DarkHunger (11 page)

“Is it broken completely?” Logan asked.

Ian nodded.

“She’s not dead, brother.”

“I know,” Ian spoke softly, but he didn’t believe his own words.

* * * *

“Kayla, Kayla, Kayla,” Tyler sang as he walked around her.

Kayla groaned, her head throbbing with pain. Where was she? What happened? Her vision was blurred, but she could see the blaze from the fire. She closed her eyes again as the thought of what happened came to her.

How could she have been fooled twice in one night? First, finding out Ian was a vampire, now finding out Tyler was a werewolf.

When she left the house, she knew she should have taken her car, but she hadn’t planned to go far. She just wanted Ian to get the body out and to leave her alone. She would have fixed her room with no problem. The hard part would be forgetting Ian. How could she forget someone who made her want him the way he had? She and Ian had a connection. She felt it when they made love. Or maybe Ian had used mind control on her and made her feel that way.

This whole vampire thing had her so lost in thought that she didn’t see the wolf until it walked out in front of her. It growled at her making her run. She seen what the other beast did to Ian, and she knew she was no match for it. The wolf caught up to her, backing her against a tree. One moment it was a wolf, the next Tyler stood in front of her. She screamed then ran as fast as she could to get away. She probably would have made it back to the house, but she tripped over a tree branch and fell. That’s all she remembered.

Kayla, wake up!
The voice screamed in her head.

She opened her eyes at the sound of Tyler’s voice in her mind this time. Her eyes more focused now, she looked around, but she didn’t see him or anyone. She tried to move, but couldn’t. Her hands were tied behind her back to the tree.

“Help!” she screamed at the top of her voice. “Help me!” Kayla immediately stopped screaming at the sound of tree limbs breaking. The wolf that had been chasing her approached her. Baring its teeth it stalked closer to her. She knew she would die by this wolf. Or should she say die at the hands of Tyler.

The wolf stopped so close to her she could feel the heat of his breath on her stomach. Its brown fur brushed against her leg.

“Nice wolf. No bite,” her voice trembled with fear. “Help me!”

The wolf growled, making her stop screaming. It then shivered in front of her. She heard something crack. The wolf groaned before the sound cracked again.

What the hell was that?

The fur fell away from the wolf and a male’s body began to form.

Kayla tried to free her hands from behind her back. She had to get away. When she looked back at the wolf, it was now a naked man. Tyler. He was really a werewolf.

“Tyler,” her voice trembled.

He smiled at her. “Yes, it’s me.”

“Why are you doing this to me?”

Tyler’s eyes flashed red. “Me? Doing this to you? For a year, an entire year, I waited for you to pick me as your mate, but instead you go sleep with a vampire. What a waste of my time.”

“I didn’t know what he was until after—”

“I don’t want to hear the details.”

Tyler circled around her, his hand touching her, making her sick to her stomach.

“I was going to turn you by force, but now that you have soiled yourself with a vampire, I could never take you as my mate. You will die at my hands, and I’ll make sure the vampire never touch you again.”

“No, Tyler! You can’t do that. How could you kill me?”

“Why not? You will never be accepted into the Scion Clan. You have been with a vampire, and we never go behind the undead.”

Tyler snarled and moved closer to her. His teeth grew long. She struggled with the rope on her hands, but Tyler had secured them.

“Since you like vampires, I’ll kill you in their way. I’m not really fond of the taste of blood over meat, but I’ll accept it this time.”

Kayla screamed as Tyler moved her head to her side and sunk his fangs into her neck. Pain like no other raced through her body. She could feel her very life being sucked away. The world around her started to spin as Tyler pulled more of her blood out.

She prayed to the heavens when everything began to darken, and she knew she was dying at the hands of her friend.

* * * *

Ian raced up to the campsite. Seeing Tyler over Kayla brought his beast to the edge. He leaped towards him, but another wolf, much larger than the one he had fought, crashed into Tyler, knocking him away from Kayla.

The wolf sat on top of Tyler’s chest, growling.

“Dad, how could you?”

The wolf shimmered on top of Tyler before turning into the man they’d met the other night. What puzzled Ian was how they could change tonight. Their one night hadn’t come yet.

“Me? Son, how could you join that dangerous clan? How could you attack Kayla and try to kill her?”

Tyler growled and punched his father in the stomach, knocking him away.

“She slept with that vampire. You wanted me to wait, and I waited too long. I could never sleep behind an undead.”

The two men circled each other.

“She picked him, not you, Tyler. You can’t kill her because she didn’t pick you.”

“I’ll kill her, and you, Father. I’ll be a leader of the strongest clan around.”

Both men turned into a wolf and charged each other, not paying any attention to Ian.

Ian watched the two wolves fight away from Kayla. Her heartbeat was very weak, and he needed to give her blood and soon.

The moment they were far enough away from her, he raced up to Kayla, untied her and carried her away from the fight scene. He knew the others would take care of the wolves. For now, he needed to take care of Kayla.

Ian raced to his car and placed her in the back seat. He made a quick decision in which he hoped Kayla wouldn’t hate him more, but he couldn’t let her die. He bit into his wrist and held it over her mouth.

She fought, turning her head away from his blood. It took several moments of trying to force her before she latched on to him. Ian let her drink until he was weak.

Satisfied that Kayla would make the transformation, he got into his car and drove off.

The moment he made it to Logan’s home, he took Kayla into the guest room and laid her on the bed. He watched as her chest stopped moving, her breathing ceased. He knew that she was already close to dying, but the blood she took should change her, only if she accepted the change. When her chest didn’t move for a few moments, he moved closer to her.

Had she not accepted the change?

When Kayla took in a deep breath, relief washed over his body. He wanted to wake her and let her know of her new life, but how could he? She hated him, and probably her own kind now. Instead of lying in bed with her, he moved away going into another room. He knew how mad she was and he doubted she wanted to see him when she woke.

Ian would get Logan to explain everything to her first. Logan knew how to handle hostile women when they learned what they are to become.

* * * *

Logan watched as both wolves fought before he heard the howl of death from Tyler. He watched as he turned from wolf back to man. Jack had a death grip on Tyler’s neck. It’s not unusual for a wolf to kill his own kind, but it was unusual for a father to kill his son.

Logan looked down at Tyler as more of the Lone Wolf clan walked up to them in wolf form.

“You killed your son?” Logan asked when he transformed back into human form.

Jack nodded. “I hated to, but I couldn’t let him go around killing humans. My first duty is to protect those who can’t protect themselves. My son was far gone with need and he would have become hunted. If I hadn’t killed him, I’m sure that someone from another pack would.”

Logan nodded. “I’ll leave you to this clean up. The wolf who had been attacking the females was Eric.”

“Yeah, I know that. I wanted to stop Eric before he pulled my son in too deep.”

“If you need any help, feel free to contact me,” Logan said before walking off.

Werewolves had a different way of handling their own kind than vampires. They would probably burn the body rather than burying it. Tyler had disgraced his kind, and they would show with Tyler what happened when you didn’t follow the rules.

Logan would call the Council once he got home. His concern was on his brother now. He was sure that Ian would turn Kayla, and he didn’t know how it would turn out. Only time would tell.

Chapter 7

Kayla awoke feeling like a million bucks. She had never slept so well in all her life. She sat up in the bed, stretching. She frowned and thought back to what happened. Memories of what happened flooded her mind, making her jump up from the bed. She remembered the wolf, Ian being a vampire, and Tyler trying to kill her.

She looked around the room, noticing she wasn’t in her bed. Maybe Tyler had succeeded in killing her. This must be heaven, or the other place playing a mean trick on her.

The door to the room opened, making her growl loudly. Once she saw it was Logan standing at the door, she relaxed. “I’m sorry for snarling at you, Logan,” she said.

“It’s okay, Kayla. It takes some getting used to.”

“What takes some getting used to?”

“Being surprised. When you are, your teeth grow. It takes some time to learn to control that.”

Kayla reached up, feeling her teeth. They felt normal at first, that was, until she felt the longer, much sharper tooth. Panic rose quickly. “What did you do to me, Logan?”

“Me?” Logan asked, pointing at himself. “It was that friend of yours, Tyler.”

“What about Tyler? Did he turn me into a werewolf?”

“Do you want to be a werewolf?”

“Hell no! I want to be human.”

“Well that sucks. You’re not human anymore, and you will need to learn how to live as a vampire now.”

Kayla shook her head. “I don’t want to be a vampire! Who the hell did this to me?”

“Ian—”

“Ian!” Kayla interrupted. “He did this to me?”

Logan nodded.

“He tricked me! He knew he wanted to change me when he saw me. Tyler was right to tell me to stay away from you two. You both are blood suckers.”

Logan growled. “You shouldn’t talk because you are one also. Ian saved your life. Your friend Tyler tried to kill you and would have succeeded if Ian hadn’t given you his blood. No hospital could have saved you last night. So instead of looking down at us, you need to learn how to become stronger.” Logan handed her a red bag.

“What’s this?”

“Blood. You will need to drink from bags before trying a human donor.”

“Why?”

“When you take from a live human, you can read their minds and feel their emotions for a while. Being a new vampire, it can become very overwhelming.”

Kayla was still pissed at Ian, but wanted to thank him for changing her and saving her life. However, she didn’t want to see Ian at the moment because he lied to her about everything. “I am leaving, now,” Kayla said and placed the blood on the table. She felt a hunger in her stomach and she knew food wasn’t going to help, but the thought of drinking blood made her feel sick.

“Don’t leave yet, Kayla. There are a lot of things you need to know.” Logan picked up the blood. “And you need to drink this. I can feel your hunger.”

Kayla pushed his hand away. “No, Logan. I don’t want that.”

Logan sighed. “You will not even notice it. Drink this for me.” When Kayla shook her head, he continued. “Don’t you want to see Ian before leaving? He
did
save your life.”

“At this time, I don’t want to do anything but go home and try to find myself again. Is there anything I need to know about being a vampire besides not drinking from a live host?”

“The sun will not be your friend, we can cover the rest later. I really wish you would stay here and talk to Ian. He really loves you.”

“I thought I loved him, but he’s the cause of this. Of me being a killer.”

“You’re
not
a killer.”

“Then what am I?”

“You’re the mate of a vampire who loves you with all his heart. Don’t walk out on my brother when he needs you most, Kayla.”

Kayla snorted. “He doesn’t need me. Now, show me to the door.”

“If you insist.”

“I do.” She followed Logan out the room and down a flight of stairs. Kayla didn’t miss the beauty of the home, but didn’t have time to take it in. She wanted to go home, now.

“I wish you would stay,” Logan said as he opened the door.

“Thanks, but I can handle myself.” Kayla walked down the dusty road at first. The further she got from Ian, the worse she felt. She began to run down the road. Moving faster and faster, she could feel herself moving at speeds she knew she couldn’t achieve as a human. The trees whipped by as she ran.

She didn’t stop running until she was home. She didn’t want to see anyone and wouldn’t be going out of the house anytime soon. She hated being a vampire. She didn’t want to drink blood to live. She wanted to be human again.

Kayla cursed herself the moment she tried to open the door. After running last night, she dropped her keys and her phone. She lifted the plant beside the door where she kept the spare key.

After walking inside, she noticed that nothing looked the same anymore. It looked brighter. Everything seemed different because
she
was different.

Tears flooded her eyes as she slid down the back of the door, wondering what she would do now. Her world had just ended, and it was all Ian’s fault!

* * * *

“I take it that she didn’t take it well,” Ian asked from the top of the stairs. He heard Kayla talking and didn’t know if she would accept her change. Logan did have a way with women, but the moment he heard them moving down the stairs and the front door opening, he knew she was gone.

Ian watched as she ran down the driveway and out of sight. Every fiber in his soul wanted him to go after her, but he couldn’t force her. Almost like the wolves, they couldn’t force their mates. Difference with Kayla and him was that he changed her without her approval and if she didn’t accept it, she would have died, if wolves didn’t accept it, they were killed by other wolves.