Chapter 15
I slept.
This time, even Cole didn’t disturb my dreams. I floated in an ethereal cloud of power, one where I felt rejuvenated and alive.
Hendrik and Dante had made sure to keep me at arm’s reach during the night’s activities, their violence contained so that it wouldn’t draw on my reserves, yet their participation strengthened the mate-circle as a whole.
Uni had thankfully cleared out the cavern’s hot spring of poisonous pixies so that we could bathe—we all sorely needed it. I vaguely remembered my mates washing me, worshipping me, and then gently bringing me to bed.
Something disturbed my blissful sleep now, though.
Or rather, someone.
I didn’t move as a presence lingered nearby.
Claws unsheathed from my fingertips, my body a weapon with my powers so recently and thoroughly rejuvenated.
It concerned me that something could get past the defense of all of my Virtues asleep around me like a shield, but it didn’t matter, I could take care of myself.
I sat up, careful not to betray that I knew someone watched me. Orion and Kaito framed me on either side, with Dante and Hendrik asleep in their respective sleeping bags.
Logan, though, he was nowhere to be found.
My lips curled down in concern.
Reaching out through the mate bonds, I found Logan not far away hunting for our breakfast. He wanted to make sure that we all had the energy for what came next. We were undoubtedly close to the portal to Lucifer’s territory and needed to be ready for everything that entailed.
A trip to Hell.
A journey through the remnants of Purgatory.
And undoubtedly, a trap that Lucifer had waiting for us once we got there.
I relaxed, knowing that Logan would have stayed with me if he’d sensed danger.
Maybe I was just paranoid.
Slowly, I pushed up and looked around.
Dante cracked one eye open at my movement. He was too much of a Hunter for him not to take notice. Stroking my hand down his arm, I smiled and his eye closed once more.
That odd, eerie sensation on the back of my neck intensified.
Slowly, I turned.
Nothing—
Except…
Ruby red gems flared into existence within the cave’s shadowed walls.
Sucking in a breath, my heart lurched hard against my ribs.
Before I had a chance to react, those gems showed themselves to be eyes.
My jaw dropped as an incredibly beautiful—and naked—male stepped through the darkness.
A smile curved his lips as the rest of him came into view, allowing me to take him in his entirety; a gorgeous, strange male with… rainbow hair? An odd silver scar accentuated his exotic beauty as it glimmered at the center of his forehead.
He cocked a brow.
I swallowed the lump in my throat.
An invisible man with eyes that glowed like rubies had gotten inside the cavern, past my mates…
Shooting to my feet, I extended my claws.
My mates sensed my fear and stirred. It told me a lot about this intruder that I was the only one who could sense him.
It meant that he had magic—and a lot of it.
Orion took a protective stance at my side while Kaito summoned his flames.
Dante took one look at the intruder and launched to his feet, shoving me behind him.
“Hendrik,” I commanded, the Dark Mage’s name was all I needed to utter to push my soulless Virtue into action.
Hendrik stirred, cursing when he realized the threat and grabbed his blade. The scent of blood and roses tinging my nostrils as he muttered a spell, one that whispered darkness around the cave.
The stranger just smiled.
That was when I noticed three other strange things.
First—he was naked.
Second—he was holding Uni.
Third—Uni wasn’t gnawing off his face, which meant he trusted this cocky male. Instead, he snuggled against his solidly built chest, looking quite at home.
“You can put your weapons away,” the male said easily, his voice warm and musical. “If I wanted to hurt anybody, I would have already done so and left you for the pixies.” He tilted his head. “Which, by the way, are not happy you keep killing off their outposts.”
Kaito shoved past the others to plant himself in front of me, one flame-wreathed hand lifted. “Explain yourself,” he said in a threatening voice. “Or die.”
“Tough crowd.” The rainbow-haired guy rolled his eyes.
“Look, demon, I’ve been dealing with scarier monsters than you for longer than most of you have probably been alive.
I’m only here because I was looking for Fluffy.
” He lovingly glanced down at Uni and smiled.
“But it seems that he’s decided to adopt you. ”
“Fluffy…?” I started forward. Orion went to stop me and I gave him a dark look.
He closed his eyes and sighed, but shifted out of my way.
He didn’t, however, back off. He moved with me, so I had a wall of demigod at one side and a deadly demon at my other, while the rest of my mates, save for Logan, spread out around us.
The intruder didn’t seem the least bit concerned.
And Uni? He practically purred as the stranger scratched him under behind his ears and around his deadly horn.
“You seriously named him Fluffy?” I thought back to how Uni had saved me, goring a Demonspawn before it could haul me into Hell. A deadly, clever little beast and his name was Fluffy?
“Her,” the male corrected with a twisted look on his face, as if it was appalling I could have gotten that detail wrong. “Well, what would you have named her?” My Uni-Hare squeaked at him. The male gave me a pointed look. “Uni? How original.”
I scowled at him and crossed my arms over my chest. “And what’s your name, then? Skittles?”
I know. I’m hilarious.
“Raze.” He offered nothing else, simply smiled at us, unconcerned by Kaito’s flames, Hendrik’s magic, Dante’s blades, or Orion’s sheer size.
“I’m one of the caretakers of this realm.
I’ve been tracking you ever since I caught Fluffy’s scent.
At first, I thought you might be some of the Marked and I’d have to kill you. ”
“The Marked?” I asked, although I had a feeling I already knew.
“Yes.” He held my gaze. “The beasts that have attacked you—each of them have been Marked by an evil that infiltrated this realm years ago. The ugly scar you’ve seen on their bodies?
That’s the sign of evil. When I realized you had Fluffy, I thought…
” He stopped and shook his head. “You’re not one of the Marked.
You’re outsiders, as unusual as that is. ”
The way he said it made me think he had a hard time processing the idea of people from another realm coming here. Sure, it wasn’t exactly paradise, but it wasn’t Purgatory or Hell, either.
He gave me a charming smile. “You haven’t brought harm to my realm, and despite what the pixies have to say about you, you’ve only killed what you needed to survive or to prevent harm to yourselves.
Not to mention you’ve treated the Academy’s prized Uni-Hare with kindness.
Most surprising thing is that she’s bonded to…
you,” he said, narrowing his eyes on me. “How… unusual.”
A bazillion questions rolled around inside my head, but I wasn’t here to learn about this realm, and I certainly didn’t trust this guy even if Uni did.
“I take it you aren’t used to seeing that kind of thing?” I glanced at Uni, jealousy spiking in my chest. I didn’t want Uni to bond to anyone else. He… I mean, she, had bonded to me.
“No. I’m not.” He stroked a hand down Uni’s back. “I’ll let you keep her. She’s an excellent judge of character. But, at least promise that you’ll bring her back home on occasion so we can see her.”
“Ah…” I glanced at Kaito, then the others. But the only face I needed to see was Uni’s. She peered at me from Raze’s hands, her big eyes hopeful. “Yeah, sure. We can visit.”
Assuming I didn’t get us all killed.
Raze grinned, pleased.
Uni’s nose wiggled with delight, her whiskers twitching. Well, at least she was easy to please.
“If you’re a caretaker of this realm,” Kaito began, “then perhaps you can tell us where we are.”
Raze looked vaguely surprised. Cocking his head, he studied Kaito with interest before shifting his attention to me. “You don’t know?”
I hitched up my shoulders in a shrug and saw Raze’s eyes move to my wings for a brief second before returning to mine.
“How did you come to be here, then? One doesn’t just… wander around the Enchanted Forest.” The look on his handsome face was one of perplexed confusion. “And why come here at all? You must have noticed we have some nasty beasties about.”
“We’re trying to find the portal to Hell,” Dante said. “That’s all you really need to know. Can you help or not?”
Raze studied me, his gemstone eyes impossible to read. After several quiet moments, he inclined his head. “You’re in the Unicorn Shifter Realm.”
“Unicorn. Shifters.” I stared at him, then took another hard look at the scar between his eyes again. Slowly, I turned to my mates. “Unicorn shifters.”
“Imagine that,” Raze said, sounding amused. “You’ve bonded with a Uni-Hare and here you travel with a demon, a Hunter, a demigod, a Dark Mage, and not far from here there’s a wolf shifter. But unicorn shifters seem to stretch the limits of your belief.”
That sardonic statement made my blood run cold.
Raze knew everything about us.
What else did he know?
What else was he not telling us?
And more importantly, why had he chosen now to appear?
I crossed my arms. “Do you know where the portal is?” I suspected that he did. He knew everything else.
His face sobered, the glow of his eyes darkening to port wine. “I’ve heard of rumors, but none of my kind want to go there, nor do any of the animals who call the Enchanted Forest home. It’s not a place for the faint of heart.”
“I don’t have a heart,” Hendrik offered with a malicious grin. “So don’t you worry about that.”
Raze inclined his head. “It lies deep within the forest, but once you are close, it should be relatively easy to locate—the entire area reeks of death and decay.”
A faint rustling came from the mouth of the cave and Logan came in, still in his wolf form. He eyed Raze, then looked at me before shifting.
“So, you finally show yourself,” he said to the man with rainbow hair.
I gaped at him. “You knew he was following us?”
Logan growled, the sound directed at the intruder, not at me. “I suspected.”
While Logan clearly didn’t trust Raze, he didn’t try to rip out his throat, either. Maybe it was some shifter radar, but it was enough for me to decide that Raze wasn’t our enemy.
It didn’t mean I had to like him.
“You had one of my charges.” Raze looked at Uni, a fond smile on his lips. “I had to know that she was being cared for.”
Uni licked Raze’s hand, then leaped from his arms and finally came to me. She made another one of those fierce jumps, one that seemed impossible for something so small, and I caught her instinctively.
“Traitor,” Raze said, a smile in his eyes before he turned his attention to Logan and the two of them sized each other up.
Finally, they gave each other a short nod and Logan moved to pull on his clothes before joining us.
“You said the portal should be easy to locate,” my wolf growled.
Raze nodded at Logan. “Once you’re in the vicinity, yes. Trust me. The smell alone…” His face screwed up in disgust. “Gather your possessions and meet me at the mouth of the cave. We should leave soon.”
I gaped at him. “Wait… we?”