Out Of The Darkness (4 page)

She knew things—creatures—
other
than human existed. She’d learned that
long
before coming to Dardanos. It had freaked her out, but not as much as her family probably thought. She’d
always
known there was something different about her and Jade, at least. And Becca, to some extent.

And it hadn
’t surprised her that their differences were caused by her grandfather’s experiments when they were all three babies. It had sickened her, but not shocked her.

But this man was more than just
different.

He had powers that she
’d never even heard about.

Did Rydere know what this man could do? Was that why her brother-in-law had warned her and the others to stay away from Nalik? The rocks sank into the earth, shaking the area around them. She almost fell off the boulder, but there was some sort of pressure keeping her on its surface.

When it shouldn’t have.

Was
he
doing that?

The dirt settled around a small hole in the ground, and grasses to match the rest of the area sprang up around the edges. It looked like the hole had been there for a very long time.

“Get in.”

What
?

“I said get in. I don
’t want us exposed much longer. In case you haven’t noticed it’s getting darker out here—and damned cold.”

“Get in where?” She wasn
’t getting in the hole. That would be crazy, wouldn’t it? She couldn’t. She’d be buried alive.

Cass had
always
had nightmares about the ground swallowing her. There was no way she could do this.

He didn
’t let her protest for much longer. He yanked her up and Cass was nowhere near strong enough to resist.

***

She fought him; far more than he thought she could. He could smell her terror. Being yanked to a different realm hadn’t frightened the girl as much as the thought of being underground? He didn’t understand it at all.

With barely a thought, he widened the entrance so that it was big enough for them to get in together. He guided her legs to wrap around his waist, and he used the hand he had on the back of her head to tuck her face against his chest. “Close your eyes. You don
’t have to watch us go in, if it’s too much for you, baby.”

Skinny arms slipped around his neck and for the second time since he
’d met her, his
Rajni
clung to him. Trusted him to protect her.

He stepped into the den and closed the
earth around them.

She panicked, whispering
no
over and over again and pleading with him to take her back to the air. He tightened his arms around her and used some of the damned earth moving powers her grandfather had enhanced in him to widen the cave he’d tapped into.

He hadn
’t fashioned the entire den, not the way a Lupoiux alpha could, but had modified the geological features he’d sensed beneath the earth’s surface. The result was a ten by thirty cave, with a small stream of water—and fish—cutting through the back third of it. It was cool inside, but the ceiling of the cavern was such that he could light a small fire and the smoke would rise toward the small holes he added for that very purpose.

He
’d keep her warm, dry, fed, and safe. And once she slept, he’d find out where in the three hells they were and get her back to her family. It was his duty to her.

And then he
’d track that purple mist back to its origin. He’d for damned sure be finding out if it had targeted
his Rajni
specifically.

If it had, nothing would stop him from
finding the bastard—or bitch—responsible.

Chapter 7

She let him take care of her. She wasn
’t proud of it, but focusing on him and what he was doing for the both of them helped her get her mind around the fact that she was underground.

She
’d refused to tour caves as a child. Was actually very nervous when in driving tunnels or basements. Cass had always known she needed the sun, and when she didn’t have immediate access to the sky—day or night—she panicked. Her family indulged her; she understood that.

But in that very moment, watching him start a fire, catch a fish, all the while she was bundled up in
his
coat, she hated herself for the weakness.

And for
letting
a stranger provide her basic needs.

She had not been raised to be a leech. “I can help with that.”

“No. You can’t. I’ve been doing this a lot longer than you’ve even been alive. You’ll just get in my way.”

Because he thought she was young, naïve, and useless.

Why did that hurt so much? Why should his opinion suddenly matter so much to her? It had to be the situation they were in. That was all. “I can’t just sit here, doing nothing.”

“You
’re not doing
nothing.
You’re staying the fuck out of my way, so that I can do what needs to be done quickly.”

“Why? Do you think we
’re going home sometime tonight? Somehow I don’t think so.” Would they ever get back to where they belonged? Would she be stuck here with him forever? That made the sick feeling in her stomach so much worse.

If they were stuck here forever would he stay with her, or would he just leave her to figure things out for herself?

She wouldn’t put it past him. Maybe it would be best if she did just stay out of his way? Until she could evaluate the situation a bit more. There had to be a way for them to get home, didn’t there? They’d gotten
here
somehow.

So there would have to be a way.

She’d just have to find it. With or without him.

Chapter 8

Nalik knew he was being too harsh with the girl, but it didn’t seem to bother her. Nor had he missed the sly, considering look in those big green eyes. She might be quiet, but she was nowhere near cowed.

Why did that please him so? Girl was going to be nothing but trouble for him until he could get her off of his hands again. He finished preparing their meal and laid her share out on a rock he
’d seared in the small fire. She would have sustenance; he’d seen to that.

No one could ever say he had not provided for his female when she was in need. “Eat.”

She picked at the food like a pampered kitten, but at least she ate. After a few minutes she wiped her mouth with her hand and said a quiet
thank
you.
He grunted at her.

What in the three hells was he supposed to say to her?
By the way, you’re grandfather turned me into a monster, and the goddess you know nothing about destined me to fuck you over for the rest of your life?

Yeah, he could see that working out for the both of them. “Spread that cape out
better and wrap yourself up tight. If this is anything like caves in our world, it’ll get about fifty in here tonight.”

“I
’ll be fine.” She stared at him for a moment. “So where exactly do you think we are?”

“One of nineteen possible places.” Eighteen realms plus pure hell. Pretty damned good odds they were in one of those locations.

“And those nineteen? Please, talk to me. Tell me what I need to know. You have to know that this is something I don’t understand.” She pulled the cape over her knees and huddled inside its warmth. She looked so damned fragile his stomach clenched.

“Here
’s what I’ve got, Cassandra. Somehow or some way, some bastard rigged a portkey to drag us someplace we didn’t sign on to go. Why, I don’t know. Who, I don’t know. And I don’t know the
how
of it either. What I do know is that we aren’t in the world you know, we’re not in the demon world, nor in the place of those damned deities. I don’t know which of the realms we’re in. And I don’t know how I’m supposed to get us back to where we belong. So what I need from you is
complete
cooperation. Because like it or not, you got
me.
And that means you’re pretty well close to damned forever.”

In more ways than she could ever know.

**
*

He had that look on his face again, though the light from the fire was barely bright enough for her to see him clearly. She knew what she’d see—he’d looked at her that way a million times before over the last twelve months. And she’d never understood why he only ever looked at her that way.

Something about her bothered him, and she had yet to figure it out.

“Tell me where those places are and how they relate to
our
world. Tell me everything so that I know what’s going on. And so that I don’t do anything stupid.” Even though he thought she was exactly that.

“Nobody ever said you were stupid.”

“No, but you’ve thought it.”

“Mind reader, are you?”

“No. But you’ve not exactly hidden your opinion of me. For whatever reason—because of my grandfather or my sister or just because of me, you don’t think I am capable of anything. I understand that. I’ve gotten that before—I’m not like any of my cousins or my sister. I don’t enjoy business like Emily or marketing like Jade. I’m not a super-genius doctor like Josey or an MBA like Mallory. I get that.”

“Anyone say there
’s anything wrong with that?”

“Sometimes. I
’ve heard it a time or two.”

“Your
family?”

“A couple of times.” One of her uncles and a few of the extended family had commented on her desire to avoid
school and just stay home in her greenhouse. But never her father or her sister or the people who truly mattered. At least not to her face.

“Then they
’re the stupid ones, and you’re an idiot if you believe them. And I don’t you’re an idiot. Do you?”

If he didn
’t think she was an idiot, why the derision in his voice? “No. And maybe you don’t think that, but you don’t like me very much, do you?”

“Girl, I don
’t like
anyone
very much. Especially someone named Taniss. Haven’t you heard the rumors? I’m the freak your grandpa made. I’m the damned Frankenstein in good little Dardaptoans’ nightmares, trained by Leo Taniss to eat little children in the middle of the night.”

Cass closed her eyes for a moment. She understood his hatred. How could she not? He was the only one of
them
that she’d ever seen with a scar so horrible looking. It had to have hurt him, though she had never asked the details. She’d been too afraid of what she would hear to ask. But a part of her had known her grandfather had to have been involved.

“Nalik…”
She pulled in a deep breath. Stood and focused everything she had on the small space that separated them. The scent of orange filled the air, replacing the damp scent of cave. Kept her eyes closed. When she opened them again there was a nearly solid wall of green between them. Ripe oranges hung off the branches of the tree she’d put directly in the rock of the cave floor. The cave floor
he
had created with whatever power he had. She was no different than he, was she?

“If you
’re Frankenstein then what am I? The Bride? Because my grandfather did something to
me
when I was still in diapers. More than
any
of the others. And whatever it was allows me to do
this.
”

She closed her eyes, sought the earth around them, and then gave a push to the soil.

Cass had never managed a full tree before, not on
this
scale. But satisfaction burned in her at what she’d created from the earth. And at the complete shock on his face. She pulled the largest orange she could find free and tossed it to him. “Here’s the dessert. From one freak to another.”

Chapter 9

What was he supposed to say?

He asked himself that over and over as he studied the orange in his hand. The eight foot tree growing in the center of his cave. The girl sleeping at the roots, her fingers wrapped around the grasses that had grown around the trunk of the tree as she slipped into slumber.

As it grew toward her, like it was drawn to her.

She wasn
’t just a half-Druid or even a quarter. Something that was often despised and ridiculed in world of the tree hugger Kinds, if he recalled correctly. No, this girl was
fully
Druid while being fully human.

Something that he wouldn
’t have thought possible if he had ever considered it.