Heart of Stone - Book 1: Fighting Fate

Stone exhaled, his shoulders relaxing once Aubree stepped into the pack house. He didn’t need to worry anymore because she’d be safe in there.

“What now, Alpha?” Alistair asked, sensing the tension slipping from Stone’s shoulders.

“Now, we hunt,” he answered. “I want Carina and I want her alive.”

She wasn’t any good to him dead. He’d never get his answers from her that way, even if it did make his life easier without her in it. He had to make sure she was behind it all, and whether she had others backing her every move.

Shedding their shorts, they shifted into their beasts and bound into the woods.

He ordered Gwen to stay close to the house, and Gavin to patrol a two-mile radius around the house. He sent Gunner to the east and Alistair to the west. He was going north into the city, certain that Carina was hiding undetected there.

He reached city limits in fifteen minutes, but couldn’t pick up any bloodsuckers. He went west along the border for half an hour before turning back and running east for an hour. Still finding nothing, and getting ‘all clear’ messages from the others, he told them he was going to enter the twin cities.

Moving cautiously through the shadows in the city, he pushed his senses as far as they would reach to try and pick up the faintest hint of a bloodsucker’s metallic breath or faint odor.

For two hours, he searched the darkest streets, the most dangerous neighborhoods, and slipped through suburban backyards until he decided to venture into the downtown core.

Stealing some clothes left out on a clothesline in a backyard, he shifted into his human form before walking barefoot down the streets. Even though it was a Monday night, nearing midnight, the alcohol was still flowing from the bars and filling his senses with the smell of hops and barley.

A scantily clad woman on a street corner smiled and winked at him, the stink of stale sweat still lingering on her skin. He cut across the street to avoid her.

The City Council clock tower downtown soon struck midnight when he picked up the scent of a vampire and two humans he hadn’t crossed paths with in two years.

Gritting his teeth together, he forced himself to turn down the alley and approach them, knowing that he was probably wasting his time.

He heard their voices before he could see them hunched over a body—or what was left of a body. The foul stench of vampire blood stung his eyes, forcing him to stop in his tracks a few yards away.

“Well, well, well. Look who we have here, Davis,” said the tall, lanky male to the shorter, slightly muscular one hunched over the vampire remnants. “One of our great and powerful Guardians has decided to grace us with his presence. Welcome, oh most wonderful knight in furry armor.”

He bowed as Davis rose to his feet. “Shut up, and dispose of the body, will ya?”

Straightening back up, the lanky one spat before pulling out a plastic garbage bag from the pocket of his trench coat and began collecting the disembodied pieces with his gloved hands.

Davis turned to Stone and took a few steps toward him, his black combat boots thumping loudly on the asphalt. “What brings you into my city, Lycan?”

Stone never like his attitude, but then, the slayers never cared for the werewolves and lycans either. They interacted only when forced to, otherwise, he let the slayers take care of the downtown area and only sought them out as a last resort.

“I’m looking for a vampire by the name of Carina. Heard of her?” he asked.

“Yeah, who hasn’t heard of the old bat?” he countered. “What do you want with her?”

“I need her for questioning.”

“Well, if I manage to get my hands on her, she won’t be given her day in court,” Davis said.

Stone grabbed Davis by the collar of his jacket and lifted him up off the ground. “If you find her, you will hold her captive until I can claim her,” he said through gritted teeth. “But if you can’t get your hands on her, you will tell her to meet me at the Schubert Club Bandshell on Raspberry Island. Do I make myself clear?”

Davis narrowed his eyes at Stone. “Put me down, mutt.”

Growling under his breath, he lowered the stocky man before releasing him.

“I will do what you ask if you tell me what you want with the bloodsucker. What is she to you?” he asked as he readjusted his jacket.

“As I said, I need her for questioning. My business is my own,” Stone told him.

“Does this have something to do with the girl your pack has been watching over?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.

Stone clenched his teeth once more. How did he know about Aubree?

Davis smirked at his lack of immediate response. “So it is about the girl? Interesting.” He began to circle around Stone, taking him in and evaluating the situation at hand. “What would a near-immortal lycan want with a human woman? It is against your own laws to pursue relations with humans, and you are of the Olde Order, which can only mean one thing.”

Stone’s hands balled into fists at his side as he continued to breathe through his teeth.

“You will not speak a word of this to anyone,” he warned.

Davis humphed, his grin stretching across his face. “So, she is a mate.”

Fuming, Stone hated the fact that they somehow managed to figure things out so quickly. If the slayers knew, then there was no doubt the vampires knew as well. Somehow, the word was spreading and he didn’t like it.

Davis continued to circle around him. “You lycans and werewolves are such simple creatures. So predictable. So easy to figure out. If it doesn’t concern your mates or packs, you don’t care one way or another about anyone else.”

Stone struggled to swallow as he reigned in his temper. He didn’t want to argue with Davis, even though Davis had a valid point. He had enough on his mind and dealing with slayers wasn’t something he wanted to add. Not only that, but the less he said to Davis, the less he had to work with to try and figure out matters that were none of his concern.

“You will inform her to meet me there an hour before sunrise.”

He took his leave as the lanky slayer got a fire going in a steel drum at the back of the alley and was pulling out the vampire bits and dropping them in. They sizzled and popped, releasing a stench far more potent than before. He covered his nose with his shirt as he made his way out of the alley and back onto the street.

He searched through bars and clubs until they closed up for the night, finding nothing. Another hour of wandering the streets, and he finally caught a whiff of something that didn’t belong.

His lips curled back in a snarl as he slipped into the shadows. He was down-wind of the vampire, and while he couldn’t be sure where exactly it was, he knew he had to move swiftly and silently through the darkness in hopes of catching it by surprise. He could out-run it in his wolf form but in his human form, he was evenly matched.

He needed a messenger. He needed the vampire within his grasp, so he had to remain in his human form.

Waiting for a car to pass on the empty lamp-lit street before slipping out, he slunk between the crevices of the walls, the indented doorways to businesses, and the dark, narrow alleys between buildings until he saw the vampire in his sight.