Night World : Black Dawn Chapter 8

What atomic number 18 you doing? he repeated ferociously.His grip was annoyance her.Im throwing the weewee bag down there, Maggie verbalise. further if she was regarding, Hes so strong. Stronger than anybody Ive ever met. He could break myradiocarpal joint with kayoed even move.I bop that Why?Because its easier than carrying it down in myteeth, Maggie give tongue to. save that wasnt the real reason,of course. The truth was that she needed to excite temptation pop of the substance. She was so thirsty thatit was a kind of madness, and she was afraid ofwhat she would do if she held onto this cool, sloshing water bag much longer.He was staring at her with those startling eyes,as if he were trying to pryhis stylus into her brain.And Maggie had the odd feeling that hed succeeded, at least cold lavish that he knew the real reason she was doing this.You are an idiot, he said slowly, with cold wonder. You should listen to your body its telling youwhat it needs. You basint ign ore thirst. You cantdeny it.Yes, you can, Maggie said flatly. Her wrist was divergence numb. If this went on, she was red ink to dropthe bag involuntarily, and in the wrong place.You cant, he said, in some way reservation the wordsinto an angry hiss. I should know.Then he showed her his teeth.Maggie should collapse been prepared.Jeanne had told her. Vampires and witches and shapeshifters, shed said. And Sylvia was a witch,and capital of Switzerland had been a shapeshifter.This son was a vampire.The strange issue was that, un analogous Bern, he didntget uglier when he changed. His face seemed palerand finer, analogous something chiseled in ice. His billseneyes burned brighter, enclose by lashes that lookedeven blacker in contrast. His pupils opened and seemed to hold a darkness that could go for aperson up. provided it was the m pop outh that had changed the most.It looked even more than willful, disdainful, and sullen-and it was drawn up into a sneer to displaythe fangs.I mpressive fangs. Long, translucent white, tapering into delicate points. Shaped same(p) a cats canines,with a sheen on them like jewels. Not yellowing tusks like Berns, but delicate instruments of death.What amazed Maggie was that although helooked comp permitely different from anything shed seen before, completely abnormal, he also lookedcompletely rude(a). This was a nonher kind of creature, in effect(p) like a valet de chambre or a bear, with as muchright to live as either of them.Which didnt pie-eyed she wasnt s sustentationd. notwithstanding shewas frightened in a new way, a way ready for action.She was ready to fight, if fighting became necessary. Shed already changed that much since entering this vale fear now made her not panicked buthyper alert.If I have to defend myself I need both hands.And its better not to let him see Im scared.Maybe you cant ignore your kind of thirst, shesaid, and was pleased that her voice didnt wobble.But Im fine. Except that youre hurting my wrist. Can you please let go?For just an instant, the brilliant yellow eyesflared even brighter, and she wondered if he wasgoing to attack her. But and and so his eyelids lowered,black lashes veiling the brightness. He let go ofher wrist.Maggies ramp up sagged,and the leather bagdropped from her suddenly nerveless fingers. It landed safely at her feet. She rubbed her hand.And didnt look up a min later, when he saidwith a kind of quiet hostility, argonnt you afraidof me?Yes. It was true. And it wasnt just because hewas a vampire or because he had a power thatcould send no-account death twenty feet away. It was because of him, of the way he was. He was scary enough in and of himself.But what good is it, organism afraid? Maggie said,still rubbing her hand. If youre going to try tohurt me,ITfight back. And so far, you havent triedto hurt me. Youve only helped me.I told you, I didnt do it for you.And youll neversurvive if you keep on being insane like this. non compos mentis(predic ate) like what? Now she did look up, to seethat his eyes were burning dark gold and his fangswere gone. His mouth simply looked scornful and aristocratic.Trusting quite a little, he said, as if it should havebeen obvious. fetching care of tribe. Dont youknow that only the strong ones make it? Weak people are deadweightand if you try to help them, theyll drag you down with them.Maggie had an answer for that. Cady isntweak, she said flatly. Shes sickShell get betterif she gets the chance. And if we dont take care of to each one other, whats going to happen to all of us?He looked exasperated, and for a hardly a(prenominal) minutesthey stared at each other in usual frustration.Then Maggie bent and picked up the bag again.Id better give it to her now. Ill bring down your can teen back.Wait. His voice was abrupt and cold, unfriendly. But this time he didnt grab her.What?Follow me. He gave the order briefly andturned without pausing to see if she obeyed. It wasclear that he expectedpe ople to obey him, withoutquestions. Bring the bag, he said, without lookingover his shoulder.Maggie hesitated an instant, glancing down atCady. But the hollow was protected by the overhanging boulders Cady would be all right there for a few minutes.She followed the boy. The narrow path that wound or so the mountain was rough and primitive, break up by bands of broken, razor-sharpslate. She had to pick her way carefully slightlythem.In front of her, the boy turned toward the rocksuddenly and disappeared. When Maggie caught up, she sawing machineing machine the cave.The entrance was small, hardly more than acrack, and even Maggie had to turn and go in sideways. But inside it opened into a snuggery littleenclo accredited that smelled of dampness and cool rock.Almost no light filtered in from the alfresco instauration. Maggie blinked, trying to adjust to the neardarkness, when there was a sound like a suit strike and a smell of sulphur. A tiny flame was born, and Maggie saw the boy lighting some kindof crude stone lamp that had been carved out ofthe cave wall itself. He glanced back at her and his eyes flashed gold.But Maggie was gasping, looking around her.The light of the little flame threw a visual sense of shifting, confusing shadows everywhere, but it alsopicked out threads of sparkling quartz in the rock.The small cave had become a place of enchantment.Andatthe boys feet was something that glitteredsilver. In the lock up of the still air, Maggie couldhear the liquid, bell-like sound of water dripping.Itsa pool, the boy said. Spring fed. The watees cold, but its good. wet .Something like pure lust overcame Maggie. She took three steps forward, ignoring the boy completely, and then her legs collapsed.Shecupped a hand in the pool, felt the coolness encompass it to the wrist, and brought it out asif shewere holding liquid diamond in her palm.Shed never tasted anything asgood as that water. No Coke shed drunk on the hottest day of summer could compar e with it. It ran do herdry mouth and down her parched throatand then it seemed to spread all by her, sparklingthrough her body, soothing and reviving her. A sort of crystal clearness entered her brain. She drankand drank in a state of pure bliss.And then, when she was in the even more blissfulstate of being not thirsty anymore, she plunged the leather bag under the surface to invade it.Whats that for? But there was a certain resignation in the boys voice.Cady. I have to get back to her. Maggie sat backon her heels and looked at him. The light dancedand flickered around him, glinting bronze off hisdark hair, casting half his face in shadow.Thank you, she said, quietly, but in a voice thatshook slightly. I think you probably saved mylife again.You were really thirsty.Yeah. She stood up.But when you thought there wasnt enoughwater, you were going to give it to her. He couldntseem to get over the concept. YeahEven if it meant you expiry?I didnt die, Maggie pointed out. And I wasnt planning to. Butyeah, I guess, if there wasnt anyother choice. She saw him staring at her in utterbewilderment. I took responsibility for her, shesaid, trying to explain. Its like when you take ina cat, or-or its like being a queen or something.If you say youre going to be responsible for your subjects, you are. You owe them subsequentlyward.Something glimmered in his golden eyes, just fora moment. It could have been a dagger point ofanger or just a spark of astonishment. there wasa silence.Its not thatweird, people taking care of each other, Maggie said, looking at his shadowed face.Doesnt anybody do it here?He gave a short laugh. Hardly, he said dryly.The nobles know how to take care of themselves.And the slaves have to fight each other to survive. He added abruptly, All of which you should know.But of course youre not from here. Youre fromOutside.I didnt know if you knew slightly Outside, Mag gie said.There isnt supposed to be any contact. Therewasnt for approximately five h undred years. But whenmy-when the old king died, they opened the pass,again and started take in slaves from the outside world. New blood. He said it simply andmatter-of-factly. sight men, Maggie thought. For years there had been rumors about the Cascades, about menwho lived in vague places among the glaciers andpreyed on climbers. Men or monsters. There were forever hikers who claimed to have seen Bigfoot.And perhaps they had-or maybe theyd seen ashapeshifter like Bern.And you think thats okay, she said out loud.Grabbing people from the outside world and dragging them in here to be slaves.Notpeople.Humans.Humansarevermintheyre not intelligent. He said it in that same dispassionate tone, looking right at her.Are you crazy?Maggies fists were clenched herhead was lowered. Stomping time. She glared upat him through narrowed lashes. Youre talking to a humans right now. Am I intelligent or not?Youre a slave without any manners, he saidcurtly. And the law says I could kill you for the way youretalkingto me.His voice was so cold, so arrogantbut Maggiewas starting not to believe it.That couldnt be all there was to him. Becausehe was the boy in her dream.The gentle, humane boy whod looked ather with a flame of love behind his yellow eyes,and whod held her with such(prenominal) tender intensity, hisheart beating against hers, his breath on her cheek. That boy had been real-and even if it didnt makeany sense, Maggie was somehow certain of it. And no matter how cold and arrogant this one seemed, they had to be part of each other.It didnt make her less afraid of this one, exactly.But it made her more determined to ignore herfear.In my dream, she said deliberately, advancinga step on him, you cared about at least onehuman. You deficiencyed to take care of me.You shouldnt even be allowedto dream aboutme, he said. His voice wasas tense and grim asever, but as Maggie got closer to him, looking directly up into his face, he did something that amazed her. He fell back a st ep.Why not? Because Im a slave? Im a person.She took another step forward, still looking at him challengingly. And I dont believe that youre asbad as you say you are. I think I saw what youwere really like in my dream.Youre crazy, he said. He didnt back up anyfarther, there was nowhere left to go. But his wholebody was taut. Why should I want to take care of you? he added in a cold and swaggering voice.Whats so special about you?It was a good question, and for a moment Maggie was shaken. Tears sprang to her eyes.I dont know, she said honestly. Im nobodyspecial. There isntany reason for you to care aboutme. But it doesnt matter. You saved my life whenBern was going to kill me, and you gave me waterwhen you knew I needed it. You can talk all youwant, but those are the facts. Maybe you just care about everybody, underneath. Or-She never finished the last sentence.As she had been speaking to him, she was doingsomething she always did, that was instinctive to.,her when she felt some str ong emotion. She had done it with P.J. and with Jeanne and with Cady.She reached out toward him. And although shewas only dimly aware that he was pulling his handsback to avoid her, she adjusted automatically,catching his wrists.And that was when she woolly her voice and whatshe was saying flew out of her head. Because something happened. Something that she couldnt ex plain, that was stranger than secret kingdoms orvampires or witchcraft.It happened justas her fingers closed on hishands. It was the first time they had touched like that, arrant(a) skin to bare skin. When he had grabbed her wrist before, her jacket sleeve had been in be tween them.It started as an almost painful jolt, a pulsatingthrill that zigged up her arm and then sweptthrough her body. Maggie gasped, but somehowshe couldnt let go of his hand. Like someone beingelectrocuted, she was gelid in place.The blue fire, she thought wildly. Hes doing thesame thing to me that he did to Bern.But the succeeding(prenominal) instant she knew that he wasnt. This wasnt the savage energy that had killed Bern, and it wasnt anything the boy was doing to her. Itwas something being done to both of them, by some incredibly powerful source outside either of them.And it was trying to open a channel. Thatwas the only way Maggie could place it. It was blazing a path open in her mind, and connectingit to his.She feltas if she had turned around and unexpectedly found herself facing another persons soul.A soul that was hanging there, without protection,already in helpless communication with hers.It was by far the most intense thing that hadever happened to her. Maggie gasped again, seeingstars, and then her legs melted and she fellforwardHe caught her, but he couldnt stand up either.Maggie knew that as well as she knew what wasgoing on in her own body. He sank to his knees, holding her.What are you doing to me?It was a thought, but it wasnt Maggies. It washis.I dont know Im not doing it I dont understandMaggie had no idea how to send herthoughts to another person. But she didnt need to,it was simply happening. A pure line of communication had been opened between them. It was afierce and terrible thing, a bit like being coalesced together by a bolt of lightning, but it was also so wonderful that Maggies entire skin was prickling and her mind was hushed with awe.She felt as if shed been lifted into some new andwonderful place that most people never even saw. The air around her seemed to quiver with invisible wings.This is how people are supposed to be,shethought. Joined like this. Open to each other. Withnothing hidden and no stupid walls between them.A thought came back at her, sharp and quickasa hammer strike. NoIt was so cold, so full of rejection, that for a moment Maggie was taken aback. But then she sensedwhat else was behind it.Anger and fear. He was afraid of this, andof her. He felt invaded. Exposed.Well, I do, too,Maggie said mentally. It wasntthat she wasnt afraid. It was that her fear was irrelevant. The tie that held them was so much morepowerful than either of them, so immeasurably ancient, that fear was natural but not important. The same light shone through each of them, strippingaway their shields, reservation them transparent toeach other.Its all right for you. Because you dont have any thing to be ashamed ofThe thought flashed by so quickly that Maggie wasnt even sure she hadheard it.What do you mean?she thought. Wait Delos.That was his name. Delos Redfern. She knew itnow, as unquestionably as she knew the names ofher own family. She realized, too, as a matter of minor importance, an afterthought, that he was a prince. A vampire prince whod been born to rule this secret kingdom, as the Redfern family had command it for centuries.The old king was your father,she said to him. And he died three years ago, when you were fourteen. Youve been popular opinion ever since.He was pulling away from her mentally, trying tobreak the contact between them. Its none of your business, he snarled.Please wait,Maggie said. But as she chased after him mentally, trying to catch him, to help him,something shocking and new happened, like a second bolt of lightning.