Aaron's Kiss Series Boxed Set (Books 1 - 7) (35 page)

~CHAPTER SEVENTEEN~

It was possible for Colin to pinpoint the immediate area where Shade was when she had been hurt and he materialized there in an instant, focusing all his energy on her blood scent. He was very close to a wildlife preserve just outside the city limits of Zanesville. Colin knew the wolf pack was close to this area as well, but had never been there.

Colin had to look around for a few precious moments before he found where Shade had been when she had been hurt. Colin couldn’t see any point of entrance to where she might have been attacked; the snow was still fresh. And there were no marks anywhere that he could see. He looked along the tree line that was perhaps twenty yards from where she could have been standing when it happened. There were no houses around that close, nor were there any signs of fresh car tracks. Everything was covered in deep, fresh snow. There were, however, a set of large paw prints in the large amount of blood. The snow was covered in blood. There was no doubt that it was hers. He could smell her in it, almost taste her scent it was so strong. But Shade was nowhere to be found.

He searched deeper by using his heightened sense of smell to see if he could find her by scent. The fresh snow and cold weather made it easier to smell things, the air crisp and fresh. The cold also kept all the wildlife out of the area and the lack of plant life helped in that their odors did not intermingle with hers.

Colin could smell two others now. One was a female wolf, the other a female human. He knew immediately that the human was the woman from the apartment, Brent’s mother, Brenda Shell. He could tell her scent, having been near it before.

He knew in that moment that somehow Brenda had figured out what had happened to her son. And the scent of the wolf led him to believe that she was aware that the pack had helped. Colin realized with a start someone had told Brenda—
the she-wolf
, he thought. He wondered if it may have been the alpha who had gotten his mate hurt.

Colin had discovered, quite by accident, that Shade had asked for and had received help from the local wolf pack leader, Bradley Wolff, to smuggle Brent out of the hospital for her. He had stumbled upon the information when he had touched her mind sometime during the night they had spent together. He wasn’t happy about it, but he could understand her needed to go to them. Colin and Aaron had given her no reason to trust that they would help her. Colin had a great deal to make up for when he found her. And find her he would because to think anything else would be too hurtful.

Colin needed help so he relayed his location to Aaron. Aaron could find him easily enough because of their blood bond and the fact that Aaron had made Colin, but he needed to be sure that Aaron would get there.

Aaron drove the Hummer to the location at Colin’s request. Colin had hoped they would find Shade all right and bring her home Aaron had also brought Sara was with him. She had become very distressed when he told her that he had picked up the scent of a she-wolf along with the drugged up human.

Colin worried about Sara and the new lives she carried. He hated to bring her into this now, but he had no choice. He needed Shade. Needed her now.

“I might have an idea who the wolf is. I hate to think about her involvement, but I think she’s the local pack’s alpha’s bitch. Her name is Lynne Wolff. She’s a jealous bitch and can be vengeful—no, that’s not right. She is quite vengeful when she believes some female is after her mate.” Colin watched as Sara rubbed a small scar on her chin. “Lynne made it quite clear all were not welcome near Bradley no matter what the reason.”

“You think this is about her thinking Shade was trying to take her mate away? That doesn’t sound like anything Shade would do. She can barely stand me most of the time.”

Colin hadn’t meant for it to sound like a joke, but he was scared. The thought of Shade out with a full grown she-bitch wolf terrified him. He knew Shade was powerful, but so was a jealous wolf.

“I think it smells like her, although I haven’t caught her scent since I changed, but this has her signature all over it.” Sara picked up a handful of snow and scented it again. “This would be something she would do just for the simple pleasure of it. The other scent, as I’m sure you know, belongs to the woman from the little boy’s apartment.”

“You mean the Brotherhood of Gray? Isn’t that the people you worked for before the Carlovettis?” At Sara’s nod, Colin continued. “If the boy’s mother is involved, and I have no doubt she is, then that explains why these two are together, doesn’t it? Each woman sees an opportunity to get rid of the kid and Shade at the same time. What I don’t understand is why the pack? What could they gain from this?”

Colin didn’t really expect an answer. He was just thinking out loud. He really didn’t understand much about weres and their culture, but he hoped that Sara knew enough to help.

“Maybe it’s because a wolf killed the human female. Wouldn’t this be the perfect way to keep their secret and get rid of the evidence?” Sara was shaking her head even as Aaron finished his question.

“It just doesn’t sound like something this pack leader would do. When I knew Bradley before he became pack alpha, he was a firm but very fair man. He wanted to change to views of the people, human and other creatures around, into thinking that wolves weren’t all mindless animals bent on tearing into someone and having them for dinner.”

“Okay, let’s see what we do have then. The human is the mother of Brent, the little guy from the hospital. She more than likely figured that Shade had something to do with his disappearance from the hospital, right? I mean, she did have that hissy fit when he came up missing?” Colin started pacing as he listed what they knew. “We know that Shade had asked the alpha for help and he had agreed. We also know the man who murdered little Becca was one of the packs members—this one, I presume. Shade also believes that same man may have been the one who raped Brent on occasion, as well. I found that when I was...when we...I found it out, okay?”

Thankfully, Aaron rescued him before Sara could question his obvious embarrassment.

“Then I tell her Brent is gone from the hospital and she ends up in an area not too far from the main pack house. I believe it’s a couple of miles south of here, so it’s probably less than a mile through the woods to there. That would explain Shade being in this part of the forest. She was more than likely going there to see Brent.”

Colin knew that’s where she had been going. He could feel and see in her mind that she’d been on her way to see Brent, to reassure him that he’d be safe. It was just his luck he’d pissed her off before she had left or he’d have been with her when she left the mansion.

“I had actually thought that the mother had sold him again and was making a noise to draw the attention away from herself when I’d heard that Brent was missing. I don’t know what the connection of the two women is, but it can’t be good.” Aaron looked around the area, and then stared at the direction of the pack house for a minute or two. “Unless it’s like Sara said; the bitch found out that Shade was there talking to her mate and thinks the worst. Then, suddenly, this little kid shows up. Maybe she thinks with him there, Shade will be coming around more too.”

Colin hated to think that something so petty as jealously would cause a woman to shoot another, but he had learned long ago to never underestimate the stupidity of some people.

“What do you mean sold him again? You mean she sold her son to someone to have sex with him? For money?  Oh my God, you’re kidding? No, I can see that you’re not. For drugs, right?” Colin had forgotten that Sara didn’t know all the details. “She sold her son for sex...to supply herself with drugs. Oh God, that little girl, do you think...no, no one could be that depraved...oh, God, Aaron, that baby girl...we have to find that bitch now, right now! I’m gonna
so
kick her ass. She’s gonna regret this for a long, long time. You hear me, Colin? She will pay!”

Sara fired up was almost funny if the situation wasn’t so grave. She had lived on her own for a while before meeting Aaron and was one tough magical being. But, Colin thought, she was still very innocent about so many things.

The three of them piled into the Hummer and went back to the mansion. They needed a plan and standing in the blood-covered snow was not helping to calm any of them down enough to think, especially Colin.

He was grief stricken and worried about Shade. He knew she was alive, but he also knew she had to be weak from blood loss. She had told him that she could heal quickly when her body was in mortal danger after being injured or hurt, but how much did she heal? That knowledge alone kept his hopes high and calmed him in so many ways. But because he was not able to touch her mentally nor physically, it was driving him mad with need. Colin needed to get control and remain calm, and getting away from the scene was the only thing he could think to do. He couldn’t help her or be there for her if he lost it.

The trip back was made in silence, each of them deep in their own form of agony about Shade and helping her.

~~~

All Aaron could think about was what he would be doing if was if that had been his mate, Sara. And what he would be doing right now. Sara meant the world to him, his breath, and his life. And now that they were having a baby—babies according to Shade —his son and his daughter.

They had been talking with them every day, sending them their love. Images of them and the life they were living; every day they thought of something to share with them. These children, his and Sara’s children, were going to be the total of them, and the best parts of them. He couldn’t think of a life without all of them in it.

Sara was thinking of the children she carried, as well. She wanted to keep them safe and warm, to protect them and make sure they never felt unloved or unwanted. She rubbed her hand gently over the flatness of her belly, sending her love to them, feeling their answering love in return. Aaron was her mate, her very reason to keep living, but the children there in her womb—they were her future, their future, hers and Aaron’s. She couldn’t think what sort of lives the small children of Brenda had endured and suffered. How little Becca had been made to pay with everything before her life had been cut so short.

Colin could only think how he had not yet told Shade how much he loved her when he had the chance. And he would as soon as he saw her. He would tell her first thing, he promised himself. He would see her too. He would bring her home.

Colin knew that she had desired a home of own, how she had had that dream for so long. He also know that she had given it up when she had gotten older, jaded about the way things went for someone like her living on the edge, so close to all this violence. He would get her that house, he decided. They would fill it with hundreds of hot water tanks so she would never have to take a cold bath in the local river again. Cooks. He would hire the best chefs to be on staff for her all the time, making her whatever she wanted, every whim. He never wanted her to be hungry again. Never have her want for anything. Yes, he was going to make this all up to her. She was his, but most of all, he was hers. He would remind her of that daily, he thought. Just as soon as he made sure she never left home again.
Yeah
, he thought with a snort,
that’ll go over just great.

When they walked into the house, they were bombarded by questions. Everyone was offering to help him, to help find her and bring her back to them. Colin realized that she didn’t just belong to him, but that she had become a very important part of the little Kiss Aaron was forming. She had worked her way into their hearts one aggravation at a time.

Colin smiled when he thought about how much the young woman was like Sara. He couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for himself. He was in for a long, bumpy ride. He decided he would have the time of his life while he was at it.

“Shade’s been hurt badly. There was blood all over the area where she was when she last spoke to me. I think she was shot from a medium distance of about fifty feet or less. She wasn’t aware of anything until it was too late and she felt the pain, until we felt the pain that is.” Colin glanced over at Elizabeth and nodded to her. “She was taken away and to the south for about twenty yards, carried, though I’m not sure how. Maybe by the she-wolf. From there she was put into a vehicle, probably a van, I’m guessing. I can’t tell where they went from there, but we have a good idea who was involved. The human is Brent’s mother, the little boy from the hospital, and a she-wolf may be the local pack’s alpha bitch, Lynne Wolff.” Colin relayed all the information they had, and some information they has speculated about.

“I want to help.”

The entire room turned at the voice. Colin, in stunned amazement, stared at the very beautiful woman who had just powered into the room.

“I have to help,” the woman said. “I want to be a part of her return. I believe the young woman is my daughter. Please, let me be a part of this.”

~CHAPTER EIGHTEEN~

“Fiona, I didn’t expect you for another couple of days, but thank goodness you’re here.  So much has happened since we last spoke. Everyone, I’d like you to meet my good friend, Fiona, Mistress of the Glen. She is a very powerful Fae.” Eliza stepped forward to introduce her to everyone in the room.

Fae were a very unique group of beings. As mistress, Fiona was responsible for the magical creatures of the woods and forests. The Fae of the Glen used their magic to keep the flowers of the forest floor watered in the deep of summer. The smaller and younger ones kissed the buds to open them to their beauty in the morning and early spring.

Most Fae were females, but there were a few males. Their magic was usually limited to the specific job they were assigned. Some even took care of specific flower groups or plant life. But in the case of the royal family, as it seemed Shade might be a part of if what Fiona said was true, the magic was varied and very strong, and it governed the entire people.

“Shade may be Fae? Well, that explains a lot of things, doesn’t it? But I don’t understand. You only
think
she’s your daughter. How is that possible that you wouldn’t know for sure?” Sara asked as she took the woman’s cape.

Sara had known that Shade’s magic had a different feel to it than her family’s, including her cousin Mel. Melody, the Mistress of Magic, had told her once that there were as many different branches and levels of her magic as there were people in the world. Each species had their own royalty in charge and laws to rule their realm within the different subgroups. But over it all was Mel, governing and making sure that no one group abused what the Earth lent them to use.

White magic, that was used by all royal houses, was a reusable and renewable resource. When used in a positive way and for the goodness of Mother Earth, the magic would return to the barer tenfold. When it was used poorly, as in black magic, it took away from the barer one hundred times.

Black magic only pulled from the Earth, draining it and leaving a shadow of darkness behind, a taint in the soil. It would show as a black spot in the soil, and nothing would ever grow there. The land would be sucked dry of anything living.

That was why people who used black magic were forever stealing from others, their own being used up quickly, draining them. Usually, the user would be drained as well, leaving a shell of the person, eating away their mind first and then their body. And the longer they used this magic, the weaker they became, draining all their energy from them as well as those around them.

“Yes, I can understand your confusion. I myself was as well. When the mistress told me about the magic being used, I focused on it. I found the signature as mine, of me.” Fiona shifted now, looking uncomfortable about the rest of her story she had to tell.

“About twenty years ago, my family and I were attacked on our way back from a court function. It’s something we all must attend once a century and my daughter, Faun, had wanted to attend with us. Quinn, my husband, was killed instantly, and up until three days ago, I thought my daughter had been killed as well. But not in the attack that took her father from me. We were under attack and I feared for her life. The driver, Peter, had taken Faun away at my command, leaving me to fight with the rabbles, as I’m an immortal as well as a magical being.”

“I don’t understand. You say he took her away? Where was he supposed to take her? I would have thought he would have stayed with you, to protect you.”

“I thought she would have been much safer as far away as possible. I thought that there had been enough bloodshed in this horrific battle. He returned later to help me finish them off and then to collect my beloved’s body. He had hidden her in an old building in the human world, hoping she would be safe there amongst the humans until we could return for her, he’d told me.” Tears fell down her cheeks. “She was six, and hadn’t been hurt much during the attack on our caravan, just a small cut on her forehead. At least that is what I had been led to believe at the time. As it turned out, Peter was a part of the group who wanted to take over the realm and to destroy all that I was by killing my family. He hoped that I would be made to stand down once it was proven that I couldn’t even protect my own family when they needed me most.”

Colin looked over at Sara. That sounded very much like the plan that Mel’s supposed mate had had for her. To drive her to the Fade then take over the running of the Kingdom of Molavonta and to use it for his own personal playground.

Fiona continued. “You see, he had tossed her into that building against the farthest wall, hoping he had killed her. He confessed it all later. He was found out by an investigation that was launched by my good friend Elizabeth. I thought that he had killed her as well. It was months later when we went back to the building and searched where he’d taken her. There was so much blood that stained the area where he’d tossed her hard against the wall that I knew she had to be dead. I could sense it was hers and could not believe that she could have survived under such conditions.”

“But she did.” Colin said the words before he thought about how they would make Fiona feel.

“Yes. Yes, she did, despite all odds that she wouldn’t. He told us how she had hit the wall…he was so happy that he could finally confess all to me, that he was...he was laughing the entire time. He was so...so giddy that I’d been made to suffer so much by his hand.” Fiona was crying softly as she related the story. To endure so much and to be able to continue on spoke a great deal for the woman, and for her daughter. Shade, it seemed, had the same determination and drive her mother did.

“Why did you believe he’d killed her in the first place? As a Fae, wouldn’t she be a true immortal as you are? I’m sorry, I don’t mean to sound so accusatory, and it...I just don’t understand. Shade is so powerful. Wouldn’t you have felt her power before now?” Colin asked Fiona. He was getting a better picture of the woman he loved. She was such a survivor, a six-year-old little girl with no memory, magic abilities, and no one to ask why. It was no wonder that she had no trust in people. He planned to rectify that as soon as he got her back. He would figure out a way to make her trust him if it killed him. Or she killed him, he thought with a grin.

“Quinn, my husband, wasn’t Fae, but was mortal, a human. Faun is half human, and because she was taken from me before she had time to develop her skills, we couldn’t tell what our relationship would give her or whether or not she would have any magical abilities at all. She has several sisters and their abilities are as varied as they are. Some are powerful, others are not,” Fiona explained. Her tears had dried, but she was still very emotional, Colin could see.

“Shade, she calls herself Shade Doe. I don’t know why she called herself either name, however it’s sort of ironic if you think about the similarities. I wonder if her memory is as blocked as she thinks it is. It would seem logical that she has some very faint memories that surface now and then that have helped her to survive all these years on her own. I want to find out. Oh, and she has magical abilities. And she’s strong too,” Colin said as he rubbed the area on his chest were a chunk of wood had gone into him when she had thrown him against a wall. “And she has one hell of a temper when pushed too far.”

“She would have gotten that from her father. He was the most stubborn, pig headed...he would argue for hours even knowing that he was wrong just to get a rise out of me.” Colin could tell that whatever memory was she was thinking about, Fiona thought of it as a fond one.

“I believe she may have a bit of your stubbornness too, my lady. Just a little, wouldn’t you say?” Colin smiled when Fiona started to argue. Shade and her mother had the same “don’t screw with me” face, it seemed.

“We need to go to the pack house and establish what the alpha’s involvement is in all of this, if any at all. I have contacted a few of the wolves that I know from my time there as their pilot,” Sara was saying as she closed her cell phone. “They said that last week there was a big blow up with the alpha family, but didn’t know what. Charles Wolff, the patriarch of the family, has been called home from his retirement, along with his wife, to be there for moral support. Again, no one is saying what has happened other than the alpha’s house is off limits to everyone for the duration except for the family. That is until tomorrow night. There is a huge dinner with some of the top wolves. Bradley and Charlie are supposed to be in attendance.”

Once upon a time, Sara had been a pilot for the pack; Charlie had been the Alpha then. She had flown pack members where ever they had needed to go and had also worked part time for the larger airports. She did not fly for anyone anymore, but she did keep up with the few friends she had made then, apparently.

“It must be serious for them to call Charlie back and out of retirement. If you hear anything else, please let us know. Good job. Thank you, love.” Aaron believed in giving credit where credit was due and always had. Whether it was because one brought good information to the table, or one messed up, it didn’t matter. That was one of the things Colin had always admired about Aaron.

Of course, unlike his predecessor, Carl Sanchez, he didn’t flay the person alive, nor did he stake them out in the sun for an undetermined amount of time depending on the whim of the master. Sanchez did not have a scale to mete out his punishment. He usually let his mood, or the moods of those around him, make the decisions. This was the main reason, among others, that Aaron had challenged him in a fight that ultimately resulted in him becoming the new master of this realm.

They worked out a plan, and as much as Aaron hated to involve his pregnant mate, they needed her to make it work. Aaron commanded fifty of his warrior vampires to his house at sunset that evening and for them to come ready for battle. He didn’t give them any information about what the command involved as he did not want the information to get to the pack. He had asked them not to feed first because he knew that hungry vampires made much more vicious warriors, and he wanted a forceful front when converging on a pack as large as the Brotherhood, he’d told Colin.

Aaron offered to put Colin into a deep slumber so that he would be fit for the evening’s festivities, as they had dubbed them. Colin declined the offer with a grateful “thanks though.” He feared that he would miss Shade trying to contact him if he was too deep into his sleep.

Colin went to his lair, deep in the sublevels of Aaron’s home, to wait until he could leave to search for his love, and to try to contact her mentally again. He lay on their bed and inhaled the scent of her still on the sheets.

Duncan had offered to clean the room earlier, but Colin didn’t want anything disturbed. He needed this small connection to her or he would go insane, even if it was just her smell and the memories that they had created there, what they had started. He reached to touch her through their special connection and found nothing but emptiness.

Colin had had Duncan call the realtor about a couple of houses in the area that Aaron had acquired when he fought and killed the previous master. Colin knew that, as his friend, Aaron would give him whatever he wanted, but Colin wanted this to be from him, bought just for her. He had to live on the hope that she would be returning to him, or he just wouldn’t be able to go on.

If anyone had asked him even two months ago, he would have laughed in their faces. To even suggest a man like him would be so focused on a woman to give up everything for her would have been laughable to him.

Exhaustion finally claimed him into a troubled sleep.

~~~

Shade regained consciousness; her was body aching and weak. She clamped harder onto her mental capabilities, holding off contacting anyone until she knew where she was and what had happened. And the why, which was the biggest mystery.

Shade thought back and tried to remember what she had been doing. She had been on her way to the pack house to see Brent and to thank the alpha for his help. She had been talking with Colin, aggravated at him again, but not unhappy about it. In fact, if she really thought about the argument she had been having with him, she was enjoying the back and forth yelling, his overbearing attitude, and his macho-ism. She smiled to herself, thinking here she was kidnapped, shot and hurt, and thinking about “the wall,” as she had dubbed him from the very beginning. Something was seriously wrong with her.

Shade took a look around the room, or area that she was in, careful not to move around too much. She didn’t want to give away that she was awake. She also wasn’t even sure if she would be able to keep herself from moaning out loud if she moved the wrong way. She had already ascertained that she had been shot twice, and had lost a great deal of blood, but she could feel the energy humming back into her little by little.

She was chained upright to a wall at the ankles and the wrists. Her neck was shackled back as well with a heavy collarlike device around her throat. The coolness of the surface behind her and the stone walls surrounding her lead her to believe she was in a cave.

The cave, was deep in a downward turn and she could just make out the opening by the little bit of light shining through. The walls were granite and were marked with drawings that looked too fresh to be art from some cave dweller from long ago. On closer inspection, Shade realized that they were wards, magical spells drawn on them. The floor was mostly dirt and dry; her bare feet felt warm in the soil. Behind her and to the left, she could hear water trickling somewhere deeper in the cave. Over all, other than the magic, it was not as bad as it could have been. But someone was using magic, strong magic too. And they were close, close enough that she could feel the bite of their magic.