Claimed, a vampire romance (Lost) (3 page)

All attention returned to Cameron and the wolf he was trying to remove from the room.

“Yes, introduce me,” the wolf replied, his tone dry.

“He's...” Rachel stepped forward. “I asked him to bring me here. So I could find Nancy.” She turned back to her friend. Her face glowing, she took Nancy’s hand into her own.

Nancy glanced at Dorian.

Silence settled over the room, everyone unsure how to proceed.

The wolf cleared his throat. “Perhaps I can help. You see, little human, what no one is saying is that you have done the unthinkable by bringing the big bad wolf into their midst, and now, quite honestly, they'd like you to leave so they can kill me.”

Slowly, Rachel glanced around the room, from Nancy to Dorian, to the wolf, and, finally, Cameron, and just as slowly, the joy on her faced died.

“Cameron? That isn't true. You wouldn't...” Rachel took a step toward him. Then, as she read the truth in his eyes, she stopped, turned, and bolted toward the door.

He had no choice but to stop her.

Chapter 3

Cameron cut her off somehow. Rachel didn't know how. She was closer to the door, right next to the door, and Cameron was feet away, standing behind the man who had led her here. But then just as quickly, Cameron had moved in front of her and shut the door, cutting off her escape.

“You...” She looked from Cameron to the man who claimed they wanted to kill him, and finally she settled her attention on Nancy. “I think we should leave.”

Cameron's brother took Nancy's hand in his, but it was the other man, the one who had brought her here, who answered. “If my guess is right, she can't leave.”

“Can't leave?” Rachel glanced around, but no one, not Cameron or even Nancy, answered. “What's going on?” she prompted.

Again, the other man answered. “First, before things get all out of control again, let me introduce myself. I am Bryce Kinkaid, werewolf and rogue hunter.”

Werewolf. Rachel blinked and looked at Nancy to see how she took the announcement. Her friend showed no alarm. In fact, she didn't even look surprised.

The two brothers, however, bristled. They didn't attack this Bryce again, but the tension in their bodies was clear.

It was then Rachel realized she was odd man out. Everyone else in the room shared some knowledge, some reality that she didn't.

Cameron still blocked the door, and Nancy wouldn't meet her gaze. The only person who truly seemed relaxed was Bryce, the werewolf.

She laughed. She didn't mean to and didn't know why she did. There was nothing funny about what was happening, but there was nothing rational about any of it either.

If she didn't laugh, she would go mad. She stared at all of them, giving them one last chance to declare everything some crazy, screwed-up joke and then, seeing no change in anyone's too-serious expression, her knees bent, and she collapsed onto the floor.

Nancy was beside her immediately, crying and telling her she was sorry for not contacting her, explaining things that in Rachel's mind couldn't be explained.

“Werewolves?” Rachel asked, her mind grabbing hold of her friend's words. “And the frat boys?”

“Yes.” Nancy nodded and squeezed Rachel's hand. “They tricked us into going to the canyon so they could hunt us.”

Hunt them. Rachel shook her head. That couldn't be true. But she looked at her friend and knew it was.

Cameron knelt beside her. “You've been through a lot—”

A door slammed. The werewolf, Bryce, taking advantage of Rachel's shock to escape.

Cameron leapt to his feet and raced after him but was back in moments, looking frustrated.

“He's gone.” His gaze moved to Rachel. “We need to know whatever you can tell us about him.”

Unsure of whom to trust, Rachel stared stupidly at each of them, but finally, beaten down by the bizarre events of the past two days, she agreed.

Nancy, apparently still recovering from her time in the canyon, stumbled to the couch. Everything but concern for her friend forgotten, Rachel followed.

His gaze worried, Dorian hurried from the room and returned with a glass filled with dark liquid. He pressed it into Nancy's hand, or tried to. She glanced at Rachel self-consciously, but Dorian didn't back down, and, after a moment, she took a small sip.

Rachel watched, suspicious and nervous. Was her friend truly here of her own will or was it possible that Cameron's brother had gotten her hooked on some kind of medication?

But it had only been a day. Too soon for an addiction to occur, and Nancy's color, which had seemed pale, improved as she sipped.

Deciding there were too many other things to worry about, Rachel let her concerns drift from her mind and focused instead on Nancy's story of what had happened after Rachel had left the car.

“I wouldn't be here if Dorian hadn't saved me,” she said, glancing nervously at the vampire. He hovered behind the couch as if worried that at any minute Rachel's friend might collapse.

Saved by a vampire. It went against the horror-movie image the word brought to Rachel's mind.

But then, Rachel had been saved by Cameron too.

She stole a glance at the older vampire. He was standing by the front window, his gaze on the street that ran in front of the house.

“So, those frat boys are werewolves? Just Taus or other houses?” A shiver passed over Rachel. She'd always had the normal fears any co-ed walking around a college campus might have. She'd taken self-defense, tried to stay alert to would-be attackers, but the boys they'd met from Tau... They'd been one of them. How could they be werewolves?

“I don't know for sure.” Nancy glanced at Dorian, whose face remained blank. “But I know the group was mainly pledges.”

Cameron turned. His arms crossed over his chest and his gaze hard, he asked, “For Tau or the pack?”

“I... I guessed Taus, but it could be—”

Dorian placed a hand on Nancy's shoulder, halting her words. His eyes glimmering, he stared down his brother. “Back off, Cameron. Nancy has already told you everything she knows.”

Cameron stared back. “Father wants the wolves eliminated. Do you think he will stop at just questioning your new... friend?”

Dorian growled and Rachel jumped. Nancy, however, went further. She moved to her feet and, placing her hand against Dorian's chest, murmured something Rachel couldn't hear into his ear.

Something, Rachel realized, had changed with Nancy. She had always been confident, but in a cocky, let’s-all-have-fun way. The confidence rolling off Nancy now was different, more serious. Grown up.

Rachel pulled in a breath. This was real. Nancy wouldn't be acting like this if it wasn't.

“Bryce was waiting for me outside our house,” she announced. “I'd never seen him before, but he seemed to be looking for Shelby.”

Nancy frowned. “Shelby? Do you think they're friends?”

Rachel thought for a moment and then shook her head. “No. In fact I threatened to tell her he was looking for her if he didn't bring me here.” Seeing confusion on the others’ faces, she explained how the werewolf had recognized Cameron, known his name, and known of Dorian too. “I don't think he wanted her to know he was looking for her,” she concluded.

“And he knew about us.” Cameron glanced at his brother. Both vampires stood very still, their eyes communicating some thought shared between just the two of them.

“Shelby is the president of our chapter,” Nancy explained. “She has a lot of influence in our house and on campus.”

“She's the one who was first invited to the party,” Rachel added. The one where they met the werewolves.

Nancy looked at the two men. “Do you think the werewolves are targeting her?” She looked back at Rachel. “Could she have figured out what happened?”

“That the frat boys are werewolves?” Rachel asked. “It isn't something you would just guess.”

“No, but maybe they are afraid she will figure it out. With me missing and Erica and Karen dead, she is the only one who knows why we went to that canyon.”

“And me,” Rachel added. “I was at the party too.”

She could feel Cameron's gaze on her.

Her throat felt tight. She coughed, trying to clear it.

“And Bryce didn't attack me,” she said, trying to assure herself as much as anyone.

Dorian exhaled. “He needed you to find us.”

“No. I told you. He brought me here,” she argued.

“Then he was waiting, thinking he might need you to lure your other friend out.” Cameron crossed his arms over his chest and caught his brother's gaze again.

They were doing it again, communicating with each other in some way and leaving her and Nancy out. It was, she decided, highly annoying.

“And he's seen Nancy.” Worry drew a line between Dorian's brows.

“We'll have to hide them.” Cameron again, looking at his brother as if the two were alone in the room. “Where can they stay that the wolves won't be able to penetrate?”

“The vault. No one can get in there.”

Rachel glanced from one man to the other. They couldn't possibly be serious. “We'll go to the police or leave Crystal City for a few days.” Her family lived three hundred miles away. She didn't have a car, but she could take the bus.

“Wolves live in packs, and the packs work together. Leaving will do you no good. It would only put people wherever you go in danger too.”

“And the police—”

“Are not going to believe that a pack of werewolves is after you.” Firm, definite, with no room for arguing.

Rachel hadn't seen this side of Cameron before, or maybe she had but had been too out of her mind with grief for it to bother her.

But it bothered her now.

“I'm not staying in a vault.” She wasn't sure what it was, but it sounded cold and dark and cut-off from everything. She would lose her mind.

Nancy held up her hand. “Rachel can't stay in the vault, not with it closed up. How would she breathe?”

Cameron and Dorian exchanged another glance.

“There would be air—” Dorian started, but again Nancy cut him off.

“No. I'm not doing that to her. What if something went wrong?”

“Nothing—”

Nancy stood firm. “And you need us. We know Greek Town. We know Shelby. We can find her faster than you can alone.”

As Dorian's mouth thinned, she added, “Then you can lock us all up somewhere. Not the vault, but somewhere.”

It was, the men seemed to realize, the only compromise they were going to get.

o0o

Ten minutes later, Rachel was alone with Cameron, getting “supplies” from the house's basement.

After very little discussion, the two vampires had decided it was best if they split up. Nancy with Dorian and Rachel with Cameron.

Nancy and Dorian had already left, but for some reason, Cameron had felt that Rachel needed extra protection.

“What are you looking for?” she asked.

Dorian's house was old, and his basement seemed even older. The floor was dirt, and wooden pillars seemed to be all that held up the floor above them. She ran her hands over her arms and tried to keep her attention on Cameron, who had knelt in front of a large camel-backed trunk.

He lifted the lid and glanced back at her. “Weapons. Silver.”

“It has to be silver?” Her eyes slid side to side. She wanted to look around her, but she was afraid to too, afraid of what she might see, like a coffin.

“If you don't want the wolf to get back up.”

“Oh.” She realized then they were talking about killing Bryce and the other wolves. “Couldn't we... Isn't there...”

He looked up, his blue gaze penetrating. “Two of your friends are dead, and Nancy is... changed forever. Do you want that for your friend Shelby too?”

“No, but if we can find her, and maybe... We haven't really talked to any of the wolves. We don't know that they're all bad. Maybe the ones in the canyon were, but you stopped them, didn't you?”

“Two of them, but neither was the alpha. One was more dominant than the other, but he wasn't the alpha or the other wouldn't have challenged him like he did.”

“So if we get the alpha, that will be enough?”

Cameron stood, a gun and two knives in his hands. “Maybe.”

“And you think Bryce is the alpha?”

“Perhaps.” He strode forward, his gaze hard and unforgiving.

She swallowed. She'd liked Bryce, or at least she hadn't hated him.

“He is a definite dominant. Dominant enough to be the alpha? It depends on who else is in the pack, but based on the two in the canyon? Yes, he could be the one.”

He stopped maybe a foot from her. It was the closest they had been since he'd led her out of the canyon. Her heart thumped, and her gaze darted to the side. “Do you live here too?” she asked.

“With Dorian?” He made a grunting noise. “No, my brother and I have never been close.”

“But you were looking for him in the canyon.”

“He is my brother, and I have some responsibility for what my family does.”

Not just Dorian, family. She wondered what that meant but was afraid he would see her asking as prying.

“He was different then.” Not just different, scary.

“Your friend changed him.” The words were low, disbelieving. “He's not like he used to be. He's more the brother I— He's changed.”

“For the better?”

He smiled. “Definitely for the better.”

They were silent for a moment. The dark of the basement changed from cold and scary to quiet and reassuring. Rachel remembered then how Cameron had made her feel in the canyon, how without his help, she would have been lost, fallen victim perhaps to the wolves that had lured her and her friends there in the first place.

She glanced down at the weapons in his hands. “I've never killed anyone.” It was a stupid statement. How many people had?

But he didn't laugh or raise a brow. He reached up and ran his hand over her cheek. “And hopefully, you won't have to now, but you need to be as prepared as you can be, and that means...” He held out the knives and gun.

She stared at the weapons: two knives and a gun. They looked so cold and foreboding. “I'm afraid I'll hurt myself or someone else— that I shouldn't,” she hastened to add, although that wasn't true. She wasn't comfortable with hurting anyone, not even one of the wolves.