Free Evolution (Demon's Grail Book 2) by Amy Cross Page A

food, and cooking. There's really not much else worth doing.
    “How long do you think it'll be before we reach this Gothos place?” Jonathan asks after a moment.
    “I don't know,” I reply, tossing some more twigs onto the fire. “Why don't you ask the almighty Absalom?”
    “He just keeps saying that it's not far now.”
    “So there you go,” I mutter with a shrug. “It's not far.”
    “I told him I can't be a fighter,” he continues. “I told him there's no way I can learn to be some kind of... vampire warrior.” He sighs. “Those words sound so ridiculous. I still expect to wake up at any moment and find that this has all been a dream.”
    “You'll learn,” I mutter.
    “To wake up?”
    “To fight. You're the son of Patrick. Trust me, you have it in you.”
    “No, I really don't.”
    “You'll find the anger in your soul,” I tell him.
    “It's not there. I'm a librarian, not a soldier.”
    “You can still be angry.” I turn to him. “When the battle comes, you'll fight with the rest of us.”
    “For what? For something I only ever read about in books?”
    “Don't give up. You can do this.”
    “I don't want to fight.”
    “No-one wants to fight,” I tell him, “it's just the way things are. You can't go back to your old life, so your only choice is to stand with us. Believe me, even if you turn around and run, the spiders will eventually track you down and finish you off.”
    “Just because of the blood in my veins?”
    “Yes!” I say firmly. “They hate us!”
    “And we hate them?”
    “Of course,” I tell him. “You will too, once you feel the fire burning in your chest.”
    “Shouldn't it be burning already?”
    “Give it time,” I mutter. “You're a vampire, and all vampires hate spiders. You'll feel that hatred soon.”
    I work to get the campfire burning properly, but after a few silent minutes I turn and see that my brother seems lost in thought.
    “I felt the same once,” I tell him cautiously. “When I first met Benjamin and the Watchers, and Shelley, and Patrick and our uncle... I felt I was being dragged into a completely different world. It took time for me to feel comfortable with who and what I am.”
    “But you weren't happy with your old life,” he points out. “I was happy with mine. I had a job I enjoyed, I had friends, I had a family, I'd had a few dates with a woman named Laura and I was hoping to see her again... I want that life back.”
    Sighing, I realize that he has a point. After all, it might be good to sink into obscurity, and to not carry the weight of our species on our shoulders. At the same time, I have a sense in the pit of my stomach that we're sitting targets, waiting for the spiders to strike, and it's shocking to think that I might not be able to do something to help. Maybe the reason I couldn't prove myself at Jagadoon was that the place was just a school, and Oncephalus was just a teacher. I need to feel real danger if I'm going to make a proper stand. After all, I did okay against Keller.
    “What about the prophecy?” Jonathan asks after a moment.
    “What about it?”
    “Aren't you scared?”
    Turning to him, it takes a moment before I realize what he means. “The prophecy says that when I go to Karakh, I'll die. That doesn't mean I have to rush.”
    “Is that how these things work? You have the power to resist?”
    “I have the power to -” Pausing, I feel a shiver pass through my body. My cold, wet clothes are clinging to my flesh, but I'm not going to take them off so they can dry. That's not what a real warrior would do. “I have the power to make a fire for us,” I tell him, “and to hunt rabbits. I don't think I need to do anything else tonight.”
    “But if -”
    “And I certainly don't need to organize my entire destiny,” I add, interrupting him. “Not right now, not here in this damp little clearing.” Reaching down, I grab one of the knives I'm going to use when I catch a rabbit for dinner, and then I turn and