SACRED GRIP

by Allen, J. C

  To my surprise, almost everyone also raised their hand as well. Shit. I suppose it wasn’t a surprise that the Black Falcons would be so bold as to recruit even in the aftermath of such a battle, but it did show me I’d underestimated their efforts. I hadn’t had three weeks of vacation so much as I had had three weeks of being oblivious.

  I swore right then that the only thing that would stop me now, the only thing that would put my mind at ease, was the death of Falcon. Nothing more, nothing less. I didn’t care if I killed his second in command and then killed everyone except him. So long as the Falcon remained, the evil remained. And evil, like a virus, had a nasty, sick way of spreading even when it was thought dead.

  “Let me say that I appreciate all of you remaining committed to the cause, then,” I said. “We obviously have had our defectors over the years, but as best as I can tell, we have not had any since Tyler left. In fact, we have even had a couple come back.”

  Some “hell yeahs!” and “damn rights!” came out, leading to a short round of applause, but I quashed it quickly.

  “Unfortunately, the nature of the Black Falcons means those returning to us didn’t have much information, but we take them back all the same. However, you all should be aware that in recent days, Roost has received photos of the Falcons killing their own. It’s their way of sending a message to us. And tonight, we suspect more messages will be sent.”

  Silence filled the air. Anyone who had thought of giving a rallying cry had gone silent with my last sentence.

  “So far, they have killed their own as a way of warning us that we would be next. We can’t assume that this will go on for much longer, because as much as we’d like to believe the Falcons will cannibalize themselves, we all know that’s not going to happen. I’ve already spoken to a few of you who will be joining me on reconnaissance tonight to see what we can find, but to the rest of you… stay vigilant. Stay alert. We struck a strong, powerful blow to them three weeks ago, but we haven’t struck the killing blow.”

  Until, hopefully, very soon.

  “That blow is coming. But in doing so, there will be retaliation, both of the physical and the psychological kind. They will attempt to first break your mind, the better so that you join them and give them manpower and intel on us. Then, they will attempt to break your bodies—I don’t need to say anything more on that. But regardless, stay alert. Does everyone understand?”

  They all nodded, giving everything from “yes, sir,” to “loud and clear” to “hell yeah.”

  “Boys, we got them pinned and we got them desperate,” I said, allowing for a slight smile. “Tonight is the first step of our final operation. I have told you to be careful, and you should be, but know this—you can also be aggressive very soon. Plan your weaponry. Plan your attacks. And most of all, plan for the end of the Black Falcons!”

  The crowd erupted into cheers, much as I had hoped they would upon my final line. I got exactly what I wanted, but there was something in the back of my mind, a little voice speaking to me, that warned me I had better not put too much faith into that moment. The voice that spoke left some chilling words.

  Tyler was right there, clapping like the rest of them, only a short while ago.

  And now he was dead, shot by my girlfriend, because without her, I would be dead.

  I could take nothing for granted, but I also could not doubt the loyalty of my men. It was a tough dichotomy in which I had to trust but verify. It was easy for me to fall under stress, given the difficulty that this would place me under.

  But with a date still set up for tonight, I couldn’t let that affect me. I smiled, raised my fist, closed my eyes, and took a deep breath. I was good.

  I walked away as the crowd still cheered, approaching Roost and Eve with a smile.

  “I’d haveta say that did the trick,” Roost said, placing a too-strong pat on my shoulder. “But whateva ya two do tonight, don’t go to bed. We gotta act tonight. Things only gonna get uglier from here.”

  “Understatement of the year, Roost,” I said. “But yeah. We’ll be good. We’ll be behaved.”

  “And ya get yer ass back here by midnight,” Roost said.

  4

  Eve

  With that, we were heading out from the shop. Even I felt a little inspired and rallied by Derek’s words. I still couldn’t say I enjoyed relishing violence, but the idea of going out there, kicking the crap out of the Black Falcons, and standing triumphantly over it all sure felt amazing.

  I thought of saying something to Derek as he approached about how awesome his speech was, but I decided silence was the best option here. I had to assume that he had switched gears entirely from doing work to working on me, and I didn’t want to abruptly switch him over into a different mindset. So, instead, I just took his hand and gave an affirming squeeze as we got to his motorcycle.

  I slid behind Derek on the bike, wrapping my arms around his waist as he hit the ignition. I wondered just what he had in mind for our date tonight. I smiled at the various prospects, committing my safety and my evening to him as I began to grow excited as Derek started for the highway.

  Along with how excited I was at the drive, I was just as happy to be on the bike again for longer than just the ride from his apartment to the shop. The feeling of freedom still enthralled me every time we went for a drive. It was such an amazing feeling and I hoped I’d never lose it—and so long as I was with the man I loved, I didn’t see that being an issue.

  I squeezed Derek’s waist tighter, wondering if he’d be willing to teach me how to ride a motorcycle. While I hadn’t had a chance to use it lately, I did have my own driver’s license, and, truth be told, I was beginning to miss the freedom and independence of being able to transport myself when the demand arose. And since we were already on a roll learning about guns, why not add learning how to ride a bike?

  Not that I minded riding with Derek at the handlebars, of course.

  And anyways, that could wait for another day. Right now, I was much more enraptured with the idea of spending time with him on a real date.

  “So, where are we headed today?” I called over the bike’s engine.

  “You’ll just have to see,” he called back, reaching down with a free hand to squeeze the topmost hand that I had wrapped around his waist.

  “No fair!” I said. “You always get to surprise me with the dates!”

  “Next time I’ll let you do it, okay?”

  Though I knew he couldn’t see it, I raised an eyebrow at that. The logistics of it seemed tricky since I didn’t have a car or bike… but for Derek, I would figure something out.

  “You promise?”

  I couldn’t see the resulting smile, but I heard it in his voice.

  “I promise, Eve.”

  Say no more, Derek.

  Leaving it at that, I let myself get lost in the feeling of the bike beneath me. The steady vibration from the engine helped to relax my nerves, letting me get lost. I closed my eyes, leaning against Derek’s leather-covered back, loving the smell of him. I wished this feeling could never end. If anyone could ever invent a bike that never ran out of gas, I would spend what little money I had to support it, buy it, or just even rent it for a day.

  I opened my eyes as Derek maneuvered the bike to the exit ramp. I looked around, wondering if I could figure out where he took me. Other than a gas station and a small diner, there didn’t seem to be much around—it definitely wasn’t an exit that he had taken me to before.

  As we continued down the road, I wondered if Derek had any idea of where we were. It was a pretty abandoned place, and it wasn’t entirely out of the question that he’d gotten lost in his mind about later tonight and simply failed to see the exit. I mean, heaven knows how much I’d spent the day dwelling in my own head.

  I opened my mouth to say something when I saw a large sign ahead. The sign read “OUTLET CENTER” in large print and above it, in small letters, was most likely the official name, but I couldn’t read it as we drove in. I
glanced ahead, seeing a large movie theater and a sign for a Medieval Times restaurant. Given the lack of other businesses in the area, only one question made sense.

  “Are we going there?” I asked, pointing to the sign.

  “I was thinking we could,” he said with a shrug. “Roost said he shops here a lot and thought it’d be fun for us.”

  “It’s massive for an outlet store!” I said in awe as I continued to stare.

  “Hope that’s a good thing,” he said.

  “Maybe not for your wallet,” I said, teasing him.

  “I’m sure my wallet can handle it. Now let’s go have some fun.”

  The first place we stopped, because of course we had to, was a large book store. I couldn’t believe how big the store was as I walked down the aisles of books. I stopped, seeing an author duo that I loved had released a new book, and picked it up to read the back.

  “Faes and centaurs, huh?” Derek murmured behind me.

  “Yeah, these two usually write dark urban fantasy, but I guess they decided to do something more high-fantasy with this one.”

  It wasn’t quite biology and evolution and other high-minded subjects, but in a lighter time and in a slower world, I’m sure that I would have already read this book by now.

  “Urban fantasy and high-fantasy?” Derek said, as if I had just said humans could have one head or five heads. “What’s the difference?”

  I looked over my shoulder, smirking. It occurred to me that the better analogy was to say Derek understood the different types of fantasies about as well as I had understood guns before today.

  “Same difference between the Underworld movies and the Lord of the Rings movies.”

  “Oh!” Derek said, smiling in understanding at the explanation. “Why didn’t you just say so?”

  I rolled my eyes at him and went on reading the back of the book, letting the silence answer his question for him.

  “Isn’t a fae just, like, an elf?”

  I gave him a coy smirk.

  “Isn’t a Honda like a Harley?”

  Derek made a face and I nodded vigorously at the expression he gave.

  “See? That reaction, right there?” I said. “That’s how some readers feel when you ask a question like that.”

  “Pretty big difference,” Derek grumbled. “Guess I was a bit off, huh?”

  “Toe-may-toe; toe-mah-toe,” I said back to him as I finished reading the blurb and decided that, yes, I was definitely getting this book. “Now… you aren’t going to judge me, are you?”

  “Not so long as you never try to compare Hondas and Harleys again,” he rebutted with a playful grin. “Heavens. You might as well say a glow in the dark stick and the sun are the same thing.”

  I rolled my eyes, set the book along with my other selections, and started off.

  “I’m serious! I’ve always felt so nervous being a reader. Even before I was… well, before everything that happened, it was like I could feel people judging me for liking to read.”

  “Why would I judge you for liking something?” he asked, seeming genuinely bewildered.

  Truth be told, even I struggled with the question.

  “I dunno,” I said. “Some people have teased me for liking fantasy and romance, I guess. When I was in middle school, some girls found out I had a thing for berserker romance and—”

  “Berserker?” Derek asked.

  I felt my cheeks burn hot at that. This one was a little more understanding that Derek did not understand, but… well, even for all that we had shared between us, or perhaps because of it, this was going to be a fun conversation. Especially in public!

  “You know…” I said in a low voice, practically whimpering with embarrassment. “Like… like, wild warrior men. All carnal and bestial, like predators, and… you know, berserk!”

  “And you—what?—got off to those types of characters,” he said, raising an eyebrow and grinning at me. “I see. I see!”

  “Shh! Shh! Derek, oh my… shut up! Not so loud!”

  He laughed at how red my face turned, and while I would never admit to enjoying it, I think he picked up on the fact that there was a certain enjoyment in the embarrassment of it all.

  “I don’t mind, as long as you let me read them after,” Derek winked.

  “What? Really?” I gaped. “You? Reading… reading these types of books?”

  “Oh! Who’s judging who now?” he stared, feigning hurt. “I’m so hurt!”

  “I am not judging you!” I protested. “I—”

  But before I could add anything else, he moved his mouth to mine, giving me a quick kiss. It was his polite way of saying “hush.”

  “Don’t worry, I know you aren’t,” he said. “That being said, romance isn’t my genre of choice. For, well, reasons you know and don’t need rehashing, it hasn’t always been something I could believe in.”

  So if it’s not his genre of choice…

  “Do you even like to read?” I asked.

  “When I have the time,” he said, surprising me a bit. I had never pegged Derek as a reader, most especially since his room was somewhat devoid of books and the like. “I haven’t read a lot recently with how crazy things have been, but I like action and mystery mostly. War books and stuff like that. My mom was the one who was super into horror and vampires and stuff, and I guess growing up that close to those things I got sort of… I don’t know.”

  While I was stunned and surprised, this made me like and love him even more. I didn’t know how that was possible, but I was realizing Derek was perhaps a bit more intellectual than he liked to let on.

  Interesting. The layers are even thicker than I imagined.

  “What?” I asked. “What about the horror and vampires?”

  He sighed and shrugged, blushing a little. It was almost too cute to handle.

  “They’ve always freaked me out, I guess. That and science fiction, too—that was my dad’s thing. I suppose Dustin was pretty much into all that stuff, but maybe all that hype around those things in the household drove me to take interest in other stuff.”

  “I guess that makes sense,” I said with a reassuring smile. “So long as you found your own stuff to like, right?”

  He smiled back, nodding.

  “Here,” I offered, taking his hand. “Let’s go find some books that you’ll like more, too. You deserve to have a ‘to-be-read’ pile, even if it’ll never be nearly as big as mine.”

  Derek laughed at that, said something about a woman making a “mine is bigger”-statement, and then allowed himself to be dragged along.

  With that, we spent over an hour at the bookstore and came out with a bag full of books. Derek had said he’d have bought more if we had more space to put them in. Even still, glancing at the bag, I felt we had maybe gone a bit overboard—not that I actually could worry about it.

  Besides, how many times would I get to go to a bookstore and leave with a ton of books? I smiled, realizing that with Derek in my life, I could probably do it a lot more than I was thinking. As corny as it sounded, I began imagining the idea of “quiet date nights” where we’d get to just sit in bed, read, and then spend half an hour discussing all of the things that we had read over the past hour. It was…

  Of all the things that we had done and discussed, it was easily among the most romantic.

  Corny? Maybe. Captivating? Most definitely.

  “So, should we check out Medieval Times?” Derek said. “Pretty hungry if you ask me.”

  “Yes!” I said, smiling widely. “Nice little cap to our night!”

  We made our way to the entrance and I stared in awe. Even the entrance was fully decked out to look like a castle. I glanced over at Derek, seeing that he was already buying tickets. I walked over, seeing that he paid for a celebration add-on.

  “Celebration?” I asked, glancing over. “For what?”

  “I just put in our anniversary,” he smiled. “But I figure we could just celebrate us today.”

  “I mean… has
it been a month?” I said. “Could we qualify it?”

  “I don’t think technically speaking, it hasn’t been,” he added. “But that’s fine with me. You know why? Because I’m in no rush with you, babe. I’ll slow down time and stop it for you.”

  “Aww, Derek,” I said, leaning up to kiss him. “Thank you.”

  I smiled, taking the special lanyard that came with the extra add-on. By now, I had completely forgotten about any outside dangers, any imminent threats, and even the fact that Derek would not be spending the night with me.

  “We also get a free photo with the king,” Derek said, grinning.

  “The king, huh? Aren’t I already with him?”

  “Well, someone dressed like a king. Feels more official that way.”

  We both laughed as we made our way to the entrance, took our photo with someone who looked like a real life Burger King mascot, and then headed inside. I glanced around, amazed at how detailed everything was.

  As we were shown our seats, I looked over to the stage, seeing a balcony where I assumed the royal members would sit. I glanced over at Derek, who was looking at me.

  “What? Is something wrong?” I asked, wondering if I had something on my face.

  “Nothing at all,” he smiled, shaking his head. “Just appreciating that you are having fun.”

  “Of course,” I said, taking his hand. “Are you as well?”

  “Definitely,” he said. “This place is awesome! Plus, the food sounds amazing. I mean, I’m like Roost at heart, so any food is good food to me. All sounds good to me!”

  “It does,” I said, glancing around when I noticed something typical missing. “No silverware, huh?”

  “Nope, gotta eat with your hands, it’ll be more authentic,” he said.

  I’ll eat anywhere and any style with you.

  We continued to look around and before long, the lights were dimming and a waitress came over to take everyone’s orders. The waitress had us all cheer for our knight, booing the opposing team. I chuckled as Derek stood and hollered at the opposing team, excited at how into it he was getting.