He recalled her scent—a mix of spiced honey blended with a flowery bouquet. It was intoxicating and he had a hard time focusing past it. The irony was that she was constantly spraying high-priced perfumes on her skin and there was no need, although he was thankful that she did. It helped masked her natural aroma and made it somewhat easier to be around her.
“Me too.” His admittance was barely a whisper, but Corrine didn’t miss it.
“Before you see her again you need to feed. I don’t want to lose you, and if you’re worried, then she’s stronger than we thought.”
He simply nodded and grabbed another mini whiskey, cracked the cap, and chugged it.
“Is everything in place?” It was a pointless question really, but a part of him needed reassurance. Corrine had been planning Echo’s cleansing for years and he knew that once he’d captured her, all he needed to do was take her to the caves, but there was still that small voice of doubt in his mind that they would be able to pull it off.
Echo came from a long line of Witches that specialized in hunting his kind. She had not been raised in the gift because her parents had died when she was so young, but once her power was awakened, it would become instinct. There would be a small window when she was at her weakest during the awakening and it was then that they needed to strike. Corrine had planned out every detail. All Henry had to do was play his part in tainting her blood. He’d get a cheap thrill from the Witch before Corrine slit her throat, bled her out, and freed her gift for the transfer.
“You know it is, Henry. Stop worrying. I’ve got everything under control. What you need to worry about is gaining her trust.” She paused. “Without losing yourself.”
“Fine. Just stop being so pushy and let me do it my way. I’ll get to her—I can see it when she looks at me. It won’t be long now.”
Another minute of silence.
“Has her mark appeared?”
“I don’t know.” He admitted, “I haven’t gotten that close yet.”
“Fine. You’ve got a week. We’re running out of time and I won’t let your fucking ego ruin everything!”
Before he could argue he heard the line go dead. He pulled the Bluetooth from his hear and tossed it onto the table. Corrine could be a total bitch, but Henry couldn’t fault her concerns. She’d been after Echo since the accident and the truth of her gift had come to light. There was a lot at stake and there was no room for a weak link.
Echo’s dark brown doe eyes flashed in his mind. She was beautiful, even though he knew she didn’t think of herself in that way. In an odd way, her modesty made her even more attractive. The spark of desire he’d seen in her at the club burned into his mind.
His intent at the club had not been to drag Paige into the game, but when Echo refused to play with him and Paige had offered herself up, Henry seized the opportunity. He was fully aware of Paige’s poorly hidden desire for him so on the dance floor he manipulated her emotions and allowed her to release her lust. He’d been curious if he could trigger lust in Echo by showing her a more seductive side of himself, and though he’d succeeded, something else had appeared that he was unprepared for. She’d actually been jealous.
He smiled as he recalled the childlike hurt in her eyes as he ran his hands over her best friend’s body. She’d clearly regretted that she hadn’t accepted his offer and wished that it was her body that was pressed into him instead of Paige..
Desire stirred in his groin.
Fuck. He needed to get his shit under control. Corrine would be more than furious if he’d finally get Echo to trust him only long enough for him to ravage her body. Things had to be done a certain way and his craving for her would get in the way.
He needed a distraction. Corrine had been right. He needed to feed, needed to satisfy his hunger before he dared approach her again. He grabbed the keys to his rental car and his black leather jacket. He still had time to hunt before the sun came up.
* * * *
One of his favorite things about Central Oregonians was that they loved their parks. There were a total of sixty-some-odd parks and trails throughout Bend itself and it gave Henry and his family plenty of seclusion for their necessary diet.
It was the park out by the Falls, however, that was his preferred stomping ground. Just outside of Redmond and on the way to the small town of Sisters, the park was tucked back off of the main road, hidden within countless trees. It was a quaint little area perfect for a nice afternoon picnic. It was also perfect for a late-night snack.
Henry guided the rented Subaru along the drive into the park and stopped near the restrooms. It would draw too much attention if he tried to hide the car and had learned years ago that the best place to go unnoticed was right in plain sight.
As he sat there, motor running, radio playing quietly in the background, and the headlights dimmed, he waited. Like most of his kind, he knew that his patience always paid off and while he sat he thought of Echo. He remembered the day Corrine had approached him, desperate for someone that she could trust to do her dirty work for her. At first he hesitated. Corrine was known to go off the deep end and he’d gone down that road with her before only to find that her paranoia was exactly that—simple paranoia.
The day she showed up, spewing tales of some lost Witch whose powers had been dormant but were soon to awaken, he laughed in her face. They hadn’t had trouble with Witches since the Abbotts had been killed. They’d been the last coven of Hunters and although the one sister still lived, she only possessed a passive gift so she was not an actual threat. Even Corrine’s concern that Echo was an Abbott had not convinced him. It was the details of Charlie’s death that had caught his attention.
Corrine had found him, head severed and body charred, tangled up inside his damned truck. The authorities had concluded that his death had been caused by the accident, but their kind did not die so easily. Corrine had conducted her own type of investigation and discovered that the fire that had consumed him had been ignited by the gift of a Hunter. The only person with him was Echo and she had been thrown from truck before Charlie had been consumed by the flames. It seemed simple enough to conclude that she’d started it, but Henry demanded actual proof before he committed to hunting an innocent woman.
On the night that Corrine had visited Echo in the hospital, she’d taken a sample of the woman’s blood and delivered it to Henry. From scent alone he knew she’d been right, but it was the taste that put him over the edge. When he’d emptied the tiny vial into his mouth, the blood spreading out along his tongue, he was filled with the tingling pulse of her gift. Her spicy-sweet flavor had given him a natural high, but it had also caused his dick to twitch with an odd desire. His mind flooded with images of her sweat-slicked body impaled on his cock as he drained every drop of blood from her.
It had taken all of his self-control to stop from going to her that night and every night since. To keep others from having her, he agreed to join Corrine in her pursuit and had been watching her from afar ever since—his desire building with each passing moment.
The image of her blood dripping down onto the tile floor from the night before flashed into his mind. He’d almost taken her then but he’d held on to his conviction and left her alive.
He licked his lips in anticipation, closing his eyes to the memory of her flavor when a tap on the window broke his concentration.
On the other side of the glass stood a woman. She was plain and earthy with long frizzy hair, no makeup, and from her scent it was clear she hadn’t taken kindly to bathing.
Patience.
He pushed the button and rolled the window down just a crack.
“Can I help you?” He could smell her desperation so it wouldn’t take much to draw her in.
“Um, ya,” she stuttered, “ya got a few bucks you can spare? I’m…outta gas.”
She reeked. The stench of stale cigarettes and months of unwashed morning breath wafted through the window and her body odor was thick and musky, with a hint of dirt and wet grass.
She probably lived down by the river and hung back in the shadows, waiting for her own prey to appear. He wondered how steadfast her patience was and out of shear boredom, chose to play a game.
“Well,” he began as he rolled the window down further, “I don’t have any cash on me…would you like me to take you to a gas station?”
Her eyes darted around anxiously as she checked to see that he was the only one in the car and when she was satisfied that they were alone, he watched her look back over her shoulder and give a subtle nod.
Yep, just as he’d suspected. The woman had a partner.
“Yeah, uh that’d be great. Mind if my friend comes with? Safety in numbers, ya know.”
Without waiting for his answer a large man with similar hygiene issues stepped out from the cover of trees and strode up to the car. He wore a much more menacing expression on his face and Henry stifled a laugh. The man probably assumed that they were mere seconds away from a successful mugging.
Keeping his voice and his gaze steady, he smiled over at the man.
“Sure! Hop on in. I’m not from here, but I think I saw a gas station about five or so miles back right at the end of town.”
He clicked up the lock and waited for the couple to climb into the car. The woman took her place in the front passenger side and the man seated himself directly behind Henry. He wondered what their game was. Would the woman hit on him? Perhaps offer him a favor in exchange for more money? Maybe the man would try to choke him out over the more violent attempt at bashing his skull in. Either way, it was going to be entertaining.
Once they were comfortably in place Henry turned to stare at the woman. From the feigned lust in her eyes, he knew they were going with the sex-for-money play.
“So, uh.” She stumbled over her words, the man in the back seat perfectly silent and still. “You’re not from here? Where’d ya come from?”
“Well, I’m actually here on business. Came over from Nevada to look into some real-estate options. The property out here is fuckin’ cheap as hell.”
Hopefully they were smart enough to know that Nevada equaled legalized prostitution, making him open to a little tickle swap. By the look in her eyes, the woman had caught the hint.
She reached her filth-covered hand over and gripped Henry’s thigh, nodding back over to her partner.
“Hey, if you’re feelin’ homesick maybe Roy and I can work out a deal with ya?”
Her smile made him sick, but the hunger that tickled in the back of his mouth voided his desire for cleaner prey.
Like a little kid in a candy store, Henry allowed an eager smile to cross his lips.
“Oh yeah? You two are into that?”
“For the right price.” Perfect. The man’s greed and utter disrespect for his female companion had just sealed their fate.
“Oh good.” Henry’s voice was like silk and as a wicked smile crossed his lips the woman suddenly shudder in fear. In a blur, he swiftly aimed his fist into the back seat and planted it on the man’s face, all while gripping the woman by the throat, squeezing off her esophagus so that she couldn’t scream.
Fear played in the woman’s eyes and tears began to fall down her face as she tried to call out for help, but Henry had her right where he wanted her. Fear enhanced the bouquet of a victim’s blood not unlike a fine red wine and he salivated in anticipation.
“Are you high?”
Unable to speak, the woman merely nodded, more tears falling from her eyes.
“On what?” Henry demanded.
With quivering hands, the woman reached down into a pocket of the jacket that looked to once belong to an overweight man and pulled out a small baggy filled with white powder.
“Meth?”
She nodded as best as she could, but Henry’s tight grip restricted not only her voice and breath, but her movement as well. It had been a while since Henry had allowed himself to be tainted, but this was admittedly the fix he was after. Alcohol wasn’t strong enough to numb him and he couldn’t get Echo out of his mind. He had to do something extreme.
“Him, too?” He nodded to the unconscious asshole in the back.
More tears and another attempted nod. Good. Double the fun. Maybe it would knock him out and he could finally take a break from his overwhelming Echo obsession.
“You’ve been very helpful.” His voice had turned silk again, and as he burned his dark red stare into the woman, she wiggled and squirmed and clawed at his hand as she attempted to get away.
Henry loosened his grip on her throat, just enough that a strained scream could escape. He loved to hear them scream. He closed his eyes and savored the moment before silencing the woman forever.
Chapter Eight
Sitting in her aunt’s living room, Echo was overwhelmed with emotion. She wasn’t sure how much more she could handle. It was bad enough that her own life had taken an unexpected turn, but she’d dragged Paige into the mess and now her best friend lay in the other room unconscious.
With no one else to turn to, Echo had called Bridgette in desperation, and even though it had easily been ten years since she’d seen her, she knew the woman would not turn her away. True to her promise that she would always be there, her aunt did not hesitate and picked them up without so much as a question.
Not much had changed in the small two-bedroom that her aunt called home. It was crowded with brightly colored decorations and knickknacks, peppered throughout with Wiccan paraphernalia. A single couch filled the tiny living room. It was the same couch from Echo’s childhood and the air was heavy with the scent of incense. Hanging from the walls were homemade protection charms and in various bowls scattered around the house were dried flowers and herbs. Bridgette had always been very adamant about the power of the Wiccan way of life and Echo believed her to be more than a few cards short of a full tarot deck.
They’d fought over it on more than one occasion with the last one being the worst. Echo had never truly recovered from the death of her parents and Bridgette had refused to talk about them. Echo wasn’t even allowed to speak their names and on one occasion she’d lost her self-control and flipped out on her aunt. She remembered crying and screaming, telling Bridgette that she was a crazy old hag and that it was no wonder her mother had written her off before her death. Bridgette had cried and defended the way she’d raised Echo, claiming it was what her mother would have wanted, that Echo was special and Bridgette was the only one who knew how to protect her. She spoke of dark forces who would hunt her if they knew she existed and Echo told her to fuck off, that the dark forces could come and she wouldn’t care, and that she didn’t love Bridgette and never had. It was mean and cruel and she didn’t mean a word of it.
Echo was not good at stopping herself though and once she crossed a line, she tended to do it with full gusto. She stood in the center of her aunt’s house and called out to her parents, screaming their names and daring the dark forces to find her. Nothing magical had happened as Bridgette had claimed it would, but the woman had been so overworked by the fight that her weakened heart had reached its limit. She crumbled to the floor, her body racked with pain, and begged Echo to call for an ambulance.
She ended up needing an emergency triple bypass and as Echo stood in the hospital room at St. Charles, tears rolled down her cheeks. When her aunt was finally out of surgery, but before she awoke from the anesthesia, Echo bailed. She left her a note telling her how sorry she was and told Bridgette not to worry.
It was shortly after that when she met Charlie. To say they were estranged was definitely an understatement.
From the other room, Bridgette shuffled her heavy frame out to meet with Echo. She hadn’t aged well, her skin leathery and wrinkled, making her look at least twenty years older than she was. Unable to be as active as she once had been, Bridgette had also packed on about fifty extra pounds and her oversized frock was not flattering. Her emerald eyes, however, had remained as kind and full of wisdom as always, and Echo could feel a pang in her heart—guilt over the p
oor way she’d treated the woman who had in essence been the only mother she’d really ever known.
Without a word, Bridgette scootched her butt beside Echo on the couch and pulled her into an embrace, her arms tightly wrapped around her niece.
In that moment Echo felt like a lost child again, confused and alone, her only anchor to sanity being Bridgette. How had she turned her back on this woman?
“I’m so sorry, Bridgette.” Her words barely broke through the thick wave of tears as she allowed herself to sink into the hug.
The weight of the world was too heavy and though she could feel it crushing her, being in her aunt’s arms Echo could also feel a strand of hope warm her. Time seemed to stand still as she was curled up in Bridgette’s embrace and a thick cloud of sleep teased at her mind. She wasn’t sure if it was the tequila or the stress of the night, but sleep sounded like a gift and she allowed herself to sink in and hold on for dear life.
Hours later when she jerked awake, confusion rolled through her. She didn’t know where she was, what time it was, or why she wasn’t in her own bed. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and raised her arms above her head to stretch out her aching muscles. Pale light was streaming in through the windows and it gave off enough of a glow that it allowed Echo to figure out where she was. There was no mistaking her crazy aunt’s house.
Memories of the night before flooded her and panic over Paige prompted her to get up and stumble around the house. She walked down the short hall to the guest bedroom and peaked through the open door. Paige lay curled up on her side, sound asleep.
“She’ll be fine.”
Bridgette’s soft voice startled Echo and when she turned around she saw her aunt sitting at the dining-room table, alone in the dark minus the flame of a single candle. In an attempt to not wake Paige, Echo quietly stepped down the hallway that led directly to the dining room and took the seat closest to Bridgette.
“Are you sure?”
Bridgette sat quietly and stared off in the distance for long enough that Echo began to feel uncomfortable.
Echo in the Night [Echo's Song] (Siren Publishing Allure) Page 6
