Property of Crypt Keeper (Kings of Anarchy MC: Louisiana #2)

Prologue

“Kat, you should come over tonight, and we could go down to the Huntington Beach Pier,” my friend Missy offered as we were walking out of the school building and down the front steps. Her bobbed blonde hair swayed sassily as we descended.

My hand tightly clutched my tote strap, and I had to force myself to loosen it. I gave her a smile that I hoped resonated as true. “Oh, I’d love to, but I’m sorry, I promised my uncle I’d drive up the coast with him early in the morning.”

“Well, bollocks. Another time?” she asked in her British accent. She and her parents had moved here to California shortly before I had. It was part of the reason we’d become such fast friends. Both of us were foreign and new to the area.

“Of course,” I replied.

We left the building and each made our way to the line of motor cars waiting for pick-up. She gave me a hug and rushed off to where her driver awaited. It said something about the school I attended that the majority of the vehicles were imported luxury cars driven by personal chauffeurs.

My long, pleated skirt caught the wind and fluttered. I tugged my jacket closed and walked toward the fifth car where my uncle awaited by the back door of his Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost. He unlatched the rear-hinged coach door, swinging it open with a flourish, and motioned me inside.

I’d been living with him in America for the last four years since my father was murdered and my mother disappeared. Disappeared? That’s what everyone thought, anyway. I knew she was dead. She would never have simply left me.

My uncle had owned one of the first oil wells to open in 1920, and he quickly added to his already considerable wealth. Though he enjoyed lavish parties and dinners, I’d never seen him with a date. In a way, I felt bad because I wondered if I was cramping his style.

He rounded the car and took his seat next to me. The driver closed his door. “Would you like to dine at The Golden Bear tonight? Séamus will be visiting for a couple of days.”

“No,” I unemotionally replied. Séamus was like another uncle to me, perhaps more so, as I felt a certain kinship to him due to our personalities being more similar.

My uncle remained silent for a bit.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” he quietly asked me in Romanian.

“Yes.”

My response was immediate and definitive.

He sighed. “You already know my thoughts on this, but I also don’t think it’s a bad idea for you to know how to defend yourself.

You will need to learn to control yourself as well as protect yourself as you get older.

However, you will always have my bodyguards available to you.

The need to become a ninja or a slugger is unnecessary. ”

“I know.” Though I knew he was trying to tease me, I stared blankly out the window at the passing Huntington Beach scenery, none of it registering.

“Very well,” he muttered, then began reading the newspaper he was rarely without.

Inside, I was nervous and coiled. My uncle wanted me to take a simple self-defense course. That wasn’t what I wanted. Though I would never admit to him what my true end goal was, I was preparing.

Because one day, I would exact my revenge for the death of my parents.

“Again,” I insisted as I painfully got to my feet and spit blood on the floor.

“No. We are done for the day,” my instructor, Rafael, calmly replied as he began unwrapping his hands.

“I said, again,” I demanded through clenched teeth. In the mirrors that lined the walls of the room, I saw the blood on my teeth.

Rafael froze and slowly lifted his gaze to mine. The corner of his mouth ticked up before he stepped closer.

Boldly, I held his gaze as I stared up at him.

“Katalina, trust me when I tell you that we are far from done. Also know that when I am done with you, you will be relentless, precise, and deadly,” he murmured. “But I have an engagement I must get to and as it is, I’ve stayed too long. I will see you tomorrow. Rest up.”

He patted my cheek like I was a small child, and I wanted to gnash my teeth at his departing back, but I remained quiet and still.

After the door closed to my uncle’s ballroom we’d taken over as a training studio, I let out the breath I realized I’d been holding.

On Monday morning, Missy gasped. “Oh my! What happened to you?” She reached out a hand, but as she made contact, I flinched away.

Obviously, the powder I’d applied over the bruise on my cheek wasn’t doing its job well. If I’d had a couple more days, I would’ve been fine.

“It’s nothing. I took a fall at the coast. It’s a long story I’d rather not get into because my embarrassment over my clumsiness is astronomical.” I rolled my eyes and forced a little laugh.

“Jesus,” she muttered as we walked to our first class. “You need to be more careful. You look like you took a right hook to the face.”

Yeah, pretty much.

That would only be the first of many bruises. I learned to buy better makeup and be thankful for my genetics.

“Why are you doing this?” Rafael asked after our fifth month. We were in the middle of a fencing duel and were close with locked blades. It was so cliché that I almost laughed. “This isn’t just about self-defense as your uncle insisted.”

I knew he was one of us, but it was hard to trust someone with my inner thoughts. Especially one of us. As myth would go, we were never to be trusted. “It is what I told you,” I haughtily murmured before detangling and stepping back.

“You lie.”

“I don’t,” I shot back as I lifted off my fencing mask and spun on my heel to return my foil to the holder. Sweat clung to my brow and my hair was damp with it.

“I did not say we were done,” Rafael said as he grabbed my shoulder and spun me around. He looked irritated and far too snotty, and it rubbed me the wrong way. That was the first time I truly felt like I lost control.

Fire burned through my veins and licked at my fingertips. I lunged at him and drove him to the ground. Whether I had tapped into some deep power or had simply taken him off guard, he hit hard. I leaned down to place my face closer to his.

For a split second, surprise registered in his dark gaze.

“Do not question me. You are here to train me. You’re being paid well for it. That is all you need to know,” I ground out as I seethed. I barely recognized my own voice.

Slowly, he lifted a hand and with one finger, turned my face to the mirror.

I was shocked at what I saw. Staring back at me was a dark-haired, vicious-looking monster.

My usually icy blue eyes were now so deep a blue, they appeared black.

But my teeth were the most frightening. Each one appeared to be filed sharp.

Scrambling backward, I watched as I transformed back to my usual self.

“I-I-Is that what I look like inside?” I whispered in horror.

Over my shoulder, I watched Rafael’s reflection get to its feet. He leaned over and held out a hand to help me up.

“Is it?” I asked, my tone stronger.

He shrugged, and I looked away. “Who knows. Some of us can take on the appearance of essentially whatever we want. Whether that’s your inner self or simply the manifestation of your anger? I do not know. But that response proves my theory. So I ask again… young Katalina, why are you training?”

I gulped before I looked at him again. Finally, shoulders square, back stick-straight, I told him.

“I am going to kill every werewolf I find until I find the one responsible for the death of my parents.”

“How will you know which one killed them?” he asked with a calculated gleam in his eyes.

I stared at him without flinching as I told him, “Because they will be a werewolf.”

A wicked grin curved his mouth. “I knew there was a reason your uncle insisted it be me.”

“What are you talking about?”

“That is what my faction does. We hunt what was supposed to be instinct.”

My jaw fell. My uncle insisted?

“Welcome to the fold, Katalina.”

“Kat, I’m going to miss you so much! But university…

oh, my friend, I’m so proud of you. Do you know that?

I only wish I’d been able to go, and then we would’ve still been together.

At least we’ll see each other over the summers.

” Missy hugged me tightly, and I held onto her as well.

She pulled back but held my arms. She looked so sad.

There would be no university studies for her as her parents had arranged a marriage to the son of some big banker.

Her future held children, galas, and parties for the rich.

A tight smile was all I could manage because this would likely be the last time I saw her. “Of course.”

“One more picture!” Missy’s mom pleaded, her diamonds sparkling in the afternoon sun.

We straightened our dresses, then with arms looped around each other, we grinned widely for the cameraman she had hired for the day. At least I liked to think I did.

My uncle took a few pictures as well with his small prototype Leica O-Series camera, but the expression on his face was nothing like the ones that Missy’s parents wore.

Instead, his brow was wrinkled, and deep grooves framed his mouth.

His dark eyes settled on me, and he might as well have spoken aloud because I could hear him plain as day.

You don’t have to do this.

My chin lifted.

The lines on his face eased, and his shoulders drooped slightly in resignation.

How my uncle had survived as one of our kind with his tender heart was beyond me.

Then again, he never talked about his past, so I had no idea what he’d been like before I came to live with him.

All I knew is that I would never get soft.

Ever.

The scalpel-sharp blade slid through hairy flesh and sinew like a whisper. A gurgling preceded the dull thud of the creature’s head toppling to the leaf-strewn ground.

My chest rose and fell deeply as I stood over it. Glancing down at the thick leather gauntlet, I stared at the deep gouges. That was close. Yet where some might experience fear, pure adrenaline surged through my veins.

Over seventy-five years of hunting and it still hadn’t changed.

Without a backward glance, I flipped my braid over my shoulder, turned, and walked away.

That wasn’t my first brush with death… and it wouldn’t be my last.