Chasing Shadow (Shadow Puppeteer) (10 page)

My head was starting to hurt so I asked the only question that mattered at the moment.

“Who are you working for?”

“My concern is, what’s in my best interest. Just like you, I’m planning for my future and right now, I really need to speak with Sonya. You can tell me your answer tomorrow.”

It was hard imagining his situation. He was a puppet. Someone was pulling his strings on both ends.

“To show you I’m working in good faith, I’ll take you to Rex.”

He pulled the coin shaped dial from his pocket and messed with it.

“How do you know where Rex lives?”

“World Congress has every nonhuman listed in the system. I know where all creatures are at all times.” The air wavered like rippling water. “Just pass through and you’ll find him.”

“What is he?”

Draken glanced up at the sky and I followed his gaze to the half moon. I wasn’t sure why he was studying it. When his eyes settled back on me, his pupils were dilated.

“I would warn you to stay away from creatures like him, but I have a feeling you wouldn’t listen,” he said.

He was right, so I didn’t feel I needed to validate that statement. Instead, I pushed my hair away from my ear with the chip just under the skin.

“Make me untraceable. Give me a reason to trust you,” I said.

“This is going to cause a severe headache,” he warned.

“I already have one.”

I felt the cool plastic of his palm computer at the back of my ear. There was no warning. It felt like every vein in my head shriveled up. Hands yanked me off the ground.

“Breathe Belen, it will get easier,” Draken said.

The pain didn’t instantly lift. I wasn’t sure how long I was in his arms, but when I felt well enough to stand on my own, I pushed away from him. There was dirt in my mouth and leaves stuck in my hair, brushing roughly against my skin. I didn’t want to imagine what I looked like while I rode out the worst headache I’d ever felt. He let me lean on him for strength as he walked me to the doorway.

“I’ll find you tomorrow night,” he promised.

The need to speak with Rex suddenly felt like a much smaller issue compared to this. Nothing he had to warn me about could possibly compare to what I was already deep into.

“I’ll have your answer,” I said.

If he nodded, I wasn’t looking. I stepped through the doorway, prepared this time for the strangeness that passed through me. Standing in the woods, I turned to tell Draken the doorway didn’t work, but those words never passed my lips.

I stood in front of a dilapidated farmhouse. The glass panes were missing and the walls were spray painted. There were seven golf carts parked in the front. Under the moonlight, one of those carts looked like Amber’s. There were toys and junk littering the front yard. Music boomed from the house, but it wasn’t nearly as loud as the screaming and rustling. It sounded like there was fighting inside.

This had to be a mistake. This couldn’t be Rex’s home.

“Why am I at this dump?”

“I’d like to know that too,” Rex said.

M
y body grew hot under his stare. I’m always aware of Rex, his moods, his body language, his words, but I’ve never seen this side of him. He looked wild. His hair was windswept, his shoulders were tense and there was mud covering his shorts and bare legs. He looked dangerous.

Draken called him a nonhuman. I swallowed hard.

“We had a meeting, remember? You were really adamant about it,” I said.

“The letter said we couldn’t meet tonight.”

His eyes were more gold than brown. Despite his posture, he wasn’t in a foul mood. That should bring relief, but the way he looked at me made me nervous.

“I never had a chance to read it,” I said.

The screen door slammed, jerking me alert. Amber stood on the porch, wearing so little that heat flared to my cheeks. Modesty escaped her. I’d never look sexy in anything that showed so much skin. My scars were a small price. The cuts saved me from emotionally drowning in others zealous emotions.

It was time to get to business so I could get back to my comfort zone. “You wanted to tell me something.”

“You shouldn’t be here,” he said.

“Leave her for the hunt,” Amber purred.

It felt like I was in a snake pit. The energy was alarming. Without a razor to combat the mix of emotions surging just outside my shields, I didn’t try lowering them.

I realized now what it was I saw on Rex’s face. He barely kept it hidden at school, but here, surrounded by others like him; it was drawn to the surface of his being. He wore it like a second skin.

Lust made his eyes golden. I had a feeling it was more primitive than what humans considered lust.

“You’re brave and reckless. We better start walking. You don’t have much time to get out of our territory,” Rex said.

He turned away and started into the woods. I glanced at Amber who now saddled the banister looking pleased. I couldn’t begin to guess what I walked in on.

I didn’t have to catch up, Rex was waiting for me just under the cover of the brush. Nature suited him. He blended very well.

The minute I was at his side, he started walking again. Each step was long and quick. He was trying to put distance between us and the farmhouse. His energy washed over me. It wasn’t unpleasant. It had a slight warm maple syrup residue that was as natural as he was. Thanks to my empathy, it was like having an extra nose.

“This is really bad timing. What would possess you to look for me at this hour?” he asked.

Lately, every word that came from his mouth sounded like a growl. It was like stealing a bone from a hungry dog.

“You said it was urgent.” And truthfully, I really needed to talk to someone about what was going on. Starr was too absent minded.

He stopped so abruptly, I nearly ran into him. The canopy of overhead branches blocked a great deal of light, but I saw animalistic sheen in his eyes.

“Are you out of your goddamn mind?” He paced in front of me and I watched for a second before the tension in my lower gut made me anxious. He stopped short. “I tried to protect you because I thought you were human, but you’re not. What are you?”

The statement startled me. My anger rose, seeping from hours, days, weeks, years of pent up frustration and anger.

I fisted my hands, ready to deck him. “Don’t you dare start too.”

A gust of wind pushed Rex back a few feet, but I remained firmly rooted where I stood. Leaves whirled around me in unnatural flight. Their colors blurred, making a barrier between the two of us. My anger dissolved as the leaves floated back to the forest floor.

“What are you?” Rex asked.

“I don’t know. This is all new to me. What are you?”

He frowned. “You shouldn’t be in the woods alone.”

I didn’t respond and he pushed his hand through his hair.

“I’m a werewolf,” he finally admitted. “If you even know what that is.”

A werewolf could be interesting. When I get back to the tree house, I was defiantly looking that up in the encyclopedia.

“There was something you wanted to tell me,” I said.

Meeting that gaze was hard. My attention was wavering down to those full lips and the way the muscle ticked in his jaw. Was it my imagination, or had his eyes wondered down to my lips too? I watched the muscle in his neck tighten as he swallowed.

“You’re bleeding and it doesn’t help my concentration. This close to the full moon, I can’t think about anything else. I’m craving blood.”

I could have gone without knowing that. Rex was exasperated. He was barely keeping it together.

I hugged myself, partly for heat and partly out of mounting worry. There was nothing I could do about my cut knees. “Just tell me what you felt was so urgent that we had to meet tonight.”

That remark earned a raised eyebrow and the briefest hint of a smile. His irises flared amber and his pupils widened. He was enjoying my presence just a little too much. When he held his breath, I thought he intended to kiss me. I was disappointed when that smile faded and his eyes darkened again.

“This has to do with pack politics. For the safety of the pack, I had to meet with Sonya when she summoned me,” he said.

Sonya again. This woman had it out for me.

“I don’t personally know her, but her name keeps popping up,” I said.

His sad look softened me. “She is a major influence around here. You drew her attention and she wanted us to get closer.”

His words didn’t immediately register, but when they did, numbness rolled over my brain and down my body. Our relationship was a lie? Sonya was the sole reason he dated me?

There was time to get upset later. Right now, I needed to figure out what Sonya wanted.

“So you’re with the Berserkers too?” I asked. I expected so much more from Rex.

“You’re going to find out just how hard it is to avoid her. She always gets what she wants,” he said.

I fought the urge to shiver. This wasn’t a beneficial conversation. I had enough to worry about.

“I didn’t know who you were until the start of this year. Sonya said she wanted me to get close to this girl at my school and see what I
felt
when I was around her,” Rex said.

He waited for my reaction. I wasn’t going to show him how much that bothered me. I wasn’t going to stand here and cry in front of him.

“You’re personable and friendly. You’re funny, brave, proud and strong. You made it easy blurring the lines between duty and personal interest. I’m a werewolf, I can’t be with someone human and I was forgetting my place. It was better to break it off before it got too serious. I told Sonya that you were a dud. There was nothing special about you and I assumed she let matters rest,” he said.

Why did Sonya need so many people watching me? What was she waiting for? If she had as many agents as it sounded, someone should have grabbed me by now.

“What were you thinking going to Xyla?” Rex said.

I wasn’t surprised he heard about Xyla. After all, I lost a Berserker bracelet there.

“I was thinking it was going to be a fun night,” I answered.

He grabbed my arm and pushed the sleeve down to expose the bandage. “And did you find your good time?”

“Not as good of a time as Amber and you obviously have.” I yanked my arm back, feeling petty for airing my jealousy.

He let my arm go and grabbed the bottom of his shirt, pulling it over his head. He looked as good as his fitted clothes promised. He was pale from the lack of sun and scarred. Scarred almost as badly as I was only his were fresher. His skin was puckered pink over his stomach, chest and the right side of his shoulder.

“I’m a werewolf,
Belen
, by pack law, I should never have dated you. I can take a beating and heal from it, but you, if my alpha caught you—”

He ran a hand over the older scars on his stomach, tracing a path he knew by heart.

“So Amber—”

“Is pack and I’ve forbidden her to touch you,” he said.

I felt a little peeved he had a need to fight my battles. “I can take care of myself.”

“You’re doing a great job,” he said. That stung. “You know where a scratch like that can put you if the government found out? Do you know what this means?”

“Actually, I have no idea. Please enlighten me on the subject,” I snapped.

“Being non-human doesn’t just happen with that virus in your system. I knew today, when I smelled it, that you weren’t human. If I could smell it, so could others. Sonya will know I lied.”

This was exhausting. “Okay, cut to the chase. What does she want?”

Sable was willing to lie to protect me and Rex, well, he was willing to do the same.

“A few years ago there was a public claim that the Reincarta successfully raised the spirit of Hecate and put the Goddess in the flesh of a baby girl. The baby went missing and there was nothing but a trail of blood in the snow. Now they believe she’s alive and are determined to find her. I have no idea what Sonya’s been propositioned, but she’s got her eyes on you. World Congress is in the process of intervening in the search.”

I thought about Len’s sister, Lori. Where were the girls being taken? My headache was getting worse. I was ready to head back to the tree house and sleep this nightmare away.

“Can you take me back to the road?”

“Yeah, sure.”

A twig cracked and I felt the rush of energy. I turned in time to catch Amber springing from the brush. Before I could respond, I was jerked back with such force that I couldn’t catch myself and fell flat on my butt. It was a quick tussle that ended with Amber face down in the leaves.

“She’s bad luck. We need to destroy her before Sonya comes knocking on our door,” Amber hissed.

“Nothing is going to happen to the pack or her, I won’t allow it,” Rex said. He raised his knee off Amber’s lower back and she sat, wiping a hand over her mouth.

“Other groups, worse than World Congress and the Berserkers will come searching for her. You know the rules, Rex. Kill the threat,” she said.

“Go back to the house Amber. I’ll deal with this.”

Amber glared at him, but didn’t challenge his order. She rose sulkily to her feet and didn’t look at me as she walked barefoot back to the house. I tried to listen for her, but she was nimble enough to walk unheard.

“Just so there aren’t any misunderstandings, things are going to be fine between us until Sonya comes knocking on your door, right?”

He shrugged. At least he wasn’t in the habit of sugarcoating the truth.

“I should be getting back to the tree house.” I made a weak throw of my thumb behind me, indicating I should be leaving. The forest made it difficult to tell which direction I needed to go.

I was relieved when he led the way back to the road.

T
he wind up alarm clock slapped dully against the wall. Something dinged within the rusted tin and the alarm died before I could turn it off. I stared at the low ceiling with dreary recognition of the previous day. The best part was my arm didn’t ache, though my back did from lying on a board with only a blanket between my body and the floor.

I stretched, forcing the muscles into submission before rolling into a seated position and gathering my book bag. When I got back to the tree house last night, I immediately fell asleep with no further thought about the day. I couldn’t go to school with World Congress looking for me, but the school would be warm and I’d get breakfast and lunch. My stomach growled, voicing its opinion.