Embraced by Darkness (3 page)

Hate swelled up, its bitter taste just about making me gag. “This
isn’t
a Directorate problem, Blake. Go haunt someone else, because I’m not interested in helping you or your get.”

I turned and walked away, as fast as I could. That prickle of awareness told me Blake hadn’t moved, and yet his voice reached out across the distance as easily as if he were standing right beside me.

“You will help us, Riley.”

“That impolite response I cast your way earlier still stands.”

“Riley, stop.”

My muscles twitched with the need to obey, but my vampire half was having none of that. It was all I could do not to break into a run to get away from his presence—though if I thought it would do any good, I probably would have.

“Riley, I’m ordering you to stop right now, or face the consequences.”

“There’s nothing you can do to me, Blake. Not anymore.”

I should have known better than to tempt fate like that. I really should have.

“If you do not stop this instant,” he said softly, “I will kill your mother.”

Chapter 2

I
stopped.

How could I not? I might not have seen my mother since we’d been thrown out of the pack at sixteen, but that didn’t mean I didn’t love her. Didn’t mean I wanted her dead.

She was my
mother
, for Christ’s sake.

I swung around. “Trust me, Blake. You do not want to go this route. It’s a
very
bad thing to do.”

His smile was arrogant. Confident. “There’s nothing the Directorate can do to me. I’m well within the law to chastise my pack as I see fit. If a pack member dies during meted justice?” He shrugged. “The law will not intervene unless the event is reported as something more than fair punishment. And no one in this pack will report it.”

“
I
can report it.
I
can investigate it. And trust me, you would
not
want me or Rhoan anywhere near that pack. We’re no longer the helpless cubs you booted out.”

“And
we
are no longer the dying pack you remember. We’ve grown stronger, richer. More influential.”

Yeah, and I knew exactly
how
. My ability to shadow had provided a means of learning more than a few pack secrets. And if the pack was now rich, it certainly hadn’t been via hard work and good money management.

I shook my head. “You really have no idea who you’re dealing with, Blake.” No idea
what
he was dealing with.

“I want this problem dealt with. Then I will leave you, your half-breed brother,
and
your mother alone.”

I shifted from one foot to the other, the need to run fighting with the need to wipe that cold look of satisfaction off his face. The twin desires made my muscles twitch. “And Konner? What’s he got to say about all this?”

Blake’s grin was gloating. “I defeated your grandfather in battle one year after you left. His ashes were scattered across his favorite hunting trail, as he requested.”

I stared at him for a moment, not sure what to think. What to feel.

There’d been no love lost between our grandfather and us, and he’d turned his back on much of the trouble we’d had with Blake and his get. Yet he’d housed the three of us, fed us, made sure we never wanted for anything basic, and had never allowed the games to go too far—except for the one time Blake had thrown me off the mountain. And even then, his hands were tied. Pack rules gave the second-in-command the right to punish as he saw fit—at least when it came to matters of insubordination.

And now my grandfather was dead, killed in a battle for leadership. I closed my eyes and tried to fight the bloody images that came to mind. I’d only ever seen one fight for dominance in a pack, and it hadn’t been pretty. Such fights were always done in wolf form, and almost always ended in the death of the old leader. Such were the ways of our wild cousins, and they had always been ours, too.

And the law allowed it, because it came under the title of religious beliefs and customs.

Which was just another way of sanctifying murder, if you asked me. Unfortunately, no one was ever likely to do that.

“If you’ve got a list of names, send them to me tonight,” I said. “I can check them against the island’s records.”

“I’ve already done that.”

“And I intend to redo it, because I may see something that you missed.” I crossed my arms and stared at his ethereal form. “I don’t want you harassing my every step, Blake, or I
will
have the full force of the Directorate brought down on the pack’s head.”

“Patrin wants regular reports.”

“I don’t give a—”

He held up a hand. “Yeah, I know. Tough.”

I glowered at him. He stared back. For several seconds neither of us moved, then he sighed and rubbed a hand across his eyes. “What is your phone number? I’ll send you the list of names and whatever other information I have.”

I gave him my cell phone number, and added, “Have you got any recent pictures of Adrienne?”

“Yes. I’ll send a couple.”

At least with photos I could ask around, see if anyone remembered her. See if they remembered who she hooked up with. “What about the families of the other victims? Send me their contact details as well, if you have them.”

“I will.”

“Good. Now fuck off so I can sleep.”

His smile was thin. “I will check in tomorrow night for a progress report.”

“I wait with bated breath.”

His body faded, dissolving into wisps of color that were whisked away by the freshening wind. I shivered and rubbed my arms, my gaze searching the trees to be sure—really sure—he was gone.

Then I turned around and made my way back to my villa. Once inside, I picked up the vid-phone and dialed my brother. It was the middle of the night and he’d more than likely be asleep, but I didn’t care. I needed to talk to him.

The phone rang several times before the receiver was picked up and a sleepy voice said, “Hello?”

It wasn’t Rhoan’s voice, but Liander’s. He didn’t have the screen on, either—for which I should probably have been glad. Neither Liander nor Rhoan was a pretty sight when woken in the wee hours of the morning.

“Hey, makeup man, how you doing?”

There was a long silence, then he said, in a voice that was a mix of tiredness and annoyance, “Do you know what time it is?”

“Yep. I need to talk to Rhoan.”

“He’s under the weather.”

“I don’t care what he is or how he’s feeling.” The loving sister, that was me. “I need to talk to him.”

Rhoan muttered something in the background. It didn’t take a whole lot of imagination to guess what, but Liander told me anyway. “He’s right. You can be a bitch at times.”

“Totally. Now stop protecting him and put him on.”

He did. “You’re a pain in the ass, Riley,” Rhoan said, voice croaky and words slightly slurred. “Why the hell are you ringing at this hour?”

“Thought you might like to know about the visitor I just had.”

He paused, then said, “Have you been drinking again?”

“Not since last night.”

“Then why the hell would you be ringing
me
in the middle of the night about a visitor? If you’re that damn lonely, come home.”

“The visitor’s name was Blake.”

“So?”

“As in, Blake Jenson. Former second-in-command, now leader, of the Jenson red pack.”

He paused, then said, “Fuck.”

I dropped down on a chair and draped a leg over the padded arm. “Something I said more than once.”

“What the hell was Blake doing on Monitor Island?”

“He wasn’t here in body, just in spirit.”

“What?” Bedsheets rustled as Rhoan moved. Liander muttered something about coffee and my brother made a grunt of agreement before adding, “How can he be there in spirit alone?”

“I’m presuming it’s some form of astral travel. He said clairvoyance is a pack inheritance, so maybe the traveler bit is an offshoot of that.”

“Maybe.” He didn’t sound convinced. Whether it was the whole traveler bit or my sanity was anyone’s guess. “What did this spirit want?”

“My help.”

“Okay, now I know you’re yanking my chain. Pigs will fly before Blake would ask for our help.”

“Better start ducking those flying piggies, then, bro, because I’m totally serious.”

He blew out a breath. “What help did he want?”

“Patrin’s daughter has gone missing. He reckons it’s connected to three other occurrences of missing females. He’s even contacted the parents of one. Apparently, the one connection between them all is the fact that they vacationed on Monitor Island for a few days before they disappeared.”

“If they’ve disappeared, let the cops handle it.”

“I did mention that we don’t do disappearances, but he seemed intent on ignoring that.”

“Then ignore him right back. There’s not a whole lot he can do about it. We’re out of the pack and beyond his control.”

“He threatened to kill Mom if we didn’t help him.”

Rhoan didn’t say anything for several long minutes. I got up and walked over to the bar fridge, opening it and retrieving one of the chocolate bars the hotel provided. They were hideously expensive, but then, everything on this island was.

“We have no responsibility for our mother,” Rhoan said eventually. “She washed her hands of us when we left.”

“She could have washed her hands of us when we were conceived. She didn’t. She raised us not only against pack wishes, but against the wishes of her own father. We owe her our existence, Rhoan. If nothing else, we should repay the debt.”

He muttered something I couldn’t quite catch, then the bedsheets rustled again. Perhaps Liander had come back with the coffee. I tore the chocolate wrapper off with my teeth and bit into the rich treat. It was mint chip—not my favorite, but beggars couldn’t be choosers.

“What does Blake want?”

“For us to find Patrin’s daughter.”

“And the others?”

“I don’t think he cares about them, other than the fact they might provide useful leads.”

Rhoan snorted. “He hasn’t changed any, then.”

“He’s the leader of the pack now, Rhoan. He has the power he always longed for, and it shows.”

“The bastard couldn’t possibly get any more arrogant.”

“You want to bet?”

“No.” He paused, and must have taken a sip of coffee, because the slurp came down the line. “If the cops and missing persons can’t find them, what makes him think we can?”

“He knows we’re guardians.”

“For someone who never wanted to see us again, he seems to know an awful lot about us.”

“Because he wants our help, and he intends to get it one way or another.”

Rhoan sighed. “So, what are you ringing me to do?”

“He’s sending me a picture of Adrienne, as well as the information he has on the other missing girls. I’ll pass a copy on to you. I need you to see what you can find about Adrienne’s whereabouts over the past week.”

“You’ll check your end?”

“Yeah. Though I’m not expecting any big revelations. The fact that they all disappeared after they’d returned home suggests there has to be some factor other than this island.”

“You’d think so.” He yawned. “Is that it?”

“For now. Enjoy the rest of your night, bro.”

“Thanks, bitch.”

I grinned. “I’m sure Liander will be willing to rock you to sleep.”

“I’m sure he won’t. I might just puke, the way my stomach is feeling. I’ll ring tomorrow if I find anything.”

“Good. Night.” I’d barely hung up when the phone bleeped to indicate an incoming message. From Blake. He certainly wasn’t wasting any time. I forwarded a copy of the entire file to Rhoan, then finished the rest of the chocolate and rose to my feet. The size of the file suggested there was a fair bit of information, and there was no way I was going to scroll through it all on the itty-bitty phone screen. I didn’t have a laptop with me, but the hotel had a business center in their main lobby. I grabbed another bar of chocolate from the fridge, then headed over to the next cove.

The lobby was deserted. Though there was a concierge on duty, he was probably in a back room sipping coffee and watching the football replays. I padded across to the business center and swiped my keycard through the slot. The door clicked and I pushed it open. The only light in the room was the pale blue glow coming from the computer monitors, which was fine by me. I could see perfectly well in the dark, and if I turned on the lights, I might attract the attention of the concierge. And yakking about banalities wasn’t in my plans at three in the morning.

I moved the mouse to get the screen up and running, then attached the phone to the USB port and opened the file. I’d been right—it was huge, and filled with various comments, photos, a sketch of the man Adrienne had supposedly met on the island, and reports from the various police departments. Obviously, Blake had some very serious contacts if he was able to get hold of these.