by L. P. Dover
When we get inside, it’s clear there was a struggle. There’s blood on the floor, the beds are messy, and the lamps are broken. Sawyer lowers his gun and looks around, his eyes darting from the broken lights to the blood on the floor.
“Fuck,” he hisses. “What the hell do you think happened?”
The whole plane ride, I thought about all the possible scenarios. My only guess is that Chris and Anthony pissed off a group of wolves, and they came after them. I’ve looked through the list many times and haven’t seen any targets I thought could be shifters.
“I don’t know,” I lie. “We need to find the laptops.” Colin straightens one of the mattresses while Sawyer does the same with the other bed. I bend down to look under them, and that’s when I see one, the small red light on the side giving it away. It almost seems as if it was hidden there on purpose with all the clothes surrounding it. I reach under the bed and pull it out. “Got one.”
Tia rummages through a duffle bag in the corner and pulls out another. “Here’s the other.”
Sitting on the couch, I open the laptop I found, and the screen comes to life. The password box appears, and I look up at Sawyer. “Do you know either one of Chris or Anthony’s passwords?”
Sawyer shakes his head. Luckily for us, Reed is an expert hacker and showed me some of his tricks. There’s a code you can type in, and it’ll give you access to any computer in the world. It’s long and full of letters, numbers, and symbols, but I have it engrained in my mind. I begin to type it in, and Sawyer sits beside me, his eyes narrowed at the screen.
“What are you doing?”
I’m almost done with the code. “Reed showed me this one day after you, and the guys were in the locker room. Said it might come in handy. Guess he was right.” When I finish typing it in, I hit Enter, and the screen blackens the way it’s supposed to with the little wheel of death – as I like to call it—twirling in the middle. In just a few seconds, I’ll have complete access. I look over at Sawyer and give him a sad smile. “The code lets you hack into any computer.”
Sawyer blows out a sigh. “I should be pissed he didn’t trust me with it, but then again, I don’t think I could remember a code that long.”
And I know Chris and Anthony wouldn’t be able to either. Keeping my eyes on the screen, I pat his leg. “Just be lucky your partner can.”
The wheel of death fades, and the black screen comes to life. What comes up next is something I never expected to see. It’s not just something, but someone. The picture before me is how I remember him, bright blond hair, a sardonic smile, the scar above his right brow, and his evil crystal blue eyes. Ivan Whitecross. He’s an arctic, but not royal. A Yukon. I thought they were all dead.
My blood boils as I look through Ivan’s file. He is a target, but I’ve never seen him on my list. He’s connected to multiple disappearances, all women. Several of them have turned up dead, their bodies mutilated to the point of no recognition. The only way they were identified was through DNA. When I exit out of Ivan’s profile, there are many others I don’t recognize. They are all in a whole new file labeled Most Dangerous. I glance over at Sawyer, and there’s no hint of shock on his face; he knew there was another list.
Memories flash through my mind, and I can’t stop them. I can see the lust in Ivan’s eyes as he bit me over and over, and the way he groped me with such force left bruises all over my skin. I fought so hard against my restraints to the point I couldn’t move anymore. All I could do was sit in that chair, bound with wolfsbane-soaked ropes. There were three of them who tortured me, at least, until I was rescued by Colin’s sister, Bailey. I ripped two of them apart, and I assumed Ivan was killed in the war. This whole time he’s been alive.
Colin’s rage consumes me, and it fuels my own. He saw my thoughts, and now he knows my pain; I can’t hide it anymore. Now I know whose scent I recognize in the cabin; it makes me sick to even breathe. Slamming the computer shut, I rush outside and suck in a breath, keeping my back to Sawyer as he shouts my name. He knew there was another list and intentionally kept it hidden from me.
Colin blocks his emotions from me, but I can feel him behind me. “Kami,” Colin murmurs. He gently places his hands on my shoulders, carefully pulling me back against his chest.
“I know you saw,” I whisper. “I remember killing two of the men, and I just assumed Ivan didn’t survive.”
The Yukons are the same people who killed his parents. “What do you want to do?”
My blood burns with hatred and revenge. There’s no way I’ll be able to rest with Ivan roaming free in the world. I don’t even know what he’s done to be put on the list, but I’m going to be the one to strike his name out.
I turn around and look up into Colin’s eyes. “He’s our enemy, Colin. We have to find him.”
Colin nods. “Good. Because either way, I am. He’s going to suffer for what he’s done.”
Sawyer rushes out of the cabin, but he doesn’t say anything as I stare at him over Colin’s shoulder. He knows he kept something huge from me, and I can feel the regret pouring off of him.
“You kept this from me,” I growl, storming toward him. “How could you not tell me?”
Sawyer hangs his head and holds up his arms. “I know you’re mad. We only did it to protect you.”
Tia stands by his side, and I can feel her magic sweeping across me. She mouths the words your eyes, and it all becomes clear. “They were glowing,” Colin says through our bond. “She has to glamour them until you calm down.”
“It’s going to be a long time before that happens.”
“We?” I hiss. “Who’s we?”
Sawyer finally looks me in the eyes. “Reed. He didn’t want you having access to that list just yet. He thought he was protecting you.”
I want to shout that I’m the strongest one in the whole damn bureau, but I can’t. If anything, Sawyer and the others didn’t need the list. Look where it got Chris and Anthony. They stepped into something they couldn’t handle.
My hands shake, but Colin grabs it. “Calm down, baby. You can’t blame Sawyer. They were trying to look out for you.”
“Did you know Chris and Anthony were hunting people on this other list?” I ask through clenched teeth.
Sawyer averts his gaze. “Yes. Four agents have already gone missing searching for Ivan Whitecross. That’s why Chris and Anthony wanted to put him down.”
“And now they’re dead,” I growl. “Along with the other four agents.”
Sawyer pulls out his phone. “We need to call Reed. He has to know what’s going on.”
I snatch his phone before he can even react. “No.”
He looks at my hand holding the phone, and his mouth gapes. “How did you grab that so fast?”
“You’re not calling him,” I snap. “Ivan Whitecross will be dealt with, but not by Reed or anyone else in the FBI. This is something I have to handle on my own.”
He throws his hands in the air. “But why? This doesn’t make any fucking sense. It’s too dangerous. There’s no telling what was done to Chris and Anthony.”
I look over at Tia, and she knows it’s time. We have to do what we must to keep those we love safe. Colin slides over behind Sawyer, and Tia whispers her spell on him. He collapses into Colin’s arms, a deep sleep that’ll keep him out until we find Ivan.
Colin lays him in the backseat of his and Tia’s rental car. “Let’s get what we need from inside and get the hell out of here.” His glowing blue eyes meet mine. “We don’t know if they’re coming back. We need to be the ones hunting them.”
I nod in agreement. I don’t know who all Ivan has with him, but we will kill them all.
21
Kami
There aren’t many choices of nice hotels in the area, but we find a decent one several miles away from Chris and Anthony’s cabin. For the past couple of hours, I’ve read everything in Ivan’s file. There are notes from other agents, the same ones who have gone missing. Ivan was added to the list two
years ago for being involved in a woman’s disappearance. Since then, he’s been connected to sixty-five others; only now he has accomplices. Three other men are on the most dangerous list, and all three of them are wolves. In their files are videos where they were last seen with some of the victims as they’re leaving a bar. The women appear intoxicated in all of them. The problem is they never stay in the same place. Judging by the victims and where they’re from, Ivan likes to hunt along the Canadian border.
I scroll down the list of missing women and write down all the dates. It turns out all of them are reported missing on days of the full moon. Those are the days when our magic is the strongest. Our needs are also heightened. Reed says that each case is a puzzle. It’s why he’s brought in to solve so many cold cases. The thing with Ivan is that he’s a shifter, not a human. His reasoning for doing things is on a different level of warped. Ted Bundy, Jeffery Dahmer, and the Night Stalker were all fucked up individuals, but they don’t compare to the wolves I’ve seen.
When the Yukons captured me, it was close to the full moon. I experienced firsthand what Ivan desires; it’s pain and blood. I can only imagine how those needs have intensified over the years.
Colin sits beside me on the bed. “Are you sure you want to do this? You’re blocking me.”
I shut Chris’s laptop and move it to the side. “I’m sorry. My mind is all over the place right now.” Taking his face in my hands, I kiss him. “And yes, I’m ready. We need to find Chris and Anthony.”
Taking my hands, he helps me up. A knock sounds on the door, and Colin lets me go to open it. Tia walks in and nods toward the door. “Sawyer’s sleeping soundly. I put the faerie protection spell on him, but I don’t exactly know how it protects him. Until I know what it’s capable of, he’s staying out of the action. I just hope we have a good story when he wakes up.”
“We will,” I say. I holster my gun and rub a hand over my pocket to make sure I have the black carmine stone. Colin can shield his presence from other wolves, but I'm vulnerable until we complete the bond. The full moon is in two days, and I feel we won’t be bonding just yet.
“There will always be more full moons. What we’re doing is important,” Colin says in my mind. When I look up at him, he winks. “But make no mistake, I plan on making Whitecross and his men suffer for delaying us.”
“Do you want me to go with you?” Tia asks.
Colin and I both say no at the same time. I place my hands on her shoulders. “Stay here with Sawyer. I have the stone, and Colin’s an all-mighty powerful royal arctic.” Colin chuckles, but Tia still looks worried. “His senses are far better than mine. If he believes there’s danger, he’ll get me out of there.”
“What if you find Chris and Anthony’s bodies? Are you going to call the FBI?”
My chest aches just thinking about it. I don’t know what other choice we have at the moment. “I will when the time’s right.”
She nods and hugs me. “Be safe. I’ll be here when you get back.”
We walk out with her, and the wind is chilly as I watch her go into hers and Sawyer’s room. Her magic will protect them. Pulling out my government cell, I have the GPS set to the location Chris’s phone was last active.
“We’re only four miles away from the spot,” I say, studying the landscape. “But it looks like we have some hiking to do.”
The town we’re in is small, and most of the business buildings are empty and rundown. Colin pulls out onto the road, a narrow two-lane street surrounded by forests on both sides. It’s the kind of place you’d see in a scary movie, only I’m not scared of Ivan or his men. However, I am terrified of what we’re going to find. With each passing second, we get closer to the blue dot.
Colin points at something on the side of the road. “Look. There are tire tracks in the mud.”
“Pull over,” I say.
He slows down and carefully parks behind the tracks. Not a single soul has passed us on the road; it’s like a ghost town. When I get out, the smells immediately hit me. There’s blood—both human and wolf—the other wolves’ scents, and Ivan; his presence is the most dominant. The footprints on the ground appear as if there was a struggle, and I can only hope Chris and Anthony put up one hell of a fight.
Colin looks off into the woods and sighs. “Their scents are here, but I don’t feel their presence anywhere close. We should be good.”
When his eyes meet mine, I nod. We start on our way, the fallen leaves crunching beneath our feet. Every so often, I can see Chris and Anthony’s footsteps in the soft mud. Soon, the forest floor will be covered in snow once winter comes, and all traces of my friends will be gone.
Colin’s arm brushes against mine. “What are you thinking about?”
My mind is blocked from him, and it’s only to spare his sanity. “Winter, actually,” I say, not entirely lying. “I’m ready for snow.” He slides his hand into mine, and I grip it tight. It feels good to have him close. I didn’t realize how much his support would help me.
“I’m ready for it, too,” Colin replies. “When I was young, my sisters and I would ambush our parents. It didn’t matter how many snowballs we threw, they always managed to win.”
He replays a scene of one of their snowball fights in his mind, and it makes me smile. His mother was beautiful with her long, platinum-colored hair. I wish I could’ve met her.
“So do I,” Colin murmurs in my head.
In return, I think up one of my memories so he can see it. It’s of Tate and me making snow angels in our backyard while our mom was off to the side, scooping snow into a bowl for snow cream.
Colin squeezes my hand. “Snow cream, huh? We’ll have to make some when it snows. I’ve never had it before.”
“You’ve missed out,” I say, smiling up at him. Soon, my smile fades as the wind brings a familiar scent our way. Death. I knew it’d hit us eventually. I smelled it before when I found Samantha Teller’s decaying body, and I smell it now. According to my GPS, we still have a mile to go. Colin lets my hand go and walks ahead of me, squatting down when he sees something on the ground. “What is it?” I ask.
He motions me closer. “The footprints are different. Chris and Anthony started running at this point.” His eyes graze over the ground, and I look too. That’s when I see it … the other footprints disappear and are replaced with paw prints.
In my mind, I envision Ivan and his men following Chris and Anthony out into the woods. When they shift, the fear overtakes them, and they run. Ivan gets off on fear. The chase would be the ultimate game for him.
“It’s probably what he does with the missing women, too,” Colin adds. He shakes his head and snarls with disgust. “Sick bastard.”
“I’m sure he does a lot more than just chasing and mutilating those women.”
Colin’s jaw clenches, and he tightens his hands into fists. “I know.”
What I hate more than anything is that sixty-five women and possibly more have suffered in unspeakable ways at Ivan’s hands. The level of terror they must’ve felt had to be off the charts.
We continue through the forest, and my heart races the entire time. The smell of blood grows thicker as if it surrounds me. Bile rises up the back of my throat when something comes into view in the distance. I have a feeling I already know what it is.
Colin steps in front of me. “Are you sure you want to keep going? You already know what you’re going to find.” I can see the torment in his eyes. “I just want to protect you,” he says in my mind.
My eyes burn. “I know, but I have to keep going.” I need to see what Ivan did to my friends. Taking a deep breath, I let it out slow as we close the distance to the object on the ground, following the trail of blood. I already know what it is. When we reach it, I close my eyes and squeeze them shut even though the sight will be forever locked in my mind.
Colin blocks his mind from me, and a low growl escapes his lips. “This is some fucked up shit.”
I open my eyes and look around at the carnag
e in front of me. All I saw before closing my eyes was Anthony’s bare leg, the skin shredded, exposing the muscles beneath. There was enough skin intact for me to see part of the skeleton tattoo he had on his calf. Judging by Chris’s phone call, Anthony was killed first, which means we’ll find Chris’s body parts further in the woods.
Closing a hand over my mouth, I walk past Anthony’s leg to one of his arms and then to his other leg and another arm that’s about thirty feet away. The rest of his body is scattered all around us. Swallowing hard, I storm on past in search of Chris. Looking at the blue dot on my GPS, he made it half a mile further than Anthony. It hurts to know I’ll never hear Chris’s annoying laugh again or listen to Anthony sing like he would in the locker room. In the beginning, I didn’t like them, but they grew to be family … brothers. I never would’ve imagined they’d fall victims to my kind.
“They didn’t know what they were getting into,” Colin murmurs.
“Every time I let you in, you dive in deep, don’t you?”
A sad smile spreads across his lips when he looks at me. “I have to take advantage when I can.”
With a heavy sigh, I focus back on the forest. “It’s okay. Right now, I’m too exhausted to block you from everything.”
“I’m a big boy, Kami. I can handle your thoughts. I know you think I’m going to lose my shit and go on a rampage.” I stop mid-step, and he grabs my hands, pulling me into his body. “Trust me, I’m plenty pissed off for many reasons, but I know when to keep a level head.” He brings my hands up to his lips. “You need my support, and I’m here to give it to you. You’re not alone.”
Closing my eyes, I feel like I’m holding myself together by a thread. It’s as if everything’s going to come crashing down.
Colin squeezes my hands. “If you break, I’ll be right here to pick up the pieces.”
Tears fall down my cheeks when I open my eyes. “When this is over, you need to get back to your work. I hate I’m keeping you from it.”
