Chapter 8

I sat forlornly in a tree at Borneo on the bluffs. It was the first time I had been there alone since I had met Daemon. My mind still hadn't fully accepted that Daemon wasn't human, though I kept telling myself. There was no room for doubt, he had admitted it himself. Still my brain clung feebly to my weakening sense of reality. The two voices in my head were arguing so loudly, I was afraid I was beginning to develop schizophrenia.

#1: Daemon has to be human!

#2: But he said he wasn't!

#1: He's probably joking.

#2: What about his eyes!

#1: I'm sure there's a logical explanation-

#2: He's an akaeva.

#1: That's not logical!

#2: Screw logic! That went out the window a while ago!

#1: What the hell is an akaeva anyways?!

#2: How should I know?!

#3: Can you two please stop fighting?

#1+2: Shut up!

#3: You're arguing about nothing!

#1+2: (confused silence)

#3: It's not as though anything has changed. He wasn't human before but you still liked him… hell, you loved him! You still love him!

Can't argue with that logic. (Go voice #3!) The three voices melted back into myself. I heaved a sigh of relief as what little sanity I had had to begin with was restored. That settled it. Now all that remained was to find Daemon and apologize for acting so idiotic. I mean really, who gets freaked out over a little thing like a person's species? (If you didn't realize that that was sarcasm, you have more mental issues than I do).

In fifteen minutes I was standing on Daemon's doorstep, trying to figure out what to say. How do you apologize for something like this? After another five minutes, I still hadn't thought of how to go about it, so I decided to wing it.

I raised a fist to knock, but before I could, Daemon opened the door. Those golden eyes widened when he saw me.

"Daemon we- I mean- I just wanted to tell you that I'm sorry about yesterday. It was just a little shocking and- um- I don't know-"

"Hawk, it's okay, so long as you're fine about the whole akaeva thing."

"Yeah, sure. I mean, you're no different than before. In the immortal words of Lloyd Irving, 'you're still you'."

"Well, it's good that you feel that way, because you're an akaeva too."

"So you- wait, what?" My mind blanked for a second.

"You are an akaeva."

I had never really been an extremely feminine girl. Nobody I knew thought of me that way. But the moment I heard those words, I did what I considered the most feminine thing possible. My head spun for moment, then my vision faded to black, and I fainted.

When I woke up, I was back in the same bed I had woken up in after the whole kidnapping thing. The memory of it still made me shudder. I sat up and found Daemon sitting in the same chair. I blushed, feeling ever so slightly embarrassed about fainting.

"Wow… déjà vu," I mumbled.

"You sure respond to surprises well." He gave me a sarcastic grin.

"So… I'm… uhhh- what exactly is an akaeva?"

"An akaeva is a species that expresses traits from more than one animal. They usually are most comfortable in a form halfway between both species, but are capable of shifting to both extremes. I can look the way I am now, or mostly like a wolf, but I would rather have a tail and furry, pointed ears."

"So I'm half-human and half…"

"Hawk, but actually, it's more a 60/40 split. You're dominantly human."

"So that whole spirit animal thing-"

"-Was a load of bullshit. I was just guessing what sort of animal your other half was."

"But both of my parents are human. How could I have end up with hawk DNA?"

"Actually, technically akaevas aren't specifically different from their dominant animal. They are the result of a magic mutation that occurs only in the early stages of development. You see, despite the fact that humans in this world seem to be constantly studying, they still haven't discovered that there are currents of magic constantly flowing all around us, and these currents can pick up traces of the spirit of anything living and deposit them in another being. Normally, these traces aren't in high enough concentrations to cause any noticeable changes, but every so often, a very strong trace will be deposited in a zygote, or embryo- the stages in which the genetic structure is most impressionable- and cause it to mutate. The end result being an akaeva."

There were so many things wrong with what he just said. I sat and stared at him, letting it all sink in. A few moments later, I found my voice again.

"Why don't I have any hawk-like features then?"

"The differences are there, they just aren't very pronounced yet. Your hawk genetics are still for the most part separated from the ones your parents gave you. They won't completely join unless they're stimulated to."

"Stimulated. When you say it like that, it wounds like it could be unpleasant." Daemon shook his head.

"Actually, you've already begun that process."

"I have?"

"What do you think all that training was?"

"You mean all that time I thought you were teaching me to fight, you were just 'stimulating' my 'mutation'? And here I thought you were just teaching how to protect myself." I let out a slight noise of hurt, as it hit me just how much he had been lying to me over the past few weeks.

"Hawk… please, you have to understand that I couldn't tell you. This was a delicate situation from the start. You would never have given me a chance if I had told you as soon as I met you, I had to give you time to get to know me, but at the same time I knew that the longer I put off telling you, the worse you would feel when you finally found out." I guess when he explained it like that, it did maybe... just maybe make sense. "And by the way, I was teaching you to defend yourself. I did teach you self-defence, and the closer you get to your true form, the stronger you will be. It was really like part stimulus, part combat training, and part…" he stopped mid-sentence and trailed off.

"And part what?" I prompted him.

"You've already got a lot to absorb, I'll save the rest for later."

I gave a slight grunt of frustration. The suspense would kill me.

A/N: A big hello to all of my faithful readers... I hope you haven't lost faith in me, I know it's been a long time since I've updated, but I've had a little bit of writer's block, and I've been really busy. I'm so sorry, I'll try to get the next chapter up within the next two weeks. Just please, review to let me know you're still reading. And now, shoutouts:

ebonydragon: I really hope you haven't died yet, again, sorry for keeping you waiting.

Sayo for Anarchy: 44 this time...Enjoy!

Yellow Log: Please don't poke the Daemon. He hates to be poked, and he may lose his temper. I don't need another lawsuit about one of my fictional characters severely injuring a fan. Besides, would you want an alien poking and prodding you? I didn't think so...XD

Manda LUVS Coke: Thanks, I really appreciate that. I had a lot of fun writing that part.

ckontowderdon32: LOL! mmmmmm, hamburgers... not so much the broccoli though.