by Dannika Dark
Gem didn’t want to touch the pages of the red book more than she had to. The paper looked so old, and yet as she ran her finger along the edge, something felt different about it. As if the harder she scraped her nail against it, the stronger it felt to the touch.
Gem spent the next two hours jotting down possible translations. She compared every single symbol to search for repeats but had difficulty finding any. Translating a completely new language was a daunting task that took time, but it was exciting. If she managed to crack the code, she could store that knowledge in her DNA. It almost made her regretful she wouldn’t have any offspring to pass it on to, but at least her own knowledge base would increase.
After it grew too dim to read, she replaced the candle in the lantern. Her feet were ice-cold even though she’d kept them on the footrest of the desk chair. She yawned loudly and stared at several sheets of paper she’d compiled in search of a pattern—anything that might connect to a word or idea. One symbol appeared in both books, and Gem double-checked in her dictionary to see if there were other definitions for that word. Then she pored over each line using that symbol to consider the context of its use in the sentence.
Her gaze drifted over to the open pages of the red book, and she pulled it to her. She pondered over the word, wondering if it was the correct translation. All signs pointed to yes, but she needed to translate a passage of complete sentences to know for sure.
She traced her finger over the symbol. “Sun.”
Her fingers warmed, and she turned around when the flame in the lantern grew brighter. Had it? There was no sudden burst of oxygen in the room.
“I must be sleep-deprived.”
As she stood up to leave, something compelled her to stay.
Maybe she wouldn’t be able to decipher this language in one night, and maybe it didn’t even matter. But if she could learn just enough of it, she might understand its value. Perhaps that alone would give her an advantage. Had she not found this latest book at the pawnshop, she would have never made any progress. What were the odds that something like that would have landed in her hands at this very time when she needed it most?
The fates must have been looking out for her.
Chapter 23
I sat near the fire to dry my hair while Shepherd passed out beef jerky to the kids. They were ravenous—a perpetual state that all teenagers seem to exist in—so Shepherd had given up his own resources to keep them content.
The temperature hovered in the forties, but the fire kept us warm enough. Viktor tried calling Wyatt twice on the satellite phone to get a status on Gem, but something must have been going on, because nobody answered. Probably for the best. We had enough to worry about, and we needed to keep focused on what was outside our cave and not hundreds of miles away.
With my hair now dry, I stood up and squinted at the trees.
“No sign of them,” Christian said. “They’re probably regrouping.”
“It’s what I can’t guess they’re up to that makes me nervous,” I admitted.
He put his arm around my shoulder and tucked me against his chest. We stood at the mouth of the cave, the fire burning brightly behind us. There was plenty of wood to last us a day or two, but staying in one spot was the worst idea. Especially without backup.
“Why won’t Viktor call our destination spot and see if they’ll send reinforcements? They’re probably close enough to help.”
Christian guided my hand beneath his shirt to warm my icy palm against his stomach. “They won’t help. It’s not part of the protocol. It would make them vulnerable, and they might think this is a trap.”
“So I guess it’s just us.”
“Aye.” He gave me a quick squeeze before letting go. “I need to step outside and listen for a while.”
“Stay close.”
He flashed a crooked smile and looked down at me. Christian didn’t say anything in response, but that was okay. Sometimes we bantered with just our eyes. After a playful bow, he slipped into the shadows.
Carol moved past me like a ghost, and I jumped before I realized it was her.
I caught her arm and tugged her back. “You stay here. I think you’ve caused enough trouble.”
Carol turned, her crazy curls framing her pale face. Claude’s tan coat was comically large on her, but she didn’t seem to mind. “I just wanted to see what was going on.” She kicked a few pebbles around. “If y’all hadn’t made Joshua stay behind, he could have protected us.”
“Really? A sixteen-year-old boy could have saved the day?”
“He’s a cougar!”
I pointed to the woods. “And those are lions. Like the kind you see in Africa. You should thank Viktor for making him stay behind.”
She folded her arms and lifted her stubborn chin. “He’s out there somewhere.”
“If he’s smart, he went home.”
“Joshua loves me. He’d never leave me.”
I tucked my hands in the pockets of my black sweatpants. “Why can’t you two just wait a few years? You’re only fourteen.”
“Almost fifteen,” she chimed in.
“You don’t even know what real love is yet. All that changes when you get older.”
“Haven’t you ever felt that way about someone? Like you just can’t be without them? How would you feel if you were separated for four years? I’m not waiting that long. Four years is a lifetime.”
“If he loves you, he’ll wait.”
She twisted her lips and glanced up at me. “Remember when I said that true love was when you’d die for someone? We have that. And it’s not because he’s a Shifter. I wouldn’t care if he was a human. But Joshua can’t be like me, so I wanna be like him. And you can’t stop us. You can lock me up in a camp for another four years, but what’s the point? I already know what I want. That’s four years you’re denying me to be with the person I love. What if he dies before then?”
I shrugged. “That’s life. You can’t predict what’s going to happen. Haven’t you ever wondered what a sixteen-year-old is doing with a fourteen-year-old girl?”
She huffed and looked at the woods. “We’re not that far apart in age. Anyhow, it’s not like that with us. We’ve barely kissed. He respects me, and he’s the one who doesn’t want to do anything more than kiss. He says Shifters don’t mate with girls who haven’t gone through their first change, and usually that happens in their older teens or twenties. Joshua looks out for me. Just because we’re young doesn’t mean we don’t know what love is. Romeo and Juliet were only thirteen.”
I turned to face her. “Romeo and Juliet were not only fictional, but they died. That story wasn’t a romance—it was a tragedy.”
She straightened her arms and looked up at me defiantly. “The real tragedy is keeping us apart. I never had a family before, and he makes me feel loved and wanted. I want to meet his parents and brothers. I want to be a part of that while I’m still young. He said that they’ll take me in and look after me until I’m old enough.”
I sighed and put my arm around her, leading her back in. “Don’t be in such a rush to grow up, kid. Love isn’t what you see in the movies.” I thought about my rough road with Christian. “If love puts one of you in danger, the other has to love you enough to let you go. Even if it’s just for a little while. Joshua loves you, or he wouldn’t be following you across the country. But look at the danger he’s in now. Don’t let love destroy you. It’s like that fire behind us. It can either warm you or kill you, so maybe you should be careful about getting too close.” When we reached the crevice where the kids were sleeping, I faced her. “Look, I was a kid once. I know how strong those feelings are. If they’re real, they won’t change in four years. But you need protection. If he respects you enough not to mate with you this young, then he’s a good guy. But he can’t protect you. You’re still a human, and if anyone finds out what you are—”
“They won’t! I never show anyone my mark. I always cover it up.”
There was no convinci
ng this girl. I patted the cold wall. “Get some rest. If there’s another attack, you can’t run if you’re sleep-deprived.”
Carol looked like she wanted to retaliate with a better argument, but she capitulated and crawled into the space.
Claude used a long stick to stoke the fire. The wood crackled, and tiny embers skated upward in a cloud of smoke. Viktor was fast asleep, and Shepherd had taken a seat on a rock so he could rummage through his gear.
I stepped past the two men and sat down next to Matteo against the wall. “Thanks for all your help. Look, you can take off now. It’s too dangerous.” I lowered my voice. “I don’t think my team trusts you.”
“What reason would they have?”
“It’s our nature to be suspicious of strangers putting their lives on the line for someone they don’t know.”
“I gave you my word.”
“Yes, but they don’t see it that way.”
He snapped a small twig in two. “I promised to take you as far as I could. I can take you all the way.”
“What do you mean?”
“I know where they keep the children.”
Shepherd’s dark eyes flicked up.
Matteo held out his hand to placate him. “Rest assured, I have no interest in what goes on in that place. They’re protecting children, so that’s all I need to know. These woods belong to the people who live in them. You can’t expect a man to be blind to those who traverse across our land. I’ve seen other children pass through. They were never afraid, and those who guarded them left behind an emotional scent I can trust. Nothing ever alerted me that something indecent was afoot.” He shook his head. “Not my business.”
Shepherd digested his answer with care. His bloodshot eyes made him look like a crazed serial killer, and the scruff on his face wasn’t helping. He always had a stone-cold look, but now even more so.
“You should get some rest,” I said to Shepherd. “We’ll keep an eye on things.”
“I’m fine,” he fired back, still staring at Matteo.
“You’ll be real fine when one of those kids needs stitches and you can’t see straight.”
Claude set his stick against the wall. “I’ll take the first shift. Get some shut-eye, you stubborn fool. I’ll tap your shoulder when I need rest.”
Shepherd grumbled beneath his breath as he stripped off his shirt and put on a dark green one with long sleeves. After collecting his things, he chose a spot by the far wall and folded up his leather coat as a pillow.
The gun stayed strapped to his hip.
It made me realize how silly I felt with a belt around my sweatpants, but it was the only way to carry my daggers. “Thanks for the boots,” I said in earnest. “They’re warm.”
Matteo stared at them for a beat. “It’s good to see them getting some use.”
I thought about the tiny pair of shoes I’d seen him pull out, and while curious, I didn’t want to pry into a piece of his life that might be upsetting. I could speculate all I wanted, but as long as he was here to help, dredging up the past might only upset him. A pair of woman’s boots in the home of a single man was never a happy story.
“What troubles the girl?” Matteo asked.
“Teen angst.”
“I can smell her sorrow.”
“She tried to escape earlier in the trip to be with her boyfriend. I think we should tie her up, but Viktor would never go for that.”
“Can the male not wait? She’s hardly of age to entertain the idea of love.”
“Tell that to a fourteen-year-old. They know everything at that age.”
“What’s her Breed?”
I leaned forward. “Human.”
He drew in a breath, and I hated the way Chitahs could smell truth and lies without hearing a word.
“Not my business,” he said at the tail end of a sigh.
I turned to look at him. “If you want to help, guide us to our destination. Shepherd might also know the way, but we could use your protection. Those lions will hurt these kids. If they don’t keep them, they’ll sell them as sex slaves.”
Matteo’s lip curled in a snarl.
When Christian reappeared, his hands were caked in mud. He flicked a peevish glance at me while heading to the other room. “Don’t ask.”
I smiled as he went to wash his hands. It was a juicy story I’d probably never hear, and somehow that made it even funnier.
“You didn’t tell me you were mated,” Matteo remarked.
“What makes you say that?”
His golden eyes locked on mine, and it was as if he could see every secret.
Or smell it.
“What would a Vampire want with a Mage?”
I chuckled and dusted off my hands. “What would a Mage want with a Vampire? Some things you can’t explain.”
“In my time, they would cast out anyone for interbreeding. It’s unnatural.”
“Unnatural? Look at us. We have fangs and run at light speed. Breed has no place to call anything unnatural when it’s the core of who we are. We go against the natural order of things. We stop aging, we heal, we can pass knowledge down to kids through our DNA. We’re the monsters that humans make up stories about, so you’re not exactly in a position to decide which monsters should and shouldn’t hook up.”
His eyes hooded, and he smiled lazily. “You must be a Learner. The newly made ones always have different ideas. That will change in time. You’ll see.”
“Maybe you’re the one who’ll change.”
“Humans die with age. Old ideals die with them. Immortals live for centuries or even longer. People respect their elders and listen to them. No matter their initial beliefs, Breed will separate naturally and find comfort with their own kind.”
“Someday you might feel differently about that.”
“Intruder!” Claude growled. Not loud enough to scare the kids or wake Viktor, but it had Matteo and me on our feet. Shepherd, on the other hand, had nodded off in less than two minutes and was snoring.
I passed the fire and stood at the entrance. “What do you see?”
He lifted his long arm and pointed. “It’s not what I see, it’s what I smell.”
Matteo stepped close and drew in a breath. He walked out a few more paces until the smoke didn’t interfere with his senses.
“It’s not a lion,” he announced.
“How can you tell?” Claude shook his head. “Animal scents mingle.”
Matteo turned on his heel. “Because I know every scent in these woods, city boy.”
Claude dipped his chin, and a growl rumbled low in his throat.
I patted Claude’s arm. “He’s right. You can single out two criminals in a club filled with dancers, but this is Matteo’s territory. He can probably tell a squirrel’s ass from a raccoon’s.”
Nobody laughed.
Matteo looked like a primitive man in his animal pelts. Especially with his unkempt hair and long beard. It wasn’t a bushy beard that hid his face; it grew thinner than most, and he had a band tying it together like my father often did. For a man in his prime, he didn’t seem to care about his looks.
“It’s a Shifter,” Matteo explained. “But it’s not one of the lions.”
I scanned the woods but saw nothing. “How can you tell it’s a Shifter?”
“Too many emotions lingering with animal scent. Animals don’t have complex emotions that constantly shift. There aren’t any packs in this area. I know of two rogues, but it’s not their scent.”
I glanced back at the cave and then at the men. “I’ll go.”
“You’ll go where?” Christian asked as he wedged himself between the men and me.
“I think it’s Joshua. If he’s in animal form, he won’t come close.”
“You can’t go out there alone.”
Viktor had ordered Christian to stay near the cave. He was the only one strong enough to fight off an attack if the lions got in. Viktor said he could walk the perimeter as needed but go no farther.
“I can’t leave him out there,” I said. “The lions might use him against us.”
Christian gripped my shoulders and gave me a pensive stare.
I searched his eyes. “He’s just a kid. Maybe he’s not part of this group, but we can’t leave a sixteen-year-old to the lions.”
Despite Christian’s dark past of countless murders, he still had a conscience. Especially when it came to children. If not, I wouldn’t be alive.
I gripped his wrists extra hard to remind him I still had a little residual strength from his blood.
“Don’t get yourself killed,” he finally said.
I darted ahead and went in the direction Claude had pointed. Hopefully Joshua’s animal would recognize my scent.
“Joshua,” I whispered.
I weaved around the trees and stepped over a fallen limb. Every so often, I’d stop to listen. If General’s men were this close, they wouldn’t have allowed Joshua to get through. Not without a fight, and we would have heard it. It was just a matter of finding him.
I walked a familiar path that sloped down. The clouds had passed, and the moon lit up the world like a torch. At some point during the walk, I gave up on Joshua. I didn’t have the skills to track a wild animal, but Blue was out there somewhere, and I’d made Viktor a promise. When the ground leveled, I flashed as far as I could to shorten the journey back to the first campsite.
Charred smoke lingered in the air. With my heightened senses, I made sure I was alone before investigating. Once I crossed a tree line, I circled the perimeter around the dying embers of a fire.
“Blue,” I whispered, swinging my gaze upward. She retained consciousness while in animal form, so maybe her falcon had just separated from the group. “Blue!”
My heart ricocheted in my chest when I spotted the shape of a man standing not too far away. I blinked a few times to make sure I wasn’t just mistaking a tree for a person. My vision sharpened as he drew near, his broad shoulders and swagger familiar. As he moved into view, the moonlight caught the waves of his long blond hair. The scruff around his mouth only added to the animalistic look in his predatory eyes. General was a beast in human and animal form, and I remembered all too well his cruel heart.
