The Keeper Saga: Wynter's War, Charmed, and The One (The Boxed Set Book 2)

by K. R. Thompson

  “The trail killer,” Ed mumbled under his breath, still loud enough for everyone at our table to hear.

  “We don’t know that,” I said a little too sharply. “She could just be lost and if she is, we’ll find her.” Even though my instincts are telling me that if she was out there, we would have found her by now.

  “The trail killer? Who’s the trail killer?” Nikki asked.

  “No one knows,” Ed shrugged. “It’s pure speculation that there’s a killer at all. In this area, over the last five years, a number of young women have been reported missing from the Appalachian Trail and have never been found. It’s as if they just disappear into thin air. Sometimes their gear is found, and it’s always near the trail. Of course, there is always a small chance that they saw something they wanted to check out and then just wandered off and got lost. But without their gear? No way.”

  “They never found any of them?”

  “No,” I whispered. Now do you understand why I don’t want you in the woods alone?

  “I understand,” she said, as if I’d said the words aloud. Had I said them aloud? I wasn’t sure.

  The bell rang and the boy sitting behind Nikki shoved his chair back, smacking into hers. I reached out and caught it to keep her from being pinned to the table.

  “Are you okay?” I asked her, while keeping my eyes on the boy who was heading to the trashcan, completely oblivious of what he’d done.

  “Yeah. I’m all right. Thanks.”

  Brian had seen what had happened, and in a split second, he reached down, offering Nikki his hand. “Are you all right?”

  “Yeah,” she said, taking his hand. “Adam kept me from getting smashed.”

  Brian gave me a small, stiff nod. “Thanks.”

  I returned his nod as he picked up Nikki’s tray with his free hand.

  As they walked away, Nikki turned to call over her shoulder. “Good luck tonight. I hope you find her.”

  I hope so too, I thought. Because I’d rather spend my time with you.

  My brothers and I ran through the darkening forest, trees flying past us as we ran. I led them up the trail, following the scent the girl had left behind. We had covered this territory earlier and everything looked the same as it had before, but there was a sense of finality this time—I knew we were going to find something on this search and whatever it was, wasn’t going to be good.

  Once I was certain there was no danger ahead, I dropped to the back of the pack, letting the others run ahead of me, so that I could see all four of them at once. As alpha, it is my job to protect my pack—especially the young ones. I watched the two gangly, brown wolves as Tommy and Michael slowed, lifting their heads to sniff the air, nostrils flaring as they searched for the scent.

  The woods were silent now; even the birds had quieted, making the forest eerie and surreal.

  I took a deep breath as we slowed down to a walk, my nose taking in each scent around me. The girl’s scent left the trail and we followed it over a steep embankment.

  Ed found it first. He sat back on his haunches, throwing his head up toward the sky and let out a long, mournful howl. I came up beside him and saw what had caused him to cry out.

  A dark green backpack was lying against a tree. I looked down at one of the pack’s straps and saw the name scrawled into the worn leather…Meghan.

  Two aluminum walking sticks laid beside it. I bent down and sniffed the end of one and the sickly sweet smell of blood filled my nostrils.

  I snorted, trying to shove the scent out of my nose as my eyes registered the dark red stain on the forest’s floor.

  I lifted my head and joined in, my howl mixing in with the rest of my pack, our wolves singing a song of anguish, loss, and frustration as the moon rose high above us.

  Although I hated even thinking the words, they still came. The Trail Killer was real and he had taken her. We’ll never find her. He found her first.

  Chapter 5

  I leaned against the hood of my Jeep the next morning, waiting for Nikki to arrive. The others knew it, but they didn’t joke or poke fun at me this time. The discovery of the missing hiker’s pack the night before was still weighing heavy on everyone’s mind. Though no one said it aloud, we all knew she would never be found. She would be like the others, forever lost.

  The rumble of the old Ford coming into the parking lot made me look up. Nikki was behind the wheel again and was driving better than she had the previous time. When she caught sight of me, her face lit up in a huge smile, and I felt instantly better.

  When she parked the truck, Brian jumped out of the passenger side and stalked to the front of the school without waiting on her. Strange, I thought, watching the way his shoulders hunched in his jacket. He hadn’t even spoken to her when he left.

  But I didn’t pay much more attention to him because Nikki had gotten out and was standing in front of me. It only took one look into my eyes and somehow she knew what had happened.

  “You didn’t find her,” she whispered. “You didn’t find Meghan.”

  I shook my head. “Only her gear.”

  We all walked into school together, silent. I left her at her first class, and then walked on to mine, mentally counting the hours that would pass before I would see her again.

  It took forever.

  I felt better the instant she slid in next to me at English, and once that class was over, I walked her to the cafeteria, still thinking it odd that Brian hadn’t run up to walk her from one place to the next like a lost puppy.

  I stood behind her until we got our trays and then she began to walk toward her usual table. She stopped when she saw that only Ronnie and John sat there and that they were completely oblivious to everyone else around them.

  “Come sit with me today,” I said, leaning forward to whisper in her ear. “I could use some cheering up.”

  So she followed me to our table and sat down. Erik, Ed, Tommy, and Michael, were shoving food into their mouths as fast as they could, though none of them seemed to be enjoying the task of doing so.

  I picked up my hamburger and took a bite. It tasted bland, but I still chewed and swallowed. Yesterday’s search had spent more than a few calories and my wolf needed them back to stay strong.

  “So did you find anything other than her gear?” Nikki asked. The hamburger immediately tasted like sawdust in my mouth and I laid it back down on the plate.

  I swallowed hard. “Her walking sticks—and some blood.”

  “Was the blood hers?” Her tone sounded hopeful, as if she was wishing for the red puddle to have belonged to some wild animal instead of the girl.

  “The police think so,” Ed spoke up. “They are sending it off for testing to be sure.”

  Everyone at the table went quiet.

  I pushed my plate away and leaned back. Then I felt Nikki take my hand under the table. I hadn’t expected her to do that, but I entwined my fingers with hers, and the air warmed and swirled around us like a big hug. Neither of us said anything, only sat together, watching as the others finished eating.

  The bell rang and we stood up at the same time, hands still held. I felt my face go red and I dropped her hand, then immediately regretted it.

  She walked over and dumped her tray.

  Hold on a second, I thought, running to catch up with her. I sent my tray to follow hers. “I’ll walk you to your next class.”

  I captured her hand in mine, no longer caring who saw. “Thank you for letting me walk you, and for cheering me up,” I said as we walked down the hall.

  “No problem.”

  “Are we still on for our study date? I saw Brian leaving earlier. My offer of a ride to the Res still stands. Hannah didn’t ride with us today, so we have plenty of room.” I doubted Hannah would ever ride with us again. After the day I’d asked Nikki to eat lunch with me, she’d avoided me like the plague and I found that I didn’t mind it at all.

  “That sounds good,” she said. “I’ll meet you outside after school.”


  “Okay.” We’d made it to Art class now and I gave her a smile, then turned and left to go to my Biology class, passing a wide-eyed Erik and Ed along the way. They’d been walking a respectful distance behind us, their eyes apparently glued to our clasped hands the whole way.

  The look didn’t last long on Erik’s face and I caught him grinning just before I went past. A television screen popped up in my head, the words I told you so, printing in bright neon green.

  I ran into Nikki, literally, after class. For some reason, I felt her running toward the lockers. When I rounded the corner, she plowed right into me.

  “Hey,” I said, startled. “I was just coming to see if you would let me walk you to Phys Ed since that’s my next class too. We’re sharing the gym today.”

  “Sure,” she huffed out of breath. “I just need to stick this in here.” She opened the locker and shoved a binder inside, putting it deep under a pile of other stuff.

  “What is it? Top secret?” I teased.

  She glared at me and slammed the door.

  I put my hands up, a gesture of apology. “Okay! I’m sorry…are you all right?”

  “I’m fine.” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Then she opened them and began to walk. “But we’re going to be late.”

  “Pfft,” I snorted. “No, we won’t. And even if we are, what will we have missed? A couple jumping jacks?”

  She didn’t answer, only smiled. But since she seemed to be in a hurry, I walked quicker.

  The answer to her need of being on time stood at the head of the cheerleading squad. Tiffany stood, hands on her hips, scowling at us with an expression so dour that I hoped her face would freeze.

  “It’s about time,” she told Nikki. “You’re late. Didn’t anyone tell you that we show up ten minutes early to warm up and stretch out?”

  “No,” Nikki replied as she left my side and walked past Tiffany. “And that would be your job, since you’re the captain. So if anyone is to blame, it is you.”

  I couldn’t help laughing as I went to the guys’ side of the gym. The leader of the cheerleaders was turning red, as if she was getting ready to explode.

  Mr. Warner, the P.E. teacher, looked at me quizzically, as if he couldn’t figure out what was so funny.

  “It’s nothing, sir,” I said, moving down the line, so as to be nearer my brothers.

  “All right, gentlemen,” Mr. Warner said, giving me one last look to make sure I wasn’t going to laugh again. “The game is basketball and you know the rules. Adam, Erik, Ed, Tommy, and Michael are the defending champions…”

  Defending champions? I thought. We’ve never been beaten. Odds are, we never will.

  I listened to the teacher halfway, as he gave instructions to the other team to defeat us by any means necessary…not exactly great instructions coming from someone who should not have been biased. I’d often wondered why he didn’t split us up to make things interesting, but he always seemed to know we were more than a team, and I think he enjoyed watching us play, even if it did mean that the other team always lost.

  It wasn’t their fault, though. There weren’t many of those guys who had magic. John, Ronnie’s boyfriend, had the beginnings of something going on. I took a deep breath. I was picking up a woodsy scent off him…Woodsburl, maybe? Then there was Albie, who was the son of a wood nymph, though that wasn’t common knowledge. The others, though, were as non-magical as they could possibly be.

  Even with John and Albie, they weren’t going to stand a chance against us.

  Erik plastered another television screen up in my head. Don’t forget to watch the ball this time. I don’t want to smack you in the face again, bro.

  I nodded slightly, letting him know that I had no intention of replaying our earlier game. We split up and the game began, but I found myself watching the group of girls at the opposite end of the gym.

  Their teacher had them doing pyramids and Nikki had been appointed to the top of one. She scaled up the mountain of thighs and shoulders until she reached the top. She stood there, rigid, as if she did not entirely trust the ones beneath her.

  Rightfully so, I thought, seeing Tiffany’s long blonde ponytail a short distance below Nikki’s pink-and-white sneaker.

  I dodged around John and passed the ball to Michael, who leapt up and dunked it into the net. I heard the swish and automatically moved to a defensive position, waiting for the other team to try to reach the net, all the while spending as much time as I could facing Nikki, so that I could watch as she climbed up the pyramid once again.

  The rest of my pack realized that I was watching Nikki, so I felt their attention shift onto her. They still played, easily beating the other team, but they were watching her now too.

  “Wonderful,” I heard Nikki’s teacher exclaim as she clapped her hands. “No one has gone up that many times without having some kind of difficulty. You’re doing a wonderful job. Just wonderful.”

  Albie zipped around me, and then attempted to pass the ball to John, but Ed ran across and nabbed it, turning the game in our favor once again.

  Nikki was heading up the pyramid again, but when she stepped up onto Tiffany’s leg, it straightened, and she tumbled to the floor.

  In the next second, my pack and I surrounded her.

  “You’re bleeding,” I said as Nikki looked up at me with wide, startled eyes. I crouched next to her, while the others flanked me, forming a tight circle around us.

  Erik’s nostrils flared. He smelled the blood too. “Elbow,” he said with a frown, looking at the back of her arm.

  “Yeah, I guess I scraped it when I rolled.” Nikki turned her arm over to get a better look. Blood was running all the way to her wrist in a long thick line.

  “Is anything else hurt?” I asked her, my eyes roaming over all other parts of her body that I could see searching for any other signs of injuries, though my nose told me the only one was on her elbow.

  “No, I don’t think so,” she said, wincing as she moved her arm.

  “Okay boys, move out of the way,” the girls’ teacher announced from somewhere on the other side of the human wall my brothers had formed. To their credit, they ignored her, waiting for a signal from me to let her in. I nodded and Tommy shifted just the slightest bit that the teacher squeezed around him to get to Nikki’s other side.

  “Oh dear, just when you were doing so well, too. We need to get you cleaned up.”

  Taking that as my cue, I picked Nikki up from the floor.

  “I can walk, you know,” she whispered into my hair, her hand against my chest.

  But I’d rather you didn’t, I thought, my heart speeding beneath her palm.

  “I’ll take her to the nurse,” Ronnie said as she ducked under Ed’s arm and came into our little huddle.

  “Thank you, Ronnie,” the teacher said, giving me a raised eyebrow that clearly said I was to put her down.

  Reluctantly, I did.

  “Okay boys, back to your side of the court. Everything is fine. The rest of you girls, keep working,” the teacher said in an obvious effort to get everyone moving.

  None of my brothers acknowledged her. They stayed still, waiting for my order. I nodded slightly and they left.

  “Are you sure you’re okay?” I asked Nikki again.

  “Yeah, it’s just a scrape. I’ll meet you after school.”

  Ronnie began tugging on her good arm. “C’mon. You’re bleeding all over the floor.”

  She led her from the gym and my instincts followed her all the way to the nurse’s station.

  “Black Water,” Mr. Warner called. “We haven’t got all day. Come on.” He clapped his hands in hopes of getting me to move faster. “Let’s go!”

  The game picked up where it left off, but no one’s heart was in it at all now. I picked up images from my pack, most of them being unique ways of knocking Tiffany from her spot on the pyramid so that she would fall the way Nikki had. The other team was deliberately slow now, as if they didn’t care whether they play
ed or not.

  After a few more minutes of trying to get everyone to play, Mr. Warner blew his whistle. “All right, you guys win. We’ll cut out early today since we had a little too much excitement.” He gave me a long, hard look. “But you’d better be ready to play next time.”

  “Yes, sir,” everyone said in unison. Then they split off into different directions, some heading toward the bleachers so sit, others heading toward the locker room.

  I headed straight out of the gym, tracking the trail of blood Nikki had left behind. Every few inches, there was another drop, and even though I knew exactly where she was, my eyes stayed glued to the floor and the little specks of red.

  When my trail disappeared beneath the nurse’s door, I leaned against the wall opposite and waited. A few moments passed by and I glanced at the clock at the end of the hall. School would be letting out soon, and none too early.

  Nikki opened the door, a thick gauze bandage on her arm. “I thought you were supposed to be in class,” she admonished, but from the way her lips quirked up at the edges, I could tell she was happy that I was there.

  “After you fell, no one felt like playing ball anymore, so they dismissed us early. I was worried, so I came to wait for you.” I shrugged and lightly touched her arm, inspecting the bandage. “I think we should go skin Tiffany for that little stunt she pulled. Does it hurt much?”

  “It’s getting sore, but I’ll live. How do you know she did anything? I could have just gotten clumsy and fell.”

  “She moved her leg just as you stepped on it,” I retorted, swinging my hair over my shoulder to get it out of the way. “And anyone that can fall on that hard floor and not get hurt worse than a scraped elbow is not clumsy. I saw her. She was jealous after the teacher gave you a compliment.”

  “How did you see and hear all of that? You were on the other side of the gym.”

  The anger that I’d felt seconds earlier diffused somewhat, like a balloon that lost some of its air. I gave her a weak smile. “I pay attention. Let’s go get your things and get out of here. I’ve had enough of this place for one day.”