Thank you all for reviewing! I am sorry, I meant to have this posted on
Valentines Day but so goes life. To clear it up, in the last chapter I
referred to 494 as It. Sorry to disappoint, but I don't think that I'll be
having him kill Logan. That isn't to say that someone else won't do it.
As Virginia Woolfe says, "one of them must die so that the rest of us
appreciate life more." Or it goes something like that. So anything might
happen. No teary faces, some characters are just too cute to kill off.
Enjoy. Or not. Free will and all that.
Love. Sweet love. It makes us lie and kill. It makes us insane with jealousy and impotent with rage. It makes us glow with the light of one another.
What makes us burn; chemical signals, fate, signs in the stars? Love makes us stupid, love makes of us fools. Love makes us wise, sometimes. It makes us stronger and inexonerably weaker.
We fall in and out of love like changing a dirty pair of socks for another, and sometimes we put just as much thought into it. Ain't love grand? #############################################################
The footsteps moved off and my break escaped in a little rattling hiss. "Josh." Static crackles over my earpiece.
"Joshua here Little-fella." The soft voice is so welcome that I nearly sob aloud.
"Joshua, they've moved past our position. We're going to hold up here for another half hour or so, make sure that it's safe. Then we'll meet up with the others at the truck.
"Got you Little-fella, Joshua out." Our connection breaks and once again I am cornered by reality; stuck in a tight, hot, little ventilator shaft with the chilling remains of my best-friend. Seconds tick by. To my surprise, 494 is the first to break the silence.
"Perhaps there were security precautions in place in the factory, which were not mentioned in the reconnaissance report."
Well thank you Captain Obvious. Since I hadn't screwed up the job and 494 had assuredly, and so unlike his alter-ego, not screwed up the job; there must have been a flaw in Logan's Intel.
Either age was making him careless, or Logan's worry for me was distracting him. He'd been so reluctant for me to go on this mission. Although I wasn't sure if his contention had been over my safety or over the idea of thieving from a legitimate corporation.
I didn't see why he would worry for my safety. He hadn't been all that squeamish about sending on life or death Eyes Only missions.
Two ugly thoughts hit me simultaneously. The first was that Logan had always seemed terribly unconcerned with my safety when he had been the one putting me in jeopardy. He had had no qualms about sending me up against mobsters and psycho-killers.
The other nasty thought was that the Intel on this factory must have been ridiculously easy to gather for a hacker of his skill. That meant that he had been careless, an unforgivable offense in a soldier's eyes.
A worse conclusion was that he had set me up to fail, knowing that I was capable of evading capture, but that the setback would might effectively keep the company safe from my thieving ways.
"Logan may have missed something when he was hacking into their mainframe here." Even through my doubts, I am trying to protect him.
"The information must have been hidden ma'am, Mr. Cale seems to be very thorough in his planning."
Thorough? Now that was an understatement. Not only were Logan's socks color coordinated to match the candles on his dining room table; but I was pretty sure that he had his past dinners and moonlit walks planned out until 2029.
In both is life's work and his romances, he had strictly regimented ideas about right and wrong.
Don't steal from people, though in his new hard times that credo had morphed into, don't steal from people who aren't murderers or philandering politicians.
Treat women like princesses. They are porcelain, and should they fall of their pedestals they may shatter.
Well, what woman didn't want to be treated like a princess? Spontaneous acts of loving devotion were what made life worth living.
Spontaneous acts.
I tried to shake my dissatisfaction. I had led a rough, uncertain life. What did I know about romance? Wasn't that what Logan was for, to teach me about love?
Nope, no dissatisfaction, unhappiness all gone. Except that somehow, the romance seemed cloying. I wanted to drown in my passions, not be drowned by affection. Somehow there was a difference there.
A shake on the arm brought me back down to earth. Hazel eyes, opaque and oblivious, forced me to shutter away my soul-searching.
All of these romantic ruminations had taken up the entire half hour and it was time for another swim. My inner feline shuddered. ###########################################################
Understanding dawned on Alec like a cold swim. His own alter-ego wasn't beast or a monster, he was a blessing in disguise.
As a shred of the soldier had been harbored in Alec's soul, so a remnant of the man remained 494. A man determined to be with the woman that he loved.
To give him his due, the soldier was managing a task with Alec had figured impossible. While the job of turning Max away from Logan would have been nearly impossible for a man as smitten with her as Alec was; a seemingly uninterested third party could get close enough to plant that spark of doubt in her brain.
Purpose filled Alec and the encroaching darkness trickled away. Nothing was ever impossible if you believed in it enough. He had to hold on, he had to find a way back. #############################################################
She followed at a distance.
A heady sense of attraction filled her as she watched the little soldier woman and her protector slink back to meet their compatriots.
Lela's mate would have sliced her limb from limb had he known she felt an attraction to one of the "filthy animals"; but some primal quality in the male soldier drew her. A beast of the same material from which she had been cut.
She smiled to herself. Ames had never been told of her heritage when they were wedded. The fool had simply been glad to be matched with her rather than one of those thick-bodied cows that the familiars called sisters.
While most of their women were of the sturdy and thick-boned Northern European stock, chosen for their health and strength, she was something a bit more exotic.
It had all started 400 hundred years ago at the behest of an early Sandeman. He had believed that the women bread by the familiars lacked a certain ruthless cunning. Although they could be vicious and fierce, they didn't have that certain animalistic edge.
Lela was a direct descendant of the first of Sandeman's experiments in feral rage. Her great two the third grandmother had been a simple Sicilian farm girl. Lucia, the beautiful girl in the average arranged marriage. Then dear old Guilio had felt free to start fooling around like the good for nothing fathers before him.
A little belladonna in the chianti to even up their strength. She eviscerated him with a roasting prong.
It was a stoning offense, but the townspeople were too frightened of her. On the midnight before her hanging a small guard of familiars stole her away.
As Lucia had mated Arthur Sandeman four centuries before, the tides had come full circle and her many generations granddaughter wedded his descended grandson.
Cruelty and cunning were her legacy. Though the others shunned her, she was their future. The power of Lucia's blood would not fail her sister in faith.
Love. Sweet love. It makes us lie and kill. It makes us insane with jealousy and impotent with rage. It makes us glow with the light of one another.
What makes us burn; chemical signals, fate, signs in the stars? Love makes us stupid, love makes of us fools. Love makes us wise, sometimes. It makes us stronger and inexonerably weaker.
We fall in and out of love like changing a dirty pair of socks for another, and sometimes we put just as much thought into it. Ain't love grand? #############################################################
The footsteps moved off and my break escaped in a little rattling hiss. "Josh." Static crackles over my earpiece.
"Joshua here Little-fella." The soft voice is so welcome that I nearly sob aloud.
"Joshua, they've moved past our position. We're going to hold up here for another half hour or so, make sure that it's safe. Then we'll meet up with the others at the truck.
"Got you Little-fella, Joshua out." Our connection breaks and once again I am cornered by reality; stuck in a tight, hot, little ventilator shaft with the chilling remains of my best-friend. Seconds tick by. To my surprise, 494 is the first to break the silence.
"Perhaps there were security precautions in place in the factory, which were not mentioned in the reconnaissance report."
Well thank you Captain Obvious. Since I hadn't screwed up the job and 494 had assuredly, and so unlike his alter-ego, not screwed up the job; there must have been a flaw in Logan's Intel.
Either age was making him careless, or Logan's worry for me was distracting him. He'd been so reluctant for me to go on this mission. Although I wasn't sure if his contention had been over my safety or over the idea of thieving from a legitimate corporation.
I didn't see why he would worry for my safety. He hadn't been all that squeamish about sending on life or death Eyes Only missions.
Two ugly thoughts hit me simultaneously. The first was that Logan had always seemed terribly unconcerned with my safety when he had been the one putting me in jeopardy. He had had no qualms about sending me up against mobsters and psycho-killers.
The other nasty thought was that the Intel on this factory must have been ridiculously easy to gather for a hacker of his skill. That meant that he had been careless, an unforgivable offense in a soldier's eyes.
A worse conclusion was that he had set me up to fail, knowing that I was capable of evading capture, but that the setback would might effectively keep the company safe from my thieving ways.
"Logan may have missed something when he was hacking into their mainframe here." Even through my doubts, I am trying to protect him.
"The information must have been hidden ma'am, Mr. Cale seems to be very thorough in his planning."
Thorough? Now that was an understatement. Not only were Logan's socks color coordinated to match the candles on his dining room table; but I was pretty sure that he had his past dinners and moonlit walks planned out until 2029.
In both is life's work and his romances, he had strictly regimented ideas about right and wrong.
Don't steal from people, though in his new hard times that credo had morphed into, don't steal from people who aren't murderers or philandering politicians.
Treat women like princesses. They are porcelain, and should they fall of their pedestals they may shatter.
Well, what woman didn't want to be treated like a princess? Spontaneous acts of loving devotion were what made life worth living.
Spontaneous acts.
I tried to shake my dissatisfaction. I had led a rough, uncertain life. What did I know about romance? Wasn't that what Logan was for, to teach me about love?
Nope, no dissatisfaction, unhappiness all gone. Except that somehow, the romance seemed cloying. I wanted to drown in my passions, not be drowned by affection. Somehow there was a difference there.
A shake on the arm brought me back down to earth. Hazel eyes, opaque and oblivious, forced me to shutter away my soul-searching.
All of these romantic ruminations had taken up the entire half hour and it was time for another swim. My inner feline shuddered. ###########################################################
Understanding dawned on Alec like a cold swim. His own alter-ego wasn't beast or a monster, he was a blessing in disguise.
As a shred of the soldier had been harbored in Alec's soul, so a remnant of the man remained 494. A man determined to be with the woman that he loved.
To give him his due, the soldier was managing a task with Alec had figured impossible. While the job of turning Max away from Logan would have been nearly impossible for a man as smitten with her as Alec was; a seemingly uninterested third party could get close enough to plant that spark of doubt in her brain.
Purpose filled Alec and the encroaching darkness trickled away. Nothing was ever impossible if you believed in it enough. He had to hold on, he had to find a way back. #############################################################
She followed at a distance.
A heady sense of attraction filled her as she watched the little soldier woman and her protector slink back to meet their compatriots.
Lela's mate would have sliced her limb from limb had he known she felt an attraction to one of the "filthy animals"; but some primal quality in the male soldier drew her. A beast of the same material from which she had been cut.
She smiled to herself. Ames had never been told of her heritage when they were wedded. The fool had simply been glad to be matched with her rather than one of those thick-bodied cows that the familiars called sisters.
While most of their women were of the sturdy and thick-boned Northern European stock, chosen for their health and strength, she was something a bit more exotic.
It had all started 400 hundred years ago at the behest of an early Sandeman. He had believed that the women bread by the familiars lacked a certain ruthless cunning. Although they could be vicious and fierce, they didn't have that certain animalistic edge.
Lela was a direct descendant of the first of Sandeman's experiments in feral rage. Her great two the third grandmother had been a simple Sicilian farm girl. Lucia, the beautiful girl in the average arranged marriage. Then dear old Guilio had felt free to start fooling around like the good for nothing fathers before him.
A little belladonna in the chianti to even up their strength. She eviscerated him with a roasting prong.
It was a stoning offense, but the townspeople were too frightened of her. On the midnight before her hanging a small guard of familiars stole her away.
As Lucia had mated Arthur Sandeman four centuries before, the tides had come full circle and her many generations granddaughter wedded his descended grandson.
Cruelty and cunning were her legacy. Though the others shunned her, she was their future. The power of Lucia's blood would not fail her sister in faith.