The End of Never (32 page)

“Listen to your daughter,” June urged him.

“You kept your promise,” Jonathan said to the raven-haired statue standing by the open window overlooking the sea.

Kraven shook his head no and then bowed it. “I kept her close but not safe.”

“Nonsense,” Jonathan said, smiling.

“I got the necklace. Look,” Alexandra said, dangling the bronze medallion in her fingers.

“It belonged to a princess long ago,” Jonathan explained, his eyes blurring. “Right, my friend?”

At the foot of the bed, Kraven slumped his shoulders at the mention of Iselin. “Yes,” he sighed.

Jonathan's pale face beamed with satisfaction. Raising himself from the mattress, his wobbling elbows shook the bed. “I have to find the gold,” he said fervently. “It is there. Somewhere. But not with the bones,” he said, tossing his head side to side. “I tried looking there already.”

Gripping his daughter's hand, Jonathan lifted her palm to his chest.

“Are you talking about Collinsworth, Dad? That old story about buried treasure?” Alexandra asked. “That can't be true, can it?”

“I have to believe,” Jonathan insisted. “I have to find a way to pay the price for my life, my freedom.”

“Johnny,” June protested from her watchful perch in the rocking chair. “Calm yourself and rest. You sound like a crazy person, son.”

“Alexandra,” he said, ignoring the protestations of his mother. “I promise I will give them what they want. I will find it. No one will hurt you. No one,” he said, clutching her palm.

“You need some more sleep, Dad,” Alexandra said, patting his hand.

Laying his head back against the plush, down pillows, Jonathan closed his eyes. “They will hurt you,” he stammered. “They will hurt you if you get in their way,” he said, drifting toward unconsciousness. “The cave . . . I escaped . . . like Kraven.”

“He's delirious,” June said, worried.

Looking upon the face of the sleeping man, Kraven winced to remember the cave. It was the place of so many sorrows. He had hidden there, resigned to spend eternity in the shadows, until destiny found him. Joseph had stumbled into the mouth of that tomb during the war. It was the sight there of the beast— Kraven—that drove Joseph mad. Joseph became so unhinged after he returned from the war that the witch—Jasmine— believed that Joseph knew a secret to conjure the devil.

Long after Joseph, another Peyton was drawn to the cave. Jonathan was running from men who wanted to kill him for his knowledge of their secrets and Kraven promised the cave would protect him. Kraven allowed Jonathan to hide there and he promised to protect Alexandra. It was only after he saw her that he thought she could be Iselin.

Now Kraven's blood circulated inside the body of Jonathan, mending his wounds. His blood would bring the man new life. Kraven knew this was a small price to pay for being brought back to Iselin. He was determined that he would stand by Alexandra and her family

Epilogue

Alexandra fumbled around in the back pocket of her cut-off jean shorts for her keys. She found them, sighed, and leaned heavily against the front of her apartment. But as she tried to unlock the door, the knob merely twisted open, unexpectedly, in her hands. She fell sideways into the living room and smacked the hardwood floor with her bare, bony knees.

“It wasn't locked?” Taylor asked, stepping over her best friend, the tips of her crutches grazing Alexandra's thigh.

“We were in such a hurry,” Alexandra explained, gathering herself up from the floor as Jack scrambled through the doorway. His shallow, sharp breaths sucked new smells into his moist nostrils.

“I guess I forgot.”

A scent trail, faint with the aroma of damp mud and musky cologne, led Jack across the living room toward the balcony doors. Then a whiff of rotting Chinese food in the kitchen trash can dragged him away from the glass.

Settling into the cushions of the leather sofa, Taylor propped her aching leg on top of the coffee table. “Home sweet home,” she sighed, hugging a pillow to her chest.

Alexandra heaped a mound of dog food into Jack's empty bowl next to the refrigerator. “How much trouble do you think Ben is going to be in with his mom?” Alexandra asked, filling Jack's water bowl at the kitchen sink.

“As little as possible,” Taylor said, hunting under the sofa cushions for the TV remote. “He's way too cute for her to stay mad at him for long,” she determined.

“I feel kind of weird,” Alexandra confessed, with her head inside the wide open doors of the refrigerator.

“You should,” Taylor agreed. “It's not every week a girl meets an immortal stranger who says he is in love with her, or has her father return from the dead, or finds out she has some freaky power to read people's minds.”

“I know, right?” Alexandra said, poking her head out from the freezer with a half-gallon of chocolate ice cream clutched in her hands. Grabbing two spoons, she scampered to the sofa and plopped down beside Taylor. “The news?” she asked, as Taylor settled on a station.

“Hush,” Taylor said, as a reporter stood poised for a live report in front of the Collinsworth campus.

The girls listened carefully as the golden-haired reporter with ivory-white teeth spoke of the missing-persons report filed that morning on Dr. Humphrey Sullivan.

“No way,” the girls squealed as they shoveled ice cream onto their spoons.

“I can't wait to go back to school,” Taylor cooed.

Alexandra gulped. “I wonder if Callahan has heard.”

“For sure,” Taylor decided. “He knows everything.”

Flipping the television off, Taylor scooted to the edge of the sofa cushion, Alexandra's palms in her own. “Make me a promise,” she said.

“Sure,” Alexandra said hesitantly.

“This is going to be the best senior year ever.”

“Of course,” Alexandra grinned. “We have everything,” she said, her eyes twinkling.

“You have everything,” Taylor confided. “Me, not so much. Promise you won't ever go anywhere without me, Alex. You have to take me along for the ride.”

“I promise,” Alexandra said, yawning.

“Do you think Kraven likes me?” Taylor asked shyly.

“I don't know what he likes,” Alexandra confessed. “I know he likes me. I know he is with my father now, protecting him until he is strong again. So Kraven must like my dad. I'm pretty sure that because you are my best friend, he likes you at least a teensy little bit. Why?”

“I get the feeling he's not going anywhere,” Taylor said.

“No, he's not,” Alexandra sighed. “He's going to be around forever.”

“I'm beat, Alex,” Taylor said, raising herself on her crutches.

“Me, too,” Alexandra said, following her friend down the hallway to their rooms. “I think we're going to need some rest for whatever happens at school,” she said. She winked at Taylor as her best friend shut the guest room door behind her.

“Come here, boy,” Alexandra called to Jack as she retreated to her bedroom. “It feels like I haven't been home for forever and a day,” she said as he leapt into her bed. She shut off the lamp.

But Alexandra had not checked the balcony. She had not noticed that the doors were not completely shut, that the faintest crack had allowed a stranger to hear her and Taylor. On the dark balcony, a crouching figure listened keenly, his ear to the glass panes of the French doors. When they went to bed, the silence within the apartment relieved his anxiousness. He stood and rested his arms upon the balcony railing overlooking the city park across the street.

It was Frost. He gazed into the sky and smiled wide at the shooting star streaking across the sky. He was so excited with anticipation that a primal howl was swelling in his throat.

A whisper of a wish formed on his tongue, but the thought remained carefully imprisoned in his skull. He knew that Jonathan had sent Kraven to protect Alexandra, and that Kraven was smitten with her. The Order would be happy to hear this news, he realized. But he was in no hurry to tell them. He laughed to himself,
These poor souls will meet their fate soon enough. In the meantime, their secrets will be my fortune.