Escaped the Night (38 page)

Kael shifted ba
ck into
a
big black wolf
. He returned a vi
c
i
ous growl
showing off
his jagged fangs.

“Want
some more?” she taunted
.

He let out a raging growl.

“Kael, please
. D
on’t
do this
,
” I pleaded
.

Kaleb moved
in front of the black wolf.
He pressed his hand on
Kael
’s chest
,
remind
ing
him
that
now wasn’t the time or place.
Kael toned it down.
Thankfully, Kaleb
managed to calm
him, for now.

“
Lakylee
, I’m surprised to see you down h
ere. Where’s Daray?” I asked,
taking
a step forward.

“How
would I know?” s
he hissed
. “Ever
since he found you again he
’s
turned his back on us. We’ve always stood beside him. You…
you turned your back.”

“
Lakylee
, I need to see him. T
ell me where he is.” I took another step towards her.

She hissed and
clawed
the air as I made my approach.
Kael leaped forward
and stood
between the two of us
. Kaleb
also
moved forward so he could close the gap
if needed
.

I took a few more steps until I stood beside Kael.
“
Lakylee
, I’m trying
to fix this. I didn’t mean for this to happen.” I told her
a line that
I knew would
get to her.

It was obvious
she had feelings for Daray. It
was why she disappr
oved of me so much. I knew
Dar
ay also had feelings for her
,
because
why else would he
have kept
her around so long? They shared a bond, which
I
disrupted by showing
up. I needed to fix
the mess I made between them and once that was done, I’d
have
my
chance to be with Jayce and he wouldn’t
need
to choose between the elements
or me
. It was a per
fect plan. All the pieces were
here
, I just needed to put them
together
again
.

“How d
o you think you are going to
fix anything
?” She eyed me curiously.

“That’s between
Daray and me
,
” I replied back sharply.
I awaited her response. I
wanted
her as fired up as possible so she’d cooperate more when the time came.

She h
issed and snarled, venom dripping
down off her fangs. She licked away the poison
,
not wanting to waste a single
drop. She readied herself, anticipating where she’
d attack first.

Sh
e was exactly where I wanted
. I took another couple steps towards her.
“I
know you care for Daray and
want to be with him. I’m trying
to make sure
it happens. We’
re not the
same
people
as
before. I don’t b
elong with him. I know this just as well as
you
do
. I lov
e Jayce with all my heart and
I need
to be with h
im. I want you to be with Daray because
I can see how much he means to you.”

Lakylee
stopped snarling
and seemed to be listening to what I was saying
. With her relaxed composure she had the same appealing look as the other vampires. I’d only really ever seen her
when she was
ready to
attack.
“You’d step aside? You think we could be together? Like he was
,
with you?”

Perfect! She
was m
ore in love tha
n I’d
ever
imagined.
I could
easily
wrap her around my little finger as long as she
ended up
with Daray.

“Yes
,
Lakylee
, only better
. It wasn’t right between us.
I knew by the way he acted around
me. His heart wasn’t in it. You have a piece of it…
the bigger piece.”

Her smiled started off small and subtle
,
but continued growing until it stretched across her face. She
was actually very attractive
when smiling
. She no longer appeared quite so wild.

“I don’t know where he is right now. It’s like he went into hiding or dropped off the face of the earth. I’ve been trying to track him.”

I
shot a glance
ove
r at
Kaleb
.
I was
going to get
us
close enough
so
we
could get a
chance to conve
rt the
doomahorns and werewolves
and show them
that
there wa
s
a better way to live. We’d teach
them
that
they didn’t have to stay under the night cur
se if they changed their ways. They’
d be free to
live th
eir lives the way they wanted
, not as prisoners.

S
ecretly
, I
was also trying to get closer to Daray. I knew he was dangerous an
d evil
,
but something about him
made me think
there was another, better side to him
. He was a key piece in my puzzle and I needed to find out where he fit.
Everyone
had
said
he’d
killed my family
, but he told me himself that
he didn’t
.
Ginata’s
spirit warned me
that he was dangerous;
however
she had even said
someone else was responsible for the
deaths. I ne
eded to get to the bottom of this
. Who was behind
this
and how could I stop them before they fou
nd me or killed anyone else
I cared about?

K
ael remained in
wolf form; h
e didn’t trust
Lakylee
. I was thankful because right now,
I
still
didn’t have mu
ch faith in her
.
She seemed calm as she told us everywhere
she’d been
in her quest to
find Daray. She
even
mentioned
how
the entire coven
split up when Daray vanished
and how
the others
took
off to the northern tip of the island to find more of their kind.

Driving
from one end of the island to the other would
’ve
take
n about
thirteen
hours.
They even had the ability to fly and t
hey’
d split up two days ago.
Surely, t
hey
would
’ve
be
en
there by now.

“What happened to the werewolve
s and doomahorns?” I blurted
out, n
ot
mean
ing
for it to come out so directly.

“They’
re locked up still. Ha —
and they’re getting
quite
restless. I’ll let them loose soon enough.” She sounded like her typical evil self
, but
then
caught
it
and dropped her head low
.
“Sorry.”
S
he was trying
so hard
to refrain from the ev
il portion of her soul. She still
had some goodn
ess trapped beneath the surface;
m
aybe there
was
help for her
still
.

Daylight was coming.
Lakylee
headed
back to
Daray’s
house for shelter and we followed
. Now
was our
tim
e to get close to the others to
see if we could help them
and if they’d help us
.
We
arrived back at the old
run-
down house. The place made my skin crawl as
I
thought about everything that
went on inside
it
. I readied myself and
walked
through
the door
.

The stench of
death almost knocked me over, i
t was
far
w
orse than
my last
visit
.
My nostrils stung from the
salt
of the
blood
and musky aroma. I
pinched my nose closed and held my breath
for as long as I could. I looked
over
at Kaleb and Kael for
assistance
and
noticed
that
they
too were
trying to overcome the stench
. I
decided to breathe through my mouth
,
let go of my nose
and motioned
for them to do the same.
We didn’t want to offend her.

Lakylee
retreated to the
back room, but b
efore leaving
us she
said,
“You can have the ru
n of the house.
I
f the others come back
, you’
re
on your own. I never helped
. Understand?”

“Got it,
” I said
.

She t
ook one last look at us and
closed the door. A minute later, rays of sunlight
poked
through some of the cracks in the boarded up windows.
Another day had arrived.

Shea
used
the opportunity to fly
out of Kaleb's pocket. “Are
you CRAZY?” s
he squeaked
at us
. “We have to
leave
. This i
sn’t good. What are
we
even
doing
in
here? Come
on guys, let’s go!”

I looked
at Kaleb and Kael
, who
now st
ood
in his human form. They shook their heads no, the same as I
did
.

Shea
crossed
her tin
y arms together. With a disapproving
shake of her head, s
he popped herself back into Kaleb's pocket.

We headed down the
same hallway
that
Daray had led me down the last time I was in the house.
I
felt along the wall until I found the panel. I
opened the door
carefully,
took a deep breath
and headed
down the dark
squeaking
staircase
with
Kaleb and
Kael following
closely behind
.