The Beast Within

  I felt inside myself for the feelings I knew were his. He was frightened, filled to the brim with adrenaline…and he was in pain. I could smell his blood in the air nearby, but I had no idea where he was. It was unnerving. Scared beyond all comprehension, I screamed as loud as I could, “Julian!”

  From a clump of trees to the right of me, I heard Julian’s voice. “Nika!” There was pain in the syllables of my name.

  Arianna heard Julian, too, and started running in his direction. While she scrambled around the brush dotting the dry earth, I streaked to my brother. He was sitting at the base of a large tree, holding his leg and rocking back and forth. Blood stained the thigh of his dark denims, coated his fingertips. I hissed in an empathetic, pain-filled breath.

  As I rushed to his side, he looked up. “Is Arianna okay?” he asked, fear in his eyes. She crashed through the trees then, and his gaze snapped to her. He smiled and cringed at the same time. “Thank God, you’re okay.”

  Arianna skidded to a stop at his other side and flung her arms around his neck. “Baby, are you all right?”

  While Julian told her that he was, I pried his fingers from his jeans. He instinctively fought me. I tried to keep my voice calm, but I was so far beyond calm it was difficult. “Stop it! I need to see how badly you’ve been hit, Julian.”

  Arianna grabbed his hand, and he finally stopped fidgeting. He rested his head back against the tree as Arianna cooed comforting words into his ear. I found the hole in his jeans and ripped it open a little wider so I could peer inside. My fangs instantly dropped at the sight of so much blood. I was so stressed it took me a couple of seconds to pull them back up. While he whimpered, and pain from our bond vibrated through my bones, I examined the source of the blood.

  My stomach was already queasy by the time I spotted the hole. “They shot you.”

  Julian clenched his jaw. “No shit.”

  Ignoring him, I reached inside his jeans, and felt around his thigh for an exit wound. I found it not far away from the entrance wound. Good, a through and through. Even though I wanted to lose my stomach, I exhaled a sigh of relief. “The bullet’s out, but we need to get you to a hospital. You need stitches.”

  Julian shook his head. “Just take me home. I want to go home.”

  I looked over at him and Arianna. They were both pale, suffering from shock. I supposed I looked the same way. “If I have to carry you both, it’s going to take a while.”

  Julian put on a brave face as he took off his belt and started cinching it around his leg. “I can make it on my own.”

  Arianna’s panicked eyes locked onto mine. “Then let’s get started. I want to get out of here.”

  She looked back toward the direction of the house we’d fled. Another smell on the breeze took precedence over Julian’s blood—the smell of burning cedar. Thick, black smoke pierced the skyline, pinpointing the location of the old man’s log cabin. It was up in flames. Hunter was most likely dead. And I didn’t even have time to grieve him, because my brother needed me. My brother and Arianna both.

  Emotion clogging my throat, I helped my brother stand. He looked like he was going to be sick, but he remained upright. “Are you sure you can run?” I had to force out the words. I desperately wanted to run, but not away from the cabin.

  Julian nodded. “For a bit.” He nodded at Arianna. “Take her. I’ll make it.”

  Arianna looked on the verge of a nervous breakdown as I picked her up again. I hoped she held it together for a little while longer. If she broke down, I’d break down, and I couldn’t. Not yet. Steering clear of the cabin, we headed north, back to Salt Lake. Julian had to stop and rest every few minutes, and he looked greener and greener with every mile. When he finally slumped to the ground, hanging his head in defeat, we’d only gone about fifteen miles. “I’m sorry, Nick,” he panted. “It hurts too much.”

  I set Arianna down as I looked around. We were at the edge of civilization before we entered the desert sitting between us and Salt Lake. If we were going to contact anybody to help us, it had to be now. “Let’s find a phone. Call home.”

  Hope seeped into Arianna’s eyes. “Call my mom. Let her know I’m okay. She’s gotta be worried sick.” Her eyes scanned the barren landscape. “Maybe she can come get us.”

  “My family can get here faster,” I told her. I spied a gas station nearby and turned back to my best friend; she was breathing heavy and her heart was racing. I grabbed her shoulder. “I’m going to walk over there and use their phone. Stay here with Julian.” I rubbed her arm. “He needs you. He’s in a lot of pain.”

  Seeing the pain mirrored on my face, she said, “And you can feel that, can’t you?”

  I nodded and looked at Julian right as he looked at me. “It’s part of the curse.”

  Julian smirked at me. “Be safe. Scream if you need me.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “Same goes for you.”

  Julian scoffed and rolled his eyes, but I could feel the residual fear under his bravado. It matched my own.

  As cautiously as I could, I made my way to the gas station on the corner of the street. It was late afternoon, warm, but not overly hot. The station wasn’t too busy, one beat-up pickup was at the pumps, one newer hybrid was parked in a stall beside the front door. An electronic beep chimed my entrance, and the clerk on duty looked my way. Changing my expression, I tried to look calm, yet desperately in need at the same time.

  “Hey, my brother and I are having a problem with our car and our cell phones are dead. Can I use your phone?” I pointed to a clunky phone behind him that looked as old as my great-great grandmother.

  Not looking like he really gave a rat’s ass what I did, the guy shrugged. “Sure. Just don’t be calling China. The boss would kill me.”

  He grabbed the phone and plopped it onto the counter so I could use it. I exhaled a steady breath as I dialed Dad’s number. He was going to freak out when he picked up. Please pick up. Three rings went by before I heard the line connect. Dad’s voice was tentative. “Hello?”

  “Daddy!” An approaching sob butchered my voice, and the clerk twisted his lips like he was sure I was a crazy, drama queen.

  “Nika, thank God! Where are you? What happened? Is Julian with you? Why can’t we feel you? Are you okay?” His voice was relieved at first, but tightened with each question he asked me.

  I had no idea what to say first. Since I was being watched, I decided all I could say right now was what the human listening to my conversation would expect to hear. “I’m sorry, Julian and I took the car without your permission, and now something is wrong with it. We’re stuck just outside of Flagstaff.”

  There was a pause on Dad’s end as he processed that. “Flagstaff? Arizona? Why the hell are you in Arizona?” I was about to tell him I’d explain later when his insistent voice came back on the line. “What do you mean you’re stuck? Can’t you run home?”

  I closed my eyes to banish the heavy moisture filling them. “No. The car won’t make it home. It needs to be towed…”

  My father understood my cryptic sentence about Julian. “Jesus. Okay, okay, don’t worry. Your mother and I are coming to you. Just stay exactly where you are and wait for us.”

  Knowing he wouldn’t be able to find us without help, I asked the cashier, “What’s the address here?”

  He rambled it off, and I relayed the information to my father. Dad ended the call with, “I love you, Nika. I’ll be there soon.”

  I was sniffling when I hung up. The clerk raised an eyebrow at me. “You okay, kid?”

  I forced a laugh. “Yep. Just bringing on the waterworks so my dad doesn’t kill me for stealing the car.”

  The clerk nodded like he completely understood.

  I felt better when I left the station to return to Julian. Dad was coming. He’d fix everything. Then my heart sank. He couldn’t fix Hunter. He was gone…nothing could fix that. I made it to the shade of some nearby trees before I broke down into sobs. Hunter was dead. Dead-dead. The first man I
’d ever truly loved, the first man I’d ever made love to, and he was gone. Just like that.

  Dropping to my knees, I sank to the arid ground. Julian was beside me in an instant; even drained and in pain, he’d blurred to my side. He wrapped his arms around me while I fell apart. Arianna jogged up to us, sat beside me, and put her hand on my back. I clutched Julian’s shirt while I cried. “He’s gone, Julie. Hunter’s gone.”

  Julian stroked my back. “No, I’m sure he’s fine.”

  “How could he have survived the fire?” I hiccupped. “He couldn’t run outside.”

  “The floor was dirt,” he answered.

  Blinking, I lifted my head. “What?”

  Julian grimaced in pain as he shook his head. “The basement had a dirt floor. It was hard-packed, but I’m sure he was able to dig his way to safety.”

  Hope sprang through me, muting the despair. Julian smiled at feeling it. “Oh, right. That’s what he meant when he said he’d be fine.” I looked out over the skyline, to where a faint trail of smoke was drifting toward the clouds. “That’s if he got away from the hunters though…”

  I couldn’t stop staring at that fading trail of smoke. I watched it the entire time I waited for our parents to show up. Was Hunter under the earth, or was he a pile of ash? While I wasn’t watching them, I could hear my brother and Arianna talking. We’d covered up Julian’s wound with his jacket so any humans who saw us wouldn’t bother us, but more than once, I heard Arianna tell him that he needed to be at a hospital, not slowly bleeding to death in a parking lot. Julian always told her he was fine, that it was barely bleeding anymore. There was some truth to that, I could smell that his wounds weren’t gushing or anything, but Arianna was right too. He shouldn’t be here. None of us should.

  Fueled by pure panic, our parents made it to our location in under an hour. The three of us were sitting, staring at nothing, and then like magic they appeared in front of us. It happened so fast that it took a moment for me to react to seeing them. When I did, the emotion came out in an uncontainable sob.

  I shot to my feet and tossed my arms around my father. He clutched me back just as tight. “Nika, thank God. I was so scared.”

  “Daddy,” I murmured, tucking my head under his chin. I never wanted to let him go.

  I heard Mom rush to Julian’s side. “Teren, he’s hurt.”

  Dad inhaled a deep breath. Catching the scent of Julian’s blood in the tepid air, a low growl escaped him. His arms dropped from me as he headed for his injured son. Julian hissed in pain as our parents undid his tourniquet to look at the wound. After inspecting the oozing hole, Dad looked up at Mom; his face was haggard, his pale eyes weary, like he’d aged a decade during our absence. I could only imagine how hard it had been on them to lose us both like that. “This looks like a bullet hole.” He looked around at the three of us. “Was he shot? What have the three of you been doing? And why are you here in Arizona? And why can’t we feel you?”

  I wasn’t sure which question was causing him the most distress, but I knew we didn’t have a lot of time to answer any of them. I pointed back toward the direction of the log cabin. “We found Hunter. We followed him here to stop him from going after his father…alone. We were ambushed though. We barely got out.”

  Dad looked furious for a moment, then his expression softened. Regarding my features, he asked, “And Hunter…?”

  Barely able to say my fears out loud, I told him, “They burned the cabin we were hiding in to the ground. We’re not sure if he got out.”

  Dad sighed and closed his eyes. Returning his gaze to Mom, he softly said, “I think Julian’s wound is stable enough that we can take him back to the ranch.” His eyes swung back to me. “Let’s go home.”

  I stubbornly held my ground. Now that Dad was here, now that we were reconnected with our family, I didn’t want to run home. Not without Hunter. “You can take Julian and Arianna back, but I want to stay here. At least until nightfall.” Dad narrowed his eyes at me, and I bit my lip to hold in the pain. “I need to know if he made it. Grandma would want to know too,” I quickly added. “And…he’s a member of our nest, Dad. We can’t just abandon him.” Hopefully, the bond of family, no matter how loose the connection, was enough to sway him.

  Dad seemed at a loss, and a flash of hope burst through me. Had I won? Could I stay? Dad looked up at the sky. It was still a few hours from sunset. “Okay, Nika. We’ll go home, rest—” I started to object, and Dad held up his hand. “Then we’ll come back at sunset and see if he’s okay. Deal?”

  No, I didn’t want to do it that way, but I knew when to push my dad and when to concede. And besides, the rest of my family was probably sick with worry too. Dad picked up Julian, and Mom scooped up Arianna. Julian was embarrassed to be carried about like a doll, but it would take him forever to get home on his own and he knew it.

  Dad looked back at me and nodded. He was trusting me to follow him, and I would. If Hunter was buried beneath burned-out rubble, he wasn’t going anywhere for a while.

  We headed back to the ranch without pause. Even for the supernaturally enhanced, it was a long run. I was tired afterward, and not excited about the return trip tonight, but I would go three times that distance to make sure Hunter was okay. God, I hoped he was okay.

  The front door of the ranch opened as we approached it. Alanna was there with Grandma Linda and Grandpa Jack. They all looked terribly concerned, and I suddenly felt really bad for leaving town without letting them know I was okay. I understood with perfect clarity how horrible that unknown feeling was.

  Dad set Julian down in the entryway, and Alanna immediately gave him a fierce hug, then she looked at his leg. Frowning, she said to Dad, “Get him upstairs and undressed. He needs a stitch or two.”

  Julian’s face paled. “Whoa…maybe we should go to a hospital.” He pointed over to where I was hugging Grandma Linda. “Nika got to go to a hospital when she was shot.”

  Standing, Alanna patted his shoulder. “It’s a small wound. I can fix you.”

  Julian’s eyes widened as far as they could go. Anxiety rushed from him into me. “You have drugs, right? I won’t feel it, right?”

  Alanna only smiled, then nodded at Dad. Before Dad could take off with him, a loud squeal pierced the momentary silence. “Julian! You’re back!”

  His mood sinking, Julian closed his eyes. A young girl dashed into the room and ran toward him. Olivia, Ben’s daughter. The tiny girl threw her arms around my brother, burying her blonde head into his chest and nearly squeezing the life out of him. Arianna cracked a small smile at seeing the preteen rival for Julian’s affections. I looked around the room. If Olivia was here, then Ben was nearby too.

  He came around the corner a few seconds later. “Hey, kiddos. You both had us all pretty terrified.”

  He held his arms open, and I rushed into them. “Uncle Ben, what are you doing here?”

  Squeezing me, he indicated Julian attempting to untangle Olivia from his aching body; Dad had to help him. “Hopped a plane the minute I heard you two dropped off the map. We all did.”

  Ben looked up at the ceiling, and I followed his gaze. Someone was walking around upstairs, muttering something about vampires not being real. Stunned, I snapped my head down to meet Ben’s gaze. “Aunt Tracey is here? And she knows?”

  I glanced over at Olivia, then back to him. Ben knew what I meant. Tracey knew we were vampires. Mouth in a firm line, he nodded. “Yeah. I couldn’t fly out here again without telling her why.” He locked eyes with my dad. “The real reason why.”

  Dad sighed. “I still think you shouldn’t have told her.”

  Ben smirked. “And I still think you shouldn’t have tried to wipe me.”

  Dad rolled his eyes. “You’re never gotta let that go, are you?”

  Olivia looked confused. “What do you mean wipe him?” She looked back at Julian. “And where did you go? Did you run away? And why is there blood on your jeans.” Her eyes widened. “Oh my gosh, are you hurt?”
>
  Alanna patted her shoulder. “He’ll be fine, dear. It’s just a scratch.”

  She indicated for Dad to take Julian away. He put his arm around Julian and helped him hobble up the stairs; Grandma Linda went with him. When Olivia started to follow them, Ben grabbed her shoulder. “Leave him be, Liv.” She frowned, but remained by his side.

  Arianna started to follow, but Alanna stopped her with a sentence. “We should get you home.” Alanna patted her arm. “Your parents must be worried sick.”

  Arianna bit her lip, looking between Alanna and Julian’s retreating form on the stairs; he was looking back at her, his heart in his eyes. He wanted her to stay. “I know, and I don’t want them to worry. I’ll call them and let them know I’m okay, but I want to stay here with Julian.”

  Julian hesitated on the stairs. Alanna glanced at him, then looked down at Arianna. “I’ll get you a phone so you can call them. When they called last night, and again this morning, I told them you had fallen ill and were too sick to travel. You should tell them the same, ask for a few more hours to recover. They might still try to come get you, but at least they won’t call the police. We’ll set things straight when we take you home.”

  She winked at Arianna, and I knew she meant she’d have Halina wipe her parents’ minds. Arianna understood. She gave Alanna a nervous smile, then turned and darted off after Julian.

  Olivia let out a low whistle as she shook her head. “You guys are the coolest parental-type people ever.” She looked up at her dad. “How are they related to Julian, again?”

  Ben patted her shoulder and pointed to the living room. “Why don’t you go play?”

  Olivia gave him a full pout that reminded me of her mother; I could still hear Tracey murmuring that her husband was crazy. “By myself?” Olivia asked.

  Needing a distraction, I said, “I’ll go with her. Keep her company.”

  I knew my family wanted to talk about what had happened, but I couldn’t right now. My mind was spinning. And besides, Julian was filling Dad in on everything. Hopefully he skipped over the part where he’d walked in on Hunter and me after we’d slept together. No need to cause Dad any more grief.