I should have been upset with Caden looking at them but I wasn’t. I was doing the same thing whenever I saw a guy with surfer abs, bleached blonde hair and incredibly tanned skin. So no complaints there. Although Caden did have to snap his fingers in my face to get my attention whenever one of those guys walking by claimed my attention. He gave me a scolding look and I couldn’t help but to blush.
Hey, if it’s okay for them to look at other women then it’s okay for me to look at other men. There is a saying if you’re with someone, you can look but you can’t touch. Even with the inviting beaches and tall buildings, I prefer the rural area of Miami Florida where things were more run down and actually looked like places have been lived in. Everything here looked shiny and new. After a few more minutes of ogling the residents, we hopped back on the bikes and headed out.
Almost another hour later we followed a winding dirt road that lead away from Daytona Beach leaving all the beautiful buildings, trees and inviting sandy beaches behind. Even though this wasn’t my kind of place, I still would have given anything to sit on the beach in a lawn chair soaking up the sun, but we had more pressing issues at hand.
A mile or so back I saw a wooden sign that said marsh lands. At the end of the dirt road we stopped and got off the bikes. My ass felt numb from sitting so long. I had a hard time peeling off my jacket because the sweat made it cling to me. Before draping it over the back of Caden’s bike, I patted the pockets looking for a hair tie. Of course, I can remember daggers and swords but not a freaking hair tie. I blew out a breath in frustration and Caden arched a brow at me
“Everything okay?”
“Yeah.”
“Good…let’s get moving.” Kevin said as he took the lead.
Gee, who died and made him boss? He’s fifteen for Christ sake. I brought my hands up in a gestor to choke him, earning a low throaty chuckle from Caden. On and on we walked with sweat running down our faces. Caden handed me a bottle of water from the duffel bag that I didn’t see him grab from the bike. I smiled my thanks and took a big swallow.
Caden and I were talking in hushed tones about what we would do when we were finally in the clear. We didn’t know that Kevin stopped until we ran into him, he would have fallen over if Caden wouldn’t have grabbed his arm to steady him. I was about to ask why he stopped until I looked up. In front of us was a path surrounded by a thick cluster of trees. The sun was barely able to get through, but there was enough light to see where you were walking. Kevin shrugged off his backpack and opened it as he sank to his hunches.
“Time to strap on weapons.”
I snorted. “Really? What are we going to run into, defenseless animals?”
He looked up at me from the ground. “Better safe than sorry.” He shrugged. “Besides, you’ll never know what will be waiting.”
Caden and I gave each other amused looks and shrugged. Once we were all loaded down with weapons, Caden and Kevin stashed the bags in some tall weeds a few feet from the mouth of the path. Standing side by side we gave each other one small glance before stepping into the shaded foliage.
Chapter 12
Since the trees blocked out most of the sun it was kind of chilly. Goosebumps peppered my exposed flesh and I rubbed my hands over my arms to try and chase them away. It didn’t work. Damn, I should have kept my jacket on.
There was fog that was low to the ground, birds chirped and other animals scurried across the ground and weeds. There were trees clustered together with winding roots that stuck up from the water on either side of us and on the sodden path. Every time we took a step it felt like our feet would sink in and made a sloshing, sucking sound.
The farther in we walked the colder it got. Everywhere you looked there was green, green, brown, water, oh hey look, more green. I guess they don’t call it a swamp for nothing. I don’t see how a person could live in nothing but vegetation and I’m almost afraid to know what they eat or drink. My only guess would be they catch and cook the animals (gross) and that they are advanced enough in science to turn swamp water into drinking water (double gross). A loud sound to my left made me jump and bump into Caden.
“What the hell was that?”
“Probably a gator.” Came Kevin’s reply.
“A gator.” I squeaked.
“Yes.” Kevin said. “It’s not too uncommon, almost every swamp has them.”
I stayed practically glued to Caden’s side after that and paid more attention to my surroundings. I wasn’t going to let a gator sneak up on me and take a bite out of my ass…fuck that. Up ahead was a patch of sunlight and when we reached it I couldn’t help but to step into it. It warmed up my skin a little.
Looking down I noticed a white flower. I was kind of surprised to see another color besides green and brown so I stood there looking at it. Kevin must have noticed what I was looking at because I heard his voice close to my ear.
“That’s a swamp lily.”
“It’s pretty.”
It was a white flower that grew close to the ground with long petals, it’s a pretty flower considering that it grows in a swamp. It almost looked like the petals could grab a hold of you and never let you go. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a man eating plant out here. I wanted to reach down and stroke the petals with my fingertips and see if they were soft like other flowers.
I shook my head as we moved on. After another half hour-forty five minutes of walking there was another clearing. This one was wide open with a lot more water. Kevin stopped and pointed in the distance. I wasn’t at all surprised to see yet another cluster of trees.
“That’s called a cypress dome…the trees at the center of the swamp grow higher than the trees at the edge, which forms a dome-like shape of trees when viewed from a distance.”
I rolled my eyes at him. “We don’t need a history lesson in swamp.”
He looked at me. “It’s not, I’m just letting you know that swamps can form many beautiful things.”
“How is a bunch of green trees beautiful?” I questioned.
He chuckled. “It’s not what you see…but how you look at it.”
Okay…that made absolutely no freaking sense. I looked at Caden and all he did was shrug his shoulders and continued walking. I narrowed my eyes at their backs, men are such confusing bastards. I huffed out a breath as I followed slowly behind them. They were a few feet in front of me talking amongst themselves while I was lost in my own thoughts.
Walking around in a swamp was boring and I would rather be fighting because at least I would be doing something. God, does this path ever freaking end?, I’m starving. The boys stopped up ahead and I thought that they were just waiting for me to catch up. When I got closer I saw three different wooden signs. KEEP OUT. PRIVATE PROPERTY and another that said TURN BACK. Yeah, if that doesn’t get your short hairs to stand, I don’t know what does.
Beyond the signs I saw a wooden bridge that didn’t look safe for crossing…By the looks of it, I guess we finally made it. Good thing to because I wanted to sit and rest. Caden looked at me over his shoulder as he unsheathed a dagger. I pulled one out from the strap on my thigh. Kevin nodded his head and Caden took the first step onto the rickety old bridge.
Chapter 13
The further we walked the skinnier and higher up the bridge got. Seriously? How in the hell was a person able to get a bridge this high? I watched each step I took because some of the boards looked rotted and not so promising. Caden and Kevin were a few feet ahead of me and concentrating on their steps. I blew out another breath as I took another step.
The board creaked and groaned under my weight and just as I went to take another slow step, the sound of the wood snapping echoed around me. My eyes widened in surprise as my foot fell through it, first my foot, then my knee and lastly my thigh. I tried to pull myself back up but my hands kept slipping from the ropes. I looked up to see Caden trying to move past Kevin but Kevin kept pushing him back. I was a little confused by that and thought surely he wouldn’t let me fall to my death.
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Kevin pushed Caden back one more time before he turned and headed back towards me. I’m not sure if that was a safe idea because this bridge was pretty shitty and I didn’t feel like falling to my death from the added weight. I almost yelled for him to turn back but the determined look he had on his face kept my mouth shut.
When he reached me, he hooked his arms under my arm pits and pulled. At least he didn’t say, well while you’re down there, if he would have said that I would have had to stab him in the thigh. He grunted in his effort to pull me up. With all this moving and extra weight, sounds of wood breaking gave us pause. Kevin’s eyes locked with mine. “Come on Cora, push up with your free leg…quickly.” I did as he said while he tried pulling me up again.
The bottom of my pants ripped when it got caught on the splintered off part of wood. I could feel it biting into my leg as I came unstuck. Kevin and I stood there for a few seconds trying to catch our breath but the sound of cracking wood got our feet moving. Caden was waiting for us on the other side. As soon as I stepped off the wooden death trap, Caden pulled me to him and wrapped his arms around me in a vise like grip.
“Are you alright?”
“Yes, I’m fine.”
“Good.” He kissed my forehead. “I wanted to punch him for not letting me go after you.”
“I saw that.”
“We should keep moving.” Kevin said.
We nodded. “Okay.”
I had to unstrap another dagger because I lost my other one, I’m glad that I’ve got more. Kevin took the lead while Caden stayed by my side. A few feet from the death bridge were stairs leading up a tree. My eyes followed the steps until they stopped on a tree house. “Oh my god! Swamp people do exist.” Caden and Kevin gave me the same none amused looks. Well at least I thought it was funny.
The steps were only big enough for one person at a time, I shrugged my shoulders as I took the rear. I was surprised to find that we didn’t have to go very far, only forty steps and that was about it…unless you wanted to follow the rest of them up to the very top of the tree. The make shift porch was just big enough for the three of us to stand side by side.
Kevin’s voice came out shaky. “So, who’s knocking?” Caden and I both gave him a look. Hey, it was his idea so it’s only fair that he did the knocking. Caden and I stood in a defensive stance because we didn’t know what to expect. Kevin brought up his hand and rapped his knuckles three times against the door. We stood there holding our breaths waiting for the person to answer. The seconds ticked by making me grow nervous.
Finally the door slowly creaked open to reveal an old woman that looked to be in her early sixties if not older. A rope of long white hair circled her head and was held in place with twigs. Her sky blue eyes slowly took us in and after a few seconds a smile spread across her face revealing yellowing teeth. Talk about creepy. When she spoke I was expecting her voice to crack, nope, it came out clear as day.
“What do we have here, two shifters and a guardian?” Her keen old gaze looked me over a second time. “Ah…a guardian who also happens to be a hybrid shifter.” She looked back at Kevin. “Make that two hybrid shifters and a regular shifter.” She clucked her tongue and moved aside. “Please…come in.”
We hesitated for a second before walking through the door. The sound of the door clicking into place had me looking over my shoulder at the older woman. The longer she smiled at us the creepier she was. I gripped my dagger in my hand until my knuckles turned white.
Chapter 14
She motioned for us to follow her, but I couldn’t bring my legs to move. A few thoughts raced through my head. What if this was a trap? What if she lured us in there and she skinned us alive? I don’t know about you, but I’m against cannibalism.
The old lady disappeared around a corner with Kevin right behind her. I was half expecting Kevin to yell for help or to yell run, but neither of those came. The only thing there was was silence. Caden nudged me in the arm with his shoulder. I let out a breath that I didn’t know I was holding and followed slowly behind him. I don’t know what I was expecting to see when I walked around the corner, but what I saw, I sure wasn’t expecting to see. I mean, I figured there would be tree stumps for seats and tables, but nope.
There was a tacky brown couch tucked against the wall with two comfy looking chairs in the same tacky brown that was on the other side of the room by the wall. The inside wasn’t very big, just big enough to fit a family of six or seven. In the center of the room was a fire pit with a table built around it. I guess that’s how this woman stayed warm. To the left side of the room, there were four big packs of water bottles stacked on top of each other.
At least we won’t have to drink swamp water re-filtered for drinking water. A bunch of oil lamps were placed around the room and cast a homely glow. Caden and I sat on the couch next to Kevin, with me sitting between them. I bounced in my seat to get the feel of the couch and settled back when I decided that it was comfy enough. The old woman/assassin took a seat on one of the chairs. It didn’t take long for her to get down to the point.
“I understand that there is a reason you came to see me…most people wouldn’t venture out this far, but again, you three aren’t most people.”
Boy, she’s quick. “Yes ma’am--.”
“My name is Kayla.” She cut me off. How rude.
“Kayla.” I said. “We came because we heard that you might know the history of hybrid shifters.”
She smiled. “I know a lot about a lot of things.”
“So we’ve heard.”
Kevin elbowed me in the ribs and I turned to glare at him. He cleared his throat.
“Sorry about my friend here, she has no manors. I’m Kevin, this is Cora and Caden.”
“Oh, I know who you three are. Just because I live out here doesn’t mean I don’t know what’s going on out there.”
“Why do you live out here?” I blurted, earning myself another jab to the ribs by Kevin.
She leveled a stare at me. “Because it’s quieter…I’ll let you ask your questions and then you’ll need to leave…I’m a bit antsy with you here.”
She wasn’t looking at Caden nor Kevin, she was looking directly at me when she said the last part. Gees, she acts like I’m about ready to jump up and stab her in the eyes. I found myself asking a question instead.
“What do you assassins call yourselves? Last we heard, nobody knew.”
“We call ourselves Swiftstrikers.”
Swiftstrikers? Really? “Okay.” Odd name for people that sucked. “Can you tell us about the hybrid shifter, why are we hybrids?” A good question if I don’t say so myself.
A thoughtful look crossed her face. Really, she had to think about that? And here I thought she was all knowing. Go figure for thinking that. I really hope that she can tell us something useful and nothing that we already know. If she couldn’t, then this would be a wasted trip.
My leg started to bounce the longer she sat there in thought. It was more out of a nervous habit than anything else. From the corner of my eye, I could see that Caden was starting to get a bit nervous too. A light started to shimmer around his hand and I quickly covered his hand with my own to keep him from shifting. He gave me a grateful look. Our attention went back to Kayla when she started to talk.
“Hybrids aren’t as bad as everyone claims them to be. Some are good while others don’t care. Two hundred years ago, there was a hybrid shifter named Levi. He was a strong lad. His strength was what some people feared the most about him. In the beginning he wasn’t a bad person, but one fateful day changed all that.” She paused. “You see, he was in love with a woman who also happened to be a guardian. Her own people turned on her when they found out who he really was…they killed her viscously. That my friend, was how we Swiftstrikers came to be.”
Okay, that told us nothing, but apparently she wasn’t done because her mouth started moving again and I tried to quiet my thoughts to pay attention.
“The hybrid was hunted d
own and eliminated, not because of who he was, but because of what he could do. There is a dangerous type of fire that is buried deep down in every hybrid. That kind of fire can swallow everything that is who you are and consume you. It can make you do awful things.” She looked at Kevin and me. “The rules were set in place so that a shifter and a guardian couldn’t fall in love and mate because of what would come out of it. Of course, throughout the years those rules have been broken. As far as I know you and Cora are the most recent of those couplings, but I’m sure there are more. Rules are always meant to be broken. There isn’t very much on Levi but from what I’ve told you, well besides another thing…”
She trailed off and we waited for her to continue, but she didn’t, she just sat there shifting her gaze from me to Kevin and finally her gaze just stayed on me. I had to look away because I couldn’t hold her gaze any more. It was probably weak on my part, but what was I to do? I had to clear my throat a couple times before I was able to speak.
“What um…what was the other thing?”
She cocked her head to the side. “You don’t already know?”
I looked at her confused. “No.”
“You child, are related to him, which makes you the strongest of your kind.”
I felt my eyes go wide. “But…” I had no words.
“Why do you think your eyes are the color that they are?”
“But my father--.”
She shook her head. “Your father’s eyes were a lighter shade of amethyst.”
“So…Levi had a child?”
She nodded. “Levi and his guardian had a boy but gave him up for adoption to give him a better life. That was how Levi was found out. It was the fire dancing in the depths of his eyes. When his true love was murdered, the fire within came out and consumed him. He destroyed everything in his path to get his revenge, but in the end…he was destroyed.”
Guardians Of The Shifters Page 13