Banewolf (Dark Siren Book 2) (7 page)

York had mowed the overgrown fields last week, making it an easy stroll through the manor’s acreage. Outside and in fresh air, Kali could breathe again. She gazed up, feeling at peace watching the stars. Bailen trailed behind at a polite distance, somehow having sensed she wanted to be alone. But if Kali knew anything about Rhane, one of the other kin was somewhere safeguarding from a distance.

Reaching the small pond that was just past the fields, she slipped off her tennis shoes. The mud was thick at the edge of the water. It felt good to squish it between her toes. She attempted to clear her thoughts, tried to not think of th
e child or of the creature she’d hunted and killed or of a certain ex-boyfriend who had become something other than himself.

A voice unexpectedly came from the darkness and startled her. “Why are you out here alone?”

Kali spun around, retreating several steps backward and into the water. Moonlight reflected against a head of white hair, and she relaxed. It was River. “I’m not alone. Bailen is with me.”

“And what chance does one mouse have against an army of cats?”

Everything about Rhane’s brother bugged her—from his creepy eyes to the stark white hair that was way too long and silky to belong to a man. The bored, condescending manner in which he spoke to everyone was infuriating. Being in his presence, especially alone, was unsettling. She was willing to bet it would’ve been okay with the others if she treated River badly. But she already had enough to feel guilty about and was determined to make polite conversation with him, even if it was the last act of her evening.

“Rhane said it was okay.”

“Ah.” River nodded. “Yet another in the pattern of ill-fated choices he makes where you are concerned.”

The comment incited an abrupt change of heart. Turning her back to him, she faced the water.

“I’m sorry.”

The quick apology and genuinely contrite tone in which he uttered it surprised her. Looking at him again, she got an even bigger shock. River was kneeling on the ground, his head deeply bowed.

“I have not had as long to assimilate into this culture as have the others. And I have not spoken to a common woman in nearly four centuries because none survived the massacre. Please. Forgive my offensive tongue.”

The scene seemed so alien. Her face warmed as an awkward blush rose to it. “It’s alright. Please get up.” She turned away quickly, before River lifted his head.

He was quiet for so long; Kali wondered if he’d left. Her hope sank like a damaged cruise ship when he spoke again.

“Has he told you why he fears the water so?”

Her shoulders tensed. If River was anywhere near as perceptive as Rhane, he probably noticed her discomfort. She tried to relax. “He drowned when he was a kid.”

“That is true.” Suddenly, River stood next to her, less than two feet away. “Did he also explain it was our mother who drowned him?” When Kali was silent, River continued. “He was a child born with eyes the color of a Glowing Stone. In our culture, it is a most unfavorable omen. Only on two occasions had this happened. In both instances, the infant was put to death to spare our kin from the suffering the child would bring to the people during its life
time. Mother was simply fulfilling her duty when she tried to kill Rhane by holding her defenseless newborn at the bottom of a washbasin. Father stopped the act. He begged her to go against tradition and spare the child’s life. She did. Then she spent next twelve cycles regretting that decision and hating the first child of her loins.”

Kali shivered. “He said it happened twice. Did she try again?”

River nodded. “Father was called away to war. Mother sent Rhane to Snake Falls in the season of the river kings to fetch water. At such a time, our watering holes were infested with large, carnivorous serpents whose voracious appetites were made even more aggressive by spawning. Mother shoved Rhane into the water, hoping the serpents would finish what she had started. But my brother was spared yet again. Poisoned from their venom, bleeding from their bites, he spent several days trapped in an underwater cave. A boy from the village found and rescued him. As soon as he was well enough, my brother ran off to join the army. He was far too young, but Father gave the mandate to allow it.”

River had told the story with such a lack of emotion. It was no mystery which parent he’d inherited his personality from.

“How could she have hated her child so much?”

“Mother didn’t hate him at first. She simply wanted to save the rest of us.” After a pause that was filled with meaning, River continued. “The omen held true. Rhane lived to curse his people.”

“But he didn’t,”
Kali snarled. She felt her feet grow warm though they were submerged beneath cold water. Her hands balled into fists. “He didn’t hurt anymore. And neither did I.”

“No one else believes that.”

“Your people sound horrible. Your mother was a cruel bitch. I hope very much that she is dead.”

“Then I fear I must disappoint you. Roma is much very alive.” River knelt down and swept his hand through the water. “Anger is proper.” Watching the ripples expand across the surface, his voice softened. “But be careful you do not pity him, Kalista. Rhane had Father’s love and my adoration.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“So you may hope to understand him…and the rest of us.” He stood up. “Anytime you wish to know more, come here. I will answer your call.”

Then River left as quietly and as quickly as he had come.

“I want to visit my family today.”

“That’s fine.”

“I wasn’t asking for your permission.”

“You don’t need to. I’m not your father.”

“Really? How fantastic that you understand that.”

Kali was in a foul mood. Toeing the ledge of a meltdown, she wanted to yell insults and accuse Rhane of the most horrible things. The animosity wasn’t only for him. Each time York opened his mouth, she felt the urge to slap him. York did the smart thing and left the manor. But Rhane, always the martyr, stuck around.

It almost felt as if a seed planted during the night grew malevolent roots down deep into her mind as she slept.
Daylight came, and Kali opened her eyes to anger and belligerence. As hard as she tried, she couldn’t stop herself. She couldn’t hold back mean words or unkind thoughts. The more she pulled at the roots, the deeper they plunged, infecting her brain like cancer. Kali wondered somewhat distractedly if feeding from the creature she’d killed had anything to do with it.

Leaning across the counter, Rhane rested his chin in one hand and
watched her with an expression of barely concealed worry. All morning he’d resisted her attempts to bait him into a fight. Kali wished he would just get mad and retaliate. Maybe a stronger reaction from him could help snap her out of whatever it was that caused this.

“We need to talk about what happened to you at school yesterday.”

“You said we could talk about it later.”

“It is later.”

“Rhane, just leave me alone!” Mortified that she’d stamped her foot like a petulant child, Kali bit her lip and walked away before saying something she’d regret forever.

In the living room, Rion and War were playing the latest first-person shooter game on the Xbox. It was their custom most weekday mornings. Noise from the flat-screen television had muted some time ago but abruptly resumed when she entered. Gaming was the perfect excuse to avoid eye contact. Kali flopped down on the couch between them anyway. Rion glanced at her as she smoothed her black sundress
but then glued his eyes forward. War fidgeted with his ball cap but said nothing. After several minutes of gunfire, explosions and dead terrorists, the two settled into themselves again. Ruthless banter and profanity-littered insults were an ordinary part of their relationship.

When Rhane entered the room, the boys cleared out without a word, dropping the controllers as if someone had doused them with gasoline and struck a match. As Rion shoved through the front door behind War, she caught a glimpse of his t-shirt and almost smiled. Written
on the back in white block lettering was “THE REAL WOLFMAN.”

Giving her
plenty of space, Rhane sat down at the other end of the couch. “I can’t let you go back to school until we understand what happened there yesterday.”

“I thought you said you weren’t my father.”

“Your father has trusted me to protect you. I can’t do that unless you talk to me.” He ran a hand through his thick hair, giving it a slight tug at the ends.

“You’re going to go bald,” she muttered.

“I hope not. Something tells me Greg wouldn’t be too fond of you dating a skinhead.” The smile he flashed was his rarest, the one that showcased a single dimple.

It was enough to make her squirm in her seat. Feeling a bit less angry, Kali rubbed her eyes.
Dark thoughts please go away.
 

“Tell me what happened.”

No more late night snacking on monsters if you can’t handle the aftermath.

“Kalista.”

She jerked around at the sound of her name. Though his eyes were gentle, Rhane watched her intently. She exhaled. “Last night you offered to talk about our past.”

“I did.” His gaze
flitted down and then back up. Kali was certain that she could have lived a thousand lifetimes and never gotten used to his unusual eyes and the way they sometimes peered straight into her. “And you bailed—again.”

Kali st
ruggled beneath the weight of the shame she felt. But shame was good. It was better than unbridled anger. “I know. I’m sorry. Rhane, I don’t know what’s gotten into me. I can’t stop being awful…” She rubbed her arms, returning to her limited memory of the past twenty-four hours. “Last night with that creature…I think I fed from it. I think its life is inside of me, making me act this way. It makes sense. Dark energy has screwed with my head before.” She took another shaky breath. “I’m really sorry.” 

Rhane
had stood up and moved closer as she spoke. When her voice trembled with the apology, he reached out to her. But Kali pulled away abruptly. “Please…don’t touch me.”

His expression was stricken. “Kalista, what is it?”

Closing her eyes so she wouldn’t see his pain, she blurted, “I see him. I keep seeing him when you touch me.” Choking on a sob, she stopped. After reigning in her emotions, she opened her eyes and continued. “He’s cold and dead…He’s just a boy but he looks so much like you…I can’t stand it.”

Expelling a loud breath, Rhane collapsed rather than sat on the sofa. He stared at hands held limply in front of him. A dark shadow crossed his face, one that was truly frightening. “I’m…so sorry.”

Kali really couldn’t understand what they had lost because she couldn’t remember. She didn’t remember loving Rhane. She hadn’t spent four hundred years pining for him. She couldn’t remember what being a mother felt like. And she didn’t remember how much she had loved their son. Kali only knew what she felt now. Physically, she was only seventeen. And without past memories, her mind would remain seventeen. The situation was almost hopeless.

Seeing the pain in Rhane’s face made her want to reach out and take him in her arms. She wanted to tell him it was okay. Only it wasn’t. Things hadn’t been okay for Rhane
in a very long time.

“I don’t blame you.” Needing to be strong for his sake, Kali reached out and grasped his hand. She
focused on him, steeling herself against the vision of the child that almost instantly appeared. The agony in Rhane’s green eyes was reflected in tears he would never let fall. “Knowing what happened…I don’t see you any differently.” She swallowed a huge lump in her throat. “I love you.”

Squeezing his eyes shut, he pulled her across the sofa and folded her into his arms. “I’m not a good person, Kalista.”

“Don’t say that.”

“It’s true. You didn’t massacre my people. But I…I cannot claim such innocence.
Soldiers came for you and I fought. Rhaven was with me. I’d hidden him carefully and told him to remain out of sight. But someone discovered him. Flynn, the commander of the third legion, meant to bring him to me as collateral. He wanted to trade our child’s life for yours. Instead, I received his limp body in my arms. The fighting stopped. Flynn said it was an accident. That he would have never given such an order. It didn’t matter.” Rhane dropped his forehead onto her shoulder. “I killed Flynn. And then I used Banewolf to kill the rest of them. I slaughtered them all.”

Wow.
Kali imagined Rhane on the battlefield, holding his dead son…
their
dead son. Her chest ached like someone had put a hot poker through it. She reeled her mind away from the image and tried to picture one that was more comforting. Vengeance against those who’d hurt their son was a cheering thought. But Rhane going berserk was hard to imagine. Kali had seen him annoyed but never angry.

“You were protecting your family,” she offered in his defense.

“Flynn was Rion’s sire as well as my friend. War and Orrin also became orphans by my hand.”

“Do they know?”

“No.”

Wow, she thought again. The seventeen-year-old mind had little to reference for a warlord who mass-murdered his own soldiers to defend his creature mate and then spent the next few hundred years raising the children of dead men.
Teen Comet
didn’t cover those sorts of relationship issues.

But in the past, Kali had done many things to upset Greg and Lisa. Most times their disappointment hurt worse than any punishment could have. If the chances of them finding out her latest transgression were slim, Kali had never gone out of her way to confess. So with Rhane’s dilemma, her gut leaned toward not telling. But she couldn’t say that. Deep down and way past her gut, Kali knew it was bad advice. And bad advice had a way of snaking back to bite the ass.

“A real parent is the person who loves you enough to raise you as if you were their own. To them, you are their father. They love and respect you. Nothing has to change that.”

His arms squeezed harder as he clung to her for a few desperate seco
nds. Then he let go, started to push her away gently…but stopped. She waited, her heart already pounding faster. His hand slid up her side, grazing her breast as it came to rest on her shoulder. Kali trembled.

His fingers kneaded her neck. The touch lightened as they traced her jaw and outlined her lips, burning a trail of fire into her skin. Hues of brown pooled into the chrysoprase green of his widening pupils. Kali watched, mesmerized by the swirl of colors. His mouth covered hers and perfectly worked moist, hot magic against her lips. His other hand pressed into the small of her back, the fingers digging into her flesh. She sighed and leaned into him, savoring the heat that surged throughout her body, building in her toes and fingertips as it searched for an outlet.

The gold and turquoise energy of his spark beckoned to Kali, urging her to indulge in its depths. She answered. Drank greedily, let the streams of his life fill her. Whatever effect feeding on the kindred had done was overturned by the purity of Rhane’s existence. The darkness was gone.

She moaned when his lips moved to her neck and down her collar. Her extremities burned as if someone held a flame beneath them, heating her flesh until it neared boiling. Even Rhane
was affected. The hand roaming up her leg clenched the softness of her inner thigh as his breath abruptly expelled in a sharp hiss. Closely followed was the carnal pinch of his teeth against her shoulder. Kali gasped at the shock of pleasure that spurted low in her abdomen. She shuddered when his mouth found her throat and laid down burning kisses, each one followed by a gentle nip, teasing her body into heightened arousal. His hand pushed her back, and one rock solid bicep gradually lowered her onto the cushions of the sofa. She went quite willingly, wrapping her arms around his broad shoulders and back, stroking the rippled muscles beneath his t-shirt. She sighed when his head went to her stomach. Using teeth to lift her dress, he assaulted her belly with soft kisses. Kali laced her fingers through his dark hair, clutching him tighter when his tongue flicked across the tip of her panties. Muscles bunching, her back arched, and she curled her legs around him.

Mid-kiss, Rhane stopped and looked up. His eyes had gone completely primal.

He smiled.

And bit her thigh.

Kali was nearly driven into spasms.

But then the freaking coffee table caught on fire.