Soul Avenged (Sons of Wrath, #1) (26 page)

“What?”

“I don’t think
I’ve ever heard you say my name. It sounds … goofy coming from
you.”

“Then, I won’t
say it again.” He climbed onto the bed and pulled the sheets over
his legs. “I’m going to miss Annabelle.” Kane rubbed his hands
together and picked up the fork and steak knife.

“Just so you
know,”—she glanced down at the knife—“I could disarm you in seconds
if you’re thinking of anything tricky.”

He smirked.
“You neither trust nor believe anything anyone tells you, do
you?”

“Only when the
person talking is a lycan. Or going to be one.”

“That’s truly
sad.” Kane shook his head and spoke with a mouthful of food. “I
thought my life was sad. But that is truly sad.”

“What’s so sad
about your life? Oh, wait, let me guess, the money you made?
Bossing people around? Your perfect little family in your perfect
little home?”

Kane stopped
chewing and smiled, looking down at his plate. “I’ll spare you,
killer.”

“Spare me
what? Your sob story? Guaranteed, mine is worse. Who is the little
girl in the picture, your daughter?”

Kane raised
his brow. “You went through my wallet?”

“Yes. I
did.”

“She’s my
sister.” He cut into his waffles. “Not that you’d give a shit, but
she died young. Of cancer. She’s the reason I got into what I do
for a living. So no, it wasn’t about the money. And it sure as hell
wasn’t about my family. The last of my family died about three
years ago.” He shoveled a forkful of waffles into his mouth.

“You never
married? At all?” Not that she cared, but the news surprised her a
little.

“No.”

She tipped her
head. “Why?”

“I thought you
had other questions for me. You suddenly want to discuss my love
life?”

Hell,
no.
She scowled. “Who bit you?”

“I thought you
did. So, I’m sorry I can’t answer that at the moment. I have no
friggin’ clue.”

Ayden settled
onto the chaise. “Then, tell me what you remember.”

“I told you
what I remembered,” he said casually through another bite of food.
“I left work. Late. Security escorted me to my car. I turned
around, and there they were.”

“Why did
security escort you to your car?” She snorted. “You a pansy?”

“No. I didn’t
ask them to escort me,” Kane said with a frown. “I was threatened
earlier in the day. Standard procedure.”

Ayden’s eyes
lit up. “Who threatened you?”

“A worker that
I had to fire. He was understandably upset, but he became violent.
They had to remove him from the premises.”

“What did he
say to you?”

“He told me to
watch my back.” Kane froze, eyes clouding over for a second.
“Jesus.”

***

Most of the
hospital employees had taken the staff cuts fairly well. They’d
known it was coming. In spite of the bad news, pretty much everyone
commended Kane on his management style. Though, there was one
employee who didn’t take the news so well. Evan Roth.

A younger guy,
he hadn’t worked in the department for long. He’d seemed all right
when they first hired him in as a physical therapist for the
institute. Ambitious, full of energy and pretty witty from what
Kane had heard from the others in the department. Until about a
month prior, when he’d become distant, moody and quiet. He’d begun
showing up late for work, looking like he’d been out binge-drinking
the night before. The kid had always been in shape, but somehow he
really bulked out fast, and rumors began to fly that he may have
been on steroids. As well as the complaints from female coworkers,
who claimed he’d sexually harassed them.

Due to Evan’s
behavior, when the demands for cuts came through the Institute,
Kane immediately knew one person who’d be on that list.

Even as calm
and professional as Kane had been in the meeting, Evan lashed out
in rage. Security had been called to escort the half-crazed
employee out to his car—three guards to get him under control.

Though, Kane
could clearly recall the bone chilling words muttered by Evan with
perfect clarity: “Watch your back.”

***

“And it never
occurred to you that he could have been a lycan?” Ayden asked.

“Look, aside
from some dumb movie that I had no intentions of ever watching, I
had no clue what the hell a lycan was two days ago.”

“Had he been
acting strange, at all? Anything you noticed in his human
form?”

“Yeah, we’d
gotten complaints.” Kane continued to stare off as he spoke. “He
was harassing the staff, coming in late, acting inappropriately
with clients.”

“Name.”

Kane set down
the utensils in his hand and crossed his arms over his chest. “I
want to go outside.”

“No.”

“That’s part
of the deal.”

“I don’t make
deals, asshole.” She leaned forward, elbows resting on her thighs.
“And why do you think crossing your arms every time is going to
make me change my mind and kowtow to your demands?”

“Ayden, for
ten years I’ve gone from one dark night to the next. Coming and
going with the rise and setting of the sun. Just once, before I
have my head served on a demon platter, I’d like to have sunlight
on it.”

“Well, guess
what? There’s no—” Ayden caught a glimpse of the sky through the
heavy velvet curtain. The sunlight had finally peeked through the
clouds. “Fine. One hour. And then you better be ready to give me a
name.”

“Deal.”

She watched as
Kane polished off his breakfast as if it were his last.
Not yet,
anyway
. He then dressed quickly in his slacks and Calix’s
borrowed shirt.

Ayden led him
down the stairs, careful not to rouse Gavin’s suspicions. He’d
never go for her taking the halfling out for a walk around the
property.

Bennett met
them at the door. “Can I get Master Kane a coat?”

Master
again.
She rolled her eyes. “Sure, Ben.”

Kane donned
the ski coat Bennett returned with from the closet in the foyer,
belonging to one of the brothers. Judging by the way Kane swam
inside of it, she guessed it to be one of Zeke’s, who happened to
be an avid snowboarder.

They stepped
outside, down the staircase, and rounded the manor toward the back.
Not a word spoken. Snow-covered hedges and beautiful gardens, once
teeming with an array of colorful flowers, made up a now-glistening
white maze at the rear of the manor.

“Wow. Nice.”
Kane tucked his hands into his pockets. The loafers he’d worn sunk
into the snow as he followed Ayden down beyond the gardens that
backed up to the woods.

“So,”—her gaze
cut to the forest—“there’s your freedom, lycan. Have a run for it.
I’ll give you a head start.”

“And freeze to
death?” he said, shaking his head. “No thanks.”

“Your
alternative is having your head severed from your body, and you’re
worried about being cold? You’ll be a warm, furry wolf in a few
days.”

“Yeah, well,
I’m currently a human, freezing my ass off right now. Besides, I
told you that I’ve accepted my fate. Why don’t you just leave it
alone?”

“I’m keeping a
pulse.” Ayden’s eyes darted to the side, tracking something behind
him.

Kane turned.
“What is it?”

“Rabbit.”

His head
tilted, as though he thought he just needed a new angle. “How can
you see it?”

“I don’t have
to see it.”

He glanced
back at her. “Then, how do you know for certain it’s a rabbit?”

“Tracks,”—she
pointed toward them—“leading up to the rock pile beneath the snow.
Only a rabbit would burrow there.”

“Have you
always been a hunter?”

“What’s
always?” Ayden crossed her arms, peering down as she stomped snow
with her boots. “In the five years I knew who I was? Yes.”

“How did you
become so
proficient
?”

“Survival
training.” The wet earth beneath the snow had mutilated it, where
she continued to dig with her boot. “We were dropped in the woods
and forced to find food or die.”

“Did anyone
die?”

“I don’t
know.” She stilled. “I focused on my own survival. I never kept
tabs on the others.”

“And to think
I had this impression that soldiers worked as a team.”

“They do. I
didn’t. It’s why I left.”

***

Kane tipped his
head back, allowing the sun to warm his face. “I think the last
time I saw the sun was spring break in college.” He chuckled and
sucked in a breath, the scents of his surroundings penetrating
him—the wet earth beneath its wintry coating, pine, the rabbit that
had skittered across the snow.

Ayden.
Something sweet, like sugar.
Her own personal perfume he’d
grown accustomed to each time she’d come to him.

It’d grown
stronger in the last couple of days. Against the open air and
surrounding aromas of nature, though, it stood out.

“Was your job
really all that important?” Ayden asked.

“What’s that?”
Kane still focused on her scent.

“Your job.
Important?” The tone of her voice indicated she was put off having
to ask twice.

Damn.
Focus.
“I thought it was, once.”

Her lip curled
into something of a snarl. “How can you stand being so confined to
something?”

He shrugged.
“How can you stand not being part of anything?”

“Very
easily.”

“I guess I
thought I was doing something to make an impact in the world. I
didn’t realize what I’d sacrificed until it was too late.” Kane
zipped his coat up a little higher. “Aren’t you cold?”

“Hunters don’t
feel the cold.” Her gaze dropped from his. “Immortal hunters feel
nothing.”

“Immortal?” He
looked on confused. “So you’re like not
killable
?”

“All immortals
are killable. You just have to know the poison.”

“Would I have
been immortal as a lycan?” Kane avoided looking at her, in case she
thought he might have an interest in such a thing.

“Yes.
Immortality is one of their traits.” She lifted a pinky finger to
his neck and slid across. “But a quick slice and I could take your
immortality.”

He tipped his
head forward, toward the lingering sensation of her fingertip ,
that delicious scent from her skin drifting in its wake. “Do you
enjoy this life?”

“Enjoy? As
opposed to what? It’s all I know.”

“If you had a
choice, would you give it up and … I don’t know, go out to
California and become a florist, or something.” He chuckled at the
thought.

***

“No. I enjoy
the hunt.” Ayden’s thoughts reverted back to the task at
hand—finding the lycan who attacked her. Would she continue to hunt
after that?

Kane walked
ahead of her, toward the forest.

Ayden’s
muscles tightened, preparing for a chase. “Where are you
going?”

“To
check.”

“Check
what?”

Kane glanced
back with a smile. “If it’s a rabbit.”

Ayden smirked
as she followed behind his slow advance.

His shoes
crunched against the snow as he approached the rabbit hole.

Coming to a
stand with her arms crossed, she shook her head, watching him.
You’ll never find out with all that racket.

He paused and
sniffed the air.

Ayden stepped
toward him, her eyebrow raised in question when he finally turned
to face her.

“There’s
something else,” he said, his gaze spinning back to the woods.

Ayden followed
his line of sight and started at the terrifying black object
barreling through the trees. “Kane run!”

Instead of
following her command, Kane froze.

Another moment
and its form finally came into clear view. The object moved through
the forest like a locomotive with no intentions of stopping—an
oncoming train wreck.

Magnus.
Gavin’s hellhound.

Kane’s lip
curled back into a snarl and he assumed a defensive stance, as if
waiting for the onslaught.

Magnus leaped
in the air toward the opponent, and Ayden shot forward, driving the
dog into the snow, inciting a yelp. She stood hunched between the
beast and Kane, snapping her head back to see Kane crouching as if
about to lunge back.

“Don’t you
dare!” she yelled. “He’s been trained to kill your kind.”

The dog rose
onto its paws as she turned back to it, eyes glowing a menacing red
against the white snow. Teeth bared, it growled a warning. Two
incisors hung down past the rest of its sharp teeth. Its thin and
black body was covered in fur that looked like it’d been torn away
to the bone on two of its limbs.

Ayden’s voice
softened, “Hey, buddy. Shhhh. It’s alright.”

Pulses of
growling continued as Magnus sniffed as though assessing her.

She reached
her hand out.

The growling
ceased, and Magnus lunged, knocking her back into the snow. The
exceptionally large dog licked her face, and she laughed, pushing
him away, which only resulted in more rough play.

“Magnus,
relax,” she said between chuckles, dodging the drool strung from
the dog’s mouth as she lay scratching behind his disfigured
ears.

***

The sound of
Ayden’s laughter traveled like a song to Kane’s ears. Enchanting,
like a spell she’d wound around him. “Wow,” he said, lurching
forward. Magnus’ ears perked up and Kane paused.

Ayden craned
her neck from beneath the hound. “What?”

“Your
laughter. That was … unexpected.”

She frowned
and bowed her head, scratching more intently at the dog.

Kane cleared
his throat, sensing her sudden discomfort. “So, that’s a
hellhound?”

In the midst
of play, Magnus snapped its jaws at him, but Ayden held tight to
its silver collar. “Hey, boy. It’s alright. He’s not going to hurt
you. I won’t let him.” She petted along his body and sat up to a
crouch beside the dog.