Chapter 4
Three hours later, Hawke finally got the chance to speak to Kohl alone. Hunting him down at his lakeside property, he wandered through the construction site until he found him talking to the lead builder on the far side of the partially constructed house.
The reporter hadn’t come back, and he was both happy he’d gotten his message across and impatient with himself for wasting the last three hours hanging around in the club watching the door for a glimpse of red curls.
He had no idea what her beef was with a company like Parasupe, but their conversation had him on edge.
Kohl showed no sign of surprise when he appeared around a partially finished wall.
Most likely he’d heard and smelled him long before Hawke was close enough for him to see.
Waiting patiently off to the side while Kohl finished his conversation, he nodded politely to the human male as he walked away, rolling up the blue prints for the house.
“They probably hate you, you know. Making them work all night instead of during the day, just so you can be here all up in their business.”
Kohl grinned. “I pay them very well to work all night. And he thinks I have a sun allergy. Plus, I even help out.”
“I’m sure they love that, too.” Hawke fought to keep from laughing, but there was no hope for the sarcasm he couldn’t suppress.
Kohl gave him a withering look. “I just want this place done, and I want it done right. So Devon and I have a place of our own to call home. She doesn’t say anything, but I know she feels uprooted right now, staying in the hideout under the restaurant.
And besides”—he took off his hardhat and ran a hand through his short, dark hair before tossing it to the floor—“I feel like I’m putting Margaret and her family out having us there all the time. ”
“That’s a crock of shit, and you know it. They love it when we’re there. It gives them somebody to fuss over.”
“Ha! The only one she fusses over is Devon. She has Margaret and her brother wrapped right around her finger. All of that Irish food is plumping her right up.”
“Are you complaining?”
“Hell, no!” Kohl grinned at his friend. “I like a woman I can sink my fangs into.”
Hawke started wandering away from the noise of the construction. “Speaking of Devon, I saw her at The Caves earlier.”
Taking the hint, Kohl grabbed his water bottle and followed him across the newly shorn grass that would soon be the front yard. “Yeah. She and Frank are having a girls’ night out.”
“So, you hiss at me whenever I have the gall to pay her the slightest compliment, but that throwback Richard Gere wannabe can hump all over her on the dance floor and you don’t care?”
“Exactly.”
Hawke did laugh this time as they reached the water’s edge.
The night air was crisp and cool, with just a hint of the humidity that would soon come with summer.
He glanced up at the moon where it hung just above the horizon.
It was full enough to diminish the brightness of the stars, and there wasn’t a cloud to be seen.
Dropping his chin, he stared out at the ripples of moonlight playing across the surface of the water and got around to what was really bothering him.
“That reporter came back tonight. She was dancing with them when I came up from the caverns. The redhead.”
“Oh, yeah? How’d that go? Did you find out anything new?”
“She remembered me.” He felt Kohl stiffen beside him. “She remembered everything from last night.”
Kohl became very still. “How?”
With a slight shake of his head, Hawke said, “I don’t know.”
“I thought you wiped her memory.”
“I thought I did, too.”
Kohl was silent as he swapped his water bottle from hand to hand, his expression carefully blank. And Hawke knew exactly what he was thinking.
“She’s not like you.”
“Is it the same? When you try to read her,” he clarified. “Is it the same?”
There was something about Kohl’s makeup that blocked Hawke from getting anything except the occasional stray word or thought, and it was his belief he got that much because Kohl was only half dragon, and half vampire. Still, most of the time, Hawke was locked out.
With Everly, however, trying to access her mind was like slamming into one of the concrete walls that made up the bottom floor of Kohl’s house. Or five. “No. It’s not the same. It’s a total block.”
Kohl lifted his head, breathing in a sharp intake of night air through his nose. Hawke knew what he was going to ask before he asked it.
“Why can’t she be like me?” He wouldn’t look at Hawke, instead staring out over the water. But there was no mistaking the edge of vulnerability in his raspy voice.
Hawke had asked him once why he didn’t go seek out others of his kind.
Yes, his mother had been banned for falling for the charms of a vampire, but she was long dead.
Surely, the child she’d carried at the time wouldn’t be judged so harshly.
He hadn’t asked to be born. And maybe, if he found the Thunder his mother had belonged to, he would still have family there who would help him learn to control the beast inside of him.
Kohl had just looked at him, confused, and told him he was his family.
“I didn’t sense anything,” he told him now. “She looks human. She smells human. And she has a hearing impairment. How would that be possible if she were at all like you?”
Kohl finally looked over at him. “I don’t know. I don’t know any others like me, except my mom. And she died before I could really learn anything useful about our kind.”
But Hawke shook his head. It couldn’t be. If there were others like Kohl on this continent, they would’ve heard about it before now. “It’s not possible.”
“Why not?” Kohl impaled him with a penetrating stare, daring him to come up with a better reason.
His heart pounded within his chest, the sound loud to Hawke’s ears.
“I don’t think it’s such a crazy idea. We don’t know every supernatural creature who lives on this continent.
She could’ve moved here from somewhere else. ”
But Hawke wasn’t convinced. “I would know if she was a shifter.”
“Are you so sure about that? We weren’t even sure about me until the first time it happened.”
“That was different.” Hawke knew he was being obstinate, but he couldn’t help it. He didn’t even know where the hell this attitude was coming from, or why.
Kohl stepped in front of him, blocking his view of the lake.
He was slightly taller than Hawke, and the close proximity forced him to raise his chin to meet his eyes.
Fire glowed behind the brown orbs. “We don’t know anything about her, Hawke.
Maybe that’s why she’s nosing around. Maybe she saw me flying around one night or something and is looking for others of her kind.
Maybe she’s without family, like I was.”
Hawke shoved his hands in his front pockets and looked away with a shake of his head. “That’s not the reason.”
“Why are you being so stubborn about this? It’s not a completely irrational idea.”
“Why are you jumping to conclusions? You said yourself, we know nothing about her. Maybe she’s just a nosy reporter who has no care for her own safety?
Maybe she works for Parasupe. Maybe they’re trying a different tactic to force one of us to do something they deem a punishable offense.
Maybe…she’s nothing but a trap.” He decided not to mention that if that was the case they were all truly fucked, thanks to him and his uncontrollable urges. For now.
Kohl took a step back. “Do you think that’s why she’s really here?”
Grasping the back of his neck with both hands and looking up at the stars to ease the tension there, Hawke sighed heavily. “I don’t know.”
“Well, what did she say when you talked to her tonight?”
“She asked me to help her break into Parasupe.”
“What? Why?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t stick around to get the details.”
Hands on his hips, Kohl stared at the ground. “What do you think we should do?”
A short burst of laughter escaped Hawke before he could stop it.
“What do I think? You’re the coven leader now, Kohl.
I came here to see what you wanted me to do about her.
” His gut twisted even as he said the words.
If Kohl decided she was a threat, Hawke would be expected to handle said threat.
It was what he did. It was what he’d done for hundreds of years for the previous Master.
And he’d never had a problem carrying out whatever was decided.
It wasn’t his choice. He did what he was ordered to do, what he had to do, to protect his coven.
And whatever the consequence…well, it wasn’t on him.
Kohl shook his head and met Hawke’s eyes. “I’m not the right one to make this decision. Hell, Hawke, I’m not the one who should be leading this coven. I’m not even a full-blooded vampire. It should be you, and you know it.”
“You challenged the Master and won. You did that.” He poked him in the center of his chest. “According to the laws, you are the new leader of our little family, and that’s how it should be.”
“But I’m not a full-blood—”
Hawke was growing weary of this argument. “It doesn’t matter, Kohl. You won the challenge.”
“No, the beast inside of me won the challenge.”
“The coven has accepted you, Kohl. It’s time you accepted it, also.” He laid a heavy hand on Kohl’s shoulder and caught his eyes with his own. “You just might surprise yourself.”
Kohl sighed, lines of tension showing between his brows. “It’s not right, Hawke. You’re the elder now. You were the Master’s right hand for too many years to count. You’re way more prepared to take on this position than I am.”
Slashing his hand through the air, Hawke fought not to growl at his friend. “You’re wrong, and you know it. I’m not cut out to be a leader.”
“I beg to differ, Hawke.” He threw his arms out to the sides. “C’mon, man! You practically run this place.”
“Under my Master’s orders.”
Kohl rolled his eyes, then he sighed. “What are you so afraid of?”
Hawke fought his rising temper. Turning away, he went back to stargazing. “I’m not afraid of anything, Kohl. You should know that by now.”
“Hawke, you can’t let one mistake fuck up the rest of your life.”
“That one mistake was enough to make sure I don’t ‘fuck up’ a whole lot of other lives. I don’t intend to ever let it happen again.”
“By letting others take responsibility for your actions?”
This time, he did growl. But Kohl only got more in his face. “Yeah, I get it. If you’re carrying out someone else’s orders, no one can put the blame on you when it all goes to shit. Especially not yourself. Your conscience will be clear.”
“Fuck off, Kohl.” But Hawke knew somewhere deep down that he was right. He was a coward. “I led them straight into a trap.” He scrubbed his face with his hands. “I made a judgment call, and I was wrong.”
“It was a mistake. A mistake you were lucky to survive.”
“I survived because I’m a selfish bastard with a knack for self-preservation.
Because I sent the others in first to make sure it was safe before I risked myself.
” Shame burned through him as he turned away, refusing to see the disgust that was surely all over Kohl’s face.
He’d never told anyone that part of the story before.
“I didn’t know that.”
Hawke crossed his arms over his chest to fill the sudden hollowness there. “Well, you do now.”
Kohl was silent for a moment, then his heavy palm landed on Hawke’s shoulder, much as Hawke had done to comfort him just a few minutes before. “That doesn’t mean you wouldn’t be a good leader now. We all fuck up. And we learn from it.”
Oh, he’d learned plenty that night, and he remembered each and every moment of it. How could he not? The memories were seared into his brain.
Hawke inhaled some oxygen into his lungs to clear his head and changed the subject. “What do you want me to do about the reporter, Kohl?” His tone must have reflected how absolutely finished he was with all of this talk about him being the coven leader, for Kohl didn’t argue with him anymore.
That, or his latest confession was enough to convince his longtime friend that Hawke was right to shy away from the responsibility.
“I don’t know,” Kohl responded. His brow furrowed, and he rubbed his hand over his bearded chin.
“I’d like to find out more about her, and why she’s so interested in us.
Why she came to us for help, of all people.
” He grinned and slapped Hawke on the shoulder.
“And I think you’re the perfect one to do that, since she likes you and all. ”
A twinge of something raw and unfamiliar sparked within that hollow space inside of Hawke. He didn’t trust himself to speak, so with a nod, he turned on his heel and got the hell out of there.