by L. C. Davis
“Presents?” My eyes widened as the pieces began to fit together. “The book and the ring. You wanted me to find them.”
“I must be better at playing dumb than Sebastian if you thought a hunter would actually be so careless,” he said with a dry laugh. The force caused him to double over with a rattling cough. I reached out instinctively and put my hand on his back, looking to Victor for help.
“It's just a punctured lung,” he said casually. “He'll be okay.”
Clarence handed me another cup of water and I helped Arthur drink, wiping a fresh stream of blood from his mouth with my sleeve. “He's not okay. We have to get him to Clara.”
“If he steps foot in that Lodge, he really will be dead,” Victor said. “Right now, he's the biggest lead we have and that's a sacrifice I'm not willing to make.”
“I'm f-fine,” he wheezed, taking another sip of water. “I just need a sec.”
We all watched in silence as he struggled to collect himself. “I didn't do that to him,” Victor said pointedly. “You of all people should know I don't need to leave a mark on his body to take what I want from his mind.”
I shot him a dirty look, but the damage was done. Even Arthur was giving me a strange look. “You and Victor? What happened to Sebastian?”
“He's just been helping me work through some of my hangups in the dungeon. Like you told me a long time ago, not everything that happens in the dungeon is about sex,” I reminded him. “Sebastian is still in the picture, but it's complicated and not remotely important right now. Please, keep going. You were talking about why you left the ring and the book.”
“It was a long shot that you would find the ring or even pick the right book,” he admitted. “I could only hope you'd notice that Prentice and I wore the same kind of ring. I got lucky on both counts, and the fact that you didn't notice me in the lobby.”
“You were there?” I asked in disbelief.
“I had a small window of time to get out between when the others left and when you showed up with that kid,” he said. “Guess I also kinda wanted to see you one last time.”
“What do you mean by, 'last time'?” I asked warily.
He shrugged. “If I didn't want them to use me as a pawn to kill the only real friend I've ever had, there weren't a whole lot of options.”
“You can't mean that,” I choked out. “Why would you—that doesn't even make any sense, why would you do that for me?”
He gave me an empty smile. “Don't worry, you weren't the sole reason. I mean, you were a good friend but not that good. We'd have to at least have been friends with benefits for me to be willing to off myself over you.”
“Don't be gross,” I mumbled, feeling heat creep into my cheeks.
For a moment, I forgot that the guy sitting in front of me was one of the monsters who wouldn't rest until me and my kind were wiped off the face of the earth. For a moment, I caught a glimpse of my old friend. The light in his eyes was gone almost as soon as it appeared, but that split second was enough to convince me that my Arthur was still in there. Hunter or not, there was no way all those moments we had shared could have been fabricated. Even if only a single one of them was real, it was enough to convince me that he wasn't like the others, that there was something in him that could still be saved.
“Dying has been on the agenda from the moment I was born,” he said in a tone that made it clear he had already accepted defeat. “The official plan was for me to stay at the Lodge, gather intel on the other packs, let Prentice out my betrayal when he thought the time was right, get killed and 'wake up' as a real hunter so I could wipe out your entire pack from the inside.”
A shiver ran down my spine, but it wasn't from the cold. “And your version of the plan?”
“I'd rather not get into the gory details, but let's just say I took precautions to make sure there wouldn't be any remains for them to resurrect,” he murmured. He spoke of his own grisly death so casually, like he was describing his plans to retire to a luxury condo in Florida.
“So you don't want to be a hunter?” Clarence asked, echoing my confusion.
“Of course not,” he spat.
Clarence jolted a bit in surprise at his reaction, but he didn't look offended. “I know you guys have to die to become hunters, but you do come back.”
Arthur looked at the floor, docile once more. “We don't come back. That's just the lie they tell you to get you to shut up and sleep at night. They all buy it, too, and by the time their kids are old enough to hear the same bullshit, the thing that takes their place and wears their skin feeds them the same line. Sure, some of us get hollowed out a little less thoroughly than others, but we're all just tendrils of the same root system.”
“If that's true, why hasn't someone noticed before?” I asked, horrified.
“Because we live in isolation. For generations, we've kept our race contained within five families,” he murmured. “And why not? Our genes are ideal and when someone is born who isn't perfect, we make them perfect. The isolation chamber sees to that. If that still doesn't work, we put them down.”
“Geez, family reunions must be a hoot,” muttered Clarence.
Arthur gave a small coughing laugh. “You have no idea.”
“So what happened?” asked Victor. “If you really sacrificed yourself, why are you still here and how are we still alive?”
“Because I failed,” Arthur said simply. “I took off and I was ready to just be done with it all, but they used my biggest weakness against me. They always do.”
“And that weakness is what?” asked Victor.
Arthur looked away and his jaw quivered for a moment until he clenched it into submission. Victor could torture him all he liked, but he wasn't getting an answer to that question. Not from Arthur.
“Prentice,” I breathed. Another puzzle piece slipped into place. The dedication in William Winters' book. The looks in class. The after-school meetings between the worst student in class and the busy professor.
Arthur's lips twitched in a half-smile and his foot jerked nervously. “I knew you were a clever one from the moment I found out that your standardized test scores were only twenty points behind mine.”
Petty concerns surfaced for a moment. “Twenty points behind?” I asked before getting a hold of myself. “Stop changing the subject, Arthur.”
“Someone mind filling me in here?” Victor asked sternly. “What's so special about Prentice?”
“Everything,” Arthur said wistfully, showing yet another side of him I had never seen before. “He's not like the others. At least, that's what I used to tell myself. I always just figured the Patriarch recognized perfection when he saw it and left Prentice's soul intact, or at least most of it. It gave me hope for awhile that maybe I really could go through with transformation and come out as the same person.”
“What changed?” asked Clarence.
A cloudy look came over his face. “He did. Now there's barely a sliver left of the guy who used to take me on long hikes in the woods just to get away from our parents and listen to all my stupid stories. Now all he cares about is avenging some corpse from thousands of years ago who probably never even existed to begin with. Now I don't even recognize the thing who took his place.”
“I'm sorry, Arthur,” I murmured, resting my hand on his knee. “Why didn't you say anything?”
“What was I supposed to say?” He laughed dryly. “'Help, I belong to a crazy, inescapable cult of zombies who want to make me one of them? Oh, and P.S., I'm in love with my cousin who's also a zombie.'”
“I guess that would have been a hard pill to swallow,” I admitted.
“Wait,” said Victor. “You and Prentice...”
“Trust me, it's not reciprocated,” he muttered. “We're all cousins to one degree or another, but it doesn't matter. Prentice is straight. Hell, he's marrying our mutual cousin.”
“Wow,” I said, cringing. “That's... rough.”
“So are you here because you want to sto
p your family or because you want revenge on Prentice for not returning your feelings?” asked Victor.
“Victor,” I protested.
“It's fine,” Arthur said. “It's a valid question. A little of both, and neither. I didn't want to be here at all. My plan was for what little there was left of me to be well into the decomposition process by now. I'd like to win your hearts and minds by saying it was all some elaborate plan to keep Remus out of their clutches and save all the things that go bump in the night, but I'm not a hero anymore than I am a monster. The truth is, I just wanted to stop being controlled and end the nightmare while there was still enough left of Prentice to remember.”
“I know you're used to hunters, kid, but here in wolf country you'll win a lot more 'hearts and minds' with honesty than you will by pretending you're something you're not,” said Clarence. “For what it's worth, I think you're brave as hell.”
Arthur looked like he didn't know what to say and I could relate. Clarence had that effect on people. “Thanks,” he stammered.
“Warm feelings aside,” said Victor, always the optimist, “you still haven't told us how you escaped.”
He swallowed hard. “I haven't,” he agreed. “But that's because I swore I'd never speak of it again. Not to anyone.”
“Well, you're going to have to make an exception if you want sanctuary in the Lodge,” Victor said, glancing at his watch. “Whatever you did or didn't do, a red eye from Dusseldorf should be arriving in about six hours with at least one of your family members on it. That doesn't give us a whole lot of time to work with as far as convincing the pack not to kill you before they do.”
Arthur gulped. “Okay, fine. Sheesh. I'll tell you, but I don't really know where to start.”
Victor dragged a chair over and sat in front of Arthur, leaning over the back. He was in full-on interrogation mode once again, which I probably would have found sexy as hell under different circumstances. If his incarceration had convinced me that Sebastian was the more menacing of the two, I knew better now.
“You start where all good stories start, pup,” Victor said, reminding me unnecessarily of the fact that he and Arthur had once had a contract of their own. “You start at the very beginning.”
Epilogue
“Looks like a storm, doesn't it, fellas?” Val cooed, carrying two buckets of raw meat across the run, struggling to wade through the throng of whimpering canines that followed her like satellites. “Time to get you all tucked in.”
One by one, she filled the silver dog bowls inside each outdoor pen and locked each pair of roommates inside. Only when both buckets were empty did she wipe her hands off on a towel hanging over the fence and take a moment to gaze up at the pregnant moon peeking out behind black velvet clouds. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath as the wind gently tousled her curls.
When the direction of the wind changed, her nose wrinkled and she opened her eyes, scanning the perimeter until she caught sight of the slender man perched languidly on the roof.
“You're lucky I haven't shifted yet,” she said, tossing the bloody towel at him. She missed by a long shot. “You scared me half out of my wits.”
“You're only half out of them now?” Alex asked in a flat tone. “I'd say that's a vast improvement.”
Val walked over to the low edge of the roof and put her hands on her hips. “Don't think I won't judo flip you just because you're my brother-in-law.”
“I'm trembling,” he droned.
She grabbed onto the edge of the roof and jumping up in an attempt to pull herself onto it. Her legs kicked futilely for a moment before Alex gave her a lazy glance and pulled her up.
She scrambled all the way onto the roof and collapsed next to him, panting.
“Don't wear yourself out before your run or you wont' be able to keep up with my brother.”
“Whew, thanks. What are you doing up here anyway?” she asked. “You're usually a scarce commodity as soon as She gets plump.”
He grimaced. “Must you be so vulgar?”
“Honey, I'm a cowgirl tried and true, we don't mince words,” she said, pulling her knees to her chest. “Must you speak as if you were tutored at Oxford when we both know you were born and raised in Spokane?” She asked, mimicking his affect.
Alex rolled his eyes before returning them to the sky. “Since this is likely one of the last full moons we'll get to enjoy, the view from the scrying room didn't seem fitting.”
She frowned, scooting a bit closer. “You're really worried about this harvest moon thing, aren't you?”
“I wish it were just me,” he said wistfully.
After a moment of silence, she ventured, “The nightmares are getting worse, aren't they?”
He nodded.
“Has anything changed?”
“No, it's the same vision as it always has been. The hybrid awakens too late. The harvest moon passes and gives way to the hunter's moon, when our Lady is at her weakest. The Patriarch seizes the opportunity and his life force is forged into the only blade capable of piercing her heart. Chaos and death descend upon us on a scale unimaginable,” he whispered harshly, his teeth gritted as he clutched his robe.
Val rested a tentative hand on his shoulder. “I won't even pretend to know that it's like to see something like that all your life, but it's just a vision, sugar. Even if it is an awful one, it isn't real.”
“That's what I used to tell myself,” he said quietly. “It's the kind of lie you tell yourself in the middle of the night so you can get back to sleep, but the older I get the less I believe it. So far, everything in the vision has come to pass.”
She bit her lip worriedly. “Honestly, I don't see why you and Billy don't just kidnap the boy if the stakes are that high.”
“It won't work,” he said with sudden resolve. “She insists that the hybrid prince must come to Her on his own. I won't make Sarah's mistake by forcing the matter.”
“No,” she said gravely. “What she did was wrong, but I still can't say she deserved the punishment she got. No one deserves that.”
“Our Lady's ways are not for us to question, only to follow,” he murmured.
“You really believe that?”
He smiled a bit, shaking his head. “No, but that's our little secret.”
“Well, if we can't make the hybrid come to us, what can we do?”
“There may be hope,” he murmured. “It's a thin sliver, but it's something. I had another vision after Remus and Sebastian left. They have a hunter now. He's on our side.”
“You mean that boy who's gonna get us all killed with his magic tricks?” She snorted. “If he's your idea of hope, we're all doomed.”
“No, not that Hunter. A real hunter. His name is Arthur.”
She turned so fast her neck cracked. “Arthur? You know they don't use that name.”
“Evidently the boy is full of surprises and very human at the moment,” he said, stroking his lip with an amused smile. “She hasn't given me any specifics so it's just a hunch, but I think Arthur may be our missing ingredient, so to speak.”
She gave him a dubious look and glanced down when the front door swung open. Billy stepped out, searching the empty yard. “Val?” he bellowed.
The petite woman jumped to her feet, her ballet slippers perched daintily on the shingles. “Up here, baby.”
Her burly husband looked up and squinted as he walked over to the roof. “What're you doing up there?”
“Just talking with your brother. You ready?”
“Sure am,” he said, holding out his hand. “Careful now.”
Val jumped and both men reached for her. Only Billy caught her in his arms.
“Dammit, woman, you gotta stop doin' that,” he scolded.
“Why? You always catch me,” she said mischievously, nuzzling his cheek.
The behemoth reddened noticeably and grumbled, but he was clearly pacified. He looked up at his brother who was watching them with a faint, empty smile on his face. “You care to join
us?”
The offer was an empty gesture and nothing more, as Alex knew all too well. And who could blame him? Three was a crowd when you were alone in the forest with a woman like Val.
“I'm busy, but enjoy yourselves. Thank you for --” he cut himself off. “Thanks for the chat, Val.”
She gave him a wide smile. “We'll finish it soon,” she promised, calling over Billy's shoulder as he stole her off into the woods.
He knew she meant it. Like all the other times, he also knew it would never come to pass, despite her best intentions. Stretching out on the roof, he reabsorbed himself in the moon. His gaze was no longer an affectionate one. “You really pick a theme and stick on it, don't you? I wonder which of the Fulton boys is destined to fill my role next. History repeats itself and all that.”
Reaching into the pocket of his robe, he withdrew a large pistol from within. With his sleeve, he began to polish the silver clean and checked the chamber to make sure that a single silver bullet was contained inside. “You'll have to accept my apologies for not sticking around to train my replacement, my Lady, but I did try my best for what little that means to you,” he prattled bitterly. “It has become clear to me that all these years of visions were the punishment for my crime, not the path to my redemption. You'll excuse me if I don't have the stomach to watch the gruesome finale.”
Alex Webb had never tasted anything as bittersweet as the silver that burned his tongue when he pulled the trigger. For the first time since he had heard Her call at the age of fifteen, and for the very last time, he looked up at the sky and all he saw was a hunk of rock suspended in the sky.
It was the most beautiful sight he had ever seen.
Continued in Kingdom of Night: Equilibrium... Coming Summer 2016.
The author thanks you for reading! If you enjoyed this book, please take a moment to rate it on Amazon.