The Reawakened (6 page)

He rolled off her, more relieved than gratified, and made a late effort to echo her sounds of satisfaction. His own ears weren’t convinced.

He looked across her sweat-streaked body at the window on the other side of his tree house. The moonlight’s angle had changed since she’d arrived. “You should hurry,” he told her, “or you’ll be late.”

She turned to face him and curled one leg around both of his. “Can’t throw me out so quick once we’re married.”

He wiped his face and forced a smile onto it. “I can if you’re still hunting. Kalindos needs to eat.”

Kara turned toward the window, then gasped. “Look at the moon.” She sat up and reached for her shirt. “I had no idea it was so late.”

“Sorry it took me so long.” Dravek slid to the edge of the bed and stood up. “I don’t know what it was.” He moved away from her and went to the basin of water on his dresser.

“I wouldn’t normally complain,” she said with a laugh. She padded to the corner where her trousers and underclothes lay in a rumpled pile. “Were you distracted?”

Dravek splashed water on his face and pretended he didn’t hear her. “Hmm?”

“A bit rougher than usual. Again, I’m not complaining.” She picked up her clothes and hissed a breath through her teeth. “Ow. Not complaining too much.” She approached him as he dried his face and hands on a semiclean cloth. “Is something wrong?”

“Of course not.” He leaned over and kissed her cheek, hoping his tone sounded cajoling instead of defensive.

She pulled away with an exasperated sigh. “Why is, ‘of course not’ always a man’s answer to that question?”

“Because it’s the wrong question to ask.”

Kara yanked up her trousers, then sat on the bed to put on her socks. “I’ll be more specific, then. What happened today that made you think about something besides my body?” She picked up her moccasins, then set them in her lap. “Is it another woman?” Before he could answer, she shook her head, bouncing dark blond curls against her cheeks. “No, I swore I’d never ask you that.”

He held up a hand. “Stop torturing yourself, and I’ll tell you.” Not
everything,
of course. Absolute honesty would never be their friend. “It’s Sura.”

Her eyes widened, and her lower lip trembled. “But she’s your Spirit-sister.”

“That’s not what I meant,” he said, perhaps a little too hastily. “On the way home, she told me what’s been happening in Asermos. Horrible things my father’s people have done.”

“Dravek…” Kara came forward and placed a soft hand on his chest. “Adrek’s your father, not that Ilion slavemaster.”

He shook his head. “Adrek raised me, and I’m grateful. But his blood doesn’t flow through me like it does Daria.” His fist tightened on the towel, and he wanted to rip it in two. “What flows through me is evil.”

“And good, too, like every one of us.” She wrapped her arms around his waist. “I’m glad you’re not like Adrek and Daria. You’re a lot nicer.”

“I’m not nice.”

“No, but you’re not-nice in a much nicer way.” Her hands slipped down to squeeze the sides of his hips, as she had when he’d made love to her. “Do you still want to marry me?”

His heartbeat spiked. “Why do you ask that?”

She tilted her head. “The way we got engaged wasn’t completely…fair. I wouldn’t blame you for feeling trapped. If you change your mind, even a minute before the wedding, I’ll understand.”

Her words sounded sincere, and her eyes were round and unblinking, but he could feel her skin grow cold with apprehension.

“Don’t be silly. Of course I want to marry you.” He gently removed her hands from his hips, where her nails were digging into his flesh. “Now stop, or I’ll keep you here another hour or two.”

“Won’t Mother love that.” Balancing on one foot at a time, she tugged on her moccasins. “It’s wretched having a parent with the same Spirit.”

“Daria and Adrek are both Cougars. She doesn’t mind.”

“Cougars hunt alone. Wolves have to hunt in packs, take orders from their leaders.” She pulled her mass of curls back and began to braid her hair. “Wish I had my own pack.”

“One day you will.”

She gasped. “We’ll go to Tiros, then, after we get married? So you can train with Vara?”

Dravek’s stomach sank, though he didn’t understand why. He hadn’t been eager to leave Kalindos before, but now the thought filled him with dread, a dread connected to Sura.

“I can’t leave now that I have an apprentice.”

“But if you train with Vara, you can come back and be an even better mentor. Especially after you make the second phase.” She slid her hand over her belly and put on a serene smile.

Dravek suddenly wanted to get dressed—another unusual impulse. He grabbed the closest shirt and yanked it over his head, though he suspected it was inside out. “I should at least take her for her Bestowing. There’s time before the wedding.” He knelt and skimmed his hands along the rug near the bed, searching for his drawers and trousers.

“Good, then.” She dashed for the door. “See you tomorrow!”

He grunted a reply, still seeking the rest of his clothes and cursing his lack of night vision.

Kara put her hand on the latch, then stopped and turned slowly. “You didn’t do it.”

He looked up. “Do what?”

“Grab me. Every time I leave your house, you snatch me up and steal one more kiss. This time you let me go.”

“Oh.” His hand finally met cloth, and he pulled his trousers from under the bed. “Sorry.”

She waited a moment, then turned the latch. “Good night, then.”

Kara was halfway across the threshold before he darted across the room and seized her by the waist. She released a shriek of delight as he wrestled her back inside and onto his bed. He gripped her wrists and spread his body over hers.

“One more,” he whispered against her lips. “So you won’t forget me.”

The kiss was long and languid, and soon she was squirming beneath him, her skin heating and pulsing.

Finally he scooped Kara into his arms and carried her to the porch, where he planted her back on her feet. She stumbled a little, her eyes dark and dazed with desire.

“Good night,” she whispered.

He smiled at her as he shut the door.

When her footsteps reached the ladder, he let himself inhale.

When the ladder’s creaks faded, he let out a long, tightly held breath. He looked down and was relieved to see that his shirttail hid his complete lack of arousal.

He stripped off his shirt before sinking back into bed. Kara’s scent covered the pillow and blanket, but failed to stoke his passion.

Perhaps he was ill, Dravek wondered as he stared up at the pine branch that bisected his one-room tree house. He’d wanted almost every woman he’d ever met, and more than half the men. But after meeting Sura, those previous desires felt as stale as week-old bread. He craved her, inexplicably, with body and soul. The hours since they’d parted felt like endless gray days, like the ones at the end of winter.

He sat up.
No. This doesn’t happen.
She was supposed to be like a sister to him.

Dravek drew both hands through his hair, rubbing his temples with the insides of his wrists. Maybe Sura wasn’t really a Snake. That would explain it. If a different Spirit claimed her at the Bestowing, he’d deal with these feelings then. If Snake claimed her, he’d marry Kara and leave for Tiros. By the time he returned, either Sura or this bizarre attraction would be gone.

Anything to avoid hurting Kara. If he ever saw those beautiful blue eyes fill with tears on his account again…no, he’d felt like a monster long enough.

Dravek lay down facing the wall, determined to sleep. He closed his eyes and forced his mind to think of stones, trees, birds—anything but the image of Sura standing straight and strong before him, long black curls streaming across her face, over her neck, then falling to caress her breasts.

He shifted his body to ease the new ache in his groin, but kept his hands under the pillow. He wouldn’t touch himself and think of Sura.

That way lay a path more treacherous than any he’d ever walked. It dizzied him, like looking out over a great height, one from which he’d surely fall like a stone.

“Where’s your father?”

“Chickens,” Jula said without looking up.

Rhia shuffled to the stove and picked up the teakettle. Some chicory would banish her yawns. “Nilik’s still in bed?”

“No.”

“He left early?”

“Yes.”

“To go to work?”

Jula hesitated, then quietly set down her quill pen. “To go to Velekos.”

A cold sensation dribbled down Rhia’s spine. “That’s not funny.”

“I’m not laughing.”

“He followed your uncle?”

“Yes.”

Rhia swept a hand over her clammy forehead and fought to catch her breath. “Lycas will turn him back. He promised, unless Nilik knew the password.”

“You mean, ‘Hector’?”

Rhia dropped the teakettle. It bounced off the edge of the stove and clanged against the wooden floor. “What did you say?”

“I saw you and Papa talking about it, here last night.”

“I never told him the password.”

“No, but while you were telling him
about
the password, you picked up Hector and cuddled him. Did I guess right?”

Rhia stared at her daughter’s satisfied face as the vision of Nilik’s death flared in her mind. “You have no idea what you’ve done,” she whispered.

“Yes, I do.” Jula turned back to her paper. “I made Nilik happy. I let him fulfill his destiny.”

“That’s just it.” Rhia grabbed Jula’s shoulder and made her look up. “You don’t know what that destiny is.”

Jula shifted out of Rhia’s grip. “And you do?”

“Yes!”

The color drained from Jula’s face.

“I mean, no.” Rhia gritted her teeth. “I don’t know his destiny. I’m just afraid, that’s all.”

“Why didn’t you tell me you knew?” Jula slid out of her chair and backed away. “Why would you let me send him away to die?” Her voice pitched higher. “How could you be so cruel?”

“You know I can’t break Crow’s sacred law.”

“Even to save your own son?”

“I tried to save him!” She advanced on Jula. “I tried to keep him here. But you had to spite me, didn’t you? You had to prove how clever you are. You don’t care about Nilik’s destiny, you only care about yourself.”

Jula’s eyes narrowed slowly. “Somebody has to care about me, because you sure don’t.”

“That’s not true.” Rhia laid a hand on her daughter’s arm as gently as her anger would allow. “I love you.”

Jula turned away. “I don’t want the love of a freak like you.”

Rhia’s stomach dropped. She watched her daughter march toward the stairs to make her usual dramatic exit to her room.

The front door slammed open, and Marek strode in, blocking Jula’s path. “I heard what you said to her.” He jutted his thumb at the open window. “Apologize. Now.”

Jula backed up and bowed her head. “I’m sorry, Papa.”

“To her!” Marek roared. “If you ever speak to your mother like that again, don’t bother speaking to me at all.”

Jula gasped and raised wet eyes to meet his. Her lower lip trembled, and she slowly turned to Rhia. “I’m sorry, Mother. I ruined everything.”

Marek’s expression and voice softened. “What are you talking about, ruined everything?”

Jula looked at Rhia, who shook her head.

“Tell your father what you did.”

Jula stared at the floor. “I gave Nilik the password so he could join Uncle Lycas.”

Marek’s face grayed as he looked at Rhia. “How did she know the password? I don’t even know the password.”

“She guessed.”

“But—he can’t go to Velekos, right? Because of—”

“Don’t say it.”

“Rhia, you’re the one who hates keeping secrets.” He looked at Jula, then back at her. “Nilik will die there, won’t he?”

Rhia closed her eyes. The word
“Yes”
wouldn’t come. Every bit of Crow in her kept it in. But her silence seemed to satisfy Marek.

He strode to the closet and pulled out their traveling packs. “Let’s go get our son.”