Bad Moon Rising (Dark-Hunter #18)(12)
Author: Sherrilyn Kenyon

"Because we’re brothers."

"No. We were brothers."

Constantine coughed as he struggled to breathe. Kill him. The urgent voice inside Varyk’s head was hard to ignore. It was what he should do. It was definitely what he owed him.

But curiosity won out. At least for a few minutes.

Varyk released him.

Constantine fell to the floor where he gasped on his hands and knees. Tall and well built, he had coal-black hair and sharp features. It was easy to see the jackal in him. Just as it was easy to see the wolf in Varyk. No one would ever peg them as siblings, which was fine by him.

"Why are you here?" Varyk growled out.

Constantine looked up at him. "I’m being hunted."

"And I should give a damn, why?"

Curling his lip, Constantine pushed himself to his feet. "Since they’ve already mistaken your scent for mine, I thought the least I could do was warn you."

Varyk scowled at his words. "What are you talking about?"

"How do you think I found you here? A group of jackals came to Sanctuary looking for me. Since I wasn’t there, I knew there was only one other person who could smell enough like me to draw my enemies to them . . . you."

He gave Constantine a droll stare. "Wow, you figured that out all on your own too. I’m impressed. You didn’t even need to put a quarter in the Zoltan machine. Truly amazing."

"Knock the sarcasm."

Varyk closed the distance between them. "I’d rather knock you."

Constantine tensed, but to his credit, he didn’t attack. He merely stood there, taunting him with his presence. "Believe me, I know. Do you think it’s easy for me to come here after what happened?"

Varyk grabbed him by his lapels and jerked him hard. "Do you really think I care?"

"Don’t you even want to know why I’m being hunted?"

"I truly don’t give a shit. In fact, I hope they catch you."

Constantine knocked his hands away from him and stepped back. "Fine, brother. I’ll leave you to your solitude."

"You mean exile."

Constantine winced, then paused. He looked back at Varyk over his shoulder. "Mom died last spring. I just thought you should know."

Varyk wanted to be cold and callous. Unfeeling. He wanted that news not to hurt him. Goddamn it, how could it hurt so much after all they’d done to him?

Yet it did. He hated that he’d never had a chance to see his mother one last time.

She’d have only slapped you in the face had you tried.

And right then, he hated himself more for that weakness inside him than he hated them.

"Before I go though," Constantine said, "I have to ask one question."

"That is?"

"How did a wolf-jackal hybrid infused with the powers of an Egyptian goddess end up as the lapdog of a man like Eli Blakemore?"

Varyk gave his "brother" a snide smirk. "Well, I guess they don’t call us jack-offs without a reason."

CHAPTER NINE

Aimee looked up from her book as she heard a sharp knock on her door. Closing her eyes, she saw her brother Alain in the hallway with a tray of tea and biscuits. Unlike the majority of her brothers, he had short blond hair and a face that reminded her of a cherub. His blue eyes were always bright and warm, and he kept a small, well-trimmed goatee.

She was warmed at his thoughtfulness. "Come in."

He opened the door slowly-he was always wary of entering a female bear’s territory without proper invitation. His mate, Tanya, had taught him well. "It’s me. You want some tea?"

"Absolutely." She set her book on the bed and went to hold the door while he came in and put his tray down on her dresser.

Closing the door behind him, she moved back to her bed.

Alain poured them both a cup of vanilla Rooibos tea and brought her the porcelain snack plate that was piled high with sugary biscuits.

She couldn’t help smiling. "You haven’t done this for me in years."

He drizzled honey into his cup . . . a lot of honey-they were bears after all. He held the plastic bear container toward her.

Aimee took it from him and duplicated the gesture as he licked the sweetness from his fingers. "I feel like a cub, waiting for Maman or Papa to come in and yell at us for breaking curfew-you were always so good at getting me into trouble with late-night tea fests."

Alain laughed. "Maman was never the one who scared me as a cub . . . only as an adult do I fear her."

Aimee hesitated at the odd note in his voice. "Why would you say that?"

"For the same reason you would. I love Maman, you know that. But there are times when I sense something about her that makes me nervous."

Aimee agreed as she set the honey aside. "She doesn’t like the others staying here with us. I think she’s afraid of them discovering our secret . . . or worse, of them turning on us like Josef did." He was the one who’d led the party that had ultimately killed her brothers.

Like Wren, Josef had been taken into their den as a wounded pubescent cub instead of being left out to die as Maman had wanted. As soon as Josef had healed, he’d turned on them for no reason at all. It was almost as if he’d hated and resented them for having a family when he didn’t. And for that alone, he’d tried to destroy them.

His betrayal had scarred all of them-one moment of compassion that had turned into a lifetime of regret-but Maman was haunted more than the others. She blamed herself for not being more suspicious of him. Blamed herself for the deaths of Bastien and Gilbert.

That was why Maman was so hard on everyone now. She kept expecting others to turn on her for no reason too.

Alain stirred his tea with a small demi-spoon. "There are many secrets in this house, chere. Sometimes I think too many."

Aimee arched a brow at that. "What are you hiding?"

He paused to look down at his palm where the intricate scroll-work lay that declared him mated. It was a mark that was identical to the one on Tanya’s palm. "You know my secret."

Her heart clenched at the reminder. Though he was mated to a good bear, his heart belonged to another. It always had.

"I’m sorry, Alain."

He shrugged. "I have nothing to complain about. Tanya’s loyal to me. She’s kind and we have two beautiful sons. How could I be upset by that?"

"Do you still think about Rachel?"

Ignoring her question, he looked down at his cup as he continued to stir the honey through the dark liquid. "I wanted to ask you something."

"Sure."

He tapped the spoon twice before placing it on his plate. "Have you noticed anything with Kyle?" Kyle was their youngest brother. A little odd at times, he was basically good-natured and sweet even if he did keep to himself more than the others did.

"Such as?"

He hesitated before he spoke. "That he’s an Aristos."

Aimee froze in disbelief at those words. "What?"

"He’s an Aristos," Alain repeated, his gaze burning into hers. "I’m sure of it."

Aristi were the most powerful sorcerers in their world. Stronger than Sentinels, they were the one thing every Arcadian prayed to be and the one being that made the blood of all Katagaria run cold. "How do you know?"

"We were playing around yesterday, practicing holds, and he took me down with an ease of strength no one at his age should possess. And when he pinned me, I saw it in his eyes."

Aimee felt sick at the news. Aristi were the ones who’d murdered her brothers and they were the one thing their mother couldn’t stand. It was also another secret Aimee kept from everyone. She was one too. "Maman will kill him if it is so."

"That’s what I’m afraid of."

"Have you discussed this with Kyle?"

Alain shook his head, his eyes horrified by the mere suggestion. "Absolutely not. You’re the only one I trust to keep this between us. I would never do anything to cause him harm and I know you feel the same."

Aimee heard the underlying current. There was more to this than what he was telling her. "But?"

"He needs to be trained. Those kind of powers, if left un-checked . . ."

Could kill him. He didn’t finish the sentence because Aimee knew that as well as he did. An Aristos required a tutor, especially the males. While a female could adapt better and learn to control those powers on her own, a male couldn’t. It was what had saved her, but she couldn’t train Kyle without exposing them both. "What should we do?"

"I was hoping you’d have some ideas."

"Not really. I don’t even know of an Aristos." That wasn’t entirely true, but she wasn’t about to share that with Alain. "They’re too rare."

He nodded. "I know . . . think about it. Let me know if you come up with something. I don’t want to leave him alone in this."

Neither did she. Kyle would be as scared by his powers as she was by hers. "You want me to talk to him?"

"I hate to dump it on you, but you’re the one he’s closest to. He might open up to you. At least more than he ever would me."

Aimee smiled at him. He was right. Kyle kept his brothers in the dark, but for some reason he saw her as another mother. "I’ll talk to him tomorrow. See if he knows what’s happening to him."

He gave her hand a gentle squeeze. "You’re the best."

She snorted. "Go ahead, Etienne, and tell me I’m the best sister you have." Etienne was another of her brothers who was a scoundrel and a charmer. He was forever telling whatever lie he needed to get his way.

Alain laughed again at her insult. "He’s such a shit, isn’t he?"

"Yes, yes he is. And speaking of excrement, have we heard anything more from the wolves and their threats?"

"You mean Eli’s group?"

She nodded.

"Not a word. I think Dev put the fear of Zeus into them when he refused to back down."

"That I doubt. They’re pretty stupid."

"Yeah, but even Eli has a smidgeon of self-preservation. He should know by now to leave us alone."

She hoped that was true, but doubted it too. Eli was such a narcissist that the idea of someone actually besting him just didn’t seem to be in his scope of reality. "I wouldn’t be so sure. They don’t call it blind hatred without a reason. I think he’s at the point with us that he will cross any boundary regardless of consequence."

He narrowed his gaze on her. "You have one of your precogs, don’t you?"

"Yeah, but I can’t put a finger on it exactly. I just know he’s going to do something we’re not expecting. I only wish I knew exactly what and when."

"Then I’ll spread the word for everyone to keep their eyes peeled."

"Thanks."

Vane sat off to the side of camp in human form while he listened to the idle conversations around him. Half the pack was in human form while the others were wolves.

Many of the men were restless. There was a disturbing scent in the air. One that denoted trouble, but no one could get a handle on it. Not even he was sure what was causing it.

But he was as edgy as the rest of them. One wrong word or action and he was just as likely to take a life as a Daimon. More so, in fact.

And maybe that was the source of his unease. Ever since he and Fang had helped Acheron and Talon, he’d had a sense of foreboding that he couldn’t shake.

Fang walked up to him and offered him a cold beer. "You want to go patrolling and see if we can find out what’s going on?"

Vane popped the lid and tilted his head so that he could see around Fang’s body where Stefan and the others were gathering. He shook his head.

If he went out with Stefan in the mood he was in, one of them would end up dead.

"Whatever it is, it’s coming this way. I think we should hang close to the women."

Fang laughed at that. "I love the way you think, adelphos. Hanging close to women is what I do best."

He smiled at Fang’s words. "Yeah, but I haven’t seen you doing that lately."

Fang glanced over to Petra who was sitting in wolf form with several other wolfswans. "I’ve been preoccupied."

"With what?"

"Stuff."

Vane didn’t press him. His brother, for all his never-ending stream of sarcasm and live-for-the-moment arrogance, could be extremely moody sometimes. Even secretive.

It was a space and freedom that Vane willingly gave him.

"Vane!"

Vane choked on the beer as he heard his sister’s frantic, scared voice in his head.

"What?" he sent back silently.

"The pups are coming. I need you."

"Did you hear that?" he asked Fang.

"I’m on it."

His beer forgotten, Vane shot to his feet and ran for her. He found her to the side of the camp, near a small outlet of water where she must have gone to get something to drink.

"I’ve got you, babe," he said gently as he knelt down by her side to help her.

She licked his chin, then whined as more labor pain hit her.

Fang joined them a few seconds later with blankets. "Should I get Markus?"

Vane shook his head. "We can handle it."

As he reached to pet Anya, his cell phone rang. Vane started not to answer it, but the ID showed Acheron, who wouldn’t be calling unless it was important. Pissed at the timing, he flipped it open. "I’m busy, Dark-Hunter. This isn’t a good-"