“So, what’s the plan?” Rayce and Marie both looked up from their menus and looked at me as if I had bugs crawling out of my ears. “What I mean is…what is the first step of preparing for this fight?”
I was waiting for Rayce to start talking but he looked back down at his menu. Marie was doing the same thing I was, watching Rayce and waiting for him to answer.
The waitress came over with an order pad in her hand, she looked so drained. Her eyes held sadness and even through her smile, I could tell she was heart stricken somehow. She took our drink order. There was something about her that seemed familiar.
When she brought back the drinks, we ordered our food. While Marie ordered her food, I noticed she was wearing a button on her blouse. It had an image of the boy from the flyer.
“I’m sorry, but who is that?” I asked, cutting Marie off.
“Oh, this?” she asked while forcing a smile and pointing to the button over her right breast.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“This is my son, Jimmy.”
“Bless your heart. How long has he been missing?”
“Almost a year now,” she said as tears burned her pretty blue eyes. “He went to the movies in Pony City with some friends and never came back,” she explained sadly.
“I do hope you find him, ma’am,” Rayce said gently while looking up at her.
“Absolutely. We will keep you both in our thoughts,” Marie said.
“Thank you,” she said sadly but quickly cleared her throat and smiled. “Now, what can I get for you?”
We finished ordering and she walked away quickly.
“What was that about?” Marie asked in a whisper across the table.
“I don’t know for sure, but I think I recognize that boy,” I explained even lower.
“How?” Rayce asked.
“Not sure, but I will figure it out.” I watched the waitress as she delivered drinks to another table. “I feel bad for her.”
The poor woman would never stop looking for her child. She would never believe he was gone, possibly dead. After eating our food, I left her a large tip in hopes it would help aid in her search. As we left the diner, I took another look at the boy on the flyer. Rayce and Marie were already in the truck while I still examined his face.
Like an electric shock, I knew who he was. I gulped deeply as I thought about where I had seen him. He was the young vampire from the shack. He had bitten Dawn. My heart ached for the woman inside as I climbed up into the truck.
“Everything alright?” Rayce asked.
“Fine. Everything is fine,” I said as I chewed on my thumb nail.
“Bullshit,” he said.
“That boy, he was the one who turned Dawn,” I explained as I stared off into the distance.
“Jessica.”
I cut Marie off. “Yes, I know. I wasn’t the one who killed him. He was already dead. I get it.”
“Jessica,” Rayce snapped.
I sighed, “I’m sorry, Marie. I’m just overwhelmed at the moment, I guess.”
She placed her hand on my shoulder, “It’s alright. I understand.
I couldn’t worry about things like this at the moment. I had to think about what Rayce was going to have to do in order to keep his position. I wanted to talk about it, but Rayce was avoiding it. “I want to talk about this.”
“The boy?” Rayce asked as he pulled back onto the interstate.
“No. The fight.”
“Babe, this isn’t anything you need to worry about. It’s going to be a simple fight. Gage is the one who trained me, remember?”
“I do.”
“I know all of his moves and his distractions. I should have the advantage. Don’t worry about it. I’ll fight him and win and we can be together without any worries,” he assured.
“But, what if,” I stopped. Rayce took my hand in his. The thought of Rayce not being with me, or even dead, set me into a depression state of mind. How could he not think about it? “This is such a big deal.”
“Stop thinking about it so deeply,” he said.
“Easy for you to say,” I said smiling at him. “I won’t let him hurt you.”
“He won’t get the chance,” he assured.
“Will you two stop this already? I’m trying to sleep,” Marie giggled.
“Seriously?” Rayce asked.
“What?”
“You slept all night. How can you be tired?” he asked.
“I don’t look like this by accident, Rayce. I need my beauty sleep. Geez,” she giggled and that pulled a laugh out of me as well.
“I knew it was something. Nobody looks that beautiful naturally,” I stated with a smile.
“Awe, thanks, friend. Now, let me beautify before I see my man.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Rayce said. His beautiful brown eyes looked so tired.
“Would you like me to drive?”
“No, I’m fine.”
“Are you sure you wouldn’t like to get some beauty sleep too?”
“No need. This is all na-tur-al, baby,” he grinned cockily.
“Yeah, right,” Marie grumbled.
“Well, obviously,” I giggled.
Marie jumped out of the truck and ran to Jay the instant we pulled up into my driveway. He held her in a beautiful embrace.
Rayce rubbed his tired eyes and turned off the truck. He hopped down, stretched his body, and walked over to my side. He opened my door, took my hand, to help me down
“Thank you,” I said and looked up at him and couldn’t help but kiss his succulent lips.
“Mm, maybe we should go up to bed for our own nap,” he said wiggling his brow in a sexy way.
“We have company.”
“As if that ever stopped us before,” he said deeply and kissed me again. He was right. Not only was he an amazing boyfriend who was kind and loving, he was also an amazing lover. He could get me into positions I never thought possible, in places I would never think of. Ours was a wild romance that I would never forget. Not in a million years.
“Let’s go inside,” I said.
It felt amazing to be home but it smelled stale. I began to open the windows, even with the chill in the air. Everyone took a seat at the table. I went to the fridge and got out four cokes and sat them on the table. Jay was waiting for the story. I had to start that part. It was because of me that all this got started in the first place.
“After Gage and Rayce had bitten me, it took a while but I began to change. I felt drab and run down like I had a cold or something, and I was very irritable. When we went on the hunt that night Mrs. Scott attacked me, I shot her. The blood entered my mouth. When that happened, I drank from her. You already know all of that.”
My boss nodded his head but his eyes told me he didn’t understand, like the rest of us. “Jessica, you haven’t been bitten three times. You can’t change into one of us. It’s not possible.”
“Jay, I have been bitten three times but not by the same person.” He was most definitely confused but I understood why. We all were. “Okay, after I drank the vampire, I wanted more, but Rayce wouldn’t let me hunt. I came up with a harebrained idea that I should find Gage and he would take me hunting.”
“That’s crazy,” Marie stated as she cracked open her can.
“Agreed,” I said and continued. “I was desperate. I thought if I could just get him to turn me, I would be able to take him out myself.” I looked over to Rayce. “Then we could be happy.” I could see he was bothered by this information. I reached over and touched his hand. “I know now I didn’t want him to turn me. I couldn’t belong to him. I do want this life, but not with him, I want it to be with you.” I explained.
“I know you want this life, but,” I stopped him. I had to tell him what I knew about myself before he went any further.
“Okay, I’m going to come right on out and say it. I am one of you…sort of.”
“What?” Jay questioned.
“I always knew I was adopted, but what
I didn’t know was that my father was a blood born hellhound. He chose to have me and my brother with a human woman.” That got everyone’s attention and their eyes were all on me. “Gage told me this when I found him at the bar. He did try to turn me, but when I got a chance, I sank my blade into his back. I thought he was dead and that’s why we ran to the city, but I was wrong. He hired that asshole to grab Marie and use her to find me,” I explained.
Jay took a drink of his cola, “So, what you’re telling me is you are half?”
“Yes.”
“Maybe that’s why I was drawn to you that night in the alley.”
“Maybe that’s why you are so good at hunting,” Rayce said.
“It’s possible.” I expressed.
“What happened in the city? All Marie told me was Gage was alive and so is my father?”
“Yes, your father is alive,” Rayce stated.
“Gage lied to us,” Jay said. “Doesn’t surprise me, really. He has always had a sly tongue.”
Rayce took the lead on that part of the story. “After we took care of the man in the woods, we ended up at Jessica’s parent’s house. We ran into her brother who had been turned into one of us, by a member of the Oklahoma City pack. Because we were in the city we had to make our presence known to the pack leader.”
“Naturally,” Jay stated.
“I went along with it, with a feeling of unease, but what could I do? Before we went in, Jessica realized that maybe the biker who attacked us had been sent by the local pack. We entered the apartment and then he walked out.” Rayce explained quickly. “I was shocked to see him.”
“I can imagine. He’s been dead all this time and now he comes crawling out of the dark like a bad dream?” Jay asked. I took it he didn’t like his father very much.
“He told me in order to take what is mine, I must fight Gage, to the death.”
Jay swallowed deeply. “Gage is my brother. I do love him, but I can’t have him hurt our family anymore,” he took another drink. “I will help you train, Rayce.
“Thanks, man, but this isn’t bothering me as much as knowing the truth does,” Rayce said.
“What truth?”
“The truth that my uncle, Jay’s father, is more than likely the one behind the demise of my parents.”
“I never thought about that,” I confessed, but he was right. He had told me what happened to his parents. He and Jay always thought they all died together.
Marie asked the question I had been asking myself all day. “Okay, I understand what Gage wants. He wants your position, again, but what does he want Jessica for? What is his motivation towards her? I mean, why go through all of this?” she looked over at me apologetically.
I waved my hand at her. “Say it how you can.”
“What makes Jessica so special that he would go through all of this bullshit?”
She was right, what made me so special? Then I remembered what he had said to me back at the bar. “Gage said he wanted me to be the mother of his children,” I said with a shiver of disgust. It was almost like I had cleared the room, it got so quiet. Then I thought of a question for the guys. “How many pure bloods are there in this pack?”
Jay took the lead on that one, “Other than Rayce, Gage, and me, not many,” he explained. “Okay, going on what I learned as a young boy, we come from a great line of hell hounds. What I’m about to tell you is believed to be true by our kind.”
Rayce shifted in his seat and leaned in, as if he were an eager child listening to a bedtime story.
Jay started his story. “According to Greek Legend, we came from the greatest hellhound of all time, the purest hellhound line in the entire world. Cerberus is the very first of us to be noted in history.”
“Really? Who is Cerberus?” Marie asked.
“Cerberus in Greek mythology is a multi-headed hellhound,” he rolled his eyes but continued. “He guards the gates of the underworld, to prevent those who have crossed the river of Styx from ever escaping.”
“My mother used to tell me this story,” Rayce stated.
“What is it exactly?”
“The hellhound is a creature from hell. Hellhounds typically have features such as black fur color, glowing eyes, super strength, and speed. As well as, ghostly characteristics, and sometimes, even the ability to talk,” Jay snickered.
“Cerberus also has a brother, Orthrus, who has two heads. They are said to bring the souls of the dead or dying to Hades,” Rayce explained.
Marie and I were both engrossed in their story. It was one of nightmares but interesting.
“Hellhounds are also associated with the element of fire and may have fire-based abilities and appearances. Hellhounds can appear out of nowhere suddenly and have been known to vanish in a blink of an eye.” Jay said intently.
“Legend has it, they were assigned to guard the entrances to the world of the dead, such as graveyards, Native American burial grounds,” Rayce said.
“Sweet,” Marie smiled.
“I have a feeling that this isn’t so sweet.”
“No. They had other duties related to the afterlife or the supernatural, such as hunting down lost souls,” Jay replied.
“Yeah, that’s scary,” Marie stated with a shiver.
“My mother’s story said that when Cerberus was guarding the gates, a vampire came to the underworld and let Cerberus taste his blood. Once he tasted it the vampire told Cerberus if he would make children with a human and create daytime guards to watch over him and his kind as they slept, he would supply Cerberus and his children with the blood for all eternity.”
“That is where the vampires come into play?”
He nodded, “Over time, Orthrus grew tired of his brother getting all the glory. He did as his brother, used his powers to turn human and found females to impregnate. That began the blood lines.”
“After some time, the hellhounds began to breed and that’s when they created the pure bloods. That’s where I believe you come into play, Jessica. If I’m right then my brother wants to start a new line of pure bloods. With your birth father being a pure blood himself, I think he believes that if he reproduces with you, then he will begin the new line,” Jay explained.
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. If there was any truth behind the story, then I was right, and they were from hell. Plus, if the story was also true then all the hellhounds were descendants of the same line.
“Jay, how closely are all hellhounds related?”
He cleared his throat, “Jessica, this is a story with a couple of truths. If we were going to go along with the story we would all be cousins, but the blood line has gone on for years and years. After time, there would be a minuscule trace of relation left in the blood.”
“But if we did go along with the story, and if Cerberus and Orthrus were bothers, then they would have had the same blood line.”
“Jessica, think about it. I don’t follow the story in the bible but, Adam and Eve had children. That’s how man was made. We would all be related anyway, wouldn’t we?” he asked. That did make me feel a little better.
“It is also said that hellhounds have the ability to shadow travel,” Rayce said.
“What’s that?” Marie asked.
“The ability to travel through the shadows. My father told me about this ability, but I have never been able to master it.” Jay explained.
“How does that work?”
“Jessica, I’m not too sure what it is but you have to be in the shadows to use it. Other than the power to shift into what we are, that is one thing Cerberus did give us, is that ability.”
“You have to stand in the shadows and think about where you want to go, and it somehow takes you to a different point. Like I said, I have never been able to do it.”
“That’s how he was able to get into my house even after we changed the locks,” I concluded.
“I would say so,” Rayce said.
“There is one more thing my father was trying to get us boys to
do, but neither of us could master it. Not even himself,” Jay said.
Rayce was very interested in this story. Marie and I were sitting on the edge of our seats.
“My father called it, The Fire of Hades. It’s crazy, but, he said we could blow fire.”
CHAPTER
24
I watched as Gage entered the field. He stood there in his naked splendor. A feeling of loathing washed over me as the energy of the Devils Bend and Oklahoma City packs swirled around me. I had no sexual attraction to him what so ever. He smiled and lifted his arms and the Oklahoma City pack cheered for him. His gray eyes locked onto me. He strolled over to where I stood and reached for me. I backed away from him but bumped into a woman. She was cheering and reaching for him as if he were Elvis. I wanted to punch him in the nose. His chest and arms were covered in a sheet of glistening sweat.
“Tonight, we will be together once again my love. You and I will produce the most powerful blood line since the days of Zeus and Mount Olympus,” he proclaimed. He lived in a fantasy world where he truly believed he was a God. He walked away from me and all I could do was hold on to the wooden gate that stood between him and me. I couldn’t wait for him to die.
The Devils Bend pack was small in number but enough to be heard as they cheered, clapped, and howled. Rayce entered the field. His beautiful eyes were all I saw. The crowd floated away and all I could hear or even see was him. His smile reached his eyes as he looked at me.
“I love you,” I whispered.
He got down on his knees. Gage came up behind him in his hellhound form and looked down at Rayce kneeling in the grass. He didn’t react to his approach. Gage placed a massive paw on Rayce’s shoulder.
“What are you doing?” I yelled over the roaring crowd. “Turn around and fight.”
He watched my eyes intently. I tried to scream but my voice couldn’t be heard. Gage looked at me with his glowing eyes and showed all of his onyx teeth. He opened his mouth and bit down on Rayce, removing his head. I screamed as pain shook my entire body.
“NO!” I screamed as my nightmare rocked through my body.
“What? What is it?” Rayce was startled out of his sleep.
Hunting Jessica Page 27