by Knight, TW
"Kaz will never—"
"Rail, please. I need this and so do you. I know you can’t talk about looking for the Aktura without hurting. Hell, you probably don’t even remember our conversation on the barge." She shook her head. "But that doesn’t matter. I know I can help. I know I can find them."
"I’ll have to think about it." Rail stood to leave, turning his back to her.
Cassidy jumped forward and caught his wrist. "Let me talk to Kaz."
"I don’t think—"
"Please."
"You don’t know what he’s like. His entire existence has been wrapped around keeping us hidden and the demons at bay. He doesn’t adapt well to the changes that directly affect us. I’d hoped finding his Aktura would mellow him, but…" Rail shrugged. "Why should I risk his wrath?"
"Because I think this is what you, the Knights, need from me. I think this is what you want too." She released her grip on his arm and sat back on the sand. "And as weird as it sounds, I think this is why I’m your Aktura."
Rail looked back over his shoulder and let out a long breath. "Fine. But I’ll be the one to talk to him."
Chapter Eleven
"I told you she was going to be trouble." Kaz slammed the book he’d been reading onto the desk so forcefully, everything jumped and a stack of files tumbled over.
"Would you have preferred I’d let her die?" Rail leaned forward, resting his hands on the edge of the desk. "Oh, wait. Then the skratar would have eaten her soul and my soul. I’d be permanently dead, and you could go back to a life without anyone challenging you."
"Aerieal…" Kaz’s warning tone reverberated through Rail's bones.
"That trick of using of our God-given names may unbalance Boomer, not me." Rail kept his voice low and even, but let some ice slip into the tone.
Kaz growled, switching to the Angelic language. "Does it escape you that she could destroy us?"
"Nope, it hasn’t escaped my attention at all. Neither has her drive and passion. She can succeed where I’ve failed. She can find the other Knights and the—" pausing, he winced in pain— "she can find the Aktura," he forced out. "I know she can."
* * *
Cassidy paced around her room like a caged animal and wondered if a person could wear a hole in the carpet.
Rail had requested she wait. Ha! He’d all but ordered her to stay in her room until he came for her. He should have taken me with him to talk to Kaz. Cassidy fumed. She seriously doubted Rail would be able convey her passion and need to work on this project while diplomatically explaining why Kaz should give her computer access.
And now that she knew they had an entire room of computers, she tingled with anticipation at the mere thought of getting her hands on them.
With all this useless waiting, she might as well be at the DMV.
Her nerves sparked and her skin itched like it was too tight. Her anxiety ramped up with every breath.
Cassidy’s pacing came to an abrupt halt when a strange screeching echo assaulted her. It sounded like a flock of tortured birds. Oddly enough, she could almost make out words in the noise.
Abruptly, the volume increased, cresting in waves, turning her stomach into a Cuisinart working on her last meal, making her head ache.
While she was willing to suffer the indignity of not being allowed to talk to Kaz herself, she was not going to suffer the onslaught to her hearing a minute longer.
Bursting from her room, bent on causing serious damage to whoever was responsible for her wanting to drive an ice pick into her head, Cassidy slammed into Gina. Stumbling backward, she gasped. "Oh God, Gina. I’m sorry. Did I hurt you?"
"No." Gina smiled politely, obviously annoyed. "Where’s the fire?"
"Do you know where that noise is coming from? It’s making me nauseous."
Gina tilted her head. "What noise?"
"Can’t you hear that racket?"
"No." Gina shook her head, sending curls bouncing around her face. "I hear the birds and the ocean. Maybe you should have Tucker check you out."
Cassidy worried her lower lip between her teeth. How was it possible Gina couldn’t hear the noise? "Yeah, maybe your right." Embarrassed, Cassidy said her good-byes and headed downstairs to find the reluctant doctor.
The racket was much louder on the ground floor. Cassidy followed the sounds through the area she now referred to as the "Moroccan wing". Rail had mentioned this was the business portion of their home. Somewhere down there was the computer room, laundry, infirmary, and Kaz’s office.
Storming down the hall, Cassidy ignored the beauty around her. With each step, her annoyance rose in intensity. There was also an increasing possibility she was about to lose her lunch. Just as she rounded another fountain courtyard at the end of the hall, Cassidy found herself frozen in shock and fear. Facing her, was a creature she could have been mistaken for a malnourished human child—pale and bone thin—if not for the equally pale bat-like wings sprouting from its back and the fathomless black eyes.
The two stared at each other across the narrow space for a heartbeat, and then the creature opened its mouth, flashing razor-sharp teeth.
* * *
Rail doubled over with a painful moan as terror stabbed into him, momentarily stealing his breath. "Holy Hell," he gasped, pulling himself under control and pushing back against the assault on his emotions. With the next breath, he realized what was happening. He flew out of the office so fast; he nearly slammed into his Cassidy at the bend in the hall. "Cass!"
With a trembling hand, she pointed at the small demon across from her.
Placing himself between the two, Rail wrapped his arms protectively around Cassidy. "Oh, sweetheart. It’s okay. That’s one of the servants." Before he could say another word, Kaz swept in behind him and escorted the creature into a neighboring room.
"Servant! Servant! You didn’t think it was important to warn me that your servants look like the lovechild of Jaws and the Children of the Damned?"
"You were never supposed to see them—none of you were."
"What?"Cassidy pulled out of his embrace, pushed him back, and stood glaring at him with her fists planted on her hips.
Before anyone could say another word, Kaz returned. "Norc is okay and apologizes for scaring you. Are you okay?" he asked gruffly.
"Just peachy, thank you. Of course, I just aged ten years." Taking a deep breath, she turned back to Rail and crossed her arms over her chest. "What did you mean we were never to see them?"
Rail didn’t want to have a fight with Cassidy in front of Kaz, but he wasn’t going to back down and let his leader think he was weak. In fact, all he really wanted to do was to take her up to her room and sooth her frazzled nerves. Maybe a hot bubble bath…
With a quick shake of his head, he pulled his thoughts back on track.
"When we first brought Seraphina here, we knew the affect the Un-tar would have on her and any other humans we might eventually bring here, so…"
"So we asked them to stay out of sight," Kaz finished. "They are reliable and loyal. They would never hurt you."
"It was going to eat me!"
Rail chuckled. "He was smiling. Greeting you."
"Then why didn’t it say something rather than flashing its big shark teeth?"
"You wouldn’t be able to hear him. The Un-tar language is almost subsonic, beyond human hearing."
Cassidy relaxed slightly. "Oh. So, I guess he wasn’t the one making that annoying racket then."
"What racket?" Both men eyed her curiously.
"That weird whistle-screeching noise. That’s why I came downstairs. To find out what it was and shut it up."
Rail and Kaz stared at each other a moment before Kaz answered. "No one’s been doing anything to cause the kind of noise you’re describing. Even Boomer’s been quiet. Besides, we didn’t hear anything."
"Gina didn’t hear it either." She let out a slow breath.
"Could she have heard us arguing?" Rail asked Kaz in the Angelic language.
Rail pulled her hands down. "That’s what you heard?"
"Yeah. Only not so loud. Damn. Are my ears bleeding?"
"No." Rail kissed her and gave Kaz a confused look.
"Interesting."
"What?" Cassidy looked from on to the other.
"Well?" Rail asked, looking to Kaz for help; the other warrior just shrugged. "Apparently, you are one of the rare humans who can hear the Angelic language. However, unlike the few we’ve encountered in the past, you hear it as a horrible noise."
"Angelic…oh never mind." She waved off the impending explanation. "What do the other people hear?"
"It varies, but it’s always pleasant—bird song, flutes, harps, rain fall, even children laughing. It all depends on the person."
"Great. I hear what sounds like birds in a blender on high speed mixed with an out of tune radio." Cassidy sulked.
Kaz and Rail chuckled and apologized in unison, "Sorry."
"Well that’s one mystery solved. Now about your servants…"
"Cassidy."
The low, calm tone she used set off all of Rail’s alarms. Like the instant before lightning struck, the soul bond buzzed, warning him Cassidy had reached her bullshit limit.
For a second, Rail heard the fight announcer guy shout, Let’s get ready to ruuummmble!
"Don’t." She pointed a finger at Rail’s face. "Don’t even try. I don’t care that you were trying to spare us poor humans a scare. Which, by the way, didn’t work. You should have told us about them. Do you know how creepy it is to have people, demons, whatever, running around the house you don’t even know exist?"
"There are lots of things running around in the world that humans don’t know exist," Kaz countered.
"That’s no excuse." Cassidy stood with her hands perched on her hips again.
Rail ran a hand though his hair as he stared at her. She wasn’t going to give up and would probably go and tell the other Aktura anyway. Grumbling he turned to Kaz. "Well? What are we going to do?"
Chapter Twelve
Two hours later, the entire household assembled in the media room off the blue room. Even Margarite, who Tam had carefully carried downstairs, joined them. The scene reminded Cassidy of her first school dance, but instead of boys and girls it came down to a three way split; humans on one side of the enormous leather sectional, the Un-tar on the other, and the Fallen Angels between.
Each of the Un-tar, dressed in either a linen tunic or loin cloth—presumable to denote male or female—stood tall and proud with their hands clasped in front of them and their wings tucked tightly to their backs. Cassidy felt a chill as fifteen pairs of unblinking, dead, black eyes settled on her for a moment before scanning over the group. She shivered.
To her right, Margarite whimpered softly.
Clearing his throat, Kaz stepped forward and addressed the soul-keepers. "I’m sure you are now all aware, Cassidy accidently stumbled into one of our servants earlier today. At her insistence—" he shot a nasty look at her, "we have decided to take this opportunity to introduce the Un-tar to you and explain what they do here. We want to make you aware of them, and after today they will take better care to stay out of sight."
"Excuse me?" Cassidy asked, stepping forward, trying to hold back a smirk as Rail groaned and covered his face with his hands. "Why do they need to stay hidden now that we know they are here? That’s even creepier than finding out they’ve been living here and moving around us without us knowing."
"Cass…" Rail hissed in warning, his hands moving through his hair.
She ignored him. "If you are going to continue bringing humans here, you need to deal with this. We—" she motioned to the other Aktura, "need to know everything about being imprisoned here."
"You are not…"
"Yes we are, Kaz. No contact with the outside world? I’m going crazy." She held up her hands to stave off an argument. "Don’t get me wrong. I can go without cell phones and computer games, even my iPod, considering the music, movie, and book collections you have here, but I need to know what’s going on. It’s how I function. It’s how I’m wired."
"You know—" Seraphina interjected, "she has a point. Just because we can’t contact anyone on the outside, why can’t we have access to information? I’d love to research some of the artwork and book collections you have here."
"We’re getting off topic." Kaz snarled. "You wanted to meet the Un-tar and now you have."
"Do they watch me?" Margarite’s voice shook. Tam moved to comfort her, perching on the arm of the chair and holding her hand.
"They keep an eye on everyone."
Tears formed in her eyes. "They’ve been in my room? I don’t want anyone in my room without me knowing!"
"I don’t want them in my room either," Gina snapped. "Just the idea that I didn’t know they were here…Oh, my God! Have they been watching us have sex?" She shivered dramatically. "That’s…that’s…ewwwww!"
"Gina. Honey. I swear, they were never around when we were together." Boomer used his angelic powers and flashed across the room, appearing at Gina’s side.
She pulled away, obviously shaken.
Kaz glared across the room. "Fine! You know, we can settle this by getting rid of them and having you take care of yourselves."
The room erupted in shouts.
"That’s not what we’re asking," Cassidy started.
"Who’ll do the laundry?" cried Boomer.
"Oh, poor baby," teased Hacker.
"Bastard," Boomer snapped back, giving him the finger.
"Wouldn’t hurt you to help out around here," Tam added.
"Who’s being childish now?" Gina teased.
"Kaz, don’t be an ass," Seraphina said quietly and smiled sweetly when he turned to her. "We’re not asking for you to send anyone away. We just want, well…an open relationship with the Un-tar. Right?" She made eye contact with the others, receiving a nod of agreement as the grumbling ended. "Once we get use to them being underfoot, we won’t notice them anymore. And…" she held up a finger, "we’ll be able to better explain this place if and when new soul-keepers arrive."
Before Kaz could respond, one of the Un-tar—a male if the loincloth was any indication—stepped forward and addressed the warrior directly.
Cassidy was fascinated. He was speaking, but there was no sound.
"You’ve got to be shitting me," Kaz sputtered.
"What?" Everyone asked at the same time.
"They like the idea of being out in the open. It’s only been since the humans arrived that they’ve had to hide. They want to go back to the way things were when we first brought them here."
"Well, that’s settled then." Cassidy felt a wave of triumph.
"Um, how are we going to tell them apart?" Gina interrupted as she squinted at the Un-tar. "Other than boys and girls, I’d never know who is who."
It was the Un-tar who answered—via a shocked Kaz. "Norc says they would agree to start wearing nametags, but…" he paused, pinching the bridge of his nose. "The females want to decorate them."
"Craft project!" Gina jumped, clapping her hands like an excided child on Christmas morning. "I never got to do that kind of thing growing up. I’ll help!"
"Anything else?" Kaz snapped, full of disapproval.
The Un-tar formed a little huddle. Although she couldn’t hear them, Cassidy presumed they were talking amongst themselves. After a few moments of gesturing and foot stomping, they turned back to Kaz, who stared at them in disbelief.
"They would like to start expressing their individuality and…" He threw up his hands in frustration. "Good Lord! The females want pretty clothes too."
* * *
"How does it feel to have started a revolution?" Rail asked as he stepped alongside Cassidy, looping an arm over her shoulders.
The room was a buzz of activity with humans and Un-tar introducing themselves through a weird version of charades and translations via the
Knights.
Disgusted, Kaz stomped out of the room like a petulant child.
"Feels pretty good." Cassidy smiled wickedly and tapped him on the nose. "What about those computers? Do you think now is a good time to ask for access?"
"Haven’t you done enough for one day?" Rail turned Cassidy to face him and pulled her close, enjoying the waves of happiness pulsing along their connection.
"No." She laughed.
Her stubbornness was endearing and sexy as hell. "Maybe now is not the best time to bring it up." Rail tilted forward until his forehead touched hers. "Kaz is not in the best frame of mind at the moment."
"I’m sure you’re right," Cassidy agreed with a smile. "I’ll let it go. For now."
"Seriously?" Shocked, Rail stepped back.
"Sure. I know when to pick my battles. And timing is everything." Cassidy nodded toward the door. "Besides, Seraphina is with me on this."
Rail spotted the other woman following Kaz into the blue room.
Curious, Cassidy and Rail watched the confrontation, surprised they couldn’t hear any the yelling over the noise around them.
After a few more minutes, Kaz threw up his hands and stormed off. With a glowing smile, Seraphina turned her back to him and gave Cassidy a thumbs-up.
"Well, well. That looks promising." Cassidy smiled and returned the thumbs-up.
"I guess you’ve won another battle, sweetheart," Rail remarked, giving Cassidy a hug from behind.
She turned within his embrace and hugged him back. "But not the war."
Chapter Thirteen
Cassidy laid on her stomach across Rail's bed watching him pack. "What do you mean you’ll be back in a few weeks? We haven’t discussed the use of the computers in days and you’ve spent the last two avoiding me. Again."
"I was not avoiding you." Rail opened the back panel of his closet and selected his favorite Sig and a few other choice guns. Bullets, even blessed ones, didn’t kill skratars, but if one hit them in the face, it could slow them down. Closing the gun case, he moved onto his selection of swords.