“I’m sure with two shifters we should be able to find the ocean.” She smiled up at Dario. “It’s something I need to do before we go.”
“Then we’ll go.” He kissed the top of her head and his arms tightened around her.
They sat in silence while Penny drove to the beach. The moon over the bay was like a beacon leading them home. Its bright rays lit up the beach, casting long shadows on the ground.
“It’s so cold.” Helena stamped her feet and clapped her hands together as she stared at the sky.
“The snow has passed, the skies have cleared.” Dario slipped his arm around her shoulders and offered her his warmth. “There’ll be frost on the ground in the morning.”
“As much as I loved traveling with you across country, I am glad we’re making the return journey in a car.” She leaned into him and slid her arm around his waist.
“Even with a vampire in the trunk?” Dario chuckled. “I have lived in this town most of my life and seen some weird stuff, but I think this might be one of the strangest things I have ever done.”
“So far.” Logan patted him on the back. “You have a life with a mate ahead of you, who knows what strangeness that’ll bring.”
“What are you implying, Logan?” Penny hurried to join them after locking the car.
“Is Logan afraid of being tied down to a mate?” Dario teased. “Is he scared of belonging to another person and no longer being free to live in his remote cabin and hide away from people?”
“I don’t hide,” Logan insisted.
“Of course you don’t.” Dario laughed as he guided Helena toward the steps leading down to the beach.
“Is that what you all think?” Logan asked. “That I hide in the cabin?”
“He’s teasing you and you are taking the bait,” Penny warned.
Dario chuckled. “Listen to your mate, Logan.”
“He’s messing with you because you like to think that you aren’t frightened of anything,” Penny said soothingly as she took Logan’s hand.
“But your knees were shaking when we were in the same room as Silas.” Dario received a sharp jab in the ribs from Helena’s elbow.
“Behave,” she whispered.
“Oh, I’m not the one afraid of vampires. When we were kids, you used to hang garlic at the window so they wouldn’t come and bite you at night.”
“Did you?” Helena asked.
“I might have.” He shuddered.
“You’re afraid of them?”
“Not afraid. But when I first came here, I met a vampire. I’d snuck out of the hotel one night. It was hard to settle when I first moved here, maybe it’s my shifter blood, but the need to be free, to not be hemmed in by any walls just took over me.”
“And so you crept out of your room.” She squeezed his waist.
“I used to run along the streets, on two feet, I hadn’t had my first shift at that time, I was still young. But I used to run until my muscles ached and my lungs burned.” She glanced up at the moon. “Sometimes I’d come to the beach and sit and stare at the moon or the stars. I used to wonder if my mom was up there looking down on me.”
“Shifter kids aren’t a lot different from normal kids, are they?” Helena sounded relieved.
“No, they are just the same, especially until puberty. That’s when we change, when our hormones kick in and we gain the ability to shift.”
“So you were this lonely child searching for answers, searching for the parents you’d lost?” She leaned on his shoulder as they reached the bottom of the steps, their feet sinking in the soft sand.
“I suppose I was searching for them. I was grateful Valerie gave me a home, but it took me a while to settle down and see it as home. It took even longer to think of Valerie as my mom. But now, that’s what she is, the only mom I’ve ever known.” He looked up at the moon.
“And the vampire?”
“Oh, yeah.” He’d almost forgotten where his story had begun. “One night I was down here on the beach, sitting down by the tide, the waves gently lapping in. It was summer, twilight came late, and dawn came early.”
He could recall the last rays of sun glinting on the ocean, the swell of the tide, the salt in the warm air. He’d been at peace, alone on the beach with only his thoughts. Thoughts that turned over and over the events that had brought him to the very spot he sat on.
Dario rubbed his neck, recalling how his developing shifter senses told him there was someone there, even though he hadn’t heard any footsteps. He’d looked up. A pale face, as pale as the moon in the sky, was looking down on him.
He’d jumped and scurried across the sand on his hands and knees as the woman looked down on him. She’d smiled, a kind smile, but haunting. Her loss seemed to match his own as she reached out a hand to him.
“Don’t be afraid. I don’t want to hurt you.” She tilted her head to one side, looking at him with fascination, just as Dario and his brothers looked at bugs going about their day in the dirt.
“I need to get home.” He’d stood up, not sure if he should run. His father had always told him not to turn his back and run from a predator unless you knew you could outpace it. Could he outrun this woman?
Was she even a woman?
“I’ll walk with you,” she offered, her hand still outstretched.
“I’m okay. I know the way and I’m not supposed to talk to strangers.” He pushed himself to his feet, his knees trembling. For all the warmth in his body, she made him feel cold. Cold to his bones, cold to his soul.
“There are stranger things than me in this part of the world,” she’d purred, her eyes fixed on his.
He’d felt the pull of her, like the pull of a magnet. Her eyes, he couldn’t stop looking at her eyes. He’d lifted his hand and reached out for her. Just as their fingertips were about to touch, a voice called out, breaking the spell.
“Move along now, Maughna. He’s not for you.” Valerie stood on the beach, her feet wide, her hands curled into fists.
“I never knew that story,” Logan said.
“It was at that moment that I knew that Valerie would always be there for me, she’d face down demons for me and for those who were my new brothers.” Dario shuddered, his eyes glittering with tears. “I’ve also never forgotten Maughna and what might have happened if I’d taken her hand that night.”
“I thought you said vampires don’t drink human blood, from humans.”
“They don’t usually, but I think Maughna saw me and saw something else in me. A lost soul. But Valerie found me that night.” He chuckled. “Of course, she could have set the whole thing up, because I never left my room at night for a long, long time.”
Logan laughed. “Valerie probably did arrange the whole thing.”
“She wouldn’t!” Penny exclaimed.
“No, she wouldn’t.” Dario slid his hand off Helena’s shoulders. “So, this is the beach, we’ve found the ocean and now you have to make a wish.”
“I feel bad throwing away the pebble Milo gave me.” Helena held it out on the palm of her hand and smoothed her thumb over it.
“That’s what a wishing stone is for. Its true value is in the wish it gives you. So throw it out there.” Dario swept his hand out in a wide arc.
A little theatrical, his horse commented drily.
I thought so, Dario replied.
“Okay.” Helena held the stone in her hand and stared at it for a few moments, then she closed her eyes, as most people did when they finally made their wish. She pressed her lips to the smooth golden stone and then threw it out into the ocean. There was a single plop before the wishing stone was swallowed by the water.
The four people on the shore stood in silence for a long while, each lost in their own thoughts as the waves lapped gently on the shore. Around them, the night air cooled, until their breaths came in clouds of vapor.
“We should go. I’ve hardly seen Milo all day.” Penny turned her back to the ocean and hurried up the beach toward the car.
“And we nee
d to get a good night’s sleep before we leave tomorrow.” Dario held his hand out to Helena.
“Yes, since we have no idea what tomorrow will bring.” Helena took his hand and smiled at him, her lips red against her pale skin. “But whatever it is, we’ll face it together.”
“We will.”
“And I’ll hold your hand when Silas is around, so you don’t get scared of the big bad vampire,” she told him playfully.
“Now I know why fate brought us together.”
“So I can protect you?” She arched an eyebrow.
“No, because fate knows I could only love a woman who makes me laugh.” He chuckled as they reached the car and got inside.
I wonder what she wished for, his horse asked.
Maybe she’ll tell us when it comes true. Dario stared into the dark, where the endless waves broke on the shore. Our wish has already come true.
Now they just needed their happy ever after.
Chapter Twenty-Seven – Helena
“Have you gotten over your fear of vampires yet?” Helena asked lightly as they got into her car which remained untouched where they’d left it before their trek across country. As far as they could tell, Barry hadn’t been here. Even Dario’s shifter senses couldn’t pick up a trace of his scent.
“Just because we traveled in the same car as a vampire hidden in the trunk does not mean I like them.” He shuddered and then rolled his eyes as she grinned. “You find it amusing.”
“Just a little.” She turned the key in the ignition and the engine started. Turning the heater up fully, she rubbed her hands together to chase away the cold. “Although, from what you said last night, I think you have every right to be scared. Maughna would be enough to terrify most children.”
“Thank you.” He inclined his head.
“I shouldn’t tease you really. I’m the one who is frightened of monsters in the closet, even though I have never seen one.”
“Sometimes, it’s what we don’t see that frightens us more. With Maughna, it was the thought of what might have happened that scared me more than anything. If Valerie hadn’t come along, would she have hurt me, bitten my neck and drunk my blood, turned me into a vampire, or simply taken me home?”
“You’re right.” She put the car in drive. Detective Renshaw would follow them back to her apartment, from where their plan to capture Barry would unfold. “Maybe that’s where my fear of the monster in the closet stems from. Something that frightened me, but I couldn’t see.”
“Maybe your mom did see it.”
“What do you mean?” Helena drove onto the highway, keeping one eye on the detective’s car behind them to make sure he followed.
“Your mom lived in Wishing Moon Bay. Perhaps she had a gift for seeing things. Things that even shifters can’t see.” He shrugged. “It’s just a thought.”
“And one I’m going to explore once we have dealt with Barry.” She stared at the road ahead. What was waiting for them? Whatever it was, they would have to face it alone with only the detective as backup until night fell and Silas rose.
How strange that her life was entwined with a vampire’s. His actions all those years ago, to help Helena’s mom when she needed it most, had changed Helena’s life completely. In some ways, when her father died, she had lost both of her parents. Her mother had faded into a ghost of her former self when they left Wishing Moon Bay and the memories of their lives behind.
Why hadn’t her mom asked Silas to hide her own memories? Surely, she would have been happier without the knowledge of what had happened.
“Are you okay?” Dario asked.
“Yes. I was just thinking how sad and lonely my mom must have been. And wondering why she kept her memories of what happened. Wouldn’t it have been kinder to shut off the memories of our father’s death?”
“I don’t think it was about kindness.” Dario sighed and stared ahead. “She kept her memories, her pain, and her loss so that she could keep you safe. If she had no knowledge of what happened, then she wouldn’t have been prepared if Barry made his move.”
“Then why didn’t she tell us the truth before she died?”
“By then she would have assumed the threat had passed. She might even have assumed the murderer had died. At the very least he was no threat to you. He’d remained free for so long, why would he suddenly come looking for you?” Dario had a point. Her encounter with Barry had been chance.
Fate.
The same fate that had put her in the path of a certain horse shifter.
“And yet he was out there all this time, just waiting.”
“Your mom probably thought he was hiding in Wishing Moon Bay and had never left, that you were safe out here in the other world.” Dario sat up straighter as they pulled to a stop outside of her building. “Are you sure you want to do this? We can always try to find him without you.”
“No, he wants me, he wants a way back into Wishing Moon Bay.” She switched off the engine and half-turned to face him. “And I need to do this. I was there when this whole thing started, and I need to be there at the end.”
“I understand.” He leaned forward and kissed her cheek. “As long as I’m there by your side. We do this together, or not at all.”
“Agreed.” She cupped his face in her hands and kissed his lips. “I love you, Dario.”
“You do?” He jerked back and she laughed.
“That was not the response I was expecting.”
“Oh, I love you, too. I thought you already knew that.” He leaned in close, their lips less than an inch apart.
“I still need to hear it.” She kissed him, her lips brushing his until a knock at the window made them both jump.
“Hey, I need to find an underground parking lot to stow my car. I can’t risk the trunk being opened out here.” Detective Renshaw looked around.
“Okay, we can go to my office building and put your car in the underground parking lot there.” She turned her attention back to Dario. “I need to visit there anyway. I plan to hand in my notice.”
“You do?” His surprise was less than when she told him she loved him.
“I do. I’ve seen how happy Penny and Milo are in Wishing Moon Bay and I want to be there to watch Milo grow up and maybe give him a cousin to play with. I like the idea of them roaming the mountains together just like you and your brothers did.” She nodded. “I know it’s the right thing to do.”
“I’m certainly not going to argue with you.” He kissed her lips then got out of the car. Helena followed, closing her car door and then locking it before she ran across the street to the detective’s car.
“Okay, drive along this street. I’ll tell you where to turn.” Helena directed them to her office building, and they drove into the underground parking lot, where the detective parked the car in a bay with no camera surveillance.
“I’m staying here,” Detective Renshaw said. “I can’t risk leaving him exposed.”
“I’m going into the building. I won’t be long, why don’t you go fetch some coffee and something to eat?” she said to Dario.
“I thought I was staying by your side.” Dario edged closer to her.
“The building is secure. I need to talk to my boss alone.” She placed her hand on his upper arm. “I’ll be okay. Honestly, if Barry approaches, I’ll scream or something and that’ll get the attention of the security guards.”
“I don’t like it,” Dario said but he stepped back. “I’ll walk you to the elevator and then go grab some food and coffee.” He grabbed his pack from the car and jogged to catch up as she made her way across the parking lot to the elevator.
Helena resisted the urge to look around, she didn’t want Dario to know how nervous she was. And how convinced that Barry would more likely make a move while she was alone.
“Keep your cell phone switched on and in your hand,” Dario told her. “If you suspect Barry is close then call me and I’ll get to you. No matter how much security stands between us.”
“
You are such a romantic.” She kissed his cheek. “I’ll be fine.”
“I’ll be waiting right over there.” He pointed to the car. “What floor do you need?” As the elevator doors opened, he leaned in and she pressed the button for the eighth floor. “So I know where to find you.”
“I thought your senses would lead you right to me.” She kept her eyes focused on his face as the doors slid closed.
“They will,” he promised. “Call me. I’ll come running.”
She nodded as his face disappeared behind the elevator doors. As the elevator rose up through the center of the building, she rehearsed what she planned to say to her boss. She would tell him it was due to family commitments. He’d understand, his daughter had gone through a messy divorce a few years back, and he was well aware of Penny’s circumstances.
The doors slid back when she reached the floor of her offices but as she stepped out, it was as if she’d never been here before. It seemed so unfamiliar, despite having worked here for over eight years.
Striding over to the reception desk, she asked Vicky, who was like the central operating system of the office, if Mr. Lyle was free.
“I’ll check for you, Helena.” Vicky fixed a smile on her face and stared into the distance as she pressed the keyboard in front of her and listened on the headset she always wore, even when she was away from her desk.
Helena strolled away from the desk, turning in a wide circle as she waited to see if Mr. Lyle was available. She could have handed in her notice in writing, but she owed it to Mr. Lyle to talk to him face to face. Although, she had written a formal letter of notice last night after talking with Penny. Their conversation had finally pushed her into making the decision to leave her job and move to Wishing Moon Bay.
They’d talked about their parents as Milo slept quietly. They’d talked and cried over their new memories, of shared thoughts and flashes of insights that taught them about themselves. How Penny had loved playing on the beach, and building sandcastles, while Helena had developed a love of reading at a very young age.
Most of all they remembered the candies and sweet treats their parents made. They recalled the flavors and textures, and the look of pure joy and amazement on people’s faces when they popped one of their father’s creations into their mouths.
The Horse Shifter's Mate: A Wishing Moon Bay Shifter Romance (The Bond of Brothers Book 2) Page 20
