“Haven’t figured it out yet, sweetie? I hate your whole damned family.” He stood and grabbed her wrist. She fought a squeal when he yanked her to her feet. “Listen, girl. And listen very well. I’m responsible for you now, no matter how much that pisses me off.”
“I didn’t ask you to be.” Wounded pride had her pulling her hand back. “Just point me in the right direction and I’ll head home right now. I never asked to go to Dardanos in the first place. But no one, no one, ever considered that.”
“Poor baby. You could have said something to your precious daddy or uncles. You didn’t have to stay in that pretty hotel, with your pretty little family all around you while you did nothing more tedious than planting your pretty little flowers and got your hair done now and then.”
Why hadn’t she ever realized that this man hated her? He’d never looked at her quite the way he did now. “Just help me go home and I won’t bother you again. Where are we?”
“Well, we’re definitely not in Colorado anymore. At least not the one you’re probably used to.”
She stepped away from him and his glare darkened. Hadn’t it been night when they’d been in the lobby of the hotel? It was more twilight wherever they were. “What are we going to do?”
“Pretty baby of the family been pampered so much you can’t make a decision?”
She spun away from him and started down the small hill they’d...landed...on. What had she done to him to bring this out of him? Why had he come to her when she’d screamed if he hated her so? Or was he somehow responsible for whatever had happened? Was that even likely? He’d done nothing to her in the year since he’d returned to Dardanos. “I’ve decided to find my own way back.”
“Don’t be stupid, child. You think that if I show up without you it will make my life any easier?” His hand was hot and hard on her shoulder when he grabbed her. She kept walking; Cass would not let him know how he’d affected her. “Stop walking.”
She did, then faced him. His hand fell away. “Look, I don’t know where I’m at or what happened or how to get home. I’m more than a little scared and worried. I don’t know if that...cloud...will come back and take me someplace else, or whether it took my cousins or my sister or anyone else. I don’t know why it came straight for me, and most of all I don’t know why you are so cruel to me when I’ve done nothing to you. So either keep your hands and your stupid mouth to yourself or you help me figure out just what it is that we are supposed to do.”
“You’re not quite as nice as you look, are you?”
“I’m not naïve or an idiot, if that’s what you’re asking.” She was quiet not stupid. Why couldn’t people seem to understand that?
“I’ve never thought you were an idiot. Young, foolish, naïve, and spoiled. Being who you are, of course.”
“I’m none of those things, except for young. I’ll be twenty-two soon. My mother had my sister by that age.”
“Most of my people don’t leave the nest until they are twenty-four or twenty-five. Excuse me for thinking you were still a child.” Pure sarcasm from him now. Sarcasm that made her want to hit him.
Cass had never wanted to hit someone before. It made her feel almost nauseated to think about it. “Just leave me alone.”
“Can’t do that.”
“Then just shut up until we get where we’re going, please.”
***
Why was he needling the girl so much? She was right—his Rajni didn’t deserve his ire. She shivered in the almost frigid temperatures. Why hadn’t he realized she was cold? Human girls were just as susceptible to hypothermia as Dardaptoan, weren’t they?
He’d never cared to know much about humans. He’d been marked as a Predatoi at a very young age, and as a hunter of demons his skills had been focused in that area.
But what mattered was that his Rajni was in need.
And it was his moral duty to provide that need. How could he not? He pulled the cape from around his shoulders and wrapped it around hers. She tried to refuse, but he growled again.
“Keep it, girl. I have little need for it, and it will just get in my way if the time comes when I needst draw my sword.” A lie, of course. He’d fought many a battle dressed with a cape. His black cape nearly swallowed the girl alive, slight as she was. She was so damned vulnerable, standing there with the stubbornness of idiotic pride on her face. What was he supposed to do with her now? “Go east, over that hill. There are smells that mean a city coming from that direction.”
“You can tell that?”
“Of course I can damned well tell. I wouldn’t have told you to go that way if I couldn’t, now would I?” There was something off in the distance, and experience told him what it was. Smell told him even more; yes, his sense of smell was enhanced. Thanks to her damned grandfather. Some of the DNA Taniss had mingled with Nalik’s had increased his ability to pick up on the smallest scent on the air.
This time the old bastard’s experimentation would come in handy. Damn the irony of it all. What would the old bastard have thought if he knew that his gifts to Nalik would be used to protect his granddaughter?
“What are we going to do once we get there?”
Good question. Because whether she knew it or not, he was not taking her into the city within him while he figured out where they were. It wasn’t safe and he could find out far more without her in his way. No, the first chance he could he’d be tucking her away someplace safe.
The sun of whatever realm they were in—and he’d known right away that they’d jumped to one of the seventeen other realms—was sinking. One peculiar thing about the realms that surrounded the core of dirt that was the third planet, was that the realms didn’t appear the same, though the land masses were generally similar.
In his home the continents had splintered and shifted. In Relaklonos the continents had drifted slightly and eroded, but they hadn’t spit from each other. And Relaklonos was general a few degrees different than Gaia, affecting the general sea level of the demon lands.
There were still other realms he’d not explored, though he’d traveled to seven other than Gaia.
He and his brother had had quite a lot of fun hopping between realms for the fifty or so years before Iavius had met his Rajni.
Dragging Kindara into strange places had not been something either of them had wanted. A Rajni was to be protected, at all costs. Iavius had done his best before Taniss had killed him. But not before this girl’s grandfather had tortured Kindara almost to the point of death. Iavius’s child had died within his mother.
But Kindara had lived, when most Rajnis died within a few days of each other.
She’d lived to now rule the demon world Nalik and her once mate had hunted in. She’d lived, found someone to replace his brother, and now nursed the next king of that demon world at her breast.
Damn the irony of it all.
His Rajni tripped, the cape too long, and the approaching darkness too much for her pitiful human sight. He grabbed her shoulder once again. He’d steady her, so that they both could get to where they needed to go.
Because it was evident to him that wherever that city was, they would not be reaching it tonight. Not at the pace she could keep.
He’d have to find her shelter and start a fire to warm her. Find her some type of food fit for a human. The responsibility he didn’t want pushed in on him.
Being responsible for something increased the likelihood of failure.
He’d fail his Rajni, he had no doubt about that. He just didn’t need the when turning into now.
Chapter 6
Less than two hours after they’d started walking he stopped her and pointed to a rock. “Sit there. Do not move from that spot, or I could end up killing you.”
She sat.
He waved his hands around, and the rock to the right of where she sat stretched to a size larger than her. Than him. She forced herself not to scream. What was he doing? How was he doing it? Rocks didn’t stretch at a man’s whim. That was crazy
!
She knew things—creatures—other than human existed. She’d learned that long before coming to Dardanos. It had freaked her out, but not as much as her family probably thought. She’d always known there was something different about her and Jade, at least. And Becca, to some extent.
And it hadn’t surprised her that their differences were caused by her grandfather’s experiments when they were all three babies. It had sickened her, but not shocked her.
But this man was more than just different.
He had powers that she’d never even heard about.
Did Rydere know what this man could do? Was that why her brother-in-law had warned her and the others to stay away from Nalik? The rocks sank into the earth, shaking the area around them. She almost fell off the boulder, but there was some sort of pressure keeping her on its surface.
When it shouldn’t have.
Was he doing that?
The dirt settled around a small hole in the ground, and grasses to match the rest of the area sprang up around the edges. It looked like the hole had been there for a very long time.
“Get in.”
What?
“I said get in. I don’t want us exposed much longer. In case you haven’t noticed it’s getting darker out here—and damned cold.”
“Get in where?” She wasn’t getting in the hole. That would be crazy, wouldn’t it? She couldn’t. She’d be buried alive.
Cass had always had nightmares about the ground swallowing her. There was no way she could do this.
He didn’t let her protest for much longer. He yanked her up and Cass was nowhere near strong enough to resist.
***
She fought him; far more than he thought she could. He could smell her terror. Being yanked to a different realm hadn’t frightened the girl as much as the thought of being underground? He didn’t understand it at all.
With barely a thought, he widened the entrance so that it was big enough for them to get in together. He guided her legs to wrap around his waist, and he used the hand he had on the back of her head to tuck her face against his chest. “Close your eyes. You don’t have to watch us go in, if it’s too much for you, baby.”
Skinny arms slipped around his neck and for the second time since he’d met her, his Rajni clung to him. Trusted him to protect her.
He stepped into the den and closed the earth around them.
She panicked, whispering no over and over again and pleading with him to take her back to the air. He tightened his arms around her and used some of the damned earth moving powers her grandfather had enhanced in him to widen the cave he’d tapped into.
He hadn’t fashioned the entire den, not the way a Lupoiux alpha could, but had modified the geological features he’d sensed beneath the earth’s surface. The result was a ten by thirty cave, with a small stream of water—and fish—cutting through the back third of it. It was cool inside, but the ceiling of the cavern was such that he could light a small fire and the smoke would rise toward the small holes he added for that very purpose.
He’d keep her warm, dry, fed, and safe. And once she slept, he’d find out where in the three hells they were and get her back to her family. It was his duty to her.
And then he’d track that purple mist back to its origin. He’d for damned sure be finding out if it had targeted his Rajni specifically.
If it had, nothing would stop him from finding the bastard—or bitch—responsible.
Chapter 7
She let him take care of her. She wasn’t proud of it, but focusing on him and what he was doing for the both of them helped her get her mind around the fact that she was underground.
She’d refused to tour caves as a child. Was actually very nervous when in driving tunnels or basements. Cass had always known she needed the sun, and when she didn’t have immediate access to the sky—day or night—she panicked. Her family indulged her; she understood that.
But in that very moment, watching him start a fire, catch a fish, all the while she was bundled up in his coat, she hated herself for the weakness.
And for letting a stranger provide her basic needs.
She had not been raised to be a leech. “I can help with that.”
“No. You can’t. I’ve been doing this a lot longer than you’ve even been alive. You’ll just get in my way.”
Because he thought she was young, naïve, and useless.
Why did that hurt so much? Why should his opinion suddenly matter so much to her? It had to be the situation they were in. That was all. “I can’t just sit here, doing nothing.”
“You’re not doing nothing. You’re staying the fuck out of my way, so that I can do what needs to be done quickly.”
“Why? Do you think we’re going home sometime tonight? Somehow I don’t think so.” Would they ever get back to where they belonged? Would she be stuck here with him forever? That made the sick feeling in her stomach so much worse.
If they were stuck here forever would he stay with her, or would he just leave her to figure things out for herself?
She wouldn’t put it past him. Maybe it would be best if she did just stay out of his way? Until she could evaluate the situation a bit more. There had to be a way for them to get home, didn’t there? They’d gotten here somehow.
So there would have to be a way.
She’d just have to find it. With or without him.
Chapter 8
Nalik knew he was being too harsh with the girl, but it didn’t seem to bother her. Nor had he missed the sly, considering look in those big green eyes. She might be quiet, but she was nowhere near cowed.
Why did that please him so? Girl was going to be nothing but trouble for him until he could get her off of his hands again. He finished preparing their meal and laid her share out on a rock he’d seared in the small fire. She would have sustenance; he’d seen to that.
No one could ever say he had not provided for his female when she was in need. “Eat.”
She picked at the food like a pampered kitten, but at least she ate. After a few minutes she wiped her mouth with her hand and said a quiet thank you. He grunted at her.
What in the three hells was he supposed to say to her? By the way, you’re grandfather turned me into a monster, and the goddess you know nothing about destined me to fuck you over for the rest of your life?
Yeah, he could see that working out for the both of them. “Spread that cape out better and wrap yourself up tight. If this is anything like caves in our world, it’ll get about fifty in here tonight.”
“I’ll be fine.” She stared at him for a moment. “So where exactly do you think we are?”
“One of nineteen possible places.” Eighteen realms plus pure hell. Pretty damned good odds they were in one of those locations.
“And those nineteen? Please, talk to me. Tell me what I need to know. You have to know that this is something I don’t understand.” She pulled the cape over her knees and huddled inside its warmth. She looked so damned fragile his stomach clenched.
“Here’s what I’ve got, Cassandra. Somehow or some way, some bastard rigged a portkey to drag us someplace we didn’t sign on to go. Why, I don’t know. Who, I don’t know. And I don’t know the how of it either. What I do know is that we aren’t in the world you know, we’re not in the demon world, nor in the place of those damned deities. I don’t know which of the realms we’re in. And I don’t know how I’m supposed to get us back to where we belong. So what I need from you is complete cooperation. Because like it or not, you got me. And that means you’re pretty well close to damned forever.”
In more ways than she could ever know.
***
He had that look on his face again, though the light from the fire was barely bright enough for her to see him clearly. She knew what she’d see—he’d looked at her that way a million times before over the last twelve months. And she’d never understood why he only ever looked at her that way.
Something about her bothered him, and she had yet t
o figure it out.
“Tell me where those places are and how they relate to our world. Tell me everything so that I know what’s going on. And so that I don’t do anything stupid.” Even though he thought she was exactly that.
“Nobody ever said you were stupid.”
“No, but you’ve thought it.”
“Mind reader, are you?”
“No. But you’ve not exactly hidden your opinion of me. For whatever reason—because of my grandfather or my sister or just because of me, you don’t think I am capable of anything. I understand that. I’ve gotten that before—I’m not like any of my cousins or my sister. I don’t enjoy business like Emily or marketing like Jade. I’m not a super-genius doctor like Josey or an MBA like Mallory. I get that.”
“Anyone say there’s anything wrong with that?”
“Sometimes. I’ve heard it a time or two.”
“Your family?”
“A couple of times.” One of her uncles and a few of the extended family had commented on her desire to avoid school and just stay home in her greenhouse. But never her father or her sister or the people who truly mattered. At least not to her face.
“Then they’re the stupid ones, and you’re an idiot if you believe them. And I don’t you’re an idiot. Do you?”
If he didn’t think she was an idiot, why the derision in his voice? “No. And maybe you don’t think that, but you don’t like me very much, do you?”
“Girl, I don’t like anyone very much. Especially someone named Taniss. Haven’t you heard the rumors? I’m the freak your grandpa made. I’m the damned Frankenstein in good little Dardaptoans’ nightmares, trained by Leo Taniss to eat little children in the middle of the night.”
Cass closed her eyes for a moment. She understood his hatred. How could she not? He was the only one of them that she’d ever seen with a scar so horrible looking. It had to have hurt him, though she had never asked the details. She’d been too afraid of what she would hear to ask. But a part of her had known her grandfather had to have been involved.
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