The Hailey Holloway Complete Series

by K. C. Stewart

  A log split in half with a loud crack. It whipped him back to the present. Both hands ran over his head and rested on his neck. Slumped in defeat Dacea hung his head as he gained his composure. His arctic run was looking better and better by the moment. Shaking the last of the memory he stood and rolled his shoulders.

  The next stop was to the coffee pot. Darby was an early riser and he had probably already woken her just by moving around. He couldn't do much for her condition but while he was there he would take care of her the best he could. That meant coffee awaiting her.

  Dacea left the warming room and the dripping coffee to head into the morning. The first breath of air chilled his lungs. Any dredges of sleep that were lurking fell away instantly. He was happy to see that no more snow had fallen during the night. What snow there was would be enough of a challenge. He took off on the east trail. It was the shortest of his runs at only a mile and a half. He didn't want a long one but just enough to free his mind for a little while.

  The cold air did its job and cleared his head within minutes. This was where he belonged. Not in the overgrown concrete jungle of the city but here in the mountains. Out here he could breathe. He could let his dragon free and fly whenever he pleased. If he wasn't who he was, in control of what he was, this is where he would settle. Maybe not this mountain exactly but somewhere like it. Somewhere where the closest neighbor was miles away instead of yards. Where the only light at night came from the moon and stars instead of the glow of the city that polluted the air.

  Sept leaders had to be accessible. They needed to be in a place where others could reach them without driving through the backwoods of the world. In other words, they had to be anywhere but where they belonged.

  He had just found his rhythm on the snowy ground when the cabin had come back into sight. His pace slowed to a walk and as it did, the floodgates of his mind opened back up. Worry over Darby, planning the next steps as a rogue sept and Hailey all fixed back up in his head like they had never left.

  "Christ, can't I get a few minutes of peace?"

  The mountain answered him with silence.

  Darby was waiting for him wrapped in a quilt with a mug of steaming coffee. He looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "What do you think you're doing?" he asked as he climbed the steps to the deck.

  "Bringing you something hot after your idiotic run." The mug was shoved toward him once he reached the top step. "You're going to get sick," she said with a scowl.

  "You're one to talk!"

  "I'd welcome sickness if it would speed this up." She held the door for him as they went into the warm cabin. Dacea was frowning at her. That wasn't the first comment of its kind. Over dinner she had made a few with the same implication.

  "Stop sulking."

  "I'm not sulking."

  "Yes, you are. I can feel your eyes trying to drill holes into my head." She turned to face him with a look asking him to prove her wrong.

  "Do you want breakfast?" he asked changing the subject while stomping past her into the small kitchen. Dacea opened the fridge and studied the contents.

  "I want you to tell me why you are here."

  "Eggs it is then." He grabbed the carton along with some bacon.

  "What happened between you and Hailey?"

  "Why do you think I'm here because of Hailey?" Her name felt taboo on his lips. Like they had just broke some unspoken code not to not to say her name aloud.

  "The pan is in the cabinet on the left," she directed as he opened every door. "And you have been attached to her at the hip since meeting her. You presence here without her means you had a fight."

  Dacea pulled his sweatshirt over his head and draped it over the chair beside Darby. He didn't answer her but started frying the bacon instead. The sizzle of grease filled the room. He glared at the pan and aimlessly pushed the bacon around with a fork. "We broke up," he muttered while flipping the bacon.

  "No you didn't."

  He turned his head to find Darby looking entirely unconcerned. "Yes, we did." She was reading him. Trying to figure out just how serious this was. When she accepted it, she nodded.

  "Ok, so you broke up. Why?"

  "She ran," he stated simply.

  "And I take it you didn't follow?"

  The bacon was removed to a paper towel covered plate. He added the eggs after giving them a quick whisk. "I didn't. I told her I wouldn't chase her and still she ran. It's not like she wanted this life. Even though I've been busy with my sept I can see the uncertainly on her face and the boredom in her eyes." He pushed the eggs around.

  "Sounds like she just needs something to do."

  "She needs that and more." Dacea grabbed two plates and split the eggs and bacon between them. "We aren't a good fit. She has no need to be in the political end of my life and now that I am king again, that is all my life is anymore." He set a plate in front of her and took a seat.

  "That's a whole lot of bullshit coming out of your mouth." Darby bit into a piece of bacon.

  "Darby, it's the truth."

  "No it's what you're trying to spin as the truth but we both know you guys are a good fit and she would stand beside you whether you were king or a janitor. So are you done with your story? I'm interested in the real thing now."

  He didn't say anything as he shoveled the tasteless food into his mouth. Darby always did see through his shit. Lennox and Dacea could never get away with anything when she was around. He ran his fingers through his hair and conceded. "Short version? Katherine has been stalking me. Hailey found her letters and followed me when I went to meet her. I saw Hailey while I was with Katherine. She ran off to Silas's house and didn't come home." The last few words he spit out. "I waited for three days and she never even texted me."

  "So you both screwed up."

  "Yes...I mean no! If she would have just stayed to talk to me I could have explained. I was meeting Katherine to get her to stop stalking. It's plain that on top of everything else Hailey doesn't trust me. And we have Silas to thank for that."

  Darby had only eaten a small portion of her breakfast before pushing the plate away. He saw the movement and frowned. "Sounds like you both screwed up and instead of talking it through like adults you avoided each other. And Darlin' she trusts you, it's Katherine she doesn't trust and do you blame her? The harpy is a manipulator and your blind spot." She sent a pointed look his way asking for him to dispute it. "Look, I'm just going to say this then shut my trap. You obviously have your mind made up and I'm not trying to change it, but Hailey is your Mate. That's a one shot deal. She is going to be gone one day, and I don't mean she will be somewhere else in the world. I mean she will be gone, dead, kaput. You will be sorry then. You will know what true heartache is when there are no second chances."

  He had found her hand across the table. He knew she was speaking from experience. Lennox had died six month prior. Darby had tears ready to break free from her eyes. "I pray every day for death, but it never comes. You don't want to be me if you don't have to."

  She stood shakily and kissed his cheek. "Think about what you can live with and what you cannot. Nothing else matters."

  Chapter Twelve

  "Wendell, my pet, what did I say about cucumbers?" Katherine smiled but there was nothing happy with her expression. What good was the man if he couldn't get her order right?

  "You don't like them," the Council leader answered proudly.

  "Then why are they in my salad?" She speared one with her fork and held it up to him. Dread started in his shoulders, they visibly bunched together. Up next were the eyes which had gone horrified with his mistake. Finally his thin lips formed an "O" shape. The offending cucumber hovered in the air between them. Wendell kept skirting his eyes back and forth between her face and the slice of cucumber. She didn't say anything more instead let him squirm.

  "Oh. Oh no. I told them no cucumbers. That's not my fault." The coward was mumbling excuses and talking excessively with his hands. She could break him in a minute if she wanted. And oh
did she want too. But he was her puppet and she needed him for a little while longer.

  Then she would have her way with him.

  "Actually, it is your fault. Had you looked over my salad before you left the restaurant you would have seen that there were cucumbers on it." She sat on a lounge chair in a stream of sunlight filtering in through one of the many windows. The indoor pool created a warm moist air that was just divine in the middle of December. Katherine slid her sunglasses off her face and rested them on top of her head.

  "What am I supposed to do with it now?"

  "I can pick off the cucumbers."

  "Ewww," her lip curled in disgust, "I don't want your grubby fingers in my salad. I can't eat this," she said while tossing the salad to the ground. Leaves of various lettuces and cuts of vegetables littered the beige tile. It gave the room some much needed color. She leaned back in her chair and pushed the sunglasses back down onto her face.

  "Clean that up and get me a water with lemon and not too much ice." The warm sun beat down on her face. She closed her eyes and just soaked up the feeling. If she tried real hard, she could imagine she was in Miami instead of Pennsyl-fucking-tucky.

  "Yes. Um, ok."

  Katherine opened one eye and watched him shuffle away. His bald head shining like a beacon of monotony. The man had nothing going for him. Short and squat, Wendell gravitated toward the beige things in life. He didn't like to play too far out of the sandbox or color outside of the lines. With his position on the Council, he was like the hall monitor of dragons. No real power but they gave him a sash and a citation book to make him feel special.

  He was boring but he served her purpose. Katherine needed him to do whatever she wanted. And she wanted Dacea's submission into her collection. So far she had already put a hold on the war. Not that she didn't enjoy a good bloody battle once and again, it's just that she liked interrupting his plans even more.

  Dacea was in pain. It had been an accident but a happy one. Who would have thought Hailey would have shown up? Hah! She couldn't have planned it better herself. Katherine knew she had to strike soon while they were down. All day she had been racking her brain for something. But every idea she had was...blah.

  "Wendell!" she screeched.

  Shuffling footsteps sounded a few seconds later. Katherine pushed her sunglasses up again and took the water from his hands. "Oh, thank you," she smiled. "So I was thinking. Red is at a low with their king frolicking in the mountains and Green having to take care of a broken human sister. Now is the time to strike." Her eyes blazed with excitement. "Let's wound them and make them bleed."

  Her energy was contagious. She could see the two solitary brain cells in his head crashing into each other to form an idea. The dragon's face lit up. "We could kill a big group of them."

  Katherine's smiled dropped. "I was hoping for a little bit more than that.

  "Kill the women and children," he said suddenly. "People hate that kind of thing. Then we can leave the Council insignia for them to find."

  "Better," she told him, "much better." Gold star for Wendell today. "Get on that. Oh and Sweetie?" Her long lashes batted across her innocent eyes. "I need just a little bit more ice."

  *****

  "How's my favorite Wicked Witch of the West?" Hailey asked Darby while cradling the phone between her head and shoulder.

  "Better than you, and that's not sayin' much."

  "Is it that obvious?" Damn, she had really tried to sound normal just then. Hailey capped the brush to her nail polish and set the bottle aside. She had thought it was time for a change. Painting her nails seemed like a good activity to keep her mind in the right direction and off harmful topics such as Dacea MacKenna.

  "Nah, but I know what is going on between you and Dacea." Darby coughed a few times in the background making Hailey cringe. A chainsaw in a hurricane sounded better than that cough. "Sorry about that."

  "You have a cold? That sounded mighty painful."

  "Something like that," she said softly.

  "So did Dak tell you all about how I'm a horrible Mate?"

  "Kinda. He just left here about ten minutes ago."

  So instead of sitting at home sulking like she had hoped, he was getting some Darby time. Hailey had really wanted him to be in as much pain as she was. One more tick in the "It's really over" column. "Oh. Well, I hope you guys had fun."

  "Geez, now I feel like I just kicked your puppy."

  Hailey laughed, "Sorry. I'm trying to not sound like I'm wallowing but I totally am. I haven't eaten anything but various forms of sugar in two days and I've watched every ugly cry movie on Netflix. Silas is afraid to come into my room anymore because I made him watch P.S. I Love You three times."

  "That's rough but a good movie."

  "So what's with the call?" Darby never just called to chat. She always had a reason.

  "I wanted to make sure you were ok."

  "I'm not," she really wasn't. Hailey didn't know what to do with herself. She had no job, nowhere to be. She had no purpose anymore. At this point she was just taking up space. "He's done isn't he? That wasn't just some over reaction that will reverse itself, was it?"

  The line was silent for a few seconds too long. "Yeah, I think he is. I'm so sorry. I tried to talk him out of it but he has the skull of a woodpecker."

  "Huh, I never thought of that but they must have a thick skull with all that pounding into trees and whatnot." Hailey sighed. Fun fact aside, she was right. When Dak made up his mind, he was pretty set in keeping it that way.

  "Don't give up hope just yet, Hailey. He may yet surprise us all."

  "Thanks."

  They hung up and Hailey slumped back into her pillows. Her bed was a tangle of sheets. The nightstands were covered in candy wrappers, tissues and water glasses. The floor...well she couldn't see the floor. At some point in the last few days she had turned back into the hermit she had been in high school and had the room to match.

  Today had been the first day that her eyes weren't almost swollen shut from crying so much. She felt a bit more human today than she had yesterday, and that was good enough for her. Hailey was tired of crying over him, tired of being angry, weepy and just all around miserable. At some point she had slipped past all that into numbness.

  It gave her the opportunity to breathe and to think. Not that what her mind had to say was helpful. In fact after a minute or two she tuned out the incessant rambling. Hailey's humorless laugh was eerie in the otherwise silent room. She even annoyed herself. How was anyone else supposed to put up with her if she couldn't even deal with herself?

  It seemed she had two choices. Option one was to leave, pick herself up and start fresh somewhere new. The world was a big place and there was nothing holding her here anymore. Silas had the connections and the power to give her a new life. She could pick a new name, get a job, maybe even find a little cabin like Darby's out in the middle of nowhere Montana. Or Washington, Arizona, Canada, she could go to Europe if she really wanted too.

  Option two would be to stay and fight for her Mate. Dacea might eventually forgive her. Maybe. If she begged long enough maybe he would grant her one more chance. The problem with this option was her pride. She wasn't sure if she could bow down to the almighty Red King and ask for forgiveness.

  Did she love him?

  Yes.

  Was he worth it?

  Yes.

  She did and he was. But did that mean they should try? They fought over everything. Most of the time it was just mindless bickering but more often than not it turned into a verbal brawl. They were from two completely different worlds; she had a hard time keeping up. It was obvious that she didn't belong in his. He was old, really old, and had thousands of years left to live. If she stayed and they were Mated, did she want that for herself? How would she feel two hundred years in the future when all her human family and friends had long since passed? Would she become bitter? Would she resent him for it?

  Hailey made a mental pros and cons list. It didn't
help. What it came down to was her strength. Was she strong enough to stay? Was she strong enough to go?

  She was circling, going nowhere besides insane. She needed to talk it out with someone. Silas would have to do since there was no one else around. Hailey got out of bed and staggered a little. Her legs were stiff from sitting for so long in bed. And that wasn't the only thing that was stiff. Her hair was a rat's nest. It was frizzy and oily. The mirror showed her what three days into a breakup looked like—and it wasn't pretty. There was a smudge of black under her eye from the last bit of makeup that hadn't worn off. The swelling had gone down around her eyes but they were still puffy from all the crying. She sniffed and ran her hand over her red tipped nose.

  "Well you look like shit," she told her reflection. A shower was a must but her mind was still circling. The sooner she made her choice the faster she could pull herself together. Hailey grabbed her hairbrush off of her dresser and began to tackle her hair. When it was tangle free, she gathered it all in a ponytail.

  "That helped. Now you just look pathetic instead of bat shit crazy."

  It was all she cared to do for the time being. Her sweatshirt was somewhere under the pile of clothes on her reading chair. She had to dig to find it. Maybe after her talk and shower she would tidy up a little. Maybe. She tugged free the sweatshirt and slipped it on.

  Hailey knew there would be someone guarding her door. However, she wasn't expecting it to be Boo. He sat in the middle of the hallway facing her doorway. She looked left and then right but there was no Francis in sight. "Guess he figured out I have nowhere else to go so I won't be leaving." Boo blinked. "Right, so do you know where my big brother is?" Boo stood, stretched his front paws out then shifted forward to stretch his back legs and trotted down the hall. With no other choice she followed after him.

  She couldn't help but wonder how he had made it back to Silas's house. Last time she saw him, he was sunning himself in her living room window. Alex had shared his supernatural thoughts about the cat and she was beginning to wonder if he was right. Boo had a little something extra about him. Then again, most cats were strange and mysterious when they wanted to be.