Rush of Darkness

by Rhyannon Byrd

  “If you trust me, I can help. I promise.”

  He trembled, his talons releasing at the tips of his small fingers, moonlight glinting against his white fangs. “Can’t control it.”

  “You can, Thomas.” She made her voice firm, sensing that she was losing him, his gaze flicking between her and the woman. “You just don’t know the way yet. But you can learn.”

  Bitterness and fear graveled his words, making them nearly impossible to understand. “And who’s gonna teach me?” he asked, blinking tears from his eyes as he glared up at her. “You’re just a girl.”

  “But I’m a girl who knows some powerful people,” she said, unfazed by his insult. She knew only too well how boys at his age felt about girls. “I’ll help find you a home. Somewhere you can be safe, where you can learn how to control the hunger.”

  “I’ve…tried.” The words were nothing more than a low, hoarse scrape of sound, his eyes fluttering from exhaustion. “But it’s too hard.”

  She winced as she caught images of the way he’d been living. He’d tried to feed mostly from stray animals, but there had been a few times in recent months when his cravings had become too strong and he’d struck out against a human. The child was lucky the Collective had been busy for the past year aiding the Casus; if they’d found him, they would have executed him. And then there were the Förmyndares. As protectors of the Deschanel, the Förmyndares were formidable soldiers who were quick to cull out any rogue vampires who threatened to expose the existence of the clan.

  But the child wasn’t a rogue. He was just…untrained. Lost.

  Moving a little closer to the frightened boy, Raine said, “I know it’s been difficult and scary, Thomas, but you don’t have to do this alone. Can you trust me to help you? I promise I won’t let anyone hurt you.”

  It was painful to see the longing in his pale eyes. He wanted so badly to believe her, and she held her breath as he struggled to make a decision. When a few moments had passed and he finally shuffled forward and reached for her hand, she grabbed hold of it as if he was the one offering her a lifeline.

  “That’s it,” she coaxed, giving his small fingers a reassuring squeeze. “It’s going to be okay. I promise.” But no sooner had the words left her mouth, than Raine tensed with shock, unable to believe the scent that had just reached her nose. Spinning around, she found McConnell standing at the end of the alley. His face was in shadow, making it impossible to read his expression, but she knew damn well that he was pissed. Every muscle on his tall, powerful body looked hard with aggression, his scent a raw, visceral mix of fury and frustration, combined with the subtlest hint of relief that he’d found her.

  “Thomas,” she whispered, keeping her eyes on McConnell as she spoke to the boy, “I want you to stay behind me. A friend of mine is here, so don’t panic. I just need to talk to him. Okay?”

  She sensed his worried nod and felt him lean to her side as he cast a wary look toward McConnell, then immediately did as she said, pressing in close to her back. His thin body was freezing, reminding her that Deschanel males ran cold once they began puberty, until the time when they finally found their lifemate.

  Fear made her heart pound as she realized that if she didn’t successfully handle the situation with McConnell, Thomas might never live that long. The soldier might have tolerated her and the Grangers, knowing they weren’t killers. But the child had committed acts that McConnell would most likely see as criminal. As murders that required punishment.

  “What are you doing here, Raine?” The human’s voice was deep and rough, his muscular chest rising and falling with the heavy force of his breaths. A fine sheen of sweat glistened on his brow, telling her how quickly he’d been moving as he’d tracked her down.

  “I’ll explain everything,” she told him, holding up her free hand to warn him back, “but you need to stay where you are.”

  “Who the fuck is the kid?” The sharp words cut through the night like a knife, and she could feel Thomas edging closer to her back, the boy no doubt sensing the threat that the soldier could pose to them both.

  “I mean it, McConnell. Don’t come any closer. You’re scaring him.”

  “Is he the reason you ran out on me?” he rasped, dropping his bag on the ground before taking a step toward them. His voice shook with rage. “Do you know this kid?”

  “I’ll answer your questions, but first, I want to know how you found me.”

  “Believe me,” he snarled, shaking his head, “I wish I knew.”

  She struggled to keep her voice calm, but it wasn’t easy. Raine felt as if she was trapped between two wild animals, the night air thick with the scent of looming disaster. “Did you put one of Kellan’s tags on me?” she asked, thinking that one of the Lycan’s tracking devices could have been sewn into the lining of her backpack, same as Seth and his friends had done with Spark’s.

  He scraped his palm over his jaw and glared back at her. “No tags, Raine. I just went where my gut told me to go.”

  “That’s impossible,” she argued. “You’re only human!”

  His eyes narrowed at her tone, the tiny lines that fanned out at their corners only adding to his rugged appeal. “A human who managed to find your ass.”

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered, knowing she’d insulted him. “I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just that…none of this makes any sense.”

  “Neither does your running away. You’re lucky I’m not counting this as a breach of the Oath. Otherwise, your ass would be in some serious trouble.”

  “I’m sorry that I…ran out, but I sensed Thomas and knew that he needed help,” she lied, leaving out the part about Spark. He was already pissed enough as it was. If she started telling him she was afraid of getting him killed, his pride was only going to crank that anger up even higher, and she needed him to stay calm. “I didn’t think you would understand, so I came on my own to find him.”

  His gaze flicked to the unconscious woman sprawled at the side of the alley, then back to her. “And what exactly did you find him doing?” he asked, taking another step closer as he sniffed the air. “He smells like he’s covered in dried blood, Raine.”

  Taking his hand from hers, Thomas crouched down by her side, huddling close to her knees, his top lip curled back over his fangs as he growled at the male he was seeing more and more as a dangerous threat.

  “I’m warning you, Seth, back off.” She lowered her hand to Thomas’s head, petting his dark hair as she tried to soothe him. “He’s scared. He needs help.”

  He watched the way she stroked the boy’s dark locks, then glanced down at Thomas’s bared fangs, before locking that burning gaze back on hers. “Jesus, Raine. He looks feral. He could attack you.” His voice was ragged, the look in his beautiful green eyes tearing at something soft in her chest. Something she didn’t seem able to protect from him.

  “He isn’t going to hurt me, I promise. But he’s frightened. The blood hunger onsets with the early stages of puberty in males, and it’s imperative that parents teach their sons how to maintain control. But Thomas has been an orphan since he was five. There’s been no one to help him.”

  “And how do you know this isn’t a trap?” he demanded, his big hands fisting at his sides as he obviously struggled to do as she said and stay back, when it was clear he wanted to barge forward and grab hold of her, wrenching her to safety. “For all we know, he could be working for Westmore!”

  “He’s not,” she said, shaking her head. “I swear it, McConnell. I can read him clearly and he’s not working with anyone. He’s just a frightened boy who needs someone to help him.”

  “You trust him that easily?” he asked in a low voice, and she winced, knowing damn well that the soldier had been trying so hard to earn her trust, and here she was giving it out freely to a stranger. She didn’t blame him for looking…irritated with her. Surely that wasn’t pain lurking in his dark eyes. Just because he wanted a fling with her didn’t mean that he cared. She was just projecting her o
wn stupid emotions on to the human, which was only going to make the situation a thousand times worse than it already was.

  And yet, he had come after her. Again. That had to mean something, right?

  Determined to find a way to soothe his anger, Raine said, “If you could see into his thoughts, Seth, I know you would understand.”

  “I seriously doubt that,” he muttered, running a shaky hand over his face. “Just because he’s a kid doesn’t mean he isn’t a killer, Raine.”

  She shivered at the coldness of his tone, and couldn’t help but wonder if the soldier had ever hunted a child of Thomas’s age. Had he been that ruthless? That cold?

  She didn’t want to believe it—but damn it, she knew how intensely his hatred had burned in the years following his family’s murder. Just because she hadn’t witnessed such an event in his memories didn’t mean that it hadn’t happened.

  And if he’d done it once, was he capable of doing it again?

  Her heart raced, panic flooding through her system as he came even closer, making Thomas growl. The child’s heart raced, too, his fear and panic flooding through her, as if she were experiencing those raw emotions as her own, and she reacted without even thinking, releasing the talons on her right hand and lunging forward to swipe at the human’s chest. McConnell stopped instantly, stumbling back a step, his eyes going wide with shock as he lowered his gaze to the hand she’d dropped by her side. Looking down, her stomach lurched when she saw the sharp talons dripping with blood.

  Ohmygod… What have I done? she thought, jerking her gaze to his chest while something inside of her screamed in horror, the shattering sound locked deep within, unable to escape. McConnell’s shirt was shredded, his skin sliced open in five long cuts, the sight of his seeping blood making her feel ill.

  Dizzy with confusion, Raine lifted her watery gaze to his face as a hard sob broke free and jerked from her throat.

  His dark eyes burned with fury, as well as pain.

  But the part that cut the deepest was the stark, heartwrenching look of betrayal that he couldn’t disguise.

  SINCE HE DIDN’T TRUST himself to speak, much less move, Seth held his body locked in place, his jaw clamped against the angry curses burning to be said.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered, her big eyes tormented and bright in the ethereal moonlight. “I didn’t mean to…to hurt you. But I can feel his fear like it’s my own.” She wet her lips, her jaw trembling. “I can’t…I won’t let you kill him. It’s not right. Whatever he’s had to do to survive, it wasn’t his fault. He’s just a child.”

  Seth didn’t like the situation, but he understood what she was saying. If the child had killed, there was nothing to be done. It would be like punishing a shark for hunting. It was just a vampire’s natural instinct to seek blood.

  Still, he couldn’t say for certain how he would have handled the situation a year ago. All he knew was that he couldn’t mete out death to the boy now. Not when those silver eyes were staring up at him, reminding him so much of Raine. Not even when his chest was burning with pain, his blood dripping down onto his stomach, soaking into his clothes. He wanted so badly to be furious, taking comfort in the familiar feeling, instead of this emotional minefield he found himself treading with the crossbreed—but he couldn’t be angry. The kid couldn’t help the way he’d been born, any more than Seth could control the fact he was human. Before the boy was punished for making the wrong choices, he needed to be shown what the right choices were.

  “I wasn’t going to kill him,” he ground out. “I just wanted to be close enough to help you handle him. He doesn’t look strong enough to stand on his own, much less walk.”

  She swallowed, appearing at a loss for words, and he looked down at the scrawny kid, recognizing the fear in his eyes. It reminded him of the way his baby sister, Alicia, had looked the night she’d been killed, and the bands that had been squeezing his chest seemed to relax a little. “You sure he won’t hurt you?” he asked, looking at Raine again.

  She nodded, her face paling as she slid another glance over the wounds she’d left in his chest, and he knew she was in shock.

  “I need to make a few calls,” he muttered. “Will you wait for me here?”

  She nodded again, and he turned, heading back to the street, where he figured he had a better shot at getting reception on his phone. After retrieving his bag, he quickly slapped some bandages over the scratches on his chest, then pulled out a fresh shirt and changed, stuffing his ruined one into a nearby trash bin as he made his calls. Only a few minutes had passed when he returned to the alley, his bag hooked over his shoulder. Raine was crouched down beside the boy, using a hand wipe from her backpack to clean his dirty face, the child’s gray eyes huge with adoration as he stared up at her. Seth noticed that his feet were grubby and bare, and something twisted in his chest as he thought of the boy living on the streets alone, with no one to care for him.

  They both tensed as Seth approached, but he held out his hands, saying, “I’m not gonna hurt you, kid. I’m just going to help you up, okay?”

  The boy shook with a slight tremor, edging closer to Raine. “Thomas, it’s okay,” she told him, her voice soothing and warm. “You can trust him.”

  Looking as if he was sticking his hand into a tiger’s cage, the kid took a deep breath and reached for Seth’s hand. As he pulled the boy to his feet, Seth looked at Raine and said, “He’s freezing.”

  “He’s too young to borrow warmth,” she explained in a low voice. “Someone Thomas’s age shouldn’t be outside when it’s cold.”

  Seth frowned as he pulled his jacket out of his bag, remembering that unmated Deschanel males could only “borrow” heat through sex, until they finally found their lifemate and began “the burning.” Wrapping the jacket around the kid’s shoulders, he picked him up, holding him against his chest. Both Raine’s and the boy’s eyes went wide, but it took only a moment for the child to snuggle against him, burrowing into his heat.

  “Come on,” he grunted, jerking his chin toward the street.

  As she hooked her own bag over her shoulder, she sent a worried glance toward the homeless woman. “What do we do? We can’t just leave her there.”

  “I put in a call to one of the local shelters. They’re sending someone over. Which means we need to get lost.”

  “Where are we going?” she asked, following him out of the alley.

  “The Granger brothers just got to town,” he said in a low voice, heading right when they reached the street. “We’re taking the kid to Gideon.”

  “I don’t understand,” she murmured, and Seth figured he’d have had to be deaf to miss the skepticism in her tone.

  With a sigh, he said, “I’m not lying, Raine. Spark moved locations, so they followed her here to Berlin. He called me just before I left the hotel.”

  “Well, I guess that makes sense.”

  “What does?”

  “Nothing,” she mumbled. “Are you going to have any trouble going up against her?”

  Like hell he would. Spark was a royal bitch, and one he unfortunately had a past with. What was even worse was that Raine knew he’d slept with the assassin, since the woman had tried to embarrass Seth by telling his new friends about it after they’d captured her in the Wasteland.

  Running his tongue over his teeth, he said, “Spark isn’t going to be an issue.”

  “And what about Gideon? Do you trust him?” she asked, slanting a worried look toward Thomas, who appeared to have already fallen fast asleep. Seth thought the kid might even be drooling on him, a soft snore spilling quietly from his open mouth. “As a Förmyndare, how is he going to handle the situation?”

  “I don’t know what a Förmyndare would do, but as a friend of ours he’s going to take the boy someplace safe. And if it makes you feel any better, he sounded as concerned as you are. I don’t get the impression that he and Ashe are in the habit of punishing those who need help.”

  “Thank you,” she said, touching his
arm with her fingertips, and he swore he could feel that sizzling point of contact all the way down to the soles of his feet.

  “Don’t thank me. I’m not the one saving his life,” he muttered, irritated at how easily she could make him react to her, when she obviously didn’t want to be with him. Hell, she’d run away in the middle of the night. How much clearer did she have to make it before he got the hint and gave up trying to convince her to take a chance on him?

  They walked the rest of the way in silence, until they reached the Hilton where he’d arranged to have Gideon get them a room. The vampire was waiting for them beside a sleek black Audi in the hotel parking lot, the key cards to their room in one hand, his other hand in the pocket of what looked like a designer pair of slacks, the vampire’s shirt fitting his broad shoulders as if it’d been hand-tailored. His sable hair was windblown, a light stubble shadowing his hard jaw. It was strange, how the guy could look like he’d just stepped off the pages of a fashion mag, and yet, still manage a deadly air, the look in his eyes too hard to belong to anyone but a trained hunter.

  Gideon said hello to Raine, only a trace of his Scandinavian accent shaping the husky greeting, then turned his attention to the boy in Seth’s arms. “Is he unconscious?”

  Shaking his head, he said, “Just exhausted.”

  “I’ve made arrangements for the boy to stay with a family I’ve known since I was a child. They’ll take good care of him.”

  “I can’t thank you enough for doing this,” Raine said, her soft voice thick with emotion.

  “It’s not a problem,” the vampire told her with an easy smile, his appreciative gaze doing a quick flick over her body, before he shot a curious look toward Seth, then headed around the gleaming sports car and opened the passenger side door. Seth laid the boy down in the soft leather seat, and together the three of them moved to the front of the car, so they could talk without waking him.

  As Gideon casually took a seat on the hood, Seth asked him, “Where exactly does this family live that you’re taking him to?”