Dark Souls: Box Set: Books 1-5

by E. J. King

  “Town meeting?” I almost laughed at the concept.

  Again, she glared. “We meet every month to go over important council updates. On occasion, we have special meetings when necessary. If you are still around at the end of the week, you will be able to attend such a meeting.”

  “Sounds delightful,” Luke said with a smirk.

  “If you are not going to take it seriously, you shouldn’t bother attending.” She turned on her heel. “Come.”

  Feeling a bit like a scolded puppy, I followed her down the hall. We passed several open doors that revealed empty, clean bedrooms.

  “You can close the doors at night, but during the day they must remain open,” Joy explained coldly.

  “Why?” I couldn’t help myself. It seemed like strange rule.

  “Because we have nothing to hide at Haven.” She spoke evenly, like it was a line she had rehearsed for a play. “You will come to appreciate our openness.”

  She stopped in front of a door. “Are you two… together?”

  “No,” I answered quickly.

  “Separate rooms then,” she said, quickly processing it. “One of you can have this one.”

  “You didn’t have to sound so happy,” Luke grumbled in my ear.

  I stuck my head in the room. “I’ll take this one.”

  “Fine. I’ll bring you some toiletries and a change of clothing. The showers are down the hall and the closet is stocked with fresh towels.” Joy turned to Luke. “Follow me and I’ll find you a room.”

  I took what was possibly the longest shower of my life. Standing under scalding water, I let my mind go blank. It felt amazing to finally turn everything off for just a little while. When the hot water started to run cold, I wrapped myself in a plush towel and padded back down the hall to my new room.

  Joy had left a stack of non-sterile looking clothes on the edge of the bed. Next to it, I found my personal items, including my phone. I found a charger on the desk and plugged it in before pulling on the foreign clothes. They fit surprisingly well.

  When I checked the phone again, it had enough juice for me to go through my missed calls and text messages. After a few from Rafe and Ethan, they stopped cold. Maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised- it probably hadn’t taken them long to realize I was avoiding them. But part of me had expected Rafe to try harder. It was selfish and unfair of me, but at least I recognized that I was being irrational.

  I lay down on the bed, intending to just close my eyes for a few minutes. My body had other ideas. Once I sank into the soft bedding, sleep was unavoidable. My last conscious thought was that I had left the door wide open, a welcome invitation to the dozens of Weres who were prowling around Haven, fighting the urge to eat humans.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Much later that day, I headed back to the square to mingle with the locals, as it were. They eyed me just as suspiciously as I eyed them. It was somewhat relieving to see that I wasn’t the only one with trust issues.

  Luke had disappeared, probably nosing around the compound. I made my way to a quiet corner and picked up a newspaper sitting on a park bench. Trying to look casual, I scoured it for any news of supernatural activity in the area.

  While I was busy casually looking for a hunting job, two of Haven’s residents took a seat nearby. For some reason, neither of them seemed to notice me.

  “The council’s meeting ran much longer than usual today,” the small, angry looking woman said.

  The pretty blonde nodded. “I noticed. They’ve been meeting more frequently than usual lately.”

  “Do you think it’s because of our new guests?”

  “Oh, Mallory. Stop spreading rumors.” Blondie threw a glance at me over her shoulder, but I was still busy pretending to read. “I heard it’s because of a different visitor that hasn’t arrived yet.”

  “How do you always know the good gossip, Beth?” She started to smile, but then her face turned very serious. “You don’t mean…”

  Beth’s voice lowered, making it almost impossible for me to hear. But I think part of me sensed what she was going to say.

  “Violet.”

  Both Mallory and I gasped. I immediately rustled the paper, hoping to cover up my outburst. The other ladies were too absorbed in their own drama.

  “She’s only been here that one time, after the uprising.” Mallory’s tone was ominous. “Does this mean she suspects traitors in Haven?”

  “It’s possible.” Beth shrugged. “Slade has being acting even more guarded than usual. He might be worried that his reign as Alpha is about to end.”

  “Has anyone heard from Carter since he left?”

  “If they have, they certainly aren’t talking about it. Slade made it clear that we were expected to sever all ties with Carter and his pack.”

  I knew that I wasn’t supposed to be overhearing their conversation, but I couldn’t stop listening. It was like being in the middle of a Were soap opera.

  When Luke yelled my name from across the square, it was liking having the channel abruptly changed mid-episode.

  I tried to hush him with a stern look, but he was oblivious.

  “It’s dinner time, Hart.” He punched my arm and grinned. “I hear the special tonight is meat with a side of meat.”

  “Wonderful.” Reluctantly, I followed him toward the kitchen, casting one last glance over my shoulder.

  As we were finishing dinner, Joy pulled us away and took us to Slade’s office. Or at least, I thought she was taking us to his office. But when she opened the mahogany door, a large conference room was revealed. Slade and six other people were seated around a circular table.

  “Perfect timing,” Slade said, waving us into the room. “We are just finishing our meeting. Kaylie, Luke- these are Haven’s council members.”

  “Nice to meet you,” I said as I sank into one of the empty chairs next to Luke.

  “No need for formalities,” Slade said hastily. “I called you here because we need your help.”

  “Help?”

  Slade leaned forward, elbows on the table. “We need you to hunt with us tonight.”

  “What are we hunting?” I pretended that I wasn’t surprised by the request.

  “Good question. A body was found by the side of the highway last night. At first, we thought it was a Were based on the violence of the attack. But after some investigation, it appears the body was also drained of its blood.”

  ‘You think it was a Soul?” I wondered how I had missed this information when I was reading the paper earlier.

  “We don’t know. But if it was, it would help to have a couple of Soul Hunters with us tonight while we hunt it.” Slade gave us a hopeful look. “What do you say? You in?”

  It was a no-brainer. Luke and I were Hunters. At the same time, we both said, “In.”

  Just after dark, Luke stopped by my room. I was busy stretching, preparing for the hunt, and didn’t notice him standing in my doorway. The open-door policy at Haven made it easy for people to be observed.

  “Jeez, Luke!” I gasped when I turned and caught him staring. “How long have you been standing there?”

  “Not long.” After a pause, he stepped into the room and closed the door behind him.

  “You’re breaking the rules,” I teased.

  “Screw the rules,” he replied with a charming smile. When he smiled like that, I remembered why I’d been so attracted to him originally.

  Feeling my cheeks flush, I bent down to tighten my shoe laces. “Do you think we’ll find anything tonight?”

  ‘Why haven’t you called Rafe?”

  My fingers froze and my shoulders tensed. Very slowly, I stood up straight. “What?”

  “You’re supposed to be in love with the guy, but you took off in the middle of the night and haven’t reached out even once to let him know that you are okay.” Luke shrugged. “It looks to me like you’re bailing on him just like how you bailed on me.”

  “That’s not at all true,” I protested. “I will call
him when it’s time.”

  “Do you really love him, Kaylie?” Luke moved forward until he was only a few inches from me. “Because if you do, then why did you ever agree to leave with me?”

  My defensive guards were up. “Luke, don’t do this. You and I are just friends.”

  “I’m not trying to convince you that you’re in love with me, Kaylie. I gave up on that a long time ago. I’m just asking if you really love Rafe. Because if you don’t, you need to let him go. Don’t use him and break his heart like you did with me.” Luke pointed to my phone. “Call him.”

  It wasn’t until then that I realized just how selfish I was being by not calling Rafe. I was just avoiding what I knew would be a difficult conversation, but he was spending every minute of the day worrying that something terrible had happened to me.

  Luke didn’t say anything else to me. He just gave me a meaningful look and then left the room, closing the door behind him. He knew that I was going to call Rafe.

  The phone rang five times before going to his voicemail.

  “It’s Rafe. Leave a message.”

  It was just five words, but hearing his voice again brought to the surface a flood of memories. I wasn’t sure why I had been so reluctant to answer Luke’s question because there was absolutely no doubt in my mind that I loved Rafe.

  “Hey. It’s me,” I said after the beep. “I’m okay. I’m sorry if you’ve been worried about me, but I had to leave…I’ll explain it to you later. I just had to do it.”

  My eyes closed as I sighed and added, “I love you.”

  The second I hung up the phone, I forced myself to stop thinking about Rafe. The more I thought about him, the more I second guessed my decision to leave him. If I was going to finish my mission, I had to stay focused on it.

  We had to travel for over an hour to get to the sight where the dead body had been found. The distance explained why I hadn’t seen anything in the paper. Slade must’ve widened his search for paranormal occurrences.

  Six of us were traveling in two cars. I was riding shotgun in Slade’s car, with another Were in the back. His name was Maxwell and he was a man of few words. Aside from his name, I hadn’t heard him say anything.

  “How often do you come across Souls?” I asked Slade. I still didn’t really trust him, or Haven. Especially not after the conversation I’d overheard. Getting him to talk seemed like the best way to learn more about his intentions.

  “Not often. But we also don’t hunt very often. Only when an outside Were wanders too close to Haven, or if one of our own goes rogue.”

  “Is that what happened to Carter? He went rogue?” It was a huge stretch, but I didn’t care. I was just hoping to get an honest reaction from him. It worked.

  His eyes darted from the road. “What do you know about Carter?”

  “I heard some things today.”

  “Carter used to live at Haven,” he explained. “A few months ago, he and a few other residents began to disagree with some of our rules. We asked them to leave.”

  “Asked them?” I raised an eyebrow, doubting it had been that simple.

  Slade ignored my skeptical question. “Recently, it has come to our attention that Carter is still in the area, causing trouble.”

  “Trouble? Like tearing apart humans?”

  “Nothing quite so gruesome. Yet.” He abruptly turned the car onto a dirt road and stopped. “The body was found just a few yards up the road. We’ll go the rest of the way on foot.”

  I wasn’t used to being bossed around. Slade was going to have to be reminded that while he might be the pack’s Alpha, he wasn’t my Alpha.

  Luke and the other Haven Weres joined us, marching in a straight line behind Slade. I dropped to the back so that I was next to Luke. “I don’t think a Soul would be hunting out here. It’s not populous enough.”

  “My thoughts exactly. Souls need to eat and they don’t just sit around in secluded areas waiting for a lost human to cross their path.”

  “The body was dumped,” Slade said without turning around.

  I had forgotten that he was a Were and that meant he had supernatural hearing and sight. That also explained why none of them seemed to have trouble seeing despite it being incredibly dark. Luke and I were relying on flashlights.

  “Here,” Slade said, coming to a sudden stop.

  “How can you tell?” I asked, bewildered. This patch of road looked just like every other inch of it.

  The light caught his eyes when I aimed it in his direction and they glinted gold like an animal’s. “I can smell the decay.”

  “Of course you can.” Ew. Why had I asked? “Neat trick.”

  “Based on how strong the scent still is, the body had to be here for a while. The brush along this part of the road is high, which is probably why it took so long for the body to be found.” Slade bent down, eyes seeing something mine could not, even with the aid of the flashlight. “I don’t see any tracks.”

  “So?” I didn’t get why that mattered. It wasn’t like the dead body could’ve dumped itself by the side of the road.

  “So it wasn’t a Were. Or at least it wasn’t a Were in animal form.” He stood in one fluid movement. “There’s a fainter odor of decay coming from further down the road.”

  The other Weres all nodded, confident in their extraordinary smelling abilities.

  Off we went down the road, soft steps on black asphalt. The road was truly deserted. Not even a single car passed us and there were no houses on either side of the road. It wasn’t until we turned down a dirt path and walked into the woods for a few hundred yards that I finally saw the dilapidated shack.

  “Our victim died in there,” Slade said confidently.

  It was starting to feel strange that none of the other Weres said a word. I wasn’t sure if it was because they had nothing else to say, or if they weren’t allowed to speak. Did they need their Alpha’s permission? There was still so much I didn’t know about their world.

  “After you,” I said when I noticed that Slade was waiting for us to enter first.

  “Ladies first,” he replied. The steady look he gave me was pointed. This was a test. He was seeing if I was really the Hunter I claimed to be.

  With a shrug, I aimed my light at the partially opened door and nudged it open with my foot. It flew inward easily, letting out an angry squeal. I was hit solidly in the face by the stench of death and had to fight hard against my gag reflex.

  “You knew that was going to happen, didn’t you?” I snapped at Slade.

  He just barely hid a smile. “Maybe.”

  “If I vomit, I’m aiming for your shoes.” Then I took a step inside, hoping that I would be able to keep my dinner down.

  It took a few more steps and several seconds before I realized the floor was wet. I had been aiming my light higher, and when I moved it downward, I felt sick all over again.

  “Yikes,” Luke breathed from behind me. “Guess we found all the blood.”

  The floor was covered in the sticky red liquid. There was so much of it that I no longer believed a Soul had been involved in the death. They would never have let it go to waste.

  “Looks like you got this one wrong,” I said, feeling a flash of annoyance when I saw that Slade was still standing outside. “Did you know this is what we were going to find in here?”

  “I knew we would find some blood,” he admitted. “I did not know that you were going to ruin your shoes.”

  “Not just a Were, also a jerk,” I said to Luke.

  Slade’s head snapped in the opposite direction, like he heard a noise. His body went rigid as he stared out into the dark woods.

  “What is it?”

  He held up his hand, a silent warning for me to stop talking. Whatever he heard, it wasn’t loud enough for my human ears to detect.

  “We have company.” He turned to the other Weres. “Split up. Shoot first, ask questions later.”

  I was surprised at how fast they all moved. Even in human form, the Were
s were faster than the average human.

  “Shoot first?” I hurried toward the door as fast as I dared. The last thing I wanted to do was fall on my butt into the lake of blood.

  “Tranq guns,” Slade explained, holding one up. “Let’s go.”

  He moved toward the woods without checking to see if we were following. I had to clean my feet on the grass just to get them to stop sticking every time I took a step. Luke was in the same boat and by the time we were able to move again, Slade had vanished.

  We headed in the direction we thought he had gone, our footsteps as soft as whispers on the frozen ground. The unseasonable warmth of the past few days was long gone.

  “Where the heck did he go?” I muttered, kicking away a big stick.

  “What do you think happened back there?” Luke wondered. “That was quite a display of grossness.”

  “It feels like this thing is just messing with us.” I wondered what exactly this thing actually was. It wasn’t a Soul, that was for sure. I stopped abruptly. “Did you hear that?”

  His head swiveled around as he strained to hear whatever noise I had heard. For a long second, we heard nothing at all. But then another twig snapped nearby.

  “Slade?” I realized it was dumb- if it wasn’t Slade, I had just given away our location to a predator.

  Another snap. Just as I was about to reach for my knife, Slade appeared.

  “Where’d you go?” he asked with a hint of annoyance. “I turned around and you were gone.”

  “Seriously?” I glared at him.

  “Whatever,” he said with a dismissive wave of his hand. “The others found them.”

  “Them? Who’s them?” I was lost.

  “Two Hunters prowling the woods. They heard about the body, too, and came to check it out.” Slade gestured toward the road. “They agreed to come back to Haven.”

  I was surprised. “You trust them?”

  “We don’t have a choice,” he replied ominously. “What you saw back there…we’re dealing with something dark and twisted. Having a couple of extra Hunters around can only help us.”

  The other group had already left by the time we got back to the vehicle. The drive back to Haven felt impossibly long and I was glad I had given Luke the front seat. I was able to stretch out in the back and even dozed off for a few minutes. When I opened my eyes again, we were back at Haven.