Bernie patted him lightly on the knee, oblivious to her impact.
Eric looked up at Vincent and Dalhard, still talking. He needed to tread carefully, not alerting Dalhard to Bernie’s true potential as a line of communication, or as a potential threat.
Chapter Thirty-Three
A rattling camper van pulled up to the farmhouse as the afternoon shadows slunk across the lawn. Dani tensed, testing the air for hints of oiled metal, gunpowder, anything that could suggest hidden weapons. Michael took his cue from her, stepping forward to stand between whoever was in the camper and the door to the house. Dani approved. Her parents would be guarding Gwen’s door. She could be fairly certain this was the Strigis family coming to help Gwen, but their family had not survived the ages without learning to test their assumptions.
After Michael borrowed a T-shirt from one of her brothers’ closets, they’d spent the afternoon combing through Virginia’s family notebooks, searching for some way to contain the Huntress. But they were clutching at straws. Dani had done a similar search as a teenager with similar results. Texts had been lost, some were in dialects no one understood, and the two of them could only read the ones in relatively modern English. Her faint hope was dying with every hour that passed.
The driver’s door popped open, and a plump, middle-aged woman extricated herself in a flurry of clicking beads and floating scarves. She took a moment to orient herself, shaking her head to settle her bushy gray-brown hair and layers of filmy material. She peered at the darkened porch, blinking. “Danielle? It is you!” she chirped happily before waving back to the camper. “Come on out, kids.”
The side door opened, and a small herd of children tumbled out followed by a rotund man attempting unsuccessfully to keep them in one general area. Michael smiled and went to help.
Dani couldn’t help but smile, too. She remembered her own long years on the road as a child, cooped up in a van for hour after eternal hour. The kids were probably desperate to stretch their legs. Eventually the whirlwind of activity slowed enough for her to identify four children, ranging in age from three to ten.
“Mama, I gotta go,” the three-year-old crossed her legs with alarming determination.
“Inside, to the left,” Dani instructed, stepping aside.
“Quickly, Mari. Jackie, help her.” The mother hustled her pair of offspring up onto the porch but stopped before going inside. Instead, she stared at Dani, blinking slowly.
Her eyes were disproportionately large in her face as if she were staring through thick lenses, only there were no glasses. Dani caught a brief whiff of surprise from Michael as he joined them on the porch.
The Strigis matron tilted her head from one side to another, studying Dani from all angles. She whistled, the note so low it was barely audible. “Oh my. Oh dear.”
“Laura, it’s not our business,” her husband took her arm, his own owlish, oversized eyes blinking slowly.
“Oh. Oh, yes, I suppose it isn’t. It was rather rude.” She couldn’t quite look away. “I’ve never quite seen anything like this.”
Dani stifled her impatience and frustration. She didn’t need any more lectures.
“Seen what?” Michael asked.
Laura and her husband flicked their massive eyes in his direction, focusing on him. “She hasn’t completed the bonding,” Laura answered.
Dani’s fingers and shoulders tightened. Michael’s hand stroked her back, reassuring her that she wasn’t facing this alone.
“I’m sorry, dearest. I’m not judging… but he asked. Oh dear, I’ve hurt your feelings. I’m so sorry.” Laura’s hands fluttered as she apologized.
“It’s all right,” Dani answered, willing the words to be true.
“I can understand. It’s always sounded so frightening to me,” the woman continued.
“Laura, perhaps we should stop talking about it,” her husband suggested.
“Oh. Of course, Donald. I’ll step inside and have a word with Virginia. If you’d—”
“Watch the children,” he finished, shooing her into the house. “I will.” He sprinted back onto the lawn to extract his offspring from a tree that was much easier climbed up than down. Mari emerged from the house to join them, her sister in tow.
Michael moved closer to Dani. “I’ve never seen eyes like that.”
Dani leaned on the rail to watch the children scramble around. “They’re Cassandrites, descendants of Athena from ancient Greece, or so the legend goes. They can see at great distances or focus down onto a molecular level. They can also see energy fields.”
“What do they call your family lineage?” he asked.
“On my father’s side, I’m a feral. Strong and fast, with enhanced senses. On my mother’s, we’re lillitu,” she answered. “You’d know us by another name—succubus. Women who kill men through sex, or corrupt their Christian souls, depending on which book you read. An actual monster from the textbooks.” She glanced over to see his reaction.
Michael wisely chose to stay silent. His scent remained steady, politely interested, with no spikes of alarm.
“I don’t know how we went from divine priestesses to monsters. Were there rituals to appease the Huntress? When I was a teenager, I tried to become an archeologist to find out. I took a few courses in college.”
“What happened?” he asked quietly. His concern and love wrapped around her like an aromatic blanket.
“I had to drop out.” Dani looked away. She’d never told anyone what had happened. Once he knew, he’d realize she would never be the hero he wanted.
Michael held out his hand to her. “Trust me, there’s nothing I haven’t seen.”
“I doubt you’ve ever seen anything like this.” The memory of being held down, of unexpected weakness, swelled and cut off her air. “I can’t talk about it,” she rasped.
“When I was in Gwen’s mind, I saw flashes from your past. I saw your senior prom and the fights. I know you felt responsible.” His voice remained casual and calm, as if they were discussing a film. “I saw you flirting with Chomp to help your brothers. I saw you Hunting Josh the night I first met you.”
The wooden railing creaked under her tightening grip.
“There was something else. Something you couldn’t face. If you can’t tell me, show me. Let me help you fight these ghosts from your past. What happened in college?” Michael slipped his hand around hers.
The simple contact soothed the chill of remembered fear and shame. This could be her last day. And if it was, she didn’t want this memory eating her up inside any more. He deserved to know what she truly was.
“Let’s go inside,” she suggested. She took him into the library, safely away from any prying ears. It was actually just a tiny nook, made even smaller by walls full of shelves for ancient books and scrolls, but it had always been her sanctuary. The familiar scent of musty paper and oiled leather soothed her enough to begin. “After hiding with some very strict relatives in Europe all summer, I wanted a normal life. I wanted it so bad, I actually ran away to go to college back here in the United States. Got myself a fake ID and a dorm room at a state school out west. I wanted to get far away from anyone who had ever heard about the Huntress. I thought I could keep myself safe with some careful feeding and be the same as any other girl.” For once she didn’t try to suppress the wistful yearning she felt for her earlier naïve self. Wanting normality hadn’t been a crime or a bad idea.
Knowing Michael would experience everything she felt, she continued. “I went to a lot of frat parties. If one of them spent some time crouched on the floor in a daze, everyone assumed a hangover or bad drugs. No one ever connected me to them. I always went on a lot of dates, courtesy of the Huntress. I wouldn’t Hunt them all, just a few, here and there. I liked being popular.”
His hand tightened over hers as guilt soured the memories. She forced herself to keep speaking. “There was a party one weekend. I’d been dancing with a half dozen guys when one of them took me upstairs. We were kissing an
d—” Words failed her.
Hot mouth on hers, sour with beer but still showing promise. Maybe I’ll let this one go. She wasn’t due to feed yet. A husky male voice interrupted.
“Hey, we weren’t all done yet.” One of the guys from the dance floor stood in the doorway.
“I’ll be back down in a minute.” She winked.
Beer Breath began to fondle her breasts from behind. His lips were heavy on her neck.
“Maybe I’ll stay and watch.” Husky grinned.
For a moment, she was tempted. The thrill of exhibitionism was intoxicating. To have a man standing and watching her, seeing his eyes glaze and the bulge rise inside his jeans. Maybe he’d reach down and wrap his fist around his heavy cock, unable to help himself. She’d look at him and know she was the cause. That he wanted her.
The fantasy brought on a buzz of anticipation, but practical reality interfered. This wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment kind of decision. She started to make a witty comment, but her mouth only moved in slack mumbles.
Frowning, she reached up to touch her lips. They were numb, as if she’d been injected with novocaine.
“Looks like we timed it perfectly.” Husky shut the door, leaving the tiny dorm room feeling too full, the air stale and spent.
“She’ll be out soon,” Beer Breath agreed, unfastening his pants.
Dani backed away. These two had brought her drinks all evening. She’d tossed them back, her attention focused on the party. They’d drugged her without her noticing. Her vision began to blur and her arms and legs grew heavy.
“This… thisish a bad idea,” she managed to warn them, preparing to swing. Instead she fell heavily onto the bed as her legs started to give way.
“Bitch used up a week’s supply,” Beer Breath complained. “I’d say she owes us both a little something. She won’t remember it, anyway. Besides, she said she wanted to have some fun.”
He yanked on her skimpy shorts. Dani tried to fight, but her body wouldn’t obey her instructions. This wasn’t supposed to happen! She was strong enough to fight off any rapist. She didn’t have to worry about it. This couldn’t really be happening.
Husky ripped open her shirt and began to rub himself against her breasts. Her legs were forced open, and she felt a shocking pain.
It was happening. Inside her unresponsive body, she screamed, throwing all of her strength against the chemical barrier trapping her inside. The hurt blurred together, but she could hear them panting around her as they held her down.
The Huntress answered her scream for vengeance, and for once, she welcomed its reptilian surge and strike. As Beer Breath grunted his way to orgasm, the Huntress took him. No screams, no pleas for mercy. He froze in place then fell to the floor, silent. She smelled Husky’s panic as his partner collapsed, but it was too late. The Huntress claimed him as he came.
She experienced their awakening second-hand. The echoes of all the pain they’d caused, the torment they’d inflicted or watched without comment. Self-entitled bullies and sycophants, their minds were being raped as thoroughly as they’d planned for her body. She tried to scream that she hadn’t meant it, but she was still trapped inside the smothering prison of her body.
Dani lay on the bed, aware of the cooling wetness of blood soaking the blanket beneath her. She still couldn’t move, could barely blink her eyes or turn her head. Both boys lay on the floor, staring blankly into space. The stench of their terror mingled with fresh urine.
“Eventually, whatever they gave me wore off and I could get up. I stole a shirt and pants to make my way back to my own dorm.” Dani found the words again, but she couldn’t look at him.
Michael’s anger smoldered around her, a banked flame waiting for a target.
“I never wanted to see my clothes from that night ever again. I wish I’d taken them and burned them. Then maybe the cops wouldn’t have found me the next day.”
“You say they drugged you?” The cop tapped his pencil against the desk in a clear rat-a-tat of irritation. Surrounded by cheap metal and concrete, the interrogation room chilled her physically and mentally.
“Yes,” Dani kept her answers short. She’d already gone over it more times than she could count since they’d picked her up almost twelve hours ago.
“Why didn’t you report the assault?” His implied accusation came through clearly.
“I was afraid. Upset. I wanted it all to go away.” The Huntress coiled and seethed inside, feeding on her anger and fear.
“It went away all right. Nothing in your blood, no sign of bruises or trauma.”
Of course not. She’d always healed quickly. But she couldn’t explain that to this man with his petty authority and coffee-tainted breath. No one believed her. The families of the boys who’d attacked her were screaming for her head, insisting she must have drugged them. A horde of high-priced lawyers were already circling, sniffing after her blood, bringing up her reputation as a party girl. It was only a matter of time before someone found out her identity wasn’t really hers.
Finally, her public defender lawyer arrived and convinced them to let her go home. On the way out, he suggested she take a plea, something minor and drug-related to avoid more serious charges. “Tell them it was a mistake, that you bought it from someone you didn’t know,” he suggested.
“I left town as soon as they let me out. Took money and my go-bag and hopped a train headed east. There’s probably still an arrest warrant for me out there.”
Michael still stroked her fingers, and Danielle drew strength from the warm contact.
“I never told them what happened. When I came home, Mom was full of I-told-you-so crap, and even Dad said he hoped I understood now why I couldn’t expect a normal life. They were both focused on Gwen, trying to stop her from hurting herself to stop the voices.”
“They attacked you. You defended yourself.” Michael’s voice stayed remarkably calm but she could smell his building fury.
She still couldn’t look at him. Not until she finished. “Neither of them ever recovered.”
His fingers stilled against her hand, and she knew she’d finally managed to reveal an unforgivable secret. “Both of them are in some high-priced care facility, wearing diapers and drool bibs. I went to see them once. I had a stupid idea that maybe the Huntress could help fix them. As soon as I stepped in the room, they started screaming. One hit his head against the wall over and over, like he was trying to knock himself out. I left and never went back.”
She couldn’t decipher his scent. It was intense, but so mixed up and chaotic that she couldn’t pick apart the pieces. She pressed on. “I didn’t know it could be like that. Before that night, I’d sleep with a guy and he’d get this strange expression when he came, but they never said anything. They’d just hurry me out the door as quick as they could. Sometimes one would spend a couple of hours in a daze. That’s all that was supposed to happen. But that night, I wanted them hurt. I wanted them to know what it felt like to be fucking violated.”
Even now, she couldn’t quite make herself feel entirely sorry. They’d deserved punishment, maybe not permanently, but something. She’d racked up more than enough sins to blacken her soul since then, though. “Since that night, the Huntress is darker than any of the stories say it should be. If I don’t feed it, it makes people around me go crazy. They get horny and violent and forget about everything else.”
“So you Hunt predators and force them to face their truth so the Huntress doesn’t hurt anyone else,” Michael finished. He still wanted to believe the best about her.
“It wakes them up. Some of them gave up addictions and shit like that. Some of them clamped down harder, trying to pretend nothing had changed. I used to try and keep track of them, but after a while, I couldn’t.” Dani straightened. “I don’t pretend I’m some kind of one-fuck-you’re-cured therapist. If I could stop, I would. And now you can go.”
He blinked, confused. “Why exactly would I go?”
“You wanted me to be a hero. I
’m not and I never will be. I’m just like they were.” She turned to hurry out of the house, not wanting to see or smell the disgust she knew would be coming.
Chapter Thirty-Four
“Hold it right there!” Michael wrapped his hand around Dani’s wrist. She could have broken free easily but she stopped, face averted. Her self-loathing seeped through the contact. He couldn’t let it continue. Taking a deep breath, he steadied himself and prepared to engage. “You’re not running from this like a coward.”
It worked. Sort of.
“What?” Dani hissed, surprised into jerking her head up to meet his eyes.
“You heard me. You’ve run away from everything that frightened you. Those guys in college, the Huntress, our relationship, Dalhard.” He saw red glints beginning to appear around the edges of her irises and kept going. Either this would work or he was about to be pummeled in what might be the most stupid circumstances possible. “It’s time to stand up and face something.”
Her arm tensed and he felt her preparing to strike.
“Attacking me won’t change anything. It’s just another way to run from what you know is true.” He felt her resolve hardening along with her jaw and switched tactics, softening his voice and grip. “You have the power to fight. There’s no reason you can’t be a hero.”
“I’m not like you, Michael. You’re one of the good guys.” The red faded from her eyes and he sent a silent prayer of thanks that his gamble had paid off.
“Bullshit. You’re fighting like hell for your family, for Bernie, for those people in the kitchen. You care about all of them; I can feel it inside you. You care so damn much that you’re terrified of letting them down. You’re willing to sacrifice everything for them.” He cradled her face in his hands, pressing his forehead against hers. Her skin burned against his, feverish proof of the stress she was under. He wanted to kiss her, but neither of them could afford to be distracted right now.
“Not everything. I won’t risk you. I watched what the Huntress did to my father. It sucked out his life force and he never walked again. My mother couldn’t stop it. And that was before it made me into a monster.” Dani’s fist tightened painfully in his hair as she pressed against him. A wail of misery swelled inside her, threatening to break free.
Revelations: Book One of the Lalassu Page 22
