Dawn's First Light

"Absolutely nothing, child. She's most anxious for a reunion. Although, she was a bit naughty in the beginning," he said, gesturing to the smoldering chunks of wood. "She truly is stunning in her ruthlessness. I'd like to say, she's a chip off the old block. But, I can't take all the credit for what you helped to create."

Bryce cursed under his breath and wrapped his arms around Kayla to drag her to her feet. Her eyes remained fixed on Roark. Trembling, she fought weakly against his hold. Tears dangled from her lashes and her skin turned a sickly shade of white in the pale moonlight. "I'm sorry, Kayla. I didn't know how to tell you," he whispered.

The blood drained from her face as she realized Bryce and Keene knew and neither one of them had told her the truth. She swayed on her feet. If only she could faint and opt out of the living nightmare. "No," Kayla gasped under her breath. Angel was damned. And she was out for blood.

Keene moved in between Kayla and Roark. He'd rip the fucker's head off before he let the bastard harm one hair on her head. Gripping the dagger he tipped his chin to Roark in a silent dare. "Bryce, get her the hell out of here," he hissed. Things were about to get ugly. And Kayla was too close to the line of fire.

Lance narrowed his eyes and scanned the dark woods. They were silent, unnaturally still without a breath of wind to stir the trees. He didn't like it. He smelled nothing out of the ordinary. But, he didn't trust it. He moved to flank Bryce, guarding his brother's back.

The world shifted and Kayla wasn't sure if her body was finally giving in and she was going to faint or if Bryce had picked her up in his arms. She felt nothing. Numb from the innermost part of her mind down to the tips of her toes. She stared at Roark over Bryce's shoulder, clinging to his neck as if her life depended on it. And it did. She could hate Bryce later for lying to her. For now, she needed the solidness of him surrounding her.

Roark grinned and dipped his chin to Keene. Unfortunately, the man wasn't what he'd come for. And truly, neither was the bitch Keene protected. He'd deal with them later. Roark had the full attention of the brothers. Nodding and clearing his throat, he spoke. "I've come to reclaim my property. If you would be so kind as to hand her over, I'll make haste and take my leave."

"Kayla is not property," Dane bristled. "She resides with us of her free will, not as a prisoner."

"I see." He saw the flash of movement out of the corner of his eye. Damn, Angel was good. Better then he'd expected. She hefted the girl over her shoulder and moved silently into the trees. If he hadn't given the signal, the dipping of his chin, and known to be watching for her, he wouldn't have seen a thing. And given that none of the sword-wielding do-gooders so much as batted an eyelash, neither had they. He stalled, giving Angel time to clear the woods. "Kayla, won't you come home? We could be a family again. You know how much you meant to me."

Bryce grappled with Kayla to keep his hold as she practically climbed his body like a tree oblivious to anything but her panic. Her skin was slicked with cold sweat and holding onto her was a trick. He could kick himself for agreeing to let her leave the compound. But, he thought if she could see the brothers and him, caring for the fallen. Maybe, she'd understand, for once and for all, that not all vampires were like Roark. If not for Lance's hands reaching out to stabilize her weight, she would have fallen to the ground.

Roark seemed so sincere. But, lies were what he was best at. A part of her almost believed him. A part, a very faint, distant part of her wanted to run and throw herself into his arms. She was incapable of speech. Her mouth moved, but the words were stuck in her throat. "Never," she gritted.

Roark forced a fatherly grin on his lips. He thought not. Smart girl. He turned to Dane. "Mark my words, I will have her back. I'll have the both of them back. You can't change what they are inside. And their souls are mine."

"They are free to go at anytime they wish to leave," Dane said. His life would be so much simpler if he could just kill the son of a bitch. "Do we not have an accord? You tread a fine line my friend. And it would be a shame to violate the tenuous trust we've managed to maintain these past months."

Roark nodded and smiled congenially. "So it would. I meant no offense. I also wanted to offer my most sincere thanks to you for cleaning up after my sweet Angel. She sends her most sincere apologies. Don't worry she's been properly disciplined for any wrong doing on her part."

Dane raised his eyebrows at that statement. He doubted Roark's version of wrong -doing and his were quite the same. "Very well, see to it that she doesn't violate the law."

"Of course," Roark said. Angel was clear of the woods and headed for the vehicle hidden behind a decaying barn at the edge of town. "I bid you good day, then." He leapt over the side of the cliffs and landed with cat like agility on his feet on the rocky slopes below.

"Follow him, see to it he gets out of town and stays out," Dane said to John Mark. Roark left too easily. The man had simply popped by in the middle of a funeral to ruffle a few feathers and then left as abruptly as he'd come. Dane wasn't an idiot and he didn't buy that for a second. "Patrick, check it out, was he alone?"

Patrick sniffed the air. He frowned and inhaled deeper. There was a scent, faint but present, creatively masked beneath the musky, natural scent of fox urine and the acrid smoke from the funeral pyre. He scanned the periphery of the clearing and noticed the crumpled blanket on the ground. "Damn it!" He ran and pressed the fabric to his nose. "The son of a bitch had gotten one over on them again. Anna should have roasted the fucker's ass when she'd had the chance. Dane, they've got Lori!"

Keene growled his sword gripped tightly in his hand. How had they gotten to her without anyone seeing it? Why didn't he sense her fear through their link? He'd failed her. Again. He rushed through the woods, following Patrick. His brothers closed in behind him tight on his heels. If they thought they were going to stop him, they were wrong. He'd risk anything to save her. They made a pact. And he was going to stick to it. If she died, he died too.

Chapter 45

Lori moaned and cursed at the waves of dizziness and the throbbing in her head. WTF? One minute she was sitting on the ground wrapped in a fuzzy, comfy, warm blanket. Then the next she woke up here, in the back of a speeding van with her wrists and ankles tightly bound with duct tape and a gag stuffed into her mouth.

"Neat trick huh?" Angel asked. Keeping her eyes focused on the highway, she dodged around the slower traffic to make it to her pickup point on time. "Roark taught me that. A little pressure applied in just the right place and presto, unconscious human." Shooting a glance at Lori over her shoulder, she grinned and winked then wrinkled her brow in a frown at the accusatory glare in the girl's eyes. "Hey, I'm really sorry about dragging you into this. Really. But, it's Keene's fault. You should blame him. He should have known better than to get involved with a human."

Tears welled up in the corners of Lori's eyes. Her heart pounded with terror when the vampire mentioned Roark's name. She struggled fruitlessly against the tight bindings only working them tighter on her wrists and ankles. The vampire didn't look any older than she. Petite with a short, cropped pixie cut, she wore gelled into black spikes. The vampire would have appeared almost impish if not for the fangs protruding from beneath her upper lip. She strained her neck and tried to heft her weight onto her knees to steal a glance through the windshield in hopes of getting a fix on her location. As the vampire steered the van around a sharp curve in the road, Lori fell back and rolled across the floor into the side panel.

"Now don't cry," Angel huffed. "It won't do you any good. Trust me. I don't have a beef with Keene, per se. Personally, I think he's a great guy. And I thought for a few minutes, I could let this whole thing go." Angel shrugged and pressed on the gas. "This whole revenge business really isn't my style. But, if I help Roark, he'll give me Kayla. That bitch deserves what she's got coming to her. She abandoned me and left me to suffer at the hands of you know who. Trust me, it wasn't pretty."

Angel scoffed, "Maybe, you'll get lucky and he'll kill you quickly." She hazarded a pitying glance in the rearview mirror and eyed Lori. God, the girl really was his type. All youthful, tanned, fresh faced, coed, girl next door with freckles dotting the bridge of her nose and wide green eyes, Roark would make a meal out of her. "For your sake, I hope he does. No one should have to go through what I did. It's really too bad he wants you alive or I'd pull over and end it for you. It'd be a blessing. Trust me on that."

Unable to meet the accusation in the girl's eyes, Angel shifted her attention back to the road. The soft muffled sobs stirred what bit of conscience she had left in her soul. Angel tightened her hands on the wheel. It'd been difficult not to put a kibosh in Roark's plans and go after Kayla. Not that she would have gotten within five feet of her with Keene and that black haired vampire guarding her. Angel shook her head and pressed down on the accelerator.

Fucking cunt must have a pussy made of solid twenty-four karat gold to get that kind of protection. All of this was Kayla's fault. If only the bitch would do everyone a favor and see her way clear to just drop dead. None of this would be happening. Angel hazarded a glance in the rearview mirror. Yeah, Lori could thank Kayla for every bit of what happened to her. It wasn't fair. But, then again life, and as she was finding out, death wasn't any fairer either. Drowning out Lori's pitiful sobs, she flipped on the radio and covered up the sound with earsplitting heavy metal music.

Lori squeezed her eyes shut. Her tears were hot and salty. The unbelievably loud thumping rhythm vibrated through the floorboards and into her skull. Her fingers were numb from the bindings. After reading Fifty Shades of Gray, she thought a little kink and BDSM might be fun. But, the reality of it, being shackled and gagged, utterly helpless, squashed any thoughts of that. The vampire drove like hell was on her heels. And it was. She sensed Keene's panic through their link. He was already searching for her. The only thing she could hope was that he got to her in time.

******

"Keene, there's nothing more we can do." Patrick beat a path through the high weeds and crouched to analyze the tire tracks. This is where the scent trail led him and where it abruptly ended. Parked behind the falling down, rotting remains of a barn, spotting the vehicle would have been impossible for a passerby. He had to give the rogues credit. They were creative and smart. He walked the tracks pressed into the sun-baked overgrowth to the shoulder of the gravel road. Even with the lingering smell of exhaust fumes, there was no way to tell where the tracks were headed. The only thing he knew for certain is that the vehicle had turned left onto the road. It was a clue. But, it wasn't enough.

Dane stomped through the weeds, crushing fragile wild flower petals beneath his boots. Patrick was the best tracker he had. And if he said the trail was gone. It was gone. Dane barked instructions over his cell phone to Mack. Not that it would do much good since they didn't know what kind of vehicle he should be on the look out for. He doubted that the impromptu sobriety check point Mack was busily organizing with his buddies from the state police would turn up anything. But, it was the best he had with what little they had to go by.

"Which way?" Keene growled. Through his link, he could sense Lori's fear. She was alive. And that was the only good news he had. He kicked at the gravel with the toe of his boot and roared with rage. He had gotten sloppy and too confident. He thought he knew his enemy. And he did. He knew exactly what Roark would do to Lori. And that more than anything fueled his fury and his desperation to find her.

"The tire tracks are headed east," Patrick answered. The man was barely keeping it together. And Patrick got it. If something were to happen to Janine, he'd be in far worse condition than Keene.

"Then that's where I'm headed," Keene gritted through his extended fangs. Roark would want to put as much distance between them as possible. But, not so much that Lori would be completely out of Keene's reach. Roark planned to use Lori to bait him into a trap. And he'd most likely hide her in the most obvious location. Someplace where Keene would know to look. And where Roark had the upper hand. "He's taking her to the city. And that's where I'm going."

"No, not alone you're not," Dane barked. He stood in front of Keene, blocking his way. As if Patrick already knew what Keene was going to try, he casually moved to flank him on the left while Will followed suit to pin him in from the right. Dane didn't want to consider it. But, if Keene got out of control, he would take the man out of commission. Dane understood exactly how the man felt. May the goddess help anyone who dared to harm one hair on Chris's head. But, he could not allow Keene to go off the chain and jeopardize what chances they did have of retrieving Lori in one piece. "We'll go back to the compound and organize a group."

"She could be dead by then," Keene growled. Flanked by three vampires. Even with his strength, he stood little chance of getting past them. And every second they delayed decreased the odds of getting to Lori in time.

"Use your head, Keene. Roark won't kill her. Not yet anyway. He wants you," Will said. "Think about it. You know better than anyone how he operates. He's going to keep her alive, as bait." He hated this. Hated it for Keene. He too knew what the Rogues were capable of. Candace didn't speak of it often. She preferred to put the past behind her and did her best to forget.

"I know what Roark will do to her. I've seen the things he's done. She'll suffer because of me. I shouldn't have gotten her involved in this. I should have..." Keene bit back his anguished cries. No, Roark wouldn't kill her. But, there were other ways to cause harm. Other ways besides death to snuff out the parts of a person that made them human. He might physically retrieve her. But, he might never get her back.

"Lori loves you. She'll stay alive, because of you. She won't give up. She will survive whatever it is that Roark puts her through. If you rush in like an idiot and get yourself killed, she suffers for nothing. Don't risk her. We'll get her back. I promise you that." Dane gently took Keene by the shoulder and steered him toward the woods. He kept a tight rein on his emotions. Now was the time to be the stoic leader the brothers had come to rely on. He squashed the part of himself that wanted to rush in and rip Roark limb from limb. But, if he had any hope of getting in and getting her out without losing Keene or Lori in the process, he had to play it cool and level headed

Keene walked between the men through the woods. They didn't quite trust him. And he didn't blame them. Fury coursed through his veins. And his most primal instinct was to go in headlong and rip his former master's head off. He pushed back his need for vengeance. He would have his turn for vengeance. Soon.

Chapter 46

"Son of a bitch!" John Mark spat out in rage. Roark's trail led him straight to Lori's apartment and then vanished without a trace. He jerked hard on the dagger that pinned the hastily scrawled note to her front door. The message was direct and simple. If Roark got what he wanted they'd get what they wanted. He was willing to trade Lori, to return her unharmed, if the brothers handed over Keene and Kayla. Not happening.

Ginger hated the nights when she couldn't sleep. About three in the morning, she'd given up and crawled out of bed to put on a pot of coffee. Where was her damn kid? Lori's car was conspicuously missing from the driveway. And thanks to her little sister, who had immediately ratted her out, Ginger knew her oldest daughter hadn't been home for the better part of two days.

These days, Ginger spent more time at work than she did with her family. And her home was falling into ruin. The Grant household ran a tight ship. And apparently, the hull had sprung a leak. That was the downside to the extra twelve-hour shifts she'd been pulling at the hospital. The overtime pay she earned was earmarked for Lori's college fund. Her oldest daughter had big dreams and even bigger ambitions. But, Lori's little paycheck from What's the Scoop wasn't going to be enough to cover one semester's worth of tuition at the university.

Today was Lori's twentieth birthday. And Ginger was planning on giving her all the extra money she'd made as a gift. She didn't like the thought of Lori living alone in the city. But, there were worse things, such as her daughter ending up stuck here, following in her footsteps and falling in love with a man that could never love her back.

Lori had called yesterday and left a voice mail. She spent the night before at the compound. But, when her darling angel who never did anything wrong obviously hadn't come home last night either. Ginger had her suspicions that a boy, rather a vampire of the male persuasion, was involved.

Ginger loved her husband and the sun revolved around her daughters. And she had not one regret about her life. But, she'd spare her daughter the painful lesson she'd learned the hard way. She had been so young, barely eighteen when she'd come into the service of the brotherhood. Impressionable and so wide-eyed and innocent, Ginger could scarcely believe twenty years later she'd been that same girl. The Great Father was so big. Larger than life. And she'd fallen head over heels in love with him at first sight. He'd let her down gently, of course. But, it had hurt. And sometimes, old feelings still stung.

Vampires could care for humans. Maybe, even love them. Deeply. To love a vampire was an exercise in futility. No good could come of it. The options were simply too limited. A life of darkness and sacrifice was all Lori would find. This had to be nipped in the bud before it blossomed into bitter fruit. There was only one way it could end, in tears and heartache for her daughter.

Ginger had been planning for the day when she finally got a grandchild to spoil rotten since Maggie out grew her training pants. Babies were cute and cuddly. Toddlers were so innocuously adorable in their curiosity about the world. In grade school kids grew so fast. But, teenage daughters...utter torture. What happened to her baby girls? What alien took over their brains and transformed her little angels into hell spawn? Her mother always claimed one of her children would grow up to spite her. And Ginger had always secretly suspected it would be Maggie. But, Lori, her perfect child, she hadn't seen it coming.

Ginger yawned and scrubbed her hand through her hair as she filled her mug with hot coffee. She had another long, grueling day ahead of her. Early mornings were her time. And she indulged in one simple luxury. Fumbling in her purse, she found her cigarettes and lighter. Quietly, sneaking out on the back stoop she lit her one cigarette of the day and took a long deep drag. She'd technically quit years ago, before Lori was a glimmer in her eye. But, sometimes she just needed a bit of extra fortitude to get her shit together. She caught John Mark sneaking down the stairs from Lori's apartment. In his fist, he clutched a crumpled piece of paper and a dagger.

John Mark tried to act nonchalant. As if he'd just popped by at the ungodly hour of three-thirty in the morning to shoot the shit. The eldest Grant female glowered at him through a cloud of toxic cigarette smoke she exhaled through her nose like some kind of archaic dragon. Hell, he'd rather face a real, fire-breathing dragon than stand off against this woman.