by Karen Lynch
I knew the answer before I asked my next question, but I had to ask it anyway. “Are the girls still alive?”
Terror flashed in his eyes. “No. Eli killed them, not me!”
Experience told me I wasn’t getting anything useful out of this one - except for maybe one thing. “Where are you and your friends holed up?”
The vampire stared at me but didn’t answer. I suspected it was fear for his own life and not loyalty to the other vampires that kept him quiet.
“Here’s the deal, and it’s the only one you’ll get. You tell us where your friends are, and we’ll let you walk out that door. Or you can choose not to answer, which is not in your best interest. Trust me.”
Doubt and hope filled his eyes. “You’ll really let me go?”
I lowered the knife. “I give you my word as a warrior that you’ll walk out that door unharmed. But if I see you again, you won’t fare as well.”
His eyes darted to the door, and he nodded jerkily. “Okay, I’ll tell you. We’re staying in a place on Fletcher Street.” He rattled off an address. “That’s all I know. I swear. Can I go now?”
I released him and stepped back, clearing a path to the exit. “Go.”
The vampire lunged for the door and pulled it open. Without a look back, he ran outside into the alley at the rear of the building. As the door closed behind him, I heard a chorus of growls followed by a muffled scream.
Chris blew out a noisy breath. “Ten vampires?”
“I know. Something is up, and we’re going to get to the bottom of it.”
“We should call in a unit for this one,” Chris said as we headed for the front exit. “Unless you’re in the mood to piss off the Council again.”
I laughed, remembering my last talk with Tristan. “Let’s call Erik. His team is closest.”
Chris made the call. “They’ll be here in two hours.”
We left the building and headed back to our bikes. My mind kept replaying what the vampire had said about Eli and the teenage girls, and the more I dwelled on it, the more I wanted to hit something.
“You want to tell me why you’re in such a black mood tonight?”
I gave Chris a sideways glance. “I’m not in a mood.”
He made a sound suspiciously like a snort. “How long have we known each other? You have the coolest head of any warrior I’ve ever met, but you almost killed that vampire back there. What was that about?”
“I’m mad at myself for letting Eli get away last night. That’s all.” The real reason for my agitation wasn’t something I wanted to discuss, even with Chris. The sooner we dealt with the situation in Portland and sent our people to get Sara, the sooner I could put this behind me.
My Mori growled unhappily. It had been doing that a lot since I’d let Sara drive away with her friends last night. Mori demons were driven by instinct and emotion, and all mine could think about was its mate.
Potential mate, I reminded us both. I couldn’t deny there was something about the girl that drew me in like no one ever had. Was it the innocence I’d seen in her eyes? Or her blind trust in me in that alley?
Or was it because of how right it had felt to hold her in my arms?
It doesn’t matter what it is. There was no place in my life for a mate, no matter what I was feeling. My Mori would just have to get over it.
My phone rang and Dax’s number flashed across the screen.
“Dax, what do you have for me?”
“I traced the license plate to a Judith Greene in New Hastings, which is about an hour north of Portland. She has a son named Roland, who attends St. Patrick High School. I searched the school records and found two girls named Sara. I’m sending you their pictures now.”
A photo appeared on the screen of a blonde girl named Sarah Cummings.
“Not her,” I said.
It took a minute for the second picture to arrive, and I recognized the face immediately. I stared at Sara Grey’s green eyes until Dax spoke.
“Is it her?”
“Yes. Do you have an address for her?”
Dax chuckled. “Do you even have to ask?”
Seconds later, a text arrived with her address. “You need anything else?” he asked.
“No, that’s it. Thanks.”
“Anytime.”
Chris leaned in to look at the face on my phone. “Ah, Dax found your little orphan.”
I closed the picture. “She’s not my orphan,” I grumbled, ignoring my Mori pressing forward insistently. Mine, it growled.
“So, are we going to pick her up?”
I stared down the dark street instead of looking at him. “Since when do you and I bring in orphans?”
“It’s been a few years, but I’ve handled orphans once or twice.” He fell silent for a minute. “Anyway, we’re here and she knows you. You already have a connection with her.”
“Connection?” Was it that obvious?
Chris laughed. “Yes, that happens when you save someone’s life. Look, I can handle the girl if you want me to. Or are you thinking of calling in someone?”
“Paulette has the most experience. I’ll call her tomorrow,” I said as our bikes came into view. The least I could do was give the girl a few days to recover from her ordeal before we sent someone in to turn her world upside down.
Opening the GPS app on my phone, I entered the address for the house on Fletcher Street. I hoped Erik didn’t take too long to get here because, right now, I was in the mood to make a different kind of house call.
Chapter 4
Welcome to New Hastings. The sign flew past as my bike roared along the almost deserted road, and I smiled grimly, not expecting a warm welcome when I got to my destination. After the way we’d parted, Sara wasn’t going to be happy to see me. The memory of the hurt in her eyes as she’d turned away from me had stayed with me all weekend.
I still wasn’t sure what I was doing here. I’d picked up my phone half a dozen times yesterday to call Paulette, and each time something had stopped me from making the call. It could have been the waves of anger coming from my Mori every time I thought about having someone else make this visit.
Or it could have been the questions burning in my mind ever since Friday night. Sara was definitely Mohiri, and we had a bond. I could feel it; my Mori could feel it. Why, then, hadn’t she shown a hint or recognition or a sign she’d felt something? The more time that passed, the more I had to see her again to make sense of it all.
And how the hell had she survived alone all these years? I could see the werewolves keeping her safe from predators, but how had her demon not driven her insane? Could it be related somehow to the reason her Mori was so quiet? The more I’d thought about it, the more I wondered if her Mori could be sick. I’d heard of it happening, and there had to be some explanation for all of this.
The idea of Sara or her Mori being sick sent a chill through me. It’s not that, I reassured myself. An ailing Mori would cause the person to fall physically ill. Our symbiotic relationship gave us our demon’s strength, but also their weakness. If her Mori was sick, she would be too, but she’d looked healthy when I met her in the club.
My Mori fluttered excitably a few seconds before I rounded a bend in the road and spotted the girl on the bicycle. I didn’t need to see her face to know who she was.
What in God’s name is she doing out here alone? We were on the outskirts of the small town, and I hadn’t seen any houses or buildings for the last few miles. After what had happened Friday night, I was shocked to find her out alone, even in daylight. Most people in her situation would still be terrified from an experience like that.
I passed her and started to ease off the gas, but the fear I saw cross her face changed my mind. This wasn’t the best place to talk to her anyway. I figured she was heading home, so I decided to go on and wait for her.
It wasn’t difficult to find the three-story brick building she lived in. I parked the Ducati in front of the coffee shop next door and leaned against the
front of the shop to wait for Sara. Ten minutes later, she appeared at the end of the waterfront and pedaled toward me. When she was a few hundred yards away, I felt her presence and my Mori pressed forward happily.
Sara obviously didn’t share the sentiment, and she wore a scowl when she stopped in front of me.
“How did you find me?” she asked curtly.
I couldn’t help but admire her spirit. “What, no hello after everything we’ve been through together?”
Something like annoyance flashed across her face. “Hello. How did you find me?”
Sensing that the direct approach was the only way to go, I said, “I tracked your friend’s license plate.”
Her eyes widened. “Why?”
When I’d decided to come here, I thought I’d known exactly what to say to her. But facing her now and seeing her confusion and alarm, I knew this was not going to be as easy as I’d planned. I stepped away from the building. “We need to talk.”
“Talk about what?” There was a slight quiver in her voice, and her shoulders tensed as if she was going to run.
“You look ready to flee. I don’t bite, you know.”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought about the other fellow.”
Her wry humor took me by surprise and pulled a laugh from me. She was smaller than the average Mohiri female, and she didn’t have any physical strength or fighting ability based on what I’d seen the other night. But she had fire, and there was nothing cowardly or weak about her.
“You sound like you’re well recovered at least.” I’d worried she might be traumatized once the reality of what had happened set in, and I was relieved to see her looking whole and well. She was wary of my reasons for being here, and I couldn’t say I blamed her.
“I’m not here to harm you, and we really do need to talk.”
“What could we have to talk about?” Her brows drew together. “I don’t even know your last name.”
I smiled. “It’s Danshov, and your last name is Grey. Now that we’re acquainted, can we talk?”
She chewed her lower lip, and for a moment I thought she was going to say no.
“Okay.”
“Is there somewhere we can talk privately?” The conversation we were about to have was not one I wanted other people to overhear.
She looked around. “We can go down to the wharves. They’re usually pretty empty this time of day.”
“That will work.”
I waited for her to put her bike up. She was quiet when she came back and started walking with me toward the wharves. I wondered what she was thinking, and how long it would take her to ask me the point of my visit. She didn’t strike me as a person who would wait long for answers.
For my part, I was curious about how a Mohiri orphan ended up in a small town in the middle of Maine. I’d done a little digging this morning and found out that the Alpha of the Maine pack lived in New Hastings. One of her friends was the Alpha’s son and the other was his nephew. Sara was in with the most powerful werewolf pack in the country.
“How long have you been friends with the werewolves?” I asked as we strolled along a long, empty wharf.
There was a brief pause before she answered. “A long time.”
“And your parents don’t mind?” I already knew she lived with her uncle, who was her legal guardian, but I wanted to get her talking about her parents.
She tensed up beside me. “It’s just me and my uncle, and he likes my friends, but he doesn’t know what they are. He doesn’t know about any of this.”
“Do you mind if I ask about your parents? How did you come to live with your uncle?”
“My parents are gone. My mother left when I was two, so I don’t remember her.” Her voice held an edge of anger, but I sensed deep pain in her too. “My dad died when I was eight. Uncle Nate is his brother.”
Her answer confused me. Orphans were always the offspring of a male warrior and a human female, but according to her, her father was human. It was conceivable for a female warrior to be away from a stronghold long enough to have a child, but our mothers were very protective of their young. I couldn’t see one of them leaving her child unprotected with a human, even if he was the father.
“Do you know your mother’s maiden name?”
She stopped walking and stared at me suspiciously. “Why do you want to know about my parents? What do they have to do with anything?”
“Answer my question, and I will answer yours.”
She walked away, and there was no mistaking the bitterness in her voice this time. “Her name was Madeline. I think her maiden name was Cross or something like that. She abandoned us. I don’t really care who she was.”
I stared after Sara as the meaning of her words hit me full-on like a freight train. It can’t be. Madeline had always been selfish, but even she would not abandon her own daughter.
Sara stopped walking and faced me. “What’s wrong?”
It hit me then why Sara had looked familiar to Chris and me. She bore a resemblance, not to her mother, but to her grandmother, Josephine.
Khristu! She’s Tristan’s granddaughter.
I struggled to keep my expression and voice neutral even though I was reeling inside. “Madeline Croix? That was her name?”
“It could be. I’m not sure.” She frowned nervously. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
I glanced away from her, trying to think of how to proceed. I’d known I was going to have to explain certain things to her, but the bombshell she’d dropped on me had thrown me for a loop. Madeline was alive and she’d had a daughter.
“I just haven’t heard that name in a while,” I said. “If she is the Madeline I knew, it explains a lot to me.”
“Well, it doesn’t tell me anything, so why don’t you fill me in? You said you would answer my question if I answered yours.”
“I will.” I started forward, waving at some overturned wooden crates. “Let’s sit. This is a good place to talk.”
We sat, and I turned to look at her. The move brought me close to her, and my eyes were drawn to her mouth. My body grew warm, and my Mori shifted excitedly at her nearness.
Khristu, get a grip.
I raised my gaze to hers. “You didn’t know who the Mohiri were before the other night. How much do you know about us now?” I figured the werewolves had told her what they knew, which wasn’t a lot.
“I know you guys are vampire hunters, and you and the werewolves don’t like each other. That’s pretty much it.” She shrugged, but the interest in her eyes told me she was more curious than she let on.
“I imagine your friends don’t talk about us any more than we do about them. Would you like to know more about the Mohiri?”
“Yes,” she replied without hesitation.
Her answer pleased me more than I wanted to admit. “You seem very familiar with the real world, but how much do you know about demons?”
“Nothing, except to stay as far away from them as possible.”
“What if I told you there are thousands of types of demons, and that vampires are one of them?”
She frowned, and there was a note of fear in her voice when she spoke. “I’d ask you if you are deliberately trying to scare the hell out of me.”
I rested my elbows on my legs. “I am not here to frighten you.” I didn’t want to upset her either, but she had to hear this if she was to understand the rest of what I had to tell her. I could already tell from her reaction to my question about demons that this wasn’t going to go well.
She looked down, and I followed her gaze to the hands clenched in her lap.
“Do you still want to hear about the Mohiri?”
Green eyes met mine again. “Go ahead.”
“You sure?”
She smiled, and it was like the sun breaking through the clouds. I had to look away so she couldn’t see what I was feeling. Hell, I didn’t know what I was feeling.
I began to recite the story I had learned from my sire when I was young.
“It all started two millennia ago when demons learned how to leave their dimension and walk the Earth in corporeal form. Most of them were lesser demons, and they were dangerous, but not a major threat to humanity. But then a middle demon called a Vamhir appeared. It took a human host and gave the human immortality…and the thirst for human blood.”
“The first vampire,” she said in a hushed voice.
I nodded. “The demon soon learned how to make more like him, and before long there were thousands of vampires. The Earth’s population was small back then, and ancient civilizations were virtually defenseless against the vampires’ strength and bloodlust. If left unchecked, the vampires would have eventually overrun the earth and wiped out humanity.
“So the archangel Michael came to Earth to create a race of warriors to destroy the vampires. He took a middle demon called a Mori and put it inside a human male, and had the male impregnate fifty human women. Their offspring were half human/half demon and they had the speed, strength, and agility to hunt and kill vampires. They were the first Mohiri.”
I watched the play of emotions across her face: revulsion, amazement, disbelief.
“The Mohiri are demons?” she asked hesitantly.
“Half demon. Each of us is born with a Mori demon in us.”
“You mean you live with a demon inside you like…like a parasite?” Her face paled, and she pulled back several inches. If I had any question about whether or not she knew what she was, her reaction answered it for me.
“Exactly like that. We give the Mori life, and in return, it gives us the ability to do what we were created to do. It is a symbiotic relationship that benefits us both.”
She stood abruptly, and I thought she was going to run. Instead, she walked to the edge of the wharf and stared at the water.
“You’re not planning on jumping, are you?” I asked lightly, trying to allay the fear I sensed in her.
She looked at me, and my gut twisted at the confusion and anxiety I saw in her eyes. “Why are you telling me all this?” she asked in a small voice.
Her distress drew me like a magnet, and I moved to stand in front of her.