Gritting his teeth against the craving for blood, Jason went back to his bedroom. He lay in bed, his eyes open and staring into the darkness. His body trembled for blood.
The sound of the laughter never came to him again, but the copper-like scent of blood remained, as if luring him outside and promising him the world.
CHAPTER FIVE
1
The creature known as Gestalt sat perched in a tree, looking out onto the small slumbering town of Red Creek. Filth Camp was two miles behind him and he could sense Larry there, waiting for him. He could also sense the presence of the new recruit that Larry had so eagerly turned. Slowly but very surely, his ultimate plan was coming to fruition.
Gestalt smiled, a thin shadow that spread like a cut across his face. His little army was coming together. It would take a bit of time, but all will happen as he had planned it. Still, as he sat in the tree and looked at the town, he didn’t know if he would be able to wait it all out – go slowly, as he ought. He could smell the other vampires in town—the now infamous Bentons clan. He could also sense the still untapped power that this shitty little town possessed.
Gestalt had, of course, heard of how Saul and Jill Benton, along with a few other characters –one, apparently, a mortal woman – had destroyed the Greely clan. And Gestalt also knew that Saul Benton was now working for The Guard. Honestly, Gestalt could not have cared less. Good for Saul. Gestalt cared nothing for The Guard. He cared nothing for the Bentons clan, either. He knew Saul was supposed to be quite the physical specimen, but Gestalt didn’t care.
If the two of them ever met face to face—which would likely happen sooner or later—they’d see who the better fighter was. Everything else was empty promises.
This, Gestalt’s mission, went beyond the Bentons. There was something more to be concerned about here in Red Creek: power.
Gestalt knew that the Bentons clan had chosen this particular piece of land for a reason, when the choice had been offered to them. There was something about Red Creek that seemed to lure in the supernatural. Gestalt could feel it wrapped around him; it was similar to lying in mud and feeling it slowly sinking into your being. Red Creek was odd in that very same way: The town felt both inviting and repulsive at the same time.
This is what made Gestalt think that he had finally come to the right place.
He had tried gathering his army in several other locations around the globe over the years and it had never quite worked out. But he could feel that Red Creek was different. He had avoided it before now because of the Bentons clan. But if all he had to contend with were Saul and Jill Benton, well… He thought it was a fight he could win. And if this town held the sort of power he currently felt in his bones, it was certainly worth a try.
There was work to be done first, though. And it would be work that Gestalt would enjoy. He had a plan in place and he had been thinking of playing it out for countless years. He supposed it was regrettable that the Bentons would have to be destroyed in order for that plan to be successful. But what was the mortal saying….something about breaking eggs and making omelets.
Gestalt dropped down from his branch and started walking back towards Filth Camp. He walked through the woods, the shadows covering him as he went deeper into the trees. To anyone that might have been walking by, it would have looked like the tall man had simply disappeared.
Gestalt wound his way deeper into the forest. The familiarity of the place hit him, almost a physical being. Yes, he’d been here before but for a different reason. It seemed peculiar that the forces of the world had brought him back.
Sometimes it was strange how things worked out—especially when the supernatural was concerned.
2
When Saul and Nikki returned home, Jill didn’t waste any effort or time trying to mask the fact that she was annoyed. She wasn’t rude per se, but there was a slight chilled edge to her mood. Saul had picked up on it right away. He had felt it even before he had started unpacking his bags. He was worried because he knew she had a right to be upset. Saul knew that he needed to find the fine line between spending time with Nikki and remaining responsible to his family.
It was going to be much harder than he had first thought.
Nikki, not nearly as in tune with Jill as her brother, didn’t notice anything different. Saul listened to the two women chat for a while, trying to pry inside Jill’s mind in that telepathic way they were usually able to do. But she had some sort of wall up, some emotional obstacle that was not letting him inside. She did this on occasion, usually simply projecting an image of a brick wall. When he tried to pry, she sensed it; she cast him a dirty look as Nikki was telling her about the inn.
Saul gave up and started to unpack. The cabin was getting crowded with Jason in here and it was that thought that clued him in to the fact that the room Jason had been occupying was empty.
He walked back out to the living room and looked around. “Where is Jason?” he asked.
“Outside. He’s been looking out into the woods in some sort of weird trance.”
Saul needed to speak to Jill, and preferably in private; he was still curious as to why she had mentally sent him the message to hurry home. He was almost certain it had something to do with Jason. He turned to Nikki and asked: “Would you mind checking on him?”
“Not at all,” Nikki said. She gave him a prying look, though. She could see right through him, wanting to know why he wanted to be alone with his sister. But she played it off well as she continued, “I think he and I should talk, anyway. I can remember how strange it felt to go through the changes he’s probably experiencing.”
She went through the back door and the moment it closed, Jill started filling him in.
“The Guard is getting suspicious,” she said.
“How do you know?”
“Because Moorcheh paid me a surprise visit. Out of nowhere, he just popped up on the porch.”
“When?” Saul asked, alarmed.
Jill told him about the brief conversation she had shared with Moorcheh. She also told him about the mind games that she thought were afoot concerning Jason.
“We can only assume they don’t know about his state yet,” Saul said. “Damn. This could mean a lot of trouble for us.”
“Is there any way to tell for certain that he’s a Rogue without going to The Guard and asking if they can sense him?”
“I honestly don’t know. There’s nothing about a Rogue that is simple, you know?”
Jill nodded. “I need to ask you something else,” she said, lowering her voice and taking his hand. This alarmed Saul to no end, as she usually wasn’t a very touchy-feely sort of woman. None of the Bentons were, for that matter.
“What’s that?” Saul asked, sensing a growing tension in the air.
“Why not just hand him over to The Guard right now? No secrets, no games. It’s the safest thing all around.”
The idea was a tempting one. If Saul was being honest with himself, he wanted Jason gone for no other reason than to eliminate whatever weird connection there was between him and Nikki. Also, it would be one less stressful item on his already overloaded plate. But, at the same time, he knew that it was wrong. And beyond that, he didn’t think Nikki would ever forgive him for it.
“It is the safest thing,” Saul agreed. “But I can’t do that to Nikki.”
“And she’s worth it? Jill asked.
The question was like a slap across Saul’s face. He had not been expecting it and it hurt him more than any words ever had before. It also alarmed him to realize that yes, she was worth it. He knew that without a moment’s hesitation.
“I’m sorry to be so blunt,” Jill said, “but we’ve got a lot at stake. And I didn’t come back here just to kick some Greely ass and then be found guilty of keeping secrets from The Guard because of Jason. And while I really do like Nikki, I don’t know that I like her quite enough to risk my family.”
Saul felt anger rising up, but he also knew that she had a good point. Th
e thing that perplexed him most of all was that he did believe that Nikki was worth every single bit of this trouble. As he stood there in front of his sister, he became unequivocally aware of it: yes, Nikki was worth this trouble.
And on the heels of that, another thought: might that mean he was in love with her?
That was a terrifying thought in and of itself—especially with Jill staring him in the face.
“So what would you have me do?” he asked her.
She only shrugged. “I don’t know. Saul, things are going to get worse before they get better. If you think Nikki is worth it, then I think you need to suggest that we inform The Guard about him. Talk it out with her and see what she says. If she feels the same about you as you do about her, I don’t see how she could argue it. On top of all of this, there’s the fact that we don’t even know what becomes of Rogues anyway.”
“No…but we do know that The Guard sees them as a threat against them.”
Jill frowned. She looked out of the kitchen window to where Nikki was standing by a still-dazed Jason.
“I’m here for you, Saul,” Jill said. “But if things come down to you pissing off The Guard, I’m going to have to bail. I’d never actively work against you, but I can’t be a party to something that could damage our family.”
“I understand,” Saul said with a sigh. “I’ll let you know something soon.”
Then he also looked outside and saw Nikki standing by Jason. While he still wasn’t fond of the connection that they shared, he also didn’t want to see Jason come to any unnecessary harm. He then wondered, not for the first time, just how close they had been before Nikki had Turned.
Maybe Jill was right; maybe things were only going to get worse from this point on.
Unless he did something drastic.
3
Nikki had been speaking with Jason for nearly five minutes, but she didn’t quite know if her words were being heard. Jason’s eyes were blinking but they were showing no recognition. They were the eyes of someone very tired, having a hard time focusing on anything. Not too long ago, before her life had entirely changed, she had caught that look on his face. When she would ask him what he was thinking about, he’d snap out of the daze and answer: Nothing.
She placed her hands on his shoulders and gave him a brief hug. “I know what you’re going through,” she said. “I know it’s scary. Remember, I’ve been through it myself.”
Whether it was her identifying with him or just her touch, the daze seemed to lift for a moment. He looked away from the forests for a moment and directly into her eyes. When he did, Nikki saw another emotion that she’d seen in his face back when they had both been mere mortals: longing.
“Not scared,” Jason said simply. “Just…waiting.”
“For what?”
“I don’t know, exactly,” Jason said. “I feel like I just studied all night for some weird test and now I’m waiting in the classroom for the test to be handed out. Only…I don’t know—only now, I can’t remember a damn thing I studied.”
Nikki smiled. “That is a good way to look at it. That’s a pretty fitting analogy, actually.”
“How long did it take you to get used to this whole…this life?”
“A while,” she admitted. “I think the fact that you have all of us to walk you through it is going to be a huge help.”
“Like Saul helped you?”
There was bitterness to the question that Nikki hadn’t been expecting. “Yes. Like that.”
Jason looked back out into the woods. Nikki watched the way he stared at seemingly nothing and thought it did look like he was waiting for something. It made her uneasy. She removed her hands from his shoulders and stepped away from him.
Jason’s eyes went right back to her; there was a stone-like expression on his face. “Do you love him?” he asked.
Nikki looked at the ground. “I don’t know. There’s something there, but I can’t be sure. Emotions—they’re different when you’re…well, when you’re like this.”
“Yeah, I can tell,” Jason said. “You know I loved you, right? Before all of this shit happened to us.”
She looked back to him with weary eyes. She gave him a smile that was so thin it was barely there at all. “No,” she denied. “I always suspected that you had a schoolboy crush, but I never thought you loved me.”
“Well, I did. And seeing the way you are with him, I’m glad that this changing inside of me is killing off all those kinds of things. When we were fighting the Greelys and my body was brand new to this, there was this absolute longing for you that made me want to die. I never want to feel that way about anyone. So if this turn or whatever it is that is happening to me can keep those kinds of things away, I can’t wait for it to fully take me.”
She didn’t know if it was possible for a vampire’s heart to break, but in that moment, something very similar happened to Nikki. She wanted to cry but scolded herself for it. She wouldn’t cry in front of Jason. Not over this.
“Jason, I’m sorry. I c—,”
“It’s okay,” he said. “This is just like some depressing teenage phase. That’s what it feels like. Just let me be alone for a while, okay?”
Nikki looked at him, clearly hurt, and nodded. “Sure.”
With that, she turned away and walked back to the porch. Before she opened the door and went inside, she turned back towards him, hoping he would at least have moved form that same place.
But he still stood there, staring out into the woods as if he were waiting for something to come rushing out to deliver him all the answers he wanted.
4
Things were rather morose around the Bentons cabin the following day. Rainclouds settled in over Red Creek to match the mood. Saul was preparing for his next trip—an excursion to Mexico where two clans were fighting over land—while Nikki quietly dealt with her guilt and fear over Jason. Jill, meanwhile, stayed glued to a book and a bottle of wine, taking shifts sitting on the porch or the couch, wherever she could be alone.
Saul did not like leaving those in his care alone in such a foul mood, but he also did not want to get on the wrong side of The Guard. They were still at the point in their partnership when Saul was more than willing to do anything they asked him. More than that, he felt that he needed to stay on their good side considering the ticking time bomb they had on their hands in the form of Jason.
After kissing Nikki goodbye and rolling his luggage out the front door, Saul saw Jill sitting on the porch, wine and book in hand. It was eleven o’clock at night and there was a pleasantly moist breeze rolling through the yard, the after-effects of the rain that had fallen earlier in the afternoon.
“I should be back in less than forty-eight hours,” he told his sister. “But if you need me before then, please don’t hesitate to summon me.”
“Sure.”
He sighed, doing everything he could to keep his gnawing anger and frustration at bay. “What is it, Jill?”
“The same as it was the other day. I know why you’re doing these things for The Guard, but I hate the fact that you are basically their lap dog at this point. You still have no evidence that they will be true to their word—that they will give you any new information about what really happened to Dad.”
“I have to trust them,” Saul said. “They are literally the only ones that could provide any answers. Besides that, they have nothing to gain by keeping information from me.”
“Then why don’t they just tell you to be nice? They know we have unanswered questions about what happened to Dad. Why sit on the answers?”
They were all good questions…questions that Saul had asked himself several times before.
“Do you have any other suggestions?” Saul asked. “I know vampires that would give their lives to be working this intimately with The Guard.”
“No. I concede that you’re stuck between the proverbial rock and a hard place.”
Saul walked over to her and gave her a hug. “I will do everything I can
to protect you. Even when you were away, that never changed.”
“I know,” she said. “And for what it’s worth, I think Dad would have been incredibly proud of you.”
Saul said nothing in response. He kissed Jill on the forehead and then left the porch, heading for his car.
“I’m serious,” he called to her. “If there is the least sign of trouble, summon me right away.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Jill mumbled, waving him away.
As he pulled away, he looked in the rearview mirror and saw the cabin. And while he couldn’t quite see Jill, he thought he could feel her reaching out to him in the subtlest of ways, saying: Hurry back.
5
In her dream, Kara was standing on Saul Benton’s porch. She was watching Saul, Jill, and Nikki fight through the Greely clan. There were shackles on her arms and she was chained to the porch rails. She was stripped naked and was covered in cuts and bruises. She watched helplessly as the two clans fought just several feet away from her.
Leibald Greely kept looking at her as he fought. As she stood chained there, the events of her dream went quite differently than they had gone on that afternoon three months ago. He delivered a crushing blow to Saul’s face and when Saul hit the ground, Leibald began inching towards her in a manner that she instinctively understood was supposed to be seductive, but looked more menacing than anything else.
“You want this kind of power, don’t you Kara?”
“No,” she claimed, fighting against the chains. “No. Not from you.”
He came to her and caressed her face with his talon-like hands. “You know you want it,” he said. “All humans do. That’s the only reason you were ever infatuated with Saul Benton—not because of his physique but because you knew in your gut that there was something different about him.”
VEILED Complete Boxed Set Page 29
