“Kawosa will be dealt with if he decides to show himself again. For now, it is more important that he remain among the humans where he can wreak all the petty havoc he likes. That has always been his way.”
“Has it become his way to shed his limbs?” Jaden asked.
Shrugging beneath the sling as if he could feel its weight upon such a meaty shoulder, Randolph told her, “Perhaps it is no longer time to be satisfied with the Balance. Perhaps it is time to set things on a different path. Find a new way.”
She strode forward, almost casual in her steps and the smooth sway of her arms. “You’ve always painted such beautiful pictures with your words. Is that how you convinced the young one to follow your lead during the Breaking Moon?”
“Cecile knew it was better to follow me than the others.”
“And where has it gotten her?”
Randolph snarled. “She has been shown firsthand why it was a mistake to trust the Skinners. And she has also seen how we can take care of ourselves. What she does from now on is her choice.”
“We are the only ones qualified to act as our keepers. As for the rest of your business,” she said cautiously. “I still haven’t heard why you want to speak with Icanchu.”
“Do you know where he is?”
Randolph followed the path her golden eyes took when they glanced up at the low-hanging branches above and behind him. The leaves were always in motion, due to the wind or any number of creatures that lived among them. Insects filled the air, gathering in numbers great enough to shake the leaves even more. There were too many living things nearby for him to separate each individual scent, but his eyes were sharp enough to pick up on movement ranging from animals scurrying along the dirt floor to the writhing bodies of serpents hanging from thicker branches.
“I need to see Icanchu now,” he said. “There isn’t time for riddles or territorial disputes. This goes well beyond even Full Blood claims.”
“Why? Because you say it does?”
Randolph exhaled a breath that was accompanied by a rumble emanating from deep within his chest.
Stepping close enough to reach out and place a clawed hand upon his face, Jaden ran it gently along the jagged scar left behind when a strip of the Blood Blade had cut into his cheek. “Spending so much time this close to a Mist Born changes your perspective, Randolph,” she said in a soothing purr. “Even though I can sometimes hear the screams as the wretches and leeches tear the old world apart, I know there is one that is much older and will survive whatever fires are set by human or Full Blood.”
Another serpent moved through the trees behind her. This one’s scales were bright green as opposed to the light brown ones covering the body of the one Randolph had spotted before. Leathery bodies swam through the river, giving the werewolves a wide berth. The more he looked, the more living things he saw. They surrounded and enveloped them in a way that was foreign and unwelcome to one accustomed to open plains, snowcapped mountains, or mile upon mile of swaying grasslands. Even the cities were no longer as congested as that small piece of real estate. It was much easier for him to focus on Jaden’s smooth face and the simple, deadly purity of the fangs protruding from her mouth.
“I came to speak with Icanchu,” he told her. “And that is what I will do. Please don’t waste my time with trite sentiments like the Mist Born can always see us and all we need to do is speak to be heard.”
“I wouldn’t presume to deflect you with spirituality, Randolph. I will tell you that I have spoken with Icanchu more than once since claiming this territory from Liam. The Mist Born are short on tolerance and they don’t suffer fools. I think the only thing that kept Liam from being taught a very painful lesson is that he preferred to terrorize the locals and run along the river instead of venturing into the trees to take a long look at what was there.”
Upon hearing Liam’s name, Randolph smirked. Every now and then he could still hear his friend’s voice whispering some bit of bad advice into his ear or planting a disruptive notion into his thoughts. “Kawosa said you’d know where to find Icanchu. Obviously, the trickster was telling the truth.”
“Not,” Jaden said while tracing a claw beneath the sling and through the fur sprouting from Randolph’s chest, “without some persuasion, I see.”
“Icanchu must see that I am nothing to be taken lightly.”
“You never have been, Birkyus.”
Doing his best to ignore the hunger in her voice or the warmth of a female’s touch, Randolph said, “I also know Icanchu and Kawosa were never on friendly terms.”
“Kawosa wasn’t on friendly terms with most of the Mist Born. That much is common knowledge to anyone who knows the legends. As for what you brought with you . . . no offering will make a difference,” she warned. “Not against a Mist Born.”
“Take me to him.” The voice in which those words were spoken had dropped to a fierce growl. Randolph stood before her in his towering, nightmarish form. His chest swelled with an intake of jungle air that was pushed out from his nostrils amid a curling trace of steam.
Jaden had shifted into her full werewolf form as well. Perhaps playing to her strengths, she’d chosen her four-legged body. Having been freshly pushed through the pores of her skin, her fur was clean and glistening as if it had been freshly bathed in the Amazonian waters. “He may kill you,” she said.
“I’d rather meet my death howling into the face of a god while trying to set my world straight than spend the rest of my days waiting timidly for it in a world I’ve grown to despise.”
“And,” she said with a ferocity in her voice that turned her eyes into orbs of molten ore, “know that I do not intend on giving up my territory. Not to you, not to Liam’s ghost, not to anyone.”
“I would expect nothing less.”
“Good.”
With that, she bounded into the trees from which she’d first emerged. Randolph ran after her, but soon saw why she’d chosen to make the journey on four legs. Rather than follow her lead in every way, he kept the body he currently wore and traversed the increasingly dense foliage as best he could. As Jaden ran close to the ground, ducking under obstacles or leaping over them, Randolph climbed the largest trees so he could watch her progress. Even with the keen senses at his disposal, it wasn’t an easy task.
He scaled one moss-covered giant, launched himself from another, and sank his claws into a third as if the bark were flesh he was tearing from an enemy’s body. It was near-impossible to track her by scent because the jungle was alive with enough competing odors to keep his nose busy for months. Whenever he shook a tree down to its roots with the impact of his most recent jump, he sent several more enticing aromas into the air. So Randolph relied on his eyes and ears. Jaden’s paws pressed against the soil or slapped against fallen logs as she ran ever deeper into the wilds. Her breath still churned within a Full Blood’s powerful lungs, and her heart thudded like a machine that the finest human engineer could only hope to mimic. Whenever Randolph lost sight of her tracks, or the sound of her steps amid the chaos within the rain forest, he moved on pure instinct.
She’d always been an exotic beauty, even when she was human. Now that she’d joined the elite ranks of the Full Blood, every one of her assets was enhanced into a natural wonder. This wasn’t the first time they’d danced this way, her leading him through a seemingly impossible maze. Randolph kept that in mind as he leapt from tree to tree, savoring every fleeting glimpse of her and each flicker of gold when she looked back to see if she could find him.