WarriorsApprentice (21 page)

But as he reached out to grab Tybor’s shoulder to drag him
away, Judie’s brown gaze caught and held his. “It’s all right, Huon. Tybor
won’t hurt me. He needs this and I…” She caught her breath as Tybor, acting as
if he had not heard her speak at all, raised his hips and plunged into her.

Now Huon’s breath caught in his lungs. He watched Judie’s
eyes glaze over and he knew her focus was all on the point where Tybor’s cock
drove into her soft depths.

His own cock hardened and ached and his hand slid down
inside his pants and curled around it, squeezing and rubbing as the excitement
grew. Shuffling around, he positioned himself to the side, where he could see
the tight angles of Tybor’s ass as it rose and fell, flexing with each powerful
movement of muscle. He moved again and his field of view widened to include the
sight of Tybor’s profile, tight with lust, the hard lines of his expression
looking too much like anger for Huon’s comfort. Beneath him, Judie made soft,
sexy little exhalations, sounds that indicated her pleasure and tracked the
rising push of her passion.

The sight and sound and the warm, musky smell beginning to
rise from their two bodies excited Huon more and he rocked back and forth as
his hand moved faster on his cock, keeping time with the pumping of Tybor’s
hips.

With one strong movement of his arms, Tybor pushed himself
up higher on Judie’s body, and Huon caught sight of his cock, darkened to a
deep purple, veins standing out in pulsing lines, before Tybor thrust downward
again.

Huon’s fist pumped harder and his balls began to contract.
He forced his eyes to remain open, watching as Judie convulsed under Tybor,
shuddering and arching. She slumped backwards but Tybor kept up his driving
rhythm for one, two, three thrusts more. Then he arched up again, pulling right
out of her for a moment, and Huon saw the bulbous tip of his cock, dark head
weeping precious drops of cum, and Huon’s blood rushed into an obscuring veil,
blinding him to anything but the sight of Tybor’s beautiful cock. The world
contracted then exploded, and he pumped out streams of cum, spurting and
dripping over his hand, pumping and pumping and pumping again until the world
went black and he sagged against the wall. He heard Tybor’s roar of release,
like the sound of distant thunder, and his legs sagged under him and he sank to
the floor.

When he opened his eyes again, Tybor crouched beside him,
one finger stretched out to touch a puddle of Huon’s cum that had splashed his
chest. Tybor’s eyes were heavy and his mouth slack and loose, his lips slightly
parted.

The finger whirled in a tiny circle. Huon held himself
still. Tybor neither moved his hand again nor made any attempt to stand. He
looked steadily into Huon’s eyes, and if he blinked Huon didn’t see it.

The moment stretched on, every passing second winding the
tension tighter, strengthening it, making harder to break.

Then Judie’s voice, pitched low and soft, whispered, “You
want him, Tybor. Why don’t you do it?”

“No.” Tybor’s voice was a whisper, too. “I can’t.”

Houn breathed out, “We can. There is nothing to stop us.”

“No.” The words were a little louder, a little stronger.

“Why not, Tybor?” Judie asked. “If it’s just sex? Just
fucking? Why not?”

Tybor surged to his feet, “Because when this is over, you,”
he pointed at Judie, “will be gone. But Huon will have to live with whatever we
do here.”

He turned back and looked at Huon with a look of such sorrow
and pain that Huon felt a corresponding ache in his own chest. “Huon has fought
for the respect due to a Dvalinn warrior. It can’t be
just fucking
when
it would destroy that.”

While he spoke, he pulled his clothes back on and stormed out
of the room. “I’m going for a walk. You two do whatever the fuck you want to.”

The door slammed behind him, shaking the apartment walls
that careful Austrian tradesmen had built so solidly.

Huon tried to speak but his voice had gone rusty and refused
to work. He scrubbed a hand across his face, gulped and tried again. “I’d
better go get cleaned up.”

“Huon?”

Judie’s voice brought him to a standstill but he didn’t turn
around. He didn’t want her to see the confusion, the shame and the pain he knew
must be written clearly across his face.

“Don’t be angry at him.”

“Why not?” Huon snapped, his back still to her. “He hurt you
and he… He’ll never…” He trailed to a halt, unsure of what he really meant to
say.

“He didn’t hurt me. Go and wash, take a few minutes to
settle down,” Judie said gently. “Then come back and we’ll talk.” Even with his
back turned to her Huon could tell she smiled. “Humans know a lot more about
emotions than you Dvalinn do.”

He nodded jerkily and went into the bathroom. He showered,
taking a long time, washing his hair and letting some of the tension drain away
with the water. When he returned, Judie was sitting up on one bed and she
gestured for him to sit down on the opposite one.

“We both know there won’t be any more sex now and I want to see
you when I talk to you,” she said. “I need to see your reactions.”

The tightness in his shoulders, which the shower had
lessened, returned. “Is it going to be that bad?”

A small chuckle escaped Judie’s lips. “No. But you’re going
to have to face up to a few things that will be a shock to you. I want to make
sure you’re coping with it.” She reached out and took his hand. “I know Tybor
said love and affection are alien emotions to your people, but he’s wrong.”

“Our lack of love is an accepted part of our culture. We
don’t have those kinds of emotions.”

“Rubbish,” Judie snapped. “You feel anger, pride and regret.
I know you do. I’ve seen them.”

Feeling embarrassed and ashamed to have to admit it, Huon
confessed, “I’m different to the others of our kind. Just because I feel them…”

“What do you think drove Tybor to slam out of the door the
way he did?” Judie asked him. “You people have been fooling yourselves. If you
can feel pride and anger and admiration, then I know you can feel love. That’s
why Tybor is so terrified. He feels an emotion he doesn’t want to admit exists.
And there’s another emotion Tybor is feeling, too. Jealousy. He wants you so
badly.”

“But he wants you, too.” Huon tried to understand the nuances
of Judie’s implications. “I just saw him. He wasn’t faking that.”

“He wants me, but he has had me—
can
have me.” Her
voice cracked. “He can let himself have sex with me, can encourage you to do
the same, and he can continue to tell himself it’s just physical. But he can’t
let himself have you, because he knows if it was just sex, then what happened
half an hour ago would never have happened. The itch would have been scratched.
The need to fill a physical urge didn’t make Tybor haul himself off my body and
go to you.”

With a sinking feeling that paradoxically started in his
stomach and rose to his throat, Huon muttered, “I think I was happier without
the idea of love.”

“Nothing you can do about it once it’s there. You’ll get
used to it,” Judie assured him.

The strange feeling got stronger and Huon rubbed his chest
with his free hand. “When I think about you, when I think how lonely I’ll be
without you when we go back, that’s what you’re talking about, isn’t it?” As
soon as he said it, certainty formed. “I don’t want to be without you and I
don’t want to be without Tybor.” He smiled tentatively. “I need you to teach me
what love is, Judie.”

Her hand squeezed his. “I think you already know.” She
looked over at the door through which Tybor had made his exit. “You could live
with love so happily. But I’m afraid you might have to learn to live without
it.”

She sighed and pulled her hand from his. “Go to sleep, Huon.
Tybor will be back when he’s worked out his demons.” She sighed. “Sorry, that
was a stupid pun and I don’t think either of us is in the mood for it.”

She swung her legs into the bed. Huon stood and put out the
lights, then got into bed himself. He lay awake in the darkness, thinking about
the revelations in Judie’s words. He examined his feelings. He hadn’t lied when
he’d said the thought of never seeing Judie again left him achy and sad. He
felt something light and sweet and delicious when he was with Judie. But what
he felt for Tybor was different. It was dark and hard and came from somewhere
deep within. He needed Tybor’s respect and he would fight anyone, including
Tybor, to gain it. There was nothing sweet about the feeling but he knew that
Tybor was tangled up in his soul and his life. The physical manifestation of
that—sex—was important. He wanted to be joined to Tybor physically, the need so
strong it tore through him with the impact of a fireball, leaving him concussed
and reeling.

But if he had to do without sex, without the physical touch
of the man, he would do that rather than destroy the relationship he had with
Tybor. His eyes blinked open. Another revelation. If he felt that, then perhaps
so did Tybor. Seen through the lens of that understanding, some of Tybor’s
reactions became clearer.

Huon smiled to himself. He’d fought Tybor before and he
might have to fight him again to make him see that there was another way.

Tomorrow they would head to England and Stonehenge. Once
there, once they’d returned safely to their own world, where Huon could
reconnect with the power he needed to live and the need to be battle-ready no
longer existed, he could get Tybor to face the truth. He could soothe his
fears, make him see that, like Huon himself, the nature of their kind could
change. Hell, Huon suddenly felt so optimistic he was ready to believe they
might one day even be able to bring their people to the surface, out in the
open. Maybe not only Huon and Tybor had to learn new ways of doing things.

Humans too could be convinced of the stupidity of fearing
his kind. Surely once they were openly revealed, humans would quickly see that his
people bore no resemblance to the demons that some humans had labeled them as.
Huon grinned to himself as he pictured a handful of the cutest children he
could find ushered onto the surface world and presented to humans.

He rolled onto his side still smiling. It would all work out
and his people and humans could at last live comfortably together. He and Tybor
and Judie could have any kind of relationship they wanted. Once they made Tybor
face the truth, it would all be easy.

Huon drifted between sleep and waking. He heard the quiet
rattle of the key in the lock, felt the movement of air as Tybor moved quietly
past him, and the squeak of the bedsprings as he settled himself for sleep.

He didn’t say a word. Tybor had had enough emotion for one
day, especially for a man who didn’t believe in it. The hours spent traveling
would be as Spartan and as focused as Tybor himself could wish for. There would
be no time for love or jealousy or even sex. Huon would leave Tybor’s fragile
temper alone so they could concentrate on what they had to do, undistracted by
feelings they did not have time to adjust to.

Love might be new, but duty came first, and Huon was far too
much of a soldier to do anything that would jeopardize the mission.

He closed his eyes and slept.

Chapter Six

Huon hitched the bags he’d insisted on carrying higher onto
his shoulder and opened the door to the building.

“Wait here until I check,” he said.

He slipped soundlessly out into the cool pre-dawn gray,
leaving Judie alone in the hallway. A moment later he was back.

“The street is deserted. We’re right to go.”

“Should we wait for Tybor?” Judie asked. “He’s still
upstairs.”

“No, I’m here,” Tybor said from behind her.

She jumped. How did these two manage to move so silently?

“Got everything?” Huon asked, his question directed at
Tybor.

“Yes,” Tybor answered and strode out, his arms full of
packages.

Judie pulled out the keys and unlocked the car. Huon tossed
the bags with their scant supply of clothing into the trunk. Judie moved to the
side so Tybor could do the same with his packages but he opened the door and
carefully stowed them within easy reach.

“If we need these, we’ll need them quickly,” Tybor said.

Judie looked at the stacks of small, wrapped packages. “You
know, I’m pretty sure it’s illegal to carry explosives into road tunnels, and
I’m positive they won’t like us taking them in the channel tunnel.”

“Then we’d better hope we don’t get checked,” Tybor growled.

“Do you have travel papers, passports?” Judie asked.

Last night the practicalities of travel with two non-humans
hadn’t been high on her worry list. Today, with their departure imminent, it
loomed as an obstacle.

Tybor snorted. “We have what we need.” He looked at her.
“You needn’t look so surprised. Did you think we’d come on a mission like this
without doing our research? I assure you we know far more about your world than
your world knows about us.” Then he tilted his head. “If anyone is going to
cause a problem, it will be you.”

“My mother was born in Scotland. I travel on a British
passport.”

She’d made that decision long ago in order to make movement
between countries easier. Standing in the long, slow-moving non-EU queue at
Heathrow was an experience she could happily do without.

“There shouldn’t be a problem, then,” Tybor said. “If we do
run into any checkpoints, make sure you look innocent.”

“I was, until I met you two…” she replied.

“We’re not the bad guys,” Huon protested.

“The Italian police might disagree,” she said. “But if they
don’t have a description of us, as long as we don’t look like terrorists, drug
runners or people smugglers, we might escape notice.” She cast an eye over the
small powder-blue sedan. “The car certainly looks innocuous enough. I wonder
how well it will hold its speed on the autobahn.” She threw her handbag onto
the backseat. “Only one way to find out.” She opened the door and got in. “You
two coming? And no fights over who gets the front seat.”

Tybor wrenched open the back door and threw himself inside
without saying a word. Huon got in beside her and she started the car. For some
time her attention was entirely focused on following the turns needed to get
her out of Klagenfurt and on their way to England.

“How long do we expect to be on the road?” Huon’s voice
beside her dragged her from her thoughts.

“The directions say about fifteen and a half hours, but
that’s being optimistic. We’ll have to stop for fuel and food, although we can
eat in the car.”

Huon rested his hand on her shoulder. “This is a lot to ask,
for you to drive such a long way and us not able to help you.”

“It’s nothing compared to what you and Tybor have already
endured.” Her eyes didn’t leave the road but she wanted to look at him. “All I
have to do is stay awake. And I can sleep for an hour while we’re on the train
going under the Channel.”

On the autobahn, Judie put her foot down and the car
gradually accelerated until it reached a steady 120 kilometers an hour.

“What exactly do we do when we get there?” she asked.

“We’ll pull up a little way from Stonehenge. Then you can
go,” Tybor spoke from the backseat. “Huon and I will look around. If no one is
there, we’ll be able to transport out at midnight.”

“What if it doesn’t work?” Judie objected. She took her eyes
from the road long enough to glare at Huon. “You need me to wait.”

“It will work,” Huon said. “Tybor can take me back. You’ll
be exhausted anyway. You’ll need sleep.”

She raised her voice so Tybor would be sure to hear. “I can
sleep later.”

Maybe when they had gone back to where they came from, she’d
spend most of her time asleep. Asleep and dreaming.

“I’ll wait until I know you’re safe.”

“Admit it, Tybor,” Huon said, and Judie could hear the grin
in his voice. “This woman is a warrior too, and you can’t talk her out of it
any more than you could make me give up.”

“Why did Tybor try to make you give up?” Judie asked. “I
thought you were partners.”

“Not at first,” Huon replied. “Tybor thought I was a useless
weakling and did everything he could to make me admit it.”

“I’ve said I was wrong,” Tybor grumbled from the backseat.
“I have admitted over and over again that your looks are deceptive and that you
are stronger and sharper and tougher than anyone else I’ve ever trained.”

There was a roughness to Tybor’s voice, almost a huskiness.
If they hadn’t been crammed in the car, racing to get Huon to Stonehenge, Judie
thought she might have found a convenient set of rooms, thrown the two of them
together and forced them to face this thing between them. Until they did, they
were never going to be at peace and the tension between them would never be in
balance.

Tybor leaned back in his seat again and Judie concentrated
on driving. Huon lay against the seat back, eyes closed, not saying anything.
At the first junction with a toll road, the electronic tag attached to the
windscreen bleeped. Huon’s body jerked as if someone had picked him up and
shaken him.

“What the hell was that?” Tybor yelled, and in the rearview mirror
Judie saw his hand go to his pocket and his head swing from side to side.

“It’s the tag to pay the toll. The fee is collected
automatically,” Judie reassured him. Behind her she could hear the rasp of
Tybor’s breath, hard and fast but rapidly coming under control. “It’s perfectly
normal, nothing to worry about.”

“Nothing for you, maybe,” Huon muttered. “It felt like the
first jolt of the stunner Hopewood used.”

Judie’s grip tightened on the wheel. “Did it hurt you?” She
gnawed at her lip. “We could avoid the toll roads if we have to but it will add
hours to the journey.”

“It’s more like the promise of pain than pain itself,” Tybor
rumbled. “We can take it.”

“There are five or six more toll roads to go. I’ll warn you
when we’re about to go under the checkpoint if it will help,” Judie offered.

“I’ll be fine,” Huon said, but his voice sounded thick and
sluggish and his shoulders slumped against the seat.

“Are you all right?” she asked.

“Yeah, sure,” he said, the words slurring together.

Tybor leaned forward and wrapped his hands around Huon’s
head from behind. “You’re cold,” he said.

“I’ll turn on the heat,” Judie said, leaning forward and
twirling a button.

“No!” Tybor shouted. “It’s artificial heat. That’s the last
thing he needs.”

“I don’t understand. You said he was cold. I was just trying
to help.” But she turned the dial back to where it had been.

“The cold comes from within. Without access to his source of
power his body is shutting down.” Tybor’s voice exuded grimness. “He has to get
back home.”

“You said we had plenty of time,” Judie cried, her foot
dropping hard onto the accelerator to wring as much speed as she could from the
engine. “Why did you let us stay so long in Klagenfurt?”

“I made a fucking mistake,” Tybor ground out. “I didn’t
allow for the effects of Huon’s injuries. How much that would drain his stores.
Shit. I should have thought of that.” He pounded his fist on the back of Huon’s
seat.

“’M not acshually dead yet.” Huon’s slurred voice was soft
but it silenced both Tybor and Judie instantly. “Lighten up a bit, ’kay? We’re
on th’way to th’ port’l. How ’bout you jus’ shut up an’ let Judie drive?” His
voice faded out and his head slumped back against the headrest.

“Can you make this piece-of-shit of a car go any faster?”
Tybor demanded.

“I’m trying,” Judie replied, her knuckles clenched white on
the steering wheel. The motor whined and the speed crept up, but still the
miles seemed to pass with agonizing slowness.

She cast quick looks at Huon but his eyes remained shut.
Behind her, Tybor leaned tensely forward in his seat. She met his eyes in the
rearview mirror. His expression of concern exactly reflected her own worry.

She pulled out to pass a slower-moving car and Huon stirred.
He turned his head to look out at the striated rocks rising up on either side
of them. “The surface world is beautiful,” he muttered, then his eyes closed
and he sank down, his head lolling and bumping up against the window.

“Tybor!” Judie shouted. “We have to help him!”

“There’s nothing we can do. Keep driving,” he ordered. “We
have to get to the portal. I have to get him home.”

Judie pushed her foot harder onto the accelerator, wringing
every ounce of speed she could from the borrowed vehicle.

After five and a half hours, near the Baden-Baden exit, Judy
pulled into a service station. “We have to stop. We need fuel. I’ll be as quick
as I can, I promise.”

She pulled up to the pumps and turned to Huon. His pale face
was still, no flicker of movement from behind his closed eyelids. She scurried
to the back of the car and began to fill the tank. Suddenly Tybor surged out of
the car, jerked open the passenger door and dragged Huon out.

“What are you doing?” Judie yelled, shutting off the fuel
pump and leaving the handle dangling in the filler port.

Tybor didn’t respond, just strode on, carrying Huon’s
unconscious body.

Judie followed them behind the cement block building toward
a small park, with grass and trees and a few picnic tables. “What are you
doing?”

“Ever since we arrived in Venice,” Tybor panted, “We’ve been
in contact only with manmade material—concrete, shaped stone, streets, houses,
the train and now the car. Huon has had no contact with the earth.”

“I don’t understand,” Judie said, struggling to keep up even
though she was unburdened and Tybor carried Huon clasped in his arms like a
child.

“The Dvalinn thrive on their connection to the earth,” Tybor
stated.

“Yes. But you said that Huon can’t access his powers so—”

“Not properly, no,” Tybor cut her off. “But he
is
Dvalinn, and even without his powers he might be able to absorb some strength
from the earth.”

They reached the little patch of green and Tybor dropped to
his knees, gently laying his burden down, pulling Huon’s shirt off, exposing
him to the grass beneath him and the sun above.

“I don’t know if it will work, but we have to try
something.”

He stood between Huon and the service station, cutting off
any curious onlookers’ view, standing guard, his legs spread, arms folded, face
set in a forbidding glare.

Judie dropped to her knees beside Huon, and Tybor spared her
a quick glance. “Don’t touch him and don’t cast your shadow on him.”

She nodded. “Is there anything I can do?”

“Just wait.” His frown deepened. “You might want to do
something about the car, though.”

She turned back and followed the direction of his gaze and
let out a yelp. “I forgot.”

She stood up to scurry back to where an irate motorist and a
puzzled service station employee were checking out the car. She hastily paid
for the fuel and drove the car away from the pump and closer to where Tybor
stood.

By the time she returned, Tybor’s shoulders had dropped a
little and the tight line of his lips had loosened. There was a flicker of
movement behind Huon’s eyelids. Another minute later and they lifted, revealing
dazed blue eyes.

“Wass happening? Are we there?”

“Not yet,” Tybor replied, his voice gentler than Judie had
ever heard it. “We still have a long way to go, but if we stop every so often
and let you connect to the Earth, I think you might make it.”

Putting one hand behind him, Huon struggled to get up, but
Tybor pushed him back down again. “You need to stay there for a bit longer.
Then I’ll carry you back to the car.”

“I can walk,” Huon protested, but Judie suspected it was
more bravado than fact.

“Doesn’t matter whether you can or not,” Tybor said. “You
aren’t going to.”

They waited around for a few more minutes, then Tybor said,
“That’s as good as he can get without his powers.”

He picked Huon up and walked back to the car. Judie snatched
up Huon’s shirt and waited while Tybor settled Huon on the backseat and covered
him with coats he took from the trunk.

“We’ll have to stop to do that more often than we need to
refuel but it can’t be helped,” Tybor said. “It will make the journey longer,
but it’s the only way we’ll get Huon there.”

“I’m sorry…” Huon began.

“You shut up and sleep,” Tybor ordered. “Conserve what
strength you have.”

For once Huon didn’t argue, just obeyed and slid down with a
sigh.

Before the sun went down they made another stop at a little
roadside clearing. This time they were able to carry Huon a little farther away
and, with Judie standing between him and the road, Tybor removed all his
clothing.

Huon’s body, still lean and beautiful, looked frail and
fragile as if some force from within had departed, leaving it diminished. A
shiver ran down Judie’s spine and a hard lump settled in her stomach. Tybor’s
face, as rigid as the masks they’d left behind in the street stalls of Venice,
his gray skin, the twin grooves carved beside his tight lips, told her what she
already feared.