Page 49 of Carnal: The Beast Who Loved Me

“You can’t tell that I was jealous, Carnal, because it’s not true.”

“Yes, I can tell. Your heart sped up when I mentioned Joy. It got even faster when you lied about being jealous.” Rosie stared at Carnal thinking she hadn’t known what she was getting into when she agreed to a ride. After all, who wants to date a walking lie detector? “Don’t fret,” he said, tearing off a bite of bread and stuffing it into his mouth. “I was worried that you didn’t like me.”

“And you should be worried about that because the verdict is still out.”

“Okay,” he chewed, still smiling. “Whatever you say.”

“I’ll tell you how you could earn points with me though.”

“Earn points? Where you’re from men have to earn points to be with women?”

“No. Not exactly. It’s just an expression that means you could do something to please me.”

“And if I please you then nothing more becomes something more?” He lay back on the blanket and studied Rosie with a twinkle.

“No promises except that you’d earn points.”

“Not sure I’m getting the part that’s supposed to motivate me, but I’ll play. What is this thing I could do to earn points?”

“Teach me to ride your motorcycle.”

That was the last thing that Carnal was prepared to hear. He stared for a few beats, then seeing she was serious, laughed so hard he had to hold his sides. Rosie waited patiently for the laughter to subside. When it did, he said, “Not in a thousand years,” shaking his head like she was the funniest thing ever.

A half hour later Rosie was sitting on the bike, adjustments in seat height having been made for her smaller frame. She’d listened to Carnal repeat instructions at least ten times and knew she was ready.

“I’m ready,” she said. He looked terrified. “Are you afraid for me or the bike?” He looked from her to the motorcycle like he was trying to decide how to answer. “Never mind. Doesn’t matter.”

When he started to repeat instructions for the eleventh time, she rolled her eyes and took off with a jerk. She barely held on because she hadn’t been expecting the initial burst of speed, even though he’d told her ten times, almost eleven, to ease into it and start slow. Heading straight for one of the towers, she promptly forgot everything she’d heard about how to stop. Just before she hit the wall, she uttered something like, “Eek,” and vanished just as the bike became a pile of junk on impact.

Carnal stood with his mouth open. His attention was equally divided between disbelief that his prized possession had just become a compacted hunk of used metal, concern for Rosie, and astonishment that he might have witnessed a supernatural event unlike anything in myth or science as he knew it. In a bewildering twist of what was possible, so far as he knew, Rosie appeared at his side, seeming none the worse for wear, holding onto the sleeve of his Henley like he would save her from his own impending tirade.

When he looked down at her in stunned silence, she blinked rapidly making the most of the unusually long eyelashes she’d inherited from her father. The last thing that should have crossed his mind was that she was cute, but there it was. He’d proved once and for all that lust not only trumps the best of toys, but miracles as well.

In the midst of trying to force his brain to make sense of the unlikely series of events, his eyes jerked toward a telltale column of rising dust.

“Coming,” he said.

“What?” Rosie asked.

“They’re coming.” He pointed to the dust churning upward on the horizon. She saw his expression shift from shock to panic.

“Rautt?” she said. “Rautt are coming?” While he was looking around, evidently casting about for a reasonable course of action, she decided that fixing a single wrecked machine would be too insignificant, in the grand scheme, to be noticed. “Come on. We’d better go.”

He looked at her like she was crazy. “How? We have no ride home. The. Bike. Is. Broke. They’ll be on us before we can get half a mile from here.”

“The motorcycle? I’m sure it’s fine. Stop playing around and let’s get out of here.”

“It’s not…” He looked in the direction of the bike and saw that it was parked with kick stand in place, without a scratch on it. If anything, it was shinier than it had been when they’d left. Giving Rosie a look, he grabbed her arm, dragging her toward the bike double-time. “If we didn’t have to sound a warning, I’d be interrogating you right now.”

“I’m not into kinky.”

He shook his head and growled, “Get on.”

They shot across the sand toward Farsuitwail, leaving the picnic behind. It took seven minutes to reach the first watch tower, which was still located some distance from the city, so far out that it wasn’t usually manned.

Carnal jumped off the bike, lunged toward the hinged door on the side, and pulled the handle. It had a spring mechanism set to strike flint stone under a fire that had been laid with strips of rubber to create a thick black smoke. Exiled joked that they weren’t sure whether the first warning was the sight of black smoke or the awful stench it made. One thing was sure. Both humans and Exiled would know Rautt were coming when a warning fire had been lit.

As soon as he was positive the fire had caught, Carnal sped them back to Newland. He’d get Rosie to safety and make his way to Farsuitwail with the rest of his people to defend the humans and their city.

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