She took the fruit, similar to an apricot in taste, and bit in. Thought while she chewed. How much did she want to tell him? If she told him, what would he do with the information? She thought about telling him little to nothing, but after a long consideration she knew the truth. Cass wasn’t very good at lying and even worse at manipulation. “He’s a very intelligent man, isn’t he? He told me lots about this place. And about the demon one.”
“How did he know about this place? I’ve researched the history of my people for centuries and don’t recall seeing a mention of this realm anywhere. And I’ve read every book in the Sebastos library. And the Jareth, for that matter.”
So there was something the Nalik Black didn’t know? “I don’t know. He just let me read a book and then offered to answer any questions. He said I’d need to know someday.” She hadn’t understood that, but Mickey had seemed to. She’d pushed Cass to read the book, and Cass had definitely found it interesting. The plants described were intriguing, and she’d hoped by studying their descriptions to find the answers to the medical dilemma facing the Dardaptoan people. Her sister had been very honest with Cass when Cass had overheard her and Mallory discussing how Dardaptoan women frequently died during childbirth. How medical science had yet to find solutions for the other health crises the Dardaptoans—her sister and cousins, too—faced. If she could help by studying plants from other places, other realms, than she would do whatever she could. How could she not?
***
He just bet Theo had told she’d need to know someday.
The damned blind man was precognitive; he may very well have known exactly what would happen to this girl. And the man he’d once considered one of his closest friends had probably not even considered telling Nalik that his Rajni would be threatened in this way. But did Theo know the girl was Nalik’s? If so, why hadn’t he said something?
Something Nalik would be bringing up when next he saw Theo “What do you know?”
He hadn’t meant his words to come out so angry. She backed away, toward the small stream running at the back of the cavern. She washed the sticky from her hands, then dipped the band of her top—a human-style t-shirt with flowers printed on it—in the water. She raised the cotton up and patted at her face, revealing a smooth stomach and just the smallest hint of a bra.
Nalik forced himself not to pant like a damned dog. He was a male, after all, and in damned fine health now. And she was his Rajni. Of course, he’d lust with just a peek at what was beneath her clothing.
What the three hells was she thinking? Exposing herself to a male she didn’t really know enough to trust? Didn’t she know what could happen to a vulnerable girl like her? “Put your shirt down and let’s get going.”
She jerked the shirt over the waistband of her jeans, the sudden yank tightening the material over her chest. “I’m coming.”
He’d embarrassed her. Good. Maybe then she’d be a little bit more careful in front of him. Maybe then he wouldn’t be tempted to rip into her like a lust-starved Lupoiux upon first meeting his mate. He’d held himself in check with her for a year now. He could control himself until he got her back where she belonged. Somehow. “You know anything about the geography of this place?”
He’d found not a single map in the entire marketplace. Something that surprised him. In his experience, places with this level of commercial development usually depended on burgeoning trade routes. It was what most civilizations grew upon—trade or war. Without the evidence of the trade, he knew in his gut this place was more war than peace.
She nodded and surprised him by kneeling down. She drew in the loose silt near the base of the damned orange tree that still stood sentinel. “There’s three basic continents. Theo said that this place is similar to what was once some of our supercontinents, Gondwana and Laurasia. I didn’t even know the names of the supercontinents until he showed me on his maps.” She drew two landmasses bunched together inside a ring. He could almost make out what he thought was a land similar to Africa in the center. She drew a larger mass at the top. “And I don’t remember when the supercontinents were.”
“Theo has maps? Interesting.” He’d love to see what Theo was hoarding someday. His book-loving cousin held many secrets.
“They were his father’s. Why?”
“Because the damned know-it-all has been too blind to read maps since before he knew how to read.”
She looked up from her drawing. “Really? He has a huge library.”
“Forget Sebastos. Tell me about the lands here.” Should he trust the girl? She was young and a human, how strong was her memory? Or had Theo ensured the girl knew what she was saying for some reason? One thing he could say about Theo—the other male would for damned sure not send a helpless girl out to seek her fate without preparing her as best he could. Especially one so close to his own mate. What had Theo prognosticated? What had he seen for this girl? “Tell me exactly what Theo told you. What he asked you and what you read.”
She stared up at him for a moment, big green eyes puzzled. “Ok.”
Nalik knelt beside his Rajni. “We’re in Edni. Geographically similar to the Gaian Midwest, I think.”
“They have a flower in Edni, similar to an ancestor of the poppy. Theo said it numbs burns, even on Dardaptoans. Edni’s here.” She drew a small circle near the center of the northern most landmass. “Right in the center.”
“What do you know about the political climate?”
“Not much. Theo just said, ‘when in Evelanedea, always head to the East. You’ll find who or what you need there.’ I don’t know what he meant. He said it would make sense if I ever needed it to.”
Nalik fought the snort that wanted to escape. Leave it to Theo to be cryptic. The damned seer was that way whenever he had a vision. Was always terrified to say too much, lest he put things into motion that ought not be put. That didn’t make things easier on those involved, that was for damned sure. “It means let’s get going. We’re headed east.”
She was more than a little anxious to get out of his cave. He knew that by the way she fidgeted as he opened a hole large enough for her to climb out of. He could have just flown himself out the ceiling, but that wasn’t an option for her. Birds were chirping when he hopped free of the earth and reached a hand down to pull his Rajni out. It was cool, and early morning, but the scent of clean forests and nature surrounded them. He made a move to crush the cave, erasing its very existence.
The girl protested. “No. The tree.”
“Are you serious?”
“You can’t kill it. It’s living, and it’s done nothing to you.”
“So you want me to leave a damned tree living in the middle of a cave—a cave it will eventually outgrow because it hasn’t done anything to me?”
“Why do you feel the need to kill it? It provided food for you last night, and it sheltered me all night. While you were gone. Do we not owe it for that, at least? What will it hurt to leave it growing where it is?”
“It won’t last long. It needs light, as well as water and air.”
“So widen the holes you flew out of last night. That wasn’t a nightmare I had, was it?”
He studied her for a moment, not missing the challenge on her face. She was tougher than he’d originally thought. Or more foolish. Not many people of any Kind would openly challenge him. Why would this girl? “No. It wasn’t.”
“So you can change into a bat. Any other animals? Are you like a werewolf?”
Direct questions. He had not expected that. Did this girl have any sense of self-preservation? Any filters on her damned inquiries? What was he supposed to tell her?
The image of how she’d looked declaring herself a freak while an orange tree grew around her flashed in his mind. Strong, yet so achingly hurting. So vulnerable. Why? Why was she the way she was? Her grandfather’s utter betrayal of her sickened him. Made him looser of tongue than he would normally have been. “You know your grandfather tortured people. It’s no secret.”
/> “No. I heard. I don’t know the details—no one would give them to me—but I am sorry. I hate him for what he did. And I figured out that you and your brother were some of the victims.”
“I am not a damned victim.” He hated that term. Always would. Victims were helpless, and that was something he would never allow himself to be again. “I was your grandfather’s favorite experiment. Everything I am, he made me.”
“And just what exactly is that?”
“A monster.” A man unworthy of the very Rajni the goddess he so despised had given him. He wrapped his hand around her arm and pulled her along behind him. “Let’s get walking. I want this done.”
Chapter 11
She walked and she thought. Hurt for him, for the pain he still suffered to this day. Yet the pain was still so fresh in Nalik’s voice that she had to fight tears for him.
Only the knowledge that he wouldn’t appreciate them kept her from allowing them to fall.
Instead she just kept walking. His hand had fallen from her elbow an hour or so earlier, but she still stayed close at his side. He said very little, just directions to watch where she stepped, or to be silent and still when he ordered.
She obeyed, figuring it more prudent to cooperate with her only ally in this place than to buck the authority he seemed to think he possessed over her. She needed him, like or not. And she was sticking to him like glue. He was not going off by himself again, leaving her behind. Anything could have happened to her—or him—and she would have never known. They weren’t separating again. Eventually the silence got to her.
“So...you never answered my question. Are you like a werewolf now?”
“Not exactly. Keep walking.”
“I’m walking. But I can walk and talk at the same time.” And she definitely could. The longer she walked through the healthy forest, breathing in the scent of blooming flowers and trees, feeling the sun on her skin, the better she felt. The stronger she felt.
She’d always had that connection to the sun and the plants. Apparently it didn’t matter what realm she was in. “So what exactly?”
“Curious, much? That’s bound to get you into trouble, kitten.”
“Or it could get me out of trouble, if you think about it. Just answer the question. What could it hurt? I won’t ever tell anyone.” And she wouldn’t. Once she gave her word, she stuck by it. “What else can you do, and is it all because of what my grandfather did? My sister said some Dardaptoans have gifts, abilities that aren’t exactly the usual. Josey’s husband, for instance. He supposedly can talk to Josey inside her head.” And Cass couldn’t help but think how romantic that was. Josey was hearing impaired, and having the man who loved her be able to speak to her so privately? How could that not be right?
“Some do. And it makes them damned annoying.”
“So...do you?” She studied him again, knowing that he was fully aware she was staring. He didn’t turn his scarred cheek away and she admired that. To some extent.
The man still scared her, no matter that he’d left her tree alone like she’d asked. He hadn’t had to do that. But he had.
He swore, then stopped walking. Jerked around to face her.
“No. I was as damned ordinary as any other Dardaptoan shit who inherited his position within his family. I was moderately good as a warrior, somewhat decent as a hunter. I know how to use my sword because the knowledge was beaten into me as a boy. I once sat at the right hand of your dear brother-in-law until he decided I was the monster your grandfather had made me. Now I am something that no one knows. And only you—a mere girl with nothing to offer in return—has any inkling what that something is. I ought to seek to kill you for that alone.”
She wanted to fight, to pull away, to squeal and run. But Cass forced herself not to. Made herself look up at him—and he was nearly a foot taller than she was—and not flinch. “But you won’t. Because even though others may think you are the boogeyman, you’re not. You could have left me without regret, and we both know it. You could return to our world and say I was killed, and no one would know any differently. But you haven’t. You came back and you brought me food. I don’t think you’re half the monster you think you are.”
“Am I not?” He pulled her off her feet until barely a breath separated her mouth from his. “Remember this, little kitten, not all monsters strike when you can see. And not all want what you think they want. Some of us wait until you least expect it. And then you don’t have a chance in three hells of escaping.”
“If you’re such a big bad monster, then, what do you want from me?” She didn’t know where the words came from, or the bravery, but she said them.
“Honey, you’re old enough to figure that out for yourself. But if you need an example...”
Then he was kissing her. Cass didn’t know what to do at first. It had probably been about four years since the last time she was kissed. And the boy who’d done that kissing hadn’t been anything like the man holding her now.
Tyler had been a boy no older than she, and the times they’d been together had been sweet and very few. Affection between them had built gradually. Heat had built between them even more slowly.
It wasn’t a thing like this. This was...this was...hot. More than she’d expected.
She’d never thought of kissing Nalik, had never even imagined he would want to kiss her.
But somehow her hands were on his shoulders, playing with the black hair that curled around the collar of his tunic. His hands had moved, too. He’d grabbed her rear with one hand, and the other was spread over her back, pushing her chest to his.
She kissed him back.
Chapter 12
What was he doing? This was stupid. A damned mistake that was going to bite him in the ass—probably the first time his guard was down. But...how many years had he waited to hold his Rajni?
Since he was old enough to have his first stirring of sexual need. The women he’d been with since then had just been a pale second to the woman in his arms, and he had always known that.
It was the thought of his Rajni that had gotten him through the days in Taniss’s basement of hell. The thought that she was out there somewhere, that Taniss could very well have had her in one of his other cages—that was what had kept him breathing, even after his sister and brother were gone, and his sister-in-law damned near.
He’d never imagined he’d find her as one of Taniss’s offshoots.
Just another of the shitty ways the goddess who was supposed to protect him had shafted him.
But he didn’t feel shafted now. Not with her thin body pressed against his, her curves soft and inviting. Her hips were narrow, but her ass felt right and perfect where he cupped it. His fingers could just brush the long mass of dark curls hanging loose down her back. His mate was beautiful and perfect in his arms--young, healthy and whole.
It would take a stronger male than he to resist.
***
She kept kissing him. She could have pulled away, and a logical part of her knew that she should. But she didn’t.
It was he who pulled away first. “Shit. We won’t be doing that again.”
What was she supposed to say to that? “Chalk it up to the moment. Stupidity in the face of danger.”
“Little girl, I’m the danger.”
Somehow she doubted she would ever see him that way again. Yes, he was big and terrifying. Yes, he wasn’t a nice man. She would never forget that. And there was no denying that he could probably kill someone without raising a sweat—or even blinking.
But a man intent on hurting a woman didn’t kiss like that. Even Cass knew that.
“Keep telling yourself that. Let’s get walking. I want to go home. I find myself feeling desperate for some toothpaste, all of a sudden.”
He snorted. “You surprise me.”
You’ve not seen anything yet, big guy.
She refused to follow him blindly; instead walking at his side, except where the path would narrow. When it was necessary she�
�d gladly let him fight their way through the overgrowth.
He was a heck of a lot bigger than she was, and a heck of a lot more immortal.
She’d had her fair share of scratches from thorns.
With him leading the way for a good portion of their path she was free to study the flora of this new place.
It was interesting; she could see similarities between her own world and these plants. These plants were less evolved in some cases, mimicking ancestral specimens she’d studied during her teen years.
She’d taken her love of plants past hobby and into obsession.
Probably her Druid traits.
She wasn’t ready to think about that so she pushed those thoughts away. She’d deal with them when she was safely back in her own world. Whenever or however that was.
Which had her thinking... “So. How do these realms work, anyway? Is it like some sort of alternate dimension?”
“Not like you’re thinking. Not like human fiction and television has made them out to be.”
“Then how are they?”
“I’m not a damned scientist.”
“But you know more than I do. At least tell me what you know. I hate being in the dark about things. I don’t think that’s fair—or very helpful.” And if she could get him talking, get him to open up about things, maybe she could figure out why kissing him hadn’t felt so odd after all. Figure out why it had felt so normal. So familiar. So almost right, even. What was she supposed to think about that?
Chapter 13
How in the three hells was he supposed to put into words what he’d never fully understood? Like most Dardaptoans of his time, like most Predatoi, he knew only enough of the realms to be able to travel to the ones he wanted. And those had been limited to the seven most likely to spew forth demon vagrants for him to hunt.
This wasn’t one of those seven, and it burned him that his female knew more of where they were than he did. It was his duty to protect her, not the other way around. And how could he protect if he wasn’t informed?
Out Of The Darkness Page 5
