CHAPTER SIX
Flames roared in the stone fireplace, dancing merrily over the charred logs. Occasionally, the wood would crack, falling into the ashes and sending a spray of embers against the gray stones.
They gathered in the small living room, some lounging in frayed but comfortable chairs and some crammed together on the threadbare sofa, leaving the rest of them to find real estate on the hardwood floor.
Kamara lounged in a powder blue, high-back club chair, stained with sweat, beer, and blood, if her nose could be trusted. Seated on the floor in front of her, his legs extended, ankles crossed, Nikolai leaned back against the front of the seat, sighing contentedly as she combed her fingers through his silky, flaxen hair.
It had been two days since they’d found Duncan and Nikolai had nearly died. In that time, the male had spoken to no one, and he’d refused to leave his room. Roux and Cade took turns sitting with him or trying to get him to eat. He needed help, real help, more than any of them could give him.
Come morning, he’d be leaving with Miles, Thea, Rhys, and the twins, all headed to Kansas City. There, he could heal with other humans, and hopefully, regain what the Abraxas vampires had taken from him.
Thea had steadfastly declined to abandon the search for Abby, but when Luca had explained that it would be better for Duncan to have someone he trusted with him on the long trip, she hadn’t been able to refuse. Since Rhys went where his mate did, no one had even given him a choice. It had just been assumed that he’d travel with them.
Once they had Duncan settled, the rest of the group would meet them in Colorado. It wasn’t goodbye, not really, but it sure felt like it.
“Fuck,” Cade breathed as he shuffled into the room.
Everyone perked up, watching him intently as he made his way to a squashy armchair covered with orange-and-brown tweed upholstery that looked like it had come straight out of the seventies. Considering the many holes and broken threads, maybe it had.
Sharing the sofa with Roux and Luca, Deke leaned forward, elbows resting on his knees, and stared at Cade as if the man held the secrets to life. “Did you find out anything?”
It had been just after lunch when Roux had trotted down the stairs to proclaim that Duncan wanted to speak with Cade. For hours, they’d sat alone in the upstairs bedroom in the far corner, and despite most of their team having extra-sensitive hearing, no one had been able to catch more than a mumbled word here and there.
So, they’d waited, restless and impatient for any news, all of them hoping that Duncan could provide some information that would lead them to their missing friend.
Cade shook his head as he sagged into the armchair. “He’s confused, and he’s afraid of hurting someone else, but he wants to help. He didn’t tell me much, but I think I know where we can find Abby.”
Luca’s dark gaze flickered to the male, then away just as quickly.
“There’s an auction once a month,” Cade continued. “That’s what he called it, but from what he described, it sounds more like adopting a dog from the pound, and it’s not just humans. Shifters, other vampires, werewolves, they’re all held in cages during this so-called auction.”
Kamara didn’t remember anything like that, but then again, she’d already concluded that she and Duncan had very different experiences in the compound.
Cade shifted in his seat. “He says it was mostly females being bought and traded.”
Nikolai tensed. “Traded?”
Cade nodded once. “Some of the Gemini are more like hostages. Their families or packs come to trade something or someone to the Abraxas coven to get them back.”
“That’s fucking disgusting.” A cold chill swept over Kamara, and her stomach heaved. “How the hell are we supposed to stop something like that?”
“We don’t,” Luca answered as he leaned back on the sofa and propped his right foot on his left knee. “After our last visit, I have no doubt they’ve filled the gaps in their security and doubled the number of personnel.” He shrugged when everyone stared at him. “It’s what I would do. I’m sorry, but we were lucky the first time. We’re not going to get back in there, not without a damn army.”
Logically, Kamara knew he was right. Dismantling an operation that big would take months, maybe years, and they’d need a hell of a lot more allies to accomplish it. The NYPD had taught her to compartmentalize, to approach a dangerous situation rationally, and to accept that she couldn’t save everyone.
That didn’t make it suck any less.
“What about Abby?” Roux asked, twirling her hands together in short, jerky circles. “We know she ended up in Colorado with a pack of shifters, but it’s a pretty damn big state.”
“Not to mention it’s crawling with shifters,” Deke added. “She could be anywhere.”
Sighing, Cade pinched the bridge of his nose. “Duncan said something about a shadow walker. The guy who took Abby, the guard called him something like that.”
“A ghost walker?” Lynk Foster had been sprawled out on his side on the floor, but now, he shoved to his feet and began to pace in front of the fire. “Are you sure?”
“No at all,” Cade answered, holding his hands up in a gesture of peace. “I’m just the middleman.”
Kamara had never heard the term, and apparently, neither had anyone else. “What’s a ghost walker?”
Threading both hands through his pure-white hair, Lynk paused, turning to pin her with eyes the color of pale moonlight. “In short? Me.”
Deke cocked his head to the side. “Elaborate.”
“Shifters with white pelts. Well, shifters with white pelts that aren’t supposed to be white.”
Kamara nodded. Stopped. Frowned. “What?”
“I’m a tiger shifter,” Lynk explained, pacing once more. “My fur is white when I shift, like my hair is now.”
“Ah, got it. So, like a red fox that’s white, but not an arctic fox.”
“Precisely.”
“If it’s so rare, how is there a whole pack of them?”
“Actually,” Cade interrupted, “no one ever said every member of the pack are these ghost things, just the guy at the auction.”
True, but Lynk appeared much too agitated for that to be the case. Kamara could hear his heart racing, beating so fast she feared he might pass out or have a stroke right there in the living room.
“You know something.” She said it casually, hoping to keep the accusation from her tone.
“Going back to your analogy, a red fox can birth a kit with white fur and vice versa. Not so with shifters. Ours is hereditary.”
Deke snorted. “We’re talking about a family pack? What’s the big deal? There can’t be more than five or six of them.”
Stopping his pacing, Lynk folded his arms across his chest and leveled a menacing glare on his captain. “Not even close.”
Recognizing the rising tension, Kamara cleared her throat to get everyone’s attention, then continued in a calm, clear voice. “Lynk, tell us what you know. You’re worried, and I think we need to know why.”
After a few deep breaths, Lynk dropped his arms to his sides and shook his head. “First off, we’re talking about a couple of generations of shifters. Grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, cousins, not to mention their mates—you get the picture. If it’s the pack I think it is, then we’re looking at forty or fifty pack mates. Probably more when you start counting guards and servants.”
Ah, now they were getting somewhere. Kamara sat up taller in her chair and angled toward the big shifter. “You know them. That’s why you’re so worried. Who are they?”
“A pack of lion shifters, the Ikande family. They’re to the shifter world what Nik’s family is to vampires.”
“Yes,” Nikolai scoffed, “and we see how well that’s working out for me.”
Lynk just glared at him before continuing. “My point is that not only is the pack itself strong, but they’ll have a dedicated unit of Wardens surrounding them.”
“That’s still less than the St. Louis pack,” Deke interjected.
Roux added, “Not to mention the Abraxas coven.”
“Lynk?” They were all missing the point, and as her stomach rolled, Kamara hoped her intuition was wrong. “This albino trait or whatever you want to call it, it’s a bad thing, isn’t it? Something they want to breed out of their bloodline.”
He didn’t answer her, but there was no need. The look on his face said everything.
Kamara swallowed past the lump in her throat. “Oh, god. We have to go. We have to leave right now.”
Eyes welling with tears, Roux placed a hand over her stomach. “Does that mean what I think it does? They’re buying women so they can breed them?”
“Yes,” Lynk admitted, “but it may not be as dire as you’re thinking. The Ikandes are all about rituals and traditions. These females will be courted, which involves a lot of wining and dining, but no physical contact until after the mating ceremony.”
“How long is this courtship?” Luca demanded.
He hadn’t addressed her, but when he spoke, Kamara recoiled, and she made a mental note never to cross the captain. He didn’t wear his anger on his sleeve, nor did she detect any variation in his pulse, but his tone dripped with venom, and the cold, deadly gleam in his eyes leeched every bit of warmth from the room.
“It lasts a season. Courtship begins the first day of winter, spring, summer, and fall. So, for example, courtship starts the first day of winter, and the mating ceremony happens the on the first day of spring.”
“At the same time the next round of courtships begins,” Nikolai deduced.
Nodding, Lynk stared down at him. “When did your guy say Abby was taken?”
“Sometime last month.” Holding his hands out, palms up, Nikolai shook his head. “I’m sorry I can’t be more specific.”
“Let’s assume it was before the winter solstice.” Rising from the sofa, Deke rested his hands on his hips as he addressed the room.
“Which means there’s still time before spring.” Roux stood as well, her posture tense but determined. “We still have to find this pack, then figure out how to get inside without being mauled to death.”
Sitting quietly on a barstool at the kitchen island, Deidra hadn’t said a word during the entire exchange. As everyone started hammering out details and making plans, she slid off her seat and kicked the barstool, sending it scraping across the hardwood floor where it came to an abrupt stop against the leg of the breakfast table.
“I’m in,” she declared. “Whatever the bloody plan, I’ll be there.” Then she stomped out of the room, traversing the stairs two at a time to the second floor of the cabin.
Kamara gaped. She was glad to have the she-wolf on her side, but she couldn’t fathom what had caused such a violent reaction.
“What the hell was that about?”
In answer, Luca stood and shook his head. “Leave it alone.” To the rest of the room, “Get your shit together and rest up, because we hit the road at sunrise.”
“Where are we going?” Kamara asked, but Luca was already striding out of the room.
“There’s a Revenant safe house on the southeast side of Denver,” Deke answered.
“Isn’t that a little close?”
“The packs mostly stick to the western part of the state, in and around the national forests.” Resting his hand on his mate’s shoulder, Deke gave her a little nudge to get her moving. “We’ll start checking the gear.”
“I’ll help,” Cade offered, struggling to push out of his chair.
“You need rest.” The guy was former SWAT, and Kamara knew he wouldn’t be happy on the sidelines, so she decided to put it in terms he’d understand. “You’re no good to us or Abby if you can’t even stand. Nik and I will help.”
“You’re not going,” Deke declared, earning him a scathing glare from Cade. “You can hate me all you want, but you’re in no condition to fight.”
“Besides,” Roux added quietly, “I think Duncan could really use a friend right now.” She glanced toward the staircase. “A human one.”
“Fine,” Cade answered, his tone clipped. “I’ll go to KC, but I’m not staying there.”
When Kamara tensed behind him, Nikolai sat up a little straighter and rubbed her calf. He’d noticed the unusual attachment Cade had to Abby, but anyone with eyes could see that Luca shared a past with the human female. If it came to a fight for her affections, he had a feeling, Cade would find himself on the losing end of that battle.
“Do you love her?” he asked bluntly.
Cade paused in the middle of the small room and stared down at him. “Who? Abby?”
Nikolai nodded. “Is that why you’re so willing to die for her?”
“We’re all risking our lives to save her,” Cade reminded him, but to his credit, he didn’t sound hostile for once. “No, I don’t love her, not like you’re thinking.”
“I’ve seen the way you look at her,” Roux interjected, and she sounded as worried as Nikolai felt.
“It’s not like that.” Resting his hands on his hips, Cade stared down at his feet and sighed. “She reminds me of my sister. I failed Maddy, and when I met Abby, it was like being given a second chance.” He huffed and rubbed his right hand over his face. “I don’t know. I guess it doesn’t make any sense, but every time I close my eyes, I see Maddy. Losing Abby would be like losing my sister all over again.”
There was a story there, something deeper and darker than he was willing to share, but Nikolai didn’t ask. Everyone had a past they didn’t want to face, himself included, and he wouldn’t pry into such an obviously painful memory.
“I better go pack,” Cade mumbled, striding out of the room without meeting anyone’s gaze.
“Same here,” Roux added, taking her mate’s hand and leading him toward the stairs.
Nikolai waited until the room had emptied, leaving him alone with Kamara, then he stood and offered her his hand. They’d spent a lot of time together in the two days since the incident in the forest, and they’d talked about everything and nothing. Still, she was hiding something from him, and each time he’d tried to bring it up, she’d deflected him.
He couldn’t help her if he didn’t know what was wrong, and he didn’t plan to leave the room until she told him.
“What are we doing?” Taking his hand, she rose from her seat, letting him lead her over to the sofa. “Uh, okay. What’s going on, Nikolai?”
Seated, he angled toward her and took both of her hands in his own. “You wanted to talk in private. Let’s talk.”
“That was four days ago.”
“Yes, and you’ve been avoiding the subject ever since.” Whatever she wanted to say to him had her spooked, but he wouldn’t let her evade the issue so easily. “Talk.”
With a sigh, she dropped her head back against the cushions and stared up at the ceiling. “I mostly just had some questions.”
No, she had a secret, but he’d let her get there in her own way. “Then, I’ll do my best to answer them.”
Rolling her head, she stared at him, her face an unreadable mask. “Why can’t I hear your thoughts? It kind of makes this thing we have feel unbalanced.”
Naturally, her very first question, and he didn’t have an answer for her.
“I don’t know, but I’m hoping that when I claim you, that will change.”
It dawned on him for the first time that she may not want to complete the mating bond with him. He didn’t know how to feel about that. Since they’d met, he’d spent every night with her, curled around her protectively, holding her tightly in the safety of his arms. He wanted more, and his instincts cried out for him to claim her, to make her his, but he’d never force her. It had to be her choice.
“If that’s what you want,” he added hastily.
Kamara squeezed his hands. “Can I get back to you on that? I’m not saying no, but I don’t think I’m ready yet. I mean, I’ve know you for what? Less than a week?”
“Technically, you’ve known me for two years.”
She rolled her eyes so hard he could practically hear it.
“It was the same dream every time, and I didn’t even know you were real. I don’t think that counts.”
“Okay, fair enough.” Mercy, he loved the way she smiled. “What else would you like to know?”
Her dark eyes took on a faraway look, and her small frame tightened. Slipping into her thoughts, searching for the source of her sudden distress, Nikolai was once again met with nothing but a quiet, muffled hiss.
“Kamara.” Releasing her hands, he inched closer and cradled her face. “Kamara, look at me.” Maybe she was having a seizure. “Come on, cara mia, snap out of it.”
Several tense seconds passed before her muscles relaxed, and she began to blink rapidly. “I’m sorry. I guess I spaced out for a minute.”
She was lying. He could tell by the way her voice trembled and her heart fluttered, but he couldn’t imagine why’d she’d be untruthful. Maybe she really was ill, and she didn’t want him to worry.
Nikolai didn’t know many turned vampires, and he couldn’t say if their human afflictions carried over once they’d finished their transition. On the other hand, if they gained the ability to heal at a supernatural rate, logic dictated that alone should free any turned vampire from their former frailties.
“See? It’s catching.” Kamara laughed, but it sounded strained, forced. “What were you thinking?”
“I was trying to figure out why you’d lie to me.”
“Well, that was blunt.” When he didn’t respond, she eased away from him with a short huff. “You’re right, and I don’t want to lie to you, but there are just some things I’m not ready to share yet. Can we just leave it at that and move on for now?”
“For now.” Eventually, he’d earn her trust, but for the time being, he had no right to ask for more than she was willing to give.
“Next question.” Opening her mouth, she touched the tip of her left fang with her index finger. “How does this feeding thing work? I mean, it was necessary, and I’m grateful to Lynk, but I really didn’t like you feeding on him. I’m going to go out on a limb and say you feel the same way about me chomping on someone else.”
“I do.” The idea of Kamara feeding on someone other than him made his temples pound and his stomach twist into savage knots. “You can feed from me whenever you need.”
“That’s just it, though. If we’re biting each other, aren’t we just trading blood back and forth? Miles said that’s why you couldn’t feed from me when you were hurt.”
Nikolai had to laugh. Not because she’d said anything particularly humorous, but because if he didn’t, he might go hunt down the vampire and strange him. “Miles needs to keep his opinions to himself.”
“Was he wrong?”
No, but that didn’t mean he had to like it. “We can continue to supplement with blood bags.”
Kamara’s olive complexion paled. “I don’t think I can do that, not when I know where those bags come from now.”
Nikolai had his suspicions that the Coalition-supplied bags were coming from the Abraxas’ blood farm, but he’d been careful not to share them with his mate. As always, she was too smart for her own good.
“I know it’s distasteful, but I don’t have many other options. Until we find an alternative solution, I will use the blood bags, and you can feed from me.”
“Again, that seems unfair.” She wrinkled her cute nose. “Let me think on this. There has to be a better way.”
“As you wish.”
“Is there another reason you don’t want to, you know?” Waving her hand around, she made biting motions with her mouth. “Bite me?”
In reality, he wanted nothing more, but he physically couldn’t, not for another month or so. “It’s nothing against you, cara mia.” Opening his mouth, he leaned his head back to reveal the nubs of his slowly growing fangs. “They’ll grow back,” he expounded, looking at her again, “but it’s an arduous process.”
“Lynk said something about that.” Scrambling up on her knees, Kamara grabbed his face in both hands and forced his head back again. “How did this happen?”
Not the introduction to his family he would have liked to provide, but she’d find out eventually. “My father is endlessly imaginative when it comes to doling out punishments.”
“Your dad did that to you?” Lowering her hands to her lap, she sat back on her heels, her eyes soft and sad. “I’m so sorry, Nik. Was he always like this?”
“For as long as I can remember.” Something about the way she said it made him think she had some experience in the matter of abusive parents. “Mother or father?”
“My dad,” she answered quietly, staring down at her lap. “He wasn’t always a dick, though. I think that makes it worse for me. I still remember when he was funny and charming. He used to take my sister and me out for ice cream every Friday when he came home from work.”
Nikolai tried to picture his father taking him and his siblings for ice cream, but the concept was so foreign he couldn’t even concoct a convincing fantasy. “What happened?”
“My mom died, and he couldn’t cope, so he started drinking. I was fourteen.”
“I’m sorry, cara mia. No one deserves that.”
“Yeah, well, I guess we have more in common than we thought.” She said it flippantly, but shadows still haunted her expression.
“Tell me something,” Nikolai said, hoping to change the topic and banish the haunted look from her gaze. “Where were you before you ended up in St. Louis?”
“Smooth, Nik. Very smooth.” She chuckled darkly and shook her head. “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about the other day.” Still sitting back on her heels, she twisted her fingers together in her lap and gnawed on her bottom lip. “Ow,” she whined when one of her fangs pierced the flesh. “Crap. I forgot.”
Slipping a knuckle under her chin, he smoothed away the drop of blood on her lip with the pad of his thumb. “Hey, it can’t be that bad. Just say it. You’ll feel better, and trust me, whatever it is, I’ve done worse.”
Somehow Kamara doubted that Nikolai had ever done anything truly terrible in his entire life. He was too proper, too kind, and too good. Besides, her secret wasn’t something bad, like slaughtering a field of baby bunnies. In fact, she was rather proud of the time she’d spent with the Valkyrie. Mostly, she worried he wouldn’t understand, or that he’d jump to conclusions and condemn her before giving her a chance to explain.
“Before I was abducted by the werewolves, I was with a group of humans.” She had to say it, and she saw no sense beating around the bush about it. “I was with Hunters.”
As she’d expected, Nikolai tensed, his expression blanked, and he pulled his hand back from her face.
“No, wait.” Catching him by the wrist, she held his hand between both of her own, squeezing it like a lifeline. “Just listen, okay? It’s not what you think.”
“You were their prisoner?” By his tone, he didn’t honestly believe that, but he was clearly grasping at anything to make sense of what she’d told him.
“No, I wasn’t their prisoner, but Nik, listen to me. I’m telling you, they’re not like the Hunters you know. They’re a lot like the Revenant, actually.”
“I’m sorry, Kamara, but I find that hard to believe. Hunters have tortured and killed more of my kind than you can count.”
“I know, and I’m sorry. I’m so sorry for that, but you have to admit that the Gemini aren’t exactly innocent in all of this. There is good and bad, righteous and evil, in all races.”
Nikolai held her gaze as he inhaled deeply through his nose and exhaled through his parted lips. “I trust you,” he finally whispered. “I’m listening.”
“They call themselves the Valkyrie. It’s just a small group, nine at last count, not including me.” They were all sons and daughters of dutiful Hunters, and they’d grown up in that life, being taught to fear and hate the Gemini. “After the Purge, they were finally able to break free, and they use their training to help people. Vampires, werewolves, humans, it doesn’t matter.”
“And you’ve seen this with your own eyes?”
She didn’t blame him for being skeptical, but she wouldn’t have stayed if they’d been killing innocents. “Yes, I’ve seen it. That’s how I got caught in Missouri. We were moving a group of kids through the state to Kansas City.”
Nikolai tensed again, and his eyes narrowed at the corners. “Why Kansas City?”
“They’d heard there was a safe house there, a place for people in trouble.” The Valkyrie didn’t have the same resources at the Revenant, no safe houses or hidden bunkers stocked with needed supplies. “They thought the kids would be taken care of there.”
“How did you hear about this place?”
Since learning that Luca had once commanded said haven in Kansas City, she understood why Nikolai looked so concerned. Unfortunately, she didn’t have an answer that would appease him.
“I don’t know. They didn’t say, and I didn’t ask.” Squeezing his hand again, she scooted across the cushions, inching closer to him.
He didn’t pull away, but he met her gaze with a manner of scrutiny. “Why are you telling me all of this?”
She almost hadn’t. She’d anticipated Nikolai’s reaction, and if he was the calmest of the group, she could only imagine how the others would receive the information. It was unlikely the two groups would ever cross paths, and at first, it hadn’t been worth causing discord and disruption.
Abby was missing. Kamara had promised to watch out for her, to protect her, and while it had been out of her control, she’d been disastrously unsuccessful the first time. She wouldn’t fail again. In that, she could empathize with Cade.
“I’m telling you because I think they can help us rescue Abby.”
“No.” A muscle in his jaw ticked, and a rigid mask settled over his handsome face. “We’re not going to Hunters for help, and I don’t think you should mention this to the others.”
She didn’t like the way he was looking at her, like he’d been blinded and could just now see her clearly. It made her stomach knot and her chest tighten painfully.
“Nik, we need the numbers.”
“I said no.” He stood, turning without another word, and strode down the short hallway to the front door.
“Nik!”
But he was already gone, disappearing and slamming the door closed behind him.
“That went well,” she muttered to the empty living room.
Still seated on the sofa, she buried her face in her hands and groaned. She’d expected him to be resistant to the idea. Hell, she’d have been more concerned if he hadn’t shown at least a measure of dubiousness. She hadn’t, however, anticipated his anger.
Her mother had always taught her to accept responsibility for her mistakes and do what she could to right her wrongs. While she didn’t necessarily believe she’d been in the wrong, she could have approached the idea with a bit more finesse.
She needed to find him, talk to him, and…something. It wasn’t as if she could force him to see things the way she did, and she wouldn’t want to anyway. An apology would be empty. Platitudes would likely cause another argument. They couldn’t ignore what had been said, and things couldn’t remain as they were.
“He’s never going to believe you. Can’t you see? He’s turned against you.”
“Shut up,” she hissed.
“What will you do when he finds out about your other secret? What happens when he finds out about me? You saw the way he looked at you.”
“Shut up!”
The voice in her head had been growing louder and stronger, writhing like a snake inside her brain.
On one thing, however, she agreed with the voice. Nikolai and the others couldn’t know. They were already half afraid that she’d snap and try to attack them. If they found out that she was hallucinating voices, that she could feel this cold, evilness lurking inside her, they’d never look at her the same again.
She couldn’t think about that, not now. Somehow, she’d find a way to free herself of the burden, and in the meantime, she’d have to work harder to stay in control. Right then, however, she had to make things right with Nikolai.
Heaving up from the sofa, she steeled herself for the confrontation to come, then went in search of her very pissed off mate.