To the man who loves me and my cats

Pain exploded across my face, lighting up the black night. My body slammed against a hard surface before I slid limp to my knees, sending a fresh surge of pain up through my frame. The world around me was a blur of disorganized shapes and shadows, punctuated by splashes of red as something hit my jaw, snapping my head around. I landed on my back with a wooden thud.

I wanted to summon up my powers and set the bastard on fire, but the attacks were coming too quickly. My concentration was shattered. In the brief lull, I tried to assess the damage to see if I had any chance of striking back. My left knee had been shattered and my right leg was broken. My internal organs were swimming in my own blood, bruised, punctured, and damaged. My jaw felt fractured and my eyes were nearly swollen shut. I tried to shift to my side, revealing that at least three ribs were broken.

“You stupid bitch!” snarled a deep unfamiliar voice. For a moment I could almost convince myself that I had fallen into Rowe’s hands. Only that naturi could possibly hate me so much as to beat me senseless.

“A nightwalker?” he demanded incredulously just before his foot landed in my stomach. My arms had been crossed over my middle, so my left wrist took the brunt of the blow, fracturing. I cried out as my mind struggled to hold onto the voice. I didn’t recognize it. But then, I wasn’t sure where I was or how I had even gotten there.

“A nightwalker? If I had known how things were going to work out, I would never have let you out of my sight in the first place!” His footsteps moved farther away as he paced the area.

“Who the hell are you?” I spat, sending a stream of blood over my split lower lip.

The creature sighed heavily, and I flinched as he walked back toward me. A large hand sank into my hair, twisting it around his fist before finally jerking it so I was facing upward. Squinting and blinking, my eyes slowly focused in the dim light on a face I was sure I would never see again: my father.

A scream became choked in my raw throat while I tried to lurch backward, sending slashing pain through my scalp as the creature refused to release my hair. His grin grew over his lean, old face becoming a mockery of the love and laughter I had seen on my real father’s face.

Clenching my jaw, I closed my eyes and swallowed back a string of curses. I had to think clearly. This wasn’t my father. It was obviously a shapeshifter, and one that could read my mind and my memories. The only creature that could possibly do such a horrible thing was a bori.

Gaizka! Oh God! We had failed to lock it up when we were on Factors Walk. The bori had gotten to me.

But even as the thought occurred to me, I knew it was wrong. LaVina grabbed me, using me to lock away the bori before it could steal Danaus away forever. LaVina had snatched me away from Factors Walk and taken me to this secluded location to beat me into oblivion. Or rather, it was this creature that had pretended to be the old witch LaVina so it could get closer to me and Danaus.

A growl rumbled in the back of my throat, warning him to back away, even though I had already proven to be a weak threat. LaVina had fooled us all. I should never have believed her to be a simple witch. I knew all the powerful witches from Charleston to New Orleans. This creature had snuck in, and we allowed it because we were desperate to cage the bori Gaizka. Now it was time for me to pay the price of not being more vigilant.

“You’re not real,” I groaned, clenching my fist against the swell of pain that swept over me as I tried to move.

The creature tightened his grip on my hair just before sending the back of his free hand across my cheekbone. A new pain blossomed across my face, causing my teeth to rattle in their sockets while a trickle of blood started to slip down my cheek.

“Did that feel real?” he mocked. He gave my head a sharp shake when I remained silent. “Look at me!”

My eyes snapped open and I stared into the dark eyes of the monster that held me. My body was broken and throbbing with pain. Without some help, I didn’t have a chance to defeat this creature. I did not have the strength to summon up my powers to light this son of a bitch on fire, and too many bones were still mending from being broken for me to effectively move, let alone fight. If I was going to die, I would do it with my eyes wide-open and staring into the dead soulless eyes of my opponent.

“You’re not my father. You’re a shapeshifter. A bori.” I could taste my own blood in my mouth as I spoke.

“Ahhh, my sweet child, you are not even close,” he said, finally releasing his hold on my hair so that I unexpectedly thudded on the floor. “It’s my own fault, though. I never should have waited so long to reveal myself to you.” The creature paced away from me, waving his hands in the air.

As he spoke, I pulled my arms beneath my body and pushed myself up a little bit so I could look around. Shock tightened my muscles as I discovered that I was in the library at my own house. However, it looked as if a tornado had ripped through it. The shelves were all broken and the books had fallen into large piles around the room. My massive desk was overturned, while papers splattered with my blood were strewn about. Something inside of me shivered when I saw that my extensive collection of hourglasses destroyed. What little light came in through the window glittered and danced off the broken glass and piles of sand. Had my time finally run out?

“Let me start at the beginning.” He spun on a heel to face me again, drawing my gaze back to the monster that still held the guise of my beloved father. “But you’re going have to think for me.”

Pain screamed through my body, causing my arms to tremble so badly that I finally gave up the fight and lay back down on the floor, trying to ignore the fragments of glass and wood beneath me. “Who are you?”

“I am your father,” he said simply, spreading his arms out on either side of him, his hands held open as if welcoming me into his thin embrace.

“Impossible! My father is dead! He died centuries ago. He was human. You’re just some pathetic mimic.”

The creature was before me in a flash, grabbing my hair again so I couldn’t look away. “Are you really so sure of that?” he demanded, laughing. Before my eyes, his features shifted so that his soft, wizened face grew younger and sharper in his appearance. His dark brown hair turned a bright shock of red that stuck out in all directions from his head. But it was his glowing lavender eyes that held me still. It was like looking at a male version of myself, and it was terrifying.

“This isn’t real either,” I whimpered. My mind was unable to comprehend exactly what I was staring at.

“Actually, you’re right,” he admitted with a slight shrug of one shoulder. “But then I doubt your little mind can fully comprehend the real version of me, so we’re just going have to settle for the light version of the truth.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Come now, Mira. Think just a little bit for me.” Giving my head a little shake, he continued. “You know the old tales. Zeus comes down to earth from Mount Olympus in various forms and cheats on his darling wife, spawning an untold number of children, leaving the earth to be littered with all kinds of little demigods and nymphs.”

A low, rough chuckle escaped me before I could stop it. “You’re a god?”

With a growl, the monster slammed the back of my head into the shelf behind me, causing my vision to go black. I blinked a couple times, trying to regain my sight. The creature leaned close enough that I could feel its hot breath dance across my cheek. “Half dead and long forgotten from this world, but I am still here and here I will remain.”