No one looked in my direction, any more than they’d paid attention to the earlier fight. Working to control my sudden shaking, I quickly made my way to the door I sought before Blondie recovered.
In the Outgoing room, several dozen free-standing doorways stood at all angles. I picked one and hurried to it. Where was I supposed to go? As I stepped into it, all I could think of was somewhere warm. The room shimmered from view.
When everything settled I stood under an arch of rock in the American southwest. Heat waves rolled up off the sun-baked ground. Okay, I didn’t mean this warm. I stepped away from the arch almost feeling faint from the sudden heat. Pushing the cloak and the shoulder of my shirt aside, I was surprised to see intricate markings that matched Caius’s exactly, slowly fading from my skin. They weren’t the faint designs I’d seen in Alaric’s office. These were as bright as his and I could feel them. What in the nine hells? I didn’t have demon markings and I couldn’t wield fire. I wasn’t a child of the Hells, it wasn’t my element… But Caius’s blood flowed in my veins. A lot of it. Undiluted.
I needed to get back, find Caius and figure out what was happening to me. Turning around, I stepped beneath the arch sculpted by nature and focused my thoughts on someplace cooler than this. My side of the river in Midtween would do nicely.
When the shimmering stopped, I stood in the middle of a small, dim chamber of rough-hewn stone walls. Water dripped somewhere and my breath misted in the air. Damn it, why did I keep ending up someplace freezing cold? The ground beneath my feet was the same as the walls, almost like someone had hacked the space out of solid rock.
I turned around, trying to find the source of light. It wasn’t much; a normal human would likely be unable to see a thing. My short exploration revealed neither the water that dripped nor anything that emitted light. It also failed to reveal a door. Without that, or any other kind of opening or arch, I couldn’t get out of there. Wherever it was.
“Where in the nine hells am I, and how did I get here?” I mumbled under my breath, trying to maintain my calm.
“Exactly,” a woman’s voice answered me.
I spun toward the sound in time to see a tall, stunning woman step through one of the walls, right through the rock. Her thick, golden hair cascaded to her waist in a shiny fall. Her face, unadorned by makeup, was enough to make any beauty queen weep with jealousy.
I wasn’t one to worry too much about my looks, even so, this gorgeous and elegant woman made me feel short and grubby. Okay, I was short, but I didn’t usually feel grubby.
“As for how you got here,” the woman continued as she moved gracefully to stand before me, “I brought you here. You have brought nothing but trouble with you since your discovery. You should have been put down for the abomination you are like I originally suggested when I finally found out.”
“Sorry you weren’t accommodated,” I growled. I should be terrified of someone who could snatch me from a portal, trap me in a cave, and move through solid walls. But at that moment, I was too pissed over being told I should have been killed for having the audacity to be born.
“I admit, even I was charmed by the possibilities at first.” She slowly circled me as if taking my measure. “However, once I learned you had a partial bond with Caius, I saw there was only one course of action to be taken. Still, my hand was stayed. All I could do was send a warning that let him know my displeasure.”
“You poor thing.” I turned my head to keep my eye on her.
She ignored my comment as she stopped in front of me once more. “I am severely disappointed with Caius for keeping your parentage from me. I expected more from him. But then, he has always been a bit contrary. Often disregarding my wishes.”
Keeping my parentage from her? How did Caius know about it when it seemed everyone else didn’t?
A frown marred her beautiful face as she reached out and took hold of my chin in an iron grasp. She turned my face from side to side. “I fail to see why. I have counseled him before on this kind of foolishness. He did not listen to me three-hundred years ago and it appears he does not listen now.”
My stomach knotted and I fought to maintain eye contact with her. Whoever she was, I wasn’t going to cower before her. I borrowed the anger that seemed to come so easily right now.
The markings prickled across my skin and a ball of fire shot toward her, startling me. I hadn’t meant to do that. It flowed around her form and smacked into the wall behind her with enough force to crack the rock, leaving her standing untouched.
She laughed, the sound like the tinkling of wind chimes. “A reaper that can throw fire. My son truly has overstepped. Though I applaud his ambition, he has gone too far this time. A grievous error on his part. One that will get him killed and one I will remedy.”
Oh gods, the woman standing before me was Caius’s mother, Eisheth. An Archdemon, renown for her cruelty. My mouth and throat dried as a tremble ran through me. Whatever I might be in the future, I wasn’t anywhere near strong enough to take on the likes of Eisheth right then. I doubted I ever would be.
A smile played across her face. “Do not fret, little Daughter of Morrigan. None of this is your problem any longer. I have no respect for men; even most of my male children have been weak disappointments that I was forced to dispose of. Caius, on the other hand, displays none of that weakness…usually. I chose his sire carefully. He has the potential to be great. I will not see him ended over the likes of you.”
She stepped back and faded into the wall, leaving me alone in the chamber. The sound of dripping water turned into a steady stream. I turned, hoping to find it, and maybe a way out. The stream remained hidden, but the results of the increased flow became readily apparent.
Water seeped out from under the walls, though I couldn’t see a space for it to do so. It spread quickly across the floor, lapping at my boots and dragging at the cloak. My pack slid from my shoulder and landed with a splash on the floor. I took a step back and turned, my gaze sweeping the small space. There was nowhere to go, nothing to climb on. The rough rock of the ceiling was only about eight feet high.
And then, whatever cast the dim light shut off, plunging me into a black so deep not even my half-angel eyes could penetrate it. I was left with only the soft rush of the water in my ears. My breath hitched as panic clawed frantically at my chest. Sloshing through the water, I smacked into a wall I couldn’t see.
Pain lanced through my forehead accompanied by a hot trickle of blood that made its way down the bridge of my nose. Ignoring both, I reached out and began to feel along the walls. The sharp rock left little cuts on my fingers and palms. I continued my way around the room. Had I gone all the way around yet? Or was there an area I missed? There had to be something.
The icy water rose high enough to make it over the tops of my boots. I gasped from the shock of it as it filled them and crept up past my knees. The muscles in my legs cramped from the cold and my teeth chattered.
As it rose past my waist, I continued my futile search. I couldn’t stop looking. I couldn’t just stand there and accept drowning in freezing water in the pitch dark. The water climbed past my chest. My hands were numb from the cold and still I fumbled around the walls, my frantic heartbeat loud in my ears.
The water lapped at my chin, then rose to my lips. I struggled to swim with the heavy weight of Caius’s cloak. After a brief struggle with the waterlogged material, I managed to shed it, making it easier to tread water.
The cloak reminded me of the bond. So much for his trying to avoid the pain of a broken one. At least when I finally succumbed to this, it would be over for me. Caius was going to have to deal with it for a long time to come.
I continued to tread water as best I could with numb limbs and cramping muscles. There was no way to know how deep it was now, or how much time I had left, but I was determined to fight for every second of it. The top of my head bumped into the rough rock of the ceiling.
Panic tore through me and then strangely faded to absolute calm. So this was it.
I tilted my face up, gasping at what little air was left. Just before the water closed over my face I took one last deep breath. I’m not sure what I thought it was going to do, I couldn’t hold it forever.
***
“Damn Eisheth. Though she is my mother, I harbor no warmth in my heart for the woman, and she wouldn’t appreciate it if I did. We have stood on opposite sides of battle lines before, it appeared we would again.” ~ Caius
Chapter 33
I quit trying to swim and just floated in what was going to become my watery tomb. Closing my eyes, I thought of my mother. I concentrated on the memories of her voice, her perfume, her soft green eyes that were so much like mine. I thought of Victoria and wished I had gone to see her before I left Midtween the last time. And of Bethany, Rowen, and the rest of my friends.
As my throat convulsed, begging me to take a breath, I thought of Caius. The one person who had been completely honest with me. I was sorry my death was going to cause him pain.
Unable to stand the burning in my lungs another second, I prepared to take a breath of water. A hand clamped down over my mouth and nose. I fought the hand as my mind dimmed around the edges from lack of oxygen. Fighting it didn’t make any sense, what did it matter whether I drowned or if I smothered? My brain couldn’t seem to wrap itself around the argument.
The hand stayed locked over my face while an arm dragged me through the water. Eisheth already filled the damn chamber; couldn’t she at least let me die in peace?
And then I wasn’t in the chamber anymore. Bright sunlight stabbed into my eyes and I closed them tight against the painful intrusion. The hand came away from my face. Air, sweet wonderful air, rushed into my desperate lungs as I was laid on the ground.
“Oh my gods, Jo!” Bethany’s urgent voice in my ears surprised me.
Rowen’s voice came next as a pair of warm palms cradled my face, “Jo, talk to me.”
I took several more gulps of air then opened my eyes. Rowen’s dark brown face was inches from mine. “Talk about what?”
With a relieved sigh, he helped me sit up. The cold breeze only intensified the chill in my frigid bones and I shivered violently. Rowen removed his cloak, draping it around me.
James moved into my line of sight and pressed a square of cloth to my forehead as he asked with mock severity, “What do you mean trying to get yourself drowned?”
Though it was said lightly, I could see the tension tightening the corners of his eyes. Shivering, I reached up and took over holding the cloth against the cut I had received from bashing my head into the rock wall right after the light went out. “Well, you know they say to try everything at least once before you decide whether or not you like it. I can say with absolute certainty that I don’t like drowning.”
James chuckled and said, “Technically, you didn’t drown. Thanks to Caius finding you, there isn’t a drop of water in your lungs.”
I looked at the group gathered around me and found Caius a few feet away, dripping wet. Standing soaked in the breeze didn’t seem to bother him as he pulled his shirt off and wrung it out.
The tribal tattoos inked in black around his upper arms and broad shoulders also ran down either side of his well-toned torso. They highlighted the tight muscles of his stomach and the trail of dark hair that began below his navel and disappeared under the waistband of the jeans that clung to his hips.
I watched, intrigued by the tats. Because that was all that held my interest… I cleared my throat. “You found me?”
“When you didn’t show up in Midtween, I knew something was wrong.” He pulled the damp shirt back on. “Then I got a bleeding cut on my forehead and several more on my hands. I was able to follow the bond.” He looked somewhat irritated as he took his cloak from Bethany. He must have left it behind because it looked dry. “My mother always was one for inventive executions.”
“Your mother is a bitch,” I grumbled.
Caius chuckled. “That she is. A dangerous one, though. Only the gods stand above her. Be careful.”
Eisheth couldn’t be just any demon. No, she had to be an Archdemon because I didn’t already have enough people or things that wanted me dead. Pulling the cloth away from my forehead, I was glad to see the bleeding stopped.
“The cut is already healing,” Rowen said as he uncorked a vial of replenisher. “All the same, I would feel better if you drank this.”
Ugh. With a sigh, I took it, swallowed the bluish liquid and shuddered. The energy from it moved through me with the speed of cold molasses. What the hell? It usually perked me right up. Not that I felt particularly weak. Tired from swimming in the near-freezing water, but not weak like I should have been given how long it had been since I’d last eaten.
“You’re still too pale,” Rowen said with a frown. “The replenisher should have helped by now.”
I was always pale skinned, so I could only imagine what I must look like now if I was paler than normal.
Caius’s golden gaze appraised me. “Your replenisher can only help so much with the amount of my blood in her system. I offer some of my replenisher.”
“No!” I had no intention of burning again. “Absolutely not.”
“Then real food would do you more good at this point,” Caius sighed as if irritated with my refusal.
Real food sounded good. “I’m up for that.”
James chuckled as he and Bethany both offered me a hand. I put one of my hands in each of theirs, letting them haul me to my feet. James pulled me into a hug. “You shouldn’t scare people like that. It isn’t nice.”
“I’ll try to keep that in mind the next time a demon kidnaps and tries to kill me.” I shivered from the cold as I laughed softly at the absurdity of my statement. I’m pretty sure Eisheth could care less who she scared. Or, more likely, she cared a great deal and enjoyed every minute of it.
James stepped away just in time for Bethany to hug me. Her curly red hair flew around in the breeze like it had a mind of its own when she held me at arm’s length to examine my hands and face. “At least everything is healed. You remember the last time you said I couldn’t come with you?” I nodded and she continued, “Well, screw that. James and I have every intention of going where ever you go next.”
“I’m afraid you will have to put up with me coming along as well.” Concern shadowed Rowen’s face. “Caius has told me you know of your true parentage now.”
“Yeah.” The word came out sour. “I’m an even bigger freak than I already thought I was. Yay me.”
Ignoring my comment, he said, “So you understand how tenuous this situation is?”
“Not much I can do about it.” I shrugged, folded my arms against my body to conserve heat, and looked around if only for a way to avoid his gaze.
We stood in the overgrown yard of an abandoned house. The paint was completely gone, baring the gray, weathered, board siding. None of the windows held glass and it leaned at a forty-five-degree angle. Two large trees, their branches nearly empty of leaves, guarded the front corners.
The twisted frame of what had once been an arbor stood nearby; I guess that was what Caius had brought me through. Nothing but fields stretched in every direction. The house looked to be quite literally in the middle of nowhere.
“I would like to know why Alaric would convince me to form a bond with a demonborn knowing all of this. He did know all of this, right?” My muscles ached from the constant cold.
Rowen sighed and nodded, but whatever his answer was going to be was lost in the shocked exclamations of James and Bethany.
“You did what?” Bethany almost shrieked.
“How could Alaric suggest such a thing?” James’s gaze shifted between me and Rowen.
“Wait, you are bound to Caius?” Bethany glowered at me. “How could you keep such a thing from me?”
“Whoa!” I held up my hands in surrender. They still felt like ice and trembled with my shivering. “It’s only a partial bond and Alaric forbade me from telling anyone. Since Caius mentioned me
having a lot of his blood in my system, I assumed you all knew.”
“Caius told me about the bond when he came to see me before you left last time. And he told me what he’d done when he came looking for you this time,” Rowen said quietly. “I don’t know why Alaric did what he did.”
The breeze felt arctic on my wet hair. Tugging the borrowed cloak closer, I rounded on Rowen. “And why didn’t you at least tell me what I am? Why let me think otherwise?”
“The fewer people who knew, even you, the better.” Rowen sighed. “There are no provisions for what should be done if a mix like yours happens. Now, not only has an angel mixed with one of the Children, the result of that union now has demon blood flowing in her veins.”
“Yeah, I know all of that. Don’t you think it would have been better if you told me all of this in the beginning?” I snorted. “Maybe some of this could have been avoided.”
“Would it have been?” Rowen asked. “The Lost are still occurring at an astronomical rate. Someone is funneling the souls away from the reapers. If Alaric is right and this dagger can truly stop that, can you look back and say you would have refused?”
Damn. He had me there. I wasn’t one to half do things. Once set on a course, I threw everything into it. I could no more step away from this issue than I could stop breathing. “Well, maybe I would have been more careful.”
“Careful with what?” Rowen smiled slightly. “Careful with a bloodbond to a demonborn?”
“Okay, it sounds stupid when you say it like that.” My teeth chattered as I spoke, I pulled the cloak even tighter around me. “But it’s only a partial bond. It should dissipate after a while. At least, that’s what Alaric said.”
“Yes, it’s still a partial bond, though leaning closer to being permanent,” Rowen said, a frown marring his brow. “Caius had to give you so much of his blood, it has tipped the scales.”
“Tipped the scales?” That didn’t sound good. My shivering was near constant now. “What do you mean?”
“I would like to know as well.” Bethany crossed her arms.
Unveiled (Raven Daughter Book 1) Page 21
