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because she was so well hidden by the large staircase.
Marina's arms had gone tight around her and she was
breathing heavier. She turned quietly to look in her face, it
looked like a war was raging behind Marina's blue eyes.
Isabelle couldn't begin to guess what Marina was thinking
about.
Drew stopped what he was doing and looked Kal
straight in the eyes. Kal raised his eyebrows in surprise.
With the amount of charged electricity in the room, Isabelle
was surprised anyone could withstand Kal's eye-contact.
Whoever this person was, he was fearless.
"And the man on the far right there is Detective
Michael Monroe from the Albany sheriff's department. We
are looking for a Kal Oberan. We need to question him
about the murder of a police officer outside of Albany as
well as the murder of three of his friends who, I am told, he
was on a camping trip with. Also, there seems to be some
connection to the murder of three members of a family by
the name of Listora as well. Detective Monroe would like
to speak to Mr. Oberan about this."
* * * *
If they wanted to speak to him, he'd let them—to a
point.
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Kal could not read any open hostility from Roger
Drake, or at least not enough to set off his warning alarms.
If the Darkness held him, it wasn't complete. Maybe there
was time to stop this from happening to him. The younger
man, Drew, seemed to be playing his cards close to the
table but there was no doubt in his mind that he was here
with an agenda. The other man was harder to read, which
was making the hairs on the back of Kal's neck stand at
attention. He knew this son of a bitch had killed Isabelle's
parents. Was he here to finish the job? Did he remember
what had happened? Something inside of Kal was coming
alive. It was too close to the full moon for him to keep his
temper much longer. He was going to explode, it almost
felt like something inside of him was moving, growing,
changing and reshaping.
"Officer," Leonardo began, putting on his best
smile. "I'm just not sure how Kal could possibly be
involved in that. He's been here for weeks. We've been
having what you might call a little family reunion going on.
This is the first we are hearing about Kal's friends getting
killed. What exactly happened?"
Kal smiled to himself. Leonardo never ceased to
surprise him—the man could lie like a pro.
"Camping?" Charma stepped out from where she
had been standing next to Isabelle. "Kal doesn't camp. He
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doesn't go anywhere without his blow dryer. You know
these television personality people and their vanity
problems."
Blow dryer? Isabelle questioned Kal telepathically.
Do you spend a lot of time quaffing?
Not one single moment, if I can avoid it. There's
something going on here that is bigger than just this single
moment. Something is happening inside of me.
I can feel it. It's like something is coming to life.
Michael Monroe turned to look at Charma. His eyes
started to glitter like he was looking at a bowl of ice cream
that he couldn't wait to eat. Kal took a deep breath, it was
time to put an end to this questioning. There was no way
that man was getting any closer to anyone he loved. Kal
didn't want Charma infected with any of this man's
memories.
"What seems to be the problem, Sheriff?" Kal put
his hands behind his back. "My family is trying to
embarrass me, I think. I'm Kal Oberan. How can I help
you?" Kal quickly placed his hand on Charma's shoulder.
He didn't want her lying anymore.
Are you crazy? Leonardo's voice rang in his head.
They're going to arrest you for murdering a cop.
They can try and arrest me, Kal answered simply
back to Leonardo. One of these guys is the asshole that
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murdered Isabelle's parents. The only way he's leaving
here is in a body bag. Somehow I don't think these other
two are going to be okay with my taking him down. I think
we need to be prepared for bullets to fly. I'm counting on
you to keep Isabelle safe, Leonardo.
Watch your temper, Veli reminded him, finally
entering the room and broadening his scope so Isabelle was
included in the conversation. She wasn't sure how he had
done that but she was grateful that he had thought about it.
If Kal was about to do something unwise she wanted to
opportunity to at least attempt to talk him out of it.
I'm tired of watching my temper, Kal answered Veli.
It's time everyone else watched out for me. Something is
happening inside of me, V. Something is coming alive. You
told us for years that a showdown would be coming. This is
my time, I can feel it. It's calling to me.
Veli's eyes widened suddenly. This is terrible
timing, Kal. Isabelle has to get back to Abraxas. We can't
be all hauled down to jail.
I don't care. I'll tell you what I told Leonardo. No
one is taking me to jail today.
The sheriff opened his mouth to answer Kal when
he seemed to suddenly be overtaken by something. His
body grew stiff and Isabelle suddenly wondered if he was
about to have an epileptic fit. Marina let out a small shriek
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and stared at the ceiling above the sheriff's head. She came
out from behind the stairs and pointed silently above her
head. Roger Drake's eyes had begun to roll to the back of
his head. Standing next to him the young officer called
Drew grabbed onto his arm.
"Sheriff?" Drew asked suddenly. He stared above
him too, his eyes suddenly capturing Marina's. An obvious
moment of recognition passed between them and Drew's
mouth opened into the shape of a circle before he quickly
closed it. "Can you people see that? Can you hear that?" He
pointed above the sheriff's head.
* * * *
Everything looked normal to Kal, he certainly didn't
see anything that seemed out of the ordinary up there but
then he wasn't a spell caster. He had learned long ago that
there were things happening around him that he would
simply never be able to see. Marina and Leonardo could
obviously see what Drew was pointing to. They were both
fixated with something going on above his head. There was
no time to question the fact that Drew could see it too as
both the sheriff and Michael, the officer who had killed
Isabelle's parents, drew their weapons at Kal.
"Hey!" Drew shouted, pointing his weapon at the
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s
heriff. "There's no cause for that. Put that weapon down,
Sheriff. We're just here to talk and no one is threatening
you." The sheriff opened his mouth to speak but nothing
came out as Michael began to fire his revolver.
Using every instinct available to him, Kal put up his
shields. No one in this room was getting shot, if he could
help it. He could feel Veli stepping beside him to add his
own power to the blockade but for the first time ever Kal's
defense was stronger than Veli's and after a few moments
Veli withdrew his help, letting Kal handle it himself.
Somehow without Veli's attempted assistance, Kal's
opposition was even stronger. Isabelle was shouting
something at him but he couldn't make out what she was
saying. He found he could maintain his strategy quite
easily, as if he wasn't even trying. The chanting was
pounding in his ears, differently than with Isabelle. This
chant was filled with power, loud and demanding. It pushed
him, telling him to take control and win this battle, to
protect his family, to protect his love.
Kal could see that Drew was struggling with the
sheriff, trying to get him to put down his gun and stop
firing. Poor guy, Kal thought, he has no idea what's going
on here. It was time to put an end to this. He turned to Veli
and could see the same power surging through his eyes that
he could feel pulsating through his own. He raised his right
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hand. Drew must have sensed that the battle was coming to
a head and as if it was the most natural thing in the world,
changed forms in front of everyone's eyes. He suddenly
became a wolf.
* * * *
The change was so fast that Isabelle was practically
blinded by it for a moment. Drew's bones stretched and his
face altered shape and where he had been standing on two
feet, he was now standing on four. He was all black and too
tall to be a natural wolf but not nearly the height that late
night television would have had you believe werewolves
achieved.
That's because I'm not a werewolf.
What are you? How are you talking to me?
I'm just like you. This is something I can do. Can't
some of you people do this?
Not that I'm aware of but I'm kind of new at this.
I would be very surprised if your boy here doesn't
shift as soon as he's done dishing out justice.
He's never shifted before.
It's a full moon and there's always a first time.
Letting out a slight growl towards the two men who
were creating such chaos in all of their lives, the wolf that
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was also Drew ran backwards towards the woods in front of
the house.
Tell Marina that I'm sorry I never found her. I can't
be counted on, I can't be trusted to take care of anyone.
With those final thoughts in Isabelle's head, Drew
vanished. Marina let out a slight whimper as he disappeared
and Isabelle silently reminded herself to relay his message
to Marina later. Kal had moved aggressively to get even
closer to the two men. He was less than an arm's length
away now.
* * * *
"You!" He shouted to the evil vessel that was now
frozen in place by the force of Kal's shields. "You killed
Isabelle's parents and then you had the bad taste to bring
your disgusting presence to my doorstep. Consider me your
personal nightmare. Oh, I know that you aren't necessarily
doing this of your own volition. I know that someone else
is currently in the driver seat of your brain but your soul
must be pretty goddamn black for him to have been
allowed inside of you to begin with and in any case I have
to believe that anyone worth anything would fight him.
That anyone who wasn't a complete piece of shit wouldn't
have killed three innocent people in their home who never
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did anything more than have the misfortune of having a
daughter who happened to have met me. I know that he is
listening to me right now and I'm just thrilled about that
because there are some things I'd like to say to him. Many,
many things actually but perhaps this is the most important.
I'm coming for you from now on. No more running, no
more hiding, no more being scared. We're all grown up
now and we're not hiding on this rock while we bite our
nails and try to figure out what to do about you. Our
numbers are small, we may never have our full group back
but I think you're scared of us anyway."
"Don't lose control, Kal. Don't give too much
away." Veli's words barely penetrated due to the sheer
adrenaline that was inside of Kal's veins. He felt powerful
and completely in control. Veli's warnings were a thing of
the past. He had found Isabelle and he could feel now that
his days of listening to Veli's doubts and reservations were
behind him. It might have been Veli's job to protect them
when they were children but he had been selected to fight
this battle. It was his job to handle these situations. Veli
could get out of the way or get burned in the flames that
were about to start pouring out of his hands.
The rush of power that was pulsating through Kal's
body was intense and he felt giddy from it. This was his
battle to win, his woman to honor, and at that moment all
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thoughts of human morality and forgiveness had no place
in his consciousness. It was time for death. He was vaguely
aware that his skin was darkening around him. He suddenly
felt like the grim reaper.
The clouds above the manor moved as Kal would
have directed them, if he had that power. Marina, he
thought suddenly, she was moving the elements at her
command to assist him. He wasn't alone in this fight. They
had all been selected, brought down to earth to complete a
task only they could complete. If he had been simply lost
with Isabelle, he wasn't whole without the rest of them.
Veli was right, they needed to find the other Outsiders. But
first he had some serious ass to kick.
The moon, hidden by the daylight hours, none the
less called to him.
Call to me and I will answer you.
What was that? Isabelle spoke quickly in his head.
Who was that speaking to you?
I think it was the moon, my love. The cadence of
Kal's voice had changed abruptly. It was low, similar to
how he had sounded their first day together on the street
when he had been calling down the elements to protect
them from death but different too. He sounded focused and
alert, not lost in strange or foreign sounds from his own
voice.
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Has the moon ever spoken to you
before?
No. But I have been speaking to it since puberty
when I first discovered how cranky and power hungry I felt
during the full moon every month.
What is going on here? The Drew person can turn
into a wolf and you can speak to the moon and actually
have it answer?
I kind of think I could turn into a wolf right now if I
wanted to.
What?
Don't worry. Right now all I'm interested in is a
little help from that glorious celestial being that we see
during the nighttime hours.
Kal had been speaking to the moon his whole life
and it seemed natural to do so right now. Help me, he
breathed to it. Help me to finish this. Help me to bring
justice to my love. Help me to keep us all safe.
As if answering his very thoughts, Kal could feel
the universe shift all around him. Moon beams came down
from the sky and covered him in a warm white light.
Isabelle gasped and took a step towards him, not sure of
what was happening and instinctually needing to protect
Kal. Leonardo restrained her, holding tightly onto her arm.
"I'm not sure what's happening, Isabelle. But this
isn't your power or mine. I've never even read about
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anything like this before. It's only his, best not to interfere.
It feels like good energy to me. I don't think it's going to
harm him."
"The moon was talking to him, actually talking to
him in his head. I could hear it."
"Interesting."
"That's all you're going to say about this
development?"
"For now."
Kal could feel his eyes dilating and the current that
was his right to command entered his body and pushed