Dark Souls: Box Set: Books 1-5

by E. J. King

  “Read to me while I refill,” I suggested, tossing the paper at him.

  Rafe cleared his throat dramatically and began to read.

  Another man has gone missing in Jackson. Peter McGregor left his job as a bartender at the Blue Pig around 1:00 AM yesterday morning. He hasn’t been seen since. McGregor is the third man in the area to disappear in the last three days. The police are investigating all leads but have yet to name any suspects.

  “A bartender?” Rafe said when he was done reading. “Maybe you should be worried.”

  “I’m not a man.” It seemed obvious, but I figured it was worth pointing out. “Whatever is responsible clearly has a gender preference.”

  Rafe grinned. “If its preferred victim is a male, then it’s definitely not a straight human male doing the abducting.”

  “My gut tells me this is supernatural,” Ethan said, snatching the paper to read it again. “But I’d also bet it’s not a Soul. Seems a little too clean.”

  “But recently we’ve seen Souls be more methodical. Don’t forget the ones that took Hope.” I frowned as I remembered how my best friend had been pulled into my crazy world.

  Ethan was unconvinced. “This one just feels different.”

  “All of the men went missing in different locations,” Rafe said. “That’s going to make it hard to track down the culprit.”

  “Yeah, but that paper said all the men were last seen in classy drinking establishments.” I gestured to the room around us. “Probably not too dissimilar from this place.”

  “And?” Ethan raised an eyebrow.

  “And in my experience, young men don’t usually come into places like these to drink alone.” I pointed to the two of them for emphasis. “I’m willing to bet their friends might have some idea about what happened to them.”

  Rafe set down another empty glass. “Divide and conquer?”

  “Can’t you see how busy I am?” I motioned to the near-empty bar.

  “I’d hate to see you give up your shot at all this tip money, but do you think maybe you could cut out early?” Rafe gave me one of his smiles that always made me feel warm.

  “I’ll see if Frankie can cover for me.”

  Frankie was more than happy to hold down the fort for the rest of the night. I cashed out my tips and tossed my apron under the counter.

  Rafe walked down the street to visit the Blue Pig while Ethan and I attempted to track down Victim #1’s fraternity brothers. Connor Edminton was a senior at Jackson College, and his Sigma brothers were the last people to see him. It seemed like a good place to start.

  “A rager on a Monday night?” Ethan stopped on the sidewalk in front of the Sigma house. He laughed as a drunk guy stumbled out the front door and toppled head-first into a bush. “I’m really missing out on a lot by not enrolling in higher education.”

  “A lot of drinking, maybe.” I flinched at the sound of dry-heaving coming from the bushes. “Let’s get this over with.”

  With all the people coming and going from the fraternity house, we had no problem walking right through the front door.

  “I can’t believe that parents pay thousands of dollars every year to support such a ridiculous lifestyle for their children,” Ethan said, shaking his head as he watched a drunk girl stumble down the hall. “What’s the point of spending your days learning if you kill all those brain cells at night?”

  “I’m willing to bet I’ve lost way more brain cells every time I’ve been knocked out during a hunt.” I grabbed the arm of a skinny guy carrying a case of beer. “Can you tell us where we can find Fred Tanner?”

  “Freddie T? Second door on the right.” He looked me up and down slowly. “If you’re looking for a good time, you’ve already found it.”

  Ethan deftly stepped between us. “Kaylie hates fun.”

  “Actually, I think punching annoying fraternity guys is fun,” I muttered.

  “Maybe later. Let’s find Mr. Tanner first.”

  Freddie T’s door was open and he wasn’t alone. Three guys sat on the couch, all holding game controllers and fully engrossed in the television screen.

  “Oh, yeah. How did you like that, Big Dave?” The guy in the middle punched the guy on his right in the arm hard enough to make him flinch.

  Big Dave, a guy that weighed less than me, didn’t take his eyes away from the game. “Not as much as you’re going to like the punishment I’m about to give you. I hope you’re ready to bend over and take it.”

  “Please. Your attempts to ‘give it to me’ are pathetic. And they only last about two seconds each.”

  “Okay.” I stepped into the room with my arms crossed. “I’m done listening to this.”

  “Who are you?” Big Dave finally looked at us.

  Ethan cleared his throat. “We’re looking for Fred Tanner.”

  “What do you want?” The guy in the middle, presumably Freddie T, glared at us.

  “We want to talk about your missing friend.” Ethan’s words made all of them turn from the video game.

  Freddie tensed considerably. “Who the hell are you?”

  It was my turn to step up to the plate. “Our brother is Peter McGregor. He went missing last night, just like Connor.”

  “I’m sorry about that,” Freddie said, sounding like he meant it. “But I don’t understand what you think I can do about that.”

  “We just want to ask you some questions to see if maybe you remember something that can help us figure out what happened to them.” Ethan took a small notepad from his pocket, looking quite adorably nerdy. “What can you tell us about the night Connor disappeared?”

  “There’s not much to tell.” Freddie set his controller on the floor. “We were celebrating our friend, Travis’ birthday. It was the final bar of the night and we’d had a lot of drinks. Some of us were getting ready to leave, but then we noticed that Connor was talking to a girl.”

  “A girl? From school?” It was rare to see a peer in one of the local bars that didn’t go to school with us. Jackson wasn’t a big town.

  Freddie shook his head. “That’s the thing. None of us had ever seen her. And she was the kind of girl you would remember, you know?”

  “I do,” Ethan said with a small smile.

  “She was pretty?” I asked.

  “Not pretty,” Freddie objected emphatically. “Hot. Way out of Connor’s league.”

  I exchanged a look with Ethan, wondering if he was thinking the same thing as me. “Did he go home with her?”

  Freddie shrugged. “Don’t know. We got tired of waiting for him so we left. But they were still together at the bar, looking pretty friendly.”

  The minute Ethan and I stepped back outside we turned to each other and said with perfect synchronization, “Siren.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  “An actual Siren? A hot, sexy, wants-nothing-more-than-sex, Siren?”

  “Yes. For the tenth time, a Siren.” Ethan tossed a book at his brother while I glared at him.

  Rafe caught the book easily with a satisfied smile on his face. “I’m sorry, this is just so much cooler than the other stuff we usually hunt.”

  “A supernatural creature that lures men back to its lair, sleeps with them, and then kills them is cool?” I rolled my eyes. “Stop being such a dude.”

  “Jealous?” he winked at me seductively.

  It was a lame joke, and it wasn’t even close to the most flirtatious thing he’d ever said to me, but considering the change in our relationship recently, it made me blush fiercely.

  “I take it you had fun at the bar last night?” I tried not to sound too suspicious.

  Ethan and I had gotten home late, but Rafe had still been out. I’d heard him come in a few hours later, but fortunately he’d been alone this time. I’d heard him walking around above me while I tried to sleep. This was the first chance we’d had to catch up on our investigations.

  After early morning training on my own, I had gone to three classes and spent several hours studying before
returning home. Ethan had filled in Rafe on our hypothesis that we were dealing with a Siren. We’d discussed the details over dinner and now we were doing research on how to find the bitch and kill her.

  “Well, after I ordered a few drinks, the bartender was able to give me a good description of the woman he saw with Peter McGregor.”

  “You drank by yourself in a bar and came home alone?” Ethan gasped. “Who are you and what have you done with my brother?”

  Rafe glanced at me quickly, then looked away. “I just wasn’t in the mood.”

  “You’re a shifter, right?” Ethan pretended to look around the room for a weapon. “Kaylie, find a silver knife.”

  “Ha.” Rafe suddenly became very busy reading the book in his hands.

  “Branch of an oak tree through the heart. The slaying seems pretty straight forward.” I had seen the same advice in three different journals so I was fairly certain that it was true.

  “I think the bigger challenge is going to be identifying the Siren. It doesn’t help that they look just like regular people until they feed.”

  I couldn’t hold back a smirk. “Good thing we have two attractive males to act as bait.”

  “You think I’m attractive?” Ethan pretended to be embarrassed. “You’re not so bad yourself.”

  Loud steps thumped outside the front door. Seconds later, it flew open and Hope sailed into the room.

  “Honey, I’m home!” She stopped in front of us and frowned at the piles of old books around us. “No. We are not hunting tonight. I brought pizza.”

  “You are my favorite downstairs neighbor,” Rafe said, giving me a pointed look as he jumped to his feet to grab the pizza box from her.

  “I feed you breakfast almost every morning, jerk.”

  “But do you ever bring me pizza?” He tossed the pizza on the table after taking a slice. “Now get me a beer, woman.”

  “If I get you a beer, I’ll pour it on you.” I helped myself to a slice.

  Hope shoved aside a stack of books. “You two are adorable.”

  “Let’s hope the Siren thinks so,” I muttered, just loud enough for Rafe to hear. He kicked my leg under the table.

  After dinner, Hope convinced us to hang out and watch a movie before it was time to go Siren-hunting. Less than ten minutes into a predictable action movie, Ethan left to track down an oak tree for our weapon and Hope answered a call on her phone and disappeared into her room.

  “And then there were two.” Rafe inched closer to me on the couch until his leg pressed against mine.

  “This isn’t a date,” I reminded him.

  “Of course not.” But his arm went around my shoulders anyway.

  I did my best to look stern as I scolded him. “Hope will be back any second.”

  “Hope has never had a phone call last less than fifteen minutes.” Rafe’s arm tightened as he pulled me closer.

  “Rafe.” I had a whole protest planned in my head, but it disappeared the second his lips closed over mine.

  With his mouth still pressing against mine, he said, “Say my name again. The way you say it is such a turn on.”

  “You mean, dripping with disdain?” I sighed as his lips moved down my neck.

  “Exactly. So hot.” He brushed aside my hair and sucked gently at the skin over my collarbone.

  I gasped as something sharp scratched me. “Rafe.”

  He moaned and pressed down harder. It was now clear that the sharpness was his teeth, likely the fangs that he normally worked so hard to keep retracted.

  “Rafe, stop.” I placed both hands on his chest and pushed.

  His eyes were burning bronze and he was breathing hard. After several seconds, they went back to their normal gold and filled with remorse. “Kaylie, I’m sorry.”

  “It’s okay.” I rubbed my hand over my neck, checking for blood. My fingers came away clean.

  “I just lost control for a second. It won’t happen again.”

  “I know.” But my heart was still pounding in my chest. It was one thing to know that Rafe was a good guy who would never intentionally hurt me. It was an entirely different thing to know that he was also a Lost Soul and that draining my blood was the only thing that could prevent him from dying a painful death.

  “Kaylie.” His hand reached for mine and I flinched.

  “I’m sorry.” I didn’t want to be scared of Rafe, but I had no way of knowing how strong his desire was for my blood and how long he could keep it suppressed. As a lame consolation, I squeezed his hand. “Forget about it. I’m going to get ready for our hunt.”

  The night was an epic failure- both in our attempts to find the Siren as well as my attempts to make things less awkward with Rafe. The Siren had gone into hiding and Rafe was keeping more than a little distance between us. I couldn’t really blame him, but it still bothered me. As much as I didn’t like being scared of him, it bothered me even more how scared he was of hurting me.

  Wednesdays were my busiest days of the week. Aside from my normal class schedule, I also had a meeting with my economics study group and a group project to start tackling. I was starting to think that being a full-time student and a Hunter was a crazy idea.

  By the time I was done with classes and meetings, I only had a couple of hours to study before I needed to meet up with the guys to continue our hunt. My favorite seat on the quiet floor in the library was open when I arrived. I hadn’t had much time to study lately, but it was easy to fall back into my old rhythm.

  An hour into studying, I realized I was on the verge of falling asleep at the table. The second floor had a small kitchen area at the back that was guaranteed to have a pot of strong coffee waiting for me. I left my books and bag at the table and made my way through the stacks.

  One of my fellow study nerds, Will, was already filling a mug.

  “How’s it looking this evening?” I asked.

  Will handed me his filled Styrofoam cup and reached for another. “It’s looking pretty thick. And potentially burnt.”

  “Delicious.” I took a tentative sip. “Or not.”

  “I haven’t seen you around much lately.” Will took down his coffee in three big gulps.

  I shrugged. “Work. You know how it is.”

  “Are you feeling good about finals?”

  “We still have a few weeks.” I had been so busy with everything else that I hadn’t begun to think about finals.

  “Alright. I need to get back to my calculus.” Will crumpled his cup into a ball and tossed it into the trashcan across the room.

  I drank my coffee slowly and studied a community board, scanning flyers that were looking for roommates, advertisements for dog walking, and even Connor’s photo. It was strange to see the normal parts of life right next to the supernatural. But then again, only a few of us knew that Connor’s disappearance was the result of something paranormal.

  I tossed my empty cup into the trash and started back to my table. On my way through the stacks, I froze. My spider-sense was tingling and I whirled around. Nothing was behind me, but I still felt like I was being watched. I didn’t really expect anything to jump out at me in the library, but I hurried back to my desk anyway.

  The usual suspects were still at the tables around mine and none of them looked up as I stopped next to the desk and stared down in surprise. My books were still there, but a new book sat on top of them. It was small and had a faded leather cover, much like the books back in my Hunter library.

  “Hey, Will. Did you see who left this here?” I held up the book for him to see.

  He shook his head no. “It’s not yours?”

  “I don’t think so,” I muttered, opening the cover as I slid into my seat.

  I was surprised to find that the book actually was a Hunter journal, though not one I had ever seen in my family collection. Even more surprising was the number of times the phrase Lost Soul jumped off the pages.

  “Aren’t you supposed to be studying for actual classes?” Rafe asked, appearing in the sea
t across from me so suddenly that it startled me.

  “Just brushing up on my Siren understanding.” I closed the book in a hurry and tossed it into my bag.

  I wasn’t sure why I felt the need to lie to him, but for some reason I wasn’t ready to share my new hobby of studying Hunter journals focused on Lost Souls. I think I was afraid that if the journals didn’t lead anywhere, I would be getting his hopes up for no reason.

  “Not that I’m not thrilled to see you, but why are you here?” I checked the time just to be sure that I wasn’t late. “I should have at least another hour to study.”

  “I was bored.” Rafe picked up a pen and started doodling on my notebook. He gave me a bashful grin. “I missed you.”

  “Have you thought about getting a job?”

  His nose wrinkled. “I’m not good with authority.”

  “Yes, but you are good at spending money.” I highlighted a passage in my economics book without really reading it. “What about taking a class or two?”

  “That seems a little pointless.” He smirked.

  It was true that Rafe didn’t have a lot of time left, but I couldn’t imaging that he was enjoying spending it sitting at home all day. “Okay, no classes and no job. A hobby?”

  “Hanging out with you is a hobby. And hunting is pretty much a full-time job anyway.”

  “Distracting me at the library is not a hobby.” I highlighted another section. “You’re always tinkering with your car. Why don’t you pick up some work doing that? There are community boards all over campus where you could offer your services.”

  “Offer my services?” He waggled his eyebrows. “You’re okay with me offering my services to the public?”

  “Okay, I’m clearly not going to get anything else done tonight.” I slapped my book closed. “We might as well start hunting early.”

  “If you insist,” he said with a grin.

  But our attempt at hunting was just as fruitless as my attempt at studying. We didn’t find the Siren, and I left Ethan and Rafe at the bars downtown and went home early under the guise of having a headache.