Hunger Untamed (Feral Warriors #5)(55)

"Can blind people use computers?" Jag grunted. "Wouldn't they need braille keyboards or something?"

"Not the point," Wulfe growled.

Lyon shook his head. "It's too danger--"

The sound of laughter stopped him cold. A sweet, high-pitched laughter as rare as a blue moon. Pink's.

Jag smiled, cutting Lyon a look that said the chief had just lost, and they all knew it. "Sounds to me like the bird has a new friend."

Lyon's growl was one of pure frustration. "Find a way to secure him. One slip, and he dies. No second chances."

Wulfe nodded, fighting back his own smile. "Yes, sir."

Lyon lifted a brow, then swung away.

Jag's smile was slow and satisfied. "Good job . . . Dude." With a chuckle, he slapped Wulfe on the back, then headed into the kitchen.

Wulfe let his own smile loose. As screwed up as everything else was, at least one thing had gone right. He lifted his finger to trace the newest scar on his cheek. Natalie had given him a gift in her smile, in her laughter. Most of all, in her lack of fear and revulsion.

He'd given her two in return even though, if all went as planned, she wouldn't remember. But he would.

He'd never forget.

Chapter Fifteen

Kougar woke suddenly, his feral senses and warrior instincts taking in the situation in an instant, telling him they were in no immediate danger. He and Ariana were lying, spooned, on the cool temple floor, her body warm and tensed with pain beneath the curve of his arm. And he knew, now, what had awakened him. She was getting another memory download.

He lifted his arm off her and stroked her hair, marveling that he'd actually slept. Not that he hadn't needed the sleep. He had. But, goddess, they were hardly safe down here, not with the Mage a mere two stories above, trying to reach them.

Ariana had suggested he sleep while she waited for Hookeye to dream, but he hadn't thought he'd actually do it. He hadn't thought he had that kind of trust in anyone but another Feral.

Apparently, he trusted her more than he'd realized.

He continued to stroke her hair until the tension slowly left her body. "You okay?"

"Yes. I'm remembering." The wonder in her voice eased his concern, lifting his pulse and his hopes. "I've remembered something important."

She sounded preoccupied, as if she was watching a movie he couldn't see. Which was probably exactly what she was doing. A movie in her own head.

He relaxed, sliding his hand up and down her arm in slow, soft movements while he waited impatiently for her to tell him.

When she began to speak, her voice was quiet and far away. "The Temple of the Queens was built in the Himalayas for a reason. This mountain actually breaches the Syphian Stream, the same mystical energy stream in which the Crystal Realm was built, although the Crystal Realm is far from here and high above the Earth."

That had always been incomprehensible to him--how a castle had been built in the air, in the clouds. Then again, the women who'd built it were themselves mystical creatures of light and mist. And magic.

"The queen who first discovered the wormhole into the Daemons' spirit trap lived during those dark days of the Daemon Wars. She'd been badly injured in a Daemon attack, unable to live without regular infusions of that mystical energy. Her name was Rayas. And the crystal through which she channeled that energy, much as a Feral's armband channels the power of the Earth, kept her alive.

"To reach the Syphian, Rayas stood atop the temple, at the very crown, lifting her hands into the air to draw down the power she needed to survive. One day, while she was up there, she turned to mist and found herself able to merge with the energy stream. She found the wormhole by accident and followed it down into the spirit trap. She'd known the Daemons possessed such a trap, but none had ever known where it was or how to breach it. Now she knew."

"So it's true. Olivia, Jag's mate, seemed to think there's only one actual trap. That it's accessed through various wormholes."

"Yes, there's only one. As the wars escalated, and word came of Mage or Therians who'd been caught in the trap, she went in and pulled them out. Often, she was too late with the Mage. Their souls and bodies were separated quickly. But not so the Therians, who, in those days, were all shifters. The separation of animal from body took days."

Eleven days, if the seventeen were anything to go by. Eleven days, of which eight had passed for Hawke and Tighe. The knowledge felt like dragon's breath on the back of his neck.

Ariana pulled away from him to roll onto her stomach, lifting onto her elbows. Her eyes shone like a pair of gems. "I know where that crystal is, the Crystal of Rayas."

Finally, something was going right. He lifted onto his elbow. "Let's get it."

"It's not here in the temple. It's in the Crystal Realm. And I can't leave the temple until it's through with me. It answered my plea this time, but I guarantee if I walk away now, it won't again. I can't leave until I've retrieved all the memories I've lost."

"You can get into that spirit trap and rescue them."

The light in her eyes died. She sat up, turning her back on him to face the pool. "I still can't turn to mist, Kougar. Now I know what to do once I can, but that's all."

They had one answer but not the other. He sat up beside her. "Still no idea how to solve that piece of the puzzle?"