Banewolf (Dark Siren Book 2) Read online

  “Is this my fault?” Greg’s voice softened. “Did I get in the way of you protecting her?”

  “No,” he said and meant it. Had he been stronger, things would have turned out differently.

  Greg reached into the shopping bag and pulled out a pair of dress pants. He tossed them at Rhane. The material was blood stained and wrinkled as if they’d been packed in that very bag for two weeks. More noticeable was a large tear in the fabric of the upper thigh region. Greg looked Rhane directly in the eye. “I know you’re different, son. And I know I owe you a thank you for saving my life.”

  “Mr. Metts, I respect you a lot. But I didn’t do it for you.”

  Greg nodded. “I know. I was pretty out of it. But I heard you begging Kali to leave. It was the right thing to do. I will always expect you to choose her life over mine and over your own.” Sighing, he leaned forward. “Nine years ago, a man brought Kali to us and said she needed our love and protection. We were to keep her safe until it was no longer humanly possible. He promised that when the child matured, another would arrive to act as her guardian. Lisa and I agreed without hesitation. We fell in love with Kali and would have done anything to help her. Over the years, we noticed little things…we knew she was different.” Greg stopped. After taking a moment to suppress his emotions, he continued. “We loved her as much as we loved our biological daughter, probably sometimes even more. I promised to protect her, but now there’s something out there…something evil that wants her and I can’t stop it. I can’t protect my little girl from him, can I?”

  “No, you can’t.”

  “But you can.” Greg’s expression became hopeful. “Bring Kalista home and I won’t interfere anymore.”

  Rhane shook his head. “She can’t stay with you. I can’t protect her like that.”

  Greg rubbed his face. He knew what Rhane’s words implied. He nodded. “Right now she’s alone and afraid. You are what she needs.” He looked around the master bedroom. “Any chance you could give her own room?”

  “By my side is the safest place for her to be.”

  “Okay…okay.” Greg ran a hand across his neck. “Just promise me you won’t have sex with her. She’s only seventeen. She needs to finish high school and go to college, not get wrapped up and twisted around in a relationship with a much older man.”

  “There is an eight year and three month gestation for offspring of my species. If pregnancy is what you’re worried about, it wouldn’t affect her until long after she graduated from college.”

  Greg’s mouth fell open and then snapped shut.

  “Sorry. It was a bad joke.” Rhane was genuinely contrite. “You have a deal.”

  The two men went downstairs. At the door, they shook hands with acceptance and a new understanding. Halfway down the drive, Greg called back to Rhane. “There’s not much you can do about the tattoo, but make sure to get a haircut before you go and get my little girl. I’ll start believing you’re not the pizza boy when you stop looking like one.” He smiled.

  Rhane grinned back. After the baby joke, he pretty much deserved that one.

  Chapter 3

  Even in death, Rhane found a way to take care of her. When Kali ran, she’d left with nothing. With no idea where to go or how to get there, she saw Rhane’s pickup parked roadside. Inside the toolbox she found an extra set of license plates, five bricks of one hundred dollar bills, and a small arsenal of guns and knives—all the necessary tools for a year on the run. Kali had taken them without hesitation.

  One week later, she stumbled onto a small island paradise. The one-bedroom villa had a hot tub, shorefront pool, and every other luxury a girl could ask for. Even near the end of fall, Caribbean weather remained a pleasant seventy-five degrees. And with the ocean right at her fingertips, she could have stayed on that little island forever. Unfortunately, the villa wasn’t cheap. Kali knew she had to be smart about money, especially until her head cleared enough to find work.

  One major downside came with island living. Watching a decent flick in a real theater required a ferry ride to the mainland. Though she would have preferred to swim it, Kali had spent part of the morning doing just that. Swimming such a distance would have made an enjoyable workout. But after the incident with the diver, it was too soon to risk another “sea maiden” sighting. The local newspaper had already nicknamed the mysterious girl who hung out at the bottom of the ocean. Kali was supposed to be lying low. Being the newest tourist attraction was counterproductive to that.

  Hopping a ride aboard a safari taxi down to the theater, she bought a ticket for the first showing of the morning. Plane crash victims hunted by grey wolves to the last survivor was a storyline Kali couldn’t resist. An old man, probably a retiree, sat at the box office counter. He smiled as she walked up.

  “You’re on a beautiful island. It’s a beautiful day.” His gestures took in the surroundings and then Kali as he spoke. “What could make such a beautiful girl so sad?”

  Revealing she’d had to leave friends and family because soul-stealing monsters were after her was not an option. Saying she had finally been reunited with her soul mate after four hundred years of separation only to have him die nine days later, just after telling her that the child she didn’t remember having was dead wasn’t feasible either. Somehow, Kali forced a feeble smile to her lips and told the first none-crazy sounding lie she could think of. “I’m failing chemistry.”

  “Ah.” The old man nodded. “Then perhaps you should be studying your books and not playing hooky at the theater.”

  He slid the ticket toward her anyway. She gratefully accepted, trying very hard to keep the brave face in place while thinking about everything she’d lost. Something in her expression must have moved the old man. When she entered the theater doors, a large bucket of popcorn and a fountain drink were waiting atop the concession stand. “It’s on the house,” he said. “Don’t give up. A smart girl like you can figure anything out. This world has much to offer. You just have to go out there and take it.”

  “Thanks,” was all she could manage.

  “You’re in theater seven. Go on in. I’ll have the film playing in about ten minutes.”

  Kali stood in the aisle, counting rows until she found the seat that was dead center in the theater. Then she sat munching on slightly stale popcorn while listening to the projector warm up. Salt and butter coated her tongue in a delicious covering.

  As the wolves onscreen snarled and lunged, her mind revisited a Friday night from not too long ago. Only one thing was missing, one very important thing.

  Kali cried into her tub of popcorn.

  It was during the last fifteen minutes of the movie that someone else walked in. The person wasn’t the old man, making her wonder what kind of idiot would pay full price to see the ending of a movie. He was male. And he moved powerfully, but something in the stride was off, as if his movements were compensating for pain elsewhere. The man started up the stairs but stopped at Kali’s row. Light from the screen briefly illuminated his features in a glow of silver.

  Her breathing slowed.

  No.

  The bucket of popcorn slipped from her numb fingers and crashed to the floor. He claimed the seat beside her, but she was paralyzed, afraid to hope and afraid to doubt.

  Soft fingertips found her face, brushed against her cheek in a tender caress. That one touch dissolved all of the agony she’d suffered for weeks.

  “Is this seat taken?”

  His voice was wonderful in her ears as he breathed her name. “Kalista.”

  She trembled.

  His fingers danced through her hair, neatly twisting and untwisting dark ringlets. When she still didn’t look at him, he took her face, gently turning it toward him. Seeing those unusual eyes, she could finally accept the truth.

  Rhane was alive.

  He captured her lips, and the kiss said everything words could not. Through his mouth, she felt how terribly he’d missed her and the ache her absence had caused. She responded in
kind, sharing her pain. She clung to him, wrapped herself in the reality of his continued existence. She inhaled the scent of his skin and the scent of his hair. She moaned as he pressed his lips against her face and neck, leaving scorching trails of fire across her skin. She needed more of him, craved for his bare skin to touch hers. She drank deeply of his spark, and fireworks of blue and gold erupted at her call.

  Rhane was the first to pull back. His eyes glittered hotly with desire. “Let’s get out of here.”

  She kissed him again. “Okay,” she said when they finally broke apart.

  The old man gave Rhane the thumbs up as they left the theater. Kali was tempted to ask what that was about but, noticing Rhane’s limp again, she stopped. “Why haven’t you healed?”

  To her surprised, he actually chuckled. “You should have seen me a week ago. Warekin were designed to recover quickly from injury. But wounds delivered by the most powerful of our leaders, Primes, are a different matter. Though Gabriel is a Prime no longer, he continues to be an extremely dangerous adversary.”

  They reached the car and Rhane pushed her against the back of his rental SUV, kissing her until she was breathless.

  “I thought you were dead,” she said when she’d reclaimed enough oxygen to speak.

  “No.” He stroked her face tenderly. “You made sure that didn’t happen.”

  Sobbing, she buried her face into his shirt. He wrapped his arms around her. “I’ve missed you so much. I miss home. Can I go home now? They said I could never go home.”

  He stiffened, and his arms squeezed her tighter. “Yeah. That was my idea. I’m sorry.”

  Kali lifted her head to see his face. “What do you mean?” she asked, making up her mind to not get upset until he’d had a chance to explain.

  “Going into that fight, I knew there was a big chance I’d get messed up pretty bad. I couldn’t risk being out of commission and not being able to protect you if Gabriel came around again.”

  “But what about Orrin and York? Orrin is a really big guy. York is huge.”

  Rhane shook his head. His expression was grim. “They are no match for a creature such as Gabriel.”

  “What about the man with the creepy blue eyes? He sorta reminded me of you, only he was scary and you aren’t. Certainly he could take on Gabriel.”

  “That’s River. He is my brother.”

  “Your brother?” She screwed up her face to match her disbelief. “Even ice is warmer.”

  “He’s okay really. He just hasn’t assimilated into the modern world as much as the rest of us.”

  “Why did you tell him to threaten to kill me?”

  Rhane frowned darkly. Then he sighed. “I guess that was his way of making sure you stayed away. We really didn’t want Gabriel to find you.”

  “Okay.” Kali relaxed. Those were good intentions. And Rhane had traveled thousands of miles to find her, after all. “So, can I go home now?” she said again, trying not to sound too hopeful.

  He scratched his ear. “Home is going to be a little different. How do you feel about staying with me for a little while?”

  An excited giggle escaped her lips, and she almost jumped up into his arms. Remembering he was still injured was the only thing that stopped her. “How on earth did you get Greg to agree to that?”

  “I got a haircut.”

  She laughed. “And how did he feel about your new body art?”

  “Probably the same way he felt about the long hair.”

  “He hates tattoos.” She wrinkled her nose. “But I think those are awesome.”

  “Oh? You like these?” He held up his right hand to give her the full effect.

  She shrugged one shoulder casually, a move that belied the growing heat within her. “They’re kind of sexy.”

  He moved closer. “So…you think I’m sexy.”

  Her skin tingled. She shivered but teased him anyway. “No. I think the tattoos are sexy.”

  When he laughed, she lost herself. Standing on tiptoe, Kali kissed him long and slow. His laugh melted into a moan. His hands slid across her shoulders and down her back, almost but not quite touching her backside. She clutched her fingers into his shirt, folding them into the soft cotton. The kiss grew more heated, and reflexively, her hips rolled into his, searching to feel his response. Rhane gasped. Briefly, his fingers dug sharply into her skin. The pain made Kali’s insides throb. She melded even closer. Then his hands were hot against her face, and he pulled away, leaving Kali panting, aching for more. His green eyes were intense, almost black with desire. He grew as still as stone, watching her, not saying anything.

  After forever passed, he pressed his lips against her forehead and held them there. “I’m still here,” he whispered. She closed her eyes, savoring the feel of his breath against her skin.

  Taking her hand, he led her to the passenger side of the SUV and held open the door. “I can’t believe you made me come to a tiny freaking island out in the middle of the freaking ocean. I hate the water, Kali.”

  She laughed. “I thought you were dead, tough guy.”

  Chapter 4

  Resting her chin in one hand, Kali drummed her pencil against the desk. She was tackling her third make-up test for the day. After such a huge lapse in attendance, it was only Greg’s good relationship with the school board that prevented her from automatically flunking the eleventh grade. She was allowed to come back to regular classes and then spend every waking hour trying to catch up on the curriculum. To fail would mean an entire summer trapped within the buttercream painted cement walls of summer school. That just wasn’t an option.

  Okay, focus, she told herself for the hundredth time. It was one quiz. Ten questions to cover the highlights of last week’s Biology lessons. Twenty minutes in and Kali had only completed the first question. And she wasn’t even one hundred percent sure ‘C’ was the right answer.

  Admittedly, the move into Rhane’s manor had taken up a lot of valuable study time. Rion and War could be quite distracting with their non-stop rivalry and war play. And having Rhane back in her life was like living a dream, one which made Kali breathless. All she ever wanted to do was kiss him.

  And there was also the elephant.

  A huge one stood in any room that both Kali and Rhane occupied. Hung about its neck was a list of all the unspoken things standing between them. Rhane had finally opened up, but only in a moment of crisis. Kali worried it would take another death-is-imminent-disaster for him to do it again and tell her everything about their past.

  The fact that everyone else at the manor seemed aware of their troubles only made things worse. The kin tiptoed about, giving Kali her space, treating her like something fragile. She wondered if the careful handling was from fear she might shatter—or explode.

  “Ms. Metts, have you completed the quiz yet?”

  Her head jerked up at the sound of Mr. Pile’s voice. Clearing her throat, she looked at the paper again. “Almost,” she said.

  Kali was actually still on question one. She was about to fail the quiz with epic proportions.

  Randomly circling a bunch of answers until she reached the last question, she paused to read number ten again. Maybe she could get two answers right and at least achieve a twenty. Aim high.

  Why are diseases caused by Ustilago called smuts? A. the Mycelium is black in color. B. they turn affected parts completely black. C. they develop sooty masses of spores.

  Kali snickered. She couldn’t take the question seriously because it included the words ‘smut’ and ‘disease’ in the same sentence. Covering her mouth, she stifled another giggle. Mr. Pile frowned. Kali wrote in D. it makes the infected corn perform explicitly in a sexual manner. Then she circled C, gathered her books and turned the test in to the Biology teacher. Mr. Pile considered the answers over the rim of his glasses. Seconds later, the page had seven red marks. He scribbled thirty-five at the top of the quiz, circled the number, and handed it back to Kali.

  “What’s the extra five points for?”


  His expression was humorless. “I gave you credit for creativity on number ten. I’ll see you after school on Friday, Ms. Metts. You’ve clearly wasted my time today, so I will take pleasure in wasting a bit of your weekend in return.”

  “Since when are teachers allowed to give detention for failing a stupid quiz?”

  Mr. Pile ripped off another slip of paper and gave it to Kali. “Disrupting class” was scribbled at the top. A tight smile played at the corners of his mouth. “You and I know the true reason. You are dismissed.”

  “Thanks,” Kali said, muttering, “For nothing,” under her breath.

  Stepping outside of the classroom, she heard a familiar voice. It sent a shiver up her spine and into the base of her skull.

  “Hello, Kalista.” Callan leaned against the wall in a dark colored military jacket with mock service stripes on each sleeve. His blue eyes took their time to slowly graze over her.

  Feeling somewhat unsettled, Kali watched the boy in front of her as closely as he watched her. Something was terribly wrong about him. Blinking rapidly, she licked her lips. Only on the second attempt did her mouth succeed in uttering the conclusion her brain had reached. “You’re not Cal. Are you?”

  He shook his head and smiled. The expression was quite frightening. “No.”

  She took a step away from him and then another.

  “Cal” pulled away from the wall and followed. “Please,” he said. The eerie smile hadn’t left his face. “Stay.”

  “No. You stay…away from me.”

  “Darkesong.”

  The longing with which he’d said the name clung to Kali as she ran away, echoing a haunting chorus to the sound of her footsteps.

  Chapter 5

  After seeing the Cal who wasn’t Cal, Kali’s mind was far too harried to focus on class. Skipping the last block of the day, she went to the swimming pool and sat at the bottom for a long time. Her eyes closed. Her body was motionless. The pressure of the water became a loving caress, helping to relax everything except her mind. Those anxious thoughts just wouldn’t let go.