Meg’s eyes narrowed. “Harpy? Have you forgotten that we were taken prisoner just yesterday? Torin is making his move.”
Kaja had learned a bit listening to Meg and Dante argue all morning. Meg was a queen. It was something like being the First among women. Her husbands were the kings of their plane. There were many planes and many doorways. She had been taken through one of those doorways by a creature called a demon. Dante was going to take her to his plane to meet his pack—family. She was going to meet Dante’s family.
Her heart sped up at the thought. What if they did not like her?
“Well, Torin could have picked a better time,” Dante complained. They were stopped by a lovely brook. The sun was warm on Kaja’s face, and she let her worries drift away. Her skin was still singing from the morning session with Dante. He’d proven true to his word, waking her up by rolling his body on top of hers. He’d kissed her and played with her breasts. By the time he’d thrust his cock deep inside her body, she was begging him to take her.
They’d stopped twice since they had left camp this morning. Each time he’d pulled her off into the woods and had what he called his “wicked way” with her. Once, he’d fed from her.
Oh, she loved when he was hungry. When he’d first caught her with his eyes, she’d lost her fear. After that first time, she had been happy to submit. The pleasure that coursed through her when he fed was like nothing she’d felt before. For the time he drank from her, she felt so connected to him. She felt warm and safe and loved.
But she no longer could see his soul. The first time he’d fed from her, she’d seen pieces of his childhood. It had been a little flash of Dante and his family. There was a bowl of something called punch and candles had floated on top. He was just a boy trying to blow out eight candles so he could have his toys. When she’d been in the moment with him, she’d felt like she belonged. Dante’s parents had loved him.
But then the vision had closed, and though she’d tried to get it to come back, she couldn’t see it again. There had been only pleasure, but none of the spine-melting intimacy of the first time.
Meg shook her head and relaxed back on the grass. “If I get murdered, it’s going to be all your fault.”
Dante’s eyes opened. “Kaj, love, do you sense an army coming after us?”
Kaja took the question seriously. She closed her eyes, because they often lied. Her nose didn’t. She breathed in the world around her. Dante was the strongest scent. She loved the way their scents mingled. He was on her and she on him. She could still smell the scent of their lovemaking. It was a comforting smell. She sensed Meg. Beyond that there was only the forest and the clean smell of the water.
“No, Dante. Though I do smell a small creature.” Her stomach growled. She glanced back around at the brush behind her. There was a slender tree standing right in front of the bush.
Kaja was absolutely certain it had not been there before. She remembered staring at the bushes, thick with brambles, and knowing she could find her meal there. There had been no tree in front of it. She studied the one there now. It was slender. A mere babe compared to the giants around it. The trunk was an ashen gray, and there were lovely, graceful branches sprouting from its top. She noted that the dirt around it was disturbed. It formed a near perfect circle around the tree’s base as though it had been planted by two hands rather than growing in a natural way.
Gently, she eased Dante’s head from her lap.
“Kaja?” Dante sat up, but Kaja was working on the problem. Her brain raced. There was something about that tree. She searched her memory. Trees looked alike. But smell didn’t lie.
Kaja got to her feet and walked to the tree in question. She touched it, feeling the bark. It was a youngling. The bark wasn’t rough yet. It was soft against her hand. She sniffed at the limbs. They smelled like another part of the forest. She remembered it from the night before.
“This tree is following us.”
Dante was on his feet beside her. “Kaja, maybe you don’t understand things on this plane. Trees tend to stay planted in the ground. You see, they have these things called roots.”
Dante continued on, but Kaja smiled. The little tree popped up. It was as though it knew it had been caught and gave up the game. One limb came out and patted Kaja’s cheek with playful affection before turning its attention to Meg.
Dante threw his hands up. “See, that’s just weird. Maybe we should chop it down.”
A single branch extended, and the leaves formed something like a human hand. Kaja thought the tree was going to wave, but it merely closed its “fist,” leaving only the middle finger extended.
“Now that’s just rude,” Dante said. “Since when do saplings give me the finger?”
Meg walked forward, tears in her eyes. “Cian.”
“Since when did Cian become a tree?” Dante reached out to Kaja, his hand finding hers. He pulled her behind him.
Kaja wasn’t sure what Dante was trying to protect her from. The tree didn’t seem to be hostile. And the tree seemed far more interested in Meg.
The tree reached a branch out and touched Meg’s hair. Kaja couldn’t mistake the tenderness of the gesture.
“It’s Ci,” Meg said, her breath hitching. “He found me.” Meg touched the slender trunk, and her eyes closed.
Dante’s hold loosened as he relaxed, but he kept a hand around her waist. “Cian came into his powers a few months back. He’s a Green Man. Do you know what that means?”
She didn’t, but she could infer a few things. “He has power over plants.”
Meg’s mouth curled in a secret smile. Her eyes remained closed as she placed both hands on the tree. “He has power over all things green and vital. He used the trees to track us. He’s coming for me. Always.”