Banewolf (Dark Siren Book 2) (6 page)

Warren answered on the first ring. “Bailen is with me,” Rhane said and waited for an explanation.

“That’s good.” War sounded both relieved and anxious. “I sent him.”

“Where is Kalista?”

He blew out a preparing breath before answering. “I don’t know. She didn’t come home straight after school. Bailen returned to the manor not long after York left to meet you. We knew something was wrong then. Rhane…we’ve looked but we can’t find her.”

“Tell me what you did find.”

“The trail ended at the school. Whatever went wrong, it happened there.”

“Okay. I’ll call again when I have her.”

Rhane hung up and hit the accelerator. It was another twenty minutes to Ridge Creek High School. He was going to get there in ten.

#

Somewhere in the nearly deserted building, the school band was having a disastrous practice. The harshness of their disharmony hurt Rhane’s ears. He was grateful when the heavy doors of the pool auditorium closed and effectively sealed out the clamor.

Any spoor would have been hard for him to trace in the chlorine flooded atmosphere. Good thing Bailen was there. His sense of smell was far more powerful than Rhane’s. Hitting on the trail, Bailen followed it to the girl’s locker room. Away from the overwhelming chlorine, Rhane was able to match the markers uniquely Kalista’s. Another spoor rode hers closely—a familiar one. He had smelled it many times before in faint undertones on Kalista’s person and within the Metts household. His mind matched a face to the scent. Callan. Why had he been in the girl’s locker room?

The scent of fear became strong near the community showers. Kalista’s fear. Callan’s smell was
stronger there as well. Rhane’s hands tightened into fists.

Something in the boy’s markers differed from before. It was a peculiar change, one that triggered a distant memory and teased the corners of Rhane’s mind. Standing in the large stall, he did a complete three-sixty. From there, the trail simply vanished as if she’d never left the locker room. Rhane went through it again. Outside, he tried once more. There was nothing. He looked back at Bailen, sitting behind him. Rhane knelt to meet his eyes. “Help me find her.”

Bailen whined. His dark body shivered.

“Please. Take me to Kalista.”

Bailen didn’t make a move.

Rhane sighed. He didn’t understand what could be holding Bailen back. He could definitely understand English. There was no doubt about that. But why he chose not to vocally communicate in the ancient language of the war skins, Rhane wasn’t certain. The canine’s befuddling behavior didn’t make things easy.

He tried again. “Whatever happened, I can help her. I
will
help her.”

Bailen’s honey eyes searched into his. Then he huffed softly. The tightness that gripped Rhane’s chest loosened. “Okay. Away with you then.”

#

They ran for a solid hour. The town of Ridge Creek and its neighboring city became a distant dot behind them. No road. Only trees. Rhane hadn’t spotted a sign of human habitation for miles. Still, Bailen did not slow the pace. Then the rain started.

It was a downpour actually. Water dumped in buckets from the heavens and drenched the earth. In less than a minute, Rhane and Bailen were soaked. Thunder rumbled. Lightning split the air. The darkening sky rippled and flashed.

“Stay on it!” Rhane yelled over the storm.

The rain fell even harder. Liquid sheets thickened into blankets that didn’t allow Rhane to see a foot in front of him. Keeping track of Bailen got extremely difficult, especially when the kin pulled too far ahead. Bailen seemed to realize this. Returning to Rhane’s side, he pressed his furry body against Rhane’s leg and guided him. 

Bailen trembled. A second later, Rhane smelled them. Heavily acidic, ancient and wild, the smell of kindred was unmistakable. Even more disconcerting was the smell of kindred blood—lots of it.

Rhane slipped the Desert Eagle from its holster and aimed the pistol wherever his eyes looked. He didn’t want any surprises. The amount of blood that hung in the air, sticking even to the wet surroundings, wasn’t a good sign. He didn’t know what to expect, but he knew it was bad. Real bad.

Senses crippled in the freakish storm, a whimper from Bailen alerted him that they were not alone. Rhane spun to face what stood behind him, and came to face to face with the one he so desperately sought. But her appearance stopped him from gathering her in his arms as he wanted to. It also stopped him from lowering the gun.

Kalista’s head was bent. Her dark hair hung limply, dripping with water stained pink from residual blood. Her skin was ghostly white. Her eyes were wild and black. She stalked forward slowly, her movements giving Rhane the impression he was being hunted. Bailen whined.

Kindred blood covered her body from head to toe. There was so much of it; Rhane highly doubted the victim could’ve survived. A ball of dread knotted his gut. If she had fed from such a thing, she would not be herself…and she would be extremely dangerous.

He kept his eyes and the gun trained dead center of her heart. A sharp pain tore through his chest when he considered pulling the trigger. “Kalista,” he said, hoping to reach her.

Her eyes were blank. She continued to slink toward him.

“Kalista, this isn’t you. I need you to come back.” Though he shouted over the wind, there was no evidence the words reached her. No sign of recognition flashed across her face.
What had caused this? How many had she killed?
The questions sliced through his brain like a hot wire. 

Rhane fired. But the aim was over Kalista’s left shoulder, and the bullet
sailed harmlessly past her. Apparently, it was exactly what was needed. Kalista blinked. Her eyes lightened from black to a more human shade of grey.

“Rhane?” She sounded genuinely confused.

Relief washed over him, but it was only for an instant. He lowered the gun slightly. “Kalista, are you hurt?”

“I—I…” She muttered the rest incoherently, moved toward him again and stopped. Her eyes had finally registered the gun. Her face widened in horror. “What have I done?”

He didn’t answer. He couldn’t. But his expression must have said a lot.

Kalista sobbed. She made an attempt to stagger toward him but collapsed,
splashing into a puddle of water. She didn’t move again.

Rhane uttered a curse, hating himself for not going to her, for causing her pain. He walked over to her sagging, dejected form and crouched down, touching her face lightly. Her skin was ice cold and clammy.

“Damn it, Kalista,” he whispered.

Movement beyond the trees caught his eye. Rhane reached his feet in a flash. Tucking the gun away, he withdrew Bellefuron and dropped the blade into a low guard. With the hilt pulled back to his hip, it was a very effective, nearly impenetrable stance. The sword required closer range than a gun but guaranteed more damage and greater accuracy. Bellefuron’s weight was reassuring.
And Rhane needed that reassurance. He was about to face a horde of very pissed-off kindred…alone.

Rhane stood over Kalista with Bailen’s growl loud and steady in his ears. Shadows moved through the rain. The hulking figures became clearer as they drew closer. It was a pack of kindred, creeping forward on all fours. The creatures were immense. Why their mimicked human forms were not apparent in absence of moonlight, Rhane couldn’t begin to guess. Other things pressed more urgently at his mind.

Rainwater slid from the kindred’s greyish hued skin, coursing over knots on their sparsely haired bodies. The features of their distorted faces seemed perpetually angry. Troll-ish frames bent and twisted with every movement. As far as ugly went, these guys pretty much took the entire cake.

The pack halted, but one of them pulled ahead of the rest. Bones crunched and flesh melted as the monster shifted its hide into a human
physique. A man rose to stand before Rhane in full nakedness. He immediately recognized the face. It was Ian.

His red eyes gleamed as he looked at the young girl slumped beneath Rhane’s feet. “You know this offense forfeits her life to me.”

  Rhane held Bellefuron at ready and was careful to keep his eyes still as he counted. “I will defend what is mine.”

Nine.
Tricky but not impossible odds. Ian would have to die first.

“You would kill me before allowing me to assert vengeance that is lawfully mine,” Ian said as if reading Rhane’s thoughts. “Is this creature truly yours?”

Ian’s stately poise was an absurd contrast to their surroundings, to the wildness of a kindred’s violent nature, and to the alpha’s stark nudity. Rhane almost laughed out loud. It took some effort, but he remained silent.

Ian needed less help than York to continue a conversation. “This one is extraordinary. But her presence will make your existence more difficult…and inevitably shorter, if the Primes have their say. Why do you persist in defending her?”

“You wouldn’t understand.”

Sadness flickered across Ian’s features. “Perhaps I might. I too loved once.”

Rhane said nothing. His stance didn’t waver.

Ian shrugged. “Do you truly understand what it is you fight for? Sirens were not created to love or be loved.” His red eyes hardened. “They are to be possessed. Yet you claim to love her. You even sired an abomination.” He gestured to Kalista and then brought two fingers to rest on his chin as if pondering a deep thought. “Do you love? Or is it a desire for the power she possesses, to command even this rain from the heavens?” Ian’s gaze rolled upward and then glided down to Rhane. “What motivates your obstinacy? Are you truly different from the others?” Ian’s eyes flitted to the left.

Experience had taught Rhane a hard lesson: what the borderline sociopath didn’t say was far more important than his psychotic babblings. Ian had a special skill for telling without actually saying. He also had a knack for knowing things.

“What really happened here?” The answer to that question couldn’t make the situation any worse.

Ian’s lips pulled into a smile. “Ah. I believe your siren has taken the life of one of our brothers.”

“I didn’t see that happen. I don’t think you did either.”

The smile vanished. “His blood cries out to us.”

“That’s not enough.”

“Then we are at an impasse.”  

Rhane watched the calculations of the sharp mind with interest, waiting for Ian’s next move. He didn’t have to wait long.

The kindred’s eerie cheer returned. “Or perhaps not.” He held up a hand to signal the flanking pack. “Would you be disposed to make a trade?”

“Perhaps.”

“Then there will be no further blood spilled tonight. Her life will be spared in exchange for a small favor.”

Crap.
Rhane licked his lips. “Define this favor.”

Ian’s red eyes shone more brightly as he spoke. “I reserve the right to call upon you for one future bidding of my choice. You will do it. In return, you have my word that no kindred will seek to collect the debt created on this night.”

Rhane was not convinced. “No kindred…what about your human servants or other allies?”

“No one will threaten her.” Ian frowned slightly. “Your actions speak your love. Is any price too high?”

With a quick motion intended to communicate a tone of finality, Rhane sheathed Bellefuron. Several kindred were taken off guard at the gesture of good faith, jumping at the sudden movement. Ian’s hand flew up in warning. Their bodies writhed anxiously as the immense shadows settled.

His hackles were still raised, but Bailen had stopped growling. His teeth glimmered in the flashes of lightning.

“No price is too high,” Rhane said.

Bone and flesh reshaped, crunching and squishing wetly as Ian returned to his truer form. Rhane wondered if the transformation was anywhere near as painful as it sounded. Before Ian’s mouth disappeared, the alpha uttered a few parting words. “Perhaps the rumors are true.” And then as silently as they had appeared, the shadows disappeared and were reclaimed by the night.

Rhane gathered Kalista into his arms. Her eyes were wide open but reacting to nothing around her. He pressed her body close, hoping his warmth would plug some of the chill that seeped from her pores. She started to stir, her arms hugging about him reflexively.

Though the forest and across the miles beyond it, he carried her. Back in the relative safety of civilization and in the shelter of a deserted alley, he lowered Kalista to the pavement. Or at least he tried to. Her hold tightened and sharp claws dug into his neck and back. He winced.

“Kalista, it’s alright. I just need to make a phone call.”

But her arms did not loosen. Rhane shifted her weight to his knee and managed to free one arm. Finding his cell, he made the call. “I have her. But we’re going to need a ride.”

Rhane was starting to get concerned. For over an hour, there had been no change in Kalista’s vacant demeanor. She sat at the edge of his bed, staring at the floor with water from her hair dripping onto the hardwood. She didn’t blink. She didn’t cry. She didn’t tremble. Kalista was frozen. Rhane would have preferred anything over this—even hysterics.

He pulled a chair from the sitting area and took a seat directly in front of her. When he called her name softly, she didn’t look up. Rhane tried touching her ag
ain, brushing his thumb across her cheek. She didn’t flinch away. “It’s time for you to come back.”

Her eyelashes fluttered. Lips that were ashen parted but no sound came out. A shiver visibly traveled across her skin, and Rhane decided he’d waited long enough. 

“I need to get you out of those clothes. Please nod if you understand me.”

Slowly, her head lifted and she looked at him. The pupils of both eyes had expanded to encompass all of the white corneas, reminding Rhane of a shark.

He removed her shoes and socks, keeping his movements slow and careful as if handling a dangerous wild animal. Grasping her shoulders, Rhane pulled Kalista to him. She came willingly. But the blank stare remained, fixated on some point just over his shoulder. He undid the buttons of her blouse, eased the sleeves over arms that dangled limply at her sides, and cautiously avoided the claws that still extended from her fingertips.

Under different circumstances, the lacy red bra she wore would have sent his thoughts scattering in one direction with singled-minded purpose. But only a total jerk could have gotten stirred at a time like this. Rhane tossed the bra on top of the discarded shirt and started on Kalista’s lower half. Removing waterlogged jeans was never easy. Taking a size two off of a catatonic, sized-four teenager was nearly friggin
’ impossible.

Finally managing to work the jeans down past Kalista’s hips and thighs, the rest came easy…until he looked up. Rhane got a face full of sheer, string, and thong. He exhaled slowly.
Okay. I’m a jerk.

Letting the panties be, he started to recite the Pinyin alphabet, pausing only to tell Kalista what he was about to do before lifting her into his arms. Maybe hot water would bring more warmth to her cold skin. Kicking his shoes off, he stepped into a shower big enough for four people.

As the heat and steam soaked in, Kalista started to shiver as her body fought to return to a normal temperature. Rhane pressed her closer. She was standing on her own now but still leaning heavily against him. The way her curves molded into him was a perfect fit as her naked and wet body clung hotly to his. Her shivering stopped. Rhane started reciting the Russian alphabet.

Kalista raised her arms and slid them around his waist. Fingers, not claws, dug into his back. She lifted her head, letting him see her eyes were human again. Relief flooded through him.

“Rhane,” she whispered.

He nodded. “Welcome back.”

“How did you find me?”

He kept his volume low to match hers. “Bailen helped. He gets extra kibble tonight.”

The corners of her mouth upturned in the beginnings of a smile that never reached its full potential. Staring at her mouth, Rhane realized he’d finished the Russian alphabet. Kalista’s presence burned into him. Now it was he who shivered. It’d been so long. He started counting in Russian. That could occupy him for a while.

But his fingers still tightened,
were still clutched into the roundness of her hips. Rhane tried forcing them to relax. Her voice helped distract him.

“I did something horrible tonight.”

“It’s alright.”

“I killed someone…something.”

“I know.”

She sobbed and buried her face into his shirt. “What’s happening to me?”

He kissed her hair and her tears. “Try not to think about it, Kalista. We can talk tomorrow.” He sank to the tiled floor, pulling her down next to him. She placed her head in his lap. As hard as it was for him, he simply held her. He was willing to hold her all night if it was what she needed. There were at least three other languages in which he held enough proficiency to count in.

#

Numb, Kali lay in bed next to Rhane. His arms were wrapped snugly about her, and she should have felt safe. But what Kali felt was nothing. There was the chance that if she did allow herself to feel, she wouldn’t survive the guilt, sadness, or rage that threatened to overtake her. Closing her eyes conjured the image of the little boy with Rhane’s features. And when he wasn’t there, the ugly monster with its gray and twisted features was. 

Rhane’s breath came steadily. But it didn’t mean he wasn’t awake. If nothing else, Rhane was the lightest sleeper Kali had ever encountered. As she rolled onto her other side to see his face, he lifted his arm a bit and let her move more freely. Light from the waning moon and its surrounding stars shone in through a ceiling made mostly of glass. Kali could see Rhane’s face quite clearly. His eyes were open, watching her. And they were unreadable.

“Tell me what he was like.” She still couldn’t bring herself to say “our son” aloud. It was just as hard to pronounce the child’s name.

Pain flickered across Rhane’s face but was gone faster than the flame from a smothered wick. “He was beautiful, fearless, charming, and incredibly intelligent. One of the most promising fighters I’ve ever trained.”

Kali felt herself smiling. “He sounds just like you.”

“You’d always said if you hadn’t carried him and witnessed his birth, you would’ve sworn the blood oath
that I’d spit him out of my own mouth and created life.” Rhane smiled sadly.

“How old was he when he died?”

“For Warekin, aging is calculated differently than chronological earth years. We age in nine-year cycles that translate into a relative human maturity. Rhaven lived for thirteen and a half cycles. His maturity and appearance was that of a human boy of six.”

Kali pulled straight up in bed. She felt cold all over.

“What is it?” Rhane sat up beside her. “Your pulse is racing.”

He looked very worried. She knew how much it pained him to talk about the child, knew he’d spent four hundred years blaming himself for Rhaven’s death. Kali couldn’t bring herself
to tell him about her vision of the decomposing body of a six-year-old boy.

“I’m fine,” she lied. “I just can’t sleep right now.” That last part was the truth. There was no way sleep would ever come that night.

“Kalista, don’t shut me out.”

Anger broke through the wall of numbness. “Why not? You’ve been shutting me out since I came here.”

“That’s true.” Rhane didn’t sound as if he’d taken offense. He lay back against the pillows and tugged at his hair. Though recently cropped, it was already sprouting back to a stubborn unruly length. “I’m just not good at talking about some things. I guess I’ve been keeping it all inside for too long.”

“I deserve to know.”

“You’re right.”

“Then talk to me!”

Rhane glanced at her. “I’m trying to.” 

Feeling guilty for lashing out at him, Kali dropped the bitter and defensive tone, letting her shoulders slump apologetically. “I’m
so sorry.” She grabbed his hand.  “I didn’t mean to—”

The sentence was left unfinished as a barrage of images blasted through her mind. She saw Rhaven smiling brightly from a distance, sitting astride the huge black stallion that was Meggiddo. A man’s arms were wrapped about
the child. It was Rhane. He turned to her laughing. Kali had never seen him look so happy. The scene changed. Rhaven was running through a field of wild flowers. The purple blossoms winked as if delighted by the boy’s laughter. She chased him. Bursting into another fit of giggles, Rhaven looked at her over his shoulder. Kali gasped. His eyes—they were huge, green eyes almost identical to Rhane’s.

A sharp pain squeezed her chest.
She snatched her hand away and stood up abruptly. “I’m going to take a walk.”

He was clearly taken aback. “Now?”

“Yeah.” She shrugged, trying to appear relaxed, though knowing he could tell something was seriously wrong. Letting him see how fraught and anxious she really felt would not have served her purpose.

“Okay. Then I’ll go with you.” He hesitated. “…And we can talk.”

“No.” She couldn’t meet his eyes. “I’d prefer it if you didn’t.”

For a second,
he looked as if she’d slapped him. Then his expression smoothed and he looked away. “At least let me send Bailen then.”

“Okay,” she agreed, feeling absolutely rotten.