Retrieving a shipment of wood from some very moronic robbers should be an easy task for Hiro, one of the chiefs of the most powerful demonic family in the ancient Indus Valley. That is, if it didn't mean working with one gorgeous, impatient, and ver...
"We found a trader who...confessed to seeing a sample of what might have been our wood," Aparna told Hiro.
Rama was on his feet before Hiro could say a word. Two days of waiting hadn't made the warrior any more patient, it seemed.
Hiro fought his smile and put his hand on the man's shoulder. "Wait."
He nodded at his scout to go on, ignoring the glare Rama leveled at him.
"The timeline fits. It happened days after the ship was robbed. He had very little to say about who they were though despite...encouragement. Apparently he didn't ask questions because he knew the deal was too good to be true."
Hiro sighed, hand still on Rama's shoulder. He was surprised the warrior hadn't stormed off yet, but he wasn't about to complain.
Aparna handed him a carved piece of stone. "His mysterious partner did leave his seal to validate their contract. And the merchant solemnly promised—" She grinned a dangerous grin "—to alert us when he shows up again."
Hiro studied the seal. A bull took up most of the small stone block, but the carvings on top were more important. "Ekki?" he asked Aparna. "I take it you found them?"
"There are no traders carrying that name in the city. We did however find a huma—" She cut herself off with a look at Rama and coughed. "—a man who rented a warehouse to someone carrying the same seal. It's in the middle town, closer to the citadel. The building is large enough to suspect a sizable organization moving a lot of goods. Your orders, Shri?"
"Hiro," he told her absentmindedly.
"We go. Now," the warrior said, his voice brooking no argument.
It didn't escape Hiro's attention that the man hadn't even tried to break his hold. "No. We need to take my scouts and explore the place. They robbed a ship and killed its entire crew. Three of us won't cut it."
Rama tensed under his hand, then nodded. "Fine. I'll recruit some mercenaries. There are some good men who fought with my father."
"We gather here at sunset," Hiro said.
The warrior scowled at Hiro's edict but didn't fight him. "Don't be late. I will damn well leave without you."
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Hiro was late. And the damn warrior had left without him.
He cursed Fate. Then his decision to wait for two more scouts due to return from a mission.
Fuck. Rama was going to get himself killed.
By a bunch of robbers, if Hiro didn't beat them to it.
Fate be damned. He barely restrained himself from flying to the warehouse. As he and the four scouts rushed through the dark streets, his heart pounded in his ears and his jaw ached from grinding his teeth.
Aparna silently pointed at the stairs leading to a nearby roof, but Hiro shook his head. There was no time to scout the place. No doubt Rama was already inside.
He kicked the locked door with the full force of his pent-up rage, thankful for his demonic strength when the wood splintered.
The place was deserted, save one warrior standing tall with his arms crossed over his bare chest.
"Couldn't be a little more subtle, lord we-should-scout-the-place-first?" Rama asked.
Hiro strode in, watching the man's dark eyebrow arch as he got closer. "What the hell were you thinking?" he demanded to know, shoving the warrior's chest hard. "What part of 'these men are dangerous and we need the numbers' didn't you fucking understand?"
Rama withstood his shove. A muscle in the man's jaw jumped before he answered, his voice low and hard. "I'm a warrior. I've been fighting my entire life. I've taken out more thieves than there are boats docked in this city. Don't you dare tell me what I can and cannot do."
"Out," Hiro commanded. "Everyone but him gets out, right this fucking moment."
Aparna murmured 'Yes, Shri', and Hiro blood heated even more at the fucking honorific. "Out!" he shouted. "Now!"
Rama chuckled darkly. "Oh, they're gone, mighty leader. They may be crawling before you, but I won't. I am not fucking yours to command."
Hiro stared at Rama as he bit out those words. "You don't have a clue," he said. "You don't have a damn clue about—"
"Stop looking down on me," Rama shouted. "Stop talking to me like I'm in need of your protection."
Hiro stilled. Heart pounding, he tried to find the words to explain. To tell the man it wasn't—
That he wasn't—
"I fought an army. My father, my brothers, and I, we defended our city from a fucking army, and still—" Rama threw up his hands. "I don't even know why I'm defending myself. Why I'm trying to prove myself to you."
Still scrambling for words to lift the darkness from Rama's eyes and the pain from his voice, Hiro clenched his fists. He couldn't find any. He couldn't find the words to tell Rama how terrified he was that the man would fight impossible odds trying to prove himself and bleed out in his arms.
That he'd spend millennia wishing—
He gave up searching for the right words.
Instead he clasped his hand around the back of Rama's neck and kissed him.
