Dark Wolf Unbound (Heart of the Shifter #2) (3 page)

Her gaze flicked to Drake and Cash, who were still standing right beside him. "Can we talk alone for a moment?"

"No." He didn't hesitate. "They're here for your safety. We talk here."

"I—" She grimaced. "Please?"

For a split second, he almost considered it. He owed her so much. If she wanted privacy, then she deserved it. But at the same time, he couldn't put her at risk. "No."

She studied his face. "You're afraid the song will make you shift, aren't you? Like it did when you killed my sister. You still hear it in your head, don't you?"

He stared at her, so shocked by her insight that he didn't have an answer. How did she know?

"Do you hear it now?" she asked.

He realized suddenly that he didn't. His subconscious was quiet, his entire being focused completely on her. The silver had worked to decrease the song's grip on his mind, but Abby had wiped it away completely. "No."

She smiled, a breathtakingly warm smile that made him want to drop to his knees and ask her to smile forever, just for him, just to make him realize that the world wasn't always shrouded in darkness. "Then we're good." She tugged at his hand, and began to back up. "Come on," she said, her voice taut with urgency. "Please?"

He wanted to go with her. He wanted to give her whatever she asked for, not just because he owed her for taking away her sister, but because she made him feel like he could breathe for the first time in a very long time. It was selfish, but he couldn’t help it. He was simply so desperate to feel human again, and somehow, she gave him hope that it was possible.

"Go," Cash said. "I'll retrieve the gun. I can take you out from a distance, as long as you're within shooting range." As he spoke, Drake turned away and jogged toward the woods where they'd tossed the guns. Within a moment, he'd found one of them, and he held it up, making a silent promise to use it.

Jace took a deep breath, but he knew that he owed Abby so much for stealing her sister. He could give her privacy, if that was what she wanted. He trusted Drake and Cash with the guns. They were great marksmen. He hoped that she was going to berate him, to unleash her anguish and fury out on him. "Okay."

Fear gnawing at him that he would turn on her, he allowed her to lead the way to the side of the house, her feet sinking into the mud. "You need shoes," he said.

What an inane comment. Shoes? What the fuck was he obsessing about shoes for? He was there to apologize for murdering her sister for hell's sake. He had no right to feel protective of her, to want to protect her feet from the cold mud.

"I prefer barefoot," she said. She pulled him next to the house and turned to face him. Tension radiated off her, and then he saw fear in her eyes, the fear he'd been expecting from the outset. The fear was appropriate, but it also bit deep, eating away at him.

He gritted his jaw, disgusted that he'd become something that people feared. He'd been so arrogant his whole life, thinking he controlled the wolf that paced inside him, and it had all been a delusion. Scowling, he checked to make sure that Cash and Drake still had a clear shot at him. They did, and he was satisfied to see that they were both watching him carefully, the guns held loosely in their right hands.

Reassured that he would be dead before he could hurt her, he turned his attention to Abby again. "How can I help you?" he asked again. He knew there was nothing he could do that would change what had happened, but he'd cut out his own heart and hand it to her if she asked, if it would help her.

She bit her lower lip for a second, as if she had to take a moment to hold back her emotions. "My sister had a son."

"Fuck." He turned away and ran his hand through his hair. It just kept getting worse. Melissa had a kid. "What about his dad?"

She flinched. "He's dead. He wasn't a good man. It was just the two of them."

Jace closed his eyes against the swell of grief. He'd orphaned a child? He'd fucking
orphaned
a child? For a moment, he couldn't breathe. His lungs seemed to close down on him, sucking the life from him. Swearing, he fought for control. He couldn't succumb to the vacuum threatening to consume him. Dying would be the easy way out. He had to stand here. He had to face it. He had to fix it. He gritted his jaw and turned back toward Abby, refusing to allow himself to hide from her. "He'll need money. I'll set up a fund for him. He'll be set for life financially. I—"

She held up her hand to silence him, and he immediately stopped, cold fingers of dread clamping around his spine. She wasn't finished. It got worse. "What?" he asked, his voice hoarse. "What else?"

"Grigori kidnapped him."

Horror sucker-punched Jace in the gut. "Grigori took the boy?" A cold sweat broke out on his palms. Grigori was a psychotic, serial killer who had forced his entire pack to kill on command. He was a ruthless, deadly psychopath with no remorse or value for life. He was the one who'd invented a song that could force a shifter into wolf form and turn him into a merciless killer. "How?"

"Seth was in the apartment with my sister, and when she went out the fire escape to run from you, Grigori came in the front door and kidnapped him."

"Jesus." His legs gave out and he sank to his knees, unable to hold himself up.

"Jace." Abby knelt in front of him, putting her hand on his shoulder. "He used you to get her out of the way so he could take Seth. It was always about Seth, not you or Melissa." She hesitated, then offered a platitude that he knew she didn't believe. "It's not your fault."

"Not my fault? Fuck that.
Fuck that.
" Her sympathy pissed him off. No one should be feeling sorry for him. He should be held accountable for what he'd done. No alpha should have been susceptible to being forced to shift and kill a woman. He was completely responsible for his actions. "Why did he want the child?" Anger surged through Jace, and fear, a deep-seated
terror
for that child. Gone was the anguish and depression, replaced by a fierce, desperate protectiveness toward the boy he didn't even know. But he knew what Grigori was capable of, and the thought of an innocent child in Grigori's claws was horrifying.

Her lips tightened, and he knew she wasn't going to answer him. She was hiding something.

"Did you get him back yet?" he asked, but he already knew the answer.

"No." She met his gaze. "They've vanished. I've talked to some private investigators. They either can't find him, or they refused to take the case. Everyone is afraid of Grigori. I need your help, Jace. You're my only chance."

He surged to his feet, pacing away from her, his mind spinning as he raced through the possibilities. "What can I do?" He'd searched for Grigori too, but he hadn't found a trace. None of them had. The shifter had vanished completely, along with his pack.

Desperation flickered across her face. "Maybe you can track Seth. If we go back to my sister's apartment, you might be able to connect with him. Grigori can hide his presence easily, but Seth is too young. You're a powerful shifter, Jace. If anyone can track him, you can." She grabbed his arm, her fingers so small and delicate around his wrist. "Can you track him, Jace? Can you find him before it's too late?"

Jace knew Grigori would force the boy to kill innocents. If a wolf acquired a taste for hunting before he learned to control the wolf, it would turn him into a monster that could never be saved.... Son of a bitch. Was that what this was about? He looked at Abby. "Is Seth a shifter? Is that why Grigori wanted him? To turn him into another one of his deadly soldiers?"

For a long moment, Abby didn't respond. Then she nodded. "Yes."

He could see in her eyes that she wasn't telling him the entire truth, but it was enough. The boy was one of Jace's kind, and that meant he was under his protection. The fact that he owed the kid's family a debt he could never repay was an added incentive. He would save that damn kid, no matter what the cost to himself. "I'll find him and bring him here when I locate him."

He started to turn away, but she grabbed his arm. "Jace."

He looked over at her. "What?"

"I'm going with you."

He went cold, ice cold, as his reality came slamming back at him. He grabbed her shoulders and pushed her back against the house, trapping her against the wet wood. "Don't you get it, Abby? I fucking murdered your sister. Grigori took that song and he turned me into a monster. It's still in my head, and at
any second
, I could lose the battle and kill you. There's no fucking chance that I'm going to take the risk of turning on you. You don't get to come."

She lifted her chin. "You need me."

"Why?"

She hesitated, then answered, her gaze flicking away from his for a split second before she answered. "I know Grigori better than you do. If you find him, I can help."

Her words stopped him. He studied her more carefully. She looked unsophisticated and outdoorsy in her jeans and sweatshirt. She looked like a woman who wouldn't mind hanging out with wolves, but at the same time, there was a fragility to her that would have made her a target among a group of predators. "How do you know him?"

She looked away again. "It doesn't matter—"

"Fuck that." He clasped her jaw and turned her head so she was looking at him. He chose his words carefully. "Grigori is a psychopath. He uses mind control to force wolves to shift and murder. He cares about nothing other than power and carnage. He would kill his own children if it benefitted him. Going after him is a doomed mission unless I do it right. So, tell me what you know.
How do you know him?
"

He felt her summon her strength, and then she looked right at him, her gaze steady. "Because I'm his daughter."

J
ace's
entire body went cold, and he jerked his hands back from her, as if she'd burned him. "You're his
daughter
?" Grigori was the psychopath who had twisted Jace's mind until he'd murdered an innocent woman. He was a predator who had left scores of victims in his wake across several continents. A beast so vile that he contaminated everyone he touched. How could he possibly be the father of this woman standing before him?

But Abby nodded in affirmation, her eyes watching him warily. "Yes."

Jesus.
His mind raced, trying to put all the pieces together into a model that made sense. "Was Melissa his daughter, too? And your mom? His…mate?"

At her nod, he swore under his breath. What kind of situation had he walked into? "If Melissa was his daughter, why did he have me kill her?" He knew Grigori was vile, but what monster orchestrated the brutal murder of his own child? Jace couldn’t even fathom that. His instinct to protect ran so deeply through him that he would give his life to save anyone in his circle, and his own child would be even more precious than that.

"My mom met him when she was fifteen," Abby explained. "She was young and in a tough situation. She was incredibly beautiful, however, and he decided he wanted her. He offered her sanctuary and attention, overwhelming her with all the things she wanted and needed. He never let her see what he really was, until she was so under his spell that she was blind to his depravity."

The pain that flashed across her face made pain twist through his gut. "You grew up in his pack?" At her nod, anger tore through him, a dark, possessive fury. "What did he do to you?"

She lifted her chin defiantly, and he saw the flash of anger in her eyes, a refusal to submit to the memories of Grigori. "He kidnapped my sister's son."

Jace knew she had deliberately avoided answering the question he'd asked, which was to find out what Grigori had done to Abby growing up. Was she hiding from her past, or simply trying to focus attention on the one thing that could still be changed. "Abby—"

She caught his arm, her fingers tight around his wrist. "We have to get him back, Jace."

Jace.
The way Abby said his name was like warm rain pouring over him, cleansing the filth from him. She said his name as if he were her salvation, not a monster, not a murderer, not a killer. Something inside him turned over in response to the way she was looking at him, like she saw only the man he'd tried to be, and not the one he'd actually become.

But hell, how could he get involved in this situation? He was a danger to her, and she was a danger to him. He braced his hands on top of his head, watching her, trying to process everything he'd just learned. Her nose was upturned and dainty, but her jaw was jutting out in a determined angle, and her hands were balled into fists by her side.

But this was the daughter of a demon who walked the earth in the form of a man-wolf shifter.

How innocent was she? How innocent could she be? "Do you know the song?" he asked suddenly. He'd been walking down an alley innocently enough when he'd heard that song drifting through an open window. For a split second, he'd been consumed by its beauty, and then it had torn into him, ripping apart his humanity, and igniting a ravenous, killing rage that ripped his wolf from his control, forcing him to shift…and to kill. That same song had turned countless wolves into Grigori's murderous pack. It was the darkest evil, rippling with power. If Abby had grown up in Grigori's pack, she might have access to it. "Do you know the words and the melody?"

Her cheeks turned red. "I do."

He tensed. "So, you could start singing it at any moment and force me to shift?"

Her eyes widened, and her cheeks turned even redder. "I wouldn't do that—"

"But you could." He believed her that she wouldn't do it on purpose. There was a purity to her soul that he felt deep in his bones. He'd never been wrong about a person, and he wasn't worried he was wrong now. But if she had the capacity to turn that song on him…hell. It was a tremendous risk to even be standing near her.

She sighed, but she didn't look away. She met his gaze, and nodded, unwilling to hide the truth from him. "Yes."

"Jesus." He turned away, running his hands through his hair. He'd been living in terror that the song running through his subconscious would force him to shift, and now, here was a woman who could control him with just a whisper. With a few words, she could turn him into a living nightmare over which he had no control.

He realized his hands were shaking, and he shoved them in his pockets to hide his weakness. His index finger hit the silver spheres, and he swore, jerking his hand back when it started to burn.

"Jace!" She grabbed his arm, and he froze, unwilling to turn around to face her. "I'm not like him. My mother died trying to protect us from him. He killed my mother, and he had my sister killed. I despise everything he stands for, including that song. He killed everyone who matters to me." Her voice started to break, and tears swam in her green eyes. "He has my nephew. I have to get him back, Jace.
Please.
"

He steeled himself to her plea, even though her desperation wrenched a part of his soul that he fought so hard to protect. The stakes were too high. He couldn't afford to have emotion interfere. Instead, he replayed that song in his head, the one that had haunted him for weeks, comparing it to her voice. As he did so, a slow burn of dread rose inside him. "Was that
your
voice that I heard singing it? Were
you
the one singing it?"

Stark anguish flashed across her face, giving him his answer.

He stepped back, horrified. "You did that? To your own sister? You had me
kill
her?"

"No!" She reached for him, but he stepped to the right, avoiding her. Instead, she fell to her knees, tears swimming in her eyes. "That was a recording of my voice. I wasn't even there. I just…" She shook her head. "I didn't know my voice could do that, until it was too late. Once Grigori found out, it was too late." She spread her hands, palms up, indicating helplessness. "My own voice killed my sister," she whispered. "It's my fault, Jace.
My fault."

Her anguish pierced his shields, and he went down to his knees in front of her. He took her hands, which were ice cold in his. "It's not your fault. He's the murderer, not you." He pressed her hands between his palms, using his shifter heat to warm them. "He wants you, doesn't he?" he asked softly. "You're his weapon. He doesn't want Seth. It's you."

She shook her head. "He doesn't need me anymore. He has my voice recorded. It's Seth, he wants, because Seth is his—" She stopped, cutting herself off.

She didn't need to finish the sentence. He'd already figured it out. "Seth is his grandson."

At her nod, the enormity of the situation pressed down upon him. He was being asked to go rescue Grigori's
grandson
? From Grigori himself? With the woman whose voice could turn him into a murderer? What the fuck?

He wrapped her hands up in his as he fought to process it. He owed Abby and Melissa, but at the same time, the situation was incredibly volatile, fraught with obstacles that risked more innocent deaths. The worst fucking thing he'd done in his life was murder Melissa Stevens, and if he went after Grigori with Abby, he was risking it all again, and so much more.

Abby was with him. She would be his nearest target if he heard the song again, and he had no doubt that Grigori wouldn't hesitate to turn him against Abby, if he decided he didn't need her.

He looked into her desperate green eyes, so full of guilt and self-recrimination, and something inside him roared in response to her vulnerability. He slid his hand along her jaw, tracing the curves of her neck. He needed to help her. He needed to offer her every resource at his disposal…but at the same time, he was bound by what was left of his moral code to protect her from himself.

"Jace?"

He cupped the back of her neck, tangling his fingers in the soft tresses of her hair. "No."

Her face fell, wrenching at his gut. "But—"

"No." He dropped his hand and stood up. "I'm so sorry, Abby. I would do anything for you, except risk your life." Leaving her kneeling in the mud, he forced himself to turn away from her and walked back toward the truck, where Cash and Drake were waiting. "Let's go." He gestured for Cash to move aside so he could open the door, but the shifter didn't move.

"You have to help her," Cash said. "You need to get that kid away from Grigori."

He knew Cash was right, but what the hell? The stakes were too high. "How do I even know what's true and what's not? She could be working for him. I could be walking right into a fucking trap." He didn't want to admit the truth, that he might kill her. He'd led his pack by example, by making them believe that every one of them was stronger than the base instincts of their wolves. It was brutal to have descended into a hell that he'd refused to acknowledge was even real.

"You can scent deceit better than anyone," Cash said. "What did she smell like?"

The faint scent of violet on a summer day brushed through his mind. "She smelled like warm sunshine and those little purple flowers that come only in the spring," he snapped, blurting it out before he had time to process it. When's Cash's eyes widened in surprise, Jace ground his jaw and glared at him, sort of horrified by what he'd just blurted. Sunshine and flowers? Seriously? She was messing with him, in more ways that he could deal with right now. "Back off, Cash."

"We'll go with you," Cash said. "We'll guard you from her, and we'll protect her from you."

"Yeah, we'll sit between you so there's no hanky-panky," Drake added, grinning. "It'll be like having a chaperone."

"Hanky-panky? What are you, twelve?" The thought of Drake sitting between him and Abby made anger shift inside Jace. He didn't like the idea of the other wolf being next to her. "You can't come," he said, dismissing the idea immediately. "The pack needs you both. We can't leave it unprotected in case Grigori returns."

"Cash can handle the pack. I'll go with you," Drake said. "I won't let you kill her, I swear."

"I can take care of myself," Abby interrupted. There was an audible click, and Jace felt the cold steel of a gun against the back of his neck.

He spun around to find Abby less than a foot away, her gun now pressed to his forehead. "Silver bullets," she said softly. "If you try to kill me, I will take you down." She held up another gun. "This one's for you. If I start to sing, you can kill me."

Cash snorted. "This feels like a safe, supportive partnership with all the makings of a successful pairing."

But Jace didn't laugh. He stared into Abby's unflinching green eyes, and something inside him seemed to settle. She was fully prepared to shoot him, and she was also willing to give him the power to silence her if she started to sing.

"You get it," he said quietly, shocked to realize exactly how deeply entrenched his fear of being forced to shift and kill again was. He could not allow his wolf to kill again. The taste for blood was too intrinsic to the wolf, and the only way to maintain control over it was to never allow it to taste the freedom. His wolf had tasted it once, and now it was ready for more. More death. More slaughter. More merciless killing. If she started to sing, he would have only a split second to react before he would lose control. If he had a gun, that split second would be long enough. But could he shoot her? Was that any better than letting his wolf slaughter someone? Death of an innocent was death, no matter whether it was by a gun or his own slathering jaws.

Pain flashed across her eyes. "I do understand," she said. She held the gun out to him. "Take it. We each get one."

If he took it, he knew he was making a commitment, not just to go after Grigori, but to stop her if she tried to co-opt him. Could he really shoot her?
Really?
He searched her face, and knew the answer was no. His moral code banned using his wolf form to hurt others, but killing a woman in cold blood was different...and equally reprehensible. And specifically,
her.
She called to him in a way no one else had, and he knew he'd give his own life to save hers. Killing her was not an option. "I can't shoot you," he said.

"You can," she said. "I see it in your eyes. You will do whatever it takes to keep yourself from slaughtering anyone else. Your need to keep the world safe is that strong." She leaned forward. "If I were to use my voice to force you to shift and kill, I wouldn't be an innocent worthy of protection, Jace. I would deserve that bullet. I'm not going to sing, but you wouldn't know that yet, so take the gun and keep it, until you know." She held it out again. "Seth's fifth birthday is Saturday."

Shit. The fifth birthday was the first time a wolf could shift. It didn't
have
to shift, but it was capable of it. With the song, Grigori could force a shift that day. He looked at her suddenly. "He'll use your voice to compel him to shift, won't he? He'll play your song for Seth, and then give him prey to slaughter?" If Seth killed the first time he shifted, it would be almost impossible for him to overcome his wolf's taste for blood after that. He'd become a mindless revenant, driven solely by the need to slaughter.

Tears filled her eyes, but she nodded silently, such genuine sadness in her eyes that he knew what he needed to know: he could trust her not to sing to him. He already believed she would shoot him to save herself, which meant that either way, he wasn't at risk of killing her.

Relief flooded him, a relief so deep that his lungs seemed to expand, allowing him to take a deep breath for the first time in what felt like eons. The weight that had been crushing his chest eased, and his shoulders lowered as his tension faded.

It was safe for him to be around her.
Safe.

"Jace?" She searched his face.

If they didn't act now, that little boy would be facing a lifetime of the hell that Jace had already faced. "I'm in."

She stared at him for a moment, and then a wide smile broke across her face. She threw her arms around his neck and hugged him. For a split second, Jace didn't know what to do. He wasn't used to being hugged, and he felt awkward as hell. She should hate him and fear him on every level.