Thirteen

"Jus' fi'e more minnits, senet," Jaina mumbled. She wasn't more than one-quarter waked yet. "Or a week. Yeah. All ten days to sleep."

Serp versus wall finally roused her though. She lifted her head with difficulty, tumbling a calico kitten from a cloud of blood-red hair. "Oh," Jaina said stupidly. "There was an animal on my head."

The half-grown cat glared at her, seemingly offended to be considered a mere beast, but Jaina didn't notice.

"Suitov!" the woman cried happily upon sight, then winced; the vodka was still playing ping-pong with her brain. "I didn't think you was here." (Her inner grammarian always slept in a least an hour later than her main consciousness.) "Wait. What the hell war is going on around here? It could wake the dead. Trust me. It really could."

Sebastian peeked wide-eyedly from behind the corner at the winged nightmare that was already doing anatomical mathematics - that is, trying to figure out if his body was as tangled as it felt like, and how many teeth the crash had pried loose this time. Seeing that it looked as if the barbarous brawler was going to be up much faster than he had expected, the swashbuckler decided on a tactical retreat.

He ran for the hills. More or less. The bushes, at least.

"I shall take your word for that," Suitov shot back, keeping the volume considerately low. "Miss Jade. It's good to see you back in the land of the living."

Despite the formality of the words, the tone was warm and just a tad playful.

He kept his spare attention on Serpentine, choosing to do nothing until the level of the threat was ascertained.

In a flying leap, Bowman attatched himself to Basky's ankle.

''Puh?'', he inquired.

''I think he likes you'', Agueda said. She had turned her head away from Kerak to look at Basky, although she remained the dominant figure in Kerak's line of vision. Deliberately so.

Perhaps he would have preferred somebody else to wrap themselves around him, but Skerv took what he was given.

He cautiously skritched Bowman under the... well he didn't know what it was actually.

The winged specimen was finally up on his feet, nodding at the dent he had left in the wall. His nose hurt, though. "Where'd he go?" Serpentine growled with bloodshot eyes, mentally brow-beating his legs to function properly. It would have seemed much more impressive if he hadn't been holding his nose and stood funnily.

"I'd be delighted." Kerak replied after a moment, reaching out for her hand. The Werewolf didn't notice the silver until he felt it, his hand jerking back with a startled yelp.

"I'm sorry." He chuckled weakly. "It seems I rubbed my palm a little raw with those tables, and I pressed it against that ring of yours. Silly me." He manages a sheepish smile.

Oddly enough, the 'raw' part of his palm was shaped exactly like her ring with breaks where the stones were, in their exact shape. Almost as if the silver had burned him.

Baskerville's nose twitched. He'd thought he smelled burnt flesh; very odd.

Couldn't see much from this angle. He leaned sideways and almost ended up squashing Bowman.

Kerak was far too busy trying to hide the mark on his hand from Agueda to realise somebody else might be able to see.

Unfortunately for him, the way he was holding it meant the burn was all too visible to Baskerville as he leaned sideways.

The dog's eyes widened. Then he did overbalance.

Whump!

Kerak, of course, lept at the chance of a distraction. "I say, are you all right?" He called out to Baskerville.

"Poor fellow." The Werewolf observed to Agueda, hoping there would be no probing into his 'raw palm'.

"I'll survive," Baskerville sighed, mugging it up for Agueda's sake. (Well, you never knew; the most unlikely people fell for poor-injured-puppydog eyes.)

But Baskerville had other things to worry about right now.

''PU-UH!'' squealed Bowman and poked a secondary process sharply into Basky's ear. After all, adventures weren't fun if you got squashed.

''Are you alright, Baskerville, dear?'' Agueda asked. She hadn't fallen for the puppy dog eyes. Honest. And just to prove it, she held out her left hand, the one with the ring on, to Kerak.

''May I have a look at this sore hand?'', and then hastily added, by way of explanation, ''I learned some massage in... my youth.''

She had avoided mentioning the Molvidr School.

Kerak hesitated for a moment. If he refused, it would seem very suspicious. And probably offend her. And he could probably, hopefully, pass off the stone marks as being caused by pressing his hand against the ring.

"Feel free." He replied, managing a nervous smile. The Werewolf held his hand out palm up, although he didn't actually place it in hers now he knew there was silver there. His eyes scanned her face, hoping he'd get away with this.

She studied the outline of his face; ear, cheek, jaw, chin. They possessed an ingrained noble quality that Agueda could not quite describe. It was almost as if this nobility only belonged to half the man.

She met his hazel gaze with her pale green eyes and smiled.

''Now then'', she said, taking his hand very gently in hers, not touching it with her ring.

She traced her fingers across his palm seductively before she lowered her gaze to the burn. Her eyes widened and her mouth opened slightly in astonishment.

''I...'' she paused. Then, slowly, she placed her finger inside each of the gaps left by the stones in her ring, where the silver had not touched him, one after the other.

There was a short pause, and then a slight hesitation.

''I... I don't think there's anything I can do about this'' she finally finished. But she kept hold of his hand. And she still softly ran her fingers across it.

Baskerville carefully hoisted Bowman and looked directly into his... well, yes indeed, he was still rather confused about that.

"Arh. Shot down," Baskerville said, fairly good-naturedly. By the looks of it, the pair were too engrossed in each other to hear him.

''I suppose you're hoping I'll offer you a massage, Baskerville?'' Agueda replied just as good-naturedly.

But that burn on Kerak's hand still bothered her, and she glanced nervously at it.

"Well, if you're offering, a belly rub wouldn't go amiss," said Baskerville without thinking, then froze.

Oh, please let her not have noticed.

Luckily, she thaught he was joking.

''Oh, like our massage doggy-style, do we?''

She was suddenly aware she might have embarrassed Kerak and so offered him an apologetic smile, which also happened to be very cute indeed.

Kerak wasn't really hearing everything that was being said. He was hearing it, but it was more like background noise.

The sensation of Agueda's fingers on his hand, and the fact she hadn't run off screaming, were leaving him rather distracted.

He was just getting himself together to say something when the smile was directed his way. The end result was he seemed a little less than together when he finally said "So, that tour you were talking about?"