Ripper

by Lexi Blake

  “I’m sorry,” I said quietly, looking at the two of them. I had tried to kill them. It wasn’t so surprising I was in jail.

  Quinn smiled broadly. He really was devastating when he smiled. “Not at all. It was very exciting. The only problem was we didn’t bring Zoey along. It makes me long for the old days,” he sighed and exchanged an intimate look with his partner. There was a whole lot of history between them. “We’d fight and almost die and then Dan would come in to save the day and we’d all go to bed and celebrate the fact that we survived.”

  Dan shrugged. “It’s still a little like that. I celebrate every day the twins don’t accidentally kill themselves or others.”

  “Kelsey.” Jamie rushed into the room. Nate and Liv were behind him, but they moved more cautiously. Jamie pulled me out of Marcus’s arms and I immediately felt the loss of his warmth. “I was so worried when they told me you were here.”

  “She’s fine, Jamie,” Nathan said solemnly. “Dan wouldn’t hurt her. He’s only trying to help.”

  Liv stood beside him, looking the slightest bit guilty and I knew. I just knew. “You two set me up.”

  Nathan swallowed before answering. “It wasn’t like that, Kels.”

  Jamie let me go and glared at Nate. “What do you mean? Nate, are you trying to tell me you know what’s been going on?”

  Liv stepped up and reached out for my hand. Her lovely eyes radiated concern. “Kelsey, you know something’s wrong. It has been for a very long time. The king came to me and asked if I would help you, and I couldn’t turn him down.”

  “What does the freaking king want with me?” I practically shouted.

  “Calm down, Kelsey,” Nathan said.

  “You calm down,” I shot back at him with a growl.

  “You better start explaining, Nathan,” Jamie said in his best big-brother voice. “I want to know what’s going on and why you felt more loyalty to these people than your own damn family.”

  “Loyalty?” Nate asked, his voice rising. “You want to talk about loyalty and family, Jamie? How about protecting our sister rather than passing her off to some fucking demon? How about that? You practically shoved her into bed with a Hell Lord. This is your fault, Jamie. And Liv’s. Liv is the one who brought her back into this world. I wasn’t on board with this plan until Liv shoved her back in. What was I supposed to do? She can’t handle it.”

  “She can once she gets the training she needs,” Liv shot back. “I sent Helen to her because Helen needed help and Kelsey needs to use her skills. You’re the one who wants her to live a half life because you can’t handle what she really is. You know she needs this, Nate.”

  “All of you stop.” Marcus stood and reached for my hand again. The minute he touched me I sighed and felt the burgeoning rage slip away. “Can’t you see how fragile she is? She has absolutely no control yet. Daniel, is this mockery of a trial absolutely necessary? It would be better if you allowed Zachary and myself to handle her.”

  “Sorry,” Daniel said, getting up. “It is necessary and considering how we’re all going to have to handle her, we should do this in chambers. Everyone, please follow Dev. The Council is ready, if Marcus will take his place.”

  Marcus sighed. “I don’t think it’s a good idea for me to leave her.”

  Daniel shook his head and held out his hand to me. “I’ve been watching. I think I can keep her calm until the last of the episode goes away. I know she should rest, but we need to settle things.”

  Marcus reluctantly placed my hand in Dan’s. As I touched him, I felt his will. He pushed his persuasion at me. It wasn’t as strong as Marcus’s, but I felt it’s soothing nature. Where Marcus’s was warm, Dan’s was cool, like a breeze on a hot day. The others filed out and I let Dan lead me even as certain pieces fell into place.

  “You were the one who tested me in the alley,” I said softly, thinking about the voice in my head. It had been his.

  “Yes.” Dan led me down the hall and up a set of stairs. “I had to be sure. I sent one of my vampires, an illusionist, to test you. Dev and I watched from a building across the street. You were never in any real danger, though Chad sure as hell was. He was very surprised. It’s been a long time since anyone saw through his illusions.”

  And other pieces fell into place. It was daylight. Only two vampires currently living in Dallas could daywalk. My heart ached with the absolute betrayal of it all. Why else would Marcus, who was far older than Daniel, follow his instructions? “And did you find out what you needed, Your Highness?”

  The King of all Vampire gave me a slight smile. It was tight and there was no real humor behind it. “I did. Don’t blame Nate. I asked him not to tell you. I asked Olivia not to mention she knew me, either. I thought it would be easier if I got your friends involved. You came to my attention six months ago. When I took over from the last Council…”

  “You mean when you staged your coup,” I stated, needing to needle him.

  His mouth tightened but he let it go. “When I became king ten years ago, I had all the old records brought over from France. It’s taken me time to go through them. I learned a lot from those files. One of the things I discovered was a line of genealogy dating back to Roman times. It was carefully kept by the Council. It concerned a certain type of werewolf.”

  “I don’t see what any of this has to do with me.”

  “You are one prickly female,” Dan said, his smile seemingly genuine. “It has everything to do with you. Do you know what a lone wolf is?”

  I’d heard the term. “It’s like a super wolf. It’s not an alpha though. They tend to work and live outside packs. They tend to be drifters.”

  “Yes, they do. They also tend to be cantankerous and a bit lazy,” Dan said with great affection. “The gene is recessive and very, very rare. There are only two loners in the whole world now. The Council kept track of them. They were watched closely.”

  “Because they’re dangerous?”

  “No, because the Council is always watching to see if the loner takes a human lover. It is rare, but some do.”

  “Why does the Council care who some loner sleeps with?”

  “Because if the lone wolf manages to produce a child with a human, there is the slight possibility that child will be what they call a Hunter. A Hunter has many of the strengths of a wolf. It’s like having the soul of the wolf, but not the body. A Hunter has strength and speed and instinct, but they aren’t vulnerable to silver and they don’t have to follow the moon. Some Hunters find, once they accept the beast inside, that they can change their hands into claws.”

  I stopped in the middle of the hall. “And you think I’m a Hunter. You’re not the first person to call me that.”

  I thought about Syl. He’d said I was a Hunter, and it was who I was not what I did.

  “Yes, I suspect many people have tracked you,” Dan replied. “My coup, as you call it, saved you, Kelsey. The former head of the Council was a man named Louis Marini. Two days before he was killed, he signed an order to have one Kelsey Atwood brought to France under Council supervision. You would have been kidnapped, brought to the Council, and trained to do what you were born to do. You were sixteen and something had triggered your power a few months before. The Council watched you from the time you were born.”

  The night in the woods with my father had been the first time I’d felt the power. My fear and rage that night had been a catalyst. It had been a turning point. “And what was I born to do, Your Highness?”

  The doors at the end of the hall opened, and Dev Quinn stood there impatiently.

  Daniel wouldn’t be rushed. “You were born to track and kill demons here on the Earth plane. It is what Marini would have trained you to do. It is what Hunters have done for millennia.”

  The room got cold as I realized the impact to Gray and me. How was he going to take the news? Would he be angry? And there was still one last question I had.

  “Are you trying to tell me my father is a lone wolf? My father hu
nted and killed wolves. He hated wolves.”

  “All of those things are true about John Atwood,” Daniel allowed. “But John Atwood was not your father as I will prove when we go before the Council and have your protection declared.”

  I stopped as he tried to lead me into the Council chamber. I didn’t want to go in there. If I went in that room, everything was going to change. My whole life was going to change. “I want to call my fiancé. I’m getting married in three days. I want Gray here.”

  The king’s face hardened. “He’s on his way, but I don’t think you’ll like the reunion. He has a lot to answer for. Now it is time to go. Don’t worry. It will all work out and you will be well taken care of. I promise you that.” He pulled me along, and I entered the chamber where my life would change forever.

  The Council chamber was a large, intimidating room dominated by a huge semicircle of dark wood that functioned as a desk. It’s a little like a big old courtroom and five judges sit above it all. There was a place in the middle that was empty and plenty of seats in the back of the room. Nate, Jamie, and Liv were sitting in the gallery seats. Jamie was facing away from Nate, a sure sign he was pissed. Zack sat next to the blond wolf named Neil and his gun-happy Goth boyfriend, who I still kind of wanted to injure heinously. Dev Quinn sat next to the beautiful redhead from the photo in his office. She winked at Daniel as we walked into the room and then caught my eyes and smiled encouragingly.

  I really didn’t care. I wanted Gray. No matter what the king said, I wanted Gray here.

  “Gentleman, madam,” Daniel addressed the Council. “This is Kelsey…Atwood, for now. She’s the woman in question. Kelsey, allow me to introduce the Council. You know Marcus Vorenus, of course. He represents Vampire. To his left is His Royal Highness Declan Quinn, Prince of Faery. Yes, it’s his twin.”

  The man who looked exactly like Dev Quinn sighed. “Finally, Daniel, some interesting business. You’re quite pretty. Whatever shall we do with you?”

  “You’ll have to pardon him. He’s an ass,” Daniel said, continuing the introductions. “John McKenzie, he’s the alpha for the North American pack.”

  McKenzie was roughly forty-five and his face was as hard and unforgiving as one would expect from a man who led that many werewolves. His hair was cut in a military style and he had the bearing of a general. “Damn, Donovan. She’s really his daughter. I can smell it from here. Wish the old guy was alive because I’d love to see him try to handle this one.”

  “Chris Hancock, he’s the leader of the panthers and holds the shapeshifter seat,” Daniel said as he moved down the line. “Esme Reynolds represents the witches, and Sir Ronald James speaks for human interests.”

  “Good evening,” the older Brit said with a nod of his head.

  “Now,” the king began, “Will Jamie Atwood please stand?”

  Jamie complied, standing readily, his green eyes confused and wary. “I want to know what’s going on, Your Highness. If my sister killed a wolf, then she was defending herself.”

  Daniel nodded. He turned back to the Council. “I move to declare the killing of Darren Castle to be righteous. Ms. Atwood was defending herself. All in favor?”

  There were five ayes and no nays. I was off the hook for the killing. It was quick and I probably should have been relieved.

  My pardon was seemingly unimportant to the king. He had bigger fish to fry. “Excellent. Mr. Atwood, you are the oldest of your mother’s three children.”

  “I am.”

  “Do you remember a trip your mother took roughly two months after giving birth to Nathan?”

  Jamie thought for a moment. He would have been five at the time. “We went to visit her cousin. My father was on an extended hunting trip and Mom packed us up and headed west to see…I think her name was Gina. We stayed for two months and then Dad showed up and we went home.”

  I didn’t even know Mom had a cousin named Gina. Dad had never let us leave the state without him.

  “What city did Gina live in?” The king seemed to be enjoying his stint as prosecuting attorney. Or was he defending me? I couldn’t tell.

  “Las Vegas,” Jamie replied.

  That seemed to mean something to a whole bunch of people in the crowd. There were gasps of surprise, and the woman I now knew was the queen had a sheen of unshed tears in her hazel eyes.

  “And Kelsey was born eight months after you returned home.”

  Jamie’s face fell as the implications hit him. “Are you trying to say my mother had an affair and Kelsey isn’t my father’s child?”

  “There is no doubt on that count,” Daniel replied with a grin, as if he hadn’t knocked my entire childhood on its rear. “Your sister donated blood at a blood drive two months ago. I took the blood and had a DNA test done.”

  I remembered that blood drive. It had been at Liv’s school and she’d been so insistent that I come. She’d promised me dinner if I went and helped out. At the time, I’d thought she wanted to spend time with me, but now I knew. She was under orders.

  Daniel looked at me with a smile like what he was saying was a good thing. “Your father’s name was Lee Owens. He was Zack’s brother. Zack is your uncle.”

  Zack smiled at me, but I still didn’t feel a thing. A numbness had settled over me. “This Owens guy was a lone wolf?”

  “Yes,” Dan replied. He seemed a little surprised I wasn’t thrilled to discover some werewolf I’d never met had knocked up my mom. “I’m sorry to tell you he died about ten years ago.”

  “Okay.” What did they want from me? I felt vulnerable standing there in that big, intimidating room with all these powerful people staring down at me. I didn’t even have a freaking pair of shoes on. They obviously wanted me to react in a certain way, but I couldn’t. I only wanted one thing. “Can I go home?”

  The vampire sighed. Things obviously weren’t going according to plan. “Kelsey…”

  The door in the back flew open.

  “Kelsey!” Gray yelled, looking for me as he strode through into the room. His eyes widened as he took in the scene in front of him.

  I didn’t hesitate. I left the king behind and ran, flinging myself into his arms. Big, muscled arms wrapped around me and I tried to sink into his warmth.

  “I want to go home, Gray,” I said into his chest. There was nothing I wanted more.

  “I’ll take you home.” He picked me up. For the first time all afternoon, I felt really safe. He glared at the assembly. “This woman belongs to me. You have no authority over her. Leave us alone.”

  He turned and started out, but the door was quickly closed and three big dudes with large guns barred our way out.

  “I can’t let you leave with her, Lieutenant,” Daniel said. “And you know it.”

  Gray’s jaw firmed stubbornly as he turned to face the king. “You into kidnapping, Donovan? Are you going to keep her here against her will?”

  Quinn walked up and stood beside the king. “She’ll stay here once she fully understands how important she is and what you’ve done to her.”

  Gray carefully put me down, but his arms stayed around me. He held me possessively and stared at the faery. “I have done nothing but love her and get her to fall in love with me.”

  Quinn frowned. “Did you? Tell me something, Kelsey. Did he tell you the truth about himself?”

  “Yes, he did.” I didn’t get why everyone was so against me being with Gray. He’d been upfront and honest about his parentage and I’d accepted it. We were adults. It was our decision as far as I could see. “I know he’s half demon. I don’t see where it’s your business. It’s between me and Gray. Stay out of it.”

  He shook his head. “I can’t do that because I don’t believe he’s told you the whole truth. Has he told you that he’s been feeding you fertility drugs?”

  Gray gasped behind me. “That’s a lie.”

  “It’s not a lie, Kelsey,” Daniel said with sympathy. “Dev caught it this afternoon. All he had to do was touch you to know someon
e had been playing with your fertility.”

  “It was faint the night you came into the club, but it’s quite powerful today,” Quinn agreed.

  My hands tightened around Gray’s arms. I wasn’t about to believe it. “I have that ring thing. I can’t get pregnant.”

  Dev shook his head at my naiveté. “The drugs he has been using on you are far more powerful than anything a doctor can give you. That device is supposed to stop ovulation, but I promise you’re ovulating right now.” He turned his attention to Gray. “What did your father promise you if you produced a child with a Hunter? Was he willing to let you go in exchange for a powerful child?”

  “I didn’t give her anything,” Gray said.

  “It would taste like peppermint,” Dev pointed out.

  I turned and looked at Gray. “It was Syl.”

  “Kelsey, I didn’t tell him to do that,” he said, practically begging me to believe him.

  I took a deep breath and reached out for his hand. I couldn’t…wouldn’t believe he would knowingly do that to me. He loved me. I knew he loved me. “I know, baby.” I turned back to Quinn. “Am I pregnant?”

  “No,” the faery said, “But it wouldn’t have taken him long. And you didn’t answer my question. What did your father promise you for impregnating a Hunter?”

  “Answer the question, Lieutenant. Don’t bother lying. We know you met with your father.” Dan gestured for a man to come forward. It was the guy with the Northeastern accent. He walked forward, several black and white photographs in his hand. When he held them up, I saw a picture of Gray in the T-shirt and sweats he’d worn the morning after we’d first made love. He’d gone jogging and stayed out for a long time. Now I could see plainly he’d met someone.

  The man in the picture with Gray was powerfully built and dressed fashionably in a pinstriped suit. There was a vague resemblance between the men. They had the same build, the same nose, and similar strong jawlines. There were several pictures and Trent held them up for all to see. In one, the two men were arguing, but as the photos continued, Gray seemed to calm down and listen. In the last picture, Gray and his father were shaking hands.