Betrayed: Breaking the Darkness Series Book Two

by Felicia Starr

  "Are you ready? We can talk more about this when we get back to the hotel if you like."

  "Yeah. I'm ready." At least as ready as a girl could be to watch a man transform into what most people would consider a beast.

  I wanted to look away, not sure if I should watch him. I wasn't sure I wanted to watch him; it felt a little like I was a peeping tom.

  The color drained away from his face leaving his skin a washed out grey. His ears lowered and his face contorted in a way that looked painful, but he stood there as if a cool breeze blew across his face. His nose shrunk and flared as his mouth protruded out, widening his perfectly shaped face. Graven's lips parted to reveal his extended and much larger animalistic teeth. They were long and sharp enough to tear through the thickest of flesh and bone.

  His skin pulled taut over his skull as his hair was replaced by two short horns. At the same time his wings unfurled behind him. Each rib of his wings ended in what looked like stone claws. I was able to see more of the details of what made him a gargoyle. I secretly desired to see him in the full light to see what he really looked like.

  His transformation happened quickly. He looked at me with his dusty grey eyes that remained the same no matter his form. At no point did I question my safety in his presence, his gaze assured me of that.

  His strong muscular arms that were now over defined, scooped me up without another word. I wrapped my arms around his neck with a firm grip. This time I did not hide my face in his chest.

  "Kasha, I need you to astral project, but keep your astral body with your physical body."

  I could see what he meant. His body took on a shimmer I followed his lead and let my consciousness hover between my astral body and my physical body.

  Graven's lips curled up at the corners and his ears lowered. He bent his knees slightly and let his wings push down as the muscles in his powerful legs launched us off the ground toward the stars in the sky.

  Chapter Twelve

  THE FLIGHT BACK TO THE hotel was one without words. I let my thoughts and emotions dissipate, if only for the short trip. Although, this time I still held onto Graven as snug as I could, it wasn't for my life. I owed my life and my little bit of freedom to him. I trusted that he would keep me safe even if we were a hundred feet off the ground.

  Even though in my heart I felt a connection to him that told me to trust him. There was my rational mind that still had to be a realist and know that there was a possibility that he had his own end game in mind. I hoped that my best interests were his intention, but what his agenda may have been I didn't really know.

  I tried to let the internal debate go and immerse myself in the experience of flying both in and outside of my body at the same time. I could see the lights of the city and urban like suburbs as we traveled further away from the club. At the same time I could feel the warm misty astral air licking at my skin.

  My head rested in the crook of Graven's neck, my right arm around his neck and my left arm stretched around his right shoulder. It gave me the ability to turn my head and look back over his shoulder. People couldn't dream up how amazing the views were. Sure, people flew and jumped out of planes, but this was different. There was no thrill attached to the fear of falling. It was exhilarating in a different and more pure and organic way.

  In that moment I was the air and the sky. I felt like I could reach out and grab a hold of the stars that seemed to float just out of my reach. We flew just high enough to be out of sight from ground level, but high enough that I expected I would be freezing, especially at this time of year and night. I don't know if it was Graven or the astral plane that kept me warm.

  I wanted to look up at him. I could feel him looking down at me. Just the thought of locking eyes with him made my stomach do summersaults. I thought my body would appreciate me waiting until we touched the ground for that.

  He took on the look of stone when he was in his gargoyle form, but his skin did not match the expectation. It was soft and smooth beneath my hands and my face. The difference was that his skin lacked the pliability of human flesh, there was no give. His muscles were hard and flush with his skin. I could feel them flexing in his back with each flap of his wings.

  "We are almost there," Graven lowered his face closer to mine and spoke just above a whisper. "I am going to land a mile or two out from the hotel. We will need to walk."

  I could see that we were getting closer to the earth. Just ahead of us was a dark patch with no lights. It was still close enough to the city limits that he must have been heading there.

  "I am so ok with a walk. I have been cooped up for too long. It'll be nice to be outside and not worry about looking over my shoulder in fear of what or who is coming for me. We are safe to walk without those worries, right?"

  "There is no current threat that I am aware of. You are safe with me. I will not allow harm to lash out at you again."

  Part of me wanted to thank him, but the words just didn't feel right. None of the words I tried out in my mind felt right so instead I responded with silence and held onto him a little bit tighter. I was ready to brace for our landing.

  Graven eased us down to the ground with a few long and slow movements of his wings. His feet touched down on the ground effortlessly and I never felt the transition as he was still holding me in his arms.

  He stood in a desolate patch of earth. It was very dark there, but I could see a few faint shadows of the desert shrub that surrounded us. The only light that was hitting us was from the moon and the stars.

  Graven slowly lowered my legs down to the ground. I let my hands slide over his shoulders and down the tops of his strong pectorals until I heard the sand crunching under my boots and they touched down. I looked up to him, even with the heels of my boots he still stood at least a half a foot taller than me.

  When my eye met his I could still see the shimmer of his human astral body and watched as his physical body shifted to match. It was hard to see the details in the dim light, but even there his eyes still had a unique brightness to them no matter the time, place, or form.

  I felt the flutters in my stomach when I realized that at least a minute, maybe more, had passed and I still had my hands on him and my eyes had not relocated their gaze.

  Graven looked down at me. I could see and feel his eyes looking from my eyes to my mouth and back again. I sucked my lips nervously into my mouth before releasing them. The slight breeze cooled the dampness on my lips.

  He lifted his hand to my face and I felt the pad of his thumb brush cross my full bottom lip.

  "The air is cold and dry out here. Your lips could chap easily. Make sure you pick up some lip balm or gloss tomorrow."

  My lips were still swollen from my fit of tears. I wondered if my face had red blotches around my eyes.

  Graven's thumb glided toward my cheekbone at where the salt surely stained my cheeks.

  "You have been through too much already, Kasha. I wish I could say that things are going to get easier, but that is a promise I know I cannot make to you."

  "I know, I wouldn't expect you to. I don't expect anything from you." My eyes drifted down into the darkness. It was hard to continue the intense stare between us. His gaze was powerful. I felt like he could see into my soul. I wondered how much of me he could really see.

  My hands lowered to my sides, he lifted my chin to return the connection with our eyes.

  "You can expect me to do what is in my power to keep you safe. We have a long walk ahead of us. It will give us an opportunity to talk about some things, maybe get to know each other a little bit. What do you say?"

  I felt my cheeks lift toward my eyes as my lips widened. "That sounds like a good idea. How far are we from the hotel? It feels like we are much further than a mile or two." I wasn't sure how well my feet would fare in my new boots. They were comfortable, but they really needed to be broken in.

  "It might be best if you keep a hold of me, or allow me to hold your hand. I can see quite well in the dark. I wouldn't want you
to get yourself lost out here." He offered his arm to me and I interlocked both my arms around the base of his thick bicep.

  It was a strange experience to be so close to a man that I hardly knew like this. I wouldn't tell him, but it was the first time I had walked hand in hand or arm and arm with someone. There was something romantic about it. I wished that I was in a place in my life where that was all there was to this type of scenario.

  Why shouldn't I let it be a possibility? He has professed his intentions with me and I do have a yearning for him to touch me every second that I am around him. It was too bad that we couldn't have met in a normal situation, one that was casual and could blossom into something special.

  "You can speak your mind, Kasha. I can feel your emotions spiking up and down." Graven smoothed his right hand over my left hand that was gripping his left arm. His voice was thick and low.

  "How can you feel my emotions?" The sound of my voice almost startled me at how loud it sounded. I had learned how much noise surrounds us in the silence after being held in dark solitary confinement for so long. Still, the sounds of the earth and brush beneath my feet were not enough to filter my voice.

  "For starters our astral bodies are where much of our emotions reside. I can feel the variances in the vibrations of your astral body." Graven started to explain. "We actually have several bodies and they each have a special purpose. You already know that limited people can see astral projections. There are some humans that are clairvoyant and can see some of our other bodies, some of them see what they call an aura."

  "Is our astral body our aura?" It maybe made sense, but I pictured them being two different things.

  "Well, it is kind of a yes and no answer. Each of the different "bodies" exist at a different vibrational speed. They all make up what they call the aura. Different human and supernatural cultures have their own way of describing these things. Of course most humans can't see it so they think it is a bunch of bologna." Graven guided us to the left to avoid walking into some sort of brush.

  "You are losing me, what does this have to do with you knowing how I am feeling?" I asked.

  "I told you that we all have a vibration, and I am uncharacteristically in tune with your vibration. Maybe because it is very similar to my own. So when your emotions spike the vibration of your astral body is affected. I can feel it, or sense it. Usually I can feel it when others around me have extreme emotional fluctuations, but with you it is different. I have my suspicions about it."

  "Oh yeah? What kind of suspicions?" He was so not getting away with leaving that one hanging.

  "I think it has something to do with our paths being intertwined. From the moment I saw you in that conference room I felt a connection to you that I have never experienced before.

  "It isn't like, 'oh hey she looks attractive, or she looks like we have the same hobbies,' it was deep within my core. Every part of me felt your presence, before you even popped up in that room I felt you coming."

  "Wow, I don't even know what to say. Either you are totally for real or that is one hell of a pickup line." I couldn't stop the nervous giggle from escaping.

  "Do you deny that you are not experiencing similar feelings?"

  I could feel that he wanted to stop me and turn me to face him. I prayed that he would keep walking so I could attempt to formulate an answer.

  "Graven, I can't deny that my feelings for you are different than they have been with any other person I have known in my life. With that being said, I don't really know what they are or if I can trust them yet. Aside from the massively messed up past few weeks of being kidnapped and tortured, all kinds of freaky stuff has happened to me and my body or should I say bodies." I rolled my eyes. It was dark but since we were walking Graven probably didn't notice.

  "I have always been a spiritual person and have enjoyed learning about things of the occult, but never did I ever expect to be able to astral project or communicate with my dead grandmother. Not sure if I mentioned that one yet or not. Ziona and The Taker seem to think I am going to come into some sort of powers that would benefit them in some way. So much that they actually let me leave with you." I let go of his arm and stopped walking.

  "Which by the way, is shady as shit. I was there and witnessed your conversation with Ziona, but what gives? What is it that you have done for them that they trust you enough to let me, their special treasure, leave captivity with you?" I paused, but not long enough to let him answer. "You see where I am going with this, don't you? Where my concern and fear of trusting what I am feeling about you is coming from. Because what I feel and what my mind can rationalize are not matching up."

  Graven put his hands on the sides of my shoulders. "Can you feel this?"

  "Feel what? You holding my arms?"

  "Yes," he pushed me to question what I was feeling, "go ahead and lift your hand to your shoulder."

  I took my right hand and went to put it on his hand that was holding my left arm. There was nothing there. I blew out a deep breath out of my nose.

  "Sometimes you have to trust what you can feel, and I don't mean what you can feel with the touch of your hand. You have to trust what you feel at all levels of your existence. It is that which will, and does, help you to protect yourself, but also allows you to know when something is safe for you to let in.

  "I know that we have only know each other for a few days, and there is an infinite amount of time ahead of us to discover one another, but I have never been so sure of anything in my life. Let me stand by your side and walk this life with you. I will prove to you all that I am and all that I can be.

  "I am a gargoyle of the Fromarian Clan and it is my nature to protect. It is what we do. Many of us have been enslaved over the centuries and bonded at times against our will to humans and other supernatural beings to keep them and their lands safe from the harsh realities of both human and supernatural wars." This time he took my hands in his as he spoke, "I have lost many that I have cared for, but there has never been another of any race or breed that has affected me the way I am when I am in your presence."

  I knew he was looking at me, looking into me. I could faintly make out the shape of his face. I could see the angle of his jaw and secretly wanted him to turn his face enough for me to see the silhouette of his full lips. At the same time, I was glad that I couldn't really look at him, it may have made it harder for me to speak as openly as I wanted.

  "I want to believe all that you are saying to me, part of me actually does. The other part of me knows that I have no choice but to have faith that what you say is true, otherwise I am beyond screwed. I don't even know who or what I am." I could feel my hands becoming moist and my face flushed at the thought of him noticing them sweating. I wanted to pull them back and wipe them on my jeans.

  "If you allow me, I would like very much to help you to discover what it is you seek. I will teach you what I know, my unique gift is being able to astral project and having an understanding of how our physical bodies exist within or in combination to our four spiritual bodies," Graven pledged. "You have excelled at learning what I have taught you so far, and your abilities are gaining in strength. I will do my best to teach you how to protect yourself and we will find a way to break away from the darkness that The Taker rules with."

  I grabbed his arm and locked it with mine again. "Let's keep walking, if we stop again my feet might protest and I can see we are still far enough out that we have a good amount of walking left to do." Truth was, it was easy talking to him like this. Not having to directly look at him in the dark left for fewer things to distract me. The rhythmic pattern of the walking helped to relax me and let my thoughts flow more easily toward what I was able to voice aloud.

  "About that, do you remember I told you something happened when I was in that room and when I was escaping the tunnels?"

  "Um hmm." A deep sound hummed in response.

  "I made that door that was impossible to get open, open. I am not really sure if I did it with my mind or with the fo
rce of my body when I kicked it, but I know I did something. You said yourself that they did not let me out as a trap."

  "True. I have wanted to ask you about that night, but things have been happening so fast, and I didn't want to press you on talking about it until you were ready. This is really the first time we had an opportunity to speak of what happened that night," he said.

  "I don't know if I will ever be "ready" to talk about what happened, but it did and it's not over so maybe it is time that we start talking about what has happened. Opening the door wasn't the only thing that happened down there. There was an angry pack of wild mangy dogs chasing me. I am assuming they were dogs, but their eyes glowed red and the stench of them was putrid. I was terrified. I felt the energy swirl inside me as I was running. Instead of continuing to run, I stopped. I stopped and I turned around and held my hand up to them as if to make them stop."

  "Did they stop?" he asked.

  "No, instead what appeared to be a stream or bolt of blue light extended from my hand to the floor planks that I was standing on. The wood planks were the only thing that was between us and they caught fire. The fire held them at bay, but when I turned to start running again the floor collapsed under my feet and sent me falling deeper underground."

  "I am sorry that I wasn't there to guide you the rest of the way. I had to be sure that they were not aware of your escape. I have knowledge of people possessing the ability to start fires. Do you feel comfortable enough to tell me what you know about your family history?"

  "Honestly, there is so much I don't know. You apparently know my mother, perhaps better than I do since I haven't seen her since I was nine. Gram was very interesting, but I always thought of her as an eccentric old hippy that was into holistic living. Apparently there was way more to her than I ever knew. They were the only family I ever knew. I never suspected that this world existed and that we were somehow a part of it.