Forgotten Enemy (The Powers of Influence Book 1)

by C. B. Haight

  Collett felt her worry for Cade and the missing Cody increase. That was too much time, she thought to herself. “I’ve got to go help Cade,” she said, voicing her thoughts aloud.

  “NO! Collett, listen to me. You need to stay where it’s safe. Cade can handle himself. Cody should be on the grounds, he must have seen the fire…”

  Interrupting him Collett shouted, “Cody’s missing! You need to hurry!”

  Rederrick let out a curse, then he barked out, “Just get to a safe place. I’ll have Cynda come and get you as soon as we arrive. Now GO!”

  Collett didn’t even answer. She’d hung up the phone already. Prying the drawer open, she quickly grabbed the gun Rederrick told her about, and with a nervous grip, she rushed from the room. She entered the foyer and hesitated.

  She looked over her shoulder back toward the den and the hidden security room she had come from, and then looked to the front door. It only took Collett a split second to decide. She would not leave Cade to face her demons and die. She would not let her fear cost her all that she found here. She would not let fear cost her the man she loved.

  She rushed to the door and practically flew through the opening into the darkened night. She ran out intending to find Cade and help him, until she noticed he was running at full speed back in her direction, waving her back to the house. Relief flooded her.

  When he approached her, he gripped her arm forcefully and dragged her back into the house. Powerful waves of anger rolled off of him, and a dark, flinty look glinted in his eyes. “What the hell do you think you’re doing charging out there?” he snapped.

  She stepped back away from him to distance herself from his anger. Collett felt how strong it was, and oddly she could feel hate coming from him too. She had never felt his feelings so strongly. Not even when they first met in the woods.

  It was hard for her to answer him, as his emotions clawed at her, confused her, but she finally managed to say, “I was coming to help you.”

  He looked down at the .22 she held in her hands and scoffed, “With that little thing?”

  Why was he being so harsh? She wondered. She just wanted to help. “Where’s Cody?” Collett begged. He squinted at her slightly confused. “Cody, did you find Cody?”

  Finally understanding he just shook his head negatively.

  Collett gasped. She prayed silently. No! Please let him be okay.

  “Come on we have to go. It’s not safe here.” He gripped her arm again intending to pull her to the garage.

  “No wait,” Collet yelled. “What about Cynda and Rederrick? They are on the way here. We have to warn them!”

  “Fine, meet me in the garage and get some keys. I’ll call them,” he ordered.

  Collett stared at him thinking, what made him so angry, what happened out there? Knowing now was not the right time to ask, she nodded her head and went to do as directed.

  She ran down to the door that led to the garage and yanked it open. Then, going over to the wall safe, she punched in the code Rederrick had given her. When it clicked, she reached in and grabbed the keys to the bullet-grey Hummer. By the time she had them in her hand, Cade had made his way out to her.

  She passed the ’68 Camaro and jumped into the passenger side of the Hummer next to it. Cade bent down and inspected the undercarriage. She heard a slight clunk. He climbed into the SUV. Collett handed the keys to him and asked forlornly, “Now what?”

  He turned the keys and said with a cold voice, “Now we get to play a little game.”

  Collett felt chills run through her body. This was a side of Cade she’d never seen. She wasn’t sure she liked it. Trying again, she asked, “I meant, where are we going?”

  “I know of a little place in the mountains. We’ll go there for a while. After that, who knows what will happen.”

  Collett looked across the console between them still wondering what could have happened to put so much anger in him. Whatever it was, Collett wasn’t sure she wanted to know.

  They drove for a long time. So long, in fact, Collett drifted in and out of sleep. She was too exhausted from the previous night’s lack of sleep to keep her heavy lids open in the warm comfort of the hummer. When they arrived at a bumpy, rutted, dirt road, the vehicle’s jarring back and forth woke her up. Collett looked to him, “Where are we?”

  He looked to her and smiled coldly. “We’re headed to a small cabin in the mountains that I know about.”

  “Whose place is it?” Collett inquired.

  He gave her a glare, “Just someone I know. Does it matter?”

  How could he still be so angry? Collett was baffled at his strange disconnection from her.

  She was feeling pretty angry herself. His emotions were affecting her in a way she never felt before. His attitude was so out of character. Collett snapped back dryly, “No, I guess it really doesn’t. Will we be safe there?”

  He said nothing, didn’t even look at her, and she assumed he wasn’t sure.

  Neither one of them spoke for the rest of the drive down the bumpy snow covered road. When they finally arrived at a log cabin on the end of the path, he pulled the SUV to a stop and turned off the engine.

  “Get out,” he said shortly.

  Collett watched as Cade opened his door, got out and slammed it shut. The hard slam of his door made Collett jump in her seat. He walked through the snow and bounded up the two stairs, landing on the covered porch. Then he looked back pointedly to her still sitting inside the Hummer.

  Huffing out a breath, Collett decided she would find a way to figure out whatever it was. Maybe he knew something. Maybe he figured out who she was, and it wasn’t a good thing. With another deep breath she resolved that whatever it was, she would have to deal with it.

  Her decision made, she exited the SUV and hedged her way through the snow to the front door where Cade now stood waiting. When she finally reached the threshold she looked carefully at him, trying to understand what bothered him.

  His eyes that were usually warm and comforting, now looked cold and callous. Gazing into his fierce gold orbs, she felt afraid. Fear was something she had only felt once around him. What is happening here, Collett thought to herself.

  He spat out, “Anytime now.”

  His voice was so harsh. She stood there staring at him, shocked by his tone. He just grabbed her arm forcefully and pushed her inside. She almost stumbled and fell because of the aggressive maneuvering.

  She whipped around and faced him. Enough was enough, she thought. “Just what is your problem? You have been rude and mean since you came back from the fire,” she snapped.

  He inclined his head in the way she usually found endearing. Right now though, it was intimidating. “My problem, honey, is you. For the moment anyway.”

  The way the words rolled off his tongue and the deep tone of his voice made her nervous enough to take a cautious step back away from him. It wasn’t just his eyes that were different, his voice was odd too. It was darker, deeper. She pleaded, “Cade, tell me what’s wrong with you. What made you so angry? Let me help you!”

  He took a step closer to her, “You really want to help me?”

  She nervously stepped back again. Her reply came out barely above a whisper “Yes.”

  Another step forward, “Are you sure?” he asked while raking her body with his intense gaze.

  Collett didn’t even get the word out this time. She could only nod under his scrutiny. She once again tried to take a couple steps back. She ran out of room. The back of her heel bumped up against the wall.

  He braced his hands against the wall on either side of her, effectively blocking her in.

  There was nowhere to go, no room for escape. She thought. She tried to hold his gaze, but couldn’t stand the cold rage in them.

  For a brief moment, she thought his face looked different somehow, but she pushed the errant thought away. It’s the fury in his eyes, she reasoned, it makes him different. When she tipped her head down to escape the intense power of those eyes
, he put a hand under her chin and forced her to face him. He forced her to look. When she did, Collett gasped as it dawned on her.

  Then grinning, he roughly crushed his lips to hers.

  The kiss was fierce and unfeeling. He plundered and took. Collett pushed hard at his chest, trying to pull away. He just ignored her efforts and continued to move his lips forcefully against hers. His hands gripped her hips painfully as he pushed her violently into the wall with his hard body.

  She felt panic setting in. She increased her efforts to get away from this man. She pushed again forcefully and began hitting at him. He only tightened his grip making it harder, as his solid frame simply absorbed the meager blows.

  Something flashed in her mind, but was buried in his anger and her own panic.

  With desperation clawing through her, she collected her wits and did the next thing that came to her mind. As his lips moved forcefully against hers, she parted her lips, as if in invitation, then when he shifted his bruising assault on her lips, she bit down hard on his bottom lip.

  She tasted the salty tang of his blood and heard his low, throaty growl. She released his lip, and looked up into his now crimson, glowing eyes.

  He cursed foully and pulled away from her, pressing the back of his hand to his bleeding lip. The brief respite was all Collett required to duck under his arm and around him. She didn’t run, though. She could only stand there and look at the stranger’s back.

  A stranger, who wore Cade’s face.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  When Cade came back to consciousness, he was lying in the cold, wet snow. He found it difficult to focus. His vision blurred and wavered. He moved a hand to where he felt like the throbbing originated and felt the wet stickiness of blood on his scalp. The sweet copper aroma confirmed what he already knew. He had smelled it before, many times. He tried to think about what happened.

  Then as a slight clarity came to his foggy brain, the blood in his veins turned cold. Collett! He had to get to Collett!

  He wondered to himself how long he’d been unconscious. Rolling over he tried to get up. His stomach pitched and his head swam from the effort. He pushed past it and stood. He fell back to his knees immediately. His head spun. He didn’t care. All that mattered to him was Collett.

  He didn’t care about the pain. He had to get to her! He stumbled and staggered like a career drunk, picking his way back to the house. It took him three times as long as it should have.

  As he slowly made his way across the grounds, several scents assaulted him. The smell of burning brush and pine, much like that of a campfire, and he could smell the sickly-sweet aroma of his own blood. Lastly, Cade could still smell his assailant, even though he was no longer close by. His animal instincts would never forget that familiar scent.

  When Cade finally reached the door, he leaned against it, taking a moment for balance. Opening the door, he staggered inside and fell to his knees, “Collett!” He croaked as loudly as he could. Pain lanced through his throbbing head as he bellowed her name.

  Collett didn’t come running into the room as he’d hoped, but Cynda did. The shock on her face told Cade he must look pretty bad. She ran over to help him asking “Cade! What happened…? Rederrick!” She called.

  Her piercing shout almost made his head explode. He looked up at her eyes, “Collett. Where is Collett?”

  Cynda’s expression told Cade all he needed to know, “Cade, she was with you… You left a note,” she explained fearfully.

  Cade felt the nauseating blackness creeping in again, but he fought it back. “I didn’t leave a note. She was here, in the house, waiting for me.”

  He must have lost consciousness for a minute because when he came to again Rederrick was there, bending down over him. He helped Cade back to his feet. Rederrick threw Cade’s arm over his shoulders and gripped him around the waist. “Come on Cade, stay with me,” He encouraged.

  “Where is Collett?” he asked with panic tearing through him, even as he leaned heavily against Rederrick.

  Rederrick answered gruffly, “Don’t you worry…we’ll find her, Cade. Right now let’s take care of you.”

  “No! There’s no time! We have to find her. He’ll kill her! We have to stop him.”

  Rederrick sat Cade on the couch in the parlor, and inspected his head wound. It stopped bleeding, but the wound was vicious. “Whatever hit you must have cracked your skull. This is pretty bad. Did you see who attacked you, Cade?”

  Cade closed his eyes, both to stop his head from spinning and to fight for control over his growing terror. Then he spat with venom in his voice, “Jarrett. It was Jarrett.”

  Cynda came into the room with some water and some of her healing ointment for Cade. When she heard his words, the glass of water fell from her hand in shock. Her expression filled with worry, “Are you sure? He wouldn’t do that. You have to be mistaken. I know you two don’t see eye to eye, but he wouldn’t kill her. Would he?”

  Cade started to shake his head, but the pain made him rethink the movement. “I don’t know what he will or won’t do, but I am not willing to leave Collett’s life in Jarrett‘s hands. I’ll kill him if he hurts her.” As he spoke, his eyes burned blood red leaving no room for doubt that he would carry out the promise.

  This was Cade’s demon, the shadow from his past. Cade remembered meeting Jarrett for the first time in 1862, but that was not when their relationship began. As unconsciousness clawed at him again, so did the age-old memory.

  “A blood-thirsty werewolf I tell ya.”

  Several men hooted and laughed at the outrageous proclamation.

  Cade heard these words from a distance. He didn’t laugh. He decided he better investigate. If people were starting to guess his nature, it was time for him to leave. As he approached the campfire cautiously, where these soldiers sat eating their rations, he heard,

  “You’re nuts John, ain’t no such thing.”

  “Believe what ya want. I saw it with my own eyes.” John snapped. “Appeared out of nowhere, it did. He tore the man to shreds. Was the worst thing I ever seen.”

  The other man hooted, saying sarcastically, “Why is it you’re still here, then? If it was a werewolf you should be all torn up lying with them. You’re big enough to make a good meal, I'd wager.”

  John answered emphatically, “I’m telling ya what I seen. Ain’t nobody gonna tell me different! It looked at me with its gold eyes and took off. Just like that, gone, and heaven knows I wasn't gonna question why. I was just happy to still be breathing.”

  Cade stepped into the light of the fire, “Where?”

  All the men around the fire looked up at Cade, surprised by his presence. No one had heard him coming. They all started to stand until Cade said, “As you were.”

  The man telling the story was a man Cade new to be John Furwood. He looked up at Cade, grateful someone would listen to him. “I saw him down by the river when we ran into those Jonny Rebs.”

  “What did it look like, corporal?” Cade demanded. It wasn’t so much the idea of another werewolf around that bothered him. It was the open way it handled itself that worried him. Werewolves needed to be very careful to avoid exposure. He had seen what panicked mobs could do. A person was smart; people were stupid. He needed to find out this werewolf’s intentions.

  “Well, I didn’t see too much,” John explained, “But I could tell it was all black and stood on two legs. Had the strangest gold eyes, reminded me of something.” He screwed up his face thinking about it, “When it looked at me, I swore I was a dead man standin’.”

  Cade was never more grateful for the dim light. He knew it would be hard for them to see his eyes at this angle. All the same though, he didn’t want to chance it. “Well I’ll check into it, but I am sure you were mistaken. Sometimes the terror of battle has us imagining things.” He said with authority, and walked away.

  The other men at the campfire covered their snickering laughs. There was only one man there that night that believed John’s e
very word. That man was Cade.

  Cade spent weeks looking for the other werewolf, seeking any clue, he could find. He finally found it one day when his regimen came to a clearing with broken, torn bodies lying on the wet earth. It had rained the night before. The bodies of the Confederate Soldiers were torn and shredded. The wounds came from no sword. Men blamed the carnage on some sort of great bear or a pack of rabid wolves.

  Cade knew what had caused their deaths. He had seen these sweeping marks before, had caused similar wounds himself. It hadn’t been a pack of wolves, just one. He knew he was out of time. He knew he must find the werewolf behind this and soon.

  That night, he snuck away from camp and went looking for him. He tracked him from the site where they had seen the dead rebels. It took almost the whole night to find him. He finally found him sitting on a large rock all by himself, without a fire. Not that creatures like them needed one.

  The man on the rock kept his back turned to Cade, but Cade could smell the scent of the wild beast within him. It was a scent Cade would never forget. Even though the other werewolf was in the form of a man, He knew this to be the werewolf he was seeking.

  The man spoke with a deep voice, “I knew you would come eventually.”

  Surprised Cade asked, “You did?”

  “Yes. I have been waiting a long time to meet you,” he said.

  Cade was not sure what to say so he kept silent.

  Then the man on the rock stood. With his keen eyesight, Cade could see the man was about his same height, same build. Though he looked a little leaner, his muscles were sharp. His hair was long and dark. Even with his back turned to him, Cade knew if this came to blows, it would not be an easy fight to win.

  Then the man turned to face Cade, “Yes. I have been waiting a long time to meet you, brother.”

  Cade would never forget that stunned feeling he felt when he saw his own face staring back at him. That was the day he learned he was not alone. Cade had always known that others like him existed. He’d even met two of them, but this…this was entirely different. This was his brother, a brother of his blood, his twin.