Secrets (The Serenity Series Book 1)

by Dawn Kirby

  “Leah, do you have a picture of Drew with you anywhere?” Kale asked. The deep purple haze radiating off him was something new for me. “I want to show Granny.”

  “I think there’s one in purse. I can go get it,” I offered.

  He sprang to his feet, plopped me into the chair beside May, and patted the top of my head a few times. “You get something to eat. I’ll bring it to you, okay?” He was out the door before I could respond.

  “Are you alright?” Raine chuckled.

  “I’ll have to get back to you on that,” I said stunned.

  May snickered and shook her head at the door. All was right in her world. The same happy white glow I’d seen around Mom Thursday night when she saw David was now surrounding her. Her pleasing scent of magnolia hung lightly in the air.

  “You were right,” she said happily. “He’s hooked.”

  “At least he knows her name,” Raine joked.

  “What’s that mean?” May asked.

  “I know we both used his name, but Drew tends to call you like she sees you,” I explained to her. “She kept calling him ‘Happy.’”

  “Why?”

  “He couldn’t stop grinning, even when she was insulting him. She’s quick tempered, but her mouth is even quicker,” I said smiling at her.

  “I can’t wait to meet her,” she said.

  Kale came bounding back down the stairs in less than five minutes. I could smell his minty scent before his foot fell on the top step. Raine wisely stepped away from the door and sat down beside me at the table.

  “Smart move,” I told him as the door swung open.

  “We really need to put a bell around his neck,” he said to May.

  She nodded her head and smiled. I thought it was a great idea. Like a puppy wanting to play; Kale dropped my purse in my lap. He perched himself over my shoulder and waited for me to produce a picture of Drew. If he’d have had a tail, I’m sure it would have been wagging.

  I dug my wallet out of my purse and looked for my pictures. The first one I found was of us at the lake. We were both wearing bikinis. It wasn’t really the first picture you’d want to show grandma. The snapshot was out of my hands the second he saw Drew in it.

  “Wow, you guys look hot,” he said, as he handed it to May. “Granny, that’s Drew.”

  “You girls do look good,” she complimented with a wink. “She is a beauty, Kale. Now calm down or you’ll scare her off.” She gave it one more look and then handed it to Raine.

  “When does Donovan usually let us get the pool ready?” Raine asked Kale.

  I grabbed it and stuffed it quickly back into my wallet. Raine winked at me when I glanced back up. The smile on his face was more mischievous than sweet. I dropped the wallet back in my purse and sat it on the floor behind me.

  May disappeared into the utility room for a couple of minutes and came back holding three big shopping bags full of stuff. She sat them down beside me and smiled. I assumed she’d been on another shopping trip for the kids at the shelter and wanted to show me what she got.

  “Honey, I brought these up earlier, but the two of you were a little busy,” she said smiling brightly. “I figured it’d be best to wait.”

  I know I turned red, but Raine went completely ashen. He could have passed for a vampire. Every drop of blood left his face. Kale was so shocked he dropped his phone. May, apparently amused, laughed at all three of us.

  “Honey, it’s okay,” May assured me. “Sparks have been flying between you two since you got here. I couldn’t be happier.”

  “Dude, you are so dead,” Kale said shaking his head dramatically. He looked at me and then back at Raine. “David is gonna rip you apart.”

  May shot him a dirty look. “David is not stupid, Kale. He’s already told Declan and Donovan not to interfere.” Fantastic! The whole house knew. I’m all for sharing, but this was getting ridiculous. “Besides that, he personally gave them his blessing before he left earlier.”

  “I always knew you were his favorite,” Kale told Raine smiling slyly.

  “Honey, he also knows you’re a dog,” May told him. “Had you tried anything with her, he would have made first kill.”

  “Ouch! That’s kinda harsh, don’t you think?”

  “Is it?” she asked. Kale shrugged his shoulders and sat down, the comment apparently forgotten. “You needed so much,” she said handing me a bag, “I didn’t know where to start.”

  I looked in the first bag to find it stuffed full of shampoo, razors and anything else I might need in the bathroom. She’d even bought make up. That kind of stuff hadn’t crossed my mind since I got here. I found a complete manicure set at the bottom of the bag, along with every shade of fingernail polish she could get her hands on.

  The second bag held several pairs of jeans at the bottom of it and a few pastel colored shirts at the top. Each one was completely different from the other. My favorite one was the white. It laced up the back like a corset. She had a package of pastel colored socks tucked inside a yellow short-sleeved shirt.

  The last bag was from my favorite store. I was now the proud owner of about seven new bras of all styles and a wide variety of every kind of panty known to womankind. There were even a couple of baby-dolls and chemises for me to sleep in too. At the bottom were some sleep shorts and t-shirts to lie around in.

  “I wasn’t sure what all you liked,” May said as I finished looking through the last bag. “But once I finally got going, I couldn’t stop. Who would have thought underwear shopping could be so much fun?”

  I looked up at her with tears of gratitude pouring down my face. I didn’t exactly know what to say. She thought enough about me to make sure I had everything I would ever need. Finally, I just jumped up and hugged her.

  “Thank you, thank you,” I whispered gratefully.

  “You’re welcome,” she said, wiping a tear off her cheek. “When I put your clothes up the other day, the closet just looked so empty. You don’t have near enough, honey.”

  “Granny, you are without a doubt, the best grandmother in the world,” Raine told her.

  “Well yeah,” Kale snorted. “She just went nuts in Victoria’s

  Secret for your girlfriend. I’d suck up too!”

  I looked at him and smiled. “To quote a very good friend of mine, ‘go suck an egg’.”

  The smell coming off of him was overbearing, but then again so was the grin. “That’s what she said when I introduced myself at Brody’s.”

  “That explains a lot,” Raine said quietly to me.

  May took the bags back to the utility room and came back ready to fill our bellies. There was a huge pot of chili sitting on the stove. It could have fed Mom and me for three weeks, but I knew it would be gone by the time they were done eating. So would the cornbread warming in the oven.

  “Do they always eat like this?” I asked May. Fifteen minutes after we started and Raine was on his third bowl.

  “Always. Werewolves have a very high metabolism. We’re constantly hungry,” she explained. “When they were little they got so tired of coming in all the time to recharge, I started making bigger meals so they wouldn’t have too. After they got used to it, it worked out a whole lot better.”

  “It beats the heck out of ten meals a day,” Kale said in between bites.

  I realized how little I actually knew about them. Most of what I knew came from a series of corny horror movies and books. If I was going to stand with them, I needed every piece of information I could get. Now that I knew werewolves were after me too, a little knowledge could go a long way.

  “What happens if you don’t get enough?”

  “We get weak. If it goes on too long, we can’t change,” she answered. “Transforming takes a huge amount of energy.”

  “Can you change anytime or just during a full moon?”

  “The three of us can change anytime we want to; most Pure Blood’s can. The full moon just forces it.” She closed her eyes briefly as she spoke. “Bitten ones c
an only change when the moon is full, and to be honest it’s far better that way. They’re a lot more dangerous. They get disoriented and can’t think straight for quite a while. They tend to attack more and run it out less.”

  “Is it true that one bite can change a person into a werewolf,” I asked timidly. This is the first time I’d heard one of them mention a bitten wolf.

  “It has to be one hell of a bite,” Kale said. “Unless we maul you, you’ll be fine. But you’ve got nothing to worry about with Raine - you’ve got vampire blood on your side.”

  “Little bites are harmless,” May said, rolling her eyes at Kale. “It takes a near fatal attack to make a person a werewolf. I suppose if a person was bitten repeatedly over a long period of time it could happen, but I’ve never heard of it.”

  “What about silver?” Donovan said Raine could tolerate it, but I didn’t know what affect it had on the others.

  “It will kill instantly if it is a good shot. A hit straight to the head or heart is fatal, as with any bullet,” she said. This question brought dark intensity to her eyes. “If it strikes us anywhere else, it will eventually weaken us to the point of death. As long as it’s removed quickly and certain precautions are taken, we’ll be fine.”

  “It doesn’t have to be a bullet either,” Kale volunteered.

  “What else could it be,” I asked stumped. I couldn’t think of anything that would have enough force to penetrate a body like a bullet would.

  “A knife or maybe a shovel,” he answered. His eyes fixed intently on mine.

  “Or maybe a really pissed off vampire?” I asked. JD’s death came to mind.

  “Unfortunately, yes. His throat had practically been ripped out. You saw that up close and personal,” he said quickly. “JD simply bled to death.” Kale stopped for a drink. “I have my suspicions about that one though.”

  “Meaning?” Raine asked.

  “Think about it. Judith’s been locked up for the last twenty-plus years. Even with whatever blood she can get her hands on now it would have been hard for her to restrain a man like JD. Not without help anyway.”

  “You think she had help?” May asked. She offered Kale another helping and sat back down. “Michael maybe?”

  “No, I doubt he’d wanna get his hands dirty,” Kale answered. May put her elbow on the table and rested her chin on her hand. “I think maybe she used silver.”

  “Was he shot, too?” Raine asked. His eyes moved between Kale and I waiting for an answer.

  “Not that I remember,” I said thinking back to the condition of his body.

  “I was thinking more along the lines of a rope,” Kale said, shoveling in another mouthful of food.

  “What would a silver rope do? If it only makes contact with your skin-”

  “Wrap it around our hands and feet and its pretty effective,” Kale interrupted me. “It won’t kill us, but it sure hurts like hell when it starts to burn into the skin. That’s something we have in common with vampires.”

  “The bullet you shot Judith with was silver,” Raine informed me. “That’s why it came back out the way it did. If it had been a normal one, the bullet would have passed right through her or the wound would have healed over it.”

  “You shot her?” Kale asked in disbelief.

  “Raine needed to get in the house. What else was I supposed to do?” I asked defensively. “It was the only thing I could think of.”

  “I can’t believe you shot her,” Kale said, recovering himself. He shook his head and went back to his chili.

  “You have told her the truth, haven’t you?” May asked Raine.

  Kale quit eating and stared back and forth between the two of us. Apparently he hadn’t meant for me to hear his comment about the cougar after he’d left my room earlier. He held his breath and waited for Raine’s answer. At the moment I couldn’t smell Kale at all.

  “Leah knows,” Raine told her, “about the silver, the werewolf, the shifting and she knows about Dane.” He looked up from his bowl. “I told her right after Judith bit me. She could smell the difference in my blood.”

  Kale grinned. “I guess I didn’t have to be so cryptic then, huh? I should’ve known you’d smell it right away.”

  “Are you ready to defend each other no matter what comes at you?” she asked us. “If you’re not, walk away from each other now. I won’t watch either of you suffer the way David has.”

  We could only stare at her. Neither of us expected her question or her blunt opinion. I couldn’t speak for Raine, but I knew I would do whatever it took to keep Dane from getting his hands on him. Now that I had him, I intended to fight tooth and nail to keep him.

  “If you both work together and keep a cool head, I’m sure you’ll be okay,” she advised. “I wish I could say neither one of you will get hurt, but I can’t.”

  “I promise you this; if anybody hurts her, I will kill them,” Raine said, his voice a low rumble. His eyes turned stone cold gray.

  “Raine, I know you love her. That’s clear. But honey, she’s gonna get hurt. You’re gonna get hurt. After it’s all over, the wounds will heal. Leah will heal,” she said, trying to reason with him. “But if you get yourself killed in a fit of rage, she’ll have to do it alone.”

  My phone rang, startling us all. I wasn’t expecting a phone call, but maybe David needed help after all. I fished it out of my purse and answered it without thinking twice about it.

  “Hello, dearest. Have you been well?” Michael’s cold voice asked.

  “What can I do for you, Michael?” I asked calmly.

  The second his name rolled off my tongue, all activity in the room stopped. May, Raine and Kale sat silently, waiting.

  “Ah, you now know my name. Your father has finally come clean, I assume?” he asked almost cheerfully. “If so, you already know what you can do for me.”

  “He has and I’m not willing to give my blood to you,” I told him calmly. Despite the confident tone my hands were shaking. “I like my life fine the way it is.”

  “Fine,” he said angrily. “I will just have to take it. Before I do, I must thank you.”

  “For what?” I just told him to go fly a kite and now he’s thanking me for it?

  “Thanks to you, Judith has brought back some very valuable information about one of your protectors.”

  My heart dropped. I looked at Raine. Maybe Judith had been able to figure it out after all. If I could stay calm just a little longer I’d be able to find out for sure.

  “What would that be?” I asked.

  “Raine has inherited traits only the first offspring should have. Though, Judith tells me he lacks the ability to change.” he said coolly, not really expecting a response. “I must now ask for both of you.”

  I was so relieved I almost smiled. She read the blood wrong.

  “Ask away, but you’ll be terribly disappointed.”

  “Dearest, I am never disappointed,” he said dangerously. “And I never play fair. It might interest you to know that I have David. I assure you he is fine for now, but he will soon see his final sunrise.” Tears flooded my eyes. I shook so hard I nearly dropped the phone. Alarmed, Raine moved closer, listening. “If you are here before daylight, I may spare him. I’m sure, once he sees what I have planned for you, he will beg for death. Bring Raine with you and I will release your mother’s body to Donovan. He will, no doubt, see that she has a proper burial.”

  When he hung up, Raine took the phone from my hand and snapped it shut. I was so stunned I couldn’t move. Not only did he take David, but he had my Mom too. Why was a mystery to me. She’d already paid her price for my safety. Now he wanted the same from David.

  “Don’t you do it Leah,” Raine growled. “Whether you show up or not, he’ll finish off David.”

  “Maybe not,” I told him. It was hard not to let my fear show. “You still have a chance. He knows you’re at least part werewolf, but he thinks you can’t change. I have to go. It’s time for me to do my part to save my parents
.” It hurt like hell to know I’d never see Raine again. Tears rolled down my cheeks. “I do love you, Raine. But this is the only way I can save you and David, too. If I go now, maybe in return he’ll leave you alone.”

  “You’re not going anywhere,” he said ferociously. He locked his hands around my wrist. “I love you too much. David said earlier not to let anything stop us and I intend to do just that.”

  “Honey, listen to him. He’s not suggesting that you leave David there.” May put her hand on my knee and smiled. “Raine’s ready to stand with you to save him. Fighting this together is the only way the two of you will be left alone. It’s something your parents should have done a long time ago.”

  “May, I want to protect him. If he goes anywhere near that man, his life is over.” I needed her to understand. “I can’t let that happen.”

  “What the two of you have is rare. The two of you fell in love in an instant. We all saw it. Don’t let one cruel man rip you away from each other.” Her face went from soft to serious in an instant. “You’re right, it is time to pay your parents back; but not by sacrificing yourself.”

  I knew they were right. Fighting was the only way any of us would have peace in our lives. The truth is I’m not like them. I can’t change. I’m not invincible. My body can’t expel a bullet the way Judith’s did. And lifting a man and throwing him around like a ten pound sack of flour was out of the question for me. I’m strong, but I do have limits. There was no way I could get into people’s minds the way Declan had gotten into mine and tell them I’m not there. All my senses were useless in a physical fight.

  “I don’t want to give up, but what else can I do? I don’t know how to fight a vampire or a werewolf for that matter.”

  The tension in the air vanished. Raine pulled me along with my chair in front of him and wrapped his big arms around my shoulders. I got the distinct impression he was making damn sure I didn’t jump up and bolt for the door. I kissed his arm to let him know I wasn’t going anywhere.

  “How are we gonna do this?” I asked them. If they had a plan, I was ready to hear it.

  “Like anything else,” Kale said from the sink. “We’ll claw our way through it and hope it works out.”