Burning Road

The Price of Friendship- Part III

The sound of Cali's laptop jarring his coffee cup snapped him back to the present.  Mimi's nose was buried in her bag, and Cali hummed that annoying jingle as her fingers tapped furiously at the keyboard.  Khouri looked down at his hands, remembering Charlie's blood staining the lines of his palm.  A tear slid down his cheek.  She'd died because of him.  Not The Hoffman's or Littlehawk's betrayal or even Miminda's unprecedented arrival.  It was The Prince Curse all over again.

He thought he could find solace in knowing he wasn't the only Prince to suffer under the curse, but the knowledge did nothing to alleviate the hollow feeling in the pit of his stomach.  Charlie was his best friend, his lover, in many ways she was his other half... and his love for her put her in an early grave.  He couldn't even give her the decency of a proper burial, he'd left her because he thought he'd need his hands free if he ran into the other Hoffmans.  He killed her and left her to rot.

A little hand softly touched his finger.  The pity in Mimi's eyes made his own burn with unspent tears.

"I am sorry for your Charlie.  Here."  She placed in his hand a pink egg painted with blue squiggly lines, and closed his fingers around it.  "Take this.  It's pretty like Charlie."

He studied the egg for a long moment.  It was a pretty egg.

"Thank you, Mimi," he said as he wiped a tear away before it could escape too far from his eye.  Charlie would have liked the egg.  Easter egg hunts at the Chapman's were always a lot of fun.

"Hey, I want an Easter Egg!" Cali exclaimed as she peeked over  her laptop screen. The tapping of her fingers stopped for only a second before she got right back to her work.

"It is for DotPrince, so he won't be so sad anymore," Mimi explained.

"Damn, I really like me some Easter Eggs though."

Khouri felt himself almost laugh.

Cali notice and gave him a smile.  "Side question: where were you hiding an Easter Egg?"

"How do you know The Knights of Easter?"

"It's only the best night of the year, well second best if you count Halloween, and Thanksgiving, and Christmas, and Kwanzaa... wait.  I have a list here on my hard drive.  You guys celebrate Easter in The Under?"

"No.  The Knight of Easter is an old ugly creeper.  He gave me the egg."

"Oh, cool name.  And it's been in your bag all of this time?  It's rotten Khouri, don't eat it."

Not laughing when in the company of such characters was a daunting task, even for a heartbroken lover with revenge on his mind.  And revenge was definitely on his mind.  With Littlehawk working for The Knights of Tamin, Khouri had no way of knowing who he could trust.  He had very few hunters he considered friends or at least hunters he could count on, and no non-hunter friends of note.

There was Helsing, the old hunter had always lent his help when asked.  There was Sullivan, but he was young and inexperienced not the best soldier to take into war.  There was no one else... he would normally ask Ice to put him in contact with a hunter with the skillset he needed, but he couldn't trust that she wasn't a part of Littlehawk's conspiracy.  Khouri decided to have Sully give him a ride into the city then ditch him too.

"Not good, not good.  DotPrince, this is not good!"  Cali was hitting the keys in swift succession.

"What now?" he asked.

"He did it.  Littlehawk started the war.  The chatter is lousy with reports of fighting.  Five hunters are already dead, two Watchers and three Order.  Castle has put out a bounty on your head.  Ten thousand dollars to bring you in alive.  Thomas Denver, is he Charlie's husband?  He's offering five thousand to anyone who'll bring him your head, that's a thousand more than he offered a few hours ago... I guess he's fundraising.  Jaeger and Littlehawk are hoping to bring you in.  It hasn't even been twenty-four hours yet.  This is going to get ugly real fast, Khouri.  Not.  Good."

"Fuck."

"You can say that again.  If I'd been able to record that sonofabitch then we could have exposed him, but right now it looks like you fired the shot that started Guild War II."

"Fuck... is there any mention of The Elder Councils on the chatter?"  He took Cali's shaking head as a good sign.  "As long as this stays between Castle and Littlehawk it can be stopped.  In the end it's The Elder Councils that run the guilds.  I'll have to prove to them that I'm innocent and Littlehawk is a mole for The Knights.  Then I can kill that Indian sonofabitch."

"Native American.  You're not one of those Hoffman assholes."

Khouri met her intense stare, and after a moment nodded.  He wasn't a bigot.

"Native American.  I'll need to take that Native American bastard before both Councils.  In the meantime, I'm going to murder the Hoffman."

He surprised himself with his ability to be rational.  He wanted to wash away the pain of Charlie's murder with Littlehawk's blood, but he didn't want his vengeance to allow The Knights of Tamin to take the east.  It wasn't about loyalty, he held no true allegiance to The Watchers or The Order, not really

His family had taken the oath for generations.  A year ago it wouldn't have meant anything to him, but reading Wesley's journal and the family accounts within had changed him.  His enemies would die but he would protect what little legacy still remained of his family.  If he could.

Khouri's fingers rapidly grew warm until he needed to pull away from the little egg in his hand. Before his eyes the egg cracked and the shell fell away.  Inside was a fluffy little ball, brown like his coffee, brown like his Charlie's eyes.  Khouri peeled the remnants of the shell away, all the while watching a distinct rising and falling.

The brown ball purred and unfurled long floppy ears.  A small rabbit's face looked up at him.  He'd seen monsters and demons, spellbooks and ancient wizards but a tiny bunny hatching from a colorful egg left him speechless.

"Are you okay, sir," asked the waitress, returned to refill the coffee.  "Oh my god, it's so cute!"

"What?  Thanks, wait you're not talking about me?"  Cali looked up from her monitor and squealed, drawing the attention of a number of other patrons.  She shut the laptop and reached across the table.  "Can I touch it?"

"Oh, I want one so bad!" cooed the waitress.

"It's for DotPrince," Mimi declared, though it was obvious she wanted to pet the little critter too.

"What's its name, sir?"

Another waitress arrived with two plates of piping hot breakfast food, impatiently waiting for space to place her burden.

"I don't know," Khouri admitted.

He looked down at the tiny bunny and couldn't deny it's cuteness.  It rubbed its pudgy cheeks against his hand and purred again.

"Aaawwwwww!" all three women sighed in unison.

Suddenly Khouri didn't want it.  If he took care of it, he'd grow to care for it.  If he cared for it, his curse would eventually come to take it away.  He had to get rid of the bunny and the girls.  The cold at the pit of his stomach had begun to warm ever so slightly, and he couldn't allow that.  When he was cold he felt nothing.  He wanted to continue to feel nothing.  It was better than the alternative.

"Name it Charlie," Mimi whispered across the table.

Khouri looked up and she avoided meeting his eyes.  Cali on the other hand smiled and nodded her agreement.  Unable to think of a better name he shrugged and said, "Her name is Charlie.  We call her Chi Chi for short."

"Excuse me! We're still waiting on our food!" called an older gentleman from a nearby table.

Little Chi Chi's hypnotic hold on the waitresses faltered, and the trio were able to get their food.  Khouri handed the little ball of cute to Cali, who carefully removed the lettuce from her hamburger and prepared a tiny meal for the tiny critter.  Prince was able to lose himself in the task of eating for a time.  He didn't taste anything, but it was a much needed distraction.