Banewolf (Dark Siren Book 2) Page 7

  “We need to talk about what happened to you at school yesterday.”

  “You said we could talk about it later.”

  “It is later.”

  “Rhane, just leave me alone!” Mortified that she’d stamped her foot like a petulant child, Kali bit her lip and walked away before saying something she’d regret forever.

  In the living room, Rion and War were playing the latest first-person shooter game on the Xbox. It was their custom most weekday mornings. Noise from the flat-screen television had muted some time ago but abruptly resumed when she entered. Gaming was the perfect excuse to avoid eye contact. Kali flopped down on the couch between them anyway. Rion glanced at her as she smoothed her black sundress but then glued his eyes forward. War fidgeted with his ball cap but said nothing. After several minutes of gunfire, explosions and dead terrorists, the two settled into themselves again. Ruthless banter and profanity-littered insults were an ordinary part of their relationship.

  When Rhane entered the room, the boys cleared out without a word, dropping the controllers as if someone had doused them with gasoline and struck a match. As Rion shoved through the front door behind War, she caught a glimpse of his t-shirt and almost smiled. Written on the back in white block lettering was “THE REAL WOLFMAN.”

  Giving her plenty of space, Rhane sat down at the other end of the couch. “I can’t let you go back to school until we understand what happened there yesterday.”

  “I thought you said you weren’t my father.”

  “Your father has trusted me to protect you. I can’t do that unless you talk to me.” He ran a hand through his thick hair, giving it a slight tug at the ends.

  “You’re going to go bald,” she muttered.

  “I hope not. Something tells me Greg wouldn’t be too fond of you dating a skinhead.” The smile he flashed was his rarest, the one that showcased a single dimple.

  It was enough to make her squirm in her seat. Feeling a bit less angry, Kali rubbed her eyes. Dark thoughts please go away.

  “Tell me what happened.”

  No more late night snacking on monsters if you can’t handle the aftermath.

  “Kalista.”

  She jerked around at the sound of her name. Though his eyes were gentle, Rhane watched her intently. She exhaled. “Last night you offered to talk about our past.”

  “I did.” His gaze flitted down and then back up. Kali was certain that she could have lived a thousand lifetimes and never gotten used to his unusual eyes and the way they sometimes peered straight into her. “And you bailed—again.”

  Kali struggled beneath the weight of the shame she felt. But shame was good. It was better than unbridled anger. “I know. I’m sorry. Rhane, I don’t know what’s gotten into me. I can’t stop being awful…” She rubbed her arms, returning to her limited memory of the past twenty-four hours. “Last night with that creature…I think I fed from it. I think its life is inside of me, making me act this way. It makes sense. Dark energy has screwed with my head before.” She took another shaky breath. “I’m really sorry.”

  Rhane had stood up and moved closer as she spoke. When her voice trembled with the apology, he reached out to her. But Kali pulled away abruptly. “Please…don’t touch me.”

  His expression was stricken. “Kalista, what is it?”

  Closing her eyes so she wouldn’t see his pain, she blurted, “I see him. I keep seeing him when you touch me.” Choking on a sob, she stopped. After reigning in her emotions, she opened her eyes and continued. “He’s cold and dead…He’s just a boy but he looks so much like you…I can’t stand it.”

  Expelling a loud breath, Rhane collapsed rather than sat on the sofa. He stared at hands held limply in front of him. A dark shadow crossed his face, one that was truly frightening. “I’m…so sorry.”

  Kali really couldn’t understand what they had lost because she couldn’t remember. She didn’t remember loving Rhane. She hadn’t spent four hundred years pining for him. She couldn’t remember what being a mother felt like. And she didn’t remember how much she had loved their son. Kali only knew what she felt now. Physically, she was only seventeen. And without past memories, her mind would remain seventeen. The situation was almost hopeless.

  Seeing the pain in Rhane’s face made her want to reach out and take him in her arms. She wanted to tell him it was okay. Only it wasn’t. Things hadn’t been okay for Rhane in a very long time.

  “I don’t blame you.” Needing to be strong for his sake, Kali reached out and grasped his hand. She focused on him, steeling herself against the vision of the child that almost instantly appeared. The agony in Rhane’s green eyes was reflected in tears he would never let fall. “Knowing what happened…I don’t see you any differently.” She swallowed a huge lump in her throat. “I love you.”

  Squeezing his eyes shut, he pulled her across the sofa and folded her into his arms. “I’m not a good person, Kalista.”

  “Don’t say that.”

  “It’s true. You didn’t massacre my people. But I…I cannot claim such innocence. Soldiers came for you and I fought. Rhaven was with me. I’d hidden him carefully and told him to remain out of sight. But someone discovered him. Flynn, the commander of the third legion, meant to bring him to me as collateral. He wanted to trade our child’s life for yours. Instead, I received his limp body in my arms. The fighting stopped. Flynn said it was an accident. That he would have never given such an order. It didn’t matter.” Rhane dropped his forehead onto her shoulder. “I killed Flynn. And then I used Banewolf to kill the rest of them. I slaughtered them all.”

  Wow. Kali imagined Rhane on the battlefield, holding his dead son…their dead son. Her chest ached like someone had put a hot poker through it. She reeled her mind away from the image and tried to picture one that was more comforting. Vengeance against those who’d hurt their son was a cheering thought. But Rhane going berserk was hard to imagine. Kali had seen him annoyed but never angry.

  “You were protecting your family,” she offered in his defense.

  “Flynn was Rion’s sire as well as my friend. War and Orrin also became orphans by my hand.”

  “Do they know?”

  “No.”

  Wow, she thought again. The seventeen-year-old mind had little to reference for a warlord who mass-murdered his own soldiers to defend his creature mate and then spent the next few hundred years raising the children of dead men. Teen Comet didn’t cover those sorts of relationship issues.

  But in the past, Kali had done many things to upset Greg and Lisa. Most times their disappointment hurt worse than any punishment could have. If the chances of them finding out her latest transgression were slim, Kali had never gone out of her way to confess. So with Rhane’s dilemma, her gut leaned toward not telling. But she couldn’t say that. Deep down and way past her gut, Kali knew it was bad advice. And bad advice had a way of snaking back to bite the ass.

  “A real parent is the person who loves you enough to raise you as if you were their own. To them, you are their father. They love and respect you. Nothing has to change that.”

  His arms squeezed harder as he clung to her for a few desperate seconds. Then he let go, started to push her away gently…but stopped. She waited, her heart already pounding faster. His hand slid up her side, grazing her breast as it came to rest on her shoulder. Kali trembled.

  His fingers kneaded her neck. The touch lightened as they traced her jaw and outlined her lips, burning a trail of fire into her skin. Hues of brown pooled into the chrysoprase green of his widening pupils. Kali watched, mesmerized by the swirl of colors. His mouth covered hers and perfectly worked moist, hot magic against her lips. His other hand pressed into the small of her back, the fingers digging into her flesh. She sighed and leaned into him, savoring the heat that surged throughout her body, building in her toes and fingertips as it searched for an outlet.

  The gold and turquoise energy of his spark beckoned to Kali, urging her to indulge in its depths. She answered. Drank gree
dily, let the streams of his life fill her. Whatever effect feeding on the kindred had done was overturned by the purity of Rhane’s existence. The darkness was gone.

  She moaned when his lips moved to her neck and down her collar. Her extremities burned as if someone held a flame beneath them, heating her flesh until it neared boiling. Even Rhane was affected. The hand roaming up her leg clenched the softness of her inner thigh as his breath abruptly expelled in a sharp hiss. Closely followed was the carnal pinch of his teeth against her shoulder. Kali gasped at the shock of pleasure that spurted low in her abdomen. She shuddered when his mouth found her throat and laid down burning kisses, each one followed by a gentle nip, teasing her body into heightened arousal. His hand pushed her back, and one rock solid bicep gradually lowered her onto the cushions of the sofa. She went quite willingly, wrapping her arms around his broad shoulders and back, stroking the rippled muscles beneath his t-shirt. She sighed when his head went to her stomach. Using teeth to lift her dress, he assaulted her belly with soft kisses. Kali laced her fingers through his dark hair, clutching him tighter when his tongue flicked across the tip of her panties. Muscles bunching, her back arched, and she curled her legs around him.

  Mid-kiss, Rhane stopped and looked up. His eyes had gone completely primal.

  He smiled.

  And bit her thigh.

  Kali was nearly driven into spasms.

  But then the freaking coffee table caught on fire.

  Chapter 17

  Kali sat in AP English only half listening to Mr. Willis give out the chapter and essay assignment for Night, a novel by Elie Wiesel. She pressed her forehead against the cool surface of the desk, every now then lifting her head a few millimeters to bang it softly against the wood. Disappointment…bang. Anger…bang. Horniness…bang. Frustration…bang.

  While the teacher droned on about Nazi social structures, Kali wallowed in regret. Her mind replayed the scene at the manor over and over. Again, she was lying on the couch. Again, Rhane’s long body with all its hard muscles and woodsy scent was on top of her. Hours later and her fingertips still tingled when thinking about it. She pushed her mind to explore how far they would have gone if not for the incident.

  The stupid incident. The stupid coffee table. Stupid abilities. Stupid siren.

  Ugh. Bang.

  Kali hadn’t even known a fire could be started with her mind. The bursts of flames had always come from her hands in the past. And she still hadn’t exactly figured out how to do it at will. Great. On top of everything else, now she had to worry about setting random objects on fire.

  After calmly putting the fire out with an old blanket, Rhane had doubled over in laughter. Kali was stunned and confused. But Rhane’s fit of amusement quickly caused her to abandon those emotions. She got mad. Trying to pacify her, he had kissed her cheek and then her lips, very softly. The passion was short lived, and Rhane became all business again. He sat her down and demanded to know everything leading up to her being soaked in kindred blood. So she had told him about Callan.

  She gave Rhane the abridged version of events, explaining how Cal had cornered her. And inadvertently she had taken some of his spark. She fudged a few details, conveniently leaving out any mention of Gabriel. It was stupid. She knew that. She also knew there was no way in heaven or on earth Rhane would let her return to Ridge Creek High if he knew her ex-boyfriend was hosting a monstrous sociopath who may or may not be interested in killing her, or at the very least, possessing her powers.

  Bang. Kali rapped her head against the desk again. It was such a bad decision. Lying to Rhane was always a bad decision. But the last time he went up against Gabriel, she’d ended up separated from him and from her family for nearly a month. She kept reasoning that if Gabriel/Cal truly wanted to hurt her, he wouldn’t have let the perfect opportunity pass.

  She needed to see Cal again. And she couldn’t have Rhane killing Gabriel until she’d had the chance to see if Cal was really in there…or if the only one left was a murderous psycho.

  “Ms. Metts?”

  Kali’s head snapped up. Mr. Willis was watching her expectantly. Crapola. She sat back in the chair and cleared her throat. “Um…could you repeat the question?”

  Mr. Willis sighed heavily but gave her a second chance. “Does Wiesel believe that God is dead, or is it the narrator who feels so?”

  Kali had read precisely one page of last night’s reading assignment. Actually, she’d only read one page of the entire book and had no idea of the answer. But Mr. Willis had given her a multiple choice question. She could just pick one. As long as Mr. Willis didn’t ask her to explain anything, it’d be okay. “Um, it’s the narrator who feels God is dead.”

  “And why do you feel that way, Kali?”

  Dang it. She fidgeted. “I feel that way because…” Her brain worked in overdrive to come up with something. Sometimes an answer could be made from the question itself. “You know he doesn’t believe in God anymore because of the way he talked about God.”

  It sounded pathetic even in her ears.

  Mr. Willis was a young guy. It was his first job out of college, so he probably hadn’t forgotten what staying up too late did to the brain or how to fake that you hadn’t skipped last night’s reading assignment. His mouth quirked at the corner, and Kali could tell he knew she was trying to sell him crap. Mr. Willis wasn’t pulling out his wallet to buy any of it.

  The English teacher spun around in a slow circle, taking a good look at the room of thirty students. “Someone who has truly read the assigned chapters, please tell me what you think.”

  A hand shot up at the front of the class. It was the new kid, showing off again.

  Mr. Willis raised an eyebrow and nodded. “Go ahead, Mr. White.”

  “The answer is neither. Both the author and Eliezer’s faith in God, while damaged, remained intact.”

  Mr. Willis smiled. “Very good.”

  She glared at the back of the boy’s shirt until “THE REAL WOLFMAN” started to get blurry. Finally, Rion turned around with a grin and tossed an apologetic wave in her direction. Kali rolled her eyes. It was bad enough being sent to high school with a babysitter. Things were way worse when the babysitter was a total geek who upstaged her and everyone else in the entire grade. Finding out what was up with Cal was going to be to be ten times more difficult with the junior bodyguard patrol shadowing her every move.

  Under Rhane’s orders, York had enrolled both Warren and Rion as students at the high school. War looked old enough to belong to the graduating class and started as a senior. Rion enlisted as a junior.

  Bentley, the co-captain of the basketball team, had immediately taken notice of new meat. True to form, he and his goon squad ritualistically hazed any new kid who came through. Kali found it amazing how quickly kids could spot differences in others and then try to victimize them for it. Between Rion and War, she figured if anyone got teased it would have been Rion because he just seemed more like the type. He wasn’t a big guy. He was of average height with a slight build. And he wore silly shirts designed to incite a reaction. But Rion really had a way with people. Everyone who met him took an instant liking to his affable personality, even the teachers. So Bentley had diverted his full attention to War. Actually, he practically nailed a target to the guy’s back.

  At lunch, Kali watched War patiently endure as the entire varsity team cut him in line. She saw him again in the hallway just before the start of third block. Bentley knocked the baseball cap off of War’s head while two other varsity players made rude comments. One of them called War “Abercrombie Red.” His only reply had been a dark look that followed the boys until they entered a classroom. After the end of the period, Bentley and his crew took another shot at War, hitting him in the side of the face with a basketball as he rounded a corner.

  Kali saw War again for the last time, seated outside of the principal’s office and wearing a rather Rhane-like scowl. Red paint was all over him, in his hair and covering his clothes. Four baske
tball players sat across the hall, also layered in red. But the splatter that ruined their clothing was mostly blood.

  She couldn’t tell which of them was in the worst shape. One of the boys, a shooting guard named Lloyd, cradled an injured hand. His fingers looked like they would not be holding a ball for the rest of the season. The guy who’d called War “Abercrombie Red” repeatedly coughed up a mixture of paint, spit, and vomit. Bentley sat in the chair furthest away from Rion, nursing a bloodied and broken nose. His right eye was nearly swollen shut.

  Kali slowed, stopping in front of War. “Are you okay?”

  War smiled. “I’m fantastic.”

  Chapter 18

  “So…” Rion grinned around the toothpick clenched between his teeth. “How mad do you think Rhane is going to be? You just can’t seem to stop screwing up lately.”

  War reached out and shoved Rion in the shoulder, pushing him several feet off the path. Brown leaves rustled up as his feet skidded through them. War looked almost guiltily at Kali. “I’m sorry for losing you yesterday.”

  “Don’t be. It wasn’t your fault.”

  War and Rion were walking her home from school, to the only home she’d known since she was eight years old. Lisa, her adoptive mom, had been absolutely delighted to hear Kali was coming for dinner. She even took a day off from her busy schedule to prepare a special meal that was also Kali’s favorite—vegetarian lasagna.

  Kali had to admit she was a little nervous about seeing Rozzy again. Since the day at Cal’s apartment, when Rozzy and her ex-boyfriend had spent a night together, things had been a little awkward between the sisters. Really, Kali didn’t know if Rozzy and Cal were dating, having meaningless sex, or if the attraction had fizzled out. Either way, dinner was going to be uncomfortable. If Rozzy and Cal had broken up, she would blame Kali for the separation. If Rozzy and Cal were still together, she would make known her jealousy for the past Kali shared with Cal. It was a loss either way. Kali already had enough drama to deal with. What she needed was to spend a little quality time with her family.