by Cara Wylde
Tengu stopped in front of the window and looked outside at the tall mountain rising behind the house. “There’s a representative of D’Argyle in the next village. She assesses the candidates who come willingly from all five villages and chooses the ones she deems appropriate. I haven’t been able to go there because the demon would immediately sense me. You will have to go and investigate, ask around and find out what the Count wants from the young women he is recruiting for the Spring Equinox. I believe it will be easy for Sophie to convince the representative she’s a worthy candidate.”
“I… I don’t know if I can do it…” Sophie’s voice was barely a whisper. Yes, she knew that as a cambion she had the power to hide her demon nature as she pleased, but if the shaman had identified their unique auras so easily, wouldn’t it be just as simple for the Count or this demon woman who acted as his envoy?
“You can and you will.” Tengu’s words were harsh and final.
Sophie’s cheeks turned red and she wondered if it wouldn’t have been better for Kain and Alexi to work with a more experienced cambion. The blond sneaked a hand under the table, found her knee, and squeezed it reassuringly. She raised her eyes to meet his, and returned his smile.
“I’m so sorry for taking so long.” Father Michael burst into the room, carefully balancing a huge tray on his big, clumsy hands. “I had forgotten I was out of ground coffee and I had to fix that first.” He placed the tray on the table and proceeded to offer each guest a small, steaming cup of fresh coffee.
“Mmm… this smells wonderful.” Sophie inhaled the incredible aroma and almost moaned.
“Oh yes,” said the priest, a bright smile on his chubby face, “On the plus side, freshly ground coffee smells divine.”
♥
Father Michael prepared separate rooms for his three guests. They were small, with old, creaky beds and hard mattresses, but the sheets were freshly washed and well ironed. Since his wife died and his daughter went to work for the Count, he had been paying a woman to clean the house and do the laundry once a week. He didn’t usually have guests, so he did his best to make Sophie, Alexi, and Kain feel like home, just as he had done for Tengu in the past few days. He had no idea what they were. All Tengu had told him was that he was investigating Count Casimir D’Argyle because there had been some complaints regarding his usual Spring Celebration. When the priest asked the incubus if his daughter, Leila, was in any danger, Tengu had assured him that it was not the case. As much as they hated lying to their kind, hospitable host, Sophie, Alexi, and Kain agreed with Tengu. It was better for the priest and the villagers to be kept in the dark a while longer. If people started to panic, they could endanger their mission.
Sophie made sure father Michael was inside the house, fumbling with pillows and duvets. She would have loved to help him, especially since he was going through all this trouble for their sake, but she had more important things to do. She closed the front door carefully, then headed to the gate, where Tengu, the shaman, Alexi, and Kain were discussing the last details of their plan.
“Rest tonight,” said Tengu. “Tomorrow, make sure Sophie knows how to hide her demon sigil and her powers. We can’t risk the demons living up in these mountains sniffing her out the moment she reaches the next village.” He threw her a harsh glance.
Sophie bit the inside of her lip and forced herself to keep a straight face. What was his problem, anyway? Why didn’t he like her? “Of course… just like Lilith, he would have preferred to see Kain and Alexi work with someone else. Does he really think I’ll screw this up? What a jerk…” However, she couldn’t ignore the feeling tugging at her heart. Maybe he was right. Maybe she would screw this up. After all, what did she know about the Ke’let demons? Yes, she had read everything she could find about them in the Library, but was that enough? Tengu was speaking again, so she tried to focus. “I’ll think about it later.”
“You shouldn’t worry about Sophie reaching the Count, because I have no doubts he will gladly accept her services. It will be hard for you two, though.”
“What’s the plan?” asked Alexi. He was standing in the middle of the road, arms crossed over his chest, looking far into the distance, towards the village. Except for the priest’s house, this part of the land seemed fairly deserted. It wasn’t unusual, of course, since mountain villages tended to be small and scattered, the houses often separated by miles.
“D’Argyle invites demons from all over the world to join him at the mansion. I think your best shot is to take on the identities of two demons Lure Academy has in its custody.”
Kain sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. If Sophie had to control her powers in such a way as to hide her demon aura and sigil, then they had to do the exact opposite. The problem was this was very unpleasant. For a cambion, it was much easier to pose as a human, than as a demon. Theoretically, cambions were half-half, which meant they could go for either of the two extremes, but with time most cambions realized their human traits were stronger than their demon traits. Why? It was hard to tell. Maybe because they spent the first years of their lives among humans.
“Sounds like a good plan,” said Alexi.
“I agree,” said Kain eventually. If he didn’t like it, it didn’t mean it wouldn’t work. He took a step back and bumped into Sophie, whom he hadn’t realized was behind him. He looked at her flushed cheeks and red nose, and smiled. She was holding the collar of her coat high around her neck, trying to cover her chin and lips. Kain placed an arm around her shoulders and hugged her to his side to keep her warm. Alexi didn’t even look their way.
“You don’t need me here anymore,” continued Tengu. “I’m going to Lure to find you some good identities.” Demons could change the way they looked as they pleased, but cambions didn’t have this ability. Tengu would have to look carefully for two demons whose preferred human forms were close to Kain’s and Alexi’s features. “I’ll be back tomorrow with their files and sigils, then it shouldn’t take you more than a day to study them and slip into your roles.”
Kain nodded. Alexi kept looking into the distance. Sophie couldn’t tell if he was feeling worse or he was simply trying to avoid the blond with his fiery attitude and relentless questions. She made a note to herself to make Alexi eat something after Tengu left.
“All right,” said Kain. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Make sure to send Lilith our best wishes.”
Tengu wasn’t impressed by Kain’s sarcasm. He turned around and started along the road without as much as a “goodbye”. The shaman followed him, leaning heavily on his walking stick.
“Wait!” said Sophie. “Where are you going?” She hated that the old man hadn’t given them a name, but she knew he would know right away she was talking to him.
“I found a nice place where I can meditate in peace.”
“But it’s cold outside. You’re going to freeze to death up in the mountains.”
The shaman finally decided to turn around and grace her with an indulgent smile. “My body cannot feel the cold, child. Don’t worry about me. I’m never hungry, thirsty, or tired, and I have no use for a warm bed. Sleep well and let the night take your fears away.”
“If anything, the night will increase them…” whispered Sophie. What was the logic in that anyway? The old man turned back on his way and left the three cambions standing awkwardly in front of the priest’s house, unsure what to do next. Father Michael was nice and pleasant, but he was awfully chatty, and none of them felt like spending the evening nodding and smiling on autopilot.
Kain hugged Sophie closer to his warm body. “You should listen to him.”
“It doesn’t make sense.”
“It does, actually. He sees us as creatures of the night because we’re children of incubi and succubi.”
Sophie huffed, not happy with the explanation. She was no creature of the night.
“Let’s go back inside,” suggested Alexi. “It’s freezing out here.” He avoided their eyes and went past them. He still felt a bit ill,
and the way Kain was holding Sophie so close to his body only made things worse.
♥
Sophie turned on the other side. The hard mattress was very uncomfortable and it made her back hurt no matter what position she tried. She missed her big, soft bed at Lure Academy, and the fluffy pillow she could sink her nose in. The one she was trying to sleep on now was just a tad softer than a rock. She looked at the clock on the nightstand and sighed in frustration when she saw it was 2 AM.
“This is ridiculous!” she huffed. “How am I supposed to sleep in these conditions?”
But the real problem had nothing to do with the mattress or the pillow, and she knew that deep down. It had to with the fact that she, Kain, and Alexi had been forced to sleep alone, each in their own room. Not because Father Michael had made that clear in any way. He simply prepared separate rooms for them because he had no idea what kind of relationship they had. The tension between the two cambions was the real reason why Sophie was now tossing and turning, unable to stop thinking about the case, then about Alexi’s mark, and finally about Kain’s passive-aggressive attitude.
Eventually, she gave up, threw the duvet off her legs, and sat up in bed. The chilly air caused goosebumps to rise on her skin, but that didn’t stop her from getting out of bed. She cringed when her feet made contact with the cold floorboard. After a couple of steps, she got used to it, and she had more important things to think about anyway. Like, whose room should she go to? Alexi’s was right across from hers, and Kain’s was down the corridor. Alexi had been cold and distant all day, so Kain was probably a safer bet. She padded softly to the blond’s room, trying to make as little noise as possible. She stopped in front of his door, wondering if she should knock or simply go in, and smiled to herself. “Who would have thought that out of the two I would first run to Kain?” But she wasn’t running to Kain, was she? She just needed a little company and didn’t want to bother Alexi. He had too much on his mind. She knocked three times, her knuckles barely touching the wooden door. When she didn’t hear any sound coming from the other side, she took a deep breath and turned the knob.
Kain’s bedroom was just as dark and chilly as hers. The first thing she noticed was that it was even smaller, and it crossed her mind that Father Michael had probably given her the best room he had.
“Kain…? Are you awake?” She closed the door behind her, then it took only three steps to reach his bed.
“Sophie?”
His voice was soft and groggy, and Sophie felt sorry for having woken him up.
“Uh… you were sleeping.”
“Yeah…” He turned to face her and rubbed his eyes. “I don’t know when I fell asleep. I thought I was going to stay awake until morning. Come here.” He made room for her, and she sneaked under the duvet and right into his arms. “You’re shivering…”
She snuggled against his chest, inhaled the fresh scent of his skin, and sighed in delight. Yes, she could get used to this. She could sleep in his arms anytime and anywhere, under the open sky if they had no other choice. It would have been even better if Alexi had been there to hug her from behind. Thinking of their partner, she pushed at Kain’s chest and put a little distance between them. It suddenly didn’t feel right for her to be here, cuddling with the blond, when Alexi was alone in a dark room and a cold bed.
“We need to talk,” she said, searching for his blue eyes in the dark.
Kain sighed. “I know.”
Sophie hadn’t expected that answer, so she was silent for a moment. She had thought the blond would throw a tantrum and refuse to talk about Alexi and what had happened in the morning, right before they left for Ukraine. It seemed like so much time had passed since then. An eternity, not just a little over 20 hours. Not even an entire day.
“Alexi is not okay… I just think we should let him be for now, until we solve this whole mess with the Ke’let Count.”
Kain sat up a bit, supporting his weight on his elbow. “You’re right.”
“I am?” Sophie was taken aback by his unexpected compliance. Since when was Kain so selfless and reasonable?
The blond gave a short laugh and tucked a thick strand of hair behind her ear. He loved it when she had her hair pulled back so he could see the soft, round curve of her shoulder. “I know he’s not okay. Do you think I’m blind? He barely touched his dinner. If things go like this, he’ll drop dead before we even make our first move against the Count.”
“Then… why don’t you tell this to him? You two barely talked all day.”
“I know… It’s just that…” Kain hesitated and fixed his gaze somewhere above her head.
“What?”
“It’s not fair.”
Sophie raised her hand to cup his cheek. Her fingers rested there for a moment, then traveled down to his chin. She forced him to look back into her eyes. “Tell me. You can’t keep me in the dark like this, do you understand? We’re partners, Kain. I want to help, but I can’t if you two never tell me anything.”
Kain simply stared, listening to her as if he were entranced by her words. He had never seen Sophie so involved in their partnership. Relationship? Should he finally take that final step and refer to what the three of them had as a relationship?
“I heard you mention some personal case files,” Sophie pressed on. “What’s that all about?”
The blond’s gaze went from her eyes to her lips, and he contemplated silencing her with a kiss. He could claim her lips, then her whole body, and she would be too busy to ask any questions. Come morning, she’d be too tired to even get out of bed. His eyes locked back on hers. No, he couldn’t avoid this anymore. Alexi already knew about that old case and the consequences he had to suffer because of one stupid mistake cumulated with a lot of bad luck. And that was the problem. Alexi knew too much about Kain, while Kain had yet to scratch the surface in what his partner and roommate was concerned.
“It’s a long story, Sophie,” he finally said.
She chuckled. “I’ve got all the time in the world. Sleep is overrated anyway.”
“All right, then. You asked for it.” He lay back down on the uncomfortable pillow and pulled her with him. Sophie rested her head on his chest and waited for him to gather his thoughts and tell her a story she would never forget, a story that would haunt her forever.
That was how Sophie learned why a cambion’s greatest advantage could also be his greatest weakness. While they lived much longer than humans, for hundreds and hundreds of years, they could be injured in such ways that their bodies could never recover, not even with the help of their inner demons. Sophie understood why Kain would have preferred to end his life than endure a life of pain and misery in complete darkness. It was one thing to be born blind, but a whole different thing to have your eyes literally ripped out of your sockets. She also understood the sorrow he had to live with now, the regret of having to take away a man’s sight to regain his own. She had had no idea that if a cambion lost a limb or an organ, the severed part could be replaced with the same part taken from one of the cambion’s human parents; either the mother who had given birth to the cambion, or the father who had innocently and cluelessly provided the seed. It hurt even more knowing that Kain’s real human father had been a painter.
“Now you know…” he whispered in her hair.
She dug her nails into his chest, but didn’t dare say anything. She was afraid her voice would crack.
He kissed the top of her head. “That’s why I think it’s unfair, Sophie. Alexi knows my story. I want to know his. I want…” Long seconds passed before the blond took a deep breath and forced the words out. “I want him to trust me.”
“He will.” She sniffed her nose and cleared her throat. What would Kain think if he realized tears had been running down her cheeks and into his shirt for the past few minutes? “Just give him time. All we can do now is let him know we are here for him. Everything will be better after we solve this case, and when he’s ready we won’t even have to ask him to tell us what h
appened.”
“It bothers me.”
“What bothers you?”
“This is not a story about losing a body part and having to steal it from your human father and go through a long, painful surgery that combines science with magic to get your old life back.”
“That’s not what you did…”
“Let me finish.”
“Kain…” Did he really think what had happened to him, what he had gone through could be reduced to such a simplistic summary?
“No, let me finish. What I’m trying to say is: whatever Alexi is hiding is so much more than we can even begin to imagine. My secret was not actually a secret, Sophie. The entire Pantheon knows about it, as well as most of the cambions who were at the Academy when it happened. It has always been an uncomfortable topic for me, yes, but not a secret. Not something I wanted to hide. Alexi, on the other hand, is hiding something. Something big and… dangerous.”
“You can’t know that.”
“Sophie, anything that has to do with a demon mark is dangerous.”
She wanted to ask him what he thought it was, but she was too exhausted. There were probably only three hours left until sunrise, and it wouldn’t have done them any good if they used that little time to go on and on in circles about what Alexi could have been hiding and why. He would tell them himself. Sophie was sure of it.
Kain felt her body relax in his arms, and he knew she was falling asleep. He made sure she was tucked in well, and pulled the duvet a little higher over her shoulders. “Sleep well, baby,” he whispered into her ear. “Tomorrow will be a long day.” She mumbled something and Kain smiled at how cute she was. He closed his eyes for a couple of long minutes, only to give up and resume staring at the ceiling.
“That’s why I don’t do love,” he thought. “It always comes with sleepless nights.”
♥
Alexi heard Sophie leave her room and hesitate for a couple of seconds in front of his door. He held his breath and only released it when he heard her soft steps taking her away, to the other side of the corridor. He closed his eyes and relaxed his shoulders, then pulled the duvet up to his chin. This house was ridiculously cold. Father Michael was probably used to the early spring weather in the mountains, but they weren’t. Yes, Lure Academy was in the Carpathians as well, south of where they were now, but the heat was turned on until late spring if necessary. The people here were poor and didn’t care much for comfort. They lived simple lives, away from civilization, and they had no idea what they were missing. Count Casimir D’Argyle had made sure of that.
