Nicky and Uncle Graham would find the connection between Reece and the Darmov family Shadows, and her and her mate would be safe and okay.
She would turn into a wolf.
She would learn to control her emotions and her mind.
And she wouldn’t complain.
She wouldn’t shy away.
In an instant, Alexia realized that her life wasn’t as bad as it could have been. Sure, she had a long run ahead of her. She had a lot to fight for.
But, the people in front of her – her friends, her family…the fight would be worth it.
Being a little different was worth it.
Alexia walked toward her growing family, toward her fellow Clan members, and she smiled.
She was ready.
She was ready for the Skröm.
She was ready for the Shadows.
She was ready to learn and to embrace her wolf and her Skröm bitch.
She could do this.
The answering smiles from Ben and Carrie, or Hercules and Tinkerbell as she’d crowned them, bolstered her confidence. The smile from James helped her accept her fate further. And the look her mate sent her as he squeezed her hand in his let that final click happen inside, and she felt the shift inside of her morph into an all-out vital change as her two Clan sides joined together in one loud whisper: finally. Of course the bitches inside of her were happy. They got to come out and play, and if there was a God, they’d all get some good sex tonight as well. It was a win-win for the many inhabitants of the Alexia vessel that day.
Danny Rios waited by the car while Cam interviewed the young hiking couple by the trail head in the north part of the state park. There were three state parks in the area, and this was the largest with over 60 miles of trails at all levels. The couple had seen something during the first murder at the park near the edge of one of the trails, and Danny was letting Cam do his thing. He wasn’t a lazy man, but he also didn’t have to have control over every little detail. Cam did. And although Danny loved Cam like a brother, sometimes it was best to leave him alone when he was having one of his feelings or when he was pissed. Today, his friend seemed to be experiencing both.
Cam might not believe in the mystical and Danny’s Ma might be the local coroner, but Danny believed in magic. He’d seen things. Terrible things. Beautiful things. Things that couldn’t be explained. Some with Cam, who wouldn’t let himself believe what was happening even when it was going on right in front of him.
So, Danny was leaving Cam alone, and he would bet money that it was about Mindy. Not just because Cam’s whole life seemed to revolve around a particular Indian goddess – and Danny couldn’t fault him for that – but because Mindy had actually called Danny to ‘talk’. They’d met for coffee early that morning, and she’d shared that Cam had found out from someone else about her gifts.
He wouldn’t say ‘I told you so,’ but fuckin’-A, he had told her. So had Ma. She’d initially wanted Danny to talk to Cam, but they both knew Danny wouldn’t get anywhere as her advocate. And Cam wasn’t going to accept her gifts in a day. He was going to brood about it, try to keep his exterior calm, and then explode like he was good at doing.
Danny got it. A lot of people didn’t believe in magic or shit like that. Danny’s Ma didn’t like mystical crap. His Ma liked science. Trusted in its surety, and Danny understood that. But for his Ma, she didn’t hate it. She just avoided it. Cam, though…Cam had legit fears that Danny knew stemmed from his time at the Waters’ home.
Danny believed in otherworldly creatures and magic and things like ghosts, and he trusted Mindy’s instincts when she got a hunch or felt emotions. He’d just seen too much to not believe that there were other beings out there. Not to mention the fact that Danny worshipped at the feet of everything Mindy. He’d dated other women, and he’d tried to get over his feelings, but there was something so beautiful and ethereal about her that he’d never been able to let go of. She was special in ways that, although Cam was his best friend, Danny was pissed at him for not seeing.
“What’d you find out?” Danny asked, standing at attention and watching said best friend stroll across the parking lot of the trail head. The glint in Cam’s eyes and the hostility pouring off the man in waves put Danny on guard. He’d never seen Cam in such a mood but finding out your girlfriend had gifts when he’d had zero tolerance for anything mystical, and from someone else, had to have been a shock. He couldn’t hide his head in the sand again. The bell had been wrung, and now he needed the time to make it fit into his little world. Danny felt a sudden stab of irritation. If Danny had a woman like Mindy – hell, he’d never let that resentment get the best of him. Danny pushed his angry thoughts to the side as Cam shared what he’d found out.
“I knew we’d find a good witness. Seems the couple saw a man and a woman – both about thirty to thirty-five, one with dark, red hair and the other with dark, brown hair – in the woods that first night when the Anderson family went missing. They were carrying very little gear, and wearing long robes.”
Danny thought for a moment that the description seemed to fit with Mindy’s “vision” thing for the most part, but he didn’t share that bit of information. “And they didn’t think it was strange that people were wearing robes?” he asked. “Why are they just coming forward now?”
“Said they thought the couple was doing some moon ritual because they asked the hikers if they wanted to join. Some commune-hippie bullshit it seems. Maybe that’s what this is…” Cam trailed off, thinking about his statement, and he shook his head. “Seems the couple I spoke to have been hiking and camping in the area for the past month and a half to get the full-blown state park experience. They’ve only stopped at main rest areas a few times in that timeframe, and their most recent stop was more local. They heard about the murders from a group they met at a bonfire the other night.”
“And you believe them?” Danny asked. Because despite Cam’s lack of belief in the mystical, Cam was never wrong. Like absolutely never. When they’d been in college at Montville University getting their Bachelor’s degrees in Criminal Justice, both of them had been big partiers sowing their wild oats, especially since it was around that time that Cam had started to put on some muscle. But Cam had never failed a test. He’d study for two hours at most for every class, and most classes he didn’t study for at all, and he just knew. He always just knew. If someone cheated on a test, he knew. If a teacher lied about something, he’d known. And on the force, before he’d become a detective, Cam had been the Montville cop no one wanted to be stopped by. He saw through all their bullshit. Not only that, he absorbed information like a sponge, drawing parallels and connections that no one else saw. He always just knew. It was eerie. And it pissed Danny off that Cam was so bent out of shape over Mindy’s gifts, when Cam himself had these amazing gifts he could really use if he got his head out of his ass.
“Yeah, I believe them,” Cam said. He had that confident look in his eye that said he was 100% sure. No one but Cam could really pull off that look. Fucking. Human. Lie. Detector.
“They give any other descriptors or information?” Danny asked.
“Actually, according to the female witness, Denise Rogers, the woman wore a white shirt underneath the robe with a Montville University logo on it,” Cam said. “She’s been to the school a few times to visit friends and she’s seen the logo a lot. However, she also said she couldn’t be sure. Said she didn’t want to be biased. She’s apparently read a bunch of studies on witness bias.”
Danny chuckled, but Cam remained stoic, and that, more than anything, let Danny know something was up. They always joked about civilians trying to do police work or quoting studies so they’d feel useful when giving a testimony. Most of what they read turned out to be bullshit. Forty percent of the job was instinct, twenty percent rules, and the other forty was trust. Danny trusted Cam. He just hoped Cam trusted him, especially where Mindy was concerned.
“So, what’s up with you and Mindy, Cam?” Danny asked,
not so nonchalantly. He didn’t want this to turn into a confrontation, but he was tired of the bullshitting.
“What do you mean?” Cam asked, instantly wary and guarded. “Nothing’s up.” He paused. “You been talking to her again? Having one of your bar meetings?”
“Bar meetings? Seriously, dude? We hang out at the bar when we’re waiting for you to dot your “i’s” and cross your “t’s” on reports that take you twice as long as the rest of the department,” Danny retorted, trying to lighten the mood by jabbing at Cam, but it was the wrong move.
Cam’s control was visibly slipping. “You mean I’m the only one who’s not lazy or lacks commitment to their work?”
Danny didn’t take the bait. He wanted to. He wanted to remind Cam that he’d been the one who’d served in the Marines for four years after college, that he’d been the one to get into the Academy at the age of 26 and make detective two years earlier than Cam at 28. But that wasn’t the type of guy Danny was. He knew everyone had their own path to take, their own way to go, and he knew that both he and Cam should be proud of their accomplishments. Sure, he was more casual about things, he didn’t worry as much, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t just as committed. He also knew Cam would regret the words later on, so Danny reigned in his fury.
“Look, dude,” Danny said turning toward the only brother he’d ever really known - even if Cam wasn’t blood. “You and Mindy are perfect together. She loves you more than anyone, and I would hate to see you throw this away because she’s got a little extra oomph in her.”
Danny must have been the biggest fool because he didn’t see the fist coming until it was too late. He felt himself fly back a couple feet and his back hit Cam’s Range Rover. It felt like his ribs had been cracked, and he struggled to breathe past the pain. What. The. Ever-loving. Fuck? Was Cam on something?
“You knew?!” Cam shouted. “You knew that Mindy, the one person I could count on, was hiding things from me? That she could get into my head? That she could make me think and feel—”
“Fuck, Cam,” Danny spat. He ignored the stab of pain at not being included in the group of people Cam could count on, but Cam was just angry, even if he was being a total dickhead.
Danny probably should have stayed quiet after being beat to a pulp with one punch, but Cam was seriously fucking insane over the fact that Mindy could read emotions. “I knew. Of course I knew! Half the force knows. They don’t talk about it, but they know. And before you punch me again,” he tossed back, holding up his hands and then quickly reaching for his back and his ribs, “most of them know because they fucking pay attention. You don’t believe in mystical stuff. I get it. For some reason it scares you. I think you and I both know why even though you never talk about it. But fuck you, Cam. Mindy’s been wanting to tell you since you guys moved from friends to dating months back, but Jesus, she thought maybe you’d go crazy.” He paused, wiping some blood from his face. “Glad she was wrong,” Danny added sarcastically.
“Fuck! Shit! Damn! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” Cam hit his Range Rover over and over again, punctuating each of his twenty or so curses with a fresh dent to the rather expensive vehicle. Danny just watched and let his friend have it out. Something was going on, and if it was tied to what Danny thought it was tied to, then he understood Cam’s fears and anger. But still, no one gave up a good woman like Mindy over something that had happened almost fifteen years ago. At least, Danny hoped Cam wasn’t that stupid.
“I can’t do it, Danny,” Cam said, hopelessly. “I can’t do it. I can’t go crazy again. I can’t be seeing this shit and—”
He stopped hitting the vehicle and slid to the ground. Danny moved slightly and then realized he couldn’t really move at all, so he stayed where he was, and said the only thing he could.
“I was there too, Cam. I didn’t go through it like you did, but I saw it happen. And we weren’t crazy,” Danny continued when he knew Cam was going to interrupt. “It did happen, and at some point, you’re gonna need to fucking deal with that shit rolling around in you.” Danny took a breath and it wheezed out of him in pain. Cam looked over, but still didn’t make a move to help. “And a woman like Mindy, man… Well, she could help you move forward. She could help you move past that fear shit, that anger, that…well…honestly, whatever the fuck is stuck in your head.” Danny paused again. “But you’ve gotta let her. Or it’s gonna fester and grow and consume you like that monster almost did.”
They were quiet for a moment until Cam looked back at Danny, and the look in his eyes let Danny know all he needed to. The trauma and the wound had already festered. There was a darkness to Cam now that Danny hadn’t ever seen. There was an inner war that, if Danny didn’t know Cam so well, he would have said had turned Cam into one of the monsters. But no, Danny reassured himself. No, that couldn’t happen.
Cam eventually got up from the ground, dusted off his jeans, closed his suit jacket over his black tee, slicked back his blond hair and walked over to Danny. He helped him up and drove him to a local clinic where they checked his kidneys and wrapped his ribs. No breaks, no injury to his kidneys, so Danny gave a grunt and a manly hug to the asshole who’d kicked his ass and who was tearing apart Mindy’s heart – the woman who Danny himself would have given his left nut to have in his life. What the fuck, though? That was life. And Danny would keep sticking to his guns, keep hoping for the best. That’s who he was. The sidekick. The pushover. The nice guy who only kept girls around for a night.
He’d be watching out for Cam and Mindy, though.
He looked over at his friend as they got back Cam’s Range Rover.
Truthfully, he’d also be watching Cam, too. Closely.
There was too much going on, and in the recesses of his soul – something Danny definitely believed in – he knew that everything that was going on was connected to that night almost fifteen years ago in the backyard of the Waters’ house. Everything was connected to the night Cam and Danny discovered monsters weren’t just fiction, but real. Cam might not believe in magic or evil, but Danny knew it existed, and if Cam wouldn’t admit it, Danny would have to be the one to protect the asshole from himself.
“The primal sin of those like myself, mes amis, is that because we were once people who acted like beasts, we are forever cursed to be beasts who know they were once men.” – Gemma Files, The Worm in Every Heart
“I need you to see the scene in your mind, Alexia,” Carrie, one of Alexia’s designated trainers, said from her perch on a tree branch in Cam’s backyard. James was watching the scene play out, probably looking for ways to push her even further later on, while her Devon…well…so, her Man Bear wasn’t always a fan of training sessions. He sort of had a habit of shifting into his bear form at the drop of a hat in a misguided effort to keep her safe.
It was a warm, spring Friday. The sun was shining, the sky was blue, and the afternoon heat felt good after the dark and dreary winter they’d had in Western New York. Her Taryn trainers were helping her practice using her own power to connect to and pull energy from the Earth. A process Carrie and Ben, Tinkerbell and Hercules, called grounding. When the power was collected and worked with the energy Taryn’s and Skröm had, those Clan members could push light energy toward another. For the Taryn, and for Alexia, this light energy disabled the Skröm and the Others, whose gifts came from the Darkness. Or the light energy could even destroy the Shadows like Devon had done that first night. If enough power was expelled, it could actually severely hinder the Skröm and the Others or obliterate the Shadow entirely.
Both Carrie and Ben were full-blooded Taryn, but the way Carrie moved, you’d have thought she was a cat underneath that tiny frame. Her long, curly brunette hair fell in waves of golden-tinted coffee-colored rays of cottony curls, and her dark green eyes had the look of a stealthy cat. She was under five feet, wore sparkly pink ballet flats Alexia knew must have come from the kid’s shoe section, a pair of tattered white-washed blue jeans that made her mocha-tinted complexion seem darker,
and a Disney t-shirt with all of the Disney princess characters and Tinkerbell on the front. Alexia had snickered when she’d seen the shirt. How appropriate. She was definitely one of Alexia’s new favorite people.
Carrie’s twin brother, Ben – because Taryn offspring were always mirror twins – was the opposite. He was over 6’5”, almost as white as Alexia’s pale, porcelain complexion, had blue eyes, long blond hair he’d grown out to his shoulders, and he was powerfully built. He was almost as muscular as Devon. Hence, Hercules.
“But if I use light energy on you, won’t I hurt you?” The burning feeling happening inside of her felt ready to explode, but Alexia didn’t want to hurt anyone. This was just training for God’s sake. They’d already had a good hour of hand-to-hand practice. It had been great working her physical side, and it had also been an experience getting to know James. He could fight.
She shouldn’t have been surprised. Intellectually, Alexia knew James was physically in his thirties, but he was her biological father. Looking at a man in his sixties and seeing someone around the same age as her was disorienting, especially when he was her father. But she’d handled her own, even if she’d been beyond exhausted after the exercises. They’d also tried a few ways to release Alexia’s wolf, but that wasn’t happening. She almost felt like the wolf was giving her the middle finger every time she reached for her. Bitch.
“You’re not gonna hurt me, Lex. We’re Light Clan. Light can’t hurt Light, silly,” Carrie chirped from where she was perched.
“You sure, Tinkerbell?” Alexia wasn’t going to be able to hold the light energy they’d taught her to build up anyhow, but she was maybe thinking she should push it toward the stone wall near the garden or something sturdier than the lithe but tiny woman who looked like she could have been Devon’s little sister. Even if said little sister was giving her a pouty look at the Tinkerbell nickname. Taryn’s, Alexia had learned, were not built with strength of body, but strength of mind in their genes. Ben might have been built like a really tall Mack truck, but this woman was all mind strength. Well, and cat-climbing, but still.
The Devil's Pride (Wild Beasts Series) Page 24
