Hunter's Fall (15 page)

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Authors: Shiloh Walker

Tags: #Romance, #Contemporary, #General, #Paranormal, #Fiction

BOOK: Hunter's Fall
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It was the sound of her own screams that woke her.
Jerking up in bed, she sucked in a desperate breath and wiped her hands over her tearstained cheeks.
“Bad dream?”
Looking up, she saw Jazzy standing in the doorway. She forced a smile. “Yeah, I guess so.”
“Must have been a doozy. You’ve been crying for the last ten minutes.” Jazzy gave her a pained grimace and said, “You woke me up
again
. Geez, I don’t know what in the hell you’ve been up to since you disappeared, but it must have been hella bad, right? You’ve had nothing but nightmares all night.”
She tried to smile, but she couldn’t. “I’m sorry I woke you up.”
“It’s okay.” Jazzy came up, gave her a smile. She settled down on the bed and curled up next to her. “Maybe . . . Maybe it will help if I stay with you a while? I really missed you when you were gone. You remember the dream?”
Shaking her head, she whispered, “No. Just that it was awful.”
“What about all the time you were gone? Have you remembered any of the time you were gone or is it all still like a blank slate?”
Morgan closed her eyes and rested her chin on Jazzy’s crown. “Just a blank slate.” There was nothing in her mind, save for the past day or so. The first clear memory she had was coming to the grass with this girl leaning over her and begging her to wake up. It was like her life before that simply did not exist. She patted Jazzy’s arm and said, “But don’t worry. It will be okay.”
CHAPTER 10
 
B
Y necessity, they decided to move Dominic to the quarters Kelsey and Malachi had in the lower floor of the school. Sunrise was only a few hours off and she wasn’t going to have one of her patients resting on the floor. Nor was she going to just protect the room from the sun. That would work, but his instincts would keep him from resting as well as he should.
Dominic was still out, although his head wound had healed. Dawn edged ever nearer, and Kelsey was more than a little worried that he hadn’t woken back up. As Malachi logged onto the computer and set things up for a videoconference, she rested a hand on Dominic’s brow and closed her eyes.
“How is he?”
Opening her eyes, she looked at Malachi to find him watching her, arms crossed over his chest. Over his shoulder, she could see the familiar faces of Tobias, Niko and Andreas, fellow Council members on the screen. She might hate technology but it had made convening with the Council easier in recent years.
“How is he?” she echoed with a sigh. “Healed. Tired, though. He’s been injured recently—I feel the echo of it. And he’s weak. He’s going to be as hungry as a bear when he wakes up.”
Malachi jerked a shoulder in a shrug. “Not overly concerned about his appetite, pet. I’m more concerned about who we’ll be talking with when he wakes.” Then he spun around in his chair to face the monitor, tapping a button. Kelsey moved up to stand behind him as he said, “We’ve got problems, mates. Nessa has up and disappeared.”
Kelsey hoped against hope one of the other Council members would be able to sense Nessa, but she knew it was unlikely. If Malachi couldn’t, if Kelsey couldn’t, there was no reason the others could.
Tobias ran a hand over his face and muttered something under his breath. It was too low for Kelsey to hear, but Malachi said, “Yup. One massive fucking problem.”
Niko glanced from Kelsey’s face to Malachi’s.
The relationship between Kelsey and Niko was somewhat strained. Truth be told, the relationship between Niko and the rest of the Council had gone past strained and well into the area of dislike.
The vampire hadn’t been particularly helpful in the days after Nessa was . . . reborn. Part of Kelsey understood that—she still couldn’t understand exactly
what
had happened with Nessa. The woman had been frail, old and physically very weak when she faced off with a young, feral witch.
Morgan had been something of an anomaly. She could steal power through blood, using it to bolster her own magic—doing so was addictive and it was a bad, bad path for a witch to take. But Morgan’s thirst for power hadn’t just stopped at taking power through blood—she could also take it through dreams. She had been able to steal her way into dreams and siphon energy that way. Kelsey suspected she’d drained more than one person’s life away in just that fashion.
She’d been young, brash and arrogant—a happy little psychopath, one the world was well rid of. But the cost had been very, very high.
Focus on the here and now, girl
, Kelsey told herself.
Not the there and then.
“How long has Nessa been missing?” Niko asked quietly.
“Missing, as in gone from Excelsior? A couple of weeks. Avoiding me for a few days,” Malachi said, shrugging restlessly. “I was trying to give her some privacy.” He slumped lower in the seat and closed his eyes. “She seemed . . . better the last time I tried to reach out to her. The grief that choked her had lessened.”
“You spoke with her?” Tobias asked, cocking a black brow, his shrewd eyes watchful.
“No.” Malachi shook his head. “I was just checking on her.” A humorless smile tugged his lips and he said, “I know her moods almost as well as I know my own and all I have to do is reach for her. The pain was there—just less.”
“What else did you sense?” Niko asked.
“Resolve.” Malachi shoved back from the chair and started to pace. “She was almost as she was when she first joined the Council.” He paused and looked at the monitor. “You remember that time, Tobias?”
“Yes.” He was the only Council member old enough to remember. Niko and Andreas, twins, had been born in 1701 and they’d been vampires since 1742. Nessa had first joined the Council in the 1600s. By that time, she had no longer been the broken girl who’d arrived at Brendain a century earlier. Though the sadness had still been there, it no longer crippled her.
On the screen, Kelsey could see Tobias’s face, could see his reflection as his thoughts turned inward. She suspected he was remembering the earlier years with Nessa, much as Malachi had. The bond between the three of them was a deep one. There were times when Kelsey had envied them for that, even though she shared one with Nessa, as well.
“And how long has it been since you were able to sense her?” Andreas asked. He was the quieter twin and in the months since Nessa’s change, he’d finally stopped blindly following his brother’s lead so much.
Malachi grimaced. “A day, perhaps. But . . .” His voice trailed off and he murmured, “It’s not right. There’s something wrong. I sense a darkness. One of us, at least, should be able to feel her.”
Kelsey tensed as several gazes shifted to her. Although she was the youngest, her abilities were the most closest to Nessa’s. “I can’t feel her,” she said flatly. “I’ve already tried.”
“Are you concerned about this?” Tobias asked softly.
Concerned?
Hell.
Concerned
didn’t touch it. None of them, save for Malachi, had any idea of the pain Nessa was living with. None of them. If they did, perhaps they’d understand
why
she was concerned.
“Yes.” She gave him a tight smile. “I’m concerned.”
“So what do we do?” Andreas asked.
Andreas, more than his twin, had acknowledged what they had almost allowed to happen years earlier, when the change between Morgan and Nessa had transpired. Niko shied away from it, but Andreas faced reality. They had almost killed one of their own. If that didn’t change a man, what would?
Kelsey looked away from the monitor, watching Malachi as he prowled the room. He didn’t speak. Settling in the seat, but careful not to touch the computer setup, she looked at the other Council members. “I really don’t know what to do.”
“Could she be dead?”
Kelsey stared at Niko. Sometimes, she really disliked that vampire. Giving him an icy smile, she said, “No, she couldn’t be dead.
That
we would have felt.”
“Not if she chose to hide it,” he countered. “And we all know how depressed she has been. Borderline suicidal, even.”
“
Borderline
suicidal isn’t the same thing as suicidal.”
“All it would take is a nudge in that direction.” Niko shook his head, returning Kelsey’s stare with a dark one of his own.
To give him credit, she could tell he wasn’t happy with the news of Nessa’s disappearance. Although Niko had fought tooth and nail to resist the truth of things, once he acknowledged Nessa still lived, he had shown her the same respect he’d given her in the past. Even when Nessa was acting more batshit crazy than normal.
“She’s not as strong as she used to be,” Niko said quietly. He looked away, his mouth unsmiling, his face grim. “We all know that.”
“She’s stronger than you think,” Malachi bit off, stalking up to the monitor and giving Niko a scathing glare. “She lives with pain the likes of which you cannot imagine. A weak soul couldn’t do that.”
“She’s strong. But she’s not who she once was. She doesn’t welcome this second chance she’s been given.” Niko didn’t back down, although Kelsey could sense his wariness, even though hundreds of miles separated them. He feared Malachi.
But then again, just about every vampire on earth feared Malachi.
“She doesn’t view it as a second chance,” Andreas murmured. “To her, it’s a curse. A punishment. Would it be so unlikely to see her ending it?”
Kelsey’s heart clenched. Tears stung her eyes, but she didn’t let them fall. Her voice was husky as she replied, “I know she suffers. I’ve felt it—and I’m sorry, but you cannot understand that grief unless you
have
felt it. But Nessa’s not a quitter. She never has been. If nothing else, that alone will keep her from ending it.”
Nibbling on her lower lip, she shot the sleeping vampire a look. She truly didn’t think Nessa had gone and killed herself—she was alive. In her heart, Kelsey believed that. But there was a small doubt, one that whispered
what if they are right . . . ?
What if they were right . . . and what if that truly was Elias there, reborn centuries later and now a vampire?
He’d live a long life this time.
If she
had
killed herself . . .
If that
was
Elias, and he’d come back for Nessa . . .
So many ifs. So many questions.
Most of them, she couldn’t even voice yet. She wasn’t going to say a damn thing about Dominic to
anybody
, not until they knew what was going on. They couldn’t risk Nessa hearing anything about it—it would be too cruel.
Of course, first they had to
find
her.
“Nessa isn’t a quitter,” Tobias said, echoing Kelsey’s words. “She’s a fighter, a born fighter. In both lives.” A faint smile curled his lips and he met Kelsey’s eyes, gave her a sad smile. Shared pain, shared miseries. They both loved Nessa.
“Could she just be hiding herself from us?”
Toying with one of her braids, Kelsey shrugged. “I really don’t know. I’m a good witch.” It was simple fact. She was good. She knew her power and she knew that as she aged it would grow. The longer she lived, the more powerful she’d become. In time, she might even outreach Nessa—especially since Kelsey was mated to a vamp. Malachi and Kelsey shared a bond between their souls and through the bond, she’d inherited his near immortality.
For as long as he lived, Kelsey would—unless she was killed. Old age, sickness, they couldn’t kill her. She wouldn’t fade and wither away as Nessa had done.
“I’m a good witch,” she murmured again, staring down at the floor. Then she looked up and met Tobias’s gaze. “But Nessa’s better. If I lived a thousand years, I might eventually be her equal—assuming she never grew any stronger. Which isn’t likely. I would say that
I
couldn’t hide my presence from my fellow Council members—I could cloak myself, and I could hide. But you would still feel me. Nessa, though, I just don’t know. If any Hunter alive can do it, it would be her.”
After a few strained minutes of silence, Tobias glanced at the two vampires with him and then he said, “Right now, I fear there is nothing we can do but think on the matter. Perhaps we should convene again in the evening. Could you come to Brendain?”
Kelsey winced and shot a look at the vampire lying on the bed. Tobias tried to follow her gaze, but the bed wouldn’t be visible to the little camera. Giving him a weak smile, she said, “Now really isn’t a good time for me to be leaving. I’ve got a battered vamp on my hands—he took a bad blow to the head, crushed his skull. Until he wakes up, I’m not leaving him.”
Niko opened his mouth to say something, but Malachi cut him off. “We needn’t come to Brendain, Tobias. We need to figure out what to do about Nessa, but we have a bit of problem here as well.”
“Could we be of any help?” Andreas offered.
Kelsey hoped the panic she felt inside didn’t show on her face. Since the others weren’t in the room, they wouldn’t hear the jump in her heartbeat or scent her nervousness. As long as nothing showed on her face, they were good. With what she hoped was a convincing smile, she said, “No. It’s just the vampire. He was in a bad way even before he got hurt.”

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