Out Of The Darkness (3 page)

He couldn
’t battle back the grasping ether, but he could touch her. He might be able to forcibly separate her from the damned whatever it was. He grabbed her under the arms and yanked her from the floor. The mist clawed at
his
feet. But it no longer touched his
Rajni
. “Wrap your arms around me. Now!”

“
Nal! Give her here!” It was Aodhan, reaching for her, ready to take his wife’s cousin. To save her, despite the fact that he was now surrounded to the waist. “Hurry!”

He would have to toss her, but he knew that Aodhan would catch her. The warrior rarely missed at anything. “Take her!”

The mist was growing, surrounding them both. He almost lost sight of Aodhan. The girl was clinging to him too hard for him to throw her to the other man. Her fingers dug into his skin and she kicked and bucked, trying to move them both further from whatever was attacking her.

“
Cassandra! Hold still!”

She seemed to hear him; her struggles ceased. Her arms wrapped around his neck, her legs his hips. She laid her head against his neck.

The utter faith and trust in her sudden action had him almost sick. He pushed that aside. Tried to pull out of the mist. He could still hear her family screaming around them. But it was muted now. He lunged, toward where he thought the east wall of the hotel lobby should have been. Toward safety.

Chapter 5

The screams in her head stopped.

Equan
Black landed on her, his big body nearly crushing her. She fought the urge to cling to him. He was big and safe and warm, and like it or not, everything that looked at him was probably frightened out of their minds.

His hands were on her back, and he rolled slightly, shifting his weight off of her. She dropped one hand to the floor beside her as the last of the purple mist drifted away.

She’d never been so terrified. All she’d been able to hear was the dying world around her, the trees and plants screaming as they were scorched beyond hope. Since the moment she had been in the gardens with this man and first heard the fire approaching from so far away. It had driven her almost mad.

Now...now she heard birds. The floor beneath her hand wasn
’t a carpet or rug. It was
grass.
Had they made it to the demon world? Why had the purple cloud pulled at her the way it had? Was that normal? Mallory and Emily had explained to her what was going to happen today, but this didn’t sound like what they said it was supposed to be. If it was, why had he grabbed her? Why had Mallory screamed her name the way she had?

“Where are we?”

He looked at her—glared at her, really. Fear streaked through her. It always did when he looked at her just like that, although she didn’t normally find him frightening. Just a bit sad, a bit lonely. Except when he had
that
look in his eyes. It reminded her of a wolf, like the one Aodhan had tamed as a pet. Somewhat wild, untamed. Capable of ripping someone to pieces and enjoying it. “I don’t have a damned clue.”

She looked around, but kept herself half under him. Like it or not,
he
was the familiar. “It doesn’t look like Colorado.”

“It doesn
’t look like fucking Gaia.”

“Excuse me?” She ignored the cursing. She
’d certainly heard worse from her cousins, her uncles. “I don’t know what you mean by Gaia.”

“How much did that sister of yours keep you in the dark? Don
’t you know where you’ve been living this past year?” Derision was very clear for her to hear in his words and it had her protective instincts rising.

Everyone had noticed how he avoided her sister as much as he could. Even she had, and she
’d never understood. When asked, Emily had just brushed it off, saying that Nalik Black had been through hell, and would get used to the Tanisses around him eventually. Her sister had been deliberately vague, Cass realized now. “Why do you hate my sister?”

“Haven
’t figured it out yet, sweetie? I hate your whole damned family.” He stood and grabbed her wrist. She fought a squeal when he yanked her to her feet. “Listen, girl. And listen very well. I’m responsible for you now, no matter how much that pisses me off.”

“I didn
’t ask you to be.” Wounded pride had her pulling her hand back. “Just point me in the right direction and I’ll head home right now.
I
never asked to go to Dardanos in the first place. But no one,
no one,
ever considered that.”

“Poor baby. You could have said something to your precious daddy or
uncles. You didn’t have to stay in that pretty hotel, with your pretty little family all around you while you did nothing more tedious than planting your pretty little flowers and got your hair done now and then.”

Why hadn
’t she ever realized that this man hated her? He’d never looked at her quite the way he did now. “Just help me go home and I won’t bother you again. Where are we?”

“Well, we
’re definitely not in Colorado anymore. At least not the one you’re probably used to.”

She stepped away from him and his glare darkened. Hadn
’t it been
night
when they’d been in the lobby of the hotel? It was more twilight wherever they were. “What are we going to do?”

“Pretty baby of the family been pampered so much you can
’t make a decision?”

She spun away from him and started down the small hill they
’d...landed...on. What had she done to him to bring this out of him? Why had he come to her when she’d screamed if he hated her so? Or was he somehow responsible for whatever had happened? Was that even likely? He’d done nothing to her in the year since he’d returned to Dardanos. “I’ve decided to find my own way back.”

“Don
’t be stupid, child. You think that if I show up without you it will make my life any easier?” His hand was hot and hard on her shoulder when he grabbed her. She kept walking; Cass would
not
let him know how he’d affected her. “Stop walking.”

She did, then faced him. His hand fell away. “Look, I don
’t know where I’m at or what happened or how to get home. I’m more than a little scared and worried. I don’t know if that...
cloud...
will come back and take me someplace else, or whether it took my cousins or my sister or anyone else. I don’t know
why
it came straight for me, and most of all I don’t know
why
you are so cruel to me when
I’ve
done nothing to you. So either keep your hands and your stupid mouth to yourself or you help me figure out just what it is that
we
are supposed to do.”

“You
’re not quite as nice as you look, are you?”

“I
’m not naïve or an idiot, if that’s what you’re asking.” She was
quiet
not stupid. Why couldn’t people seem to understand that?

“I
’ve never thought you were an idiot. Young, foolish, naïve, and spoiled. Being who you are, of course.”

“I
’m none of those things, except for young. I’ll be twenty-two soon. My mother had my sister by that age.”

“Most of my people don
’t leave the nest until they are twenty-four or twenty-five. Excuse me for thinking you were still a child.” Pure sarcasm from him now. Sarcasm that made her want to hit him.

Cass had never wanted to h
it someone before. It made her feel almost nauseated to think about it. “Just leave me alone.”

“Can
’t do that.”

“Then just shut up until we get where we
’re going, please.”

***

Why was he needling the girl so much? She was right—his
Rajni
didn’t deserve his ire. She shivered in the almost frigid temperatures. Why hadn’t he realized she was cold? Human girls were just as susceptible to hypothermia as Dardaptoan, weren’t they?

He
’d never cared to know much about humans. He’d been marked as a
Predatoi
at a very young age, and as a hunter of demons his skills had been focused in that area.

But what mattered was that his
Rajni
was in need.

And it was his moral duty to provide that need. How could he not? He pulled the cape from around his shoulders and wrapped it around hers. She tried to refuse, but he growled again.

“Keep it, girl. I have little need for it, and it will just get in my way if the time comes when I needst draw my sword.” A lie, of course. He’d fought many a battle dressed with a cape. His black cape nearly swallowed the girl alive, slight as she was. She was so damned vulnerable, standing there with the stubbornness of idiotic pride on her face. What was he supposed to do with her
now
? “Go east, over that hill. There are smells that mean a city coming from that direction.”

“You can tell that?”

“Of course I can damned well tell. I wouldn’t have told you to go that way if I couldn’t, now would I?” There was something off in the distance, and experience told him what it was. Smell told him even more;
yes,
his sense of smell was enhanced. Thanks to her damned grandfather. Some of the DNA Taniss had mingled with Nalik’s had increased his ability to pick up on the smallest scent on the air.

This time the old bastard
’s experimentation would come in handy. Damn the irony of it all. What would the old bastard have thought if he knew that his
gifts
to Nalik would be used to protect his granddaughter?

“What are we going to do once we get there?”

Good question. Because whether she knew it or not, he was
not
taking her into the city within him while he figured out where they were. It wasn’t safe and he could find out far more without her in his way. No, the first chance he could he’d be tucking her away someplace safe.

The sun of whatever realm they were in—and he
’d known right away that they’d jumped to one of the seventeen other realms—was sinking. One peculiar thing about the realms that surrounded the core of dirt that was the third planet, was that the realms didn’t appear the same, though the land masses were generally similar.

In his home
the continents had splintered and shifted. In Relaklonos the continents had drifted slightly and eroded, but they hadn’t spit from each other. And Relaklonos was general a few degrees different than Gaia, affecting the general sea level of the demon lands.

There were still other realms he
’d not explored, though he’d traveled to seven other than Gaia.

He and his brother had had quite a lot of fun hopping between realms for the fifty or so years before Iavius had met his
Rajni
.

Dragging Kindara into strange places had not been something either of them had wanted. A
Rajni
was to be protected, at all costs. Iavius had done his best before Taniss had killed him. But not before this girl’s grandfather had tortured Kindara almost to the point of death. Iavius’s child had died within his mother.

But Kindara had lived, when most
Rajni
s died within a few days of each other.

She
’d lived to now rule the demon world Nalik and her once mate had hunted in. She’d lived, found someone to replace his brother, and now nursed the next king of that demon world at her breast.

Damn the irony of it all.

His
Rajni
tripped, the cape too long, and the approaching darkness too much for her pitiful human sight. He grabbed her shoulder once again. He’d steady her, so that they
both
could get to where they needed to go.

Because it was evident to him that wherever that city was, they would not be reaching it tonight. Not at the pace she could keep.

He’d have to find her shelter and start a fire to warm her. Find her some type of food fit for a human. The responsibility he didn’t want pushed in on him.

Being responsible for something increased the likelihood of failure.

He’d fail his
Rajni
, he had no doubt about that. He just didn’t need the
when
turning into
now.

Chapter 6

Less than two hours after they
’d started walking he stopped her and pointed to a rock. “Sit there. Do not move from that spot, or I could end up killing you.”

She sat.

He waved his hands around, and the rock to the right of where she sat stretched to a size larger than her. Than him. She forced herself not to scream. What was he doing?
How
was he doing it? Rocks didn’t stretch at a man’s whim. That was crazy!