I forgot time, watching his face in the flicker of the shadowy fire, alternating between rubbing his hands to warm them and tending his head with the cool cloth. His shirt was halfway up his chest, twisted from his sleep. I put the cloth against his stomach, mesmerized by the steam, at the faint silver lines that crossed over his silky skin. I traced a line with my finger, Ash’s shirt forgotten. There was a flash of fire that burned from my fingertips to my brain, chasing fear away, leaving me dizzy and euphoric.
“Dari,” Ash said at my elbow. I looked up at him, wondering where he’d come from then remembered that he’d been there all along. I’d forgotten the fever, I’d forgotten Ash; I’d forgotten everything while my fingers burned. I got myself off the stone bed and moved over to the stove. Holding my still tingling fingers close to the metal I wondered why I felt like that, good instead of bereft when I left his side. I felt like he was still with me, permanently burned into the ends of my fingers.
That night I slept on the floor on one side of the stove while Ash slept between Lewis and me, to guard him from me probably, but it was okay. I didn’t mind being on the floor, not when my fingers still felt like they were touching him. I closed my eyes, thinking that this was almost an adventure, the kind of thing I’d always wanted to do, with Ash as my friend and Lewis, well, even if I didn’t know what he was to me, having him there, close while my fingers burned was enough.
***
The darkness growled at me, advancing only to retreat when it was close enough I could taste it in my mouth, darkness that promised to be full of pain and aching that would never end. The darkness faded, shifting until I sat on a hill, so high that I could see a hundred miles in every direction, the air so warm with a fragrance so sweet and heady it seemed like I could drink it if I filled my lungs deeply enough. Lewis walked towards me across the field, picking wildflowers slowly as he came. I tried to call him, to tell him to hurry, but he stopped often to pick more flowers, more until he finally reached me. I stretched for his hands, brushing away the flowers then saw that beneath the blossoms his hands were sticky with blood. I saw his warm red stained skin, littered with petals in the sunlight of that warm, beautiful day and knew what the sweet, delicious scent was. I lifted his hand to press a kiss on the back of it, the taste of his blood and flowers mixed on my tongue. He smiled as I tasted him, smiled as I licked the blood from his skin, smiled as I ripped through the veins in his wrist, tasting his blood, soaking in the flavor as his blood slowed, his death neared, while Lewis smiled.
***
I sat up, breathing hard as I wiped the sweat off my forehead. It was salty like blood but it had to be sweat. I didn’t dare think about actual blood, not when my heart pounded in my throat at the thought of blood, of Lewis’s blood. It seemed like I could smell it where he lay too close to me on the stone bed.
Holding my breath, I got up, opened the door and sat in the doorway, staring up at the white moon while my legs dangled over the abyss that was Lewis’s porch. My heart pounded as I breathed in the cold air, willing the taste of the clean cold night to chase any bloodlust back where it came from. I hadn’t felt bloodlust since I got my soul back, but it wasn’t real, only a memory of the bloodlust I’d had before, because I hadn’t had bloodlust since I got my own soul back.
Except.
Hadn’t my dad made it painfully obvious that while Lewis’s soul gave me fury it was my father’s heritage that gave me the Nether bloodlust? Maybe he’d blocked the bloodlust and the bond ache at the same time. Aiden’s undoing was bringing back a reawakening of my hunger for death.
“Crap.” Of all the things I didn’t want to deal with, losing it and killing something was pretty high on the list. Amidst the rising panic I did the only thing that made any sense. I jumped.
Going down was much easier than coming up. They found me curled up behind a boulder, arms wrapped around myself like I could keep out the bloodlust and the cold with my arms.
“Get up,” a girl’s harsh voice ordered me. I blinked up at them, the group of Hybrids that surrounded me, their postures threatening.
I jumped up, trying to leap past them but one grabbed me around the waist while another grabbed my hand, stunning me with a bolt of what felt like electricity that made my legs unresponsive and rubbery.
“Don’t kill her,” the girl’s voice snapped. “Can’t you see that she’s already half dead?”
I blinked and took in her brown skin and honey colored eyes while her hair framed her face in wild curls. There were four of them and they were all wearing grey clothes that didn’t fit particularly well on them, like those found in the pack Aiden gave us.
The one who held onto my waist wasn’t letting me go but the guy who’d stunned me looked sheepish, his white hair shocking against his tan unlined skin. I blinked, and realized vaguely that I hurt all over, like I’d fallen down a cliff or something but it was hard to separate from the pain inside my chest when I thought about Lewis, dying and me unable to be with him because I might rip out his throat.
The whimpering sob came from my throat, a sound that shocked me. I looked desperately past them, worried that Aiden would come and drag me back to Lewis, leaving me to do who knew what to him. Would I kill him if left to my own devices? I shook my head, struggling to get away, to run farther away from Lewis.
“Hey, we’re not going to hurt you,” the guy’s voice came in my ear, low, soothing, compelling me to listen and calm. He was Cool, his voice urging me to reason. I took a deep strangling breath and let myself relax against him, let the Cool soak into me.
“I take it you’re a Hybrid,” the girl said as she stared at me, seeming to see through me to my soul or something else. She frowned then blinking at me, looked kind of sad until she suddenly smiled, looking young and happy. She didn’t belong in a camp with people who were basically living under a death sentence. “I’m Chloe. I see the future sometimes. Yours is pretty intense. This is Zeke, the one who tried to kill you,” she said, pushing Zeke to the side, but her frown at him didn’t look very real. “Markus, the one who found you, and Orrin, the one who’s holding you.”
I twisted around and saw that Orrin was the same Cool one as I’d seen not so long ago in the farmer’s market. He knew who I was, didn’t he? It seemed like everyone there had known that I was Alex’s daughter, but he didn’t make the slightest sign that I wasn’t some stranger who’d dropped into Hybrid camp on accident. He let go of my waist and gave me a slight smile before he turned and started moving through the land of deep gorges and sheer rock faces.
Everyone followed him, watching where he put his feet. I followed because Chloe had seen my future and because I had no idea where else to go. The camp wasn’t very far but it took forty-five minutes of hiking to get to it. When the tents became visible and the low murmur of voices filled the air I looked around anxiously for Aiden. I closed my eyes as I searched for the soul that was so bright that it was hard to miss. No Aiden. With a breath of relief I continued behind Markus towards a smoky campfire with a big pot that smelled like hot cereal.
“Jones, this is Sand,” Chloe said to the big guy hunched over the pot, stirring the bubbling cereal.
“New recruit, good, good. Do you see a blood filled future on her?” he asked in his warm cheerful voice.
“Yes, sir,” she answered while she gave me a smile.
“Blood filled…” I said.
“That means you have a future,” Jones said as he straightened, rubbing his hands on the legs of his pants before he stretched his hand towards me to shake my hand. I took my time shaking his in return, remembering the shock Zeke had given me. “I’m Hotblood, long past burning out. You don’t have to be afraid of me,” he said almost gently. His bright blue eyes were warmer than Aiden’s and stable. He reminded me of Ace back in his warehouse, only Jones had ripped jeans and an impressive gut as well as softness that covered up the rest of his muscles.
“You’re not a Hybrid?”
He laughed, dropping my
hand then turned back to stir the cereal. “Nope. I’m a Hunter, trained by one of the best. I run a good camp. You’ll learn what will keep you alive whether the Wilds approve or not. You’ve got some good strong blood. I can smell it from here,” he added. “Chloe, go take her to get cleaned up, changed then bring her back for breakfast. She’ll start training afterwards.”
“Yes, sir,” Chloe said then nodded at me to follow her. I tried not to stare at the Hybrids where they were just starting to stir in the camp. There were so many different people to see, different skin, eyes, hair. After I’d been caught staring by a particularly angry looking boy, I kept my eyes on Chloe as she led me through the maze of tents and trees. She had me duck under the flaps of a small gray tent where I found a bedroll and a pack, smaller than the one Aiden had given us in the cliff house.
“So why the gray uniform?” I asked as she led me from the pack tent with my arms full of stuff to a different, smaller tent.
She answered once we were both inside, gesturing to my pack. “The gray blends right now, but later the uniform will change to green when things start to bloom. You’ll share my tent with me. Don’t worry,” she added with a smile that lit up her face. “I foresee that you’ll be able to sleep through my snoring. Get out of those clothes then I can help you get your injuries fixed up.”
I followed her gaze to my hands where they’d been impressively sliced up on the rocks in the dark. She ducked out, leaving me alone with the pack, feeling guilty for lying to her, well, not lying exactly since I hadn’t said anything, but still. I wasn’t a lone Hybrid who had found her way to the camp on accident.
I felt like I was shedding part of me when I took off my ripped clothes and traded them for the gray ones including gray underwear and a quilted gray jacket that would keep me warm. I hoped that I could blend in with the other Hybrids, that my burgeoning issues with Nether bloodlust and the ache that was the uncompleted blood bond with Lewis wouldn’t keep me from learning how to destroy demons as well as anyone else.
I wanted to kill demons, I realized as I sat on a fallen log beside Chloe eating hot, bland porridge. It seemed like the only simple, straightforward thing I could do. If I was going to have issues with violence I might as well put it to good use. If only I knew that Lewis would be all right I could relax and actually smile at Chloe.
“How long have you been here?” I asked.
She shrugged as she pushed the cereal around with her spoon. “I’ve been here all winter. Jones brought me with him to help set up camp. Orrin’s one of the newest, he came right after the girl.” She frowned when she said, ‘the girl’, like she was someone she didn’t like but wasn’t going to go all Snowy about.
After we ate we joined a group of a dozen people gathered around Jones who didn’t bother to put a jacket on over his shirt. He was apparently free from the uniform requirements because his jeans and t-shirt were old and ripped, but his.
“Right,” he began, his chubby face forming a frown it was hard to take seriously. “We don’t have time to talk about theory. Keep the Code if you don’t want to die, simple as that. How do we use our abilities to take out demons? Anyone?”
Marcus raised a hand hesitantly then said after Jones had nodded at him, “Wild blood uses their runes and their gifts to trap demons.”
“Specifically,” Jones encouraged.
“Physical gifts for the physical host, the runes to trap the immaterial essence.”
Jones nodded. “What good are Cools?”
No one answered, and Orrin didn’t look like he was listening, he kept looking in the trees to the left like he was waiting for someone.
Chloe finally said, “They can identify demons with their soul sight and sometimes keep the demons from sensing them.”
“That’s the blocking.” Jones said. “Cools aren’t usually found in Hunting parties but their difference saves lives.” This was addressed to Orrin before he continued, “And Hotbloods? What do they do?”
“They burn,” I said in a voice quiet enough no one should have heard me, but everyone turned and stared while I studied the ground and fought the urge to run back to Lewis and make him stop burning.
“Hotbloods are the ones that do most of the Hunting, and that’s right. We do burn. The more mass you have the hotter you can burn without bad effects. If you break the Code you’ll probably burn out. It’s not a pleasant way to die so don’t do it.”
I raised my hand then said when he gave me a nod, “What is the Code?”
“Don’t do anything for selfish reasons, basically. Lying, stealing, letting your body overwhelm your soul, that kind of thing. Enough theory. Everyone that can spark a rune go with Markus. He’ll teach you the basic trap spell.”
“What about Hollows?” I asked before anyone moved.
Silence fell on the camp. I kept my eyes on Jones but I could feel everyone staring at me like I was a lunatic.
“Hollows could call to the demons, demon men, lure them into their traps. Of course they don’t do that now,” Jones said sounding tired. “If any of you have Cool blood go with Orrin to the West edge of camp. He’ll give you the rare opportunity to study with a genuine Cool. Hotbloods, follow me.” He turned and walked into the trees leaving me with the choice of whether I wanted to learn how to make a demon trap with runes or learn shadowing with Orrin.
I followed Orrin, partly because I could be trained by Wilds but might never get another chance to train with a Cool Hunter. I tried not to think about my father, about why he wouldn’t have even tried to teach me the things that could save my life.
I knelt beside Orrin, noting the two other Hybrids with us who apparently had Cool blood. I could follow the waves of energy that Orrin formed with his hands, could see the way that they created barriers and became mental blocks that were impossible to see.
“Blocks and shadows are additive,” he said in his low voice that made me relax and lean closer to him. “You show your subject something that isn’t there, to replace what you don’t want them to see.”
That was the last time he talked, at least with words. He put a hand on my shoulder and I knew what to do, but instead of the energy flowing through me, building into the patterns that would shadow I came up short on the blocks my father had set up. I blinked, realizing that for a few minutes I’d lost track of regular sight without realizing it but even with regular sight my vision was blurry. I felt nauseous, weak, and sweat poured down my forehead and made my gray shirt stick to my back. So that explained why my father hadn’t trained me. I gritted my teeth and closed my eyes, pushing against the block, ignoring the fact that my whole body was shaking until Orrin put a hand on my shoulder. I looked at him, at his gray eyes that stood out so luminous and mournful in his pale face and almost didn’t mind that he got to see my own aching.
“It will come,” he said softly. “Sit and watch, just watch, okay?”
He kept looking at me intently until I nodded and he gave me an almost smile before he worked through spreading a net of shadows with the other Hybrids. I watched them stretch and focus, watched the blips in the fabric of our reality that became so smooth as Orrin shaped a layer of almost there. Was it illusion or was it real? I could see it, or did I only think I saw it? I rubbed my head where the pounding kept slamming. By lunch it was down to a dull thump in time to my pulse.
After lunch I sat beside Chloe, once more in the meeting with Jones and the others, forty or so people. As Jones talked about different kinds of demons and the most stupid things you could do when you encountered a demon, I studied the different Hybrids, fascinated with the mixtures of the races that I could see. Chloe was part Wild, because that was where foretelling came from, but she was so much nicer, warmer, friendlier, that I wondered if she had some Hotblood or Cool in her as well. I saw that Markus was in our group and then realized with a start that Zeke was staring at me, forcing me to blush and focus back on Jones. They weren’t freaks in a zoo to be stared at any more than I was.
“Sand,
you and Chloe come up here.” Sand, oh, yeah, that was the name Chloe gave me. Strange she hadn’t asked me for a name. Strange that Sand was the first half of my last name. I felt the first awkwardness as I wondered what else she knew about me with her foretelling.
I stood, clumsily while Chloe stood across from me, her cheerful smile replaced by intense concentration and focus that made her seem harsh. She lunged suddenly, like an animal when she came at me. With bared teeth and hands like claws at my throat, I didn’t have time to think. Stephen’s instincts kicked in as I threw myself sideways, rolling to my feet as she kept coming. This time she had a knife in her hand, her teeth bared in a look that seemed blind, unable to see me. I knew five ways to attack her, but instead I held still, knowing that I’d hurt her if I followed through on any of them.
A screaming ball of fury dropped from the sky, knocking the knife out of Chloe’s hands as she tried to shield her eyes from the talons. After a moment of black beating feathers it was gone. I stood openmouthed staring at Chloe where she cowered on the ground.
“Didn’t see that coming, did you?” Jones said roughly as he leaned forward, pulling her to her feet. Her face was sickly as she searched the trees for the bird, but it was gone. I stared at the trees along with everyone else. Someone asked if it had been a demon bird and no one laughed. It hadn’t been though, I was almost sure that it had something to do with Stephen, something to do with the eagle I’d set free in the wild.
“Okay, Zeke, Dimitry, you two are coming at me like I’m a demon, I’m angry and hungry, and you can’t let me touch you. Listen, important. Don’t let demons touch you. If they touch you, you might be tainted. Anyone see someone with demon taint?”
I blinked, trying not to think about Grim’s screaming, but still unbalanced about the bird. Jones caught my eyes and nodded slightly.
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