Ghosts and Hunter Boys (Misfit Academy Book 2)

by A. Vers

  “Shh,” he told me. Cool air ghosted over the wound, then more pressure. Some of the pain eased. There was a soft whisper and his hands smoothed something over my skin. I glanced over as he taped white gauze into place. He sat back and climbed off of me. “There. That will have to work for now.”

  With his help, I managed to shift into a sitting position against the side wall of the van. Ryder covered me with the jacket and sprawled next to me.

  He wiped the sweat off my face with the sleeve of the coat.

  “We have a half a tank of gas,” he told me, his gaze flicking to the window across from us. “I don’t know how far we can get in this thing.”

  I was silent. Maybe it was the wound. Maybe it was the thirst, but guilt was building in me every minute we sat side by side.

  We needed to leave. I knew that. Beth had honored her word. She got us out. She wanted me to take Ryder and go, to leave her behind. But could we really just desert her?

  “Ryder,” I paused. “I need to tell you something.”

  He sighed. “I need to tell you something too,” he said, making me look at him. “But you can go first.”

  “Tonight, while you were gone ...”

  His hazel eyes locked with mine. “Yeah?”

  “Beth is the one that made the noise so we could get out.”

  He frowned. “Beth? But why?”

  My heart pounded, rushing what little blood I had left through my body. “You can’t be mad.”

  He turned to face me, his expression emptying. “Why did she help us, Morgan?” I choked on the words and had to swallow hard. His eyes narrowed. “Answer me.”

  “She is your mother.”

  His lips parted. Then he blinked. His head turned and he stared out the window again. For several long moments, he didn’t move again. Merely continued to gaze out into the darkness.

  “Ryder?”

  “It changes nothing,” he said. But each word was brittle as he uttered them. “She lied. She left. Hell, she faked her own death the get away from me and dad.” He gave a cruel laugh. “It changes nothing.”

  But it did. I could see it in the tightness of his face. His jaw.

  “I’m sorry.”

  He climbed to his feet and moved to the side door. “I need some air.” He slid the door wide and pale hands wrenched him from the interior.

  I shouted and scrambled out after him, nearly falling flat on my face as the jacket tangled with my weak legs. There was a masculine grunt, and then another. I climbed from the van. “Ryder?”

  Two dark shapes rolled across the road and down into a ditch on the other side. I ran over the blacktop. “Ryder! Stop,” I cried.

  Both figures flailed and the meaty slap of flesh hitting flesh echoed up to me. I slid down the embankment and the jacket fell in my haste as I ran up to them, trying to find a way in.

  There was no way in. No way to pull them apart. But there was something about the way they moved. Something so familiar. The wind shifted, bringing with it a faint hint of orange and something so masculine it should have been illegal.

  My heart thumped. “Ames?”

  There was no pause in the fighting, but the sweet mix of citrus and sandalwood was growing, filling my nose and flavoring my tongue. I knew what that flavor was like in truth. Knew that to have it pour over my tongue and down my throat would leave my thirst sated for days. Maybe even a week.

  I took a step. Then another.

  I walked right up to them both and caught an arm of smooth, flawless porcelain skin. Gold light danced over the trodden grass. Ames turned his head to me, giving me a shadowed face that had grown over the years from frail boy to indomitable man.

  Ames was as lovely as I remembered. Maybe more so, for he seemed made of the night around him. His midnight hair was long, loose, and blowing in the breeze. His midnight clothes were human in nature, dark jeans, dark shirt, and a midnight sweatshirt with a hood bunched at the back of his head. He could have passed for a goth male, with his pallor.

  But his eyes were a luminous sunshine-gold so bright, they were blinding. There was no mistaking what he was. Or who.

  Ames stared down at me as I held onto his arm. “Morgan?” he whispered, his nostrils flaring.

  I did not ask for permission, did not bother to speak. I wrenched his arm to my lips and sunk fangs deep into his flesh.

  Chapter 25

  Ryder

  I took a step toward Morgan, but didn’t know what I was going to do.

  Her head was bent over Ames’ pale wrist, her eyes closed and her dark hair obscuring her face. But the soft sounds of her sucking made my teeth grind.

  It was jealousy; I knew it instantly. I wanted to feed her and kicked myself for not realizing that she would need to feed after being shot.

  Ames did not speak. Hell, he didn’t seem capable as he swayed, his long-fingered hand rising like he was going to stroke her hair.

  But as fast as she bit him, she pulled away. Ames clamped his lips tight and cradled his arm to his midsection as she glowered up at him. “You owe me so much more than that,” she said, her voice harsh. A drop of his blood painted her lips, but she didn’t lick it clean. And I had never heard of a vampire wasting a single drop.

  It was almost insulting.

  The tension between them wound higher, but it wasn’t the kind I expected.

  Morgan was pissed. Well and truly ready to tear into him again. I could see it in her eyes. He did not speak. And her gaze narrowed even more.

  She looked past him at me, and the lilac shine to her eyes faded. “Are you okay?” she asked.

  I blinked. “Yeah. I’m fine.”

  Ames hit like a tank. But he hadn’t seemed too willing to hurt me. I couldn’t say the same for him. I had heard him grunt when my fist met his midsection. I hoped it broke a rib.

  Or two.

  She held out her hand.

  Not willing to look at Ames, I wrapped her fingers in mine and let her pull me behind her up the embankment.

  “Morgan.” Ames’ voice was empty behind us.

  “Go away, Ames,” she snapped without turning.

  His steps were silent, but one moment he was behind us, the next he stood in the roadway as we crested the last few feet of the small hill. “No.”

  She snarled under her breath. “You lied to me. I have nothing to say to you.”

  My head whipped back and forth as I peered between them.

  “I didn’t lie,” he said, tone hardening and his gold eyes glinting. “I just didn’t tell you, either.”

  “Do you two need to talk?” I asked.

  “No,” Morgan said.

  “Yes,” Ames interjected.

  I snorted and pulled my hand from Morgan’s. She looked at me. “I’m going to clean up the trash in the van and try to figure out what to do next. I’m within earshot.” Her lashes lowered, and the look was demure despite the anger I could see tightening her shoulders.

  Unable to stop myself, I bent and feathered a kiss over her temple. Her good arm locked around me and I gave in, holding her just as tightly.

  I didn’t expect Ames to run off with her. Morgan wouldn’t tolerate it. But having him here … Knowing that at one point they were engaged in an old fashioned arranged marriage … Well, it was not helping.

  It didn’t matter that she was pissed at him. Or that he seemed willing to let her take her anger out on him. There was a history between them that I couldn’t compete with. Years and years.

  And I wasn’t going to interfere in whatever they needed to work out. Not unless she asked me to, and Morgan had already showed she could handle the male vampire just fine.

  “I’ll be close,” I whispered.

  She nodded, her small face nuzzling against mine. “I am sorry,” she told me. “I know we need to go.”

  “We do. But this is important too.”

  “How do you know that?” she asked, pulling back.

  My smile was mild. “If it wasn’t, you wouldn’t be so
angry at him.”

  A faint blush colored her cheeks under the street light. I kissed her lips and turned on my heel before heading to the van.

  Though Ames looked like someone had punched him in the gut, he didn’t make a sound as I passed.

  Apparently the vampire was learning from his past mistakes.

  Good.

  Because that made one of us.

  Chapter 26

  Morgan

  I walked to the side of the roadway behind the van and sat precariously on the bumper. My arm ached, but Ames’ blood was already working through my system. Judging from the occasional itching that was accompanying the burn, the wound would heal within hours.

  “You’re hurt.” His voice was as hollow as I had ever heard it. Soft.

  I raised my eyes from the grass shoulder to scour his face. “Healing,” I amended.

  He did not speak, merely watched me with the unerring stillness that only the transitioned of our kind could manage. And in the shadows cast by the van, he appeared haggard. Worn out.

  “Why are you here, Ames?” I asked. Better to dispense of the pleasantries. I had no use for him anymore, and he needed to understand that sooner rather than later.

  “That you have to ask that proves you did not believe me.” His gold eyes cast over me again in a swift dart, from my disheveled hair to the jeans on my body. “I love you, Morgan. And I swore to protect you.”

  “You do not lie to someone you love, Ames.” And there it was. That word.

  For years I thought my parents loved me. That they sent me to Lokworth to control the bloodthirsty side of me out of love. It was why they did not visit. Why, for four years, I never returned to the colony for the holidays. Why our conversations were so short when I did hear from them.

  I thought it was love.

  It was not.

  It was fear that I would learn the truth. The truth that they were monsters. The very monsters humankind still fears. The kind that the Horn and groups like Ryder’s family hunted.

  Ames had known, and he had helped clean up their mess.

  “You let me believe that I killed her,” I said into his silence. “You let me believe the very worst in myself.”

  “An omission is not a lie, Morgan,” he retorted. “I swore not to breathe a word to you, and it was the worst oath I ever took. But I swear now, on anything you wish, that I love you and I never meant to hurt you.”

  I appraised him. “And the girls at Lokworth? Your … entourage?”

  He winced. “You make me sound like a womanizer, Mor.” I just waited. “There were two donors besides you. In four years. And they never graced my bed.”

  With his blood in my veins, my senses were heightening again. There was no slip of his heartbeat. No race to his pulse. He was steadfast in his honesty.

  But I could not forgive him.

  I stood and walked closer. Despite my height, Ames still towered over me. As did Ryder. I gazed up into the face of the male I had been sure I would one day wed. His gold eyes were dull, and his lips pressed tight. “I did not fight when my parents told me it would be you at my side,” I said. “I knew you would be fair and just. Arrogant, as the royals are, but true.”

  His gaze shuttered. “And now?”

  “I don’t know,” I said honestly. “In this moment, I would not wed you if I had no other choice.”

  He flinched back like I had struck him and I almost wanted to rescind my words. But I would not. I would give him honesty where he had given me none.

  “Ames.” He wouldn’t meet my gaze. He merely stared at the buffer between pavement and grass. “Ryder and I are leaving Salem. Tonight.”

  His head jerked up. “What?”

  “The Horn is in town.”

  “I know. He told me earlier.”

  I looked at him. “What do you mean ‘earlier’?”

  He pivoted in place, meeting my gaze levelly. “When I saw him in town.”

  Again, the steady beat of his heart was the only sound in the silence that followed. My lips pressed taut as I spun on my heel and marched around the van.

  “You saw him earlier?” I demanded as I reached the van door.

  Ryder was sitting just inside, one knee drawn up to his chest as his arm splayed over the top. “Forgot to mention that, did I?”

  “Ryder.”

  He frowned. “You forgot to tell me my mother was setting up a plan to get us out. Sounds kind of even, don’t you think?”

  We glowered at each other.

  “Not that I am against your fighting,” Ames said as he joined me in the doorway, “but why are you leaving town?”

  “The Horn shot Morgan,” Ryder said.

  I felt Ames’ gaze on the side of my face, the weight of it. “You were shot?” he sputtered.

  “They want you to join them,” I said to Ryder, ignoring Ames. “Your mother doesn’t want you around them, and she helped to get us out.”

  “And then I left her there.” Ryder’s tone was melancholic.

  “I thought your mother was dead?” Ames asked.

  Ryder gave him a look. “So did I.”

  I scrubbed my face. “She’s not, and she wants Ryder far from the Horn. Which is why she helped to get us out. So we need to leave town.”

  “You’re going to just leave your mother in their hands?”

  I glared at Ames, but he wasn’t looking at me.

  Ryder sat up straighter. “She didn’t exactly give me a choice.”

  “I mean, she’s only your flesh and blood,” Ames added, talking over him as he leaned against the open doorway. “I guess it’s a good thing Morgan isn’t as important. You would have left her behind by now, too.”

  My jaw dropped. “Ames.”

  Ryder held up a hand. “No. He’s right,” he muttered. In the gloom of the van, he was as fierce as ever. His hair like a mane and his eyes hard. “I didn’t leave you at Lokworth, though it would have made it easier for me to run. And I can’t leave her either.”

  I glanced between them as they remained quiet. “Ryder, your mother wanted you away from the Horn. She made me promise to get you to leave. No matter what it took.”

  He snorted and climbed to his knees before moving toward us. I backed up to let him out. He dropped onto the pavement and stretched. “You got me out, Mor. Now I have to go back.”

  “But isn’t that a little predictable?” I asked. He rounded on me. “I mean, what if Airgid knows you are her son? What if he is expecting you to come back?”

  “You mean it could be a trap?” he asked. I nodded. He rocked back and mulled that over. “It doesn’t change anything. I still need to go back.”

  I straightened my shoulders. “Then I’m going with you.”

  “No,” Ames said.

  “Not happening,” Ryder interjected.

  I glowered at them both. Then fixed my gaze on Ames. “You need to leave,” I told him, and he scowled. “I have nothing left to say to you.” I pivoted to face Ryder. “I am going. And if you try to go without me, I will only follow.”

  He bared his teeth at me. “Stubborn,” he told me. But then his lips curved.

  I let a small smile pull at my mouth in answer.

  “If Morgan is going, then so am I.” We both looked at Ames. He folded his arms and drew himself up to his full height. “I swore to keep her safe.” He gave Ryder a dismissive once over. “And I can feed her again if she gets hurt.”

  “I can feed her just as easy as you can,” Ryder snapped.

  Ames’ gold gaze narrowed.

  I stepped between them, hands raised. “Enough,” I told them, forcing iron into my voice. They looked down at me. I frowned at Ames. “You need to go back to Lokworth. Or back home. You’re not coming with us.”

  He scoffed. “I am older than you, little Mor. I don’t need school, nor do I have any reason to return to a colony that does not have you in it.”

  Frustration boiled up inside of me. Even if I managed to talk him into letting me go, he wo
uld only follow. As I threatened to do with Ryder. All I had to do was look into his eyes to see the depth of his stubbornness.

  “Let him come,” Ryder murmured, making me look at him sharply. He shrugged one shoulder, but his focus was all for the vampire at my side. His handsome faced stretched into a mean grin. “Worst-case scenario, you can use him as a shield. Then the Horn can shoot him instead of you.”

  Chapter 27

  Ryder

  Ames and Morgan were quiet as we snuck up to the pier. With their combined hearing, I had a built in alarm system. It was one of the few reasons why I agreed to Ames coming along. That, and I could use him on this. Not that I would ever say it aloud. But if push came to shove, I would use him as cannon fodder to get Morgan and Beth out.

  I couldn’t bring myself to call her Mom.

  Whatever her reasons, she faked her death and turned her back on me and Dad. I would get her out of the Horn’s clutches only because she helped us.

  I owed her nothing more than that. Not after nearly twelve years.

  “There is a hunter on the dock headed in our direction,” Ames said, his pale skin and gold eyes the only part of him that didn’t blend with the night around us.

  I turned my head and scanned the jutting planks. In the shadows of the boat, the hunter was tall, not overly muscular, and sporting a slight limp. “Anyone else?” I asked.

  “No. He is the only one near.”

  I broke from cover before either vampire spoke and raced toward the man. He did not jump as I appeared, but his lips parted to call a warning. A dark blur moved past me and a pale hand wrapped around the hunter’s mouth.

  Ames pulled him back into his chest as he watched me. I glared. “I had him,” I snapped.

  The vampire shrugged.

  I turned my attention to the hunter. “There is a female among your ranks. Goes by Beth. Where is she?”

  Ames lifted his hand cautiously.

  The hunter snarled. “I ain’t telling you shit—” Ames clasped his hand back in place, cutting off the man’s words.

  I gripped the front of the hunter’s shirt and balled the material into my fists hard enough several stitches in his collar popped. “Answer me or my friend bleeds you dry.”