Darkness Awakened (7 page)

Finn glanced at his watch even though she was sure he knew exactly what time it was. “Now, but—”

Hands balled at her sides, she took a step toward him. “If you think you can stop me from going with you, you’re out of your mind.”

“Lyra—”

“Don’t. This is my daughter. You can leave without me but I will follow. And if you or any of your people try to restrain me, I will rip you to shreds. I’m not some weak female who needs protecting. Vega is my daughter.” Her voice was barely above a whisper and her claws had begun to dig into her palms as she tried to steady her breathing.

He scrubbed a hand over his face then shook his head sharply. “You can come, but you will be quiet the entire time. I talk to him and you listen. There’s no room for emotion in this. We need to keep a level head.”

She gritted her teeth and nodded. “Fine.” She could be as level headed as he wanted, but if this guy knew where her daughter was, he was going to tell them. Or he’d lose his head.

* * *

 “Tell me about your daughter,” Finn said as he steered out of the main gates to his home. He’d wanted to ask earlier but it hadn’t been the time. She’d been too distraught, but now he could see she was better focused. The psychic connection with her daughter had obviously helped. He hoped talking about Vega would help Lyra’s focus even more.

“She’s smart, resourceful, beautiful and…so young and vulnerable.” Her voice cracked on the last word.

“What about school? How’s she doing?”

Lyra glanced at him, a touch of surprise on her features. “Very well. She graduated from high school early and decided to take a year off until she figures out where she wants to go to college.”

“Did she go to a regular high school?” He frowned, wondering how that was possible.

Lyra nodded, her blonde hair falling over her shoulders. She slightly tilted her face away from him, as if she was hiding her expression. “She’s free to walk in the daytime because of the genetics from her father. Of course she’s had to hide some of her abilities, but we’ve made it work. When I was… when we moved out on our own it was a conscious choice to give her the kind of childhood I never had.”

Something about the tone of her voice and scent was off. “On your own…how long have you lived away from your coven?” It was one of the answers he’d been trying to find out through discreet inquiries.

She swallowed hard enough that he heard it, her face still turned away from his. “A while.”

He wanted to press her for more answers but didn’t want to upset her before they made it to Bo Broussard’s club. It was the only neutral place Rene Bellanger—the jaguar shifter who’d contacted him—would agree to meet. Finn had decided not to point out that whether it was ‘neutral’ or not, he ruled all of this territory and could rip his throat out in the middle of the club with no repercussions if he saw fit.

“So what do you think about this guy we’re meeting?” Lyra asked, smoothly changing the subject.

He could let the matter of her daughter and whatever she was hiding from him drop—for now. And he
knew
she was keeping something from him. He could scent subtle half-truths rolling off her when she spoke about Vega. Not that it would stop him from helping Lyra.
Nothing
could do that. “His name’s Rene. He’s a jaguar shifter who lives in my territory. He’s always kept to himself, but he called me frantic and refused to talk about anything over the phone. He sounded terrified. It’s odd that he wanted to meet in person.”

“Do you think he has something to do with Vega’s kidnapping?”

Finn shook his head. “I can’t imagine him being involved, but…” He shrugged. He couldn’t afford to rule anything out.

She was silent as she settled against the seat, but she turned her body more toward his. Crossing her legs in his direction, he watched out of the corner of his eye as her foot bounced up and down. She’d never been able to sit still when she was nervous.

“How has it been being Alpha of such a large territory?” she asked quietly, the question taking him off guard.

His hands tightened on the wheel. There was another question she didn’t ask, but he heard it just the same.
Did he regret leaving her before taking over as Alpha?
He’d asked himself the same question too many times to count. But there was no simple answer. Yes, he regretted leaving her, but he didn’t regret it at the same time. Not when he knew in his gut that he’d kept her safe, kept her alive and away from his uncle. “Rocky at first, but anyone who disagreed with my rules had the choice to leave the territory.” They’d also had the choice to challenge him. Some had. They hadn’t survived.

“Hmm.”

He shot her a sideways glance.

The look in her gray-violet eyes was frosty. “I guess your pack’s stance on vampire-shifter relations has changed considering you’re helping me.”

It wasn’t formed as a question, and he knew what she was implying. Unfortunately he couldn’t afford to get into any of that now. If he did, they would miss the meeting and they’d just arrived at the club. He kicked the truck into park. “We’re here.”

Hurt flashed across her face for a brief second before she got out of the vehicle. By the time he’d rounded the truck, her expression was completely unreadable. Now that darkness had fallen there were a lot more cars in the parking lot. Even so, with his over-sensitized hearing he still couldn’t hear any music from inside the club. Bo had some serious sound proofing.

“What is this place?” Lyra asked, looking around.

“You’ll see,” he murmured. The same bouncer from earlier opened the door for them. This time he didn’t say anything, just nodded politely.

The place was packed. Finn was surprised by the sheer number of vampires there, but after a quick scan of the place, wasn’t remotely threatened by anyone. After ordering a couple drinks, they headed to the private booth he’d reserved—and Lyra had sucked hers down before they’d even reached it. He’d just bought a drink to be social but she’d ordered blood.

“You should have told me you were hungry,” he snapped out, harsher than he’d intended to sound.

She snorted, the sound so inelegant it made him laugh. Lyra seemed startled by his reaction, but gave him a tentative, almost nervous smile that reminded him so much of the first time they’d met. It pierced his heart with a jarring kind of pain that stripped him bare. Some days he wished he could turn back time. Maybe if he’d made a different choice things would have turned out differently. Or maybe he’d have gotten her killed because of his selfishness.

But if things had worked out, he’d have been the one who’d fathered a child with Lyra instead of some nameless, faceless, irresponsible vampire. The chance of that kind of mating was impossibly rare, but in his fantasy world he and Lyra had a family together. At that thought, something tickled his memory bank. He tried to put his finger on it, but the thought was annoyingly elusive. He felt as if he should be remembering something, but couldn’t. As he racked his brain, his cell buzzed in his jacket pocket.

It was Rene.
Be there in five minutes.
Finn relayed the message to Lyra who’d already ordered and drank half of her next drink. She almost seemed to relax at the news.

But the more minutes that ticked by, the edgier they both got. One hour, then two passed. After texting Rene a dozen times, he placed a few bills on the table and they left.

Once alone with Lyra in the parking lot, he readied himself for her rejection as he slid an arm around her shoulders. To his surprise she leaned into him and braced a hand against his chest. Leaning his chin against the top of her forehead, he was silent for a long moment.

She broke the silence, her voice shaky as she pulled back to look at him. “Finn, there’s something I need to tell you—”

His phone buzzed again, breaking them apart. Her breath caught as he looked at the caller ID. He shook his head. “It’s not Rene.” But it was Gabriel. He’d had his Guardian run Rene’s phone records before they’d even met with the guy. Normally Finn had someone else in his pack take care of stuff like this but he was playing everything close to the chest. Sure his pack knew he’d been housing a vampire, but Gabriel was the only one who knew exactly
why
she was there. He planned to keep it that way until he had a better grasp of what was going on.

Rene’s phone off or dead. No way to track. Will keep trying. Also found listings of recently rented beach houses in area. Check email for addresses and advise further instructions.

After what Lyra had told him about her daughter hearing the ocean, Finn had also had Gabriel run down a comprehensive listing of recently rented beach houses in the area. Since it was winter a lot of those homes would be closed, but it still might be a big number to search. He didn’t like the thought of involving anyone other than Gabriel in the search just yet. After seeing how many places there were to check, he would decide exactly who to involve. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust his pack, but Lyra was still a vampire and some prejudices ran deep among his kind.

“We might have a starting point,” he said to Lyra as he opened the passenger door.

Her face was a mask, but her eyes sparked with too much hope for him to even think about letting her down. If he had to tear apart the entire city they’d find her daughter.

He held the door for her, but as she slid into the seat, he heard a very soft clicking sound. She heard it too. Her eyes widened and before he could move, she used her lightning fast vampire speed and lunged at him. Using her strength and agility she wrapped her arms around his waist, shoving him onto the front of the car next to his.

Rolling them, he placed his body between Lyra’s and the truck as they dove over the other car. An explosion ripped through the air, the concussion of the sound vibrating through his ears, making his teeth shake.

Glass and debris rained down on them. Something sharp pierced his back and one of his legs but he kept his position. Lyra was shouting something at him but he couldn’t make it out. He was pretty sure one of his eardrums had ruptured.

He blinked and shook his head as his hearing suddenly and very sharply came back. Thank God for supernatural healing.

Lyra reached up and stroked his cheek, concern in her face. She wiped at his jaw line, fury in her gaze as she drew back blood. “You could have died,” she whispered, fear and more than that—raw anger—in her trembling voice.

You could have too.
Before he could point that out, her eyes narrowed, the raw rage pulsing off her like a live wire. He’d never seen this side to her before. “I know this might have been a setup by that guy Rene, but is it possible someone in your pack was behind this? Exactly who knew where we’d be tonight?”

There were any number of possibilities of who was behind this kind of attack. None of them good. When he found out who’d tried to kill not only him, but Lyra, heads would roll.

Chapter Six

“What are you doing?” Lyra asked, wiping the gravelly dust off her pants as she hurried after him.

“Hold on,” he muttered, his phone up to his ear as he strode across the parking lot.

“What the hell happened?” Bo asked. Either he’d seen the explosion on a video feed or one of his employees had told him.

“Someone rigged my SUV to blow. You get anything on video?” Because Finn knew the half-demon had the entire place under surveillance.

“I’m scanning the videos as we speak. You guys okay?”

“We’re fine. I’m leaving though. I’m sending some pack members to clean it up.” Including one of his trackers to see if he could find anything Finn hadn’t been able to scent. Normally he’d stick around, but he wanted Lyra far away from this. Glancing over his shoulder, some of his tension eased when he saw that no one from the club was coming to check it out. Bo was probably keeping everyone on lockdown for the time being.

“All right. I’ll keep the scene secure. Humans won’t be a problem,” he added.

Finn already knew that though. The place was back far enough from any main roads that unless you knew where it was, no one should be in the vicinity of the warehouse. And Bo owned all the surrounding property as an extra buffer. If for some reason human law enforcement showed up, someone at the club could convince them to leave using psychic persuasion. As a rule Finn didn’t like the practice, but when it came to hiding the existence of supernatural beings, he made an exception.

The second he hung up, Lyra gently touched his forearm. The feel of her fingers on his skin was electric. After all these years he shouldn’t be affected by her so damn much. Looking down at her, he didn’t pause. “I want you away from there.”

She frowned, but kept stride with him. “I didn’t scent anything other than explosive materials, but we might have missed something. We should go back.”

He knew she was right. But that wasn’t happening. If the explosion was part of a staged attack, it could have been the first element in a strike against him. Or more likely her. He couldn’t completely rule out someone trying to take over his territory; that this had been orchestrated because a new Alpha wanted to move in. But he was ninety-nine percent sure it wasn’t another Alpha. No self-respecting shifter would resort to these tactics. It would make them appear weak. Another Alpha would just challenge him to a fight to the death.

No, his gut told him this had everything to do with Lyra’s missing daughter. Glancing away from her, he shot off half a dozen texts, sending orders to his packmates. One to Gabriel, four to his most trusted warriors and one to his best tracker. “I’m sending a tracker in,” he murmured as he read his packmates’ affirmative responses.

Sliding his phone into his pants pocket as they reached a neighboring, empty warehouse, he stopped once they were behind it for privacy. No security floodlights flipped on, but with their eyesight and the moonlight, they could see everything clearly. For a mile behind the warehouse was another gravelly area of flat land so he wasn’t worried about a surprise attack. After he’d scanned the surrounding area visually and using his heightened scent, he turned to face her. “My trackers are better at hunting unique scents than you or I.”