by E. J. King
“In here, Red.”
I found him in my room, sitting on the corner of my bed with his head in his hands. I could tell from the curve of his shoulders that he was exhausted.
“What’s wrong? Is Hope okay?” I asked.
He looked up, eyes tired. “Yeah, she’s fine. She’s sleeping.”
“I’m going to check on her,” Ethan said.
We didn’t have to tell him to be careful. We all knew that Hope could go from a sleeping beauty to a hungry monster in a split second.
“How is she doing really?” I asked once Ethan was gone.
Rafe shrugged. “She’s still a bloodsucker.”
“But she’s still human, too, isn’t she? I mean, part of her is still Hope?”
“Yeah. A pretty big part of her from what I can tell.”
Very carefully, I sat next to him, being sure to keep a few inches between us. Whenever my skin touched Rafe’s, I lost the ability to focus.
“What did Hope tell you?”
“Most of her memories about what happened are still fuzzy, but she does remember a few things. She remembers getting a text from a friend asking for a ride and then going outside to her car. Something smacked her head from behind and she was knocked out cold.”
“She never saw it coming.” Even if she had, I knew that Hope wouldn’t have been able to stop it. She wasn’t a Hunter like the rest of us.
Rafe took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “The next thing she remembers is being turned. She woke up gagging on Soul blood and then her neck was snapped.”
My fingers closed around the edge of the bed, digging into the mattress. “Why? Why was she turned?”
Most Souls didn’t bother turning humans. They attacked humans because they craved blood, not because they were looking for eternal friends.
“Because of you,” Rafe said, no hesitation or apology. His words were harsh, but his gold eyes were warm. “Hope was turned to get to you.”
“I’m not saying that you might not be right about that, but how can you be sure?”
“After Hope was turned, she saw her attacker. He fed her human blood to make sure she completed the transition, and then he gave her a message.”
“A message? For me?” I flinched as Rafe took my hand. Whatever he was about to tell me was going to be hard to hear.
“Hope was turned by Benton. He turned her to get to you.”
My heart jumped. “My father did this to her?”
“He’s a monster, Kaylie. You have to stop thinking of him as your father. Souls are pure evil.”
“Is Hope evil?”
Rafe realized his mistake. “I’m not talking about Hope. She’s…different. Unique.”
“She’s either one of them or she isn’t, Rafe. She’s either pure evil or she’s my friend. It doesn’t work both ways.”
It was a statement, not a question, and Rafe knew there was nothing he could say to make the situation better so he didn’t say anything.
“You look tired. Are you doing okay?”
We didn’t talk about his condition very often, but we both knew he was getting worse. I wasn’t exactly surprised that he waved away my concern.
“I’m fine. It was just a long day.”
“You should lay down. Get some rest.”
I expected him to protest again, but he considered my suggestion. “Maybe for just a few minutes.”
“Excellent idea.” I stood and fluffed a pillow for him. “I’ll even make some dinner for you when you wake up.”
“What a woman.” He caught my hand as I started to walk away. “Lay down with me.”
“You need to rest,” I scolded.
He smiled innocently. “I promise to keep my hands to myself.”
Now that I thought about it, a nap did sound like a really good idea. Day drinking with Ethan had taken a lot out of me.
“Alright, make room.”
Rafe shifted to the center of the bed. It was big enough for us to have our own space, but I was never able to keep my distance when our bodies were so close. I curled against him, settling my head on his chest.
“When we wake up, we’re going to have a serious conversation about what to do with Hope,” I said, closing my eyes.
“Later. Right now, let’s just be here. Together.”
That sounded just fine to me.
CHAPTER THREE
“You’re cooking?” Lincoln’s question was intended to be mocking.
“I’m trying.” I stared at the pot of water, waiting for it to boil.
Lincoln reached for a knife and a tomato. “Mom’s lasagna?”
“If I’m lucky.”
I watching him cut into the tomato, smooth and certain. Of the two of us, my brother had been the one to get our mother’s cooking genes.
“You worry about the boiling water. I’ll take care of the rest.” He laughed as I slapped his arm. “It’s a good thing I’m here to save you.”
“Agreed.” I wasn’t just thinking about dinner though.
“Where’s your boyfriend?” he asked through a clenched jaw.
I reached for a box of pasta. “Resting. I don’t think he has much time left. He won’t say anything, but I can tell he’s suffering.”
“It’s only going to get worse.”
“It always does.” I dumped the pasta into the pot, sending scalding water all over the stove.
While I swore, Lincoln laughed. “Some things never change.”
“Did you get ahold of your friend?” I had almost forgotten that Lincoln had thought he might know someone that could help Hope.
“I left a message. She’s usually pretty busy, but she’ll call back when she has a chance.” Lincoln purposefully avoided looking at me.
“How did you meet her?”
“Nice try.” He waved a knife at me. “I’m not telling you details about my private life.”
“Does that mean I can expect you to stop weighing in on mine?”
He turned back to his chopping. “That’s different. I’m giving you sage advice. Protecting your fragile heart.”
“You’re being an ass.”
We both laughed because it was true. Lincoln didn’t really care about protecting my heart, he just didn’t like the idea of me in an adult relationship with Rafe.
With his help, the lasagna came together better than I expected. It was nice to have something to focus on besides monsters and death. By the time we put the dish into the oven, I had almost forgotten how stressful the day had been.
When the doorbell rang, I hurried to get the door before it buzzed again and woke Hope and Rafe.
“Can I help you?”
A young woman on the other side of the door looked at me with bored eyes. “I’m looking for Lincoln.”
“And you are…” My eyes narrowed as I took in her appearance. She was a slight girl, but I could tell that she was tough in the way she held her body. A Hunter. Wearing a leather jacket, skin-tight pants, and patent leather boots with a four-inch heel, she looked like she was wearing a Halloween costume mocking a vampire huntress.
“Silver.”
I didn’t know what that meant. Surely that couldn’t be her name.
“And you’re here to see Lincoln?”
“Who’s at the door, Kale?” he called from the kitchen.
That was an excellent question.
“Hart! Get your hot ass out here.”
I stepped back, silently letting her enter the house. Lincoln came out of the kitchen wearing a ridiculous grin on his face.
“Silver.” He opened his arms and she stepped into them, throwing her arms around his neck and nearly jumping on him.
I stood in the hallway with my mouth hanging open.
“You look good,” he said when he stepped back, eyes scanning her body in a way that made me uncomfortable.
“I know.” She laughed and tossed her hair. “I see you are still ridiculously hot.”
“Ahem.” I cleared my throat obnoxiously.
Lincoln noticed me for the first time. “Right. Kales, this is Olivia Silver. Silver, that’s my sister, Kaylie.”
“The sister?” Olivia’s eyes nearly popped out of her head. “Link talked about you with such hyperbole that I was convinced you must be imaginary.”
“Flesh and blood,” I said.
Olivia’s head turned. “Something smells amazing. Did you cook?”
“Ah, I almost forgot how much you enjoy my cooking.”
Lincoln and Olivia seemed so comfortable with each other, sharing inside jokes, that I felt like an outsider intruding on their time together.
“You have a lot of skills that I enjoy,” she said with a leer.
“Okay, that’s not something I needed to hear.” I pointed to the kitchen. “I’ll just go check the food.”
“Right. Like you would even know if it was burning.” Lincoln pushed me away. “Take Olivia to the living room. I’ll check the food and join you in a minute.”
“Bring drinks,” Olivia ordered.
We sat across from each other in silence while we waited for Lincoln to join us. She seemed perfectly content to stare at me while I squirmed.
“It will be another ten minutes,” Lincoln said. He handed each of us a beer. “We will just have to hang out for a bit.”
“Swell,” I muttered.
“Link talked so much about you that I feel like I know you already.” Olivia crossed one leg over the other, brushing it against Lincoln in the process.
I was pretty sure if I left the room for two minutes, they would start having sex on the floor. “I can’t say the same.”
She wasn’t offended. “What have you been up to these last few months? It looks like you have nice life going.”
I didn’t like the way she said that as she looked around the house. I could tell that she thought I was stupid for trying to live a normal life. “I needed to start over somewhere.”
“Link told me all about what happened to your family.” She didn’t seem at all bothered as she casually mentioned the death of our family. “Terrible.”
“It was.”
A door cracked open down the hall and we all waited as footsteps moved in our direction.
“Where’s my dinner, woman?” Rafe asked, his smile vanishing when he realized that I wasn’t alone.
“We have company,” I announced grimly.
“Whoa,” Olivia muttered under her breath. Her eyes widened as she got a better look at Rafe. My jaw clenched as I fought the urge to lunge at her.
Lincoln was too busy glaring at Rafe to make proper introductions.
“That’s Olivia. Lincoln’s friend.”
He nodded at her and settled next to me on the couch. Olivia’s eyes roamed over Rafe and for the first time, she was speechless. Rafe started to put his arm around me, but then he caught Lincoln glaring at him and he changed his mind.
“This is cozy,” he remarked, glancing at both of them before turning to me. “Do we hate her or something?”
Some of us do, I thought in my head. “I think everyone is just hungry,” I said, covering for the tension in the air.
“Right.” He turned back to them. “So, how do you two know each other?”
“Link saved my life. I was about to be attacked by a Djinn and he came out of nowhere and chopped its head off.” She made a chopping motion with her hand. “It was quite impressive.”
“We spent a few months hunting together before I decided it was time to find Kaylie,” Lincoln added.
“Those were some really good months,” she said with a sly smile. “You nearly broke my heart when you left.”
“Please. Everyone knows you don’t have a heart inside that chest.”
I’d had enough of their flirting. “Dinner should be ready.”
Before anyone could stop me, I hurried from the room. With psychic-like ability, Ethan emerged from Hope’s room just as we were settling down to eat.
“There’s another one?” Olivia asked.
The guys all looked at her in confusion, but I knew what she meant. Rafe and Ethan had both inherited abnormal good looks.
“Ethan, Olivia.” I didn’t look up from my food as I made the introductions.
Olivia had no problem making friends. By the end of the meal, she had managed to get more information out of Rafe and Ethan than I had in three months. Fortunately, she didn’t seem at all interested in digging into my past. Maybe that was because Lincoln had already told her everything about me.
“Now that we’ve all had a chance to bond, are you ready to talk about Hope?” I was tired of pretending to be interested as Olivia told yet another story that ended with her slaying a monster and then hooking up with some hot guy.
“A direct woman. I can appreciate that.” Olivia reached for what was at least her sixth beer. “Legend has it that the blood of the Alpha can cure vampirism.”
“Alpha blood? I’ve never heard that legend.”
My parents hadn’t been the type of people that counted on rumors to be true. They believed in facts. Until they saw something to be true with their own eyes, they discounted it. That was probably what had made them such good Hunters. Now I wondered if that was also what had gotten them killed.
“All we have to do is find Hope’s Alpha, snag some blood, and feed it to her?” Lincoln shrugged. “That sounds easy enough.”
It did sound a little too simple. But I knew something that Lincoln didn’t know.
“Benton is Hope’s Alpha.”
He had created Hope, using his own blood to curse her for eternity. I had no problem accepting that I would have to kill him to save her, but I didn’t think killing him was going to be as easy as it sounded.
“Who’s Benton?” Olivia asked, looking confused.
Ethan quickly filled her in on the situation. Rather than listen to a rehash of my family drama, I started clearing the table. When that was done, I began scrubbing the dishes.
“Careful, Rambo,” Rafe said as he watched me slam a cleaned knife back into the wood block. “Need any help?”
“Sure. Got any Alpha blood handy?” I asked, my tone more than a little hostile.
He brushed it aside easily. “This is good news, Kaylie. We have a way to save Hope now.”
“By killing my father,” I reminded him.
“I was already planning to do that anyway,” Rafe said. “It’s pretty clear he wants you dead. I’m not letting that happen.”
I put the last plate in the dishwasher and slammed it shut. “He’s a powerful Soul, Rafe. It’s not going to be easy to kill him.”
“Don’t underestimate me.” He walked over slowly. “Do you think I got this amazing body from being a total wimp?”
‘Ha ha.” I tried to give him an annoyed look, but I was too busy thinking about that amazing body.
“Are you planning to hide in the kitchen all night?” he said, backing me up against the counter.
“What do you think of Olivia?” I still couldn’t decide if she should be trusted.
Rafe’s hands moved over my hips. “Nothing at all. I’ve been too busy thinking of you.”
“Well played, Rafferty.” My lips closed over his hungrily while my hands stroked the curves of his abdominal muscles. He really did have a fantastic body.
Just as his hands started to move under my shirt, a throat cleared loudly from the doorway.
“Link.” I looked at him over Rafe’s shoulder, saw that his hands were clenched into fists. “Do you need something?”
“I need him to get his damn hands off of you.”
Rafe sighed and turned around. “I’ll get you another drink, buddy.”
“Don’t.” Lincoln stepped forward with his shoulders squared. “We are not friends.”
“Back off,” Rafe said. “I’m not looking to fight you.”
“You need to leave Kaylie alone.” Lincoln took another step forward. “As long as she’s with you, she isn’t safe.”
Rafe didn’t back down. �
�I would never hurt her.”
“You don’t know that. The monster inside you is going to take over one day, and she can’t be there when it happens or you will kill her.”
“Lincoln. Stop it.” I stepped in between them.
“Benton was just like him,” Lincoln said, eyes fixed on me. “He was a Lost Soul, too, remember? And almost he killed your mother.”
I could feel Rafe at my back, his heart pounding. I wanted to turn around and tell him not to listen. It would be different for us.
“I know you don’t want to believe that, Kaylie. You want to think that it will be different for the two of you, but even if the story is different, the ending is going to be the same.”
“Wow, I had no idea you have the power to see the future. How great for you.” For some reason, whenever I fought with Lincoln I always resorted to sarcasm and taunting. “Maybe you should play the lottery.”
“Kaylie-”
Whatever he was going to say was lost when Ethan yelled for us to come to the living room. He and Olivia were glued to the television screen.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“A bus full of kids is missing.” Ethan reached for the remote and turned up the volume so we could all hear the concerned newswoman give us the details.
“The bus left Jackson Elementary at 5:20 this evening to take fifteen children to a choir performance in neighboring Lockport. However, the bus never reached its designation. None of the children have been accounted for and the bus appears to have vanished.”
They played a video that showed children boarding a bus outside of the elementary school.
“What kind of sicko kidnaps a bus full of children?” Lincoln wondered.
Rafe’s eyes narrowed at the screen. “The kind that drinks human blood and turns our friend into a monster.”
The camera had zoomed into the bus interior, showing a close up shot of the bus driver. It was grainy, but the flash of gold eyes was unmistakable.
“You think that’s Benton?” Ethan said skeptically. “You can barely even tell for sure that the person is male.”
“It’s him,” I said, feeling quite certain. “He’s baiting me. Benton knows there is no way I’ll ignore something like this even though it is obvious that it’s a trap.”