Savage Sons (House of Winterborne Book 2)

by Luanne Bennett

Samuel took a seat. “Let’s get down to business so I can take my wife home.”

  I’d been wondering about that since we walked out of the back room. “Why is Charlotte even here?”

  He seemed surprised by the question. “She’s one of us. Charlotte is a hunter.”

  “How? She’s so…”

  “Acutely impacted by everything around her? Sensitive to the point of despair?”

  “Well, yes. How could she possibly kill anything?”

  He shook his head and stood up again. “You’ve never met an empath like Charlotte.”

  I’d never met any empath other than Charlotte. All I knew was that killing involved a range of emotions that would probably send someone like her over the edge, and I honestly didn’t understand how she could participate in the act of slicing the head off a vampire.

  “There are other ways to contribute to the Order.” He headed down the hall and returned a minute later with his wife. “Charlotte, show Morgan what you’ve been working on.”

  She handed me her sketchpad. “It’s the beast. I’ve been tracking him for weeks.”

  “Our mother is much more than a sensitive,” Olivia said. “She’s a soothsayer.” She glanced at James and chuckled. “High school was a bitch. You should try sneaking out at night when your mother can predict your every move.”

  “Yeah, I guess that would suck.” I looked at the drawing. “What is this?” It was some kind of symbol.

  Samuel took the pad from me and laid it down for everyone to see. “This is what we’re hunting. Everyone at this table needs to take a good look at it because it could show up anywhere.”

  Jakob leaned in to get a better look. “You’re going to have to explain that.”

  “As I said, it’s the beast.” Charlotte’s eyes changed. They went from kind and innocent to cunning and sharply focused. “I can’t see it clearly yet, but that’s the mark of the beast. The Caspian who will destroy this city if we don’t stop it.”

  Remembering my visit from the crow the night before, I glanced at Jakob. He’d said something very close to what had just come out of Charlotte’s mouth. “The crow,” I whispered to him.

  “Crow? What about the crow?” Jakob asked.

  Charlotte squinted at me. “What crow?”

  Jakob nodded. “It’s all right, Mora. Anything you say here doesn’t leave these walls.”

  “He’s my familiar.”

  Samuel looked confused. “Your familiar is a frog. At least it used to be when you were young.”

  Most of them knew about Monoclaude, so I didn’t have to go through the pain of explaining what a familiar was. “Monoclaude is dead, but he sent me a new familiar. A crow.”

  Jakob was staring at me with a puzzled look. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “I meant to, but with everything that’s happened, I guess I just haven’t gotten around to it. The crow came to see me last night. To warn me. He said something was coming, but he couldn’t see it clearly. He mentioned his third eye or something like that.”

  “His mind’s eye?” Charlotte asked.

  “Yes. He called it a threat in plain sight. Said he could sense it.”

  She looked like a deer in headlights, frozen in thought. “Then it is so,” she eventually said. “There is no greater seer than a crow.”

  “Well, I’m not so sure about that,” I said, waffling.

  “You doubt his words?”

  The question should have been easy to answer, but instead I found myself in the middle of a small epiphany. “No,” I said. “I don’t. I don’t know why I said that.” I finally realized that, like Rebecca, the crow had raised a white flag by coming to me, only his flag was sincere. If Monoclaude trusted him, so would I. And he had saved me from Ryker. I decided at that moment to never doubt him again.

  “We need to find one of their scouts,” Edward said. “We have to start somewhere, and right now all we have is that.” He nodded to the sketch. “A needle in a haystack.”

  “If the Caspians are already here, why would they send scouts?” I asked.

  “Because they’re planning something big. I can smell it. They’ll send a team to prepare for whatever it is before this… beast arrives. Wouldn’t you?” Edward seemed to wander off in thought as his face turned bitter and he ran his thumb back and forth over the thick scar in the center of his left palm. I’d noticed it before but didn’t want to ask how he’d gotten it, and by the look on his face, I wasn’t about to ask now either. “Come hell or high water, I will kill them all.”

  Charlotte got a wicked smile on her face. “Find one of these scouts and bring him to me. I’ll eat his sins and then send them back to him tenfold until he confesses.”

  I had a feeling I didn’t know my quiet, gentle aunt at all, and I was about to find out how she really contributed to the Order.

  Samuel read the look on my face and grinned. “Like I said, you’ve never met an empath like Charlotte before.”

  Chapter 6

  Edward leaned over the seat. “Where to? Winterborne’s?”

  Despite my run-in with Cabot that morning, I was still planning to go to the auction house. If he didn’t like my return, I’d pull rank and remind him again that his future with the company rested in my hands.

  “Yes. Take me to the auction house please.” With my relationship with Edward in a very different place than it was two hours earlier, I felt awkward. “This is weird, Edward. Now that I know who you are, I’m going to have a hard time letting you chauffeur me around town.”

  He started the car and glanced at me. “It doesn’t bother me at all. It allows me to keep an eye on you. And before you tell me you don’t need anyone looking out for you,” he said, cutting me off as I was about to say just that, “let me remind you that this isn’t just about you. Technically, you’re the head of the Order now, so what happens to you happens to all of us. Besides, someone has to drive you unless you plan to take the subway or drive yourself from now on.”

  I snickered quietly. “Trust me, New York is a safer place with me in the back seat.” Highway driving was fine, but maneuvering the wild streets of the city wasn’t my forte. “The last time I drove in Manhattan, I nearly met my maker.”

  As we pulled away from the curb and headed toward the park, my phone rang.

  “Grandma? Is everything okay?” I could count on one hand the number of times she’d called me in the past year.

  “Don’t panic. The building isn’t burning down,” she said. “I want you to come for lunch this afternoon. Your grandfather and I are concerned about your sister, and we’d like to talk to you.”

  I rolled my eyes and resisted the urge to tell her to call Michael. “What did Avery do now?”

  “I’d prefer to talk about it over lunch, and I’ve barely seen you since we returned from the Winterlands.”

  “Well, I was on my way to Winterborne’s.” I hesitated, hoping she’d counter with dinner.

  After a brief silence, she finally spoke. “Shall I have Rita prepare lunch or not?” She sounded impatient, and I knew better than to push my grandmother’s buttons when she was determined.

  “I’d love to.”

  “Good. One o’clock. Love you.”

  It was almost noon, so there wasn’t enough time to head over to the office. “Change of plans,” I said. “Take me home. My grandparents have summoned me for lunch.” I sighed deeply and sank into the seat. “You know how grandparents are.”

  His expression didn’t change as he looked straight ahead at the road.

  “I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking.”

  He finally glanced at me through the mirror. “It’s all right. I’m sure I have a family somewhere. Grandvampires or something.” A smile crossed his face that made me want to laugh. Edward had a sense of humor after all.

  We pulled up to the building a few minutes later, and Jakob met us outside.

  “That was fast,” I said. “You must have traveled.”

  “Can’t have Cabot qu
estioning my absence. I thought you were going to the auction house?”

  “I was until my grandmother called and practically insisted I come to lunch.”

  Edward glanced at the lobby through the glass door. “I’m getting out of here before the dictator shows up. Call me when you need a ride.”

  As he climbed back into the car, I thought about all the times he’d shown glimpses of concern for me that went above and beyond the call of duty for a driver. “Why didn’t you tell me about Edward or the Order?”

  Jakob watched the car pull away. “It wasn’t my place to tell you about the Order, so how was I supposed to explain Edward? I wouldn’t divulge Samuel’s secrets to you any more than I’d tell him about yours. I’m just glad he came back and told you himself.”

  “I better get upstairs. I’m expected in the grand suite in less than an hour, and I need to change into something more comfortable.”

  Hoping to get lunch over with as fast as possible, I knocked on the door of my grandparents’ apartment at exactly one o’clock. I didn’t mind spending time with them, but just before I’d come down, Samuel had called to tell me he’d tracked down the home address of the shop owner, so we were heading out to Brooklyn as soon as lunch was over.

  I followed my grandmother into the living room and watched her walk, her gait different. Since coming back from the Winterlands, they’d both changed drastically. Not only were they decades older after temporarily leaving their immortality at the door, but they’d bowed out of council business and for the most part retired.

  “Can I get you something to drink, dear?”

  “I’ll wait until we eat,” I said, noticing a delicious smell in the air. I was hungrier than I realized. “What are we having?”

  She smiled and glanced at the dining room. “Let’s go find out.”

  “Morgan!” My grandfather came down the hallway with a wide smile on his face. “Get over here and give me a hug.”

  I hadn’t seen either of them since the night they killed a Night Walker right in front of me on the dining room floor. It was my formal introduction to the Circle. A dramatic demonstration of the brutal reality of what we Winterbornes did. Samuel had told me the Circle wasn’t aware of the Order’s existence, but I wondered if my grandparents knew about them.

  After greeting my grandfather with a hug, we headed for the dining room. Rita was setting the last platter in the center of the table when we sat down. It was stuffed chicken breast topped with a sauce that filled the room with the fragrant smell of rosemary.

  I smiled at Rita. “Smells fantastic.”

  “Would you like wine?” my grandmother asked.

  I shook my head. “I’ll pass. I’ve got a busy day ahead.” I served myself a piece of chicken and some vegetables and got the conversation started. “So what’s going on with Avery?”

  Taking a bite of chicken, my grandmother took a moment to savor it. “Delicious,” she yelled to the kitchen. “You’ve outdone yourself, Rita.”

  “Thank you, Mrs. Winterborne,” Rita yelled back.

  After swallowing, she rested her wrists on the table and answered my question. “I think your sister has joined a cult.”

  “Lost her damn mind, that’s what I say,” my grandfather said between bites. “That Dolphin or Dustin has brainwashed her.”

  “His name is Decker,” I said. “I’m surprised she told you about him.”

  Avery had stopped by the penthouse the morning Rebecca had supposedly been attacked. She’d told me all about her new boyfriend. He was some self-help guru or spiritual advisor. Something like that. They were living together, but I doubted Avery had mentioned that part to our grandparents—or that Decker intended to help her shed her immortality, which was complete nonsense. If she had, they probably would have already scheduled an intervention without inviting me to lunch to discuss it.

  “Told us?” My grandmother huffed. “She canceled dinner with us twice over the weekend. When I asked her what was so important that she couldn’t spend a few hours with her grandparents, she said her spiritual advisor recommended she distance herself from unhealthy influences. Unhealthy influences!”

  I groaned and swallowed my mouthful of food. If I told them she was living with the asshole, I’d be betraying her trust. But if I kept my mouth shut, I felt like I’d be betraying theirs.

  “Don’t take it personally,” I said. “I think she’s dating him, and he’s manipulating her. You know how she is when she falls for a guy.”

  My grandfather dropped his fork and pushed his plate away. “She should know better than that. I think I’ll pay her a little visit this evening to set things straight.”

  “No! You’ll just freak her out if you show up.” Avery had said she planned to invite me and Hawk to dinner to meet Decker, and I couldn’t think of a better time than now. “She invited me to dinner to meet him, so I’ll find out what’s going on. No offense to either of you, but she’ll be more open to her sister than her grandparents.”

  He grumbled under his breath. “Fine. But get her under control. First she wants no part of clan business and relinquishes her seal to the Circle, and now this? I have a good mind to cut her off!”

  I didn’t dare remind him that he didn’t have the power to do that. I did, but no one was cutting my sister off. Especially not when she was under the misguided influence of some guy who was probably nothing more than a garden-variety predator looking for his next meal ticket, and a wealthy woman who claimed to be immortal was the perfect mix of delusional and gullible. I loved Avery, but she was a real pain in the ass sometimes.

  With my grandparents’ moods dampened, we quickly finished eating and ended lunch much earlier than expected.

  “I’m going upstairs to call Avery right now.” I felt the need to get out of there and find out what the hell was going on with her. “Thanks for feeding me.”

  “I’m sorry, Morgan,” my grandmother said. “We didn’t mean to ruin lunch. We’re just worried about your sister.”

  My grandfather took a deep breath and grabbed his jacket from the chair. “I think I need some fresh air. Care for a stroll in the park with your husband?”

  “I’d love that,” she said, glancing at me slyly. “Why don’t you go down to the lobby and have a chat with Jakob while I show Morgan the newly decorated library.”

  “That’s all right—I’ll wait for you.” When she gave him a look, he said, “Oh! You want to have a little girl talk. I’ll wait for you downstairs.”

  After he left, I followed my grandmother to the library off the living room. As soon as we walked inside, I noticed the desk. “Is that new? It’s gorgeous.”

  She turned around and gazed at my eyes. “How does it feel?”

  “How does what feel?” Her staring was making me more uncomfortable by the second.

  Her face turned sympathetic. “Sweetheart, who do you think told your mother about the legacy? All the Winterborne women know. Even Avery. I’m afraid it’s one of the reasons she’s been drifting away from us. She’s scared and thinks she can run from it.”

  I took a step back and averted my eyes. “Can you see it?”

  “Yes. I saw it in your mother’s eyes too. It was that vampire she was seeing for years. But don’t worry, your secret is safe with me. Winterborne women have to stick together. We always have. And Jakob will look out for you.”

  Jakob had always looked out for me, and my mother before that.

  She shook her head and started to chuckle. “Could you imagine the look on the Elders’ faces if they knew a vampire ruled the clan? Our immortal genes are the source of our real power, but there’s a little vampire blood in all the Winterborne women. Use it to your advantage, but you better learn how to hide it well. If the Elders ever find out, they might try to do more than just send you away, if you know what I mean.”

  “So I’ve been told. Why haven’t you said anything until now?”

  “Well, I haven’t seen you since it happened. And until I looked y
ou in the eye this afternoon, I didn’t know. And now I do.”

  I felt very awkward with her studying my face, but I was thankful to know I had another ally in the family. Retired or not, my grandparents still held a position of honor within the clan. If and when my secret ever came out, I now had another Winterborne on my side. But it was the Elders who held the power to deliver what they considered justice, even to the queen.

  I went to leave. “Don’t worry about Avery. I’ll find out what Decker is up to.”

  “You better. Leaving the Circle and distancing herself is one thing, but if they find out she’s been brainwashed by some cult leader and plans to leave the clan altogether, they’ll banish her to a place far worse than anywhere you or I have ever seen.”

  I left the grand suite feeling a lot worse than when I arrived. My older sister had always been as independent as a cat. Smart and completely immune to the concept of humility, the idea of someone manipulating her was ridiculous. But she had one very big weakness—seductive men who made her feel special.

  “Good afternoon, mistress,” my astral assistant said when I walked into the penthouse.

  “It’s not good yet, Otto, but here’s hoping.” With any luck, we’d get some information from that shop owner and track down the other two boxes. But before I went anywhere, I needed to invite myself to dinner.

  Someone answered Avery’s phone on the second ring, but it wasn’t her.

  “Who is this?” I asked.

  “It’s nice to meet you, Morgan. Avery has told me all about you.”

  “Who is this?” I asked again when he didn’t offer his name, but of course I knew.

  The line went quiet for a few seconds before he finally confirmed it. “My name is Decker. I’m your sister’s roommate, among other things.”

  “Where is my sister?”

  “I’ll get her.”

  It took a good minute for Avery to speak into the phone. “I was just getting out of the shower. That was Decker.”

  “Does he always answer your phone?” I disliked him immensely already. “How about your text messages? Does he read those too?”