Captive Moon by C.T. Adams

Author:C.T. Adams
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates
Published: 2006-08-17T16:00:00+00:00

TAHIRA LET OUT a rush of air that wasn’t quite a laugh. “As good as can be expected, I guess. My side hurts, and I feel like a truck hit me.” She looked at him for a long moment. Her fingers were trembling and nearly as white as the silk nightgown she had on. Seeing him here—alive, perfect, with concern and warmth radiating from him, was suddenly too much. Without thinking, she launched herself forward, threw her arms around him, and burst into tears.

He rocked backward with the impact, but quickly righted himself. He wrapped his arms around her and held her close while she sobbed against the soft warmth of his chamois shirt that smelled of grass and fur and flesh.

“I’m sorry,” she said in a muffled whisper. “Everybody told me that this might happen. Rabi and I even talked about it. But I thought I could control it. It was like I was a prisoner inside my own head. I wanted to kill him when I smelled Rabi’s scent on him, but I didn’t know how it would make me feel.”

Antoine stroked her hair and pulled her a little closer. She could hear his heart beat just a bit faster and a sort of sad darkness fill his voice. “The part that’s hardest is the pride in your kill, isn’t it, mon chat du feu? You bested the prey, felt the thrill of pleasure as the body went limp. Even now, the memory brings a sort of satisfaction. That’s…well, it’s what causes many of us to lose the fight—not with our enemies, but with ourselves. Not all Sazi die a violent death. Many simply cannot bear what they have become, and they take their own lives. But I didn’t know that you had smelled your brother’s scent on the man. Merde! That would be more than even the best of us could bear during the moon. You have nothing to apologize for. Nothing to be ashamed of.”

She leaned back a bit so she could see his face. Looking into his eyes, she realized that they weren’t truly golden, but smoldered with a thousand shades of brown and yellow and green that sucked her inside and made her want to tell him everything in her heart. “I think the part that bothers me the most is that I’m not ashamed. He kidnapped my brother and attacked me, and I defended myself. But shouldn’t I feel ashamed? My friends back home would be horrified. Even my parents would, and they were raised in the Hayalet culture. I felt like this incredible outsider in the village, thinking they were terrible and vicious for speaking of death so matter-of-factly, and here I am now, reacting the same. All I can remember is that I wanted to finish with him fast so I could help you in your fight. I heard you yelp and hiss, and my only thought was the man needed to die so I could hurt the man who—”

“Was hurting me?” Antoine smiled slightly and pushed back a few strands of hair that had covered one eye.

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