Dwellers of Darkness (4 page)

“
Cathbad? Who are they?” Kennedy smoothed her long silky, brown hair. I knew her. This was starting to overwhelm her.

“
Cathbad the
Battler
was a seer and warrior and one of the most influential Druids. He worked for the Seelie King because he could foresee favorable days for warriors to go into battle. As far as I recall, he was a good man and faithful to the core teachings of Druidry. He was highly respected and prominent until Aneira came into power. His position as teacher and royal advisor was stripped from him. Druids fell out of favor and became Aneira’s foes.”

“And she killed them,” Kennedy finished for him. Owen nodded. Kennedy’s hands twisted together, and she looked at her pulsing veins. “So my blood is blessed with a spell from the gods and goddesses? This is what lets me live longer and enables me to do magic?”

“Magic has always been in your ancestry, and the gods charmed your bloodline to carry through the generations. If you have children, no matter whom the father, they will be full Druids. The enchantment was to make sure the family’s heritage would never become watered down, so to speak. It will not weaken, and in some cases, it could become stronger. The bloodline runs deep in your veins.”

“So the fact I can pick up on people’s auras and feel extreme emotions is not because I am some kind of freak?”

“Well...” I tilted my head. Kennedy slapped my leg but burst out with a laugh. “You walked into that one.”

“Yeah, I always do. You’d think if I had such great powers, I’d see those coming.”

“Ahh, Ken, it’s only because you are so sweet. Still hoping for the best out of me.”

“You’d assume I would have given up a long time ago.” She grinned.

“Wow. She becomes a magical Druid and gets all sassy?” I feigned hurt. I could sense her calming down, relaxing as we joked, exactly what I’d hoped for. We were us—Kennedy and Ember—still teasing each other. Not a Druid and a Dae with Otherworld abilities.

“But, if I have these skills, why haven’t they come out before?”

“Like Fae, you don’t fully acquire your powers until you come of age, which is around eighteen. Also, you weren’t raised in the Druid life. From birth, Druids of old were taught and trained in magic. You should be showing some signs of your magic by now. At first I thought it might have been some spell your parents placed on you. They wanted you to blend and hide among the humans. But I don’t sense an enchantment on you. I think it is just you impeding them. You were raised not to believe in magic, and the force of the mind is a strong blockade. I hope since you are now aware of what you are, your powers will come out.” Cole shifted back in his chair. “You need to be trained. High Druids are taught for years in one particular art. We don’t have this kind of time, so we will be doing a crash-course starting tomorrow.”

“Whoa. Wait.” I stood. “She has not agreed to this. Unlike me, I want Kennedy to have a choice in what she does. This is her life.”

“She can never go back to her old life,” Cole argued. “We are lucky she has not been discovered. Eventually, the Queen would notice, and Kennedy would be killed.”

“I’m not saying she can go back home. I’m merely saying she has a right to choose if she wants to be involved with this. To be your guinea pig. At least tell her why you are asking this of her.”

Cole clasped his hands, leaning forward. “Kennedy, we were exiled from the Otherworld by the Queen twenty-two years ago. Before she killed what she thought was the last Druids, she had one create the hex banning us. Only a Druid can undo a Draoidh curse. Until you, we never believed there might be one alive to break it. Aneira is torturing your friends and one of our own. We want to be able to get them out. We can only do this if we can get into the Otherworld.”

My protective mama bear stirred. “Shit! Can you pull on any more heartstrings there? Tell her what kind of danger you’re putting her in.”

A hand touched my arm. “I want to do this. Like you, I always knew deep down I didn’t fit in. This is who I’m supposed to be. And if I can help them get back to their home and free Ryan and Mark, I’m willing to do anything”

Damn, this girl has such a good heart. Why in the hell did she become friends with me?

Her fierce loyalty to her friends matched mine, so I had no doubt Kennedy would choose to help. My protectiveness still wanted her to have a say. She had a right to decide on her life and not be told what it was going to be. Kennedy and I were so different in some aspects of our personality, but so similar in others. Our love and dedication for family—those of blood or choice—knew no bounds.

I was also impressed how well she was taking this. I hadn’t accepted my revelation with as much grace. I had thrown up on the floor. Oh, yeah, baby
... that was how I rolled. I was the one who ran around like my hair was on fire throwing myself head first into things without thinking. But Kennedy was a facts person. First came knowledge, then she made a plan.

“When we begin your training tomorrow, we will start with the history and the basics of Druid magic.” Cole stood, rubbing his legs. “I think we should take a little break as we could all use one.”

A mumbling of consensus passed among the group. Kennedy headed for the door. I heard her tell Jared she needed a moment by herself. He nodded, but his eyes looked woeful as he watched her leave.

“Going for a hunt if anyone wants to join?” Cole stretched his arms as he left the room.

Hunt?
A giddy reaction propelled me to take a few steps, following him.

“I do.” Eli turned and glared at me.
Don’t you dare follow
, his eyes said.

I stopped. As much as my Dark Dweller was pawing on the inside to go on a hunt, I didn’t want to be anywhere near Eli. Plus, there was something else I needed to do.

Seeking solitude in the depths of the forest, I headed out into the warm, evening air. The rich, comforting smells of pine and redwood reduced my worry. Torin had been constantly on my mind, and I wanted to contact him again. The last time I saw him, he was being hauled off on the Queen’s order in retribution because he secretly helped me. We weren’t as covert as we thought. The Queen was aware of our connection and relationship. Her preferred method of discipline was abuse. She thought of Torin as “hers.” Not only did he desire someone else, but betrayed and lied to her for that person. Disgust rooted around in my stomach at what was probably happening to him. Torin had insinuated she mentally and sexually liked to punish him. I could only imagine the sadistic torture she was doing to him. I massaged my temples, feeling bile mounting in my throat.

I slipped down a tree truck and anchored myself. Closing my eyes, I concentrated and called for him. With Torin, even when he couldn’t answer me, I always felt him there—as energy, like a life line. Since the Queen had taken him away, I had felt nothing but a cold, dead line.

My feelings for him had always been complicated and strange, and I knew I couldn’t take it if he were dead. I would feel empty, and it would always torment me. Guilt would weigh heavy on my heart because he saved me from the Queen. I could not lose him.

“Please, Torin, please don’t be dead. All I need is to know you’re alive. Give me something, please.”

“Is your boyfriend ignoring you, again?” Eli came through the trees.

I grunted a sigh, standing up again. “You really like stalking me, don’t you? Is it a cat thing?”

“I am not a freakin’ cat.” He scowled.

Scoffing, I leaned my head back on the tree.

“I love that you make fun of the exact thing you are now.”

I frowned and replied, “My being part Dark Dweller wasn’t by choice.”

“It was obviously a stupid one of mine.”

“Screw you.”

“Again?”

Clenching my jaw and fists, I grumbled, “What do you want? Get to the point or get away from me. We seem to have this same conversation over and over anyway. Why not tape one and put it on a loop because I am sick of this shit. Aren’t you?” I demanded. “It is so old. You’ve been nothing but an ass from the day I met you. Since I’ve been gone, you have discovered a whole new level and grown into an even bigger one.”

“I’d like to think I never stop learning and growing.”

I was about to go at him with a steamroller of curse words when I stopped. He liked baiting people. He was rattling me, and I was letting him.

Taking a deep breath, I clasped my hands together to stop them from trembling. I smiled up at him, instead. He frowned as though in surprise, and then the confusion turned to fury. His face tightened. I turned the tables on him with one gesture. With a smile. Now that’s talent.

He shuffled his feet across the dirt and looked away. “I came here to say that if you are going to dreamscape or
dreamwalk with Fairy boy, leave me out of it. I don’t like forced fieldtrips, especially ones where I’m the third wheel. Usually I’m not standing on the sidelines in a threesome.”

Breathe, Ember, breathe,
I repeated to myself. “Since you couldn’t even handle me, I’m thinking those girls got the short end of the stick. In more ways than one.” There were a lot of things I could say about Eli, but being “un-gifted,” small, or not talented in bed were not any of them. Still, hitting below the belt made me feel better because, if anything pissed him off, it was a hit to his over-confident ego.

A guttural growl originated from the depths of his throat. “I seemed to remember handling you effortlessly, multiple times. Can you say the same?”

“We girls are good at faking it.”

His eyes flickered red, and his pupils elongated. I felt mine mirroring his. My Dark Dweller responded to his, amplifying the already charged air between us. The impulse to take him down, tearing off his clothes as I went, was almost overpowering. The need for sex, for him, rattled my brain. Neither of us moved, both breathing in and out heavily. If I moved, I would not be able to stop myself, which would be a bad idea
... really bad. Right? I almost stopped caring when I saw his eyes blaze hotter with desire.

Then he transformed.

I jumped back, startled by this swift change. “What the hell?”

I had seen him fully shift in front of me once when he was protecting me from a blood-thirsty Strighoul. It was fascinating both then and now, as his body burst from his clothes and carved into a sleek, beautiful, and frightening creature. The fur was so black his outline blended with the night. Only his flaming red eyes were visible. He was made for killing, to sneak up on his prey and assassinate them undetected. There was no escaping a Dark Dweller. The moment a victim saw those red eyes, death was only moments away.

Instead of scaring me, it only intrigued me. The razor-sharp bones lining his back reflected the moonlight. They looked like shark’s teeth. If you fell on them, you would be sliced in half. Eli’s beast-head jerked to the right, sniffing the air. The red blaze in his eyes went green. Dark Dwellers’ eyes only turned red when they were at their most primitive. This was either when they were about to kill someone or when they got really, really horny.

Even though I was part Dark Dweller, I would never be able to turn into this form. But I had some of their abilities: my pupils shifted and my senses heightened. I also had Dark Dweller instincts to kill and hunt.

He grunted, and his large sickled claws tore off the last bit of his clothing before he headed in the direction he had been sniffing.

“What? What is it?” I asked.

Though he couldn’t use words, it didn’t stop us from communicating. We had this strange ability to transmit our thoughts without talking. Even before receiving his blood, we were able to convey what we were thinking through our eyes. It wasn’t like I could hear his voice in my head as I could with Torin but more like I simply understood what Eli was thinking. Unlike Torin, Eli had to be looking at me for it to work. In Dark Dweller form, it only seemed to be enhanced.

I smell Lorcan.

What? Are you sure? I thought he couldn’t get in here?
I inhaled deeply. It was slight, but I did smell a familiar odor. Eli’s senses were way more developed than mine.

He can’t, but he is close, and he’s not alone. Samantha is with him.

The growl coming from my throat shocked even me. My hatred for Samantha overshadowed even my loathing of Lorcan. She had killed my friend, Ian, by coldly slicing his throat in front of me just because she was jealous over Eli. My revenge burrowed deep; I needed her blood.

Eli took off through the brush. His journey was a lot more silent than mine as we headed for the property line. To humans I would be nearly undetectable, but to a Dark Dweller, I probably sounded like a herd of elephants.

I felt the magic of the spell come upon me. Warmth pulsated over my skin like a heartbeat, and I knew the property line was close. The silhouettes of three figures stood on the other side of the line. My eyes took in what was in front of me, but it required a little longer for my brain to really grasp it.

“Kennedy!”

Lorcan’s hand firmly gripped Kennedy’s throat. His usual smug smile was plastered on his face. He was shorter than Eli but had the same color eyes and hair. “Look what we found wandering all alone in the woods.” Lorcan clicked his tongue at us. “You guys make it too easy.”

“I’m sorry.” Kennedy’s eyes watered, fear etched on her face. “I needed some air and didn’t realize I had crossed the line.” Cole had warned us about boundaries. But because she stepped out, not in, the charm didn’t go off to warn the Dark Dwellers.

“Oh,
Damnú air
! Shut up you whiny bitch.” Samantha rolled her eyes. “All you humans are so irritating.”

If I weren’t so scared for Kennedy, I would have laughed. Samantha was the last one to talk about being whiny, bitchy, or irritating.

“Still, I think we might keep this one. She’s a special one, aren’t you?” Lorcan patted Kennedy on the head.

“Don’t you dare hurt
her.” My muscles twitched. Even if I couldn’t turn into a Dark Dweller, the desire to kill was still there.

“Hurt her? Now, why would I want to harm her?” Lorcan grinned. “I came here for you, Ember, but now I will be leaving with something even better.”

Eli rumbled, his back hitching up in an attack stance, while he inched closer to the property edge.

“What are you doing here, Lorcan?” I asked. This wasn’t the first time he had dropped in unannounced. He was opportunist and used his Dark Dweller stealth to unsettle the balance of power.

He ignored me and faced the midnight-colored beast next to me. “I am a little hurt you kept this from us. Thought we were family, Elighan. This changes everything. Our parents would be disappointed in the way you turned out. Picking a Dae over your own blood and now keeping a Druid from your family.” He wiped his hand over his head, in the same way Eli always did when he was frustrated. Lorcan and Eli were brothers and were very different, but you could see the family resemblance in their habits and voice. It could be extremely disturbing. Lorcan was a good-looking guy, but all I could see was a twisted soul. Years of jealousy and anger evolved it into a dark mass of vindictive ugliness. “So as usual, little brother, you pick your dick over your family.”

“At least he gets to choose. You are a dick. There is no getting away from that.”

“Such a little spitfire, aren’t you? Think I am starting to see what Eli sees in you... ahhh... nope, it’s gone.”

Samantha snorted.

“I have to admit I am surprised to see you here after what happened last time. I tell you your boyfriend killed your mother, and you still run back into his arms.” Lorcan swept a hand between me and Eli. “Guess your standards are even lower than I imagined.”

“As one of the Queen’s lackeys, I’d think you would know I saved my very-much-alive
mother from the Queen’s dungeon.”

“I am not exactly working with the Queen any—”

I kept talking. “You get off on doing shit like this. You’re so jealous of your brother you want to hurt him any way you can. I was merely a perk. Do you get a hard-on by lying and manipulating? Is it the only thing you understand? You are sad and pathetic.” I didn’t stand firmly behind the sentiment that Lorcan had done it all for kicks. I knew something had happened between them and my mom. But my mother was alive, and Lorcan didn’t need to know my doubts.

Lorcan’s eyebrow rose. “Really? I’m the liar here? I won’t deny I will sway someone to get what I want, but I’ve never lied to you. Why would I need to? The truth is so much more fun.”

He had said many things the night he told me they killed my mother. And when he touched my tattoo, the pain we both had felt had been excruciating. Eli’s contact had once been slightly painful, too, but nothing compared to Lorcan’s. Since Eli had given me his blood, his touch no longer burned, and only caused a slight buzz. My tattoo was tied to them. Another mystery I needed to figure out. Right now, my priority was getting Kennedy away from Lorcan.

“How did you know I was here? I thought there was an enchantment to keep you from remembering this place?”

Lorcan scoffed. “I am smarter than all of them combined. I always have been. Don’t look so nervous there, Emmy. I can’t cross it, but I can always find my way back here. I made sure of that.” I didn’t know exactly what he meant, but I didn’t doubt him. Lorcan was devious and smart. He would find a way.

“Cross the line, Ember. I dare you,” Samantha taunted. “Don’t you want to be reunited with your friend here? What was the name of the other stupid human I killed?”

A flash of Ian’s goofy smile surged into my mind. I wanted her to pay. I took a step forward. Eli brushed against me, rumbling, and blocking me from Sam.

“Come on, now.” Lorcan tugged Kennedy tighter into his body. “Can’t we all be one big happy family?”

With a growl, I stepped around Eli. “You don’t know the first thing about being a family. I think West would agree with that.” Anger burned my words. “Or do you only call people family when they behave how you want them to?”

“Ember, should you really speak about family? When you did nothing to get your dear
ol’ dad out of the Otherworld? You left him and your other two friends there. Leaving the ones who weren’t important? Is it really being a loving friend or daughter to only take the ones who would help you? You let the others die because you are too selfish to step up to the plate.”