Lone Wolf (5 page)

Furious, he let her. A cloud of foreboding settled over him. He recognized strong magic when he felt it. Did all vampires possess such magic, or was this because Brigid was High Priestess?

He made a mental note to ask Marika later. That is, if she stuck around long enough for him to ask anything. At least now he understood why she’d kept their daughter hidden from him and why she was so eager to ditch him now.

Turning, he eyed her. Since taking the phone from him, she’d barely uttered more than two syllables. Even now she stared blankly at nothing with narrowed eyes.

He wondered what vitriolic nonsense the old lady was spewing at her.

After a few minutes had passed, she murmured something that sounded like assent and closed the phone. Her expression told him nothing as she passed it back to him.

“What did she say?”

“More woo-woo bullshit. I’m tired of this.”

“Why does she hate me?”

“She doesn’t.” Her automatic reply contained no conviction.

He stared, he couldn’t help it. “What the hell do you mean? She actually believes I’d harm my daughter.”

“She has visions. They usually come true.”

“And she claims to have seen me harming Dani?”

“Not you specifically. A shifter.”

“Of which there are millions. I don’t believe this. Two years of my daughter’s life, gone. All because of some old lady and her generic prophecy.”

She bit her lip. “I couldn’t take a chance. I had to protect my child.”

“Our child.”

“You’ve got to understand. Brigid can supposedly tell the future.”

“Supposedly.” He pounced on the word. “Do you doubt her?”

“Maybe I do, now. I don’t know.” Anger colored her voice. “If she can really see the future, why didn’t she know they’d capture me and take Dani? If she has true visions, she should have already known. She could have prevented this.”

The agony in her voice mirrored his own, amplifying it. Again, despite what she’d done, he ached to take her into his arms. Instead, he forced himself to concentrate on the matter at hand. “Does she know where Dani is now?”

“No. That’s the thing. All my life, I’ve looked up to her. Her prophecies come true, always. She’s the Vampire Seer, for plasma’s sake. But if she’s so damn powerful, why doesn’t she know where they’ve taken Dani? I’m beginning to doubt her all-fired abilities.”

“She has something,” he felt compelled to point out. “I felt her magic.”

“Really?” Shoving her hand through her hair, Marika’s anger radiated from her. “I didn’t. She’s a powerful vampire witch. She’s one of the oldest of my kind, reputedly ancient, a thousand years old or more.”

He filed this information away for future reference. “What did she want?”

“To give me orders.” Her voice dropped into a growl, eerily wolflike.

“She tried to give me orders, too. Are you going to follow them?”

Her frown deepened. “No vampire, Huntress or not, is allowed to refuse her orders.”

“Answer the question.” He felt a glimmer of hope. “Are you going to do what she asked?”

Finally, she met his gaze, her own remarkably clear and direct. “Some of it. Probably not all. She wanted me to ditch you.”

Careful not to show any emotion, he nodded. “I’m not surprised.”

“Yes, well, I’m beginning to think things aren’t as black and white as she makes them sound.”

He caught his breath, but said nothing.

“However,” she continued, “if I ignore her completely, she’ll probably send others to hunt me down and kill me.”

“We’ll deal with that when and if it happens. What do you want to do, Marika?”

She answered without hesitation. “Find Dani. And hunt and destroy the ones who took her. Brigid claims she can help me do that. After all, she has a stake in this, too.”

This last comment surprised him. “What do you mean?”

“Brigid was supposed to begin training Dani, once she turned five. This is a great honor among my people. I myself trained with her.”

He felt a moment of grief. Had she been raised among his people, Dani would already have begun instruction in Pack heritage. He said nothing, aware that Marika wasn’t ready to hear such a thing.

She squared her shoulders, lifting her chin and effectively wiping all emotion from her face. “Brigid told me something about herself. She says she’s like Dani. Mixed. She claims she herself is the product of a union between an elf and a vampire.”

Shocked despite himself, Beck scratched his head. “An elf? They can’t have children, either. How would such a thing be possible?”

“Who knows?” She began to pace, agitated. “A few years ago I wouldn’t have thought a shifter could impregnate me.”

“True.” He sensed there was more she wanted to tell him, only she couldn’t find the words.

Blazing past him, she spun and went in the other direction, her long hair flying behind her. “But in Brigid’s case, that would explain why she has such powerful magic. She got it from her elfin father.”

“Is she actually a vampire then, or elf?”

“Both, I guess.” She shrugged. “Like Dani.”

“But you said Dani is alive.”

“She is. Her heart beats, her lungs breathe. She’s not dead like me.”

“So it follows if Brigid was born of a vampire and is part elf, wouldn’t she, too, be alive?”

“She’s not.” She spoke with certainty. “Like I said, she’s over a thousand years old.”

“Aren’t elves immortal?”

An expression of surprise crossed her face. “I never thought of that.”

“Or maybe she was born an elf and then was turned.”

“Again, entirely possible. I know Brigid married another vampire, one even older than her. A vamp from ancient Egyptian times. Maybe he’s the one who turned her.”

He swore. “You guys have an even more messed-up history than we shifters do.”

“We’ve been around longer.” Abruptly reversing direction, she started for the door. “Are you ready?” she asked, her eyes blazing amber sparks at him.

Again, he felt a tug of attraction. Somehow, he kept his voice calm. “Are you saying you trust me now?”

“I’m going to do part of what Brigid asked. I’m ready to hit the road,” she said. “With you.”

Inhaling deeply, he managed a nonchalant nod. “Not enough of an answer. I need to know if you trust me.”

“Look, Beck—”

“Answer the question.”

“I barely know you anymore. It’s been three years.”

“You’re still trying to avoid answering. If Brigid hadn’t said a shifter would harm Dani, would you trust me?”

“I don’t know. Dani was conceived the night Juliet was murdered.”

Heart thumping steadily in his chest, he stared at her cold, exquisite face and waited for more.

She stared back, expression unreadable.

Finally, he nodded. “And?”

“Do you blame her for your sister’s death?”

He saw from her tortured expression how much the admission cost her. Still, that she could even ask such a thing felt like a slap in the face. “How could you think that? She had nothing to do with what happened to Jules.”

“No, but we did. She was waiting for us in the bar when the fight broke out. If we hadn’t been making love, conceiving Dani, we would have been there, kept her from getting hurt.”

How many times had he wondered the same thing himself? “You just said yourself, there are no guarantees. We could have been sitting right next to her and she might have still died.”

Her chin came up. “I heard you thought the silver bullet was meant for you.”

“Addie told you that?”

She nodded. “Yes. Yet earlier, when I mentioned the possibility that Jules was murdered, you didn’t say anything.”

“There didn’t seem to be a point.” He sighed. No mercy for the wicked. “Think about it. Those men had more reason to want me dead. I was a Protector. Or, alternatively, they could have killed her deliberately to hurt me. I might have eliminated one of their relatives. But I don’t know. I’ll never know now.”

“Life’s like that,” she said sadly. “Sometimes we don’t ever get answers.”

“Back to your question. If anyone was responsible for Juliet’s death, I was. And even then, I don’t know that for a fact. Sometimes I think that’s how I’m able to go on. Our daughter’s conception was a gift in the face of a horrible tragedy. I only wish I’d been there to share it.”

“From what I hear, you were in no condition to share anything.”

Swallowing, he nodded. “Brutally honest, aren’t you?”

“Yes. And if we’re going to do this together, I expect the same from you.”

Their gazes locked, held. Finally, he nodded. “Fine. Then you must have decided to trust me, at least a little.”

“A little.” Her concession came with a smile that vanished like a ghost. “You’ll have to prove yourself to me.”

“I can do that.”

“Good. And, Beck? The second I feel even the slightest threat toward Dani, I’ll kill you myself. Consider this fair warning.”

At least she always spoke her mind; he’d give her that. Despite everything, despite her taking their daughter and vanishing from his life, despite her threat, every time he glanced at her, he felt attraction like a punch to the gut.

He’d always known Marika was resilient, but he’d never realized how strong she was. She’d kept their daughter safe, at great personal cost to herself. Her strength matched her extraordinary beauty.

He’d accept her challenge. “Heard and acknowledged. Are you going to tell me what Brigid asked?”

“Yes, eventually.” She considered him for a moment. “There’s something else you need to know as well, but I’ll tell you once we get going.”

“Where do you want to go?”

“Where Brigid told me to.” Tossing her hair across her shoulder, she yanked open the door. “I don’t know why, but for some reason, I’m not entirely sure I should trust her.”

“Then why go where she tells you to?”

“Well, if we’re moving, at least I feel like we’re doing something.”

He nodded. “What’s she going to do once she finds out I’m with you?”

“I have no idea. I’m not going to worry about that now. We’ll figure out the rest once we’re in the truck.”

And she disappeared outside, leaving him no choice but to follow.

S
triding toward the truck, Marika wondered if Beck realized how much her decision to trust him cost her. It had been so long since she’d trusted anyone except Addie. Opening herself up, even a small crack, made her feel naked and exposed.

He’d asked for her trust, but he’d said nothing about reciprocating. She couldn’t blame him for that. She certainly hadn’t given him reason to trust her. After all, she’d kept their daughter from him for the entire two years of Dani’s life.

His pain and sense of loss had been deep, she could tell. So had his shock and anger upon learning he had a two-year-old child he’d never met. He wouldn’t easily forgive what could only be regarded as a betrayal. Men like Beck, who lived by a code of honor set so much higher than others, would find it hard to understand her reasons for doing what she’d done.

Climbing in the truck beside her, Beck didn’t speak as he fitted the key in the ignition and fired up the engine. Carefully, she avoided looking at him, wondering if he knew how much she’d missed him. She’d spent many a sleepless night, tossing and turning, wondering if she’d done the right thing by keeping their child a secret from him. Despite Brigid’s warnings, a part of her had always doubted and wondered.

And now she wondered, too, how he’d react when he learned the rest of the truth about their daughter. He’d claimed to want to know Dani, to love her. Would this change once he learned what she was?

She sighed, wishing she could settle her jittery nerves. She needed to think clearly in this, the worst crisis she’d ever faced. Awful enough that her daughter—their daughter—was missing.

Worse that every time their gazes met, desire slammed into her, as strong as it had been three years ago. Even now, when she was crazy with worry over their daughter. Every time she looked at him, with his mussed spiked black hair, torn jeans and soulful amber eyes, she wanted him.

Losing her baby girl, knowing her own child was in danger, made her desire more than inappropriate. Her mouth twisted. She needed to focus on finding Dani rather than lusting over Dani’s father. Look what had happened last time she’d given in—her best friend, Juliet, Beck’s sister—had been murdered.

Sneaking a glance at his profile, she steeled herself against her belly-deep reaction. Though he was obviously concentrating intensely on the road, when he felt her gaze on him, he shot her a look cautiously laced with curiosity.

“Where to?” he asked. “Or are we planning to aimlessly drive the roads? We can head down to Presidio and the Border, or go west to El Paso. And there’s always Alpine and Marfa. Any idea where we should look?”

Instantly, she shook her head. “I don’t know. I have absolutely no idea where they’ve taken her. We need to head toward the mountains. There’s a house there. That’s all she said.” Brigid really should have given her more information.

She hated operating so blind. Especially when finding Dani was so important. Inside her head, Marika could hear an invisible clock ticking, reminding her that they were running out of time.

Dani was missing. Her disappearance was made worse by the fact that her mother felt completely and utterly helpless. She, a Master Huntress, with her fangs clipped. It took every ounce of self-control to keep from giving in to blind panic. Maybe this obsession with Beck was her subconscious’s way of distraction.

“We’ve got to find Dani.”

“I know,” he said, his voice calmly reassuring. “We will. Let’s start asking around in town. That’d be a good starting point. I promise you, we will find her.”

Whether he honestly believed that or not, she couldn’t tell. She couldn’t afford not to believe it. Without that hope to cling to, she’d simply go insane.

For a woman who’d spent the past hundred-odd years in action, this aimless wandering felt wrong. Asking around in town would be a start, but even that didn’t seem to be enough. She had to do
something more.
Anything. But what? Patience had never been her strong suit. Nor Beck’s, if she remembered right.

Shifters had Dani, she just knew it.

The big question—could she trust Beck to help, even if doing so meant he had to go against his own kind? He’d been a Protector, a member of an elite Pack Society sworn to protect shape-shifters. How would that loyalty balance against whatever feelings he might have for her and the child they’d created together?

“There was more to Brigid’s warning,” she began.

“You mean the one where she warned you against me?” His tone held layers of mockery and pain.

“Yes.”

“Well?” he finally asked, hands on the steering wheel. “Are you going to tell me?”

Her stomach twisted. Ah, the moment of truth. She’d have to be very careful when she judged his response. Would she be able to tell if he lied?

She had to hope she would. She didn’t have the energy to play games with him. Not now, not in the midst of crisis. If she registered the slightest bit of hesitation on his part, then he would have to leave. Or she would have to escape him.

Glancing at her sideways, he frowned. “What’s up with you? From what I remember, you’ve never had a problem with speaking your mind before.”

“True.” But so much was riding on his reaction. She took one deep breath, trying to regain her equilibrium.

They’d reached the end of the rutted road, coasting to a gravelly stop at the highway. Beck watched her, waiting. “Left or right? Marfa or Alpine? Where do you want to search first?”

Taking another deep breath, she chose and pointed east, toward the rising sun. “That way.”

He gave one final glance in her direction. “Are you okay in sunlight?”

“Of course.”

“You sound so certain,” he mused. “Yet I’ve always heard most vamps have to hide in the darkness.”

“That’s fairy-tale stuff. Only the newly made have to hide in darkness.” She had the most absurd urge to chew her nails, a habit she’d kicked centuries ago. This was ridiculous. She barely recognized herself. For over a hundred years, right up until Dani’s birth, she’d been a Huntress, one of the fiercest of the fierce. Others of her kind respected and feared her. She’d been invincible. She needed to draw on that strength now.

“Once I say what I have to say, I’ll need to ask you a question. I need complete honesty from you.”

“Understood.” Another sharp glance. Impatience colored his voice. “Now will you get on with it? Tell me the rest of what Brigid said.”

“You’re not going to like it any more than I do.”

“Quit stalling.”

“Fine.” She lifted her chin. “Even before Dani was born, Brigid said the danger would come from the Pack.”

“From Pack?” The sharp tone of his voice matched the cutting look he gave her. “Pack in general, or just me?”

“Both. Before Dani was even born, she saw a vision. She warned me to avoid any and all shape-shifters. Including you. And now, her vision has proved true. Your people were the ones who kidnapped her. Shape-shifters have Dani.”

He made no sound. She studied him, worried, but couldn’t read his grim-faced expression. If she’d shocked him, he didn’t show it.

“And you have proof of this how?”

“I don’t need proof. Brigid told me in detail what would happen. She wanted me to stay with her, under her protection, for that very reason. She
saw
the Pack kidnap Dani. She didn’t know if you were behind it or if the threat came from others.”

Jaw tight, he continued to drive. When he finally spoke, he asked a question. “She doesn’t know why?”

“No. Now for the big question.” Letting a mocking note creep into her voice since she was wary of his answer, she turned in her seat to face him. “So, Protector. To rescue Dani, you will have to go against your own kind. Are you prepared to do that?”

“Of course.” He didn’t even hesitate. “I’ve gone against my own before. If those shifters mean to harm our little girl, I’ll kill them myself.”

She felt a prickle of pleasure at the way he phrased his declaration and then ruthlessly squashed it. “
If?
Why else would they have taken her, if not to harm her?”

“I don’t know. I think she might be too valuable to harm. Didn’t your priestess tell you that?”

She rubbed the back of her neck. The pulsing knot there spoke of her frustration. “No. She doesn’t know.”

“It makes no sense.” He sounded grim. “Dani is Pack and we protect our own. Why would shifters have done this?”

“Maybe they don’t want her raised by a vampire.”

“You’re her mother. Who better to raise her?”

Though he’d intuitively known Dani was valuable, he didn’t know the rest of it—what Dani was, what she could become. More than just an ordinary shape-shifter. Still trying to figure out how to tell him, she settled back in her seat and turned her head, giving herself time to think.

The brightening sunlight glared on the flat landscape, making heat spirals off in the distance. She always loved far-west Texas. The primitive surroundings had a stark kind of beauty, savage and simple, which suited her. She’d felt at home here—or had, until her daughter had been taken from her.

Now she felt like the proverbial fish out of water. Even if Brigid had told her she was close to finding her, she wasn’t certain she believed her. And Brigid’s plan? Would it truly work?

He touched her shoulder, making her jump. “Marika, I know there’s more.”

“Don’t touch me.” She had to bite the side of her cheek to keep from lashing out at him.

Narrow-eyed, he stared. A muscle worked in his jaw. “Why not? Do you honestly believe I’d hurt a child, my own daughter?”

“No. That’s not it.”

“Then why?”

“I’m angry with myself.” She spat the words. “Look at me, what I am, what I can do. Yet I failed to protect a helpless two-year-old. What does that make me?”

“What did Brigid want you to do?”

She ignored his question, repeating her own. “I asked you, what does that make me?”

“A mother who’s nearly out of her mind with worry.”

All at once, all the fury went out of her, and she sagged against the seat. “I’ve been a Huntress for a couple hundred years, yet I never knew fear until I held my baby girl in my arms. I’m trying not to panic. Do you realize how much I want my daughter? I need my daughter, now. Every instinct inside me screams that I need to
do something,
but what? I’m powerless, in the dark. I don’t know where she is or why they’ve taken her.”

“Your priestess has her magic. She claims to have visions. Do you think she knows more than she’s telling you?”

“She claims not to. But I’ll tell you this.” She took a deep breath, forcing herself to remain relatively calm. “If Brigid, the almighty Vampire Priestess, knows something that will help me find Dani, then I’ll do whatever she asks. That’s why we’re going where she asks us to.”

He digested this in silence. Then he asked, “And if she’s wrong?”

“Brigid is never wrong. Or so they say. But if I learn she’s only playing me for some obscure reason of her own, then neither heaven nor hell can help her. I’ll hunt her down myself and make her pay.”

He flashed her a quick smile. “There’s my Vampire Huntress.”

She wasn’t his anything.

“One thing occurs to me,” he continued. “What if the shifters took Dani to protect her from Brigid?”

Once, such a statement would have infuriated her. Now, she didn’t even flinch. “I’ve already considered every possibility, including this one, and discarded it. Why would they do that? Brigid wouldn’t harm her.”

“Are you certain?” He sounded skeptical.

“Not one hundred percent. You know as well as I do that anything’s possible. Look at what happened in your Society.”

He raised one brow. “You heard about that?”

One of the leaders of the Society of Protectors had tried to form his own organization, using cloned shifters to create the prefect Protector. He’d planned to brainwash them and make them answerable only to him and had exterminated anyone who’d gotten in his way.

“Everyone heard about that. It was used as an example among the Huntresses as what can happen with too much power.”

“Yet you seem to believe Brigid when she says it’s Pack that stole Dani.”

“She has no reason to lie.”

He continued to stare at her, skepticism plain in his face. “You think not? That’s what I thought, when things started going wrong at the Society. I dared to question them, and for that, I was almost killed.”

“That was you?”

“I was one of many who rebelled and fought back. My friend Simon tried to save a female Feral from extermination. Turned out she was his mate.”

“A Feral? Like a wild shifter?”

“We have them. More than you know. One of our duties as Protectors was to save and rehabilitate them. The ones who were too far gone, too mad, or were a danger to themselves and others, had to be exterminated. It got so bad we had a virtual standing order to kill them on sight.”

“Wow.” She bit her lip. “Now I understand why you quit.”

“Yeah. So my point is, don’t rush to judgment. If shifters took Dani, they may have had good reason.”

She didn’t want to hear such nonsense. “They have no right. How can you even say such a thing, knowing they attacked so violently? Dani is mine.”

To give him credit, he didn’t continue to press his case. Probably because he knew he didn’t have one. Instead, he simply drove as she directed, asking no questions. She let the sound of the engine and the uneven pavement under the tires soothe her frazzled nerves somewhat.

Finally, she felt she could speak calmly enough to tell him the rest of it. “Brigid is sending others to help me—us. That’s where we’re heading.”

“Reinforcements? Vampires, I assume?”

“I guess.” She knew she didn’t sound happy. “She said they would fill me in when I met up with them. I’ve gotta tell you, though, I’ve never been much of a team player.”

“Me, either.” Grim-voiced, he looked as unhappy as she felt. “I mean, I had to when I was a Protector, but that’s one of the reasons I left. Things get out of hand too easily when a mob gets together.”