If you can't ride two horses at once..(kyros) [END]

Because she was the last one, he thought about her.

He was the tide and she was the moon. His lust ebbed and flowed at the mercy of her proximity. When she was around, it was an incessant pounding in his ears and a trembling of his fingers that made him weak with need.

She was always around. He was convinced she was haunting him. Of course, Lochlann hadn't seen her in six months and, for that matter, he wasn't even sure if she was really dead, but he couldn't figure out what she was. Guinevere Haze was a puzzle, and Lochlann did not like puzzles.

Six Months. He'd spent six months away from this school, six months from where her body might be, but she'd still found a way to haunt him. When the rain pounded against the windows and left him panting on the floor, his fingers shaking, his body covered in sweat, he thought of her. When he bit into an apple and the seeds scraped painfully across his tongue, he thought of her. When he cut himself on a ragged nail, he thought of her.

Rehab had been a mistake. They said they could help him, but Lochlann wasn't an addict. He didn't go to rehab to feel better or to get clean, because he wasn't dirty. He went there because it was the only way he could try to forget her, but there was no quitting Guinevere Haze.

Not when she had his necklace.

Until he had that back, pretending to be human was almost impossible, so Lochlann decided he was done trying.

The first thing he did was send her a letter, although technically he didn't send it. He had Cabel do that for him. His dealer would have slipped it under her apartment door, or had someone else do it for him.

Meet me at the stables, the letter said, I haven't seen you for a long time. You should know this: I am not dead. You have something of mine. I want it back.

So here he was, in the stables. Only Lochlann wasn't pretending to be human. He wasn't pretending to be anything. Where Lochlann stood was a large, black horse with a coat like a November night and a wild mane still damp and tangled with sea weed. He could pass as a horse, but there was something about his face that was just a little off. Not off enough to be noticed at first, because it was a slender face, streamlined like he was bred for racing.

It was the eyes. They were not fully set to the sides like a horse's eyes might be, like a prey animal. They were tilted forward like a predators because he was a predator. His lips hid teeth made for ripping flesh, not chewing hay.


Just wait, he thought to himself. She'll come. And then he was getting his necklace back.

Lochlann waited. In this shape, he wasn't pretending to be anything else than what he was, and he was hungry.

RE: If you can't ride two horses at once..(kyros)

The door opened, a too loud noise. Everything was always too loud above the surface. He liked to be down deep, below the lake, in the river, where the only sounds were the currents. His nostrils flared. He flicked his third eyelid over his dark pupils and ground his teeth against each other.

She was here.

He took a step closer, coming to the edge of his stall. The door wasn't latched all the way, all he had to do was push it open with his head and he's be able to slip out and--

his nostrils flared again.

It was a thick, oily smell, one Lochlann was intimately familiar with after having the barrel of one shoved into his mouth. Someone had held a flashlight so close to his eyes it had blinded him. He was lucky the police came when they did. Lochlann couldn't remember what girlfriend that was after. He'd eaten so many.

He shook his head, tossing his mane and letting out a decisive snort. The gun didn't change anything. He was getting his necklace back. He waited until she passed his stall and then he took a step out and-—

--he panicked. He wanted her to look in his eyes, wanted to will her to put the gun down...but he was afraid to look at her. He didn't know why, but he dropped his head, nuzzling the ground, looking for all the world like a horse whose stall hadn't been closed and was in search of feed.

He wanted her to come closer, but he didn't want her to have the gun. Lochlann flicked an ear in her direction and whinnied.


Come on, he seemed to say, but he wasn't. [/i] I'm just a nice horse, looking for some grain. I look soft, don't I? Come touch me. [/i]

RE: If you can't ride two horses at once..(kyros)

She giggled.

Lochlann's ear twitched in response and his body tensed because he thought his cover was blown. But then she touched him.

She touched him.

It was a familiar situation made alien by her presence.
Having a woman run her hands along his neck was the first point.The next was the moment where he'd lower his front legs, bowing to her like she was a queen. This was a script.

Her fingers were already in his mane. It would be so, so easy for her to pull herself onto his back, and that's when it would happen.

That's when it would happen. Again. Just like it had every time. He'd break into a run--he was fast--and his mane was long, and she'd be tangled', and they were on an island for gods sake, there was water everywhere, there was no where he couldn't go and he'd take her with him and--

Lochlann wasn't hungry.

It came to him like a shock, like the oily smell of the gun lowered to her side.

Loch's legs bowed, just as if she was a queen, but this time there was a little hesitance, a little fear, a little reverence. He was dangerous close to breaking character.

He was afraid. She could kill him. Maybe he'd let her.

RE: If you can't ride two horses at once..(kyros)

"It's okay," she said, and Lochlann wished he could believe her.

The moment her weight hit his back, Lochlann took off--Water-horses were known for there speed--but something was wrong.

His legs were shaking and his vision tunneled rapidly. He felt the ground rising up to meet him and then punch him in the face. Disoriented, he reached out and grabbed a handful of the stable floor with his fingers, coming back with hay and dirt and--his fingers.

Lochlann didn't have a moment to process what this meant--that Guinevere did, indeed, have his necklace--because he kept thinking the same thought, over and over again. I am so fucked.

He wasn't wearing anything. There was a young woman with a gun straddling his back. In any other situation, this might be kind of sexy.

"Guin," Lochlann spit some hay out of his mouth. His bottom lip was busted. "We have got to stop meeting like this."

He thought he'd at least make it out the stable doors before his life was in mortal danger. He'd barely gone two feet. He rested his head against the cold floor and waited, at her mercy.

RE: If you can't ride two horses at once..(kyros)

Hello Lochlann," she said, and her words were like ice. If there wasn't already goosebumps raised against his arms, they'd be there now. When she jumped off him, the air around him blurred and shifted in an automatic response to transition back into his horse-shape, but he willed his body to stay as it was--prone, naked, on the ground. It was his only chance for survival, but what did it matter? He was dead already.

He didn't move. The oily smell of the gun was almost non-existent in this shape, but the threat kept him from rolling over onto his back.

"Did you miss me?" he asked. "Six months is a long time, Guin. A long time to hold onto something that doesn't belong to you."

He was surprised by his voice. He wanted it to come out with that blend of flirtatious arrogance that he'd perfected, the one he used to get girls to take off pieces of clothing and throw them at his feet....but instead, he was left with something that sounded defeated.

He was talking about his necklace, or at least he thought he was, because Lochlann did not like the idea that Guin stole something more precious from him.

He wished she'd run her fingers through his hair like she had his mane.

"I would like it back," he said. His voice was barely above a whisper. He hated the way it sounded.

And then, because she had a gun, Lochlann said, "Please."

RE: If you can't ride two horses at once..(kyros)

"This trinket?"I don't think I've heard you say please before. What's so important about the amulet?"

Lochlann's breath hitched and he caught a glimpse of the amulet on the shadow on the floor, but she continued. This was not a story Lochlann wanted to share.

"If you tell me, I'll consider giving it back to you."

"I'll tell you everything if you kiss me." The words slipped from his mouth and hung in the air before Lochlann even realized he'd said them. Of course, he knew it was ridiculous. He closed his eyes and groaned, rubbing his face with his hand, wanting to hit himself. He was not in the position to be making demands. He did want to kiss her, though.

"It's my mother's," Lochlann said, his voice muffled through his hands. He dropped his face back to the ground. "You already know I'm a monster. I'm like those fish," Lochlann searched for the words. "The lantern fish? Angler fish? This shape is just the dangly light thing to attract our dinner."

Very great, he thought to himself. Dangling light thing. Like those fish. He was soooo eloquent. He wished Guin would just kill him.

"It's only temporary, though. My brother can't hold it at all when it rains, and my sister is way too young. I'm the best at it, but even that's not enough. I need that amulet to stay human."

He didn't tell her anymore, or elaborate about what his mother had to do with that amulet. His throat felt raw, like he'd been screaming. he was so close. he wondered if he should just make a grab for it, but she'd probably shoot him. He just hoped she'd buy the story.

RE: If you can't ride two horses at once..(kyros)

"I can't help but wonder what you would do to get it back?"

He lifted himself onto his knees, slowly, his butt resting on the back of his feet and rubbed his face again. She was to his side, so he angled to show her his empty palms, then got up, heading into a stall and digging his clothes out of the hay.

It was perfectly possible to make the change with clothes on. He was counting on Guin not knowing this to avoid explaining why he was naked. He couldn't quite remember himself. The empty whiskey bottle probably had something to do with it.

When he was dressed, pants and an unbuttoned flannel shirt, he closed the distance between them in three easy strides. The stall door swung back behind him.

He walked until the gun was pressed against his chest and he leaned to kiss her.

"This," he said. "And worse."