"I've never taken a whole family, nor am I responsible for the two men you say were attacked today." Kade felt a cold pit opening up in his gut. Twisted though he may be, his brother was being honest about this. He hadn't killed the Toms family. He hadn't killed Lanny Ham and left Big Dave Grant for dead. If not Seth, then who?
Kade had long abandoned the idea that Rogues might be responsible--not without reports of missing Breed males from the region's Darkhaven populations or some other indicators that there were vampires in the throes of Bloodlust running loose in the area.
So, what possibility was left?
Could it be the vampire who'd made Skeeter Arnold his mind slave? And if so, why would a powerful Breed elder prefer to hunt in the remote, sparsely populated wilds of Alaska when he could choose from countless cities teeming with humans instead? It simply didn't add up. But none of that excused Seth's crimes, or his unrepentance for his actions.
"What happened to you?" Kade asked him, staring into the face that was so like his own, the brother he still loved, despite everything he'd done. "Why, Seth? How did you allow yourself to lose so much control?"
"Lose control?" He laughed, shaking his head at Kade. "When else can we feel more in control than during the hunt? We are Breed, my brother. It's who we are, it's in our very blood. Killing is what we are born to do.">"It will be safer for her this way."
"What are you talking about?"
Kade swiveled his head to face her. "There is more to your monsters than you know, Alex. Much more."
She stared at him. "What are you saying, Kade?"
"Earlier today, out at the cabin, you said you trusted me, right?" She swallowed, nodded mutely.
"Then trust me, Alex. Ah, fuck. Trust no one but me now." He glanced back at Skeeter Arnold's body-the Minion corpse he was now going to have to lose somewhere, and fast. "I need you to go back outside. You can't say anything to anyone about Big Dave or Skeeter or what happened in here just now. Tell no one what you saw in here, Alex. I need you to walk out there, go back home, and wait for me to come to you. Promise me."
"But he--" Her voice choked off as she gestured toward the broken body on the floor.
"I'll take care of everything. All I need is for you to tell me that you trust me. That you believe me when I tell you there's no reason for you to be afraid. Not of me." He reached out to stroke her chilled cheek, relieved that she didn't flinch from him or pull away. He was asking for a hell of a lot from her--far more than he had a right to. "Go home and wait for me, Alex. I'll be there as soon as I can." She blinked a couple of times, then took a few steps backward. Her eyes were bleak on his as she inched toward the open door, and for a moment he wondered if her fear would prove too much for her now.
"It's okay," he said. "I trust you, too, Alex." He turned around and listened as she walked out and left him there to clean up his mess alone.
Chapter Seventeen
In one instant, her world had suddenly shifted on its axis.
Alex walked away from Kade, surprised that her legs were functioning when her mind was spinning with the illogic of what she'd just witnessed him do--not only to Skeeter Arnold, but also to Fran Littlejohn. Was it some type of hypnotism he'd used on her, or something more powerful than that to make the woman bend so easily to his will?
And Skeeter ...
What did he mean, saying all those strange things to Kade, talking about how he was carrying out orders from his "Master"? It was crazy talk, and yet Skeeter hadn't seemed crazy. He'd seemed very dangerous, no longer the small-time drug dealer and all-around loser she knew him to be, but something deadly. Something almost inhuman.
He wasn't really alive anymore ... just a shell.
He had killed Big Dave in cold blood, and Kade had snapped Skeeter's neck with his bare hands. Oh, God. Nothing was making sense to her.
There's more to your monsters than you know, Alex.
Kade's warning echoed in her head as she stepped out into the lightless cold of the afternoon. How could any of this be happening? It couldn't be happening. How could any of this be reality?
But she knew it was, just as surely as she had always known that what had happened all those years ago in Florida was reality, too.
Trust no one but me now.
Alex wasn't sure she had any choice. Who else did she have? What Kade had just done--everything he'd just said in the clinic--had left her with more questions than she was prepared to ask. She was terrified and uncertain, more than ever now. Kade was dangerous; she'd seen that for herself only a minute ago. Yet he was also protective, not only of Alex herself, but of Fran Littlejohn, too--a woman he didn't even know. In spite of all he'd said and done just now, Kade was a solid anchor in a reality that had suddenly cast Alex adrift. It was his strength and trust that buoyed her as she stared at the small crowd still clustered in front of the clinic. The dozen-plus faces she had known for so long now appeared to her as strangers as she unobtrusively slipped past them. Even Zach, who glanced over when she had just about made it to the outer edge of the throng, seemed less a friend than a source of doubt and unwanted complication. His eyes narrowed on her, but she kept walking, desperate to get out of there. "Alex." An arrow of sudden, cold panic stabbed her. Zach was the last person she needed to see right now. She pretended not to hear him, walked a bit faster.
"Alex, hold up." He pushed his way through, catching her by the sleeve of her parka. "Will you wait a damned minute?"
Given no choice, she paused. It was a struggle to keep her expression neutral as she faced him. There was no containing the tremble that swept her body while Zach scowled at her in the dark.
"Are you all right? Your face is white as a sheet."
She shook her head, jerked her shoulder in an awkward shrug. "I'm just a little wrung out, I guess."