I woke-up and glanced up at the sky. The sun was beginning to sink into the horizon. So I probably have slept for like eight hours, I'm not including that weird dream because that was not sleeping, so why in the world did I still feel so tired?

I got up and stretched, arching up my back and curling my toes. I felt incredibly stiff and I heard several joints pop. Maybe I shouldn't go hunting and then go straight to sleep or sleep on a full stomach. That dream was really weird. It was almost prophetic.

I moaned. I mean, that's what I was afraid of that someone was going to use my power over animals, and I guess even my new elements, for their benefits. But why was Kalona and the Raven Mockers fighting with me and the gifted children of Nyx?

And why was I leading the frickin' army?

I shook my head. Maybe I was blowing this out of proportion. It probably was just a weird dream brought on by my late night, or I guess it was technically early morning, hunting and probably discussing with Dominic about my problems and fears probably caused those things to be on my mind before I went to sleep.

I squashed the feeling that this wasn't just a dream. I couldn't deal with it right now and I probably couldn't do anything about it because I wasn't in Upwalker form and wouldn't until we returned to Tulsa and I paid my respects to my parents, not looking forward to that too much.

I should probably track down Zoey and find out when we were going home so I could be better prepared for returning to my true form.

I should also probably find some clothes I can wear with wings because I have no clue if I would be clothed or not. I'm not sure families want to see a naked angel looking girl in the graveyard.

I sighed. I guess I wasn't going back to sleep.

I got up and slid back into my room and then out into the hall.

"Raven, Raven, Raven!"

I turned and had kits pounce on me and dance around me.

"Raven, Raven." Silver Queen said hopping up and down. "I caught newt! My first catch!"

I purred. "That's really good. You're going to be a great hunter someday."

I swear that little kitten cracked up a big smile.

"Yeah, well." Cookie started. "I caught a beetle first! I caught something before you!"

Lily Bean was on my head and was more content with playing with my ear instead of competing with her siblings. Snowleaf sat in between my paws under my belly. She too seemed perfectly content with just being with me than competing with her siblings.

"Raven?"

I turned, forgetting that Lily Bean was on my head until she dug her small claws into my head, and saw Zoey walking down the hall towards me.

She cracked a big grin. "You're not busy are you?"

I nudged Lily Bean back on top of my head. "Not too busy." Silver Queen and Cookie were rolling around play-fighting, but nothing I should be concerned about right now.

"I haven't seen you around much since we got back." She said.

My gut clenched with anger. She could have easily sought me out before this if she wanted to. I took a deep breath. I did go hunting yesterday so I'm not around all the time.

"We've been busy. I've been off with the Lords of the Forest and you've been busy with Sgiach and Stark." I said instead. I know I still shouldn't hold a grudge about the Raven Mocker thing, but I was still holding a bit of one. I'm immature, sue me.

"Are you…well, okay with being stuck like this?" She asked. She looked awkward.

I felt like it was a bit of a stupid question. "I'm dealing with it. I'm stressing out a bit because when I change back, I won't be human anymore."

Zoey looked at me with a look that looked like a cross between pity and understanding.

"I'm also worrying about the fact that you don't seem to trust me anymore." I blurted before I could control my stupid mouth.

She looked stunned and bit hurt, but I could see some guilt. So I guess it wasn't completely my imagination about the whole thing. "I do trust you Ray."

"But." I added.

She chewed her lip. "I guess I-Well, I mean the whole…Kalona, Heath thing really tore me up."

"I know." I said gently. "I was there. But, if you keep comparing me to Kalona then well, I can't keep being around you guys because you aren't going to trust me like you should."

Zoey scratched her head. "I know."

Lily Bean slid down my back like I had changed into a slide. She bowled into her two fighting siblings, which momentarily stopped the fighting, and then joined into the fighting.

"Ray," l looked at her. "Are you going to seek out the Raven Mockers?"

My ears twitched. "They need help. I mean, if I'm good then they have to be good too."

"Yeah. It's just hard because…" She trailed off.

"They look like monsters?" I suggested. "If you think about it, I'm more dangerous than they are because I look like I should be good." My ears flickered when I realized what I had said.

"But you are good Ray." Zoey said.

I sighed. "It's hard to remember when I've seen what Kalona and my brothers are capable of."

Zoey sat in one of window sills. "I always thought I had crappy parents."

"My adoptive parents loved me and they spoiled me. My first mother loved me too. It's just Kalona." I said. "I still think deep down he does feel something, otherwise he would have probably smacked me or killed me by now."

"I've still wondered why he hasn't disciplined you with the way you talk to him." Zoey said.

"You and me both." I said. "And I doubt he's going to be willing to share next time I see him."

Zoey grinned. "You really chewed him out."

I shrugged. "I did it for my brothers. He really does abuse them."

Then the high pitched meowing got really loud. I swiped at them and the fighting stopped. Snowleaf was still curled up under my stomach.

Zoey and I watched the kittens bowl around, chasing their tails or chasing the shiny bit of light Zoey reflected from her bracelet, for a bit. All the while the kittens were being cute and kitten-ish, I was arguing with myself about telling Zoey about Damascus.

The problem was I didn't have that much to tell her, but I know that he threatened me and evidently had a plan for me that may or may not be bad, but I'm leaning on bad.

I mean, again, I know nothing about this guy except his name, but if I get kidnapped then shouldn't they know something so they can hopefully rescue me? He sounds scary, like psycho rapist scary.

Fudge nuggets! And my anti-rapist spray was still in my underwear drawer at home.

And like the Goddess knew what I was thinking and decided to hint Zoey that I was thinking about, Zoey spoke up.

"Did…something happen when you disappeared?" Zoey said. "I mean, when you were in the Otherworld?"

I blinked at her.

"Well, I saw this gold blur tackle you and then you were gone and you came back with wings." She said.

"Well, the gold blur was this harpy and she talked about this Immortal whose evidently after me." I said.

"Wait, what?" She said.

So I told her about the harpy needing my body to enter the mortal world and how she mentioned that some guy named Damascus had something planned for me and that people in the Immortal realm were talking about me, supposedly. Her eyes widened a bit, but she didn't faint or do anything else ridicious.

"Wait, so you know nothing except this guy's name and he's Immortal." Zoey asked.

I nodded. "And the Immortal state is a guessament. He could be some random mortal who has bitten off more than he can chew." I brought my back paw up and scratched behind my ear. "I'd really appreciate it if you kept this to yourself, just because I don't know anything. She could have been talking crap to unhinge me."

Zoey gave me look a disbelieving look. I'll admit that I didn't sound that convincing.

"Come on Ray, you're in danger." Zoey said.

"Again, what do we know?" I asked.

"I mean, surely, we can find something about him." Zoey said surprisingly optimistic. "After all, Stark told me that they read a bunch of books and found out how to save me."

I flicked my tail. Oh, now she's gets all hopeful and not when I tell her there is a chance to save the Raven Mockers. Personally I think we're going to have a better chance with the Raven Mockers than figuring out Damascus.

Of course that might be a bit difficult right now since they were more than a hop and skip away. So maybe I should stop complaining. After all, I can't help much with the research so that's all on her to do the research and not me.

I sighed. "I guess I'm just a tinniest bit afraid of what you might find." I said. "So if you find anything, down play it, please."

She smiled.

"Greetings Raven, young queen."

We both turned and saw Sgiach walking towards us. She looked incredibly bad ass, but noble at the same time. I'm glad she's on my side.

"Hey."

Okay, maybe you shouldn't greet a warrior queen with 'hey' especially one called the Great Taker of Heads, but I'm idiot and things come out of my mouth before I have time to think about it. She probably deserves at least a full hello.

"Are you doing all right young Raven?" Sgiach said.

"Yeah. Oh, um, Mama Cat asked me to tell you that her kits are old enough for hard food, but she would prefer if you add some milk to it. The kits are being a bit stubborn." I told her.

"I'll be sure to tell the cook." She said with a smile. "Any other complaints?"

"Not right now, but someone is bound to ask me to pass on a complaint evidently." I said dryly. I felt like an ambassador, only I don't get paid.

"Oh, tell her about my newt!" Silver Queen said. "Or wait, I'll go get and show it to her!"

She started to scamper off to find her newt. The other kits went after her shouting that it wasn't fair that she was going to show Sgiach her catch when they didn't have one and such. I didn't care, they were cute that was all I was paying attention to.

I smiled. Yeah, my gift was kind of annoying, but it's moments like this that I do enjoy it.

"They're so cute." Zoey said.

"They're kits. They're supposed to be cute." I said.

It was true. I read somewhere that little babies are almost genetically designed to be cute so that if a predator comes across they, hopefully, instill pity (especially if that predator is an Upwalker).

Sgiach suddenly frowned and tilted her head.

"What?" Zoey asked.

"There is someone at the gate." She said. Her mossy eyes turned hard and I saw her hands curl. Almost like she couldn't believe someone would dare to try to enter island.

Hm, I wonder who it could be?

"Um, can you tell gender?" I asked.

Zoey gave me a funny look. I twitched my ears and waved my tail. Of course I realized she probably wasn't that good with animal body language so what I did was really pointless. Well, that's what I get for hanging around animals for so long. Great, I'm going to have a bunch of problems when I change back. Sigh. I know I complain about my life a ton, but…my life sucks royal man part. I better get a happy ending for all this crap I'm having to go through!

"Yes." She said.

"Raven?" Zoey asked. She narrowed her eyes at me.

"I sorta of met a boy yesterday." I admitted. Better tell her so she doesn't follow me or something silly like that.

"A boy?" She said with a goofy grin. Jee whiz. Lately I feel like she's either really depressed or really dorky. Can't she be in the middle?

"Yeah, shocking, I found a boy on an island of warriors." I said.

"Is he cute?" Zoey asked.

To my surprise Sgiach was smiling. I would really think this type of teenager thing would bug her with her being so old and wise and Zoey and I being so young, naïve, and sometimes annoyingly shallow.

"Do you really think it's important in my current state?" I asked. My tail flicked in embarrassment and I'm pretty sure my ears and cheeks were heating up, which I didn't know could happen to animals. Evidently, you do learn something new every day.

"If this visitor is a friend of yours then you shouldn't keep him waiting, he might do something foolish." Sgiach said.

Right, the Death Arch of Doom! Couldn't she have casted a spell that would have just bonged anyone who tried to come through like a rubber bubble of fun? But then she might have idiots who wouldn't get the clue and just keep being bonged.

"I'll be back." I said turning away from them and started padding away.

"Have fun!" Zoey said.

I waved my tail as I rounded the corner.

Oh why in the hell did I ask Sgiach about the visitor when Zoey was there? If she won't tease me then Stark is. I think he rather enjoys treating me like a little sister.

I huffed a big sigh. I mean yeah Dominic was kind, sort of hot, but I'm a panther and half-breed whose father went psycho and became bizarrely addicted to sex.

Great. Now I'm scared to kiss a guy. What if I become weirdly addicted to sex and become a freaky slut who spits out weird babies? I mean, Kalona made weird bird/men creatures, save his baby girl who looks sorta of normal looking, so what kind of baby would I make?

I really shouldn't think about that. Now I'm going to have nightmares about my scary demon babies. Wait, I didn't turn into a freaky bird monster so what if the freaky bird creature gene skipped me and is patiently waiting to plague my unborn baby.

My poor baby.

I shook my head. I haven't kissed a guy! I shouldn't be worrying about babies. Could I even get pregnant?

I looked up and saw Dominic almost pacing in front of the arch.

"Do you honestly have nothing else to do than to walk and talk with me?" I asked. I paused just at the edge of the arch.

He paused and his face light up. He shrugged. "Not particularly and there's something that really been bothering me, how did you get stuck like this? You never explained, and I'm really curious."

I twitched my ears and studied him. There was something that bugged me about him I just couldn't quite pinpoint exactly what it was.

I sighed. "I'm not a hundred percent how."

He waved his hand, gesturing for me to follow him across the bridge. I stifled the feeling that this was telling me something might be wrong with Dominic because I didn't have any proof. I could just be paranoid about the Damascus thing. Stupid Damascus.

"Well," I said after we had walked down off the bridge. "My friend was trying to help out these guys who actually didn't want any help and they trapped her up somewhere that would have gotten her killed and then they tied me up because my father's looking for me. I was unconscious while they were doing all this so when I woke-up they told me what they did to my friend and…I don't know, I guess something inside me snapped and unleashed the beast inside."

I did remember just being absolutely pissed that they were so evil about what they did and not to mention those few times I growled.

"And later I learned that I remained stuck because my friends needed me and I couldn't be consumed by my grief."

"And turning you into an animal helped that?" He asked.

"Emotions are different for animals. Grief isn't that strong." I said. "I guess with animals they have the ability to push aside emotions much easier than Upwalkers."

"Upwalkers?"

"Beast term for vampyres and humans. Anything that walks on two legs really." I said.

"Ah." He said.

We padded quietly for a while. This place really was beautiful. I'm sure with the Death Arch of Doom that no one wanted to build anywhere close to the island so much of the area around it looked sentinel. I swear the trees were whispering to us, giving us words of advice and encouragement.

Great. Last thing I need is another unexplored power.

"What about you?" I asked.

"Me?" His blue eyes looked shocked. Surely he didn't expect me to not be a tiniest bit curious about his past. I mean come on. He's a full grown vampyre! And he just so happened to find me while I was hunting? Which was sort of a creepy coincidence, but he didn't know much about me so he didn't seem dangerous.

"No, the other vampyre with the baying wolves Mark." I said. "Where are you from?" I asked in a softer voice.

"California." He said.

"Whoa, that's like half-way around the world." I said. I hopped up onto a fallen log. One nice thing about having four paws is that it's easier balancing on these narrow things than with two paws, I mean feet.

He shrugged. "My family traveled a lot before I was Marked. I guess…I don't know." He stopped and took a moment to dramatic pause. "Maybe I'm looking for my home."

"Aren't we all?" I asked.

He stopped and looked at me. There was a question there and I could see some anger. He looked ready to chew me out.

I shrugged. "My home was taken away from me and I can't go back, no matter how much I want to. At least because you don't home it won't hurt if you lose it." I started to walk away.

I walked a little ways, listening to the thoughts of the birds and rodents around, before he finally caught up with me.

"Where have you been?" I asked. "Or did you just pick Scotland for the heck of it?"

"I went to London first. Paris, Barcelona, Rome, Athens-"

"You went to Rome? And Athens?" I asked.

"Yes, and a lot of other little towns in between." He said.

"I've always wanted to go there!" I flicked my tail looking up at him. "Have you gone Egypt?"

"Not yet." He said grinning.

"If I have to live forever I want to travel and see the world." I said to the sky.

He chuckled. "You said you have wings right?"

I nodded and then it clicked what he was getting at. "Oh wow. That would be so amazing!" I bounded around him for a bit. "Could you imagine? Flying all around the world and seeing what only birds get to?"

He smiled and rubbed my head. "You're such a child."

I hissed at him. "How old are you?"

"Fifty." He said.

I whipped my tail. "Well, you're still not old enough to call me a child." I said rather like a child, which probably didn't help my cause, but whatever.

We kept walking until we came to the beach. I wondered how. I really thought we had walked straight from the island. How did we get turned around?

I padded into the sand. I stretched out and rolled around. It was nice in warm.

"Mmmm." I stretched and wiggled around on my back.

"Really?" He asked.

"My cat Snap always did this and now I see why. It's really nice." I said rolling back onto my paws and shaking my fur.

"Again, you're such a child." He said.

"If you have a problem with it, leave." I crossed my front legs and stared out toward the ocean. The salt air was tangy and clear. And the gray-blue water was really calming against the blue sky.

Dominic sat down beside me.

"Please don't say anything cheesy about the ocean." I said.

"O-kay." He said.

"Well, I've seen a lot of movies where people gaze out onto the ocean and something cheesy." I said.

"Don't you read books?" He asked.

"Yeah, but I don't remember any cheesy speeches about oceans in books." I said. My tail twitched slowly over the sand. "What did you want to be when you grow-up?"

He raised his eyebrows.

"Humor me." I said.

He shrugged. "Didn't know, didn't care. I figured when I got old enough that I would decide. Guess Nyx decided to help me out."

I smiled.

"Why?"

I shrugged. "Curiosity."

"Didn't that kill a cat?"

"I'm assuming it killed a super fat pet tabby." I said. "And not a lean panther."

He smiled and I did love how the smile even reached his eyes.

"Humor me." He tried.

I shrugged. "I'm just trying to figure out what do with my life." I grinned. "Maybe I should become one hell of an animal's rights prosecutor."

He laughed. "Gods. Anyone who abuses animals will probably die if you came after them."

I smiled imagining the fear on those jerkfaces when I came swooping down on them like an angel of death. "Not sure if the court would accept the fact I can talk animals." I said. "But maybe I could brain wash those assholes to admitting what they did." My tail twitched at the thought of someone hurting an animal. My claws curled subconsciously.

I really needed to stop thinking about my future and just keep with the present. And I need to get over about being a half-breed unless someone comes up with a potion to make me one hundred percent human then I'm kinda of stuck.

But what bugged me is why I didn't want to be a half-breed. Kalona and my brother's issues aside, I shouldn't have much of a problem with it. So was there something else that was bugging me on a subconscious or intuitive level?

I sighed.

Dominic reached over and slowly stroked my head. It felt really good and I instantly started purring.

What in the hell was I worrying about anyway? I was safe here on Skye or near Skye. I mean the Death Arch of Doom should even keep out Neferet, not a hundred percent sure about any Immortal, but hopefully those Warriors know what they're doing.

I purred harder. Being safe was a nice feeling.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

Yeah! A new chapter! Enjoy! And don't forget to review! I like reviews!