Nick, in the lead, stepped through his parents’ bedroom doorway first and immediately spun around, holding out both hands. “You don’t need to go in there.”
“Fuck if I don’t! Move, Nick.”
Peering around their boss, Ryon gaped and Aric shook his head. “Nah,” Aric said. “You really don’t want to go in.”
“I’m a grown man,” he said evenly. “It’s not as if I didn’t know something was terribly wrong the minute I discovered that the wards belonged to Malik. Let me in so I can put an end to this part of my life.”
After several beats of agonized silence, they parted to allow him entrance. What he saw assured him there were some things that were never truly over—for the living, that is. Sometimes there was nothing but horror that would remain with a person for the rest of his life.
The dried-out, mummified husks of his parents lay in the room, as abandoned and forlorn as their once-unhappy home. His father lay on the floor to one side of the bed, his clothing long turned to rags. But that wasn’t the most chilling detail.
He’d been decapitated. His head was sitting on the dresser at the foot of the bed, overlooking the corpse of his mother.
She had been bound to the bed, wrists over her head, and from what he could tell, had been naked when she died. Her face was turned toward the severed head on the dresser, her mouth frozen in a silent scream.
“Their spirits are still here,” Ryon whispered. “They’re telling me Malik did this. He bound Mrs. Black to the bed, then killed Mr. Black while he made her watch. And then he left her here to die slowly, alone with the horror of her husband’s murder and her own impending death.” Ryon’s wide, empty gaze found Kalen. “Mr. Black has a message. He says he hates you. You’re a bastard, and he hopes you rot in hell.”
Ryon’s eyes rolled back in his head and he hit the floor.
Kalen’s stomach lurched. “God. I’m gonna be sick.”
He bolted for the tiny bathroom and barely made it to his knees in front of the grungy toilet before he lost his breakfast. He heaved his guts until there was nothing left and he was sure his stomach lining must’ve turned inside out. A hand clasped his shoulder and he jumped.
“You all right, kid?” Nick gave a humorless laugh. “Dumb question. Come on, let’s get out of here. I’ll put a call in to Grant and have him send a team to make this mess go away.”
“Grant? We don’t need him, boss,” Aric scoffed. He helped a shaken Ryon get up, then came to stand behind Nick at the threshold of the bathroom. “We can take care of this ourselves.”
Nick thought about that for a moment, then asked Kalen, “Do you want anything from this place? What about the house?”
“My grandma’s photo albums,” Kalen answered hoarsely. “My mother got them when she died, and I’d like to have those. Then burn the fucking house down.”
Aric nodded. “I can do that. With pleasure.”
“Without damaging any other homes nearby?”
“You bet.”
Nick gave Kalen a hand up and the guys rallied around him as they left the bedroom, blocking his view of the awful scene. Though it was too late for that, he appreciated the gesture.
The search for the albums was mercifully brief. His mother had kept them on a bookshelf in the living room, and his friends gathered an armload of several dusty books, taking them out to the SUV. Kalen trailed behind, turned and took one last long look at the place that held so many sad memories. So much horror.
Remembering his mother, a lump burned in his throat. Whatever her failings, she’d loved Kalen once. But her many mistakes, like marrying his father, had sealed her fate. She might have loved her son, but she hadn’t fought for him. She’d been too beaten down, without hope.
And whatever secrets she kept had died with her.
Or had they?
Malik was unusually quiet at a time when Kalen would have thought he’d be gloating, taunting him with riddles and more secrets. Not to mention punishing Kalen for his betrayal, for going straight to Nick and the Pack about the planned attack on the citizens. The mating bond must truly be stronger, and he was grateful for the reprieve.
“Cloak us, magic man, ’cause this baby’s gonna burn.”
Aric threw out his hand and a column of fire shot to the dilapidated porch. The house went up like dry kindling, and Kalen barely managed to get another ward in place before the entire neighborhood witnessed a spectacle they wouldn’t soon forget.
They watched as the hungry flames consumed the structure. Reduced it to ash. In minutes it was over, only a heap of smoldering rubble left to mark where his life had begun.
Aric steered Kalen toward the SUV. “Ryon, get us the fuck out of here.”
“I’ll drive,” Nick said. “Ryon’s still a little out of sorts.”
As they climbed into the vehicle, Aric muttered, “Jeez, this town may look like Mayberry, but it’s really Freakville, USA. Givin’ me the goddamned creeps. Whole town’s probably full of goblins or some shit.”
Kalen’s lips curved upward in spite of the seriousness of their grisly find. Aric was just so . . . Aric. One of a kind. They’d had their differences, but he was turning out to be a stand-up guy.
In less than half an hour, they’d returned the borrowed SUV to the spot where they’d found it and were jetting toward the compound in Wyoming.
Toward home, and better yet, the woman he loved.
* * *
Mac’s cell phone buzzed on her hip and she grabbed it and read the text from Kalen.
Landing in five. XOXO.
XOXO back at u. How’d it go?
Bad. Tell u soon.
In my office. Come when u can.
“Crap.” Bad could mean anything. She wished they could talk in each other’s heads like the wolf Bondmates, but while she and Kalen were more sensitive to each other’s emotions and the general direction of each other’s thoughts, actual telepathic communication didn’t seem to be in the cards for them. Anxiously, she paced her office until finally a knock sounded.
She hurried over and flung the door open, and her Sorcerer practically fell into her arms. “Oh, honey! Are you okay?” She tried to pull back to check him over, but he clung even tighter. Tucking her head under his chin, he kissed her hair, his lean body shuddering.
“They were dead,” he choked.