Stealing Kathryn (29 page)

He turned the wheel to the door and yanked it open.

“Holy hell. They weren’t lying,” was the greeting he received.

“Kine,” Adrian said in return. Then he looked at the second man standing there. “Daedalus. Long time no see.”

“I could say the same,” the other man said, his low voice as rough as his appearance. Daedalus had once been as big and robust as Adrian now was, but like Adrian, he trafficked in energy that was on the harsher end of the spectrum. Daedalus dealt strictly in grief and in all the energy released because of death, and it showed. He had grown gaunt and pale, his cheeks sunken; long fingers gave him the appearance of a wraith. His eyes were immeasurably weary, as though he had seen far too much. Adrian only needed to look into his eyes for a moment for the two men to realize they were kindred spirits. Both had sacrificed who they were for the sake of their people, rewriting everything about themselves and paying a very heavy price.

Kine broke the momentary silence. “My God, Adrian, you look—you look great!” Kine was one of the few people who had seen Adrian in his full monstrous state.

“Thanks,” Adrian said dismissively. “So what brings you both here?” he asked them.

“Can’t a couple of fellow Guardians come say hello to an old friend?” Kine asked as he pushed past Adrian and entered the hut-styled home.

“They can also come to ogle my kindra,” Adrian mused under his breath.

Daedalus chuckled, having overheard him. “Let’s call it meeting, not ogling. We’re happy for you, Adrian. We’ve missed you a great deal while you’ve been hidden away in the Barrens.”

“Have you?” Adrian scratched the back of his neck uncomfortably. He hadn’t thought much about his former friends the way they had clearly been thinking of him. Part and parcel of his mentality and self-involved fury at life, he thought.

“Don’t worry,” Daedalus reassured him with a hearty clap on the shoulder, “Aerlyn spoke with me many times about what was going on with you. I understand the situation and what it must have been like.”

By the look of his friend, Adrian didn’t have a hard time at all believing he understood.

“Adrian?”

Kathryn’s voice brought his head up with a snap. It jolted him out of his feelings of being an inadequate friend like nothing else could. She was at the top of the slideway, trying to figure out the safest way to come down.

“Allow me,” Kine said quickly, dashing up the slideway in a few easy strides. Then he took Kathryn’s hand by her fingers and helped her to walk down, assuring her the entire way. “I know it looks treacherous and steep when you’re standing at the top,” he said to her, “but the weave of the flooring provides a natural traction for bare feet, making it really quite safe.”

“I can feel that,” she marveled as she came down the slide. Then, as soon as she was on the main level, Kine walked her up to Adrian and handed her over to him with a gentlemanly bow at the waist and a wicked gleam of mischief in his eyes.

“Your kindri, madam,” he offered as he released her hand. “Adrian, she’s luscious. First Julian and now you. A fellow can get jealous if his friends flaunt their good fortune too much.”

“I have only just begun to flaunt,” Adrian informed them. “She’s mine and she’s beautiful and she’s new in our village. Everyone is going to know her.”

“In a way they already do.” Kine smirked.

Adrian realized what the inference meant only half a second before Kathryn did. Then she flushed a brilliant shade of red. Adrian reached out and smacked the other Guardian on the back of the head.

“Ow! Hey, what was that for?”

“Because you’re an insensitive ass,” Daedalus said helpfully.

Adrian stifled a growl of frustration. Kathryn was already self-conscious enough. She didn’t need strangers making commentary on their sex life. She was far too inexperienced to cope with it.

“Oh.” Kine looked sheepishly at Kathryn. “I’m sorry. I forgot that you are human and probably don’t speak comfortably about these things as we do. We’re a pretty frank people.”

“It’s okay,” Kathryn excused him graciously. “If I’m going to be living here from now on, I guess it’s something I’ll just have to get used to.” She cleared her throat and smoothed a hand over her hair, not realizing just how sensuously tousled she still was from their lovemaking earlier. It made Adrian smile, but he was very careful not to let his feelings emanate too hard and far. Now that she was living among his race, a race of inherently empathic and telepathic people, she would start to become just as attuned to those things as they were and begin to use parts of her brain she had never used before.

“You think that’s tough, wait until you have to learn how to navigate the town. It takes some doing to learn which paths lead where, which go up and which go down. It’s just like any roadways, I suppose, only you have to keep your balance at the same time.”

“Kine, are you trying to scare the shit out of my kindra on purpose?” Adrian demanded angrily when Kathryn put a nervous hand to her throat. She was a very strong woman in her way, but her major weakness was trying new things. She feared what she didn’t understand. But he knew her. He knew that she would adapt to all of the challenges his world would offer her and be strong and confident in her abilities in no time at all.

“No! Adrian, I was just—”

“Shutting up,” Adrian said sharply.

“Right. Shutting up,” he agreed quickly, knowing that making Adrian angry was not a good idea no matter what form or shape he was in.

“Now that I have a moment to speak,” Daedalus said, stepping forward and reaching to clasp Kathryn’s hand warmly, “welcome to our world. I hope you find it as beautiful and fascinating as we do.”

“Oh, I already do,” Kathryn said breathily. “I want to see so much more of it.”

“Then let us take you and Adrian out for dinner,” he offered with enthusiasm.

“I don’t think—”

“Yes! I would love that!” she responded over Adrian. Then she realized what he was saying. “You don’t want to go?”

“I just think you might want to take things a little slower. You just got here. You should adjust.”

A mischievous smile curled over her lips and she gave him a sizzling look. “I think we’ve adjusted enough for the time being.”

Kine snorted out a laugh and Adrian gaped at her in shock. Where had that come from? She was so shy about sex except when she was in the middle of it, but now she was tossing around flirtatious innuendo in front of others?

“Very well,” he said, unable to help smiling at her when she looked at him with such dancing amusement in her eyes. “We’ll go. What time is it now?” he asked the other men. “Just about sunset, we’ll go out right after.”

“Well, meanwhile, why don’t you boys sit down and tell me everything you know about Adrian.”

That was an invitation for potential disaster, Adrian realized with an inward groan. Daedalus was circumspect, but he could never tell what was going to come out of Kine’s mouth from one moment to the next. But he couldn’t tell them to go off into the sunset with the okriti running around, so he sat with them with Kathryn tucked up tightly against him and his arm secured around her shoulders. Everything about his positioning and body language claimed her as his, and every last one of them was well aware of it.

Chapter 14

Kathryn liked both men immensely. They were distinctly different in their personalities, and very different from Adrian as well. Kine was a cutup, often faking ignorance as to the effect the things he said would have on others. Daedalus was more serious, almost to a fault. There was something very sad about the thin stoic. She would have to ask later why he looked the way he did, like death warmed over. But despite his looks, he was very sweet to her and that was really all that mattered to her. If she had learned anything these past few days, it was not to choose a book by its cover. Even now it was hard to believe the handsome and passionate man she was curled up against had been trapped inside a monster for so very long.

“It makes sense that finding your kindra would reverse the effects of the mirror,” Daedalus was saying. “You see, Kathryn, our species is very sensitive to energy. Especially emotional energy. If one of us grows angry, he can infect others of us with his rage if we are close enough and the emotions are strong enough.”

“I didn’t know that,” she murmured.

“The mirror had corrupted Adrian. To the point where it would no longer hurt him to enter the thing or to take in the energy he reaped. But still, every night he was reinforcing that negativity. When you came, you were a source of good energy that he was predestined to draw into himself and hold close, whatever the cost. You were the most important treasure of all.”

“All of the Guardians reflect the energy they collect in their duties. Each to a varying degree and each according to the type of energy they are required to harvest. Take old Daedalus here, for example. He deals in all the stages of death and grief. We call him Reaper for a reason. And all of that heavy emotional energy has affected the way he looks, just like it affected Adrian,” said Kine.

“So…you’re like an angel of death? You kill people?” Kathryn was aghast.

“No. I only reap from those who are already dying, and from the family who survives them. I reap from natural disasters. But death isn’t always about grief,” Daedalus reminded them. “People take great joy in sharing their memories of the deceased person. There is great love when a family says final farewells to each other.”

“But mostly grief is a heavy and draining process,” Adrian spoke up grimly. “It drains you as if you were in a perpetual state of dying and mourning.”

So that was why he looked the way he did, Kathryn thought. And that was probably why Adrian felt such kinship with this man. But it was Kine who had come to visit Adrian, apparently, despite his corrupted and cantankerous state.

“And what about you, Kine? What kind of energy do you reap?” she asked him.

“Well, I deal in two energies. Two that always seem to go hand in hand with one another. War and faith. The two mesh constantly when you might think they shouldn’t. But you see, they both breed the powerful emotions of belief. There is so much power in the escalation of both altercation and rapture. For instance, fervent soldiers and jihad fighters put more heart and energy into a war against their enemies than anyone else. Ignorance and intolerance breed feverish faith, even if it is blind. Unmitigated faith is a soaring and powerful energy that you cannot believe the power of.”

“Wow,” Kathryn uttered. “I never would have thought—that’s just amazing. Tell me, what are the other Guardians focused on? Who are they? Where are they?” She sat forward eagerly.

“You don’t want to hear about all of this, do you?” Adrian hedged, not wanting her to be overwhelmed with too much, knowing that some of the Guardians might shock her with the power they retrieved. But then again, she’d barely batted an eyelash when she’d heard about Daedalus, and next to Adrian he was the worst there was, really.

“Of course I do! I want to hear about everything. You brought me to this world. And I’m going to learn how to navigate it in all ways. That way I can best learn how to enjoy it.”

Every time she spoke like that, Adrian felt his heart clench with joy. She was becoming more and more accepting of her fate, accepting of her future with him. Perhaps…perhaps one day she might even come to care about him. Might crave him in ways other than a sexual appetite.

“Let’s see…” Kine mused a moment. “You already know about Aerlyn, I take it. She reaps good dream energy. Ah, Shade. She doesn’t know Shade. You think I’m bad? He’s literally the clown among us. He reaps humor. Laughter. It’s something humans gather together to do. To laugh. Comedians and such. Unfortunately he’s also precognitive. That means he literally knows everything. He gets very bored very easily because of it. Nothing surprises him.”

“Oh. Well, that’s kind of a shame, don’t you think?” she asked.

“It’s a pain in the ass is what it is, and so is he.” Daedalus frowned. “And they let him get away with far too much. Irreverence with the Ampliphi is bad enough, but he plays fast and loose with a lot of the rules as well.”

Kathryn couldn’t help but smile. “It sounds like I would like him a great deal.”

“Yeah, you would, unfortunately. Everyone likes the little bastard.”

“Adrian,” she scolded.

“Well, it’s true.”

“Okay then…that makes five Guardians, if we still include Adrian. Aerlyn told me there is one Guardian for each Ampliphi. I counted six Ampliphi.”

“Julian is only just become an Ampliphi. That’s why he is always in a solid state. He just found his kindra too, a few months back. But before he was Ampliphi he was Guardian. Care to guess?” Kine asked with a twinkle of pure mischief in his eyes. “It’s the most powerful burst of energy humans can create in a single moment.”

“Well, I don’t know….” Suddenly she realized what he meant and pinked up instantly.

“I love how she changes color like that. A little pink chameleon.”

“Don’t make me come over there and break your neck,” Adrian warned him.

“Stop. He’s just making fun.” Kathryn poked him in the ribs. “Don’t treat me like I’m made of spun sugar. I won’t fly apart over a little teasing. Besides, it makes me feel welcome.”

“Well, you are welcome,” Daedalus assured her. “And the sun ought to be down by now. Shall we go?”

“Great idea. I am starving!”

“Good. Then you’ll want to try all of our best foods,” Kine said. “Though I’m warning you now, keep away from the purple stuff.”

“P-purple?”

“Not to be confused with the blue stuff, which is divine.”

“He’s going to make me break his neck before the night is over, I just know it,” Adrian sighed.

The truth was, they had a wonderful time. A very normal time, with the exception of the strange foods, purple or otherwise. Kathryn liked to laugh, and Kine’s antics and teasing did the trick. She’d never been very social, mostly for lack of company or occasion, but she discovered she liked this. Adrian was quiet most of the time, and she realized that he was out of practice socializing as well. They made quite a pair, she thought, as he closed the door to the house tightly.