Omega (29 page)

Shelton wrapped his jacket more tightly around his itchy torso and wedged himself against a tree with dense branches that gave him a bit of shelter from the rain. The longer he sat, the more pissed off he got.

Where did Matthias think this was going to end? Even if he destroyed the Penton scathe and got William back under his roof, what then? It wouldn’t make a difference in the endgame.

The vampire world was on the verge of collapse. They’d be able to survive for a few years by bottom-feeding from disenfranchised humans who hadn’t been vaccinated—the homeless, the insane, the criminals, the addicts. But to truly bottom-feed, one had to live in a city, so all the vampires now combing the rural outposts looking for viable feeders would eventually flock back to the urban areas.

Shelton had never claimed to be the sharpest vampire in the land of the fanged, but he knew this: wherever too many vampires gathered, problems followed. Territory battles, power struggles, coups and countercoups. Hell, maybe Aidan Murphy had the right idea.

Nosy nosed nearby, snuffling along the ground. The dog stopped and bayed, bringing his handler into view. “Whatcha found, buddy?”

The dog scratched in the pile of leaves and mud, whining until the redneck reached in his pocket and pulled out what looked like a miniature cake wrapped in cellophane. “Good boy. Good old Nosy. Ready for a treat? Got your favorite Little Debbies.”

He unwrapped the cake and fed it to the dog in big white-frosted chunks.

The fool rewarded his bloodhound with cheap pastry? Somehow that made Shelton’s decision easier.

While Nosy chewed on his Little Debbie, Shelton slipped the small Smith & Wesson carry pistol from his pocket and took aim at the dog’s head, bracing his arms on his bent knees. Nosy the bloodhound hadn’t even scented Shelton sitting a few feet away, or didn’t consider him worth watching.

At the last second, he shifted his sights to the head of Nosy’s owner and pulled the trigger twice.

With the silencer, the greatest noise came from the unfortunate Billy Sue, or whatever the hell his name was, crashing atop a leafy bush, the crumpled Little Debbie package in his hand. Shelton sat in place a few seconds, waiting to see what the dog would do. He had no argument with the beast.

Nosy sat and looked mournfully at his owner until Shelton approached. He howled once and ran into the woods.

Smart dog
.

Shelton dragged the body into a ditch near the spring Matthias had sent him to poison a couple of days earlier. He rifled through the man’s pockets, keeping a folding knife and the cash from his wallet. Credit cards were too easy to track down, so he left them and returned the wallet before covering the corpse with leaves. Maybe something would eat it before it was found.

R
anda and Will were quiet on their walk back to the Omega hatch from the factory parking lot. Her dad wasn’t the only one with a lot to think about, and only two hours remained before dawn.

Being in that house had stirred a lot of memories, good and bad. She wanted a chance to talk to Robbie again, if her dad thought it would be OK. Maybe her other brothers. But she couldn’t live among them. To her surprise, she didn’t want to.

If Dad didn’t show up tomorrow night, or if he didn’t think her brothers should know, Randa would have to live with that. If he wanted them all to be a part of her life, she had to figure out how to live with that too.

Some part of her had expected to go into that house and reclaim some semblance of her old life. She hadn’t expected to go in and realize she no longer wanted it. She always thought she’d latched onto Aidan’s scathe because there was nowhere else for her to go.

Maybe that
was
the reason she’d joined them, but she stayed because she’d come to love them and consider them her family, albeit a kind of dysfunctional one. Aidan, with his serious strength and unbending moral code. Krys, with her soft heart and sharp sense of humor. Mirren, who, for all his curmudgeon act, had a heart as big as the man himself. Glory, with her joy for life and hardheaded practicality. Hannah, for the innocence she had somehow managed to hold on to. Cage and Melissa and Mark. All of them.

And Will, who’d faced down her father tonight with a ferocity she’d never seen in him. Who’d gone in there prepared to kill Rick Thomas if he’d needed to so she wouldn’t have to either make the decision or do something for which she couldn’t forgive herself. Who’d somehow taught her that she could be strong without being hard. And who’d let her tear at least a small chink out of the wall he’d built around himself.

She reached over and looped her arm through his as they walked.

He smiled down at her. “You OK?”

“Better than I expected to be. Part of me was afraid I’d want to stay.”

“So was I.” He stopped and turned to face her. “But?”

Randa stood on tiptoe and pressed a kiss against his lips. “But I realized that I belong here.”

“That’s a conversation we need to continue inside.” He kissed her again, and they walked hand in hand toward the hatch.

“Go ahead and finish your conversation, kids. I was getting all choked up.”

Randa froze at the sight of the man in front of them; they’d both been so preoccupied with each other they’d let their vigilance slide. Even Will’s supersenses hadn’t alerted him.

The guy was vampire, very thin, medium height, with pale-blond hair, a series of healing cuts across his face and neck, and blue eyes fixed on Will.

Will had gone still. No, not just unmoving. He was paralyzed. Was this a starving vamp out in search of food or one of Matthias’s men?

“Good to see you, William. You’re looking as pretty as ever.” The man had a sarcastic drawl, and if he knew Will, he definitely wasn’t a random starving vampire.

“Who are you?” Randa didn’t like the look on Will’s face. His nostrils flared, and his jaw was clenched so tightly she expected to hear teeth cracking at any second.

“I’m Shelton Porterfield.” Shelton finally wrenched his gaze from Will and looked her over. “Looks like you two are close. Can’t believe Will hasn’t told you about that special summer we spent together. Maybe some memories are just so beautiful you want to keep them all for yourself. Right, William?”

Will’s body vibrated with tension, and Randa waited for him to react. This guy was obviously someone who knew Will well enough to push his buttons.
Shelton
. The name sounded familiar…Wasn’t Shelton the name of Matthias’s second-in-command? If he was standing ten feet from the Omega hatch, shouldn’t they be killing him? Shouldn’t he be killing them?

Her left hand still rested in Will’s. She pulled it free and raised the shotgun she’d been carrying in her right hand.

“You’d do better to let me to go on my way, girl. I can be of more help to you alive. See these stripes on my face? Matthias went too far this time, thanks to your buddy Cage Reynolds. Just ask William how far his daddy can take his punishments.”

Will moved so fast Randa couldn’t track it. One second he was standing beside her, radiating pent-up emotion. The next
he was on the ground with Shelton pinned beneath him. His knife was in the man’s chest, angled below the rib cage and up into the heart. Shelton died with a look of utter surprise on his face, blue eyes wide, mouth dangling open.

Will’s arm lifted and fell, lifted and fell, stabbing repeatedly with a feral bellow that didn’t sound human
or
vampire. His lips were pulled back in a grimace.

The smell of blood filled the clearing and would draw other vampires if any were nearby.

Randa circled Will and approached him cautiously from the front. She’d seen men lose it, big army guys who were tough as old leather until one little thing had finally triggered the release of months of pent-up rage.

If she startled Will from behind, he might easily turn the knife on her.

“Will? We need to leave.” She knelt, not sure he could even see her. Should she go into Omega and get Aidan?

He never looked at her, but he stopped stabbing Shelton and climbed to his feet, straddling the prostrate man and staring down at the body, his face still and haunted. The knife fell from his hand, hitting the ground with a soft thud. Randa picked it up and used a handful of wet leaves to wipe it off.

“Leave him, Will. Let’s go into Omega.” She needed to get him away from that body before he lost it again.

She walked to the hatch, uncovered and unlocked it, and pulled it open. “Cage?” she called down. “You on watch?”

She hoped so. Something way out of her depth was going on here. Will had skated awfully close to the edge of a precipice she couldn’t identify, and somehow she knew it wouldn’t take much to push him over. Shelton might be dead, but Will was still locked in some kind of battle.

“I had started to worry about you lot.” Cage climbed up the ladder and spotted Shelton’s body before getting halfway out of the hatch. “Well, hello. That’s a sight I didn’t expect to see.”

Cage went to stand beside the body, looking from Will’s face to the knife in Randa’s hand, to the bloody mass of hamburger that had been Shelton’s chest. He put a hand on Will’s shoulder, and he flinched. “Go on down with Randa. I’ll take care of this.”

Will didn’t move. He didn’t look up. Randa met Cage’s gaze and shook her head.

“Will.” Cage stepped in front of him, also straddling Shelton’s body. He rested a hand on each of Will’s shoulders and stepped close enough that Will was forced to look at him.

Cage’s voice dropped to such a soft timbre Randa struggled to hear. “It’s over now. You finally ended it. He can’t hurt you anymore.”

Will’s face was a blank, his eyes more pale honey than deep amber.

“Go with Randa.” Cage nodded at her, and Randa took Will’s hand.

“Let’s go and see Aidan,” she said, mimicking Cage’s soft tone. “We need to tell him about my dad. Make plans for tomorrow night.”

That seemed to jolt Will out of whatever trance he’d been in. He gripped her hand almost to the point of pain and stepped away from Shelton. Randa mouthed a thank-you to Cage before following Will down the ladder into Omega.

W
ill moved on autopilot, walking when Randa walked and stopping when they spotted Aidan and Mirren sitting in the common room.

“Good. We’ve been waiting for you.” Aidan was halfway to the conference room before Will realized he had to focus. He had to get the ghosts out of his head long enough to talk strategy. Their survival depended on it, and they’d only have a few hours after daysleep before it was time to meet the colonel in West Point. Randa wasn’t sure he’d show, but Will thought he would.

Randa kept looking at him as if she feared he’d lose it again and start stabbing everybody within reach, but he couldn’t look her in the eye, couldn’t reassure her. Not yet. He owed her an explanation, and after that, she wouldn’t want him to look at her.

Will glanced at Mirren on his way into the conference room, and the big guy grabbed the back of his sweater on the way in, staying behind him. Will had no choice but to stop inside the
door while Mirren turned back to shut it. Everyone was still standing, but Will couldn’t sit as long as Mirren had hold of his sweater, pinning him in place.

“What happened?” Aidan finally walked to the far end of the table and sat, leaning back in his chair. Randa sat to his right, glanced at Mirren and Will with confusion on her face, and began talking.

“We got to my dad’s house at—”

Aidan gave her an apologetic smile. “Not yet. First, why is Will covered in blood? Vampire blood. I tried to contact you a half hour ago mentally and got a big black void.”

Will wet his lips and tried to make the words come out. “Shelton. Dead.”

“About goddamned time.” Mirren slapped Will on the back and took the chair to the other side of Aidan. “Where’d you find him?”

Will managed to sit in the chair next to Randa, but his mind still spun in a dozen directions at once. “He was outside the hatch.”

There. He’d spoken a complete sentence. Good for him.

Randa reached under the table and squeezed his leg. She didn’t let go when he tried to jerk away. She shouldn’t have been touching him. But then, she didn’t know the truth about him yet, did she? She still thought he was strong.