Page 79 of Dark Cravings

For the night at least, I was going to let myself enjoy the fact that he was in my arms, safe and close. In the morning, hopefully I'd have some clarity about what to do next.

ChapterTwenty-Seven

EDDIE

When I woke up to an empty bed and found Castor gone, I was disappointed but not surprised. After everything that had happened last night, I'd figured he would pull away. That was just how things were between us. One step forward, ten steps back.

When he was nowhere to be found in the entire Abbey, I started to worry. No one had seen him since the ceremony, and I'd even braved an encounter with Arrow in hopes that he'd at least told his former partner where he was going. Arrow was closer to him than anyone, and when he admitted he hadn't even known Castor was gone, I started to panic.

"Don't sweat it, mutt. He might be human, but he's got enough vamp blood in his system to be emo," Arrow had scoffed, slapping me on the shoulder. I'd winced, since it was the side Castor had bitten me on and it still hadn't healed. "He'll be back to bitch you out soon enough. Just enjoy the vacation."

Well, now it had been two full weeks, and there was still no sign of him. My morning sessions with Father Marius usually involved him asking if I was sure I didn't know where Castor was, or why he was gone. I was afraid he was trying to compel me into giving him the answer, since that seemed to be a skill he likely possessed, but so far, all I'd said was that he’d seemed to be behaving strangely the night of the ceremony.

I couldn't betray Castor by telling anyone what had happened, but what if something was wrong? What if he had gotten himself into trouble out there? I could try to leave, now that I wasn't collared, but where the hell would I even begin to look?

Since I was still a new hunter, I had been assigned to tag along with Arrow and Baker. While not my first choice, the former had been surprisingly less malicious toward me than usual. He hadn't tried to get me killed yet, at any rate, so that was progress.

On top of everything else, I felt like shit, and I was pretty sure the bite on my neck was infected. It wasn't like I could go to Dr. Kelly about it, either. I could have said a vampire bit me on the hunt, but then he would want to know why it hadn't healed, and that was going to open up a whole other can of worms. I kept it bandaged, and my clothes hid it, but I was going to have to figure something out soon enough.

That night, we were responding to a call in a nearby town about some cattle that had been slaughtered by a creature roughly the size of a grizzly bear, but "real fuckin' ugly, like a damn space dog," according to the harried farmer’s report. I wasn't sure about “space dog,” but the rest of the description lined up pretty well with an alpha werewolf.

"This place smells like shit," Baker said, wrinkling his nose as we all got out of Arrow's truck. As the third wheel, I'd been relegated to riding in the truck bed.

"It's a farm, dumbass. What did you expect?" Arrow taunted.

Baker grunted, reaching into the huge black duffel bag in the back for a massive crossbow he heaved onto his shoulder.

"Whoa, that's cool," I said, studying the sturdy frame of the bow. It was clearly automatic, and nothing like the toys I could vaguely remember using while playing Robinhood with my brother as kids. The top of the wooden frame was engraved with the same silver cross as the other weapons. "Heh. Crossbow."

Baker raised an eyebrow. "Huh?"

"Ignore him. He's a dweeb," Arrow said, ruffling my hair in a rough but almost affectionate gesture.

I scowled, brushing my hair out of my eyes. "I am not."

"Hey, wait a sec," Baker called, still leaning against the truck. I wandered back over as he looked down at me curiously. "You can't go out there like that."

My heart skipped a beat. Had he figured out I was sick?

He reached into the duffel bag and pulled out a double-barreled shotgun. He held it out to me. "Take this. You can't hunt a fuckin' alpha with those damn girl guns of yours."

I reluctantly took the shotgun, which was a hell of a lot heavier than it looked. Or maybe I was just weak from all the blood I'd been giving, and the infection. "But I've never used one of these before."

"They covered this shit in basic firearms training," said Baker. "I'm sure they showed you how it works."

"Well, yeah," I admitted. "But in practice it’s different."

"Now it's your time to put practice into action," he said, patting me on the back. "Mount, point, and try to shoot the big hairy thing."

"Yeah, thanks," I mumbled.

Oh, well. There had to be a first time for everything. Not that I was likely to see too much action with both of them around.

Not unless Arrow felt like teaching me another lesson, which was always a possibility.

I walked into the woods after Arrow, who was already well ahead of us. I couldn't help but be even more nervous after my last encounter with another werewolf. When we were knee-deep in the woods and there was still no sign of a wolf, or anything else, for that matter, I let myself relax a little, but I wouldn't let my guard down entirely. That was always dangerous, let alone out on a hunt.

"Calm down, your heart sounds like a rabbit’s," Arrow commented. It was an unwelcome reminder of just how far from human he and the other hunters actually were.