Hunter's Edge

Chapter Sixteen

Dead Inside

He heard the soft knock at the door, but Kel didn't answer. For the past three hours, he'd lain on his bed, recalling the events from last night...everything from waking to feel that call, to burning Phoebe's battered, broken body.

Science made it necessary. There were physiological differences in a werewolf and too many curious souls had ended up with a dead non-mortal before them. Too many questions had already been asked.

Once, Kel was told they had buried their dead just like humans preferred. But as science evolved and both mortal and non-mortal alike began to research, it became clear to the non-mortal population that they had to protect their presence from mortals.

If there was no safe, certain way to transport their dead, then they had to burn the body. Kel knew there wasn't any way he could get Phoebe's body back to Memphis, not on a motorcycle. Instead of tracking the feral, Kel had seen to Phoebe's remains, standing beside the flames until little but ashes remained. He would have liked to burn the whole damn warehouse down, but there were too many other buildings close by, too big a risk.

With a terse call to Rafe, he told the Master what had happened and where. Rafe would get somebody out there for cleanup, and damn was there cleanup needed.

Kel had walked out of the warehouse a dazed, bloodied mess. Some of the blood was his, but most of it had come from Phoebe as he sat on the floor and held her lifeless body.

There was another knock and then the door opened. Closing his eyes, he averted his head. Sheila's footsteps were silent on the floor but he knew she was in here. The bed dipped beneath her weight as she sat on the edge and reached out, laid a hand on his arm.

"Wanna talk?" she offered, her voice soft and sad.

"No."

She sighed. "I don't imagine you do. But maybe you need to."

Laughing bitterly, he turned his head and glared at her. "Why? What the fuck will that do? It won't help me find him. It won't help her. It won't undo what that monster did..." Vivid images flashed through his mind, images he'd seen in his dreams through the long daylight hours.

"I didn't love her."

Abruptly, Kel couldn't be still any more. Jackknifing out of the bed, he stalked towards the dresser and grabbed a pair of jeans, dragged them on over naked hips before he turned and faced Sheila. "I spent the past year with her, fucking her whenever the hunger got too bad. I didn't love her—I knew I never would. But I cared about her and I was too damn blind to see that she was feeling something for me I couldn't return. And then he got ahold of her."

Sheila smoothed a lock of hair back from her face and licked her lips. Rising from the bed, she moved across the floor until she stood just a few feet away. "Rafe sent Toronto out to investigate, see if he could figure out what happened to Phoebe. She didn't show up at work the night after the fight. Told a friend she was taking off. Her stuff is gone. There's a civilian shifter, works as a cop in Tupelo and he sent word to Rafe about a car that was found outside a bar early this morning. It was Phoebe's. The shifter recognized a werewolf's scent..." Sheila's voice faded away and she turned her head.

"Tell me."

After taking a deep breath, she looked back at him, her blue eyes soft with compassion. Kel didn't want compassion—he didn't deserve it. But damn it, he needed answers.

"There was blood in the car. A lot of it. He also thought he scented a vamp. Since Rafe's the closest Master, he sent word. Toronto headed down there after we got that information and he's been there since. There've been some weird deaths, looks like the feral had himself a little playground down there."