by C. Gockel
"I've got nothing." She lowered the mat into position. She balanced on the tips of her toes and tried to reach the top of the doorframe, but it proved just out of her reach.
He snickered. "Don't strain yourself, little buddy."
"Watch it, Rand." She bared her teeth in a warning snarl. She had never lived down the fact that she had reached her full height of less than five feet at the age of twelve.
"Damn, Victory, no need to be so fucking sensitive about your height. No one minds you being an itty-bitty–"
Victoria jammed her elbow into his side. "Shut up."
"Ouch. Fuck!" Holding a protective arm over his ribcage, Rand flashed a shit-eating grin. He ran his free hand along the top of the doorframe.
"One more smart remark about my height, and I'll ram that peg leg up your ass."
"Hey, now. No need for violence." His face lit with the delight of discovery. "Ah-ha!"
Her brow shot up. "Really?"
Rand held up a brass key. "Oh yes. Really."
"Dumb luck." She smothered a grin. She enjoyed Rand's company. Although he had forty-six years to her twenty-four, she felt closer to him than Morena and Jasper. Life, and particularly recent experiences, had aged her beyond her years.
He inserted the key into the lock before he hesitated. "Not sure it's right to enter a police crime scene. I hope we don't mess nothin' up."
"Don't worry. It’s not an active forensic investigation scene or there would be an officer posted. After the police are done, they leave it to the property owners to clean up."
Rand shot her a perplexed glance. "How do you know that?"
Her voice flatlined. "I dated a cop for a year."
He winced. "Oh, yeah. Sorry."
"It's okay." She shrugged. If Rand knew she was lying, he kept his mouth shut for a change. She was grateful for his rare discretion.
Daniel had worked as a Sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona. He'd been gone just over two weeks, and his death still didn't feel real to her. Every morning she woke and opened her eyes, expecting to be in her own bed, to roll over and see his dark head resting on the pillow beside her. Her heart ached as though it had been cut from her breast. The deaths of her parents and so many others compounded her pain until she had emotionally shut down. The pack needed her to remain strong, so she chose numbness over grief and focused on survival.
Rand shoved the door open and entered the apartment first. He cocked his head, nostrils flaring and nose twitching. "Yeah, someone sure as hell died in here."
Following on his heels, she gagged when the revolting scent of decay assailed her sensitive nose. A wave of nausea swept over her. "Hit the lights."
"Yeah, gimme a sec." His hand slapped the wall a couple times before he found the light switch beside the door, and a dim table lamp came on. The illumination sent dozens of cockroaches skittering along the floor and walls.
Victoria's expression twisted into a grimace. She followed Rand inside and closed the door behind them. The small apartment had a galley-style kitchen, one bedroom off the living area, and one bathroom. The dried out husk of a Christmas tree stood sandwiched between an old television and a bloodstained couch. There was no mantle, so two felt stockings dangled from the kitchen counter. One still had a dollar-store tag attached.
"June must have died here." She bent to touch a couch cushion. She skimmed the gummy surface and her fingers came away dry. She spotted a curious bloodstain on the carpet and knelt to inspect it. The basic shape suggested a cloven hoof. A trail of similar marks led toward the bedroom.
"Whatcha lookin' at?"
"Are these footprints?" She pointed to the stains.
Rand's brow pinched. "Sure as hell looks like it."
Victoria's lips compressed, and she lowered her face to floor level. She inhaled deeply, and a pungent scent filled her nostrils. "I smell goat. I think."
Rand pressed his face to the ground and closed his eyes, huffing deep breaths while he learned the smell. He looked up and frowned. "I'd say bighorn sheep."
She snickered. "You like sheep, don't you, Rand?"
"Hey!" Rand's head reared back, and he took a lazy-pawed swipe at her which she easily dodged. Laughter rolled from the big redhead.
She stood and followed the trail toward the bedroom. "What sort of goat-scented monster murders mothers and steals children?"
"Beats the hell out of me," Rand said, scratching his beard. "Satyr, maybe?"
"This isn't Greece." She leaned into the apartment's single bathroom. She switched on the light and gave the room a cursory inspection: one sink, a toilet, and a bathtub-shower combo.
"How should I know?" Rand rolled his massive shoulders. "I've fought vampires and the occasional demon. Saw a kachina spirit once outside of Flagstaff, but it wasn't harming anyone, so we let it be."
"Smart man." As she returned to the hallway, she caught him giving her a peculiar look. The corner of his mouth curled upward, so his eye pulled into a squint. She stopped. "What is it?"
"Running into Jake Barrett has got you in a snit," he said with uncanny astuteness.
She winced and bristled, feeling unaccountably defensive. "The man and his hunters murdered my parents and most of our pack. Of course I'm unsettled. I shouldn't have to remind you."
Following Daniel's death, Victoria had taken his corpse to the Barrett residence. Sawyer greeted her with guarded curiosity until he saw the condition of his brother's body. Without waiting for an explanation, he grabbed a shotgun and attacked her. She barely escaped with her life. The incident had set the hunters and wolves, allies of thirty years, on the brink of war.
The next day, Victoria's parents and most of the adults of her pack had met with Jake Barrett at a private airstrip outside Phoenix. Her father had ignored her objections and forbidden her to attend. He ordered her to escort the pack's young, infirm, and vulnerable members to safety. Rand accompanied Victoria as her second-in-command.
None of her pack mates who attended that fateful meeting ever returned. All were dead, including her mother and father. No one except maybe Jake Barrett knew exactly what happened. The news stations carried a story about the explosion of a fuel truck at the airstrip. Allegedly, the resulting fire killed dozens, including human hunters. Following her Alpha's orders, Victoria took the people under her protection and ran.
"Uh-huh." The look Rand gave her said he didn't buy her excuses even for a second.
No matter what, her guilt and grief weren't topics for casual conversation. Jaw jutting, Victoria shook her head. "Don't want to talk about it."
"All right." Rand turned toward the final doorway to the one room they hadn't inspected yet. "This must be the bedroom."
Victoria entered ahead of him and turned on the lights. The small room contained a double bed and a five-drawer dresser. A toddler bed and a toy chest stood against one of the walls. Lego blocks and Matchbox cars littered the floor. The space hardly seemed big enough for one person to occupy, let alone two.
"I thought you said the boy is six," Rand said, scowling at the toddler bed.
"That's what the spirit and the newspaper said. I guess it's what she could afford." Victoria pitied the dead woman and missing child more than ever. The boy had lost everything. She hoped they could save him.
"Where the hell is the boy's father in all this?"
"The article said she was a single mother. No mention of a father."
Rand walked past the beds and examined the room's only window which had been broken inward. The vinyl mini blinds lay in a mangled heap on the floor. Glass fragments littered the carpet. "This is where it entered. I only smell the one creature."
She bent and picked up a small red fire truck off the spotted carpeting. She inspected the toy and then tucked it into the front pocket of her jeans. The threadbare comforter on the bed contained a lumpy polyester fill. She committed the boy's scent to memory and then wadded the blanket into a ball.
"Catch," she said, tossing it toward Rand.
"So there's no one l
eft to miss the poor kid?" Rand caught the blanket out of the air and held the blue fabric to his nose. After a few seconds, he returned the blanket to the bed.
"No, probably not." She shook her head in sorrow. If they failed to save the boy, she would feel responsible for his death, the same way she already felt for so many others.
Rand stilled, and his gaze settled on her. "Cut yourself some slack, kid," he said in a gruff tone. "Everything isn't your fault."
Her stomach dropped. She stared at him.
"Isn't it, though? Daniel is dead because of me." She had known dating a hunter was reckless and off-limits, but that hadn't stopped her. "Dad knew Jake Barrett would blame me for his son's death. It's why he kept me from attending the meeting with the hunters."
"Ah, so you get to claim credit for the massacre at the airfield 'n starting the fighting too, I suppose?" Rand's brow arched. "Something of a royal screw up, aren't you?"
Tears stung her eyes, and a hot flush of temper set her teeth on edge. "Mocking it doesn't make it any less true."
"Course not," he drawled. "But it might help you see the only person blaming you for what happened is you. The pack doesn't hold you culpable for any of it."
Her anger dissipated and left her flushed with embarrassment. His reassurance served to undermine her self-confidence. She was a failure as Alpha. She lacked the necessary experience and wisdom to serve as a good pack leader. The role had been thrust upon her years before she should have been ready.
"Rand." Uncertainty threaded her voice, vibrating with the strength of her curiosity. She had a question she wanted—no, needed—to ask but did not know how to phrase it.
"Just spit it out."
She sighed. Fine.
"Why haven't you challenged me for Alpha yet? We both know, in a fight, you'd win. You're older, more experienced, better suited to leadership."
Rand laid a hand on her shoulder. Victoria tilted her head to gaze into his face. She fully expected her question to finally provoke the ritual challenge.
He scowled. "I was loyal to your father and mother. My Alphas. So I'm loyal to you, Victoria Storm. If your father had wanted me to be leader, he'd have put me in charge."
"Alpha isn't a hereditary title, Rand. It has to be earned."
"Let me guess. You don't feel you've earned it?"
She shook her head.
His nostrils flared as he exhaled. "There has been a Storm leading this pack for five hundred years. You're a good leader, just a little bit inexperienced. You need to stop being so hard on yourself."
Victoria opened her mouth, although she had no idea what she intended to say. Before she formulated words, her cell phone rang. She sighed, extracted the mobile from her pocket, and checked the number.
Sylvie.
"Victoria," Sylvie said in a voice filled with panic. "It's Jasper. He's gone."
An awful sense of foreboding filled her, but she strove to remain cool. "Jasper was upset when we told him he couldn't come with us. He's probably just sneaking around after me and Rand."
Beside her, Rand snorted. "That boy needs his backside tanned."
Victoria waved a silencing hand at him. "Don't worry, okay? We’re through here. We'll come back and track him down."
"Okay." Sylvie's tone calmed. "Please hurry."
"We will." Victoria put the phone away and looked to the redhead.
Rand rolled his eyes. "Well, fuck. I guess we'd better get after that little shit."
"Rand, don't be too hard on him, okay? He's just a kid."
"It's time for him to grow up and start being a man." He accompanied her outside and closed the door of the apartment behind them. "Do you have a plan for finding Michael?"
"Not yet." A sense of urgency coalesced in her gut. The need to act grew imperative, but she had no idea what to do. "C'mon, let's go."
Together, they returned to the parking lot where they'd left the truck. Rand approached the driver's side of the pickup and unlocked the door.
"Smells like a storm," he said.
As if to echo his words, thunder rumbled miles in the distance. The clouds formed a thick gray blanket. Orange hues tinted the horizon, and a brisk breeze blew easterly.
Victoria tilted her head back, scenting the moist air. "It blew up suddenly. I didn't know it was supposed to rain."
"It wasn't. Not according to the weather report I read this morning anyway."
She traded an ominous glance with Rand, and their shared concern remained unspoken. Picking up a scent trail that was already a couple days old was difficult in an urban area. Rain would destroy any chance they might have had of doing it the old fashioned way.
They drove for a couple minutes. A light drizzle started, just enough to turn the dust on the windshield to mud. Rand turned on the wipers. The rain wasn't heavy, but it was enough to obliterate any trace of a scent trail Jasper might've left. His disappearance ate at her. She hated her inability to act, and each passing minute stretched like an hour. The teenager hadn't been gone for long, so she doubted he'd gotten far. Most likely, he'd return to the pack once he'd blown off steam.
The consolation offered cold comfort.
Chapter Five
Fretting over Jasper's safety, Victoria chewed her lower lip and stared out the window at the passing scenery. In many ways, Albuquerque was like Phoenix. Certainly, the landscaping and architecture of the high desert city reminded her of home. Small discrepancies such as unfamiliar local businesses and vegetation really stood out. Those differences served to sharpen the knowledge that she could never go home again. Even if they managed to make peace with the hunters, she couldn't return to the place full of so many painful memories.
From that first date with Daniel, she'd known becoming involved with a hunter was wrong, but she hadn't been able to resist him. When he asked her out, she'd gone in defiance of good sense while questioning his motives and her own the whole time. She didn’t hide that she was dating a hunter from her parents or pack. However, they'd kept their relationship a secret from Jake Barrett and the rest of his family.
The first time Daniel broached the issue had been a rainy Sunday morning in April. He lay sprawled across her queen-sized mattress with the headboard and a stack of pillows propped behind his torso. His dark eyes followed her every move as she dressed in medical scrubs. She had an upcoming shift in the emergency room of Good Samaritan Hospital where she worked as a nurse.
"Call in sick. Play hooky with me." Daniel wore a wicked smile and a sheet tangled around his hips. His tanned skin contrasted sharply with the white cotton. He lacked tan lines, even in the middle of winter, a fact she teased him mercilessly about.
"I can't. People are counting on me." She frowned to hide her amusement. In the few months they'd been together, she'd learned that indulging his antics only made his behavior worsen. She certainly didn't want him to know just how much the offer to climb beneath the covers with him tempted her.
"What time are you off?"
She perched on the edge of the bed and pulled on her shoes. "I'm working three consecutive twelve-hour shifts in the ER. Then, I have plans with friends Thursday and pack business on Friday. I'm visiting my parents Saturday."
While she tied the laces, he rolled onto his side. His hand snaked across the mattress and caressed the curve of her backside through her blue scrubs. "I don't want to have to wait a week to see you again."
Victoria didn't like it either, but she put on a cool smile and evaded his grasp. Glancing back, she said, "You'll live. Besides, it keeps the sex interesting."
Daniel's brow furrowed, and he sat upright. Anger honed his features and sharpened his scent. "We've got more than sex going for us."
Startled, she stood and turned to face him. "Sure, we have fun together. I couldn't ask for a better hunting partner."
They worked together well as a team. To avoid other hunters, their expeditions often took them to remote, isolated areas outside the city. They preferred to stalk and destroy vampires. Undea
d were unusually common in the Phoenix area. They'd also taken on the odd ghost, and what might have been a chupacabra... Or a member of her pack playing pranks. They'd never figured that one out.
Daniel surged off the mattress. His wide stance and the position of his shoulders reminded her of a wrestler. His aura shimmered with vibrant red-toned swirls. "You just don't want to admit that we're good together."
"Whoa, hold up there, lover." Her hands rose to his abdomen, and she smoothed her palms across his sides. "We're good together. That's not the issue at all. And you know it."
Beneath her touch, he stilled. His heartbeat slowed, and his respiration steadied. An elusive empathetic resonance buzzed in the air between them, strong enough so she felt his restrained anger. The connection wasn't as intimate as the pack bond, but it held tantalizing promise.
Resolve hardened in his eyes. He placed a finger under her chin and raised her face so only inches separated them. Their breath mingled, and the moment became as intimate as a kiss.
Her breath hitched. Mentally, she crossed her fingers and prayed he wouldn't do this now. She wasn't ready to have the big commitment talk yet. They hadn't been dating long enough for her to even be sure how she felt about him. For every reason they should be together, a dozen real world considerations existed to keep them apart.
"Daniel–"
He held her gaze. "I'm going to tell my father about us."
Upon hearing him say it aloud, her alarm spiked. His intentions were as she suspected and as she feared. She liked things as they were between them. She didn't want everything to change. Her grip on his sides tightened. "No."
"Victoria, we need to discuss this." His jaw twitched near the corner of his mouth. The set of his shoulders, as well as every nuance of his body's posture, bespoke staunch determination. The man was a force to be reckoned with when he set his mind to something.
Exhaling, she let go of him and took a step backward. "I don't have time for this right now. I need to leave or I'm going to be late for work."
"When then?" His jaw tipped in a stubborn jut. "When do you have time?"
"Call me tonight." She shot him a long, unhappy look. He hated being put off, but she expected him to be reasonable. He couldn't upend their entire dynamic and expect her to adjust at a moment's notice. "Please don't go ruining what we've got. I want to enjoy it while it lasts."
