by M. Garnet
Now there was a difference between him and the door. He was excitement to each part of her body that his touched. His leg between hers caused sparks, and when his hand slid up under her shirt, it made her lose her breath into his mouth.
He moved his mouth down to taste her neck; and she drew in needed air as he softly twisted a nub, making her breast beg for more. She would have arched for more, but he had her so tight against the door that all she could do was to enjoy his actions.
The knock on the other side of the door actually vibrated through to her back, and he raised his head with a deep sigh.
The only part of him that he moved away from her was his head as he looked up at the ceiling and spoke.
"What do you want, Tarm?"
"Oh, am I interrupting something interesting." Tarm's voice came through the door as if he were leaning on it. "Hello Lovely."
Margo pushed against Rahm, and he let her move away into the room. Suddenly all the heat Rahm had built into her was now nothing but ice.
Rahm took both handles and pulled the doors wide open almost tipping Tarm onto the floor, as the intruder was leaning on the outside. Rahm ignored the scurrying man and went all the way back to where Margo had first seen him, at the wall with so many scrolls.
She also turned her back on the evil man and walked over to the desk and sat down in the special chair that Rahm had provided for her in his office.
As for Tarm, she could see out of the corner of her eye, he had recovered and was at the tray, picking up one of the sandwiches.
"I think your cooks make better food for you than they do for your guests. You need to talk to them about that matter."
Margo wondered about Tarm's voice. It was low and deep but did not bring out her emotions like Rahm's whispered voice could. She pulled one of the loose pillows and curling up in the chair she hugged the pillow and watched the two men.
It was strange how much alike they were and yet how different. It only took her a second to realize what she was seeing. She was looking at two men of a different race. She decided that when Columbus met the first natives on that island beach, the Europeans would think the natives all looked alike. The natives would think the men from the ship would seem with their pale skin all the same. It would take both of them a long time of knowing each other before they began to recognize differences.
These two men were not brothers. They did not have the same parents. No matter how old they claimed to be and wherever they came from, they were from the same race but not the same family. Tarm was playing games. It was his way with that eternal smirk on his face.
Rahm may be serious and seeking some unknown answer that he felt was dangerous or important, Tarm was looking for diversions. Could a man become bored with living too long?
Her need for more information about these two made her ask a question. "Tarm, do you have a permanent home somewhere? You know something worth a lot of money like this manor that belongs to Rahm."
She had hit a nerve when he threw his food down on the tray and turned to stomp over to frown down at her. "You call this old stone mountain worth anything. Ha." He rocked on his heels.
Margo pushed now that she thought she had leverage. "Don't you know that it is full of beautiful antiques? Well, they are antiques by my standards. I have peeked under many dust covers, and it has taken my breath away. He has great taste and the house is warm and tight from the storms."
"YES." Tarm's yell made Margo squeeze the pillow tighter. Then he smiled. "I have a mansion that will put this dark hole to shame. Wait until you see my collections of paintings."
Rahm moved around the desk and leaned back on it with his long legs out with one under her chair.
"Tarm settle down ad let’s talk. I can ask the cook to send up another tray if you wish more food. Margo has decided she might be willing to help us reach our goals. She does want to know exactly what we are looking for and what it entails."
Now Tarm laughed. "No food, thank you. So you fucked her, and she agreed. How prosaic, but giving you the correct results. Play, play, play, we must always play."
Rahm shook his head. "You keep acting like a child, and she might change her mind."
Tarm stopped and looked down at her, curled in the large chair. He waved his hand, and he spoke. "Well, you could just take control of her, and we can still join, right?"
Leaning forward, Rahm brushed stray hairs back from her face. Looking deep into her eyes he whispered. "I have promised her free will. It must be her own choice."
Whirling, Tarm seemed to dance across the floor. "Oh come on. How stupid is that, free will, we have all this power and you pretend she has free will. All of that and you accuse me of playing games. Just give her a deep command, and let’s go get what we are looking for and get on with our lives."
Margo realized Rahm was staring directly into her eyes and she could see his changing. Was he going to go back on his word and make her obey him, take away her free will? He reached out to her again and lifted her chin, and she felt a small jolt inside, and then he nodded and touched her nose with one finger and leaned away.
He moved away, going back around to his usual position behind the large desk.
"Tarm, I am content with my relationship with this human female. I will not ask her to do anything that she does not agree to of her own choice."
She had to shake her head for a second, as it seemed as if she had fallen asleep yet she knew she was awake the whole time. She did know that Rahm's eyes had changed color for a short instant. There was that color that filled his eyes with the sky of dark storm clouds. By the time he turned away, she was sure his eyes were that gemstone blue again. Had she been mistaken or had he done something to her? But she trusted him and he had promised her free will.
Suddenly, Margo let out a yelp as her chair was tipped over backward and she was pulled up into the arms of Tarm.
"If you are unwilling to force your scarlet female, I will protect your tender feelings and take over. I will force from her cooperation and get—what the hell?" Tarm's response was the fact that he had grabbed her wrist with one hand and her hair with the other to force her to look into his flaming eyes.
In the process of grabbing her and pulling her into position to what Margo supposed was his attempt to enthrall her, his eyes had turned from the plain blue to a consuming red.
Tarm was as strong as Rahm and Margo's resistance was useless even though she managed to get in a couple of good kicks. His eyes turned to black with no white at all, and he yelled at her. "Stop resisting."
Over Tarm's heavy breathing she could hear Rahm's voice. "You hurt her and I will hurt you."
Still holding her, Tarm quit shaking her and took a long look at her as he held her away from him. "I can't reach her."
"Amazing isn't she, now let her go before I make you. I told you I see in her a beauty of her free will and I will not allow any interference with her choices." Rahm's low voice was harsh as he came around the desk and set her chair upright, picking up her pillows.
He turned his back and returned to his place behind his desk without saying anything else. Finally, Tarm let go of her, and she stumbled at his release. She reached over to the back of the chair for stability and then worked her way around to sit back down. She was surprised when Tarm handed her a pillow that had sailed across the floor. She hugged it and waited for his next trick.
Tarm huffed and then went over behind Rahm to lean against one of the bookcases. "I can't enthrall her. She doesn't seem to be one of us even though she has special adaptions. So you have given her protection. Damn it, Rahm, she has enthralled you."
Rahm spread his hands open on his wide desk and showed no emotion. It was the face she saw most of the time, unbelievably beautiful and straight out of a Renaissance painting. Like looking at one of those paintings, no movement, no show of response or reactions even to Tarm.
Speaking over the head of Rahm, Tarm asked the important question. "What do you want, Lovely?"
Taking a deep breath she looked him in the eyes, refusing to show fear. "I want the truth."
Now Tarm began to move and dance and throw his arms up. "Oh, Lovely, there are so many versions of the truth."
Margo slowly put her pillow beside her and got up. She shook her head and began to walk to the open doorway. "This isn't going to work."
She was almost to the doorway before Tarm laughed and said something. "Okay, I give. You win, Lovely."
Chapter Twenty-Six
Rahm had requested that the cook bring up a special tray. It contained a unique wine on ice and small crackers with different cheeses and fruit. He had cleared off his desk, and the three of them sat around it taking small bites to compliment the sips of wine.
Rahm sat back and looked at both of them with almost a regal appearance. "Tarm, go ahead and tell her what it is you want and why it is so hard to find."
Clearing his throat, Tarm looked up at the ceiling instead of meeting Margo's eyes. "I want a red Immortality Bead. It is located in an active volcano."
Margo thought about his words. She knew that Tarm found it hard, to tell the truth. He didn't say he needed the Bead; he said he wanted the Bead. Beyond that, she did wonder what was an Immortality Bead?
Margo looked at the two men who would not look at her. "So just do your hocus-pocus and hop down there and pick up the bead. You guys seem to live forever, why would you want an Immortality Bead?"
Waving his hand, Tarm looked over at Rahm who as of yet hadn't added to the conversation. "I have several of the beads. I can trade them with some individuals who won't accept funds or jewels and that kind of stuff."
"So, you need to trade with the devil. Well, I still don't understand why you need me and Rahm to go down into a volcano to get a tiny bead."
Rahm's answer was in his husky voice. "We need to breathe."
Absorbing the words, Margo ran through her mind what she remembered from watching TV documentaries about volcanoes. Finally, she understood Tarm's problem. These monsters that were a connection to the center of the earth spewed out not only molten rock and metals but toxic fumes.
She remembered the signs warning visitors and tourists in Hawaii to stay away from areas that had dangerous fumes. There were the videos of explorers in full hazmat suits going into volcanoes. She smiled remembering the Star Trek movie with Spock in a full spacesuit as he was in an erupting volcano.
The answer was that you couldn't breathe in an active volcano.
She had to ask a more important question, and it hurt because it was Rahm's. She looked directly at him. "What is it you need?"
Margo used the word need as for some reason she felt it would be something he needed not just something he wanted. He was different than Tarm and wasn't just playing games.
Rahm looked at her with his reply. "There is a device called a Time Change Controller. It is supposed to be buried on one of the tallest mountains in this world. Unbelievably cold with storms below but not at that height since it is above what most airplanes fly."
She believed Rahm and doubted Tarm, but neither item sounded like an atom bomb. Helping them didn't seem like she was endangering her world any worse than the mess it had already made. "When do we start?"
* * * *
Rahm had come to her bedroom with a pile of clothes. She had left the door open after she had taken a quick shower and returned, dressed in her normal jeans and t-shirt. What he had was a silver suit.
"This will protect you wherever we go. Make sure you do not take any metal with you. Remember, no knives, not metal. That is important. Check all your clothes for any metal details."
She looked at him with a small smile. "Want to help me get dressed and check me from the skin out?"
She actually got a small smile in return from the tall, taciturn face before he turned to leave, carefully closing the door behind him. She stripped down to her underwear and then thought about her bra with the small metal hooks at the back and the S-shaped connectors at the straps. He stressed no metal.
So it was down to socks and panties and into the silver suit. The suit had boots built in that fit very comfortably, and she was surprised that the suit fit as well. It was all easy until she got up to the waist. From there to the shoulders it was heavy and difficult.
The cumbersome package that was part of the suit that went on her back contained her breathing apparatus which had some belts on the inside that needed to be fitted and buckled after she had her arms in the sleeves. After she got the pack in a position she felt was comfortable, she began closing the double zippers that interlocked.
There was a soft helmet that was still lying on the bed along with silver gloves that would reach to her elbows when she put her hands into them. How were the men going to keep in flesh on flesh contact with her? She would leave that problem up to the two supermen.
Grabbing the extra items, she found that her steps were loud from the heavy boots. Her clumping down the stairs announced her appearance to the two men dressed in normal clothes and waiting outside the front door.
"Well finally. Why is it we are always waiting for the women in our lives?" Tarm raised his hands as if talking to an audience that did not exist.
Margo couldn't resist a jab. "I have a feeling women don't stay in your life very long for you to learn their habits. You probably chase them away with your irritating humor. So where do we start?"
Tarm turned away to ignore her and Rahm gave her a nod. She guessed that meant the choice was hers. "If I get to choose, Rahm, I think I will take a chance on cold weather first. I seem to have a breathing apparatus on my back."
She didn't want to add that she didn't trust Tarm. He struck her as the type that once he got his prize, he would want to go play with it and not waste time hunting for anything Rahm might need.
Rahm approached her and pulled from a pack a heavy wool cap that he pushed down over her head. Next, he had a large set of what was a single glass that covered her entire upper face. He carefully placed and adjusted these over her upper face. Last he wrapped a long woolen scarf around and around her head, over and over, covering her nose and mouth and tying the ends at her neck.
Rahm looked at her closely. "We are going first to a station high on the mountain. The air is thin but breathable if you are careful. We will let go of your hands so put on your gloves immediately. We have a tent and some helpers waiting."
He waited a moment, looking at her with eyes that had no white and were twirling gray and black. She nodded. He took her silver gloves and tucked them into a leg pocket of the silver suit.
Rahm took her hand, and Tarm grabbed the other, and they were in a snowstorm that almost tumbled her down an icy white slope. One of her gloves was a disappearing sparkle in the wind and snow when Tarm reached out his hand in the Tempest, and her glove returned to his spread fingers.
The sounds of this storm drowned out any words that any of them would have said as she was dragged inside a tent she hadn't seen. Rahm helped her bend and sit down in the low shelter that was surprisingly solid.
Compared to the solid frigid storm outside, Margo could feel the comfortable warmth inside this orange protective cover. It was small, and they were all almost touching as they were around the glowing container in the center.
Tarm handed her the glove and just stretched out sideways on a pad that looked like a heavy sleeping bag. Looking at him, she supposed she should thank him, so she began to unwrap the scarf. By the time she got out of the scarf, pulled the glasses off and shoved the cap up, she decided too much time had gone by and just ignored him.
She did look at Rahm who had finished zipping the small door shut on the tent. "This feels so solid with the storm that is raging outside."
Rahm reached to remove her air tanks from the outside without having to undo the belts inside her suit. He had her settle back against him between his long legs. "The Sherpa that we hired to prepare this point pack snow around the tents to protect them from storms and make them strong an
d hold in the heat."
Margo leaned back against him. "I think I read on Wiki about Sherpa. They are the natives that live in the mountains of Tibet, right?"
"Right, ever since rich people decided they wanted to climb these mountains, they needed help in carrying supplies and setting up camps. The Sherpa are a hardy and smart race and use to the high peaks of that area. They soon learned to earn a good living by helping the crazy outsiders go up to the tops. Believe it or not, your records show more outsiders died on these attempts than the Sherpa. I explained as the Sherpa was expected to stay at the campsites and it was the explorers who went on to the top for the glory."
Letting her eyes travel to the rounded top of the tent she had to smile at his story. "What will happen to your Sherpa when we leave?"
"I have already paid them and instructed them to return to their home as we have another way down from the top."
"Can helicopters get to the top to rescue us?"
"No, not enough air pressure for them to fly. That is why there was several explorers still left buried on these mountains." He put his arms around her.
"Why didn't we jump to the spot where that controller thingy is located?"
"I had to get close to make sure I could feel its presence. We will have to do the same thing for Tarm's bead."
"Can you feel it?" She shifted enough so she could look up into his storm-colored eyes.
"Close your eyes; you should be able if you try." He held her tightly, and she did close her eyes.
At first, she felt him, and his warmth and she heard the storm outside. She felt his breath against her neck as he leaned forward. She wasn't sure what he wanted her to feel as in this storm she only felt him or his heart beating.
She didn't even hear Tarm breathing as the storm began to fade away. The beating of his heart seemed to move, and if she had not felt his arms around her, she would have thought he had moved out of the tent.
The beating was further away, higher and taller. It wasn't his heart; it was another heart beating somewhere else on the mountain. She jumped and opened her eyes and lost the sensation.