The Templar's Legacy (Ancient Enemy) Read online

  “Uh, well, I’ve been busy.”

  He raised one razor sharp eyebrow at Colette. “Really dear boy, I didn’t know you swung this way. Who’s your tasty little bon-mot here? Seriously Tiger, I despair of ever teaching you manners.” His eyes twinkled. “I think you may need to be spanked.”

  “Uh Max, this is Colette. She’s visiting from France.”

  Max’s mascara lined eyes widened, and he gave Colette his first real look. “Oh, I adore the French! I’ve such fond memories of Le Marais! A few nights there, and I could barely walk. It was glorious! Have you been there, dear girl?”

  Colette smiled slightly. “But, of course. I love the dancing.”

  “Oh darling, I envy you!” He looked at me again. “Tiger, they would just eat you up in gay Paree! You’d never have to pay for a drink, or go home alone!”

  He weighed me with his eyes, and I squirmed under his stare. I desperately wanted him to leave, and couldn’t think of anything to say.

  “Well, I’ve a date with a university boy. He is sooo luscious. Smart is the new sexy you know! It was glorious meeting you, my little French truffle. Ta ta!”

  I started to breathe a sigh of relief. Max was like a dervish. He came out of nowhere, hit you, then spun away. I’d been lucky to get off so lightly.

  Or not.

  Max spun in place and said to Colette, “Do not leave our beautiful little country without having young Tiger show you his moves. When he dances, my heart just stops! He’s shameless!” He twiddled his fingers at me and then headed for the counter.

  I hunched over my plate and buried my head in a slice of pizza. When I risked a glance up, Colette was eyeing me with her own eyebrow raised.

  “I’m not gay!” It just blurted out of me.

  Colette broke into a laugh. “You are so cute!” She flapped her hand at me. “But tiger, you simply must take me to the dancing.”

  Hey! I think I’m starting to like her, Finn! Let’s take her dancing. Spring’s proclivities for dancing with anyone and anything while I was asleep was what had garnered me Max’s attention.

  The double-pronged attack from the two females surely had my face matching our red and white checked tablecloth.

  “Uh, I’m really not much of a dancer.”

  Colette watched Max at the register as his arms waved flamboyantly in the air.

  She looked at me speculatively. “It is not a bad thing to be a good dancer. Good dancers are very sexy.”

  “Oh. Well... maybe we can go dancing sometime,” I admitted.

  “And you can show me your moves.”

  Her enthusiastic smile made me laugh self-consciously. “Don’t hold your breath. I’m really not very good.”

  She raised an eyebrow at me and glanced back to Max.

  “Perhaps yes, perhaps no.”

  “Oh, he’s just messing with me.” I searched for a change in topic. “So, what’s Paris like?”

  She was happy to oblige my curiosity. Apparently, Le Marais was Paris’s gay district, but the nightlife there was good enough to attract lots of straights, too. Amazing, the things you learn.

  We had just left the nice cool air-conditioning in Frankies and stepped into the hot muggy summer day when she stopped and froze in her tracks.

  I stopped a step later and looked back her. “Colette?” She was staring across the road and scowling. I wasn’t used to seeing an expression like that on her face. She looked fierce and dangerous.

  When I tried to trace her gaze, the only thing I saw was a tall, well-built guy with curly black hair and that rugged, manly dark shadow of a beard around his chiseled jaw that I’ll never have. He leaned back against a telephone pole concentrating on the slim cell phone he held in front of himself. It looked like he was texting or playing a game.

  “Finn, don’t leave!” Colette bounded across the road at high speed, leaving me gaping on the sidewalk.

  The man started when he saw the little French rocket coming at him and took off down the sidewalk. She angled her trajectory and, like someone out of a spy movie, jumped onto the hood of a car like a gazelle. She yelled something, launched herself, took the man down hard, and rolled past him. Another leap and she landed on the man’s back as he was just getting up onto his hands and knees. He went down again.

  My brain half kicked in, and I almost got run over by a minivan when I ran into the road. I held my hands up to placate the angry soccer mom and rushed across the street. By the time I got there, Colette and the man were both standing. She had him backed against the brick wall of a store and was assailing him verbally and gesticulating wildly with sharp, abrupt moves.

  The man, with a nice case of road rash running down his handsome and rugged right cheek, was yelling back at Colette. She was yelling in French, and he was yelling back in a different language.

  Now that I was there, I didn’t know what to do. It was obvious that Colette didn’t need, or want, rescuing, so I stuck my thumb up my butt and stood there. The fight soon broke up after tall, dark, and handsome stabbed at me with his finger a couple of times while yelling into her face.

  His mouth curled up into an angry sneer, and with one glance my way, he stalked away. Colette called some angry words after him and then turned to me. The angry, dangerous look on her face instantly got replaced by one more apologetic and concerned. As usual, stress brought out Colette’s French accent.

  “Oh, Feenn! I apologize you saw sat. I was veree angry.”

  I tried to wave it off as nothing. “Don’t worry about it. Who is that guy? What did he do to you?”

  She scowled, pursed her lips sensually. “He is Pietro. He was my... boyfriend. He is... why I came here to America. I needed to get away from him, but he is jealous and followed me here.”

  My eyebrows rose. “He flew all the way from France to find you here?”

  She shook her head tightly. “Non, he flew from Italy.”

  “Wow.” I looked down the sidewalk after him but he was already gone. How could I compete with something like that? Tall, muscular, with chiseled features and thick brooding eyebrows was not something I did. He looked like he should be playing the part of some vampire in Twilight. I was so far out of his league that it wasn’t even the same sport.

  My mind was wrenched back to Colette when she put her hand up to my face and guided my attention back to her. Her jaw stuck forward in determination. “You do not have to worry for me. He is a cow-ward and will not bother me again.”

  Her assumption that I was worried about her when I was actually worrying more about how I stacked up to her ex left me feeling embarrassed and lacking.

  I tried to smother my guilt with a smile and a quip. “I’m not worried. You kicked his butt, but good. Remind me not to make you angry.”

  She blushed prettily. “I am so sorry, I was too angry when I saw him. I should not have lost the temper.”

  I smiled more genuinely this time. “Hey, sometimes you have to tackle someone and scrub the sidewalk with their face to make them get the hint.”

  That put a twinkle back in her eyes, and her lips curled up into a smile, which ignited a fire within me, leaving me feeling all fuzzy and warm inside.

  I looked down at knees that sported their own road-rash.

  “You’re bleeding! Come on, we’ll get you cleaned up.”

  Appalachian Trail

  Twilight was leaching the color from the lush forest the four of us hiked through. Jim and Dave had planned the trip, and when I told Colette, she was eager to come along. The entire day on the trail had been a literal breath of fresh air to me, and after walking all day, I still felt great. I was in the best shape of my life. Being in shape really made all the difference in the world to me. Apparently, wheezing, feeling like I could vomit, fall over, and die had really interfered with my enjoyment of the great outdoors. Go figure. It also helped that Spring was glorying in the hike as well.

  Because of a late start, we had only gotten as far as Rainbow Lake before we decided to call it
quits. We had to follow a small trail around the lake to look for a campsite that wasn’t already taken. We finally found a beautiful little site nestled in a nice grove of trees with a clear view of the lake and plenty of room for our camp.

  After we pitched our tents, I still felt the need to be moving. “Hey guys, I’m going down to the lake, anybody want to come along?”

  Dave looked at me crossly. “Sorry mountain man, I’m too tired. Us mere mortals can’t keep up with you super-hero types.”

  Colette crawled out of her tent. I was sad to see that she had changed out of her hiking shorts and tank top into more sensible, but less intriguing, sweats. When we first saw her on the trail, all our eyes were in danger of popping out of our heads. Though short, she was slender, muscular, and sexy as hell. “I will come with you, Finn.”

  Jim looked up from where he was rummaging through his pack. “While you’re out there, pick up some deadwood for a fire.”

  I saluted. “Aye, aye, Capitan.”

  We walked for a short way through the green trees and riotous undergrowth till we found a nice grassy place to sit on the gentle bank of the lake. We sat down, and the peaceful silence pressed in around us, broken only by the screeching call of the occasional jay. The smooth waters of the lake were unruffled by any waves and reflected the few clouds in the deepening sky catching the last rays of the sun with a burst of orange glory.

  I took a deep breath of the invigorating scent of the forest around us, and tried to open my mind to its peace and beauty. I was only partially successful. I was much more aware of Colette sitting right next to me. I swallowed my nervousness and searched for something to say.

  Finn, you are never going to make any children if you don’t start paying attention to the signals of the women around you. I’m starting to think that even though this girl is not fertile, you should go ahead and fuck her just to get it out of your system—

  Heat filled my body; it felt like even my toes were blushing. Spring! Are you trying to give me a heart attack? Don’t use language like that. Especially about a girl I like.

  I thought that the word “fuck” connoted sex for the purpose of pleasure and not for mating or bonding.

  Well it’s not, and you know it! It’s crude and nasty, and I don’t like it.

  Oh. How about instead of saying “fuck her,” I say “bang her”?

  No!

  Jump her bones?

  Argh!

  How about wild monkey sex?

  Colette looked over at me with a small smile. “Finn, you are troubled? Is everything good?”

  I squeaked out, “Uh, er, yeah, yeah, everything’s fine.”

  You have a very unhealthy fear of sex, Finn.

  I tried to ignore Spring’s mischievous giggle ringing through my brain and worked on getting Colette’s attention off of me lest she see my clothes smoking. “Uh, I was just thinking about how beautiful the lake is and... stuff.”

  That was smooth.

  Colette looked out over the calm darkening waters and the shadowed forest, which pushed down to the lake. “Oui, it ees quite romantic, no?”

  Her sexy French accent pumped my already hyped libido. Over the summer, her accent had faded to almost nothing, but sometimes, like now, it came back with a vengeance.

  “Uh, yeah.”

  Go ahead Finn. Ask her if she wants to bump uglies with you!

  Colette looked at me with her eyebrows raised in concern, and put her hand on my arm. “Are you well, Finn? You look upzet.”

  The warmth of her soft hand on my arm occupied all my attention. “No, I uh...”

  Go on, stud! She’s begging for a hot Finn-beef injection!

  I rubbed my hand over my face to cover up the glow coming off of it. “I’ve got a headache coming on. I... I think I need some food and water.”

  “But of course. Come, we will get you something to eat and to drink.” Colette stood up and offered me her hand. I took it and hopped up. She didn’t let go and I found myself standing face to face with her. Her brown eyes looked up into mine. She had the most amazing long eyelashes... I panicked, yanked back my hand, and headed back to the camp.

  Spring laughed at me. Dude! She wants you...

  Shut up, Spring! One more word and I promise we’ll never go dancing again.

  Spring finally shut up. That hit her where she lived. Ever since leaving her oak tree she had wanted to do nothing more than move and dance. After what had happened between Erik Parmely and me, I had been very motivated to move and get into shape as well, but I was happy with my Krav Maga practice and my strength and endurance training. That summer I had probably gotten more exercise than in my entire life to date. I didn’t need to add dancing to that list.

  In addition, with Spring’s internal help, I had shed some of my “baby” fat and added on some good muscle preternaturally quickly. I think I was also growing taller, but Spring said it wasn’t her doing. I wasn’t complaining, but it made my mother worry.

  By the time we made it back to camp, I had managed to slow my heart rate down to no more than 150 beats per minute, and my brain was starting to kick back in. To preserve what little dignity I had left, I made sure to drink a lot of water and munch on a power bar before I sat down at the small fire Jim had going. I was sure I had really messed things up with Colette, so I was elated when she sat down next to me. That only lasted a few seconds before Jim ordered us to go back out and collect the firewood we had forgotten. It wasn’t hard to find, so it didn’t take long.

  I was getting used to seeing Colette hold her cross and pray before each meal, but, dinner that night consisted of salami, cheese, crushed Doritos, and fruit roll-ups. It felt a bit formal for our modest meal. That cold dinner was a far cry from the gourmet meals that we cooked on my excursions with my Dad and Uncle Mark, but it still hit the spot.

  When it was time to head to bed, Dave couldn’t be coaxed from his tent and its protection from the mosquitoes, but Jim, Colette, and I chose to sleep out under the open sky. Jim fell asleep first. Colette and I lay on our backs, watched the stars, and talked into the wee hours. Though not a techie, she was as much a star buff as I was. Before Colette fell asleep, she scooted her bag next to mine.

  She snuggled up to me, put her head on my shoulder with a sigh and said, “Bon soir, Finn.”

  Startled, then elated, I hesitated and then wrapped my arm around her. “Good night, Colette.”

  Wonder and warmth filled me. The only girl (not my mother) I’d ever been close to up to that point was Spring, and my relations with her (when she had a body) had been purely carnal, overwhelming, and required no help from me. On top of that, Spring wasn’t really a girl, she was a dryad. Colette was a living, vital woman who wanted to be close to me. It tied my insides up in a knot, but in a good way.

  Colette quickly fell asleep and the soft sound of her breath caressed my ears as it grew deeper and more regular.

  The sublimely perfect moment lasted for about ten seconds. That’s when the mosquito buzzed my ear, no doubt attracted by the DEET I’d slathered myself with. In a reflexive panic, I slapped my hand to my ear and nearly popped my eardrum.

  I bit back a curse and froze. Colette stirred and mumbled, but thankfully didn’t wake up. I had no idea how people could fall asleep that quickly.

  I rubbed my sore ear for a bit and then put my arm back down. Unable to find a comfortable position, I settled with putting it carefully behind my head. That freed my attention to better feel the root sticking into my other shoulder. It had previously gone unnoticed, but now it began to hurt as I relaxed and the weight of Colette’s head pressed my arm down. I tried to subtly reposition my shoulder but failed to relieve the pain. In fact, it just got worse.

  When a cat falls asleep on my lap, I find myself paranoid about waking it up. I feel like it’s a violation of a sacred trust or something. Needless to say, I would rather have chewed my arm off than pull it back and wake up Colette, so I just gritted my teeth and tried to go to sleep.

/>   Of course, at that point, my left arm, now behind my head, started to go numb. When I slowly and carefully moved it down to my side again, I found it left my neck uncomfortably stretched onto my small pillow. As a bonus, it pressed the root deeper into my shoulder.

  I lay there cursing silently while looking at the silvery stars twinkling against the velvet black sky above me. As I did so, the pain continued to worsen in my arm, and my neck started to protest its awkward angle. Eventually I’d have to move, but I resolved that I would wait till Colette was deeper asleep, so I could move without waking her.

  Spring was mystified. Just move your arm, you goofball. So what if she wakes up? It’s not like she’s any great catch.

  Internally, I gritted my teeth. Spring, please shut up! We’ve been through this. Go to sleep!

  She huffed at me and then pulled away. It was a good trick for someone who was living in my brain. I still hadn’t come up with a reasonable physical explanation for the relationship Spring and I shared. How one brain could host two consciousnesses was just one of the inexplicable, but undeniable mind scramblers that had been making an omelet of my conceptions of reality.

  I held out through an eternity of growing agony. After about thirty seconds, I decided that I couldn’t take it any longer. Carefully, I rolled onto my side and held my breath while I nudged Colette’s head back along my arm and scooted my shoulders into a more comfortable position. I managed to move my shoulder off whatever had been poking it, but then realized that I’d pushed my pillow out of place so I had nowhere to rest my head. After another eternity of slow motion, and breath holding, I retrieved the pillow and got it into a semi-comfortable position.

  Finally pain-free, I sighed and relaxed. My face was just inches from Colette’s and the strange but heady mix of salami, toothpaste, wood smoke and woman filled my head. I took a deep breath, let it out through my pursed lips, closed my eyes, and let myself go.