Beauty's Beast(12)

She made it inside and locked the door, knowing the ridiculousness of that as a method to keep Alon out. If he chose, he could break any lock more easily than she could.

It was a long time before she left the window, before her heart returned to a normal rate, before her skin lost its tingle.

Samantha made her way upstairs and prepared for bed as if this was any normal night, but nothing was normal. She checked her email again and discovered that her mother had arrived safely in New York and had already met with the chief of the Northeastern Council. Blake’s second email said that Chien’s father-in-law, a Peacemaker, would bring him to meet the chief of the Northwestern Council in Spokane, Washington, tomorrow. There was still no word from her dad. But Nicholas Chien was tracking him. That gave her reason for hope.

Samantha slept restlessly. She woke with a start to find the room bathed in sunlight and Alon standing at the foot of her bed. Or was it his bed?

She startled up and back, hitting her head on the wooden headboard.

“Are you trying to scare me to death?”

“I just have that effect on people.”

“I’m not people.”

“Right.” He lifted a mug. “Coffee?”

She extended her hand in acceptance, using the other to cover herself. She had fashioned her cloak into a cotton shift on the chance that something like this might happen, but it was short and sleeveless and Alon had a way of making her feel exposed even when she was fully dressed.

Alon backed away and Samantha took a sip. The coffee was black and sweet.

“How did you know I take sugar?” she asked.

“I could smell it in the mug you used downstairs.”

“I washed that mug.”

He shrugged. He was more handsome today than she remembered. The dove-gray shirt and darker gray trousers made his eyes seem bluer than she recalled.

“How long have you been standing there?”

“Only a moment, unfortunately.”

She drew up her knees and used both hands to embrace the mug. Should she order him out or ask him to sit?

“You should have knocked.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s impolite to enter a woman’s room without permission.”

“It’s my room and you are not a woman.”

She narrowed her eyes. “But I am still your guest. Or am I a prisoner?”

“I have no hold on you. I only try to keep you safe out of respect for my mother. But you interfere with my work.”

She leaned back against the headboard, took another sip of coffee and then cradled the mug between her hands.

“But you’d rather be left alone?”

“Yes. It would have been better for me and for you if the Great Birds had not carried you to me.”

On that, at least, they agreed.

“How did you disappear like that last night?”

“My second form is a kind of vapor that resembles smoke or mist.”

He could turn into smoke? “Is that how you caught me in the forest?”

“Yes, but I could have run you down.”

“You said second form. How many do you have?”

“Three. The one that you saw at your home, the vapor and this.” He waved a hand over the front of his body. “Our final form.”

He rubbed the back of his neck and glanced toward the balcony as if planning his escape.

“I heard from my mother,” she said.

“Is she well?”

“Yes.”

“But you have not heard from your father, the great bear. And so you are worried.” Alon looked away.

She knew what he thought. But he was wrong. Her dad wasn’t dead. He couldn’t be.

“When can we go find Bess?”

“Perhaps tomorrow.”

She slammed the mug on the side table, threw back the covers and slipped from the bed. Only when she noted him staring at her legs did she remember she was not well dressed for a fight. Or perhaps she was perfectly dressed. He was obviously distracted.

“I can’t sit around the house doing nothing.”

“I have already written to my mother of your arrival. She has yet to reply.”

“Tell me which way she went and I’ll find her myself.”

“Much as I would like that, I must bring you.”

Had she really almost kissed him last night? She couldn’t believe her own stupidity. Frustration seethed within her and she lashed out.

“My dad needs help. He wants your mother to join us. I need to bring her his words.”

His voice fairly dripped with scorn. “Why would she join you?”

She lost it. “Because she’s a Skinwalker and because the Toe Taggers attacked my dad!”

At the phrase Toe Tagger, Alon’s face went stormy. He glared at her with such loathing that she drew up short. An instant later she recognized what she had said, and regret pooled in her belly. “I’m sorry, Alon.”

He headed for the door and she followed, matching his quick stride. “I forgot, Alon. I said I was sorry.”

He spun on the stairs. The muscles of his jaw bunched and his mouth tipped down at both corners, and still he was the handsomest man she had ever seen.

When he spoke, it was through gritted teeth. “Don’t forget. Don’t ever forget for a second what I am.”

He continued down the stairs at a lope.

“Alon, don’t you dare leave me here again.”

But he was already in the foyer and out the door.

Fine. The Thunderbirds might have dropped her here, but that didn’t mean she had to stay. Nicholas Chien was not the only one who knew how to track someone.

* * *

Samantha followed the long driveway that wound through the woods. She only had to find civilization to access her accounts and get the money needed to go anywhere she pleased. She’d consult with her mother just as soon as she got clear of this compound. A familiar scent reached her. She paused, debating between following Alon and getting clear of this place.

The hell with him, she decided and continued, stopping again when she found his clothing, folded and stashed in the crotch of a tree. His scent now became more difficult to trace. It hovered in the air, but she could not find it on the ground. Likely he had turned to smoke. She shook her head and returned to the road. Sooner or later that would lead her to people.

She’d try to stay out of any large communities. The bigger the population the more chance she’d see ghosts. She didn’t need one of Nagi’s spies finding her before she could find her family.

* * *

Aldara had found the trail of the Beta Pack last night and reported their whereabouts to Alon before returning to them while he continued to hunt for the Gammas. The ten sets of Beta twins were old enough to understand and obey the rules their parents set out for them. His parents had left him and his sister in charge of their siblings. That meant guarding against vigilante Skinwalkers and Nagi’s ghosts. His mother long suspected that Nagi used the evil ghosts to find his kind. Samantha’s arrival required that they notify the packs not to attack her. It had taken half the night, but he and Aldara had finally located both the Deltas’ and Gammas’ trails. She’d taken the Gammas.

That left him the Delta Pack, youngest and most difficult. They still struggled with control. They had no natural enemies, so the concept of danger was as foreign to them as it was to a shark. Six twins all under two, feral and deadly as loaded weapons. The Delta Pack could not yet reason, could barely speak and were ruled by a voracious appetite that made it dangerous even for him to seek them out. He didn’t know if he could make them understand that Samantha was not here to kill them. But he had to try. Damn her for coming here. His parents had drilled into his and his sister’s heads that Skinwalkers were dangerous, especially if they traveled in packs. They’d known for years that vigilantes had been hunting the newborns. It was a miracle he didn’t kill Samantha the instant he recognized her for what she was, Skinwalker, hunter, killer of infants. Only she wasn’t like them any more than he was like Nagi’s Ghostlings.

The sooner he got her out of here the better. But he couldn’t leave the others unguarded. He needed to take the Beta, Gamma and Delta packs to the only mother they’d ever known while keeping them from killing Samantha. It seemed impossible.

The Delta Pack knew to stay away from the house and somehow recognized their parents as other than food. But would the house protect Samantha once they scented her? He didn’t know.

He had to hurry.

His mother’s information had been right. Since his parents’ departure, some ten days ago, Aldara had seen evil ghosts drifting in the woods. If they had not located any of the three packs yet, it was only a matter of time. He and Aldara were in a battle against Nagi’s lust for his children to join his cause.

Something moved behind him. He changed to his fighting form and reversed course. Was it a vigilante? Was it one of Nagi’s Ghost Children? Was this the day that Nagi’s vanguard found their hiding place?