Dark Souls: Box Set: Books 1-5

by E. J. King

  “After she was attacked, Violet came to stay with us. Kate and I had just had Ethan a year earlier, and we already had a crib and everything so it only made sense. She stayed until you were nine months old. Then one night, Benton made a move and tried to burn down our house. We all barely escaped. She made up her mind that it wasn’t safe to stay with us any longer. She decided to hide you somewhere safe.”

  “With my parents.” My head was spinning. I’d spent the first few months of my life with the Nights. Benton had tried to kill us and almost killed Rafe and Ethan.

  “Violet would’ve done anything to keep you safe. Even if that meant leaving you with Benton’s brother.” He leaned back, crossed his arms. “I’m just glad his brother was a better man. Because Benton was never worth the air he breathed, even before he was turned.”

  I couldn’t hold in my anger any longer. “Well, you are the expert on asshole fathers.”

  It felt like all of the air was sucked out of the room as we waited for his reaction. Rafe kicked my foot and Ethan coughed loudly to cover a drunken laugh. Even Kate looked a little amused.

  “I’m sure Rafe has told you things about me,” Ken said, his eyes locked on me and not on his son. “Some of it is true. But everything I did was done to keep him and Ethan safe. I always looked out for them.”

  “Whatever you have to tell yourself to sleep at night.” I really wanted to tell him off, but I still needed more information. “What happened to Violet after she left me?”

  Ken waited a long time to answer. I wondered if he was punishing me for my loose tongue. “I don’t think you’re ready to hear that story yet.”

  “Dad.” Rafe spoke for the first time. “Please, just tell us.”

  “It isn’t safe for you to know.” Ken had a look of determination on his face that made me uneasy. “You really should leave town.”

  “Leave town?” Ethan nearly jumped from his seat. “You don’t see us for two years, and all you can say is that we should leave town?”

  “I’m only thinking about keeping you safe, son.” Ken’s eyes flashed. “You can believe that or not, but it’s the truth.”

  “It sounds like you just want us to go away so you don’t have to face the consequences of your crappy parenting,” Ethan challenged.

  Luke interjected. “Look, I don’t understand the complexities of this family relationship, but perhaps we should move on? It’s not like anyone can leave tonight anyway.”

  “What do you mean?” Rafe said.

  “We stumbled across a Soul nest on our hunt. Too many for us to take on, so we bailed.” Luke glanced out the window. “They followed us.”

  “What are we doing sitting here?” I jumped to my feet. “We need to take them out.”

  Luke stepped between me and the door. “Not so fast. It isn’t that easy, Kaylie.”

  “Sure it is. I’ve been doing this for years.”

  “There were at least two dozen of them, and they aren’t here to feed.” Ken stood up like he was expecting to have to physically stop me.

  “Not feeding?” I was stumped. What did that mean?

  “They are here for Kaylie,” Rafe guessed darkly. “Benton is ready to make his move?”

  Ken sighed. “It looks that way.”

  “I’m not scared of Benton. News flash- this isn’t the first time he’s tried to kill me. I can handle him.”

  “That’s what he wants you to think,” Luke said. “You get cocky, you let your guard down.”

  “Fine.” I threw up my hands. “If you think you know best, by all means tell us your plan.”

  Luke glared at me. “We wait until sunrise. The Souls will return to their nests and we’ll be able to take them out easily.”

  “You have no way of knowing that. It would be really stupid of them to return to their nests when you already found them there.” I crossed my arms stubbornly. “If we wait until morning to hunt, they’ll be long gone.”

  “No, they won’t.” He matched my stubbornness. “They are only here to get you, Kaylie. You walking into their nest is exactly what they would want.”

  Something weird happened next. I recognized something in Luke’s eyes, a familiar spark that I remembered from our past. Luke knew something- a secret- and he was dying to tell me. And from the way he kept glancing at Ken, I knew that he wouldn’t tell me until we were alone.

  “Okay. We wait until tomorrow.” I tried to sound reluctant and agitated.

  Rafe knew me too well. His eyes drilled into me and I carefully avoided eye contact with him.

  “Wait,” Ethan said, piecing it together. “This means we have to stay here tonight?”

  “I guess so,” Kate said.

  “No way.” He shook his head emphatically. “Not happening.”

  “Don’t be stupid, son,” Ken said in a clipped voice. “If you let your pride decide for you, you’ll be dead before sunrise.”

  Ethan’s nose flared, likely reacting to being called stupid, but he managed to keep his composure. “We’ll head out first thing in the morning.”

  Luke couldn’t hold back a grin as he sang out, “Sleepover!”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  While I hadn’t exactly thought we were going to have fun staying for a sleepover, it ended up being even more awkward than I could have imagined. It was hard to believe that these people had ever formed a functional family. I could see why Rafe and Ethan had been so definitive in their decision to leave.

  Ken chose to disappear into his study rather than talk to the sons he hadn’t seen in two years, and Kate didn’t seem to know what to say or do. She kept popping in and out of the room without saying anything at all.

  “Has Mom been drinking again?” Ethan asked after her fifth disappearance. It sounded like he was only partially kidding.

  “She never was good making small talk with strangers,” Rafe replied with a wry smile.

  “It’s going to be a long night,” Ethan muttered as she reappeared again.

  Luke entered the room holding a deck of cards. “Poker anyone?”

  It was a ridiculous idea- the four of us playing cards in the Night dining room, but we needed some way to pass the time and no one had a better suggestion.

  “You might as well just hand over your money now, Hart,” Luke said as he dealt out the first round. “You never could beat me.”

  “Excuse me?” I said with a flash of irritation. “That’s a very skewed version of the past.”

  He grinned and studied me over the top of his hand. “Can I assumed that you still twirl your hair when you’re trying to bluff?”

  “Can I assume you still make arrogant comments when you’re nervous about losing to a girl?”

  Rafe cleared his throat. “Are we going to play or do the two of you just want to exchange snarky comments all night?”

  I flushed, having forgotten for just a second how awkward the situation was for all of us.

  We settled into relative quiet as we played. Luke and I still exchanged an occasional barb, but I made sure to keep it in check. I didn’t want Rafe to mistake it for flirting, though I supposed that in a way that was exactly what we were doing.

  “So, where’ve you been these past few years?” Luke tried to sound nonchalant, but his face grew stony. “After you left us, I was sure you’d gone into hiding and would never be seen in the Hunter world again.”

  “That was the plan,” I admitted with a frown. It seemed so long ago that I had been determined to turn my back on the supernatural world. But then Rafe and Ethan had come into my life. “The plan changed.”

  “I can’t say I’m disappointed.” Luke laid down his hand with a flourish. “You were always a much better Hunter than a poker player.”

  I reached for the cards and scooped them all into a stack. “I was actually pretty good at not being a Hunter, too.”

  “You weren’t that good at it,” Rafe protested softly. “It didn’t take much to convince you to start hunting again.”

  My eye
s narrowed as I looked at him. “You were very convincing in the matter.”

  He smiled his crooked smirk that always made my heart jump and his foot tapped mine under the table.

  “How’d you convince her to give it up?” Luke asked.

  My jaw dropped and I stared at him in panic. Rafe wasn’t as easily unsettled.

  “You mean, how did I get her to give up her ‘normal’ life?” he clarified, his smile twitching when he noticed my obvious discomfort. “It wasn’t as hard as you might think. Kaylie was meant to be a Hunter.”

  “But it was never what she wanted,” Luke argued.

  Rafe glared at the insinuation that Luke knew what I wanted better than he did. “She never wanted her biological father to be a raging, psychopathic monster, but that happened anyway.”

  “She also really doesn’t like being talked about as if she isn’t in the room,” I snapped.

  “Still sassy and hostile I see.” Luke grinned at me. “All this time, I thought you just saved that surliness for me.”

  “As much as I love a good pissing contest, maybe we should quit pretending to play poker,” Ethan said. He looked pointedly at the cards in my hand which I had been holding for a long period of time.

  I quickly started to deal. “Focus, guys,” I scolded.

  We fell into an uncomfortable, but welcomed silence. I much preferred not being the topic of conversation between my former and current lovers. But Luke wasn’t ready to let it drop yet, and he cornered me in the kitchen as I was filling a glass with water.

  “Are you involved with that jerk?” he asked directly.

  “Jerk?” I pretended not to know that he was referencing Rafe.

  “You’re too smart to play dumb and get away with it,” Luke teased with a reluctant smile. “You know that you deserve better than him, right?”

  I gave up the charade. “You don’t even know him, Luke. James is a really good guy.”

  “He’s selfish. He doesn’t care what’s best for you, Kaylie.”

  “How could you possibly know that based on the limited time you’ve known him?”

  He crossed the room until he was standing just two feet in front of me. “He pulled you back into this life. The life that you don’t want. You want a normal, non-Hunter life, and he doesn’t care.”

  “Things have changed since we were together,” I said quietly. “That life that I used to want… it isn’t possible anymore.”

  “If you had chosen me, I would’ve done everything I could to make it possible. Can you say the same about him?”

  I couldn’t. Rafe had been clear that he thought it was silly for me to wish for a normal life. Once a Hunter, always a Hunter according to him.

  “I’m happy with my life. I’m happy with him.” I stuck out my chin stubbornly.

  “Are you trying to convince me or yourself?” He stared hard at me.

  “Luke, you aren’t part of my life anymore, so you don’t get to make judgments about it.” I took a big gulp of water and nearly choked on it. “I’m going to do us both a favor and change the subject.”

  “Fine.” He shrugged. “Whatever. That isn’t why I followed you in here anyway.”

  “I suspected as much.” I hadn’t forgotten that sparkle in his eye earlier.

  It was back now. “Ken is lying to you Kaylie. He knows more about your mother than he shared earlier.”

  “How do you know that?” I hadn’t been able to tell whether Ken was telling the full truth or not. His face had been unreadable.

  “When I got home from the bar, I went looking for Ken. I found him in his study, with his back to the door and he was on the phone. I’ve always been a curious boy, so I listened in.” He grinned sheepishly.

  “Who was on the phone?” I asked, focused on not encouraging his playfulness. We needed to keep things professional.

  Luke hesitated and I could practically see the wheels spinning in his head as he chose his words carefully. “I believe it was your mother.”

  “Come again?” I put a hand on the counter behind me to catch my balance. A feather could’ve knocked me over.

  “He used the name Violet. I think he was talking to your mother.”

  Just to be sure that I understood him correctly, I asked, “My mother is still alive?”

  “It seems that way.” Luke had been talking quietly, but he lowered it even more. “After the call, I hit the redial button-”

  “You spoke to her?” I interrupted.

  “No.” He shook his head. “I got a receptionist at the Hamilton Inn in Parkville, Indiana.”

  “Indiana?” I quickly tried to remember if I had any past in Parkville. My family had lived in Indianapolis for two months when I was eleven, but that was the only time I’d ever been in the state.

  Luke removed a folded piece of paper from his pocket. “She confirmed that a woman that would be Violet’s age asked to use their phone ten minutes earlier. This is the address.”

  I unfolded the paper and read it. “You think we should all go?”

  “No, not all of us.”

  “What do you mean?” It was the only lead I had on Violet and nothing was going to stop me from following up on it.

  “You don’t want me to judge your boyfriend, but I think I know enough about him to know that he isn’t going to want you to rush into this.” Luke raised a challenging eyebrow. “You tell him that you want to go across the country to track down your biological mother, and he’ll insist that you play it safe. Do a lot of painful research that doesn’t lead anywhere. Am I wrong?”

  My head shook reluctantly. He wasn’t wrong. Rafe was always cautious when it came to me. “I have to go, Luke.”

  “I know. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t go. I’m saying that you shouldn’t tell him that you are going.” Luke noticed the disapproval on my face. “It’s the only way you get to Parkville anytime soon. And I’ll go with you, so you won’t be alone.”

  “Whoa.” I took a step back, bumping hard into the counter. “That seems like a really bad idea.”

  “Well, you can’t exactly go alone. It wouldn’t be safe for anyone, but especially not for you with Benton on the prowl.”

  He had a point. I hated him for it.

  “Look, I’m not going to make you do anything.” Luke put his hands up in surrender. “You take some time and think about it. Find me if you decide you want to try to find her.”

  I thought about nothing else for the rest of the night. I couldn’t even concentrate on a single hand of poker because I was too busy weighing my options.

  “You alright?” Rafe asked for the fifth time as he caught me staring blankly at the wall.

  “Yeah,” I answered, barely acknowledging him.

  When it was time for bed, Kate insisted on helping us get settled. She also insisted on separate sleeping quarters for each person, no doubt based on what she had interrupted in the bedroom earlier. With how distracted I was, it was probably for the best. Rafe would just keep prying until I finally told him what was on my mind.

  “Kaylie?”

  Kate stood in the doorway to my bedroom for the evening.

  “Yes?” I eyed her wearily, certain that she was about to lecture me about seducing her son. Moms didn’t tend to like me very much. Kate stepped into the room hesitantly.

  “I came across something I thought you might like to have.” She held out a small shoebox.

  I was stumped. Of all the things I had anticipated, I hadn’t expected her to give me a present. “What’s this?”

  “Some things that your mother left behind. After the fire, she left abruptly. We managed to save some of her stuff from the wreckage and I held onto it in case she ever came back.”

  I opened the lid with a shaking hand, nervous about what I might find inside. The first thing I noticed was a small leather book, charred around the edges.

  “That’s her journal,” Kate explained. “It spans the first few months of your life.”

  With the smallest mo
vement, I brushed my fingertips over the leather cover. I almost expected it to dissolve beneath my touch, but that didn’t happen. I moved it aside so I could see what else was in the box. A thin silver chain held a small, round pendant. When I plucked it from the box, I saw that it was engraved.

  “Always and forever,” I read aloud.

  “She used to wear that all the time. Said that your father made it for her… before.” Kate shifted uncomfortable. “I think she would be glad that it belongs to you now.”

  “Thank you.” I could never explain how it felt to hold that necklace, the only thing in the world that represented the love my biological parents had once had for one another. Besides me, that is.

  Kate opened and closed her mouth a couple of times before finally saying, “I’m glad that James has you in his life. I can tell that he loves you.”

  “He’s a wonderful man,” I said emphatically. “I love him very much.”

  “Good. I’m afraid I never loved him enough. I tried, but he reminded me so much of his father that sometimes it just hurt to be around him. He needs someone in his life to love him, someone to protect him. I failed at both of those things.”

  Just as she reached the doorway, I called out, “He still loves you. In spite of everything, you’re still his mother.”

  She looked surprised, but she nodded. “I love him, too.”

  “You should tell him that.”

  We stared at each other for several seconds, two women bonding over a shared love of Rafe. It was strange, but also comforting.

  When she was gone, I put the necklace on and marveled at how it fell just above my heart. I wondered if things had been different, would my mother have given this to me herself?

  It was then that I made up my mind to leave. I had to find her.

  But before I could go, I needed to be with Rafe one last time. I just needed to feel his arms around me.

  He had volunteered to sleep on the couch downstairs, so I held my breath and tiptoed down the hall, past his parents’ bedroom. Kate and I may have reached a temporary truce, but that would end if she caught me sneaking downstairs.

  The stairs only creaked a little bit as I crept down them, each time causing me to halt abruptly, checking to make sure that everyone was still asleep.