He was right; I needed to be able to protect myself with or without powers. I sighed and reset myself, waiting for his next mock attack to come.
Caius watched me for a long moment. “Perhaps not tonight, though. We can work on it each evening.” He motioned toward the fire. “Rest for now.”
***
“Eventually, she would have to learn to use her powers without resorting to anger. I wasn’t sure I could be the one to teach it…” ~Caius
Chapter 3
The last of the light faded from the sky and as it did, the trees in the forest began to glow. They varied in color from bluish white that reminded me of reaper replenisher, grey, a red that reminded me of Caius’s cloak, purple, and green. Some trees were a combination of colors. Their luminescent bark and leaves bathed the ground beneath them in multicolored light.
Again, I was struck by the fairytale feel. “Is that what you meant when you said the trees would wake up?”
Caius only nodded, his gaze watching the glowing trees warily.
I was about to ask what made the forest so bad when the first shriek froze my thoughts. I stared at the beautiful trees as a shiver worked its way down my spine. “What was that?”
“Some of the trees are carnivorous. Some simply defensive of the area covered by their branches. All are sentient.” Caius glanced at me then returned his attention to the sinister forest.
Another scream, long and drawn out, echoed from farther away. I swallowed hard. “So some of the trees are hunting? What are they hunting?”
“Whatever walks beneath them. The main food source of the frell deer grows beneath those trees. And like all good predators, they often adopt the color pattern of neighboring benign trees to confuse their prey.” Somewhere not far inside the glowing foliage, a branch snapped, a snarl ripped through the air and a tree shuddered. Caius chuckled at seeing the confusion on my face. “Sometimes, the trees aren’t the only predators hunting.”
“I thought no one from Midtween ever came here. How do you know so much about it?” I folded my arms, wishing I had kept my cloak. It was cool enough now and without it, I somehow felt less protected against whatever other strangeness this night might throw at me.
“Reapers and guardians don’t come to the Between. Demonborn do all the time. It’s the hunting ground of new demonborn before they gain enough control to take to the mortal realm.” Caius drew up one knee and rested his forearm across it. “The best blood is that with some immortal in it. After that, mortal human blood. Without the option of the other two, whatever can be found in the wilds of Between will suffice to sate the bloodlust.”
“Bloodlust?” I was almost afraid to ask. He was speaking to me normally with none of the distance and I was hesitant to break whatever it was that changed his mood.
My question didn’t seem to disturb him and he answered, “Demonborn usually hit bloodlust somewhere between eighteen and twenty-one. They become consumed with the craving for blood. They don’t need it, but they want it the way an addict wants their fix.” He shrugged as if it was no big deal. “We find bringing them to Between to hunt and satisfy their desire works better than trying to suppress it. The bloodlust comes in waves—often times with months in between the need. It passes by the time they reach their fifties.”
Unease crawled through me. “Um, with so much demon blood in me, am I going to have to worry about this?”
Startled, he glanced at me. “No. For one, you have enough angel and Morrigan blood in you to offset the demon. For another, you have mine, and I passed bloodlust so long ago I can barely remember it.”
“Good, because no offense, I don’t think I could handle that.” The relief was so strong, if I hadn’t already been sitting, my legs would probably have given out. His comment about me having his blood brought up another question that had lingered in the back of my mind since I was pulled from Eisheth’s trap and Rowen had said it didn’t help that it was Caius’s blood in my veins. “Why does it matter that it was your blood and not another demonborn?”
He didn’t look at me this time; instead, he continued to face the forest. “Try to get some sleep, Josephine.”
And just like that, I was shut out. Fine. Whatever. I guess it was his secret to keep. Still, I couldn’t keep my thoughts from wandering around trying to think of a plausible reason his blood would be different. It was an unsuccessful endeavor. I lay back on the ground and stared up at the dark expanse of sky doing my best not to think of the way it had felt to have his arms around me, to be tight against him during our practice session. He’d been nothing but detached and professional during it, but that hadn’t stopped me from feeling things.
The ground wasn’t particularly comfortable and I only achieved a light doze that I woke frequently from thanks to the occasional scream that would echo among the trees and the unnerving snapping of branches. The last wouldn’t have been so strange had there been any wind at all, but the air was perfectly still which meant the branches were moving on their own. As the night wore on, the noise quieted down and a deeper sleep found me.
I jerked awake just as light was starting to show in the sky. The smell of roasted meat filled the air. Sitting up, I twisted toward the fire where broken limbs created a rough spit. Caius was in the process of taking the meat away from the fire. He shoved it off the stick speared through it and placed it on a wide, flat leaf. Another of the leaves held a large pile of iridescent white berries.
“Where did you get the food?” I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and leaned toward the meat as my stomach rumbled.
“The trees don’t always finish their kills. This was a young frell deer. It was only half eaten and a fresh kill. I took a haunch then found the berries.” Caius motioned toward the pile.
I stared at him in shock. “You went after a kill made by one of those trees?”
“We needed food. I originally went in to hunt, then found this. It saved me time.” He frowned at the look on my face. “I didn’t go that far. You were perfectly safe sleeping here.”
“I have no doubt. I just can’t believe you actually went near those trees.” I recovered from my shock enough to feel the ache in my stomach.
“Any tree that tried to hunt me would have ended up getting hold of more than it bargained for and they know it.” He tore the haunch in half and placed one-half on another leaf, piled a bunch of the berries on it and handed it to me.
I eyed the berries with caution. The last had been so nasty, I wasn’t sure I trusted these. I turned my attention to the meat and picked it up, though it was still hot from coming off the fire, and was surprised at how tender it was. It practically fell apart in my hands and had some sort of sticky coating on it. Raising a bite to my face, I smelled it and found the scent to be something between venison and beef. Taking a small amount in my mouth, I chewed carefully. It could have used some salt, but even so, it had a delicious, slightly sweet flavor. I stuffed another, larger bite into my mouth.
After swallowing, I tried one of the berries. The firm skin contained a juicy interior that burst across my tongue in a wave of sweetness, like someone had crossed strawberries and bananas. It almost reminded me of the flavor on the meat.
“Did you put berries on the meat?” I asked before stuffing another bite of the tender, moist, frell deer in my mouth.
He nodded around his own mouthful and after he swallowed he answered, “Cooking changes the flavor of the juice some and makes it a perfect thing to baste roasting meat with.”
“How do you know how to cook wild food in the Between? I thought demonborn only came here during bloodlust.” I grabbed a handful of berries and popped them in my mouth.
“Those who come here for that, never come alone. An older demonborn always comes along to protect the young one who is often too foolish, inexperienced, and distracted to be trusted not to fall in a hole.” He tore another chunk of meat loose. “It can last for up to two weeks at a time. Most mature demonborn know what can and can’t be eaten here. Learnin
g gives us something to do while we let the young ones hunt and keep them from getting themselves killed.”
“Well, at least you made good use of your time.” As I tore off another chunk of meat, a plaintive bug-like call carried from the edge of the trees. Pausing, the piece of meat hovering near my mouth, I turned toward the sound.
A large ball of charcoal-gray fur bounded across the grass toward me. Before either of us could truly react, the kitten flung herself into my lap and reached up with her front paws, claws latching onto the meat in my hand.
“Hey, you little fiend!” I tried to pry the kitten away from the meat. A high-pitched growl emanated from the kitten as she held on tight and snatched at the meat with her mouth.
Caius rose, took two steps and snatched the kitten up by the scruff of her neck. She flattened her tufted ears and hissed at him. He frowned. “What in the nine hells is a Bastet kitten doing out here?”
“Put her down, she’s hungry.” I frowned at him.
“She?”
“Yes. She introduced herself to me the first morning here while you were off picking nasty berries. She followed us for a long time. I thought she quit when we got to those crazy trees.” I motioned toward the forest.
Caius lowered the kitten to the ground. Before she could attack the meat in my hand again, I threw it on the ground. She pounced on it and started eating like she was ravenous. And without a mother, she probably was. I felt a strange sort of kinship with the kitten as I tore off more meat and tossed it to her. She growled and planted the claws of one paw in the new chunk while still working on the first.
Caius watched with an ambivalent expression on his face. “What do you intend to do with it?”
“I don’t intend to do anything. I assume she will follow or stay as she chooses.” I smiled as I finished the rest of my food, giving several more pieces to the kitten in the process. If she stuck around, I would have to think of something to call her. “I feel amazing after eating this. Thank you.”
He shrugged as if it were no big deal. “The wild food in Between will sustain you better than mortal food and much better than the synthetic stuff in Midtween.”
The energy flooding my body as it soaked up the food made me feel like I could go days without resting. I glanced at Caius as he finished his, glad that we seemed to have achieved some sort of friendliness again. “So where do we go today?”
“We follow the river until it reaches the coast.” He put the fire out and stood.
“How far is that?”
“Depends on how fast we move.” He must have seen the dismay on my face because he added, “It’s an easy hike.”
I got to my feet. “Wish we could shift here. Flying would save a lot of time.”
“You can, but I wouldn’t advise it,” Caius said as he started following the path that continued to follow the stream.
The kitten bounded along behind us. I eyed the trees nervously as the path curved closer to them. “We can? Then why was I told we can’t?”
He glanced over his shoulder at me. “It’s easier to tell people they can’t so they don’t try. Not that it’s usually a worry for those on your side of the river. They don’t come out here anyway. It’s not a good idea to have people with angel blood wandering around where young demonborn are bloodlust-hunting.”
“Okay, but why?” He still hadn’t answered my question.
Caius paused and turned around. “The Between is full of odd energy. Once you become your other, you have every possibility of not finding the person inside in order to change back. After a while, you will lose all of you and become the raven wholly.”
“Oh.” It was all I could say. I mean what else was there? “Avoid shifting at all costs then, got it.”
Amusement glinted in his eyes before he started walking again.
***
“The dangers of the Between are many. But the biggest danger to me came in the form of the small woman who walked at my side.” ~Caius
Chapter 4
We didn’t speak anymore while we followed the stream and path as they wove in and out of the edge of the woods. The kitten disappeared often, sometimes for an hour or more only to show back up again. The day crawled as we walked in silence, which gave me plenty of time to think. I sifted through all of the details since we started on this ridiculous journey until one stood out.
The sun was high overhead when we finally stopped for a break. The kitten was off doing whatever she did when she disappeared. While it was nice to sit down, I didn’t feel particularly tired. In fact, I still felt pretty energized. There were other benefits to a rest though, like the fact it was easier to talk and I had more questions.
“After you got me out of your mom’s death trap, Rowen said something about a prophecy.” I weighed the sudden guarded look in Caius’s eyes and pressed forward. “What prophecy?”
“It’s something the Morrigan said before she went into her slumber. A view of the future and, many believe, a warning.” His gaze met mine. “I only know pieces of it. As far as I know, only Rowen, who was chosen as her Watcher and Guide, knows all of it.”
“Rowen is only a thousand years old,” only a thousand years old, it sounded weird even as I said it, “and the Morrigan went to sleep over ten thousand years ago. How can he be chosen for anything?”
“Just because she slumbers doesn’t mean she is incapable of doing anything. He is the oldest of her remaining Children and was given the full prophecy.” A grim expression settled on his face. “I honestly hadn’t considered the prophecy until he mentioned it.”
“What does it have to do with me?”
“It may have everything to do with you.” His liquid gold eyes studied me again. “It talks about the mix of four bloods, which you almost are. It could definitely be you it speaks of. Or it could have nothing to do with you.”
“What parts do you know?” My mouth asked it before my brain could decide if I really wanted to know or not and a part of me wished I could take the question back.
He sighed; obviously, he’d been hoping I wouldn’t ask.
“Sound the trumpets
Hear the thunder
Let the ties
Be torn asunder
Cast the Child
Upon the wind
With darkness her consort
She returns again
At her feet
The blood of war
For when the Child comes
The Morrigan rests forever more.”
I stared at him in horror. Though I didn’t understand what most of it meant, the last part was pretty damn clear. There was going to be a war and it was going to be my fault. It wasn’t just me getting worked up; I really was the cause of all of this. And, it sounded like I would be the end of the Morrigan. Unable to speak, I looked away before he could see the tears that stung my eyes.
“There are more verses, but I don’t know what they are.” His voice was rough. “They may not be as dark as these.”
If I didn’t know better, I would think he was trying to comfort me in some way. I stared at the ground, my gaze following the progress of a bright purple, iridescent beetle as it made its slow way down the edge of the path. The prophecy made me sound evil. I would come with darkness and start a war.
Finally, I got myself under control enough to ask, “If I’m supposed to end the Morrigan, why has Rowen been helping me? Or any of my friends? They love her and I’m going to end her.”
I didn’t see how it was possible I could cause the death of the Morrigan. She was a god, the original creator, older and more powerful than any other. I was just a mutt created by some crazy ass angel.
“Like I said, only Rowen knows the full prophecy. Maybe he knows something we don’t.”
A stick blocked the beetle’s path. It could probably crawl over it, but I reached down and moved the obstacle anyway just to give myself something to do. Was the dagger a part of the prophecy? Was there a verse about the Lost in there? Was I the cause of tha
t, too?
Needing to change the subject, I asked, “Why are demonborn so much stronger than guardians and reapers?”
It seemed a safe enough subject and one that had been nagging at me anyway.
“Guardians and reapers, generally, have only trace amounts of angel in them. Even most of Rowen’s group have less than an eighth Morrigan. Rowen and a few others have a little more. Demonborn all have one full half that is demon.” He stood and looked down the path and I knew it was time to go. “It’s a testament to the Morrigan blood that even with smaller amounts, once they get enough age on them, they are mostly an even match for demonborn not born to an Archdemon.”
I stood and brushed the dirt off my knit pants, they really weren’t the best for hiking. They were the least of my problems, but it was easier to focus on that rather than the fact I was apparently going to destroy everything. “We should go.”
His gaze swept over me. “You can create new clothes anytime you want, you know.”
“I can what?” My surprise was complete. “Why would no one tell me that?”
“None of them are a full half-and-half hybrid. Angels and demons can do it, so can demonborn. For us, it’s as easy as shifting. None on your side of the river has enough angel, or even Morrigan blood, to do so. I doubt they realized you would be able to. You can clean yourself too, though a shower is still more satisfying.”
“How do I do it?” Finally, something useful that didn’t involve getting my friends hurt or destruction of any kind.
“Use your power the same way you would to make your staff or when you shift. This is another basic thing that should come naturally. Instead of envisioning the raven, envision clothing. See the clothes in your mind. Then mentally see them in your hand.” He held out his hand and I watched in amazement as a new black t-shirt appeared in it.
Eager to try, and because it took my mind completely off the whole prophecy thing, I held out my hand, palm up. Pulling on my angel power was easy; I had used it many times to strengthen my staff. Unfortunately, all I got was my staff.
Betrayed (Raven Daughter Book 2) Page 3