Free Rose: Briar's Thorn by Erik Schubach Page B

 she demanded in a tone I remembered.  The one she used when I was doing something that displeased her.  I looked up into her eyes.  Eyes I remembered.
    She gave me a little smile and wiped a tear from my cheek.  I was crying?  I hadn't cried for centuries, then lately, since I met the other Avatars, I seem to be doing an awful lot of it.  I had thought all my human emotions gone.
    She lowered her head a bit to look directly into my eyes when I dipped my head, and said, “I am here.  I awoke when the brothers Grimm said you yourself had finally awoke inside, to make the decision to join the other Avatars to stop the Alphas.  They had to race to my crypt before the Alphas and their proxies made it to me when they realized I had awakened with you.  They brought me here to you in this new land in a flying machine.”  She looked around and up to the electric light fixture and smiled. “It is truly full of wonders.”  Her voice drifted.
    I reached a shaking hand out to her face and timidly cupped her cheek.  She closed her eyes and nestled her face into my touch.  I whispered in more of a serpentine hiss than a voice,  “Nicole?”  She nodded, her eyes still closed.  Then even quieter I whispered, “I... love you.”  She nodded again.”  Then again quieter, “I've missed you so very much.”
    She chuckled and nodded and opened her eyes as a tear rolled down her cheek, wetting my hand.  Then with that familiar self-assured smirk she said, “Of course you do.  What's not to love, you silly woman?”
    I caught myself smiling at her and I heard a couple chuckles from the other women.  I looked at her in wonder and said in a pained voice, “You were asleep for so very long.  I protected you.  Visited you and read to you.”
    She nodded.  “I know, I was aware the whole time as time passed.  I was locked inside and could not respond.  I loved your visits and when you couldn't be there to read to me, Jacob and Wilhelm would come read to me and describe how the world was changing and all the new wonders there were to see.”
    Then she added, “No other living thing could get through that impenetrable patch of black briars which had a heartbeat that sounded so much like yours.”
    Daria whimpered and I looked down, then around the crowded room.  I had forgotten anyone else was there, I had only eyes for Nicole.  I straightened, and dropped my hand from her face.  If I could blush, I would have.  I made introductions.
    Then when the pleasantries were over, I spun on the brothers Grimm and thrust my hand forward and vines sawed their way out of my flesh in an explosive manner.  The pain was excruciating but so worth it.  A moment later the men were trapped in a domed cage of black thorns.  I spidered over to them and tilted my head almost upside down to regard them.  “What games are you playing now?”  Then I glanced back at Nicole, then back to them.  “Explain!  Is this the endgame?”
    Wilhelm stroked his well-manicured beard with that blasted amused smile on his face which he always seemed to have.  He actually reached out and rested a hand casually on my poisoned vines, more to demonstrate his immunity to it that anything and he said,  “Now calm down Rose of Deva.  That is why we are here and brought your heart.  We cannot interfere in the outcome of events, but we can move the chess pieces.  We are here, now, to tell you all.”
    Jacob held up a finger with a half smirk on his face and used a modern colloquialism in non-accented English, “What he said.”  It always annoyed me that they seemed to speak every language without any trace of an accent.
    I growled and made a dismissive motion with my hand and the vines slammed back into my body almost instantly.  The last one pulling the men's feet out from under them and they landed on their asses.  Petty?  Sure.  But satisfying.  The men just chuckled and stood back up.
    The Red Hood though much smaller than the