SIXTEEN

MARY ANN PICKED at her dinner, Chinese takeout her dad had brought home. He’d only been home for half an hour, and Riley had stayed with her until the very last second possible, having returned after he’d escorted Victoria to their home. She’d wanted to invite him to eat with them, to introduce him to her dad, but she had let him change into his wolf form and jump out her window because she wasn’t sure her dad was ready for him. Her dad would have thought the study session had been nothing more than a make-out session.

But she missed Riley already. His intensity, his protectiveness. She valued his opinion and needed a sounding board for what she was considering. She could wait and try to sneak her father’s files as Aden had suggested—something she hated doing only because it involved stealing from her dad, her best friend, the man who loved her more than anything and never did things like that to her—or she could ask her father directly, something that could cause him to hide the files Aden wanted just to keep her away from them.

One was unethical, one was just plain risky.

So which path should she take?

The others considered her a bit of a goody-goody, she suspected, but her dad’s well-being was just as important to her as Aden’s. There had to be a way to please them both.

“Not hungry?” He scooped a small mountain of noodles onto his plate. “I thought orange chicken and beef lo mein could tempt you even if you were full of junk.”

Sighing, she pushed her plate away. “I’m just…preoccupied.”

His fork paused midair, noodles dangling from the prongs. “Anything you want to talk about?”

“Yes. No.” Another sigh. “I don’t know.”

He laughed and dropped his fork. “Well, which is it?”

“I need to talk to you, but I don’t want to.”

His smile faded into a frown. “Okay, that sounds serious.”

He had no idea. Otherwise, he’d be glaring at her, lecturing her, or perhaps grounding her for life. “I…” Slow and easy. “I have a question.”

He reached across the table and patted her hand. “You know you can ask me anything.”

They would soon see…“It’s about one of your patients.”

Now his expression hardened and he shook his head. “Anything except that. Patients trust me to keep their secrets, Mar. Not only that, talking about them would be illegal.”

“I know, I know.” She’d expected him to say that and didn’t let it derail her. “The thing is, a few weeks ago, I met a boy. We’ve become really good friends.”

Silence.

Her dad leaned back in his chair and folded his arms over his middle. “Okay. Why am I just now hearing about him and what does Tucker think of your friendship with another guy?”

“What Tucker thinks doesn’t matter. He and I officially broke up.”

Instantly, he shifted from Interrogation Dad to I’m Here For You Dad. “Oh, honey. Are you okay about the breakup? I know I wasn’t always supportive of your relationship with him. I mean, there isn’t a boy out there who’s good enough for you. But I stopped complaining about him because I wanted you happy.”

“I’m okay. I’m the one who severed ties. He was cheating on me.” Admitting it out loud was easier than she’d thought it would be. Still embarrassing, but not soul-crushing.

“I’m so sorry.” Once again he leaned forward and patted her hand. “I counsel couples dealing with infidelity all the time, and the most common response for the victim, and that’s what you are, is a feeling of inadequacy. Of being disposable.”

Even though she hadn’t wanted Tucker anymore, that’s exactly what she’d felt. It had even colored her desire to be with Riley, she realized. She’d automatically assumed he’d think she was too boring for him.

“Sometimes it’s just a one-time lapse and the culprit learns a valuable lesson,” her dad continued, “that what he or she has at home is more precious than any momentary pleasure. Most don’t, though they pretend they do so they can have what they think is the best of both worlds.”

“Tucker’s a pretender for sure.” She had no doubts about that. He was a demon, after all. That still shocked her. She’d meant to question Riley about what exactly being a demon entailed, but then Aden had vanished and they’d spent the next few hours searching her house and the forest for him. Riley had even changed into wolf form and raced to the D and M. With his enhanced sense of smell, tracking came easily to him, he’d said, but even he had found no trace.

Then, when they’d been alone, they’d spent their time getting to know each other. He’d asked about her childhood, about her favorite foods, and listened to her fifteen-year plan without rancor. He’d seemed impressed with her goals.

“It’s important to know that everyone battles attraction for other people, but it’s what they do with those feelings that shows the truth of their character,” her dad said. “Did you know the girl he was seeing on the sly?”

Mary Ann nodded but didn’t want to admit who it was, so she said, “Thank you for the advice.” Penny’s parents may not know about her pregnancy and Mary Ann still loved her enough to protect her privacy. “That’s actually why I wanted to talk to you about this other boy. He’s had a troubled past and is dealing with some things that no one his age should have to deal with.”

Her dad tapped a finger against his chin. “I see where you’re going with this.”

Wait. What? “You do?”

“You want me to talk to him, help him.”

“No. I want you to…tell me about him.”

His brow furrowed with confusion. “I don’t understand. He’s your friend. What could I possibly know about him?”

“I think…I think he was once a patient of yours.” Here goes. Just do it, say it. “His name is Aden Stone.”

First, her father’s breath hitched. Then the color drained from his face. Then he stiffened ever so slightly. She wouldn’t have noticed it if she hadn’t been studying him so intently. Her stomach twisted into sharp, jagged knots, the points cutting her every time she inhaled.

“You do know him,” was all she said.

He looked away from her, a muscle ticking in his jaw. “Once.”

“Did you kick him out of your office?”

Rather than answer, he pushed to his feet. The chair skidded loudly against the kitchen tiles. “It’s late.” There was no emotion in his tone, only distance, as if his thoughts were already someplace else. “You should shower, get some sleep.”

“I’d rather talk to you. Aden needs help, Dad. Not the kind you’re thinking, though, so please don’t tell me never to see him again. I love him like a brother and want to see him happy. And the only way he’ll ever truly be happy is if we find a way to free the people—”

“Enough!” He slammed a fist against the table, rattling the dishes. Fire burned in his eyes. They weren’t flames of fury or exasperation but of hopelessness. It was a look she’d seen only once. The day her mother died and he’d had to be the one to break it to her. “Enough,” he repeated flatly. “We’re not going to talk about this.”

Startled, she froze in place, unable even to breathe. What was he thinking? What had started that fire? “But he told you we would someday meet, that he would be my friend. Even you can’t deny that he wasn’t a crazy little boy but a—”

“I said that’s enough. You need to go to your room. That isn’t a suggestion but an order.” With that, he turned on his heel and stalked away. Down the hall, a door slammed. The door to his office, she knew. Never before had he shut her out.

Her dad remembered Aden. That was clear. But what did he remember? What had changed her normally mild-mannered father into that distant, snarling beast?

 

ADEN CAME AWAKE with a jolt, sitting upright, panting. Sweat covered his body, soaking his shirt to his chest. His wild gaze roved his surroundings…he was in his bedroom, he realized, frowning. What time was it? Through the window he could see the crescent moon, so it was late at night. The silence of the house caused his ears to ring. Everyone was asleep.

He was home, yet he didn’t remember getting here. He hadn’t done his chores, hadn’t spoken to Dan. Last thing he remembered was standing in the woods with Victoria, her teeth in his neck.

His head jerked left and right. Where was—

“Shh.” Victoria was suddenly sitting beside him, pressing a finger against his lips. “You’re all right. You have nothing to worry about. I took care of everything. I cleaned the barn and fed the horses, though the animals weren’t happy to see me. I convinced Dan and the others that you came home when you were supposed to. Dan even thinks the two of you had a nice long chat about your study session.”

Slowly his muscles loosened their vice-grip on his bones. He eased back down, now noticing the ache in his neck. He reached up, but there were no puncture wounds. She must have healed him. By licking his neck as she’d done to his lip?

“Thank you.” He was a little embarrassed that she’d done so much for him. He was the guy and she was the girl. He was supposed to take care of her. “Did you get in trouble with Riley?”

“No. I returned to him when I promised and he, in turn, took me home. He went back to Mary Ann and I snuck out to return to you. I’m so sorry I took so much of your blood, Aden.” She gripped his wrist, her strength enough to crush him. He didn’t complain. Any touch of Victoria’s was welcome. “I should have pulled back, would have pulled back, but you tasted so sweet, better than anyone, everyone, and all I could think was that I wanted, needed more.”

Despite the ache inside him, he shivered in remembrance. His mouth dried and his muscles jerked.

“I told you I was an animal,” she cried.

“No, you’re not.” Whatever she’d pumped into his vein…dear God. He wanted more. He pried her fingers from his arm and twined his own through them. “What you did…I’d be lying if I said I didn’t like it.”

“Yes, but—”

“No buts. You need blood to survive, and I want to be the one to give it to you. As long as I’m alive, I want to be the one you come to, the one you feed from.” His thumb traced the smooth skin of her wrist. Her pulse raced.

She sniffled. “You speak as if you won’t always be around, as if you know you’ll be leaving soon.”

Should he tell her about Elijah’s vision?

He anchored his free hand under his head and stared up at the ceiling. If he told her, she could decide to leave him—for good. A doomed teenager was not exactly good boyfriend material. She could decide to try and save him—which would do her no good and only cause her anguish. Trying to change Elijah’s visions was like trying to stop a tidal wave. With the right tools, you could build a dam, but eventually that dam would break and the damage would be a thousand times worse.

Only once had Aden tried to save a person he’d known was going to die. He’d kept one of his doctors from getting into a car he’d seen crash in his mind. Sadly, she’d escaped the crash only to die later that same day. A pole had fallen from the top of a building and slammed its way through her chest, he’d been told. Rather than die instantly as she would have in the car, she’d died slowly, painfully. He shuddered.

Whether Victoria would leave him or not, she deserved to know the truth. She’d stood up for him to her father, had given him the best days of his life, laughing with him in the water, kissing him, drinking from him.

“Come here,” he said. He released her hand and held out his arm in open invitation. Eagerly she stretched out beside him, her head burrowing in the hollow of his neck. “I have something to tell you. Something you won’t like, something that will probably scare you.”

She stiffened against him. “All right.”

There was nothing left to do but say it. “I’ve seen my own death.”

“What do you mean?”

He heard the horror in her voice and wished he could take back the words. Instead, he plowed ahead. “Sometimes I know when people will die. Sometimes I know how they’ll die. Awhile back I saw my own death, the same as I’ve seen a thousand others.”

Her palm flattened on his chest, just over his heart. She was trembling. “And you’ve never been wrong?”

“Never.”

“When is this supposed to happen? How?”

“I don’t know when, only that I won’t look much older than I do now. I’ll be shirtless and there will be three scars on my right side.”

She sat up, silky hair tumbling down her shoulders and back, and gazed down at his stomach. Without asking permission, she lifted his shirt. There were scars, but not the three parallel lines he’d seen in his vision. “To have scars you must first be injured, and that injury must have time to heal.”

“Yes.”

Her expression hardened with determination. “Once you’ve rested, you will tell me everything you know about this vision and we will do everything in our power to stop it. For what is the point of knowing something in advance if you can’t change it?”

Aden reached up and caressed her cheek. She closed her eyes and leaned into the touch. Some other time, he would tell her the consequences of trying to prevent someone’s death. He’d given her enough to deal with for one night. Here, now, there were a thousand other things to talk about, a thousand other things to do.

“Have you noticed anything different about my room?” he asked. “Anything different about the people here at the D and M?” Maybe Ozzie was as sweet as an angel now that the past had been altered. A guy could hope.

She eased back down and once again curled into his side. This time, she wrapped her arm around his middle and held on tightly, as if afraid to let him go. “The only difference I’ve noticed is the array of pills on your desk. I don’t recall ever seeing those before.”

Pills?

Amid her protests, he rose from the bed and crossed the room to the desk. At first glance, everything looked normal. There was his iPod. A few weeks ago, someone had left it on a park bench and he’d snatched it up. He swept his gaze across the rest of the desk. Pill bottle after pill bottle greeted him. He picked them up one by one and read the labels. No wonder his companions had been silent since his waking. They were totally and completely drugged.

“Guys?”

No response.

“Guys!” he said to jolt them. What if the drugs had done irreparable damage to them? What if they never returned? He thought he’d taken every kind of medication there was, but he—they—had never reacted this way. He glanced at the label. He hadn’t heard of the drug names. Experimental, maybe?

He wanted them out of his head, yes, but he also loved them enough to want them to have lives of their own, fulfilled lives, happy lives. He would rather live with them than see them destroyed.

Elijah had told him one of them would leave him in this new, altered reality. He’d assumed that meant one of them would find a body. What if it meant one of them would be killed inside him? Aden almost threw up then and there. What the hell had he done?

He looked at the name of the doctor printed on the bottles. No longer Dr. Quine, but Dr. Hennessy.

“Guys!”

Finally, Eve spoke. So tired, she said.

Can’t think, Caleb said.

Just want to sleep, Elijah added.

Julian remained quiet.

“Julian,” he demanded in a fierce whisper. Nothing. “Julian!” Louder.

Still quiet.

“Julian, I swear to God if you don’t start talking I’m going to—”

Too loud, Julian slurred. Keep it down.

His shoulders sagged. Thank God. They were all here and they were all alive and well. As well as they could be, anyway.

What happened? Eve asked.

He explained about the drugs. Like him, they retained the memory of their former selves, not changing even when the past did. They wouldn’t know what had happened to them, either.

Aden turned toward the bed, but Victoria was no longer there. He hadn’t heard her move, but she was suddenly beside him, arm wrapping around his waist, holding him tight.

“I have to get back,” she said, head nuzzling against his neck. “My family is awake this time of night and expects me home. There are werewolves out there, besides Riley, that is, surrounding this property to keep you safe. Mary Ann’s house, too.”

Aden cupped her cheeks and pressed a soft kiss against her lips. “Will I see you to—” He stopped dead. There was someone at his window, glaring into his bedroom. Glaring at him. He shoved Victoria behind him. “Hide,” he told her, gaze searching for his blades. Where had she stored them?

“What’s—” She stepped around him, gaze following his. A breath hissed between her teeth. “No. No, no, no,” she said on a moan. “Not him. Anyone but him.”

Why would the wolves have allowed someone Victoria disliked this close to the ranch? “Do you know him?” Aden couldn’t stop a tide of jealousy from swimming through him. The man, whoever he was, was tall with blond hair and golden eyes. Who was he? What was he? Aden’s gaze sharpened, going deeper, and he froze. A vampire. With skin as pale as Victoria’s, his fangs peeking from his lips, gleaming white, that’s all he could be.

She moved from behind Aden. He reached for her, planning to draw her back.

“Don’t touch me,” she said, her voice colder than he’d ever heard it.

“Victoria?”

She glided to the window. “I told you to stay away from me, Aden, and I meant it.” With that, she disappeared in a blur of movement.

 

WHEN RILEY LEAPT through Mary Ann’s window at one o’clock in the morning, she was sitting at the edge of her bed, surrounded in darkness, arms hugged to her chest, rocking back and forth.

She didn’t say a word as he trotted into her bathroom. Didn’t say a word when he emerged fully clothed and crouched in front of her.

“Mary Ann,” he whispered. He traced a fingertip over her cheek. “You okay?”

His skin was warm, his hands callused. Comforting. She couldn’t stop herself from leaning her head onto his shoulder. At first, he stiffened. Why? Then his free arm wrapped around her waist, tugging her even closer, and she forgot all about that momentary rigidity.

He wore the same shirt and jeans he always wore when over at her house. And no underwear, her mind supplied, causing her to blush.

He chuckled, which caused her blush to spread. “Hello, excitement.”

“What are you doing back here?” she asked, changing the subject. She did not want to tell him what had caused that excitement.

“I took Victoria home. My time is now my own.”

“What if she sneaks out again?” There’d been something in Victoria’s expression earlier that said such a thing was highly likely. Besides, to be with Riley, Mary Ann would have done just that. Who are you becoming? She didn’t want Riley in trouble.

He smiled wryly. “There’s someone else in charge of her care tonight.”

“Who? Why?”

“That is Victoria’s secret to share. Not mine,” he said, his tone suddenly flat. “Now. Tell me what you were thinking about when I arrived.”

She leaned back and looked down at her hands. “My father knew Aden. I just mentioned his name and my dad started acting weird. He locked himself in his office and hasn’t come out since.”

“Well, at the moment he’s asleep.”

Her gaze lifted. “You’re sure?”

“Very. I peeked in on him and his aura is white, serene. Plus, he’s snoring.” Once more, Riley traced a fingertip over her cheek.

Her skin tingled.

“More excitement,” he said, lips curling in a grin.

She wanted to pull out her hair—or maybe his—in frustration. “Stop reading me.”

That grin faded. “Why?”

“It’s unfair. I never know how you’re feeling.”

He arched a brow. “In that case, allow me to share. At any given time, it’s safe to say I’m thinking about you and equally excited.”

“Oh.” Wow. The frustration drained. “You…like me like me, then?”

“Why else would I hang around like this? Why else would I sometimes want to destroy your good friend Aden? Too good a friend, if you ask me. And what about your feelings?”

She watched him, incredulous. “Can’t you guess?”

“Just say it,” he growled.

“Fine,” she said, suddenly wanting to laugh. “Yes. I like you.”

His harsh expression evened out. “Good. That’s good.” He stroked her hair and sighed as he glanced at the alarm clock on her nightstand. “Much as I’d like to continue this conversation, we have to find those files Aden wants. Victoria has insisted I must do what I can.”

“I have a feeling they’re with my dad.”

Frowning, Riley pushed to a stand. “There is only one way to find out.”

“I know,” she said on a sigh. It’s what she’d been debating for hours and had finally decided to do. Wait until her dad fell asleep and then go down there and search.

“Don’t worry,” he said. “I can get them on my own. You won’t have to be involved.”

Was that what she wanted? She’d promised to help Aden. And as her history teacher was fond of saying, “A successful future is impossible if you don’t know your past.” Maybe her dad had seen something in Aden, something that could point them in the right direction.

Their birth certificates hadn’t arrived yet, so they didn’t know who his parents were and couldn’t even visit the hospital where he’d been born to retrieve his medical records. Their only hope at the moment lay in her dad’s files.

I am not a coward. I do not welsh on my promises. Besides, it would be better if she took the files rather than someone else. She would be keeping them in the family, so to speak.

She stood, squared her shoulders. “We’ll do it. Together.” And then she did something that shocked them both. She rose on her tiptoes and pressed a swift kiss on his lips. “Thank you for returning to help me.”

When she tried to move away, he latched onto her forearms and held her in place. His eyes were gleaming. “Next time you decide to do that…”

“What?” she said, stiffening. “Give you a little warning?”

“No.” He grinned. “Linger.”