Path Into the Darkness
Part Two: Grune
Chapter Two: Temptation
Grune set his journal down and tucked it into his bag as the last rays of sunlight shone through his window in the guest quarters of the Third Moon royal palace. “What to do with myself now?” he muttered aloud to himself. His visit to the Third Moon of Plundarr was almost halfway over now and much of it had passed quickly, which was fine with him. The majority of his visit had proved rather uneventful—more meetings with delegates and nobles from other moons, a lot of paperwork to read, much of which had rather boring. One thing that kept him going was the knowledge that he would be going home before too much longer, and that was a relief to him. He missed his fellow Thundercats and especially Scarlette. He had not had a chance to talk to her at all during his visit, and the guilt he felt for indulging in that kiss with Kalin still nagged at him. He felt that if he could see Scarlette and talk to her, maybe the strange attraction he had to the hunter woman would wane. It’s just that I’m lonely and miss Scarlette, he rationalized to himself again for what must have been the millionth time. That’s all it is.
As he rifled through his suitcase to sort out what was still clean and what he needed to have laundered, a small paper slipped out from the folds of his previously worn clothing. Frowning, Grune picked it up and unfolded it. In his hands again was Kalin’s address, or rather, the address of a club somewhere in the capitol where she could supposedly be found. Or so she had said. Grune was not entirely sure it was not some sort of a game or trick, mostly because from what he had been able to tell of her on the night they met, she was one who thrilled to play games.
Grune read the address again. His obligations for the day as a visiting Ambassador were over. He was free the rest of the evening...
“Oh that’s brilliant, Grune, going to look for trouble?” he berated himself, shaking his chocolate colored mane. He could not believe he was actually entertaining the thought of going to see that Lunatac woman, that conniving, manipulative, mysterious, seductive, and dangerous Lunatac woman. The same woman who admitted to being one of the Lunatacs of Plundarr and reveling in it.
Wavering back and forth between what was moral and logical and what was interesting and alluring, Grune studied the address a third time. It would be of value to Lord Claudus and his fellow Thundercats to find out more about her and her employer, the infamous Luna, would it not? Certainly speaking with Kalin could prove useful, although he knew on some level that he was only fooling himself. Finding out information about Luna was hardly his true objective. After all, he could have asked King Lunaro and Queen Sileira that much, and likely gotten an honest answer. They seemed to hold her in as much contempt as the Thunderians did, in some ways, probably more. “What harm could paying her a visit do?” the sabertooth murmured out loud, as if trying to use his own voice to convince himself.
It could do plenty of harm, especially if Scarlette ever found out you’re lusting after some Lunatac when you should be thinking about her, his more rational side echoed. He flushed with shame beneath his sable fur. Although he would have liked to think Scarlette would approve of gaining information to use as a possible tactical advantage on an enemy, he doubted that she would be pleased to know how attractive he found his source of that information.
Lost in his thoughts, Grune stared indecisively at the paper. To go or not to go? He weighed the pros and cons of both. If he were to go, there was a good chance he might regret what he found or saw, or wind up in some sort of trouble. If he did not go, he might always wonder what he could have learned or seen, and wind up regretting it. Especially if he was avoiding it out of fear. Grune the Mighty was no coward. He was a Thundercat. Surely he could handle whatever little games Kalin might have planned. Besides, she would have to be pretty damned good if she could fool him, in his opinion.
“I’ll go,” Grune said decisively to himself. Filled with resolve, he stood and smoothed out his clothing, eyeing his reflection to be sure he looked good—or presentable for the public, he corrected himself—certainly not to look good for her. Once satisfied with his appearance, he called the Lunar Royal Guardsmen that had been assigned to him to have him taken to the address. Within a matter of minutes, he was on his way.
* * *
The vehicle that carried Grune and his guardsmen stopped near a tall and forbidding building. The structure was large, dark, and very solid, and although it was not in what he imagined was the best part of town, it had the look of property owned by someone with considerable money. There was a sign that read the club’s name in a stylish logo and the heavy door was closed, giving it a mysterious and exclusive look. As he approached the door he could hear music and the muffled sounds of what had to have been a fair number of individuals inside, although he had no idea what exactly they were doing. The thought struck him that in some cases he probably did not really want to know anyhow. If there was one thing he had learned about Lunatacs during his lifetime, it was that they were a strange people. He was fairly sure the resemblance of their species’ name to the word “lunatic” was not entirely coincidence.
The guardsman that had taken Grune to the club eyed the building in obvious distaste and a bit of apprehension. “Ambassador Grune, I have to advise you against this visit,” he told the Thundercat, who turned to meet his gaze when he spoke. “That Luna is one crazy, power-hungry bitch,” the guardsman continued. “Her people are all criminals, some with records and all of them highly under suspicion for involvement in illegal activities. If I may be so blunt as to say so, Sir, this is not a fit nor safe place for a Thundercat Ambassador to visit. Her highness Queen Sileira will have my head if anything happens to you.”
“I am well aware of Sileira’s feelings about Luna, and I’m sure they are well founded. However, I am a Thundercat. I have dealt with lowlifes in all their forms, and I am not intimidated by Luna and her gang’s reputations.” Grune straightened and took another step toward the door. “Besides, I was invited.”
“I know, Ambassador, but—”
“That will be all,” the sabertooth stated firmly, cutting the guardsman off before he could say anything more. “I will contact you when I need a ride back to the palace. Thank you.”
The defeated guardsman sighed and cast one last nervous glance at the forbidding building. “As you wish, Ambassador. I’ll be nearby.”
Grune nodded and walked to the door. As he stepped inside, there was a man who had the appearance of being a hybrid of several Lunatac races standing in front of an inside door. He raised his eyebrow as he saw the burly Thunderian approach and did a double take when he saw his insignia. “Thundercats? Here?” he said with a cocky laugh of utter disbelief.
“I’m here to see Kalin,” Grune informed him authoritatively. The Thundercat gave the man at the door a quick mental evaluation. He had a weapon on his belt, and he could tell simply by looking at him that he was somebody’s underpaid flunky. From what Grune could tell, he didn’t have much going for him either when it came to physical attributes. He was on the tall side, especially for a Lunatac that appeared to have a healthy portion of lunar blood in him, lean and lanky, with enough height that he guessed he likely had some psi heritage as well. The man also had light blue skin, indicating a bit of icewalker in his family tree that might have granted him some ice spitting ability, but that didn’t give Grune much cause for concern. Hybrid Lunatacs generally had limited powers, like the mixed race Thunderians. They could not be specialists at the things the purebloods were without a lot of special training.
The Lunatac eyed Grune suspiciously when he demanded entrance. At first he had thought the Thunderian was one of Luna’s foreign hires, wearing the insignia as a joke to screw with him. Stranger things had happened in that club in the past and some of the regulars had a twisted sense of humor. “Yeah, well, maybe Kalin’s not here,” the doorman replied evasively. The Lunatac decided that even if the feline was for real and not a setup, the chance to jerk around a Thundercat wasn’t something that happened every day, and he was planning to do it as long as he could get away with it.
Grune knew it too, and snarled at him angrily. “I don’t have time for games, you worthless piece of trash! Now either step aside and let me in to see Kalin or I will move you.” For effect, the Thundercat clenched his fists and growled in his face.
The threat of dealing with an angry, snarling Thunderian sabertooth was enough to put the fear of the gods into the Lunatac. “All right, all right! She’s inside,” he protested. He opened the door and pointed to a darkling inside, a Lunatac in his mid-forties that bore many prominent battle scars. “Stelthor, this Thundercat says he knows Kalin. Take him to her, all right? Before he kicks my ass?”
Stelthor, the dark-dwelling Lunatac inside, laughed snidely at the doorman. “You’re such a spineless little shit, Ishar,” he sneered. “Why Luna has you watch the door is beyond me.”
“For my people skills and dazzling personality of course,” Ishar retorted, flashing a million dollar smile.
“More like entertainment value, if you ask me,” a female voice with a Fourth Moon accent scoffed from nearby. As he made his way over to Stelthor, Grune noticed a hard-faced psi Lunatac woman wearing a lightning bolt medallion around her waist standing beside the dark-dweller. Something about her gave Grune a very unsettling feeling, and despite her gaunt built, he knew right away she was not someone to mess around idly with.
“Aw, I’m crushed,” Ishar answered her sarcastically, and then went back out the door.
The woman frowned at the retreating hybrid, and joined Grune and Stelthor as the darkling led the Thundercat through the crowd and toward a different room in the back. “So you’re the famous Grune the Mighty?” the psi questioned, eyeing him intently.
“I didn’t tell you my name,” Grune answered suspiciously.
Stelthor let out a dark chuckle at that statement. “You’re a sabertooth wearing a Thundercat insignia. Who else would you be?” He shook his head. “Besides, you fit Kalin’s description exactly.”
“She’ll be pleased to see you,” the psi woman added. “We were beginning to think you would never stop by and pay us a visit. By the way, my name is Torlei. I’m an associate of Kalin’s and Luna’s,” she continued. Her demeanor seemed a tad less hostile now, but something about her still made Grune wary.
The trio of them went through a door, down a hall, and finally arrived in a private room that held a number of seedy, sleazy, or otherwise rough-looking Lunatacs. Grune scanned the room quickly and was relieved to see Kalin among them. Grune also recognized Luna and her bodyguard among them, as well as the young icewalker and the darkling from the party, as well as the tall psi who had escorted Sileira’s friend to the banquet. He also noticed a sneering, short, and round graviton with cybernetic leg enhancements that hadn’t been at the party standing beside Kalin. As he evaluated the unsavory crew he had the unsettling thought for a moment that perhaps the guardsman had been right and he had gotten in over his head. He didn’t let that show, however.
Before he could react, Kalin had already gotten up and joined his side. Grune was not sure how she had moved that quickly, but it did not concern him too much. “You came to visit me,” she purred smugly. “I’m flattered.”
Luna laughed. “Yes, I’m surprised the royals didn’t talk you out of coming here. Sileira and my cousin Lunaro are hardly my biggest fans.”
“Can’t imagine why,” Alluro muttered, inspiring snickers from RedEye and TugMug. Luna shot the three of them a nasty look, but did not dignify the remark with an answer.
Torlei and Stelthor took seats in the room and Kalin quickly circled an arm around Grune’s shoulders. “I’m glad to see you came, Grune,” she greeted him, and then turned toward the others. “Pardon me while I have a word with Grune in private,” she said, and when no one voiced a protest, she led him out of the room and down the hallway to another, more private room. That room was darker and held a few pieces of cushy furniture, as well as a bar that appeared to be quite well stocked. The hunter walked behind the bar and poured herself a drink. “What’s your poison?” she asked with a flirtatious smile.
Grune shook his head. There was no way was he going to drink anything she gave him. Even if the drink was only alcohol and not poison or a paralyzing or mind-altering drug, he was not about to willingly impair his judgment while in the company of a bunch of mercenaries and killers that in general despised his people, his planet, his title, and his code. “I don’t drink,” he informed her stiffly.
Kalin shrugged and sipped at her drink. “That’s a pity, you seem rather uptight today, Grune. You should loosen up and enjoy yourself. I imagine you must be going stir crazy in that palace with only those stuffy political officials to talk to.” When Grune did not answer her, she laughed. “No comment? Oh well, I know you must have been pretty bored, otherwise you wouldn’t have bothered to come here.”
“What makes you say that?” he asked, watching her closely as she approached him. A small part of him realized that she was suddenly very much in his personal space, and it didn’t bother him nearly as much as it should have, if at all.
She suggestively laid her hand on his arm. “What other reason would there be? Unless there was something you wanted from me?”
“There’s nothing I need from you,” he replied gruffly, suddenly very aware of how close she was. Even as he voiced his protest, he couldn’t help but notice how attractive she looked. While she had looked quite pretty in her evening dress the other night, the body-hugging jumpsuit she wore now also did plenty to emphasize her curves.
Kalin eyed him curiously. “Why are you here then? I know it’s not to spy for your Thundercats. After all, that would be against your code, wouldn’t it? Immoral or unethical, or something along those lines?”
“If I was spying, do you think I’d tell you?” he challenged.
“No, but I don’t think you are anyway,” Kalin laughed. “I think your interest here was more… personal.” She stared directly into his eyes and moved even closer to him, close enough that she brushed against him in a very inviting manner.
Grune knew what she was up to, and on some level he wanted her to back off so he could think clearly. Unfortunately the lust in him wanted her to stay exactly where she was and invite her to get even closer, and kiss him again, right or wrong be damned. Of course, Grune would never initiate such a thing, and on a rational level he would have been horrified to admit that he even wanted it. However, if she were to kiss him, no one could blame him if he responded, right? Only for a moment of course…
No, he inwardly berated himself. What on Thundera was the matter with him, lusting after a killer like her? Not only was she a Lunatac, an enemy, but he was supposed to be a Thundercat. An engaged Thundercat, at that. What had come over him to make him think this way?
Kalin picked up on his hesitation and smirked with clear amusement. “Don’t tell me you’re fighting your feelings for me again?”
“I have no feelings for you,” Grune snapped, far too quickly for it to be believable to either of them.
His abrupt denial made her laugh. “You Thundercats are terrible liars. Maybe if you’d said that without any emotion in your voice, I might have bought it, but that was too far too heated to be a real denial.”
Grune growled quietly, embarrassed that the woman had been able to read him so well and angry with himself for allowing it to happen. “You don’t know me,” he snarled. “And I didn’t ask you for your opinion on the matter.”
“No, I asked you, actually,” Kalin countered. “So why don’t you at least tell the truth in our private company, honorable Thundercat? If your attraction to me bothers you because you love someone back home, why don’t you admit it?”
He narrowed his eyes dangerously at her, furious at her presumptuous statement—mostly because she was more right than he wanted to admit. “When I met you at the banquet, I thought you were confident,” he told her with glare, “but I was wrong. You’re just full of yourself.”
His anger only seemed to amuse Kalin all the more. “I’m honest, Grune, which is more than I can say about you at this moment.” She leaned closer to him, and when he backed away, she aggressively circled her arms around his neck and pressed her body against his. “We both know you want me, and that I want you. I have always found Thundercats, sabertooths in particular, to be very attractive.” She rubbed against him suggestively and tussled his dark mane with her fingers. “And I know that if you were satisfied with what you have waiting for you at home when you return, you wouldn’t let me do this to you now,” she challenged, and pressed her lips against his in a lusty kiss. And as much as a part of him wanted to, Grune offered no resistance and instead returned the kiss with passion and fervor.
The embrace lasted for several intense moments until Grune came to his senses and pushed the hunter away. “No, I can’t do this,” he growled in a frustrated protest.
This time Kalin was not amused, and she scowled at him. “You know, this last minute morality of yours is getting very tiresome. Do you think you are fooling anyone but yourself? Would your lover be proud of you for pushing me away only after you made certain you had kissed me just long enough to enjoy yourself?”
“You don’t know Scarlette,” Grune said coldly, filled with shame once more for giving in to his temptation.
“Scarlette, so she does have a name,” Kalin said with a satisfied smile. “Anyway, I am sure Scarlette would not be very pleased with how you’ve handled yourself so far. Oh yes, you are showing some restraint, but not enough to count in most women’s eyes… and I highly doubt that Thunderian women think much differently of infidelity than Lunatacs. Face it, Grune, you’ve quite willingly initiated what happened tonight by coming here to see me when you knew full well my intentions. If my lover had done to me what you are doing to her right now, I would have broken the relationship without a second thought, and probably broken a few bones and bruised some vital organs as well. So why don’t you at least go all the way if you are going to do it, Grune? Do it with some style?”
The sabertooth lost what hold he had left on his temper, and brought his fist down hard on the edge of the bar. “Are you that desperate that you have to beg for it?”
At that statement, Kalin fumed with anger. “You call me desperate? You, the one who sends signals with every fiber of his being that you want to be seduced, and then when I act on it, you tease and pull away under the very thin excuse of morality? At least I’m brave enough to own up to what I want and go after it, something I don’t think you have the guts to do.”
Grune roared in a rage. “It has nothing to do with not having the guts, Kalin, it’s more like I don’t have the stomach for it. For you or your little games. I don’t get off on hurting and manipulating others.”
“That’s right, I forgot, you Thundercats are superior to the rest of us mere mortals, I forgot,” she sneered sarcastically. “You abide by higher standards because you’re already so perfect. Pardon me, I keep forgetting that.”
Grune whirled around and grabbed her roughly, pinning her against the bar. She wriggled beneath him, but her natural hunter agility didn’t grant her much give against the strong sabertooth. “Don’t push me, Lunatac,” he warned.
“Or you’ll what?” Kalin hissed back, more impressed than intimidated by his aggression. “You won’t hurt me. Not only is it against your so-called ‘Code of Thundera’, but you’re far too interested in me to do me any harm. Admit it.”
“Interested? In a scheming criminal like yourself? Dream on,” Grune growled. With a violent thrust he released her from his grasp and stormed out into the hallway, leaving her alone in the room.
Kalin simply smiled as she watched his retreating form. “You’ll be back, Grune.”
* * *
Grune left the club stewing in a furious rage and stood by the curb waiting for the guardsman to return to pick him up. He had just sent the message that he was ready to leave on the communicator he had been given by the Queen to use to contact them had been told that his ride was on the way. As he waited, he replayed the events inside the club over again in his mind, and found himself angry all over again at Kalin’s arrogance. Who did that woman think she was? She didn’t know him, she certainly didn’t know Scarlette, and she sure as hell didn’t know anything about the Thundercats, in his opinion. Grune glanced down the street again. Where was that damned guardsman anyway?
The fuming Thundercat was so caught up in his thoughts that he was taken completely by surprise when a cheerful voice rang out from behind him in greeting. “Ambassador Grune?” Grune whirled around and saw a female psi Lunatac that he recognized as Queen Sileira’s acquaintance from the banquet where he’d had the misfortune of meeting that manipulative vixen Kalin. The psi’s name escaped him, but he recalled that she had been the date of one of Kalin’s cohorts that night. When he met her gaze, she smiled brightly and walked over to him. “I’m surprised to see you out here, Ambassador. Did you come to see Kalin? Do you remember me? My name is Lurella, we met at the banquet.”
Grune nodded politely, although he was not up for small talk, especially after she had to remind him of the reason he was so aggravated in the first place. “Yes, I remember meeting you,” he replied. “And yes, I did come here to speak with Kalin, but it was a mistake. As soon as my ride gets here, I’m going back to the palace.”
“Oh,” Lurella replied. “I just got here myself, I’m supposed to meet Alluro for dinner. You met him, right?” she babbled, until she realized that Grune was still staring down the street. “I’m sorry to hear your evening didn’t go well.”
“Are you?” Grune retorted irritably. His foul mood had long overrode any need to be diplomatic and he was not feeling terribly charitable toward any Lunatac at the moment. “Thundercats like me aren’t too high on the list of popular people among the locals here. You Lunatacs are too busy playing games and trying to get the better of honest cats like me,” he snarled at her. He noticed that Lurella seemed a tad taken aback by his words, and he felt a twinge of guilt for being so rude to someone who was just making conversation. He sighed. “Sorry. It’s nothing to do with you. Suffice it to say I had a miserable time here.”
Lurella shrugged and offered him a smile. “Don’t worry about it. I can only imagine what some of the regulars in there might have said to someone like you,” she conceded. “I do admire you for trying though. Most don’t think it’s worth even bothering with. It’s kind of a shame.”
Grune let out a bitter laugh. “That opinion can’t make you very popular around here.”
“I don’t think half of them would listen to me in the first place. Power, image, and reputation are what’s important with this crowd, and most of them don’t know me aside from my family’s name. They dismiss me as the naïve rich girl from the Fourth Moon,” she shrugged. “Besides, I’m an empath. Few non-psis really understand us, and how we react to the sort of cruelty and suffering that goes on around here all the time. It sickens me, really.”
The Thundercat raised an eyebrow incredulously. “You despise suffering, yet you date one of Luna’s gang?”
“It’s not a gang,” Lurella protested. “And Alluro is different than the others. He saved my life, you know. That’s how we met. I was attacked by some thugs on a street just a few blocks from here and he drove them away, single-handedly too. He’s an amazing hypnotist, far more powerful than any other psi mesmerizer I’ve met. He only works for Luna because his sister does, and he owes her some money. But he doesn’t like this life. He’s told me how he really feels about it many times.”
Grune listened to her story, mostly because it distracted him from the more annoying matter of Kalin weighing on his mind, but he had trouble with viewing her lover as a ‘misunderstood’ type. The arrogant psi had struck Grune as a sleaze and an opportunist. “Maybe, or like his pal Kalin did to me, he’s playing on your sympathetic nature to get something from you. If I were you, I’d watch my back around him.”
Lurella frowned at the sabertooth. “You don’t know him, not like I do. Besides, I can handle myself. I would think an empath would know when she is being fooled,” she stated haughtily.
Grune was not convinced. “Not if she only saw what she wanted to,” he replied, his thoughts going back to Kalin and her games yet again. The feline leaned against a streetlight pole and wondered what on the damned Third Moon was taking his ride so long. “But you don’t have to take my word for it. I was just offering some friendly advice.”
The psi nodded as a vehicle bearing the Lunar royal crest pulled up in front of them. “I suppose that’s your ride, Ambassador?”
Grune nodded. “It was good talking to you,” he told her with a slight smile. “You’re a decent lady—a rare thing from what I’ve seen around here. Don’t let anyone tarnish that or take it from you.” He then waved and climbed into the vehicle, which the guardsman had opened for him as a matter of courtesy to the Thunderian Ambassador.
“Take care of yourself, and good luck, Ambassador Grune,” Lurella answered, and then headed inside the club.
As Grune’s ride sped away, Kalin watched him leave from a window inside. Her eyes had been fixed on him since he had left the club in such a huff, and she did not turn away until his vehicle was well out of sight. She wondered idly what he and Lurella had chatted about, but didn’t care enough to ask. She turned away from the window and smiled to herself. “You think this is over, Thundercat Grune? You are so wrong. It’s just beginning...”
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