by Lara Adrian
“No, it doesn’t,” she replied quietly. In her heart, she knew that. She was tired of running and sick of fighting to keep the horror of her past buried and forgotten. She wanted to be free of it all, and that meant facing the truth, no matter how awful—no matter how unfathomable—it may be. But fear was a powerful enemy. Maybe too powerful. “I’m scared, Kade. I don’t know if I’m strong enough to face it alone.”
“You are.” He dropped a tender kiss on her shoulder, then brought her gaze back to his. “But you’re not alone. I’m with you, Alex. Tell me what happened. I’ll see you through it, if you’ll let me.”
She held his imploring stare and found the courage she needed in the steely strength of his eyes. “We’d had such a good day together, all of us. We picnicked down by the water, and I had just taught Richie how to do a backflip off the dock. He was only six years old, but he was fearless, and willing to try anything I did. It had been a perfect day, filled with so much love and laughter.”
Until darkness had settled over the swamp, bringing unholy terror with it.
“I don’t know why they chose our family. I’ve searched for a reason, but I’ve never been able to find one for why they came out of the night to attack us.”
Kade caressed her carefully as she struggled for the words that came next. “Sometimes there are no reasons. Sometimes things happen and there’s nothing we can do to make sense of them. Life, and death, isn’t always neat or logical.”
Sometimes death sprang out of the shadows like a wraith, like a monster too horrific to be real.
“There were two of them,” Alex murmured. “We didn’t even know they were there until it was too late. It was dark, and we were all sitting on the veranda, relaxing after supper. My mom was on the porch swing with Richie, reading us Winnie-the-Pooh before bed, when the first one came out of nowhere without warning and pounced on her.”
Kade’s hand stilled. “You’re not talking about a man.”
She swallowed. “No. It wasn’t a man. It wasn’t even … human. It was something else. Something evil. It bit her, Kade. And then the other one grabbed Richie with its teeth, too.”
“Teeth,” he said evenly, no shock or disbelief in his voice, only a steady, grim understanding. “You mean fangs, don’t you, Alex? The attackers had fangs.”
She closed her eyes as the impossibility of the word sank in. “Yes. They had fangs. And their eyes … they glowed in the dark like bright coals, and in the center of them, their pupils were thin and long, like a cat’s. They couldn’t have been human. They were monsters.”
Kade’s touch was soothing on her face and hair as the terror of that awful night played out again in her mind. “It’s all right. You’re safe now. I only wish I could have been there to help you and your family.”
The sentiment was sweet, however improbable, given that he couldn’t be more than a few years older than she. But from the sincerity of his voice, she knew he truly meant it. No matter their odds, or the enormity of the evil they faced, Kade would have stood with her against the attack. He would have kept them all safe when no one else could have.
“My father tried to fight them off,” Alex murmured, “but everything was happening so fast. And they were so much stronger than he was. They knocked him away like he was nothing. By then, Richie was already dead. He was so little, he didn’t stand a chance of surviving that kind of violence. My mother screamed for my dad to run, to save me if he could. ‘Don’t let my daughter die!’ Those were her last words. The one who held her sank his huge jaws around her throat. He wouldn’t let go, just kept his mouth clamped down hard on her. He was … oh, God, Kade. This is going to sound crazy, but he was … drinking her blood.”
A tear rolled down her cheek, and Kade pressed his lips to her brow, gathering her closer to him and offering much-needed comfort. “It doesn’t sound crazy, Alex. And I’m sorry for what you and your family endured. No one should have to bear that kind of pain and loss.”
Although she didn’t want to relive it, the memories had been resurrected now and after keeping them buried for so long, she found she couldn’t hold them back. Not when Kade was there to hold her, making her feel warmer and safer than she ever had before.
“They were like animals the way they tore at my mom and Richie. Not even animals would do what they did. And, oh, God … there was so much blood. My father scooped me up and we started running. But I couldn’t look away from what was happening behind us in the dark. I didn’t want to see any more, but it was so unreal. My mind couldn’t process it. It’s been years, and I’m still not sure I can explain what it was that attacked us that night. I just … I want it to make sense, and it doesn’t. It never will.” She drew in a hitching breath, revisiting a fresher pain, a more recent confusion. Looking up into Kade’s sober gaze, she said, “I saw the same kind of wounds on the Toms family. They were attacked, just like we were, by the same kind of evil. It’s here in Alaska, Kade … and I’m scared.”
For a long moment, Kade said nothing. She could see his keen mind turning over all that she’d told him, every incredible detail that would have made anyone else scoff in disbelief or tell her she needed to seek professional help. But not him. He accepted her truth for what it was, no trace of doubt in his eyes or his level tone. “You don’t have to run anymore. You can trust me. Nothing bad is going to touch you so long as I’m around. Do you believe me, Alex?”
She nodded, realizing just now how resolute her faith in him was. She trusted him on a level that was something more than instinctual, it was blood deep. What she felt for him defied the fact that he had entered her life only earlier that week, nor did it have anything to do with the way that she burned for him physically—hungered for him in a way she wasn’t quite prepared to examine.
She simply looked into Kade’s unfaltering eyes and she knew, down to her soul, that he was strong enough to carry whatever burden she shared with him.
“I need you to trust me,” he told her gently. “There are things you need to understand, Alex, now more than ever. Things about yourself, and what you saw, back in Florida and here, as well. And there are things you need to know about me, too.”
She sat up, her heart thudding oddly in her breast, heavy with a wary sense of expectation. “What do you mean?”
He glanced away then, his gaze following the soft path of his touch as his caress drifted down the length of her naked body, then lingered at the flare of her hip bone. With the pad of his thumb, he traced a skimming circle over the tiny birthmark there. “You’re different, Alexandra. Extraordinary. I should have recognized that right away. There were signs, but somehow I missed them. I was focused on other things and I … damn it.”
Alex frowned, more confused than ever. “What are you trying to say?”
“You’re not like other women, Alex.”
When he looked back up at her now, the confidence that normally sparked so brightly in his eyes was missing. He swallowed, the dry click of his throat making her blood run a bit colder in her veins. Whatever he had to say, he was the one who was afraid now, and seeing that trace of uncertainty in him made her anxiety spike a bit, too.
“You’re very different from other women, Alex,” he said again hesitantly. “And I … you need to know that I’m not like other men, either.”
She blinked, feeling an unseen weight press down on her in the silence that spread out between them. The same instinct that told her to demand more answers pleaded with her to back away and pretend she didn’t want to know—didn’t need to know whatever it was that had Kade so tongue-tied and antsy. All she could do was watch him and wait, worrying that he was about to send her entire world into an even greater tailspin.
The sharp trill of her cell phone jolted her like a kiss from a live wire. It rang again and she dived for it, welcoming the excuse to escape the strange, dark shift in Kade’s demeanor.
“This is Alex,” she said, recognizing Zach’s number as she flipped the phone open and took the call.
>
“Where are you?” he demanded, not even sparing a second on hello. “I just drove by your house and you’re not there. Are you out at Jenna’s?”
“No,” she said. “Jenna was at my house this morning, before I left. She must have gone home.”
“Well, where the hell are you, then?”
“I’m out on a call,” she said, bristling a little at his curt tone. “I had a, um, a charter client book a flight this morning—”
“Well, we’ve got a bad situation here in Harmony,” Zach cut in harshly. “I’m in the middle of a medical emergency and I need you to fly a critical injury in from the bush.”
Alex snapped out of the emotional fog that had held her before she took the call. “Who’s been injured, Zach? What’s going on?”
“It’s Dave Grant. I don’t have the whole story yet, but he and Lanny Ham and a bunch of other men from town were out hunting west of town today. They ran into trouble, serious trouble. Lanny Ham is dead, and apparently it’s not looking very good for Big Dave right now, either. The guys are afraid to put him on a snowmachine, for fear that they won’t get him back here in time enough to save him.”
“Oh, my God.” Alex sat back on her folded legs, a cold numbness crawling over her skin. “The injuries, Zach … what happened?”
“Something attacked them out there, according to the other men. Dave is delirious and he’s lost a lot of blood. He’s in and out of consciousness, talking a lot of nonsense about a creature lurking in one of the caves west of Harmony. Whatever it was that got ahold of him and Lanny, well, it’s bad, Alex. Real bad. Tore both of them up something awful. The news is all over town already and everyone’s in a panic.”
She closed her eyes. “Oh, my God … oh, my God …”
Kade’s hand came to rest lightly on her bare shoulder. “What is it, Alex?”
She shook her head, incapable of forming the words.
“Who’s that with you?” Zach demanded. “For fuck’s sake, Alex. Are you with that guy from Pete’s the other night?”
Alex didn’t think she needed to answer to Zach Tucker about whom she was spending time with, not when one man was dead and another man’s life was hanging in the balance. Not when the horror of her past—the horror she had feared had visited the Toms family just a few days ago—was now raking her heart open all over again.
“I’m out at the Tulak cabin, Zach. I’ll leave right away, but I’m probably forty-five minutes out.”
“Forget it. We can’t afford to wait on you. I’ll track down Roger Bemis instead.”
He disconnected, leaving Alex sitting there, frozen in shock.
“What happened?” Kade asked. “Who’s been hurt?”
For a moment, it was all she could do to concentrate on breathing in and out. Her heart banged miserably, guilt gnawing at her. “I should have warned them. I should have told them what I knew instead of thinking I could deny it.”
“Alex?” Kade’s voice was cautious, his fingers firm but tender as he lifted her face up toward his. “Tell me what’s going on.”
“Big Dave and Lanny Ham,” she murmured. “They were attacked today in the bush. Lanny’s dead. Big Dave might not make it.”
And if Kade had gone with them, instead of coming out with her? The idea that he might have been close to that danger—or worse, a victim of it—made her heart lurch. She felt ill with fear and dread, but it was her anger that she clung to.
“You’re right, Kade. I can’t run away from what I know. Not anymore. I have to face this evil. I have to take a stand now, before anyone else gets hurt.” Fury buoyed her where fear threatened to hold her down. “I need to tell the truth—to everyone in Harmony. To the whole damned world, if that’s what it takes. People need to know what’s out there. They can’t destroy an evil they don’t even know exists.”
“Alex.” He pressed his lips together, started to shake his head as though he meant to dissuade her. “Alex, I don’t think that would be wise …”
She held his stare, incredulous. “It’s because of you that I feel strong enough to do this, Kade. We need to stand together—everyone—and defeat this.”
“Ah, Christ … Alex …”
His hesitation felt like a cold blade slowly pressing into her sternum. Confused by his change in attitude, but too determined to do what was right—to do what she had to do now—she backed away from him and started getting dressed. “I have to get back to Harmony. I’m leaving in the next five minutes. You can decide if you’re coming with me or not.”
CHAPTER
Sixteen
They didn’t speak the whole flight back.
Kade sat beside Alex in miserable silence, torn between wanting to explain to her about the Breed and her place within that world and fearing that if she knew what he truly was, she would lump him into the same category of monster that she abhorred and was now so determined to expose to all of Harmony and the rest of humankind.
The fear that she would hate him kept his tongue glued to the roof of his mouth for the entire forty-five minutes it took for her to fly them back to the snow-packed airstrip on the edge of town. He was a bastard for withholding the whole truth from her; he knew that. He’d proven himself something even worse than that in the Tulak cabin, when he’d let his desire for her trump his duty—his own personal code of honor, flimsy as it might be—that would have compelled a better male to put all of the cards on the table before he’d taken her.
But it hadn’t been all about the sex with Alex. It wasn’t just about desire, although he had that for her in spades. Things would be a hell of a lot easier right now if it was merely physical.
The fact was, he cared about her. Cared for her. He didn’t want to see her hurt anymore, least of all by his own words or actions. He wanted to protect her from the things that had harmed her in the past, and he would do whatever possible to see to it that nothing bad could touch her ever again.
Oh, yeah, he was doing a damn fine job there.
Doing a first-class job on everything he’d touched since his arrival back in Alaska.
In light of the evidence he’d found at the cabin, what might have been a simple, sideline mission to rout out a probable Rogue problem in the frozen north country was now a quest to locate a killer in his own family. And now he had at least one more dead human to add to that mix, potentially two, if the report of Big Dave’s injuries was accurate.
Another savage attack that Kade prayed against all suspicion otherwise would not have Seth’s name written all over it.
He was still chewing on that dread as Alex brought the plane down in a flawless landing. Damn, even as shaken as she had to be, Alex was total cool control behind the wheel. A real professional. Just one more thing that made him appreciate her all the more.
“Shit,” he exhaled low under his breath as he stared out the window of the cockpit. He really did have it bad for this female.
“Looks like half the town is gathered outside the health clinic,” Alex said. “Since Roger Bemis’s plane is in, I’m guessing they must have brought Big Dave and Lanny in from the bush already.”
Kade grunted, looking a block up the center of town at the converted ranch house where a couple dozen people had assembled under the floodlight that lit the yard, some on foot, others seated astride idling snowmachines.
Alex cut the plane’s engine and opened the pilot’s door. Kade got out with her, walking around the front of the plane as she secured it and locked everything down. Her movements were efficient, her gloved hands working as if by habit more than conscious thought. When she finally glanced over at him, Kade saw that her face was pale as ash, her features stricken and wary. But her gaze was sharp with grim determination.
“Alex … let’s talk about this before you go in there and say what you think you need to say to those folks.”
She frowned. “They need to know. I need to tell them.”
“Alex.” He reached out and grabbed her by the arm, more firmly than he’d intended
. She stared at his fingers clamped around her, then looked back up at him. “I can’t let you do this.”
She pulled out of his hold, and for a second he considered trancing her to keep her away from the gathered crowd up the road. With a small mental effort and one brief sweep of his palm over her forehead, he could place her into a pliable state of semiconsciousness.
He could buy precious time. Prevent her from jeopardizing his entire mission for the Order by alerting her fellow townsfolk to the existence of vampires living among them, preying on them from the shadows.
And she would hate him even more—rightfully so—for the further manipulation.
She took a step back from him, her brows still knitted together in confusion. “What’s wrong with you all of a sudden? I have to go.”
He didn’t stop her when she pivoted around and headed off at a jog for Harmony’s small health clinic. On a gritted curse, Kade went after her. He caught up in an instant, then wove with her through the anxious, chattering crowd.
“… just terrible that something like this should happen again,” murmured a white-haired woman to the person next to her.
“… he lost so much blood,” someone else remarked. “Tore them up, was what I heard. Not much left intact on either man.”
“A horrible thing,” said another detached voice in the crowd, shrill with panic. “First the Tomses, now Big Dave and Lanny. I wanna know what Officer Tucker plans to do about this!”
Kade strode beside Alex as she marched toward Zach, who stood near the entrance of the clinic, his cell phone pressed to his ear. He acknowledged her with barely a glance, continuing to bark grave orders to someone on the other end of the line.
“Zach,” she said, “I need to speak with you—”
“Kinda busy,” he snapped.
“But, Zach—”
“Not now, goddamn it! I’ve got one man dead and another bleeding out in there and the whole fucking town is going apeshit around me!”
Kade could hardly contain the protective snarl that curled at the back of his throat at the human’s outburst. His own anger spiked dangerously, muscles tensed and ready for a fight he realized he was more than eager to initiate. Instead, he subtly took Alex by the arm and placed himself between her and the other male. “Come on,” he said to her, guiding her away from the trooper and his meltdown in progress. “Let’s go somewhere else until things settle down.”
