Spear of Destiny by James Baldwin (room on the broom read aloud txt) 📗

Istvan, face-down on the table, thumped his face down against his forearms.

Rin groaned. “Men.”

Suri sighed, shook her head, and pushed her chair back. “Right. Well, I’ll leave the measuring contest to you blokes. I’ve gotta go and grill a rat.”

“Jacob? You want to go now?” I frowned, getting to my feet.

“Yeah.” Suri grimaced, stretching her neck and shoulders. “Might as well get it over with.”

“In all seriousness, my lady, I would advise against it.” Vash kicked his feet down, sitting up straight. “What I suggest we do is deprive him of his dinner tonight. He will be on edge due to the break in routine. Then, first thing in the morning, wake him up and take his breakfast to him, then talk. A man like Jacob is barely two steps above an animal. Associate your presence with food, as you would when taming a feral dog. It will make your words more effective.”

“He’s got a point.” I offered her a hand. “C’mon, let’s go take a night off. Catch up. Get some rest. If we’re lucky, the scouts will be back tomorrow. There’ll be shit to take your mind off the past once we’ve interrogated him.”

Suri regarded me with fierce, unblinking eyes for several long seconds. Then she flicked her gaze down, and linked her fingers through mine.

“Alright. You win,” she said. “Come on. We’ll see you all tomorrow.”

I gave a little mournful wave back to Vash, Istvan, and Rin as Suri gently, but firmly dragged me from the dining hall.

Suri didn’t stop once we got outside, heading for the Ducal Suite at a quick, determined walk. I spared a glance for Karalti. My dragon was still sound asleep in the castle’s courtyard, her flanks expanding and contracting as she snoozed the night away. Her HP was fine, and her stamina recovering. But as I reached for her mind, I felt a crackle of static pass between us. The Dragonsblood potion issue was becoming a matter of urgency.

“Everything alright?” Suri called from up ahead.

“Oh... yeah.” I hadn’t realized I’d stopped. I hurried to catch up to her. “Anyway, you look like you’re on a mission. What’s eating you?”

“Jacob,” she said tersely. “I really just wanted to get that little conversation over with, so I didn’t have to think about it for the entire night.”

“You’re running a fatigue debuff, and so am I,” I said. “Even if we don’t feel that tired, all our mental skills are lowered. We need to rest. Get four hours of shut-eye and then go wake him up in the middle of the night, if you want. You’ll scare the shit out of him.”

Suri stopped and turned on the scaffolding, reaching out to clutch my forearm. She said nothing, staring at the ground.

“What’s the matter?” I asked.

She slowly lifted her face, cheeks flushed. “I didn’t want to ask this in front of the others, but... would you come with me?”

“To interrogate Jacob?” I offered her a hug.

“Yeah.” She looked away, gradually easing into my arms. “It’s not that I can’t handle him, or anything. I’d just feel better having someone at my back.”

I pushed a curling lock of scarlet hair from her cheek, tucking it behind her ear. “Sure. What do you need me to do?”

“Hold the door while I go into the cell. Make sure it doesn’t close on me. I can deal with being in a cell, I can deal with grilling Jacob, but I can’t deal with being locked in a cell with him. You know what I mean?”

“Done and done,” I said. “I don’t think I ever told you, but among my myriad of other talents, I have a long and storied career as a professional doorbitch.”

Suri did a small double-take, quirking her lips. “Myriad? Did I just hear that?”

I actually caught myself for a moment. I had, in fact, said ‘myriad’ instead of ‘many’. Even more surprisingly, I knew what the word meant. “Uhh... yeah. I don’t know where that came from. Me ugg. Big man, big words.”

“It came from you getting smarter, you jarhead.” Suri chuckled, a rich, warm sound that made parts of my body tingle pleasantly. “Jeez. Soon you’ll be using words with FOUR syllables.”

“Let’s see... ‘Do you want to make some fuck?’ is a phrase that has SIX syllables,” I replied somberly. “So that’s gotta be, like, genius level.”

“Good enough for me. At least I know what you want.” She pulled out of my embrace, and tugged my hand. “You have to work if you want that badge, lover boy.”

“My pleasure.” Grinning my head off, I let her lead me to the tower, all the way to the bedroom.

Chapter 17

Hours later, I stirred in the warm covers, half-asleep. Suri was out cold, snoozing softly to my right. By the soft lamplight from my study, I was able to see the results of two hours of enthusiastic, rambunctious lovemaking: the messy hair, the tangled sheets, the bruises from my mouth. At Suri’s urging, I’d bitten her on the insides of her thighs, taking just a little blood. But even with the twin hungers of blood and sex sated, another, deeper hunger was gnawing at me. My body needed the Dragonsblood Potion, and it wasn’t going to let me rest until I’d gotten it.

I frowned as I sat up, still nude, and carefully climbed out of bed. Suri stirred a little, groaning. I went to the study and turned the lamp off, then padded silently out into the living area of the suite. Once I was out there, I equipped some warm clothes—no armor—and made sure I had my Alchemy equipment and a gold piece in my gear. Then I left, checking that the door was locked, and headed out into the night.

It wasn’t too unusual for me to be restless after the sun