Ma Belle Chat
Part IV of "I Am Woman, Hear Me Roar"

BY: Cassy



Disclaimer: Asher belong to Laurell K. Hamilton. Gigs and I are figments of our own imaginations and should not be taken very seriously as such. Ramses, Bubba, and Earl belong to Gigs (that's the theory anyway). Luce belongs to Kash. Geez, its getting hard to keep up with this stuff. LOL

It must have been early the next evening when they finally found me. I'd felt Asher "searching" for me as soon as he rose. I'd kept my shields as tight about me as possible, hiding. I didn't want *anybody* to find me...not Asher, not Gigs, not Jean-Claude or any of his people...and most especially not HIM.

It had terrified me that HIS face was the one I'd awakened to. Not that it was hideous or anything like that. Quite the opposite in fact. It was the kind of face you would sell your soul to see smile at you...many *had* over the millenia, truth be told.

Oddly enough, it was Ramses who finally found me, or actually, "Bubba and Earl," as Kylie dubbed his pet scorpions, had. I doubt anyone or anything else would have wandered into the dank crevice I'd squirmed into in my despair. It was in an old, unused catacomb well beyond the Circus' coffin room. I wasn't sure why I'd chosen to hide there, except a desire to "crawl in a hole and pull it in after me." The magi had called my name when his pets led him to my hiding place. When my only response had been a pitiful whimper, he had casually torn away chunks of crumbling stone until he could reach in and lift me out. I had wedged myself in pretty tightly.

He carried me as if I weighed no more than a child. I was so wrapped up in my misery that I couldn't even enjoy the pleasure I would have normally felt being held by the handsome Egyptian. He must've had Kylie inform Asher and Gigs that I'd been found. They both were waiting in Asher's suite. Without a word, Ramses gently handed me over into my master's arms and withdrew from the room.

"Ma rose d'acier, what has happened?" Asher's voice was colored by worry. "Why did you close yourself off from us?" I began to sob. I'd never meant to worry or hurt him. I'd been too engrossed in my own despair and self loathing to take that into consideration. I clung to him desperately as the sobs wracked my frame. "Why Asher? Why?" I wailed.

I felt him pushing at the marks, trying to understand what had me so distressed. I must not have been making much sense in my thought process. All he could pick up was that it had something to do with his and Gigs' bonding. "Cherie, I *had* to stretch the marks to her...She would have dies otherwise. You know this," he reasoned. "You helped me. You were there, Tamara." "Not *that*," I sniffled. "I'm happy with what *you* did...what I want to now is why was I cast out?" "I do not know, cherie," Asher replied. "It was not of *my* doing."

Gigs wanted to know what I was talking about. Asher gave her a brief rundown of how I'd "piggy-backed" to see that she was brought through the infection process safely...relatively speaking.

"I had just the barest glimpse," I hiccupped, "and then He thrust me *out*." My whole body began to shake as I relived the horror of what had happened next. "He thrust me out of His presence, and when I awoke I was in LUCE's arms being carried to my room. HE was looking at me like I was some prize possession that someone had tried to damage or steal...all protective and worried looking. But I can't be *his*...I CAN'T! " I nearly screamed the last.

Asher began rocking me in his arms as he sat on the edge of the bed. Gigs curled up on my other side, leaning against us and purring. "You are *not* his, ma rose d'acier," Asher assured me. "Luce has no claim over you." Speak of the devil, he poked his head in the door at that moment. "I was told you found her," he said. "I am glad...." I bit back a muffled scream, clinging desperately to Asher. His arms tightened around me protectively and possessively. His gaze grew hard, but it was Gigs who stood and faced the demon. In a growl that was *nothing* like her normal voice she faced him and said simply, "Go away."

He removed himself from the doorway, muttering under his breath something about "gratitude." Gigs' upper lip pulled back in a snarl as she hissed after him. Then she returned to our side and rubbed her cheek against mine. Feeling the contact from both of them, my anxiety and fear began to gradually leak away. Asher blasted the marks wide open between the three of us, and I could feel how loved and so very much *not* alone I was.

Finally, Gigs spoke from our huddle. "I'm not sure, Tam, but I think you were thrust out so that you wouldn't stay and leave Asher stranded here in case I hadn't come back. It wasn't your time to go home yet, that's all." "You really thinks so?" I asked hesitantly. "Yes," she answered, "I do." I felt the truth of her words and *knew* they had to be the reason "why." I fell asleep in their embrace, emotionally exhausted, but now a bit more content.