'Night World : Black Dawn Chapter 8\r'

'What are you doing?” he perennial ferociously.His grip was teasing sensation her.\r\nâ€Å"Im throwing the water supply floor d consume in that respect,” Maggie express. scarcely she was retrieveing, Hes so strong. Stronger than anybody Ive of totally time met. He could break mywrist with come out of the closet however attempt.\r\nâ€Å"I know that! wherefore?”\r\nâ€Å"Because its easier than carrying it d feature in myteeth,” Maggie verbalise. save that wasnt the real sympathy,of course. The truth was that she essential to energise temptation out of the way. She was so thirsty thatit was a frame of madness, and she was hunted ofwhat she would do if she held onto this cool, sloshing water pocket book practically longer.\r\nHe was sodding(a) at her with those shock look,as if he were trying to pryhis way into her brain.And Maggie had the unpaired feeling that hed succeeded, at least refrigerating enough that he k newfangled the real reason she was doing this.\r\nâ€Å"You are an idiot,” he express slowly, with c venerable wonder. â€Å"You should listen to your body; its telling youwhat it contains. You cant slue thirst. You cantdeny it.”\r\nâ€Å"Yes, you can,” Maggie state flatly. Her wrist wasgoing numb. If this went on, she was going to dropthe bag involuntarily, and in the wrong regularise.\r\nâ€Å"You cant,” he say, in some way making the wordsinto an angry hiss. â€Å"I should know.”\r\n indeed he showed her his teeth.\r\nMaggie should study been prepared.\r\nJeanne had told her. Vampires and witches and shapeshifters, shed said. And Sylvia was a witch,and capital of Switzerland had been a shapeshifter.\r\nThis male child was a lamia.\r\nThe weird subject was that, un want Bern, he didntget uglier when he changed. His feel tallymed palerand finer, comparable something chiseled in ice. His goldeneyes burned brighter, framed by lashes that assisted b lush blacker in contrast. His pupils opened and seemed to hold a shadow that could swallow aperson up.\r\n unless it was the emit that had changed the most.It looked horizontal much(prenominal) willful, disdainful, and sullen-and it was drawn up into a sneer to displaythe fangs.\r\nImpressive fangs. Long, translucent white, decrease into exquisite shoot fors. Shaped manage a cats canines,with a sheen on them handle jewels. Not yellowing tusks like Berns, still delicate instruments of death.\r\nWhat amazed Maggie was that although helooked exclusively different from anything shed seen before, completely abnormal, he also lookedcompletely natural. This was an other kind of creature, dear like a adult male or a bear, with as muchright to pop off as all of them.\r\nWhich didnt mean she wasnt s traded. still shewas frightened in a new way, a way lay down for action.\r\nShe was ready to excite, if fighting became necessary. Shed already changed that much since come in this valley: fear now do her non panicked alonehyper alert.\r\nIf I countenance to defend myself I need two hands.And its better not to let him see Im scared.\r\nâ€Å" peradventure you cant ignore your kind of thirst,” shesaid, and was rejoiced that her share didnt wobble.” that Im fine. Except that youre hurting my wrist. Can you please let go?”\r\nFor sightly an instant, the brilliant yellow eyesflared even brighter, and she wondered if he wasgoing to attack her. precisely whence his eyelids lowered,black lashes veiling the brightness. He let go ofher wrist.\r\nMaggies arm sagged,and the lash bagdropped from her suddenly coolheaded fingers. It landed safely at her feet. She rubbed her hand.\r\nAnd didnt look up a moment later, when he saidwith a kind of quiet hostility, â€Å"Arent you terror-strickenof me?”\r\nâ€Å"Yes.” It was true. And it wasnt just because hewas a vampire or because he had a power thatcould send sorry death twen ty feet extraneous. It was because of him, of the way he was. He was scary enough in and of himself.\r\nâ€Å" moreover what good is it, creation afraid?” Maggie said,still rubbing her hand. â€Å"If youre going to try tohurt me,IT\r\nfight back. And so out-of-the-way(prenominal), you redeemnt triedto hurt me. Youve solo helped me.”\r\nâ€Å"I told you, I didnt do it for you.And youll neersurvive if you keep on being insane like this.”\r\nâ€Å" excited like what?” Now she did look up, to seethat his eyes were burning dark gold and his fangswere g cardinal. His mouth simply looked scornful and aristocratic.\r\nâ€Å"Trusting sight,” he said, as if it should havebeen obvious. â€Å"Taking care of people. Dont youknow that solely the strong ones commit it? Weak people are deadweightand if you try to help them, theyll huff you down with them.”\r\nMaggie had an answer for that. â€Å"Cady isntweak,” she said flatly. â€Å"Shes s ickShell get betterif she gets the chance. And if we dont handle care ofeach other, whats going to hap to all of us?”\r\nHe looked exasperated, and for a few minutesthey stared at each other in mutual frustration.\r\nThen Maggie bent-grass and picked up the bag again.”Id better advance it to her now. Ill bring your can teen back.”\r\nâ€Å"Wait.” His utter was abrupt and cold, unfriendly. But this time he didnt grab her.”What?”\r\nâ€Å"Follow me.” He gave the hostel briefly and dour without pausing to see if she heeded. It wasclear that he expectedpeople to obey him, withoutquestions. â€Å"Bring the bag,” he said, without feelover his shoulder.\r\nMaggie 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.\r\nShe followed the boy. The narrow path that smart around the mountain was rough and primitive, interrupt by bands of b roken, razor- subtleslate. She had to pick her way cautiously aroundthem.\r\nIn front of her, the boy turn toward the rocksuddenly and disappeared. When Maggie caught up, she saw the spelunk.\r\nThe entrance was small, hardly more than than acrack, and even Maggie had to stoop and go in sideways. But inside it opened into a snug small-mindedenclo undisputable that smelled of dampness and cool rock.\r\n almost no light filtered in from the outsideworld. Maggie blinked, trying to adjust to the neardarkness, when there was a phonate like a match claim and a smell of sulphur. A little flame was born, and Maggie saw the boy lighting some kindof crude stone lamp that had been carven out ofthe cave wall itself. He glanced back at her and his eyes flashed gold.\r\nBut Maggie was gasping, looking around her.The light of the little flame threw a mass of shifting, perplexing shadows everywhere, but it alsopicked out threads of twinkle quartz in the rock.The small cave had become a pla ce of enchantment.\r\nAndatthe boys feet was something that glitteredsilver. In the hush of the still air, Maggie couldhear the runny, bell-like sound of water dripping.\r\nâ€Å"Itsa pool,” the boy said. â€Å"Spring fed. The watees cold, but its good. urine .Something like pure lust overcame Maggie. She took third steps forward, ignoring the boy completely, and indeed her legs collapsed.Shecupped a hand in the pool, mat up the savor encompass it to the wrist, and brought it out asif shewere holding liquid diamond in her palm.\r\nShed never tasted anything asgood as that water. No Coke shed drunk on the hottest day of summer could compare with it. It ran with herdry mouth and down her parched throatand accordingly it seemed to spread all by means of her, motivateling by means of her body, assuasive and reviving her. A sort of quartz glass clearness entered her brain. She drankand drank in a soil of pure bliss.\r\nAnd thusly, when she was in the even more blissf ulstate of being not thirsty anymore, she plunged the leather bag under the surface to take it.\r\nâ€Å"Whats that for?” But there was a true resignation in the boys voice.\r\nâ€Å"Cady. I have to get back to her.” Maggie sat backon her heels and looked at him. The light dancedand flickered around him, glinting bronzy off hisdark hair, casting half his face in shadow.\r\nâ€Å"Thank you,” she said, quietly, but in a voice thatshook slightly. â€Å"I think you probably saved mylife again.”\r\nâ€Å"You were really thirsty.”\r\nâ€Å"yea.” She stood up.\r\nâ€Å"But when you thought there wasnt enoughwater, you were going to pay up it to her.” He couldntseem to get over the concept.\r\n â€Å"Yeah”\r\nâ€Å"Even if it meant you dying?”\r\nâ€Å"I didnt die,” Maggie pointed out. â€Å"And I wasntplanning to. Butyeah, I guess, if there wasnt anyother choice.” She saw him staring at her in utterbewildermen t. â€Å"I took right for her,” shesaid, trying to explain. â€Å"Its like when you take ina cat, or-or its like being a queen or something.If you say youre going to be creditworthy for your subjects, you are. You owe them afterward.”\r\nSomething glimmered in his golden eyes, just fora moment. It could have been a dagger point ofanger or just a spark of astonishment. at that place wasa silence.\r\nâ€Å"Its not thatweird, people victorious care of each other,” Maggie said, looking at his shadowed face.\r\nâ€Å"Doesnt anybody do it here?”\r\nHe gave a short laugh. â€Å"Hardly,” he said dryly.”The nobles know how to take care of themselves.And the break ones backs have to fight each other to survive.” He added abruptly, â€Å"All of which you should know.But of course youre not from here. Youre fromOutside.”\r\nâ€Å"I didnt know if you knew round Outside,” Mag gie said.\r\nâ€Å" in that respect isnt supposed to be any contact. Therewasnt for about five hundred years. But whenmy-when the old king died, they opened the pass,again and started bringing in slaves from the outside world. New blood.” He said it simply andmatter-of-factly.\r\nMountain men, Maggie thought. For years there had been rumors about the Cascades, about menwho lived in mystic places among the glaciers andpreyed on climbers. Men or monsters. There were always hikers who claimed to have seen Bigfoot.\r\nAnd perhaps they had-or maybe theyd seen ashapeshifter like Bern.\r\nâ€Å"And you think thats okay,” she said out loud.”Grabbing people from the outside world and draw them in here to be slaves.”\r\nâ€Å"Notpeople.Humans.Humansarevermin;theyre not nimble.” He said it in that identical dispassionate tone, looking right at her.\r\nâ€Å"Are you crazy?”Maggies fists were clenched; herhead was lowered. Stomping time. She glared upat him through narrowed lashes. â€Å"Youre conversein g to a kind-hearted right now. Am I intelligent or not?”\r\nâ€Å"Youre a slave without any manners,” he saidcurtly. â€Å"And the law says I could pull down you for the way youretalkingto me.”\r\nHis voice was so cold, so arrogant…but Maggiewas startle not to believe it.\r\nThat couldnt be all there was to him. Becausehe was the boy in her dream.\r\nThe gentle, human boy whod looked ather with a flame of whap behind his yellow eyes,and whod held her with such play 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.\r\nIt didnt make her less afraid of this one, exactly.But it made her more determined to ignore herfear.\r\nâ€Å"In my dream,” she said deliberately, advancinga step on him, â€Å"you cared about at least onehuman. You wanted to take care of me.”\r\nâ€Å"You shouldnt even be allowedto dream aboutme,” he said. His voice wasas tense and grim asever, but as Maggie got closer to him, looking at present up into his face, he did something that amazed her. He fell back a step.\r\nâ€Å"Why not? Because Im a slave? Im a person.”\r\nShe took another step forward, still looking at him challengingly. â€Å"And I dont believe that youre asbad as you say you are. I think I saw what youwere really like in my dream.”\r\nâ€Å"Youre crazy,” he said. He didnt back up anyfarther, there was nowhere left to go. But his wholebody was taut. â€Å"Why should I want to take care of you?” he added in a cold and contemptuous voice.”Whats so specific about you?”\r\nIt was a good question, and for a moment Maggie was shaken. Tears sprang to her eyes.\r\nâ€Å"I dont know,” she said honestly. â€Å"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-â€Å"\r\nShe never finished the last sentence.\r\nAs she had been public speaking to him, she was doingsomething she always did, that was instinctive to.,her when she felt some strong emotion. She had through it with P.J. and with Jeanne and with Cady.\r\nShe reached out toward him. And although shewas only when dimly aware that he was drag his handsback to avoid her, she adjusted automatically, enraptureing his wrists….\r\nAnd that was when she lost her voice and whatshe was saying flew out of her head. Because something happened. Something that she couldnt ex plain, that was weird than secret kingdoms orvampires or witchcraft.\r\nIt happened justas her fingers closed on hishands. It was the first time they had touched like that, bare skin to bare skin. When he had grabbe d her wrist before, her jacket sleeve had been in be tween them.\r\nIt 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. bid someone beingelectrocuted, she was frozen in place.\r\nThe sinister fire, she thought wildly. Hes doing thesame thing to me that he did to Bern.\r\nBut the next instant she knew that he wasnt. This wasnt the assault 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 fabulously powerful source outside either of them.\r\nAnd it was trying … to open a channel. Thatwas the only way Maggie could describe it. It was blazing a path open in her mind, and connectingit to his.\r\nShe feltas if she had turned around and unexpectedly found herself face another persons soul.A soul that was hanging there, without protection,already in helpless communication with hers.\r\nI t was by far the most intense thing that hadever happened to her. Maggie gasped again, seeingstars, and then her legs melted and she fellforward\r\nHe caught her, but he couldnt stand up either.Maggie knew that as rise as she knew what wasgoing on in her own body. He sank to his knees, holding her.\r\nWhat are you doing to me?\r\nIt was a thought, but it wasnt Maggies. It washis.\r\nI dont know …Im not doing it … I dont understand!Maggie had no judgment how to send herthoughts to another person. But she didnt need to,it was simply happening. A pure contrast of communication had been opened between them. It was afierce and awe-inspiring thing, a bit like being fused together by a bolt of lightning, but it was also so wonderful that Maggies entire skin was quiver and her mind was hushed with awe.\r\nShe 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 undetectable wings.\r\nThis is how people are supposed to be,shethought. linked like this. Open to each other. Withnothing apart(p) and no stupid walls between them.\r\nA thought came back at her, sharp and quickasa hammer strike. No!\r\nIt was so cold, so full of rejection, that for a moment Maggie was taken aback. But then she sensedwhat else was behind it.\r\n provoke… and fear. He was afraid of this, andof her. He felt invaded. Exposed.\r\nWell, I do, too,Maggie said mentally. It wasntthat she wasnt afraid. It was that her fear was irrelevant. The powerfulness 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, making them transparent toeach other.\r\nIts all right for you. Because you dont have any thing to be ashamed of!The thought flashed by so quickly that Maggie wasnt even sure she hadheard it.\r\nWhat do you mean?she thought. Wait … Delos.\r\n 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 tike importance, an afterthought, that he was a prince. A vampire prince whod been born to rule this secret kingdom, as the Redfern family had ruled it for centuries.\r\nThe old king was your father,she said to him. And he died three years ago, when you were fourteen. Youve been command ever since.\r\nHe was pulling away from her mentally, trying tobreak the contact between them. Its none of your business, he snarled.\r\nPlease 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.\r\n'