Silverbow (21 page)

“Father Allan attacked me and started preaching at me. I took Mr. Yates to the Ring and burned everything; him and his truck.” He closed his eyes and ran his hand over his face. “That’s where I ran into them.”

His eyes grew large over the top of his hand as he waited for me to continue. I rinsed my face again tried to focus.

“The guys came for me.” I watched him press his lips firmly together and exhale loudly. “They know my mother,” I added and he looked shocked.

“She has something to do with all of this,” he asked and I shrugged.

“I don’t know yet. She was with this man named Darius. She left him for my father and after she had me she returned to him. All this time I thought she dumped me and ran but apparently she and my father were still in touch. I found a phone number in the office today. I didn’t call. When Darius found out, he and his pack murdered Pops. That’s when they discovered me. I don’t know what they want with me,” I tried to explain. He sat quietly thinking for a moment and then reached for my jasmine shampoo. He slid off the side of the tub and moved around to wash my hair.

“So, they didn’t drive by to attack the Yates family that day. They were completely unrelated to the Yates boy’s murder,” he asked. I hadn’t thought about that yet but it appeared that was the case.

“Correct,” I confirmed.

“Then why did they kill Mrs. Yates,” he asked and I sighed as I thought about it.

“His men did attack their bikers. Darius told me two of them died that day. Yates killed a third the other night,” I suggested. He nodded as he washed my hair and we brainstormed. “So I guess it was revenge on their front.”

“And now there is you,” he said and motioned for me to lay my head back so he could rinse it. He collected a large red cup from beneath the sink and began to fill it and empty it over my platinum hair. I heard him clear his throat and glanced up. He was looking at my hair as he noticed it for the first time. “When did you bleach your hair,” he asked and I sighed. I really didn’t want to have that conversation with him yet. I didn’t know what he already knew but my guess was that he knew nothing. He would have never kept this secret from me…which made me feel guilty for wanting to keep it from him.

“The other day,” I lied. He smiled and kissed my damp forehead and finished my hair.

“Please don’t worry yourself with any of this anymore tonight. I want to make sure you sleep.”

“That’s a major request,” I uttered and sat up. “Towel, please,” he pulled a huge white towel from a bar on the wall and held it out for me. I stood carefully; still sore. He wrapped me in the towel as I climbed out and headed to the bedroom. I dressed in the dark while he sat on the end of the bed. I found that my eyesight was excitingly sharp in the dark. As I slid into a long pale green tank top and a pair of white panties, I watched Greyden across the room. He lay back on his elbows and laid his head back, exhausted. He had worried himself miserable over me and I felt guilty for it.

My bare feet padded lightly across the room and I watched as he tilted his head in my direction, listening for me. He started to sit up, but I slid over his lap with my hands on his shoulders and held him down. Leaning over him, I pressed my lips softly to his and inhaled deeply. I could not remember the last time I had kissed him gently. We had been pretty hardcore while we were together and hardly ever slowed down to just enjoy each other.

His hands slid to my hips and he eased me onto my side. We lay facing one another and he pulled his lips away from me. His fingertips traced my cheek and then my neck. Chill bumps surfaced over my feverish skin and made me shiver. He laughed lightly at my reaction and kissed me again. “Lets get tucked in,” he offered and I slid across the bed to gather the sheets and slink beneath them. I watched him as he removed his boots and slid out of his jeans and t-shirt. This night vision was nice. In his boxers, he climbed into bed next to me and rolled into me. One arm slipped beneath my head and the other around my waist. I tucked into him, kissed his chest once….twice…and fell asleep.

I could hear the bikes and then they all appeared: two bikes in front, the blue truck and two bikes in back. Everyone’s screams were muted this time, except for my own. The firing began as I watched Mr. Yates and my father move across the lot and my father fire into the back of the truck where he hit one of the gunmen with his first shot. Then my throat and ears began to burn as I began to scream and run towards my father. In slow motion he fell to the ground with a gaping wound in his chest.

The scent was different this time. What once smelled like gunpowder now smelled like gunpowder and burning flesh. I stared down into my fathers face and watched as amber glowing eyes faded to the dark dull brown that I had always known. Life slipped away from him and I sat there with him over my lap, whimpering. As his blood soaked my legs they began to burn. My whimpering grew louder and louder as the sensation of acid eating away at my flesh flared.

My father was pulled away from me by Mr. Yates and his men. My eyes fell to my lap to see where the silver mixed with my father’s blood had begun to burn me. I tried to wipe it away feverishly as my whimpering grew to yelps and before I knew it my head snapped back and a gut wrenching howl escaped me.

My eyes flashed open and I sucked in a deep breath. I was sitting up in bed and Greyden was gone. My eyes searched franticly for him until I spotted him standing in a corner across the room with wide eyes. He watched me carefully and remained extremely still. I closed my eyes for a moment and I could hear his heart hammering in his chest and then I smelled it: fear. I tried not to take a deep breath. I recalled the way the truck driver’s fear sent me into frenzy last time and I knew that was the last thing I wanted to happen now.

I rolled my shoulders back and hugged my knees to my chest. I watched him relax a little but remain in the corner.

“Greyden,” I called to him.

“You were whimpering, growling and that howl…you sounded like an animal,” he uttered and crossed the room towards the light switch.

“I was dreaming, I’m sorry,” I sighed and he smacked the light switch.

“Human’s don’t sound like that,” he argued and looked at me when the dim bedroom light washed over me. “Your eyes…that’s not natural.”

“Greyden, I can explain. At least try to. I still don’t know much myself,” I said with a shaky voice. Shit, I was going to cry. I felt the scalding tears roll down my cheeks and I buried my face in my knees. I heard him sigh hard and then slowly walk back towards the bed.

“Dakota, who was it,” he asked, scared. I felt him ease onto the bed beside me and his hand carefully touched my shoulder. I held my breath after his question. What did he know? Finding my ability to breathe again I opted for the truth. 

“I made the change only a couple of nights ago,” I said as I lifted my head to look at him. I watched as he relaxed even more when he saw my face. It made me wonder if my eyes had stopped glowing. “He tore me to shreds,” I sobbed. He reached out and pulled me to him and wrapped his arms around me, holding me tightly.

“In the middle of the desert, he pulled me apart and then put a gun to my head. I woke up…like this,” I cried into his shoulder.

“We need to call Hines,” he whispered and I held my breath. Call Hines? Did he know? I jerked back in his arms and looked into his face.

“Why,” I asked in an accusing tone.

“He is…like you. He can help us with this,” he said and tilted his head.

“You fucking know about this,” I asked pulling away from him and he gave a light nod. “How? You never said a word to me about it!”

“Shit, Dakota, nearly every family out here is like this,” he exclaimed and tossed his hands up. “I never knew if you knew. I knew you would one day. Your father was most certainly a Were and then I heard that your mother was too. Your chances were through the roof!”

“Where the fuck was I for Supernatural Silverbow 101?” I crawled out of bed. I moved over to the window with the loose pane and gazed out into the night.

“Some people just don’t talk about it. I’m sorry I never brought it up. People around here like to keep their secrets!”

“And what about you,” I asked him over my shoulder. He nodded and then shook his head.

“Yes, my father is a shifter. My mother was not. I may or may not ever change,” he sighed. “I could care less one way or the other.”

“But you were scared. I could smell it on you.”

“Scared because I didn’t know you had matured! It startled me, I’m sorry,” he apologized again.

“I’ve already seen Hines. He is the one that found me in the desert. I killed a trucker,” I revealed to him.

“Oh, Dakota, I’m so sorry.” He climbed to his feet and came to the window to face me. “You must have been so freaked out.”

“I’ve yet to show any shame, it’s horrible,” I said and waited for him to think I was a monster.

“It’s your nature now, Dakota. Why do you think we are all out here now? The worst of the worst won’t ever be missed. They come here looking for trouble and well…we are a good form of criminal population control.” I glanced up at him and found him smirking. I shook my head and looked away from him.

“This isn’t funny. And Hines is the fucking ET killer,” I confessed. “He found me feeding on the trucker and attacked me for hunting on his turf.”

“No way, that douche bag?”

I nodded and reached down to open the window. The cool air outside rushed in and cleared the scent of our emotions out of the room.

“Now I know why he wasn’t scared of Yates when he caught him banging his wife,” I added and went to sit back on the bed.

“Wow, I was sure these new creeps were the root of all that evil,” he shook his head and joined me. A moment of silence passed and then he wrinkled his brow, “I take it you know about Father Allan too?” I nodded.

“He tried to attack me too but Hines took care of it.” I sank back into my pillow and covered my legs with the blue sheets. He stretched himself across my legs and rested his head on his hand.

“I have been missing all the action,” he mumbled and I kicked him hard enough to send him onto his side laughing while clutching his ribs.

CHAPTER 18

“Come out, come out wherever you are,” a gravelly voice echoed off of a boiler room’s walls. I sat on the damp cement floor with my back to a wall snaked with old pipes and kept a deadly grip on my 9mm. Rolling to my knees, I slowly checked around the pillar in front of me to see if the shadow had grown any closer. I felt as though I had been running from something for days, weeks or even years. The hot damp room made my eyes burn as I squinted against the weak lights and steam. Where in the hell was I? I had never seen this place before yet I seemed to know my way around it as I took off running from one pillar to another.

The heels of my stiletto boots clicked against the concrete as I rounded the pillar and raised my gun. A shadow figure stood before me in the cloudy room and I fired before I could tell who it was. The figure didn’t fall at first and the blast of my gun deafened me. Without warning, I watched the shadow move and shockingly someone yanked me off my feet from behind.

I was suddenly engulfed in flames or at least it felt as though I were. Static heat seared my flesh and caused me to howl in pain. My gun fell from my grip which now fought with the arm that had a choke hold on my neck. I kicked and clawed trying to jerk away from the strong hold but didn’t succeed.