The Shifting Storm (Book 4)

by Jeff Hale

  I wondered how Kat was doing with her Aerick. As far as I was concerned, I could have happily ripped that young sorcerer’s throat out, but for Kat’s sake, I just hoped she was happy. I couldn’t, didn’t, blame her for any of what had happened, and I only partially blamed Aerick anymore.

  I knew exactly who had been at fault.

  I stopped again, this time feeling like there were outside eyes on me once more. Someone or something was out there, had been since I had arrived and I was sure had been there much longer than that, and it was watching Grimm’s compound. I had mentioned it, once, to Grimm and he had shrugged it off, as though he knew and didn’t care, and he had told me not to worry about it.

  The trees were dark where they surrounded the palisade walls, despite the moonlight, and even though I tried my best I couldn’t see anything beyond them. Shaking off the feeling, I began walking again, but I couldn’t help but wonder, if Grimm knew what was out there, why he was leaving it untouched.

  SIX

  KATELYN

  The flight to Athens had been rather uneventful despite the fact that the small plane had had nothing but AEs for passengers. We’d had to make several short stops along the way to refuel, but if we’d traveled on one of the larger planes, it would have been three quarters empty.

  As it was, the plane’s cabin had been divided in half, the first half being entirely windowless for those passengers with a healthy aversion to sunlight, while a door led to the back half of the plane where we could stare out little oval portholes if we so chose.

  I wasn’t exactly sure what I had expected, but most of the passengers were quiet and self-contained, busy with open laptops, reading newspapers and books, or sleeping. Quite the dangerous crowd all right.

  After we landed, we taxied into a large windowless hangar where several vehicles already waited. Once again, the vampires could avoid sunlight if it was that time of day (it wasn’t, in fact it was near midnight), but on top of that, AE security could keep any protesters at a safe distance. There was a car waiting for us as well, the driver standing beside it dutifully holding a little sign that read ‘Carmichael’, Alex’s last name.

  Alex had called ahead to let Stefano Torre, Darien’s father, know that we were on our way. Alex had given him our arrival time and had been told that there would be a car put at our disposal to take us to accommodations that Stefano had made for us for the night and then to the place the Council met, a villa just outside of Athens, the next morning.

  As the car pulled out and headed to our destination for the night, I stared out the windows in surprise. I didn’t know exactly what I had been expecting of Athens, maybe I’d watched one too many History Channel shows, but I hadn’t really expected all the buildings. They rose on all sides, some several stories, with a decidedly different architecture than back home. The ones here seemed cleaner somehow, less oppressing.

  Off to one side, I could see the Acropolis, the Parthenon majestically atop; it was well lit and easy to make out. If we had time while we were here, once we had found Darien, I wouldn’t mind some sightseeing before we headed back home.

  The thought sobered me a moment. I had been running on the thought that we would find Darien, and that when we did so he would want to come back with us.

  What if we don’t? Or if we do, what if he doesn’t want to come back?

  A bit of a chill slithered down my spine. Even over the short time I had been with Aerick, I had never been entirely able to put Darien from my mind, and certainly these last several months I had wondered if he was okay. I had never bothered to try to contact him because I had been waiting for Aerick to return, and having Darien around would have been far from helpful in that matter. If Darien hadn’t already given up on me himself.

  But I wasn’t waiting on Aerick anymore.

  I glanced over at Alex, who seemed less entranced with the view than me, then remembered that he had already spent quite a bit of time here. He caught my look, smiled, then reached out to fold his hand around mine where it lay on the seat.

  Fuck me, what have I done?

  I loved Alex, but I wasn’t in love with Alex, not that either was necessary for me to have sex with someone; I wasn’t sure I’d ever had that little moral complication. Before becoming a shifter, at least liking the person a lot had been a criterion, but since I hadn’t lost my virginity until after becoming a shifter, and had lost it to someone I cared deeply about, Aerick, it had been a moot point. Things had changed a lot in the last year, my beast pressing her own lack of inhibitions on me, and I had started to wonder if that criterion was degenerating to just finding someone attractive.

  But I found Alex more than attractive; I genuinely cared about him. I was just getting the idea that his feelings toward me ran a little bit deeper than I had thought. With no other stronger emotional attachments to draw me away, I could see myself being in a rather happy friends-with-benefits relationship with him; nothing more.

  And if we find Darien and Darien still feels the same way about me? What, then, for Alex?

  I sighed, looking around and realizing that the little car was pulling into the valet parking area of a small, but beautiful looking hotel. We came to a stop, the driver getting out and retrieving our two small bags from the trunk as Alex and I stood on the paved walk.

  “I will be back in the morning, say nine o’clock, to pick you both up and take you to the villa,” the driver told us, his accent light. “There are rooms in your names, just ask at the reception desk.”

  I nodded at him, thanking him for getting us to the hotel. He tipped his head at me, then got back in the car and drove away.

  “Shall we?” Alex asked, carrying both his own and my travel bag.

  I gave him a nod as well, following him up the stone steps that led to the hotel entrance. The interior of the lobby was spacious, the paint done in tones of gold, yellow, and white. The girl at the reception desk gave us a bright smile, despite the time of night. She found the keys to our rooms, and in accented English gave us brief directions on where to turn and which elevator to take to get to the rooms.

  We found them without much problem, right next to each other and with an adjoining door. I took my bag, then left Alex to his own devices in his room while I took a quick shower. I had just finished toweling my hair and had pulled a grey sleep shirt with Tinkerbell on it over my head when I heard a light knock on the adjoining door. I unlocked it and pulled it open. Alex was in nothing more than his blue jeans, hair still damp from his own shower, and I had to clench my hands at my sides with all that bare skin in front of me.

  He smiled at me, a bit uncertainly, his own eyes roaming my body in the clingy night shirt with its logo: ‘World’s Greatest Flirt’.

  “Can I come in?” he asked softly, dropping his eyes to the floor.

  I swallowed, hard, the cat just under the surface nudging at me, and it took all my willpower to not just grab him and drag him into the room.

  “I’m not sure that’s such a good idea, Alex, I’m not sure that it was other night either.” It killed me to say the words, but I did not want to lead Alex into believing there was something there that wasn’t.

  His shoulders sagged and he didn’t look up from the floor, but I heard his sharp intake of breath. His hand where it rested on the doorjamb tensed as he gripped the wood harder and he scuffed at the carpeting with a bare foot.

  “This is because we’re here to find Darien, isn’t it?” he asked, still not raising his eyes to meet mine. “You still feel the same way about him, despite what happened, Aerick, the time that has gone by…”

  “Yes.” I put my fingers under his chin, lifted his head so I could look him in the eye, so he could see that I never wanted to hurt him. I expected to see anger in his hazel eyes, but instead I saw love, and resignation. “I’m sorry, Alex.”

  “Don’t be.” He shook his head, taking a deep breath. “It’s not your fault. I should never have expected your tie to him to go away, wishful thinking on my part, I
reckon.” He closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them again and straightened up, staring down at me. “Look, I’m not Darien, and I’m certainly not Aerick, and if we find Darien and you want to try and make a go of it, I understand, I won’t interfere. I’ll always be there if you need me for a shoulder to cry on when he pisses you off, and he will, believe me.”

  He took a step closer to me, laid a hand on the curve of my neck and rubbed his thumb lightly on the skin there, causing a shiver to go down my body.

  “But for now, until we find him, can I have you just for this short time?” Alex’s words were just above a whisper, pulling at my heart, my senses, the Aspect spirit that was lurking just under my skin. “Please?”

  I couldn’t fight it anymore. The cat sprang to life, just this side of forcing me to shift, and I flung myself at Alex, my legs wrapping around his waist as he caught me, my nails already scoring his flesh as we battled for control over the kiss. I smelled canine, realized that his own beast was just as close to the surface, and as he dropped us both to the floor, I had the fleeting hope that we didn’t destroy the hotel rooms in the process before I let my lust consume me.

  _____________________________

  This time Alex was already up when I woke. I propped myself up on an elbow, staring around the room, wanting nothing more than to fall back into sleep; the time difference was getting to me somewhat. Alex had already straightened up the room, not that we had made as much of a mess as I had feared.

  I looked at the bedside clock; it read eight-fifteen. Shit. I only had forty-five minutes to get showered, dressed, and eat something before we had to leave.

  I had just finished getting dressed after a quickie shower when room service knocked on my door to bring me the breakfast I had called down. The menu had had some local dishes, but also some American as well and I had settled for some scrambled eggs, toast and ham, for two, even though I was the only one planning on eating it. Alex’s muffled reply through the adjoining door earlier had been enough to let me know that he had already eaten. When I was done, with only a few minutes to spare until we were supposed to be picked up, I grabbed my things, all packed up again, and headed into the hallway.

  Alex was already waiting for me, leaning against the door, his expression unreadable. I wasn’t sure what had changed this morning, why he was drawing away from me, but I wasn’t going to press the issue with him.

  He picked his own bag up off the floor and made his way to the elevator, slowing for me to catch up. We dropped the keys off with the person in reception, then went out to the front of the hotel, where the car was already waiting for us. The driver stowed our bags in the trunk again and we both got in. I gave Alex a sidelong glance, then sighed and turned my attention to the scenery, even more spectacular in the daylight.

  We drove past the Acropolis, then past a tall, conical hill in the center of the city, before the buildings began to thin out and dwindle, until we were in the surrounding plush green countryside. We had traveled maybe a half an hour outside the city when we turned down a side road that could only lead to the two story villa I saw in the distance, one side of it overlooking the Mediterranean.

  It was an older building, the stone, once white, now darkened with age. We passed through a tall gate that led into a circular drive, an ancient stone fountain in the center. Hedges and plants with new spring growth landscaped the property, disappearing around the sides where it became rocky as the hill led down to the water.

  The car stopped and we got out. Alex hadn’t said anything to me the whole trip, but as he came around the car to stand next to me, his hand briefly brushed mine and he smiled at me.

  “This way, please,” the driver told us, indicating the wide wooden double doors in the center of the bottom level. He opened them for us, ushering us inside.

  The doors opened onto a long room, opulently furnished, with dark stained wooden floors and walls painted a deep orange brown. Large windows looked onto the driveway, framed in the same dark wood. Old paintings and tapestries, many depicting hunting scenes, some showing scenes from Greek mythology, covered the walls. Small statues of various animals made their homes on narrow tables and intricate hand-woven rugs lay on the floor.

  The driver led us through this room and down a short, wide hall with doors on either side. He knocked softly on a door at the end, and a voice on the other side answered in what sounded like Italian.

  The driver said something back through the door in the same language, and I thought I picked out Darien’s name, then there was a reply again and the driver turned to us and smiled. “Elder Stefano is awaiting you, please go in.”

  I looked at Alex, who just nodded at me and turned the door handle. I could only assume that he had been here before, when he had come to Europe the previous summer with Darien. I followed Alex into the room, not sure what to expect on the other side of the door.

  This room was just as spacious as the previous one, the ceiling vaulted but not enough to reach into the second story. The floor was the same polished wood, the wide window overlooking the sea crisscrossed with dark framework. The walls in here were paneled in the dark wood as well, with the only paint being a beautiful off white in the ceiling. Cushioned bench seats ran along one wall.

  A beautifully carved mahogany desk sat not too far from the window, a lamp of wrought metal on one corner, a neat stack of papers on another. The man behind the desk stood as we entered, and moved to greet us.

  He was tall, equally proportioned through the shoulders and hips, and slim, his eyes a warm brown, his hair dark brown and shoulder length. He was quite handsome in the face, looking to be no more than maybe thirty, with a long straight nose and angular cheekbones; he looked a lot like Darien. I knew he was a shifter, like me and Alex, but he gave no clue as to what kind.

  “Alexander! It’s good to see you again!” Stefano Torre spoke with a light Italian accent and he smiled as he held a hand out to Alex. Alex clasped the man’s hand and shook it, and then Darien’s father turned his sharp eyes on me and I could see something almost like reproof in them briefly before he smiled at me. “And you must be Katelyn. My son seemed rather reluctant to discuss you with me, only that he had Blooded you and claimed you as his mate.”

  I wasn’t sure how to respond; he had me feeling as though I was an errant child that he was scolding somehow. He didn’t have his Alpha aura up at the moment, but he didn’t need it for me to feel that he was way farther up the hierarchy than either Alex or I were.

  So I held my hand out to him and smiled my brightest smile. “It’s good to meet you, Mr. Torre, I just wish it could have been under better circumstances.”

  Yeah, I know, try to change the subject to get it away from the ‘what’s wrong with you that you didn’t want to be with my son’ silent message that I was getting from Darien’s father.

  He ignored my hand, instead leaning in to draw me into a hug. “Please, call me Stefano, Mr. Torre makes me feel incredibly old.” He pulled back and motioned for Alex and me to sit, while he leaned one hip on his desk.

  “And you’re right, Katelyn, the circumstances could be better. I knew when Darien showed up here all those months ago that he was not in the best of tempers.” His mouth turned down when he said it, his eyes meeting mine to let me know that he blamed me for Darien’s state of mind at the time. “Oh, he played the part of the dutiful son, he learned from me, from the other Elders, and he’s ready to take on the responsibilities that I had intended for him, but he was still withdrawn.”

  I chewed at my lip, then finally spoke up, not liking that the Elder seemed to be dumping the fault of all this in my lap. “Look, Mr. Torre… Stefano… I know you feel that I am somehow responsible for Darien’s mindset, and maybe I am, but you need to realize that he did some of it to himself, that if he hadn’t been such an arrogant ass—”

  “Don’t presume to lecture me about my son’s temperament, Katelyn, I am fully aware of it. If you were a feral shifter, or even as a wilder had been
raised knowing what you were, in our culture, then his ‘arrogance’ would have been seen as a strength to you instead of a negative aspect. I’ve warned him in the past that trying to have a relationship with someone not raised as one of us would prove problematic to him. You knew he was married before, some years ago?”

  I nodded, afraid to say anything else that might piss Stefano off in regards to Darien; Darien was his son after all, and it was every parent’s right to come to believe their child could do no wrong.

  Stefano gave me another look, as though he were trying to see something beneath my skin. “I’m surprised, pleasantly though, that he mentioned Sasha to you. He doesn’t talk about her often. He had a few problems with her as well, in the beginning of their relationship. She was a wilder as well, but her human mother knew what Sasha was from the very beginning and Sasha had some idea growing up what would happen.

  “Darien never did find out what happened to Sasha’s father. He understood that she only met her father once or twice, when she was a teenager, when he Blooded her, and then never saw him again.” He tilted his head to one side and smiled sadly at me. “I was slightly shocked to find out you were a shifter, though. After Sasha died, Darien told me he would never have another shifter as a mate again.”

  I glanced at Alex, saw the chagrined expression on his face and realized that he had been told the same thing by Darien at some point as well. He reached out and patted my knee.

  “Why?” I asked, curious.

  Stefano’s eyebrows rose as though I should have known. “He wanted a child.”

  A child? I was trying to picture Darien as a father and for some reason I couldn’t. “And this has to do with me being a shifter how?”