by E. J. King
“What?” He sat up straight. “How? Did you tell him?”
“No, I didn’t tell him,” I snapped. “You weren’t ready yet. I wouldn’t go behind your back.”
“Well how did he find out then? I certainly didn’t tell him.”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. We probably aren’t that good at hiding it. But last night, he was waiting for me when I came out of your room. He knew I was in there, and he forced you to talk about that stuff in front of me.”
Rafe’s lips pressed into a thin line as he thought about what I said. “Son of a bitch.”
“Well, technically, you have the same mother so…” I stopped talking when I saw the anger on his face. “I’m sure Ethan didn’t do it to be evil.”
“This is none of his business. He needs to back off.”
“That’s not entirely true. I think it is at least partly his business.” I cringed when Rafe’s face hardened.
“Our relationship is not his business.”
“No, but whatever secrets the two of you have been keeping from me aren’t yours alone.” I was now annoyed at Rafe’s annoyance. He didn’t have a right to be angry. He was the one that had been lying throughout our relationship. “Whenever you feel like coming clean, you know where to find me.”
“Stop.” He grabbed my hand as I attempted to walk past him.
I looked hard at his hand and tried to keep my breathing even. It was hard to stay calm whenever he was touching me.
“What, Rafe?”
“Spend the day with me.”
“Huh?” I stammered. “I can’t. I have class.”
“Skip it.”
“Lincoln is here. It’s his first day back, I can’t just leave him alone.”
Rafe rolled his eyes. “He’s a big boy. He’ll be fine. Besides, he won’t be alone. I’m sure Hope is inside right now, hanging on his every word.”
“I don’t want to spend the day with you. I’m still mad at you.” I had to force myself to look angry when he smiled at me adorably.
“Come on. You know you can’t resist me. Just give in.”
I sighed in defeat. “Fine. But just the morning. I’m not going to leave Lincoln alone all day.”
“I’ll take what I can get.”
“Give me a few minutes. I need to shower.”
Rafe was feeling more like himself. “Me, too! What a coincidence. You know, if we shower together we will save water.”
“No.” I started toward the door.
“Why do you hate the environment?”
“Go upstairs,” I said over my shoulder, keeping my back to him so he wouldn’t see my smile. I didn’t want to accidentally encourage him.
“I’m really handy with a loofa!” he said, just as the door shut in his face.
I had assumed that Rafe would either want to spend the day talking or sexing, but he surprised me when he asked me to meet him at his car.
“Not another road trip?” I asked unhappily. Our last one hadn’t exactly been a big success, though it had brought Rafe and me closer together.
“Short drive,” he promised, opening my door.
Jackson wasn’t a very big city, so nothing in town was more than a short drive away. Rafe drove through the heart of town, all the way to the other side. He stopped at the bottom of Jackson Hill.
“We’re going to the top,” he announced proudly.
“Really? This is your plan for the morning?” I squinted to see the top of the hill.
“What’s wrong? Out of shape?” He winked and then held out his hand. “I’ll help you.”
I pushed his hand away. “You love to annoy me, don’t you?”
“You’re hot when you’re pissed off.”
“Then I must be looking damn fine right now.” I frowned at the path in front of us.
“No argument here.” Rafe gestured for me to go first, no doubt so he could stare at my ass during our hike.
He was surprisingly quiet on the way up. Both of us were in better than average shape, so it didn’t take long to reach the top. An old tree stump near the edge gave us a seat with a perfect view looking over the city.
“It’s beautiful up here,” I said in surprise as I sat down.
“I’ll take that as an apology.” Rafe took a seat next to me. “I used to come here in the mornings after the bars closed to watch the sun rise.”
“So this is what you were doing all those times you stayed out all night?” Again, I was surprised. “I just assumed you were shacking up with some girl.”
He smirked. “Only half of the time.”
“Did you ever bring any of them up here?”
His smirk faded. “No. Just you.”
“You always say the right thing.” I groaned. “It makes it so hard for me to be pissed at you.”
“Don’t be too sure about that,” he said, looking off into the distance. “I brought you up here so you can’t run away when I tell you the truth.”
My entire body tensed. “The full truth this time?”
“All of it.”
Even though it sounded ominous, I actually felt myself begin to relax. Rafe and Ethan had been keeping their secret for a long time, whatever it was, and we would all be better off with the truth out in the open.
“When I first approached your parents to offer help, they told me something about you.” Rafe glanced at me sideways. “Something almost no one knows.”
“They told you about my blood?”
“Yes. But also something else.”
I waited for him to continue but Rafe seemed to be having trouble finding the words. “Out with it, Rafferty.”
“I asked them why your blood is different than Lincoln’s blood. You are siblings, it would make sense for the cure to run in your bloodline. But only your blood is special.”
“It’s probably not genetic,” I said easily. “Maybe I was cursed as a baby or something.”
Rafe grabbed my hand and waited until I looked him in the eye. “Your blood isn’t cursed. But it also isn’t normal Hart blood.”
He didn’t even have to finish. I knew what he was going to say. “I’m not their real daughter, am I?”
“Not biologically, no.” Rafe squeezed my hand. “But they raised you since you were a baby, and they loved you like their own.”
My parents had never given me any reason to believe that I wasn’t their biological child. I tried to remember if I had ever caught them talking in hushed whispers or sharing suspicious looks, but nothing came to mind. Yet, somehow I still wasn’t all that surprised by Rafe’s revelation. Some part of me must have always suspected that something was off, I must’ve known that I wasn’t the same as my brothers.
“Who are my real parents?”
“Your parents didn’t tell me,” Rafe said.
His avoidance of my question did not go unnoticed. “But you found out on your own?”
He frowned, considering how best to answer my question.
“You promised the full truth,” I reminded him.
“Yeah. Easier said than done.” He smiled ruefully. “After I saw what happened to your family, it was pretty clear that it wasn’t just a normal attack. It seemed personal. I got curious about why your blood was so special, so I did a little research.”
“And?”
“It’s not good news.” Rafe kicked a rock over the edge, watching it until it was out of sight. “Do you remember your dad’s brother?”
I startled. “Uncle Benny? I know of him, but I never met him.”
“There’s a reason for that. Your uncle was turned, before you were even born.”
“Uncle Benny was a Dark Soul?” Somehow, this was more shocking than finding out that I was adopted.
“Benton is a Dark Soul. He’s still alive.”
I was hit by so many concurrent thoughts that my brain actually hurt. “Benton? Why do I know that name?”
“It’s your uncle’s full name. Benton Hart.” Rafe watched me with concern when my head dropped i
nto my hands.
“Was my mother’s name Violet?” I asked in a whisper.
“Yes,” he said, surprised. “How did you know?”
I stood, walking until my feet skimmed the edge of the cliff. “A few weeks back, I found a journal from a Hunter named Violet. Lincoln left it for me.”
“Your mother’s journal?”
“Apparently. I had no idea at the time, but now it makes sense.” Staring straight down, I wondered what it would feel like to fall. Would I be too panicked about dying to enjoy the sensation of flying? “Violet was involved with a Lost Soul named Benton. She thought that her blood could cure him, but when she tried to give it to him, he turned and attacked her.”
Rafe came to stand next to me, a few inches back. His hand found my elbow, as if he suspected that I actually might jump. “I still wonder- if he turned, how can he be your father? Dark Souls can’t procreate like humans. They make more Souls by turning them, not birthing them. It’s the one part of this story that has never made sense.”
“Violet got pregnant while he was still human. It make sense that Lost Souls can still procreate, they are still human after all.”
“They are,” Rafe said coldly.
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “That’s why my blood is special. It’s part Soul blood, part human blood.”
“I had no idea that was even possible.”
Rafe and I stared at each other, lost for words. The whole thing seemed too impossible to be true, but my very existence was proof that it was all real.
“What happened to Violet?” I asked, thinking about the mother that I had never known.
“I don’t know.” Rafe shrugged. “She disappeared after she had you. From what I could tell, your parents took you a while after she gave birth and then she took off.”
“So she might be dead?”
“It’s possible.”
When I looked over the edge again, I remembered that Rafe had brought me up here for a reason. He had been so worried about what I might do when he told me the truth that he’d wanted us to be in a remote location.
“What else, Rafe? This can’t be all that you needed to tell me.”
His eyes were pure gold as they looked into mine. “Benton is responsible for your family’s death. He is the one that sent the Souls to find you.”
There it was- the real truth. “You’ve known this whole time who killed my family and you didn’t tell me?”
“You weren’t ready for the truth.”
“Bull shit. You just weren’t ready to tell me the truth.” I jerked my arm away from him. “You know how tortured I’ve been this whole time.”
Rafe grabbed me by both arms. “You can be mad at me, Kaylie. I really don’t care anymore. I’ve given up the last two years of my life to keep you safe, and I’m sure I made some mistakes along the way.”
Whatever anger I had been feeling began to fade. Rafe was right. The truth was that he didn’t really owe me anything. Yet, he’d committed himself to me with no promise of anything in return.
“You’re right.” I closed my eyes and took several deep breaths. “This is just a lot of information to process.”
“I know.”
When I opened my eyes again, Rafe smiled. “Is it safe to say that you don’t hate me?”
“I don’t hate you,” I said, not quite able to return his smile. “I think maybe that’s the problem.”
“Okay, you’re gonna have to explain that one. That was too deep for a shallow guy like me.” His smile wavered.
“You own me, Rafe. I can’t stay mad at you, or annoyed with you. I can’t even stay away from you for extended periods of time without feeling miserable.”
His eyes narrowed and his smile vanished completely. “I feel the same way about you, Kaylie.”
“Yes, but I’m the one that’s going to be left with those feelings when you’re gone.” I couldn’t look at him so I looked over his shoulder at the horizon instead. “I’m either going to be left alone, or I’m going to end up like my mother.”
“You don’t know that. We still have time.” Rafe used his hand to turn my face back to his. “We can still find a way to fix this.”
“I don’t know if I believe that any more,” I said with a sad shake of my head. “But I do know that I’m not strong enough to lose another person that I love.”
Rafe asked, “What are you saying, Kaylie? Are you giving up on me?”
“No. I’m not giving up on you. But I think I am beginning to give up on the idea of love.” I turned away from Rafe, not wanting him to see the pain in my eyes. “Or maybe I’m just tired. Let’s go home.”
On the drive home, I decided that Rafe was just the person to be with when finding out that you were adopted.
“Do you ever wonder about your biological father?”
Rafe’s eyes never left the road in front of us. “Sometimes.”
“Did you ever ask your mother about him?” I knew that I had a million question about Benton swirling in my head and I wished that I could ask someone about him.
“My mother wasn’t allowed to talk about him in front of my Dad.” His jaw clenched. “I used to have a picture of him that I kept hidden in my nightstand, but Dad found it and burned it in our fireplace.”
My heart hurt for Rafe. I was lucky that my parents had been kind people that had only ever wanted to keep me safe.
“I’m glad you got away from him,” I said, taking Rafe’s hand. He gave me a gentle squeeze. “I’m glad you found me.”
“Me, too.” He turned from the road just long enough to smile at me. “And I’m glad you didn’t run away screaming when I did find you.”
“It helps that I’ve faced so many scary monsters,” I joked.
Rafe lifted our joined hands, pressing his lips to the back of mine. “You’re the best thing in my life, Kaylie.”
I had several witty replies in my head, but I stopped them from coming out of my mouth. Rafe was right that I often made jokes rather than facing serious truths. And there was nothing more serious than how I felt for him.
“You are my life, Rafe.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
With all of the drama swirling in the air, it had been easy to forget that an outside world was still conspiring against us. But back at the house, the outside world had made its way inside. We found Ethan and Lincoln huddled in the dining room, surrounded by Hunter journals.
“What happened?” I asked wearily.
“Death. Carnage. Mayhem.” Ethan didn’t look up, but he tossed a newspaper in my direction. “Read all about it.”
The front page of the newspaper was consumed by death. Nearly a dozen bodies had been discovered at an old campsite just outside of town. They had been identified as a group of locals that had been camping for the last few days but hadn’t returned home when expected.
“Bodies and no blood? Sounds like a Soul feast to me.” I was getting tired of the normal Soul antics. “If they’re preparing for a showdown, I wish they’d just get it over with.”
All three of the guys stared at me.
“What?”
“Twelve innocent people died,” Ethan said. “You’re not getting bored, are you?”
“Those twelve people died because of me. I’m sick of feeling guilty. I think we should take the fight to the Souls instead of sitting around, waiting for more people to die.”
“Slow down, Kay.” Lincoln gave me a scolding look. “You know better than to rush into hunts when you’re unprepared.”
“Who says I’m unprepared?” I glared at him. “I’ve been hunting Souls my entire life. We have four Hunters right here, doing nothing. Let’s earn our worth.”
“This isn’t just another Soul.” Lincoln stood and pounded his fists on the table. “You have no idea what we are dealing with.”
I scoffed. “My father? That is what you mean, right?”
“Our father is dead,” Lincoln said, jaw clenched.
“But not my real f
ather. He’s still alive and kicking. And he’s coming for me.” My head tilted. “But you already knew that, didn’t you?”
Lincoln didn’t say anything, but he didn’t have to. I could see the answer in his eyes.
“How long have you known?”
“Mom and Dad told me a few months before everything went down. They thought that if I knew the truth, I might be able to protect you.” Lincoln laughed. “Guess I should have been protecting them instead.”
Something occurred to me. “Tell me again where you’ve been these last two years?”
“I’ve been hunting Benton,” Lincoln said, unapologetically.
“That’s really why you didn’t find me right away, isn’t it? You wanted to find him, but you didn’t want to tell me. Did you think I couldn’t handle it?”
“I’m still not sure you can.” He finally sat back down. “He’s your father, Kaylie. It’s not an easy thing to kill your father.”
“It’s not an easy to thing to bury and grieve your entire family, but you didn’t seem to mind seeing me go through that alone.”
“Let’s not do this again, Kaylie.” He gestured to the piles of books around us. “We have actual work to do.”
I looked at Ethan and he nodded. “We have a lot of research left.”
“Like what? We already know how to kill Souls.”
Lincoln handed me a journal I had never seen. The handwriting inside was familiar though. “That’s mine,” he said. “It details everything I learned about Benton in the last two years. Read that and then let me know if you think we’re ready.”
I was more than a little surprised to hear that my brother had been keeping a Hunter journal. But I supposed we had both changed a lot in the last two years.
It was getting stuffy in the house and I was tired of having three guys staring at me, waiting for me to have a breakdown. I grabbed a cup of coffee and took the journal outside. The air was much brisker than it had been even a few days earlier. Thanksgiving was only a week away and then it would be time for finals and snow.
At first, I didn’t get why Lincoln had decided to share his journal with me. Aside from some lamenting over our family’s demise, it was mostly just a step-by-step replay of the work he did to find Benton. But somewhere in the middle of the journal, things changed.