Cold Hart (Soul Hunters) (Dark Hart Book 2) Read online

  Cold Hart

  By: E.J. King

  PROLOGUE

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Copyright©2015 by E.J. King

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  PROLOGUE

  It wasn’t long after my parents’ murder that I started to worry that I was going to forget them. It was small things at first- not being able to remember the sound of Dad’s laugh or the smell of Mom’s perfume. But then I would be doing something else, going for a run or taking a drive, and it would all come rushing back to me.

  I also started to dream about them vividly, with small details that I’d never remembered when they were alive. One of those memories was about Kaylie. She must’ve been about four at the time, and Mom and Dad had to go out on a hunt. It was their first time leaving us home alone. I was seven-years-old.

  Dad told me that I was in charge, and that I had only one responsibility- to keep Kaylie safe. I was her older brother, he said, and protecting her was the most important thing I would ever do. After they were killed, I made a deal with myself that I would do whatever it took to keep her safe, even if I died in the process.

  CHAPTER ONE

  “You know Violet?” It didn’t seem possible. I’d been unsuccessful in finding Kaylie’s birth mother and now Olivia’s friends might hold the key that would unlock the entire mystery. “Do you know where I could find her now?”

  Matt nodded. “Yes. I can take you to her.”

  There was a strange lilt in his voice, not quite urgent but definitely tense. Olivia said we could trust these people, but it wasn’t hard to see that they were hiding something.

  “You didn’t seem very surprised earlier when you found out that I’m not really dead,” I observed.

  Matt and Eva exchanged a look that said I wasn’t just being paranoid.

  “Let’s go sit down in the other room.” Eva wiped her hands clean on a towel, her pie crust long forgotten.

  “I’m not sure I’m going to like this,” I muttered under my breath.

  “Just hear them out,” Olivia said. She looked nervous, like she was afraid that I would refuse to listen. I remembered that she trusted these people and they were important to her. Knowing that, I had to at least let them explain.

  I nodded. “Alright. Let’s have a chat.”

  Their living room looked like a warzone- toys everywhere. The two kids I had already seen, plus a couple more, were scattered throughout the room.

  “How many do you have?” I asked, thinking how one of the young boys reminded me of my little brother Jack.

  “Just five these days.” Eva quickly swept a pile of toys from the couch and gestured for us to sit. “The oldest is nearly a teenager so she spends most of her time in her room.”

  We sank onto the couch and it squeaked loudly. I reached between the cushions and retrieved a blue, squishy duck.

  “Kids,” Matt said with a sigh. “They take over your home when they take over your life.”

  The duck squeaked again when I dropped it on the floor.

  “How is Carrie adjusting?” Olivia said. She turned to me. “Their newest kid moved in a few weeks before I left. She had a hard time at first.”

  “She’s been doing better. Still has a little trouble controlling the change, but that’s what happens when we don’t get to them until they are older.” Eva looked at Olivia sympathetically. “I’m sure you remember.”

  “She’ll be okay,” Olivia said quietly. “She just needs more time.”

  Eva smiled. “She’ll be glad to see you. I think she missed you the most of all of us.”

  “Not to change the subject, but…” I said.

  “Right. You want to know why we could so readily accept your return from the dead.” Matt leaned back in his chair, kicking his feet up on the coffee table. “What do you know about Shifters, Lincoln?”

  “Shifters?” My eyes narrowed. “I know enough. Like Weres, they change their form at night. Like to eat people.”

  “If that’s all you know, then you definitely don’t know enough.” Matt grunted. “Shifters are as similar to Weres as Sirens are to Souls. As in, they aren’t similar at all. Shifters have loyalty to no one, not even their own kind.”

  “How do you mean?” His words intrigued me. It was well known in the supernatural world that evil beings didn’t often turn on their own kind. Souls were loyal to Souls, Weres to Weres. I’d always just assumed the same was true about all monsters.

  “Shifters are created when a Soul drinks Were blood. The Soul becomes a hybrid of sorts. It maintains the bloodlust, but also gains the ability to change form. The Were dies. The reverse scenario isn’t the same. If a Were, or a Shifter for that matter, bites a Soul, the Soul dies. It’s pretty fascinating actually, the delicate balance that exists between the two creatures.” Matt seemed to be lost in thought.

  Eva picked up for him. “The Shifter that is created no longer has a central existence. The Souls and Weres have too much to risk by being around a Shifter, so all bonds are broken. No creatures are loyal to the Shifter.”

  “This has all been very educational, but I don’t understand why you are telling me.” I had enough paranormal freaks to worry about.

  Eva walked over to the bookshelves lining the far wall and retrieved a folded newspaper. She handed it to me with a flourish.

  I didn’t even have to unfold it to see why it was given to me. Matt and Eva’s faces stared back at me from their photos on the front page, under the headline: Couple Found Dead.

  “You aren’t the only person in this room that pulled a Lazarus,” Matt said, his eyes resting briefly on the newspaper. “Eva and I staged our own deaths a few months back.”

  “Why in the world did you do that?” I quickly scanned the article and saw that allegedly their bodies had been found torn to pieces inside their home.

  “The Weres know about us, what we do. They don’t like that we are taking their children and teaching them how to live as humans. We were being hunted and we had to do something to get them off our backs,” Matt explained unapologetically.

  It wasn’t like I had any right to judge. “So you faked your own murders? But they found bodies in your house, so…”

  “Shifters.” Eva frowned. “They were hunting in the area and when Matt and I started talking about options, it seemed like the best plan.”

  “But I thought Shifters aren’t loyal to their own kind? Why were two of them hunting together?”

  She smiled at me. “You’ve been paying attention. That’s good.”

  “Shifters aren’t loyal- with one very specific exception.” Matt’s feet dropped to the floor and he leaned forward. “A mate.”

  At that, my eyebrows shot up. Mates always created an interesting dynamic in the Hunter world. Souls couldn’t care less about mates- they just wanted to feed. But Weres often partnered up, and even nested and started families. It was important to know these things because it often explained the motivation of the creatures.

  “Shifters are few and far between. Maybe only 1000 or so of them in the country. But when th
ey do come across another Shifter, they are often drawn to each other. Some sort of blood bond or something.” Matt explained it away with a shrug. “It doesn’t really matter why it happens, but the fact that it does happen was very beneficial to our plan.”

  “We tracked them for almost a week before we were able to trap and incapacitate them. Then it was just a matter of giving them some of our blood, waiting for the transformation, and a silver blade through the heart.” Eva didn’t look so innocent when she started talking about killing Shifters.

  “You gave them your blood?” I was only just beginning to realize how little I knew about the supernatural world.

  Olivia spoke for the first time in a while. “At night, Shifters can change into any living thing they want- a person, animal, whatever. But there’s only one sure way to force a change. Right after they drink human blood, which they have to do to survive, they turn into their victim’s form.”

  “So if you wanted to leave behind to bodies that looked like you, you just had to give some Shifters your blood?” I was impressed at the logic of their plan. “That’s pretty brilliant.”

  “It worked,” Eva said simply. “We took the kids and left town. The Weres assumed we had been killed and that the kids had been returned to the Were community. So far, our plan has worked exactly as we hoped.”

  “No one knows that you weren’t really killed?” I couldn’t believe that they were trusting me with this secret.

  “Just Olivia. We had to tell her so she would know we were okay.” Eva smiled at her. “She’s like a daughter to us. We could never have let her believe we had been killed.”

  Okay, that stung. I was letting my own sister think that I had died along with the rest of our family.

  Olivia could tell that I was headed to a dark place and wisely decided to wrap things up. “Anyway, that’s why they weren’t surprised that you had faked your death, Lincoln. Apparently it’s a trend these days to come back from the dead.”

  “I guess that answers one question, but now who wants to tell me about how you know Kaylie’s mother?” My tone was clipped.

  Somehow while listening to the Shifter explanation, I’d completely forgotten that four kids were running around the room. They had been ignoring us as much as I had been ignoring them, but now one of them joined us in the seating area.

  “It hurts,” the little girl said, voice calm and unemotional.

  “Okay, Polly. I’ll get you some tea.” Eva smiled and stroked the girl’s blond curls. “You’ll feel better soon.”

  “What hurts?” I asked the girl.

  “My blood.” She blinked her yellow eyes at me.

  Like a little girl in a horror movie, she creeped me out. Those eyes combined with her talk of “hurting blood” was downright freaky.

  Olivia explained, “That’s how it feels before a change, like your blood is on fire.”

  “Delightful,” I muttered.

  Polly gave me a blank look. “Can I sit on your lap?”

  Just what I wanted, a weird Were-child about to change while sitting on my lap. But I couldn’t say no without sounding like a total jerk.

  “Sure, why not?”

  She jumped into my lap without hesitation.

  “These kids are just like normal kids, Lincoln. They just need someone that will give them a chance.” Matt looked at Olivia. “Someone that can look past the Were in them and love them. That’s what we’re trying to do here.”

  “You never let them change?” I bounced my knee and Polly giggled. “Isn’t that some sick form of torture?”

  Olivia said, “It’s not that they can never change, it’s just that they learn to control it. They learn to only change when they want to, not at the whim of the Were blood.”

  “How do you control it? I imagine if it was easy, you wouldn’t need this training program.” I bounced my knee faster and Polly laughed and squirmed.

  Eva returned holding a piping mug of tea. “We teach them the symptoms of the change first. Once they can identify that it’s about to happen, they are ready for the next step which is controlling it. We use combinations of herbs, teas, and diet. Specifically, Aconitum is excellent at taming Were blood.”

  “Aconit-” I stopped. “Wait. Wolf’s bane?”

  “You’re a plant expert?” Olivia asked with a smirk.

  “I know things,” I grumbled. “I’m not just a pretty face.”

  Olivia laughed softly and I was surprised at how good it felt to be the one that made her laugh.

  “Polly, come drink your tea.”

  “Give,” she said, holding out her hands.

  “No, Polly. You need to come over here.” Eva motioned for Polly to join her on the other side of the coffee table.

  I held out my hand for the tea. “I can help her.”

  “No, that’s not a good idea.” Eva gave me a meaningful look. “Wolf’s bane is poisonous to humans.”

  “Right.” I vaguely remembered hearing that. Polly was young and the odds were good that she might accidentally spill the tea on me. “Up you go, kiddo.”

  She pouted as I set her on the ground, but quickly recovered and ran over to Eva’s side. Even though the tea had to be hot, she gulped it down hungrily.

  “We flavor it with lavender and honey. It’s really quite tasty,” Eva explained. “Though for you it would have some unwelcome side effects.”

  “I’ll take your word for it.” I turned back to Matt. “How do you know Violet?”

  “Violet.” Matt nodded, remembering that a question still hung in the air. “You know that she is Kaylie’s mother?”

  “I do.” I tried to pretend like it wasn’t a big deal, but I was still having trouble accepting it as fact. Accepting it meant that I also had to accept that Kaylie wasn’t really my sister and that wasn’t something I wanted to do. “I know the whole story about Kaylie’s birth parents.”

  Matt looked relieved. “Good. I wasn’t looking forward to being the one to tell you.”

  “Violet stayed with us for a few weeks after she went into hiding,” Eva explained. “We’ve stayed in touch with her over the years.”

  “You just pick up the phone and call her when you want to chat?” I asked with skepticism. “Maybe exchange some emoticons via text?”

  Eva smirked. “Not exactly. But we have ways to get ahold of her.”

  “And you’re willing to do that for me? We did just meet after all. How do you know that you can trust me?”

  “Because she trusts you,” Matt said, nodding toward Olivia. “That’s good enough for me.”

  “We’ll send out a signal, but we may not hear back for a day or two.” Eva took the empty mug from Polly. “Until then, I’ll set you up in our guest room. You might as well make yourself comfortable while we wait.”

  I wasn’t sure I would ever be able to rest comfortably in a house full of Weres. Hopefully the guest bedroom had a lock for the door and something sturdy to barricade against it. I was starting to feel tired though.

  Eva took us on a quick tour of the upstairs, pointing out the different rooms.

  “The young kids all bunk in here,” she said, gliding past an open door. On the other side, two sets of bunk beds lined the walls. “Matt and I are right across from them.”

  “You’re going to be in trouble once they all get a little older,” Olivia observed.

  “We’ll just be happy that we all survive,” Eva replied, not sardonically. “Livs, you can bunk with Carrie. She’ll love that. Lincoln, you can have the room at the end to yourself.”

  “Eva! The kids need their bedtime tea!” Matt’s voice echoed up the stairs.

  “I better help him,” Eva said with a frown. “He never puts in enough honey and then the kids have to choke it down.”

  “Go. I can finish getting him settled.” Olivia waved her away.

  I took my bag into the guest room and tossed it on the floral bedspread. It was a nice room and I was pleased to see a large armoire near the door which I could us
e to barricade myself inside the room if necessary.

  I kicked off my shoes. “You can go. I’m good here.”

  Olivia leaned against the doorframe and observed me carefully. “You were good with Polly earlier, making her laugh. She’s a serious girl most of the time.”

  “She’s about the same age my brother Jack is. I mean was. Before…” I trailed off.

  As hard as it was to talk about my parents’ deaths, it was darn near impossible to mention the death of little Jack.

  “I’m sorry.” She really did look sorry. But then she smiled softly. “It was nice to see that side of you. Normally you’re just being a pain in the ass.”

  “Takes one to know one.” I returned her smile. “Are we having a moment here?”

  She rolled her eyes. “If we were, you certainly just ruined it.”

  “You know, if you don’t want to bunk with Carrie, this room looks big enough for two.” I patted the mattress emphatically.

  She groaned and tossed her hair. “Good night, Hart.”

  “Sweet dreams, Silver.” I called after her retreating form, “Probably of me!”

  “Only if it’s a nightmare!” she called back.

  Two minutes later, I drifted off to sleep with a smile on my face and the bedroom door wide open.

  CHAPTER TWO

  I woke up without a single bite or scratch on my body. Whatever the Wills were doing to help the kids, it seemed to be working. Because of the weird sleeping schedule, it was after noon before I made it downstairs.

  Olivia was in the kitchen, flipping pancakes. She was wearing a pair of men’s boxer shorts that she had rolled several times to fit around her hips and a faded t-shirt. I had to admit, casual was a good look on her.

  “You’re up!” she said when she turned and caught me staring at her. “Blueberry or chocolate chip?”

  “I don’t understand the question.”

  “For your pancakes, silly.” She shook the spatula at me.