16. Chapter Sixteen #3
“No, no,” Max said. “Xoe is my niece. I adopted her when her mother, my sister, passed a few years ago. Our daughter is out on a solo hunt and has not returned yet.”
“Whoa,” Turner said as he rubbed his forehead. “Do you…do you think this is why Ena has such a rare Gift too?” he asked Max. “Because she’s not a pure witch?”
“You have a rare Gift?” Kaya asked her. “What is it?”
“Visanis,” Ena answered factually.
Kaya gasped, her hand going to her chest as a hint of fear entered her eyes. Ena was used to that reaction by this point, and it didn’t affect her at all.
Let them be afraid.
“I see,” Kaya said, composing herself. “But I’m not sure if that is related to your stryx heritage or not.
Our daughter Xena has not had her Awakening yet—we don’t even know if she has a Gift, but Omnis works in mysterious ways, and I suppose it’s possible that the combination of bloodlines could cause something like that. ”
If Ena had learned anything, it was that witches and daemons—and now, she supposed, stryx—were a lot more similar than she’d once thought. There was overlap between their peoples, just like it appeared there was between Gaia and Iblis. Maybe that was why the stryx worshiped Omnis.
“So, if I am part stryx,” she asked, needing to clarify what this all meant for her. “Does that mean I should…give into the cravings? Will drinking blood help them stop?”
“It should,” Max explained. “And to do so would be a good test of this theory. If it helps with the cravings, then I should think our theory is confirmed.”
“Come,” Kaya said, standing up. “I’ll lead you back to camp, and we can get you some elk’s blood.”
Ena couldn’t very well refuse. She wanted the blood after all, and drinking it, giving in to her desire for it…
maybe it would help her feel whole again.
Because after losing Ty, and her home, and the unexpected pregnancy…
she’d be lying if she said she didn’t feel more broken—more lost—than she ever had.
So fuck it, she’d drink the blood.
Turner kicked out the fire as the four of them stood and began to walk back to camp.
The night air was cold, but Ena barely felt it.
She felt numb inside. Like she had right after Ty was lost. Like she was going through the motions, but she didn’t feel anything—at least not in the ways she normally did, and she was glad for it.
Kaya led them back to their tent, where Ena got to work building up the small central fire to warm it back up, while she went to fetch the blood.
Within minutes, she returned, an animal-skin jug in her hands. “Here,” Kaya said, passing the jug to Ena. “It’s fresh.”
Ena took the jug from her and uncorked it, bringing it up to her nose to smell.
She was nervous—it felt strange, wrong even, but then the scent of the blood hit her.
It smelled so good, the scent of it intoxicating—like the most delicious food she’d ever smelled laid before her after she’d been fasting for days.
Her mouth instantly filled with saliva and she tilted the jug back and let the blood hit her tongue.
It was good—much better than she expected—as it washed through her mouth, and then, as it coursed down the back of her throat, something in her snapped.
She started gulping down the blood as fast she could—she couldn’t have stopped if she tried.
It was as if her own visanis compelled her to keep drinking, drinking, drinking.
The more she swallowed, the more she wanted.
She had no idea how long she’d been holding it to her lips when she felt someone gently remove the jug from her hands.
She grasped at it futilely as it was taken from her, and she opened her eyes to see Kaya staring at her.
“Go slow,” she said. “We don’t want to overwhelm your system.”
Go slow? Ena wanted to shove her back, rip the jug from her hands, and keep drinking. Fuck going slow. She needed this.
She stared at Kaya, a viciousness in her heart she knew was not normal for her, but she didn’t know how to stop it.
“Ena,” Turner cautioned. “Take it easy. We don’t want to hurt your stomach. Your body isn’t used to this, no matter how much you’ve been craving it.”
Ena turned to look at him and had the overwhelming urge to hurt him too. To claw at him in defiance, take the jug out into the woods and finish it by herself.
But somewhere, in the back of her mind, she knew this wasn’t like her. She knew she would look crazy if she did that, and that it must be the bloodlust getting to her. She forced herself to take a deep breath and shut her eyes.
“Here,” Turner said, handing her her own waterskin.
She took it wordlessly and forced herself to drink water instead. It washed away the taste of the blood from her mouth, and she was both disappointed and relieved, but at least she could think somewhat clearly again.
“Are you…okay?” he asked. “Do you feel better?
“Sort of,” she said. Now that the blood was out of her vision, and out of her mouth, she didn’t feel quite so crazed for it, but she didn’t necessarily feel satisfied from what she’d had.
“Give it some time, maybe,” Kaya said. “To sink in. And you can have more in the morning, if you want.”
Ena nodded blankly. That sounded reasonable, though not exactly what she wanted.
“Get some rest,” Kaya said, her tone motherly. “It’s been an eventful day.”
The woman gathered her things and left Turner and Ena alone in the tent. Ena heard Turner lay down on his bed again, and she lay down on her own, too, but it took her a long time to fall asleep.
Her mind wouldn’t quiet down after all she had learned, all she was still processing—the revelations about Ty, and herself, and the stryx.
But underneath all that, there was a constant question in the back of her mind, one she tried hard to suppress, but which kept coming back all the same: where had Kaya taken that jug of blood? Because she wanted more.