by E. J. King
At some point, I began to doze in a half-sleep, half-awake state. I was aware of Rafe joining me on the couch and I leaned my head on his chest. In my daze, I dreamed about a different life. Hope was alive, Ethan was happy, and Rafe and I were able to be a normal couple. No Souls were hunting us and I didn’t have a crazy father that wanted to drain my blood. It was a nice dream, but it didn’t last long.
My conscious mind was aware that Rafe and I were no longer the only ones in the room. Reluctantly, I left my dreams behind and opened my eyes.
“She’s awake,” a voice hissed.
“She is,” I agreed, yawning.
Rafe moved his arm from around me so that I could sit up. After blinking several times, my eyes were able to focus. Despite the terrible ache in my chest from grieving Hope, I found myself smiling.
“Link!” I jumped from the couch and threw my arms around him.
He caught me and laughed. “Good to see you, too, Kales.”
“Where have you been?” I pulled back and slapped his arm. “You haven’t answered any of my calls.”
“I didn’t want you to yell at me,” he said, only half-joking. “I lost your best friend after promising to take care of her.”
“Well I got her killed, so I guess you’re off the hook.” The ache in my chest grew stronger.
A movement from behind Lincoln pulled me out of my grief spiral. “Uncle Mark. What are you doing here?”
“Your fella called and said you needed help.” Mark grinned and wrapped me in a tight bear hug. “I couldn’t say no.”
“You’re going to wish you had,” I said glumly. All of my energy was officially drained and I sank down next to Rafe. “Things are pretty bad here.”
“So I hear.” Mark dropped heavily into the seat across from me. “I heard that Violet was here as well. How’d that go?”
Rafe said, “She wants to use Kaylie’s blood to control Benton.”
“Is that possible?” Lincoln asked. “I mean, can she really control Benton?”
“Does it matter?” Rafe snapped. “We’re not letting her use some creepy magic on Kaylie. Violet can’t be trusted.”
Lincoln glared at Rafe. “It might be our only chance against Benton. You haven’t been able to stop him so far by playing by the rules. Maybe it’s time to use a little creepy magic.”
“You’d really endanger your sister like that?” Rafe practically snarled.
“I’m not saying we will for sure do it, I’m just saying we should at least consider it.” Lincoln stayed calm. “We need to consider all options.”
“Not if it means putting Kaylie in danger.” Rafe stood quickly. “This isn’t up for discussion.”
I watched him leave the room and thought about going after him. The problem was, I didn’t know what to say to him. I didn’t agree with him. We would be putting all of our lives in danger by going after Benton. If there was something we could do to prevent that, like using me and my blood, then I was all for it. I couldn’t lose another loved one.
“What happened, Link?” I asked, turning back to my brother. “How did you get separated from Hope?”
“We were on our way to Olivia’s friends, but we stopped in this town that was having a Were problem. While we were out hunting one night, we realized we were the ones being hunted.” Lincoln grimaced. “We were being chased through the woods and got separated. I found Olivia later, but by the time we got to Hope it was too late. She had been captured by the Weres at Haven.”
Which is where I had found her in a cell in a basement prison. “They were going to do experiments on her.”
“Probably,” Lincoln agreed. “We heard some of them talking about it and how they had to make sure their Alpha didn’t find out what they were doing.”
“So Slade didn’t know?” I said, more to myself than to him. I had just assumed that their Alpha had been the one encouraging the experiments. “Why didn’t you try to get to Hope?”
“We did,” he said. “We spent some time studying the grounds of Haven. By the time we were ready to make our move, you beat us to it. We saw you all escaping with Hope.”
I had never suspected that anyone had been watching us escape. Of course, I had been pretty busy running for my life as the Weres chased me, but still. It seemed like I should have sensed that my brother was there.
“You should’ve let me know you were there,” I said, slightly scolding him.
“We decided that our efforts were better spent dealing with Haven. Olivia insisted on telling their Alpha everything. We demanded an audience with Slade and informed him of what we had seen and heard.”
“What happened when Slade learned the truth?” I asked.
“Nearly a dozen pack members were exiled from Haven. The timing of it was terrible because of the pack wars,” Lincoln said casually, as if he always discussed supernatural battles. “Olivia insisted on staying to help them fight. By the time I left Haven, you were long gone.”
I scoffed. “All you had to do was pick up the phone, Link.”
“Did you want to let me finish?” he teased. “You were long gone, but I picked up Violet’s trail. I’ve been following her for the last few weeks, making sure that she is on our side in this whole thing. I didn’t want to tell you what I was up to until I had something to report, good or bad.”
“You’re the worst brother ever,” I said, smiling faintly. “I was worried about you.”
“You should know by now that you don’t have to worry about me.” He returned my smile.
“This is very touching,” Uncle Mark said in his gruff voice. “But let’s not forget that we are here because we need to kill Kaylie’s father.”
“Just a typical Hart family funday!” Lincoln said with a laugh.
It wasn’t long before I was laughing too, still delirious from lack of sleep. Mark joined in, his deep guffaws making us laugh even harder.
We all stopped abruptly when Ethan entered the room.
“What’s the plan?” he asked, ignoring our hysterics.
His hair was a mess and his eyes were bloodshot, but he seemed focused again. When he looked at me, the hurt was buried deep in his eyes.
“First, we gather the troops,” Rafe said, joining his brother in the doorway. “Then we raise some hell.”
Over the course of the day, a dozen different Hunters arrived. Some of them were friends of the Hart family, others were Rafe’s connections. All of them were ready to fight. Mark and Rafe helped get everyone up to speed and prepared weapons while Ethan and I read through all of the newspapers for the last month to find Benton’s lair.
“We’re sure he is somewhere in town?” Ethan asked doubtfully. “We’re running out of options.”
“He’s taking students for a reason. His lair has to be somewhere nearby.” I scanned the map of the area that Ethan had pulled up on his laptop. “We know it has to be someplace indoors where the Souls can hide out during the day. Probably someplace big enough to hold an army.”
“That should narrow it down, but…” Ethan ran a hand through his hair. “There’s just nothing like that nearby.”
I noticed something on the map that I had ignored earlier. We had been assuming that the lair would be someplace just outside of campus, but maybe that had been a mistake.
“What about the old Rec Center?” I tapped a finger on the screen. “It’s just at the edge of campus and has been abandoned for the last few months. They are planning to tear it down soon, but in the meantime it could be the perfect place to hide a Soul army.”
Ethan squinted at the screen. “That would explain how he has been able to easily grab so many students. And that place would be big enough to house a few dozen Souls.”
“We need to go check it out,” I said.
“Yeah, alright.” Ethan glanced toward the other room where Rafe was busy sharpening a pile of knifes. “Let’s just go.”
“You don’t think we should tell the others?” I asked carefully.
He pushe
d his chair back quietly. “Let’s not say anything until we know for sure.”
“Okay…” I didn’t really believe that was the reason he wanted to sneak away, but I went along with it.
It was surprisingly easy to sneak outside. The other Hunters were a convenient distraction.
“How are you holding up?” I asked Ethan when we got to the end of the street.
“I’m surviving,” he said in a cold voice. “I don’t want to talk about it, Kaylie.”
I shrugged. “Fine. Whatever. We can talk about the weather instead. It’s pretty warm, don’t you think?”
“Indeed.” Ethan gave me a small smile. “That was the best you could come up with?”
“Well, I’m not caught up on the latest episode of Bloodsuckers,” I said, lightly brushing against him.
“Oh, that was a good episode. Valerie dies.” He pretended not to understand the shocked expression on my face. “What? Did you not want me to spoil it?”
“You just made my list, Ethan Night.” I punched his arm playfully. “Now I have to kick your ass.”
Ethan looked away, our brief moment of joking forgotten. “Lincoln is back. Are you happy about that?”
“Honestly? I wish he was still taking Hope somewhere safe. But life never really seems to care what I want.” It wasn’t fair of me to speak so bitterly to Ethan. He needed me to be strong and optimistic, or at least neutral. But of all people, I knew that he understood how I felt right then.
“I wish that Rafe and I had never come into your life,” he said, taking me by surprise. “We could have prevented so much death and sadness by letting you live a normal life.”
“That never would’ve lasted, Ethan. I think you know that. Benton was coming for me no matter what, and if you and Rafe hadn’t warned me, I would probably be dead right now.” It was the first time I had allowed myself to admit that fact. For so long, I had been trying to convince myself and everyone around me that a normal life was possible. Now I knew that was never going to happen.
Both of us fell quiet as we circled around campus. With the sun shining bright, students seemed slightly less frightened. They weren’t hurrying quite as fast or checking over their shoulder quite as much. But many of them were packing their cars, preparing to leave.
“That’s the Rec Center over there,” I said with a nod of my head. “I’m sure the Souls are sleeping deep, but we should be careful. Benton probably has some sort of security.”
“If we were smart, we would attack them during the day while they’re asleep.” Ethan stopped a few yards away from the building.
I understood his reasoning. While Souls weren’t actually afraid of sunlight, they sure didn’t like it. It drained their energy, making them much easier to fight and kill. But the building was still on campus with dozens of young people just outside. Making a move on Benton in the middle of the day meant putting all of those people in danger.
That wasn’t something I was willing to do.
“We should wait until the campus empties out. If the army decides to come outside, we don’t want them to have a people buffet readily available.” It was the kind of thing I normally wouldn’t have to explain to Ethan. But Ethan wasn’t himself anymore.
“What’s with the two security guards out front? Didn’t you say this place was shut down?” Ethan’s eyes narrowed as they focused on the two guards.
“It is. Those men shouldn’t be there.” It was even stranger how they stared straight ahead, almost like they were in a trance. I remembered seeing that same look on Ethan’s face multiple times. “They’ve been compelled.”
Ethan glanced at me. “Looks like we found the lair.”
“We should get back and tell the others.” I started to turn back, but Ethan stopped me.
“Wait.” His eyes locked onto mine and the hurt was no longer buried. “Can we cut through campus instead?”
I knew what he was really asking. Ethan wanted to walk past the spot where Hope had died. We both knew she wouldn’t be there any longer. Her Soul body would’ve disintegrated completely within a few minutes of her death. Her bloody clothing would be the only sign that something terrible had happened in that spot, and the odds were good that someone had already picked up the mess.
But if Ethan needed to see the spot to start his healing, I wasn’t going to say no. “Okay. Let’s do it.”
Again, we were quiet as we walked. One of the very best things about Ethan was that he was comfortable with silence. He didn’t feel the need to fill every second with senseless jabbering.
Just before we reached the spot, Ethan stopped in front of the art building. He bent down and plucked a single flower from the rose bush. I stayed a few feet back, watching with a lump in my throat.
We entered the small space between the two buildings and only a dark stain on the cement remained where Hope had taken her least breath. Ethan knelt next to spot, putting his hand flat against it as he took a deep breath. As he set the rose in the center, I put my hand on his shoulder.
Ethan and I had both been raised by Hunter parents. We grew up in the Hunter world and understood that part of our legacy was being willing to die to save humanity. But Hope was different. She had been a normal girl until she got involved in our lives. She wasn’t supposed to die like this. We were supposed to save her.
“I’m going to kill Benton,” I said, feeling more anger in my chest than I had thought was possible. “I will make him pay for what he did.”
“Good.” He stood and nodded his head briskly. “Kill him. But it won’t change anything that has already happened. We’ll still be broken.”
He was right. Getting vengeance wasn’t going to magically heal us. We would still be these shattered versions of our former selves.
“We’ll still be broken,” I said, “but Benton will be dead.”
We were almost back at the house when Rafe called my cell, finally having noted our absence. I let him know that we were fine and would be there soon.
“Is it just me, or is the house completely claustrophobic with all those Hunters packed inside?” I said. “I know those are our people, but do they have to be so loud?”
Ethan chuckled softly. “It’s like a house full of Marks.”
“And here I thought Benton was my worst nightmare.” I took a deep breath. “Go on inside. I’ll be right behind you.”
He gave me a curious look, but went inside without asking any questions. I was already on my phone before the door closed behind him.
It took a good thirty minutes to get all of the Hunters corralled into one room. Even then, being heard over their booming voices was impossible. Rafe finally had to yell to get their attention.
“Hey!” He waved an arm in the air and eventually the Hunters stopped talking. “Kaylie and Ethan were able to find Benton’s lair. It’s right down the street on the college campus.”
“Why are we waiting around here?” one of the Hunters, Dave, asked loudly. “We should make our move during daylight.”
“We can’t do that. Not yet. Too many students are in that area.” I nearly flinched as every eye in the room turned in my direction.
Dave gave me a disdainful look. “Who the hell are you, little girl?”
“The person who’s going to keep you from getting killed,” I replied. “One stupid move is all it will take to get your throat ripped out.”
“We are grown men that have been hunting for decades. We’re not going to take orders from a sorority girl.” Dave looked to the others, expecting them to laugh.
Most of the men in the room had known my father. Many of them had known me my whole life. They knew that I wasn’t a sorority girl. They knew that I came from the oldest Hunter family in the country. My bloodline was stronger than anyone else’s in the room, except Lincoln of course.
“If you don’t want to listen to Kaylie, you should get out now.” Rafe glared hard at Dave. “The door is right there.”
Dave stubbornly crossed his harms and pressed h
is lips shut. I took that as his submission.
“We’ll leave just before dark. Hopefully, we’ll still have the element of surprise and the weakened Soul effect working in our favor. By then, all of the students will either be gone or locked behind doors.” I kept my voice even, willing myself not to be intimidated by the circumstances. I had never led such a big group of Hunters on a mission. Dave had been right to question my authority. “We’ll move through that lair in groups of three. Anything smaller than that and we risk being incredibly outnumbered.”
“We don’t know how many Souls Benton has in his army,” Rafe continued for me. “But we know that Benton isn’t a typical Soul. He’s been creating pockets of potential Souls. He uses compulsion on humans. There’s no way of knowing what he might throw at us when we make our move.”
Every time I thought I was beginning to understand my crazy father, he came up with a whole new evil life goal that sent my head spinning all over again. One thing was certain, tonight’s hunt would be anything but normal.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Lincoln took over the team assignments and dealing with the Hunters’ complaints while I took the opportunity to escape. I found myself on the roof again, this time watching the sun slowly begin its descent like a countdown to the battle.
“It’s almost time,” Rafe said from the window. “You should start preparing.”
“I’m ready,” I said without turning away from the sunset.
“Well, then you should come inside and help calm my nerves,” he said with an extra dose of seduction in his tone.
I turned, feeling breathless at the sight of him. His eyes sparked in the fading sunlight, his smile sexy and loving at the same time. My heart literally skipped a beat.
“How much time do we have?” I asked hopefully as I approached the window.
“Enough,” he said, smile growing.
“That’s not possible.” I slipped over the windowsill and into his arms. “No amount of time with you is ever enough.”