Blood Chained (Dark Siren Book 3) (24 page)

So much emotion flowed through her, ravaging her thoughts, clogging her throat. “Why not?” she asked in a voice strangled with feeling. She furiously fought back tears that threatened to overtake her eyes.

“Remaining human ages my appearance.”

She shook her head. “Bailen, I don’t understand.”

He smiled. This one was real, making love twist a thick knot in Kali’s chest. “You will soon enough,” he said and began to meld back into the furry guardian who had eased into her heart many months ago.

But Bailen’s fingers grasped her hand until they were gone.

And outside, the rain had stopped.

Chapter 35

By the next evening, York had replaced and installed a new front door. As soon as he shut it to test that the hinges worked properly, someone knocked from the other side.

Seriously?

There were maybe only four people capable of sneaking up him like that. One was currently over seven thousand miles away. Another snuggled close to Kali on the couch because the two had been practically inseparable since last night’s little fiesta in the twilight zone. That left only two other suspects. York didn’t particularly want a visit from either at the moment.

Opening the door, he hung his head and sighed. It was Gabriel…or maybe it was that kid, Callan. Until he opened his mouth, York couldn’t be sure who called the shots. Either way, he had really been pulling for the visitor to be Ian. The kindred alpha would have at least been the lesser evil.

“Hey, big guy. How’s it going?”

Callan. Definitely Callan.

“Great,” he replied. “Good to see you, Cal.” He winced at the lie. Regarding the box held in the boy’s hands with a wary eye, he stepped aside to let Cal into the manor. He probably could have been a more gracious host and offered to carry the heavy load, but Cal was tall, athletic, and plenty capable of handling a little plastic box.

“Is uh, Kali around?” He shifted the container from one hand to the other.

York smirked. “Where else would she be? It smells like you’ve already been to her house.”

“Oh.” Cal blushed. Shuffling both feet, he looked away quickly. York thought the behavior was overly antsy for the circumstances, not to mention completely out of character. Usually the little snot was a cocky bastard worthy of a firm backhand.

Finally spotting Kali snuggled in the sofa cushions, relief washed over Cal’s face. The emotion was promptly erased by an even deeper blush sparked by what looked a lot like guilt. “Mind if I talk to her?”

York shrugged. “Go right ahead, champ.”

“Thanks.” Cal moved away in a hurry.

“Don’t mention it,” York called to his retreating back and then returned his attention to repair of the front door. He had more pressing matters to worry about. Whatever troubled Cal would come to light soon enough.  Then again…

Setting the screwdriver on the nearest side table, he followed Cal into the living area and flopped into an armchair just as the kid sat the box at Kali’s feet.

Still stroking Bailen’s fur, her greeting was just as guarded as York’s had been. “Hey, Callan.” Bailen didn’t even acknowledge their visitor. His eyes remained closed and his breathing light as he dozed in his mother’s embrace.

“Hey, Kal.”

She nudged the box with a toe. “What’s this?”

“Um,” he stalled, scratching his neck. “It’s your stuff. I went by your house, but you weren’t home. Just leaving it there didn’t seem right.”

“My stuff?” Kali raised both eyebrows. “What stuff exactly and why do you have it?”

York frowned. The girl had been living at the manor full time since last year. It didn’t make sense for Cal to even think of looking for Kali at her parents’ house first.

“Shannon gave it to me. Well…she gave it to Gabriel.”

“Didn’t know you two were that tight,” York said, winking suggestively as Cal looked in his direction.

Stiffening, the boy’s eyes flashed red. “The reaper who embodies Shannon is male and served as one of my lieutenants before my power was usurped.”

“Don’t get so defensive, Gabe. It just feeds my suspicions.” York somehow managed to laugh, but inside he felt pretty uneasy at the sudden shift in personalities.
That wasn’t weird at all.

Kali only seemed annoyed. “Callan,” she said with an edge to her voice.

“Right.” The ex was back, and just as awkward. “I’m sorry, Kal.”

She exhaled, finally getting it or at least accepting it. “When Wes said it was better if we didn’t see each other again, I didn’t realize he was firing me.”

“There’s one other thing,” the boy added, looking absolutely miserable. “Your sister is home.”

“It’s the middle of the semester.”

“Well, you know how she is.”

“Of course.”

Cue a painful beat of silence.

York figured Kali was handling the news pretty well. Sure, digging around in the dirt for buried old stuff was her dream job, and getting sacked from Mack Ventures probably meant she wouldn’t get the big internship she’d worked so hard for until Rhane and Co. had entered her life. But in comparison to discovering your pet wolf was actually the long lost son you never realized you had, a slight career derailment ranked pretty low on the totem pole of life altering developments. At least York thought so.

Cal was the first to break the silence. “You think you could go by there? She really wants to see you.”

Nodding absently, Kali rested her cheek against Bailen’s furry head. “I’ll do that.”

“Okay.” Cal hesitated. “Are you okay? I mean, besides losing your job and everything. Because I’m here. Anything you need.”

York fought the urge to roll his eyes. But he lost.

“I’m fine, Cal. But thanks.”

He took a long time deciding his next line. “You must have seen him over there,” he finally blurted.

Kali looked taken aback. A slight frown rippled across her forehead. “Why would you say that?”

“Because you look great. You’ve got this glow about you that I’ve only seen when he’s around. I’m man enough to admit that now.”

Well, that would be a shiny new development.

But Cal wasn’t done with the surprises.

“Rhane’s a good guy. You probably don’t realize it, but even Gabriel likes him.”

A smile flickered at Kali’s lips. “Thank you,” she said graciously.

“Okay. I’ve got to get going…maybe I’ll see you around then.” He started toward the front door.

“Callan,” she called to his retreating back.

“Yeah?” The poor guy still sounded hopeful. York almost felt sorry for him.

“It really means a lot to me that you stopped by. Really…thank you.”

After Cal was gone, she let York in on what seemed to weigh so heavily on her mind. “We have to protect him.”

“I know.” He knew Kali meant Bailen without her actually having to say it. “He’s yours. That means I’ll readily give my life for him.”

“He said they have to take him. What does that mean?”

Bailen whined.

“I don’t know.” York looked at the canine, wishing the kid would just say what the hell was going on. He’d suspected from the beginning that Bailen had more secrets than he let on. Oh boy had it turned out to be truer than York could have ever imagined. “I wish you would tell us,” he said, speaking directly to Bailen.

Meeting York’s gaze, the young kin replied with a soft huff. Then he laid his great head across Kali’s lap again.

“Okay, you have to stay in that form. We don’t know exactly why, but I guess we get it.” York leaned forward and tried to rein back the frustration evident in his voice. “But even in this form you could communicate if you wanted to. The skins have a language. Use it.”

Without looking at him, without changing positions, or even the speed of his tail slowly beating against the cushions, Bailen did exactly as York asked. He spoke.

She can’t know yet, Yorkshire.

#

It was getting late. If Kali was going to pay a visit to her parents’ house, it would have to be sooner rather than later. After only an hour of sparring, she had come back inside for a shower and some mindless channel surfing. She was simply too distracted to accomplish anything meaningful. With attempting new skills or even honing old ones out of the question, she threw down the dowel and retreated to burrow within the plush cushions of the living room sofa. Bailen quickly nestled beside her and seemed content watching Kali’s near manic handling of the remote as she contemplated ditching her pajamas to go see her parents.

Kali stole a glance at Bailen. All afternoon, he had glued himself to her side like barnacles on a gray whale. But the kid had shown a pretty dogged display of independence before then. From secretly hanging out in kindred lairs, to recruiting Dmiri for his own mysterious purposes, to insisting on going his own way in China—Kali just didn’t know what to expect from him. But if she went home tonight, Bailen would come with her whether he liked it or not. No way was she going to leave him behind, not with his warning still echoing in her thoughts.
They’re going to take me soon.

The thought of Builders once again stealing her child was too much to bear. She couldn’t stop picturing the abandoned labs discovered within the catacombs while in China. Inside those rooms were the remnants of Builder experiments. She remembered the strange humanoid creature with both reptilian and marine qualities, an aberration created and then cast aside on the whim of its makers. Was its creation painful? Did it suffer even now as it languished in that stasis pod? How many more creatures filled the hundreds of pods stored throughout the labyrinth? Is that why they wanted Bailen? Would he be another experiment?

Kali shook her head vigorously to banish the thought. She would drive herself mad if she didn’t focus on something else. In an act of perfect timing, her stomach growled. Shoving herself from the couch in one resolute motion, Kali migrated toward the kitchen, thinking food could be a suitable distraction. The click of Bailen’s toenails against the hardwood floors followed through the doubled doors and past the dining area where Matthias sat wearing an expression that bordered on panic. She didn’t have to guess hard at the source of his troubles. What looked like hundreds of rhomboid and triangular shapes in all colors of the rainbow were scattered on the table before him in an exploded version of York’s prized dodecahedron.

Crapola.

The young kindred appealed to Kali, alternating his gaze of desperation from her to the puzzle and back. The pang of sympathy she felt for him was swiftly overtaken by an unexpected snort of laughter. Matthias’s ears perked and flattened at the sound, only making her laugh harder.

The noise must have summoned Rion from the kitchen because he rounded the corner carrying a greasy spatula. Taking one look at Matthias, he broke into a wide grin. “I thought it was pretty hilarious too.”

Holding her stomach, Kali used the other hand to wipe the tears from her eyes. “York is going to be so mad,” she gasped out before doubling over again. Gulping in a few deep breaths, she managed to pull it together. It felt good to have something to laugh about again. She shoved at Rion’s shoulder playfully. “But you can fix that, right?”

“Yup. I’m just letting him sweat it out a little longer.”

Matthias looked absolutely horrified. “But he could be back at any moment.”