by Vivi Anna
He nodded. “Where’s Darquiel?”
Kat motioned toward where Darquiel still lay still and unmoving.
Damian bolted to his feet. His legs were still shaky and unstable, and he fell in a heap beside Darquiel.
Kat reached out to him, but he swatted her hand away. “You’ve left her like this? She’s starving to death. No one’s even tried to help her.” Bending over Darquiel’s body, he touched her face.
Hades moved like a cat, quick and silent, across the room and loomed over Damian.
“Hades, don’t hit him.” Kat shook her head.
“She’s had more help then she deserves,” Hades said through clenched teeth.
Damian fixed his gaze on Kat. His eyes were dark and angry. “I’m surprised you didn’t leave her out in the sun to bake. Compassion is not one of your stronger virtues.”
Shaking with anger, Kat swallowed down the words forming in her mouth. She didn’t need to take this crap from him. He had no idea what she had done for him. What morals and ideals she had pushed aside to keep this girl safe.
Hades grabbed Damian by the hair and lifted him to his feet. “You little bastard.”
“Let him go, Hades.” Kat shuffled next Hades and put a hand on his arm.
Hades tilted Damian’s head so he was looking into his face. “You know what she did for you? She fed that…that thing for you. Kat knew what kind of pain you would suffer if she had died. She did that for you, you dumb shit.”
He let go of Damian and pushed away from him. Turning around, fists clenched at his sides, Hades marched over to his own bed.
Damian stood in front of Kat, swaying, staring at her. Tears welled in his murky eyes. “I’m sorry, Kat. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean what I said.”
“Yes, you did. And it’s all right. I don’t have any compassion.”
Damian wrapped his arms around her. He squeezed her to him and rubbed his hands up and down her back. “I love you, Kat.”
Unsure of what to do, she patted him on the shoulder. She could feel his heart hammering in his chest while he sniffed at her hair, and her neck. He kissed her softly below the ear. When she felt his cock stiffen, she tried to push him away.
Digging his fingers viciously into her sides, he held on. “I need you, Kat. Don’t push me away.”
“What’s wrong with you, Damian?” She tried to distance herself. Her palms pressed into his chest but he clung to her like a leech.
He licked the side of her neck, trailing his tongue over her collarbone and to her shoulder.
“Damian, back off.”
At the sound of Kat’s angry voice, Hades swung around.
“I can’t,” Damian whined.
Kat stiffened as his teeth scraped her skin. When she realized what he was about to do, she grabbed his hair and pulled.
He bit down on her shoulder and pierced her skin. Pain, immediate and sharp, made Kat suck in a breath. At the same time, she tried to pry him off her, but his mouth remained attached to her flesh like a sucker on an octopus.
It took only a second for Hades to come to her aid, wrapping his beefy hand around Damian’s neck and squeezing. Damian came off her shoulder with a definitive pop. While Hades held him off the floor, he punched him in the face. Damian’s lips split open, blood spewing from his wounds and splattering across Darquiel’s face on the cot behind them. Hades dropped him, and he fell, unconscious, across her prone form.
Kat inspected her bloody shoulder. There were two puncture holes. “What the fuck is wrong with you?” she yelled at Damian, although he couldn’t hear her.
“He’s turning.” Kat and Hades looked up toward the door to the long house. Nemo stood there, watching them with wide eyes and a knowing nod.
“Into what?” Hades asked.
“Into one of those.” Nemo motioned to Darquiel. “A Dark Dweller.”
“It’s not possible,” Kat argued, probing her wounds with her finger.
“I’ve seen it happen.” Nemo came into the room and sat in one of the wooden chairs. “During one of the Dweller’s raids, they badly injured one of our tribe and left him for dead. But he didn’t die. And after a few days, it was apparent that he was changing.”
Hades handed Kat a cloth to stem the bleeding. “How?” Hades asked.
“He was listless and incoherent during the waking hours, and during the night he was lively and…robust even. Some of the women of the tribe began to notice the changes in him, especially during the nightly hours. He was very alluring at night. Even I found myself drawn to him.” Nemo turned his gaze from Hades and Kat and stared out the window. “Then one night, we heard screams coming from his hut. What we found was more than most of us could stomach. He had ripped…young Brook’s throat out and was…was feasting on her blood.” He wiped a hand over his face and closed his eyes. “I can not describe it any other way. He was completely covered with it and…smiling when we came upon him.”
Kat glanced at Damian, who still lay, passed out, on top of Darquiel. She wondered if he would have done the same if Hades had not pried him off. Cringing at the thought, she gently touched her shoulder.
“What happened to him?” Kat asked.
Nemo regarded Kat, his eyes filled with sorrow and regret. “I killed him and burnt his body.”
Hades nodded. “You are a great Chieftain, Nemo. You did what you had to do to protect your tribe.”
“Yes, and now I have to make a decision once again for the sake of my people.”
Kat noticed that he stared at Damian and Darquiel. Turning, she stood in front of him blocking his view. “I can’t let you kill them.”
“He is changing. It won’t be long before he loses control and ravages someone for blood.”
“I’ll take that chance.”
“But I can not.”
Kat nodded. “I understand. We’ll be leaving in the first light of day.”
Nemo got up from his chair and walked over to Kat. He lifted up the cloth and inspected her wound. “They are both unconscious. It would be a mercy to end their lives now,” he suggested to her softly.
“I can’t. I need them to get to Van City.”
He set the cloth back on her shoulder. “At any cost?”
She met his gaze and kept it. “Yes.”
“You are a hard woman, Katarina. But I respect you nonetheless.”
“I’m not sure if that was a compliment.”
Nemo moved away from her and toward the small table by the window. He picked up a clay pitcher of water and returned to where she stood.
“It was. Now remove that cloth and hold out your arm. We need to cleanse that wound.”
Kat took off the dressing and held out her arm to the side. Nemo poured the water over her shoulder. It stung sharply while the liquid cascaded over her flesh. She bit down on her lip to stop from screaming.
“It’s salt water from our blessed ocean. It will hopefully heal you,” Nemo assured her.
Hades watched on in interest. “How do you think they get like that, the Dark Dwellers?”
“I believe it is an infection or a virus.” Nemo continued to stare into Kat’s eyes as he answered Hades. “Passed on from one to the other.”
Kat dropped her arm and took a distancing step in retreat. She understood his message, his warning. When Damian bit into her flesh, she had thought the same thing.
Hades glanced at her, concern furrowing his brow. “You can’t be sure.”
“No. I am not sure.” Nemo also watched Kat.
Frowning, she turned away from their accusing stares. “Quit staring at me like I’m going to sprout fangs.”
“Kat, it is a possibility.”
She whirled around toward Hades. “You don’t think I don’t know that? The minute Damian put his mouth on me, the thought crossed my mind.”
She collapsed on her bed and brought her knees up to her chest. Shivers vibrated up and down her spine. All of a sudden, she felt very cold.
Hades sat down next to her.
“I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, sure. Whatever. Doesn’t really matter now, does it?”
“I am sorry, too, because now the request I ask of you will seem doubly difficult to bear.” Nemo stood in front of them.
“What is it?” Hades asked
“As you already know, my wife was taken in the last raid. If you come across the Dwellers in your travels to the Vanquished City, I would ask that you seek her out, and if…if she can be saved, save her, if she can not…then I wish for you to end her suffering.”
Kat unfolded her legs and leaned forward, her elbows on her knees. “You want us to kill your wife?”
Nemo visibly bristled at her blunt words. “If it comes to that, yes.”
“Listen, Nemo,” Hades explained. ”I understand how you feel, but we’re not mercenaries. We’re not going into Van to hunt down and kill these creatures.”
“I’m not asking you to.”
“Then what are you asking for?”
“A trade,” Nemo offered. “All the supplies you can carry, for the chance…the slightest chance that you might run into these…people.”
Hades glanced at Kat for approval. She shrugged. They needed the supplies, that was for sure. And if they did run into the dark dwellers, she was certain she’d be shooting first, asking questions later.
“You have a deal, Nemo,” Hades replied. “But know this, we don’t know where these people dwell, and we will avoid all confrontations if we can, so we can extract our treasure and be out of the city before anyone notices that we were there.”
“I understand,” Nemo said solemnly. “I would not ask for more than what you have agreed to. I do not expect you to be heroes.”
A low hoarse cackling echoed in the room.
All eyes turned toward the sound. Darquiel sat up on the bed, cradling Damian in her arms, and licking his blood off her face.
“You won’t have to search for the dwellers, they will find you,” Darquiel revealed.
“They will find you, you mean?” Kat sputtered, her fists clenched with anger.
“Yes, Baruch can sense when I am near.”
Hades turned to Kat and whispered. “This is too risky. We can bow out and make it back home. There will be other treasures.”
“No,” Kat said rejecting his offer. “The Monolith is our ticket out of this shit. I chance to find my…” she paused. “I won’t let it go.” She swore under her breath as soon as it was out of her mouth. Maybe he wouldn’t notice that she included him as part of a team.
“Our? Like you and me, our?”
“No, yes, maybe…shit it doesn’t matter.” She jumped off the bed. “I won’t let it go. She knows where it is, and she’ll lead us right to it. And if I have to fight off the devil himself, I will.”
“It’s not the devil outside you should worry about,” Darquiel said before she leaned down to Damian’s slack mouth and touched her tongue to the blood.
Kat’s stomach lurched. She was uncertain if the revulsion was from watching Darquiel feed on Damian’s blood or from the fact that she would soon ache to join her.
Turning away from the grisly scene, she eyed Nemo. He had turned his back on them both. “Bring us our clothes and our weapons. It is time for us to go.” Kat spoke the words, praying that they would lead them to the treasure and not to their deaths.
Chapter Fifteen
As the black sky started to lighten with the promise of the sun, Kat and Hades had their gear and supplies packed. Nemo proved true to his word and supplied them with food, drinking water, special sun-blocking salve, and, surprisingly, motorized transportation.
The transport looked like a mini car, barely enough room for four people, with an umbrella covering it. Powered by the sun, it didn’t move more than ten clicks an hour, but it would suit their purposes. Vanquished City was only about sixty clicks away, so they should make it by high noon. The sun would be too elevated and unyielding to run into any Dark Dwellers.
Or so, Kat hoped.
Just as Hades brought Damian and Darquiel out from the long house, Kat strapped the last of the packs onto the rear of the transport. Both were bound at the wrists.
Damian struggled under Hades’ strong grip, but was too weak from the effects of the rising sun for his attempts to be anything but trivial. When he spied Kat waiting for them, he pulled at his restraints harder.
“Why did you let this asshole tie me up, Kat?”
Hades pushed both of them toward the cart. They stumbled, their legs unsteady.
“You’re a danger, Damian,” Kat said.
Damian swayed in front of her, defiantly staring into her eyes. “What? Are you afraid of me?” A small smile played at his lips.
Kat swallowed down the bile that rose in her throat. This was not the man she had spent three years with. He still looked the same, except his pallor was paler and his eyes sunk in, but it was his manner and his demeanor that had so drastically changed.
She saw meanness in him. An almost twisted sadistic thrill of what he was changing into. He watched her, not with adoration and respect, but with a kind of hunger. The way a cougar eyes an injured lamb, knowing that lunch would be soon served.
Not wanting him to see the dread that spread across her like a virus, Kat stood her ground. “No. I’m afraid of what I will do to you if you ever try and bite me again.”
“You never complained before.” He grinned.
It was not the playful boyish grin she was used to, but a wicked malicious smile intended to hurt. Kat stared him down. She would not let him see that deep down inside a little razor-sharp knife stabbed at her heart.
Hades cuffed him on the side of the head. “Into the cart, now.”
Damian turned and glared at Hades, but did what he was told. He jumped up onto the cushioned seat beside Darquiel who had already settled in without a word or a glimpse in their direction.
Hades gave Kat’s hand a reassuring squeeze. She nodded briefly then pulled her hand away. Accepting help from anyone proved difficult for her. She didn’t need or want Hades sympathy. Only trouble could be had, relying on other people’s support. She didn’t want thoughts and feelings to corrupt her thinking, especially since she was unsure if any of them would even make it out of Van City alive.
Kat turned toward Nemo, Leucothea, and the other Nereids who had gathered to see them off. “Thank you for the supplies.”
“You are most welcome.” Nemo offered her his hand.
After a brief hesitation, she took it. He put his other hand overtop, holding her in a firm and comforting grip. “And thank you for what you will do.”
“I haven’t done anything yet. And don’t count on me either. I’m not that reliable.”
“But I know you will be true to your word. You are a stout and admirable woman, Katarina. Even if you do not think so.” Nemo gave her a reassuring squeeze then let go.
Kat nodded and was about to turn away, when Leucothea rushed forward and wrapped her arms around Kat, hugging her tightly. Cautiously, Kat patted her on the back. She felt awkward as this slip of a girl pressed her bare breasts against her. She could feel the girl’s heart pounding in her chest.
“Farewell, Katarina,” Leucothea said. “I will miss you.”
Unsure of what words to say, Kat just grunted.
Leucothea pulled back and smiled up at her. “I have something for you.” Holding out her hand, Kat spied her leather eye-patch lying in her palm. “I fixed it for you.”
Kat took and placed it over her eye, tying it up under her mass of ebony hair. She nodded at Leucothea and smiled fleetingly, uncomfortable with the obvious adoration the girl bestowed on her and the hard lump that formed in her throat. Rushing ahead, Kat jumped into the front seat of their transport.
Hades stepped up to Nemo and shook his hand. “Good bye, Nemo. Thank you for everything.”
“Farewell, Hades. I will pray to the Gods that you travel swiftly and safely.”
“Also,” Hades said. “Ask them to leave us
some ammo for our guns…we’re almost out, and I think we’re going to need them.”
Nemo smiled and nodded. “I will see what I can do.”
Hades tipped his head then jumped into the cart. He pushed the red button on the dash beside the steering wheel. The transport spurted to life. With a press on the metal pad, the cart accelerated forward.
Kat glanced back briefly as they left the sanctity of the Nereid’s village. She had felt safe and comfortable for the first time in her life in their tiny community. Turning back around, she watched Hades as he drove the cart. He returned her look and smiled softly, as if he knew what she was thinking. Uncomfortable, she averted her eyes and stared out across the approaching desert. That look was the reason why she never allowed anyone close. She could not allow anyone to see what was inside her mind. She had too many secrets, too many personal desires that she would never allow anyone to see. Especially someone like Hades, who could easily subvert her thoughts and change them.
* * *
After several hours of travel, they were right back in the middle of the arid Wastelands. Except this time, they faired better. The canopy on the transport gave some relief from the heat, and the salve protected their skin from the harsh rays of the brutal sun. Even Darquiel and Damian did well out in the light, Hades thought as he glanced over his shoulder at them.
They were slumped against each other in the rear seat. Both had their eyes closed and their heads lolled limply on their necks. But it seemed like they were sleeping, and not unconscious, or dead.
Hades glanced at Kat. She rotated her wounded shoulder and winced, pain furrowing her brow. She had been silent during the trip, barely glimpsing his way. He thought he knew why.
“Is your shoulder buggin’ you?”
“No.”
“We should stop and clean it again with the ocean water Nemo gave us.”
“Save the water. It’s already too late.”
Hades stopped the transport and turned to her. “We should still try.”
Kat turned to him, her eyes frigid. “I feel a sharp stinging moving down my arm, and across my chest. The virus is already in my body. There is nothing we can do.”