Revised 19/07/08 - due to the fact that I didn't research at the time. I've now just about managed to make Anatolia into a region instead of a city, so Lara and Kurtis are now in an unnamed town in said region. Or something. I suck at research so the town doesn't have a name.
Kurtis woke slowly, pulled himself out of the dark, relaxing pit of slumber he had unwittingly fallen into. Damn it. I only meant to rest for a second. Where was Lara? Was she okay? His earlier anxiety rekindled, he sat up… and froze in surprise. That answers those questions, then.
Lara was curled up on the opposite side of the bed, her eyes closed and breathing deep and rhythmic. Her face was mottled with emerging bruises, and her lower lip sported signs of a wound, but she seemed otherwise fine. Carefully, so as not to disturb her slumber, Kurtis turned, supporting his upper body weight on an elbow and giving himself a comfortable position to watch her from.
She really was lovely, despite her injuries. And she was in his bed. Well, technically, on his bed, but that was just splitting hairs. Kurtis saw it as a good sign. The question was, what kind of mood would she be in when she woke up? He had never known anyone to blow so hot-and-cold. Last night, kissing him, she'd been as warm and forward as he'd ever seen her. This morning, when he'd shot out her last target… the look she'd sent him could have frozen a tirade of molten metal. He had no idea what she was up to, and was beginning to doubt she did, either.
As if sensing his gaze on her, Lara sighed, and her hand came up to rub at her eyes. Connecting with bruises, she winced and stirred into awareness. Her eyes opened, and realisation poured into them as they fell on his face. "Bugger," she muttered, dropping her gaze and sitting up.
Kurtis suppressed a smile, and couldn't let it go without a sarcastic quip. "Is waking up next to me all that bad?"
She was holding back her own smile, he could tell. "I only meant to lie down for a minute," she told him, masking amusement with annoyance.
Kurtis gave a wry shrug. "Yeah, me too." His eyes fell on the object she held in her clenched fist, and recreation immediately fell to second priority. "What's that?"
Lara frowned, detecting the urgency in his tone. "Do you recognise it?" She let him pluck it from her fingers, but without an explanation she wasn't happy about it.
Kurtis stared at the roughened box as though it was the Crown Jewels. Not that the Crown Jewels would mean much to a Yank, Lara mused, fixing him with a look that demanded his attention. "Do you know what this is?" he asked finally, cobalt eyes gleaming in the sunlight. His voice was full of reverence. At her negative response, he shook his head and returned his attention to it. "It's like… the Lux Veritatis version of the Holy Grail. Only, it exists."
"So does the Holy Grail," Lara observed casually. That gave him pause for a second, and then he shrugged and smiled.
"I'll ask you about that later." Sobering, he held up the box. "If this is what I think it is… Have you opened it?"
"Don't," Lara warned quickly, an innate sense flaring to life to scream at her. Immediately, she felt she'd over-reacted, and had no idea why. Kurtis, however, drew in a breath.
"Then even the part about the magical wards is true…"
"Kurtis," Lara snapped impatiently, "my face is like a Picasso painting, and I ache all over. Just get to the part where you tell me what that thing is."
"The Box of Rosha… It contains the life force of one of two ancient Lux Veritatis warriors… both together can empower or destroy the Cabal and its affiliates forever… where the hell did you find this?" She had never seen him so knocked off balance.
"On a market stall."
"Jean, anything on the engravings?" Lara stopped short at the kitchen table, her urgency momentarily quelled. "Jacques, how are you?" she queried in French, smiling.
The last time she'd seen Jean and Marianne's only child, he'd been a chubby-cheeked eight-year-old who would run to throw his arms around her every time she visited. This boy was a whole two years older and more reserved. As scholarly as his father, he sat at the table with a book open before him. He smiled at Lara, but she saw a guardedness in his expression that pained her.
"I'm okay," he answered her question with a shrug. "Did you kill those people?"
"Jacques!" Marianne scolded from the doorway. "Apologise, now!"
Jacques did, and quietly returned to his book. Marianne sighed and touched Lara's shoulder. "Jean's on the phone. Are you hungry?"
Over sandwiches and tea, Kurtis and Lara listened to Jean's findings: no one knew a thing about the engravings. However, he had arranged their transport to Cappadocia, which would be there shortly, and the rest of Lara's request was in the storeroom. Swallowing the last of her meal, Lara immediately jumped up and left the room, returning a few moments later to hug her long-time friend. "Perfect. Thank you."
Kurtis, meanwhile, had been busy with pen and paper, studying the box and printouts of several photographs Lara had taken. She looked over his shoulder, and her eyes widened as she watched him write. "You can read this?" she asked incredulously.
He shrugged, smiled. "Not just a pretty face," was all he said. "I think we need to stop by Anatolia on the way. That's where the second tomb is hidden, according to this."
Lara could have kissed him, and in fact had to stop herself from doing just that. Instead, she squeezed her shoulder. "Good boy," she teased. "Your reward's in the storeroom, but I've already reserved the Uzi for my use only."
Kurtis followed her out to the small room that led off the porch, separate from the rest of the house. Inside was a small workbench with an array of weapons set out on it next to an empty canvas bag. Kurtis picked up a crossbow, set it down, and hefted an M-16 instead. "Nice."
Lara grinned at him over a Desert Eagle, eyes shining. She looks like a kid in a candy store, Kurtis thought, almost affectionately. He barely noticed her injuries as he put the M-16 back on the bench and stepped in close to her. Careful to avoid her bruising, he kissed her forehead, nose, each cheek, before grazing her lips with his own. She sighed, and he drew back to look at her. Her mouth was curved in a faint smile, and her eyes opened almost languorously, as though she had been half-hypnotised by his touch. She shook herself out of it quickly, regaining her poise as she stepped away, but Kurtis stored away that rare, vulnerable moment in his mind.
The sound of an approaching engine drew them onto the porch, and simultaneously, they uttered the same words. "I'm driving."
"Will you stop sulking?" Lara asked. "It was a fair coin toss."
"I'm not." He could have fooled Lara – for the entire journey he had sat in the passenger seat with arms folded, staring out of the passenger window and barely speaking. She swallowed a laugh and killed the engine of the MG convertible.
"Welcome to Anatolia. The question now becomes, 'is there any room at the inn?'"
A gaunt man with a sullen expression glowered at them as they passed, heading into the gathering darkness. Lara frowned. Something was familiar about him, but she just couldn't place him… Shrugging off her unease, she headed up the steps towards the entrance of a hotel, the only one she'd noticed with a 'vacancy' sign still blazing with a neon glow. Kurtis followed, his boots making almost no noise on the dry pavement.
Despite what the sign may have indicated, the clerk shook his head when she asked for a couple of single rooms. "All we have left is one double," he informed her. Lara chewed thoughtfully on her bottom lip, glancing back at Kurtis.
"It's this, or we sleep in the car," she told him, pushing back images of them sharing a bed and instead envisioning the shower she'd be able to have if they stayed here. Which worked fine – until, in her mind, Kurtis came in to join her.
Kurtis nodded, and she set her mind back to checking them in. Once they had finished with the administration, she picked up her overnight bag, slung it over her shoulder, and headed for the lifts.
"Jim," Kurtis said quietly, behind her. Lara turned. Huh? She followed his gaze to the weight room off the lobby, and realisation dawned. Oh. Gym. It's been a long day. Suppressing the urge to roll her eyes at herself in the mirror they passed, she ducked into the room and smiled. It had been a long drive, but once she recovered, she'd definitely be visiting this place. Her eyes fell on a large section partitioned off by a glass wall, with a punching bag in the centre and mats covering the floor, and her smile widened.
"Looks like home," she murmured, and continued her earlier course towards the lifts.
Their room wasn't exactly the biggest she'd ever stayed in – two of this size could easily have fitted into her own at Croft Manor – but it was clean, at least. "Our own place, sweet pea," she deadpanned, throwing down her bag and looking around.
Kurtis took a seat on the bed and watched her take the Uzi from her knapsack and place it under one of the pillows. "What's our plan of action, darling?" he asked, using the same dry, sarcastic tone. "It's too dark to find the tomb tonight – we'd miss it for sure."
Lara nodded, examined one of her knives to give herself something to do. Sitting in such a small room with only one bed, with this man she found so compelling, lent an awkwardness to the situation. "I don't know if you want to come with me, but I'm going to look around the place, see what's what. And find some food," she added as her stomach audibly protested.
"Sounds good to me." A short silence, and then something thudded to the mattress beside her. Looking over, Lara saw a bar of chocolate. "Don't want you passing out on the way."
Their exploration of the centre of town bore little fruit. Most places of interest were closed for the night, and what remained open were establishments such as eating-places and clubs. The former, Lara had use for; the latter held no interest. It was still only ten o' clock when they found themselves back in the hotel room again, exhausted from the day's travel and with little inclination to work out. Kurtis had found himself a can of some kind of alcohol, but Lara declined to join him.
"I'd rather be able to shoot straight, thanks."
"One beer isn't going to have that much of an effect."
"Want to bet?" Lara retaliated, and sighed at his grin. "No, I can't hold my liquor. Shut up. I can still hold a knife."
When he had managed to get his amusement under control, he changed the subject. "What's it like, living in the land of tea and crumpets?"
"Isn't that like me asking you what it's like to live in the land of hamburgers and drive-by shootings? Very clichéd." She thought about it. "I spend a lot of time abroad, too. Probably about half my time's spent away from home, in ancient hotspots, like Greece, South America…" She stopped herself mid-sentence, and stared out of the window.
"Egypt? Always wanted to go there." Unwittingly, Kurtis had touched upon her raw nerve. She shuddered as falling architecture thudded around her, cutting off the last traces of sunlight…
"Yes," she murmured softly, closing her eyes to dispel the memory. "I've been to Egypt." When she looked up, he was studying her with an almost compassionate expression. "Just… don't ask," she added sharply, throwing up a hand to deflect any questions. She heard him move out onto the balcony and light up a cigarette, but was too caught up in the past to be irritated. Silently, she gathered up her nightwear and went into the bathroom to get ready for bed. By the time he came in, she was curled beneath the blankets on one side of the bed, eyes closed, pretending to be asleep.
Within half an hour, she felt him slide under the covers at his own side and snap off the bedside lamp. His foot brushed her own briefly, and she controlled her urges to both jerk away from him and reach out to entwine her legs with his. She heard him sigh as he moved away, careful not to invade her space, and hated herself for being so aloof around him. They both acknowledged their mutual attraction, but here they were, in the same bed, ignoring each other. Lara remembered his measuring gaze; the impact of a chocolate bar landing close to her thigh; the expression in his eyes as he drew back from the kiss they'd shared in Jean's store-room. She knew that despite his bravado, she would never find a man more suited to her.
"Kurtis," she whispered. No response. Quashing disappointment, Lara stared at the luminous display of the digital clock ticking the minutes by, and waited for the sleep that evaded her.