Shrieks went up from fanged mouths. Something sticky hit Rafe in the face, and he didn’t take the time to find out what it was. A shout went up from Cameron, followed by another from one of the guards. Rafe’s hands had frozen in a raised position and he left them there, unable to comprehend what was going on and why the vampires had stopped fighting.
For a long, seemingly endless moment, Rafe thought he might have died here in the park and was about to bridge the gap to wherever his next stop might be. Time had slowed further, dragging the movement surrounding him along with it. Turning his head again took real effort. Breathing was tough. He finally managed to glance behind him, looking for Cara in the last place where she had been standing.
He saw nothing at first because, hell...it wasn’t winter and this was Miami, and yet snow was falling, tiny foul-smelling gray snowflakes that drifted down to cover his shoulders.
But these weren’t snowflakes. The disgusting flurry of ashy particles was all that remained of the vampires.
There wasn’t one damn vampire left. And by the expressions on the faces of his packmates, they were as stunned as he was.
Cameron said, “They’re gone. All of them.”
Panic struck Rafe square in the chest. He spun around on his heels and called out, “Cara?”
The silence that met him seemed unnatural after all the grunting and shrieks. Darkness hovered over the area like a big black cloud. There was no glint of moonlight.
Rafe strained to focus his enhanced sight. “Why don’t you answer?”
His chest hurt. His head throbbed. Rafe’s packmates, gathered around him, were staring at something above them. He had never been as afraid of anything as he was right then, when his gaze rose to the lowest branch of the tree beside him.
And damn it...that fear was warranted.
Chapter 24
Cara was there, though unrecognizable. Rafe felt her presence in the tree without having to look. What had happened to the vampires was also suddenly clear.
Cara had beaten them at their own game.
The sight of her latest incarnation rendered him speechless. Cara’s shape had altered again, and she might have gone too far this time. She had become a dark entity that was difficult to look at. There was hardly a visible outline, because the area around it wavered like a desert mirage. It looked like a mistake or as if some kind of ancient process had taken over. One thing was certain, though: Cara had killed those vampires by allowing the dark spirit inside her its freedom.
The Banshee facing them was terrifying. With each passing second, parts of its countenance flickered and changed, as if none of them could stick permanently. He saw the flash of a face that was beautiful beyond belief. Following that was a skeletal mask that made his insides roil. Then came the face of a wolf. And after that, the features of an unfamiliar female.
Black hair, so like Cara’s and almost invisible in the night, flew in the swirls of a nonexistent breeze, each tendril seeming to have a life of its own. The black clothes Cara had worn became a gauzy dark cloud of moving shadows. The only light spot in this vision was the pallor of the face that finally settled into place. Most of Cara’s features were there and recognizable, possibly because the spirit couldn’t entirely separate itself from its host.
Cara was there, but she wasn’t looking back at him. She had done the unthinkable by letting the Banshee out for some air. Was this how she had taken on the vampires? Had she channeled the spirit’s power in order to aid his packmates?
Would she be able to tuck that spirit back where it belonged if she wanted to? The Banshee was an entity that ate souls for breakfast. Rafe hoped this one couldn’t see into his soul to locate the fears forming there.
“Can you come back, Cara?” he messaged to her.
The Banshee’s silver-eyed gaze made him uncomfortable. This spirit was female, Cara had said, though it seemed so much more than any one thing. She could no doubt track the anxiety present in all of the Weres here without having to turn her head. Crouched on that branch, the apparition, a physical melding of Cara and the Banshee, most resembled a vampire queen ready to pounce.
“I know what you are and who you are,” Rafe said. “I’d like to speak to Cara.”
Rafe’s packmates had been stunned to silence. Up to this point, only Cameron had witnessed the kinds of things Cara could do. And hell, a wolf was nothing compared to this.
The dark spirit again flickered in and out of focus as if it was more of an idea or a dream than anything truly corporeal. Rafe didn’t know much about the Banshee other than the few things Cara had told him. Did it understand that he and Cara had forged a connection?
He was seeing for the first time what lived inside Cara, and it was disturbing. One of the most dangerous and feared entities on earth was looking at him through Cara’s eyes. This was what Cara had been protecting.
What few details he had learned about the dark spirit hardly prepared him for this moment. Cara’s ancestors must have understood the ramifications of agreeing to house this creature. Was their decision worth the sacrifice? And were there more Banshees in the world to take up the task of shouting about death? Could there only have been one of them to begin with?
The spirit’s pale eyes fixed on him in a way that told Rafe his thoughts were transparent. He wondered if it shared Cara’s feelings, and if the entity had also shared their kiss. It was possible this Banshee knew him as intimately as Cara did, but what would it do with that information?
Rafe said, “If you were the one who vanquished those bloodsuckers, let me be the first to offer thanks.”
The eyes truly were silver, a werewolf’s bane. The gaze that pinned him was cold.
Christ! What was normal about Cara giving this thing sanctuary, or about what this entity could do to her if it got tired of hiding?
“How long do you propose to stay?” he dared to ask.
His question drew wary glances from his packmates, who were frozen in place.
“According to Cara, you must remain hidden. That was part of the deal you made with her ancestors.”
He has letting his packmates hear things they should not have been privy to, but this wasn’t the time to worry about it. He had to find Cara in all that darkness.
“Isn’t it dangerous for you to appear to anyone, including us, though we appreciate your help and your trust in appearing now?”
Still no response. Rafe had no idea if the dark spirit could talk or speak through Cara. Anxiousness lowered his voice.
“We’d like to take Cara to safety. She’s supposed to be in our care. My care. I take that seriously.”
The idea bordered on being ludicrous, Rafe had to admit. Cara had just wiped five vampires off the surface of the planet in seconds and obviously had used a boost from whatever special kind of power this dark entity possessed. She might owe that spirit for help with this skirmish. Conversely, the Banshee might owe Cara for its current home.
None of this made his goal of protecting Cara any less urgent. Banshees might be powerful and utterly inhuman, yet Cara was in there, listening. The body concealed beneath that black cloud belonged to her.
It was an inopportune time for reflection, but Rafe wondered who Cara might have been without all of the tricks and talents and vows. He couldn’t picture what her smile would be like, or her laugh. He couldn’t see her as a kid, doing things that occupied most youngsters. Maybe Cara missed what she’d never had.
Those thoughts made him want to yank that Banshee out of the tree and demand Cara’s return...and to hell with the consequences.
Speaking in Cara’s voice, the thing in the tree said, “I wouldn’t try it, wolf. Trust me on that.”
* * *
Cara felt her own spirit rising through the fog that had taken her over. Free again to speak and to breathe, she fought off the icy sensations associated with the Banshee
and waited for the dark spirit to retreat, fully aware that it didn’t have to. After getting a taste of long-awaited freedom, the spirit she housed was taking her time to withdraw.
Rafe was watching her closely to see when she would surface. His body hummed with anxious energy. He had dared to address death’s right hand and so far had gotten away with it.
She had never been almost completely overtaken by this spirit, and that was her fault. By piling energy on top of energy, she had created a gap that the Banshee had used to take form.
She was the only one here to realize that the dark spirit had allowed Rafe to address her only out of curiosity. Maybe the Banshee picked up on Rafe’s need to protect Cara, which also meant he would be protecting the spirit she housed, though it was the deadliest entity around and they all knew this.
She felt nothing of the spirit’s hold on her now. For the time being, after sharing its power in the fight with the vampires, the Banshee had simply and willingly gone back inside. All that was left of the icy chill that was the spirit’s calling card was a harsh dryness in Cara’s throat.
Rafe thanked you, and I thank you, Cara silently said as she jumped from the branch to land solidly on both feet.
The Weres were quick to form a circle around her despite what they’d witnessed, though they didn’t get too close. Could she blame them? Nor did they pose any of the questions that had to be running through their minds. Cara appreciated the moments of silence that followed the Banshee’s big reveal. She didn’t hear the word freak resonating in any of their minds.
“Okay,” Rafe said without taking her in his arms the way she knew he wanted to. “Time to go. Are you good with that, Cara? Are we in the clear?”
His packmates again looked to him.
“We haven’t completed the search,” Cara said, sure that none of these Weres would want anything more to do with the park tonight.
“We’ll get you back first,” Rafe said.
“Then you’ll go out again without me?”
“Don’t you agree that would be for the best?”
Rafe followed his remark with another more personal question, even though they had company. “Was this unusual?”
She replied, “Yes.”
Rafe was tense, but not twitchy like his packmates. He had what it took to be an alpha wolf, with the necessary outward calmness and candor to back up his courage when the time came for him to inherit the job from his father. His stance was easy when his insides were tight. His face wasn’t bloodless or rigid with fear after she had shown him her most terrifying aspect.
He was paving the way for his packmates to accept her. Rafe Landau was slated for big things, not just babysitting a hybrid who would never be truly accepted in Were society.
He was perfect in every way. The hardness of his body alone chased away any doubts she had, and kept her rooted in place when in the past she would have run away from any and all emotion.
The level of her desire to be with another Were was new, exciting and nearly as overwhelming as the Banshee’s takeover. However, she couldn’t rush into Rafe’s arms with others looking on. The Weres surrounding him didn’t need any more surprises.
“So, okay. The bastards are gone and no one will weep for them,” he said, tearing his gaze from her to address everyone in the circle. “We’ll go back now and let the others in on what’s happening in this damn park.”
He didn’t touch her when she walked past him, though he raised a hand as if he would. His packmates closed around her, forming a barrier of muscle that prevented her from getting closer to Rafe. They were protecting her from monsters, and keeping Rafe from her.
“It will be all right, Cara. I see what this is, and I’m not afraid to face it” was the only message Rafe sent her.
Deep inside Cara, the dark spirit moved.
The spirit feels what I feel, she should have answered. As long as she is part of me, she knows all. But that information was too scary to share.
“You take me, you take it all, Rafe,” she messaged to him. “You do get that?”
The look he gave her sent her doubts scurrying.
Chapter 25
Cara was taunting him with her closeness. Recovering from the dark spirit’s appearance, she would need comfort when they got back to the house. Hell, strong as he was, he also needed comfort after this.
The damn Banshee might have been trying to scare him off, to keep from sharing Cara with anyone else, but his craving for closeness with her was insane. He had to hold on and pretend to be detached when his heart was revving and his body ached for Cara in places too numerous to mention.
If love were to find a place in Cara’s heart, would that displace her internal parasitic spirit?
His father had warned him not to indulge in fantasies regarding their guest, yet it was too damn late. His world had narrowed down to Cara, and his view of things had changed. She was the central focus, the epicenter of the emotions he now struggled to keep in check.
He realized that with Cara headlining every thought that popped into his mind, he’d be no good to anyone in the search for a killer. Cara was causing a rift in his sense of duty. That was a first. Meanwhile, there was an ancient vampire on the loose that had been bold enough to confront them in Were territory. While his mind was filled with anticipation about making love to Cara, who could predict what other kinds of atrocities lurked in the shadows, wanting a piece of her?
He’d take her to his parents and hope they could exert some control over her rebellious ways. He needed to rejoin the search party. Keeping the Were world safe was paramount, and a hell of a lot more important than his love life.
So why didn’t he actually believe that?
“I can help.” Cara’s voice was soft and earnest.
“There’s too much at stake to keep you out in the open,” he said.
Each time her eyes met his, he seemed to lose his place in reality. Cara was dangerous, all right. Most of all, she was dangerous for him.
“Home,” he said in a tone that encouraged everyone to pick up their pace.
Minutes later, the wall and the lights beyond it came into view. Several cops combed the area, sniffing for missed clues. He recognized all of them from afar and had to change direction to avoid their attention and keep Cara out of sight.
His little pack moved in a symbiotic manner without the need for communication. Once they had cleared the wall and were again near pack headquarters, he turned to Cameron.
“Can you make sure Cara goes inside and take her to my mother?”
Cameron nodded. Cara didn’t react. Her eyes were hidden beneath her long lashes, and Rafe felt colder without those eyes on him. He’d be sorry to let Cara go, but he could do this. He would temporarily break the chains binding them, get to the bottom of what the mysterious killer wanted and figure out if the target was Cara.
I can let you go, for now...
That unsent message repeated on a loop inside his head. He couldn’t say the words aloud, because he had never been a very good liar.
Cara went with Cameron when she could have refused. Rafe couldn’t imagine someone actually making this Kirk-Killion do anything she didn’t want to do. Cara was a supernatural force to be reckoned with.
Was he afraid of her abilities? No. If no more creatures were to come after Cara and her life could become more or less normal, could they be happy?
“I’ll be back before sunrise,” he said.
She didn’t stop to acknowledge him, and seemed willing to follow his instructions. She didn’t fool him, though. Cara’s apparent willingness to listen could be a ruse designed to throw them all off her real objectives. Like her mother, would she leap from that damn window the first chance she got?
Hell, wolf spelled backward was flow...and Cara was nothing if not flexible. In retreat, she gave nothing away about possibly hav
ing a secret agenda. He detected no deception in the way she had acquiesced to his request. But Rafe felt the pull she had on his system and wondered if there truly was going to be any way to escape whatever the future with Cara might bring.
“You coming?” he said to the other Weres gathered around him. “Shall we hunt for the killer that threatens to expose us?”
“I’d say that’s only one of many new problems,” one of the guards remarked.
His father approached, his voice overlapping the guard’s. “I just got back from a fruitless search.” After taking in the serious expressions of their faces, he added, “What happened out there?”
“More bloodsuckers on a rampage,” Rafe said and left it at that.
The guards also remained silent about what had actually taken place. Even though the hierarchy here was nothing like in some other packs, Landau wolves didn’t have to worry about retribution from their alpha for speaking their minds or telling the truth as they saw it. Every opinion was taken into consideration by Dylan Landau. But in all likelihood these guys were still questioning themselves about what they had seen tonight.
Rafe’s father turned toward the wall.
“The park is still crawling with cops,” Rafe reminded him.
“When did that stop us?” his father said over his shoulder.
Rafe didn’t look at the house, or for the light in Cara’s window. She’d be standing there, watching.
“Dana is there,” his father said when Rafe caught up to him.
“Yes.” The weight of Rafe’s concern was obvious in his brief reply.
“We’re not Cara’s keepers, merely her hosts, Rafe.”
“I understand that.”
“One problem at a time is the way to go.”
“Cara is at the center of all of them,” Rafe said.
His father hadn’t seen her all vamped up in that tree, or in Banshee mode, or as a wolf running on all fours. His father wasn’t aware of how tightly his son’s soul had meshed with hers, and that thoughts of Cara would take precedence until they had fully mated in body as well as in soul.
The Black Wolf Page 17