Bear Bait (Hero Mine Book 1) Read online

  “Octavia, if you give me a chance, I will show you that love. My family is your family now. If you choose to accept them. If you choose to accept me.” He rubbed his large hand over her back, and she felt a sob bubble up inside her. “I’m sorry this is happening, but I cannot be sorry you have come into my life. And I promise you, I will be the best mate, the best man, the best father to our children.”

  “That’s what scares me,” she answered. “You are offering me everything I want and more. But how do I know it’s real?” She turned her tear-stained face to him. “I’m beginning to think I’m going crazy, buying into this world that cannot be real. Demons, magic, men that turn into animals. Do you know how that sounds?”

  “But you’ve seen enough to know it’s real.”

  “And I wish I hadn’t. I wish I had never gone to that fortuneteller.” She took a deep, shuddering breath. “But out of all the things in this world, I know that wishes don’t come true.”

  “I’m sorry,” he said simply.

  “Me too,” Octavia said sadly.

  “Hey.” Tobias knocked on the car window. “You need to come inside.”

  Cade opened the car door and got out. “What’s wrong? Has there been an attack?”

  “No, it’s Octavia’s phone. It’s been ringing. We didn’t answer it, but now there’s a text.”

  “From who?” Octavia asked. She had gotten out of the car and come to stand next to Cade, her body close, so close she affected his concentration.

  “Matthew, that’s the name of the contact.”

  Cade experienced a stab of jealousy in his heart. “Matthew.” He turned to Octavia, but she was already heading into the house.

  “I hope they haven’t got him. What if they have kidnapped him?”

  Cade would prefer it if Matthew was out of the picture, but he knew it would cut Octavia deeply if this man got hurt because of her. “Octavia, you need to calm down.”

  “I am calm,” she challenged, grabbing hold of her phone and scrolling through the missed calls.

  “No, you are not,” Cade said firmly. “If someone does have him, this is our chance to find out what is going on.”

  “I know that,” she said hotly. “I’m not stupid.”

  “I know you aren’t. I’m simply asking you not to make any rash decisions.”

  “Rash decisions? You mean like trying to save Matthew?”

  “Don’t put yourself in danger for him,” Cade said, hating himself and the way Octavia looked at him.

  “Why, because if something happened to me, it will hurt you? Or because it would be simpler for you if he was out of the way?” she asked, guilt firing her temper.

  Her temper simmered down, turning to fear when the phone in her hand began to vibrate and then ring. “I will do whatever I have to do to make sure Matthew is safe. I have to.” She pressed the button to answer the call. “Hello, Matthew?”

  Her face went white as the voice on the other end answered. Cade’s enhanced hearing made it easy for him to eavesdrop. But the words uttered were nothing he could have predicted. “Hello, Octavia. Good to hear your voice, you have kept me waiting. Now, if you could pass the phone to Eva, let’s get down to business.”

  Cade took the phone from a shocked Octavia and placed his hand over the mouthpiece. “Is that Matthew’s voice?” he asked quietly. “Or does someone have his phone?”

  “It’s Matthew,” she answered, her hand trembling as she put it up to her mouth. He could read her thoughts. She had betrayed them. She had been used. Matthew had used her. And now Cade’s family was going to pay the price. Whatever that was. “I’m so sorry.”

  Cade shook his head. “Don’t be.” He left her, going to the kitchen to find his mom, who was kneading bread, as she often did when she was feeling tense. “Mom.”

  Eve looked up, her face instantly showing her concern. “What’s wrong, Cade? Is Octavia all right?”

  He nodded. “Matthew is on the phone.” He held up the cell phone, his hand still over the mouthpiece. “He wants to talk to you.”

  “Me?” She paled. “Is it about your father?”

  His heart ached for his mom in that moment. He was so caught up in his concern for Octavia, he hadn’t given a thought to his mom’s reaction. Cade had gotten so used to his dad not being there, it never occurred to him once that this might be connected.

  “I don’t know,” Cade answered honestly.

  Eva held out her hand for the phone. “Put it on speaker,” she said.

  Cade pressed the speaker button and passed the phone to his mom. Behind him he felt the presence of his mate; she was close to him, tears staining her face as she listened to what the man she’d thought was her true love had to say.

  “Matthew?” Eva said.

  “Ahh, at last. I thought you were going to hold out on me, Eva. It’s good to finally hear your voice,” Matthew said, his voice smooth and friendly.

  “You have me at a disadvantage,” Eva said, keeping her voice upbeat, but the strain showed in her face.

  “You don’t need to know my name. What matters is you know who I am. Then you will know how serious this is.”

  “Go on,” Eva said.

  “You knew my father. He asked you to get something for him. But you killed him instead.”

  “I have never killed anyone,” Eva said firmly, her eyes flashing up to Cade’s.

  “You might not have killed him with your own hands, but you took that band of monsters with you to the warehouse where my father was.” Eva put her hand to her mouth, covering a gasp. “It’s coming back to you now. Good.”

  “Your father. Did he have a tattoo?” Eva asked.

  “He did.” The friendly tone Matthew had upheld gave way to anger. “You killed my father. Now I want what he asked you to get all those years ago. You do remember the Dragon’s Tear, don’t you, Eva?”

  “Yes. But I don’t have it.”

  “But you know where it is. And don’t lie and say you can’t get it, because I don’t believe you.”

  “I can’t get it…”

  “In that case, you can say goodbye to your son’s mate. Yes, I know who she is. And you know what will happen to her if you do not get what I want. Taro is one of the strongest demons I have ever seen. He cost me a lot. And I don’t just mean money. So far, he has been a threat, but if I don’t get the Dragon’s Tear, I will unleash his full fury on you.”

  The line went dead.

  “Shit,” Eva said.

  “Dragon’s Tear?” Octavia asked.

  “It’s a stone.” Cade took a step toward his mom. “What do we do?”

  Eva put a trembling hand up to her face. “I need a drink.”

  She was pale as she brushed past Cade. Going to the sitting room, she opened the liquor cabinet and then poured out a generous slug into a glass. Cade had never seen his mom drink during the daytime.

  “Mom,” he said firmly. “We can do this.”

  “Do what?” Eva asked, her voice had lost its usual confidence. “We don’t have what he wants. And if he finds out, what then?” She lowered her voice. “What if he goes looking for Liam, and your father?”

  “Does grandpa have any answers?” Cade asked, raising his eyebrows to send a message to Eva.

  Eva knocked back the rest of the dark liquor. “I don’t speak to your grandpa, you know that.”

  “Then maybe it’s time you did,” Cade said.

  “No.” She shook her head, infuriating him. Eva had been born a Night Hunter, but abandoned as a baby and grew up completely ignorant of her heritage, which had been locked away in her head. When she had run into Matthew’s father, the man she had nicknamed Crosshead because of the tattoos on his face, over twenty-five years ago, he had opened up her mind to her ancestors.

  These ancestors, who talked to her in her head, held the sum of all their knowledge, ready to pass it on to Eva. In amongst those voices was Eva’s dead father, Henry, who was seen as a betrayer of Night Hunters because he had hi
dden the Dragon’s Tear. He was the only one who had stayed with Eva when Cade’s father, Jack, was forced to turn Eva into an Other. With one bite, Jack had made Eva the thing she was supposed to hunt.

  It was Henry, Cade’s own grandpa, whom Eva blamed for Jack not being here with them. It was Henry who had given Liam the task of returning the Dragon’s Tear to the last dragon.

  Liam had never returned. When Cade was old enough to take over command of the squad, Jack had left to find his lost brother and complete the task. He too had never returned, and Eva had not spoken to her father since.

  “Mom, we can’t ignore this,” Cade said.

  “I know,” Eva replied, “Which is why we are going to see Lucas.”

  “And you think he will help us?” Cade asked.

  “Yes. Since he is the one who killed Crosshead.”

  “Lucas was the one responsible?” Cade asked.

  “Yes. If this is coming back to bite us, then he needs to man up and help us.”

  “Does he know about the Dragon’s Tear? Does he know you took it from the Council?” Cade asked.

  “Let’s go find out!” Eva said, slamming her glass down heavily and heading for the door.

  Chapter Twelve – Octavia

  Reeling from the shock of what was happening, Octavia followed Cade and Eva out of the kitchen.

  “What’s going on?” Seth asked. He had just returned from his delivery, and one look at Eva’s face was enough to tell him something was wrong, very wrong.

  “We’re going to see Lucas,” Cade told him, but gave no further details.

  “Want backup?” Seth asked.

  “No,” Cade snapped. “Sorry, Seth. Look something has come up. Can you get Tobias to help you with any other deliveries we have?”

  “Sure. This have anything to do with that degetty?” Seth asked.

  “Indirectly,” Cade answered, going to his truck. He hauled the door open and got in. Eva got into the passenger seat, and for a second Octavia thought the door was about to be slammed in her face, but instead, Cade’s mom stuck her head out and said, “Come on, there’s room for us all up front.”

  Octavia dashed to the door and got in before everyone changed their mind and saw her as the enemy. She had, after all, been responsible for bringing this down on them. Cade started the engine, and drove off, gravel spraying up behind them. No one told him to slow down.

  “I’m sorry,” Octavia blurted out at last.

  “For what?” Eva asked.

  “All of this.”

  “Don’t apologize for something you could not have stopped. It was only a matter of time until they found a way in. That damn Dragon’s Tear, I wish I’d never seen the thing.”

  “What is it, exactly?” It seemed to mean a lot to everyone, more than a simple stone ever should.

  “It can bring people back from the dead.”

  “It can do that?” Octavia asked, thinking of her own mother.

  “We don’t know for sure,” Eva said. “It’s a myth.”

  “I can’t let you hand over something with such potential value. Not for me,” Octavia said, having overheard most of the conversation between Matthew and Eva.

  “You won’t have to let us hand it over,” Cade said, looking sidelong at his mom. “We don’t have it.”

  “You don’t? Then who does? Because it sounds as if Matthew is certain you do.”

  “We did have it. But now it’s gone. So we come up with a plan B,” Eva said.

  “Do you have a plan B?” Octavia asked, shuddering at the thought of that degetty coming after her for real.

  “I do,” Cade said. “But we are going to need Lucas on board for this.” He looked at Eva. “Do you think you can persuade him to help us?”

  “That is a good question,” Eva said. “And one we are about to find out.”

  Cade stopped the truck outside a set of wooden gates, and rolled down the window. He leaned out and pressed some buttons on a security panel—it must have been a code or a password, because the heavy gates with their ornate carvings swung open, and he drove the truck forward into the grounds of what appeared to be a private residence.

  “This is the Council Chambers.”

  “Council? What kind of Council?” Octavia asked.

  “The one we work for. It’s made up of mainly druids. Although, they did allow my father to sit on it for a while. Until he left,” Cade said.

  “He left. Left you?” Octavia asked, shocked. She wanted to ask, but I thought you said you would never leave? but she didn’t.

  “He left us to find his brother, who has been missing for a long time.” Eva smiled sadly. “His duty has always been to family.”

  Cade parked the truck next to a row of luxury cars; there were nine or ten of them all together, all looking as if they were freshly valeted, except one, which was older, and looked as if it hadn’t been moved for days. Dust and bird droppings covered the roof, and there was a dark patch under it where it looked as if the engine had an oil leak.

  “The druids have expensive tastes?”

  “Yes, they do,” Cade said. “And not just for cars.” He opened his door and got out. “Let’s get this over with. I’m interested to hear what Lucas has to say, but I’m not sure he’s going to offer us much help.”

  “He might surprise us,” Eva said, jumping out of the truck behind Octavia.

  “I don’t think I’ve ever met a druid,” Octavia said. “Only seen them on TV, in shows, you know, make-believe.” She followed Cade and Eva around the back of the building, and in through a door, where she got her first look at a real druid. “Wow, they really do wear robes.”

  “Yes, it’s like their uniform. At least in the Council Chambers. And the druids you’ve seen on TV are probably a whole lot nicer than most of the ones you meet in real life,” Cade said.

  “Cade, you shouldn’t say that.” Eva shot him a warning glance.

  “It’s true,” Cade said.

  “It might be true, but it’s still not the kind of thing you say when you are in their lair,” Eva cautioned.

  “Druids also take themselves very seriously,” Cade said in a hushed whisper to Octavia.

  “Good to know,” Octavia said, beginning to wish she had been left at home. “If I say the wrong thing, will they turn me into a frog?”

  “You have us mixed up with witches,” a voice as old as time said from a small alcove.

  Octavia jumped, and bumped into Cade, who put his arms around her to stop her falling down. “Master Grimmwold.”

  “Cade. Evaine. And who is this?” The old man got up and peered through ancient eyes in Octavia’s direction.

  “This is Octavia.”

  “Hello, Octavia. It’s not often I meet new people under this roof. So why have you been brought here?” Master Grimmwold said. It sounded like a rhetorical question, which he proceeded to answer himself. “You are Cade’s mate.” He leaned forward even further, and sniffed her. “Brimstone.”

  Octavia instinctively sniffed herself, unsure of how the old man could smell the degetty on her, since she was wearing fresh clothes, lent to her by Eva and had showered since her encounter with the demon.

  “We’re here to see Lucas for that very reason,” Eva said. “Is he here?”

  The old man chuckled hoarsely. “Does he ever leave?”

  “Can you take us to him?” Cade asked. “It’s important.”

  “Of course it’s important. To you young people, everything is important.”

  “Thank you, Master Grimmwold,” Cade said as the old man shuffled off down the corridor.

  They wound their way through the Council building toward the center, and then climbed a grand staircase, which split in two at the first landing. Master Grimmwold led them to the right, and they followed the curving staircase around, the old man holding on to the handrail, his old bony fingers white against the dark wood.

  Octavia took a moment to look around her. The inside of the Council Chambers were like steppi
ng back in time. The ceilings were carved, with gold leaf on some of the more intricate patterns. There was a huge painting on the ceiling as they reached the second landing; it depicted a druid, robes billowing around him, as fire rained down from the sky. Octavia stood with her head tilted backwards, staring at it open-mouthed.

  “They like to think they are the creators,” Cade whispered in her ear. “This is the first druid, who fashioned the planets from boiling rock.”

  “Wow,” she breathed in awe. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

  “Nor will you again,” Master Grimmwold said. “They don’t make them like they used to.” He chuckled in his dry voice once more.

  “The same can be said for druids,” Eva said, patting the old man’s arm.

  “I cannot disagree with a Night Hunter,” Master Grimmwold said.

  “Good answer,” Eva said affectionately.

  “And no, I have not remembered where the last dragon is,” Master Grimmwold said.

  “I did not expect you to,” Eva said. “Neither do I expect you to tell me if you did, since my father also seems to be sworn to secrecy.”

  “Do not blame your father for keeping silent,” Master Grimmwold told Eva, before he knocked on a door and opened it up to the sound of “come in.”

  “That I cannot promise you,” Eva said sadly.

  “Who is it?” a voice called from the other side of the solid wooden door.

  “Lucas, there are people to see you,” Master Grimmwold said.

  “Who?” Lucas rapped out.

  “Evaine and Cade,” Master Grimmwold said.

  “And since when have you become the maid,” Lucas asked. “Let them in.”

  Master Grimmwold opened the door and ushered them in. “They have a guest with them too.”

  Lucas let his eyes roam over Octavia, Cade, and lastly Eva. “Eva, you did not need bother Master Grimmwold to bring you up here. You know the way.”

  “I thought you should have Master Grimmwold here as protection,” Eva said lightly, but Lucas saw the meaning in her words.