Hyena Moon, page 18
It was odd though. He would have expected to have seen her if she were already up. He felt the hairs on the back of his neck prickle, but forced himself to remain calm. She may be outside, catching the morning sun before it got too hot to be anywhere but inside.
He veered towards the back of the house, planning on checking the pool. Kess joined him as he circled back towards the kitchen and followed after him, almost as if she could sense there was something wrong. The pool was empty.
"You didn't happen to see her in the living room?" he asked Kess, even though he already knew the answer. Lenore hadn't been in the living room and he hadn't heard the television on in there when he'd been in the kitchen.
Kess shook her head. "Guest house?" Her eyes were wide, but otherwise, she looked calm.
They walked quickly across the lawn to the guest house. Cormac shoved the door open and found no one in there. Empty.
Lenore was gone.
Kess was already running back to the main house. Cormac followed, catching up with her easily and passing her. Together they searched every room. There was no sign of Lenore. Finn had already left for his morning run, so it was possible Lenore had gone with him, but Cormac highly doubted it. His sister wasn't big on physical exercise as a rule.
"Hang on," Kess said, disappearing into their bedroom. She returned with their phones.
Cormac dialed Finn's number. He didn't expect his cousin to pick up if he was still running, but maybe he was already on his way back to the house. Kess was looking for missed calls or messages when her phone rang. She smiled when she looked at the number and held it up so he could read the name showing on her display. Lenore.
He heaved a sigh of relief. He was going to kill his sister when she got back--she should have left a note or a voicemail telling them that she was going out. He thought he had impressed upon her the seriousness of the situation in Miami. He'd apparently misjudged.
"Hey Lenore," Kess began, then her face went white. She took the phone away from her ear and put it on speaker so he could listen. Lenore was not who was on the other end of the line.
"...disappoint you." It was a voice he didn't recognize, but his guts locked up when he heard it. Nobody but Lenore should be using that phone. "I've got your girl here, and if you want her back in good shape, you'll leave Miami to my mother."
Teresa, Kess mouthed. Cormac nodded tightly, trying not to rip the phone out of her hands in an effort to launch himself through it. He reined in his fear and anger and tried to think rationally, but all that ran through his head was his sister's name. He clenched his jaw until he thought it would break in an effort to control himself.
"Is Lenore okay? Let me talk to her." Kess' voice was an icicle, cold and brittle. She put her hand on Cormac's arm, although whether it was to steady him or herself, he didn't know.
Teresa's voice sounded smug. He wanted to rip her tongue out to stop her words. "Princess is out of it right now, but she's still breathing. You'll have to take my word for it. If you want to keep it that way, consider the offer. Miami for the girl. If we don't hear from you at this number by tonight, her breathing--and everything else--stops.
"How do I know...," Kess began, but Teresa cut her off. Cormac nearly snapped his teeth, his wolf self very close to the surface.
"You don't." She paused. "Oh, and if you don't believe me, I left a gift for you outside the gates. Toodles." She ended the call.
Cormac was already moving, out the front door before Kess had even pocketed her phone. Finn was getting out of the car, soaked in sweat from his run along the beach. Cormac didn't even bother to acknowledge him, knowing that Kess would bring him up to speed. He was more interested in finding the gift Teresa had referred to him.
"Did you see anything on the gate?" he yelled at Finn as he ran towards the front of the property. He hoped that Finn's driving in hadn't ruined anything.
Finn caught up quickly, running next to him. Kess was still a couple of hundred yards behind. "No. Mac, what happened?"
Cormac bit off each word, imagining that he was biting into hyena muscle and bone. "The hyenas have Lenore."
Finn looked thunderstruck. "Shit."
Cormac ignored his cousin and opened up his sense, specifically his sense of smell. He knew Lenore's scent like he knew his own and he began to pick up traces of it on the breeze off the water. He led the way, his head down so that his nose was closer to the earth. He stopped when the smell became strong, catching a glimpse of metal just inside the gates. He knelt and picked up the item that had fallen onto the pavement.
Lenore's charm bracelet.
He held it in his hands carefully, afraid he'd break it, as the others gathered around him. He could feel them at his back, but he didn't care about them, not now. His sister was gone, in the hands of monsters. The sister that he was supposed to be protecting.
He threw back his head and howled.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Kess followed Cormac into their bedroom and closed the door. He hadn’t bothered to turn on the light and had kept the blinds closed so the room was dark, but she could see him in the little bit of light that leaked in from the edges of the curtains, standing stiff as a plank. He was trying hard to control himself, Kess knew, but she was amazed he wasn’t vibrating like a plucked violin string with all of the tension in him.
“We’ll get her back,” she said softly. She turned on the light. He flinched, but didn’t turn around.
She went to him, putting her arms on his shoulders. She rested her head against his back. Cormac didn’t relax. After a moment he moved away from her. She looked after him, unsure of what to say to help him. Samara had his sister. On his watch. There wasn’t anything she could say to make it better.
But she remembered how he’d been with her when she was running from Sek. How patient. How kind. Cormac had been there for her when she thought there was nobody who could help, who could understand. It wouldn’t be right if she just did nothing when he was hurting.
“Please talk to me.”
He turned. His face was a hard mask, the points of his jaw jumping when he gritted his teeth. Kess had never seen him so angry, not even when Sek had smashed her face into the mirror. “And say what, Kess? What would you like me to say?”
She shook her head. “Anything. Just tell me what’s going on in your head.”
“I should have been with her.” His voice was full of angry guilt.
Kess went to him and put a hand to his cheek. “It’s not your fault. You can’t blame yourself.”
“I don’t.” His eyes flared silver, furious when he looked at her. “I blame you.” He jerked away from her as if her hands had turned to flame.
She took a step back, equal parts hurt and angry. She tamped down on those emotions, trying to see things through his eyes. She wasn’t going to lose her temper. It wasn’t what he needed right now. But being told she was to blame for Lenore’s kidnapping made her feel like she had when Sek had told her it was her fault their father was dead.
“Okay,” was all she said.
“I told you Rafe couldn’t be trusted! I told you he shouldn’t be hanging around Lenore, that it was dangerous. Hell, I even said that he was probably a spy! But you didn’t listen to me. You knew better. And look where that’s got us.”
“I did listen to—“
“My sister could die and for what? So you could work out your fucked up family issues?” His voice was cold and Kess recoiled as if he’d slapped her. “Maybe you should have seen a shrink instead of starting Kess’ home for wayward hyenas!”
Kess bit down on her lip hard. It was an effort of supreme will not to shout back at him, not to get as mean as he was getting. He was hurt and afraid; she understood that. She understood that he had to take it out on somebody, but it was hard to listen to. He knew all of her soft, vulnerable spots, knew where she could be hurt the most.
“I know you’re upset…”she began, trying again. Forcing her voice to calm.
“Upset? UPSET?!” He paced the room in long strides, forcing Kess to get out of his way. “My sister is gone, Kess. My human sister has been kidnapped by a pack of whackjob hyenas that might do anything to her.” He choked back something that might have been a sob and Kess took a step toward him. But his next words froze her back in place. “I know your brother was a psycho so you might not understand what it’s like when brothers and sisters actually love each other without it getting all freaky, but upset doesn’t even come close to covering it!”
Kess went still and blank. There was a part of her, the logical part that was distanced from all of this, that acknowledged that was a good one. If he’d wanted to make her feel like crap, it was masterful. Inside she felt a great, black vortex open up within her. All of her shame and self-loathing came spewing back up from it; all the feelings that it had been her fault somehow, that she was to blame for Sek’s advances came rushing into her head.
Gingerly, almost feeling like she was made of glass and could break at the slightest wrong movement, Kess stepped backwards. Cormac was breathing hard, so angry that he looked like he might spew flames. She took another step back, wanting to be anywhere but where she was right now.
Kess clenched her fists to keep them from shaking. She managed to make her voice sound relatively normal, but it took all of her self-control. The back of her throat ached from trying to keep back the scream she wanted to voice. “I think it might be a good idea if I go. I’ll come back later.” She hated to say this, hated the way it made her sound and feel, as if she deserved to be treated like this. She knew he was upset, angry and blaming himself—and yeah, probably blaming her too—but also knew that now was not the time to get into it with him.
As much as she might want to.
She came out of the bedroom, her eyes down so she noticed the shoes first. Her eyes flew up to find Finn waiting in the hall. The walls in the house weren’t soundproof by any stretch and by the look on his face she knew he had heard at least some of it. Kess stepped out of his way so he could go in. Maybe he’d be able to get Cormac to calm down.
“I’m sorry,” she said as she waited for him to walk by her.
Finn put a hand on her shoulder. "You do know he didn't mean any of that, right? He's just scared."
Kess ground her teeth together so hard she thought her molars would turn to dust. Finn's words just made her feel more miserable. She looked up at him and saw the frown on his face, the worry in his eyes. He loved Lenore almost as much as Cormac did. He didn't need to be bothering with her emotional breakdown right now. Cormac needed him more.
"I know he is." Not that knowing helped with the hurt. "Go on in. He needs you."
"Alaric and Emmeline are already on their way. So are Dad and Burke."
"Great." She tried to sound grateful, but knew she fell far short of the mark. She needed to get away from here.
Finn's hand on her arm stopped her. "I don't blame you." When she shook her head, his grip on her arm tightened. "No, this wasn't your fault. You had eyes on him. You were doing what you could. Hell, I was taken in by him too. All those times we went running, hung out—I thought, at base, he was a good kid." He let her go and went in to talk to his cousin.
Kess walked outside, kicking off her shoes on the deck. She bypassed the pool and headed straight into the yard, wanting to feel the tickle of dry grass under her feet. She walked back and forth under the shade of the palm trees until her heart stopped racing. She knew she should be hot—it was a late summer afternoon and no thunderstorm had rolled in to cool anything down and the world was baking—but she felt ice cold. She gritted her teeth to keep them from chattering.
When she felt more in control of herself, she took her phone out of the pocket of her shorts. She dialed Rafe’s number, the number for the phone she had gotten for him when he’d first come to stay at the house. She had a feeling he still had it.
He picked up after the fourth ring. “Hello?” His voice was guarded, cautious. As well it should be after what he’d done.
“You can tell your mother congratulations.” Kess kept her voice without inflection, trying to give nothing away. He didn’t need to know what his actions had cost her; she wouldn’t give him that satisfaction. “I’ll make the trade.”
“Um…okay?” He sounded unsure over the line.
Kess wondered if he would answer her next question. She gave it a try—it couldn’t hurt to try. “Is she alright?”
“Is who alright? My mom?”
Kess rolled her eyes. Seriously, did he think she was some kind of moron? She spoke slowly, as if to one mentally deficient. “Lenore, Rafe. Is Lenore okay?”
“How would I know?” He didn’t say anything for a minute and then, in a very small voice, he asked, “Isn’t she with you?”
He didn’t know. He really had no idea what they’d done. The small part of her that she was still allowing to feel things was relieved. At least he hadn’t been involved in this; if she’d been right about nothing else, it was that he wouldn’t hurt Lenore. “No, she’s not. Your sister just sent us Lenore’s charm bracelet with an offer for a trade. My life for hers.”
She heard the swift intake of breath on the other end. Finally, he gets it, she thought. She’d been worried she’d have to explain it to him via stick figure drawings next. “I didn’t know. I…”
Kess cut him off, not interested in his explanations. “Tell your mother I’ll meet her tomorrow night. Lenore must be delivered alive, intact and unharmed or no deal.” She closed the phone, ending the call.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Rafe stared at his phone for a second. Oh shit shit SHIT. Teresa, what the hell did you do? He pulled up a record of his calls and texts, both sent and received, and saw the one from Lenore. He scrolled down and there it was. One he hadn’t sent, but knew who had. And then Lenore’s reply. OK.
He flung the phone across the room. It hit his closet door and spun to the ground. Rafe stood, breathing hard, fists clenching and unclenching. He had given Ter his phone without a second thought, believing her when she said she’d lost hers. What the hell had he been thinking? It wasn’t like Teresa twirled an imaginary mustache and laughed maniacally to let him know she was going to do something evil, but on all other occasions she could be trusted! Teresa was not benign!
This was all his fault. He knew Teresa better than this, knew what she was capable of when she felt her sibling supremacy was in jeopardy. Why didn’t he see it last night? The soft voice in the back of his head, the one that had been quiet since he’d left Kess’ house, whispered the answer: because he hadn’t wanted to. For the first time in what felt like forever, his mother had been pleased with him. He hadn’t been thinking at all about what Teresa was like, about how this might look like a threat to her place and position. He hadn’t thought about what she could do if she felt threatened.
God, he was like king of the dumbasses. Emperor Dumbass.
He thought of Lenore. Lenore who didn't belong in any of this, who wasn't even a were. And now she was getting dragged into this conflict because of him. The only thing she was guilty of was liking him, which was more than he deserved. He wondered if she was hurt; Teresa wasn't what anyone would consider gentle. He needed to see Lenore, to make sure she was okay.
Okay, he had to think about this clearly and carefully. He couldn’t go rushing off, trying to fix things and just making them worse. Part of his problem with his mother and sister was that he was impetuous and hotheaded, just like they were, without the malice that made them so dangerous. So he’d have to be smart about this. He’d need to outthink them, not go head to head with them if he could help it. Whenever he did that, it always ended badly for him.
Kess’ call had woken him from a deep sleep—the party had gone on until the early morning hours, making it hard to fall asleep. His clock said it was already 11. He rummaged around his room, pulling on the jeans from last night and grabbing a clean shirt from his dresser. He went to the bathroom to splash some water on his face and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. Better to look fully dressed and aware and not like a sleepy kid this morning.
He found his mother and sister, sitting at the kitchen table eating from a bag of white powdered donuts. Without preamble, he said, “Just got a call from Kess.”
“Hmmm?” Samara stared at him from over the rim of her coffee mug. “I’d expected her to call me.” She gestured at a phone sitting between them on the table. It was Lenore's—Rafe had seen it a lot over the past month.
“She told me not to tell you about it. She wants to meet with me—I expect she’ll want to try and make me feel bad about Lenore in the hopes that I’ll help her.” He turned to face Teresa. “Nice one, by the way. Wish I had thought of it.” Teresa’s superior smile faltered on her face. She hadn’t been expecting this reaction from him. He thought that maybe she’d grabbed Lenore not so much to gain standing back with their mother, but more to hurt him. He’d learned a long time ago that if you cared about something, you let Ter know about it at your own risk. As much as it killed him to act disinterested, he had to do it for both his and Lenore’s protection.
When his mother spoke, she was deceptively casual, as if they were discussing what they were going to do that day. Rafe felt his stomach clench. “And why should I let you meet with Kess? All I need from her is her answer.”
Rafe shrugged, striving for a nonchalance he most definitely didn’t feel. “Doesn’t matter to me. I just thought that if I go maybe I can learn something that might be useful. Who knows, maybe I can even work some angle so they’ll trust me again. I might be able to bring back information about what they’re planning to do.”
