The Wild Within (Book 2)

by Jeff Hale

  He?

  “You called her father?” Darien asked, voice still hollow.

  Matt nodded. “With Katelyn’s disappearance and possible death, Loch is afraid they might target Roslyn. He said he understands if you two want to go look for her, but he would like me to stay here.”

  Darien and I had already discussed it and we were planning on taking off in the next few minutes to conduct our own search. It would be tricky, especially with police out looking for her as well, but we had to try. We both got up and headed for the front door, Darien turning back to Matt to say, “Call me when he gets here, I’ll let you know if we’ve had any progress.”

  We headed to Leslie Groves Park first. Darien put the name of the park and the town into the GPS program on his cell phone and it wasn’t too hard to find. We stuck to the edges of the park, avoiding the police that were still there searching the scene.

  Trying to find Katelyn’s scent mixed in among that of so many vehicles and other people was extremely difficult, but as we circled the area, Darien finally picked up on it, leaving the park. The dusty smell of vampires was mixed in with it. We weren’t necessarily happy about the discovery; it only furthered the conclusion that the vampires had taken her somewhere else to kill her. We followed the trail anyway, hopeful that we might be wrong.

  It split off awhile later, Katelyn’s scent separating from the vampires, making us wonder if she had indeed gotten away from them. We tracked her to an empty house, bits of her blood on the jagged glass of a broken window, confirming that she had been alive at this point… and not in the company of vampires. We found where it led away from the house, to another secluded grassy area.

  That’s where we found the dead body, the older gentleman that the police obviously hadn’t come across yet, hidden back from the intersection about a block up. He had been clawed and bitten, a certain shifter attack to mine and Darien’s eyes, but it didn’t seem to be enough damage to kill him, at least not outright. The man’s discolored and crushed throat on the other hand, that was what had more than likely ended his life.

  “She shifted, it had to have been her,” Darien said softly, squatting next to the old man’s body. His hands traced the wounds in the air above them. “But she didn’t kill him, at least not this way.” He sniffed the air again, frowning. “Vampires again, here, and someone else, someone not a walking corpse, mixed in with her smell.” He turned away from the body, stood, scanning the ground around him. “There was a lot of movement here, lots of feet, but that’s all I can tell.”

  We circled the area again, in ever widening loops, until I came across Katelyn’s scent, not the way we’d first followed her to the area, not mixed with vampires, but still mixed with that other one. And then, at the edge of the sidewalk, it disappeared.

  “I think she got into a car, Darien. Her trail ends here, right along the street, right where a car might have picked her up.”

  He nodded, agreeing with me, but his shoulders slumped. “And now that means she could be anywhere, could still be dead, if the vampires caught back up with her down the road.”

  His cell phone buzzed, startling both of us, but he pulled it from his pocket and answered it. I could hear Matt on the other end telling us that Katelyn’s father was there. “Alright, but we’re done here. We’ll be back to the house in a short bit, might as well just fill you in then.” He snapped it shut, looked at me, and sighed. “Let’s go. Hopefully, if her father decides to kill me, he’ll make it quick.”

  ____________________

  Lochlan Shaughnessy was not exactly what I had expected.

  I had briefly seen the picture that Katelyn had shown to us, but for some reason I had expected a much larger and outwardly intimidating person. After all, Lochlan was Beta to his rakshasa pack, next in line after the Alpha. Unlike pure vampires, the hybrids held more to their shifter roots when it came to their hierarchies.

  So I was taken aback to see this tall, incredibly slender man sitting in one of Roslyn’s overstuffed armchairs. He would maybe weigh in around a hundred forty pounds soaking wet, despite being the same height as Darien. The moment I saw his face there was no doubting his paternity of Katelyn; the resemblance was incredibly strong.

  His hair was the same deep auburn that Katelyn had, cut short but styled spiky. His eyes were a slightly different shade, a piercing blue instead of Katelyn’s sea-blue, but the cheekbones and nose were the same, although still very decidedly masculine. The mouth was different, his lips somewhat thinner, but he had the same pale Irish skin; being a vampire hadn’t affected him much on that score. A few freckles graced the bridge of his nose.

  He wore black dress pants and a grey dress shirt, no tie, and as we came through the door, I could feel the Alpha vibe exude off of him. Matt was sitting on the couch nearest him, deep in conversation, but they both looked up as the door shut behind us.

  Those blue eyes met mine and I felt a coldness settle into the pit of my stomach. There was no warmth, no compassion in those eyes, only a hardened ruthlessness that brooked no opposition. It reminded me that this man, while he had started life as a shifter, was now continuing death as a vampire. I gave him a slow nod, showing deference and that I recognized that he was farther up the ladder than I was, but I was not necessarily expected to kowtow to him; Darien was my Alpha, not Lochlan.

  Lochlan gave me the briefest nod before turning his sights on Darien. I felt Darien’s own Alpha aura flare and he met Lochlan’s gaze squarely, not giving the rakshasa any ground. They stayed that way for an agonizing couple of minutes before Lochlan finally gave a satisfied nod and a chilly smile crossed his lips.

  Darien took the few steps into the living room proper, dropped into the other armchair, and I took up a perch on the opposite end of the couch, near Darien. It looked like Lochlan hadn’t brought anyone else with him, and then I remembered that Matt was Lochlan’s right hand man.

  “So, ye’d be the lad that’s after courtin’ me daughter, would ye?” Lochlan’s brogue was still somewhat thick, despite what was probably years living in the States.

  The cold smile was still there and his eyes looked Darien over in an almost insultingly casual way. Not that I got the impression that Lochlan was trying to insult Darien, only that he was trying to size Darien up and wasn’t impressed yet. Matt chuckled lightly from the other end of the couch.

  “Yes, sir, I am,” Darien answered, keeping his voice even. He copied Lochlan’s appraising glance.

  Lochlan actually laughed, the first hint of warm emotion that I had seen. “Go néirí an bóthar leat,” he said in what I could only guess might be Gaelic. He was probably old enough that it was his original language. “An' yet you le’ ‘er walk out tha door wi’out stoppin’ ‘er?”

  Darien tilted his head to one side and considered the comment. “To be fair, sir, your daughter has an incredibly strong will and doesn’t take being told what to do very well.”

  Lochlan didn’t seem surprised. “Takes after me, she does. Would tha’ she were a wee bit more like ‘er mo’er.” His eyes flicked towards the archway, to where I knew Roslyn was still sleeping, then his expression went back to chilly. “Still, she shouldna been allowed tae leave. But ‘tis done. Did ye find anythin’?”

  Darien inclined his head. “There’s a chance, a good one, that she might still be alive. We caught her trail, she was still alive, elsewhere, after the boy she was with was killed, but then it goes cold. We think she got into a car, but she was with someone else, someone not a vampire, who’s scent we didn’t recognize.”

  “Tha’s somethin’ at least.” Lochlan still didn’t look happy. “It’s almost four in the morning. Why don’ ye get some sleep? I’ve men on tha property, hidden, tae keep an eye out. Tell Matty here where ye found evidence o’ ‘er at, he might be able tae see somthin’ ye missed. If ye’ll just point out me lass’s room first?”

  Darien told Matt where all the places were that we’d found Katelyn’s trail, while I led Lochlan to her room. I stood
in the doorway as he moved into the room, stopping to run a hand over the comforter on her bed, his eyes moving from the posters on her walls to the pictures on her desk and the corkboard she had on the wall near it. He picked up a framed picture of Katelyn and her mother, running his fingers over the glass.

  “She’s beautiful, init she?” he asked, more to himself than me I thought, and I wasn’t sure if he was talking about Katelyn or Roslyn.

  For the briefest moment, I saw vulnerability in the man, and then quickly, as if he realized I was still in the room, it was gone.

  “I’ll be fine now, laddie, ye can go.”

  And just like that, I was dismissed. I shut the door to Katelyn’s room behind me and headed back downstairs, saw Darien move past me to the kitchen, probably for the family room, and I followed him.

  “Damn, he’s a cold son of a bitch,” I commented to Darien after we got the family room door shut. I tried to keep my voice pitched low, not that I figured they wouldn’t hear us if they truly had a mind to.

  “He’s a vampire, what did you expect?” Darien asked me, settling onto the hide-a-bed and stretching his legs out in front of him. He didn’t bother to turn on the TV; we were both deathly tired.

  “Well, so is Matt, and he isn’t that way.” I hadn’t met any other hybrids before now other than Matt so I didn’t have a lot to go on.

  “You didn’t know Matt when he was still just a shifter, I did. He’s a lot different now, and sometimes I think he hides from us just how different he is.”

  I turned out the light and lay down on the other side of the hide a bed, rolling onto my stomach. “Still, I would not want to get on the wrong side of that man.” I shivered and buried my face in my arms.

  “Neither would I, Alex. I know his type, that man is dangerous,” Darien said from beside me, sighing heavily.

  “Do we need to worry?”

  “No. He doesn’t blame us. But I pity anyone he does decide is a threat to Kat or Roslyn.”

  I shivered again, agreeing with Darien silently, but as dangerous as the man seemed, there was always something bigger and badder out there. I just hoped that it didn’t have Katelyn.

  EIGHTEEN

  Alex

  I was woken by the sound of a sharp, almost bloodcurdling scream, followed by a spate of invectives in a female voice, and the crash of something breaking.

  Darien actually beat me to the door, both of us clad only in jeans, both of us hurtling full tilt up the stairs and into the kitchen where Roslyn stood, arm pulled back to launch a small potted plant she had snagged from a shelf. Her eyes were wild and a screech came from her as she hurled the hapless vegetation across the room.

  Lochlan took a half step to the side, the pot shattering on the counter edge, its pieces joining that of another one already on the floor, dirt scattering across the tile. He reached down to gingerly pluck the little cactus off the floor, setting it on the counter next to its companion, before giving Darien and me both a flat look.

  “I was lookin’ fer some tea an’ I didna expect ‘er tae be awake yet.” There was a mug on the counter near the rescued cacti, and a small box of teabags. He turned his eyes back to Katelyn’s mother, his expression one of patience. “Ros, love, please tae put tha plant down.”

  Sure enough, she had scooped up another one. If I remembered correctly, there had been a row of four small potted cacti on the little shelf; there was one left on the shelf, and a second in her hands, the other two already victims of her anger.

  “You sonofabitch!” she yelled, still threatening with the cactus. “Eighteen fucking years! Eighteen fucking years!”

  The color was high in her cheeks and I wondered if she might have taken his sudden reappearance a bit better if she wasn’t already stressed over Katelyn; I had never gotten the impression that she was wont to give in to violence.

  “I buried you, you asshole!” she continued on with her rant. “And then I walk in here and there you are, making fucking tea like everything was normal?!”

  I heard a light step behind me. The commotion had woken Kris as well and she was peering past my shoulder, rubbing her eyes with one hand.

  “What’s going on?” she whispered, staring at Lochlan and rubbing her eyes again. “That can’t be who I think it is?”

  I just nodded, watching as Darien moved up behind Roslyn, deftly plucking the pot from her hand.

  Her head turned toward him, pinning him with a deadly look. “You knew! And you couldn’t have fucking warned me?”

  “Roslyn! Sweet Mary, ye curse now like a drunken sailor!” Lochlan gave her a reproving look. “And dinna take it out on tha lad, it’s no’ his fault!”

  “Two weeks I’ve been sober now and I’ve never wanted a drink so bad in all my life so I’ll take it out on whoever I damn well please! You will not admonish me for swearing, you lost that right when you left me when Katelyn was a baby!” She sucked in a deep breath, the fight suddenly seeming to go out of her, and she sank to her knees on the tile, Darien guiding her descent. “Our baby, Lochlan! Ours! And she’s gone now! I can’t lose her, I can’t…” She shook as tears overcame her, wrapping her arms around her middle and rocking back and forth.

  Lochlan was at her side in a blur of movement, kneeling on the floor next to her and pulling her into his arms, cradling her against his chest, one hand stroking her back. “I’ve got ye now, love, I’ve got ye.”

  He pressed a kiss to her forehead, that warmth back again, and I realized that while he was probably an extremely cold and ruthless person, when it came to the people he loved, the emotion could be there. I really did not envy anyone who might make the mistake of trying to take what Lochlan loved away from him.

  “She’ll be all right, we’ll find ‘er.” His eyes flicked to Darien. “Darien, lad, could you give us a wee bit? I ken I need to explain to Roslyn all tha’ has happened wi’ me.”

  We retreated out of the kitchen, herding Kris with us. I hadn’t seen any sign of Matt and I assumed he was holed up sleeping somewhere.

  “So is that really Kat’s dad?” Kris asked the moment we were in the living room.

  “Yes,” Darien replied, running fingers through his disheveled hair. He hadn’t put it in the customary pony tail yet and it draped over his shoulders like a dark curtain. “Apparently he had a little accident which resulted into his being made into a vampire hybrid, a rakshasa, like Matt, when Kat was a baby. From what Matt said, he didn’t want Roslyn to have to deal with being married to a vampire, so he arranged his ‘death’.”

  “She’s pissed at him,” Kris remarked, glancing back towards the kitchen. “I didn’t know she could get that mad.”

  “Love can do that to you.” There was a sad look in Darien’s eyes, one that was only held back from getting worse by the hope that we still might find Katelyn.

  About twenty minutes later, Lochlan and Roslyn emerged from the kitchen, she leaning into him, his arm tight around her shoulders. Lochlan gave us a look that clearly said he had everything under control, and then he and Roslyn disappeared through the arch to her room. Despite the fact that their daughter was missing, there were eighteen years of catching up to do.

  The police showed up again later on in the afternoon. Darien knocked softly on Roslyn’s bedroom door, told her they were there, and she came out a moment later. She didn’t look any happier than she had earlier, but she looked more stable, as though she might be able to handle things better.

  The police told her that they hadn’t found anything new, asked her if Katelyn had shown up yet, and they showed sympathy upon finding out that she hadn’t. After they left, Darien and I went out again, searching the area, hoping to find something that we had missed. We didn’t, and we returned toward evening with heavy hearts, Darien’s resolve starting to waver again, the hopelessness beginning to set in.

  Matt was awake when we got back. He and Lochlan were in private conversation downstairs in the family room. Roslyn and Kris had spent the afternoon playing car
ds and board games in the dining room, anything to keep their minds off of Katelyn.

  So when Roslyn’s cell phone rang, little multicolored plastic pieces ended up falling to the floor as, anxious, she scrambled to answer it. Her voice was almost hesitant as she said hello. I immediately focused my hearing, knowing that Darien was doing the same.

  “Momma?” Katelyn’s voice whispered the word and next to me I heard a sharp exhale of breath from Darien.

  “Katelyn?” Roslyn’s voice rose in pitch. “Is that you?”

  “Yes, Momma,” she replied hoarsely, “it’s me.”

  “Oh, thank God! Are you all right? We thought you were dead!” Roslyn sagged into her chair in relief, but her voice still managed to sound parentally admonishing.

  “I’m fine, Momma, I am.” It sounded like Katelyn was trying not to cry.

  “Where are you, sweetie?”

  “I’m in Las Vegas, Momma.”

  “What on earth are you doing in Las Vegas?!” Roslyn asked her, incredulous.

  I echoed her sentiment. What was Katelyn doing in Las Vegas?

  “Aerick brought me here, Mom, it was the only safe place he could think of.” Katelyn went on the defensive. “He’s only trying to keep me safe, Mom, and he’s got some pretty powerful friends.”

  “Aerick? The boy you dated while we were there, the one that came up and took you to Prom?” I could tell that Roslyn was confused.

  So was I.

  And then I remembered. The boy in the picture, the one that Matt recognized. The one that Kris had said Katelyn had thought she was in love with.

  “The magic user,” Darien muttered next to me, fingers clenching.

  “Yes, Aerick, Mom,” Katelyn said, sounding somewhat exasperated. “He’s not… normal, Mom, like I’m not normal, only in a different way. He saved me from the vampires that killed Cody—” her voice caught “—brought me here. I would have called earlier, but we were afraid they might have a way of listening in, would follow us. But I’m safe, Mom, I’m okay.”