by L M Preston
EmVee searched his eyes for any sign of guilt. “You killed the others? Did you bite them?”
Kayson thinned his lip and pressed his fingers up to his temple. “No, I can control my beast.”
EmVee narrowed her eyes. “How? How is it you can?”
“He and I wrestled before when I fought Silas off. I turned...many times before.”
EmVee put her hands to her mouth. “You’ve turned multiple times?”
Kayson shook his head. “Yes. Once, against Silas, when I fought then hunted him. Another when I escaped here. I came through these woods and was attacked by a creature. The last time…tonight.”
EmVee stepped back; her hands were shaking. “I thought I knew you. You’re like him.”
“I am not!” Kayson grabbed her arms, pulled her to him. “I’m not like him. I can control it like you can. I think he was too much of the wolf and the dark magic, more than he was human. We…we aren’t slaves to the moon like the werewolves, and we aren’t slaves to the beast like Silas was. We get to choose.”
EmVee wrapped her arms around Kayson’s waist. “I hope so.”
“C’mon.” He grabbed her hand. “Let me carry you. None of them had shoes you could fit.”
“Okay.” EmVee circled his neck with her arms as he lifted her.
“Hold on.” Kayson smiled at her.
“They stabbed you,” her hoarse question was whispered.
“I borrowed some of your blood, took a small bite to heal faster than I already do.”
Butterflies tickled her stomach, and she smiled back. His warm naked torso heated up the underside of hers even though goosebumps littered her skin. She hugged him tighter.
Then he ran with her at super speed. The thought of him nipping her made her beast whine with want for more.
“Wrap your legs around my waist, hold on,” Kayson whispered.
“Thank you,” she uttered.
Kayson tightened his grasp.
EmVee tucked her lips in the crook of his neck. The desire to kiss him there was strong, and her breath quickened. Kayson’s arms trembled as though he felt her struggle and rapid breaths on his neckline.
She crossed her legs snug around him. EmVee almost moaned at the pleasure in being held by him in such a way. She squeezed her legs tighter around him, swallowing the urge to rub against him. EmVee closed her eyes and held him, willing her rapid heartbeats to slow.
They got to the van. It was brown and had huge scratches and dents.
Kayson slowly put EmVee down; a soft moan escaped his lips as though it hurt him to let her go. EmVee’s feet touched the ground, and she jumped away from him but stumbled as a sharp pain pinched her side.
“Ahh!” Sax charged from the backside of the van.
“Wait!” EmVee yelled, holding up a hand.
Demi jumped from a nearby tree with grace and power EmVee knew wasn’t something she’d had before.
“Thank God it’s you.” Demi ran to EmVee and hugged her. “We need to get out of here and quick.”
Sax dropped the police club he carried. “Yeah, now.” Then he ran to the driver’s side.
Demi pursed her lips. “Where are your clothes?”
“I…well…” EmVee coughed, and winced at the ache in her chest from being stabbed. The wound was visibly gone but the echo of pain was still there.
Demi shook her finger. “I don’t want to know.”
EmVee opened the door and got in the back of the van, moving over for Kayson.
Sax started the van and sped off.
“Did you see Megan?” EmVee pulled the shirt down over her knees.
“Not since she left the van with us. She said she had another way home and not to wait for her.” Demi handed EmVee a piece of gum. “I knew you’d want this. Rachel gave it to me.”
EmVee’s leg started jumping. She stuffed the gum in her mouth while wrapping her arms around her waist. She braced for another bump on the road. “What about Rachel? She was supposed to meet us here at the van.”
“She did. Then she said she’d parked her car at the club parking lot earlier in the day and had to leave once Kayson came on to perform.”
“Oh.” EmVee wondered at that. Rachel usually wouldn’t leave knowing there was a chance of danger, especially when Megan was involved.
“Kayson, you’ve got a good sound. We could hear it from the parking lot. We waited there until you performed then went to the meeting spot.” Sax slowed to the speed limit once they got to the main street.
“So, how did things go? Did you find your guy?”
“We found him,” EmVee answered although she didn’t know if he was still alive.
“Why did he ask you for a Soul Thieves ring?” Kayson asked, his voice strained, tinged with anger.
EmVee sighed. “It doesn’t matter now. I don’t have it.”
“Hmm…” Kayson leaned back. “Or the charm?”
“No, I must have lost them when I lost my clothes.”
Kayson dug in his pocket. “You didn’t lose them. I got them, but why did you have the ring and didn’t tell me?”
EmVee took the items from Kayson. “My father had the ring in his bag. I didn’t know what it was or why he hid it there, but I kept it.”
“Right.” Kayson nodded then turned away as though he needed a moment to think.
Sax put his elbow on the seat. “I think he may have been a Vigilant. Especially if he was involved with my dad. He must have been one of the originals that escaped.”
“Then why would he come back? That doesn’t make sense.”
Sax tapped his finger on the seat. “It does if he came back as a decoy for a bigger plan. Which is something The Vigilant have been working on for years. They are trying to find the Overlord and stop him from trying to break the barrier for the magicals.”
“You knew this all the time?” EmVee popped the gum.
“Maybe, well, yeah. My father, though not recruiting me, did let me sit in some of the meetings with The Vigilant. You know, serving drinks and passing out equipment. I picked up a lot by being silent and listening.”
“If my father did agree to come here, knowing he would be set up, why didn’t The Vigilant protect us? Or him?”
“Hard to do without blowing their own cover and giving their entire strategy away. They will fight the Overlord till it is done. He was the one who cursed them and turned them into Soul Thieves to begin with. Nobody would want that job. Basically, imprisoning your human soul to serve an evil magical? If he was a former Soul Thief and he had been working for The Vigilant as an undercover agent, he knew the risk and was willing to take it for the greater cause.”
EmVee fell silent. The thought and ache from the fact that it was plausible that her father brought them there, knowing he was risking all of their lives, hurt. Tears fell unchecked from her eyes because, deep down, she knew it was true.
The door was open at Megan’s house. Rachel had left a note saying to hurry inside. She would see them in the morning. The lighting cast a warm glow on the artistically stacked books, the circular staircase to the off-limits door at the top.
EmVee closed the door, biting her lip. She leaned against it.
Demi took her hand. “Thank you for saving me.”
EmVee studied her eyes, a pale, almost translucent gray, so different than they were before. “I’m sorry that happened to you. So sorry you changed.”
“I’m alive. That’s all that matters.” Demi hugged her and whispered, “You are going to have to tell me where your underwear went,” and laughed.
Sax grasped her hand. “Remember what I told you. Think about things your dad did or said; they may be clues. It’s the way The Vigilant work.”
EmVee nodded. “Okay. Thanks, Sax. For everything.”
Kayson watched her, not saying a word. He tugged her into his arms and held her. EmVee closed her eyes and laid her head on his chest.
“Something changed. In me.” She exhaled.
“I know.” Ka
yson leaned back and traced her cheek with his thumb. “It’s only…we can’t bite the creatures of the stone. It’s an addiction to us. I have something I want to look up while Megan’s not here. I’ll knock on the door before I come in. Okay?”
“Yeah.” EmVee moved away and started toward the bedroom. She followed the landmarks of book statues and pillars that helped her navigate Megan’s weirdly colorfully decorated house.
In the bedroom, she went to her backpack and pulled out her father’s bag. She traced the intricate design in the shape of a ring of fire made of silver.
“What were you hiding from me?” Her throat tightened and tears fell. “Daddy, what was so important? More than us?” EmVee put the necklace and the ring in a hidden compartment within the bag. She felt around, hoping to find a clue, anything. Then, she frowned and remembered that her father’s cell phone was likely in the bag.
She removed everything out of it, taking her time and smelling each item. EmVee still picked up a faint scent from him. Her finger grazed another pouch with an outside zipper, not hidden like the other. His phone was inside.
Trying several times with different combinations she’d watched him use, she finally unlocked it.
EmVee went through every app and feature and realized he didn’t have a single contact. Basically, the phone was only used to make calls, she guessed. It was like it was new, right out the box. She checked, seeing what calls were made from the phone, and found only a few. One had an initial FN and another had initials SM. The SM was the same initials as Sax’s. Interesting. Could her father have called Sax’s? She checked the times and realized the call to SM was the day Rocky had showed up at the club.
Biting her lip, she studied the apps and saw one with a shape similar to the one on his bag. It was in a folder, virtually hidden from someone casually looking at his phone.
She clicked on the app, and it requested a fingerprint to open.
“Ugh!” She’d never get any information this way. EmVee put the phone back in his bag and gathered her things for a shower.
There were unanswered questions that she thought would change the way she’d felt about her father. She loved him and looked up to him, but to think he put them at risk for his friends, some group he’d escaped with, made her feel ill.
Maybe a shower would help wash away the tears she’d held back. Once, she’d never allow herself to cry; lately, she couldn’t seem to stop having reasons to.
“Daddy, I miss you.” EmVee turned on the water—hot as she could take it, hoping it would soothe her soul and give her the strength to save what little family she had left.
EmVee sat on the floor, fiddling with her father’s phone in one hand and his ring in the other. The ring felt warm in her palm. Was it his? Or someone else’s? She didn’t know. Having it had put her father in danger. All of them in danger.
There was a knock at the door. EmVee tried to calm her racing heart by taking several breaths. It was Kayson. Her wolf’s alpha. The wolf’s persona within her was emotional, lonely, and needy for the alpha wolf that protected her from madness. EmVee bit her lip and closed her eyes for a moment.
“Come in.”
Kayson walked inside. He hesitated before he glanced down at what she held in her hand. “So, do you think your father owned it?”
EmVee shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s the only thing that makes sense.”
Kayson sat next to her. “You want to talk…you know, about what happened?”
She sighed. “Not really, I’d prefer if it was all a dream.”
Kayson chuckled. “Don’t we all.”
“I don’t know what made me change like that. The beast inside me wanted to eat Zagan.”
“I know; I felt the same way too. Especially when he attacked you.”
“Then why didn’t you? What made you stop?”
“I knew I had to. I don’t want to be like him, like Silas. The magic within the humans that turn with the arbitrium, the magic of the charm, becomes like an addictive drug to us. I can’t help what he’s left within me, but I can control it better since I’m not him and don’t have the amount of the Fenrir gene he has. This is all a guessing game, you know. He had a demented mind, but he also had an addiction. Something we can learn to fight.”
“I know, but you’ve been living it longer than I, and you were with others like you. I only have you as an example since werewolves seem to be different in some ways.”
“They are. I guess we are more like shapeshifters. They can control their shifting with practice. I don’t know if they can control their animal nature, but I have come to an agreement with my inner wolf. I am him; he is me. I don’t have some demon wolf telling me what to do while I am in wolf form. I get to choose, I get to deny the temptation to bite, to eat flesh.”
“What if we make a mistake? Will we turn others? Create some epidemic? I don’t want that.”
“We can’t create others that way. Only Silas had the power to do that.”
“How do you know? Have you bitten someone?”
“No, but Tara, our drummer, did. She attacked her boyfriend when she found him cheating on her. The girl ran. Tara’s boyfriend couldn’t get away in time. He lived even though she’d taken a chunk of flesh from his arm.”
“Are you sure? Positive he didn’t change?”
“Yeah, I snuck a blood sample from my father’s office. The police station had taken DNA samples for investigation. I removed the blood samples and gave them to one of my friends, who is the best chemist I know. He had an internship at one of the labs here. He tested it, and I watched her ex-boyfriend for months. He didn’t have the scent.”
EmVee frowned, playing with the ring in her fingers.
“Like you.”
“You smelled me?” EmVee smiled and lifted her arm to sniff.
Kayson smiled back. “I knew you smelled like one of us. I didn’t want to believe it. Silas’ scent was the strongest. The rest of us had variations of strength that connected us. That guy didn’t have it. He smelled human even after he healed, and it took him the normal amount of time to heal as it would any person. He still had scars too.”
“How’d did you get all this proof?”
“He was on the football team. Varsity like me, so during the time we changed, I peeped him. Not proud of it, but I had to make sure.”
“How did Tara feel about that?”
“Ashamed. Silas was angry that she would give away our cover. It was close and used as one of the pieces of evidence in the serial killer case. But Silas wasn’t holding his shit together any better than she did.”
“If that’s the case, why not bite Zagan?”
“Because he has the kin magic in him from the soul stones. Something about magicals with that in them drove Silas crazy; it was like crack cocaine to him. It wasn’t because the girls he killed were Soul Trainers. It was that they had been changed by the stone from human to magical, and that combination was addictive to him. To us.”
EmVee crossed her legs. “I know. I felt that. Unlike any other creature or person, I wanted to eat Zagan and the other men. So badly.” With shaking hands, she put the ring in the hidden compartment in her father’s bag.
“Hey, it’s okay.” Kayson took her hand, brought it up to his mouth, and kissed it.
EmVee pulled her hand from his. “About the change and me being…”
“Naked?”
“Yes, I’m…”
“Embarrassed? Don’t be. I didn’t stare. I covered you as quickly as possible. I will admit it was hard. You are so beautiful.”
“Thank you. Your song; it was amazing. And the…” EmVee’s eyes dropped to his chest and then back up.
“Nipple ring?” Kayson laughed, and winked at her. “You like that?”
“It was interesting. I didn’t think you would have something like that.”
“Want to touch it?”
EmVee’s jaw dropped. She did. Oh God, did she want to touch. “N-no.”
“Liar.�
�� Kayson smiled.
“When did you get it?” EmVee forced her hand to remain at her side by balling her fist and digging low on her hips. Her other hand squeezed her father’s cell phone, but she had to concentrate to keep from breaking it.
He shrugged. “There’s a lot of layers to who I am. I got that and one other when I started dating my first love.”
“You, uhum, were in love with someone?” EmVee gulped at the ache of jealousy within her chest.
Kayson smirked. “I did fall for someone besides you. But when I saw you, I knew that wasn’t real. Anyway, I thought you would like it. Whenever I got around to showing it to you.”
EmVee wrapped her arms around her legs. “Really? Why would you want to? Uh, you know, pierce yourself.”
“She was older than me, and I wanted to impress her. She was into things like that. You know, she had lots of tattoos and piercings. She actually dared me to let her do it.”
“Did it hurt?”
“Yeah. I didn’t show it, but I wouldn’t do it again.”
EmVee smiled. “Not even for me?”
“Maybe for you.”
EmVee’s skin tingled; she wanted him. What she wanted from him, she was ashamed to ponder further.
EmVee dropped the cell phone. “I can’t get into the app that I think my father used to communicate with the Soul Thieves or The Vigilant.”
“Let me see.” Kayson kneeled next to her and reached for it.
EmVee felt an uncomfortable warmth on her skin. She moved out of his way and pointed at the phone. “See the app right there? It needs a fingerprint. I’m afraid if I mess with it, it might self-destruct or something.”
“At this point, we have no other options.” He gave her back the phone. “Try your thumbprint.”
“Mine? But if…” EmVee pressed the app. Kayson reached for her, and EmVee jumped away. “Okay, here goes.” Then she pressed her thumb down.
The screen asked for the secret name.
“Secret name? Hmm…” Kayson moved closer.
EmVee didn’t slide away from him; she realized he was teasing her. “I got it, my father had another name. It was one he made us remember, but told us to never use.” She typed in Ptolemy, her father’s real name.
