“Go play with your brother.”
“That doesn’t even work when my parents say it,” she replied, dropping lightly on the ground next to me. “You only throw this kind of tantrum when you’ve been denied something. What is it that you’ve been denied now?”
A peaceful life. I wanted to say it, but the words stayed lodged in my throat. Instead, I gave her nothing and chose to ignore her. Something I’m sure she was used to by now. I turned away and began to make my way to a new part of the forest I hadn’t terrorized yet, but she followed me. Hearing her steps with mine made me pause.
“Go away. I’m hunting.”
“You’ve been hunting for hours and left a trail to this exact location. How are you going to explain this to any humans that happen to stumble upon what you’ve done?”
“Fine. Then we find a mountain lion and dump it half -alive where I started. They’ll think it went feral and left the trail.”
“Or we could just dump the bodies in a carnivorous den. Feed a family and keep everything out of human sight?” Her idea sounded more rational. So rational it almost made sense.
Fuck. My brain is all scrambled. I can’t even form a proper plan. Why was she here? Why did my mate have to be here?
“Mate!” Erie’s screech could have reached a satellite orbiting the Earth. I clamped my hands over my ears, wincing as the ringing set in. She didn’t care in the slightest, tearing one of my hands away just to continue shouting. “You found your mate? Who is she?”
“Stop screeching like some creature and get the hell off me,” I snapped, shoving her off of me with a huff. The force sent her higher than the ground and further than the tree she had been in before.
She flew back up into the tree, managing to catch herself and take a seat back on another branch. My jaw tightened. “You have to keep this secret. I know you can. You’ve done it for Isadoramanytimes.”
“Now it all makes sense as to why you haven’t bothered to visit Isadora. I would have thought you’d reach her before me, but I managed to even claim a room in the house before you even stepped onto the grass.”
“I knew where she would end up as soon as I knew her destination. Agatha’s house is the only place she would be safe. But I heard of her death, and I saw it for myself. It was easy enough once I snuck into their morgue.”
I had been busy trying to not think about Melinda Hardgrave, but it was like the distance was making it harder. Seeing Agatha’s body confirmed that it wasn’t a hunter who had done it. But it also wasn’t random. Whoever did this knew exactly what they were doing and thus knew exactly what she was. They knew leaving the stake in her chest would prolongher suffering, and that removing it meant she would have died much quicker. Boiling down to one thing. “Someone in this town knows too much.”
“I have picked up many different scents here—werewolf, pixie, witch, and even Weaver.”
“Interesting that a Weaver would choose a town like this. But I know this killing is only the bringing to many more. It didn’t seem sloppy. Whoever killed our grandmother did it with intent.”
“I’ll go warn the others, but you should make an appearance at some point. You’re going to kill Isadora with anxiety before your father can do it upon our return. If we return.”
She didn’t wait for a response. Erie vanished before I could even look at her to respond.
Alone with my thoughts, I decided to haul the bodies of my prey to a nearby wolf den to enjoy. It was meant to busy me, but in the end, I found myself standing in her bedroom.
The reckless idiot had left her window open—wide enough for anyone to climb through. All it would take was a ladder, and something told me that everyone in this town owned at least one. She slept without fear of what lurked outside. That alone worried me.
Her dark hair was splayed across her pillow, coils of her natural curls draped over her face. Her nose twitched as the strands grazed it, her brows tightening at the irritation even in sleep.
I walked closer. My hand lifted before I could stop it, reaching towards her as her irritation flooded my own body. This damn bond. Another downside I was not interested in discovering was her emotions battling my own every day. Why would I care what she felt? Or when she felt it?
I brushed the hair from her face, giving her relief—and myself a chance to touch her without seeing a glare on her face. She looked…softer like this. She was approachable when she didn’t look like she wanted to kill me and mount me on a wall like some trophy.
Her skin was soft, begging to be caressed and I let my fingers trace the outline of her face. My restraint still managed to hold true with our close proximity.
It wasn’t until I was trapped by the way her lips formed words in her dreams that I retreated from her side. Each step away was harder than the next but I somehow made it to the dresser across from her bed.
There I turned away from her sleeping form and distracted myself with the clutter behind me. Books were stacked haphazardly across the dresser, some piled on top of one another, others held between makeshift bookends.
A familiar title caught my attention–one that had been a hot topic for a time back home. The story followed some boring, painfully ordinary mundane woman who somehow managed to attract the attention of a handsome vampire. The same fantasy mundanes always devoured.
Of course she would have it too.
I picked it up. At the very least, it would pass the time.
I retreated back into the forest where I had been before, using its solitude to read the books I had taken. It was a challenge, but I managed to finish the first installment before she left the house for the day.
