Half-Blood Descendant
Half-Bloods, Book 1
Natasha Brown
Copyright © 2018 by Natasha Brown
Edited by Scott Andrews & Amanda Sumner
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Half-Blood Secrets
About the Author
Also by Natasha Brown
One
Silvery light found its way to the foothills from the crescent moon. The sun had slipped below the horizon hours ago, taking with it all traces of warmth. A chill settled on the evergreens, but it didn’t bother Jax. He squinted at his phone. It was just past eleven. He’d have enough time to run free before turning in for a solid six hours’ sleep.
The energy that had been building inside him over the last few weeks made his pores tingle as he glanced through the trees at his trailer and, beyond that, KT’s house. When he’d left the elderly woman in her detached garage earlier, she’d been clearing tools off her workbench with her eyes glued to the wall-mounted television, berating the hosts of the gearhead show she liked so much. Jax had only known his new boss and landlord for a few weeks, but he knew she would head to bed soon.
He’d waited long enough. This night was his.
Jax peeled off his clothes. Goosebumps rose on his skin, and a plume of steam broke from his lips. The effort it took to prevent the energy buildup from altering his form was taxing. Jax stared up at the crescent moon while he took down his defenses and allowed the power that crackled and sparked in his belly to surge throughout his body.
His head rocked back, and then he crouched forward onto the ground. A golden carpet of fur sprouted from his tattooed muscles as the change took over. Paws replaced his hands and feet, and bristly long whiskers grew from his muzzle. With each breath, a rumbling purr rattled from his mouth. The rush of energy subsided. When he sensed the transformation had concluded, he stretched his forelegs and spine.
Dark shadows hid nothing from his feline perception, and the chilly air couldn’t breach his warm fur coat. This was his opportunity to run free before he returned to the lie that he was an average blue-collar worker.
Jax trotted down the hillside between the trees, staying clear of the occasional gravel road or mountain home. Most of the property up here was owned by the wealthy or the old-timers. Their evergreen views disguised the fact that just beyond a few ridges were the bright lights of Denver. Not a bad place to set up for a time, he’d figured as he’d rolled into town from Wyoming a few weeks ago.
His powerful, lithe body moved north along the range, his ears cupping the air, filtering the sounds around him. In the distance, he thought he recognized the strangely musical thrum from the highway.
It felt good to shed his clothing and run free. His instincts drove him to stay on the move, which was why he’d seen so many sights in his thirty-one years. He’d traveled from coast to coast and back again, finding new towns to settle in for a while. Until things got a little too comfortable.
Jax kept to the wooded area of the hills, where he wouldn’t be seen by anything but the wandering housecat he frightened away and the owls and bats that toured the skies. Time was lost to him when he escaped into the wilderness as his alter ego, the cougar
Out of breath and sufficiently contented with his trek through the Rocky Mountain foothills, Jax turned toward home. He wove through the trees and bushes until he spotted his pile of clothing on the ground. A gravelly open space beyond a cluster of pines led to KT’s house and detached garage. The security light aimed at the back of her property was on. Jax’s truck and trailer were bathed in its yellow light, casting long shadows down the hill toward his current hiding place.
He normally wouldn’t have hesitated to transform again and get dressed, but his instincts made him pause. He sniffed the air and pointed his ears toward KT’s garage. A strange gurgling sound caught in his ears. Curiosity took hold, and he looped around her property, keeping to the shadows. He slunk up to the outer corner of her garage and edged his muzzle around to take a look.
The double-wide garage door was still open. Though Jax hadn’t known KT long, he knew she closed it up tight every night before she headed for bed. The lights were off inside. The front end of her ’64 Chevy GTO sat within the dark, facing out to the gravel driveway. It blocked his view of her workbench.
The gurgling noise was close now. Jax crept around the front of the rusty GTO’s grill until he could see into the dim confines of the garage. Lying on the ground in a puddle of blood was KT. A man kneeled over her with his mouth pressed to her neck. Dark shoulder-length hair hung in a curtain around his face, shrouding his features.
Jax stared in silence for only a moment before he sprang to action. He rushed forward a few steps and put his weight onto his haunches, prepared to spring. A deep growl erupted from his chest and poured from between his powerful jaws—a clear and direct warning any animal would respect. He hoped.
The man’s face lifted from KT’s neck, his mouth covered in her blood. His eyes flashed in surprise as he appeared to realize the danger he was in. He slowly rose to his feet, glancing longingly at the limp body on the floor, then focusing on the cougar inching toward him. The man lifted his lips to reveal bloodied teeth. He edged out of the garage and ran into the night.
Jax craned his neck, watching the man’s silhouette disappear before turning toward his landlady’s still body. He walked close enough to lower his pink nose to sniff her wounded neck. The metallic aroma of blood filled his nostrils. He stared at her chest, detecting the gentle rise and fall of her ribcage as she breathed.
Thank God, he thought in relief.
Her eyes stared unseeing at the ceiling. He wondered if she perceived anything that was happening. Despite being seventy years old, KT was the toughest woman he’d ever met, so there was reason to worry if she wasn’t swearing or throwing a wrench between his eyes. She lay still, as if in a coma.
Moisture saturated his forepaws, and he realized he was standing in her puddled blood. Jax backed away quickly, leaving a trail of bloody footprints. He needed to get to his phone to call an ambulance. She was alive at the moment, but he didn’t know how extensive her injuries were. He ran out of the garage and into the silent night.
Two
It was nearly five o’clock when Aerilyn turned off the gravel road onto her sloped driveway. As usual, she’d stayed late at school to grade papers before heading home. She pulled into her detached garage and waited for her favorite song to finish before opening her door and getting out.
With her keys in hand, she blinked at the candy-striped sky as she inhaled the mountain air, thick with the aroma of firs. She sauntered down her gravel driveway. The a
utumnal sun was slipping behind the foothills, its warmth chased away by the chill of night. She went up the road to a row of mailboxes. As she passed her neighbor’s house, she spotted him clearing pinecones from his walkway and paused.
“Hi, Bill,” she said, offering him a smile.
The retired banker’s eyes widened, and he rushed with his rake to meet her at the mailboxes. Out of breath and with furrowed brows, he asked, “You hear about Mrs. Williams?”
Aerilyn frowned. “No.”
KT Williams lived at the end of the lane in one of the first homes built in their division. If you lived in Morrison and you’d ever had any car trouble, it was her shop you went to for a fair price and an honest opinion.
Bill leaned against his rake and raised his wiry gray brows. “A cougar nearly killed her last night.”
Aerilyn’s hand dropped away from her mailbox, and she faced her neighbor. “What?”
The lines framing Bill’s eyes lengthened as he frowned. “Yeah, she was taken to the hospital ’round midnight. I was up watching The Late Show when I saw the lights go by. I called my son-in-law down at the fire station first thing this morning. He told me it grabbed her by the neck, and she nearly bled out. Never heard anything quite like it before.”
“No kidding,” she whispered and squinted down the road toward KT’s place.
The man sighed and caught her eye. “I was hoping to let you know since you like taking Petey for walks. You’re a pint-sized sprout—Eve and I would hate to see anything happen to you.”
Aerilyn was touched. The best part of her day was when she disappeared into the wilds of her backyard after work, taking Petey for a hike and stopping to catch up with her neighbors. But she was also tired of defending her size and age to everyone she met, including her students. It came with the territory, though, so she reminded herself to be patient with him. “Thank you for your concern, Bill. I may be small, but I’m older and tougher than I look.”
“You look like you’re just out of high school yourself—but you start to think that about everyone when you get to be my age. But I guess working with teenagers would toughen anyone up.” His laughter quieted, and he grew serious. “Just don’t go putting yourself in danger.”
She was tough. But she never went looking for trouble. Aerilyn saw the worry in his eyes. “I may just skip my evening hike to watch the news tonight. Would that make you feel better?”
He looked down at her and patted her shoulder with his shaky hand. “That would make me feel a whole lot better. Thank you, dear.”
The gray-haired man turned around and strolled back home with his rake in hand. Once he was back on his property, Aerilyn unlocked her mailbox and collected her mail. She considered going down to KT’s place to have a look around but thought it best to wait until her neighbor returned home to swing by for a visit. She would watch to see if anything came up on the news. It was best if reporters didn’t catch wind of it either way. Shapeshifters weren’t behind every animal attack, she told herself. But sometimes—sometimes they were.
Most importantly, she decided not to call her father. It had taken a lot of convincing, begging and guilting, as well as the support of her two brothers, to get him halfway supportive of her buying her own house and moving more than twenty minutes away from him. If he thought there was trouble, he’d make her move back home in an instant.
Aerilyn spotted the stone façade of her home as she climbed her driveway. She unlocked her front door to let herself in, and there was Petey waiting for her. The black Lab whined and led her into the renovated kitchen, his nails tapping on the travertine tiles as he danced in place, waiting for a treat. She laughed, tucked her wavy hair behind her ear and pulled a piece of jerky from a bag on the granite counter. “Good boy.”
She let him outside and watched from her back deck while he sniffed around her sloped property. Her eyes combed the pine trees behind her home, searching for shadows that didn’t belong. She even closed her eyes and reached out with her energy. Aerilyn didn’t expect to sense anything out of place, but she tried anyway and came up empty.
That night as she lay in bed, she flipped between major broadcasting channels searching for mention of a cougar attack but found nothing. She fell asleep with Petey at her feet.
The next day when she stood lecturing her class about the advantages of editing before turning in completed work, her thoughts went to KT. She always listened to her instincts, and they were telling her something was wrong.
As soon as the last bell rang, she followed the high school students outside and headed straight home. Instead of turning up her driveway, she drove past the decades-old homes until she got to the bend in the road that marked KT’s property. She passed the rusted VW Beetle with its hood open, bushes growing out of its center, and remembered that the first time she’d met KT, the sixty-year-young woman had joked, “They make good planters—’bout all they’re good for though!”
Aerilyn rolled up to stop beside the mountain cabin. Parked outside the detached garage was KT’s Chevy pickup. A trailer was anchored in the clearing behind the buildings, something she’d never noticed on the property before.
Her leather boots crunched on the gravel as she walked up to the front door of the log home. Aerilyn knocked and waited, wondering whether the woman would even be able to come to the door if she was there. Aerilyn peered through the window beside the door and saw KT lying on her couch. The white-haired woman saw her and waved her in, her muffled voice barely audible. “Yes, yes. Come in—I’m stuck to the damn couch as you can see.”
Aerilyn turned the knob and let herself in. The wood-paneled living room wasn’t decorated with framed prints of nature scenes or needlepoints, but with vintage license plates and photographs of Chevys. The television in the corner of the room went silent as she sat down on a padded chair beside the couch. “Hey, KT. How you doing?”
KT’s steel-blue eyes were focused on Aerilyn. The woman was paler than usual, but her signature spitfire personality was evident in her raised brow, which gave the impression she thought the question was ridiculous. The elderly woman’s short white hair was combed away from her rectangular face. A white bandage covered her neck and disappeared from view beneath her flannel shirt.
“No mountain cat will keep me down.” KT’s voice was hoarse, but it couldn’t conceal her agitation. “Told the guys down at the shop not to bother coming around here. I’ll be back on my feet in no time.”
Aerilyn grinned sweetly at her neighbor, not wanting to agitate her any more than she already was. “I’ve been worried since I heard, but I’m glad to see you home. What did the doctors say?”
“They thought they could keep me in the hospital another day. They said broads my age don’t bounce back easily after injury, and I said”—KT hesitated and eyed Aerilyn in her form-fitting jeans and maroon blouse—“well, I said things a lady shouldn’t say. Good thing I’m no lady.”
Aerilyn laughed. “Good thing.”
KT winked at her and chuckled. “I haven’t survived without Hal for this long without knowing a thing or two about making it on my own. The doc told me I could go home since I’m moving my arms and legs again, but to stay off my feet for a week. It was the strangest thing feeling paralyzed—trapped in my own body. He said I need to take it easy and let someone take care of me for a change. Umph.”
Aerilyn was pretty sure the woman didn’t have any children or family to rely on, except for her employees, whom she treated like her misbehaving children. Aerilyn cocked her head to the side. “Who’s taking care of you, then?”
“Me, myself and I.” KT gave her a devilish grin and adjusted the blanket covering her lap. “And Jax.”
“Is that one of the guys from the shop?” Aerilyn got her oil changed at KT’s place, but she couldn’t remember a mechanic by the name of Jax.
“You might have seen his trailer outside. He’s a gearhead, filling in since Dave took off without so much as a warning. Jax needed a job and a place to park hi
s roof. If it weren’t for him, I might not have been found in time.”
Aerilyn cocked her eyebrow at KT. “He found you?”
“Yeah, I’m lucky he came to check on me before he went to bed. He called the ambulance.” The white-haired woman made a fist and shook it in the direction of her garage. “That cougar’s lucky I passed out, or it would have died with my wrench between its eyes.”
The elderly woman sighed and raised her remote to unmute the television. A male newscaster’s voice filtered into the room. KT listened for a moment. “To think I haven’t even made the news. A kid’s stolen bike’s more newsworthy than a woman surviving a cougar attack.”
Aerilyn didn’t want to make the woman any more upset than she already was. After such a frightful experience, KT should be recovering. While Aerilyn honestly cared for her neighbor’s well-being, she also needed to determine whether there was a greater danger than an aggressive cougar on the loose.
“What exactly happened?” she asked.
KT blinked at her, then rubbed her forehead. “I watched one too many shows in my garage before getting ready to close up and turning off the lights to go inside near midnight. I felt something warm on my neck, but that’s all I recall. I must have knocked my head on the ground when it attacked me. All I remember is waking up in the hospital room. But they say it left its footprints all over my garage—damn cat.”
Aerilyn craned out the living room window at a plume of dust rising from the driveway. Shiny navy paint moved out of view.
Half-Blood Descendant: A Paranormal Series (Half-Bloods Book 1) Page 1