Betrayed (Raven Daughter Book 2)

by A. D. Trosper

  “We don’t have much choice.” He gestured at the closed entrance to the hall. “When we are able to leave, the two tiles on either side of the doorway should light up. It’s not going to let us out until we see it through.”

  I glanced at the door. The way the tiles were positioned, it would take two people to open it. The width of the door was too wide for one person to reach both tiles. I sighed. “Fine.”

  With extreme care, he gingerly lifted the lid to the chest. It swung up and open on silent hinges. Caius was ready when it triggered a panel in another wall. Two spikes rocketed across the room. He dodged both of them, not even bothering to watch them bury their points in the far wall.

  Of course. I got trapped by the stupid chamber the first time, before I knew enough about anything to be prepared for it, and he gets spikes he can easily dodge because of his age and mix.

  “Can I get up now?” I felt like an idiot just sitting on the floor watching him be super demon.

  When Caius nodded, I stood and approached the box. The key rested in the bottom with a little tube next to it. I was really getting sick of those damn tubes that sent us all over creation so the next place could try to kill us. Caius lifted the tube out and tucked it in his pocket. We both stared at the key for a long moment. Maybe this one hadn’t been as hard to get because we’d already been through so much.

  Caius finally reached in and picked up the key. This time the click came at the same time three spikes launched. They came so close to my head on the way by, the wind from their passing pulled a lock of my hair into my face. They missed Caius by inches.

  A dangerous glint entered Caius’s eyes. “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah.” I pushed my hair back. “That was a little too close.”

  “Just a little.” He glanced around the chamber. “Thankfully, that seems to be it.”

  I turned toward the door. The tiles on either side were lit up. Thank the gods; I was so ready to be out of there.

  We walked to either side of the doorway. His hand pressed against the tile on his side as I was still reaching for mine. Another soft click. Everything slowed down as several things happened at almost the same time. Caius moved so fast he blurred, his arm grabbing me around the waist. Ten spikes launched from another hidden cubby. I tumbled across the floor as Caius threw me out of the way a split second before six of the spikes struck him with such force they knocked him against the wall and pinned him to it.

  His eyes flared bright gold and he hissed through his teeth, the muscles of his jaw tight as the silver sizzled and smoked against his skin.

  Pain ripped through me from the reflected injuries. I barely had time to assess them before they flashed white-hot, burning with the same pain I’d felt during Hades’s healing. My knees buckled and dropped me to the stone. I gasped air through my teeth and prayed it didn’t hurt the baby as darkness rolled over me.

  I blinked at the ceiling as I came back to the surface. How long had I been out? My heart jumped as I rolled to my hands and knees and looked for Caius. He was still pinned to the wall, face ashen and slicked in sweat. Smoke from his skin burning filled the air as the silver melted into his system.

  “Caius?” His head lolled and fell forward. Scrambling to my feet, I ran to him, lifting his head in my hands. Although covered in cold sweat, his face felt feverish. “Caius! Oh gods, no.”

  Blood completely soaked the entire front of him and angry, blistered skin surrounded the points where the spikes had driven through. One in each shoulder, one straight through his upper abdomen, another through the lower, one through his thigh. The last had driven through his chest far too close to his heart.

  Sobs escaped me as I yanked at the spikes. So much of the silver had already melted into his system they pulled away easily. When I pulled the last from his shoulder, he fell to the floor, a dead weight.

  “Caius!” Throwing the spike across the room, I knelt beside him and rolled him to his back. “You can’t die on me!”

  Blood coated my hands as I tried to hold them over the wounds, burning my own skin on the silver. His chest barely moved. This was so much worse than I’d seen him in that snow-covered clearing in the mortal world. There was too much blood, too much silver.

  Desperate, I leaped to my feet and ran to the stone that blocked the doorway. I tried pushing, tried hooking the tips of my fingers under the edge of the heavy stone and lifting. A wasted effort. It wasn’t going to let me out. I couldn’t run to Malik, Lilly or anyone else for help. It was just me and a fast fading Caius.

  Terror gripped me as I started to shake from too much adrenaline. I pushed the panic down, trying to think clearly and logically. Time was running out, fast. He hadn’t even brought any of the replenisher with him and I had no way to get any. No way to get any blood…

  The thought stilled me. I could give my blood. It would complete the bond. The very thing everyone worried about, even feared. It could also kill us both. My hand fluttered over my stomach. What if the only one killed was the baby? Would he forgive me? Would I forgive me? On the other hand, this place obviously wasn’t letting just one of us out. We came in together, we had to work together to complete the pattern, and we had to leave together. If Caius died, I would die alone of starvation and thirst in this chamber and the baby would die with me.

  I looked quickly around for something to open a cut. I didn’t have fangs to open my wrist with or time to debate any more of the pros and cons of my actions. Despite what Caius said, sometimes acting before thinking too much was exactly what was needed.

  My eyes lit on a corner of the cage that came to a rather sharp-looking point. It would do. I rushed over and jammed my forearm down on it. The sharp metal pierced my skin easily. I yanked my arm back, creating a tear then ran back to Caius and dropped on my knees next to him. My hands shook as I crushed my bleeding arm against his mouth. He was so far gone, I wasn’t sure he would even be able to swallow the blood running into his mouth. I could feel the heat building inside me again. Whatever healed me before was preparing to do so again. “Caius, please drink. Please don’t die. Please don’t leave our baby without a father.”

  I closed my eyes and wept quietly as the burning built and moved toward my arm. It was slower, more sluggish this time. Maybe it was wearing off or responded differently to smaller wounds. If it healed my arm, I would just go rip it open again. I didn’t know what else to do.

  Suction pulled at my arm. I opened my eyes, hope suddenly raging inside me. Caius’s teeth grew and tore through my skin as he hungrily pulled more blood. I gritted my teeth against the pain. His hand came up, holding my arm weakly to his mouth though his eyes remained closed. I remembered Caius telling me the person being fed on could either feel nothing or everything. He wasn’t conscious enough to know what he was doing, never mind making it so I didn’t feel anything at all.

  It was nothing short of agony and I didn’t care. With each pull he took, the gruesome wounds closed more and his color looked better. I let him continue until I felt woozy. I was trying to figure out the best to way to get him to quit drinking when his eyes snapped open.

  They blazed molten gold as he yanked my arm away from his mouth. “What did you do?”

  “What I had to do.” I held my hand tight over my arm to stop the bleeding. Without the constant re-injury of it from the drinking, heat rose inside me. The burning flashed through me again, searing its way down my arm. I held it tight against my body.

  “Jo?” Caius reached for me.

  I shook my head and panted through gritted teeth, “Over…in…a…sec.”

  Caius managed to push to a sitting position in front of me. The pain retreated and I held my arm out in front of me. It was healed. Caius took it in his hand, his grasp feeling stronger with every passing second. His golden eyes met mine. “How?”

  “I don’t know. It happened after the spikes hit you, only it moved faster and hurt more then.” The words Hades spoke to me just before going through the portal played throug
h my mind. “I think—” I lost the thread of the thought as the sensation of falling swept through me. The world wobbled then spun. “Caius?”

  He looked as unsteady as me. Caius’s eyes rolled back just before darkness fell over me. Oh gods, I had killed us trying to save us. A black hole opened up and pulled me in. An icy chill settled over me as I tumbled through a deeper black than I’d ever known. The speed of my fall increased, hurtling me toward an unknown destination.

  A distant, pinprick of light intruded, coinciding with a tiny spot of warmth within me. My speed quickened again. The point of light grew as I plunged toward it. As the light grew so did the warmth inside me until it felt like I’d swallowed the sun. It should have hurt. It didn’t. Although it burned and filled me to almost bursting, it was a pleasant sensation. And then I was flung straight into the light.

  I was in another time, another place, seeing through another pair of eyes and feeling emotions that weren’t mine. Confusion reigned as I tried to figure out what happened. Someone was talking. I recognized that voice, Eisheth. Fury. It was directed at Caius’s mother, but it wasn’t my emotion. Another voice, this one much deeper and masculine. A man with gray wings confronted Eisheth. She stood tall before him, but I didn’t miss the nervous lick of her lips. The eyes I saw through watched the exchange with determination. And then it clicked. I was a rider in someone else’s head, feeling what they felt.

  The man turned toward us and beckoned. With a sense of triumph, I…we followed him. When we passed a mirror, I saw a boy in his early teens with pitch black hair and golden eyes.

  I watched and felt as the boy grew into a man, witnessed his triumphs and failures. Was there as he learned to use and control the significant demon power at his beck and call. When he first embraced the Archangel side of him, watched the female archangel help him bring it back under control in a way that would have made me blush. It was also confusing as hell since I didn’t lean that way at all, but still felt every physical and emotional pleasure of his time with her.

  When the bloodlust hit, I rode the waves of it with him. Watched as he mastered control and became the battle-hardened warrior I recognized as Caius. I stood with him against Eisheth in the first of many conflicts with her. This one was over a boy no more than two years old with a mop of black hair. I knew without a doubt the child was Malik. Eisheth raged and, in the end, lost as Caius picked the boy up and walked away with him.

  I was there as Caius raised Malik as both a father figure and an older brother. There when he forged friendships with Hades, Nyx, and a few other gods I didn’t recognize. There when Caius led armies, bloodied battlefields, and bedded women. Shared every life he drained of blood in the mortal world, every soul he consumed. He’d told me nothing but the truth when he said there was no reason to take an innocent soul with so many twisted ones around. And he’d told me the truth when he said he never took a soul or life that wasn’t deserving of it.

  Enjoyed the bond that developed with his siblings as they left Eisheth to join him and felt the weight of responsibility that came with leading them. I’d once thought the arrangement of him being their leader sounded cold and distant. That description couldn’t be further from the truth. What he felt for them, and they in return, went far deeper and was more connected than that.

  When he met Rowen, I felt the wariness as Caius realized Rowen had seen his wings. Watched the mutual respect slowly evolve into friendship. I was with him when he heard the Children were falling and waded into the war in Midtween, when he fought beside Rowen, and shared Caius’s grief when even his powerful blood wasn’t enough to save Rowen’s mate.

  Felt the unexpected pull of love with Nadia. With him while he explored it. And felt the deep sense of betrayal when she ended the pregnancy. The crushing grief buried under the rage was mine as well and I wept tearless sobs for him. I was with him as Malik, Zane, and the rest tried to offer comfort and cheer him up. With him as he slowly climbed out of the depth of that pain.

  I watched as the news of another full sibling reached him. Was there when Caius went up against Eisheth and her armies. Experienced the unanticipated tenderness that filled him as he took the blonde baby girl into his arms.

  Observed as Caius, Malik, and the rest trained her, guarded her through bloodlust, and kept her safe even from her own, sometimes reckless, self. Witnessed the disbelief when Rowen asked him to watch over some young woman in the mortal world. Felt the flash of surprise when she glared defiantly back in a cemetery.

  Experienced the unexpected interest when she held her ground in a hospital, and the just as surprising desire to watch out for her. Lurked with him on her routes, taking down eaters she never even realized were coming for her. Felt the sting of her extreme dislike and the flash of possessiveness when Sinmar asked Caius to suggest someone to create a partial blood bond with her. Understood the desperation that had driven him to dump demon blood into her when she lay dying in a cold cave. Felt the intense and tender pleasure that had consumed him at realizing Hades had managed to save both his mate and his child.

  The amount of fear, concern, and love he’d felt over the course of our journey together shocked me. I knew he loved me, but he wasn’t verbally expressive. I’d gotten a taste of his true feelings the first time inside my bubble with him and thought I knew, but that was only a sample. The profound depths rocked me to the core. His loyalty and love weren’t given easily; that he’d granted me both humbled me.

  The warmth returned, filling me again. This time I knew what it was, could feel it my bones. It was Caius. The energy that was him, all fire and air, soaked into each of my cells with an exquisite burn as I was again sucked into the black hole. Once again, I hurdled toward a pinpoint of light, this time traveling even faster. When I was thrown into the light this time, I saw myself lying next to Caius a split second before I tumbled back into my own body.

  The energy inside swelled until the sweetness of it was painful. For a moment, I could hear both our hearts, beating in perfect unison. It was the flap of a butterfly’s wings and I could sense the ripples spreading out from us, reverberating through the immortal world in the same way Hades’s power had radiated out from him in the Hells. Everyone would feel it, all would know. A voice that came from everywhere and nowhere whispered, “Consort.” The sound and sensation faded, leaving me staring at the stone of the ceiling.

  I turned my head, a wave of emotion breaking over me as I looked into Caius’s golden eyes. Without a word, he slid his hand behind my neck and pulled me to him. His lips crushed down on my mine, kissing me deeply, fiercely, possessively. I returned it, using the action to express everything I felt for him, everything I understood about him now. And I realized that just as I had traveled his life, mine had also been laid bare before him. Everything I’d ever experienced or felt was his now. It left me feeling exposed and vulnerable even as his kisses and touches made me feel protected and cherished.

  He rolled on top of me. I eagerly wrapped my legs around him as he rocked his hips against me. His passion and love flowed into me and mine into him in a feedback loop that only made us wilder. Caius recognized the way our emotions were feeding on each other first and broke away, his breath ragged as he rested his forehead against mine. “That’s going to be a problem.”

  Still panting like I’d sprinted five miles, I chuckled. “I’ll say.”

  “Probably not the best time or place for it though.” He gave me a rueful grin.

  I realized then that we lay in, and were smeared with, his congealed blood. I wrinkled my nose. “Ew.”

  Caius laughed and pushed to his feet. I took his offered hand and let him peel me off the floor. So gross. We took our places in front of the tiles on either side of the door again, careful to make sure we both pressed our hands against them at the exact same time. The slab of rock shuddered and slowly lifted back into the ceiling. I breathed a sigh of relief. I’d had enough of these places and their weirdness. I grimaced at the murder scene look I was wearing. I
felt Caius’s amusement and gave him a questioning look.

  “Your disgust is quite strong,” he said with a smile.

  I narrowed my eyes. “Get out of my head.”

  “I’m not in your head. Just picking up on what you are feeling.” The grin remained in place as he shrugged.

  His amusement got stronger when I said, “Well then get out of my emotions. It’s not funny.”

  “Get out of my emotions.” He raised an eyebrow.

  “I can’t.” I scowled as I realized there was no way to shut it off. With some work, I might be able to suppress it a bit so it didn’t get overwhelming.

  “It would seem we both have the same problem.” He motioned toward the hall. “Shall we?”

  Hesitating, I wiped my dirty hands on my equally dirty armor. “Everyone is going to know aren’t they?”

  “Yes, they will know.” Caius sighed. “The way it sent waves through all of the powers, there is no way to hide it.”

  “Everyone is going to want us dead even more.” Protecting my child had just gotten a whole lot more complicated.

  “Yes. Especially because it was like a crier confirming in even undecided minds that the prophecy pertains to you. The whisper of ‘consort’ went out on the same ripples of power.” At my questioning look, he said, “The fourth part of the prophecy. Cast the Child, Upon the wind, With darkness her consort, She returns again.”

  “So you are the darkness?” It was a fitting description, but not entirely accurate from my point of view. Then again, having watched him in full battle mode against the Sentinels and in the canyon, and after riding along through the past wars and conflicts he’d been in, I could see where the opposing side might see him as darkness.

  “Apparently.” He gestured at the mess that was me. “Perhaps we should clean up before heading back.”

  I glanced down at my blood streaked armor. “You know, if we could hit a horror convention, we would rock the cosplay competition.”