Alpha Omega 02 - Hunting Ground

kills. Children, too. It’s as if their fragility calls out the worst in him.”
    â€œHe told Ric and me that he was the opposite of the Omega. All the violence, none of the protective spirit.”
    Charles felt his eyebrows go up. “That’s perceptive,” he said. “I would have just called him a sociopath. My father calls him evil.”
    â€œ ‘Evil’ works for me,” Anna muttered. She played with the bark of the tree: mostly rotted from its immersion in the water, it virtually dissolved under her fingers.
    â€œBut the thing with the bag wasn’t typical of Chastel,” Charles said. “And . . . what I did wasn’t usual either. Not like that. It felt like he had done it, ripped your throat out—even though I knew very well that he hadn’t touched you. You think the fae had something to do with it?”
    â€œI think I read bloodlust on her body when you attacked Chastel. The first thing out of her lips was an accusation—of something you actually hadn’t done. Stupid fae hadn’t remembered that once the bells sounded, the hunt was over.” Anna’s nails dug into the tree as if she had claws, and her voice was hard. “She wanted you as her prey.”
    And he knew, suddenly, that the reason Dana hadn’t gotten him was sitting beside him on this log. She didn’t look tough, his Anna, with her freckled face and body that could still stand to gain ten pounds even though it was considerably more sturdy than it had been the first time he’d seen her. But she was tougher than old shoe leather, and what was hers, she took care of.
    â€œDana didn’t know who she was messing with,” he murmured, charmed and awed at the same time.
    â€œDamned right,” Anna said. “She was hunting tonight. I don’t know who was her initial prey . . . it might be like when a dominant comes into a new pack and looks for the nastiest brute around to fight and so establish his place. I don’t know if it was a planned thing or if it just happened.”
    Charles caught a scent and turned his head. “Angus,” he said, as the other wolf walked up to them.
    â€œLet you scent me,” Angus said, a little defensively.
    â€œThank you.” Charles decided that wasn’t enough as Angus still looked uneasy about interrupting them. “I appreciate it. What do you know?” Because the wolf had been there a little while, and likely would have ghosted back up the hill without saying anything if he didn’t have something to contribute.
    â€œI heard a bit of that,” said Angus. “Anna’s right. I tasted fae magic at work, but I didn’t realize what she’d done until you attacked Chastel. She attempted to make you kill Chastel.”
    â€œI thought they couldn’t do that,” Anna said.
    â€œObviously it’s not impossible,” said Charles. “And I don’t know why they don’t. Just that they don’t. Ever. They don’t break their word, and they don’t lie. Can’t is how I’ve always heard it. Always. But she did.”
    â€œAsk the Marrok,” suggested Angus.
    Charles reached for his cell phone, then stopped. “No cell phone,” he told them.
    Anna giggled. “All those red T-shirts and no cell phone? I don’t have mine either, left it in the car.”
    Angus handed his over to Charles. “Red T-shirts? Do I want to know?”
    â€œProbably not,” Charles told him as he dialed and put the phone to his ear. Then his da answered and he busied himself laying the whole story before the old bard. Bran listened all the way through without comment. When Charles was done, there was a small pause as his father sorted out what he wanted to discuss.
    â€œSix vampires hunting together,” he said finally.
    It wasn’t a question, but Charles answered it anyway. “Yes.”
    â€œI’ll look into it. There’ve been a few stories—I’ll check them out more thoroughly. They sound like mercenaries to me: assassins for hire. Angus hasn’t had trouble with the Seattle vampires for a good long while—and Tom would have recognized them if they were local. Vampires in a minivan says rental to me—”
    â€œI have the plate numbers,” said Anna. “But it looked like a rental car to me, too. American minivan less than five years old.” She rattled off three letters and three