Nocturne 040 – Scions 02 - Patrice Michelle - Insurrection (4 page)

He’d always kept his distance from Kaitlyn, but now…his closeness to her began to unravel the rigid lock he’d held over his senses whenever he was around her—the attraction that he’d refused to acknowledge in the past exploded within him in primal certainty, demanding he claim her, mark her…as his.

Clenching his hands into tight fists, he quickly stood to put some distance between them.

She gave him a triumphant smile and held up the claw clip. “I’m using the hinge to hold a chunk of the ashes.”

Landon swallowed the lump in his throat. The woman had no idea she was staring raging need directly in the face. He should never have gotten so damned close to her.

“Tell me how you came up with such a fantastical description from a pile of ashes?” he asked before he thought better of it.

Kaitlyn almost said, “Dead people communicate with me,” but she figured the intense man staring down at her with a skeptical expression on his handsome face wouldn’t believe her, anyway. Even if it were true. The deceased’s energy signatures were especially brilliant, usually a bright violet if the people died violent deaths…as if they were calling out for help via a spiritual connection. The one she had seen tonight was neon-purple, different from all the ones she’d seen in the past. She wasn’t sure why she had initially told Landon what she saw. Maybe she was looking for affirmation of what she’d seen because the aura had been beyond bizarre, even for her. Or maybe it was because something about Landon just felt…trustworthy. But the fact remained her unusual ability definitely put her in the weird category. None of her coworkers knew. If they did, they’d have recommended her for a psych visit instead of a promotion to detective. The fewer people who knew, the better.

“I have an overactive imagination.” A definite drop of rain hit her on the nose. Then another cold droplet followed, saving her from feeling the need to respond to his doubtful look. Cupping the claw clip carefully, Kaitlyn stood and held out her free hand. “Thanks for your help. I’ll take my flashlight now.”

Landon laid the flashlight in her open palm at the same time several more drops of rain hit her face.

When they started to walk away from the sight, he asked, “You going to call this in?”

Kaitlyn had totally forgotten that her police backup should’ve been there by now. Casting her gaze back to the dark pile of ash, she froze. Without the flashlight shining against the ground, she saw several partial human handprints. In the darkness, they glowed in fluorescent iridescence on top of the flattened, singed grass surrounding the ashes. It wasn’t an aura image. This was different.

“Do you see that?” she asked as she fully turned to stare. Landon halted and stared at the ashes for several seconds.

“All I see are ashes.”

Kaitlyn’s stomach knotted at his calm tone and the odd look he shot her way. The man must think she was a complete loon. She turned forward, and when the rain began to fall in a heavy downpour, she quickly tucked the clip in her coat pocket. In no time, her hair and clothes were completely soaked. Chills rushed throughout her body from the frigid, pounding drops.

She knew she’d be lucky if she made it to her car with any of the ashes still intact in her hair clip, and yet she had a feeling Landon was curious as to her answer to his question. He didn’t strike her as the “idle conversation” type.

“As for calling this in…it’ll be considered an illegal burning of an animal. We’ll see if the lab can get anything from my clamp.” When her teeth began to chatter, she picked up her pace.

Before she stepped into the light in the parking lot, Kaitlyn peered through the rain, scanning the field and the playground one last time. For what, she didn’t know. Maybe a sense of closure? Something that would give her an answer to the questions running through her head? Had she imagined what she’d seen tonight?

She paused and her breath caught in her throat. The same fluorescent, sparkling glow she’d seen around the ashes radiated from one of the merry-go-round’s metal bars. That hadn’t been there when she’d investigated the equipment earlier.

Or had it?

An eerie shiver started in her shoulders and shimmied all the way down her back.

“Kaitlyn, are you all right?” Landon’s deep voice made her jump. Pulse racing, she glanced over his broad shouldered, six-foot-plus stature. He stood a good seven inches taller than her. While her gaze traced the water that ran off his thick eyebrows and strong jaw to the small cleft in his chin, her stomach did an entire gymnastics routine, including the floaty ribbon dance.

She was glad he hadn’t moved close enough for her to get a whiff of his musky scent again. When he’d bent near her with the flashlight, she’d lost all sense of time. His alluring smell had surrounded her like a warm, cozy blanket, seducing her senses, muddling her thoughts. Red and blue lights flashed behind Landon, causing her to blink back to reality. As the squad car pulled into the parking lot, she took a calming breath. “I’m fine. Better go tell the officer we’re done here. Thanks for the backup.”

“No problem.” Landon turned and walked over to his truck. After he drove off, Kaitlyn approached the squad car.

Charlie Johnston rolled down his window a couple inches, squinting up at her. Cold rain bounced off his patrol car window, hitting his ruddy face.

“Sorry, McKinney. Lady had a blowout right in front of me. I saw Rourke was here with you. Haven’t seen him around the precinct in a while. Everything okay?”

She nodded. “It appeared to be an illegal burning of some kind of animal.”

“You’re not gonna bother with that, are you?”

She’d have Ryan look at the ashes for curiosity’s sake. “No worries. I’ll write it up.” Rapping his window with her knuckles, she smiled. “Have a good night.”

Charlie waited for her to get in her car and start the engine before he drove off. Kaitlyn shivered uncontrollably and cranked up the heat. She started to pick up her flashlight and set it back underneath the passenger seat when she felt deep ridges along the metal handle. Frowning, she switched on her inside light to get a clear look at the barrel. Four deep impressions curved along one side while another dented the opposite side.

Kaitlyn’s heart began to race all over again as she laid her hand on the metal and curled her fingers around the indentations on the barrel. Her fingers and thumb slid easily into the much bigger impressions on the thick metal casing.

The thought of Landon crushing the heavy-duty metal with his bare hand turned her on just as much as his intoxicating smell had. Something was going on under that calm persona he presented to the world…

something deep and intense.

And incredibly intriguing.

T wo hours later, Landon entered his cabin located deep in the Shawangunk mountain ridge. Caine was laid out full-sprawl on his brown leather sofa. “Make yourself at home, why don’t you?” Landon said as he tossed his keys on a side table.

“You said to meet you here.” Caine grinned and spread his arms wide.

“Never say I don’t jump at your beck and call.”

Landon snorted. “You listen when it suits you. That’s your problem.”

“Thank you, Doctor, for your astute assessment.” Caine’s sarcastic expression quickly shifted to anticipation. “What was so important you wanted to see me in person?”

He met Caine’s steady gaze. “I got a phone call on my cell earlier this evening directing me to Morningside Park if I wanted to find some missing weres.”

Caine scowled and sat up to grip his knees, his knuckles white. “Who called you?”

“I don’t know. The trace from the call to my cell came from a pay phone across town.” Clenching his fists, he continued, “I got to the park to find a pile of ashes. I definitely smelled Lupreda.”

“Son of a bitch!” Caine hissed. “I should’ve been there. I might’ve picked up a scent.”

Landon narrowed his eyes at the younger were’s unintended insult. “I smelled nothing! My sense of smell may not be as acute or track at great distances like the other Lupreda, but this…this nothingness disturbs me.”

Caine’s brow furrowed. “How can there not be a scent trail at all?”

“Exactly.” Landon sat back on the couch, his anger settling in his belly.

“It goes from bad to worse. Kaitlyn was there, and she described in intricate detail the outline of what had been burned.”

The color drained from Caine’s face. “She didn’t go nuts over what she described to you?”

Oddly, she hadn’t. Which made Landon wonder why she hadn’t freaked if she believed what she had described. At the time he’d been too busy trying to get her mind off what she saw in the ashes to worry about her reaction one way or the other. “She did try to collect evidence for analysis, but it started to rain hard, washing most of it away.”

Caine blew out a breath of relief. “Lucky for us.”

True, but a part of Landon, the “werewolf” residing within him, had been pleased that Kaitlyn hadn’t gone all wiggy at what she “thought” she saw.

“With Kaitlyn’s accurate description, she did tell me something I wouldn’t have known otherwise. The remains were only of one Lupreda,”

Landon began when his phone buzzed on his hip. Pulling his cell from the clip, he eyed the caller I.D. and mumbled, “Not what I need right now,”

then flipped open his phone. “Rourke.”

“Finally my call goes through! You must be back in the mountains. I’ve been trying to get in touch with you for two days,” Jachin said. “No more bullshit. I want answers. Now!”

Jachin’s tone ignited Landon’s anger. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“I found one of your weres…or what’s left of him,” Jachin grated out. Landon sat up, gripping the phone tightly against his ear. “Where? I want to investigate the scene—”

“We disposed of the body.”

Landon bristled, his shoulders knotting all over as tension heightened within him. “He’s my pack member. I had a right—”

“He was left at my front door, half burned, but intact enough. He was in partially morphed mode. I want an explanation.”

The ramifications of Jachin’s comments spoke volumes. There was no question in Landon’s mind now—the Lupreda weren’t involved in the zerkers’ disappearance. The werewolves had tried for the past twentyfive years to discover the location of the Sanguinas’ home, but they had always been unsuccessful. If they had been able to find it, they would’ve gone to war a long time ago.

“If you want my cooperation, you’ll start talking,” Jachin cut through his thoughts in a harsh tone.

Landon felt Caine’s avid stare. The younger were’s keen hearing allowed him to pick up everything Jachin said. “We call them zerkers. When we convert from human to wolf form, this half-man, half-wolf mode is part of that conversion. We figured out we have the ability to stay in that form for stints of time. It became an addiction for some, like a drug. Several of the younger weres morphed every chance they got, especially during dominance battles.”

“In other words, they thought they could fight vampires in that mode.”

Jachin spoke in a cold tone.

Neither confirming nor denying Jachin’s statement, Landon continued.

“The more they did it, the longer they could stay in that mode, but it came with a price. Their immature brains were eventually affected as well. In a few…it resulted in their inability to change back to human shape.”

“You’re saying they were permanently stuck in that half-morphed form?”

Landon exhaled to alleviate the weight pressing on his chest. “Yes. Knowing they could never shift back really messed with them mentally.”

“That’s why they lived away from the pack.” Jachin mumbled.

“One of our weres’ ashes was left in a park in the city tonight. You’ve found another one. One more zerker is still missing.”

“We’ll keep a watch out. It’s obvious now that the Lupreda didn’t do this nor did the Sanguinas.”

Landon’s insides jerked. “I assumed it had to be one of your rogue vampires taunting you. They’re the only ones who know where your clan resides.”

“I didn’t sense any other vampires around, nor did I smell Lupreda, other than this one. What’s odd is the fact I couldn’t smell anything. It’s as if a trail doesn’t exist.”

“It was the same in the park. No scent,” Landon admitted even as he considered the strange glowing stuff Kaitlyn had tried to point out surrounding the edges of the ashes. He’d seen the substance, too, much to his unease. “Did you see anything around the were’s remains? Footprints or anything?”

“No, nothing but his half-burned body. Rain washed any footprints away.” Jachin paused and continued, “I think it’s time you consider the prophecy. My father spoke to Ariel in a dream right after I took over as the new vampire leader. He told her the rest of the prophecy and said it wasn’t just about the vampires like the Sanguinas had originally interpreted.”

“Tell me.” Landon prompted.

A human will speak of our demise.

Her purity and intelligence will help us survive.

A mate she becomes to the leader of Vampires.

Joining our races, fulfilling our ultimate desire.

The hunted becomes the hunter, no longer the prey.

An enemy in your midst is less dark and more gray.

Examine your failures and there you will find the answer to all your questions in time.

A leader is needed, you know this is true.

Look not to one, but two.

A lesson was the goal you sought.

You too must learn from what you taught.

Layers of deception must be unveiled for three to become one and peace to prevail.

Once Jachin finished relaying the entire prophecy, he said, “Think about the prophecy as a whole now that you know the rest. The words might shed some light on what’s happening. Someone or something is trying to pit us against each other. Whatever it is, it was strong enough to ambush your zerkers. Watch your back.”