Secret Worlds (48 page)

Charles’ energy was palpable; a barely controlled anger coiled in his body as Thalia spoke. He shoved her away and grabbed my hand. “We’re leaving.”

“Not so fast!” She snapped her fingers, and two stocky Cruor emerged from the crowd. They blocked Charles’ path. A willowy, red-haired woman appeared at their side, her smile unnatural.

Thalia scowled. “Check them, Circe.”

Circe’s large green eyes widened. “Yes,” she hissed. She flitted between my friends and me, grasping locks of hair and inhaling deeply. Her nostrils flared at Ivory’s scent, but she passed her over. She reached me and nuzzled a long strand of my hair. As I leaned away, she smiled and stroked my head. “Such a life, this one!”

“Enough, Circe. Thank you.”

Once Circe disappeared into the crowd, Thalia smiled at Charles. “That one”—she bit her thumbnail and indicated me with her pinky—“would be valuable.”

A vein pulsed in Charles’ neck and a soft hum vibrated through his body. Why didn’t he just shift?

“Surely you aren’t attached?” she asked, dropping her hand away from her mouth.

“You are outside your rights, Thalia.”

“Temper, temper.” She sighed, the sound sickening coming from her. “But, my sweet Charlie, we’ve missed you. And what of Adonis and Blake? Have you forgotten who your
real
friends are?”

“These women know nothing. Do not cross me.” His voice sounded rougher, more gravelly.

“Cross you? Oh Charlie, I’d never cross you.” She patted his chest and winked. “You’ve already
been
crossed.”

A young, scrawny Cruor pushed his way through the crowd. He bowed toward Thalia. “I’m sure Charles can handle this…misunderstanding. He’s been around longer than both of us put together.” He arched his eyebrows.

Thalia stepped back, cocked her head to one side, and tapped a finger against her cheek. “Fine. We have their scents.” To Charles, she added, “Pray you handle this well.”

She turned up her nose and spun on her heel, then threw her hand to the air as she stormed off. The Cruor scattered, some following her into the house while others disappeared into the shadows.

The young Cruor remained. “You owe me.”

“Thanks, Adonis. Could you…?” He nodded towards Lauren, who trembled behind Ivory. “Escort them to their car first. We’ll meet you there.”

“You got it,” Adonis said. “But be careful, man. Thalia’s been into some things lately…And Blake—”

“Blake doesn’t concern me.”

Adonis lifted his hands. “Just keep an eye out, that’s all.”

“I always do.”

I looked back as we walked away. “What about Ivory and Lauren?” My voice shook uncontrollably, and I realized how much my body was shaking. I felt cold and sick, as though I would never sleep again.

“Adonis can erase and change human memories. We’ll circle back and meet them at the car. Lauren’s memory of tonight’s events will not be the same. You’ll have to convince her to go to the diner instead of the cemetery.”

“But Ivory—”

“Adonis knows her. She’ll help.”

We walked in silence. Maybe if I waited long enough, my heart would slow and breathing would come easier. When no peace came, I turned to Charles.

“What were you doing here? Why didn’t Adonis want to erase
my
memory?”

He stopped walking. “We need to talk.”

“That thing…
Thalia…
knew you.”

“I stayed with them for a while,” he said, dropping his voice so low I barely heard. Even the Cruor, with their enhanced senses, wouldn’t be able to hear him now—not at this ever-growing distance Charles had placed between us and them. “I used to hunt with them.”

“Stayed with them?” I rubbed my palms against my thighs, wiping the cold sweat on my jeans. “Why would you do that?”

He stuck his hands deep in his pockets and his shoulders hunched forward. “I haven’t been completely honest with you.”

“Such as…?” My heart sank, dreading the untold news.

“There’s more you need to know, things I hoped I wouldn’t have to tell you.”

I nodded for him to continue.

“Some of the Strigoi hunters didn’t only hunt the inhumane Cruor. They turned dark, hunting all Earth elementals, good and bad alike. The Universe tried dealing with this by creating air elementals—the Ankou.”

“There are others?” I pressed the heels of my hands into my eyes.
Of course
there were others. “I’m not sure I want to know any more.”

“You need to hear the rest to understand what I need to tell you.”

“Those were Earth elementals.”

Charles gently squeezed my hand, regret etching into the lines around his eyes. “The Ankou were sent as grim reapers of the evil Strigoi and also to collect the spirits of elemental who have met a final death. With their magic, however, came the ability for elementals to crossbreed. The blending of bloodlines caused discoveries to increase. Humans attacked the elementals out of fear. Many innocents died.

“As a result, the Maltorim banned the mixing of bloodlines to protect the elemental species as a whole, as well as many innocent humans. The Ankou were enslaved to perform purifying procedures, using their gift of advanced supernatural medicine to get rid of one or other of the bloodlines in each dual-breed. But the results were unreliable, and so the Maltorim decreed death to all of the dual-natured.”

“I still don’t see what that has to do with the Cruor back there or how you know them.”

“The Maltorim will kill all dual breeds and anyone who associates with them.” Charles gave me a long look. “To answer your question, Sophia, Adonis doesn’t want to erase your memories because he believes
I
will.”

“You? But—”

“Those Cruor…they think I’m a pure Cruor, too. If Thalia learns any different, she’ll have me and my family killed.”

I shook my head. “They can’t do that.”

“They can, Sophia. They do so all the time.”

“How do you pretend to be Cruor? Can’t they tell? I don’t understand.” I closed my eyes and shook my head. “Please don’t tell me—”

“I didn’t choose this.”

Shit. Charles was dual-natured? “But I’ve seen you, every day. I mean every
day…
in the sun.”

“Being Strigoi—being born instead of turned—changes things. I shift slower, but can tolerate sunlight. I’m not as strong as the Cruor, but I’m faster.”

“But the daffodil oil. You never had a problem coming into my house.”

“This is the very reason the Maltorim sees dual-breeds as a threat to the supernatural race. Despite our strengths being less potent, so are our weaknesses less severe. Our tolerances to such things—sunlight, silver, daffodil oil—are remarkable. It’s a bit draining and makes us feel…off…but we can still function.”

“Does Adrian know?” I asked quietly.

Charles’ Adam’s Apple bobbed. “Ivory and Adrian are the only ones who know I’m dual-natured. And obviously my parents. Now you, too.”

“You should have told me.”

He swept a lock of hair from my face, his hand warm against my chilled skin. “I didn’t want to scare you. Or put you in any further danger.”

“Who you are means more to me than what you are,” I said, knowing I was in no place to point the finger. I had my secrets, too.

His eyes burned into mine. He caressed my cheek with the back of his fingers and slid his hand down my arm to my hand. Goose bumps rushed over my skin and my heart quickened as our faces inched closer together, his breath feathering against my cheek. All those times before we’d been this close I hadn’t been sure what I wanted to happen, but now I had no doubts.

He lifted a hand and trailed his thumb over my bottom lip. His gaze lowered to my mouth and then he tilted his forehead against mine, locked his eyes on mine, and lowered his voice. “Sometimes I wonder what it’d be like to kiss you.”

In the limited light, through the shadows frozen between our faces, I could make out the lines of his face and the brightness of his eyes. I wished he
would
kiss me. Wished to drum up the nerve and kiss him myself.

Charles closed his eyes and bent his head closer to mine. My eyes closed, too, and the world was silence and we existed in the darkness behind our eyelids. A breeze slipped between us, and, for a moment, I thought possibly his lips had brushed mine.

He pulled away, eyes full of regret. “I may never be able to give you what you want. It’s better for you if I don’t…if I—. Sophia, even if I wanted to grow old with you, I could not.”

“It’s okay,” I whispered, but I wasn’t sure what ‘okay’ meant. The one hope I’d had of a future between us being possible had just been torn away.

“Can you understand why I didn’t tell you?” he asked. “If they knew I was the Strigoi who had helped you at Club Flesh, they’d realize I wasn’t pure. That would have ended badly for us both.”

I cringed at the word ‘pure’. Now I understood why he’d feared being followed when we’d met at the club. Did he live his whole life this way, always questioning the intentions of anyone who crossed his path? Always wondering if someone was ‘onto’ him?

“I would never say anything,” I told him, giving him a long look to impart the sincerity of my promise.

“You might not have to.”

“What do you mean?”

He looked into the distance. “How did you say you found this place?”

“A book my mentor gave me had the address. And some code: LC 47.”

“Local Coterie 47,” he said, returning his gaze to mine. “Every Cruor coterie has a number. What book was it?”

“Maltorim records for the Salem witch trials.”

“Sounds like one of Adrian’s books.”

One of Adrian’s books? It made sense, I guess. Perhaps Ivory had borrowed it and accidentally left it at Sparrow’s Grotto. Paloma probably thought it had shown up out of nowhere.

“So what are we going to do about the Maltorim?” I asked.

Charles frowned. “They must be aware something’s up. That a Strigoi saved you and now you’re with me. If they put it all together…” He shook his head. “We can’t risk drawing more attention to ourselves. Marcus’ interest in you was bad enough. Now he’s finally back in Damascus, and you’ve got Thalia’s attention instead.”

“Do we need to leave?” Was anywhere safe?

“No one would make a move without being sure. I don’t think they’re even considering it, not yet, and they have no knowledge of where I live. If needed, though, my parents have a place in the Japanese mountains where we could stay—one of the few locations left in which the Maltorim has no real presence. We would just have to be careful we weren’t followed there.”

“This dual-breed thing is the real reason you don’t age?” I asked, suddenly uncertain of everything I’d learned up until this point.

“Even if I stop shifting, I’m still part Cruor. Only pure Strigoi can age.”

I didn’t care if he was part Cruor, but if we could turn him into a pure Strigoi, then there was hope of a future for us. Us, together. Though I wasn’t looking for any major commitment, I needed to know if it was
possible
. I needed to know how much to protect my heart.

“What about the procedure?” I asked. “The one the Ankou once used.”

“I said I’d be
able
to age,” Charles said darkly. “I didn’t say I would.”

At his sudden change of tone, I pulled back, trying to keep my face a mask of indifference.

After a long moment, he added, “I have my family, understand? And the Ankou might turn me over to the Maltorim.” He closed his eyes and breathed in through his nose. “I can’t think about this right now, Sophia. I’m sorry.”

I gave him a solemn. “You mentioned the Ankou as a third elemental race,” I said. “There are more?”

He nodded. “The Chibold, once, but not so much now.”

“Fire elementals?” I asked.

“They were sprites that materialized as small human children, though some aged into their late teens. They needed host families to survive, but as adoption became more of a bureaucratic process—and these weren’t real children—the host families became fewer and further between. The Chibold also had a reputation for causing trouble, thus not many supernatural families being willing to take them in.”

“What happened to them?”

“They died off, as happens if they go longer than a century without a host family. They were around during the War, back when the Maltorim first declared the dual-natureds be killed. The Chibold caused a lot of destruction with their fires and telekinetic powers.”

Wouldn’t that throw the Universe’s balance completely out of whack? Missing an entire element? Then again, they’d thought it was a good idea to only introduce one at the start. As crazy as I was, I had no place making judgments about ‘balance’ or the Universe’s decisions.

The Maltorim, on the other hand, was another story entirely.

We walked the rest of the way around the block in silence, stopping when Lauren’s car came back into view. Adonis was still with Lauren and Ivory, but no other Cruor were anywhere to be seen. Judging by the glazed sheen to Lauren’s eyes, she was still under his influence. We stayed far enough away to talk privately, so long as we kept our voices low.

“I’m still worried about Thalia,” I said. “She said they have our
scent
now. Whatever that means.”

“Thalia has the attention span of a gnat. She’ll find something else to occupy her time by the end of the night. You’d have been better off never coming to her attention to begin with, but she’s not going to hunt you down.”

I raised an eyebrow.

“You’re not that important, darlin’,” he said, smirking.

Though his light candor broke the tension surrounding my concerns, Thalia still struck me as someone far too passionate to let things go.

I shuddered, remembering the other Cruor—the crazed redhead. “What about Circe?”

“Circe is a marionette controlled by its puppet master. She’s not going to do anything unless Thalia tells her. Those two are always together.”

“Thalia might not want to kill you,” I said, “but there’s no reason she wouldn’t come after me.”

“Thalia isn’t as dangerous as she likes to believe. She’s too busy sucking up to the Maltorim to break any laws.”

“Still, maybe it would help if I learned more about your world,” I said, hoping I could use this opportunity to get answers about my ancestor without him learning about my family’s curse.