Where Dark Things Wait: Night Creatures Book One

Chapter Twenty-Three - Myth and Magic

"It's certainly compelling," Major Caeso Marcellus Nerva agreed, as he looked over the owl symbol Kalyna had replicated for him, while the assembled platoon leaders and battalion commanders watched in curiosity. "You're right that it could be coincidental. Our brains are wired to make images out of chaos, which is why we see animals in clouds, Jesus on burnt toast, and ghosts in pixilated CCTV footage, but this would be a huge coincidence. These marks aren't chaos - they were purposefully carved into flesh - and so I'd be willing to place money on you being correct."

"It's compelling enough that I'm almost willing to let your insubordination slide," Menahem interjected, and Kalyna felt her cheeks heat.

"I... I didn't mean to be insubordinate," she stuttered, flustered. "I just felt this was more important than finishing your lecture. As fascinating as demonology and the nobility of Tartarus is, I want to save the children of earth from an immediate threat more than I want to analyse those responsible for punishing the damned."

"Although as the two may be linked, you would be best caring about both," the fallen angel stated, his expression stern. "For all we know the perpetrators could be the devotees of Stolas or Andras. Or they may have been corrupted by demonic manipulators; incited to violence."

"Or they could be a cult which serves masters in one of the supernatural races associated with owls. The strix for example," Lieutenant Ida Harrison offered, "Or maybe they are a sect devoted to some corruption of a goddess cult, like a cult of Athena, Minerva, or Arianrhod. Or they are influenced by any of the representation of owls in mythology as emissaries of the devil, harbingers of woe, or avatars of magic, and mystery, and the power of sorcerers."

"It really doesn't help much," Kalyna allowed, because as important as the symbol seemed, it didn't point towards any specific culprit. It would be almost impossible to find the perpetrators based on one solitary symbol.

"On the contrary; it helps a great deal," Dunstan refuted, his amber eyes warm with approval. "It may not offer up the solution but it's more of the equation than we had before; a2 + b2 = c2 only works if you know what 'a' and 'b' are. While we aren't yet able to calculate 'c', you've still gone some way to providing us with 'a'. It's more than any of us have managed."

"To be fair, none of you had a run in with Scarface-the-magical-monk," she retorted.

"You don't take compliments well, do you?" he asked, his lips twitching. "Take the win, Kallie. It's a small one but it's something, so take it."

The other commanders looked between him and her, their brows jumping almost into their hairlines. Even the Major's interest seemed to intensify, and he appraised her with such a depth of curiosity that she wished she could disappear. Too many people scrutinised her interactions with Eorl as though they fell outside the ordinary; something as curious as her mixed heritage. They wanted to inspect something that she didn't dare acknowledge, and she'd rather escape than face it. After all... It was just sex. Wasn't it?

Of course it was just sex. She didn't like Eorl in any other capacity and she wasn't curious to find out if she could learn to do so. Anyway, he felt limited to sex and nothing more, and she still missed her husband. That couldn't be the shaky foundation of anything other than a brief fling. So, it was just sex... Really...

Hot, explosive, unintentional, repeat sex.

"I think I have another lecture to get to," she said, wanting out of that room.

Dunstan frowned, dark brows tugged low over syrup and honey eyes. He studied her as intently as his colleagues, then his gaze flicked over each of his peers and superiors too, a flare of defiance showing in his expression. Yet when his eyes returned to Kalyna, his expression closed off, masking whatever he thought about her.