Nightshifters (2 page)

“I’m so sorry.” The words, barely above a whisper, were
laced with torment. “I never wanted you to know.”

“I’m glad I found out.” She gulped. “Now, everything makes
sense. All the business trips you seemed to always have to make. The edginess
in your eyes every few weeks. I – I thought…” Tears filled her blue eyes.

“You thought what, Kate?” What could possibly be worse than
this?

“I thought you had found someone else,” she whispered, her
lashes fluttering to her cheeks.

Colten inhaled sharply. “Oh, Kate, no. There has never been
anyone else. How could you even think that? You know I love you.” The pain in
her eyes outweighed his personal torment. He wanted to comfort her. Hold her
and reassure her that she was everything he had ever wanted.

Colten took a step forward but stopped. The pain in his gums
increased as the canine incisors began to lengthen. Heat rushed through his
loins, proof that his desire for her hadn’t diminished even as his thirst for
blood intensified. He wanted her. He loved her. But he could not go to her. It
was far too dangerous.

With a self-loathing growl, he turned away once more and
stared out the window. The moon winked a secret jab at him from the treetops.
Within minutes he would become a creature of the night. And then no one would
be safe. Not even his beloved Kate.

“Go, Kate! You’re not – not safe.” Self-loathing marked
every syllable as he stood erect awaiting his transformation into darkness.

“I’m always safe with you, Colten.” The melodic sound of her
voice almost convinced him.

Almost…but not quite.

Damn the moon!
She deserved better than this. She
deserved better than him. His finger found the trigger on the revolver. He
should just end it right now. It would be so easy.

“I can’t tell you that I understand this, Colten. Any of it.
But I do know you. And you’re not a monster. No matter what you think. Let me
help you.” Her feet shuffled across the floor once more.

Colten stiffened when she reached him. The heat from her
body, only inches from his back, teased him mercilessly. The man within wanted
her with a basic desire that overshadowed his immediate horror, yet he couldn’t
have her.

Coarse silver stubble began to encompass his body. He
clenched his fist, feeling as though he were being stuck with thousands of
pins.

“Let me help you,” she whispered again and slid her arms
around his waist. “I love you, Colten. Don’t shut me out.”

Firmly grasping his shoulders, she turned him around to face
her once more. Azure eyes shone bright with unanswered questions, but she
offered him a tentative smile anyway. She took the revolver from his hands, her
fingers brushing his ever so lightly, and then tossed it onto the king-size
bed.

“You won’t need that, my love.” She cupped his face in her
hands.

He flinched and closed his eyes trying to hide from the
awful changes his body insisted on making. It was no use. There was nowhere to
hide. “You don’t deserve this,” he groaned, and wrapped his arms around her.

He winced as the changes continued and the prickly sensation
of the growing fur worsened.

“I don’t deserve love?” Her breath felt warm on his cheek.
She traced his jawbone with her finger, ignoring the coarse hair sprouting
there. “I don’t deserve a man that brings me soup when I’m too sick to stand?
Or a man who is my rock of strength during my darkest days? What exactly is it
that I don’t deserve, Colten?”

“Kate, you don’t know what you are saying.” The hairs on the
back of his neck stood straight up, indicating that he was only moments away
from becoming the demon he had come to loathe. “You don’t know what I am. What
I’m capable of.”

“I know exactly who you are.” She laid her head against his
chest. If she felt the coarse hair beneath his white button-down shirt, she
didn’t let on. She didn’t recoil and shriek. “You’re a kind and giving man.
You’re the man I love.”

“Kate. Oh … God … Kate.” His muscles tightened and contorted
with the beginning of strength unknown to any man. Within moments, he would be
able to snap her beautiful, lithe body like a twig. “You have to go. Now!” His
nostrils flared again as the scent of citrus wafted from her hair. A scent that
caused his heart to constrict. This was the woman he loved. The woman who had
shown him how to love. He didn’t want to hurt her. Or worse. But, in the span
of a very short time, he would not be responsible for his own actions.

“Colten, you made a promise to me.” She held up her hand,
displaying the diamond ring that glittered brilliantly in the moonlit room.
“For better or for worse, my love,” she whispered. “For better or for worse.”

Colten laughed mirthlessly. “It can’t get much worse than
this. Look at me, Kate.” He pushed her away. “Really, look at me. Is this what
you love? A monster who maims and kills at will.” He loomed before her watching
anxiously as her face paled before him. He waited for the shriek. The horror in
her eyes. He waited for her to run screaming from the room as if the devil
himself chased her. He waited, but she didn’t move.

Instead, she held her ground and said, “You have always been
there for me. Let me do the same for you.” When he didn’t say anything, she
added, “Tell me about it. How did this happen?”

Colten blinked. Where was the repulsion that he was supposed
to see in her eyes? Was she blind? Did she not realize what he was?

“Help me understand, my love,” she whispered softly.

He pulled a sharp breath. Could he let her help him? “One of
my ancestors joined a cult. My father’s great-grandfather, I think. Ever since
then, the James’ family bloodline has been tainted by the curse of the moon,
with only one way to end it.” He glanced at the revolver she’d tossed on the
bed. “Only one way. My father left me the revolver when I was twelve along with
the letter you found.”

“How many times have you ever wanted to use it?”

His laugh was humorless. “Every full moon.”

“Why haven’t you?”

His blue eyes stared into hers, their color now taking on a
distinct grayish hue. “Because my father used it the day before he left it to
me. He’d lived with the curse for nearly fifty years. He warned me the changes
would be subtle for the first few years, at least until I made it through
puberty. I think knowing that my curse had begun was just too much for him. He
took his own life, and if I do the same, then the curse has won.”

She nodded in agreement.

He ran a hand through his hair. “I’m just not sure how long
I can do this. Maybe it
is
time to just end it.”

A determined light brightened her eyes and she challenged
him with her jutted chin. “If you go, I go.” She reached into the pocket of
jeans and held up a bullet. Colten swallowed hard. She couldn’t mean it.
Surely, she wouldn’t take her own life?

“Kate, don’t be ridiculous. You have so much to live for.”

“If I don’t have you then I don’t want to live.” Her voice
held a note of determination. And love. She meant it. If he chose the coward’s
way out, then she too would follow suit.

His eyes drifted to the lone silver bullet in her hand. It
glittered dangerously in the moonlit room.

Daring him.

Mocking him.

He clenched his jaw and said nothing.

“I can only imagine the torment you go through every month.
Let me share the burden.” Her hand touched his cheek. He knew the coarse
stubble felt rough, yet she didn’t flinch. Instead, she slowly trailed her
thumb along his jaw line. “Let me help you.”

Let her help me
. God, he wanted to. He wanted to have
someone to share the burden with. Someone who understood. But he knew he
couldn’t do that to her. She deserved so much more. “I can’t, Kate. I can’t ask
this of you.” His voice sounded strangled even to his own ears.

“You didn’t ask, I offered. We made a promise to each other,
Colten. For better or for worse.” Though the words were no more than a whisper,
there was no mistaking the firmness in her tone. His Kate. His beloved Kate
would stand by his side through thick and thin. Through sickness and health. He
could see it in the tenderness of her gaze. She didn’t see him as a monster.
She saw him only as the man she loved. And she always would. No matter how many
times his body morphed into darkness. His Kate would be there at the end with
the blessed light.

Hope flared in his heart. If Kate could see him at his
absolute worst and still love him, then he knew he could somehow bear the
curse, after all. He would find a way to endure the horrors that came with each
full moon. With Kate by his side, he knew that he could bear anything.

Kate reached across the bed for the
revolver, flicked open the chamber and emptied the cylinder. Then she smiled
and stuffed both bullets into her pocket. “You don’t have to do this alone any
more. You have me now. Will you let me help you?”

“How? I’ve only been fooling myself. This – us – it will
never work.”

“Of course it will. Love can conquer anything. I truly
believe that.”

He swept a hand across his face. “No, Kate. It can’t. I’ll
live forever, unless I choose not to. You won’t.”

Kate’s lips turned up at the corners. “Then turn me.”

“Turn you? My God, Kate, you don’t know what you are
asking.”

“Yes, I do, my love.” She touched his cheek. Her fingers
felt warm and soft on his skin. “I know exactly what I’m asking. I want to
spend the rest of my life with you. Even if that life is forever.” Her words
wrapped around him like a warm blanket melting the last smidgeon of pain from
his heart.

“I won’t turn you, Kate. I wouldn’t wish this torment on my
worst enemy, much less you.”

“But—”

Colten silenced her with a finger on her lips. The warmth of
her breath tingled his fingertip. “I’ll wait for you.”

“Wait for me?”

“When your life on this earth ends whether it be five years
or fifty from now, I promise I’ll find you again.”

“Find me?” Kate drew her brows together.

Colten closed his eyes for a moment. The hard part would be
to ask
them
for help. He wasn’t even sure if he could do it, but in
order to hold on to Kate’s love, he knew he would have to.

His grey gaze hooded, he watched her reaction. “The cult my
ancestors joined are still in the bowels of the bayou.” Then with an edge to
his voice he added, “And they are just as powerful. There is a voodoo ritual of
reincarnation that will guarantee your return to me time and time again.”

Kate shivered. “I don’t understand. I thought you despised
the cult.”

“I do, but I love you more. If you still want to marry me
I’ll take you to the High Priest. He can perform a ritual that will keep your
body from aging and will ensure that you will come back when you die.”

“Reincarnation?” Kate gulped.

Colten nodded as guilt squeezed his heart. Maybe he was
asking too much of her. Maybe simply ending his own life would be best. He shot
a quick look at the revolver.

“But I would have to grow up all over again. Would I even
remember you? What if you can’t find me?”

Colten pulled his gaze from the gun and brushed a stray curl
from her eyes. Primal urges raced through his veins. He immediately dropped his
hand. It was getting too dangerous. He needed to put some distance between
them. “I will always find you, Kate. Always.”

“What if you meet someone else while I’m growing up? That’s
a long time to wait for someone.” Hurt filled her eyes and her bottom lip
trembled.

Colten took a step back, his hands clenched by his side. The
urges were getting stronger. His lust for blood strengthening.

“There will never be anyone else for me.” A smile hovered on
the corner of his mouth. “Don’t you know that wolves mate for life?”

Kate relaxed. “Yes, they do, don’t they?” Her own lips
turned up at the corners, determination back in the set of her chin. “We’ll go
to the High Priest tomorrow. I love you, Colten and I’ll do whatever it takes
to be with you.”

Still stunned at the love he saw shimmering in Kate’s eyes,
Colten nodded and reached under the bed. He pulled out the steel chains and
lock. His gray eyes met hers and held her gaze for a long moment. He could see
his love for her mirrored in their blue depths. Colten knew then that he could
trust Kate with his life. He handed her the key, then crossed the room to chain
himself to the steel pole in the corner.

As the lock snapped into place, his eyes met Kate’s once
more. She smiled and said, “For better or worse, my love.”

He nodded then closed his eyes. Colten felt rather than saw
the moon finish its ascent into the night sky. With a shudder his body completed
its transformation into the beast as he whispered, “For better or for worse.”

Epilogue

Seventy years later

Dipping a chip into the salsa, Colten savored the rich
Mexican spices as he watched the waitress from the shadows of the back booth.
Shoulder-length auburn hair, snapping green eyes, and a smile that could melt
an iceberg.