Dawn's Innocence

"Why is Uncle Carter going to try to hurt Aunt Shayla?" Hanning stiffened, trying to control his emotions. His little boy was locked, trapped someplace between reality and the things he saw in his mind. It angered Hanning that he couldn't protect his son from the things his gift showed him. It wasn't fair for a little boy to know as much as Evan did or to suffer from something he couldn't control. Damned vampires. Seemed Ruby and her instincts were right on this one. He'd trusted his son with Carter. He'd turned a blind eye to the truth of what Carter was beneath the polished veneer of civility. And now his boy was paying the price.

"He's mad at Aunt Shayla's baby." Evan reached out a timid hand and gripped his father's arm. "Daddy, he's not himself right now. He's scared. We can't hurt him. We have to make him understand. Once he understands, everything will be okay. I promise."

Understand? He'd teach the vamp a lesson in understanding, a painful, bloody lesson in understanding. If that parasite thought for one second that he was going to get his fangs into Shayla or her baby. As head male of the family and charge of Shayla and her unborn child, it was his duty...his job to protect her. "Evan, are you sure about what you saw?"

"Yes." Evan looked up at his father and nodded. Daddy was mad now too. Scared for Aunt Shayla. His daddy's wolf was near the surface, charging up from the place of magic to take over. His daddy's body rippled with the force of his wolf beneath his skin. Evan gasped, scurrying back into the corner of the closet and scooping armloads of toys and clothes over his head. "Hide... he's here."

"I won't let him hurt you or anybody else," Hanning gritted. His wolf growled threateningly beneath the surface of his skin. Ready to protect what he perceived as his. "Stay here," Hanning commanded. He didn't have time to coax Evan out of hiding or to begin to attempt to reason with his son. Evan's visions were never wrong. If he said Carter was a danger, he was. Hiding might be the safest thing for Evan to do. Hanning slid the closet door shut and stormed from the room. Nothing was going to hurt Shayla or her unborn child. The last bit of Ramon grew and lived inside of her. And it was as much that lingering remnant of his friend he planned to protect, as it was the mother who carried it.

Ruby navigated the big SUV down the narrow gravel lane. The road was rough as a washboard and avoiding the ruts was nearly impossible. The spring thaw had left craters and deep puddles in the gravel. In some spots, she'd had to shift into four-wheel drive just to get through them. Thomas had given them good news today and a celebratory lunch had seemed in order. The food had left a bitter taste in her mouth. Or maybe, it was her jealousy of her sister that had spoiled the meal.

Firstborn males were prized above all else in the pack. She'd been downright giddy when she'd delivered Evan and she'd reveled in the attention the pack relished on her. That was, until Evan learned to talk and the pack learned of his gift. Even in the fragmented sentences of baby speak, the things Evan said were uncanny and prophesies of events to come no toddler could begin to comprehend. The few who knew of Evan's abilities pitied her. She'd done a good job of hiding what he could do from everyone. Dismissing his visions as a child's overactive imagination. But, eventually it would have been found out. Perhaps, that was why, the real reason why she'd agreed to uproot her life and come to this blasted place. To save her firstborn son, abnormalities such as Evan's meant death.

Shayla's baby would be born perfect. Ruby just knew it. The genetic flaw that had caused Evan's condition would not take root in any off spring of Ramon's. It wasn't even thinkable. Ruby loved her son. But, it wasn't fair that she had him...the responsibility of raising an imperfect child when Shayla would give birth to a perfect son. The pack would lavish attention on her. They'd hold her in a place of reverence for being the bearer of Ramon's seed. Maybe, if there were a way to cure Evan, she'd be happy again. She could endure her loveless mating...her loss...if. Ruby buried her resentment deep down inside of her. It had no place in the beginning of a new life. She was being unfair and cruel. And she had no right to think the things she thought.

The sun was high above, heating the earth below. Carried on a sweet, cool breeze, spring song sounded through the open window. Birds chattered noisily welcoming the breath of warmth and new life beginning to awaken. She slammed on the brakes and fishtailed in the middle of the lane as something big streaked inches from the front bumper. "What in the hell was that?" she gasped. Whatever it was, it wasn't a wolf. None of her kind were that stupid. It wasn't a deer, the time of day was wrong and the deer were nestled down in their beds. It looked...human.

Shayla clutched her belly with one hand and the grabbed the dash with the other. "I have no idea. It was moving too fast for me to see," she lied. The shape was too fast and too big to be an animal. No animal moved on two legs and had an unruly tangle of pale blond hair. Her senses were on high alert. The fine on her arms tingled and stood on end. She knew exactly what the shape was. A vampire. One vampire affected her like this, and only one, Carter. She reached out to him with her mind. In return, she got nothing but blackness and static. Unbuckling her seatbelt, she jumped out of the SUV and scanned the woods. "Go ahead and go back without me."

"Are you nuts?" Ruby protested and fumbled for the hem of Shayla's jacket to stop her as she scrambled down out of the SUV. "Get back here!" she ordered. As if a command would do any good. She didn't want to leave her sister here in the middle of nowhere alone and pregnant. "We don't even know what that thing was."

"I do and so do you," Shayla said. Slamming the door behind her, she turned on her heel and pinned her sister with a hard glare that gave no room for debate.

"That was Carter?" Ruby asked. She should have known the vampire would come for her sister eventually. Shayla trusted the vampire with her life. Ruby held no such blind faith in any creature, especially not a being the likes of Carter. The brotherhood was bad enough. They played a good game as protectors of humanity. But, underneath the weaponry and black leather they were predators. Carter didn't even try to hide what he was. He was like a jungle cat on the prowl, hungry and scenting the prey. But, he'd never harmed Shayla and likely wouldn't.

Once her sister had made her mind up about something there was no changing it. They could idle in the middle of the road all day and debate, but Shayla was going to do whatever she was damn well pleased. "Fine," Ruby said with a huff at the slamming of the SUV's passenger side door in her face. She slid the gear into drive and hammered down on the accelerator. Leaving Shayla dodging bits of gravel sprayed by the tires.

Shayla crossed behind the SUV, gnawing her bottom lip in worry as Ruby pulled away, leaving her on the abandoned gravel lane. She drew a deep breath and what courage she could muster. Treading along the path of bent winter dried grasses and broken tangles of brush Carter had left in his wake. What was he doing out here in the middle of the day? Carter abhorred daylight. Well, there was only one way to answer her question and that was to find him and see what he had to say. He could have called her instead. Would have been easier than schlepping through the muck and mud of the thawing ground.

Chapter 43

Kacie sucked in a breath, reeling like someone had punched her in the gut. Her body tingled and burned with bone deep cold. Darkness, despairing, darkness sank into the very depths of her soul. Rage bubbled into her consciousness and shouted out with a deafening roar. Gasping she scrambled blindly to hold onto Tristen, her anchor in the storm of fury and bitter emotion assaulting her. "Carter."

His blood was in her and she stumbled in the wake of his presence. What had once healed was now inflicting harm. His thoughts were a black mire, oozing into her mind and choking out any glimmer of light that remained.

"Kacie?" Tristen gripped her tightly around the waist and held her close. He clung tightly to her in hopes of stilling the tremors vibrating through her body. They'd been playfully chitchatting and making their way back to the house before breakfast was gone when whatever this was had hit her and she'd doubled over. Would have fallen flat on her face, if he hadn't reached out to catch her. "What is it?"

"We have to get out of the woods. NOW! Carter...I can feel him." Kacie shivered. "He's so close." Her legs folded beneath her weight only the force of Tristen's grip on her kept her on her feet. "He smells us. He's coming... so much anger, rage, and pain." Kacie tried to will her booted feet to make tracks, but her legs refused to budge. Never in her whole life had she experienced such terrible darkness. She was defenseless against it.

"Shit." Carter was a friend. He wouldn't hurt them. No matter how hungry he was. Tristen had heard stories and rumors about vampires who lost their grip on reality and went the vampire version of postal. If Carter had gone postal, it would explain Kacie's reaction to his closeness. They shared a blood bond. She'd sense him through that metaphysical link. She was pale as a ghost, trembling, and scrabbling to get her feet moving. Carter was a threat and a danger. He wouldn't recognize Kacie or him as friends. Not if he was nuts. Tristen slung Kacie over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and hauled ass. Bounding through the woods as fast as he could with her weight slowing him down.

Carter caught the scent of the wolves on the breeze. He'd come here to collect his thoughts and clear his hazy mind. Instead, the presence had grown louder and louder with every mile he traveled closer to the familiar woods. The presence shouted, a deafening roar in his head, drowning out all restraint and any voice of reason he had left. He was more animal than man. A predator. Hunting for the dreaded source of the presence. Determined to silence it. He was close, so close to the source. The presence felt his nearness and sang in pure, innocent, delight. All Carter wanted was quiet in his head and he'd never get it until he'd put an end to that voice.

Hissing like a vampire gone insane he gave chase to the wolves. Tracking them like the lethal killing machine he was. He knew better than to underestimate the wolves. They were every bit as dangerous as he when cornered. He spun, sniffing the air, distracted by a voice every bit as pure and sweet as the damned presence in his mind. It called to him, softly and gently with the rolling freshness of a spring breeze. Repeating his name over and over, Shayla beckoned him through their mental link. He shied away from her voice and her scent. She couldn't see him like this. She should never know the monster that dwelled beneath the deceptive cover of his flesh and blood.

The warriors assembled, ready for battle and armed to the teeth with weaponry. Garbed in black leather, nervously, they exchanged glances from behind dark protective lenses. They'd trained for this dreaded day since their induction into the brotherhood. They knew eventually it would happen. One of them would fade to dark and it'd be up to the others to end that darkness for once and for all. They were prepared to take down one of their own. Although they'd rather find a different solution than end a friend. If they had no other choice, they'd put Carter down. If Carter had gone rogue or worse, lost his mind, he couldn't and wouldn't be allowed to live. If he'd slipped beyond the grasp or a return to reason, each and every warrior called to assemble knew he wouldn't want to go on living.

The pack shifted into their animal forms, growling and huffing in agitation as they joined the vampires on the hunt. Teeth barred, ready to sever flesh from bone if the threat they felt deep in their souls was real. Once the Alpha made the decision and gave the order. They wouldn't hesitate. There'd be no second thoughts to execute the command. The order to kill ran on replay through their collective mind.

Tristen huffed with exertion as he stretched Kacie out on the couch and ran a worried hand over her pale, cool face. Her eyes were blank, fixed on a point somewhere that only she could see. Her body trembled in his arms as she mumbled nonsense softly beneath her breath. He didn't know what to do for her. He was helpless to do anything but watch her sink deeper and deeper into Carter's madness. Tristen comforted Kacie as best he could. Wrapping her up tightly in a woolen blanket, tucking in the edges tightly beneath her, and then holding her in his arms in an attempt to stop her shivers. "It'll be okay." He whispered, "They won't let Carter hurt anybody."

The vampires and the wolves fanned out, scouring the territory, sniffing out the vampire. Doing what duty, not emotion or friendship, required. Doing only what needed to be done. Stealthily, they stalked the still woods around them, honing in on the scent.

Carter trembled as the shout rose louder and louder into an intolerable roar in his mind. He honed in on Shayla. Not really seeing her though she ran toward him. He was past the point where anything but the basest instincts registered in his consciousness. Slowly, with lethal grace, he stalked forward, intercepting her path. Reaching out as blindingly quick as a cobra's lethal strike, he snatched her by the neck. Her blood was like the softest, most fragrant blossom on the vine. Calling to him to drink and sate his need, to bury his hunger in her flesh along with his fangs.

"Carter," Shayla rasped. Clutching fruitlessly at the iron fist closing tighter around her windpipe, her toes tangled and feet kicked open air. "Don't," she choked. "Don't hurt the baby." She gasped as his fist closed and the last of her air was spent to rasp out her begging plea. Black spots dotted her vision and were growing bigger and bigger, threatening to swallow her whole. Shayla kept her gaze pinned on his arctic blue eyes and the searing light of their fury. Searching out the innermost part of him, she pled soundlessly as the life was squeezed out of her. She appealed to the soft inner core of him that was hidden behind the mask of the beast he wore. Down deep to the seed of his humanity, to the man he had been and the man, she still saw beneath his insanity.

Carter threw Shayla to the ground, roaring with fury as her words broke through and soaked into his mind. Pregnant? He'd fed from a pregnant woman. Disgraced himself and his kind by feeding from the unborn. Not even a rogue in the heat of bloodlust would stoop so low. Her blood was the baby's blood and he'd contaminated them all with the essence of the damned. He'd taken from her and he'd allowed her to take from him. He howled an anguished cry and fell to the ground with the wail of a shattered, condemned spirit on his lips. What had he done?

Shayla crab walked away from him and sucked in precious breaths of air. Carter didn't move. He crouched, holding his head in his hands, pulling at the ends of his hair with his long, pianist's fingers, cursing softly in a mish mash murmuring of syllables. "Carter, I didn't know. Please." She reached out a trembling hand. Hovering between touching him and pulling back, the plea for mercy and forgiveness dying on her quivering lips. Some part of him cared for her. She could feel it. If she could reach that part of Carter, she might pull him back from the precipice of madness that he teetered precariously upon. "Please, Carter. Come back to me."

Carter's face was drenched with tears. Despair was a cold ocean in which he was willing to drown. He deserved to die. He heard the soft boot falls of the Sons approaching, flanking him in a circle on all sides. Death, it seemed did have a sound, like the warning of a rattler's tail, the snick of blades drawn from leather scabbards broke the silence. Finally, he'd get what he'd had coming for centuries. He'd welcome it. Death at long last, had caught up with him.

He reached out, stretching with his fingers to stroke the swollen outline of her belly. He knew the source of the presence in his mind. It was the voice of her unborn child. He was helpless against such purity or pristine force of will. He could not destroy the presence or the woman that would bear it into this world. He was blessed. As condemned as he was to a hell he'd had half a millennium to create. At the end, he had been blessed with a rare glimpse of paradise. He'd seen the purity, absolute love, and light that all souls born into this world possessed. In time, darkness and the burdens of life would taint the beautiful spirit. Steal the innocence away. Break it. Extinguish the light. At that thought, he wept bitter tears of heartbreak and remorse.

Shayla unzipped her jacket and guided Cater's palm under her sweatshirt, pressing his cool flesh to her bare belly. Tears rolled out of the corners of his icy, blue eyes and trickled down his cheeks capturing bits of golden sunlight and transforming them into tiny rainbows of inexplicable color and beauty. The baby inside of her...her son... kicked and she felt the first flutter of life stir within her.

Carter smiled a bitter smile as he felt the baby move beneath Shayla's soft skin. Touching the presence made it real. Tangible somehow. The voice in his mind hummed happily, contented and whole. "Beautiful," he whispered. The moment was almost upon him. Carter scented the brothers on the wind and in that undercurrent the musky smell of pack. He had but seconds left to live. But, he was glad for the rare gift he'd been given. That he was getting to spend his final moments with Shayla and her unborn child. Her son. "Thank you."

Shayla cried out as she saw the warriors and the wolves approach with cautious steps. The warriors had their blades drawn, ready to strike Carter down. The pack stalked with their teeth flashing in the morning light and jaws snapping. "NO!" she shouted. Throwing her arms around Carter's neck, she placed herself and her baby within striking distance of the blade and within the reach of the pack's razor sharp canines. "He didn't harm me! Don't hurt him! Please!" She clung to Carter desperately, protecting him with her own life. Her body heaved with heavy, racked sobs. She'd just gotten him back and they were trying to take him away from her.

Carter bathed in the warm saltiness of Shayla's tears. Gently, he unwound her arms from his neck. "I've grown weary of the darkness inside of me. The child, your son... I don't deserve to know such purity in the labyrinth of my old, bleak soul. Perhaps, it's better this way. That my brothers be the ones to strike me down."

Gently he slid his body free of Shayla's grip and knelt before the Great Father. And focused his eyes on the ground. If he saw the blow coming, he would draw back in fear. Or worse, he'd instinctively fight back and Shayla would have to watch the brothers and her pack tear him apart bit by bit. He didn't want to go out like that, like a coward or a madman. He wanted to face his death honorably. It would be the only honorable thing he'd ever done in his life. "I have committed a despicable, unforgivable act and contaminated a pure soul. My life is yours to do with what you will."

"Did you know that she was with child?"

"No. She carries no scent of child upon her."

"Indeed, she does not." The Great Father looked down upon the sobbing woman and the halo of golden hair bent down, nobly accepting whatever fate he decreed fitting. "I'll let the mother decide how to best execute your punishment. Woman, what would you have the Sons to do with this male? His blood has tainted your womb and unto you and your own has been done a great injustice. Decide his fate."