Hunted

Chapter 17

Janie clutched her teddy bear closer to her chest, her eyes drooping. Mr. Mullet wasn’t doing a good job of keeping her awake. They were snuggled underground again ... where the earth sometimes whispered to her. Pony pictures drawed by Uncle Dage covered her bedroom walls, and a pretty dollhouse Uncle Conn had made sat in the corner. Her mama whistled in the other room, sewing socks for the baby ... but they looked more like orange holders. She really couldn’t sew.

Janie needed to stay awake until her daddy came home ... he and her uncles had hurried off to fight again, and she had a bad feeling. The kind of feeling she got after eating too much cotton candy and too many hotdogs.

Soon enough she found herself wandering along a wide golf course just like the one a pony had played on during her favorite television show last week. With a shrug, she gave into the dream. Might as well make the grass purple, and the trees made of licorice. Yum. Even the air smelled yummy.

Where in the world was Zane? Her best friend, her only friend since she left home, they met in dreams. When they both slept. She searched the area ... then found him. Her laughter echoed across the distance, where he stood in a big sand trap made of ... what was that? Oh no. Cotton candy.

He smiled, jumping out of the pink mess. But his smile didn’t seem right. His pretty green eyes didn’t smile, too.

She ran, meeting him near a shiny flag blowing in the wind. “What’s wrong?”

He lifted a dark eyebrow like her daddy did. Then he dropped to sit so she wouldn’t have to look up. Zane turned eleven a while ago ... and grew way taller than her. It wasn’t fun being only five years old. She sat next to him, biting her lip. “What’s wrong?”

“I have to move.” He rubbed his jaw, sadness coming off him.

“Oh.” She patted his big hand on the purple grass. “I just moved, too. You might like your new home.”

“No.” He shook his head, sending long dark hair flying. “My father, we don’t know where he is. His unit has disappeared.”

Janie’s chest ached. Zane’s daddy worked as a soldier with the vampires, fighting against the bad Kurjans. “Maybe they’re hiding out to catch all of the bad guys. Your daddy will be home soon, Zane.” Please let Zane’s daddy be all right. She remembered how scary it was living without a daddy ... she didn’t have one until Talen showed up. Now she had him. The world was safer with him.

“I hope so.” Zane’s smile seemed lopsided. “Until he returns, we’re going to live with my mother’s people. Her family.”

Janie didn’t ask where his mama’s family lived. They’d agreed a long time ago not to tell. Well, Zane said they needed to keep secrets, just in case. So she didn’t ask. “Do you like her family?”

He shrugged. “They train as hard as my people, so that’ll be good. I’ll keep training.”

Her head ached. Sometimes she saw the future, but she didn’t get to choose when. Even stuff she didn’t understand had rules. She didn’t like rules. “Do you have to move far away?” Okay. She really wondered where Zane lived.

He shook his head. “How is Mr. Mullet?”

She’d described her bear, a present from Aunt Emma, to him once, but had never been able to bring Mr. Mullet into a dream. “He’s good. I asked him to keep me awake, but he didn’t.” She eyed the tops of the trees turning a sunny yellow. “I’m not sure why I can’t bring him into the dream. Honest, I don’t think he wants to come.” She’d brought other goodies to show Zane, and she always wore the horseshoe necklace he’d given her for her last birthday.

“Perhaps bears don’t like dreams.”

“Yeah.” She’d been wondering about something. “I saw a movie last week with vampires as the bad guys.”

He frowned. “A scary movie?”

“Kind of.” She had a television in her room and couldn’t sleep that night. Her mama didn’t know she’d watched it. “They had big fangs and drank blood.”

“Oh.” Zane rubbed his hands on his jeans.

“Do you have fangs?”

“Yes. Got them last year.” He opened his mouth and his side teeth lowered down. Sharp and white, they could cause a big owie.

“Do they hurt?” She wanted to touch one, but didn’t think Zane would like her fingers in his mouth.

“No.” The teeth went back into his mouth. “Though it took a while to get used to them. I kept cutting my lip.” He grinned.

Janie snorted. “That’s funny. But you drink blood, right?” Yuck.

He shrugged. “Well, humans need blood when they get hurt, and you give them that with needles. So yeah, when we are injured and need blood, we just get it faster because we can use our fangs.”

“In the movie, the vampires needed blood to live ’cause they couldn’t make their own. So they fed on people.”

“Don’t believe movies, Janie. We make our own blood, as do you. Though, our blood will heal a human because of the extra stuff in it.” Zane stood, holding down a hand to help her up. “I need to go right now, and it may be a while until I have a chance to fully sleep and dream. For some reason, it takes me longer to get into this world than it does you.”

Janie pushed her lip out. “You’ll be back, right?”

“I will. For now, my brothers need help, and my mother is worried. I need to take care of them.”

Janie nodded, standing and squeezing his hand. “You’re my best friend, Zane. Forever.” In fact, someday they were going to save the world. Probably. Well, if things went the right way in life.

“You’re my best friend too, Janie Belle.” He’d given her the name the first time they met, saying “Janet Isabella” sounded too grown up for his new buddy. “No matter what happens, remember that, okay?” He blocked out the dream sun, and she fought a shiver. It was good they were on the same side.

“I’ll remember.” She let him go, watching him walk down the purple grass until disappearing.

A tickle made her neck itch. She sighed. It had been at least six months since Kalin tried to get into her dreams. Kalin was a Kurjan, a bad boy, and someday he and Zane were gonna fight. She wanted them all to be friends. A nice girl would try hard to be Kalin’s friend.

She let him inside her dream.

He’d gotten even taller. She tilted her head, letting him walk across the grass toward her. The Kurjans had pasty white skin, either purple or red eyes, and reddish or black-red hair. But Kalin’s eyes were green, his skin not totally pasty, and his hair black with red tips. Usually.

She waited until he got closer. “What happened to your hair?” It was all black with no red. It matched his lips and ... yep. His fingernails. “You look like one of those scary people on the grownup channel.”

He smiled, flashing sharp teeth. “Yeah. I dyed my hair.” As he came closer, the smell of salty ocean came with him. Weird that she never smelled Zane in a dream. He probably smelled like something really good.

Kalin shrugged. “Yeah. It’s pissing my people off.”

“Huh.” Janie shuffled her feet. “You said pissing.” Bad boys said bad words. Though for some reason, the black lipstick made him seem less scary than last time.

“Um. Sorry.” He dropped right where Zane had sat. “How are things?”

She frowned, sitting a small distance away. “Okay. How are you?”

He twirled a pocketknife in his hands. “Confused. I mean, I’ve always accepted my destiny—to rule the Kurjans, then the world. But ... I don’t know.” He flicked the blade open. “Everyone is afraid of me, and it’s not like I can talk to anyone.”

Boy teenagers were weird. Even Kurjan ones. He was what, fifteen now? “You can talk to me.”

“Thank you.” He closed the blade, shoving it in the pants pocket of his skinny black jeans. Just like the teenagers wore on television. “I figured you’re the only one I can talk to. Thanks for letting me in the dream.”

“Do you wanna be friends?” If they became friends, then Kalin and Zane would be friends, and they would end the war.

Kalin shrugged. “I don’t know. Friends are new to me.”

Janie sat up straighter. “You found a friend, Kalin?” This might be so good. If Kalin made a friend, he’d want more. She’d had lots of friends in preschool before they moved. It was fun having lots of friends. Some would want to play games; others would dress up with her in princess costumes. Now she was a real princess. But she missed her friends.

A slight pink covered Kalin’s face. “I think so. I mean, she’s kind of a friend.”

Oh. Kalin found a girlfriend. Janie fought the urge to sing about Kalin in a tree. He wouldn’t like that. “What’s her name?”

“Peggy.” Kalin grabbed a pebble off the green, throwing it into the sand trap. “She’s human.”

“You should give her flowers.” Janie had watched a TV show last week where the boy picked daisies and gave them to a girl with a broken leg. “Or candy.”

Kalin ran his palm along the short, springy grass. “I guess. I mean, I probably should clear the field first. We’ve been talking on the phone a lot. She likes the Goth look, but she has these other friends, guys ... and I was thinking. . . ”

Janie gasped. “You can’t kill them, Kalin. Not if you want Peggy to like you.”

He glanced up, his green eyes swirling with red sparks. “Sure I can. I mean, if you love someone, you want them to really know you, right?”

“Well, yeah.” Janie frowned. “But you’ve never killed anyone yet, right? So you don’t need to start.”

He blinked. Twice. “No. I haven’t killed, but I will. We are at war, Janie. I’m a soldier.” He rubbed his chin, exactly like Zane had done. Must be a boy thing. “She thinks I’m this kind of dangerous guy she met at the movies one night. She has no idea who I am.”

“You can be who you want. Be someone she’ll like.” Be someone who wants to end the war. For the first real time, Janie figured they had a chance to fix everything. “Sometimes it’s what we mean to do that matters.” She sighed.

How could she put this in boy words? “When I went to preschool, a girl named Melanie brung a cool pencil—blue with pink dots. I super-duper wanted it. She left it on the table one day, and I thought about taking it.” Janie’s face got hot. She probably shouldn’t tell Kalin this. “But I didn’t ... and I was happy I didn’t. I could’ve and nobody would’ve caught me, but stealing is bad. I was good.”

Kalin frowned. “So you’re saying even though I can end these guys, if I choose to not to do that, I’ve become a better person?”

“Sure, and then you’d prove you’re a better person. So next time the decision will be easier.” Hopefully. This teenage stuff confused her. “You want Peggy to know the real you.”

“Interesting.”

“So, uh, do you have fangs?” She wondered if his were like Zane’s.

Kalin tilted his head to the side and opened his mouth. His fangs shot out, sharp and clean.

“Do you drink blood?” The idea still seemed icky.

“Yes.” His teeth went back to normal. “Though only if I’m hurt.”

She’d gotten a paper cut last week and tasted the blood. But she didn’t like it. “What does blood taste like to you?”

He shrugged. “Depends on whose blood I’m drinking. If someone eats a bunch of candy, their blood is sweeter. Everyone’s different.”

“Oh.” She bet her mama’s blood tasted like chocolate.

Kalin stood, reaching a hand to help Janie up.

She took his offer and slid her hand into his. It was big like Zane’s, but not as warm. “Thanks.”

She let go once on her feet.

Kalin smiled. “Any time. Thanks for listening, Janie.” He turned to stroll off the green without a backward glance.

Kalin woke himself from the dream with a start, wondering if the little genius was on to something. Why in the world had he lied to her? Of course he’d killed. Many times, usually women he hunted. For some reason, he hadn’t wanted Janie to know. He stretched in the bed.

Cold. Even with heaters, a chill always wound through his room built into the rocks underground. Probably because the ocean fronted the rock cliffs. So many fathoms down it became freezing. “Lights.” They flicked on, and he rolled from the bed, missing the bright colors and warmth of Janie’s dream world.

How bizarre that his future enemy was his only friend.

His feet curled into a thick Persian rug he’d stolen from a woman he’d killed in Kansas. She’d been a redhead who owned an antique store. He liked to take a gift, something to help him remember his women. Usually he took smaller trinkets, but the richness of the rug called to him. He’d had to lug it to the private plane he had waiting. Franco didn’t care if Kalin killed, just insisted he do so away from headquarters, so Kalin always had a plane waiting.

He shrugged, his gaze landing on pictures scattered across the rock wall. “Hello, Peggy.”

The stunning teenager filled every photograph in different scenes, in different clothes. The night pictures he’d taken himself, plus a few during cloudy days when she’d hurried into school, unaware of his vigil. He’d hired a local delinquent to take pictures during the sunny days, since the sun would fry his skin from his body. Hundreds of pictures. Of course, Kalin had broken the moron’s neck after delivery. He certainly didn’t want Peggy to think he was stalking her. He merely wanted pictures.

After bowling that first night, they’d slid easily into friendship. He’d made a mistake revealing his real age. Should’ve said he was older. Although she thought him too young to date, something about him intrigued her. Women were like moths ... the flame attracted them. He was different from boys at her school—homeschooled, yet dangerous.

Soon, very soon he’d make his move. Kiss her, take her to a hotel for the night. The night they’d held hands, running through the rain had almost killed him. His jeans had been so tight he thought he’d explode. The girl was sexy as hell. He’d gotten plenty of experience the last couple years. Sure, those women weren’t willing, but he’d still learned. He’d please Peggy.

The center picture was his favorite. He had taken it at the bowling alley with his cell phone. She smiled at him and actually posed. Her sparkling blue eyes filled with life, and her shiny brown hair billowed around her shoulders.

Interesting. Kalin had never put it together before, but Peggy looked like Janie. Same coloring. Same delicate bone structure.

He threw on sweats and thick socks, yawning and wandering through his quarters to Franco’s private office. No need to knock. He’d one day rule their nation ... and he didn’t knock. The leader stood dressed in his soldier’s black and red uniform by the wall of windows showcasing deep-sea life. It was dark, merciless, and absent of fish.

“Franco.” Kalin dropped into a leather chair that chilled his skin further. His father had owned fish in a pretty tank. Nobody owned the fish outside the windows—those that were nowhere to be seen at the moment. What would his father have thought about Peggy? Too bad Talen had murdered him. Now Kalin would never know.

Franco turned, his purple eyes swirling. At seven feet tall, the man held grace in spades. “You look ridiculous.”

Kalin shrugged. “The black paint makes it easier for me to walk among humans.” So he could spend more time with Peggy. Show her that fifteen was old enough for her.

“I wish you’d get your head back in the game.” Franco scowled. “You haven’t even read my brother’s newest report about the chances of turning Virus-27 airborne.”

“Won’t that endanger Kurjan mates?” Kalin yawned again, scratching his belly. Man, he needed more sleep. Sadness filtered through him that he couldn’t mate Peggy. The idea made his groin harden. He dreamt about her ruling with him—once he cured her of that independent streak. He couldn’t mate her, and not just because she wasn’t an enhanced female. Fate held other plans for him. Peggy would make a nice companion on the side.

“Possibly.” Franco shrugged. “Hopefully Erik will come up with an antidote. If not, well, you understand the final plan.”

“Yep. Though I plan on killing Talen Kayrs long before that.” Kalin stretched his neck. “The bastard killed my father. . . and his head is mine.” His father had taken Cara Kayrs, and Talen had retaliated. He wondered if he should hide the fact that he intended to kill Talen from Janie?

“Of course.” Franco turned back toward the silent sea.

“If my father had lived, he’d have passed the reins to me.” Would Kalin need to kill Franco to take his rightful place? Intriguing thought.

“Your father was as ambitious as he was foolhardy. He would not have easily given up ruling.” Franco swirled around, power filling his eyes. “Why is this in your mind? Apparently you just want to screw around with humans and have stopped dedicating yourself to training.”

The smile sliding across Kalin’s lips failed to keep his fangs from dropping. “I’m dedicated, and you know it.” He cocked his head to the side. “You’re correct that ambition ruled my father. To be honest, I’m not sure he’d ever have turned over control.” At some point in time, leadership would’ve come down to a fight to the death.

Franco shrugged. “True. We have many years to plan each other’s deaths, Kalin. At some point, I may want to step down. My immediate plans are a bit more narrow in focus.”

Interesting. “What plans?” Something tickled the base of Kalin’s neck. What motivated Franco if not power?

“Irrelevant.”

No. Knowledge equaled power, a lesson Kalin learned early on. He clicked through facts. “Oh yeah. The Prophet Lily?”

“Don’t you worry about Lily. I’m making plans as we speak.” Franco licked his lips.

Kalin leaned forward in his chair. Wait a minute. “The virus. Please don’t tell me you came up with this whole virus plan to free Lily from her dead mate.” The virus took a vampire mate down to human again ... hopefully ... so she could be remated. Kurjans only got one mate. One living mate, that was.

Franco snorted. “Don’t be silly. Freeing Lily to mate again is a fortunate by-product of the virus. Of course, I made sure the waiter infected her last year.”

The dark flush crossing Franco’s face made Kalin bite back a grin. “Well now. Good luck with her.” She’d lost her mate centuries ago, but had only contracted the virus recently. “How odd the virus actually allows women the chance to leave a mating match. We’re following the humans.” What was next? No-fault divorce laws?

Franco growled. “Mind your own business. I do wish you’d hurry up and desert your current phase. Take off the black lipstick ... and return to killing people.”

Kalin stretched to his feet and sauntered toward the door. “I’ll see what I can do.”