Moonlight Kin 4: Tristan (12 page)

“What?” Tristan asked.

“Frosty, you make him sound like a Bond
villain,” she said. “I’ll follow him back his lair.” Izzy rubbed
her hands together and cackled maniacally.

Tristan’s expression eased.

For a second, she thought he might laugh, but
then the moment passed.

“There’s something really wrong with you,” he
said.

“At least I’m not a talking snowball,” she
said, then wandered down the sidewalk.

Tristan crossed his arms over his chest.
“Where are you going?”

Izzy shrugged. “You said to wander. I’m
wandering.”

“I’ll be close by,” he said.

Her footsteps faltered. “You’re not coming
with me?”

“He won’t approach you if I’m by your side,”
Tristan said, then disappeared in the crowd. Quite an impressive
feat given his size.

Izzy hesitated then kept walking. Being bait
sucked! As she window-shopped, she thought about last night. She
hadn’t expected Tristan to be so caring. When she’d woken up and
thought she’d seen a monster outside her window, Izzy had expected
him to ask her if she was okay, then go back to the couch. But he
hadn’t.

Instead, Tristan had climbed into bed beside
her and held her until she fell asleep. Izzy didn’t want to think
about how good his arms had felt wrapped around her. Part of her
hated that he’d made her feel safe. It only made his absence
worse.

She kept walking. A couple times Izzy thought
she caught a glimpse of Tristan in the window’s reflection, but
when she’d checked, he was nowhere to be found.

Izzy wandered another two blocks. The heat
was already beginning to make her sweat. Most natives knew to get
inside in the afternoon. Only the tourists were dumb enough to
soldier on.

She turned a corner, and the skin on her nape
prickled. Izzy allowed her senses to flare. The power she brushed
against didn’t feel like her snowman’s. Was it the Darkling?

Izzy slowly scanned the area. What did a
Darkling look like? Did it resemble a werewolf? A person? Or
something altogether different? She should’ve asked.

She casually glanced at the faces around her,
searching for some sign that would let her know that they weren’t
human. When that didn’t yield anything, Izzy opened her power of
Sight. The second she did, she saw Spirits fleeing from the next
street over.

What could’ve frightened the dead? Izzy
fought the urge to run with them.

She needed to find out what was going on.
Izzy passed a couple of houses but didn’t see anything unusual. She
took a deep breath and kept going. Where was Tristan? Izzy crossed
between two more houses. One of the homes had a massive trellis
attached to the side of it. As she stepped past a trellis of
honeysuckle, someone grabbed her.

Izzy opened her mouth to scream, but a palm
came down over her face before she could. Fear stabbed her and her
skin crawled. She struggled to break the man’s tight grip.
Everything inside of Izzy told her to get away.

“It’s Stone,” a low voice hissed. “Don’t
scream.” He waited for her to nod, then he quickly pulled his hand
away.

Izzy found Stone standing behind her. “What
are you doing?” she whispered. “I thought you were—” She cut the
words off before she finished the sentence. Izzy wasn’t going to
get into a conversation about a creature she knew nothing about.
“You scared me to death,” she said instead.

“Sorry.” He scrubbed a hand through his
disheveled hair. He’d shoved his wrinkled shirt into one side of
his jeans, leaving the other half to flap on the outside. His red
eyes showed just how little sleep he’d gotten. “I couldn’t take the
chance that the monster would hear you.”

Izzy understood all too well the need for
caution, given a wolf’s keen senses. “Are you okay?” she asked,
attempting to read him. She encountered a wall of darkness. “You
look...” Tired. Wrecked. Stressed. None of those words properly
described his current state.

“I’m fine.” Stone frowned at her. “What are
you doing? Why are you giving me that funny look?”

She’d been busted. “I tried to read you.”

Stone became unnaturally still. “And?”

“I can’t,” Izzy said. “Why is that?”

Some of the tension in his body eased, and he
scanned the sidewalks around them. “I’ve learned how to block
people like us and the monsters. No one can sense me unless I want
them to. If we had more time, I’d teach you how to do it.”

The idea was beyond tempting to Izzy. What
would life be like if she didn’t have to worry about the monsters
sensing her? It seemed like a fantasy...yet if what Stone said was
true, then perhaps it was possible.

“Then how did you know I was here?” she asked
in confusion.

Stone blinked. “You called me. Remember?”

“Oh, right,” she said. Izzy had forgotten all
about phoning Stone. She’d told him about the cabin, but how did he
know she’d be here?

“You still want my help, don’t you?” he
asked.

His question interrupted her thoughts. “Yes,
of course,” she said.

Stone smiled. “Good,” he said. “I thought for
a minute that you’d changed your mind.” Something about the grin
reminded her of a shark.

You’re seeing monsters everywhere now
,
she chastised.

Izzy hadn’t changed her mind about getting
away from Tristan. She thought about it. No, definitely not. Though
leaving didn’t seem nearly as urgent as it had yesterday
afternoon.

“I’ve parked a few blocks over,” Stone said.
“If we can make it to my car, I think we can get away from him. The
last time I saw him, he was several blocks away.”

Izzy followed a few feet then stopped.
How
did he know where Tristan was?
She didn’t even know where he’d
wandered off to.

“How did you see him without him knowing that
you were there?” she asked.

Stone glanced back. “What?”

Izzy repeated the question.

His brow furrowed. “I told you. I’m able to
block myself. Even if I hadn’t been able to, I spotted his blond
head above the crowd and went the other direction before he saw
me.”

It was possible. She’d managed to avoid
Tristan, but not for long. “Where are we going?” she asked.

“I have an apartment on the other side of
town,” he said. “We’ll be safe there for a little while, but it’s
merely a temporary solution. There’s only one sure way to get away
from the monster for good.”

“Do you mean blocking him?” she asked.

Stone stopped. The look he gave her sent a
chill down Izzy’s spine.

Her steps faltered. “What exactly are you
referring to?”

“If you want to protect yourself, protect me,
protect your friends, and your family, there is going to come a
time when you have to choose sides. It’s either us or the
monsters.”

Izzy stumbled back a step. “Are you talking
about killing Tristan?” she asked, horrified by the notion.

Stone shook his head. “No, I’m talking about
killing the monster before it kills us.”

“I—I can’t kill Tristan,” she stuttered. “I
can’t kill anybody.” But especially not him, even though Tristan
had behaved like a careless jerk.

Stone gave her a hard stare. “We may not have
a choice. You need to be prepared for that possibility,” Stone
said.

How could she prepare for something she
couldn’t comprehend? In all the years that Izzy had been running
from the monsters, it never occurred to her to fight them head on.
She pictured Tristan’s face, pictured the concern that had been on
it last night when he’d crawled into bed beside her. The idea of
killing him left an odd ache in her chest.

“We have to go now,” Stone said. “He’s
getting closer.”

* * * * *

The first pulse from the lodestone around his
neck nearly drove Tristan to his knees. It was like taking a direct
strike from lightning.

The fact that it was so strong told him that
the Darkling was nearby. His head whipped around, but Tristan
didn’t see Isabel.

Where had she gone?

He’d put enough distance between them to draw
it out, but perhaps it had been too much. Fear embraced him as
Tristan realized he might not reach her in time.

You can’t always protect bait...
Pierre’s parting words struck deep.

Failure wasn’t allowed to enter his mind.
Just the thought of losing Isabel gutted him. Tristan didn’t want
to look too closely at why.

He followed the pulse of magic around the
next block, but Isabel was nowhere to be seen. The lodestone
throbbed like a toothache. Tristan turned left and ran another
block.

As he rounded the corner, he saw a flash of
purple hair in the distance. Isabel. He’d just taken a step toward
her when he caught another movement. She wasn’t alone. The man
disappeared out of sight, and Isabel chased after him. Tristan’s
beast nearly burst from his body as he watched her run away.

* * * * *

Izzy followed Stone’s brisk pace. Every step
she took got heavier and heavier. It was as if her body didn’t want
her to leave, which was insane, since she’d been trying to get away
from Tristan since they met.

She may not like Frosty, but she didn’t want
him dead. The thought made her heart hurt. As she ran, Izzy
wondered just how many monsters Stone had killed. Suddenly, she
wasn’t sure going with him was the right thing to do.

He knows how to block them. Block you. If
you could learn how to do that, it would change your life. Hell, it
would give you back your life.

As much as she disagreed with his methods,
Izzy had no choice but to go with him, at least until Stone taught
her how to block. Then they’d part ways. Izzy wasn’t a monster
slayer and had no desire to be.

“How much farther?” she asked.

“We have another block and a half to go,”
Stone said, then his eyes widened. “He’s right behind us. Run
faster!”

Izzy turned to see Tristan sprinting toward
them. He had a murderous expression upon his face. She glanced back
to check on Stone, but he was long gone. So much for saving
her.

* * * * *

Tristan’s heart stopped. Fear had crippled
him at first, but he’d been determined to reach her. When Isabel
saw him and ran, Tristan’s fear turned to anger. An unexpected wave
of hurt followed his fury.

“Isabel, stop!” he shouted, easily closing
the distance between them. There was no way a human could outrun
one of the Moonlight Kin.

She skidded to a halt.

“What are you doing?” he asked. “Who was that
man you were with?” He demanded answers. This time he wouldn’t
allow her to deflect the questions.

“He’s just a friend,” she said.

Tristan’s beast didn’t like the idea of
another male hanging around her. “If he’s just a friend, then why
did you run?” he asked.

“He’s like me, okay?” she said,
defensively.

“Like you how?” Tristan asked.

“He’s Sighted,” Isabel said.

Tristan had never heard of a male being a
Sighted-One, but he supposed it was possible. “What were you doing
with him?”

Her brow furrowed. “Um...”

“Isabel?” He didn’t bother to hide the
warning in his voice.

She rounded on him. “If you must know, I was
running away.”

“From me?” Tristan reeled back. He’d wanted
an honest answer. He just wasn’t prepared for what he got.

“No, I ran from the other monsters,” she said
sarcastically.

His scowled deepened.

Isabel glared at him. “Can you really blame
me, when it’s obvious you don’t care about anything but your
mission?” she asked.

Tristan jerked as her words lashed him,
scoring deep. He’d been so frightened for her. So scared he
wouldn’t reach her in time. He’d been a fool.

The warmth that had encased them last night
evaporated. Tristan felt the cold inside of him return and openly
embraced it. This was familiar. This was what he needed. He
should’ve known there was no place for warmth, no place for her in
his life.

“Thank you for the reminder.” His words froze
the air between them. “I’d temporarily lost sight of what was
important.”

Isabel blanched, and her color drained. “I
didn’t mean—”

His hard gaze stilled her words. “Yes, you
did. Now let’s go.”

Izzy felt horrible. She’d purposely hurt him,
which was something she never did to anyone. It was like Tristan
brought out the worst in her. She stared out the truck window as
they drove to the cabin.

Time only added to her sense of guilt. She
hadn’t really meant what she’d said to him. Izzy had been so
shocked by Stone’s suggestion and her reaction to it that she’d
lashed out.

She glanced at Tristan. His stony expression
never altered. She didn’t think there was anything she could say
that would make things better.

* * * * *

He didn’t speak to her for the rest of the
night. The silent treatment got on her nerves so bad that Izzy
decided to head to bed.

She didn’t know what time the vision struck.
Izzy felt danger drawing nearer. She pushed back the haze that
normally clouded her visions and gazed deeper. Izzy wanted to see
what—or more appropriately who—was coming.

Her sense of dread grew. In her vision, Izzy
saw trees all around. Trees with thick undergrowth. Trees that
shook as the danger closed in on her. Hands parted the bushes.

Izzy turned and ran...straight into
Tristan.

His hands closed around her arms.

Izzy glanced behind her, but there was no one
there. Tristan’s normally cold eyes shimmered like warm mercury.
Before she could ask him to release her, his mouth claimed
hers.

She remained tense in his arms for all of a
minute, then Izzy’s body melted. The heat between them flared even
hotter as he deepened the embrace.

Tristan released her shoulders, and his hands
dropped to her waist. He pulled her closer. Close enough for Izzy
to feel a hard ridge. She gasped, and his tongue swirled around her
mouth.