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GRNW Round Robin
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GRNW Round Robin part 4 by Jeffrey Ricker
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Mod
Great chapter! I am having so much fun with this story!
Thanks, folks! This was so much fun. (Now, who's Team Guy and who's Team Rodrigo?)Take it away, Tara!
Mod
Take it away, Tara!"
Curse you all and your Teams! They're both dreamy! >:O
(view spoiler)
Still, I like how *flexible* everyone's being! Even Baxter is loosening up slightly. :D
I dunno - I do have a sweet spot for anybody who's really good with throwing knives. Then again, I'm totally biased here.
Thanks Jeffrey! Loving this and having a blast :)
"What are you doing?" Baxter screamed. He barely kept his footing and his grip on the now soggy cannon text as they bounded down three steps at a time.
Baxter glanced behind. Stabbing Sam stood at the top of the waterfall, his sidekicks nowhere to be seen. He glared at them with menace before turning and taking off.
"We've lost him," Baxter said, but Rodrigo neither loosened his grip nor slowed down.
"He'll be back," Rodrigo shouted over the rush of the waterfall and the splashing of their footsteps. "We need to stay ahead of his vile schemes."
They paused at the bottom of the waterfall, which fed a narrow stream now running across the ground floor. The mesh skin of the library was covered in greenery, creeping vines trailing up the latticework, and the sound of crashing water came from outside.
"What the hell is going on?" Baxter muttered. This was no cosplay. Something had seriously happened to the library. And on top of that, he was now soaked, a fact driven home when he started to shiver. He should never have left southern California.
"Guapo, you are freezing," Rodrigo said, pulling Baxter close. "Are you unwell?"
"I'm fine," Baxter said, ignoring the sudden uptick in his heartbeat at being held so close to the pirate. His gaze lingered where Rodrigo's shirt plunged open halfway down his chest. Not now, he chided himself.
Maybe later.
Baxter held up the paper Guy had given him. "I have to find this book. Guy said it's the key to breaking some curse."
Rodrigo frowned as he stared at the page. "You know where to find it?"
Baxter nodded. "It's somewhere upstairs. We need to get to the eighth floor."
At the same time, both of them turned and stared back up the waterfall. Stabbin' Sam Pike was still nowhere to be seen. When Baxter turned to face Rodrigo again, it was clear they both had the same thought: they had to go back up.
"Maybe there's another way up..." Baxter began.
Rodrigo shook his head and grabbed Baxter's hand. "Time snaps at our heels, guapo. We risk letting Black Burt catch us if we tarry."
They plunged into the rushing water. Baxter stumbled twice and nearly lost his footing, but Rodrigo was there with a strong arm to keep him from falling. "Who is Black Burt, anyway?" Baxter asked.
"As dastardly and despicable a reprobate as you're ever likely to find menacing the seas, my friend, and the one to blame for the predicament we find ourselves in." They were halfway up the waterfall. Rodrigo kept a grip on Baxter with one hand while clutching the remaining escalator railing with the other. By the time they reached the top, Baxter's shoes squelched and his clammy underwear was starting to chafe.
They headed for the book spiral. As they ascended, Baxter scanned the numbers on the floor. Rodrigo was close at his side, and Baxter couldn't help glancing over every so often, his companion's breath coming hot and hard and far too distracting at his shoulder, loud enough that Baxter could hear it clearly over the clatter of their feet over the floorboards—
Baxter halted. Rodrigo's shoulder collided with him, nearly knocking Baxter to the floor before Rodrigo caught him in his strong, muscular, slightly hairy arms that—
Baxter, focus. He rested his hands on Rodrigo's forearm and stared down at the floor. The gently sloping ramps had given way to broad wood planks, dark and uneven. Oddly, the numbers were still there, now carved roughly into the wood.
"This doesn't make sense," Baxter said, but the picture was getting clearer. He turned to Rodrigo. "Where were you before you found yourself here?"
Rodrigo's brow furrowed. "We were on our ship, The Crimson Flame, being pursued by Sam Pike and his agents." For a moment, he looked sheepish. "We had an—ah—surreptitious shipment to deliver to the coast of Italy."
"Smugglers," Baxter said, not noticing Rodrigo's look of indignation. They started climbing again. "That makes sense. Is Sam Pike the law?"
Rodrigo smirked. "He's a despicable rogue who uses the facade of the law for his own diabolical purposes."
It was Baxter's turn to smirk. "Whereas you're a lovable rogue who fortunately can't read the letter of the law."
At first it looked like Rodrigo wasn't sure which comment to take offense at, his roguishness or his illiteracy. Then he smiled. "So you find me lovable, guapo?"
"I, uh—it's a figure of speech," Baxter said, trying not to stare too long at Rodrigo's chest. He shook his head and returned his attention to the stacks. "And anyway, the point is that you were on a ship and now you're in a library. Don't you think that's strange?"
"Nothing is too strange where Black Burt's evil magic is concerned."
"I can't believe we're talking about magic seriously," Baxter said.
"Do you not believe in magic?"
Before Baxter could reply, a high-pitched chime interrupted, followed by a vibration in Baxter's pocket. His cell phone—he was getting signal! He fished it out and glanced at the screen. It was working again—and as luck would have it, the person calling him was Janet Scott, his new boss. While he debated whether or not to answer it, Rodrigo stared at the device with wonder.
"And just what kind of magic is this, guapo?" he asked.
Before he thumbed the answer key, Baxter locked eyes with Rodrigo. “I need you to be totally silent. Can you do that?”
Rodrigo glanced from Baxter to the phone, then nodded. Baxter slid the unlock button across the screen and held the phone to his ear. “Hello? Yes, hi Ms. Scott. I got to town just fine, looking forward to starting tomorrow.... Well, my first order of business today is finding an apartment, so I’ve stopped at the library.... Yes, it’s very impressive.” If only you knew the half of it, he thought. He resumed walking up the spiral, Rodrigo close at his heels. He scanned the floor boards ahead and nearly missed the last thing his new boss said. “Oh! Lunch? Actually, I would love to do that, but I’ve lined up a meeting with a landlord at lunchtime.”
Baxter stopped. They were really close to the call number for cryptology now. He needed to get his boss off the phone. “Yes, I’ll do that. Thanks so much, Ms. Scott.... Okay, Janet. I’ll see you tomorrow morning.” If I ever find my way out of this library and back into the real world. “’Bye!”
He tucked the phone back into his pocket, but not before catching Rodrigo’s amazed stare. Of course he’d never seen an iPhone before. “It’s not magic, Rodrigo. It’s technology.”
“Where I come from, guapo, that would be magic of the highest power. Even Black Burt would be amazed.”
Before Baxter could ask what kind of magic Black Burt used, a loud bang went off just by their heads and the corner of a shelf exploded, sending flaming books and shredded pages flying. Baxter was on the floor before he realized how he’d gotten there—Rodrigo had grabbed him by the shoulders and flung him down, then covered him with his own body as protection. Glancing up through the smoke and haze, he saw Black Burt striding toward them and reloading.
Rodrigo helped Baxter up and held him by the shoulders. “Find the text, guapo, then get it to Guy. He’ll know what to do next.”
“What about Black Burt?”
Rodrigo drew his sword. “Leave that scoundrel to me,” he said. With his free hand he pulled Baxter close for one quick but high-impact kiss, then he raced off toward Black Burt. Rodrigo made a quick turn to the left and plunged into the stacks, leaving Black Burt glancing first at Baxter, then at the row where Rodrigo had disappeared.
“I’ll be back for you,” the man growled before taking off in pursuit of Rodrigo.
For a moment, Baxter stood there, his ears buzzing from the explosion and his nose wrinkling at the stench of burning. The sound of rainfall pelting the building reached him from outside, along with the steady rhythm of rolling waves. His lips tingled. Rodrigo hadn’t put much more art into their kiss than Guy had, but it was still more action than Baxter had had in a long while. Two guys on the same day. Maybe Rodrigo and Guy weren’t a couple after all. But then which one would he choose?
Baxter shook his head again and headed down the row of shelves, scanning book spines as he went until, at last, he found it.
The book didn’t seem as old as Baxter had expected it to. The spine was green and institutional looking, like it had been rebound at some point. He pulled it off the shelf and glanced at the cover, where the name was printed again in the same gold lettering as the spine: Unraveling the Curse: A Modern Guide to Ancient Dilemmas.
He had the book. Now what?
The coin. He found the gold piece Guy had given him and rubbed his thumb over the engraving. He hoped Guy wouldn’t take too long to get there.
He glanced back at the shelf. The volume he held was the only copy of the book. He was about to head back down the aisle when he noticed the book to the right of the gap where Unraveling the Curse had been. It was a larger book, the binding obviously much older. Also, judging from the call number taped to the spine, it was misfiled.
The title made him shiver: The Curse of Black Burt.
Baxter pulled it off the shelf as well. Balancing it atop his other book, he opened it. It was an adventure book, written sometime in the late 1800s. Every few pages there was an illustration. The first was a black and white engraving in fine detail showing a sailing ship plowing through rough seas, the sky black around it.
Baxter nearly dropped the book when a hand came to rest on his shoulder. Yelping, he looked up to see Guy at his side, smiling, his stubbled chin coming closer and oh God he’s going to kiss me again, Baxter thought, as Guy’s lips met his and kissed him properly this time, one hand cradling the back of Baxter’s head at the base of his neck. Baxter would have had his hands all over Guy were it not for the books he was holding.
“I am so glad to find you safe again, guapo,” Guy said after breaking their kiss. “I was worried that Black Burt might have found you.”
“He did, but Rodrigo created a diversion so I could keep looking for the book.”
“And you have found it?” Guy glanced down at the books in Baxter’s hands. “What is this?”
“Oh, this.” Baxter shuffled the books in his grasp. “I found Unraveling the Curse, but I also found this. It’s called The Curse of Black Burt.”
Guy’s eyebrows shot up. “How is this possible?”
“I don’t know.” Guy turned to stand at Baxter’s shoulder and they looked through the book together. This let Guy drape an arm at Baxter’s waist as he leaned in, and where his body pressed against Baxter’s side it became obvious that Guy had more than just the book on his mind.
That was until Baxter flipped ahead a few pages, stopping when he got to the next picture. It showed a pirate with dark hair and a puffy shirt, standing tall on the foredeck of the ship.
“Guy, it's you.” Baxter held up the book. Guy took it and stared, awestruck, as he ran a hand across the page. He turned ahead, and there was Rodrigo, waving a knife with a rakish grin on his face as Stabbing Sam raced along the deck toward him.
Guy looked up, meeting Baxter's eyes. Was Guy no more than a character in a book?