, Joseph. All for accomplishing little more than the whims of others. Others who thought of me as barely a means for political gain through whatever ghastly method required. Tell me, my male. Would you send me to slaughter for merely your own shallow benefit?”
Joseph blinked, a hint of anger tinting his expression. “Absolutely not.”
“Would you task me with such if it meant your pack would be safe?”
He paused for a moment, trying to maintain the same denial in spite of the certainty. She gave a light touch with her soft chuckle, his emotions chaotic yet accepting.
“You would, and I would oblige without hesitation upon your command. That is what it means to be my Sheath, Joseph. Knowing when to draw your Blade and doing so with conviction. My edge has been honed by years of necessity. I am a tool to be used when no other will suffice. Would you wield me to defend you and yours?”
A long breath was cycled. “If you had asked me before all of this shit, I think I would have walked away. I don’t want to kill people, Tel.”
“Does my past disturb you?”
He raised his shoulders in a slow shrug. “In a way. All I can do is accept the reality of our situation. Someone like you being around makes our odds better. I’ve started to internalize that.”
“You mentioned you feel safer with me. Is that still true, knowing what I am for certain?”
The Grand Hunter huffed softly. “As long as you’re on my side, yeah.”
Tel tilted her head, her eyes warmly staring back at him. “Then would you wield me?”
“...Only if there was no other way. A last resort.”
Tel lightly pushed him back a step, pulling a dagger from her thigh and holding it to him by the blade with a look of expectation. He hesitantly accepted it, prompting her to close her eyes and drop her armour, her tail guiding his temporary weapon her chest with the tip pressing towards her heart.
“I offer myself to you, my Sheath. My steel shall remain ethereal until your command. My ire stilled without your will. My methods controlled by the one whom reforged me. My targets selected by your wish. My life surrendered to your own with a vow to protect it.” Her tail held his wrist, pressing the blade into her breast just enough to avoid piercing the skin. “I place my being in your claws. I give you my mark, my body, my heart, and my soul to be used as you see fit. Should this foolish female be unsuitable, then end her with her own knife, for there is no existence for a Blade without their Sheath. Do you accept this one?”
Joseph tried to pull the dagger back, stunned by what she was asking. “Tel, I’m not killing you over something like this. That’s insane.”
Her tail didn’t relent, though her voice grew more resolute. “Do you accept?”
“Tel, I’m not letting you use me to avoid some stupid agreement with your parent.”
“I’m not using you to escape anything, Joseph. I wish to be yours as you will be mine.” She opened her eyes to give him a firm but pleading look. “There is little reason for me to draw breath beyond this vow, for it would be folly to assume a meaningful existence without. I would be left searching once more for less than I have found.”
He took a breath, averting his eyes to compose himself. “Children are off the table, you know that.”
“I care not.” She whispered, her voice unwavering. “That is merely the wish of Trill.”
“I have someone waiting for me at home.”
Tel smiled. “I am aware, my male. It does not dull my wish.”
“I’m not telling you to kill someone unless it was my only option, assuming I ask you to do anything at all.”
“Then I would still be serving my purpose. I have never taken that which was not required for my survival nor orders.”
He glanced back at her, the look of satisfaction on her face growing as she dismissed his concerns. His eyes searched the woods idly. “No more secrets.”
“All will be told. My Sheath will know all that I am.”
He chewed his cheek with a sigh. “On one condition.”
“Any, my male.”
He released the dagger, it barely making noise as it dropped to the forest floor. “You deny if I ask you to do anything too dangerous. I don’t know your limits. If you would get hurt trying something, I want to be told the most you could do without that happening. No self-sacrificial bullshit. Your safety is paramount.”
Tel reached out to pull him close, her voice moist. “Do you accept me?”
His palm rested on her collar, his thumb tracing below her jaw as his fingers held her tightly. He felt his touch grow firm as he internalized what he had gotten himself into. What he was about to accept. What he was willing to overlook. How little it all mattered to him in the moment.
“I hate you, I hope you know that. I never would have been okay with any of this.”
Tel shifted him in forcefully, deftly switching their positions so that his back was pressed to the tree, her claws scraping slightly against his chest plate. She poured her words like sweet syrup as her face hovered near his own.
“And yet you burn for me, as I do you.” Her eyes wandered his features, the distance waning and the warmth of her body radiating against him. “Fear not, I will allow you to maintain your promise to her.” A sadistic giggle floated softly. “For now.”
“You’re a terrible influence.” He did nothing to stop their lips from meeting.
The moonlight reflected against her eyes when she pulled away, brightening them further as her half-lidded gaze was paired with a satisfied smirk. “I know.”