Beloved (Heart Hunter Series Book 1)

Chapter 9

The one cop that had showed up pissed Kara off, this was why Demons loved her hometown. One Hunter bloodline and no law enforcement to ward off the criminal activity running rampant. Welcome to Virginia Beach on a good day. She looked over to Megan who had sat next to her in the waiting room with a patience she hadn’t expected.

“Look, Kara.” Megan sighed. “I hope you don’t mind if I bail.”

Kara paused. “Bail?”

“As much as I hate Lycan, I hate cops more.” Megan let out a breath.

“Sorry but it’s time I moved on. I just got that feeling a bit ago. I tend to run on instinct. Kept me alive this long.”

“Your motorcycle is back at my grandparents’ place”

“It was stolen.” Megan whispered without an ounce of shame. “Feel free to tell the cops that it’s there.” Megan grabbed her worn backpack at her feet. “This is basically all I own, so… I’ll figure out a way out of this town. Don’t worry about me.”

“Sure.” Kara understood. She would have wanted to leave the shit show too if she’d been Megan. “What’s your number ? I’ll call you sometime”

Megan smiled at her. “I don’t do phone numbers.”

“Well…” Kara tried to think of something. “Email?”

Megan laughed. “Do I look like I own a computer?”

Kara let out a sigh. “So, this is goodbye?”

“Hate to leave it like this.” Megan pulled out a smoke, looking around to make sure no hospital staff saw her do so. “Really sorry about your brother.”

“Thanks for your help.”

“If I was any, cool.” Megan gave her a nod. “See you around, Kara. Next time I’m in town, I’ll look you up.” And she walked toward the sliding doors of the hospital exit.

Then it was just her and the police as they spoke to the doctor across the waiting room. Kara swallowed her emotions and stood to approach them.

“Do you need me here?”

They turned to acknowledge her presence. “Yes, actually… where did this take place?” The female officer

grabbed out a pocket book to take notes.

“In the trails just north of town. I…” Kara breathed, reading the officer’s tag M. Reed. “They kidnapped him and I found him.”

“I see.” The woman shoved her glasses up her nose and clicked her pen.

“And why didn’t you tell us sooner?”

“We did, when he was taken last night.”

The woman suddenly look up to her. “Oh, yes, that report.”

The cop got on her radio and as the minutes passed, the more her lifestyle she’d led lately started to eat at her. This is all my fault. If she hadn’t gone to get the drugs, if she’d just stayed clean that day, Josh would still be there and so would James for that matter.

The officer took off her glasses and pinched her nose. “We’ve got the coroner coming and we’ve spoken to your mother…”

“You got ahold of my mom? ” Kara breathed with surprise.

“Yes, she answered the phone. She said she’s on her way.”

“From where?” she asked.

“She didn’t say.”

Kara shut her eyes but the information didn’t bring her relief like it should have. Her mother wouldn’t be letting her off the hook for this situation, Josh had been her responsibility while Carla had been away hunting and she’d been anything but responsible.

The next question came at her. “How’d you get him away from the Demons?”

“I’m a Hunter.” She admitted, feeling the burn of guilt scorch her again. A really bad Hunter.

“Oh…” The officer hesitated. “Okay.”

The doctor nodded but she noticed the bit of distance suddenly created between them and her. “It looks conclusive to Demons.”

“It was,” her teeth clattered from the shock, it had been an on and off occurrence. “He didn’t deserve this… Something wasn’t right about what went on. Don’t you see that? Demons don’t kill kids.” The tears caught her eyes and the officer nodded.

“We’ll investigate and let you know.” Josh would be another cardboard box in the dusty back closet of the unsolved case room and Kara knew it.

“You can sit back over there for a bit, I can give you a ride home.”

“I don’t need one. I have a car.”

“Sure…” The officer let her go and Kara didn’t feel like waiting any longer. She needed some drugs like it was going out of style and at that point in her life, she’d take whatever she could find.

Her walk through the parking lot became mind numbing, she got turned around twice before stumbling into the corner of the dark lot to find where Megan had parked the vehicle. She found the keys in her pocket and pressed

the fob to beep it open.

A growl stopped her though and she looked up to the back of the car as the same black wolf that had saved them, stepped from the shadows. She froze with a gulp as he approached, slow and with a low head that he pressed up against her body sending her tight against the vehicle. She stiffened from how uncomfortable it got between them and grabbed the door handle to escape.

“Tell him… I’m coming.” She ducked inside the car and fumbled to get the keys into the ignition. Her foot found the gas pedal and she drove straight over the curb and into oncoming traffic.

Just twenty-four hours before, she’d been waking up for school and now, she was driving James Dray’s rental car and had nothing else to show for it. She broke into full on tears and that led to a hysteria she couldn’t subside. Her driving got worse for it. If this was as good as it got, if this was it… She didn’t want to see the rest.

Her parking job finished on the dead lawn of her home and she stumbled out of the car, toward her front door. She shoved her hands around the pockets to check for the pills but realized then they were still at her grandparents. Her shoulder slammed into the front door from frustration and it broke free from the hinges. It’s last attempt to be a door ended and she landed on her side along the brown carpet just beyond the doorway.

She rolled onto her back and stared up at the popcorn ceiling as it blurred and refocused with her tears. Nothing could save her this time, not even a few pills. She crawled, on her hands and knees up the stairs until she was wrapped in her unmade bedding and still soaking wet, bloody clothes.

When would Tom come for her?

When would her grandparents find out about Josh?

When would her mother return?

She sobbed as the hours blurred together, no end, no beginning—just the continuous guilt of her failure to her baby brother. The sun’s rays eventually filled her room and faded as a whole day passed in between a messed up version of withdrawals and grief. That was the one thing she hated most about life, there was no pause, no playback, no redos. She always thought Demon Hunters could have used a few rewinds. If hell-dimensions existed, why didn’t that?

“Kara.”

Her eyes opened to the pitch darkness around her. A sideways image of a pair of heeled leather boots caught the moonlight in the room. She knew them anywhere.

“Mom?”

The boots moved toward her, then she was grabbed her by the shoulder and shoved onto her back. “What did you do!”

Kara stared up at her without a reply.

“What did you do!” She screamed at her while a bottle of vodka sloshed in her grip and sent a splash onto Kara’s cheek.

Kara wiped the liquor away from her eye but she hadn’t been fast enough and it stung. “I-I tried to get him”

“Why are you such a fucking screw up, Kara!” Her mother raised her hand and Kara lifted her arms to protect her face.

“I tried!”

“Tried?” Her mother grabbed her and hauled her from the bed. Dragging her out in the hall by a wrist. Kara should have struggled and on any other day she would have but not that day. “Trying would be doing. You’re the worst Hunter alive!”

Kara felt the tumble before it came as she was shoved down the stairs, her shoulders bouncing off each step until she met the bottom. Her mother glared down at her, taking one last gulp from the bottle before she chucked it down the stairs at her.

“You’ve really done it this time!”

Kara moved out of the way quick to dodge shards of glass and grabbed the banister for support. “Maybe if you were here”

“Oh, don’t start! I was hunting.”

“You were partying!” Kara felt the anger before she got time to hold it back and ran at her mother, who grabbed and shoved her up against the wall. The attack had failed and now she could hardly breathe. Her mother leaned in, reeking of alcohol like usual .“Your father couldn’t even make decent fighters, not to mention all his other useless traits. You’re weaker than I realized.”

Kara gasped for breath as she dropped to the ground in a crumpled pile of her own limbs. Broken drywall didn’t help break her fall.

“Look what you did to the damn door!”

Her eyes shut and she put her head against the wall in defeat. “I can’t believe this, Kara! I can’t believe you let him die!”

“I didn’t!” Kara screamed at her and their eyes fused together in that instant, making their blood boil and spark wildfire among the other inhuman traits they shared.

“You did.” Her mother sneered. “You did!”

Kara braced for impact as her mother ran at her. Placing her hands atop her head and her face between her knees but the kick she expected never came. There was a thud and she looked up to her see her mother, flat against the wall above her. She didn’t need to look up to know who it was, his brand name runners were enough.

“Let me go!”

“To the police is where you should be going,” James let her mother free before looking down at Kara.

How he had he given her mother, a somewhat accomplished Hunter, a run for her money, she didn’t know.

“W-w hy are you here?” Kara blubbered.

“I told you I wouldn’t leave you again.” He took her hand and pulled her to her feet. Her back flattened to the wall when her knees failed to hold her up. “Let’s go.”

“I can’t.” Kara glanced to her mother, still holding her head, crumpled on the stairs. His ambush had been perfect to have her mother out of the fight like that.

He stepped in and put his mouth to her ear. “It wasn’t a question.” His fingers took hers and he led her over the broken door and out into the night air. She blinked around her, it had been daylight last time she’d been outside.

Was I asleep that long? Kara tried to keep up to James, he got her in the car and found the keys in her coat pocket. That’s when her mother ran from the house.

“Get back here, Kara!”

James shut the passenger door and Kara refused to watch whatever may ensue, covering her face with her palms and collapsing over her lap. “She’s coming with me.”

“Like hell she is!”

“Watch it happen.” He muttered something else as he walked around the car but she had no idea what that was.

The driver’s side door opened and he was inside. Not doing up his seat belt and reversing very fast out of the driveway. Kara felt the force of that turn as the car sped down the road, high beams on with the engine revving.

She started to cry and he attempted to comfort her once they were away from the house.

“Kara.” His hand took hers.

“I deserve to be back there. Take me back there.”

James sighed. “It’s wasn’t your fault—”

“Of course, it was!” Kara exploded between the sobs. “I just want to die, James, just let me… Why won’t you let me die!”

He stomped on the breaks and stopped her from flying forward on the dash at the same time. “Of all the bloody things to say right now, do not tell me you want to die.”

“Why!” She yelled at him. “Why not? Why are you even here! You left me.”

“Don’t do that. You told me to.”

Kara swallowed her pain and it leaked inside her soul like a plague. “Don’t be angry with me for leaving. You didn’t want my help but…” his sentence dissolved when her eyes met his. “But I was there.”

“I wish you actually had been.” Kara looked away with a sob, holding onto the last bit of her sani ty. She’d never recover from the guilt of Josh’s death and she’d never get any closure either. It wasn’t something she’d ever accept. “I’m sorry…”

“It’s going to be okay now.” He leaned across the space between the two seats.

“How can you say that?” She felt the tears, one after the other stream her cheeks in the same spots they had since she’d lost Josh.

“Because I won’t let anything more happen, I promise.”

She stared at him, wishing that would come true but knowing better. James turned back to the steering wheel and pulled back out onto the road.

“Where are we going?”

“I don’t quite know,” he muttered.

“Can we go to my grandparents?”

“If you don’t believe your mother won’t show up?”

“There’s always a chance once she sobers up.”

James sighed. “I could get a hotel.”

Though the safety of a hotel was promising, Kara shook her head.

“Right.” He kept driving and when they passed the next gas station he pulled up to it. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah.” Kara looked inside to the fluorescent lights and packaged premade food options. She stomach growled for the first time in a long time since she could remember. Her hand found the handle and she got out on her weak knees, using the car for more support than she figured she’d need.

James looked up from where he was filling the car with gas and she hesitated to ask him what she did next.

“Can I borrow five bucks?”

His brow creased before catching on and he dug out his wallet to pass her something across the car hood. She reached and took the platinum credit card with his nameetched across it. Her thumb ran over top of each raised letter, not having to look down to know where she was. She loved his name and how when he told people, they always paused to repeat it. Something about his name made people want to memorialize him.

Jesus. Kara swallowed hard, looking back up to him. “How do I use it?”

“Tap it.”

She muttered the instructions over and over to herself like it was complicated or something. Once she was inside the gas station, it’s humming radio music coming through shot speakers was anything but calming on her nerves.

“Morning,’” the young man behind the till startled her as he appeared out of nowhere with a box of candy bars. His slitted yellow eyes, let her know why he was on the night shift, but obviously he hadn’t gotten the memo to leave town. She only nodded, before she started to scrounge the shelves. There were so many options but what she did choose wasn’t anything of a health value.

That’s when the diner next door seemed very appealing. She left the items unpaid for and walked back out to James as he finished filling up the car.

“I think I might be starving. Can we eat here at the diner?”

He looked up to the flickering neon sign. The all-night diner seemed to satisfy him. “I’ll just be a few more minute s and join you.”

She nodded and walked toward the swinging glass door to step inside. The one waitress on shift gave her smile.

“Take any seat you’d like, hun.” She clicked her pen from taking an order and put it back in her apron.

Not into making any sort of decisions, Kara sat in the nearest booth. Her eyes went to the door as he walked in and right over to her. The waitress gave him a nice long look over and Kara could only imagine what she was thinking when he sat down across from her.

He gave her the tiniest bit of reassurance in his expression and they waited in silence, until the waitress walked over with menus.

“Would you like something to drink?”

“Coffee, please.” James sounded desperate.

“Nothing says eleven at night like coffee,” the waitress joked but neither of them were in the mood and she got the memo. “Comin’ right up!”

She nodded, leaving them in amongst the gentle sounds of the kitchen working in the back and soft rock over the radio. The peacefulness of that moment brought Kara more comfort than she expected.

James didn’t push her to talk, in fact he got up and found a newspaper that was two days old to occupy himself with.

The waitress returned with a coffee pot and two cups. “Anything to eat?”

James looked to Kara but when she attempted to scan the options on the menu for the first time, he ordered for her. “Just two of the biggest breakfast you offer.”

“Sure.” The waitress smiled, took the menus from him and walked away.

Kara sighed. “Sorry… I’m hungry but my brain isn’t working.”

“It’s okay, I understand.” He assured her, glancing down to the front of the newspaper.

Kara watched him flip the pages on a mission to look for something interesting, but she supposed their local news just wasn’t stimul ating enough for him. When the crossword on of the last pages turned up, she stopped him from flipping.

“Can I have that?”

He removed the puzzle from the paper and handed it to her. It was one way to occupy her mind away from reality, difficult to spell words. And she did struggle as James read something of interest. She bit her lip, peeling her eyes up from the puzzle. “I can’t get this but I feel you’ll know … English institution since 1440. Four letters.”

“Eton,” he replied without a beat.

She looked back down. “You’re right.”

He almost smiled. “I should be, I went to school there.”

Her eyes slowly returned to him and she swallowed. “I feel like I should know that.”

“Maybe.” He looked back down to the paper. “I won’t hold it against you though.”

The waitress brought their meals and Kara dug in almost right away. “If you need anything else, just let me know.”

“Thank you,” James said, waiting until the waitress left to start eating. He might have had some manners still, Kara was past caring. “Where is Megan?”

“She left last night after we got out of the fight.”

“Mm.” He ate some more.

“I can see the similarities between me and her more now.”

“What do you mean?”

“Our drive to kill those Demons was crazy.” She continued, “And when it was all over, she wanted out of this town as much as I’ve wanted out my whole life. Now, I can see I don’t deserve that freedom.”

His fork paused along the rim of his plate. “You didn’t kill him.”

“Fine but I didn’t protect him,” she corrected.

He sighed. “If you want to play that card, then neither did I. Kara, he was taken right from under my nose”

“I told you, he wasn’t your responsibility.”

“He wasn’t yours either,” James snapped in a low voice. “He is your mother’s and she wasn’t here. Was she?”

Kara couldn’t accept that statement, no matter how true it may have been.

“I’m not going to lie to you and say one day it will all make sense because likely, it won’t but you do, on some level, need to forgive yourself.”

Kara shut her eyes from the pain of that sentence. “Doubtful.”

He sighed. “After we eat, do you still want to go to your grandparents’ house?”

“Yes.”

It was good enough for him and he started to eat again. It took them only ten minute s to completely finish their plates. Kara couldn’t remember ever eating as much as she had.

“How do I tell my grandparents about Josh?”

James swallowed the last bite in his mouth. “You tell them the truth, it’s all you can do.”

Her eyes fell to her empty plate. “They’re going to hate me.”

“No, they’re going to understand, no matter how fucked this all seems.”

“Are they?” When she looked to him, her eyes filled with tears.

He reached out to take her hand across the table. “They will.” His grip on her increased and then he got up, shuffling around the table so he could sit with her. She didn’t stop herself from molding into him when his arms wrapped around her tight. So tight, she could feel his heart beating, his chest moving with each breath and the low whispers coming from his lips and into her ear.

She struggled to accept his comfort but he pulled her in, not giving her much of a choice. Which came as a sudden relief on her emotions and she put her face into his chest and cried. “I know what it feels like.” His voice held a deep rhythmic tone that she had not heard before, it’d come with his age and the year away from her.

Even if he was talking about death, something about it calmed her. “It won’t always hurt this much.”

Her tears soaked his shirt but he didn’t seem to mind. “Yes it will.”

“You’re right, it will, but some days, it will hurt less than others. I promise.”

She shut her eyes tight as she held onto him through the pain she felt. He pulled back just a smi dge to kiss her forehead. “I want you to come home with me.”

She cringed. “What?”

“You don’t deserve to live like this.”

His words angered her and she pulled away from his embrace but when she went to reply, the waitress walked over with the bill.

“How did you want to pay?”

“Where’s the credit card I gave you?”

Kara fumbled to find it in one of her pockets and finally located it. He took it from her and passed the waitress the card.

“Please think about it,” he said once the waitress had walked away. Her eyes moved to his slowly but she couldn’t tell him she would. It was out of the question even if she wanted to. She belonged to Tom now.

Maybe he knew it was a no and that’s why he suddenly seemed so agitated. James ran a hand through his hair and picked up his coat from the bench seat. “Let’s go.”

Kara got up and he intercepted her hand reaching for the table top, offering her his support instead. “Here you go.” The waitress was at their side and James took his card back.

“Thank you.”

She nodded. “Have a nice night.”

He slotted the credit card back in his wallet and Kara followed him out of the diner and toward the black rental parked almost at the front door. The placid night air, no matter how refreshing hardly calmed her. She choked on the tears that for med as James opened the door for her.

“Kara.”

She grabbed the car for support and sat down on the passenger seat before she broke completely. “I’m sorry, I”

“Look at me.” He crouched down to meet her inside the car and it stopped her sentence short. His eyes focused on her with a determination and strength she could feel inside her soul. “I love you.”

The breath that left her lungs wasn’t replaced with another.

“I’ve loved you since the day I met you.” His hands took her cheeks and as much as she wanted to kiss him, as much as it felt right, she didn’t let it happen. She dropped her face out of his hands and leaned back in the seat.

His deep breaths got shorter when she didn’t return the sentiment but she wasn’t sure she could, no matter how much she wanted to. Telling James how much she actually cared for him would do nothing in the end but make it all the more excruciating.

“We should get to your grandparents’ house.” He stood and she watched him walk around the car once he’d shut her door. He took her rejection like nothing she’d ever experienced before. The subtlety of his expression didn’t allow for a pout or even an edge of anger.

He started the vehicle and right before he put it in drive, she whispered,

“I’m sorry.”

He adjusted his hands on the steering wheel before looking over to her.

“You don’t have to say it back, I just wanted you to know because I feel like you need to know right now.”

Her heart pounded from his honesty and during the rest of the drive, she struggled to come to terms with everything happening. The only thing she was one hundred percent on, James Dray loved her, against all logic she’d ever known possible.

That edged her to insani ty. Until she couldn’t decide which would be worse, telling her grandparents what happened to her brother or telling James she’d traded herself to Tom. The car rolled to a stop in front of the farm house and Kara unclicked her seat belt with a stream of tears cascading her cheeks. She saw the door on the porch being opened and she wished she could have ran. Every inch of her wished she could have ran.

She got out of the car as James tried to help her, but this she had to do alone and so she walked toward her grandmother. The stairs passed beneath her feet and then she was in front of the older w oman, tear stricken eyes as the words spewed out of her mouth in a sob.

“I couldn’t save him. I’m sorry.”

“Oh no.” Her grandmother grabbed her before she fell to her knees but it was clear she couldn’t support her once she actually started to slip to the porch. James was there to do the rest. She felt his arms come around her and he picked her up off the ground, adjusting her in his arms and carrying her inside after Lauren.

Like a blur, Kara didn’t remember any of what happened next but she did remember James lying her down on a bed in the attic of the farm house.