Howls of the Lost | Now Published!

Chapter 25

Chapter 25

Crying out, I batted Logan's hand away when he reached for me. Tears welled in my eyes as I realized it was Xander's mark. It was burning as if someone was holding a red-hot iron against my skin. Before long, the heat building beneath the mark began to move and radiate throughout my entire body. My veins were on fire. The tears spilled over as I crumpled in on myself, sinking to the floor.

Logan's arms were around me in an instant. His tone was soothing, but I couldn't make out a word he was saying. Jacob and David were surrounding me as well, but nothing they said was getting through to me. It was as if my senses had completely shut out everything but the inferno roaring in my blood.

A restlessness started inside me. At that moment even through the pain, something was pulling me towards the front door. Confusion settled in as I forced myself to my feet and my body began moving without my consent. I was following the instinct and headed towards the door. Apparently, I was moving faster than I knew because I was outside and halfway to the woods before any of the others even knew what was happening.

Over and over again I tried to stop the advance of my legs, but I failed at every attempt. The mark continued to pulse, sending heat waves through my body. Racking my brain, I tried to think of a reason as to why this was happening, but I was coming up empty. Nothing that I knew of could cause Xander's mark to do this . . .

Xander.

In a flash of insight, I remembered Logan saying he didn't know what all bearing Xander's mark entailed. I was willing to lay money that this was a result of the vampire. Cursing him to the deepest pits of Hell, I fought even harder against my uncooperative body. Tears spilled down my cheeks as I entered the confines of the forest. By then I was full out sprinting and I knew fighting the pull was useless, so I gave in.

❃ ❃ ❃ ❃ ❃

It took Logan a while to realize she wasn't in the room. She had moved so fast. Once he had, he was on his feet and running towards the door. But when he got there and wrenched it open, Torian was nowhere in sight.

Logan slammed the door shut and rested his forehead against it. What had happened? Where could she have gone? He didn't have a clue. There was no way he could even go after her. It killed him inside to know that he was failing her again. He couldn't even smell her. Whatever had happened, it had burned her scent away with it, so he couldn't track her.

"It had to be Xander," David said, right behind him.

Logan turned to face the other boy. "That's the only thing I can think of," he replied.

"We have to go after her," David stated.

"How, Dave?" Ashlyn asked, coming up beside them with a grim expression on her face. "We have no idea where she went. How are we supposed to find her?" she sounded close to tears, and Logan completely understood.

"I don't care, Ash!" he snapped at her. "He's nearly killed her once, what's to stop him from doing it again?" David was livid. He would give anything to tear the vampire's heart from his chest, but first he had to find him.

"He cares too much about her," Logan muttered, disgusted with the fact that his words were true. As evil and corrupt as Xander was, Logan knew he genuinely cared about Torian in his own twisted way. He would never be able to go through with killing her.

But then again, he had thought that before . . .

"Let's go," Michael said, speaking up from his place by the kitchen archway. It took Logan a minute to realize that Ashlyn's mate had spoken. Michael was quiet by nature and hearing his voice placed a hush over the room that seemed impenetrable. "We have to find her. I'm not going to risk losing our Alpha again," he growled, speaking directly to the remaining two of Torian's pack.