Dawn's Innocence

She'd mop floors, clean windows, answer phones, serve food, whatever it took to earn her way in the world and she'd be damn glad to do it. And wasn't that a far sight more than she could say for the server who took one look at her tip, snorted in disapproval, and sauntered off to wait on the better tipping customers.

Her thoughts tiptoed over to Torr. Should she call him or not? Eventually, she knew she'd have to. What she'd say, she didn't know. Alex had given hints that there was more to Torr than what she'd seen that balmy night years ago. He'd looked human enough, but then again, at a glance, so had Alex. He couldn't be like Alex. He'd fathered a child. For Alex and her husband, children weren't a possibility. So, that still left the question in her mind. What was he and did she really want to know?

She couldn't believe it. That he was here in this tiny town of all places. Back then, he'd seemed so worldly, so confident, one planet seemed like barely enough to keep him content. He had big dreams. But, so had she. Back then, anyway. She hoped that she'd keep dodging the bullet and not bump into him by accident. Or at least if she did, that he wouldn't recognize her. So far, she hadn't seen him. Maybe, her memory was fuzzy about him. No, it wasn't. She saw his eyes, the slope of his nose, and the curve of his jaw every time she looked at Fallon. This town was so small and eventually, their paths would cross. She only hoped that when they did, she found the strength and the right words to say.

She stared out at the street. The only stop light in town turned from red to green. Permitting the flow of traffic, two pick-ups and a beat up eighties model Chevy, to putt onward to their destination. Compared to hustle and bustle of D.C. this town was in a serious coma. She looked at the denim and cowboy boot clad pedestrians and wondered, exactly how many of them were in on the little secret. How many knew about their strange and unusual neighbors? How many of them were the strange and unusual neighbors? She loved Alex dearly and Chance, had been very supportive and understanding. But, she couldn't shake the sinking feeling that rolled along with her lunch in her stomach. Her world, as abnormal as it already was, was on the verge of getting a whole lot weirder.

Anxious to get the humiliation of another round of rejections over with she paid for her lunch at the counter. She couldn't shake the feeling that she was being followed. The creepy sensation had settled on her shoulders the minute she'd parked on Main Street and had been there ever since. Ridiculous. She'd lived in D.C. swam in an endless stream of strangers. And now in this quiet country setting, she was letting her imagination run wild with her. She chastised herself thoroughly and snatched up her briefcase off the floor. Pushing the feeling out of her head, she focused on the task at hand and set out determined to find employment.

Chapter 62

Kacie couldn't do it. She couldn't pretend that Tristen's nonchalance and apparent lack of feeling regarding their breakup didn't bother her. The heavenly aroma of supper wafted up the stairs and under her bedroom door. In no way did the delicious smell of fried chicken night entice her enough to travel down the stairs and take a seat at the table. She wasn't hungry enough to face the humiliation of sitting next to him and knowing that he didn't give a damn about her. Instead, she settled for a nap. After supper, she'd sneak down and raid the fridge. When she was sure she wouldn't run into him. Avoidance was the only defense she had.

Ruby had checked all of Evan's usual hiding places and come up blank. He wasn't in the back of his closet playing with the Spiderman doll he so dearly loved. In fact, Spidey sat abandoned on the bed. He hadn't been parked in front of the TV with the other kids. And he hadn't been downstairs playing in the game room either. He had to be around here somewhere. But, nobody had seen him for hours. When he skipped out of the afternoon session of Gina's preschool class, she'd just assumed he'd done so and snuck in with the class of older kids. But, that was the problem where Evan wasn't everyone simply had assumed he was somewhere else. And nobody had bothered to go looking for him until now.

Maybe, he'd found a new place to hide? Her little boy was always causing some kind of mischief. "Evan! Dinner!" Ruby called out. Hoping the promise of food would lure him out of hiding, she squashed the lump of worry rising in her throat. When Evan didn't immediately come barreling into the dining room, she knew something was wrong. If he'd been someplace where he would have heard her calling for him, he would have come. She trotted down the hall, flinging open doors as she searched room to room for her son.

"Kacie," Ruby asked flinging open the bedroom door. "Have you seen Evan?"

Kacie rubbed her eyes and sat up on the bed. Ruby had that harried worried look of a mother on the brink of a meltdown. "No, I haven't." She slid her feet into her tennis shoes and hopped up. Evan was probably playing a joke on his mom. He was probably going to get a butt whoopin when she found him. Ruby was too far into panic mode to buy Kacie's explanation. And it wasn't like Kacie had anything better to do than to hide in her bedroom and pout anyway. "I'll help you look for him."

Ruby eased a sigh of relief at the extra help. Evan was a curious child, but even he knew the woods were off limits. He'd never disobeyed her before. And she had no reason to think that he would be so brave to venture out alone. The sky outside was turning a dark, dim purple. She had to find him before nightfall. The brothers had been trust worthy, so far. If one of them stumbled across Evan, they'd bring him home. But, Carter had to eat, and if he were out in the woods hunting, who knew what could happen. Her boy was too innocent and too defenseless. He didn't know enough to be afraid of Carter. She blinked back a tear of worry at the thought of her little boy alone in the cold, dark woods. "Thanks."

Kacie and Ruby split the floors of the house. Kacie rummaged through the upper two levels while Ruby searched the basement and the main floor. They met outside of the dining room and the ruckus of thirty plus people eating dinner. "Any luck?"

Ruby sniveled and shook her head. She hadn't been able to get a clear lock on her son's scent while in her human form. Kacie, likewise hadn't had any luck either. No one wanted a worried were mother on the loose rummaging through the house looking for a lost pup. "None."

"Ok. We're going to have to tell the others and form a search party. He has to be around here somewhere." Kacie stared through the dining room and out into the black night that had settled around them.

Hanning cursed under his breath. His son had wandered off and was lost, somewhere. Nash and he set to work splitting the woods and grounds into sectors and assigning search parties to scour the night. Nash was already on the cell phone. Enlisting the aid of their distant cousins, the vampires. If his son were in the woods, the pack would have no trouble finding him in their wolf form. If his son was somewhere in the house, the vampires would be able to scent him out. Afterwards, after his son was home safe and sound, then he'd deal with disciplining the child, if the situation warranted such an action.

"Hey Lance, make sure that door is secured." Bryce shouted as he approached his best friend.

"What's up?" Lance double-checked the magnetic locks and the light panel that indicated that the steel door was charged with electricity.

"Got a lost little boy in the woods."

"Human?"

"Nope, pack. The Great Father wants every hand on deck to look for him. Wants him found like yesterday. Toby is staying behind to monitor the video feeds."

"That poor SOB misses all the fun. This one isn't going anywhere. Even if he could break through his bindings, one hit from the current would knock him out for hours."

"That's what the Great Father is counting on. You ready?"

"One lost little boy coming right up. Should be pretty straight forward."

Bryce chuckled. "Just another day at the beach."

"All right. Let's go." Lance hung the key to Carter's bindings on the peg beside the door. Just in case someone popped by to take over security detail while they were out.

Kacie put aside her differences with Tristen for the moment. Finding that little boy was more important than any drama in their lives at this point. Around her, clothing lay in piles, ripped and torn, abandoned by the owners in favor of fur over flesh. The air was laden with the magic of the thrall of the shift. She felt the storm of the oncoming shift surge through her body in currents. She took a deep breath and held on for the ride as the magical tide swept her away.

The brown she wolf whined in confusion. Nose planted to the ground as she sniffed for a scent trail to follow and came up empty. The sand colored wolf twitched his nose, as blind as the female. With no scent to follow, there was only one thing left to do. Venture out and search for clues to the missing boy's whereabouts. Anxiously, the sand colored male yipped at the female, leading her further out into the dark border of woods surrounding the house.

The flashlight in Evan's hand shook and cast crooked, scary shapes onto the dark, dank cavernous walls surrounding him. He wandered deeper and deeper into the twisting maze, relying on instinct to guide him closer to his uncle. He bit back the terror that clutched at his throat, stifling the urge to cry out for help.

The ground rose and fell in dips. Somewhere in the distance he heard the dripping of water as it rolled down the walls and landed with a tinkling splatter into a puddle. He wasn't a chicken. He was a wolf, or would be someday, when he grew up. There wasn't anything down here but spider webs and bugs, absolutely nothing to be scared of in the dark. He was brave. Very brave. He didn't know for sure, but he sensed that he was close to the end of the tunnels. Uncle Carter wasn't very far away.

Evan ran his flashlight over the stone tunnel that narrowed into a dead end. His senses told him that this was the way he should go. He gripped the flashlight in his teeth and felt along the hard, cold surface feeling for something that would trigger a hidden passageway. His fingers slid into a small crack in the sold surface in the wall and locked on a small triggering mechanism. Light spilled into the tunnel as a doorway, well hidden in the wall of black rock, slid open.

He flicked off the flashlight and shoved it deep into his pocket. Exhaling a sigh of relief as he wiggled through the narrow opening and into the brightly lit hallway. He'd need to conserve the batteries for his trip back. He'd been very careful to memorize the path he'd chosen to follow. That's how smart he was. His mom and dad would never know that he'd gone to visit Uncle Carter. If they found out, he'd be in big, big trouble.

Evan wandered through the beige hallways that never seemed to end. Uncle Carter was very, very close, behind one of the steel doors that lined the walls on either side. All he had to do was figure out which one. "Uncle Carter?" he whispered.

Carter's eyes snapped open as the cherubic voice drew him out of the misery of the angelic symphony of purity and joy that shouted in his head nonstop. "Evan?" What had Shayla done? Bringing the boy to see him in the shape he was in? He tugged on the steel bindings that bit into his wrists and ankles and strangled his neck. The door! If Evan touched that door, he'd be killed. "Shayla!" he shouted. Cursing the steel as he struggled uselessly against it. "Evan, stop buddy!"

"Uncle Carter? Is that you?" Evan trotted to a door in the middle of the hall. Skidding to a stop when he heard the buzz of electricity and saw a sign, even kids younger than he understood the meaning of. Stop. "Uncle Carter something is wrong with the door."

"EVAN! Keep back. The door is electrified. It will shock you!" The steel cables groaned as they bent and gave way to the force of his struggle to free himself. "You have to turn it off first, buddy."

"Ok." Evan studied the control panel to the side of the door. Seemed easy enough. He took a guess and punched the red button. Grinning and pleased with himself, the door stopped making that awful buzzing noise. Standing on his tiptoes, he randomly pushed buttons until the door hissed and slid open. "Uncle Carter?" Evan stared into the inky darkness of the room. Gathering his courage, he stepped inside.

Patrick held the child's sleep shirt to his nose. His nostrils filled with the sweetness of little boy and the innocent dreams they dreamed. "I've got him," he said. Sniffing his way down the stairwell, he locked on a scent trail. He was the best of the best at what he did. Tracking. The problem was that the kid had been everywhere. Isolating exactly where the kid had been most recently would take a minute or two. He followed the crisscross of trails into the kitchen, the dining room, the living room, and finally down another flight of stairs. The basement was filled with the kid's scent. Patrick ran his hand along a wall and popped open the hidden door. "Shit. These tunnels run all along the compound and into town."

Shayla grabbed onto her sister's hand as they stepped into the cold, dank tunnels following the vampire. "Don't these tunnels lead to the compound directly?"

"Yes. They were designed to provide both the vampires and the pack with a secondary means of escape, if things ever got bad again," Patrick answered. Sifting through the scent of dank, stale air, he locked back onto the little boy's trail.

Suddenly, it clicked. Shayla knew if Evan had gone into the tunnel system, exactly where he was headed. Carter was slipping fast and his hold on reality could snap at any minute. Evan might not realize how unstable Carter was. "I know where he is! Patrick, we've got to hurry. He's gone to find Carter!"

"Damn. Carter's about five seconds from going rogue. I don't know what he'll do to the boy if he gets his hands on him. Follow the tunnels all the way through always keeping to the right. You'll find the entrance to the compound at the very end. I'll go on ahead and try to find him. Maybe he hasn't made it into the compound yet."

Ruby gathered her courage and stifled her tears. Until she had her son in her arms, tears wouldn't serve her any purpose. She whispered a silent prayer to whichever deity might be lending an ear and willing to grant a favor. Please, she prayed, let her little boy be ok.

"Evan, what are you doing here?" Carter wished he were still safely shackled to the wall. The broken steel hung like snakes coiling around his arms and legs and dangling from the collar around his neck. There was absolutely nothing to prevent his instincts from taking over. He'd drain a child Evan's size in one gulp. And the boy's blood smelled absolutely delectable. He ran a tongue over his fangs and breathed out a long hungered breath.

"I came to see you, Uncle Carter." Evan stepped into a dark room, smaller than his tiny bedroom and frowned into the darkness. Uncle Carter didn't even have a nightlight, no wonder he was afraid.

"Why?"

"Because I missed you. Didn't you miss me too?" Uncle Carter stared at him, showing fangs, playing fun. Evan smiled back and jumped into his arms. Grabbing him tightly around his neck in a tight hug. Uncle Carter was skinny, his bones protruding through his skin and poking him through the thick layer of his sweatshirt. His uncle stank of fear and desperation and he trembled, hanging on to him so tightly Evan thought he might break in two.

Carter grappled with the boy and with the instinct of his hunger. Evan was warm and soft in his arms. His tiny heart pounded against Carter's chest the roar of it drowning out the voice in his mind. "I don't think I'm up for a piggyback ride right now, Evan," Carter rasped. The predator inside of him roared with hunger. Take the boy. His sanity, or what little was left of it, pled for the boy's life.

"I'm going to get a new cousin in a couple of weeks. I don't have any brothers or sisters so I'm going to pretend that I'm his big brother instead of just a cousin." Evan proclaimed as he scrambled his way up onto Carter's shoulders.

"Your cousin is going to be very lucky to have a big brother like you." Carter couldn't help but tip his head and smile at the cherubic face staring down at him. Such energy and innocence, and so much trust, it made him ache. He crouched, bending his wobbly knees to prevent striking Evan's head on the low ceiling. Carter fought against the hunger that roared through his body. Evan deserved the chance to grow up and become the big brother he dreamed about.

Evan smiled and beamed. "Someday, I'm going to be a daddy too."

"You are," Carter gasped in pretend awe. Of course, this boy was going to grow up into a man and father many, many fine sons of his own. Carter wouldn't have it any other way for Evan. "Have you got the lucky lady already picked out?" he chuckled. Carter jogged around the confines of the room giving Evan just a little sampling of a piggyback ride.

"Sure have. She looks at me like I'm a bug, but someday, when I grow up, she won't."

Carter trembled with the effort to keep his fangs in his mouth and out of the tender wrist so close to them. "I'm sure you'll be quite handsome when you grow up." He eased Evan off his shoulders and gently set him down on the ground.

"I'm going to be as tall as you when I grow up," Evan proclaimed with certainty. He dreamed dreams of things to come and he could hardly wait for time to pass. He saw the far off future and the faces of his children, and his children's children, and on and on and on.

"Maybe taller." Carter smiled at the boy's smugness and tousled his dark hair with his fingers. Evan stared up at him with round, dark eyes filled with admiration. What could the child possibly see in a fiend like him? He bordered on killing him, yet the child had absolute trust. "Evan, you've got to go now. I'm not well."

"You're hungry."

"Yes." Carter backed into the sheltering darkness of the room away from the luring scent of the boy's potent wolf blood. The hunger was tearing him to shreds and turning him into the beast he knew he was.

"Eat then. Don't be afraid."

"I can't."

Evan cocked his head and studied Carter. "You're going to be a daddy someday too." Carter's future was hazy and difficult for Evan to see. Sometimes the visions warbled and changed with the speed of the turning of pages of a book. Sometimes, there was writing on the pages and sometimes, the pages were blank as if fate hadn't decided what to write on them. Carter's future was unclear. Evan was scared for his uncle. In those sketchy dreams, where he'd pick up the book and try to decipher the meaning of words he couldn't yet read. Sometimes the pages fell out into his hands and the book ended before it was supposed to.

"You speak of things you can't possibly understand."

"No, I don't. I know things, secret things that haven't happened yet, but will. Daddy calls it a gift. It frightens my mommy, though. So I don't tell her very much. I don't want to scare her. I knew about you the first time I saw you. That's why I started playing with you. So you could get some practice being a daddy." Evan leaned closer and patted Carter on the arm in consolation. "You needed it."

Patrick stood in the doorway, watching the exchange between the little boy and Carter. The little one had the tiger by the tail, so to speak. Carter sat dumbfounded by the child's prophesy of events that were yet to come. Despite the hunger that Patrick felt raging through Carter's body. Carter was gentle and kind with the boy.