A/N: Smoochies, as promised… but where would smoochies be without a discovery? Let's see what you think of this. :)
Revised 01/10/05
Lara crouched in the tiny alcove, praying it wouldn't hear her thumping heart or laboured breathing. Claws clicked on the hard tile of the floor as it advanced, and she knew it was coming towards her. Bugger. The Box of Rosha tightly held in one hand, feeling utterly helpless without a weapon, she considered her options. This time, Karel would not toy with her. Whatever he had dispatched to find the box, it would kill her first, ask questions later.
She had only one choice – flight. Lara straightened slowly, hoping she still held the element of surprise… and red eyes flashed towards her. A menacing growl emanated from the throat, and Lara ran, not bothering to stand her ground against a creature she couldn't fight.
She sprinted down the narrow corridor that seemed to go on forever, vaulting over fallen columns and pits of spikes. The beast in pursuit was gaining on her, she knew without looking back – she could practically feel its hot, rancid breath at her back.
She stumbled over the bodies of Werner, Margot Carvier, Luddick, and knew that this was a dream, and yet she was unable to extricate herself from its sticky tangles. Fighting a rising sense of horror, she continued to flee, helpless and hating it, until she reached the end of the corridor, and the final body – Kurtis, his once expressive eyes blank in death, blood seeping from grievous wounds in his neck, chest and abdomen.
She halted in shocked grief, mindless of the creature that was following her, and hardly caring when it leapt upon her and began to feed.
"Fuck!" Lara shot upright, clawing for her weapon, breath tearing from her throat in shredded gasps. The sight that greeted her was the calm quiet of the hotel room, its connecting door to Kurtis' suite still ajar, and she forced herself into composure as her eyes fell on his bed and his sleeping form.
Snapping on a lamp, she got up and paced the room with long, purposeful strides. The dream was not hard to interpret – concern for her ally had gotten her killed, as her inner fears dictated. She was feeling the strain of keeping the world safe, and still blamed herself for the death of innocents that stood between Karel and his goal. As time lapsed and the revulsion faded, she was able to sort her thoughts and dismiss her fears, but she continued to pace, turning her mind to the problem of Rahil's location.
"Don't think I've seen anyone pace that much before." Lara spun in surprise – she hadn't even realised he was awake. "Bad dreams?"
"Don't go thinking I'm a meek little girly-girl," Lara warned harshly, the residue of the nightmare strong enough to induce snappishness.
Kurtis held up his hands as if to show her he was unarmed, and retreated into his room, pulling the door shut behind him. The gesture was not lost on Lara, and she sighed, kicking herself for her defensiveness. Still, she wasn't about to go and beg for forgiveness.
Her eyes fell on the discarded blueprint of the underground complex, and on a whim, she picked it up. She'd heard it said that there was an underground city that lay under Cappadocia, but this didn't quite seem to tally with that theory. This seemed more like… one outbuilding of that city. Where's the rest?
The sun was just peeping over the horizon as Lara dressed in something she'd picked up as the seed of an idea had begun to take root in her head. The outfit, something resembling a burnoose, brought back bittersweet memories, but she shoved them aside and made sure that her face and hair were properly obscured. In a Muslim country such as this, no one would look twice at her, and she could do some detective work without fear of recognition by enemy agents.
Should she leave a note for Kurtis? If the roles were reversed, she'd be furious if she found he'd gone for a wander, taking Rosha with him. Quickly, she scribbled a few sentences. 'Gone to do a little reconnaissance. Stay put or they'll recognise you. Shouldn't be too long.'
The air was warm, but not too hot, when she began her exploration. Most businesses opened at dawn, before the scorching heat incapacitated the will of any tourists to shop. Lara picked up a map of the area and sat in the shade of a tree, examining it. Of course, there was no mention of a subterranean city, but she found it useful to know the layout and historical significance of the place.
Idly scanning the streets outside the temple district, she froze. Oh, come on, Karel… she thought with disbelief. "You cocky bastard," she whispered aloud, barely able to believe her luck. Pocketing the map, she rose and made her way purposefully towards the building the plan had showed her.
Kurtis was fuming, his exasperation fuelled by intense fear. 'Stay put or they'll recognise you'? And I suppose you'll blend right in! She was going to die this time, logic dictated. She had the box, and she was far too dangerous to be allowed to escape again. Karel would take what he wanted, and then murder her in cold blood.
The strange thing was, he still expected her to walk in the door.
Ten minutes, and I'm going after her. He envisioned her smile, her fluid movements as she walked, her steely-eyed determination, and hit the wall once again in frustration. She could need my help. Screw it. I'm going now. He had almost reached the door when it opened, and a figure swathed in traditional dress walked in as though she owned the place – or at least, had paid for it for a couple of days.
"Are you insane?" he exploded, grabbing her by the shoulders and shaking her. "I thought you were dead!"
Lara shook him off and pushed past. "Don't do that again, or I'll kick your arse into next year," she warned over her shoulder, though her heart didn't seem to be in the threat.
"Do you even care that he could have killed you?" Kurtis dropped onto the bed, incredulity barely tempering his rage.
Lara pulled off part of her outfit, exposing her face. She's grinning like a Cheshire cat! I'm going to fucking kill her myself! Speechless and outraged, Kurtis could only stare at her as she said casually, "Nice to know you care."
The adrenaline brought on by relief and anger surged out of control, and Kurtis lost control of himself completely, reaching out and crushing her to him, lips meeting hers in a hard, passionate kiss. They broke, and Lara pushed back from him, shaking her head and turning away. It had been their first kiss for four days – in fact, since they had almost given in to their desire altogether, and since their huge argument – but she shunned the contact, ignoring the electricity that coursed between them, and that wound him up even more. "I can not believe you did that! I should kill you myself!"
"Oh, you're welcome to try." Her voice held an edge to it, hard and sharp, but there was also a breathlessness to it. He seized the implication that she was fighting her attraction to him, following her across the room and swinging her around to face him, pressing his lips back to hers viciously before she could retaliate. Her fingers closed over his shoulders hard enough to bruise as she responded equally fiercely, pressing herself closer as his arms encircled her waist, drawing her against his hard body. When they broke off, gasping for air, Lara swung her fist at his head, fury and need duelling for dominance on her face.
He had almost expected it, and blocked easily, pinning her arms to her sides and kissing her again until the resistance flooded out of her. This time, when he drew back, she made no move to get away. "I'm not going to do this," she told him, still defiant in voice even if her entire body had lost the fight to withstand his advances.
"No?" Kurtis shrugged, pulled back. "Okay." He had barely begun to move when she threw her arms around his neck, guiding his lips roughly back to hers. She remembered her feeling of utter desperation as Karel had taken Rosha from her out in the desert, and the chilling fear that they had gotten to Kurtis in her absence. She envisioned him, bloody and broken, in her dream, and held him tighter, affirming that he lived and breathed still. He stepped back to steady them, and his heel struck the bed, unbalancing him further and sending them toppling to the mattress, Lara atop him.
They froze that way, faces inches apart, desire and anticipation mirrored in one another's faces. Lara knew that the excuse she had been giving herself for her refusal to sleep with him had been forcibly taken from her, but with nothing but favourable results. Flashes of his body entwined with hers in the Anatolia hotel room, his warmth seeping through her in the temple where they'd spent the night, the notebook entries she'd replied to not-so-flippantly, all rushed through her mind. His face before her now searched her eyes, and she was acutely aware of everywhere their bodies touched, her entire weight pressing down on him.
Carefully, Lara extricated herself from the tangle of their arms and legs, backing off and shaking tendrils of hair out of her eyes. Her heart still pounded crazily even as the rush of emotion slowly faded, and she bit her lip to quell a smile despite the awkward tension in the room. She'd been worried, in the back of her mind, that she'd be unable to resist should Kurtis make a move. Now that it had happened, she was, ironically, relieved that she could still respond to him. Raising her eyes to his face, she saw the same twitch of illogical amusement, and relaxed a little. Maybe there was a tinge of regret in the corner of her brain that she hadn't leaned down to him and kissed him again, silently handed him the key to her heart… but that key was happy on its hook within her chest for now, especially since he'd been threatening to kill her not five minutes ago.
"That has to be one of the more unconventional murder attempts that's been waged on me." She broke the silence with quiet irony once she was calm enough to speak.
Some of the irritation returned to his expression, although it was mixed with veiled affection. "You deserve death by slow torture. What the hell were you thinking?"
Sighing, Lara moved to her knapsack, her shoulder brushing against his arm as she reached for it. Back to business… "Would you have recognised me, in this?" she asked, picking up the head covering of the traditional outfit and waving it in his direction.
"If I was looking for you, yes. You have a certain attitude to you that's instantly recognisable."
"Why, thank you… Anyway, you're going to be happy with what I found out. I know where Rahil is. Though getting to it is going to be a completely different matter."
"What?" In disbelief, Kurtis took the blueprint of Karel's domain from her and studied it again. As before, all he could see were the abbreviations someone had added, 'St. Msma'. "Go on, then. Enlighten me."
Grinning, Lara passed over what looked like a standard tourist's map of the area, tapping her fingernail on one street corner. "Building of Saint Massima. Named after an obscure local saint, but used for corporate purposes. Highest security building in the entire city, or so the guy I talked to says."
Kurtis looked up. "Who?"
"Guess."
"Oh, you gotta be kidding me…"
Lara shrugged, passing over the digital camera she'd used to take shots of the exterior of the building. "Mr. Cult Judas himself. I nearly asked him the recipe for that medicine he had, but I have a feeling I don't want to know."
"And if he followed you back and then ran straight to Karel with our location?" Kurtis asked, exasperated.
"Believe me, he didn't. I walked through as many tourist crowds as possible and changed clothes at one point. Calm down."
Shaking his head, the handsome American studied the shots, which were all taken from different angles. The message conveyed by huge metal doors, barred windows and not even a scalable drainpipe in sight was plain. "Any bright ideas for getting into the Fortress of Doom?"
Lara chewed on her bottom lip, thoughtful. Slowly, she nodded. "Are you okay with me calling in some outside help for this?"
Integration of another character, anyone?