Outcast (Hunter: A Thieves Series Book 4)

by Lexi Blake

  Or he would scorch the earth, and that sounded bad. I was pretty sure no matter what I found out, Fen would be coming back to Dallas. “Did she ever tell you about her family?”

  “There was only me and Dad and Mama,” he replied. “She said we were enough, but she did talk about where she grew up. She said it was a bad place. I think it might have been here. I went to look for her. I followed the smell of the bad man who came after…”

  “You don’t have to change,” Lee said suddenly. He looked at me. “He changes into his wolf form when he gets scared, but he doesn’t need to be scared now. We’re just talking and no one’s going to hurt him. I did tell him we should stay away from Lord Sloane. He didn’t know what a demon was. He doesn’t know what a lot of things are. I don’t think his mom and dad talked about our world much.”

  Why would they? They’d tried to escape from it.

  “Your mama was a wolf?” I asked.

  He nodded. “Yeah, we liked to run together, but she was smaller than me when we were wolves. She thought it was weird at first and she wouldn’t ever let us run with the others. She said they wouldn’t like how big I am. Is it better to be small?”

  “You are perfect exactly the way you are,” Trent replied. “But it’s not normal to be so much bigger in wolf form than your human form, and it could scare some wolves. Not the cool ones though. It doesn’t scare me.”

  It had at first. It had freaked my wolf out. But I didn’t need to bring that up now. “Your mom was only trying to protect you. You are a beautiful wolf, Fen.”

  He was actually scary as hell at first glance, but I’d already gotten used to him. He was going to be hell on the brownies though. He was a shedder. We would have to up the amount of cream we kept on hand.

  “I like to run,” he admitted. “It’s fun, but I would hear the other wolves and Mama wouldn’t let us join them. We had to stay close to the cabin where Daddy could watch out for us. He can’t change. Well, he never did before.”

  And that’s exactly what I was looking for. “But he can now, right?”

  “Oh, shit,” Trent said under his breath. “But how would Daniel not know?”

  Liv sat down, her head shaking as she realized what I had figured out.

  Lee’s eyes went round. “Your dad’s alive? I thought they killed him.”

  “Mama didn’t mean to.” Fen put his hand over his mouth.

  I shook my head. “No, it’s good to talk about it. You need to tell me what happened. If I can find your dad, I will, Fen.”

  It kind of hurt my heart. I’d only known him for a day, but I’d gotten excited at the thought of him coming home with us.

  Fen was silent for a moment. “They were just joking around. Mama and Daddy did that a lot. He grabbed her like he was going to kiss her and she pushed him away because it was almost dinner time. She didn’t mean for him to fall and hit his head like that. He wouldn’t wake up.”

  Gray’s eyes were back to normal and he stood next to Trent. “But he did, didn’t he?”

  “Mama called her mama. I never met her before. She cried a lot and said she didn’t know what to do.” Fen’s voice had gone small. “I tried to wake him up. I tried. She said we had to wait until someone named Tanner came.”

  “Naturally,” Trent muttered. “What happened when he got there?”

  Fen was quiet for a moment and he rocked back and forth. “Daddy woke up, but he looked different. He looked scary.”

  I could figure out why he’d scared Fen. “He had fangs, didn’t he?”

  Fen nodded. “Big ones. I was supposed to be asleep, but I heard Mama scream. I wouldn’t have thought it was Daddy, but he smelled like Daddy. Mama said she couldn’t smell him because of the spell. She said she hated it but we had to hide. I don’t know why she called them when we were supposed to hide.”

  “She panicked and did the only thing she knew to do,” Liv remarked.

  “Running from the cult was likely the first time she’d been out in the world.” Trent took a knee beside me. “You knew about a spell? From a witch like Liv?”

  “I know about witches. Mama said there were some nice ones in Denver. She was going to take me there one day,” Fen continued.

  I looked to my bestie, but she needed no prompting. She already had her phone in hand and was walking out of the room. She would call some of her contacts and try to find out what kind of spell had been used and if anyone knew the witch who’d cast it. “The spell was on all three of you?”

  It would answer my biggest question—how had a vamp risen and Donovan missed it? He was careful about it. He could sense when a new vampire was rising, could feel the moment of their death and the turn begin. He then hightailed his hot ass to wherever it was happening and the newly vamped woke up to his smiling face and a nice dose of king’s blood that would help with the insanity part of the turn. That hadn’t happened, and I was pretty sure it cost Hester her life.

  “Mama had the witch come out to our place once a year to renew it,” Fen explained. “I liked it. We got to have cake when she would come out. She brought me toys, too. Her dog didn’t like me though.”

  I could bet. “Fen, I hate to ask you this, but what happened when your mom screamed that night? How much did you see?”

  How much cash should I set aside for your sessions with Felix Day was the real question running through my head.

  The way he paled was almost answer enough. Almost. “His face went weird. I was happy because I could smell him again.”

  “You could smell him through the spell?” Gray asked.

  “He’s a Lupus Rex. He could smell his father through twenty spells, a hundred miles, and yards of concrete.” Trent sounded a bit paternally proud. “But it does explain why I can’t smell Fen. That must be a strong spell. I wonder if the spell covers more than smell. Obviously we can see him and hear him.”

  “I would bet it covers locator spells and supernatural abilities to locate,” I guessed. “But Liv should be able to tell us more.”

  “It explains why Daniel didn’t detect him,” Trent mused. “We haven’t had a rising in three years. I would know. Either Zack or I go with Daniel when he aids a vampire through the turn. We’ve had nothing this year.”

  Lee turned to Fen. “Your dad is a vampire. That’s cool. One of my dad’s is, too. He’s a good man. You’ll like him. That means your dad isn’t gone. We just need to find him.”

  “But why did he hurt Mama?” Fen asked. “Do you think he was mad she made him fall?”

  I had to blink back tears. “No, sweetie. He wasn’t mad, but he was sick. You see when a vampire turns, he doesn’t know what’s happened and he isn’t sure what to do. But he has these urges, instincts, and one of them is to kill.”

  Fen had paled. “I thought he was mad because his face was so different.”

  “What? What was wrong with his face?”

  “He lost all his hair and he looked kind of gross,” Fen said, tears rolling down his cheeks.

  Trent’s eyes went wide and he stood up. “Kelsey, we need to talk.”

  I put a hand up because I knew what he wanted to talk about, but I needed to get through this. “What your father is, it’s called a primal. It’s one of the rarest of all vampires. Something went different with your father’s turn and he devolved.” I was using way too much jargon. “He became a kind of old-school vampire, and that can be really scary. He didn’t mean to hurt your mom, and I think he might be following you.”

  “I’m surprised he didn’t attack Fen,” Gray said with a shake of his head. “Primals are supposed to be incredibly strong.”

  “They are,” Trent agreed. “They’re physically strong and they have truly different habits than other vampires. Unlike the majority of vampires, they live off animal blood for the most part. They prefer the underground. The nests I know of live under cities and the solitaries prefer caves and caverns.”

  “You think my dad is still out there?” Fen asked. “He told me to run. He’s t
he one who said I needed to get somewhere safe.”

  How much had that cost Christopher Miller? If he’d been sane enough to tell his son to run, then he’d likely been able to understand that he’d killed his wife and become something terrifying. He’d known his world had turned upside down and the woman he’d wanted to spend his life with was lost to him forever.

  Eternity isn’t so great for some people. The same event that had spared Queen Zoey from the pain of mourning Daniel had cost Hester Miller everything, and all because of a trick of the DNA.

  I was pretty sure Fen’s father was alive and that he was the one who’d killed the witches, but Trent knew way more about primals than I did. “I think we’re going to find out. Lee, why don’t you and Fen go ahead and grab dinner in the kitchens. I don’t think Lord Sloane is going to be a good dinner companion for you two. A bunch of us are going out with him tonight. I think we might be able to find some answers. Eddie will be here for you and we’ll go back to Dallas soon. Probably tomorrow.”

  Lee’s face fell, but he hopped off the bed. “Okay, but we could stay. We were supposed to stay for a whole week.”

  I was not having an argument. “Well, I didn’t realize I would be going home with a Lupus Rex, so there’s that.”

  “Cool,” Lee said with a grin. “Come on, Fen. I’ll tell you all about our house in Dallas. It’s a whole building. I can show you all the best ways to sneak out.”

  Gray was shaking his head. “Lee is a bad influence.”

  That was the understatement of the year. “Yeah, that might not be an issue. I just hope we get to see Fen after this. Lee’s already thinking he’s got a new friend. But his dad is alive. He’s been following Fen all this time.”

  “His father might be alive, but he’s changed, baby.” Trent paced the floor. “Primals are different. You’re thinking about reuniting a father and son, but that can’t happen. Fen can’t live his life underground. It’ll kill his soul. That is the most powerful wolf to be born in thousands of years. Possibly the most powerful to ever walk the Earth plane. He can’t live in a cave.”

  Gray stared at me. “Leave the king behind and he shall destroy. Bind the king in friendship and he will find the light. The glow of her love will make or break him.”

  Well, the prophet had spoken. “All right. We take Fen back with us one way or another. What do I do about the primal? I can’t walk away from this. I get why he killed his wife.”

  “The risen always kill. They kill until they’re killed or until they’re given the blood of another vampire,” Trent explained. “Unless you’re Daniel Donovan and have all the strengths of a vampire king. Companion blood can turn him, but I don’t know if Meredith is going to be interested in that. I’m not sure even Casey’s blood would work at this point. He’s been out there on his own for too long. If you want to have a chance to save Christopher Miller, we need Daniel.”

  I was going to have a whole lot of explaining to do. Except maybe I wouldn’t. “We have king’s blood saved. You never travel without it.”

  I wasn’t allowed to travel without vampire blood, either. It was kind of our first aid kit.

  “There’s more to it,” Trent argued. “There’s a whole ritual. And primals are different.”

  “I thought a vampire who hasn’t been turned can’t think straight,” Gray pointed out.

  “He would likely be more sane after a feed.” Trent kept up that slow pace he always did when he was thinking through a problem. I would never point this out to him, but he often circled a chair three times before he settled in. “I think he’s likely holding off until he can’t help himself. He’s following his son, trying to stay close to him. It’s likely an instinct that’s driving him. He’s not someone you can reason with.”

  “If the primal is the one who’s been killing the wolves, and we basically made a deal with Lord Sloane to kill the thing that’s been killing the witches, then what’s our play here?” Gray asked. “My father will demand the wording of the contract, even a verbal one, be followed to the letter.”

  “I didn’t sign a contract,” I replied quickly.

  “We agreed to stick around and help the witches out in exchange for Lord Sloane letting me come back to Dallas without restrictions.” Trent had completed his third turn and he settled into the comfy chair in front of the widescreen Lee used for video games. He turned it around, facing us. “There wasn’t a contract.”

  “There’s always a contract.” Gray looked at Trent like he was a naïve child. “Every word you utter in the presence of a Hell lord is a contract of sorts. My father has something up his sleeve. He would never give up the hold he has over Trent so easily. Being able to give or withdraw access to the royal’s favored bodyguard is a boon to him. Trust me, I know the man. He’s up to something.”

  “He’s always up to something,” Trent replied. “But what choice do we have? Should we pack up and head home and leave Miller out there? He’s not a bad guy. He can’t help himself at this point. And I don’t want to be the one who has to face Fen someday and explain that I didn’t do everything I could to help his father.”

  At least now I knew why the Lupus Solum pack considered Fen to be an abomination. “Is Fen a latent vampire? How does that work?”

  Trent looked ready to answer the question when Liv marched in.

  “I know what spell was used,” Liv announced. “I can totally reverse that sucker. We can find this guy. Why the weird looks? We’re dealing with a vampire. I would think that’s a big old plus. We shove some king’s blood down him or better yet, let Meredith turn him and Fen’s reunited.”

  “He’s a primal,” I stated plainly.

  Liv’s expression turned from triumphant to dire. “Shit. He can’t raise his son.”

  I was going to save him and then I was going to have to take his son away. Somedays it didn’t pay to be the sheriff.

  Chapter Seventeen

  A few minutes later I was on my way to have a talk with Meredith. Trent had put in a call to Daniel but had to leave the king a voice mail as he’d been told there was a closed-door session with the wizard going on and Daniel wasn’t to be disturbed. Whatever was going on it was serious because the academics were all in on it and Zoey had explained that not even she was allowed to disrupt this meeting unless it was a true emergency.

  I kind of thought it was, but there wasn’t a ton we could do about it until well past nightfall. The primal wouldn’t even be awake until the moon rose. It was one more way they were odd. Primals slept far more than regular vampires.

  The queen had promised she would have Daniel call long before we would need him. I thought if worse came to worse we could go with plan B—feed Christopher Miller all the king’s blood we had and hold his ass down until the king could get here.

  Gray walked after me. He’d seemed to rally for a while, but now he was back to feeling sick and it worried me. I needed answers about more than just Fen.

  The pretty companion was sitting at her laptop when we entered. She glanced up and I noticed Casey was sitting in a corner, staring down at his tablet and pointedly not looking at the pieces of brownie on the autopsy table.

  Eddie had produced some crazy shit in our pocket world.

  “Did you find anything out about the brownie’s murder?” I asked, looking down at her body. She’d been ripped to pieces, but it was odd. Something had taken her arm off, but there wasn’t a ton of blood. There hadn’t been when we’d found her.

  “I think it’s probably the same thing that killed the witches,” she replied. “Though I didn’t see those personally. It was definitely an attack.”

  Obvious much? Something was off. “Racha was alive this morning. We’re certain the thing that killed the witches is nocturnal.”

  She shrugged it off. “Well, Kelsey, there were about a hundred natural wolves roaming the woods this morning. It could have been any one of them. Gray, you are not looking well. Have you been trying to see the future again?”

  �
�I’m not trying to,” Gray said, sitting down across from her. “But trying not to think about it, leads me to thinking about it. Something’s coming for us.”

  Meredith sighed and stood up. “I’ll get the tonic. It’s probably a good thing we’re going home because I’m almost out of what Henri sent with us.”

  “Isn’t there always something coming after us?” Casey asked philosophically.

  I was glad he’d turned up because if anyone was going to know the answers to our questions it would be Casey. Henri had made him study up on the history of “his people,” as Casey put it. “What do you know about primals?”

  “I know they’re creepy as fuck and I don’t want to meet one,” he replied, sitting up straight. “Shit, am I going to have to meet one? You’ve got that look on your face. It’s a shitty day when I have to sit in with a Hell lord and meet a primal. Why am I meeting a primal?”

  Meredith was back, a syringe in her hand. “I think we should go to shots, Gray. Henri said if it got worse I should give you a booster of the stuff. This should hold you until we can get back to Dallas and he can take over your care again.”

  We only had a few more hours and we would be on our way home. My stomach was in knots about how to deal with Donovan, but Zoey was on the case. She was going to handle things from her end and I would likely get the lecture of a lifetime.

  Gray was right. Something was coming for us and I feared it was the wizard, but there are some things we can’t stop.

  Gray rolled up his sleeve. “I might have to take my father up on his offer. I can spend some time on the Hell plane to see if it helps my equilibrium.”

  Meredith placed the syringe with the ease of an expert and pushed the plunger in. “I don’t think it’s a bad idea. He can’t hold you down there without your verbal permission and you can see if being on the Hell plane helps balance you.”

  I didn’t want him going anywhere near the Hell plane, but I also couldn’t stand to see him sick and angry and unbalanced. He’d been civil around Trent, but I couldn’t help but think about what could happen if he got worse.