Chapter Text
TWENTY MONTHS AGO
M.B.I HEADQUARTERS, WASHINGTON D.C.
Richard pressed his forearm against the frame to the interrogation room’s one-way mirror. He looked into the room, taking his eyes off Kahlan, focusing them once more on the blonde on the other side of the mirror. “She tried to kill you, Kahlan!”
“But she didn’t,” Kahlan explained for the umpteenth time. “She had the drop on me, Richard, but she didn’t. She saved me. And she saved you.”
She exhaled heavily, closing her eyes as she folded her arms over her chest, tired of arguing. Exchanging words that had nothing and everything to do with Cara. Richard knew. Kahlan had been (technically still was) sleeping with the enemy. Even after Cara had tried to kill Kahlan, Kahlan still fell into Cara‘s bed. And before Cara walked into the offices of the MBI claiming to be a double agent.
Richard pushed himself away from the mirror, stalking towards the desk behind them. He grabbed some of the growing stack of papers, Cara’s ‘confession’, her growing list of crimes. He waved it at her. “No one’s been able to corroborate her story, Kahlan.”
“It’s only been twelve hours, Richard.” She turned towards him. Her eyes burned hot as she glared at him, for the first time, with real anger in her eyes. “We.. No, *you* need her to find the third Box of Orden.”
“She’s a Mord‘Sith!”
“Who was working undercover for the MBI!”
“She’s using you, Kahlan. She’s *lying* to you. Only you can’t see it..”
“Don’t you dare!” Kahlan whirled on her heel, stalking towards him, pointed finger aiming at his chest. “Just because I can’t use my Confessor powers on her,” she paused, softening as her head turned slightly towards the mirror and she glanced at Cara inside. “Doesn’t mean I can’t tell whether or not she’s lying.”
“Kahlan,” Richard spoke softly, placing his fingers on her raised hand and lowering them as he stepped closer towards her. “I’m just trying to keep you from getting hurt.”
Kahlan closed her eyes as her chest tightened and all the doubts and fears lurking within the darkness threatened to overwhelm her. It’d be so easy, so easy to give in, to do what was.. expected of her. Her head and her heart at war. She had responsibilities, made declarations of duty, taken oaths, made promises. Promises.
Kahlan opened her eyes as she stepped out of Richard’s touch. “If you want to keep me from getting hurt,” she said, walking backwards, walking towards Cara. “Then let me go.”
**
Cara - in her red leathers, holsters empty of the Agiel’s she so desperately wished to feel within her grasp - refolded her arm as Kahlan entered the interrogation room. Most of the bruises on her face had healed, but the scar on her lip remained, a final reminder of her battle with her former fellow Mord‘Sith.
“The machine upstairs didn’t have your favorite,” Kahlan smiled sheepishly, setting down a can of soda and a plastic cup filled with ice before Cara. “So I picked orange.”
Cara shifted slightly in her seat, brows crinkling, lips setting into a grim line. “Thank you,” she said in a clipped tone tinged with uncertainty.
Kahlan took the seat opposite Cara, watching as Cara opened the can of soda and poured it into the cup of ice. Acutely aware of the cameras and microphones. Despite Cara’s claims of being an agent for the MBI, she was ‘The Shadow’, the world’s most feared assassin, a Mord’Sith, an agent of CLIT. And, soon, the entire Bureau would know what Richard Cypher had figured out - that Kahlan Amnell, the Confessor, was sleeping with The Shadow.
After a long sip, Cara set her cup down. She wrapped her gloved hands around the thin plastic. Her head lowered, eyes focused on the liquid within. “They don’t believe me.”
“They believe you’re The Shadow,” Kahlan smiled weakly. “They’re.. just having a hard time corroborating that you’re an agent for the MBI.”
Cara inhaled deeply, then blew the air out hard through her lips. She pulled away one of her hands gripping her cup and ran it through her hair. Then, set her elbow on the table, resting her chin her hand. Cara looked so.. tired and it made something deep within Kahlan ache, like she wanted to hold Cara, feel her warmth against her as she let Cara fall asleep in her arms.
“It doesn’t matter,” Cara mumbled in a tone that almost sounded defeated.
“It matters.” Kahlan reached across the table, clasping her hand over Cara’s. Cara tensed and Kahlan tightened her grip as Cara tried to pull her hand away, lifting her head to gaze at Kahlan. “It matters and I believe you.”</i>
**
FIVE MILES OFF THE COAST OF ALBANIA
It was an island barely a blip on even local maps. No more than two hundred feet wide, craggy steep rocks that jutted upwards like a breached leviathan from the dark waters. There was also the tiniest bit of shore where they’d tied up the boat, and a cave for shelter. They’d quickly stripped out of their soaked clothes, Cara jury-rigging a clothesline that stretched across the tiny interior of the cave so they could dry.
Kahlan, blanket draped over her naked body, busied herself by building a fire while Cara brought into the cave usable supplies from the boat; blankets, mattresses meant for sunbathing, a cooler filled with food and, most importantly, a cell phone. Which Cara used, standing on the rocky shore in nothing but her black boy-briefs and combat boots, to try and contact Zedd.
Cara returned as Kahlan began setting out the food from the cooler. “What is it with us and hiding in caves?” she chuckled, her smiling features quickly turning to concern at the serious look on Cara’s face.
Cara was doing that ‘thing’ with her head, softly tilted down, eyes looking anywhere but at Kahlan, lips pursed tight, like a guilty child uncertain as to whether or not she should confess.
“Richard’s been shot,” Cara said flatly but sternly. “He’s stable but still in intensive care.”
“Richard?” Kahlan gasped, suddenly up and on her feet. “Where? How?”
“He was at the palazzi.” Cara swallowed. “He’d offered to help me find you. Darken Rahl shot him,” Cara paused, lifting her eyes to meet Kahlan’s. Her gaze both heated and hurt, the guilt already pressing down on her shoulders. “He stole the Sword of Truth.”
Kahlan’s suddenly shaking fingers went to her mouth to stifle the gasp on her lips. “By the Creator..”
Kahlan took a step, desperate to feel her arms around Cara. The moment she did, Cara turned on a heel, turned her back to Kahlan. Cara reached out with her arm, pressing her hand onto the cave wall, head bowing as she leaned.
“This is all my fault,” Cara growled through clenched teeth.
“Cara?” Kahlan gasped. “How could all this be your fault?”
Cara turned her head a small degree towards Kahlan, features hidden behind the curtain of blonde hair. “Those were Mord’Sith after us. A hundred-million dollars for both our heads? That’s a drop in the bucket to them. This is personal. It’s me they’re after. And I put you in the crosshairs. Richard. Zedd.” She turned away from Kahlan, features haloed by the setting sun. When she spoke again, her voice was barely above a whisper. “I’ll understand if you want to leave.”
“Cara.” Kahlan walked forward, not stopping until she felt the warmth of Cara’s back. She reached up, gently placed her hand on Cara’s shoulder. “Don’t be ridiculous..”
Cara shirked from Kahlan’s touch. “Am I? Two years later, the MBI still doesn’t believe I’m one of their own,” the words spilled venomously from her lips like she couldn‘t make them stop. “Most of the agents hate me or want me dead. Not that I don’t deserve it. No matter what, I’ll always be a Mord‘Sith. I’ll always be ‘The Shadow’ in their eyes. And you’re a Confessor. You’re better off without me. Richard’s.. a good man. He’ll..”
Kahlan reached out again, placing her hand on Cara’s shoulder. “I’m pregnant.”
Cara froze. Mouth still open, the words forgotten on her tongue.
“The baby’s yours,” Kahlan smiled softly, hopefully.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Cara snapped, head turned slightly towards Kahlan. “Of course it’s mine.” There was a silence, thick and heavy, and Kahlan could feel Cara stiffening under her touch. “And I’ll support whatever decision you make.”
“Cara,” Kahlan breathed as if struck, paling at Cara’s implication. She inhaled deeply, jaw clenching as she set her resolve.
“Look at me,” she said, placing her other hand on Cara’s other shoulder to turn the blonde around. She drew her hands up Cara’s shoulders, up the slender neck until both hands cupped Cara’s cheeks, tilting Cara’s head until their eyes met. “Why do you still doubt how much I love you?” she smiled, pulling her face closer, rubbing her nose against the side of Cara’s. “It’s always been you. Even before we met. And then, there you were and it was like I’d found the missing piece of my soul.”
Cara chuckled weakly. “Before or after I tried to kill you.”
“Before,” Kahlan kissed the corner of Cara’s lips, then kissed the other. “And after.”
Cara closed her eyes, like if she couldn’t see Kahlan she wouldn’t want this - this closeness, intimacy, devotion. “There’s so much blood on my hands,” she whispered.
Two years they’d been in each other’s orbit. Cara wasn’t a closed book to Kahlan, just one who’s pages were very hard to turn. Despite the history still yet to be revealed, they fit so well together. Kahlan couldn’t imagine a life without Cara. Refused to. “Cara please,” she breathed, begged, lips brushing against lips. “Please, don’t make me do this alone. I want this child. Your child. I want you. Please, don‘t leave me.”
Cara had always been hard to break but break she did. Quickly. Easily. The hands, once slack at her sides, curved over the swell of Kahlan’s hips, became fingers digging into the small of Kahlan’s back and pulling them together.
Lips already close crashed together. Hungry. Urgent. Desperate. Vows renewed with opening lips and dueling tongues. Kahlan’s fingers drifted over the back of Cara’s head, fisting, nails scraping demandingly across Cara’s scalp. And Kahlan whimpered at the growl breathed into her mouth.
Cara drifted her hands down, cupping Kahlan’s ass just above her thighs. She leaned back, taking Kahlan’s weight, Kahlan taking the hint, lifting then wrapping her legs over Cara’s hips. She staggered towards the mattresses on the cave floor, almost blindly not wanting to break their kiss, their connection.
She dropped to her knees, practically shoving Kahlan onto the mattress. Kahlan flopped back hard, air whooshing from her lungs with a loud grunt. The sound snapped Cara from her haze, eyes going wide.
“Did I hurt you?” she hurriedly asked. “Did I hurt the baby?”
Kahlan purred with eyes still hooded. Hand snaking out, grabbing Cara by the back of the head. “C’mere.. Daddy,” she said before crashing their lips together once again.
Kahlan hissed, back arching at the feel of teeth scraping against her pulse point. Cara loved to use her teeth, marking territory claimed long ago. Teeth, lips and tongue, and Cara giggled into Kahlan’s neck, at the hands applying pressure on her shoulders, an attempt to push Cara where Kahlan needed her to be.
Her lips trailed, pausing to suckle on Kahlan’s breast, to tease pink nipples already hardened and erect. Kahlan was already writhing, undulating beneath Cara. And Cara paused, lips halfway down Kahlan’s stomach, to gaze back up at her wife. Pleasure/pained expression all over her face, eyes squeezed closed, mouth slack and panting.
Cara rose up onto her hands, watching as Kahlan’s eyes opened a tiny and seductive crack.
“Cara..” she whined.
The grin on Cara’s lips widened. “Say it.”
Blue eyes opened a little wider, Kahlan lifting her head just a little, lips curving into a smile. “Please,” she husked, not quite begging but close enough.
Cara lowered, shouldering her way between Kahlan’s legs, pushing the thighs open wider. Her mouth went slack, already watering at the scent of Kahlan’s sex, at the sight of her wife - open and vulnerable and just wanting - and all hers. She dove in, tonguing the slippery flesh, Kahlan’s hips bucking at that first swipe of Cara‘s tongue.
This was hers. It was always hers. But, instead of taking, Cara gave. Never one for words, Cara was a person of action. So, she showed, with lips, teeth and tongue, one hand plunging two fingers deep and quick, with the other hand, fingers splayed open, she gently placed upon Kahlan’s stomach. This is mine. You are mine.
And I am yours.
“Cara..” Kahlan croaked. Already, she could feel her magic, building like a swirling mist within her, curling around the growing tension. She felt Cara’s hand on her stomach and Kahlan reached down, threading their fingers together. Her other hand fisting the blanket beneath her because she couldn’t hold back any longer. She didn’t want to. Her eyes snapped open, irises black as pits, back bowing as the coiling tension broke and her magic exploded outwards.
Cara slowed her pace, until the bucks subsided to minor trembles, the loud moans to panted whimpers. Until Kahlan’s hand drifted onto Cara’s head, weak fingers threading into her hair.
“Cara..” Kahlan mewled. “Please.”
Cara growled at the nails digging desperately into her scalp, at her wife’s total submission. She took her time kissing her way up Kahlan’s body, scraped her teeth along the sensitive flesh of Kahlan’s inner thigh, painted lazy circles with her tongue along sweat-slick and glistening skin, suckled nipples and nibbled along her collar bone.
She pressed her lips hungrily to Kahlan’s, sliding her tongue between the open lips, possessing her wife’s mouth until Kahlan was pulling from her, gasping for air.
With eyes still burning hot with desire, Cara rolled her lower lip into her mouth. “I take it that was.. satisfactory.”
Kahlan chuckled, hands sliding down Cara‘s back, under the waistband of the black boy-shorts. “God, I hate it when you get cocky.”
“Tell me again..” With the tip of her tongue, Cara drew it up the point of Kahlan’s chin, over kiss-swollen lips, snaking it back into her mouth. “How much you love me.”
“I could tell you,” Kahlan purred, gazing up at Cara with blue eyes gone dark. “Or I could show you.”
Head tilting up, she pressed their lips together. Hands gripping Cara around the waist, a push of a leg and the two were reversed. There was a playful resistance as Cara twisted and pulled, testing the restraints of Kahlan’s hands as they bound Cara by the wrists, pushing them up and over Cara’s head.
Cara wagged her eyebrows. “I love it when you get all butch.”
Kahlan playfully grinned back. “You just love me, period.”
A point Cara never would have argued with. Kahlan never gave her the chance, pouncing onto Cara’s lips. She pushed Cara’s wrists across the mattress, until they were crossed and Kahlan could pin them with one hand. She slid her free hand between them as her knee muscled open Cara’s thighs, fingers sliding between skin and cotton, over then against wet and slippery skin. She pulled their lips apart, gazing down at Cara, face commanding. Demanding.
“Say it,” she growled with a cant of her head, like ‘no’ wasn’t an option.
Cara licked her lips. Pinned. Bound. Her body a live-wire pulled taut. She gazed up at Kahlan with narrowed eyes, a subtle sneer on her lips. “Fuck you.”
Kahlan’s lips spread into a predatory grin. She loved Cara, with everything she had, possibly more. She loved being with her, kissing her, making love to her. She also loved this. This not-quite-a game of Cara’s, dominance and submission. Because Kahlan knew, as her fingertips teased Cara’s opening and Cara’s hips twitched at the hint of penetration, Cara submitted to no one.. but Kahlan.
“Say it,” she commanded in a tone bordering on that of a Confessor.
Cara’s lips pursed into a grim line, brows crinkling, like she was trapping the word within her, keeping it from escaping. Then, Kahlan teased, circling her fingers, rolling her hips, showing Cara how good it would be. If she just said the word.
Cara closed her eyes. A ragged and deep exhale hissed from throat, body going instantly slack as Cara gave it. As she submitted.
“Please,” she whispered.
With three fingers, Kahlan pushed into Cara. Hard. Quick. Deep. Cara’s neck craned, head pushed back into the mattress as her mouth went slack, scream choked off in the back of her throat. Kahlan rolled, jutted her hips, jammed them against the hand between Cara’s legs. Just as she’d submitted, Cara also begged. Just not with words, she begged with the knees lifting upwards, the thighs draping over Kahlan’s hips, the heels of her feet digging into the backs of Kahlan‘s thighs. More, she begged with the hips arching up to meet Kahlan‘s fingers. Harder, she pleaded with the arms straining under Kahlan’s grip.
They moved together, two as one, in that way only lovers with an intimate familiarity with each other could.
“Cara, open your eyes,” Kahlan breathed, panted into Cara’s mouth. “I want to watch you come.”
Cara’s eyes opened to the tiniest of cracks, glazed and hooded. And Kahlan released her grip on Cara’s wrists, moved her hand down, fingers slipping around Cara’s throat. Blue eyes instantly went black at the contact.
Never, in a million years, would it have occurred to Kahlan to use her Confessor powers in such a manner. Until, she met Cara. After which, it seemed as natural as breathing. Cara was immune to Confession, it didn’t mean she was unaffected by the power.
Cara opened her eyes as Kahlan touched her throat and the magic surged from Kahlan, like the rush of roaring rapids. The magic surged outwards and into Cara, ripped through body like lightening striking a fence, under skin, into muscles, veins, into the twisted, tangling coil of heat and tension between her legs. The scream came first, rough and raw and primal, and then Cara was bucking beneath Kahlan, writhing and undulating, muscles clenching tightly around Kahlan’s fingers.
There was a moment, shorter than the blink of an eye, longer than eternity, a moment where they were connected by magic. Souls, like mists, swirled and intertwined, became one. Kahlan wasn’t just inside Cara, she was Cara and Cara was Kahlan. No thought, just sensation, emotion, both tangible and intangible. Pleasure. Kahlan’s mouth went slack, ragged groan bubbling from her throat as she felt what Cara felt and they came together.
Her magic ebbed, taking Kahlan’s energy with it. Black pooled in the corners of Kahlan’s eyes as consciousness threatened to abandon her. She collapsed atop Cara, face buried in the crook of Cara’s neck as her fingers released their hold.
Moments, hours, days later, when her breathing turned to normal and the stars faded from the backs of her eyes, Cara slowly drew her hands up Kahlan’s back, threading her fingers into the long, dark locks.
“Tell me,” she breathed heavily. “That you love me.”
“Tell me.” Kahlan shifted, drawing the tip of her nose along Cara’s neck, nuzzling against Cara’s ear. “You’ll never leave me.”
**
COLON, PANAMA
TWENTY MONTHS AGO
It felt good to be home, Aydindril, Kahlan’s true home. Safe and sound in the Confessor’s Palace, in the quarters designated as her own since she was fourteen. But, even in the safety and comfort of her true home, Kahlan was weighted down by an increasing sense of anxiety, an increasing feeling of guilt.
It’d been a month since she’d been ‘killed’ by The Shadow. It’d been Cara who’d faked Kahlan’s death while Kahlan recuperated from the injuries Cara had given her. And Kahlan didn’t know why. Once healed, Kahlan awoke to find Cara already gone, so Kahlan stowed away on the first cargo plane she could find and quietly returned to Aydindril.
There were questions. So many questions. Questions Kahlan couldn’t answer and ones she could. And, when asked if she knew what the Shadow looked like, Kahlan looked the Mother Confessor dead in the eye..
And lied.
That lie caused her to sleep restlessly, tossing and turning in her bed. Burdened by the guilt and shame she’d felt. Kahlan no longer felt at home.
When the assignment arose - a possible sighting of the Shadow - Kahlan leapt at the opportunity, at the last chance at redemption. Even if Richard was in tow.
She’d been in better hotels, she’d been in worse. But, the sheets were clean and free of bed bugs. The ancient air conditioner actually worked, even if Kahlan had to occasionally get up in the middle of the night to turn it off because of the ice accumulating on the pipes. Not that it mattered, she and Richard had been in Panama for a week, obviously chasing a ghost.
Flopping backwards on the mattress, tossing an arm over her face, Kahlan sighed loudly and heavily, frustrated and desperate for the sleep she knew would not come easily tonight, or ever.
Her breathing slowed as her mind settled and sleep seemed within her grasp. Then, the air stilled minutely, like an empty space in the room had been filled. In a flash, Kahlan rolled off the mattress, hands grasping about the hilts of her daggers stowed under her pillows. A shadow against the far wall and Kahlan lifted her hand to throw her dagger..
“Kahlan..” a voice croaked softly. “Stop.”
Kahlan froze, eyes widening in recognition. “Cara!” she gasped then reached over to turn on the lamp next to her bed.
Cara, her back to the wall, slumped to the floor. Dressed in her red leathers, Cara looked like death warmed over. Her left eye was blackened, almost swollen shut. A gash in the hairline over her forehead leaked blood down over her face. Her lower lip was split, flesh swollen and purpling. She held her left arm defensively over her ribcage. Her long, blonde hair had been cut, no, hacked off, the blonde locks now ending just above her shoulders.
Kahlan dropped her daggers on the mattress and rushed towards Cara, lowering to her knees. “Cara,” she breathed gently, placing her hand gently to Cara’s face. “What happened?”
Cara snorted then coughed wetly. “Where I come from, failure is not an option. Neither is insolence.” She closed her eyes, tilting her head back until it rested against the wall.
“Insolence?” Kahlan’s brows creased as her eyes widened in disbelief. “What could you have done to deserve this?”
“I..” Cara’s eyes opened, head turning from Kahlan‘s with a faraway look. Pained, not physical pain, it was deeper, like something locked away inside had been cracked opened and she didn’t know how to deal with what was spilling out. “I refused to kill you.”
Kahlan stammered, mouth opening then closing because she didn’t know what to say. She knew their would be consequences for her own lie to the Mother Confessor in regards to Cara. For what could be perceived as a betrayal. But, she couldn’t fathom the Confessor’s doing *this* to her, this brutality. Cara had chosen - the word and its implications lingered long within Kahlan - she’d chosen Kahlan over her own Sisters. And Kahlan realized why sleep had alluded her for the last month.
Because she, too, had chosen Cara over her own Sisters.
This was too much. Too soon. Too BIG. It’d been easier to process her feelings, lock them away tight and throw away the key, when she had no idea how Cara felt. She couldn’t think about it, at least, not right now. So, she chose something else to concentrate on. “We need to get you to a doctor,” Kahlan said.
“I’m fine.”
“You’re not fine! You’ve been beaten! Half to death.” The anger roiled within her, stoking her magic, seeping around the edges of something that felt a lot like Con Dar.
“Kahlan!” Cara clipped, grabbing Kahlan by the wrist and squeezing. The pain enough to snap Kahlan from her senses. “I didn’t come here to just go to a doctor.”
Closing her eyes, Kahlan inhaled deeply, calming herself. “Then why did you come?”
She opened her mouth but instead of word began coughing, wracking, hard and wet coughs. When she pulled her gloved hand from her mouth, it was wet with blood. Kahlan winced, chest squeezing her heart.
“Cara..” she whispered gently.
Cara chuckled, licking her lips. “I had a perfect score on the SAT’s.”
Confused, Kahlan shook her head. “What?”
Cara tilted her head towards Kahlan, soft smile on her lips. “Did you know there’s a hidden test within the SAT’s? To find potential candidates for various government agencies. Spies.”
“Cara..” Kahlan sighed. Cara was becoming delirious. “I don’t understand.”
“I am.. a genius.” She grinned cockily, shrugging her shoulders then winced at the pain from her efforts. “And it’s not just the government that uses those scores. My senior year in high school, I was approached..” She watched as Kahlan’s eyes lowered, shoulders sagging as if she knew the story. “By the MBI,” she said and Kahlan’s eyes snapped back to hers. “He said a lot of people were watching me, and had been for a very long time. Mind you, he wasn’t the first agency to contact me after the SAT’s, but he was the first to give me a mission and I accepted. A mission to infiltrate the Criminal League of International Terrorists.”
Cara paused, squinting slightly as watched Kahlan’s face as she took it all in.
“By the Creator,” Kahlan gasped. “You’re..”
“A double agent,” Cara smiled weakly. “Surprise.”
Kahlan leaned back on her heels, like she’d been physically rocked by the revelation. It should have made sense, like the last piece of an incredibly large puzzle, except she couldn’t wrap her head around it. “But..” she shook her head. “You’re the Shadow. The Shadow’s been around for thirty years. How..”
“Shadow’s,” Cara explained. “When one dies, she’s replaced with another. I’m the eight..” she began to cough again. Hard and staccato-ish.
Kahlan grabbed Cara’s hand by the wrist then gently draped Cara’s arm over her shoulder. “Come on,” she said, helping Cara to her feet.
She lead Cara to the bathroom and Cara set a hand on the counter, leaning against it as Kahlan began to run a bath. Kahlan rose, turning towards Cara then knelt before her, working on Cara’s boots. In all of their.. encounters, it’d never been with Cara in her Mord’Sith uniform. The boots removed, Kahlan rose. It was like peeling an onion made of red leather, an onion with straps and buckles and laces. The last of the laces to Cara’s top undone as Kahlan peeled the leather off, their eyes locked and Kahlan tilted her head at the almost sultry glint in Cara’s eyes.
“Cara,” she playfully warned. Kahlan noted with her eyes the multiple bruises on Cara’s torso, the dark and purpling stain against her ribs. They may not have been broken but they were definitely cracked.
“The act of removing a Mord’Sith’s uniform can be very.. intimate.”
“You’re injured,” Kahlan said in a tone that said sex was definitely not on the table.. as she lowered to her knees and began working on Cara’s belt.
Cara raised her eyebrows, eyes widening. “I’m not *that* injured.”
Which was a lie, evidenced by Cara’s hard wincing as Kahlan helped lower her into the tub. The water was hot, soothing and Cara immediately closed her eyes, almost purring, as the heat soaked into her bruised skin.
Kahlan removed her chemise, then eased into the tub behind Cara. For a cheap motel, the tub was quite large and the two fit a bit snugly but easily. They were silent for awhile. As Kahlan scooped handfuls of water and poured it over Cara’s back, gently soaped and massaged Cara’s skin. When she was done, not ready to leave the comfort of the bath, Kahlan wrapped her arms around Cara’s shoulders, pulling the blonde back and into her.
“Thank you,” Cara said softly, almost sleepily.
“For what?”
Cara turned, nuzzling her forehead against Kahlan’s jaw. “For believing me.”
Kahlan chuckled, wrapping her arms a little tighter. “I don’t even know your last name,” she whispered.
“I’d tell you, but then I’d have to marry you.” It was meant to be a joke but Cara stiffened minutely at the words that had just crossed her lips. She’d sacrificed to become a double agent for the MBI. She’d also lost herself in the process. Now, she was sacrificing again. More than she realized, more than she’d ever intended. She thread her fingers with Kahlan’s, brought their entwined hands to her mouth, kissing the backs of Kahlan’s knuckles. “Mason,” she breathed softly. “Cara Mason.”
**
Kahlan inhaled deeply as she slowly awakened. Eyes still closed, she rolled onto her back, stretching, muscles languid and sore from the most pleasurable of physical exertions. She rolled onto her side again, sliding her hand across the mattress and finding the space next to her empty. Which was not exactly unexpected. Unwanted? Yes, but not unexpected.
She opened her eyes. There were fresh sticks catching light over the dying embers of the fire. On the other side of the fire, atop the cooler, sat her clothes, pulled from the make-shift clothes line and neatly folded. On top of her clothes sat her Confessor daggers, a pistol and a cell phone.
She sucked in hard breath, jerking upright to a seated position. “Cara?” Kahlan called out but she knew. She already knew. Pulling the blanket about her, Kahlan quickly rose and rushed towards the entrance of the cave. Black/blue sky twinkled with stars over the darker Ionian Sea and waves lapped at the rocky shore below. There was no boat.
There was no Cara.
“Cara!” she hissed through clenched teeth, vision turning blurry as the tears built in her eyes. “You stubborn, thick-headed..” she placed a hand over her face as she slumped her shoulder against the entrance to the cave. “Fool.”
A shadow moved in the corner of Kahlan’s eye, something down below where the rocky boulders met the water’s edge. One shadow turned to two, to three, moving quickly, moving towards Kahlan. When three turned to seven and Kahlan thought she saw a dash of white within the black, Kahlan stopped counting.
She dashed back into the cave. Tossing off her blanket, because now was not the time for propriety, Kahlan rushed towards the cooler. She grabbed the gun, raising it as she spun on her heel facing the entrance to the cave.
The shadows turned to red leather, hair pulled back off their heads into tight ponytail, Agiel’s already in their hands. Kahlan fired once, twice, shots direct to their chests and they both spun, flailing backwards and disappearing into the darkness.
A head peered around the corner and Kahlan fired again, missing. Kahlan swallowed nervously. There’d been no extra clip next to the semi-automatic and Kahlan hadn’t checked the one inside the gun to see how many bullets she had. She was pinned, trapped and both sides knew it.
The entrance to the cave filled with Mord’Sith rushing in all at once. Kahlan fired, seven, eight, nine times and then her gun was empty. And the Mord’Sith still kept coming. She snatched up her Confessor’s daggers. The slice of a throat, the piercing of a lung, an elbow to a face, knee to a stomach.
Then, she felt an Agiel against her collarbone, clenched her teeth to hold back the scream. Hands grasped at her arms, forcing her to drop her daggers. A fist to her face and Kahlan saw stars, quickly followed with bruising kicks to the backs of her legs, forcing her down to her knees. An arm snaked around her throat, threatening to cut off her air. Kahlan didn’t surrender, she just stopped forcefully resisting. She’d been captured by the Mord’Sith and there wasn’t anything more she could do at the moment than continue to plan an escape.
“Kahlan Amnell,” a voice carried into the cave. Kahlan lifted her head minutely, as far as the arm around her throat would let her, to see a blonde woman clad in white leather.
Denna smiled predatorily, triumphantly as she stalked into the cave, hips swaying like she was making a milkshake. She stopped, the tips of her white boots mere inches from Kahlan’s knees, then knelt until her eyes were level with Kahlan’s.
“Kahlan Amnell,” she said again, reaching out and cupping Kahlan’s chin with her fingers. Her blue eyes glanced over Kahlan‘s features, inspecting. “I can see what our Cara sees in you. All that purity and nobility..”
Kahlan jerked her head away, pulling from Denna’s grasp. “What do you want with me?”
Denna grasped Kahlan’s chin again, because she could. “I’d say I want you to die but that would be horribly, horribly cliché of me. No, Kahlan Amnell..” she released Kahlan’s chin, pushing Kahlan‘s head back as she rose to her full height and glared down at the Confessor. “I want you to live.”
Denna’s blue eyes went dark, she flicked a glance at one of the Mord’Sith’s and the woman nodded her head in compliance with the silent order, raising the hilt of her Agiel and bringing it down hard against Kahlan’s skull.
**