Haunted Sanctuary (Green Pines Sanctuary) (25 page)

“I need to stop lying to myself.” Her tears mingled with the water, but it wouldn’t matter. She didn’t need to hide. “It makes me weak. Just promise you’ll be patient while I learn how.”

He tilted her head under the spray and soaped her hair before answering quietly, “It gets easier.”

It had to. The first step into truth was the scariest, plunging blindly off the ledge into free fall. But Jay would cushion her landing. And if it hurt too much, he’d help her put herself back together, just like he was doing now.

His hands were soothing as they smoothed away all external evidence of the fight. Eventually, the water swirling down the drain faded from red to pink. When it ran clear, they stood there under the spray, wrapped around one another. Eden pressed her lips to the healing scratch on Jay’s shoulder as the hot water pounded the tension from her shoulders, and wished the moment could last forever.

But it couldn’t. Too soon, the door rattled under a quick, efficient knock. “We need you guys outside,” Colin said, his tone almost apologetic. “Zack’s freaking out. I’m leaving clothes outside the door for you.”

Jay tensed and leaned out of the shower to snatch a towel from the rack beside the sink. “What’s wrong with him?”

“He says there’s a body missing. He’s trying to get Stella to cast more spells, find the one who’s left. Fletcher thinks one of you will have to talk him down.”

Eden switched off the water and steeled her shoulders. “We’ll be right there.”

Jay handed her a second towel as he retrieved the clothes. “Maybe he doesn’t know that Peters came in the house.”

“Maybe,” she agreed, but as dried off and pulled on her clothing, she couldn’t help the growing dread. It seemed like years had passed since their fight in the dining room, but the words were barely cold.

The alphas from Memphis were only the outward danger. Zack was still losing his mind, and Jay would still have to deal with it.

Colin had said Zack was freaking out.

Colin had a talent for understatement.

Jay edged in front of Eden as he pushed through the back door, where Zack circled the yard, dragging each dead wolf up by the scruff of the neck and inhaling sharply.

Sniffing. “I know what the fucker looks like,” he snarled as he tossed a savaged white wolf aside with no regard for the blood left on his hands. “I’m telling you, he’s
not here
.”

The beads woven into Stella’s hair clicked as she shook her head. “And
I
told
you
, I believe you. But there’s no one else here, man. I got nada.”

Jay stepped between them. “Who’s missing?”

He might as well have remained silent. “Do it again,” Zack demanded, jabbing a finger at Stella. “Cast your spell again. He’d be here.”

“Who?” Jay asked again, louder this time.

“The fucking bastard brother!” Zack roared, lifting another dead enemy. He sniffed again and growled. “Where the fuck is he?”

“He isn’t here,” Kaley said, her voice thick with tears. “You’ve looked at all the bodies twice already, Zack. Jonas isn’t—”

He just growled and went to the next wolf. “Cast the spell, witch.”

Stella bristled. “Hey, I have a name.”

Jay pulled her aside. “Peters had a charm on him, something that masked his presence with magic. Can you take a look at it, see if you can get a feel for what kind of spell it used? Just in case.”

She relented with a shrug. “Yeah, sure. I’ll get on it.”

Zack stalked toward another wolf. Eden cast Jay a worried look and moved to intercept him. “Zack, hold on a second. Let Stella try her spell.”

He bared his teeth at her, this growl rising up from deep in his chest. He looked through Eden like he barely saw her, his words short and chopped. “Out of my way.”

Someone had to stop this before it spiraled out of control. Jay called on every ounce of alpha power he possessed before easing between Zack and Eden. “Calm down.” He lowered his voice. “You’re scaring the others.”

“Then they can be scared,” he muttered, gaze flicking to the side. It fixed on empty space for just a moment before he shoved past Jay. “Gotta find Jonas.”

Jay held up both hands. “Wait
one
minute, Zack, and let Stella do her thing.”

Zack jerked to the side, shoved both hands into his hair and paced back toward the first wolf. “He has to be here. He
has
to be. It isn’t over until he’s dead.”

“We’ll find him,” Jay murmured. “And then it’ll be over. I promise.”

The words skated right past Zack. He rolled the first wolf over with his boot and crouched down. “Must’ve missed something,” he muttered, staring at his blood-streaked fingers. “He wasn’t in the pieces. I looked.”

Urgency was understandable, but Zack’s obsessive insistence chilled Jay’s blood. “He may not be here at all. He may be back in Memphis. Hell, Peters might have killed him already for something we don’t even know about.”

A shudder rolled through Zack. “No.
No.
I have to finish it tonight, or I won’t—” He shot to his feet. “Where the hell is the damn spell?”

“It’s done.” Stella held up the charm Eden had snatched off Christian Peters. “There’s nothing with this signature anywhere around here. There’s just
nothing
.”

“Fuck.” He kicked the limp wolf aside and lunged to the next one, the one he’d been sniffing when Jay walked outside. Each movement seemed increasingly frantic as Zack ran his hands over reddened fur. “Gotta be here. Gotta be done.
Tonight
, damn it…”

A pained noise escaped Eden as she tangled her fingers in Jay’s shirt. “Zack, he’s one man. Stella’s wards will warn us if he comes here—”

“No!” Zack stumbled to his feet and whirled. “I can’t wait for him.”

Demanding an explanation felt like intrusion, as if it would only agitate the man further, but Jay knew with sudden certainty that the answer mattered. The answer was everything. “But
why
?”

“Because
he’s here
!” Zack raised his voice. “I know you are, motherfucker. Show your cowardly ass so I can tear out your throat. You can die like your brother did.”

Jay kept his tone level, calm. The way he dealt with violent drunks and crazy bastards. “He’s not, Zack. There’s no one else.”

Zack jabbed a finger at him. “I’ll prove you wrong. I’ll fucking find him if I have to turn over every rock and tear up every tree on this property.”

“No.”

Zack jerked to a halt, outrage and disbelief distorting his face into a furious, feral parody of the man he was. “No?
No?
Who the fuck do you think you are? This is
my
home,
my
land.”

The others had begun to gather as Jay and Zack faced off. The confrontation drew them in spite of their better judgment, instinct trumping courtesy, though everyone kept a safe distance.

Everyone but Kaley, who finally broke her stillness as Zack vibrated with barely leashed anger. She reached for him, laid a hand on his arm, and he whipped around with a startled roar, striking out with his balled fist.

The blow caught her with enough force to snap her head hard to the left. Hard enough to kill a human, maybe, because even Kaley reeled and went down on her knees in the grass. Lorelei dove after her with a startled cry, already lifting the girl’s battered face to the moonlight by the time the realization of what he’d done washed over Zack’s features.

Eden shoved past Jay and skidded to the ground next to Kaley. Zack stumbled back, shaking his head faster and faster as one word fell from his lips in a silent chant that grew to a crescendo, a shrieked denial. “No, no, no.
No!
”

Something close to chaos erupted, with people crowding around Kaley, muttering or even crying. Under the din, another noise drew Jay’s attention, a sound that had him moving before he realized what was happening. The soft scratch of metal against rough fabric, a rustling whisper that equaled death.

He’d barely crossed half the space between them when Zack lifted the pistol he’d drawn to his own temple, his finger tight on the trigger. Jay hit him hard, bearing him to the ground, and the shot went wide as more screams erupted in the night.

The gun skittered across the grass, and Zack writhed under him, clawing after it. “Do it, Ancheta. Fucking do it, or let me.”

“No. I changed my mind.” He pulled Zack’s arm up behind him and pinned it there to still the man’s squirming. “I thought maybe you were too far gone. I even tried to prepare Eden for what we might have to do if you really lost it. But tonight? Fuck that, Zack. You’re still kicking, you still care, and you’re going to fight, damn it.”

Zack shuddered. “Caring isn’t enough. I’m hurting people. My people—
your
people. Protect them from me.”

Kaley started to sob, a sound even more heartbreaking because one glance told Jay she wasn’t crying out of physical pain or even fear. Her gaze was fixed on the gun, terrified and angry, as if it were a living, evil thing instead of a tool.

“I am protecting them,” Jay answered. “From losing you. It’s the only thing they can’t survive right now.”

The fight went out of Zack, from Jay’s words or Kaley’s sobs or simple exhaustion. He rested his forehead on the grass and whispered one final plea. “Keep me away from her.”

“Get off of him.” The words, calm but tremulous, came from Austin, who stood near the corner of the house, a shotgun in his hands. “People in town were talking about some kind of ruckus out here, so I figured I’d come see if there was fighting to be done. Looks like it’s over now.”

“Dad—” Eden’s voice broke. “Dad, it’s complicated.”

“Seems so,” he agreed. “Are you all right, Edie?”

“I’m fine. We’re all going to be okay. Right, Zack?”

A helpless, breathless laugh wheezed out of Zack as he turned his head to glare up at Jay. “You’re not going to let me tell her no, are you?”

As if not letting someone blow their brains out on your watch was tantamount to dictating their every word. Jay snarled as he rose. “Get up, Green.”

Zack made it to his knees before his gaze fell on the knot of people surrounding Kaley. Agony contorted his features, and he closed his eyes. “Is she—”

“Uh-uh.” Jay shook his head. “You want out of here that badly?”

“Not want. Need.”

It took a damn twisted sort of situation for a man to need escape from his friends and loved ones so badly. It took something far worse for a wolf to abandon his pack. “Austin?”

“Yeah?” The man’s eyes were guarded as he faced Jay.

He
had
to say it, even if it hurt, because Zack was part of his pack, no matter how much he needed time away. “Eden told me everything—about Kathy, about Zack. And about you.” Jay squared his shoulders. “One day, you and I, we’re going to have it out over what you left your boy to deal with. But not tonight.”

Austin swallowed hard, tears welling. “I reckon that’s better than I deserve.” He handed his gun off to Shane, brushed some grass from the front of Zack’s shirt and grasped his shoulders. “Chief Ancheta, it’s about time I took my son home.”

Eden rose with a soft noise and started toward them, trailing to a stop when Zack closed his eyes and shook his head. “You don’t need to do this, Austin,” he whispered. “It’s not—you don’t know that it’s true, that it’s even possible. And I’m a fucking mess.”

“Maybe, but you’re
my
fucking mess. I love you, and I’ve learned you don’t walk away from that, kid.”

“Go with him.” Eden circled her father to bracket Zack, standing at his left as Jay stood on his right. “If we need another fighter, you can be here plenty fast. And if we don’t, you can rest. Let him help you, Zack. He’s pretty good at the dad thing.”

“I can’t steal your damn dad.”

“It’s not stealing,” she snapped back, the words edged in a steely growl. “I’ve wanted to share him with you pretty much all my life. So wipe off your hands, thank him for the invitation and put your ass in his truck.
Now.
”

Zack opened his eyes and stared at Austin. “She sounds like her mother.”

“Her mother was a smart lady.”

“All right. I’ll go. But I need to go now. I can’t—I can’t do goodbyes.”

Eden shook her head. “It’s not goodbye. You’ll be a few miles down the road, not across the world. Go home with Dad, get some rest, and I’ll talk to you tomorrow, okay?”

He mumbled something bordering on assent and started for the driveway, stopping when he drew even with Kaley. “I’m sorry,” he whispered, soft words that carried through the night silence all too easily. “I’m so, so—”

“Don’t,” she cut in. “You didn’t mean to do that. Don’t leave because of it.”

“That’s exactly why I need to leave, Kaley. I get confused, I get wound up, and I do things I don’t mean to do.” His eyes were bleak. Tired. “You won’t be so quick to forgive next time if Mae’s the one I didn’t mean to hit.”

Her gaze flicked again to the fallen gun nestled in the grass. “You’re not going to end up like Quinn. Remember that you promised.”

“I promise.” He turned his back on her—turned his back on all of them.

Jay slipped his arm around Eden’s shoulders as her father and her brother walked away, out of sight around the front of the house. In the wild, an injured wolf might slink off alone to lick his wounds. Zack could do that, after a fashion, but with the support of his family and friends. Time—and space—to do a little healing. And then…