Soul Avenged (Sons of Wrath, #1) (42 page)

“I’m afraid
you’ve ruined his track record.” Gavin smiled. “No one gets past
Bennett and survives. He’s pretty upset with you right now.”

Draven
scowled. “You keep that disfigured fuck away from me.”

Zeke strolled
in, chomping on an apple, all casual as though unaware of the
stand-off. “I wonder what kind of apple Eve bit into,” he rambled.
“If it was a Red Delicious, I can’t believe she gave up paradise
for this shit. Blandest fruit I’ve ever tasted.”

Gavin cleared
his throat. “Draven, I’d like you to meet my brother, Zeke.”

Draven’s eyes
widened, as Zeke met his side, the demon’s large frame shadowing
the boy.

“Is that what
I think it is?” Zeke asked, nodding toward the spear.

“Yes,” Gavin
said. “It seems our friend was a little nervous about meeting
us.”

“As he should
be.” Half-eaten apple in hand, Zeke pointed to Draven. “No one
brings Demortis into my house and lives to tell the story.”

“Brother.
Relax. He’ll be leaving soon.”

“Good.” Zeke
crossed his arms over his chest. “Because there’s nothing I hate
more than bad manners. You take that shit with you, hear?” He
uncrossed his arm, bit into his apple and took off down the hall in
the direction of the Wreck Room.

Bennett
appeared at the top of the stairs, Calla trailing behind him.
Surprise lit her face as she peered down at Draven. “You … came for
me?”

Like a lost
Romeo, Draven dropped the spear and moved to the bottom of the
staircase, his head tipped back. “Calla, I’m so sorry. What
happened back there … it wasn’t me. I was wrong to treat you the
way I did.”

Calla remained
at the top of the staircase, her hands covering her middle. “You
were.”

“I’ve come to
take you with me.” He set his foot on the bottom step and grabbed
the railing. “Come with me, Calla. I’ve left the Alexi.”

“And what
about Jacob?” Calla shook her head. “I can’t just leave him there.
I have to go back for him.”

Draven sucked
in a deep breath. “You don’t … have to go back.”

“He came with
you?” Her eyes seemed to bloom bright with hope. “Where is he?”

“Calla …”
Draven’s gaze fell to the floor. “… we were attacked last night. By
dozens of them.”

“Dozens?”
Ayden frowned. “In one place? How many Alexi?”

Draven glanced
back. “There were twenty-six of us. They outnumbered us, four to
one.”

“A slaughter,”
Ayden muttered. “How did they know?”

“We sent out a
small team for food.” Draven’s voice grew reticent. “One of them
led the wolves straight to our camp.”

“Where is
Jacob?” Calla spoke firmly.

“Come with me
and I’ll show you.” He reached out his hand to her, yet she made no
move to comply. “Why are you resisting me? Come with me. Now,
Calla. Did they … touch you?”

“Draven,”
Ayden interrupted. “Think about it. Dozens of wolves happened to be
roaming the streets and stumbled upon a few Alexi?”

Draven didn’t
turn. “Maybe they came across a lycan lair in their quest for
food.”

“A human, I
could understand making that mistake.” Ayden ran her hand through
her hair. “But an Alexi? Not likely.” She rested her hands on her
hips. “It sounds to me as if they were assembled. As if they were
directed to seek you out.”

Draven finally
looked up, his eyes brimming with scorn. “Well, that would have to
be one intuitive fucking alpha, wouldn’t it?”

“Maybe.” Ayden
crossed her arms. “Or a snitch.”

“You’re the
only traitor to the Alexi,” Draven sneered.

Ayden turned
to Gavin. “If we’re going to get inside that compound, now is the
time to do it. Wade and the others will be out looking for the
deserters. There were two teams on my ass the night I left. And
Wade likes to do the dirty work himself.”

“Get inside
the compound for what?” The curiosity in Draven’s voice seemed far
from innocent.

Ayden gave him
a once-over. “None of your business.”

Gavin motioned
for Bennett. “I want you to see to it that our
guests
are
comfortable and that they do not leave this house until we return.”
Turning back to Draven, Gavin grinned. “For your safety.”

Bennett
glowered in Draven’s direction. “As you wish, sir.” He approached
the boy and rifled through his pocket, pulling out a slip of paper
before he patted Draven down and picked up the spear off the floor.
“You won’t be needing these, sir.”

~

Kane sat in the
passenger seat of Logan’s McLaren, the world passing him by at over
a hundred miles per hour. Logan had insisted on going back to
Kane’s house with a finer comb, looking closer for clues.

“So how does
it work?” Kane asked.

“How does what
work?” Logan sounded irritated by the question.

“The Alexi.
How do they stumble across soldiers carrying the antibody? It
doesn’t make sense to me.” Kane scratched the back of his head. “Is
it just random?”

“Lycans make
the kill. Alexi scavenge the remains. They find the survivors.”

Kane crossed
his arms. Something just seemed incomplete about it all. “But two
things are wrong with this picture. One: how do they find out
before police? Before it’s reported by neighbors and friends and
families? And, two: how do they know who carries the antibody?”

“They’re
hunters. They seek this shit out. They find survivors. What are you
getting at?” Lip curled, Logan gave Kane a once-over and turned
back to the road. “Just spit it out. I fucking hate puzzles.”

“I’m
saying,”—Kane huffed—“it sounds to me as if they’re being led to
the kill somehow.”

“Yeah. They
are.” Logan kept his focus ahead. “They track the wolves during the
day and then follow them at night.”

“Which is
great, and all, but don’t you think it’s a bit
coincidental
that the Alexi have found so many soldiers among the remains?”

Logan’s steely
glare leveled on Kane. “Don’t you think it’s a bit shitty that your
kind kill so many families to begin with?”

Kane threw his
hands up. “Look, I’m not trying to wipe out all your supernatural
theories here. I’m just saying, the rise in lycan numbers, the rise
in Alexi soldiers …” His defensive gesture softened into a shrug.
“You’d think there’d be a state-wide emergency. Like the supes were
getting out of control and we’d all be urged to evacuate. And yet,
it’s
almost
as if the number of kills is the same ... just,
much more
targeted
.” Words he remembered from his
conversation with Ayden the night before.

Logan eyes
squinted for a moment, before he asked, “So what’s your
theory?”

“I think
lycans have been ordered not to make kills outside of their
target.” Kane clenched his jaw. “And I think that’s why I was left
on the landing that night. I think that’s why they ransacked my
house. They’re after me, because I wasn’t the target that night.
And … I think the Alexi know when and where the wolves are going to
strike. The question is how.”

Logan sniffed.
“Interesting theory. I wondered how those fuckers knew about the
ambush.”

“Ambush?”

“They sent one
of their own—a girl—into the underground party by herself.” Logan
shook his head. “Like they knew the lycans would attack and that
we’d find her. A goddamn pawn.”

“That would be
a very dangerous position for one girl.”

“They watched.
Zeke sicced our security ghoul on them to keep them from following
us. Crazy bastard.” Logan burst out a laugh with an evil edge of
amusement that gave Kane the damn willies. “Had them occupied most
of the night doing some embarrassing shit.”

“So, they
watched. And how many humans were murdered during that ambush?”

“About a half
dozen, or so.”

How easily
‘a half dozen’ rolls off his tongue.
“Does this make sense to
you?” Kane’s hand flew up, emphasizing his confusion. “They send
one female into a party that becomes a slaughterfest?”

Logan
shrugged. “The Alexi are pricks. I’m not surprised they sacrificed
one of their own.”

“Was she
hurt?”

“Nah. Just a
bite. Course, Ayden kicked some ass that night.” Logan scratched at
his nose. “Damn, she’s something else.”

Kane cleared
his throat. “Yes, she is.”

“You love
her?” Logan glanced over, and Kane had to wonder what response
might piss him off.

“I don’t
know.”
Do I?
So many questions swirled in Kane’s head, all
of them planted there by Ayden. “I’ve never been in love
before.”

“Me neither.”
Logan turned back toward the road. “I’m going to be answering to
the top dogs if I don’t find a female of my own soon. They don’t
like unmated Wrath Demons running around. Too tempting.” He
sneered.

Kane frowned.
“For what?”

“Sex with a
woman without claiming her.”

Kane’s eyes
went wide. “What? I thought … you mean, you
don’t
have
sex?”

“Yeah. But
there’re two kinds of sex with us. There’s the kind we get off to.
And then there’s the deeper, bonded sex. Shit’s crazy from what I
understand.” He rested his elbow onto the console and stroked his
chin. “Supposed to be the best. I guess our bodies know the
difference. The deeper kind always ends up with a kid.”

Holy shit,
demons bond?

“And why do
the superiors frown on that?” Kane asked.

“Can’t have a
baby with a woman unless you’re mated. She becomes your
Tazshla.”

Tazshla?
“So what happens if she gets pregnant and you’re
not mated?”

Logan cleared
his throat and brought the McLaren to a stop in front of Kane’s
house. “You have to choose between the woman or the child.”

Kane
triple-blinked. “That’s … morbid. What gives them the right to take
either life?”

“I never
questioned it. It’s the laws we live by.” Logan crossed his arms
over his chest. “So, how many wolves attacked you, two?”

“Yes.”

“And I hear
you and Ayden took care of shithead number one last night.” Logan
scratched his cheek. “Which leaves shithead number two. Where’d
they attack you?”

“In the
parking lot, where I work.”

“Parking lot?
With cameras, lights, a public place?”

Kane hadn’t
considered how obvious it’d been. Anyone could’ve seen the attack.
Surely, the cameras had caught it. “Yes, fairly close to the main
entrance, actually.”

Logan shook
his head. “No, that’s not typical for them. They’re more stealth
than that.”

“Yeah, well,
the one was pretty pissed at me for firing him.”

“Shithead
number one worked for you?” There was a new curiosity in Logan’s
voice.

Kane
nodded.

“Anyone he was
in cahoots with?”

Sucking in a
deep breath, Kane rummaged through the many enemies Evan had made
in the months before his firing. “No. No one that I can think
of.”

“Was there
anyone else with you that night?” Logan pointed at him, eyes
earnest. “And don’t lie to me, lycan.”

“Yes. I was
walked to my car by head of security. Bob Hatchings. I’m pretty
sure he was attacked that night, too.”

Logan grinned
and shook his head. “I don’t think so.”

Kane frowned.
“What do you mean, you don’t think so?”

“I mean, I
think ole’ Bobby boy’s the other lycan.”

Bob?
“Absolutely not.” Kane had known Bob for years. A tall, quiet man,
who often flirted with the nursing staff at the hospital.
Flirtatious, sure. Not a sick bastard like Evan appeared to be,
judging by the rifled contents in his bedroom.

“Drop the
sentimental shit, wolf.” Whatever warming up had taken place
between Kane and Logan quickly took a southern turn to a
no-bullshit coldness. “I just said they don’t attack in public.
Different story if they’re able to manipulate the evidence. Head of
security? Yeah, big fucking red flag if you ask me. And since there
were no revelations from shithead number one, I’d be willing to
guess this Bob is the same wolf prick who attacked Ayden.” Logan
rubbed his chin. “Where do you work?”

Even Kane had
to admit Logan was making sense.
Ah, shit.
“Detroit General.
Children’s Cancer Institute.”

“You work in a
Cancer Institute?” Logan’s eyebrows lowered before winging up.
“Fuckin’A. That’s how they knew.”

For a demon
that Kane thought of as nothing more than muscles and two fists,
Logan’s investigative mind was leaving him in the dust. “Knew
what?”

“This hospital
have a lab?”

“Of course it
does.”

“This lab have
a blood bank? Donors?”

Oh,
shit.
“What are you suggesting?”

Logan leaned
toward Kane, a faint red flickering at the ridges of his pupils. “I
think we just found our fucking wolf in sheep’s clothing, that’s
what I’m suggesting.”

Lab. Blood.
Donors. It slowly pieced itself into one thought: the wolves had
knowledge of the antibody that humans carried. “So, the lycans are
killing the humans who carry the antibody.” Kane stared off at the
dashboard. “But … Ayden said they didn’t know about it.”

“Maybe Ayden
doesn’t know everything.” Logan snickered. “So, where can I find
this asshole Bob?”

“He works
dayshift. Except during cuts. I suspect he’ll just be getting off.”
A rotten, twisted sensation gurgled in Kane’s stomach. Wolves had
been picking off victims from his hospital? Right under his
nose?

“Then we’ll
follow him. See where he goes.”

Kane broke
from his thoughts. “Logan, my uh … change?”

“Easy sweep.”
Logan fired up the McLaren and revved the engine. “We’ll be in and
out before nightfall. Then, home in time to put you out of your
misery.”

“Oh.
Good.”