Lost (32 page)

I took one more
quiet step into the room which put me in a position where I was able
to see Celeste for the first time. She was sprawled out on one of the
stone chairs and she looked as bad as I'd ever seen her look.

Much like
starving a shape shifter takes a lot of doing if you wanted to avoid
having your head bitten off, it takes a lot to put bags under our
eyes. There were bags underneath Celeste's eyes, dark ones that said
she hadn't been sleeping well, or possibly even at all, for days. Her
hair looked like it hadn't been washed for the better part of a week,
and she was wearing the jeans and t-shirt that she'd worn underneath
her scrubs when she'd come to the hospital to pick us up. That wasn't
a big deal other than the fact they looked like they hadn't been
washed recently.

All of it was
out of character and I didn't have an explanation for any of it.
There was no reason for her to have fallen apart so completely in
such a short time.

My stomach
reminded me that it had been a while since my last meal, so I started
making my stealthy way past Celeste and her pack mate. I only made it
a couple of steps before his eyes snapped open and he shot me a
sickly smile.

"She just
dropped off half an hour ago. I had my eyes closed for an hour before
that trying to convince her that it was okay for her to sleep. My
name is Jax, by the way."

His voice was
pitched, just loud enough to carry to me, but still quiet enough that
it didn't wake Celeste. I wasn't sure that I could have managed that,
but then again, I hadn't spent the last couple of decades doing
everything I could to avoid the attention of the dominants in my
pack.

Every pack had
submissives and there was no arguing with the fact that it sucked
taking orders, but only the worst kind of monster would turn actual
people into timid animals that were scared of even their own shadows.
Jax wasn't in quite that bad of shape, but he was close. Based on the
smile he'd flashed and the eye roll he'd used to punctuate how
obsessive-compulsive Celeste had been when it came to trying to take
care of him, I was pretty sure that only his native good humor had
saved him from being pushed down that path.

I would have
said that it wasn't possible for me to dislike Onyx any more than I
already did. I would have been wrong. The more I learned about Onyx,
the more I wished that Alec had already made a trip down to New
Orleans and put the pack's alpha down.

I shook myself,
forcing my mind back to the present. I returned Jax's smile and
pitched my voice as close as possible to the same range he'd used.

"Hey, my
name is Isaac. How did she get so tired so quickly? We were only gone
for a couple of days and I was pretty sure that she was sleeping okay
before I left."

"Yeah,
about that…she started filling me in while she was bandaging
me up. There are probably things about the lamias that she hasn't
gotten around to telling me, but it's looking like there are even
more things that nobody knew. For you, your trip only lasted a few
hours. For her you were gone nearly a week. She was totally freaking
out because she had no idea what had happened to your group."

My mind was
still trying to process what Jax had just said, but he didn't wait
for me to catch up.

"She said
that she went to the guards outside of the main cave and asked them
for answers something like a hundred times, but none of them would
admit to speaking any English."

I nodded.
"Yeah, that actually makes sense. Only the consorts speak our
language and I'm pretty sure that Set brought them all with us. They
are the best fighters the enclave has. Not only that, he probably
wasn't entirely comfortable with the idea of leaving both Celeste and
his queen here alone with one of them. There have been some…problems
in that area recently."

"Are you
like some kind of lamia whisperer or something? How did you even know
that?"

I shrugged
uncomfortably. It didn't seem right to accept any kind of praise for
what little I knew about the lamias.

"Set is
actually very willing to explain stuff. Usually the biggest problem
is figuring out what you need to know."

Even as I said
it I realized that my answer wasn't strictly true. Set had said
something about his queen telling him to answer all of my questions.
I thought about elaborating, but I didn't know Jax well enough to
just tell him everything I knew about the lamias. Besides, it seemed
like he'd already moved on.

"Still,
I'm impressed. That's very cool that you've got such a good in with
them."

I gave him what
I hoped was a humble nod and then neither of us seemed to have
anything else to say. I was eyeing one of the fruits still hanging
from the vines on the far wall when Jax started to sit up and then
grimaced in pain.

"That will
teach me to get excited about something right now. Sorry, I was going
to say that there is one more thing I should tell you. Celeste talked
like you guys have been here for a while, but back in the real world
it's only been two days since you disappeared."

"Interesting.
So there are multiple instances where time doesn't seem to be
behaving the way it should. Every time I think that I have a decent
idea of what the lamias are capable of they turn around and do
something else I can't even begin to explain."

"Yeah,
that's pretty much what Celeste said too."

I shook my head
in disbelief and then looked back over at Jax. "Are you doing
okay? Do you need anything before I leave? I'd stay and keep an eye
on you, but I should go find Set and see if he will shed any light on
all of this craziness."

"Don't
worry about me. I'm doing pretty well for a guy who nearly drowned
and then had Onyx do a half-hearted job of trying to rip his heart
out of his chest. I don't need anything, but if you have a second
could you grab a blanket for Celeste? She's been shivering off and on
ever since she fell asleep."

"Sure
thing, I'll be right back."

It didn't even
cross my mind that I might be violating Celeste's privacy by ducking
into her room to grab the thin blanket from her bed. I was only two
steps into her room when I saw the pictures. There were six of them,
all wallet-sized, of nine or ten different people.

I'd never seen
any of the pictures and Celeste hadn't had any luggage when we'd
jumped into the boat, so all I could figure was that she must have
been carrying them in her jeans when she'd left to go to the
hospital.

Jax was in one
of the shots, but he was the only one I recognized. A few of the
people in the photos were obviously related to each other by blood,
but the only other common denominator was the fact that they all had
the furtive look of people whom life had been especially unkind to,
people who weren't entirely sure that they would see next month.

I studied the
pictures for nearly a minute before I pulled the blanket off of the
bed and carried it back out to Jax.

"You seem
pretty concerned about Celeste."

Jax looked
confused for a moment before nodding. "I guess you're right.
Mostly we just do the absolute minimum we can get away with for the
dominants, but that's not how we think of Celeste. She gets kicked
around just as much as we do, she's one of us in a way that most
hybrids never could be, begging your pardon."

"No
offense taken here. Can you tell me more about what things are like
inside of your pack?"

"Not much
to tell. Onyx and his guys make life a living hell for all of the
rest of us on their good days. When they have a bad day they tend to
put people in the hospital as a way of blowing off steam. Half of the
submissives inside of the pack probably would have died five years
ago if Celeste hadn't laid down the law back before her brother
disappeared."

"How'd she
lay down the law to someone like Onyx? He's completely out of her
league."

"She used
the one advantage she has over him. He wants her alive more than she
wants to be alive. Back when she was still in her twenties, a year or
so after Onyx killed her mother, one of Onyx's guys got carried away
and accidentally killed Patty. Celeste challenged that guy to a fight
and killed him. It was an amazing fight—she was younger, less
experienced, and she gave up more than sixty pounds to him, but she
ripped his heart out of his chest and threw it down at Onyx's feet."

"That
can't have gone over well."

"Nope,
Onyx beat her to within an inch of her life. We were all terrified,
none of us thought she was going to recover from the beating he'd
given her, but she did. Once she recovered he told her he'd do the
same thing again if she killed another one of his guys. She just
looked at him without blinking and then told him, loud enough that
his guys could all hear, that the next time one of his people killed
or maimed one of us she wouldn't even give them the formality of a
challenge match. She'd just kill them one night when they weren't
expecting it."

"She
called his bluff."

"Yeah. She
knew he didn't want to kill her and risk losing out on all of that
money. After that, things got a little better. There was still a lot
of bad stuff that happened, but the dominants all knew that there
were
some
things that they couldn't get away with."

"She never
had to kill any of the other dominants after that?"

Jax looked
supremely uncomfortable. "I shouldn't be saying anything, but
some of us think she killed another of the dominants a short time
after her brother disappeared. I think Onyx suspected as much too,
but he never had any proof. If she did, then I say good riddance.

"Bennet
was no good. He was scared of her, that much was obvious. He was
careful to strut just like all of the rest when he was around the
other dominants, but if it was just her and him he didn't engage in
the same kind of excesses that the rest of them did."

"That
doesn't sound like someone you'd want to see out of the picture."

"Yeah, at
least not until you know that he was worse than the rest of the
hybrids when it was just us and him. He was really sick."

"You guys
never told Celeste?"

"No. He
was bad, but not bad enough that any of us wanted to see her get
beaten like that again. We kept our mouths shut, but there were signs
that she knew. I think she was just having a hard time admitting to
herself that she was going to have to kill again. That kind of thing
is easier when you're full of rage from finding out that one of your
friends has been killed. It's a lot harder to come at it cold. We
used to hear her crying occasionally after she killed the first guy."

"She cried
like that again after Bennet disappeared?"

"Yeah, but
it could have just been because her brother was gone. We all thought
he was gone until recently. Some thought that Bennet had killed him,
but others thought he'd killed himself like Bennet had claimed.
Bennet was a good liar, but masking your pulse and scent only go so
far. Eventually those around you figure out whether you can be
trusted or not regardless of all that. That's why con men always move
on eventually."

"And
Celeste? She's a good liar."

"That she
is, but we all figured out a long time ago that she's got a good
heart underneath all of that."

Jax yawned and
then grimaced at the way that the motion pulled at his bandages.
"Sorry, but I think I'm done played out. I can barely keep my
eyes open."

"That's
fine, Jax. Don't stay awake on my account. You need your sleep."

His eyes
started moving around in the classic sign of someone in REM sleep
even before I'd finished talking. I tiptoed over to the food and
carefully ripped a large piece of fruit free of its vine before going
outside.

I ate as I
walked towards the main cave where the queen was located. There were
two guards, just the same as always, but this time one of the guards
was a consort. I didn't need him to show me his fangs to recognize
Pal, but he opened his mouth and hissed at me regardless.

"I'd like
to talk to Set."

"Go away.
Set doesn't want to talk to you, sun person."

"Please go
tell him that I'm here and would like to talk to him if he has a few
minutes to spare."

"I said go
away!"

I cocked my
head to one side and gave the consort my best nonchalant smile. "We
both know that I'm eventually going to run into Set again, and when I
do I'm going to tell him about this conversation. If Set really left
instructions not to bother him, then you don't have anything to worry
about. If you're lying to me, then you'll have interfered with his
promise to teach me. Do you really want to cause him to break his
promise and act in a dishonorable way?"

The lamia shot
me a look that said he would have liked nothing quite so much as the
chance to bury his claws in my chest, but he hissed something to the
worker standing next to him. The worker disappeared into the cave,
leaving the consort and me to exchange glowers.

Five minutes
later the worker, or another one that looked similar enough that I
couldn't tell them apart, returned with Set following a few steps
behind.

"I'm sorry
if I'm disturbing something important, Set."

"No, Isaac
Nazir, nothing is more important than my promise to see to your
instruction. Come, let us retire to the challenge circle."

It wasn't until
we reached the sand-filled cave that I realized why Set was moving so
gingerly. He had a sizable gash across his right leg and what looked
like a nasty puncture wound in the bottom quadrant of the left side
of his chest.

I couldn't see
the actual wounds, but I could see where the bandages were breaking
the line of his simple white clothes. He'd taken much more damage
than I'd realized in the early stages of the fight with Onyx's guys,
and yet he'd still saved my life there at the end of everything.