Once Upon a Caveman (22 page)

“Lucy’s
right.”  Taffi called in a bored tone.  “You’ve been a loser your whole life. 
It’s like your fate or something.”

“
I’m
not a loser. Lucy!
”  Craig screamed.  The man did not seem to be working
with all his facilities, blaming Lucy for Taffi’s comments and somehow assuming
they were about him.  “Take it back. 
Take it back!
”  He lunged at Lucy,
coming in from the side.  His fingers clawed out, trying to catching hold of
throat.

Lucy
jerked back in surprise.

Craig’s
grasping hands missed her neck and tangled in her necklace.  Once of the
strands snapped, sending several shiny beads falling to the floor.  Taffi
absently scooped one up and examined it between her fingers, unconcerned about
all the animosity swirling around her.

“Damn
it,
now
look what you did, Craig!”  Lucy started to shove him back, but
Rhawn was already turning to grab him.

He
lifted Craig right off the ground and threw him backwards into the cave wall. 
Craig impacted the rock with a sickening “crack” and crumpled to the floor in an
unconscious heap.  Rhawn made a frustrated face.  The man passed out
a lot
. 
No doubt that was one of the reasons he was such a piss-poor fighter.

Lucy
gave an exaggerated wince.  “I think you just fractured his skull, sweetie.”

“We
can hope.”  Intent on finishing the bastard off once and for all, Rhawn stalked
over to drag Craig to his feet again.  At least, that was his
intention
. 
He’d only gotten to the “stalking” part when Skoll interrupted the plan by
punching Warren.

Lucy
and Anniah gave panicked cries.

The
Clan cheered.

Why
did these things always happen to Rhawn?  He let out an irritated sigh.  He
should just kill all of the idiots in his life and be done with it.

Warren
staggered and nearly fell, his hand on his bleeding nose.  “
Shit
, man! 
Doesn’t anybody around here give some warning before the fighting starts?”

“I
will crush you like a
byggo
bug!”  Skoll slapped his hands to illustrate
his point, rubbing and twisting his palms together as if he was squashing
Warren between them.  “No one will take Anniah from me!  Especially not a
flaccid god like you.”

Warren
didn’t need to know all those words to understand the universal message of
“fuck you.”  His blue eyes narrowed.  “Anniah, is
not
yours.”  He said
in a more serious voice than Rhawn had ever heard him use.  “She will
never
be yours.  You want to challenge me for her? 
Fine
.  Bring it on,
asshole.”  He spread his arms wide.  “I will kick your blond ass right into the
ocean.”

“Warren…” 
Lucy began in a worried voice.

“No.” 
He shot her a quick frown.  “I’m fucking
doing this
.”  He looked over at
Rhawn.  “Just let me do it, alright?  I don’t think they’ll let me keep her, if
I can’t do this.  And I
know
I can do this, ya know?”

Rhawn
nodded, understanding the need to defend your woman.  “I know.”  Warren would
lose, but he would fight anyway.  It made him respect the scrawny man.  “The
first one to fall forfeits the challenge.  That is how you must win.  Do
everything you can to knock Skoll down.”  He stepped back to give the
combatants room.

Anniah
and Lucy gaped at Rhawn like he was crazy for encouraging this.  “Are you
crazy?”  They demanded in two different languages.

Rhawn
gave an expansive shrug.  “He wishes to prove himself to you.”  He told Anniah
and then glanced at Lucy.  “Do not worry.  I will stop the fight before he gets
hurt.  Just allow him an opportunity to save face and to show Anniah that he is
not completely useless…”

Rhawn
didn’t get a chance to finish that thought.

Warren
swung his leg up in some kind of complicated kick.  The blow caught Skoll right
in the midsection and he stumbled backwards.  His face wore an expression of
pure astonishment as Warren delivered a strangely graceful punch to his jaw and
then followed up with an impossible flipping maneuver that had Skoll landing on
his back.

It
was the fastest challenge win in the history of the Clan.

Warren
stood over the Clan’s greatest warrior, not even winded from his victory.  For
a long moment, the spectators were too amazed to even cheer.  They just stood
there, trying to process what they’d seen.  Even Rhawn found himself blinking
in confusion.

Maybe
Warren actually
did
have supernatural powers.  There just didn’t seem to
be another explanation.

“Oh
for God’s sake…”  Taffi sounded disgusted.  “That’s
it?  That’s
the big
showdown?”

Anniah’s
lips parted in wonder, her eyes going from Warren to Skoll and back again.  A
huge smile spread across her face.  “Warr-en wins!”  She cried in delight. 
“Warr-en wins the challenge!”

“How
in the hell did he do that?”  Rhawn demanded, still trying to process the
impossible.

“Karate.” 
Lucy gave a delighted laugh.  “Warren has a green belt.  Damn, that was
awesome
. 
High-five.”  She held up a palm and Warren turned to slap it in an odd
celebration ritual.  “Forget all those times I said I hated your guts.  You
just became my favorite classmate
ever
.”

Warren
grinned at her, looking proud of himself.  “Yeah, I’m much better at martial
arts than I was a football.”  His attention was already shifting to Anniah. 
Moving away from Lucy, he held a hand out to her.  “And the cheerleaders are
way
hotter.”

Anniah
grabbed hold of his wrist and tugged him forward.  “I knew there was greatness
in you, Warr-en.”  She breathed and then her lips found his, trying her best to
kiss him the way she’d seen Lucy kiss Rhawn.

Clearly,
she was doing a good job.  Warren lifted her off the ground, his mouth sealed
over hers.  The Clan started cheering again and chanting Warren’s name.  Rhawn
found himself smiling.

“This
is unfair!”  Skoll finally regained his wits and scrambled to his feet. 
“Warr-en cheated!  He used magic to defeat me!  It was not a true victory!”

“Warr-en
followed the rules of a challenge.”  Notan shook his head.  “We all saw. 
Accept your defeat as the will of the gods.”

“I
will
never
accept this!”  Skoll spat.  “The rest of you might have been
fooled by these outsiders, but I know better.  They are not gods.  They are not
special.  They are
nothing
.  I will
never
follow them!”

“You
will damn yourself with such blasphemy, Skoll.”  Tammoh warned and the rest of
the Clan nodded in agreement.

“I
am next in line for leader!”  Skoll insisted, not relenting.  “I have waited
long enough for my turn as head of our Clan.  I demand Notan stand down and
allow me to rule, before his blind ways lead us all to ruin.  Before
she
ruins
us all!”  He jabbed another finger at Lucy.

Dead
silence filled the cave.  No one seconded the idea of a change in leadership. 
No one moved to support Skoll.  No one would side against Lucy.  It was a
crushing defeat for the old ways.

Rhawn
felt his mouth curve.

Maybe
he wouldn’t need to kill Skoll, after all.  It seemed as if the man no longer
held any sway over the Clan.  They had switched their allegiance to Lucy and
all her new ideas.

“You
have made your choice!”  Skoll shouted, seeing he was alone.  “None of you are
worthy of my leadership, anyway!  I
abandon
this Clan.  I make my own
path in this world and it does not lead across the sea!”  He went striding out
of the cave and into the night.

Taffi
hesitated for a beat and then moved to sit next to Craig’s unconscious body,
switching to a new team.

Warren
snorted at Skoll’s retreating back.  “Dude, that guy is
such
a sore
loser.”

The
woman sits astride him, fumbling to remove her strange garments.

Rhawn
watches her struggle, amused when she gets tangled in the stretchy chest
covering she wears.  She curses in frustration and he laughs.  Only she can
create such feelings inside of him.  It is a gift. 
She
is a gift.

“Do
not leave me.”  The stark demand comes straight from Rhawn’s heart.  If he can
just remain here with her --keep her with him-- everything will be alright. 
For the first time in his life, he would be welcomed.  He knows that.

She
is where he belongs.

She
finally frees herself from her bizarre clothing and arches a brow.  “Believe
me, caveman, I hate waking up
way
more than you do.”

How
can she wake up? 
He
is the one dreaming.  It makes no
sense, but he doesn’t have time to figure it out.  He knows that she will slip
away in a matter of seconds.  Maybe one day, he’ll just stay asleep forever and
he can finally stay with her.  Rhawn hopes so.  Oh gods, please, let him just
stay here with her…

Rhawn
and Lucy’s Dream- Three Years Ago.

“I’m
not
the Savior.”

Rhawn
glanced up from his lobster to arch a brow at her.  The two of them were back
in his cave, eating dinner and arguing.  Or rather
she’d
been arguing,
while he sat there in calm and quiet certainty.  The jackass was so sure he was
right he wasn’t even bothering to debate it.

It
drove her crazy.

“I
mean, do I look like a Savior to you?”  For over an hour, they’d been going
back and forth and he refused to see reason.  Once Rhawn decided something, he
wouldn’t change his mind.  Lucy wasn’t sure how to get through to him.  “Think
about it!  You’re a genius, for God’s sake!”

“I
am smart enough to know the truth when I see it.”  Rhawn said simply.  “Can we be
done with this soon?  I still need to go kill Craig.”

Lucy
made an aggravated sound, plowing both hands through her hair.  “I told you, we’re
not
killing Craig.  He’s locked up in that bamboo cell and I’ve hidden
the gun under a really big rock, so he’s no longer a threat.”

“The
man is still alive, Lucy.  He therefore remains a threat.”

“Can
you just concentrate on what’s important, please?  I’m trying to tell you
something here and you just won’t listen.  I’m. Not. The. Savior.”  She spaced
out each word for maximum effect.  “Got it?”

Lucy
had rarely been so on edge.  The real problem wasn’t even her new role as the
Good Witch in the Clan’s little
Wizard of Oz
fantasy.  Now that she’d
been cast as a White Hat, the others were all much happier.  Even Notan was
smiling.  Getting the idiots on the boats would be breeze.  They couldn’t
wait
to follow her to Shangri-La.

No,
the problem was Rhawn.

The
connection Lucy felt to the guy got deeper all the time and this “goddess”
story was weighing on her conscious.  She couldn’t keep lying to him.  Not if
anything was ever going to be real between them.

She
had to tell him the truth.

Lucy
just hoped that he didn’t hate her afterwards.  God, what would she do without
Rhawn?  She woke up every day, wanting to talk to him and spend all day
admiring his incredible body and genius-y way, and went to bed feeling safe,
because he was watching over her.  Even the thought of returning home depressed
her.  Without Rhawn, her life would be so
empty
.  This couldn’t be the
end.  Somehow, she had to come clean and make him forgive her.

Maybe
it would okay.  Pretending to be a deity wasn’t
so
big a lie, right?

Shit.

Lucy
cleared her throat.  “Look…. I’ve been wanting to talk to you about something,”
she began, searching for the right words, “and I don’t think you’re going to
like it.  Just hear me out before you freak, okay?”

Rhawn
glanced at her through his lashes.  “Okay.”  He said warily.

“Um…
I haven’t been completely honest with you.”  Lucy tried to find the right
words, but there really
weren’t
any.  “I didn’t really
start out
lying, it just sorta happened.  When Skoll and the others found me, they made
assumptions and I didn’t correct them.  It all just kinda snowballed, from
there.  I didn’t…”

Rhawn
cut her off.  “Do you desire another?”  He asked in a tense voice.

“What?” 
She frowned.  “
No
.  This has nothing to do with another man.  Jesus, how
can you even ask me that?  There’s nobody but you, Rhawn.”

His
big shoulders relaxed.  “Then it does not matter to me what you’ve done.”  He
decided with a relieved sigh.  “Do not worry over it.”

“Just
remember you said that, because it’s bad.”

He
gave a humoring nod.  “I imagine it is.  You are a difficult woman.  But, I
have accepted this.  But, whatever troubles you, we can fix it.”

“I
don’t think even you can fix this one.”  Lucy took a deep breath and finally
said the words.  “See…  I’m not really a god.”

Rhawn
stared at her.

“I’m
just an average person.”  Lucy insisted, when he didn’t say anything.  “Really,
I don’t know any magic spells or supernatural tricks.  I’m not immortal or
all-seeing.  I have no idea what I’m even doing half the time.  I’m not
anything
except Lucy Meadowcroft from New York.”

Rhawn
kept staring.

“And
New York isn’t divine, either.”  She pointed to the cave paintings.  Some of
them had been damaged in the quake, but most of the images were still visible. 
The blue whirlpool picture even seemed glowy-er somehow. “My homeland is just
another island.  We have more space and technology, but it’s just like here. 
It’s an average place and I’m an average girl and I am definitely --
definitely--
not the Savior of your people.”

The
words hung in the air for a beat.

Lucy
braced herself for Rhawn’s betrayed response.  She deserved it.  Not only had
she lied to him, but she was screwing up his whole theology.  He was going to
be pissed.  He might never forgive her or never want to see her again or…

“You
are
the Savior.”  He said quietly, interrupting her growing panic.

Lucy
blinked.  Hang on… 
That
was his reply to her jaw-dropping,
world-changing confession?  Was he in some kind of denial?  “Did you just hear
what I said?”  She sputtered.

“Of
course.”

“I’m
just an average person.”  She reiterated, because he still wasn’t getting it. 
“No Batmobile or utility belt or superpowers whatsoever.”

“I
knew you had no powers.”

“Are
you’re not fucking mad about it?!”

“It
is probably for the best.  If you could smite those who annoyed you, I suspect
many of the Clan would’ve been subject to your terrible wrath by now.  You have
a temper, goddess, and many people here are irritating.”

The
man was unbelievable.  “
I’m not a goddess, Rhawn.
”

He
shrugged, colossally blasé in the truth.  “You do not
think
you are.  You
are wrong.  Who can say what a goddess is or is not?”

“
I
can!  I’m telling you, I’m not the person you’ve been waiting for.”

Finally,
she had his attention.  Fathomless brown eyes locked onto hers.  They were so
deep and beautiful that she couldn’t have looked away, even if she’d wanted
to.  “You
are
the person I’ve been waiting for, Lucy.”  He corrected
softly.  “Even if you weren’t the Savior, it would still be
you.
”

Lucy
couldn’t think of anything to say to that.  Rhawn was the only one who’d ever
been able to render her speechless.  He said such beautiful things and she
didn’t deserve them.  Didn’t deserve him.  “You’re really not angry at me?” 
She finally got out.

“No.”

“Why
not?  I lied to you.”

“I
think you lie to
yourself
.”

Lucy
swallowed hard, her mind racing.  There was only one reason in the world why a
brilliant man would be so blind to the truth.  “Does ‘vando’ mean ‘I love
you’?”  She blurted out.

Rhawn
smiled at the question, like it amused him.  “No.”

“
No?
” 
Lucy scowled at Rhawn, hurt and annoyed.  It had been stupid to get her hopes
up based on stupid Taffi and her stupid translation skills.  When had that girl
ever been right about anything?  “What the hell does it mean, then?”

“Lungs.”

“
Lungs?
 
You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.  All this time, you’ve been saying ‘
lungs’
to me and not ‘I love you’?!”

“The
words ‘I love you’ do not have a direct translation in the Clan’s language.  It
is too… ephemeral for our culture.  We are people of action.”

Lucy
stared at him for beat.  “Fine.”  She muttered, even though it wasn’t fine, at
all.  “You
shouldn’t
love me, because I’m a mess!  That was my whole
point here.  I’m not at all like you think I am, so…”  She trailed off, growing
more and more upset.  “You really don’t love me?”  She demanded.  “What the
hell is wrong with you, huh?  How can you not love me?  We’ve been together for
fifteen years!”

Rhawn
arched a brow.  “I said I did not have the
words
in my Clan’s tongue,
Lucy.  That does not mean the emotion isn’t in my heart.  Of
course
I
love you.  I have loved you since the moment we met in the dreams.  I loved you
before I even knew you really existed.  I loved you when I believed it would
damn me.  The love I feel for you is far deeper than any language could ever convey.”

Lucy
stared at him, speechless for a long moment.  “Oh.  She finally whispered.

“Why
are you surprised at this?  I have never hidden my feelings.  I challenged a
god for you, remember?  Is that not a clear show of either insanity or love?” 
He smiled.  “And I am not crazy.”

“It’s
just…  No one’s ever said they loved me before.”  She finally whispered. 
“You’re the only one I would ever
want
to say it to me, Rhawn.”

Tenderness
filled his gaze.  “
Vando
, Lucy.”

She
was too agitated to ask why in the hell he was talking about lungs in such a
gentle tone.  Panic rushed in again, driving out the brief surge of euphoria
she felt when he said the words.  Rhawn loving her was wonderful.  Perfect. 
Just what she’d always wanted. …Which just made everything scarier.

“People
always think I’m going do something amazing, but I never do.”  She got out.  “I
disappoint everyone.  I’ll disappoint you.”

“You
couldn’t.  I know you, Lucy.  Inside and out.”

“Then
you know I’m not the Savior!  I’m not special, at all!”

“The
legends of the
Ardin
were passed down for generations.  Some facts were
switched or exaggerated, but the heart of the story is true.  Whoever you are
and wherever you come from, you were sent to save us.  And you will.”  He
reached over to touch her face.  “I know that, even if you do not.  You are the
most special part of this world.”

She
swallowed, trying not to cry.  “Are you still going to love me when you’re proven
wrong?”

“I’m
not wrong.”

This
was the trouble with dating a genius.  He always thought he knew best.  “Just
answer the question, Rhawn!”

He
rolled his eyes like she was the crazy one.  “
Yes
.  I will always love
you.”  He said in a humoring tone.  “Why is this confusing to you?  I’ve been
showing you that I love you forever.  Long before I thought you were the
Destroyer
or
the Savior.  You are my
heart
, Lucy.”

Lucy
found herself smiling, her eyes damp.  All the specialness she didn’t quite
have in the rest of her life didn’t matter.  Not at all.  Lucy had been given
something much more extraordinary.  Something that would change the world.

Rhawn
the Accursed was her mate.

She
looked at her caveman and wondered how anyone could be so handsome.  “Taffi
said something interesting the other day.”  She said after a moment.

Rhawn
arched a brow at the non sequitur.  “I very much doubt that.”

Despite
everything, Lucy snickered at that remark.  “I know right?  What are the
odds?”  She shook her head and wiped at her eyes.  “But seriously, Taffi was
talking about high school.  About how her life hadn’t turned out the way she
planned.  How she wishes she was the person she
thought
she’d grow up to
be.  And I was thinking, maybe she had a point.  I’m not who I’d planned to be,
either.  Maybe no one is.”

Rhawn
opened his mouth to respond to that, but she wasn’t done yet.

“Since
I’ve been here, though, I’m the me I’m
supposed
to be.  I’m so much
happier than I was back in New York.  So much more myself.  It wasn’t even
working in the bookstore that was holding me back. 
I
was the one who’d
given up on doing anything that mattered.  You can do great things working in a
bookstore.  But you have to remember that you
want
to.  I thought being
here made me see that.  That this island clarified everything and gave second
chances.”