Hymn of the Elder Gods

The Way Things Go

The threat should not have been soothing given the circumstances, but the immediate obeyal - Eve slipping off the wall and directly into Samir's waiting arms - quieted the tumultuous storm in her heart.

Samir was so quiet. So quiet and unlike anything else in her world. Patient. Like a marble carving, unmoving and impartial to the flow of time. It had been all of one day, and already, Eve was terrified of her growing desire for that peace. She took a slow inhale - amber and pine - as Samir pressed her into his chest. He had changed clothes. The suit he was wearing was a clean, impeccable black. A series of stunning silver rings decorated his fingers, diamonds pressed through the piercings of his ears. His hair was freshly styled. A cigarette, the same brand that the stranger had been smoking, dangled between the fingers of his left hand.

His right arm was wrapped around her midriff and across her chest, fingers near her neck, holding her close.

Arman had sunk to his knees with his head bowed. The disdain Eve had felt winked out of existence as his eyes grew wide in fear. Samir flicked his cigarette at the man. It didn't touch him, but it landed just beside his knee, amongst the stained concrete, and fizzled faintly.

"Care to explain?" Samir said finally, when the quiet had stretched on for too long, and when Eve's pulse beneath his fingertips had quieted slightly.

"Just trying to follow your orders, sir," Arman murmured, deflating slightly.

"And what, pray tell, were my orders, Arman?" This side of Samir was somehow slightly unexpected. A frigid crispness in his voice. The detached cruelty in his gaze. The fury building between his brow and at the corners of his lips. Arman made a strange sound under his breath. Samir's finger stroked along her neck, along her pulse, once, as though to reassure Eve. "What was that?"

"To make sure the woman was safe," Arman admitted, in a small voice. "But she's safe! She was just being so difficult-"

"Arman."

Eve felt goosebumps ripple down her spine at the sharpness with which Samir said his subordinate's name. The guard shut his mouth with an audible swallow. Eve pulled out of Samir's grasp, feeling fresh irritation well in her chest.

"Samir," She said, venomous. "This was unnecessary."

"Forgive me," the man said immediately, tucking his hands into his pockets. "I did not think you needed the protection. I simply did not wish to lose track of you. Something told me you'd disappear within hours of being awake, and I couldn't risk that happening."

Eve didn't understand. The set of her jaw was telling. "I hardly know you."

"You saved my life. I am not the type to leave a debt unpaid."

"Unnecessary." She repeated.

In truth, Eve was slightly curious about her own reaction to the man. But she did not wish to build any sort of relationship off of unpaid debts. Fake friends were worse than no friends at all.

Not that Eve made friends anymore, not after so many years. It simply wasn't worth the heartache.

Samir pulled her back in, and the world grew soft and quiet again. Peaceful in a way that Eve had not known in a hundred years.

Almost blindingly so. The sound of crickets in the parking lot, the cashier inside the motel popping bubbles of gum, and a breeze, kissing the leaves on the trees.

Samir's lips were warm; barely touching the shell of her ear. Eve hadn't had this in so long.

"I did not mean to make you uncomfortable," Samir said. "Think of this as the actions of a mad man. But I must repay my debt."