Hunted (37 page)

“We’ll have the place to ourselves for a while because Hank just got called to Atlanta on a business trip,” Gretchen stated as both Lanie and Kyle followed her up to the second floor guest room, which was done in so much pink floral it looked like Spring had thrown up.  “I can’t believe someone else has been killed.  This is a nightmare!”

Yes.  The people in Fells Pointe were being killed by something that came straight out of a nightmare.

“You put your stuff away and I’ll make us a snack.  I know it’s late, but I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep right now,” Gretchen said, leaving the room.

Lanie took her bag from Kyle and quickly put her clothes in the empty dresser drawers and then put her toiletries in the bathroom across the hall, noting there were doilies and dangly crystal things in there, too.  Back in the guest room, she found Kyle standing at the window, staring off into the night, not speaking, not moving, Lanie wasn’t sure he was even blinking. 

With trepidation suddenly swirling through her, she walked over to him, putting her hand on the arm of his leather coat.  “Kyle?  What’s wrong?  Is…is he out there?” she whispered to him, peering out the window at the street below, but seeing nothing.

“Probably,” Kyle told her, keeping his gaze on the darkness.

Lanie could just see Kyle Vincent’s thought’s playing out behind his sparkling green eyes.  He was thinking about the person that Frederik had killed, the person he hadn’t been able to save, and the guilt was gnawing at him, weighing on him as surely as if he was carrying around the body that was lying in the park. 

Lanie knew she wouldn’t be able to talk Kyle out of guilt.  He’d been carrying it around with him for too long.  “Let’s go downstairs.  Gretchen will wonder what we’re doing up here.”

She took Kyle’s hand in hers and led him out of the room and toward the stairway, realizing that the cold feel of his skin wasn’t such a shock to her anymore.  They found Gretchen in the kitchen, making a heaping mound of sandwiches. 

“Let’s eat and calm our nerves, shall we?” she said as Lanie and Kyle sat down at the kitchen table, which had been painted white.  “I need it.  I don’t think I can be any more upset.”

Lanie knew how the woman felt. 

Gretchen brought the platter of sandwiches over to the table and took a seat, her pretty face drawn up tight.  “I think it might be a good idea for me and Lanie to get out of town for a while.  I don’t want to sit around here just waiting for her to be next on this Frederik’s menu.”

“Lanie isn’t on his menu,” Kyle stated.  “He wants to make her his mate.”

Lanie stifled a groan.  She could have gone forever with Kyle Vincent telling her aunt that bit of information.

“He…what!” Gretchen gasped.  “He…
what
!”

Kyle flinched, shooting Lanie a remorseful glance.  “He’s sort of…decided to make her his mate,” he repeated uncomfortably, realizing his mistake.

Gretchen reached for her phone in her pocket.  “I’m calling Sam.”

“No!” both Lanie and Kyle shouted.

“Aunt Gretchen, don’t!” Lanie beseeched.  “He can’t help with this!  He’ll get killed!”

Gretchen hesitated, uncertainty on her face.  “Lanie, this…this is something—“

“That dad can’t fix,” she stated.  “This’ll be okay.  I promise,” she said to her aunt.  “But, he can’t help with this.  Just leave him out of it.  Please.”

Gretchen was obviously not happy with that request.  “Lanie, this is…this is…if…if he…”

“I won’t let him get to Lanie,” Kyle promised the woman. 

“How can you stop him!” Gretchen asked, sounding scornful.  “He’s killing people left and right and there’s nothing you can do about it!”

Gretchen’s words seem to strike Kyle like a physical blow and Lanie found it difficult not to get up and walk away from her aunt.  “I won’t let him take her,” Kyle told the woman firmly.  “I don’t think he’ll kill me to get to her, so I won’t let her out of my sight.”

Gretchen did not seem appeased.  “You don’t
think
he’ll kill you?  But, what if he decides to?”

“I’ve fought him and I’ve staked him and he still hasn’t killed me,” Kyle offered reassuringly. 

“He won’t let Frederik get to me, Aunt Gretchen,” Lanie promised her aunt. 

They all had to believe that.  It was the only way to handle the situation, otherwise the fear and dread would be too much.

“I’ve lost too many people.  I won’t lose Lanie to him,” Kyle stated stiffly.  “I swear it.”

“I want to believe you.  I do.  But, I…I don’t,” Gretchen stated.  “Which is why I think Lanie and I should get the hell out of here.”

“He’ll follow you,” Kyle stated.

“Unless he gets on the plane with us, how will he follow us?” asked Gretchen.

“He’ll follow you to the airport.  He’ll find out where you went and he’ll follow you there.  He’ll hunt you until he finds you and then he’ll take Lanie,” Kyle stated.

“How do you know that?” Gretchen wondered sternly.  “Maybe if he has to work to find her, he’ll give up.”

“He won’t,” Kyle insisted.

“How do you know!” demanded Gretchen.

“Because it’s what I would do if I wanted Lanie,” Kyle answered.

A frozen silence dropped onto the room and Lanie looked at Kyle, watching as his expression turned as cold as ice.  Something in the look etched onto those handsome features filled Lanie with an overwhelming sense of…helplessness.  Really, why were they even trying when it was apparent they were probably going to lose?

Kyle cleared his throat and dropped his gaze down to the table.  “I don’t feed on people, but I still have that…need and those same…thoughts.  If I wanted someone, if I wanted Lanie, I would follow her until she ran out of land and then I’d have her.”

Lanie swallowed hard and Gretchen went pale.  “Then we’ll just keep her in the house until he goes away.”

“I-I can’t stay in the house forever,” Lanie weakly pointed out. 

No matter how helpless or hopeless things were, she would not live her life cowering behind four walls.  If Frederik was going to wind up getting hold of her in the end—although, she hoped he would not—then there was no reason why she shouldn’t go on living while she had the chance.

“Then what are we supposed to do?” Gretchen asked, looking near to tears.  “Are we supposed to just sit and wait until he figures out a way to get to her!  Is Lanie is supposed to just go on like nothing’s wrong?  Is she supposed to go to school and act like there isn’t a monster out there waiting for a chance to grab her!”

“I’ve been doing it,” Lanie said to her aunt, feeling close to tears herself.  “I’m not afraid, Aunt Gretchen.  Kyle is watching out for me.”  That was the first lie she’d ever told to her aunt and it tasted bitter, yet it sounded quite convincing.

Gretchen eyed Lanie for a minute.  “You are scared, Lanie.  And so is Kyle.”

Lanie shot a look at Kyle, who was now watching her with a stoic expression that showed nothing, neither fear nor anything else.  But, Gretchen was pretty good at getting to the bottom of things and the knowledge that Kyle Vincent was scared did not help to alleviate her own anxiety.

The silence that again descended upon the kitchen was so thick it was smothering and Lanie wrestled with herself to keep from jumping up and fleeing to the safety of the guest room.  She didn’t want to hear about Frederik anymore!  She wanted to try and forget about it, otherwise she would lose her mind!

“Lanie is upset.  We shouldn’t talk about this anymore,” Kyle pointed out stiffly and Lanie caught Gretchen’s look of guilt.

“This is very upsetting, so we don’t have to discuss it right now.  It’s late and we’re all tired.  Beating it to death won’t get us anywhere,” the woman stated, her words suddenly overly light and easy.  “Let’s just eat and get up to bed.”

They all made a sad attempt at eating the sandwiches, but quickly gave up that endeavor for lost and then Kyle stood and offered Lanie his hand, which caused Gretchen to clear her throat and hit Lanie with a stiff stare. 

“Kyle is sleeping in the room at the end of the hallway.  He’ll stay there and
out
of your room.  Clear?” Gretchen demanded.

Lanie flushed.  She actually hadn’t had a single thought in her head about that.  And even if she had, her little encounter with Chase Wylie would have put a damper on them.  “Clear.”

Kyle led Lanie from the kitchen and up to the guest room, where he walked her over to the bed and sat her down on the pink frilly bedspread.  “Lanie, I don’t want you to worry about Frederik.  I’m not going to let him take you,” he vowed, his jaw set firmly and a fire burning in his sparkling green eyes.  “You need to believe that I won’t let anything happen to you.”

Lanie pulled in a breath, focusing on the ruggedly handsome face and stubble covered jaw of the young man who so desperately wanted to believe that he could keep her safe.  “I believe you.”  That lie didn’t taste bitter at all because it was meant to ease the guilt of someone she considered her friend, someone that she cared about.

Hearing her words seemed to ease Kyle a bit.  “I’m going out to hunt for Frederik, but you’ll be safe in here.  I’ll be back before you wake up,” Kyle told her.

Lanie actually didn’t want him to go, but this was what he needed to do.  “Be careful.”

“You don’t need to worry about me,” Kyle told her, reaching out a large hand to smooth it over her hair.  “Just try to get some rest.”

He took a step backward, preparing to leave, but Lanie was suddenly on her feet and wrapping her arms around him in a hard hug.  She knew better than to let someone she cared about leave without letting them know what they meant to her.

“Come back safe,” she told Kyle, leaning her head against his chest and holding on tight.  “I-I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

“I’ll come back in one piece.  I promise,” Kyle said to her, wrapping his arms around her and hugging her so hard her spine cracked. 

Neither of them moved for a few minutes, and during those moments Lanie realized that not hearing the sound of Kyle’s breath was making it hard for her to remember to breathe.  She finally forced herself to pull in a long, slow breath, just to remind herself that she could do it.

Kyle took an abrupt step back from her, looking down at her with a pair of very intense green eyes.  “I’m sorry, Lanie.  I know it’s strange not to hear the person you’re hugging take a breath.”

He was embarrassed and that hurt Lanie.  “It’s alright.  I-I don’t mind.”

Kyle lifted the corner of his mouth in a gentle smile, which completely changed his somber and brooding features, making him appear much lighter, much less burdened.  “I know you don’t.  But, I do.” 

That said, Kyle turned and exited the room.

Staring after him, Lanie let out a breath and then pulled another into her lungs, trying to get herself back into the normal rhythm.  She hadn’t lied to Kyle.  She did not mind that he could not breathe, but out of sympathy, it certainly made it difficult for her own body to want to carry out that act.

CHAPTER TWENTY

The next morning, Lanie awoke in the nauseatingly pink guest room at Gretchen’s house, showered in the doily covered bathroom, and had breakfast with Gretchen in her stark white kitchen with the pink accents, and then was driven to school and dropped off with explicit instructions that Gretchen would be picking her up, all without even a glimpse of Kyle. He’d said he would be back by the time she woke up, but she tried not to worry.  He knew what he was doing and if he wasn’t back, then he was either chasing after Frederik, or he was close by, watching out for him.

Kyle would show up as soon as he could.

Lanie hurried inside the school house, vaguely aware of that never ending feeling of eyes boring into her.  It barely bothered her now because she knew it was probably Kyle.  Once inside the building, Lanie made her way to her locker, noticing that something was…strange.  The halls were oddly quiet and empty, instead of teeming with groggy teenagers, the way they normally were. 

Lanie found Johnna at her locker, putting her books away.  “What’s going on?  Where is everyone?” she asked her friend, working the combination to her own locker.