Chapter 13
Chapter
Thirteen
Chills raked over my scalp, and I couldn’t ignore the truth practically slapping my face. I’d sensed Saint. And his presence was strong enough to stop me from projecting to Fane.
The urge to ram my fist into a wall tore through me, but watching Saint wander the street alone dulled my anger and turned it into heartache. He didn’t deserve to be treated like the enemy. He hadn’t done anything wrong.
Of the two of us, he lost the most from discovering we were fated.
I sighed and left Fane’s art room, heading down the stairs as fast as I could before losing my nerve. By the time I opened the front door, Saint had already passed the Anderses’ house, but as if he felt my presence, he spun around.
“Tate?” He kept his distance as he shuffled from foot to foot. “What are you doing awake?”
“I could ask you the same thing.” Good thing I’d grabbed one of Fane’s hoodies, or I’d be standing out here in tiny shorts and a thin tank top with no bra. “Actually, I am asking you the same thing. Why are you out here?”
He winced. “I’m staying at Alpha Camus’s, and Marissa won’t leave me alone.” He raked his hand through his tousled black locks. “She’s already tried to sneak into my bed twice.”
I snorted. “She’s a persistent one.”
“Sleeping in the woods might be the only way to get some peace.”
“Want to come inside?” The words dropped from my mouth before I could consider the consequences. Fane would flip his shit if he came home and found Saint and me in the house together.
“Are you sure?” Saint rocked back on his heels, hesitating in the road. “I don’t want to cause trouble.”
Something told me Saint would cause a hell of a lot of trouble if he thought, even for one second, I’d give him a chance.
But that wasn’t happening.
I simply felt bad for the guy.
Fane had nothing to worry about. I had absolutely no feelings for Saint Grimstone other than sympathy.
And if Fane came home and caught us—not that we were doing anything wrong—I’d deal with him.
“Fane’s not here. He’s not even in Mohan Wilds.” I jerked my thumb over my shoulder to the blue-and-white two-story house. “Come on. You can try some of Dylan’s delicious snacks.”
Could Saint handle the heat like Fane and me?
Doubtful.
Saint finally moseyed my way and followed me into the Anderses’ home, keeping at least a foot of space between us. I motioned for him to sit on one of the stools at the island while I rummaged around in the cabinets.
“Look, Tate, I would never force this bond on you. I know you and Fane are together.” He dragged his hand down his face, his somber expression hitting me right in the gut. “This just took me by surprise. That’s all.”
I grabbed the container of cookies Dylan made for me and the one he made for everyone else. “I’m really sorry I can’t be what you want. I know you were hoping to find your fated. And I’m one huge disappointment.”
“Don’t say that. You’re not a disappointment.” He reached toward me but let his hand fall. “These things aren’t always perfect, and not all fated mates end up together. I’m just glad I know now. I can stop agonizing over it and find someone without fearing that my fated might pop up at the worst possible time.” His humorless laugh echoed through the kitchen.
“So you’re the glass-half-full type.” I placed a few spicy cookies on a napkin. “We never would have worked out.”
Saint’s laugh was genuine this time, and some of the tension from his shoulders faded. “I’m not that big on spicy food either. I’m bland city over here. Black pepper is as far as I go.”
I snorted. “So vanilla.”
“Vanilla ice cream is my favorite flavor.”
“Now that’s just sad. No one likes plain vanilla.”
“I add some chocolate syrup sometimes.” He grinned. “Sprinkles if I’m feeling really adventurous.”
“You daredevil.” I passed him the safe cookies since he clearly wasn’t a fan of all things hot. “I better keep you away from my special snacks. They’d probably burn a hole through your tongue.”
He peered over at my cookies. “Are those red pepper flakes? In chocolate chip cookies?”
I took a generous bite and nodded. “So delicious.”
“You definitely like living on the edge.” He grabbed a regular cookie and lifted it to his mouth. “I’ll stay in my lane with my normal cookies, thank you very much. But my mom might enjoy something weird like spicy sweets. My dad, not so much.”
“How is your mom doing after word spread that The Collective Hunt is actually still active?” They’d attacked Saint’s mom a long time ago, but most never believed they were the culprits. “I hope everyone who doubted her has gotten on their knees and begged for forgiveness.”
A dangerous smile twisted his lips. “My father is working on that. She deserves a million apologies.”
“Good.”
Saint sighed and jammed his fingers through his hair, tousling the black waves. “We need to find Barric and his psychotic followers whether they’re responsible for these recent murders or not. The Collective needs to be stopped either way.” His lips flattened into a thin line. “But magic seems to be completely blocking them.”
Or the Infernal Sol was responsible for hiding them.
“Barric stole an ancient demon amulet.” I slapped my hand over my mouth, my eyes widening.
Why the hell did I just tell him that?
Saint’s head cocked to the side as he studied me. “What are you talking about? What amulet?”
“The one that used to be inside of me.”
Son of a bitch.
Even though my voice came out muffled with my hand over my mouth, Saint understood every word.
Realization dawned over his handsome features, and he nodded. “That’s why you seem different now.”
My hand finally dropped from my mouth. “Different how?”
“Less dark. Less demon.” He shrugged. “I can still sense the demoness in you from Fane, but it doesn’t overpower the shifter.”
Was this why the fated mate bond revealed itself? Because the amulet had been blocking more of my shifter side than I’d realized?
“What exactly is this amulet capable of?” Saint asked, breaking off a piece of a cookie.
“Anything is possible. No one really knows the extent of power this thing contains. It did a number on me…” I touched the sun tattoo still stamped on my abdomen.
The Infernal Sol wasn’t inside me anymore, yet it still screwed with me. Or maybe my mind created this voice to deal with my addiction and guilt.
“Did this thing hurt you, Tate?” As deep lines developed across Saint’s forehead, his hand crept toward my side of the island.
How the hell did he guess that?
“I don’t want to get into that. Let’s just say my experience with the Infernal Sol wasn’t pleasant.”
Liar! You loved every minute with me.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to pry.” He flattened his palm on the counter before it moved any closer. “Who else knows about the amulet?”
“Only a few others besides Fane.” Why the hell had I told him? It couldn’t be this damn fated mate bullshit. “And we need to keep it that way. We can’t risk the wrong person finding out Barric has this amulet and deciding to go after him for it. Barric having the thing is bad enough, but a powerful demon taking possession of it would be much worse.”
“Of course. I won’t tell anyone, not even Avery. You have my word.”
Could I trust that he wouldn’t tell anyone? As an alpha, he had to put his pack first. Would he later decide it was in his best interest to let this information slip to the other alphas in Georgia?
“Can Barric use this amulet to mask their whereabouts?” Saint rubbed his fingers together to wipe off the crumbs and then snagged another cookie from the container.
I stood, grabbed two glasses from the cabinet, and pulled out the lemonade before it dawned on me that Saint wasn’t addicted to the sweet-and-sour drink like Fane and I were. Most people drank milk with cookies.
“What do you want to drink?”
After I listed off the options from the huge stainless-steel fridge, Saint picked sweet tea.
“I’m not sure how Barric can use the amulet, but it could very well be responsible for keeping their location hidden.” I placed the drinks on the island, sliding the tea toward him as I sat. “I don’t know how it would affect Barric, since it’s not inside him like it was with me.”
Saint sipped his drink, the ice clinking against the glass. “Could he use it to harm shifters? Could it kill them?”
“I don’t think the amulet could simply kill them on its own. It might make them go crazy, though.” That thing spread psychosis like a contagious disease.
Don’t act like you don’t miss my brand of crazy, Tate.
I ignored the voice and crammed another cookie in my mouth so I didn’t start talking to myself.
“Could it make Barric and The Collective suddenly start cutting out shifter hearts?”
“It could definitely influence Barric’s thinking, but I’m not sure it would make him go that far.” I shrugged. “What would be the purpose of cutting out hearts and leaving the bodies for us to find? It’s too planned. The amulet is more chaos and power.”
Saint toyed with a ring on his middle finger. “A body was discovered right outside my pack. That’s why I came here. I was hoping you guys might have more answers since you found the previous victims.”
“The same MO?” I asked.
Saint nodded. “We quickly identified the woman, a tiger shifter, because a visiting pack liaison recognized her from a large mixed pack in Ohio. Her name was Alison Marks.”
Alison.
The name sent chills down my spine, and the recent vision I had rushed to the surface. The cookie I held between my fingers dropped onto the counter with a thud. “Was she blond?”
“Yeah…” Saint’s brows dipped as he studied my reaction. “Did you know her?”
“Not exactly.” I swallowed hard, all moisture evaporating from my mouth. Unease twisted through my gut, and the cookies I’d inhaled threatened to shoot back up. “You wouldn’t happen to have a picture of her, would you?”
Saint reached into his pocket and withdrew his phone. “I have a picture of her corpse, but it’s not pretty.”
It didn’t need to be pretty. It just needed to show her face.
My hand trembled when I reached for the phone as Saint slid it toward me, turning the screen in my direction.
A giant hole tore in my stomach as the familiar woman appeared. The same scrape marred her cheek as it had in the vision.
The kitchen blurred, and my pulse thundered in my ears as panic coiled around my throat to choke me. Most of the visions I’d had were of shifters being hunted, captured, and tortured. And then killed.
How the hell could I not have connected the dots sooner?
“Tate? What’s wrong?” Saint’s voice sounded miles away as the visions flooded my mind at breakneck speeds.
So many tiny details that seemed insignificant at the time crashed forward, and I finally saw the whole picture. The other bodies that had been found, at least one, had definitely starred in one of my visions. I’d felt their fear, their complete terror, as those cloaked and masked figures chased them.
“Tatum, talk to me.” Saint reached across the island to shake my hand, but I was completely frozen as the realization hit me.
“What the fuck is he doing here?”
My head snapped toward the left as Fane stood in the kitchen a few feet away, nostrils flaring and irises flashing red.