by E. J. King
“Violet and I have mutual friends in the Hunter world. When she started dabbling in dark magic, we all took notice. Your mother became a very powerful sorceress.” After a second, he added, “Too powerful.”
“Violet became a witch?” Even though it was new information, it wasn’t entirely a surprise. Just a few weeks earlier I had followed her into a magic shop.
“Not a witch. A sorceress.” Liam seemed annoyed that I didn’t understand the difference. “Little girls with tarot cards think they are witches. The power that Violet has should not be regarded so casually.”
It occurred to me that I had been so focused on Benton’s evil ways that it had never occurred to me that Violet might also be evil. “So Violet is a sorceress? Is she any good?”
“She’s incredibly skilled, but I wouldn’t call her good. The deeper she went into the dark magic, the more she changed. She no longer stood only on the side of good.”
“Violet is evil?” I asked bluntly. We really didn’t have time to be playing guessing games. “She’s a monster just like Benton?”
“Not like him.” Liam reached for the pot of coffee. “She’s much worse.”
Rafe protested, “That’s not possible. Benton is the one forming an army of supernatural creatures for his war. Violet needs to step up her game to compete with that.”
“Violet has found a way to control the Dark inside all supernatural creatures,” Liam said in a harsh tone. “It doesn’t get any worse than that.”
“Control them how?” I asked.
“Any way she wants. With her power, she only has to snap her fingers and she can make them do anything.”
“That can’t be true,” I said with a shake of my head. “If Violet could really control things, she would’ve already taken down Benton.”
“He won’t let her get close enough,” Liam explained. “Her power is strong, but she still needs to be within a few feet of whatever creature she wants to control. At least initially. Once she has control, she can keep that control from anywhere.”
It was strange to think that my mother might actually be stronger than my father, the uber-Soul. I had assumed that Violet had been the one hiding. It turned out that Benton was scared of her power.
“Do you know how we can find either of them?” Rafe asked, not sounding very optimistic.
Liam leaned forward, elbows on the table. “The supernatural grapevine says that Benton has a plan to kill Violet. He is setting a trap to lure her in. According to those sources, he has returned to the place where he first met Violet twenty years ago.”
“Do you know where that is?” I asked hopefully.
“Of course I do.” A smug look passed over his face. “I was there.”
“Where?” Rafe asked, finally sounding interested.
Liam was enjoying our rapt attention. He took a long pause before answering, “A town called Jackson.”
CHAPTER NINE
Jackson.
The same Jackson that had been my home for the past year. The town where I had tried to start a new life outside the Hunter world. The city where Rafe and Ethan had found me and convinced me to hunt again. The place where I had fallen in love and formed friendships.
“It’s not possible,” I said an hour later when Rafe and I were back in the truck.
“I don’t know why Liam would lie about that,” Rafe replied quietly.
“I was there, Rafe. For over a year I lived in that town. Benton was there, too. Why didn’t Violet come after him then?” I remembered how I had been drawn to Jackson. One morning I was driving down the highway with no destination in mind, and the next minute I was taking the exit to Jackson. It had felt so right at the time and now I wondered if other forces had been at work getting me there.
He just shrugged, seemingly unconcerned. “I don’t think Violet is going to be dumb enough to take the bait anyway. She’s managed to avoid getting killed for almost twenty years.”
“Do you think she’s really as powerful as Liam said?” I noted that it was snowing again, even harder than it had snowed the previous night.
I glanced over, surprised that Rafe didn’t answer. Even when I was being annoying and asking irrational questions, Rafe always obliged me with an answer.
He was staring hard at the road in front of us, his mind a hundred miles away. His strong jaw was clenched shut. Sometimes when I looked at him, I felt my heart beat faster and I wondered if he knew just how crazy I was about him.
“Where did you go just now?” I asked.
“Nowhere.” He glanced at me. “I’m right here.”
“Funny,” I said dryly. “You’ve been distant since that phone call. Who was it?”
Just as we were finishing our conversation with Liam, Rafe’s phone had rung. After quickly checking who was calling, he’d excused himself and stepped outside. I had tried to mind my own business, tried not to be the snooping girlfriend. But my curiosity had taken over.
“No one important,” he said. A few moments later, he added, “It was my mother.”
“Your mother?” My mouth dropped open. “She called you? Why?”
“Because one of us having annoying, messed-up parental figures isn’t enough.” He sighed and tapped his hands against the steering wheel. “Ken is missing.”
Another jaw-dropper. “Missing? How is your dad missing?”
“He told Mom that he was visiting an old friend that might be able to help with Benton. That was three days ago. He never came home.”
“Interesting.” I didn’t know what to say. It was no secret that Rafe and his step-father had a hate-hate relationship. But still. “I take it your mom wants you to help find him?”
A shrug. “Something like that. She’s really worried about him or she never would’ve called me. After our last family reunion, I assumed I would never hear from either of them again.”
“What do you want to do?” I would understand if he said he wanted to pretend like his mom had never called. I would understand even more if he said he hoped Ken was never found. But Rafe was a better man than that.
“I don’t know.” His deep voice sounded hollow. When I didn’t say anything, he asked, “What do you think I should do?”
“I think you should do whatever you are comfortable doing. I can’t make this decision for you.” I touched his arm. “Whatever you decide, I’ll support you.”
He looked at me skeptically. “You’ll support me even if I decide not to help? If I decide to let him stay missing knowing that he might be killed?”
“Yes. No matter what,” I said firmly, squeezing his arm. “But I already know what you’re going to decide to do.”
“You do?” One of his eyebrows shot up. “Tell me.”
“You’re going to put aside all of your justified feelings of anger and go find Ken.” I tried to keep my own feelings out of it.
“How do you know that?” he asked.
I sighed. “Because I know you. You are probably the best person I’ve ever know and you don’t have a selfish bone in your body. You’re way more forgiving than me, that’s for sure.”
“I think you give me too much credit,” he said quietly.
“I don’t think you give yourself enough credit.” I glanced at the clock. “You’ve got about thirty minutes to prove me wrong.”
But thirty minutes later, Rafe was breaking the news to Ethan that their dad was missing. If he had decided not to help, he never would’ve bothered telling his brother. I resigned myself to the fact that we had yet another distraction getting in the way of stopping Benton.
“I can’t believe I didn’t see this before,” I muttered to myself, studying the map while Rafe tried to convince Ethan that they should return home. “It’s been right there the whole time.”
“What?” Hope asked over my shoulder.
“Jackson. It’s the center of everything.” I tapped the spot on the map.
All of the weird weather phenomenon and influx of supernatural activity had been swirling
around Jackson the whole time. The only reason I hadn’t figured it out was that Jackson itself hadn’t been hit by anything strange or out of the ordinary. But now that made sense. The evil in Jackson was radiating outward.
“We don’t have time for a wild goose chase,” Ethan was insisting across the room. “We know where to find Benton now and that should be our top priority.”
“I’m the older brother. Just trust me on this.” Rafe sounded extra annoyed.
“I don’t understand the game he’s playing,” I said, trying hard to block out the bickering. “He was in Jackson with us. Why did he leave?”
“I wouldn’t think too hard about it,” Hope said, raising her voice to be heard over the background distraction. “I think Benton just likes messing with you. He likes treating you like a pawn in the world’s weirdest game of chess.”
I grimaced. “In that metaphor, is he the king?”
“Okay, bad metaphor.”
One of the guys picked that second to punch the wall.
“Alright, enough!” I yelled, whirling in their direction. “We don’t have time for a pissing contest. I don’t exactly give a crap about your father, but I think we all have to admit that he’s one more Hunter we could have on our side going up against Benton and that’s pretty necessary right now.”
Ethan stared hard at me, his fist still clenched. Very slowly, he nodded. “Alright. I guess that means we’re going to help him.”
“Going to help who?” Mark asked, appearing for the first time. Somehow he had managed to avoid all of the drama.
“Our father has pulled a Houdini,” Rafe explained quickly. “We need to see if we can find him.”
“Really?” Mark looked overly-surprised. “I’m surprised you care at all about what happens to Ken Night.”
“What do you mean?” Rafe asked through tight lips.
I felt my heartrate quicken. When I had seen the scars on Rafe’s body, he had admitted that Ken had abused him. Having grown up in the same house, Ethan also knew about Ken’s terrible treatment of Rafe. But I had no idea how Mark could possibly know their family’s secret.
“Well, I mean…” Mark stuttered, unsure if he should explain his comment. “I just figured based on the rumors about Ken and your biological father that you might not be a big fan of his.”
“What rumors?” I asked quickly.
Mark shook his head. “I shouldn’t have said anything. It’s just Hunter gossip. You know how that is…”
“What rumors?” Ethan snapped.
“Your fathers, Tom and Ken, were friends.” Mark looked very uncomfortable standing in the middle of our circle. “They used to hunt together. One night, something happened on a hunt and Tom was attacked. According to Ken, he was turned by a Soul. When Ken realized what happened, he had to finish the job.”
“Ken killed my father?” Rafe asked breathlessly.
“Not killed him, more like put him out of his misery. He had already turned into a Soul at that point.” Mark glanced at Ethan and added hastily, “Allegedly.”
“What do you mean by allegedly?” Ethan had turned a sickly shade of white.
Mark shrugged. “That’s where the rumors come in. It was pretty well known that Ken had a giant crush on your mom. Of course at that point, she was already pregnant with Tom’s baby. Some Hunters think that Ken let Tom get attacked.”
I had to admit, that was good gossip. “That’s crazy. He wouldn’t do that,” I said without much conviction. After meeting Ken, I actually didn’t find the accusation that farfetched.
“Is there any proof?” Ethan asked quietly. I could tell that he was thinking the same thing as me. Rafe, on the other hand, was completely unreadable in his silence.
“No proof, just gossip. I’m sure it’s not true.” Mark looked as unconvinced as the rest of us.
Ethan turned to his brother. “Do you still want to save that jerk?”
“This doesn’t change anything,” Rafe said. “The roads are still bad right now. We’ll leave tomorrow.”
Rafe left the room before Ethan could start another fight. I turned my attention back to the map, glad that for once it wasn’t my crazy father we were discussing.
“Doesn’t anyone have a normal family?” I muttered.
“I do,” Hope said in a chipper voice. Her face fell as she continued, “Of course I haven’t actually seen them since I turned into a vampire. So… maybe we’re not so normal anymore.”
Mark felt guilty for opening a can of worms, so he started frying things. Ethan threw on a coat and stormed outside. That left just me and Hope to start looking into current events in Jackson. From what we could find, Benton had been laying a somewhat low profile. He was causing just enough disturbance to confirm supernatural activity in town, but not so much that it would be obvious to anyone that wasn’t looking for it. In other words, he had laid the bait and he was just waiting for someone to bite.
Our dysfunctional family dinner was more awkward than usual since no one was in the mood for conversation. Hope did her best to engage in small talk, but eventually she gave up. We ate our fried food in silence, each of us lost in different thoughts.
After dinner, Rafe pulled me upstairs to talk in private.
“I’ve been thinking,” he said.
“Did it hurt?” I joked. For some reason, I always made lame jokes when I was trying to avoid a serious conversation.
“Don’t,” Rafe warned. “You should stay here while Ethan and I go home.”
“I should stay here?” I repeated stupidly.
“It doesn’t make sense for you to go back with us. Chances are, we won’t even find Ken anyway. You have a lot on your plate with Violet and Benton, and you don’t need to be worrying about a man that you barely know.” Rafe crossed his arms over his chest as if to prevent any further discussion of the matter.
I scoffed. “Nice try, buddy. You aren’t leaving me behind.”
“Kaylie-”
“Don’t,” I said, using his own annoying technique against him. “We’re in this together, James. Like it or not, you’re stuck with me.”
“You need to be focusing on the battle, Kaylie. Don’t waste your energy on this,” he pleaded. When he looked at me like that, it was hard to think of anything but being in his arms.
“I’m not wasting my energy on this. I’m focusing on helping the man I love.” Now it was my turn to cross my arms stubbornly. “You need to do this, so I need to do it. Done deal.”
Rafe smiled reluctantly. “Careful. I might start to think that you are in love with me.”
“Well, we can’t have that, can we?” I returned his smile.
“Sometimes I still can’t believe that you were dumb enough to fall for me,” he said wistfully. “But I’m sure glad you did.”
“Ditto.” My eyes involuntarily flitted toward the bed. “I think we have enough time before anyone starts to wonder about us…”
Rafe’s smile grew. “No amount of time is ever enough, but we can make it work.”
Fifteen minutes later, we rejoined the others downstairs. A few wrinkles in our clothes were the only signs that we had been doing more than just talking. No one cared enough to notice.
“What’s he doing?” I asked, surprised by Mark’s frenzied concentration as he typed furiously on one of his many keyboards.
“Research,” Ethan explained. “Since you are insisting we find Dad, it makes sense for us to narrow down our search area.”
“He’s probably just on one of his drinking benders,” Rafe muttered, throwing himself down on the couch. He stretched his long legs in front of him and reached for the remote. “You guys have fun with your research. I’m going to research the football scores.”
Mark barely glanced up from his computer. “Did Ken have any Hunter friends in the Lewistown area?”
“I don’t think so.” Ethan took a seat next to Mark and studied the screen in front of them. I thought about joining them, but I realized that I wanted a break from res
earching death and monsters.
“Make room, Rafferty,” I said, squeezing next to him on the couch.
His arm went around my shoulders and I leaned into him, my head resting naturally on his shoulder.
“No talking, woman,” he said. “Football is on.”
I knew that he was only kidding. Rafe watched an occasional sporting event, but he was usually too busy fighting monsters to become a fanatic. I put my hand on his chest, just over his heart and closed my eyes. The strong, steady beat lulled me into a peaceful sleep.
At least, it was peaceful at first. But once I hit the deep end of sleep, things got ugly. I found myself standing in my old apartment in Jackson, facing off against a figure in the shadows. I saw the bodies of my friends all around me, a lake of blood pooling at my feet. The shadowy figure became clearer until I saw that it was actually one person about to snap the neck of another person. Benton’s gold eyes locked onto mine and I opened my mouth to scream as a swift twist broke Rafe’s neck with a sickening crack.
My eyes flew open, heart pounding in my chest. The room was mostly dark, a faint light beginning to stream through the window. I was alone on the couch with a blanket tucked around me. It took a few seconds for me to remember where I was and then I saw Rafe, seated in a chair a few feet away. He was staring right at me.
“Bad dream?” he asked.
“What are you doing?” I brushed tangled hair from my face. “Were you watching me sleep?”
“A little,” he admitted with a small smile. “But I was also thinking.”
“About?” I yawned used an elbow to prop my head up.
His icy blue eyes flashed and my heart fluttered. “You.”
“I just had a dream about you,” I said, still feeling a little out of sorts. The dream had seemed so real.
“A dream?” His smile turned crooked and teasing. “A naughty dream?”
“Benton killed you.” I had to be honest with him because I wasn’t entirely sure it had just been a dream. “It felt so real, James. It was like a memory of something that really happened.”
He stared hard at me, his face stony and unreadable. After a long pause, he said, “It was just a nightmare, Kaylie.”
