by Lucian Bane
She nodded. “Of course not. You should hurry. They’re waiting.” She smoothed his shirt and straightened the collar of his cloak before caressing his cheek.
Poe forced himself to leave, and it felt very much like peeling the skin off of his body. Divinities how could he be so very attached to another being?
Chapter Seventeen
“That was quick,” Sabre said, pushing off the wall outside the room as he exited.
Poe looked around, choosing to ignore his joke. “She is very troubled.”
Concern wiped the grin off his face. “Again?”
Poe nodded as they made their way to the shaft that would take them to the base of the Capital. “She plummeted the second we were alone in the room.”
“She’ll be fine,” Sabre muttered.
“Where is Valentine?”
“He went to find Bill. I need to either return him to his province or find a suitable place for him to hang out.”
“Or put his muse out of their misery,” Poe said.
“I still think you should do something there,” Sabre said.
“Well, we’ve more important things to worry about at this point.”
“Agreed,” Sabre said, as they entered the large square transport.
Poe remembered the mark he’d put on Contessant then. The walls shimmered and the room lowered without notice while he fought for the right words. “I saw your mark,” Poe finally said.
“Ahhhh, did you?”
At getting no explanation or excuse for the obscenity, Poe added none too kindly, “I’d like you to remove it.”
Sabre shot out a single laugh. “I can’t. As in it’s not possible to,” he clarified.
“You said you were putting a simple mark,” Poe said, letting his anger come through.
“I did!” Sabre cried as they hurried through the busy Capital’s lower floor, nodding and smiling pleasantries as they went.
“It covers half her body!” Poe hissed.
“Whoa!” Sabre said as they exited the main building. “That’s not my mark.”
“What do you mean it’s not your mark? It starts right on her forehead.”
“And it ends there,” Sabre assured. “Whatever else is there isn’t from me.”
“Are you saying it’s mine?!” Poe kept up easily with his stride as they hurried down the first flight of the Capital’s million steps.
“Who else could it be?!” Sabre cried back, laughing.
Poe contemplated the possibility, not finding any possible…. Divinities. Had he not written on things before? Poe stopped in his tracks and Sabre stopped and turned, grinning at him.
“You bonded with her, didn’t you? For the first time on Octava?”
Poe stared at him, awe washing over him. “I did,” he didn’t mean to say, because it was obviously none of his business. Too late.
Sabre walked back up to him and put an arm around his shoulder. “Just how big did you say this mark was?”
Poe was too astonished to care about the intimacy of the matter to hold back the answer. “Huge!”
Sabre let out a boisterous laugh and looked around. “I do love your possessive side,” he said. “It’s so much fun.”
Sabre gave him several back pats before continuing down the steps. Poe followed after him, still in shock that it might have been him. He wasn’t entirely convinced it was, though. He caught up to Sabre and whispered. “I think I may have contracted something from the Were-Vamps,” he said quietly as they went.
More raucous laughter before he whispered, “And what are your symptoms?”
Poe didn’t appreciate his humor but was too desperate to address it. “Hunger. The insatiable kind.”
“For what?” he cried, incredulous. “Blood?”
“For her!”
“Her,” he repeated. “Well, that makes it crystal clear.”
“I mean in that bonding way!” Poe clarified.
“Oh geeze, Poe.” Sabre stopped on the steps again and turned to him. “I can’t say I know what you’re going through. I can’t say I don’t wish I did but I won’t.”
Fury hit Poe. “You just did!”
He quickly held up both hands. “Not with her Poe! She’s my Scribbler.”
Poe was no happier. “And she’s mine, so what are you saying?”
“Scratch that last one,” Sabre said, rubbing his forehead. “I’m just saying, I don’t know what you’re actually going through, but I might like to know, only not with my Scribbler.” He held his hands up again. “No offense to you, and I’m sure, had the table’s been turned, I would most certainly be in your shoes, it’s just not something my mind can project at this point.”
Poe looked around, remembering their purpose. “Where is Valentine?”
“Let me check.” Sabre pulled out a device and Poe recognized the communication contraption many of the inhabitant’s used on Octava. “Where are you?”
Poe listened, realizing something in that second as Sabre talked and walked, coordinating a meet up point before hanging up.
“I need to have one of those. As does Contessant,” Poe said, realizing how stupid it was that he hadn’t thought of it.
Sabre winked and pointed a finger at him. “On it.” He touched the device again and put it to his ear and just like that arranged for one to be delivered to her immediately. Then he handed his device to Poe. “You can use it until you get your own. We’ll stop in the city and pick one up.”
Poe felt utterly useless as he took the device, unsure of how to even use the blasted thing. His love for antiquation suddenly seemed very stupid.
“Look,” Sabre said, demonstrating all the functions on the device. Thankfully, Poe’s mind picked it all up and retained it easily.
“Is that it?” Poe wondered in awe.
“That’s it,” Sabre said, laughing. “Come on. We’ve got us a naughty Paranormal Guardian to hunt.”
****
“Poe!” Contessant gasped on the other end of the talking device. “I’ve got a phone!” she squealed as though it were the answers to all her problems. “Oh, my God, I am so grateful you thought of that!”
“It occurred to me. I’m sorry I didn’t think of it before.”
“No! Don’t be sorry,” she said, her adoration reaching through the device and touching him.
“Fascinating,” he whispered as Sabre drove them through the city. “I can…” he remembered Sabre could hear him. “I can hear you so clearly. Like you’re right there.”
Her laughter made him forget to feel stupid for not knowing more about what was clearly common in the realm. “I do not regret that I made you to love antiquation, my lovely Poe.”
“Is that so?” His smile grew as did his joy at the notion he could remain in contact with her. He was too relieved to bother with a thorough self-mauling over his stupidity. “I will keep the device on me at all times,” he assured.
“Good! I may need to call you if I get stuck. Like I usually do with my dear friend Tommy on Earth.”
“Stuck how?” The male name attached to her being rescued shouldn’t bother him, but oh how it did.
“Sometimes I get stuck in my stories and don’t know what to write?”
Poe relaxed a little only to tense up at realizing what she was saying. “Wouldn’t that be… maybe a conflict of interest?” he wondered, not wanting to cross any laws accidentally.
“Oh, you don’t have to suggest anything, I just need somebody to talk it out to. I usually figure out what to do in fact as I’m telling the problem.”
Poe was fascinated to hear more details of her scribbling process and decided he should one day like to pick her brain over every aspect while they….did such and such. “I shall call you the second we know what is happening here too.”
She gave a sudden gasp. “Oh my God! Oh my God,” she cried happily. “You can be my eyes and ears, my dear Poe. On what is happening. This is exactly what I meant when I said writing blind!” She began to make many squealing noises.
<
br /> Poe had to laugh. “Are you dancing around?”
“I am, I am! Yes, yes, yes.” She sucked in another breath then. “Do you suppose that’s somehow like… cheating?” she wondered suddenly, sounding dreadfully worried it would be. More so worried she’d not be able to do as she hoped.
He couldn’t see why or how. “I… have played your muse before, have I not?” he said, suddenly aware of Sabre’s close presence again. Poe hadn’t realized how intimate he considered that connection with her. A privileged one. An honor. It was like… the love affair between their souls, and not one he wanted to share. Especially not with another he, be they fictional or non. But he didn’t see how it would be wrong to inspire her on what to write by giving her details.
“Oh, thank God!” she cried in utter relief. “This changes everything. I can’t believe I was freaking out. Wow, this worked out, but not in the manner that I had thought. I was envisioning me doing war in my mind, all alone in this room with a blindfold on! What if I wrote the wrong thing and caused a universal disaster! I could you know, I’m capable of such a mess.”
Poe was back to smiling as he saw her clearly in his mind, pacing as she rattled on. “I highly doubt that,” he murmured, glancing at Sabre’s snapping fingers. “I… need to let you go for now.”
“Okay, right!” she cried, happily. “Call when you need.”
“And you do the same,” Poe said.
He stared at the device and Sabre reached over and pointed at the red button that would disrupt the signal and terminate the connection.
“Sorry, I need to call V.” Poe handed him the device, looking around. They were parked outside a building that had a giant M shaped sign over it. “V. I’m at Mickey D’s, where are you?”
Mickey D’s? Poe didn’t recall that name in any of the studies he’d done. But, he hadn’t kept up with the modernizations of Octava, either.
“Did you find him?” Sabre asked. “What?!” he cried, incredulous. “What is he now?” Poe regarded the man’s furrowed forehead followed by the pop of his eyes. “A what!?” Now his eyes rolled with a huge growling sigh. “We’re definitely finding a place for him. Her. Whatever.”
Her? Interesting. What in Octava had the poor character’s Scribbler done now? “She?” Poe asked, when he hung up the device and tossed it back to him.
Sabre held up his large shoulders. “What… is wrong with this person?” he whispered. “I have tried to be nice about this, giving them the benefit of the doubt, but I am not joking when I say this poor character has been through the wringer of wrong turns.”
“Where are they?”
“Oh God,” Sabre muttered, nodding at the windshield. “Would. You look. At that.”
“She seems to like Valentine,” Poe observed.
Sabre blocked his mouth with his hand, hiding his snicker as the red giant walked toward the vehicle like a robot, the girl, no, definitely the woman, hanging on his arm, ready for her first appearance in one of those Independent romances with the freaky five subgenre titles. “What genre do you suppose?” Poe whispered, perplexed.
“Wouldn’t it be so hilarious if it were romance? Our Scribbler ironically taught Valentine to hate romance,” Sabre said.
“She does have that appearance,” Poe mused, regarding Sabre then. “She made me to hate romance too, you know. What about you?” he wondered.
“Me?” He shrugged. “She never got around to hooking me up,” he said, laughing like he’d cleverly escaped the jaws of hell.
“Oh, dear God, look at him,” Sabre barely squeaked the words, looking down now. “He’s so pissed. I bet he’s literally seeing red right now.”
Valentine opened the rear door and the girl just stood there, smiling at him. “You… can get in.”
She looked at the vehicle then gasped. “Oh. In there?” she double checked, like she’d never seen a vehicle before. Divinities, had her Scribbler only jotted down her sex, name, and appearances then left for the day? Or year?
“Yes, in there. It’s a car.”
“A car,” she said, eyeing both of them as she got in. “Who are you?”
“I’m Sabre, and this is Poe. Brothers of Valentine.”
“Who’s Valentine,” she wondered as the driver door opened.
“I’ll drive,” Valentine said, his tone ominous.”
“Absolutely not,” Sabre said. “Who is your friend?”
“I can’t remember my name,” the girl said, her face suddenly appearing between the front seats.
“Is that a fact,” Poe muttered, leaning as far away from her as possible.
“That’s his name,” Sabre said, turning to the girl now. “Valentine.”
“Oh, okay,” she said, clearly not into names either way. “V said… I mean Valentine explained why I couldn’t remember my name. Said that my Scribbler wiped my slate clean. Started fresh and new.” The girl smiled, oblivious to the hellish life she led.
“I’m so glad V has been looking after you,” Sabre said.
“I want. To. Drive,” Valentine grit out the words.
“He wants to drive,” the girl said with a smile, again oblivious as to why, thankfully.
“Fine,” Sabre said. “Poe, hop in the back will you?”
“I’m quite fine right here, thank you,” Poe said, in a very kind but hell no tone before looking at the girl. “Sabre here is your guardian friend. I’m sure Valentine told you.”
“He did,” the girl waved at Sabre with a happy smile.
“Fine,” Sabre muttered, getting out of the car and getting in the back while Valentine got in the driver seat. He looked like he’d kept company with the woman for five years instead of five minutes and was now ready to shove grenades in his ears and gouge his eyeballs with unsharpened pencils.
“This here is your new friend,” Valentine said to the girl as he started the car, seeming very glad to be done with her.
“Okay,” she said, sounding happy. “But… can we still be friends too?” she asked him.
Uh oh. Poe chanced a glance at Sabre who hid his grin under a hand as he peered out the window. “Of course you can doll,” Sabre answered for him. “V loves friends. He doesn’t have so many.”
The girl clapped, happy. “Me either. You guys are my first in my brand new life.” She turned to Sabre. “Valentine…” she paused and touched Valentine on the shoulder. “Do you want me to call you Valentine or V?”
“I…” He managed one hard word before finally starting the car and muttering, “V. I like to be called V.”
“Okay. I like Valentine too, you know. But whatever you like.”
Valentine tossed a look at Poe that seemed to say, keep her away from me, I beg you. He began fumbling with gadgets on the dashboard panel, looking like he searched for an escape hatch.
Chapter Eighteen
Cool air suddenly hit Poe just as the girl retreated to the back seat, going on about how Valentine promised Sabre would fill her in on all the missing details of her life.
Meanwhile, Poe and Valentine both let out audible gasps of relief to have her out of their immediate air space. Poe was glad for once that somebody else shared his unique discomforts when it came to the opposite sex. But now, it was due to the fact that he’d told Contessant he would dislike all females. And he very much intended to keep his word on that.
“Where to,” Valentine asked in the rearview mirror.
“First, we need to return…” Sabre regarded the woman briefly, “uh, we need to return her to her province in case her Scribbler needs her.”
“That’s hours from here,” Valentine said.
“It’s on the way to where we’re headed,” Sabre said.
Poe wasn’t keen on a four hour trip with her either. “I thought you had a friend in the city that…”
Poe hesitated and Valentine finished, “….needed a companion?”
Sabre sighed. “I would need to have proper time to arrange for that.”
“Well,” Valentine said, hi
s voice snapping. “We either take the time now, or later, Mr. Social-pants. Unless you would be the one needing the companion.”
“Very funny,” Sabre said.
“I have the calling device here,” Poe said, holding it up. “If you need to use it.”
“I’m sorry,” the girl said, seeming to realize. “Would it be easier if I walked to wherever? I don’t mind, I really like walking.”
“It is a beautiful day for walking,” Valentine said.
“You’re not walking, sweetheart,” Sabre said. “We’re driving.”
“Are you sure?” she said. “You seem very busy, I don’t want to cause trouble. And I like the city.”
“The city is quite amazing,” Poe agreed.
“She’d probably learn everything she needs if she had a single, self-guided tour,” Valentine said.
“There will be no self-guided tours,” Sabre said loudly. “I’m returning her to her province. That was the plan.”
“Before I changed?” she wondered. “When I was a young boy? V said I was a boy before this,” she gasped, laughing. “And I don’t even remember it. Too bad, I would like to know what that was like.”
“You’ve got quite a bit of experience in your line of work,” Sabre said, igniting more gasping joy and her clapping dance.
On the way out of town, they stopped at a station for transportation fuel. “She may want to use the bathroom,” Valentine suggested, shutting the car off.
Poe caught Sabre’s glare.
“Should I need it?” she wondered, seeming worried. “I really don’t like not knowing so many things,” she admitted quietly, making Poe feel badly for her. “I feel like I know but don’t.”
“You don’t have to use it,” Sabre said. “But many do, to stay practiced as their characters.”
“Ohhh,” she said, in wide-eyed fascination. “I want to definitely stay in practice!”
“Maybe you could direct her V, while I fill her up,” Sabre said.
“How about you fill her up and then direct her. Or even direct her and fill her up after.”
“Very funny,” V.
“That was a joke?” she wondered.
Poe wasn’t keen on jokes but his new male mind had certainly interpreted the ‘fill her up’ part probably entirely wrong.