Caretaker

by Laken Cane

  But then as abruptly as I’d been shattered, I was floating in clouds of pleasure. Silverlight buzzed at my side, and though I couldn’t see her light, I felt it spiraling around my body like warm, liquid silver, lifting me into the sky.

  The world fell away.

  I died.

  I died just as night came, and something shifted in the world. Something changed. Suddenly, I was floating above Bay Town. It lay in desolated ruins. Piles of ash, crumbled buildings, the gleam of bones picked clean, mountains of rubble…

  Bay Town was destroyed because I was dead.

  And when Shane body-slammed me to the pavement and forced me to breathe again, I came back with a little more knowledge than I’d had before I’d gone.

  When I pulled in a scent, it flipped a switch. It brought the bloodhunter, and it was almost like a shifter changing to her animal.

  Madalyn Bennett’s blood was clean and pure, just as mine was, and it had been so intense and sudden it had shocked my system. It had short-circuited something in my brain.

  Shane leaned over me, his face a pale moon in the darkness, stark terror lurking in his eyes. “You were dead,” he muttered. “And I felt the absence.”

  I reached up to caress his face. I was responsible for him. I didn’t know exactly how or why, but I was. He was mine.

  And I was part of the supernaturals, as they were part of me. I was unsure about a lot of things, but I had no doubt that the supernaturals and Bay Town, the city, even, were all connected to me. I was connected to them.

  We all had a purpose. And mine, for whatever reason, was tied in with Red Valley, the supernaturals, and Bay Town.

  “I can never leave Red Valley,” I realized. I was like a rock holding up a mountain. If I removed myself, the mountain would crumble.

  Why me? I didn’t know. Maybe I wasn’t even supposed to. But the place had taken me as its own. I belonged to it.

  Then the master appeared suddenly beside me, his eyes wide with black horror, and I realized Shane hadn’t been the only one to feel it when I’d died.

  Chapter Nine

  Amias crouched on the pavement beside me, then lifted me into his arms. “I will move her off the street,” he said when Shane grabbed his arm. “Tend your truck.”

  After a second’s hesitation, Shane jumped to his feet and jogged to his truck, and it dawned on me that I’d been hearing honking horns and the impatient, irritated yells of humans for a little while now. Shane’s truck was blocking half the street.

  “I was dead,” I said.

  Amias said nothing as he carried me to the tiny park across the street. He found a bench and sat down, his arms so tight around me I knew he would resist if I tried to get away from him.

  I didn’t try because my body would not have cooperated. My limbs fluttered with reaction, my heartbeat felt timid and thready, and I shook with cold. My grip on reality was precarious. I needed a minute.

  “I died.” My teeth chattered when I spoke, and the master tightened his arms a little more.

  He seemed incapable of speech.

  Shane pulled his truck close, then climbed out and strode toward us. “Get her into the truck. I cranked up the heat.”

  “How did you know I was cold?” I murmured, as they hurried me to the truck.

  Shane opened the door. “When I touched you, it was like touching ice. That’s how I knew, baby hunter.”

  It was the middle of summer, and the night was hot. With the heater cranked, the interior of the truck would have been torture for Shane and maybe even Amias, but they didn’t complain as they wrapped their arms around me and waited for me to stop shaking.

  And five minutes later, I went from cold to hot with an unsettling abruptness. “Shane,” I cried. “Turn on the air.”

  I was suddenly so hot I thought I might vomit, pass out, or both.

  Shane swore and turned on the air conditioning. He quickly shoved open his door to let some of the heat escape, then leaned across and pushed open the passenger side door as well.

  I groaned as pain exploded in my head, and I lay almost senseless as wave after wave of agony squeezed my brain. My stomach tossed in reaction to the pain and I swallowed convulsively. I did not want to throw up.

  “What the fuck?” Shane asked.

  “She died.” Amias’s whispered words were reluctant and heavy with something close to grief. “I felt it.”

  Shane slid his arm around my waist and both men held me as though they knew what I needed. As though they needed it, as well.

  “I felt it, too,” Shane said. “I felt the absence of her.”

  “You are her hunter,” Amias told him. “She is your lady. Your queen. Your bloodhunter.” He turned his head slightly and rubbed his lips against my forehead. “I was unaware of her connection to me.”

  I relaxed a little as the pain in my head eased. “You knew we were connected, Amias. You said you were my master.” Surprisingly, uttering those words didn’t send me into a tailspin of rage. Mentally, I shrugged. It just was.

  He tightened his arms. “Yes. But I did not know…” He hesitated. “When you died, I was…” He either couldn’t come to terms with it or maybe he couldn’t understand it. Whatever the reason, he was having trouble talking about it.

  “If I die,” I said, “will you die?”

  He sighed. “No. If you die, I will wish every second of every day for death. What will happen to me if I lose you will be worse than a thousand deaths--and if you knew what we face when we die, you would somewhat understand the magnitude of that awful truth.”

  “I sort of do know.” I remembered how I’d felt when the incubus had attacked me. That feeling had not yet faded completely. I shuddered and both men tightened their arms around me.

  “Trinity.”

  Amias’s voice held a note of worry, and I immediately stiffened. I wasn’t going to want to hear what he was about to say. “What is it?” I asked.

  He hesitated. “You must allow me to feed you.”

  I gave a snort of laughter, relieved when my head didn’t explode. “Not going to happen. I don’t drink blood. And before you ask, I’m not feeding you unless you somehow manage to free Angus before I get him out.”

  “You agreed to feed him if he frees Angus?” Shane didn’t sound angry—merely curious.

  “Yes.” I shrugged. “I would feed him for Angus’s freedom.”

  “Good thing you won’t have to.”

  “Never mind.” Amias gestured impatiently. “You need to understand what has happened tonight, Trinity.”

  “So explain,” Shane told him.

  Amias was silent for a few seconds, as though he were having trouble starting. “I am your master,” he said, finally. “I cannot be killed by you. Harming me will cause you great amounts of pain. We are connected. I will protect you and you…” He glanced at Shane. “You will protect me. You have proven this.”

  “Yes, yes,” I said. “I know.” I didn’t want him reminding Shane of the shameful night I’d screwed up. As if Shane wouldn’t remember all on his own. Still…

  “Tonight, I felt your death. I understood immediately what had happened.” He turned his face toward me, and his eyes glittered in the darkness. “I will take no more chances with you,” he murmured. “I cannot lose you.”

  “So get to the part where you need to feed her,” Shane suggested, when the silence began to get uncomfortable.

  “If you die, Trinity, I will suffer unimaginably for eternity. I cannot exist without you.” His voice, usually dispassionate and controlled, was filled with emotion. “That means…”

  “What, Amias? What does it mean?”

  “It means I must make you immortal.”

  I jerked away from him. “I will never let you turn me, Amias. Get out of the truck.”

  “Trinity—”

  “No.” I shook my head but stopped when a wave of dizziness swept over me. The last thing I wanted was to pass out and be helpless with a vampire who wanted to turn me.
“Get out of the truck, Amias.”

  “I will leave, and I won’t touch you. But I have to give you the information you need to make your decision.”

  “I’ve made my decision.”

  “Still. Listen to me. Do that, and I will leave.”

  Finally, I nodded.

  “If you die, I will live in desolation forever, as I said. If I feed you now, my blood will be waiting from this moment on. When you die—and if my blood is inside you—I can bring you back as you are right now. Do you understand?”

  “You’re saying no matter how old she is when she dies, you can bring her back and she’ll be the age she is right now,” Shane said.

  “And you’re also saying when you bring me back, it will be as a vampire.”

  “Yes,” Amias answered. “The blood will wait. I will simply add to it and you will live forever.”

  “You honestly think I’m going to let that happen?” I tried to inject a note of scorn into my voice, but it sounded flat and unconvincing. “I won’t let you turn me just so you can live a happy life. It’s ridiculous that you’d even suggest it.”

  “If I die, you will die,” he said.

  I shrugged. “You’re immortal, remember? Besides, the natural thing is to die. Not to come back as the undead.” I shuddered, and he recoiled—just a quick, tiny movement, but I saw it.

  When he spoke again, his voice was emotionless. “You will change your mind eventually, because you will want to avoid my pain.” He turned to slide from the truck, then turned back to me. “It isn’t just for me. You were created for a purpose. The supernaturals need you. You know that. You need to accept it.” He looked at Shane. “Tell her how you felt when she was gone.”

  Shane’s throat bobbed as he swallowed, and his face went a little pale as he remembered. “It’s fucked up,” he muttered. He looked away from us. “Fuck both of you.”

  Amias nodded, then planted his stare back on me. “And he is the stoic one.” His smile came, tiny and grim. “Your bull is feeling your absence. Your golem is suffering with only the memory of you to sustain him. Even the inscrutable mercenary is protecting you, craving you. And I…”

  “Inscrutable mercenary?” I frowned. “Who is…you mean Rhys?”

  “Perhaps you should insist he share his secrets with you,” he suggested.

  “I’m not the boss of him.” But the master’s words lay heavy on my mind. Did Rhys Graver kill people for money?

  “Why not all supernaturals, then?” Shane asked. “Why only the six of us?”

  I pushed Rhys to the back of my mind for later and waited for the vampire’s answer, curious.

  “It is not only the six of us,” Amias said. “But we were the ones she drew to her when her awakening power was grasping and new and full of temptation. We were the ones who surrounded her. Still, her influence in Bay Town, where she…formed, spawned, whatever word you would like to use, is vast. The supernaturals of Bay Town are hers. Just not as significantly as the ones she has touched.”

  “Shane wasn’t even here after you attacked me. He’s just recently entered my life. So you’re wrong. You’re just making stuff up as you go.”

  “Shane is different,” Amias said. “You are a bloodhunter. Shane is a hunter. He is your hunter, and you are his queen, my love.”

  Shane’s body stiffened more with each word the vampire spoke. “I don’t belong to anybody,” he said, finally, through clenched teeth. “I’m no one’s fucking slave.”

  “Even now,” Amias said, almost tenderly, “your words are reluctant and painful because you want only to please her. To guard her. To love her.” He dropped his voice to a whisper. “Don’t you, Hunter?”

  Then he was gone. He left me there, shivering and full of doubt in my shattered hunter’s reluctant embrace.

  Chapter Ten

  “He’s full of shit,” Shane said. He didn’t resist when I moved out of his arms.

  I understood how he felt. It was the same way I’d felt when Amias had told me he was my master. “Right,” I said, scornfully. “What an asshole. Forget about it and let’s get to work. We’ve wasted too much time as it is.”

  But I’d died, even if only for a few seconds, and things had changed. I was feeling just a little off my game. I squeezed my fists, then reached down to caress the comfort of Silverlight’s sheath. I’d be fine. Everything would be fine.

  Sure it would.

  Shane didn’t argue. He opened his mouth to ask if perhaps I didn’t need to go home and rest, after what I’d been through—I saw it in his eyes. I also saw the exact second he realized he was coddling me. Protecting me. Worried about me.

  He slammed his mouth shut, started the truck, and got us back on the road. “You have her scent?” he asked, a few minutes later.

  I nodded. “It’s like an echo in my mind. Continuous and loud. She’s different because her blood is pure.”

  “It fucked you up.”

  “Yes. But if I come across another clean human, I don’t think it’ll happen again. It was just the initial shock.” I slid to my window, lifted my nose to the wind, and closed my eyes.

  Madalyn’s scent rose above all the others, riding on the heavy fresh scent of looming rain, the melancholic scent of freshly cut grass and backyard grilling, the wafting sweetness of date night perfume, and the sharpness of alcohol from the Old River bar two blocks over.

  My ability was growing stronger.

  “Take me to the judge’s house,” I told Shane. “We’ll start there.”

  When we arrived on the street in front of Bennett’s house, I got out of the truck and stood in the street, turning in circles, drawing in her scent.

  “We need to go around,” I told Shane. “I think she was taken from the back of the property.”

  The fog trails, thick and colorful only a few months ago, had begun to dwindle and thin. They were the leavings of vampires, and the vampires were dying. The decline in the trails gave me a moment’s sadness, for reasons I didn’t quite understand.

  Maybe because I found joy in hunting the vampires. Maybe because despite everything the humans were taught, vampires were a natural part of our world. They belonged there.

  But that night, I was not after vampires, and the fog trails didn’t matter anyway.

  “She’s here somewhere,” I murmured, as Shane parked by the gates at the back of the house. “She hasn’t left Red Valley. Her scent is too strong. Too…alive.”

  He said nothing, just rested Betty the shotgun across his shoulder and watched our backs.

  And out of nowhere, panic hit. I leaned forward, my hands on my knees, my heart bursting from my chest. I couldn’t breathe. “God, Shane.”

  He grabbed my arm and pulled me around. “What?”

  I shook my head and pressed my palm against my chest, as though I might be able to slow my galloping heart. “Panic attack.”

  I was familiar with panic attacks, but each time I had one, I was sure that this was the time I was dying. This was the time I was really having a heart attack.

  “I’ll call for paramedics.” He whipped his phone from his pocket and was punching in the numbers when I stopped him.

  “I died tonight,” I said. “What kind of person dies and then goes on like nothing happened? I died, Shane. I mean, I was gone, right?”

  He sighed and slid his phone back into his pocket. “Baby hunter, we’re not normal people. Shit happens. Get used to it. Regular shit won’t happen to you, and you have to stop reacting like it does. That’s how it is.”

  He was right. I needed to let go of the old Trinity. She’d died when she’d been attacked by infected vampires on Thanksgiving Day. I needed to let her go.

  I was a bloodhunter. I drew that knowledge around my shoulders like an invisible cape, took a few minutes to let it warm me, and then I nodded. “I’m good.”

  My heart still beat a little too fast, fear lingered in the back of my mind, and my stomach was so tight it hurt, but I would do my work and eventually…r />
  Mentally, I shrugged.

  Eventually, I’d be whatever I needed to be.

  I walked to the high-security fence and grasped one of the tall metal bars, then closed my eyes and opened my mind.

  Where are you, Mrs. Bennett?

  My cell vibrated, jerking me out of my moment. I pulled it from my pocket, then frowned. “Captain?”

  “Where are you, Trinity?”

  “Behind the judge’s house, picking up Madalyn’s trail. What’s up?”

  He hesitated, and when he spoke again, his voice was gruff and reluctant. “Nothing. I fell asleep long enough to dream you were in trouble.”

  “You’re dreaming about me, Crawford?” I teased.

  He said nothing.

  I hurried to fill the uncomfortable silence. “I’m fine. Nothing going on here. Go back to sleep.”

  “I was grabbing a nap at my desk. I’m at work. I’m always at work.” He hung up.

  “That was weird,” I told Shane, putting my phone away.

  “He was checking on you,” Shane said.

  “Yes.” I shrugged. “I’m going to track Madalyn on foot for a while.”

  He walked a few steps behind me, guarding my back while my mind was on the teasing trail of Madalyn Bennett. It stretched like a long, empty road before me, leading me ever onward.

  My cell vibrated again. “Rhys? Everything okay?”

  “Trinity…I got a bad feeling. I just wanted to…” He cleared his throat, his voice strained. “You’re okay, then.”

  “I am now,” I told him, gently. “Rhys, can you call Clayton and Miriam and tell them I’m all right?”

  “What happened?”

  “I just…I ducked out for a couple of minutes.”

  “You mean—”

  “Yes,” I answered. “It was weird. But I’m okay. Tell the others?”

  “I will.” He hung up.

  I continued tracking, but an hour later, I finally stopped, irritated. “I feel like I could follow her scent forever. We need to go back and get the truck. Her scent is strong, but she’s not here.”

  But as I wiped sweat from my face, something fluttered on the edge of my mind and when Shane opened his mouth, I held up a finger to halt him.