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I shifted again, slowly this time to avoid the swift kick in the muscles transforming too fast produced. The cramps from sudden shifting could be worse than a bad lactic acid buildup. I knelt on the floor until the chance for spasms had passed, then glanced up to see both Camil e and Carter grinning at me.
Carter let out a soft chuckle when I cleared my throat. "Thank you for making my afternoon so amusing. Life in your household must be fun," he said.
"Wel , my kittens are safe, and I trust you are al right, Delilah?"
I nodded, trying to figure out what had just happened. Normal y I went after other cats, spoiling for a fight. "I guess their age makes a big difference."
Camil e's eyes lit up. "Maybe this means we could have a couple babies? You could be their surrogate mother and--"
Hating to burst her bubble, I shook my head. "We'd better think about it long and hard. We don't know how Maggie might react to them. For al we know, she might try to eat them."
"No she wouldn't. Not our Maggie! She adores you when you're in cat form and would spend al day playing with you if we let her." Camil e folded her arms, looking crushed.
"Maybe we can figure something out," I said. "Confine them to your rooms til they grow up or something like that. We'l talk later." Feeling, for once, the older sister, I patted her arm. "I know how much you love cats, and I promise, I'l spend more time in my cat form for you until we figure out what to do."
"Sorry about al that--an ongoing struggle in our household." Camil e let out a sigh, then turned to Carter and told him about the goblins and the Tregarts.
"So now we have a rumor about Stacia running a training camp for demons. Have you heard anything?"
Carter nodded. "Vaguely, but nothing I can confirm yet. I'l assign someone to look into it, and the minute we find out anything, I'l let you know. At least you've verified that she entered through a Demon Gate. Do you think the Tregart was lying or withheld anything?"
"No." Camil e sighed. "There's no question that Menol y, Vanzir, and Roz got every shred of info out of the Tregart they could. If he was part of it, they'd know. Between the three, they have some pretty nasty . . . tactics."
She paused, and we looked at one another. Neither one of us was wil ing to use the word torture, though I knew it weighed heavily on both our minds, especial y after the talk with Mal en and Sharah about the Wolf Briar.
Carter's eyes took on a luminous hue. He smiled softly.
"Sometimes, what has to be done in a war is regrettable. I have seen this more times than I care to recount." He paused, then added, "I never told you why I left the Subterranean Realms, have I?" Dipping his head, his horns flashed in the soft glow of the light.
"No," I said. Camil e shook her head. "We never felt it our place to pry, but if you want to tel us, we'd like to hear."
Carter leaned back in his chair, pressing his fingertips together as he regarded us soberly. "I am one of the sons of Hyperion--a Greek Titan who watches over the sun and the stars. He mated with a demoness, and she bore a litter of thirteen of us. We lived with my father for a time, then my mother summoned us to the land of Hades within the Subterranean Realms, and Father sent us to her. She sought to use our paternity to her own advantage. Al it bought her was a swift and ugly death."
I stared at him. Carter was the son of a Titan and had twelve brothers and sisters? The Titans predated the Greek gods--in fact, they were responsible for the rise of the gods and had warred with them greatly over the years. We were in the presence of a deity, for al intents and purposes. I didn't know whether to kneel or bow, so I settled for neither.
"After my mother was kil ed, I led my brothers and sisters back to Hyperion. He took us in, taught us the art of observation. We learned to watch, to listen, to be patient. Then he sent us to enter the realm of mortals in order to record the interactions of the Demonkin with the human world. The gods, in rare form, agreed with the Titans that this would be a worthy pursuit and set Athena and Mercury to guide us. We formed a network and began training others to be our eyes and ears in various parts of the world, and they report only to us."
"Who are those you train? Are there many? Are they al demon?"
He shook his head. "We run a far bigger network than you would think. Some are part-demon like myself, others Fae. Stil others are races you can barely begin to comprehend. We stay hidden unless we feel it necessary to reveal ourselves. I think it's time you girls know about us. You're fighting a war that could easily turn a page in human history, and it directly involves the Demonkin. The Demonica Vacana Society is keenly interested in what wil happen in this Earthside battle."
Carter's cards were final y on the table. I wasn't sure just what to say. But it explained a great deal and made me feel better about interacting with him.
"What do you want from us?" Camil e asked.
He shrugged. "Your friendship. Your stories. I want you to tel me what happens so that I can record it for the future. I am a historian, you see, when it comes down to it. While I'm not pledged to refrain from interfering, my main focus is on recording and sealing the information within the Vacana Archives, deep within the Demonica Catacombs that exist in a cavern on one of the uninhabited islands of the Cyclades."
"Cyclades?" My fingers were itching to get a look at those catacombs and the records stored within.
"A large group of Greek islands in the Aegean Sea."
"Why do you help us?" I asked, wondering why he would even care. If his job was to record and keep track of what was happening, would our fate real y matter to him?
He smiled then, softly again, and leaned forward. "My dear girl, I care more than you can possibly think. Like the children of my father--the ancient Greeks--I love al things beautiful and wise. I bequeathed my life over to order, to making sense of the present and keeping track of the past so the future may learn. I also know a father's love for his daughter. My feelings for Kim alone fuel me with the desire to keep this world running, as faulty as it is, without interference from my mother's people."
His face lit up, and the look in his eyes made me smile. He cared. He real y gave a damn.
"What do you recommend we do, as far as Stacia's training camp?"
