THIRTY-TWO

Lark sighed, feeling smug, relaxed and just about perfect. He’d been concerned when Ivy had made her mad dash to the bathroom. He didn’t want to eavesdrop but had been scared she was talking to someone who would support whatever crazy notions were running through her head. Hearing her admit to her true feelings about him had made him feel like the king of the world. The power of a goddess running through his veins paled in comparison to the feelings her words evoked. After tossing her over his shoulder and throwing her down on the bed, he had proceeded to show her just how far his appreciation went.

Now, two hours later, he was exhausted but sated with a gloriously naked Ivy in his arms. They hadn’t spoken but she also hadn’t done another runner. He could only hope that meant she wasn’t panicking about the ‘nice virus’ again. He snorted, remembering her words to her commander. The poor woman had gotten so used to being unemotional, a few happy feelings made her believe she was sick. He would help her with that and he knew the others would too.

Presently, Ivy shifted, causing the blankets to slip down. Her high, firm breasts and dusky nipples were completely exposed to his gaze and he felt his mouth water. Too bad her next words had his erection deflating in one second flat.

“You know I had sex with Ryker, don’t you?”

He immediately stiffened at the reminder and took his time answering, forcing down the urge to march back to camp and throttle his Captain half to death, “I’m aware,” he bit out.

“Does that bother you?” she asked, head tilted on the pillow, long, black hair in utter disarray around her heart-shaped face.

Because of me, he reminded himself. Her hair is messed up, her cheeks flushed, and her eyes are glassy from pleasure because of me. He never considered himself to be a possessive person but hearing Ivy talk about ex-lovers had him re-thinking his position. Realising she was still awaiting his response, he answered her honestly;

“Yes, it bothers me. Not because it was Ryker, necessarily …” although, he was pretty sure he’d be challenging the other man to a duel next time they trained together, “The thought of you with anyone but me is bothersome.”

“Really?” Ivy asked, surprise evident in her voice.

Lark cocked his head at her, “Why does that surprise you? After everything we’ve been through these past weeks, everything I’ve learned about you. And especially after the amazing night – and morning – we just had. You’re perfect in every way to me. Seeing you here like this – relaxed and rosy …” he broke off, tracing a finger around the pert, dark disc on the tip of her breast, “The thought of anyone else seeing you like this … well, it makes me see red.”

“Even though it was before I met you?” she queried.

“Even though,” he admitted through gritted teeth. He had always thought he was so even-tempered and easy-going. Seems he also had some barbarian in him too. He kind of liked it – not that he would be telling Ivy that.

Ivy was watching him now with a gleam in her eyes he couldn’t place. “Max doesn’t care that I slept with her guy,” she pointed out.

He grunted at that, flopping down onto his back next to her. The post-sex happy glow he was feeling was steadily being sucked away with all this ex-lover talk. “Yeah, well. Max isn’t quite right in the head, is she?” he informed his woman, a little grumpily.

And then she did it – something he had never seen her do in all the months he had known her.

She laughed.

The sound was bright and bubbly, a tinkling tone filled with warmth and humour. Right then was the moment he felt himself fall … and fall hard.

*****

“What is it?” Ivy asked, peering up at the stupefied look on Lark’s face, “Are you okay? You look like you’ve just had a stroke.”

“What? No, I mean yes, I’m fine. No stroke.”

His chuckle was rough and sounded forced to her ears. But then, what did she know? This whole, relaxing with a lover in post-coital bliss was new to her. “You don’t need to be bothered,” she volunteered.

“Oh?” he arched an eyebrow at her, still looking a little miffed and she’d be lying if she said his possessiveness and jealousy didn’t make her happy.

“You don’t need to be bothered because this is a first for me. Nobody else has ever seen me like this,” she expanded.

“Huh?” he still looked a little confused and she wondered if he’d lost some of his IQ when he’d orgasmed so hard earlier.

“Like this …” she waved a hand at herself and repeated his words back to him, “All relaxed and rosy. I’ve never been this way with anyone else.”

And it was the truth too. She’d had her fair share of sex over the years but it had always been a perfunctory task. Usually something to do as a form of release but sometimes for the sake of having some basic human contact. Alex had been the exception and look how well that had turned out. She had never been interested in anything more intimate. But somehow Lark had managed to change her values in just a few short months. His daily words of romance and of kindness had accomplished what might and force could never have done; break down her fortified walls.

“Talk to me,” his voice broke the silence.

“You want to talk?” she asked, surprised.

“Sure. I’m happy to pursue more active endeavours if you prefer. I’m also happy to hold you as we sleep too. But we’ve already done both. Besides, I’ve been thinking–”

“Do you ever stop thinking?” she cut in.

He shrugged, “No. Not really. My brain is constantly on the prowl, wheels continuously turning, constantly processing. I’m pretty much a geek. Does that bother you?”

She looked at him, surprised, “No. Why would it?”

“I don’t know. Some people find it annoying,” he explained.

“Not me. Intelligence is sexy,” she admitted before she could censor herself.

“Really? Sexy, huh?” he almost sounded like he was purring as he nuzzled her neck and she felt her body light up with anticipation.

“I thought we were going to talk,” she reminded him. She was more than happy to go another round. But she also found herself wanting to know what he had been thinking.

He pulled back, searching her face, “You sure? It’s going to be a mood killer.”

Her stomach dipped a little but she nodded anyway, “You want to talk about the council,” she guessed.

He nodded, “I do. As well as the chades. I have these ideas you see and it helps to have a sounding board.”

Her duty as a ranger demanded complete loyalty to the council and any talk against them amounted to treason. She knew better than most what the punishment was for such a crime. But she’d be lying if she didn’t admit she had questions – for a long time now. She was also tickled that Lark trusted her and valued her opinion, so she simply nodded and waited for him to speak.

“Okay, well, let’s start with the massacre itself and then move on to the timing of it,” he began, getting up and pulling on pants. “We all know there has never been a coordinated attack like that ever in all our history, despite the fact that chades have been a part of our world for thousands of years.”

She propped some pillows behind her back, intrigued when he started to pace, hands clasped behind his back. He looked like a hot professor gearing up for a lecture. She responded even though he hadn’t asked a question, “Right. As long as there have been wardens, there have been chades. But never in the numbers that we’ve been seeing the past couple hundred years. And certainly not in the numbers we saw before the Great Massacre. Although, what we’ve seen these last few months …”

“Exactly, why is that? What happened to make the numbers increase? It’s a medical condition – a disease – so what changed a couple of hundred years ago to make the disease more prevalent?”

She thought about that, finding herself genuinely drawn into the conversation, “You think there was some kind of trigger?” she guessed.

He nodded once in the affirmative, “I do. There had to have been. It’s the only thing that makes sense. I’m thinking environmental …”

Now it was her turn to nod as she followed his reasoning, “Right. Because it can’t be evolutionary – like a natural progression. It slowed down. After the Great Massacre, the number of chade conversions decreased for a while. They’re just starting to increase again now. If it was merely evolutionary, we would have seen a steady increase in the numbers over the years – or at least a constant number.”

She looked up to find Lark grinning at her, “You’re right,” he said, “Intelligence is sexy.”

She ducked her head, feeling a warm flush heat her cheeks. His approval meant a lot to her, “How does this help us?” she asked.

He grunted, “I don’t know. But I think if we figure out the trigger, we can figure out the motive behind the attack.”

She sat up straight again, “You think there was a specific purpose for the massacre?”

“Of course. Don’t you? Why else?”

“Food,” she automatically stated, but Lark was already shaking his head.

“That made sense when we thought chades were driven purely by instinct – or evil. But we know better now, thanks to Dex and Knox and all the others.”

She couldn’t dispute that, “Then if not for vitality, why then?”

Lark shoved his hands in his pockets, pacing again now. With every turn, she caught glimpses of his scarred back and she remembered feeling them beneath her nails when she clung to him during sex. The rough texture added a little something extra to the experience – though she wasn’t insensitive enough to say so out loud.

“To destroy evidence, to kill the most powerful wardens, to diminish paladin numbers,” Lark ticked off his reasons.

“Wait … destroy what evidence? And what makes you think the powerful wardens were targeted?” she asked, trying to keep up.

He stood in front of her, “Don’t you think it’s interesting that not a single member of the council was killed during the massacre? I know a lot of other powerful, well-respected wardens fell victim to the chades – Verity and Flint included,” he said, naming Diana’s and Ryker’s first lieges. “I think we should consider who within the council was present during the massacre. I think we should also look into who recalled all the most important Orders back here right before the attack,” he continued.

“Ryker’s Order, Dex’s Order, Diana’s Order … three of the most reputable, respected and strong Orders at the time. And there was at least a dozen more. The council pulled dozens of wardens away from their usual tasks – even the ones who had permanent postings. I know for a fact that Ryker had never been to Australia before, for example. And Dex’s Order – sure, Darius is great with the history books but so were a lot of other paladins and wardens, including the majority of the council members. Any number of local wardens could have helped with mere research like they proclaimed. So why was his Order reassigned here?”

“Because there was a chade epidemic and they needed the extra numbers to help fight as well as to help get answers. They needed the numbers and the soldiers,” she was playing devil’s advocate, but her brain was ticking.

“No, no, no. That doesn’t work,” his energy was positively frenetic now as he warmed up to the topic. “If that was the case, why didn’t they call in more rangers? There were hundreds of rangers around the world that could have been called back. But they weren’t. Only the truly powerful wardens.”

Ivy felt her mouth drop open, “Holy shit. You’re right. I never thought of that.”

“Apparently nobody else has either,” he said. “You see? It was never about stopping the chades. It was about herding specific wardens into the one area. And that area? The training centre and council headquarters which were all coincidentally burned to the ground.” He sat on the edge of the bed, his face filled with excitement, “What was stored in those buildings?”

She frowned, knowing the answer was important but not quite there yet, “Records?” she hedged.

“The Chronicles!” Lark said. “Written documentation of everything in our society from the beginning of time.”

“By the Great Mother …” she whispered, feeling the rightness of all that he’d said in her gut, “What was in the Warden Chronicles that would cause someone to instigate an attack, slaughtering hundreds of Mother Nature’s keepers, just to ensure they were destroyed?”

“Now that, my dear Ivy, is the real question. And one I don’t have the answer to – yet.”

She expelled a breath, rubbing at the now faint claw marks on her arm. They no longer bothered her and the wound was healing quickly. She knew not even a scar would remain by the time Max got her hands on her back at camp. Lark had already informed her of such.

“Are you okay?” he covered her hand with his own.

She smiled weakly at him, “My head is spinning,” she admitted. “So … what now?”

He stood up and began gathering up the rest of his clothes, “Now? I think it’s time we headed home, don’t you?”

She sucked in a deep breath and nodded. Home sounded pretty damn good to her.