Page 16

Kitasa

N othing about this place was familiar and yet my body knew it—knew the trees, the smells, the paths in the forest. Some part of me remembered and hated this place. If my skin could crawl from my bones and take flight, it would. The scars I’d noticed on my back seemed to burn the farther we moved from the beach. My heart raced.

I didn’t want to be here.

I hated that I couldn’t understand why .

“We near the barrier,” Lemeraties said, appearing out of nowhere to fall into step next to me.

I’d napped for a couple of hours after tossing fitfully. There was a discordant jingle at the back of my head that made it hard to rest but finally, exhausted, I’d fallen to sleep.

“Okay,” I said, not bothering to look at her.

I didn’t want to look at any of them.

“Do you have questions you would like to ask?”

Her patient voice rubbed me wrong. I felt petty and small for wanting to yell and tell her to leave me alone. The raw, empty void that was my skull pressed in on me and somehow, strangely, made me feel claustrophobic. The lack of my own memories left me feeling trapped.

Behind us, I sensed Damon and Frankie moving in step with us, although I couldn’t hear either.

Lemeraties still waited for an answer. She wouldn’t ask again, but I had a feeling she’d remain that way until the world stopped spinning or I told her something. A nagging sense of foreboding rode between my shoulders like an itch I couldn’t reach.

“I don’t have questions.” It took too much patience not to bite each word off. Was I normally a bitchy shrew? Was it because of the lack of memory? Did I dislike this…being at my side? She’d told me what she was—a ghost. She’d also told me she’d killed relatives of mine. She said they’d meant to cause me harm, but that wasn’t why she’d killed them. I couldn’t figure out why she’d lie but maybe she had and some part of me didn’t trust her because of that?

But that felt…wrong.

Damon had been sitting there as she spoke and he’d remained silent.

Even though I wasn’t sure what I felt about him , what he felt about me —or the me he wanted me to be—was obvious. It was written in every line of his body, in the depths of his eyes—and those eyes were pretty amazing. It was in the way he looked at me when he thought I wasn't watching. It was there in the way he watched over me whether I was paying attention or not.

I wanted to be annoyed.

Some part of me was…frustrated…?

But the rest of me was baffled.

How could I matter so much to somebody I didn’t remember?

But I did. And something inside me was drawn to him —we must have mattered to each other.

We’d—

I stopped and canted my head to the side.

Next to me, Lemeraties did the same thing. Without realizing it until it was already done, we’d mirrored each other’s movements, her peeling off to the left of the game trail we’d elected to follow while I went right.

My skin buzzed. I knew without looking that the big, brawny figure of Damon had moved to join me. Turning my head, I met his eyes and lifted a hand to my lips. He gave a short nod then touched his nose and lifted his hand, holding up four fingers.

I frowned only for understanding to dawn a moment later. I flared my nostrils and lifted my head as if scenting the air, then arched my brows.

He nodded and lifted his hand again, four fingers extended.

He’d scented four different people.

It occurred to me that if I could pick up on his presence, they might pick up on him, too. Scowling, I debated on moving away from him, maybe to lead them off. Yeah, I’d do that. Turning to mime that he should stay here, I found him tucking his shirt onto a pile of clothing that already held his boots, jeans, boxers and socks.

He was naked.

Gloriously, beautifully naked.

My mouth fell open.

His eyes connected with mine.

Shock reverberated through me and he lifted a hand to his lips, echoing what I’d just done. Then, with a slow, cagey smile, he started to shift.

Seconds later, a tawny leopard who stood taller than hip-high at the shoulder padded around me. I reached out instinctively and brushed my hand down silky fur. He rubbed against me and then moved away, fluid and graceful. In a blur of movement, he sprinted off.

Biting back a stream of curses, I grabbed his clothing and shoved everything save for his boots into the daypack I had strapped to my back.

I’d just finished when Lemeraties and Frankie found me.

“There are three or four of the blood drawing near.” Lemeraties stared at the boots I held—and the decided lack of Damon—with consternation. “They veered west but might turn back. Where did he go?”

I threw up a hand. “He shifted and took off that way!”

“Playing decoy,” Frankie murmured.

I frowned.

“Both of you can sense his presence,” Frankie said with a shrug. She rolled her eyes when I focused on her, tapping her head. “The abilities I have aren’t precisely empathy but they work damn close and I’m not shielding on all levels right now. We’re not in a secure situation and I can’t block any of you out without blocking everybody out. So, when you sense him, I pick up on it. If you can, they can. He must have realized it and he’s either out of range to avoid them doing just that or he’s leading them away from you. Either way, you need to decide what you want to do before they get close.”

“They won’t be deterred for long,” Lemeraties said. “They may or may not give chase if they picked up on his presence, but whatever brought them in this direction, they’ll return sooner or later.”

That was what my gut said.

Uneasy, I looked up the trail in the direction we’d been going.

“You guys said these people aren’t exactly friendly to me, right?”

“They will not harm you,” Lemeraties said, her voice turning to ice.

I felt the burn of her fury and it was arctic.

Turning my head, I met her gaze. “It’s not just about me, though. I look at you and see something…not of earth. They will, too.” Jutting my chin toward Frankie, I added, “I look at her and I don’t know what I see. I’m not sure what we’re looking for here, but we need answers and…”

“They may be more willing to show their hand to somebody they’ve misjudged before,” Frankie said, arching a winged black brow. “On the flip side, they’ll be closed-mouthed around me and depending on how superstitious they are, they may well shit their pants around her.”

Lemeraties wrinkled her nose and looked away.

Frankie ignored her. “Can you handle yourself?”

I didn’t know if I should be insulted. “Excuse me?”

“I can go unnoticed,” Lemeraties said, her gaze sliding to linger on the path. “We’re running out of time.” She looked at Frankie. “Can you go unseen?”

“Yes. But can we leave you alone?” Her stare bored into me, like she was trying to see through to the core.

It was unsettling.

My hand itched. Rubbing it on my trousers, I looked in the direction where I sensed others approaching. “I guess we’ll have to wait and see, won’t we?”

“Not good enough,” Frankie said with a shake of her head.

Lemeraties stared at my hand. “We do not have time for this.” Abruptly, she looked at Frankie. “Do not interfere.”

Frankie scowled at her. Then her eyes narrowed. “Oh, no—”

That was the last thing I heard either of them say.

The itching in my hand became a burn.

There was an incessant bah-boom, bah-boom, bah-boom at the back of my head, thudding at the base of my skull, like a drum had taken up residence there.

I heard voices— inside my head .

Call us—

Lemeraties lost the outer appearance of looking as alive as me. Baring her rotting teeth in a rictus of a smile, she lunged at me. Time slowed to a crawl.

I saw the thin, watery sunlight glinting off the sword she’d pulled from out of nowhere.

A gladius—a fucking Roman gladius. No more than eighteen inches long, likely about two inches wide, designed to thrust but sharp enough to hack away at an opponent, it was the sword used by the Roman armies to build its empire.

My mind took in all of that in the span of microseconds as Lemeraties rushed me, moving far too fast. She was like me—and I couldn’t move that fast.

Call me —

The heat exploded out from my hands—both of them—and I dropped Damon’s boots.

I shoved my left forearm up just as she brought the gladius down.

It smashed into the shield even as I flinched.

Memory slammed into me.

“So far, I haven’t seen anything that proves to me that you can call that blasted sword.” Rana’s jaw went tight as she began another frontal assault that had me scrambling to evade her.

My foot caught on something.

I heard somebody snarl—a howl.

Growling.

That glittering...

“Ah…you see it, don’t you?”

I tore my gaze from the shield, a simple bolster-style that really shouldn’t seem so lovely. But I knew it. It had lain under a delicately etched cover of glass, next to my sword.

It, too, had been my mother’s.

Each breath burned as I managed to catch myself before I would have gone down. Rana swung her blade lazily. Sweat gleamed on her face but her breaths were only the slightest bit accelerated.

“You know that shield, don’t you?”

I didn’t answer her.

“It’s a pity that you’re not a true warrior,” she said with a sad smile. “It might have saved you.”

She lunged once more. I got my sword up, but it did little good.

She had me disarmed in a move I should have seen coming—she’d used it on me so many times.

As the blade went flying, she kicked me in the stomach. I went flying, too. In a different direction.

Unable to move or breathe now, hearing nothing but the pounding in my head, panic swelling inside me, I tried to make my body move. That glittering shield looked so terribly bright—

“I’m sorry for this, Kitasa.”

I closed my eyes and screamed.

Pain exploded through the back of my head.

There were growls.

Metal swung down.

Stumbling back, shield in place and sword in hand, I gasped for breath and stared at Lemeraties.

There was a name in my mind.

Just one.

Rana .

Lemeraties smiled at me and looked at Frankie.

“She will be fine.” Then she faded out of sight.

Frankie looked pleased. She winked at me and stopped to grab Damon’s boots. As she straightened, she disappeared as well, but not in the same manner as Lemeraties. She just…disappeared. All for her eyes. For several long, lingering moments, her eyes remained there, staring at me.

It was creepy as hell.

And then she blinked and the eyes were gone as well.

Shaken, I went to shove a hand through my hair and froze.

I still gripped the shield.

There was another memory, somewhere in the foggy depths of my mind.

She gave me the music back.

The shield, I thought. The shield and sword. And others.

With a deft mental flex, I banished both weapons, but they weren’t really… gone .

I could feel them.

Slowly, I started along the path, resuming the journey I’d been taking.

To all outer appearances, I looked alone.

I hadn’t walked more than a couple of minutes before I caught glimpses of movement ahead.

I didn’t attempt to hide.

If I’d seen them, then they’d seen me.

Within moments, they’d started moving toward me with clear intent. A prickle of heated awareness rolled down my spine and a buried instinct whispered that it was Damon. He was tracking them but from farther away, so far I barely sensed him. Would they?

I have no idea.

I couldn’t sense Frankie or Lemeraties at all.

My heart hammered but that was probably a good thing. If these people had hated me, they probably expected some level of fear or hesitation on my part, right?

Although what in the hell I’d do once they showed up and I had no idea who they were…

Yeah, this was going to be fun.

A male emerged first.

He had sharply defined features that were oddly familiar, unsettlingly so. With a jolt, I realized he looked like I would, had I been male—and larger. His hair was several shades darker and he had hazel eyes with hints of green, rather than the green of my own, but I could easily see the similarities. High cheeks, a triangular face with a sharply pointed chin and a nose that had been broken often enough and badly enough that it was slightly crooked, with a noticeable deviation along the bridge. His wasn’t a face you’d forget…unless you were like me, with a messed-up head and a case of amnesia.

His eyes widened slightly, betraying a surprise that disappeared quickly.

“Am I seeing a ghost?” he said.

He didn’t speak English, but I understood nonetheless.

“Why would you be seeing a ghost?” I responded. I had only the vaguest idea of what had happened when I left here—Damon had told me I’d run away. Lemeraties had shared a bit more. She kept talking about a ‘ bond ’ we shared but their words couldn’t condense a lifetime of experiences and we didn’t have time.

I had no real memories of this guy we were trying to save, but a nagging sense of urgency pushed me to move, move, move . It was because of the kid—Doyle. He was in trouble and I had to help. I wasn’t entirely sure how I knew, but I did .

Just like I knew the man in front of me wasn’t somebody who’d caused me harm.

There had been a flash of something akin to relief along with the surprise and he held himself stiffly, like he wanted to come closer, but didn’t dare.

“You live. We were all certain you had died—drowned in the sea or otherwise killed in the outside world,” he said. The pulse in his neck hammered against the bronzed skin in the hollow of his throat and the hand at his side was fisted so tight, the skin at his knuckles was blanched white. “But you stand here now.”

Lifting a shoulder, I shrugged.

One of the women at his back pushed around him, her eyes narrowed. “ You …” Scorn dripped from her voice and in movements fluid and deadly as a striking cobra’s, she slid around the leader.

That strange heat washed over my palm.

Call me—

The words came on a wave of music and promise and with no conscious decision, I moved . When I stopped, I had spun around, evading her strike, and I had the sword in my hand and it was pressed to her throat.

She hissed in shock.

The male behind her grabbed her and hauled her back. “Sybin, no .”

She struggled to tear free and he grabbed the front of her leathers and hauled her several inches off the ground. “You are not in charge, Sybin— I am.”

“Demetrio—”

“ Stratje! ”

She jerked her spine straight and her gaze moved away from me to focus forward. “Yes, Stratje.”

“If I want your input, I will request it, Sybin. You had your chance to lead the legeóni and you fucked it up.”

I started at the very English word he crammed there in the language of the aneira but if any of the others were surprised, they didn’t show. And not one looked at him.

Demetrio .

His name was Demetrio.

I had no memories of him.

But when he turned to face me, I met his gaze and knew he wasn’t going to try and put a knife in my back.

“Why have you come back, Kitasa?”

“I’m looking for…Fanis.” The name felt wrong on my tongue and I hoped he didn’t notice the minor hesitation.

He didn’t but that might have been because his face twisted in a scowl almost immediately. “She’s gone. She abandoned us nearly eighteen months ago, taking her personal guard with her and several of the other elite warriors. We’re on our own.” His mouth quivered in a sneer. “And good riddance to her.”

“You talk treason,” Sybin bit off.

“ I talk treason?” Demetrio half turned to face the female. “She left us here with no way to leave, with our protections faltering but I am the one who talks treason? She turned her back on our people, Sybin. Maybe you think to follow blindly, but I don’t. Now either be quiet or go back to the Hall. I’ve no patience for you today.”

His implacable stare cut into her and her eyes cut away, meeting mine for a fraction of a moment, mutinous arrogance in the pale blue depths. We stared at each other for several breaths before she looked away, gaze falling to the ground.

“…look at the pig…” A high, girlish giggle. “She’s so…filthy. I can’t imagine how our queen puts up with her.”

“I bet she’ll grunt and squeal like a pig, too. Want to find out?”

I backed up, trying to get away but the wall was at my back and the group of four had cornered me. Sybin, tall and lithe and beautiful, her cruel eyes alight with glee and malice, shoved me back against the wall. My head hit the stone with enough force that I saw stars. By the time it cleared, they’d already pushed me to the ground. I curled up into a tight ball, trying to protect my stomach and ribs.

Somebody struck my kidney and the sharp pain had me biting my lip through.

“Squeal, pig!” Sybin said. “Squeal, you filthy little wretch.”

“What is going on? Sybin!”

“Kitasa, Fanis isn’t here, but this may not be the safest place for you.”

I jerked my focus away from Sybin’s averted face and looked at Demetrio, disoriented from the memory that had just fallen into place, an icy deluge against the frozen wasteland that was my mind.

“There is no safe place for me—not while she’s alive, but it doesn’t matter. She’s taken a friend of mine,” I said. There was no point in beating around the bush, was there? And I could trust this male.

Demetrio’s eyes narrowed, something akin to worry in his gaze. “What do you mean, taken ? And who is this friend?”

“What are you on about, mongrel?” Sybin said.

Demetrio turned, a snarl rumbling up his throat.

But I took a step forward, words spilling out and they held a lifetime of rage. “Shut up or I’ll make you squeal like a pig, Sybin.”

As her mouth fell open, I took one step, calling sword and shield to me so that both weapons were in hand as I bore down on her.

She fell back and I smiled at her expression, at her realization that I’d made her do it.

“You’ve lived your entire life safe here on the island. Know where I’ve been?” Another fractured memory fell free. A man in a truck, throwing himself at me while I fought and kicked to escape. His blood on my hands. “Fighting to survive. You fight for sport . I’ve fought to live . I’ve fought shifters.”

The ugly monstrosity that was a rat-shifter leaped at me in my memories. I didn’t have anything but that flicker but I saw myself firing arrow after arrow into the creature until he staggered in front of me.

“I’ve fought vampires.” The mocking smile of a man too beautiful to be real stood before me in the landscape of my mind and again I fired another arrow, this time from a handcrafted bow and just thinking of it—no, her , brought a tribal drumbeat to my mind.

“I’ve fought monsters the world has forgotten. And you fight for… sport , Sybin. Come on. Threaten to make me squeal now…pig.”

Her face was red as she shoved past Demetrio to turn and face the rest of the squadron. “Are we going to listen to her ? She’s a thief. An outcast. A murderer . She killed Rathias—everybody knows it. He went to take her out of the pit as ordered and instead of being grateful, she went mad and killed him—”

A slash of pain tore through my mind at that name.

I bit back a pained groan even as another cavalcade of memories spilled loose.

A young blond man, holding me down, pain tearing through me as he pushed into me.

The smell of my blood thick on the air.

“I might have gone mad,” I said, my voice thick. “But it was only after he’d raped me.”

Sybin stiffened.

Slowly, she turned and stared at me.

“You foul liar .” Blood drained from her face as our eyes connected.

“I am not lying—and I think you know it.”

She lunged for me.

And Lemeraties was there.

She didn’t look like the woman I had seen for most of the time since I'd awakened with my mind a vacant husk.

She looked monstrous, decaying skin stretched over a skeletal frame, dry, thinning hair fanning out from her skull. In some places, the bones showed.

A startled cry rang out from several of those in the squadron and nearly half stumbled back.

Demetrios didn’t, although he’d gone white as a sheet and in one hand, he held a spear topped with a long, heavy point.

Drawn forward to the specter’s side, I saw that she’d caught Sybin by the throat. The other aneira hung in the air, her feet several inches off the ground.

“Kitasa does not lie,” Lemeraties said, her voice echoing and hollow.

I looked at her and saw that her eyes were filmy white and there were places in her cheek where the skin had completely rotted away, allowing me to see bone. Her nose was a pitted ruin and power emanated from her in cold, relentless waves.

Sybin gripped Lemeraties’s hand desperately and I saw the stubby bones of the specter’s fingers had driven into the skin, drawing a few sullen drops of blood.

“Let her go, Lemeraties,” I said quietly.

“I will not have your honor insulted. These people have done enough of that.”

“Yeah, well, I think they get the point,” I told her.

Lemeraties hissed but dropped Sybin. Sybin scuttled back on her butt and a breeze drifted through the small copse. In between one blink and the next, Lemeraties’s power swelled, changed, warmed and then she looked so like me, we could have been sisters, safe for the disparity in height.

That freaked them out even more—including Demetrio who dropped into a crouch, spear raised as he looked at Lemeraties like she’d suddenly sprouted two heads and fangs.

“…witch?” he muttered.

“No, boy.” She flicked her fingers disinterestedly. “I’m one of you. Or…I was.”

She turned her head to me. “Your cat comes.”

I felt the heated prickle along my skin and squirmed at her reference to Damon being mine —I still had no memories of him. But my heart had started racing the second I sensed him, and that had been before Lemeraties had pointed it out.

“Cat…what…”

I sheathed my sword and moved forward, placing a hand on Demetrio’s spear. When his eyes came to mine, I nudged the tip downward.

“I brought…allies,” I told him, not knowing what else to say. “What we’re doing…I can’t do it alone.”

“Do what alone?”

“Allies? Is this about the Queen?”

“What are you going on about?”

“You brought outsiders to Aneris?”

“Is there a boat?”

There were a jumble of other questions, coming one right after the other, and from almost every person in the small legeóni but the one that caught my attention was the last, probably because it came from a woman only a couple of inches taller than me, short for one of our kind.

And she reached for me, closing her hands in the front of my thinly woven, but warm sweater, her eyes pleading as she stared at me.

“Do you have a boat ?” she demanded. There was desperation in the question and she looked a step away from panic.