Anam Cara Who: Rhiannon & Cian What: Talking and a Code Phrase When: Night, Before This Where: Cottonwood Cove Ratings: Low
Rhiannon had texted ahead: ‘You busy?’ It was one of the rare evenings when she and Cian didn’t plan to crash on the same mattress, so part of her hated intruding on him when he might be spending time with the Marks family, or getting some much-needed time to himself. Still, as the hours wore on, Rhiannon felt guilty for fixating on this thing, turning the problem over in her mind without telling Cian about it. He was the kind of man who appreciated an in-person conversation.
When Cian texted back, she paid her bill at the diner in cash, packed up her sketchpad, and took off for home, where she’d last parked her car. She was buzzing from four or five cups of viciously caffeinated coffee— uncomfortably alert— when she ran into the trailer long enough to brush her teeth and change into clothes that didn’t smell like waffles and syrup. The wind whipped her hair into a dark tangle as she headed east on Cottonwood Cove Road, the engine loud in the desert, a sound system playing Daughter’s The Right Way Around.
Rhiannon slotted the Challenger into a space near Cian’s residence.
The cooler weather heralded the quiet season for the resort hotel, and the rush on the marina had settled back down. All the 'runabouts' and most of the private boats had been moved into storage up in Searchlight, so Cian was thinking about what he might do to keep busy during the off-season. He'd thought of suggesting they take a road trip, he wasn't sure where, but figured that didn't really matter. They could decide that if and when they decided to do it. Rhiannon's home town, the Caribbean, it didn't matter to him, just a chance to spend some time with her after the craziness of peak season and the stuff happening around town.
Cian was standing in the kitchen when his ears heard the familiar sound of her car coming down the hill toward the Cove. He smiled to himself and reached for the fridge. By the time the vehicle appeared in the private residence parking area on the ridge above the hotel he was sitting on the top step of the porch with a beer in his hand and another beside him.
“Hey, handsome.” Rhiannon approached the steps, key ring on the tip of one index finger, phone in her hip pocket. She’d taken to bringing her weapon up to his house since the incident with the animals and it hugged her right hip. She stopped a few levels below Cian and put her fingers on his knee. A forward lean brought her mouth close to contact with his, and she could anticipate that it might be a cooler temperature before she got to it, based on the beer in his hand. “Thanks for texting back on your night off.” She smiled.
He smiled back, closing the remaining distance between them and pressing a kiss to the corner of her mouth. "Y'know it's double rates for overtime on m' days off," he teased, the scent on her skin telling him she'd been at the diner.
They were more often staying at her place, his plans for shifting the watercraft up to storage timed for the end of the work day. This put him in Searchlight and saved her the extra 20 minutes drive down to the Cove.
“Whatever it is, I’ll pay it.” Rhiannon gave his leg a scratch with berry colored nails and finished climbing the steps. With the beer taken up, she sat down next to her sandy-haired boyfriend and let her thigh rest alongside with familiarity. Above them, the sky was clear and spotted with stars and planets, a thin wisp of cloud blurring the edges of the moon. “What were you up to before I texted?” Rhiannon pulled her legs up close and took a sip of the drink, the beer making an odd chaser to her toothpaste. The farther she went into the bottle, the better it was.
"Was talking to Gabe. His sister Ana is coming over, some family business she needs to talk to him about. He was just letting me know he won't be down while she's here, and askin' me t' keep an eye on Montana St for him."
As he talked his free hand moved to the middle of her shoulders, rubbing gently there then up and down her back, pausing at the top and fingers plying the muscles of her neck. He could feel the familiar musculature, developed from her years of training and fighting, and eased his palm and fingers across the areas he knew were the most prone to develop tightness, especially when she has something on her mind.
"Was also thinking, while it's still good weather, about us hitting the road for a week, or whatever, if you think you can get away for that long?"
Rhiannon closed her eyes as his fingers dug into her muscles. “My calendar is shockingly clear,” she mumbled. She’d already told Cian about her misfortune in California, about the quiet state of her phone over the last few weeks. After a moment, Rhiannon put aside her beer, folded her forearms on her knees, and rested her temple on them, eyes on Cian’s face in the dark. “You want to know what’s strange?’ she asked, her voice a dull echo in the hollow of her body. “I’ve never gone anywhere for the sake of it. There was always something to take care of, and if I happened to drive by Carhenge on my way through Nebraska, oh look… an adventure.”
Cian nodded, not really surprised. It hurt, hearing her sound like that, the dull echo of emptiness at not even knowing what she'd missed in her childhood, only now learning about it because of her choice to be with him. Her blood had taken her on a different path, that of a hunter. Hers had been an upbringing few would understand and even fewer would experience. Her 'family outings' had never involved a picnic, or trip to the seaside, vacations not even a word in the vocabulary of a hunter. From the morning after the first night they'd spent together, here, he'd started learning how different their lives had been in some ways, while so similar in others. While still having been on an undeniable trajectory toward one another that night in Chicago, their experiences were both opposite while also similar.
And the business of the family, her uncle in particular, actively working on cutting her out of the scene had him take another swig from his beer to swallow his anger. He had too much respect for her to think he could fix things, but that didn't stop him from wanting to at least front him, call him out for killing his friends. But he knew that wouldn't end well. It still humbled him that she had chosen him over her family, and it was something he would never forget, or dishonor.
With his eyes still on hers he gave her a smile. "First time for everything," he replied. "Where's somewhere you always wanted to go, but never have," he asked, curious.
“I don’t know.” Rhiannon picked herself up, arms draped over her knees in a kind of limbo. “Anything I think of, it’s because I wanted to hunt there, and something tells me that’s not what you had in mind,” she said, nudging his arm in a gentle tease. “But somewhere with clouds and rain or snow, anything but constant sunlight. I want to need an umbrella, but refuse to use one. I want to see different faces every day. What about you?”
She watched Cian for an answer, but also clues to his mood. It didn’t feel right to drag him down. As much as he’d been through, Rhiannon perceived a lightness in Cian, a genuine will to find something good, something better than what he’d had. If they left town together for a couple of days, she’d do whatever it took to set everything in Searchlight aside and give him space to enjoy it.
His smile widened as she described the weather of his homeland. It was another of those moments of synchronicity, where unknowingly they wanted the same thing. "Sounds like home," he murmured, "though I knew most faces in town," he added with a grin.
"Some green, tall trees, earth so soft and the smell of the rain," he expanded. "One minute blue skies, the next a blanket of grey with a soft down of rain that is just enough t' wet y'but you don't care." His voice had softened, eyes on hers but seeing into the distance as his mind conjured up the images he knew so well. If they ever went to Ireland he knew places he would take her, places that were special to his mother's family, where the energies ran strong and the mists that rose were akin to the veils of the Aos Si. With what he'd been learning from Gabe about the world of magic he now began to understand much more of what his mother, and Annie, had tried to pass on to him. And there was one place in particular.
"So a trip north?" he said, bringing himself back to the here and now. "Get some of that forest air in us, wash out the dirt 'n dust?"
“Okay. It’s a deal.” Rhiannon smiled at the wistful expression on his face. Cian always said he was bad at words but it wasn’t true. She got that look sometimes when she thought of home, too. Detroit was decidedly less scenic, but she missed its tall buildings, the sharp pitch of the roofs, the waterfront, the frosted air blowing through her neighborhood. She even missed the creak of porches as she crept into one derelict after the next, looking for squatters with sharp teeth. No matter where you came from, home was home.
She looked off to where she’d left her car. It sat cooling, ticking quietly underneath the hood. Rhiannon had a long sip of her beer. “I need to tell you something,” she began. “Everything’s fine, but someone came to see me at the gym.”
He'd been waiting for it, the reason she'd come. He swallowed the mouthful he'd just taken and tilted his head slightly, looking at her again. There were a few names that ran through his head as she spoke. "Anyone I know?" he asked, fairly sure it wasn't.
“God, I hope not.” Rhiannon set down her bottle and ran her fingers into her hair until they hit a snag. She worked through the knot. “It was Elfleda. I haven’t seen her since that night in the desert. I don’t know why she came that night. Just getting a feel for me, I guess, but she had an agenda this time. She knew, about California?” Rhiannon briefly looked at Cian. “She knows about a lot of things. You, Katherine, most importantly how my family works.”
Rhiannon placed her hands on the tight denim that covered her shins and ran them down to her boot laces. Her index fingers tucked inside those black cords and gave them a firm, cinching tug. It helped to keep her hands still.
The frown that had appeared at the mention of the name deepened as Rhiannon revealed what she knew. "Me? Katherine? Your family? What the hell's her game? She got spies, or something?" The now empty bottle was placed on the deck beside him and his hands came to rest on his thighs.
"What else did she say?"
Rhiannon had shaken her head in bewilderment at his question. The hunter still didn’t know how Elfleda got her information, but given the unseen things she heard and felt in the air around her in the gym, Cian’s theory about spies had some merit. The next part was harder to explain, so she cleared her throat to buy herself some time. Rhiannon stared at the tips of her shoes. “She said that the world is a garden, and hunters keep it from filling with weeds, and that she and I have common prey, things that threaten both our worlds. She called them…” Rhiannon frowned and tried to think of the description. “Selfish creatures that build fiefdoms and spill blood. She wants to tell me where they are so I can hunt them.”
Cian absorbed everything she was saying and filtered it through what Rhiannon had told him last time she’d met this … individual. Even when Rhiannon was just talking about it he felt unsettled, something he hadn’t felt since the last time this happened. His frown hadn’t disappeared, but was now more from concentration as he tried to piece some things together. “She and you? Common prey? What’d her last slave die of?” he asked, half scoffing, but also taking heed of the unsettled feeling that was itching between his shoulder blades.
“It’s funny you say that.” Rhiannon heaved a breath. “She said she doesn’t want a slave. She wants an executioner. I can walk away if I change my mind, as long as I don’t get in her way.” The tips of her fingers were turning purple. She let go and sat up straight beside him. “I know it’s crazy, Cian. I didn’t tell her yes, but I didn’t tell her no, either. She knows… everything. Where they all are. Do you know what I could do with that?”
He nodded, not surprised at Rhiannon’s focus, it was who she was born to be, a hunter. Fortunately for him she was also one who wasn’t wearing blinkers, unlike her uncle, and could see there were different types in all walks of life, including those of his kind, of Katherine’s kind. For a brief millisecond he blinked at his own thoughts of including Katherine in the same group as himself, but he knew that they were in some ways.
He knew this information would give Rhiannon back her purpose, give her back structure to her life, her existence, that he knew he could never provide. On that front he would always be by her side, have her back. He’d even give up his day job if it became necessary, but he knew that without that purpose she’d been feeling at a loss. And her uncle had been driving that nail home each time he’d jumped her on a job.
“But can y’ trust her?” he asked. The revelation that had come to Rhiannon after that first night they’d met, when Rhiannon had seen him, Siofra, realised there was more to them, weres, than what she’d been led to believe, had ended up, much later, with her having to split from her family who were now actively working against her. Would this Elfleda be the same? Not like it if Rhiannon decided to go against her? “She says now she’ll let you walk away, but would she?”
Rhiannon could only lift her shoulders. “It doesn’t seem like anybody’s capable of that, does it?” She shook her head. “I’m more worried about what happens when we don’t see eye to eye. Obviously she’d never want me near anything that could really hurt her side. So what am I supposed to do when that fight comes, sit it out? What if that’s part of her game?” She knew any move she made would have benefits and consequences; hunting was a gamble all the time.
Rhiannon went on, “The first time we met, she .told me she was here for the gathering storm, and one day it would be in her power to save me. It didn’t make any sense to me then. But now, I dunno. Maybe.”
"Guess the question is, which is 'her side'? Will it come to you having to make a choice? And who, or what is she saving you from?" he said quietly.
“Who knows?” It was hard to know what to do because Rhiannon didn’t have the answers. Just conjecture. All she understood was herself, who she was at the core. “Maybe I can come with terms, too. You know I’m not some murderer, or evil thing, and she has to know that, too. I can’t believe I’m entertaining this, but I want to be…” She pulled her lower lip into her teeth and pictured the future she wanted most. “The strongest version of myself. I want to do what I was made for, especially if I’m the end of the line where my family’s concerned. I want to tear through everything I can.”
She gave Cian an apologetic look. “Is that awful?”
Rhiannon had a purpose to her life, something Cian had recognised from the beginning. Something she was born to do, something that was a part of her, was her birthright. He recognised the look on her face, the tone of her voice, the movements and postures she took, even just sitting there on the step. Her sole primary purpose, her desire, was to hunt. Everything, and everyone else, including him, was secondary. And now this Elfleda had offered Rhiannon exactly what the hunter wanted, craved, needed. He wondered about that, the specifics of this 'offer' seeming to be intricately tailored to Rhiannon's actual desire. Coincidence, he had to wonder? He kept his face still at her assumption she would be the end of her line.
"It's whatever you decide." He paused before adding, "you need to know what the consequences are, and how you can take her down if it comes to that."
Rhiannon nodded and looked away across the dark landscape, oblivious to the track his brain was taking and the assumptions they were both making about each other. “I won’t do anything without weighing it. That’s why I told her I needed to think. There’s something in the air when she’s around that makes you muddy.” She took a couple swallows of her beer to catch up with him. “Nothing’s muddy when I’m with you. It’s like… being tethered to something safe.” She closed her eyes and remembered how it felt to be curled up next to Cian, slipping away from every hard question in her life, or to run until she collapsed in the dirt next to Siofra out in the hills. In her mind, the light around those memories was always gold. “I love you.”
He leaned over, his hand coming to rest at the back of her neck, cradling it as he gently turned her head and kissed her, fixing her eyes with his. "I love you too." There was nothing he was more sure of.
"Tell me what you need me to do. You don't have to deal with her on your own," he continued gently massaging her neck. "If she's got spies, or there's some sort of 'storm' coming, you've got me, and others, who can back you up." He knew she hadn't seen Gabe at his strongest, but she'd seen a little of what he could do.
"You're not alone."
“I know.” Rhiannon put her hand on his thigh and gave it a grateful squeeze. She could still taste his warm mouth on hers. “I wouldn’t hesitate to ask you if I thought I was in danger, or if she was doing me wrong… But if it was something I brought down on myself with my bad choices, I’d never risk anyone’s life for me. I love you too much for that.”
She reached across and touched Cian’s cheek. “No matter what, I’m still yours.” She would be as long as he wanted to stay on this ride with her, just like she would be for him, no matter where his path with Siofra led.
The were nodded slowly, not bothering with words. Instead he turned his head to brush his lips against her finger tips, reaching up and cupping her between his cheek and palm. The fingers of his other hand moving gently now, circling on the muscles in her shoulders. He turned his head slightly and pressed another kiss to the palm of her hand before lowering it, fingers intertwined with hers, until they both rested on his knee.
“Y’ know I’m with you, no matter what.” He looked across the resort and the marina, indicating it with a lift of his chin. “This will always be here, and it’s m’ second family now,” he said, then returned his gaze to meet her eyes again, “but you, and you alone, are my home.” He lifted their entwined fingers to his lips again and pressed a kiss to them both, the ring he’d given her a part of it. “And I will protect my home, to the end.”
He paused and then inhaled deeply, letting out the lungful of air, his tone becoming more matter-of-fact as he continued. “So how’s this deal with her supposed to work? If you decide to give this a try, say, see what she has, for starters, do you… what? Call her up somehow?”
To the end. Rhiannon resettled her fingers into the familiar lacing with his. The way they fit together was second nature to her now. It had taken time, but the affection of his hand had become as comfortable to her as the weight of a weapon.
“I really don’t know,” she answered. “But since her spies, or whatever you want to call them, seem to be invisible, and she has a knack for reading your thoughts before you know you’re having them, it’s probably not that hard. Maybe you make up your mind and she finds you? Or… say her name in a mirror and spin around three times?” The joke was weak, but she needed to lighten things up. There were summoning rituals for every demon out there, but from what she gathered, a lot of the Emissary’s ways were shrouded in mystery. “Someone from the diner might know, but I’m not telling them about this. People are weird enough around hunters. I don’t need them thinking I’ve gone off the deep end.”
He’d huffed a dry laugh at the reference to spinning and mirrors, and sat there staring across the roof of the resort to the water and the shoreline silhouetted against the curtain of the night sky horizon. “I could ask around,” he commented, then started thinking out loud, listing those who were at the diner, and what he knew of them. He ticked off those he knew and those he’d only just met at that meeting, and only knew from the group texting.
“I know Gabe, Mikey, and Abbey well, and while Mikey and Abbey had admitted to being a bit hesitant about you being a hunter, they’re cool with it now, especially after that night here in the car park! And they’ve never given any indication that they’d had a run-in with this Elfleda - I don’t think either of them would handle it… well, I think we’d know if they had. Gabe’s told me about the woman, Brianna, whose sister is also a hunter, and a little about her actual abilities,” he continued, “all of which he’s learned since he’d been staying up there. The bloke who was with her, the doc, he’s a little odd, seemed to be so dead keen on finding out stuff and didn’t seem to have much of an idea.” He paused before adding, “there was something about him that was… different, he apparently spends a bit of time at le Breeze, from what Gabe’s said. Then there’s James who you know anyway, can’t imagine he’d been weirded out, given he fixes y’ car, and Brian, I’ve had a few beers with them, the whole jive going on at Lucky’s especially in the men’s room… something could be possible there.” He paused and looked at Rhiannon. “You know both Frankie and Tasha. Then there’s Nesryn, Brian’s mate I think? And the woman who was not on the group text list, the angel, and James’ lady, Celeste.” He tried to think if there was anyone else, then closed his eyes and shook his head. “And of course Shimmer,” he said, shaking his head.
“It’s not about me being a hunter. It’s about being a hunter who takes assignments from Elfleda. Cian, please... Don’t breathe a word of this.” Rhiannon knew she was asking a lot, with him having to process the situation internally, too, without a sounding board, and she knew that Cian hated sitting on the sidelines, but this offer she’d been made was too private. “Not everyone understands that sometimes we have to do something ugly to get to something better. If you want to know more about her, I get that. Ask away… But if you ask them how to reach her, they might start asking why you want to know.”
Rhiannon could think of precious few she’d trust with this knowledge, if she said yes.
“Besides. She might hear you. You want her showing up at your door?” She searched his face, brown eyes looking concerned for him in the dark. Rhiannon considered the situation with Elfleda to be like walking on a razor’s edge. She wasn’t afraid because her tactics didn’t seem to involve harming her, though she wasn’t foolish enough to think Elfleda no longer had recruitment on the mind.
He didn’t need to see the concern in her eyes, it was heavy in her voice, but seeing it there too set a frown on his own face. He shook his head briefly, his fingers tightening on hers to reinforce and reassure her. He thought for a long moment, his lips tightening a little before they parted and he answered. “I’ll have Gabe come, reinforce the protections already in place here,” he said quietly, eyes on hers again. “He’d be a good one t’ have in the know, on the ready, if something were to happen,” he continued, then added, “t’ either, or both of us.”
Rhiannon nodded at his idea of having Gabe reinforce the place. “It’s okay if you want him to protect your house. You can even tell him I saw her. I just don’t know if I want anyone knowing the rest. About me. I’ll be okay. She said it was my choice.” She reached up and finger-combed his hair. The danger, Rhiannon thought, wasn’t in saying yes or even changing her mind. It was in defiance, or learning that she liked it too much to ever say no. That was why she needed to stay grounded and remember who she was and why people like her were made in the first place.
“Let’s come up with a code. Something we can say to each other, from here on out, if one of us does anything that seems too far out of line. It’ll be our emergency cord. But we have to promise that if one of us uses it, we’ll stop and consider it. We can’t just blow it off because we think we know better.” Rhiannon knew he’d be more likely to use it than her. “It can be whatever language you want. Just don’t laugh if I pronounce it wrong.” She smiled at him.
A lop-sided grin tweaked the corner of his mouth, as he thought about her proposal, the smile slowly smoothing out and coming into balance. He had no idea why, but the first phrase that popped into his head was a phrase, one that described how he felt about them, buanchara. But instead there was another, and given this would be a phrase reaching out for help of a kind, a safety line to bring them back from an edge, or beyond, the word anam cara came to mind. The subtle difference between the two words may not be clear to her at first, but he figured that wouldn’t matter.
Rhiannon smiled. “That’s a new one on me.” She brought her hands together in a loose connection and stretched her arms in front of her. The way the syllables would feel in her mouth wasn’t entirely unfamiliar, given her grandmother’s early presence in her life, but she wasn’t used to reproducing them and had no idea what they meant. Dark brows drew together in concentration. “Anam cara. Is tu… m’anamchara? What am I saying? Poorly?” Cian could have had her repeating anything he wanted and she’d never be able to spell it to look it up, but he wasn’t the type to pull her leg. “Is tu sounds like you are.”
“You are ordering me a beer,” he answered, keeping a dead straight face.
“What!” Rhiannon swatted his leg. She gave him way too much credit in her head. The worst part was, she couldn’t tell if he was lying about the translation or she was pronouncing it that badly. “Is tu a pain in the ass.”
The laugh he’d been burying bubbled up as a soft chuckle, a grin spreading across his face, glad he’d managed to break the tension. It’s something Annie had always said when they’d all become too focused on things that were getting them down. 'Y’ll all have to laugh, or y’ll be doing the work o’ the demons for ‘em with all the light draining out through y’ worry ‘n concern!’
He explained the meaning, “so yes, the ‘is tu’ is ‘you are’, and then the next part, ‘m’anachara’, is… sort of soul friend, in a spiritual guide sense, someone who helps keep you on the right path.” He paused to let her absorb the meaning.
“Aw, Cian.” Rhiannon scratched delicately under his chin. “You’re my soul friend, too. Among other things.” She held his chin in place and closed the gap to take his mouth into a kiss, enjoying the way she still felt all the molecules of her being seem to clamor to be near him. It was always a test of her will not to climb on his lap and knock him down. The steps of his porch probably weren’t the right place. She lingered over his bottom lip before pulling back. “I like this path, so yeah. That’ll work.”
His arm wrapped around her, drawing her to him, where he wanted to keep her always, at his side, so he was at hers. “Good,” he murmured, repeating the phrase, then cradling her face with his free hand as he added, “because … "Is tú solas m’anama." He paused for a moment, then repeated it for her. “You are my soul’s light.”
Rhiannon nudged his nose with hers and nestled beside it, sharing space and breath with him. He was the only person she ever met who loved the way that she did. Once they flung open the doors, it seemed to go on forever, and Cian wasn’t afraid to talk about it or name it. She let him see the depth of feeling in her eyes. “I have no idea how I lived as long as I did without you.” She kissed his cheek and pulled him into a hug. “Thank you.”
“Neither do I,” he replied, smiling into her hair as he wrapped his arms around her, holding her, letting the two possible interpretations lay in the words as his eyes closed. A few long comfortable moments later he opened them again.
“D’ you still want to do a road trip?” he asked, “given all this?”
“Yeah,” Rhiannon said, squeezing him tight and then straightening out of the embrace. “A few days out of town’ll be good for us.” They could firm up plans about where they wanted to go and figure out work accommodations over the next few days. In the meantime, she had promised him a night off and that meant peeling herself out of his warm arms and getting into her car before she got any more comfortable and found herself staying right where she was. “I should go before I melt onto you.” It was tempting. Rhiannon picked up and kissed the back of Cian’s hand. It didn’t have a ring like hers, but it had held her enough to feel every bit as symbolically hers.
He held onto her hand. "You don't have to go," he told her. "I mean it," he added, admitting, "I like it better when you're with me, I sleep better."
“Mm…” Rhiannon tipped her head, wondering how that was possible. She probably wasn’t the stillest sleeper, but maybe it was different with him alongside her, and her sense of charity only took her so far when he was right there, tempting her. “Okay. Come on.” She picked up her bottle and pulled on his hand. “Anam cara.”