21. Chapter Twenty-One

Ibusied myself after drying my eyes, looking through what Jabari had brought with him into the mountains. Nothing for food, but that didn't bother me. I'm sure we were all hungry, but if everything went to plan, we would have food in our stomachs soon enough. What he did have was rope, a fire-starting kit, more than a couple of knives, an extra folded black bag, and water. I took the water and checked it. He still had some left, so I took a sip. We could all handle dirty water out of streams and lakes without getting sick, but fresh, clean water was much better.

I didn't keep track of the time they were gone. Heath came back first, which made me feel relieved. He didn't seem happy, though, or comfortable.

"Where did he go? The rule was only one of us out of the cavern at a time." Heath sniffed, his nostrils flaring. Then his eyes narrowed, obviously upset. "What happened?"

"We had an argument. Or I yelled at him until he decided he didn't want to listen to it anymore." I gave him a desperate look. "I don't want to talk about it."

"I…heard some of it," he admitted. "I walked away as the volume rose. I didn't want to intrude. I didn't think he would leave."

"I can handle being alone just fine," I said with a snap Heath probably didn't deserve from me.

"Yes, but he didn't come find me and only one person out of the cave at a time was his rule," Heath growled back.

I felt bad. "I'm sorry. He's frustrating and…I don't know how to deal with him. I should have just let Hisao come out here. I should have stayed out of all of this."

"Would you have been happy with someone else coming out here? If I remember right, you wanted to help fix this because you felt guilty. You and many others were worried this was some form of backlash over last year." He shoved his hands into his pockets, which didn't make him seem as relaxed as he probably wanted it to. He seemed tense.

"This entire trip has been about me and my problems…You're right. I wanted this and would have felt…worthless if I hadn't come out and helped when I could."

"It's fine. When we met, everything was about me and my problems," he reminded me, a small smile breaking out. "I'm just glad to get to know you."

"And I still know so little about you."

This time, he shrugged. "Maybe next time."

"Har har," I said, reaching out to slap his abdomen lightly. He dodged, quickly grabbing my wrist, and tried to pull me to him. I put my heels down and held to my spot, refusing to budge.

"Stubborn."

"Look in a mirror," I countered. He started to laugh, nodding.

"If we survive this, I'll start telling you about myself; your turn to play twenty questions."

"Like, why you feel the need for a werecat's permanent protection over Carey?"

"I've lived long enough to make enemies. I figured that one was obvious."

"Really? Nooo. I want more details than that next time." I grinned, waiting for him to either deny me or relent.

He didn't say anything for a minute. "I'm glad you're smiling again. Don't let that asshole make you feel bad. If he can't treat you right, he doesn't deserve the privilege to call you family or the ability to make you upset."

I swallowed, nodding slowly. That wasn't what I was expecting. Why did it feel like Heath was never what I expected?

"Why are you so adamant about my relationship with my family?" I asked after another moment of quiet.

"Because it pisses me off. I fucking hate seeing people treat others like that when it's supposed to be the place you find support. I told you, my sister was a Tory. Fell in love with a Red coat, and we lost contact, but I was never cruel to her. She was my sister. I…hated Richard that night. For one moment, I realized he was everything that pissed me off about people, and I wasn't sure how I had a son that would treat his younger siblings that way. For what? Jealousy? That's petty, and I don't tolerate petty. I don't know where I went wrong, raising him to make him behave that way."

"I don't think you did," I told him softly, taking my hand away slowly. "I think he shut you out. He was a grown ass man who decided to dwell on feelings that were unhealthy and wrong. He built up all the wrongs, instead of looking at the good things."

"You think that might be what happened between you and…them?" He moved to lean on a wall in the cavern.

"I don't know, actually. They were never welcoming. I like to think I tried, but…" I hadn't told him everything. I didn't want to rehash it all right then. "Next time."

"Next time," he agreed. "You know, my family would welcome you if you ever needed it."

"Thanks." I blinked back tears. "I mean, the holidays were uncomfortable for all of us, let's be real, but it was nice for someone to think of me." These past holidays, I had stopped in at Carey's request for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner with the Everson family. Both times had been awkward, but the invitations mattered. They meant something.

"You're welcome to spend them with my family. For as long as you need to. Carey's right about it, and I should have thought to offer before she annoyed me into it. No one deserves to be alone during the holidays." He chuckled. "They were uncomfortable, but we were all still very new to each other."

"We were." I smiled a little. "You cook a mean turkey, though."

"Ah, thank you. Thank you." He gave a little bow. "I would hope so since I've been making Thanksgiving dinners since it was declared a national holiday."

I couldn't help but laugh. "Oh, but you need help with your sides. Your mashed potatoes are bland."

"Fine. You can make them this year and teach me better."

We both laughed at that. Then I heard the stomping of Jabari coming back.

"Fuck," I muttered. "Here he comes. We've been too happy for a split second, so he's got to come crush it and keep us on task."

"How old is he, really?"

"Born BC, at least three and a half thousand at my best guess," I said in a whisper for only him. He nodded.

Jabari walked in like a fucking storm rolling in. He looked at the pair of us standing off to the side of the cavern, then down at his bag near my feet.

"Who went through my things?"

"I did. I wanted to see what we had to work with. You'll survive. I put it all back after taking a very small sip of water, which you can deal with."

He bared his teeth but quickly pulled back his anger. "That's right, you two don't have supplies. There's a stream deeper into the cavern. I'll show you."

"Thank you." Jabari walked by us, and I gave Heath a look, telling him everything I thought of my dear older brother. He snickered and put a hand on my lower back. With a small push, I was forced to follow Jabari, Heath right behind me.

We journeyed further into the cavern until I heard running water, and Jabari pointed out the small stream in the dark. I really should have gone deeper into the cave on my own to find it earlier, but it hadn't been on my mind.

"It's mountain runoff. Cleaner than most streams. I'm going to build a small fire," my older brother explained before stomping back to the mouth of the cave. I went to a knee, scooping water in my hands to drink. Heath did the same next to me, sighing with relief as the cool water ran down his chin. I looked back at my hands and went for a second drink as he splashed his face and ran wet hands through his hair. I did the same thing once my thirst was sated, wiping mud, grime, and blood from the night before off my face. There was nothing to be done about my hair, though. As long as it stayed in the ponytail, I wasn't going to fret over it.

We went back to the mouth of the cavern to find Jabari working to strike the fire.

"Everything is wet here," he muttered in annoyance. "We might have to go fireless if I can't get this started."

"It's fine. It's not like any of us will freeze," I said casually.

"I want us easy to find," he retorted. "They're juiced, and if they've been draining people and killing them, they're probably also high from it. They won't be smart enough to resist coming in here after us with little protection."

"You aren't going to do a little rune just for the cavern?" I frowned as I sat across from him, looking over his stack of wet firewood to catch his gaze. "We don't plan to fight them in here, right?"

"We'll fight them in here," he confirmed. "It's blocked off, and if they go deeper into the caverns, it's all dead ends. We can get them cornered and kill them if they try to escape the sun behind us. If they escape, they'll be severely injured and much easier to track."

"Are there any more in Titan's territory?" I wanted to know there wasn't going to be more of this. That there weren't half a dozen other vampires out there.

"From my investigation, they have stayed in this region for a while. When they went to Titan's territory, it was only to kill him. He lived even further from human civilization than Gaia. From here, they have the road, the small towns further down the mountains, and a lot more campers and hikers." He sighed. "They probably saw him on a visit to Gaia and realized they couldn't kill her without him coming after them. He was the older, more powerful one, so they killed him first."

"To make sure their other plans went the way they intended," Heath clarified for me.

"Yeah…" I rubbed my hands together nervously. "That means one of them is in charge and not…"

"Yes. There are two females. One of them is a little more put together, but don't let that fool you. She's just as insane as the others. I left the scent of my blood once, and she lost it. Wild eyed, feral, and hungry."

"But if they've been feeding so often off supernaturals…" I tried to put it together, the way he obviously did. I didn't have a few thousand years of experience.

"It's called a blood craze. They've grown addicted to the kill, which is why I say they're probably high beyond just being juiced up on supernatural blood. It's frowned upon. Vampires don't have to kill, and when they do, they get a rush. It's exciting, some even liken it to an orgasm." Jabari's words were professional and cold, revealing none of his personal feelings about what the vampires were doing. "From my understanding, every young vampire has a bad incident or two losing control. The nest cleans it up and continues their training to prevent further accidents. It's not against the Law for them to regularly feed on humans to the death, but it's frowned upon. No nest that wants to stay safe and hidden will allow their vampires to kill indiscriminately. Werecats, werewolves, and other species have been known to wipe out nests for being uncontrolled."

"So, these four are addicted to the rush of killing their prey and have eaten who knows how many people, four werewolves, and two werecats. Are you sure you don't want to put a rune of power on the cavern?"

He frowned at me. "Are you worried?"

"I think we need a backup plan," I said, shrugging. "We need somewhere to retreat to if we're injured. Have you not been doing that?"

"I ran until daylight, and they were forced to retreat," he explained. "But I can see the purpose of a safe zone for us." His jaw was set, taut until he stood up. "Let's go. We'll pick a back area, and you can watch me make it for us."

I raised an eyebrow at his back as he began walking off again. This time, I scrambled to keep up, Heath not nearly in so much of a rush. Jabari stopped at a dead end, nodding. It was a little thing, something one of us could lay out in and hide if needed. We would be seen, but if Jabari did that thing again, we could be safe.

"Jacky, come here," he ordered, pointing beside him.

I bared my teeth but went. He pulled out a knife and scratched a line around the mouth of the little area. I watched intently, seeing he was making a divide of sorts.

"This will keep the rune working in this area. Scratched from the same silver blade, it stops the power from affecting the entire cavern. You can do this to rooms as well by marking a door frame, for example." He knelt and scratched in the same rune as he had in the cabin. "Now, no creature of demonic origin or essence will be able to enter this space. It will burn them with pain beyond imagining if they cross it, and they will die within a few steps if they push through."

"Demonic?" Heath spoke up from behind me.

"Yes. Vampires are humans corrupted with demonic energies, thanks to an old curse on their kind. Some say it was supposed to ravage the entirety of mankind, but it never grew. So, quickly and whenever there was an overpopulation of vampires, many other supernaturals culled their numbers. We've never been able to eradicate them and finally, we let them build their own culture and societies as long as they didn't grow too big."

"You talk like you were there when they came into existence," I commented.

"I was. So were Father and Zuri."

The blood left my head. "What?"

"They originated in Mesopotamia," he informed us softly. "About three hundred years after I was born in Africa with Zuri. Father wanted to take us to see other cultures since we had spent so long living with a variety of different tribes in Africa. It had to have been…" He looked away, and I wondered what sort of mental math he was doing. "Two thousand BC? Yes, that must be it. Human civilization was still trying its hardest, and it was growing all around the world. Different tribes were appearing. Hasan once disappeared for a hundred years and explored what would later be known as North and South America. How he got here, I don't know, but he brought back many things for us to wonder at." He stopped, closing his mouth abruptly.

"Please continue," I asked softly.

"Well, we arrived in Babylon, and there were humans, of course. They looked more like Father than Zuri and I, as we take after Mother. In the hundred years we stayed there, we noticed things, bodies beginning to show up, drained of their blood. We tracked down what did it, and it was a fight, but we succeeded."

"You were there during the appearance of vampires," Heath whispered in awe. I looked over my shoulders to see how wide his eyes were. Mine probably matched.

"I don't know the exact circumstances, but we'd already known demons existed. From a different plane, a different world, they're monstrous, cruel, and could never be trusted. We knew the signs of them and saw those signs on the human-looking thing we had killed. It took a little testing, but we discovered our runes against demons worked for vampires as well, finalizing the connection between them."

"How do you know it's a curse?" I wrapped my arms around myself.

"It was just our theory," he explained. "But it was the best one we ever came up with. Within a century, other werecats were finding them in their own territories. Within five hundred years, they had infected the entire world. The original vampires were much more vicious and dangerous than the ones you will meet today. Ones in these modern times keep their humanity better than those who showed up in the first five to six hundred years. They quickly became feral, death addicted beasts, while today, they fight much harder and last much longer against it." He waved the conversation away. "Enough of that. I would teach you the runes of power needed for this now, but if you were to mess them up, we would lose precious time. When we're done here, I shall go to your home with you, and we will make sure you have all the protections the family can provide."

"Ah…it's not necessary, Jabari. Like I said, I can live on my—"

"Yes. You are very adamant you can do it on your own, having done it for seven years without major problems while no one knew you were a member of our family. I will teach you." He was snappy again. "That is final."

I groaned as he stomped away. "I can't win with this man, Heath. I just can't win with him."

"Seems like."

I walked past Heath, following the ancient man who was supposed to be my brother but instead, was just a pain in my ass.

"Can you believe that? He was there when vampires popped into fucking existence," I muttered as we walked after Jabari. "I didn't have any idea. I knew he was older than fucking dirt, but fuck, that's old."

"Imagine the things he's seen," Heath whispered, agreeing with me. "Too bad he's an asshole. I don't care that he's from a different time when it comes down to it, though. He needs to act better."

"You aren't going to let that go, are you?" I asked.

"No. Not when every time he talks to you, I can fucking imagine the blade cutting at you. I can see the fucking hurt flash in your eyes with every word that comes out of his mouth when he's not dismissing you completely." Heath curled a lip, mimicking a look I had seen earlier on his face. I rarely saw him disgusted and angry like this and never while in my territory—frustrated, yes, a bit pissed off with me, certainly, but nothing like the level of distaste he had for Jabari.

"Well, please, let it go for the rest of this. I just want to get through the night alive and out of the forest without having to break you two up. I said my piece, and that's all. If he wants to follow me home to teach me something he should have taught me seven years ago, he can do that. I'm not going to fight with him anymore." I was too fucking tired to fight with him and knew it would escalate if I rejected him further. He would tell Hasan I was denying protections the rest of the family used, which would then let Hasan know I never had them to begin with, and who knew what that would lead to.

We made it back to the mouth of the cave, and Jabari got the fire going finally. We took places around it, watching it go, and when the quiet proved too much for me, I decided to continue asking him questions.

"How old is Hasan?"

"You need to ask him," he replied. "Every one of us has had to confront that question on our own. Consider it tradition, one he enforces."

"Damn," I sighed. "Can you tell me if he's the first of our kind?" Were all the werecats technically his in the end?

"No, he's not. They're all gone now, but we had known older. He's just the oldest left. He's from early on, I can tell you that. It took me a century to ask him. Zuri and I confronted him together about where he came from. Mischa took two hundred years. Davor asked immediately, refusing to believe he didn't know something and couldn't work it out on his own. Everyone has their own timeline about asking Hasan about himself. He's not…an easy father to have," Jabari conceded in the end.

"No." I pulled my knees up and laid my head on them. "And this isn't an easy family to be a member of."

Jabari visibly winced that time.