Hunter's Need (29 page)

“Where is Paul now, Marie?”

“He’s moved on,”
Marie said. Her “voice” was thick with misery and bitter anger.
“He barely lingered before moving on, even though I think he tried to stay. Tried to stay with me.”

“Why didn’t he?”

“Have you tried?” Duke asked, voicing the question that Ana wouldn’t ask.

“Them . . . ” Ana and Duke said it together, puzzled. As if on cue, a wind blasted through the small room and a chorus of sighs rose in the silence. No words were said, but they felt the presence of others with sharp clarity. Ana shuddered as the weight of their combined wills pushed in on her mind and threatened to decimate her already shaky control.

God, there was so much pain—

A low, pathetic whimper cut through the silence but Ana didn’t realize it was her until the sound had already died. She covered her face with her hands and desperately reinforced her shields. They were already too precarious and Ana didn’t know what would happen if they slipped and too much filtered into her.

“Do you understand? Do you understand we need help? Do you understand why we need you?”
Marie asked, her voice plaintive.

“I don’t understand why me. I do understand why you need help . . . but why me?”

A look flickered across Marie’s face, too hard to describe.
“You saw me. Talking to Paul, you saw me. And you just felt . . . different. I saw you and I just knew you could help.”

“I will,” Ana said as she squeezed her eyes shut. She’d help, even if she couldn’t figure out
how
yet.

The weight of their presence faded until only Marie remained.
“I knew you would,”
Marie said quietly.
“I knew you’d understand. I knew you’d help us.”

Ana swallowed. Other than Brad, nobody had ever counted on her. Ever trusted her and depended on her for help—it was a burden she wasn’t sure she was equipped to handle, but she’d be damned if she let them down. She’d help or die trying.

Taking a deep breath, she squared her shoulders and looked Marie in the eye. “I’ll find him. No matter what it takes. I’ll find him.”

Marie closed her eyes. A look of peace settled on her face. As she faded away into nothingness, her voice drifted through the air around them.
“Thank you.”

 

 

T
HE drive home was tense and silent. Duke hadn’t said much of anything after she’d told him she wanted to go home. Ana didn’t have much to say, either. Her head was too full, her gut a mess of knots, and she was confused as all get out. She didn’t know how to handle this.

The only thing she knew for sure was that she had to get away from Bentley. She couldn’t go more than five minutes without remembering the hours she’d spent trapped inside the memories of a dead woman. Whether or not distance would help, she didn’t know, but she sure as hell hoped it would and it was the only thing she could think of doing once Marie had left.

It had been nearly an hour since they’d left the small town behind, and slowly, the knot of icy fear inside her had eased, but so far, no path of action had made itself clear to her, either. She’d hoped once they left Bentley behind she’d think of
something
, but no such luck.

Damn it, she felt it like she was feeling her way through a cave, sans flashlight or guide. Didn’t know what her next step should be, none of it.

Ana’s mind kept whirling back to those brief flashes from Leah’s memories, the few moments she’d caught a good look at her killer.

Marie couldn’t bring herself to remember the man who’d taken her life. The woman who’d taken up residence in Ana’s memories remembered him, but Leah’s knowledge of him was twenty-plus years old. Seeing a stranger through the eyes of a murdered woman, staring at him as he looked twenty years earlier wasn’t anything that was going to help a whole lot.

“You got any idea on what we do from here?” she asked, rolling her head on the back of the seat and looking at Duke.

He snorted. “No.”

“Me, neither.” She smirked and muttered, “We’re really accomplishing a lot here, aren’t we?”

“We’ll figure it out, Ana,” he said softly. He reached out and hooked a hand over the back of her neck.

But Ana had her doubts. Big, whopping doubts that threatened to eclipse her own determination to find justice and peace for Marie. “How can you be so sure?”

“Because if we weren’t meant to figure this out, it wouldn’t have been dumped on us.”

Ana snorted. “It didn’t exactly get dumped on
you
. It got dumped on me and then I dumped it on you, if I remember correctly.”

Duke shrugged. “If I wasn’t supposed to be up here helping you, I wouldn’t be. I didn’t have any reason to keep hanging around the school, kept thinking it was time I headed back out and hit the road, but something wouldn’t let me.” He slid her a quick glance before focusing back on the road. “I was waiting for this. So yeah, it did get dumped on me. Got dumped on both of us, and we’ll figure it out.”

He caught her hand and laced his fingers with hers, brought her hand to his lips. “I know you don’t have a whole lot of faith in your gifts, or in yourself. But you can handle this. If you couldn’t, it wouldn’t have come to you.”

“Big believer in fate, aren’t you?” she said, trying not to get all mushy inside as he rubbed his thumb back and forth over her hand. He had this way of doing those small things, toying with her hair, or massaging her shoulders. The way he rubbed his cheek against hers or buried his face against her neck, just to breathe her in.

He shrugged. “Seems kind of counterproductive
not
to believe in fate. It’s not a predestined type of thinking. It’s just that things come to people who are most suited to deal with them.”

“Then fate screwed up royally. I’m
not
suited to handle this.”

A grim look settled on his face. “You’re more capable than you realize, Ana. If you can’t trust yourself, then trust me on this. You can handle this.
We
can handle this.”

 

 

N
IGHT had fallen. In the dim room, Duke leaned against the wall and watched as Ana slept on like the dead.

It had been hours since they’d gotten home. The clock was pushing midnight when they finally climbed the stairs to Ana’s neat little apartment and she’d collapsed onto the bed without even bothering to undress. The interaction with the ghost was still taking a toll; at least Duke hoped that was all it was.

He didn’t scent any kind of sickness on her, and he’d know if there was something of that nature wrong. All he could pick up from her was a deep sense of exhaustion, nothing that sleep wouldn’t cure, but that didn’t make it any easier to wait as the seconds, minutes and hours dragged on.

By morning, he was itchy, pacing the small apartment liked a caged tiger—or a cougar. Restlessness drove him from the house, but he spent the time walking in endless circles around the yard or just sitting on the steps by the door and staring east toward the mountains. He wanted to run—needed it, actually. The frustration from the past few days was bad enough, but there was a darkness building inside him. It had been inside him since they’d started searching the mountainous trails near the small bed-and-breakfast in Palmer.

Like a harbinger of things to come, the darkness and despair he’d felt there kept trying to settle inside him. And blood—old blood, he could taste it, clinging to his nasal passages, lining the back of his throat and taunting the beast that lived within him.

The sound of a powerful engine turning down the driveway pulled Duke from his thoughts and he looked up, watched as Carter Hoskins rode his bike up the gravel-covered path. The other man looked a little surprised at the car in the driveway, but then he caught sight of Duke.

A myriad of emotions flickered across the mortal’s face and Duke watched the struggle. Saw something possessive light the man’s eyes, saw his mouth tighten, saw the internal battle and he couldn’t help but smirk as Carter threw a leg over the bike and headed in his direction.
Too late, pal. But even if you weren’t, I’d fight you for her,
Duke thought, half amused, half sympathetic. He recognized the look in Carter’s eyes easily enough.

Ana had the quiet, mild-mannered professor tied up in knots.

Since she’d had Duke tied in knots pretty much from the first time he laid eyes on her, yes, he could sympathize. Still, he didn’t bother rising to meet Carter as the man started up the steps. He stayed in a lazy sprawl and waited.

“I didn’t realize you two were back.” There was a brief pause and then Carter added, “Ana
is
back, right?”

“Yes.”

“Is she awake?” Carter glanced toward the door and another struggle appeared briefly within his eyes. Courtesy won out. “I’d like to speak with her for a few minutes.”

“She’s lying down.”

“Lying down?” Carter frowned. “She’s not sick, is she?”

There was genuine concern in the man’s voice. Duke could appreciate that, too. Except the concern rose from desire, and the man had no business desiring the woman who belonged to Duke.

She
did
belong to him. Damn it, he couldn’t believe how long it had taken him to realize that. He stared at Carter, half forgetting the man had asked him something until he opened his mouth—probably to ask again.

Carter Hoskins, Duke decided, talked way too much. “No, Hoskins. She’s not sick. Just tired. She’s been a little stressed out, and we’ve been on the move pretty much since we left here.”

Carter blew out a breath. “Yeah, I imagine. Look, tell her she doesn’t need to worry about rent for the next few weeks. She can pay me back once she’s on her feet.”

“Nice landlord,” Duke murmured. But he wasn’t going to let Ana owe this man anything. Hell, he’d be happy if Ana wasn’t near him—or any other human with a dick.
Possessive, much?
Way too possessive, and he knew it, and it would probably piss Ana off, but just then he wasn’t overly concerned about it. Holding Carter’s gaze, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a roll of bills. “What’s her rent?”

Carter blinked. “I said she can take some time to pay . . . ”

“She’s not paying. I am. What’s the rent?” Duke repeated and he didn’t bother softening the edge in his voice this time. Carter told him and Duke counted off enough to cover the next six weeks. “If it looks like she’ll need more time, I’ll get you more money before I go.”

Carter stared at the money in his hands for a long, tense moment and then he lifted his eyes to study Duke. “You always carry around this kind of money?”

“No. But I’d planned on taking care of her rent when I saw you.” He waited a beat and then added, “I’d rather you not mention it to her. She’s got enough on her mind.”

“You know, I don’t think you ever mentioned exactly what it is you do.”

Duke almost laughed. He could hear the insinuation in Carter’s voice loud and clear, and the speculation in the man’s eyes was anything but subtle. “I do whatever I feel like doing. A little bit of this. A little bit of that.”

“And it pays that well?”

Duke shrugged. “The money is legit . . . and it’s mine. So what does it matter how I earn it?” he asked.

“Because you’re hanging around Ana and I don’t want her involved with somebody that could bring her trouble. She’s a nice lady.”

How in the hell did he respond to that? Carefully. Probably best to do it carefully, he figured, so he took his time weighing his words.

“Ana is a nice lady—and she’s more than that.” He blew out a breath and straightened up, bracing his elbows on his knees. “I’ve known her for five years—you don’t need to tell me what a nice lady she is. And you don’t need to worry that I’m going to bring her trouble.”
Liar—you did bring her trouble.

“You trying to tell me you won’t bring her trouble?” Carter’s smile looked entirely too derisive. He looked Duke over from head to toe—apparently whatever he saw seemed lacking in his eyes. “You think you can make her happy?”

“Happier than you could,” Duke said, rising to his feet. He met Carter’s gaze with a flat, level stare. “You don’t understand a damn thing about her, and you don’t
know
her. How in the hell could you hope to make her happy?”

Carter clenched the money in his hand and lifted it. “I know her well enough to know she’d be madder than hell that you were paying her rent.”

“Hell, ain’t you a fucking genius?” Duke drawled. “I know she’ll be mad. That’s why I asked you not to mention it to her. She’s got enough to deal with right now and worrying about money isn’t going to help.”

“She’ll worry about it anyway. She’s never been late by even a day, so she’s already trying to think about how to juggle bills. You want me to believe that’s not why she’s so stressed out?”

Bills are the last thing she’s worried about right now,
Duke thought disgustedly. But he couldn’t exactly say that, either.

“She’s got enough money in the bank to last her for a while, so no, I don’t think getting the rent paid is the top of her priorities.” Although, under normal circumstances, it probably would be. “And I’m hoping that with all the other priorities, she isn’t thinking about money.”

“Not her priority? And you think you
know
her?” Carter demanded.

That smirk on his face was really rubbing Duke the wrong way. If he didn’t have a decent amount of self-control, he might just be tempted to knock the smirk off Carter’s face and knock the bastard flat on his ass while he was at it.

Instead, he climbed down a couple of steps, stopping only when Carter’s body barred the way. “Yeah. I know her. I know her well enough to know that you’re wasting your time here. She’s not into you. Deal with it.”