by A. D. Ryan
As we waited, I tried to piece this all together. Why had they taken Jackson if their goal was to create hybrids? If what I’d found out was true, Jackson would be of no use, wouldn’t he? So why…
Jackson drew in deeper breaths and groaned. He was still unconscious, but his eyes were slowly starting to flutter open. I looked up at the rest of the Pack again, noticing that all their attention was on Jackson. They were worried about him, and while they were absolutely justified to feel that way, what suddenly worried me was that no one was standing guard against the very real threat of the vampires who ran this place.
Vampires who seemed to be completely absent.
Vampires who ransacked their own fortress.
Vampires whose scents were days old, at the very least.
Then it struck me like a slap to the face; they weren’t here because they were somewhere else. My heart raced, and my stomach lurched as I pushed myself onto shaky legs, realization slipping into place like the last pieces of a complicated jigsaw puzzle. When I was with the Scottsdale PD, I’d only seen something like this a handful of times, not every criminal being this clever.
“This isn’t a trap,” I announced in a wavering voice, gaining the undivided attention of every single pack member in the room. “It’s a diversion.”
Chapter21 | diversion
Nick and Vince worked together to help Jackson to his feet. He was slowly coming to, only stumbling every couple steps when his feet wouldn’t cooperate. Panicked, I led the way through the compound and to the exit. The cold air bit at my flesh as we raced barefoot through the snow and toward the woods. I wasn’t sure what the coven was trying to divert us from, but I was certain it couldn’t be good.
I knew that shifting would get us back to the manor even quicker, but Jackson wasn’t strong enough yet. I knew this from personal experience. The pace we were moving at was frustrating, but we had no choice. I wasn’t going to leave him or any of the others behind in case there was an ambush waiting for us.
Jax groaned behind me, and I turned around to see Nick and Vince releasing him so he could lean against a tree. “This is going to take forever,” he stated in a hoarse voice. “We need to shift.”
I approached him. Slumped against the tree like this, he wasn’t nearly as intimidating and didn’t appear much taller. He had one arm wrapped around a bruised abdomen and his neck wounds were still knitting together. There was a dried blood trail running down the left side of his face from a scar that I knew had to be recent. Various other cuts and bruises covered his body, but now that the collar had been removed, he should be able to heal faster.
“I won’t leave you behind,” I said firmly. “I did that once, and look what happened.”
Jackson smiled. “Not your fault, kid. Those damn parasites tricked you into thinking I was fine.”
It enraged me to think I’d ignored my gut feeling and that something really was wrong, all because we’d received a text stating otherwise.
“Don’t beat yourself up,” he said, pushing himself up a little straighter. “I’d have bought it, too.”
Nick approached, laying a hand on my bare shoulder. “He’s right. If this is a diversion and something is happening back home, we’ll never make it like this.”
Jackson pushed off the tree, wobbling only slightly for a minute before regaining his balance on his own. “I can probably shift,” he announced. “They didn’t feed me, and the only silver I was subjected to was from that fucking collar.” He rubbed his neck, wincing slightly. “It’s healing, which means there can’t be enough in my system to suppress the change for long. I feel like I’m in control.”
The thought of leaving him made me nervous. “You change first then,” I said. “If you have no problems, then the rest of us will follow suit and we’ll head back to the manor. Together.”
The left side of Jackson’s mouth curled up into a crooked grin. “My, aren’t we bossy?”
My cheeks flamed, but I just nodded once as if to tell him to get on with it.
It took a little longer than anyone expected, but eventually, Jackson succeeded. Once I knew for sure he was okay, the rest of us shifted, as well, and then we were on our way.
I continued to check back to make sure Jackson was still with us, and I was happy to find the others had him pretty well surrounded to make sure we didn’t lose him at some point. It seemed like he was pushing through the pain, and I knew that he would probably need a few days of recovery time once we got home. We just had to get there first.
Hours passed, and I could feel the early stages of fatigue finally setting in. By the time we made it to the lake, I was ready to collapse, but something told me to keep going.
We made it to the woods near the manor. Lights were on in several of the windows, making everything appear normal. Maybe I’d over-reacted.
Everyone shifted back, and that was when I noticed Jackson struggling. He was too hurt and exhausted, and I felt badly for making him push himself. It could be detrimental to his recovery.
I grabbed my clothes and started pulling them on. “Zach, Colby. Help him up to his room. I’ll send Miranda up as soon as I make sure everything is okay.”
Instead of going around to the front of the house, I headed for the door off the kitchen. It had been left unlocked, and it was dark as I stepped inside. I inhaled deeply, only picking up traces of the Pack with Miranda and Marcus’s hanging more prominently in the air.
“Marcus?” I called out, looking around the well-lit kitchen and sitting area. There was no answer, but that didn’t mean anything; maybe he and Miranda had taken Cordelia outside for a bit. I knew how nice it was to get out of the house once in a while.
Nick was directly behind me, sniffing the air, and then he reached out and grabbed my arm, gripping it tightly. Confused, I slowly turned to him, eyebrows pulled together. His eyes were wide, nostrils flared, and his expression read: panic.
“Something’s not right,” he said quietly, stepping ahead of me.
“Maybe they’re just not here?” I offered, suddenly unsure of my original assumption.
Nick inhaled again and then shook his head. “No. They’re here.”
“Then…why aren’t they answering?” I feared his response, and the look he gave me didn’t help to assuage that feeling in the slightest.
“That’s what I’d like to know.” Nick released my arm and jogged through the kitchen and toward the dining room. I followed him as he ran through the house, and as I did, Marcus’s scent grew stronger, but there was something else just as potent infusing the air…
Blood. And not just a little bit; there was a lot of it. The copper scent increased as Nick led the way to the library, and I was so focused on it, I didn’t notice he had stopped in the doorway until I slammed into his back and stumbled back a step.
Nick’s shoulders moved up and down with every heaving breath he took. His neck and shoulder muscles flexed with tension, and anger rolled off of him in heated waves. Slowly, I stepped around him, the smell of blood stronger than ever. When I saw the scene that lay before me in the library, I gasped, slapping my hands over my mouth.
In all my years on the police force, and the countless homicide crime scenes I’d investigated, I’d never seen anything this…horrifying. My stomach lurched as I took an unsteady step forward, careful not to step in the blood that was pooled on the floor.
Marcus’s eyes were open, staring lifelessly at the ceiling, and his neck had been ripped open. Because his heart was no longer beating, blood no longer flowed from the open wound, having mostly been expelled from his body and onto the expensive throw rug beneath him in his final moments of panic.
My detective instincts kicked in, forcing out the wolf as well as my human need to mourn. I forced my eyes from Marcus’s body, trying to distance myself from the whirlwind of emotions I had about my Alpha’s death so I could work the scene.
I took in the pattern of the blood pooling and spatter. It was consistent with the theory th
at he died here. It was likely quick. There was no evidence of him having moved after he fell, and I couldn’t find any proof that he’d been moved here from a primary location. It was probable his killer—likely a vampire, given our discord for one another—stood before him and slashed his throat. From the jagged tears in his flesh, I’d bet everything I had it was done by hand. I couldn’t help the visual that my mind cooked up as I looked at the blood on the floor around my fallen Alpha and the torn flesh at his jugular.
Playing out in my head like a scene from a movie, I imagined him standing in here, possibly researching or continuing to plot out our tactics when he was interrupted. Chances were, he was caught off guard, but I doubted he’d give in so easily. As if I could predict how he would defend himself, I could see him jumping over the long table and fighting his killer. The throw rug was kicked up in one corner, rolls and bumps pushing it away from its usual place confirming my theory as I walked around it.
The pool of blood that surrounded him had been disturbed. In it were two breaks where something possibly rested and was then pulled away. I looked a little closer, using a detective’s keen eye. There were handprints on Marcus’s chest also, and there were a couple of buttons missing. As I continued to follow the trail, I noticed streaks of blood marred the wood floors as though someone had been pulled in an attempt to get away.
I kneeled next to Marcus and gingerly lifted his right hand. It was clean; there was no blood—fresh or dried, vamp or wolf—anywhere on his hands or under his nails. He either hadn’t tried to get away, or didn’t get the chance. I tracked the streaks of blood, looking close to see the grooves of nail marks periodically. The trail stopped and the nail grooves deepened before the wood splintered roughly as though the victim had been yanked away. Standing up, I looked around the room and noticed the blood along one of the walls. It was about four feet up the wall and moved in a wave-like pattern, breaking off and then picking up again as though someone was looking to find their grip.
Then my mind flew to someone who could have interrupted and tried to flee before being captured. “Miranda,” I said, panicking. “Where is she?” I stood up and turned abruptly to find Nick had followed me into the room and was standing behind the curved staircase. I made my way to him slowly, inhaling sharply as I looked down to find Miranda, propped up against a bookcase, her neck in the same condition as Marcus’s. Blood covered her chest, staining her pale yellow shirt and lap. I choked back a sob, covering my mouth to keep the sound contained, and Nick wrapped an arm around my shoulders, pulling me to him in an act of comfort.
Suddenly, footsteps could be heard moving toward us, and I tensed. “No!” I cried. “Colby and Corbin…they can’t see this. Not until we know what happened.”
Nick and I rushed from our place behind the staircase, but it was too late; Colby and Corbin were standing in the doorway of the library, eyes wide and mouths agape, and the rest of the Pack was with them, even a freshly-clothed and still-weak-looking Jackson. Shock spread throughout the Pack, and I felt completely helpless. Colby and Corbin broke away from everyone. Nick and I tried to push them back into the hall, but Colby struggled, trying to force her way past us.
“Daddy?” she called out, her voice cracking and tears falling from her eyes as she called for him over and over again, hoping for a response. She struggled against Nick’s strong hold on her—or more accurately, Nick struggled against her need to explore the situation beyond the threshold. He could barely keep her contained as she ripped and clawed at his arms, begging to be let go. Tears streamed down her face, and it wasn’t long before her bones started to shift and her temperature started to spike.
“Let me go!” she ordered, her hazel eyes flashing yellow as she looked up murderously at Nick.
I feared what might happen in the next few seconds, and I knew that if I didn’t diffuse the situation, something disastrous would happen. Corbin went limp, crumbling to the floor in silent tears as I went to assist Nick with Colby.
“Colby, you need to calm down.”
Her gaze snapped to me. “What I need is to be with my father!” As soon as her panic had escalated, an eerie calm fell over her. She stopped struggling, and a spark of realization flashed in her eyes. “Wh-where’s my mom?”
I didn’t have to say anything; she could tell from the expression on my face what the answer to her question was. She took a step away from Nick, shaking her head. “C-Cordy?”
I glanced down at Corbin, who finally lifted his face to look at me. I offered them both a solemn headshake, and before I could react, Colby darted between Nick and I and through the library door. She came to an abrupt stop about ten inches from her father’s feet. She stood in silence above him for a minute before sniffling. Slowly, she lifted her head and looked around the library. She inhaled once before following the scent she’d picked up, and when she reached the back of the staircase, she let out an anguished cry and sank to her knees, hands covering her mouth as she wept.
Corbin was on his feet in an instant, stumbling the first few strides as he raced toward his sister’s fallen form. He faltered backward, his entire body trembling with the sadness and anger that now thickened the air as he looked from his mother’s body to that of his father’s. I knew I should step in and guide them from the room. For one, they didn’t need to see this, and secondly, I couldn’t risk them unknowingly destroying evidence. I still hadn’t looked over the entire scene. But they deserved to grieve.
Soon, Zach was barreling past me and at Colby’s side, wrapping his arms around her and holding her to his chest as she sobbed uncontrollably. He tried to soothe her, but I could see his own distress at the scene that surrounded us all.
Hesitant, the rest of the Pack stepped into the library to assess the situation. Jackson looked horrified, and I suspected he was harboring some kind of guilt. It was ridiculous, sure, but I knew that if this had happened while I had been held captive, I’d have felt the same way. To know that the entire pack was off saving me instead of guarding our alphas would have weighed on me.
The look on Jackson’s face told me I wasn’t too far off in my assumption.
“I don’t…” Colby sniffled, pulling her face from Zach’s chest. “I don’t see Cordelia. Where is she?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know.”
Colby stood up, wavering slightly in the wake of her emotional torment. “She could still be here. We have to find her.”
She was absolutely right; Cordelia could still be in the manor, but something told me that the streaks of blood along the floors and walls were left behind as she was taken again. She fought to stay, but her abductors were stronger. I was about to tell Colby as much when Nick placed a hand on my shoulder, drawing my attention to him.
He shook his head as though he knew what I did, and then spoke. “We’ll search the house while Brooke continues to work the scene in here.” He glanced at me for approval of this plan, and I nodded once, even though I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be left alone with the bodies.
Nick escorted Colby and Corbin from the room, recruiting Zach and Roxanne to go with them. Rubbing her stomach and looking a little under the weather, Layla volunteered to help if it meant having something good come out of all this tragedy.
Jackson hobbled over to where Miranda’s body was, and then scanned the library for clues with me. Every time I looked at the evidence, the events that led to this played in my mind as though I’d been there to witness it first-hand. I imagined Cordelia’s face upon finding her father on the ground. I could practically hear her cry out as she raced to him, skidding across the floor on her knees and disrupting the blood pooling around him as she collapsed onto his still chest and sobbed into his shirt. I saw, with perfect clarity, as Bobby reached around her waist and pulled her from him. She pulled on his shirt, causing buttons to snap off, and clawed at the floor in her struggle to stay with her father before Bobby finally picked her up. That was when she tried slowing her abduction by grabbing at the walls before he took
her from the room and, quite probably, the house.
“She isn’t here,” I said under my breath.
“Yeah,” Jackson agreed, his tone clipped. Angry. Not at me, but at the situation our family had found itself in.
While Vince and Jax continued to go over the library, I went back to where Miranda’s body had been found. Something about it didn’t sit quite right, and I needed a second look. I stood over her, looking at the downward flow of the blood down her chest from her throat. While there was a lot of blood on her shirt, there wasn’t nearly enough here that suggested this was where she was killed. Where was the blood pool around her from where she bled out? If this was a secondary location, where was the primary?
“Brooke?” Vince said, drawing my attention. “What do we do?”
I couldn’t make sense of why he was asking me at first, but it clicked into place the second Marcus’s voice blared in my memory:
“If something should happen to me, I want to name you my successor, Brooke.”
I was Alpha. Whether I was ready for it or not, this pack was my responsibility. I’d made a promise to Marcus, and even though it scared the shit out of me, I would honor that promise.
The wolf within me rose to the occasion, recognizing her rightful place amongst her pack, and I had just opened my mouth to tell Jackson and Vince our next move when I heard sirens.
Chapter22 | ascend
The sirens grew louder as the cop cars got closer. It was unlikely they were headed anywhere else this far out in the middle of nowhere. Someone had called the cops to report what had happened here, knowing the Pack would stumble upon the bodies. It was strictly against Pack Law to involve humans in the affairs of wolves, and the coven knew that. My gut told me that the coven must have been watching to see when we’d arrive and called it in. Involving humans would definitely make our investigation more complicated.