"I don't know about incredible. Long, si. Definitely ... It was hard to get used to at first. Things over there were very different from what I was used to here. It was a solid month before I could even secure my pants properly. Led to some rather embarrassing moments, especially when I'd have to explain to others why the Daimons got away and my pants were at my ankles. Unfortunately, we didn't have Google back then to look it up. Hard, hard times."
She laughed again. Once Cabeza lowered the thirty-foot-thick walls around himself, he was quite entertaining. "Since you're so talkative ... why do they call you Cabeza? I have to know."
He gave her a sardonic grin. "I always tell people it's from the heads I collected in battle."
"But that's not the truth, is it?"
He shook his head. A deep, dark sadness came over him. For several seconds, he didn't speak. "When I was a boy ... ten, my older brother was killed by Chacu's father. It was a bad time in Tikal back then. The Snake Kingdom was always attacking us. In one such attack, they went after a group of children and wounded several. My older brother stayed behind to draw their fire so that the boys could get away. They made it back, but the price of that safety was my brother's life. Barely fifteen, he didn't last long against an entire band of seasoned warriors. Those bastards took my brother's head and would play ball games with it. When my mother found out, it broke her heart all over again. She say it was like having him murdered every time they did it. She says she would never be able to sleep so long as they dishonored him so. I couldn't stand to see her so miserable so I snuck over to their capital city and found my brother's head, then I brought it home to my mother so that she could sleep again."
Kateri placed her hand over her heart as tears filled her eyes. "How awful for you. I'm so sorry."
Cabeza shrugged. "Bad for me, si. For my mother, much worse. I lost my brother. She lost her son ... Much, much worse." He cleared his throat. "My uncle, he was a bit loco. So he started calling me Head as a way of celebrating my bravery and loyalty. To remind me and others that the most honorable thing in life is not to live it selfishly, but to take risks for those we love. He used to say being a man is not about killing or taking. It's not about proving your worth or seducing women. It's when you are willing to give up your life rather than watch your family cry or be degraded."
"He was right."
"He was, indeed, and so to this day, in honor of him, I still go by it."
"And you definitely do honor to it and to your family."
He looked away, but not before she saw the shame that darkened his gaze. She started to ask him to explain it. Then thought better of it. Whatever was in the past hurt him deeply. And she was grateful that her powers didn't show it to her. Because if it could make a man who, at age ten, went into an enemy city to bring back his brother's head ... it had to be bad.
And some memories were too awful to share.
"I think I'll go check on Ren."
He inclined his head to her, but didn't speak.
Kateri hesitated at the door and turned back to watch Cabeza. He pulled the ring from his pinkie and stroked it while lost in thought. As he did so, she had an image of a beautiful woman. Tiny and sweet. Kateri had no idea who the woman was, but she left him to his memories as she headed down the hallway to Ren's room.
He lay sleeping still. Worried about him, she sat down on the bed and felt his brow to see if he had a fever. The moment she touched him, he opened his eyes, which were still blue, then frowned.
"How did I get here?"
"Don't you remember?"
Ren searched his mind for an answer. He saw Windseer and then ... nothing. "We were under attack. That's the last thing I recall."
"You have no memory of attacking a god and drinking his blood?"
He winced at that. "Tell me I didn't."
She nodded.
Cursing himself, he felt sick. That was the thing about drinking preternatural blood. The aftertaste was lethal and the indigestion vicious. "Which god?"
"Crap ... what did Cabeza call him? He's the one married to the suicide goddess."
Oh, this was bad. "Chamer?"
"That was it."
Ren ground his teeth. "Well at least I won't be stuttering for a long while."
She widened her eyes. "Drinking blood affects your stuttering?"
"Yeah, it's totally screwed up, right?"
"It's definitely something."
"So how did we get back here?" he asked again, returning to his primary question.
"You freaked the god out so badly, he banned us from his underworld and threw us out. Good job, there. Who knew that was all you had to do to get free?"
Ren ignored her sarcasm as his thoughts churned. Grizzly must have possessed him and made him do that. His gut tightened with the fear that she'd seen it all. "Was I..."
"Possessed? If you have to ask..."
He was possessed and she had seen every bit of it. Damn. Then, he froze as he remembered Kateri holding him. Somehow she had reached through the demon to pull him out.
Just like her father.
Well, not just like her father. The Guardian had beat the hell out of Ren to do it. Literally. He much preferred Kateri's way. Though to be honest, he was glad her father hadn't attempted that. Her father hugging him like a lover grossed him out even more than drinking god blood.
No wonder he felt hungover.
Which he shouldn't feel if he was a Dark-Hunter. "What color are my eyes?"
"Still blue."
Double damn.
"By the way, you are sex on a stick or more apropos sex in a can when you wear demon armor." She sucked her breath in sharply between her teeth. "Ooo baby. Nice."
He vaguely recalled summoning it. "I got the ability to summon it from my nurse. But the armor itself was a gift from my mother."