“Be careful,” Selene says, before vanishing in a burst of silver light.
Chapter Eight
The cave is located two days away, and is situated near the Screaming Bluffs, a place that is said to be tormented by the screams of lost souls that tried to commit suicide by jumping. Unfortunately for them, they were either to depressed or to stupid in the afterlife to realize that you can’t kill yourself if you’re already dead, and they woke up the next morning back where they started.
We’ve been walking for close to four hours, and finally Chloe demands that we stop. She’s cross after miles of walking over hard, uphill ground, and I don’t blame her for snapping. Nobody else is particularly happy as we put together a makeshift camp of a tarp in case it rains, and blankets for warmth. Austin, Chloe, and Morgan huddle together under one blanket as the temperature starts to drop, while Tara and I sit together under another.
Kaven is leaning against a nearby tree stump to keep watch for the first part of the night, and I see the sword strapped to his belt, and I wonder just how good he is with a weapon. I’ve only ever seen him fight with his hands, probably because I hadn’t started to learn sword work yet. When he glances over his shoulder, he catches me staring, and I get one of his confident, sexy smirks. “Like what ya see?”
I smile. “As a matter of fact, I do,” I say, exactly as I did the first time he asked me that question.
He turns his attention back to the surrounding land, always on the lookout for possible enemies, and I can’t help but feel it’s a little unnecessary. Since Selene left us hours ago, we haven’t seen another living being aside from our group, and we haven’t found any traces of them. There’s no vegetation and no animals, even though there’s a small stream about a hundred yards to our left. Other than that, it’s just dirt, sparse grass, and nothingness.
Austin and Morgan manage to build a small campfire, and we all warm our hands. Even though there doesn’t seem to be much out here, I keep my eyes and ears focused on anything that doesn’t belong. As full-grown vampires, Kaven and I will see or hear anything long before them, and we’ll be ready to protect the group in an instant.
After everyone falls asleep, I stay awake a little longer, watching the crackling flames of the campfire. Kaven comes over and joins me a little bit later, and he wordlessly wraps his arm around my shoulder. His hand rubs my arm, quickly warming the area, and I rest my head against his chest.
“You should get some sleep. I’ll wake you in a few hours,” he murmurs, kissing my temple. “Don’t worry; nothing will get anywhere near our campsite with me on guard.”
“I trust you,” I say sleepily. My eyelids are already drooping, and I know I’ll be out like a light any second. Finally, everything just drifts away, and I fall into a restful sleep.
Kaven shakes me awake some time later, and he gets some rest while I take over the watch. The sky is just starting to lighten, and I guess it to be about five in the morning. He should have woken me earlier. I just hope he doesn’t need too much sleep, or he’ll be tired when we have to set out, and a tired Protector makes mistakes.
And mistakes get people killed. I know that better than anyone. The first thing I do is use the bathroom a ways from the campsite, but still within sight so I can keep an eye on everyone, and then I drain the last of the water from my bottle. The others are all empty as well, and I gather them up as silently as possible.
I make my way to the narrow stream near our campsite and, after checking my surroundings, I bend down over the water and fill the bottles with fresh, cold water. I cap them, and set them off to the side, before bending back down and scrubbing my arms, face, and neck. My wrist begins to tingle with a familiar burn, and I glance down at my wrist, noting the silver crescent moon.
What sounds like horse hooves pound against the ground, and I stand up straight, looking around for whatever could be making that noise. I don’t see anything nearby, and the campsite is still safe and secure, so I know it’s not coming from that direction. If it had been, Kaven would have been up on his feet with his weapon drawn. After a second, the pounding stops, and I hear the sound of harsh breathing.
When I turn around, I find myself face to face with a massive bull’s head. The horns are more than a foot in length, and are a few inches thick at the thinnest point. Snot drips from its massive nostrils, and the thick, muscular neck is hairy, before giving away to perfectly tanned human skin. The rest of the creature is of a man, aside from the hooves on his feet and the bull’s tail.
It’s naked, and definitely male.
I only have time to scream once before it’s on me, and my bow is shoved aside in the struggle. The creature, which I remember is called a minotaur, pins my arms to my sides with its thick, muscular arms, and it uses a knee to try and spread my legs apart. My brain kicks into overdrive in an instant, and I begin to panic. I’ve been trained to fight and protect others and myself, but I never considered having to protect myself from an attack of this nature.
I bring my free knee up into his groin, and he bellows in pain. The sound is nothing a human man has ever made, and it sends shivers up my spine as I shove the beast off of me and jump to my feet. I pivot in the dirt, grab the horn closest to me, and twist the bulls face toward mine, before bringing my closed hand down on its nose.
It doesn’t have much effect, and I shove the creature away from me. Unfortunately, the creature is guarding my bow and arrows, and I can’t reach them without opening myself up for a deadly attack. I’ve been stabbed and impaled before, and I don’t want to ever have to repeat the experience. One glance at those sharp horns tells me he could easily cut through my flesh.
Which is what he intends to do.
He lowers his head, and the points of those horns end up level with my chest. He kicks up dirt with his hooves, before charging at me like a beast blinded by rage, or desire, I’m not sure which, but I don’t wait around to ask.
I somersault away and, as I get to my feet, I realize too late that the bull expected that. He turns quickly, slicing his horns across my body, aiming for my neck. Thankfully, he only gets me from shoulder to shoulder, just inches below my throat. Warm blood begins to ooze from my wound, but I don’t dare take my eyes off this creature long enough to check out the severity of it.
“Kylie!” Kaven shouts.
I meet the bull’s disturbingly human brown eyes, and it charges one more time.
Kaven appears from seemingly nowhere, with his broadsword in hand. One quick chop and the sword hacks into the beast’s neck, biting deep into the bone with a sickening crack. The beast roars in pain and confusion, before turning on Kaven. A large, dark fist lashes out, catching Kaven square in the jaw, knocking him to the ground.
As Kaven fends off the beast, I scoop up my bow and discarded arrows, fit an arrow to the string, and pull it back. With one deep, steadying breath, I take aim, and release. The arrow flies straight and true, burying itself deep in the neck of the beast, sliding in up to the feathers at the end.
The beast stumbles back a few steps, and rips the arrow from his neck. Blood immediately begins spurting from the wound, and the beast puts a hand against his neck, but it’s already too late. He starts to sway dangerously, and Kaven picks up his dropped sword.
As an act of mercy, Kaven lifts his sword, and runs it directly through the beast’s heart. He drops to his knees with a loud thump, makes a few choked, gurgling noises, and lands facedown in a pool of his own blood. His limbs twitch occasionally, and I can do nothing except stare at this beast’s dead body with a strange mixture of horror, revulsion, and pity.
Just thinking about what this beast obviously wanted from me–spreading my legs gave off a very clear message–makes me start to tear up. The second I start to cry, Kaven drops the sword and rushes over to my side, instantly checking me over for injury. His eyes settle on the cut from shoulder to shoulder, and he slips my sweater down around my shoulders.
“Chloe!” he shouts. “Get over here, now!”<
br />
Everyone comes running, and their eyes all widen when they see the body of the dead minotaur at Kaven’s back. Chloe skirts cautiously around it, almost as if she’s afraid it’s going to jump up and gore her, and rushes to my side. Her hand has already started to glow a faint silver color, and she presses it gently against the cut on my chest.
The pain flares up and I gasp, but it fades away almost as quickly as it happened. I’m sure it would have healed in a matter of moments even without Chloe’s help, but one look at Kaven and I know it wouldn’t have been fast enough for him. He’s holding my hand, and I curl into his side for comfort.
“What happened?” Morgan asks, eyeing the beast nearby. “All of a sudden, Kaven was on his feet and running this way, and we didn’t understand why. Kylie, where did this thing come from and why is it here?”
I sigh. “I’m not sure. I didn’t see it until it was too late. But I think it was looking for a mate,” I say with one last look at the beast’s body. My entire mouth goes dry, and I get the urge to throw up. “Let’s get out of here. There might be more in the area, and I don’t feel like waiting around to find out.”
We spend the rest of the morning in near total silence, and I notice that everyone seems tired or grouchy. Austin accidentally bumps Morgan, and she snaps at him. Tara stumbles once and starts to fall behind, and Kaven barks at her to keep up or get left behind. Nobody got enough sleep last night, and I feel bad about that. If I’d just been more careful, they could have all gotten another three or four hours.
Kaven especially needed that extra sleep. He’s running on a power bar, water, and about two and a half hours of sleep. I really hope we don’t get into any trouble, because he won’t be much help in his condition.
Around noon, we stop to eat a hasty lunch, while Kaven and I keep watch. We stand together in a comfortable silence, just watching the skies and flat ground around us. In the distance, I can see the beginnings of massive peaks jutting up from the ground, and I know that’s our destination. We might reach it by tomorrow morning if we keep up a steady pace, but we can’t be worn out when we arrive, so it’ll probably be much later when we get there.
Something screams, and my gaze instantly shoots up. Flying overhead is a large creature with a golden catlike body, and massive red-feathered wings. The creature is about the size of a horse, with sharp talons and a large beak. A lion tail wags as it flies through the air above us, and Kaven and I both watch it in quiet amazement.
“It’s a griffin,” I say, completely awestruck. “I’ve read about them in Greek Mythology books, and they always fascinated me. They’ve got the body of a lion, and the wings and heads of birds. I never thought I would get to see one as anything other than a picture in a book.”
Kaven nods. “They’re breathtaking. And so are you.”
I elbow him with one arm, and run my other hand through my ridiculously short hair. It’s only about three inches long, and I still can’t really tuck it behind my ears. All I can do is run my hands through it whenever it falls into my face or tickles my neck. It’s long enough to push back with a headband, but I don’t have one of those.
He looks down at me. “Kylie, you know you’re beautiful, right?”
“That doesn’t seem important right now,” I say. “We’re trying to rescue the daughter of a goddess without being killed. I think we should talk about something like this later.”
He shrugs. “If you want.”
We watch the griffin soar through the sky for a few more minutes, before it disappears from view, landing somewhere in the bluffs that happen to be our destination. “I bet we’ll get a chance to see them up close,” I say. “I bet they’re as graceful as they are beautiful.”
Kaven gives me another second of peace, before he grabs my hand. “Come on. We should probably keep going if we wanna reach someplace safer before dark. I don’t wanna have to spend another night out in the open like we did.”
I nod. “Alright. Let’s get the others moving. We can still make great time before dark. We’ll spend the night nestled into the face of one of those bluffs we’re heading toward. It should provide enough coverage from the elements.”
The others aren’t happy to be moving already, but a quick reminder that we have a job to do gets them up and on their feet. They pack up our supplies, and we start walking again. Tara and I talk about her days without me at Daray, while Kaven listens with interest. Morgan starts to hum to herself, and Chloe and Austin are talking off to the side of our group, lost in their own little world.
They’re more and more obvious about it as the time wears on, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they were dating by the time this was all said and done. Dangerous, life-threatening experiences can really force to people closer together. Watching them giggle over something probably stupid makes me conscious of the fact that Kaven and I haven’t actually sat down and talked about our feelings yet.
He glances over at me, and I smile. He doesn’t smile back, but I can see the emotion in his eyes. But he quickly looks away, and heads to the front of our group, leading the way in case we cross paths with anything dangerous.
After another hour, the hard, dirt plains give way to a thick forest with high trees that completely block out the sunlight. The forest floor is almost completely blacked out, and I can hear the others tripping and stumbling over themselves. Kaven and I are the only full-grown vampires, and our eyesight is better, not to mention we’re more agile and capable of staying on our feet.
“How long until we reach the bluffs?” Tara asks. “My feet are really starting to hurt.”
I pull her closer to keep her from tripping over a tree root, and sigh. “I’m not sure. Another three or four hours. Then we’ll camp for the night, and start climbing in the morning. Hopefully we can reach the top of the bluffs by noon. Then we’ll get a little rest while we make a game plan, and we’ll hopefully save Pandia. Then we won’t have to walk back down.”
“If we can save Pandia,” Tara says. “You know, this might be impossible. There are going to be two goddesses guarding her, and we’re counting on Morgan’s ability to turn herself invisible to get by them, but what if that doesn’t work? Then she gets surrounded and killed, and so do we. We have to have a better plan than that.”
“Well, we don’t,” I say, picking up my pace a little. “Tara, Selene gave each of us these gifts for a reason. You can find out who our enemies are by reading their minds, Austin can transport us back and forth between the Realms, Morgan can go about unnoticed to gather information, and Chloe can heal those that get injured. And then you have me and Kaven to protect you guys. If anyone can do this, we can. Don’t doubt that.”
“I just think this might be a little stupid. I think Selene expects too much from us this time. Searching the minds of fellow Daray Hall residents was one thing, but this is something else. This is highly dangerous, and some of us could be killed.”
I look at her as hard as I can. “I came back from the dead for this, Tara.” She flinches, and looks away from me. “Selene sent me back so that I could help you help her. She’s given us a job to do, and I’m going to make sure it gets done.”
Tara sighs, but doesn’t argue with me anymore. I’m not sure why she all of a sudden doesn’t trust our goddess, but I get the feeling it’s because of my death. I knew, even as I lay dying in her arms, that she was angry our goddess wouldn’t save me. She just didn’t understand that it was my time to go, and that I was happy, because I’d done my job.
I’d protected her.
And it looks like everything’s working out for the best. I’m a full-grown vampire. I’m a Protector. I’m Tara’s Protector, and we’ve got an opportunity to stop this war from happening. We can keep what happened at Daray from happening elsewhere, and we’ve got to try.
She’ll come around and see that this is all for the best. There are always sacrifices during war, and we all have to remember that…
Chapter Nine
The small campfire casts
a soft, orange glow over the face of the rocky bluffs while warming the area. Kaven’s eyes are closed in sleep, and his chest rises and falls slowly. My sword is within reaching distance, in case he needs to get to it quickly, and my bow is positioned in my lap. We’re perfectly safe tucked under a rocky ledge that keeps the rain from pelting us.
It hits the ground with a soft patter, and I watch the trees around us. It took us almost four whole hours to walk through the forest and, when we finally reached the last tree, we found ourselves at the base of the Screaming Bluffs. The bluffs are appropriately named, seeing as every time the wind howls, it sounds like screams of fear as someone takes a plunge over the cliffs.
Morgan and Tara are sharing a blanket near the fire, and they’re both asleep for the night. Austin is curled up alone under the only other blanket we have, and Chloe comes to sit quietly beside me. For a minute, we just stare at the forest, but I have the distinct impression that she wants to talk to me about something.
“Chloe, if you wanna talk, just spit it out. The sooner you say whatever’s bothering you, the sooner you can get some rest.”
She sighs. “You know me too well.”
“Yeah,” I agree, grabbing my bottled water. “Now spill it. This is about Austin, isn’t it?”
She looks at me. “Do you like him?” I choke on my water, and she laughs. “Not like that! I just meant, he’s a good guy, right? There aren’t any latent homicidal tendencies like with his sister? There’s nothing sinister that you’ve noticed?”
“No,” I say. “Austin’s a great guy, Chloe. He’s nice, funny, kind of a smartass sometimes, but he’s a generally great guy. Why? Thinking about being a little more than “just friends” with him?”
She blushes, and lets her long blonde hair fall into her face. “I don’t know. I told you that he and I felt like we had a lot in common after you died. Well, we spent quite a bit of time talking, and I told him a lot of the things that I’d only ever told you. I told him about Chelsea, and about my volunteer work, and just…about me…and he told me that I shouldn’t be ashamed of what an amazing person I am.”
Protector (Daray Hall #2) Page 7