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  “Oh.” Nora’s cheeks started to burn. “I can’t, yet. Not for long distances.”

  Alexander frowned. “Have you been converted so recently?” Nora nodded. A derisive laugh made her look past Alexander to find Madison staring back at her.

  “You see?” Madison sneered. “The girl is already holding us back. She should not have come.”

  Nora felt her cheeks go completely red and looked to Hunter for protection. Instead, he just shrugged at her. “She’s not wrong.” He spoke so quietly Nora thought she might have imagined it. She stared after him, flabbergasted, as he ran forward to catch up to Madison.

  Alexander looked at Nora and sighed. “I should speak with her, too.” He ran ahead, leaving Nora alone at the rear.

  Nora watched as Alexander caught up with Madison and Hunter, who were already speaking. She couldn’t make out anything they were saying. As soon as Alexander arrived, however, Hunter turned around and trotted back to Nora, and Madison and Alexander started walking forward.

  Nora followed after them, meeting Hunter halfway. He fell in beside her, but didn’t say anything. After a few moments of silence, Nora spoke. “What did she tell you?”

  “Nothing you’d want to hear.” Hunter seemed strangely…distant.

  The silence stretched on between them, until Nora couldn’t take it anymore. “Is everything ok?”

  “Hmm? Yes, everything’s fine.” He stared straight ahead at the others, and not once did he look at her.

  Nora didn’t know what she did, or why Hunter was acting so detached. They followed Madison and Alexander, walking side by side in silence. After an awkward stretch, Hunter decided to go up to Madison and Alexander, leaving Nora alone with Gray.

  She could see the three of them talking, but for some reason couldn’t hear a thing. She didn’t like not knowing what they were talking about. Every once in a while, either Alexander or Hunter would shoot her a quick look back, almost as if to make sure she was still there, and then turn back to the others. In fact, a few minutes later, Nora decided she hated not knowing what they were talking about. And she didn’t like feeling left out either.

  Yet, they continued that way until at least midday, Nora trailing behind like a stray dog, not understanding what was going on and not hearing even the slightest whisper of conversation, Hunter and Alexander taking turns speaking and sometimes even vividly gesturing with their hands. Nora wondered again why she couldn’t pick anything up – with the way her hearing was now, she was sure she should be able to. Maybe they were somehow blocking their voices from her.

  Sometime after midday, Alexander slowed from his group and allowed Nora to catch up to him. He regarded her kindly, and smiled.

  “I apologize. I know this manner of journeying is not what you expected when you met us.”

  “Truth be told,” Nora answered, “I didn’t really know what to expect.”

  Alexander chuckled. “I don’t think anybody could have predicted Madison’s reaction to you.”

  “No.” Nora shook her head “I think not.”

  “But I am curious about you.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well,” he answered, “I’ve heard bits and pieces from Rafael, and I’ve spoken to Hunter, but I haven’t heard your side of the story, yet.”

  “My side of what story?”

  “The story of everything. How you came to find yourself in this position. You are newborn, and you haven’t yet had your first feeding, which means you were human not very long ago. For a convert to find themselves on the run from the most powerful of the Vassiz…well, it takes something special to garner so much attention. So I’m curious. What did you do?”

  “Well…” Nora began, starting from the beginning. She told Alexander the story of meeting Hunter at school, told him how they had gotten to know one another enough for him to trust her. She told him of visiting the dream world as a human and somehow attracting the attention of the elders there. She told him of how she had been chased away from her school, without enough time to even say goodbye to her friends and family, and of how Hunter told her he about the Vassiz.

  Alexander listened intently, and when Nora finally finished the story, with them finally getting out of the caves, he looked at her thoughtfully.

  “That’s all?” he asked finally.

  “All?” Nora was shocked. “I came into the dream world as a human, which is forbidden by the ancient creed, and have been wanted dead or alive ever after. Preferably alive, so I could be subject to an eternity of torture.” She had purposefully left out the part about killing two members of the Vassiz.

  “Yes, I understand that,” Alexander replied. “What I don’t understand is why a human girl visiting the dream world would garner so much attention. It is so…insignificant.”

  “Insignificant? Hunter said it was a breaking of the Vassiz creed!”

  “Mmm, yes and no.” Alexander replied. “The creed guides us and what we do, yes, but…there have always been allowances. Are you certain there is nothing else Hunter showed you there, nothing that would be deemed important to our kind?”

  Nora shook her head. “I’ve told you all I know.”

  “Interesting. Interesting that the elders would pay so much attention to you.”

  “What do you know about me?” Nora asked. “Just what did Rafael tell you?”

  “Ah. Well, Rafael told us of a young couple on the run who found themselves inside his place of refuge. He said you were trapped inside, after having killed a bounty hunter who was coming after you.”

  Nora’s cheeks blossomed as she realized he knew about the killing. And that he knew she had avoided telling him of it.

  He must have sensed her unease. “A smart omission,” he told her. “I would avoid speaking of it to anybody as well, just as you have. You never know who might be listening.”

  Nora smiled somewhat weakly at him. “Thanks.”

  “Furthermore, you can never be completely sure of who to trust. Do not be distrustful of all, for that will consume you from the inside, but do not volunteer information freely, either. That is the way to survive a long time in this world.”

  “That’s good advice,” Nora agreed.

  “Yes,” he said.

  “What about you?” Nora asked. “What’s your story?”

  “Where do I begin?” Alexander asked, with a laugh.

  “At the start. How long have you been a member of the Vassiz?”

  “Over six hundred years,” he told her.

  “Wow.” She’d thought Hunter had been alive for a long time. “Is it usual for most Vassiz to be that old?”

  “There haven’t been many newborns in the last few centuries,” Alexander told her. “Our kind has been dominated by the elders, and they have forbidden expansion of our numbers. It is hard to find other members of the Vassiz because of that, so the ones you do meet are of my age, or perhaps older. A youngling like you, however, is most definitely a rarity.”

  “What about Rafael?” she asked. “You said you met him when you were exploring the archive?”

  “A very long time ago, that. Over two centuries back. But I still remember it to the day. Both of us were outcasts, wandering without a pack or a permanent home. In our own ways, we both ended up on the path to the archive.”

  “And what did you find there?” Nora asked.

  Alexander smiled slyly. “Not enough. But I am hoping this time it will be different.”

  “Why would it be?”

  “A lot has changed since those days,” he explained. “The hierarchy within our race has shown cracks. Oh, those at the top deny it completely – they deny it vehemently – but in truth, they are scared. Scared to lose their position of power, and their position of influence. That is why, I think, they took such interest in you.”

  “In me?” Nora stopped to regard Alexander curiously. “What could I have ever done to threaten their power?”

  “It is not what you have done,” Alexander said, “bu
t what you have the potential to do.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You do not know it yet, Nora, but hidden in the Vassiz creed there is mention of a prophecy. A fleeting few words, overlooked by nearly all. But I do not believe the elders to be foolish enough to overlook it. I suspect in my heart that your arrival in the dream world may have triggered some of their memories of that prophecy.”

  “My arrival?” Nora was shocked. “What kind of prophecy are you talking about? Not like a…destiny?”

  “Perhaps,” he answered obliquely. “Or perhaps not. We will find more answers in the archives when we arrive.”

  “Just what do you expect to find there this time?”

  “Answers. And, in all likelihood, more questions.”

  They walked silently for a few minutes, each with their own thoughts. Then something occurred to Nora.

  “Why did you say you trusted my word last night?” she asked. “Madison certainly didn’t.”

  “I…saw something about you.” H shrugged. “It’s a gift I have. Sometimes, I can see things about people – about the Vassiz – that others cannot. And I know them to be true entirely.”

  “A gift? You mean your ability?”

  “Yes, some might call it that,” Alexander replied. “Most would not be so easy to share theirs with others, though.”

  “Hunter told me that already,” Nora said. “But he never explained why.”

  Alexander spread his hands as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “The Vassiz are not the most trusting of species. When you live for as long as we do, you start seeing the same patterns, the same ways of the world, over and over again. You grow cold and suspicious of others, because you know how often they have let you down. And when your only partners on the journey are those with the same suspicions…well, let’s just say it doesn’t hurt to hold one ace close to the sleeve.”

  Nora frowned. That sounded very bleak. “Do all of you live in suspicion like that?”

  “I wouldn’t say that we live in suspicion, really,” he replied. “Rather, it has become deeply ingrained within us. We do not know how to survive in any other way. It is who we were born as, and who we have grown to be. It is the only way most know.”

  “That sounds awfully depressing,” Nora said.

  “It can be. That is why it is worthwhile to find at least one other you can trust. Another you might take on your journey.”

  “A spouse?” Nora asked.

  Alexander laughed. “No, we do not marry. A…lover would be more accurate.”

  “Hmm.” Is that what she and Hunter were destined to become? Mere lovers? “Is Madison, then, your…err, I mean, is she…” Nora cleared her throat. “…Uh…”

  Alexander laughed again. “She and I have journeyed far together, yes. Sometimes our paths lead to different destinations, but we always seem to reconvene. I have known her for very long, almost as long as I have been alive.”

  “So there is…romance between you two?”

  Alexander nodded. “A blunt way of putting it, but yes.”

  Nora was impressed. Alexander had known Madison for nearly six hundred years, and despite everything that surely must have happened, they were still together. Together in spite of the suspicions apparently deeply rooted into each of them. She looked up ahead at Hunter, who was still talking to Madison. She wouldn’t mind, she realized dreamily, spending that much time with him.

  If only the stupid man would stop being so distant.

  Chapter Six

  ~Disagreements~

  Once Alexander returned to walk with Madison and Hunter, Nora fell in all alone in the back. She had no idea what prompted Hunter’s sudden, inexplicable distance. But it all started last night, when they met Alexander and Madison.

  Alexander seemed well-meaning enough, so she couldn’t pin the blame on him. He had taken the time to actually talk to her today, to tell her he trusted her. Unlike Madison. She glared daggers at the other woman’s back.

  No, Madison was the problem. She was the one who disapproved of Nora. Or, worse yet, completely ignored her – and talked the others into doing so as well. A strange turn of events after the respect Nora had felt for her when they met less than twenty-four hours ago.

  By the time night came, Nora was starting to despise Madison. She knew it was premature, and that she should at least try to remedy things between them, but at the same time, she didn’t like the way she was being treated. And to be honest, Nora had tried to get a word in with Madison while they journeyed that day, but none of it did any good. She wasn’t just a child, no matter what Madison thought, and she could control herself – she had proven as much with the hunter. She doubted Madison could have held on like that during her first feeding.

  She sat down on the hard ground at the base of a tree. Gray was with her. Not far away, Hunter was talking to Madison, who had her back turned to Nora. Alexander had gone to get firewood for the night.

  Nora was determined to speak to Hunter, tonight, to find out what was going on. Although it had only been a day, she hadn’t felt this alienated from him…ever.

  He glanced at her over Madison’s shoulder, and their eyes met. Nora made a gesture showing she wanted to talk, and Hunter nodded in understanding. He excused himself from Madison’s company and walked over to her.

  “What’s going on?” he asked lightly, as if everything was completely normal.

  “What’s going on,” Nora started determinedly, “is that you’ve been spending entirely too much time with her.” She said the last word venomously.

  “Madison?” Hunter asked innocently.

  “Yes, Madison,” Nora repeated. “Ever since we met the pair of them, you’ve done nothing but whisper secrets in each other’s ears.”

  “Secrets? I have nothing to hide.”

  “Then why have you been so distant? We haven’t spoken once all day!”

  “Really?” He sounded confused. He paused for a deliberate second. “…no, you’re wrong. We spoke this morning about Gray.”

  Nora stared at him in disbelief. “Well, that hardly counts!”

  Hunter rolled his eyes at her. “If you say one thing, and I prove you wrong, then you backtrack and say you didn’t mean it that way?” He shrugged. “I can hardly be expected to keep up with you.”

  “What?”

  “Maybe,” he said more slowly, and a bit more harshly, “you should try to be more clear in what you say.” He started to turn away. Was he dismissing her? Anger surged through her, boiling her insides.

  “Wait!” Nora exclaimed. “Where are you going?”

  “Back to where I was before you called me into this frivolous conversation.” Frivolous conversation? That’s all he had to say to her?

  “With who,” Nora contended, “Madison?”

  “Yes, Madison,” Hunter emphasized. “And I think if you know what’s good for you, you will apologize to her.”

  Nora’s mouth fell open. She was completely flabbergasted. “Apologize to her? Apologize for what?”

  “For the way you’ve been acting all day,” Hunter said harshly. “It’s not like her concern about you was a trivial one, and for her to agree this morning to come along…it takes character. You’d better start showing her that she made the right decision.”

  Showing Madison? Nora wasn’t some kind of subservient doll to be sucking up to the woman who so clearly despised her!

  “What are you talking abo—” Nora began angrily, but Hunter cut her off.

  “And while you’re at it, you should thank Alexander. It was nearly impossible to convince Madison to come along, but Alexander managed to do so after speaking on your behalf. I don’t know what gave him half the confidence to believe in you so much, but it’s only thanks to him that we are all journeying together. You need to show more respect. If we hadn’t met them, we’d still be wandering the woods with nowhere to go!”

  “Are you blind and deaf?” Nora snapped. “I’ve done nothing wrong! It’s all
been her, and she’s poisoning your mind with whatever she’s telling you.”

  “No.” Hunter shook his head. “You don’t understand. She is one of only two others we can trust. If you were smart, you would put aside your differences and see that it is the only way.” He turned and walked back to Madison, who was now standing and looking out into the forest.

  Nora had to blink a few times to get a hold on her emotions. Her eyes were watery, and she angrily wiped at them with the back of her hand. What had prompted Hunter to speak to her like that? He had been so…harsh. So uncompromising.

  He hadn’t even tried to listen to what she had to say!

  For the first time since they met, she was angry at him. After ignoring her all day, he had the nerve to tell her to start kissing up to Madison? That’s what he really meant by all that. Nora hadn’t done anything to deserve such treatment, from him or from Madison.

  She started to get up, to go after him and demand an apology, but realized that Gray was growling beside her. He must have picked up on her mood.

  She looked at him…and sat back down. If Hunter wanted to behave like a complete jerk, then let him. She didn’t have to fawn after him like a ditzy girl. If he wanted to push her away right now, so be it. She would wait for him to apologize to her. She knew he would come around to it eventually.

  Pulling Gray close to her, she started stroking his back. The cub relaxed at her touch and lay down beside her. She would wait until Hunter realized he was wrong.

  Chapter Seven

  ~Leave-takings~

  Nora woke to the sound of hushed whispers. She opened her eyes groggily. Gray had fallen asleep in her arms, and she could feel the warmth radiating through his fur. She looked over to the source of the noise.

  Alexander and Madison stood huddled together on the opposite end of the clearing. Nora squinted to make out their shapes against the still-burning fire. Their body language was stiff. Angry. Alexander was gesturing wildly with his hands, and Madison was saying something and stamping her feet. Nora wondered what the disagreement was about.