Feral Craving (10 page)

“It’s Tyler. I’m a friend of Bari’s. Been
with him for the better part of eight years. I don’t know how anyone can stand
it.” The side of his mouth tipped in a grin. He turned toward Bethany, who had
yet to say a word. Tyler knew why, remembered her outburst the other night and
fought to keep his smile hidden. Leaning down, his lips whispered against
Bethany’s golden tendrils. “Hello, Bethany. I hope you’re feeling better.”

 
“Tyler.
I am. Thank you.” Bethany’s sweet voice floated up to him, a slight red blush
spread over her cheeks. She slipped off the stool and grabbed her wallet,
sending the impression of a mouse trying to outrun a cat. Okay, he’d let her
run.

For now.

“I need to get back to the hospital, Mac.
I’ll … I’ll call you later.” The words came out in a rush.

“Okay, Beth.” Mac turned a questioning
gaze toward Tyler, and he shrugged.

“Oh, Bethany?” Tyler’s head turned as she
rushed past him.

Bethany paused, and he watched her brace
herself and let out an audible breath. “Yes?”

Tyler let the grin he had been fighting
flash out and saw her entire body tense. “I have a few things I need to discuss
with you. Mind if I stop by the hospital later? I think I remember where your
office is.”

He chuckled as something akin to fear
crossed Bethany’s face. “Sure,” she croaked, “I’m looking forward to it.” She
turned and practically ran out of the shop. Little liar, he thought with an
amused grin. He turned back toward Mackenzie and grinned at her entertained
expression.

“Good to see you and Bethany are making
friends.” She chuckled and shook her head. “If that’s what you can call it.
I’ve never seen her run so fast.” She grinned. “What can I get for you?”

He glanced up to the menu above their
heads. “Actually I’ll just take an iced green tea to go, please.” Mackenzie
nodded and turned to go get his drink ready. Mackenzie looked like he saw her
in Bari’s head, exactly how he heard the male describe her and everything
needed in order to make sure Bari came out of this on the right side. Petite,
yet strong, her long black hair tied up in a makeshift ponytail, the end of it
worked through the elastic band again in a messy bun. Her green eyes danced
with different emotions, one he recognized as caution before anything else.

Mackenzie seemed at home in her shop,
confident in her abilities and had a system set up that showed fortitude in
what she did. She moved with a smooth grace that was timeless, as if she’d once
been a regal queen in England. Taking the to-go cup she placed on the counter,
he tossed a five-dollar bill next to it before turning to head for the door.
Her soft voice reached him just as he opened it. He turned to face her, his own
brows rising in response. “What was that, Mackenzie?”

“Do you know?”

An intriguing question with more than one
answer. Tyler decided to stick with the one that would make the most sense. She
had more of a part in this than she realized and needed to understand. “I know
exactly who you are, Mackenzie. The question is, do you?” With that hanging in
the air, he pushed open the door and stepped out onto the sunny streets of
Nantucket.

Chapter
Eleven

“Look at him sitting there moping like a
chick.”

“I know, right? It’s really
pathetic.” 

“He might need an antidepressant or even
some flowers or some shit. And oh, someone should make sure to take his gun …
just … in … case.”

“Or I could beat the shit out of him.”
This from Alex.

Bari heaved out a deep sigh, shook his
head and while he had decided to ignore the rest of them and refused to give
them any attention, he’d had enough of them talking like he wasn’t there.

“Enough! I’m in the fucking room,
assholes! And you,” he shot a glare at Mackenzie’s brother, “Don’t you have a
home?”

Bari tried to focus his attention back on
the game when a body blocked his view of
Call
of Duty
. Cursing, he about bit down on his tongue as Tyler stepped in front
of him. “Is it true? You’re moping?” The groan building up in his chest broke
free. He felt like a chick, sulky and off kilter because the one person he
wanted, he couldn’t have.

“No, Sir, I’m not moping. In fact, before
you stepped in front of me, I was playing
Call
of Duty.”

The male didn’t move. Tyler kept his eyes
on Bari, studying him, seeing far too much. Bari repressed a shiver and ignored
the uncomfortable sensation slithering down his spine.

“Yeah, he’s playing video games. But he’s
sucking at it.”

He tossed a glare at Tony. “No shit? Bari
sucking at video games? You’ve always been a master at COD,” Tyler responded.

Bari tossed aside the controller, giving
up on any chance at getting back in the game. It was pointless now, and with
everyone seeing right through his mood, he couldn’t seem to snap out of it.
She
had been on his mind constantly, and
he had to admit, he missed the shit out of her. He didn’t just miss her body or
touching her, but he missed other things, such as her smart-ass mouth, her
joking ways, her smile, and her mind … and missing those pieces of her made him
uncomfortable. Yet knowing who he was, recognizing the dark presence inside
him, he couldn’t bring himself to go after her.

“Yeah, we’ll I’m a little off my game, a
little preoccupied, you know, ‘dealing’ with some shit, bro.”
Liar, liar.
He glared at Tyler while
trying to keep the things he was dealing with quiet from Alex. He really didn’t
know how the cop would respond to the fact that he was currently chilling with
a bunch of Justice Demons. Yeah, that’d go over real well.

He heard Tony snort next to him.

“A little off his game, he says; hell,
even Bethany can beat him.” Bari shook his head and dropped it as Mike
announced to everyone that Bethany had sat down with him earlier and defeated
his pathetic ass in
Call of Duty
. She
stomped on his already beaten ego and didn’t just get the better of him in COD,
but whoop the ever-loving shit out of him. His mood didn’t turn too sour at
this little revelation because at least he was happy Mike hadn’t mentioned that
it had been her first… “And it was Bethany’s first time playing the game.”
Fuck… He tossed a tight smile at Mike and flipped him off.

“Thanks.”

Bethany clearing her throat brought his
attention back to her, and the room went quiet. “Perhaps, Bari, you need to go
see Mackenzie. It’s much bigger than you think, and I think it’s definitely
time you two have a chat about what happened all those years ago.”

Tyler decided now was the time to jump on
the bandwagon apparently. “You shouldn’t doubt yourself in your decisions to
think or feel anything anymore.” He heard Tyler in his head.
You are a Eurydice
. Then out loud, Tyler
added, “It is time to take charge of your life … in every aspect there is.”

Bari frowned at Tyler’s cryptic words,
confused as warning bells rang at the mention of that night being bigger than
he thought it was. Was she insane? Did she think it didn’t mean the world to
him? He opened his mouth to ask just where she got such lovely opinions of him,
but Bethany leaned down to whisper something to Tyler, who nodded. Bethany
turned and walked out of the room, dismissing him. His brows drew down and he
stood, intent to go after her but Tony’s palm came down on his chest and held
him in the chair. “Bro, seriously, let’s play. Let her be for a bit.”

Bari studied Tony’s eyes and nodded,
turning back to the game. He needed to get through this so he could get a bit
of his pride back. Then maybe, just maybe, he’d go get the girl.

****

Locking up the shop, Mackenzie pulled the
door shut and secured the deadbolt before turning toward her car. The night had
already rolled in, the streetlights above casting eerie shadows in places. She
hated this, hated losing herself to work until such late hours. The shops
around her had closed, most people nestled away in their homes. Nantucket was
beautiful during the day but at night, the area became almost a ghost town. She
hesitated at the front step to her shop and glanced back inside, wondering if
she should call Alex. Not taking precautions all those years ago had backfired
and broken her. She chewed her bottom lip and looked at her car parked about a
block down the street, her eyes scanning the surrounding areas and the path she
would need to. “Get a grip, Mac.” Pushing off the door, she gripped her bag and
started the short trek to her car. Her mother had already picked Byron up; he was
spending this Friday night at her parents’ house so she knew what would be
waiting for her at home. Nothing. Nothing, but silence. The idea didn’t sound
too intriguing. “Damn it.”

With the waves crashing on the shore only
a few hundred yards away, any sound she was trying to pick up on from the
shadows was taken over by the rumbling growl. Her eyes darted around, picked
each shadow, searching. Her fear rose, breathing shallow, her heart slamming
into her chest over and over again. “Oh God, not now.” The panic attacks were
infrequent as of late, but when they hit, they hit with the force of a
hurricane. She picked up her steps and tried to get to her car, knowing she’d
feel better about breaking down inside the safe confines of her vehicle rather
than out here where she was an unprotected target.

Practically running now, tears falling
down her cheeks, her breath came in shallow gasps and just as she reached for
her door handle the memory hit her…

Only three
months into her internship with the law office, she agreed to a year of working
in the Los Angeles office before she would be transferred to a closer one on
the East Coast. Assigned to a stalking case, she and another attorney had been
trying for weeks to find a weak link in the case the District Attorney had
built up against their client. Nothing seemed to have been done outside of the
client’s rights, and everything looked to have been locked down by the books.
It was frustrating and causing the two of them to work well into the hours of
early morning for weeks.

When the
calls and notes first started, she hadn’t been paying attention, passed them
off as prank callers, wrong numbers, or at times she was too busy to pay
attention. It escalated after that. Certain personal items went missing; first
a bottle of shampoo, her planner, her hairbrush. She thought she was losing her
mind at first, maybe the hours of the case getting to her. It wasn’t until one
night that she had walked into her dark apartment at two in the morning when
she really recognized something was wrong.

Her entire
apartment had been dark, unusual since she usually left the overhead oven light
and a lamp on. She set her keys by the door and dropped her purse on the couch
before she felt her way down the hall, searching for the switch. As she reached
the hallway, a sliver of light peeked out from the door to her bedroom, the
door cracked. When she pushed open the door, a red nighty waiting on her bed
was the second indicator something was off. It was the blow to the back of her
head that caused the fear to swell as blackness dimmed her vision…

“Mackenzie!” Strong hands gripped her
shoulders and shook. She lifted her gaze and focused on the shadow hovering
above. “Mac, can you hear me?” Tyler’s face swarmed into her view, and she
looked around, finding herself curled against the side of her car, keys
clutched in her hand, body trembling.

“Tyler?”

His breath of relief was audible. “Yes.
Are you okay? What are you doing on the ground?” He loomed as she tried to get
her mind in the present, instead of the past. “Can you stand?”

She shook, the nausea in her stomach
threatening to make an appearance, but her breathing slowed and calmed. The
good news was she could make out more of Tyler’s words above the pounding in
her head, the same pounding that matched her heartbeat. “I think so.” Tyler
helped her stand but didn’t remove his hands from her waist as she leaned
against the car. Glancing around, they were the only two on the block, and
there wasn’t another car around. She frowned, a sliver of fear sliding up her
spine, and as soon as it did, Tyler released her.

“Ho—why are you here? How did you get
here?”

Tyler regarded her under wary, guarded
eyes. “I was passing through, Mac. Taking a midnight stroll, literally, when I
saw your car and you huddled beside it.”

“A midnight stroll?” She switched the
keys in her hand like her brother taught her, making sure the sharp ends
pointed out and slid a few inches away from him. Tyler’s eyes followed the
movement before he took a step back.

“Yes, Mac, a stroll. I didn’t mean to
scare you. I just wanted to make sure you were alright.” His lips twitched as
she turned toward him, her posture one ready to fight. His eyes moved
constantly, seemed to take in every detail.

“I’m fine. Thank you for checking on me.”

His eyes said he believed she was
anything but fine, but he nodded. “Okay, Mac. Get in your car. Do you need some
help home?”

She frowned at his demand and shook her
head, reaching over to slide her key in the lock, her eyes still on Tyler.
“I’ll be fine. Thank you again, Tyler.” Pulling open the door, she quickly got
in and shut the door, locking them all as she slid the key in the ignition. Her
heart threatened to come out of her chest, the panic attack refusing to leave.
She put the car in gear with shaky hands and pulled away. Mackenzie glanced up
to the rear view mirror, looking for Tyler, and blinked, searching around, but
she didn’t see him anywhere.