Crimson Sunrise (16 page)

Squeezing Trent’s arm, I wisely stepped back and away from him. He crossed his arms as he turned from me and grinned at Sarah, intentionally remaining close to my side.

“Chris called Caleb. Everyone is on their way back.” She scowled at Trent, her eyes issuing a clear warning. “He wants you to call him.” She lifted her hand, showing me the phone gripped tightly inside.

“Thanks.” Stepping forward, I accepted the phone as graciously as I could.

She and Trent squared off, neither willing to move out of the way or to leave. They were going to have to sort out their personal shit or the entire house would suffer.

“Trent said my parents are coming,” I told Sarah, reminding her that my relatives were exactly like him. She rotated her gaze in my direction, though her face remained turned to his.

“That’s good. As family,
they
should be here.”

“
Can we all please try to make peace?” I looked back and forth between them, speaking as amicably as possible. I didn’t want to take sides if I didn’t have to.

Trent shrugged, purposely lifting a dark eyebrow and smirking at Sarah. Sarah’s deep rumbling growl echoed in the hall and tickled my skin.

“Listen to me,” I snapped at the both of them. “I’m not in the mood right now. If you wouldn’t mind, could you please check your egos at the door? I’m all stocked up here!”

I shoved past them, hurried down the hallway and into Caleb’s bedroom, and slammed the door behind me. I leaned against the wood, attempting to calm my frantically beating heart. An eerie haze swept through me, desperately wanting release. My temper refused to fade, increasing and building.

What the hell?

I sank down on the bed. Pulling Caleb’s pillow into my face, I took his comforting scent into my nose. The red haze eased, fading until my entire body was encased in heated trembling. I drew in a shaky breath. I didn’t know how much more of this I could take. I was finally reaching my breaking point.

“Emma?” Sarah’s concerned voice was muffled through the door.

Closing my eyes, I forced myself to take a deep breath before I answered. Losing my cool wouldn’t help anyone or make anything better.

“Come in,” I said, clearing my throat and pressing back onto the bed until my head met the wall.

She opened the door, came inside, and closed it behind her. “I’m sorry. I know that was incredibly insensitive of me. I saw the two of you together and I lost my temper. You have to understand something. Sometimes the animal instincts are more powerful than our human ones, and Caleb is my beta. It’s natural for me to want to protect his mate.”

“I’m not angry.” I tried to smile but a hint of my agitation was still there, hiding and lingering within. I wasn’t entirely myself, but there were a multitude of reasons I could find to blame it on.

Sarah’s gaze dropped to the phone clutched in my hand. “You really should call him.”

“I will. I’m just bracing myself for the lecture I’m bound to receive.” Leaning up and pulling his pillow into my lap, I placed the phone on top.

“He’s not angry with you. He’s angry with me. I broke a direct order.” She sank to the floor in a pitiful heap.

“Why would Caleb be angry with you? You didn’t do anything.”

“Being a part of the pack isn’t all fun and games. There is a hierarchy you are expected to follow.” She looked at her fingers, wringing them nervously. “Caleb gave me the order to stay, and I was told to keep you at home and to report directly to him if anything happened.”

“Sarah,” I said her name in disbelief, shock replacing the tension on my face. I sounded as hurt as I felt. “You stayed to spy on me?”

She looked me in the eye, shaking her head. “I would have stayed for you regardless. But he did give me a direct order, and as he is my beta, I’m obligated to follow it. Since I didn’t tell him about the old woman and what she had to say, he’s none too happy with me.”

I felt the anger returning, building inside my skin. I couldn’t trust anyone anymore. Sarah said she was my friend and that she and the pack loved me. Yet she was spying on me for Caleb, and worse still, Caleb had asked her to do it. It was a huge violation of trust, one I never expected from those that claimed their way of life was ultimately about solidarity. You didn’t spy on the people you cared about most.

“Emma?” Sarah’s voice was full of regret.

“I need to make my phone call.” I bit out the words, hurt and angry.

“What’s wrong?” She lifted onto her knees and scooted across the floor toward me.

“Nothing,” I snapped, closing my eyes, breathing in and out. The haze of outrage returned, hovering over my body, crowding my chest and head until all I could see was red.

“I smell it, Emma. You’re angry. No... You’re positively furious!” She reached for me from across the mattress. “I’m so sorry. Please understand. I would never do anything to hurt you. It’s not easy telling Caleb no. I can’t. It doesn’t work like that. I’m sorry for not telling you before.”

“I’m not angry at you,” I said, unsure if what I was telling her was true or not.

Collecting myself once more, I forced myself to look at Sarah. Her apology was sincere. I could see it written all over her face. The anger I felt suddenly receded. It wasn’t Sarah’s fault, and as angry as I was that Caleb would have her spy, I wasn’t guilt free myself. I couldn’t pretend I was a saint as far as bending the truth was concerned.

Sarah relaxed, her usually youthful face appearing so much older. She lifted her brown eyes and gazed up at me, producing a weak smile.

“I’m not mad,” I repeated, returning her smile.

“I wouldn’t blame you if you are. I would be angry too.” She rose to her feet and walked to the door. Her shoulders drooped in exhaustion, appearing deflated and defeated. I reminded myself she had a terrible day too—a damned rotten one.

“Sarah.” She stopped, peering at me from across her shoulder. “As cheesy as this might sound, thank you for saving my life.”

Her face lifted and her spine straightened. “Just remind Caleb of that when you speak to him.”

“You got it.”

She opened the door, slipped out, and closed it quietly behind her. I stared at the phone in my hands, afraid to call but too anxious not to. I wanted to hear Caleb’s voice. I needed to feel the vibration of his pronounced southern dialect in my ear. My stomach was uneasy as I pressed the numerical pad. I cleared the frog from my throat and lifted the phone to my ear, listening as it rang.

A rustling sound preceded his growl. “Hello?”

“Hey,” I said lamely, unsure of what else he would want to hear from me. I braced myself for his anger, for his disappointment. Instead his breath caught.

“Are you all right?”

“I’m fine,” I murmured, aware I had uttered those same words more than I cared to count in a single day.

“I’m with Derek. We’re driving home now. We’ll be there before you wake up.” He took a deep breath, and I knew the reckoning had arrived. “You should know I’m furious with you. You should have told me everything. We’re going to have to work on our trust issues, Emma.”

“I trust you. You know that.” The words sounded as pained as I felt.

He released a heavy sigh into the phone. “I can’t protect you if you don’t talk to me. If something were to happen to you... You need to realize this isn’t just about you anymore. Everything that hurts you hurts me. You are my heart, my other half.”

“I would never hurt you.” The very implication that I would do such a thing wounded me in ways I couldn’t describe.

“Every time something bad happens to you, it hurts me. From here on out I expect you to be honest. You should always come to me first, before anyone else.”

“I know. I’m sorry. You just have so much going on with Sammie and I didn’t want to add to that.”

He didn’t respond, becoming strangely quiet on the other end of the line. I frowned, aware he wasn’t telling me something.

“Don’t tell me I should tell you everything when you don’t do the same thing. What’s going on?”

“I’ll tell you when we get home,” he said, obviously upset.

Tears sprang to my eyes. They had found Sammie, and not in the way I had expected. That was why they were coming home so quickly. My breath caught as I sucked in a gasp of air.

“Calm down,” Caleb said, reading into my reaction easily enough. “It’s not Sammie. It’s something else.”

Relief came in a rush that left me light headed. I said a prayer of thanks. “What is it then?”

“Please don’t make me tell you this on the phone. Wait until I get home.”

“Oh no, Derek.” He had bonded with someone. Sarah would be heartbroken, no wonder he wanted to wait until they arrived to discuss it with me.

“Damn it, Emma,” Caleb growled in agitation. “It’s not Derek either.”

“You said I should tell you everything, well, so should you. If you want us to be honest with each other, start leading by example.” I kept the fury from my voice but not my annoyance.

“If you want to know that badly, I’ll tell you.” He didn’t sound angry anymore, just incredibly deflated. “We found them. We found the missing girls.”

My forehead creased in confusion. Wasn’t that good news? Why wouldn’t he want to tell me that over the phone?

“Are they okay?” I asked slowly, a sickening feeling seeping into my gut.

“No,” he said flatly, without emotion, “they are not okay. They’re dead.”

Chapter 13—Dreaming of Sleep

I couldn’t sleep, even though I knew the time would pass more quickly if I did. I tried to take solace in the knowledge that when I opened my eyes, Caleb would be there to greet me. But even that didn’t work. Nothing was clear, my thoughts were in chaos, and the future appeared totally uncertain. Each time I tried to force my mind to go blank something new flashed inside my head. It was a battle of me versus the sandman, and he had the home court advantage.

Every time I closed my eyes, I pictured the girls the pack had found, trapped in cages and brutally tortured. Caleb said their bodies were marred with deep pockets where silver had branded the skin, leaving scar tissue behind.

The packs had converged together to tear the place apart but they didn’t find anything—including Sammie. It was nothing more than an empty warehouse that was far enough away from prying eyes and ears not to be of notice, the perfect pit of despair and suffering. It was a blessing not to find Sammie in that cesspool, but it also meant she was still missing, gone without a trace. And none of us had any idea why. I couldn’t escape the images that flashed inside my head, none of them good, none of them comforting or rational.

I turned in the bed, flopping first on my side, and then rolled onto my back. I pulled the covers tightly around me before finding them too stifling and pushed them away. When rest finally came, it erased everything else, sending me into an exhausted slumber.

And I dreamed.

In the beginning, I returned to my childhood. I was nine years old, enjoying the new spring temperature while helping my grandmother plant her annual flowers. It was one of my favorite traditions, something I looked forward to as much as any other holiday. The shade from the nearby trees covered us, making it almost too chilly to be bearable.

“Go inside and get your jacket, Emmaline,” she scolded me good-naturedly. “You’ll catch your death out here!”

“It’s not that cold!” I argued, sticking my tongue out and pulling a bunch of Marigolds free from their plastic container. Shifting my fingers around the bunched soil to loosen the roots, I carefully placed it inside the cool hole I had created just moments before.

“Don’t sass me, young lady! Go get your jacket.”

“Yes, ma’am.” After pushing the plant into the earth and covering it with loose soil, I rushed to do as I was told, eager to please.

I leapt to my feet, rubbing my hands clean on my jeans, and hurried to the backdoor for my coat. I climbed up the small concrete stairs in an energetic burst, yanked on the metal screen door, and walked inside.

My surroundings changed.

It was dark at first, until deep shades of crimson surrounded me on all sides, creating a blood red sky. It was beautiful in its intensity, bright but not overly so. The warmth of the color surrounded me, pushing aside the chill that ran through my veins, bleeding through my vision completely. I walked into it knowing it was the path I was always intended to take. What waited on the other side was something I instinctually knew I was uniformly meant to discover.

My feet were light, as if I were suspended within the air. My arms didn’t move alongside me, hanging limply as I drifted past the red and into shades of gray. The air thickened, compressing my lungs with substantial heaviness. Time moved slowly, holding everything in a suspended state.

As I drifted deeper the gray faded, transitioning, becoming sky blue. The sun appeared, climbing into the sky and bringing the world to life. The ground beneath my feet found depth and solidity. I glanced down as fresh grass grew from the darkened earth, spreading from my feet and out, creating a lush blanket. It multiplied, growing and expanding, until the blue of the sky embraced the blades of green. My shoes sank into the billowy cushion under my feet, each step springing back up as if the ground were a live entity, returning my energy with each firm nudge of my heels. I paused, glancing down at the spongy ground beneath, gaping in awe.

Flowers grew before my eyes, seeds springing to life from the grassy earth in a variation of yellows, oranges, and whites. Their buds unfurled, stretching upward to the sun, unfolding their silken petals in welcome.

A rumbling shook my feet and I lifted my face in time to see massive trees growing in the distance. They were spaced out, glorious thick branches expanding and stretching, creating smaller twigs that came forth, pushing out of the arms created along the trunk. Hunter green leaves pushed themselves free from the stems, rolling out and releasing their mass, filling the branches.

The air shifted and I turned into the breeze that swept across the grass and flowers, caressing the branches and the leaves on the trees, creating a symphony of movement and feeling. I reveled in the delicious smells of clover, grass, and sweet spring air, breathing it in.