My stomach churned. Bren once told me moon sickness was the equivalent of bloodlust for weres. I didn’t want Aric to relive such a tragedy and thought I should interrupt. But he continued. Maybe because he had to.

“My father was one of many weres killed that day before Nala was finally destroyed. Martin’s strength allowed him to live, and so did his guilt. He felt obligated to raise me since his mate killed my father and because he failed as my dad’s Warrior to protect him. My mother didn’t fare as well. She was literally on her deathbed the moment she felt my father pass. I kept her alive by making her a foolish promise she continues to expect me to fulfill.”

“What did you promise her?”

Aric swallowed hard. “I promised to give her grandchildren.”

This time it was my turn to tense. “Oh.”

We held each other in silence, our beating hearts syncing in strength and rhythm. Birds sang outside and the warm breeze passed hard enough to billow the drapes. In the distance, cars swept along the highway, once, twice, three times before I finally spoke again. “Whatever happened to the witch?”

“I found her six months later. She was my first kill.”

CHAPTER 21

I jerked up. Aric had avenged his father at such a young age. Aric sat up, cupping his large hand on my shoulder. “You weren’t expecting that, were you?”

“No.”

He kissed my forehead. “Don’t be afraid. I won’t ever hurt you.”

“I know,” I whispered. My lips met his to prove my lack of fear for him. But then he pulled away and left our bed. He adjusted the vertical blinds so they allowed light in, but veiled us from the outside world.

I adjusted the sheet against my br**sts when he returned to bed. He knelt in front of me. “Will you tell me about your first kill?”

I turned my face away from him. “Trust me when I say you don’t want to know.”

His fingers rubbed the base of my skull, gently playing with the fine hair beneath. “I want to know everything about you. Even the hard times you’ve endured.”

I didn’t say anything, choosing to listen to a car pull in next door. Doors flew open and a little girl squealed. Mrs. Mancuso’s great-grandchildren had come for a visit. It was the only time she semibehaved around us.

Aric waited patiently for me to speak. He didn’t seem to realize how opposed I was to discussing my past, so I offered him an explanation, hoping it would be enough. “Your opinion of me will change if I do.”

My reasoning didn’t deter Aric like I wished it would. He shook his head. “No. It won’t.”

“It should.” Long drawn-out seconds morphed into agonizing minutes. I finally stole a glance at his eyes. While they maintained the same fire, there was something different about them, a level of compassion I’d yet to discover. I don’t know why, but at that moment I felt like I needed to be honest with him. I waited, though, until the last of the children’s voices muffled behind the door of Mrs. Mancuso’s house. It was silly. It wasn’t like they could’ve heard me, but somehow their innocence made everything I had to tell Aric that much harder.

“I’d accomplished my first change a few months before my parents were murdered. But I didn’t have any control for a long time. Still my beast waited inside, giving me strength an eight-year-old had no business possessing and heightening my senses to the point I thought I’d go mad.” I blew out a breath, willing myself to calm. “I saw the four men who killed my parents standing over their bodies. I could taste the salt of their sweat on my tongue and scent each of their distinguishing odors, even over the blood of my mom and dad. My tigress latched onto their images like three-D photos complete with smells thrown in. And every night for years, she taunted me with their images. I hated her for it.”

Aric leaned against the headboard and pulled me against him, wrapping me with the sheet and using the edges to wipe my streaming tears. “Your tigress didn’t want to hurt you, Celia. She wanted you to hunt. And she was reminding you of your quarry.”

“Like I needed reminding,” I said barely above a whisper. I buried my face against Aric’s chest to give me the strength to continue. There was no going back now. “I was such an angry kid. But when my hormones kicked in during high school, I pretty much lost it and realized what my tigress was beckoning me to do. I started taking the bus to Plainfield, where my parents were killed, and began my hunt.”

“How old were you?”

“Fifteen. Sixteen by the time they were all dead.” I couldn’t face Aric then. “The first one was the hardest. He pleaded with me not to kill him. After him, it became easy. Too easy.”

There was noise outside, I was sure of it. Rain, maybe the kids. But all I heard was the sound of my frantically beating heart.

“How did you feel after it was done?” Aric finally asked.

“It satisfied my tigress, but my human side felt no different. My parents were still dead.” I rubbed my eyes. They were sore from crying. “I told my sisters the night after I had killed the last one. They all cried. Finally they felt safe.”

“Did you feel safe?”

I focused on the framed photograph Shayna had taken of an ancient tree. He gently turned my cheek to face him. “Celia, did you feel safe?”

My tears threatened to fall once more. “I’ve only ever felt safe with you.”

I couldn’t read Aric’s expression. He tried to kiss me, but I turned away embarrassed. “How did you feel after your first kill?” The only reason I asked was to shift the attention away from me. Aric wasn’t dumb. He knew what I tried to do, but he answered me anyway.

“Celia, we’re raised and trained to fight and annihilate evil. We’re too connected to our animal side to feel regret. That’s what makes us so different from humans. As per were laws, your kills were righteous. You avenged your family, just like I avenged my father.”

“I guess if I were of your kind, I could live with that. But I’m not.” I blinked a few times. “Do you think differently of me?”

Aric’s voice dropped several octaves when he lifted me to him. “Nothing’s changed between us. And nothing ever will. You’re still the best person I know. I just want you to feel safe. Even when I’m not here to hold you.”

I locked eyes with him. “Then let me help you hunt the demon lord.”

• • •

Aric jetted the Jeep Wrangler across the barren terrain, kicking up dry chunks of beaten soil into the hot, sticky air. The packs had tracked the demon’s trail to Death Valley. Once again, the irony was not lost. We drove through the sand-filled national park, trying to reach where the latest victims had been unearthed. The four-by-fours were perfect for off-road, except I’d given anything for the closed cabin and air-conditioning of Aric’s Escalade.

I’d heard the Valley was a wonder, nature’s masterpiece, a rare gem in a world busting with industry and flashy technology. Maybe. But after driving an hour in the one-hundred-plus-degree heat, it more than kind of sucked.

Aric passed me another water bottle. “Drink more,” he yelled over the roar of the engine. “We’ll have to abandon the Jeeps close to where the last set of bodies were scattered, and hike on foot from there.”

I forced down the tepid liquid. Sweat soaked through my white tank and clung to my white cotton bra like a newborn to her mother. “How wide is the perimeter from where the bodies were found?” Danny hollered from the back. His teeth knocked together with every bump and grind.

“About thirty miles,” Aric called over his shoulder.

Bren spit out the side of the Jeep, I assumed to rid his mouth from the coat of dust smearing our teeth like old paint. “Shit. That range is too vast even for the number of noses we have to track. Dan, your one-night stands with the Dewey Decimal Dames better pay off. This place blows.”

“I’ll do my best,” Danny muttered.

His apprehension made me turn around. Poor Danny clung to the frayed leather volume in his arms like he held the original Ten Commandments. The “Codex Demon-Summoner” as he called it had come from a “hot” librarian in Ohio. Danny’s interest in the Vixens of Microfiche continued to astound me. He’d wanted to help, except his lack of athleticism and his human status seemed to affect his spirits the farther we ventured into the scabrous and desolate park.

Shayna and I were part of Aric’s hunting party. Taran and Emme had joined their wolves and another group. They weren’t too far from us, but we couldn’t exactly count on their immediate help.

Aric had graciously insisted that Bren and Danny ride with us. I could have kissed him for it. His fellow werebeasts didn’t like a human tagging along, and resented Bren as a lone even more. Aric would help me keep them safe. At least, I hoped.

“We’re here, Celia.” Aric slowed the Jeep in the middle of stone hill path. The hot air beating against my face dwindled to a stop, exposing us to a layer of ozone so thick it slogged through my lungs. Danny took a few puffs of his inhaler, for all the good it did him. Bren shot him a worried glance before leaping out of the back.

I slid out of my sweat-soaked seat. Dunes stretched out in the horizon, laughing and mocking our withering bodies. Cracks crisscrossed the dry earth, forcing the sunbaked sand to resemble a cobblestone path rather than soil. Yup. Bren was right, this place blew.

“According to the werelion who found the last body, we have to hike about a mile that way.” Aric pointed to the dunes. Behind us, three more Jeeps rolled to a stop.

Shayna hurried to me, her pixie face drenched with sweat and bright red from the heat. “Not the best place to track, huh, Ceel?”

“We can handle it,” I said, keeping a close eye on the weres watching Danny. They laughed when he picked up a crumbling stick.

“What the hell are you doing, Dan?” Bren asked.

“It will help me hike through the tougher terrain.”

Bren took it and chucked it behind a large boulder. “Just grab on to my arm. I’ll pull you along the rough spots.”

“You girls together?” a werebear asked, laughing.

Bren winked and grinned. “Nah, I like banging your sister too damn much to play for the other team.”

Aric growled something at the werebear before he could react, cementing him in place. Good for him. I’d already taken a protective stance in front of Danny and Bren. The bear would have to barrel his way through me to get to them. And raging heat or not, I’d kick his ass if he tried to hurt them.

The bear ignored me and narrowed his eyes at Bren. Preternaturals had a tendency to underestimate my petite stature. Stupid mistake on their part.

“Move, Carl.” Aric’s tone broke through the dense air. The bear took the lead without another word or glance back. Aric linked his fingers with mine. “Don’t get between two weres, Celia. Let me handle things.”

“I don’t like bullies,” I told him, not bothering to keep my voice down.

“And neither do I,” Aric answered just as loudly. “Come on, we need to hunt.”

We’d trekked along the hard soil less than a mile when Aric’s head whipped to the side, two breaths behind Bren. Bren threw Dan over his shoulder and bolted up an incline littered with jagged rocks. Danny held tight to the text despite Bren’s spastic movements. Aric and I sprinted after him, leaping over the minilandslide caused by Bren’s racing steps.

Bren ran a few more yards toward a cluster of dead branches. The festering smell of meat kicked me in the face.

Bren put Danny down and began tossing the termite-ravaged wood, building a pile on either side of him. Aric joined him until they uncovered two . . . no, two and a half men left to rot.

“Fresh kills,” Bren said, pointing to the sections of drying blood near one man’s cleanly licked femur.

Aric jerked his head to the right. “The scent originated from that gorge.”

The pounding of paws and boot-clad feet announced the arrival of the rest of the team. Half of the weres had already changed; the anticipation of finding their quarry urged their beasts forward.

Danny cleared his throat but couldn’t hide his gag. “We should try the summoning spell from the gorge. It’s likely where the demon lord cast the lethal blow.”

Bren stared at the bodies. “Or where he started munching on these poor bastards.”

Danny cleared his throat again. “Ah, yeah. Violence like that can help trigger the spell.”

Shayna clutched Koda’s neck, turning her head away from the reek of death. Koda patted her leg and adjusted her against his back. I was glad she’d hitched a ride. The climb along the loose and rolling stones could easily have caused a fall or a sprain.

The witch, sent by the oh-so-lovely Genevieve to assist Aric, remained straddled to her werecougar boyfriend. She stroked his fur, scowling at Danny. “Give me the book.”

Danny held it protectively against his chest. “Um, it’s very delicate. I’ll hang on to it until we get to the gorge.” He glanced at Aric. “If that’s okay with you, I mean.”

“No problem,” Aric answered. “Let’s go.”

The witch huffed before her fuzzy method of transportation took off in a dead sprint toward the gorge. Bren lifted Danny again. We barreled through a section of dried bushes, leaping over and across boulders until we reached the rim of the crater. The sides were steep and sharp along the football-field-wide hole. I panted hard, the thick, dry air making it difficult to catch my breath. “You okay?” Aric whispered beside me. His breaths weren’t as ragged, but then his were lungs were stronger. He kept his voice low so the others wouldn’t hear me. He didn’t want them to consider me weak. And neither did I.