Dawn Released

Eloise wrapped her palms around Kacie's chin and gave her a hard look. Her daughter resembled a pixie with the short hair, her big green eyes, and the long curling lashes that fringed them. The shorter hairstyle gave Kacie a light and playful appearance. Young. There was more than just a haircut that had changed her daughter since she'd last seen her. Kacie's expressions had changed. A maturity that hadn't been there the last time she'd seen her. Kacie's eyes reflected stories Eloise hoped, in time, her daughter would share. Kacie even smelled different. Vaguely familiar, yet she couldn't quite place the scent. "You look beautiful."

She glanced over Kacie's shoulder at Tristen. He shuffled his feet impatiently and jammed his hands self-consciously into his pockets. A smile curved her lips and was followed by a deep sigh. Tristen was so much like his grandfather, a subtle hero with no interest in taking credit for it. "I suppose I have you to thank for looking after my daughter?"

"Not really," Tristen mumbled. He nervously toed the dirt with his shoe and blushed. The crimson of his cheeks deepened as Eloise approached him, rose up on her tiptoes, and planted a soft motherly kiss on his cheek.

Eloise paused and whispered into the young man's ear. Kacie's scent embedded his clothing and she couldn't help but notice the gleam that shone in his eyes when he looked at her daughter. There was more between Tristen and Kacie than a casual friendship. "Thank you, and take good care of my daughter. She's very precious to me."

"I will, always. She's precious to me too." Tristen blushed and gave Kacie a wink. Kacie darted her eyes away and stared anywhere but at him. He saw no use in hiding things, especially from her mother. Eloise was smart enough to figure it out anyway. So there really wasn't any point to pretend. The truth of it was though, he didn't save Kacie's ass. He just helped, and so did Carter, and Torr, and probably dozens of people he hadn't even realized had helped along the way. To him, it wasn't a matter of who had rescued or saved who, everyone had helped to save each other.

"I know." Eloise lowered her weight onto her heels and turned. She opened her arms wide to receive the pair of males anxiously waiting for her to notice them. Some things were going to take a little more getting used to than others. For so long, Tracker and Catcher had stood behind her and she not in front of them, but in their shadows. "Catcher, Tracker, as always, we're together again." Her feet left the ground as the twins crushed her in between their big bodies and lifted her into a tight embrace. "I've missed you too," she chuckled, "but please put me down before you break my ribs."

"Mistress." Catcher bowed. Rubbing his cheek across the palm of her hand he sighed contentedly. Their days together were coming to an end. Another important task had been laid at his feet and he'd accepted without hesitation, but telling her broke his heart. Hesitantly, he drew a breath, searching for the words.

Tracker closed his eyes as his mistress affectionately stroked his cheek. "Mistress, you know we love you. We were born to do so. Serving you has been our greatest pleasure and we have always taken our duty most seriously."

"But," Catcher interjected, "our paths do not take us in the same direction any longer. We have been asked to remain here to serve on the council. With your permission and blessing we'd like to stay behind."

Eloise cupped their chins in her palms and pulled their faces close to hers. "You don't need my permission. You must do what it is that your hearts tell you to do and follow the path that serves you best. I wish we could continue on the road of life together, as we always have, but your pack needs you now, much more than I do. If you serve them with the same fidelity as you've served me these many years, then they are greatly blessed and fortunate to call you brother." She kissed the tip of Catcher's nose and then lowered her lips to Tracker's for a light peck. "Go, live the lives you were born to truly live and know, I will miss you with all my heart."

Tracker's big shoulders heaved as he gripped his former mistress with all his strength. Tears as big as raindrops rolled down his cheeks as he wept. Catcher cleaved to Eloise dwarfing her body with his big frame. He sighed and inhaled, memorizing her scent. She would always be their mistress. No matter where life took her and what road they traveled on. The distance of miles and of time would never change the way they felt for one another. Loyalty and love ran deeper than the passing of years would ever change.

Eloise broke free of their arms and tears before she broke down with them. She stepped back and released their hands from hers. Smiling as she watched them walk over to the group waiting discreetly in the distance. The council had already been informally formed. Eloise could sense the power this group wielded in silent dignity. Shane, Emil, Catcher, Tracker, and a wizened, crumpled woman, Annabelle, the last remaining direct descendant of the original founders, the grand mother of them all.

The twins spared her a last glance over their shoulders before they turned to follow the group of elders into a squat brick building that had been turned into a temporary headquarters. The goodbyes were so bittersweet. She'd thought she'd never see a day without her omegas by her side or when she wouldn't lead this pack and while she was doing the right thing it still was so painful to let them go.

She felt Nash place his hands on her shoulders and wrap his body around her, pulling her into the width of his chest. Closing her eyes, she breathed in the maleness of him. Spice blended with pine and the musk of his wolf. She relaxed into his body and let him support her weight in his arms. Sighing as the burden of leadership and of the pack was lifted off her shoulders. His finger slid along her jaw, gently twisting her head and guiding her mouth up to meet his.

His kiss was as gentle as his touch. Their lips slicked together and glided against one another. Without hesitation, she opened, inviting him in. Her arm reached up and the fingers of her hand wound into the loose, satin length of his hair, trapping him close to her.

Tristen nudged Kacie playfully and tipped his head in the direction of his grandfather and Eloise's lip lock. The old man who had been as frosty as the inside of a freezer for as long as Tristen could remember was finally thawing out. Hell, by the way his grandpa kissed Eloise, it looked like he'd bypassed thaw and gone straight onto the grill. The kiss was hot, hot, hot. He snickered under his breath as Kacie glared up at him and rolled her eyes before dragging him off to give the two lovebirds some much needed privacy.

She'd never seen her mom show a public display of affection before. She'd never seen her mom look so contented or so happy before. Her mother had always been controlled and rigid. Cool. This new version of her mom was loving, open, and apparently, very passionate. The woman that had replaced the cold, calculating woman that held her daughters and everyone else at arms length was going to take a little adjusting to, but the change was good.

Kacie dragged Tristen down the street. Ashes from the still smoldering Grand Manor and the burning remnants Seff's pyre drifted downward like flakes of falling snow. She didn't know exactly where they were going. So much of everything she'd ever known was gone. A part of her was saddened by the losses, but a part of her was encouraged and hopeful. Something good had to come from all this pain. Pack scrambled to clean up the mess, sweeping up ash, gathering up debris, dismantling the fence, and doing whatever needed to be done to put life into a sense of order again. No matter how hard everyone tried to tidy up the mess though. Things were never going to be the same for any of them.

Chapter 49

The blasted sun was finally setting. Carter could feel the fiery orange ball's descent into the west down in the very marrow of his bones. He had spent the day huddled amongst the dusty boxes encased in the cold, concrete, windowless room alone. His connection to Shayla was stronger than ever. He shouldn't have drunk from her. He should have forced her to leave instead of giving in to the temptation of her blood. He could hear the lingering echoes of her sadness in his head. He envisioned her hands moving deftly over the gilded frames as she packed photos and mementos of her life with Ramon away. The boxes were tightly sealed with layers of thick, heavy tape and neatly stacked in a corner. She was sad, but also filled with conviction to put the past behind her and start her life all over again.

Carter knew Shayla's mourning was far from over and there would be no respite from her loss. Distance and a new life would not change the past. A new place, new habits, this new life she dreamed of for herself would do nothing but mask her pain. In time, her memories would dull. But, they'd always be a part of her and they'd always influence any future she determined to build. He should know. Hardly a day went by that he didn't think about the life he'd carelessly wished away. How senselessly and foolishly he'd taken the limitations of it for granted. He would have been long dead by now as by rights he should be. He'd gotten exactly what he'd wished for so many centuries ago in a place, long gone.

Shayla sat on the edge of the bed. Tracing the outline of Ramon's face in the photograph with the tip of her fingernail. She remembered the day in exact detail and it had been a happy one. One of many they shared before his life was stolen away. He always was proud and headstrong. Those traits were what had ended his life and what she'd loved him the most for. But, at least he died, for something he believed in. How could she begrudge him that? And now when the pack finally had what he'd fought so hard to achieve. He wasn't around to reap the benefits of the seeds he'd died to sew.

She felt Carter's presence tingling through her mind and smelled his cool, minty, wintry scent before she saw him enter her bedroom. "Sorry, but the Café Shayla is closed," she said bitterly as she dropped the photo into the box at the foot of her bed. Carter had filled her head with dark warnings all day, trying to keep her off. Well, he'd managed to do that and now here he was, standing in the doorway with an unreadable expression on his hard features.

Carter picked up the photo resting on the dresser and looked at the younger version of Shayla, smiling happily and widely at whoever was behind camera. "That's a good picture of you," he said, handing the silver framed snapshot to her. "Who took it?"

"Ramon." Shayla dropped the picture in the box with all the others. She reached for the tape with her left hand as she held the overstuffed box closed with her right. Carter's cool fingers brushed across hers and pinned them to the box.

"I am sorry for the way I behaved earlier. There was no excuse for my rudeness. Please, forgive me."

Shayla slid her hand from beneath Carter's and gripped the tape. "There's nothing to forgive. You got your point across." She shrugged and snickered angrily, "I guess the wolf and the prey really don't have much in common do they?"

Carter returned Shayla's casual and bitter shrug. She was pissed at him and he couldn't blame her. He'd been so busy pushing her away that he forgot about how bravely she hid her fragility beneath a layer of solid steel. Hers was a tender heart that had just been shattered and he had no right to inflict the heavy damage that he had upon it. "Perhaps."

Dutifully, he lifted the box after she'd finished taping it closed, and stacking it on top of the other boxes in the corner. "Where are you planning to go?" He sat an empty box at her feet as she moved to fill it with remnants from her former life.

"Hanning and Ruby are going to go up north, with Eloise. I'll probably tag along for a while and then see what happens next." She stared down into the empty box instead of meeting Carter's eyes. Lost in contemplation and trying desperately not to think about the next steps in her life, she emptied the contents of her dresser drawer into the box.

She didn't know what to do with Ramon's things. Everything he'd touched, worn, or ever come in contact with was so precious to her. She knew she should pack them away. Someone else who wasn't making the trip could use the clothes or might even, move into her abandoned house. She refused to think of these four walls as her home anymore. This was just a place she was spending tonight and then tomorrow leaving behind.

She couldn't bear to take one single pair of his socks out of the dresser or throw away the half used bottle of his cologne left sitting on his side of the bathroom vanity. His coat still hung in the hallway closet. The dirty laundry she'd been thinking about tossing into the washing machine on the day he'd been murdered still sat in the hamper. It felt wrong to leave things half finished like this, but she didn't have the strength to wash the lingering scent of him from his clothes or bake the casserole she'd prepared earlier that morning for their supper.

It felt like too much of an end to things to wash, dry, and fold clothes Ramon was never going to wear or bake a casserole nobody was ever going to eat. To do the things she would have done if he'd come home that awful day instead of dying a death befitting of a martyr. The food was going to go to waste in the fridge and the laundry was going to molder in the hamper. It might be better to leave things clean and tidy in this end of endings and beginning of beginnings. Life was messy and it was going to have to stay that way.

The words of Carter's question hung heavily in the air. Where was she going to go? She was surprised he'd bothered to ask, considering how desperately he wanted to be rid of this link between them. His question did nothing but lead to other questions she hadn't bothered to ask herself. She knew what she couldn't do and that was stay here. She knew what she wouldn't do and that was linger like a ghost, existing but never living. As far as she was concerned Ramon had died for what he'd believed in and what other choice did she have but to honor his death in the only way she knew how, by living hers to the fullest.

Carter was an enigma. Sometimes, he was so distant although through the sharing of blood, of their bodies and souls, in a way, he was closer to her than any living being. She'd seen the parts of his past that had built, layer by layer to make him the vampire he was. He was beautiful and condemned himself for it. He was cold and removed, virtues he prized himself for, but underneath it all, he was a well that ran deep and still. Damn her for her thoughts, but it was all the pieces of him that drew her closer and closer to him, like a moth to a very dangerous flame.

"Its very cold up north," Carter said gently.

"Carter," Shayla said as she tipped up her chin to finally look him in the eye. "The cold doesn't bother me in the least."

Evan packed up his most treasured belongings. Reverently placing them neatly in a box, like his mama told him to. He carefully positioned his stuffed Spiderman doll at the top of the heap before his mother taped the box shut. He was excited and nervous, nibbling at his bottom lip the way his mama told him not to. "Mama, do you think Uncle Carter will let me stay over for a slumber party sometime?"

Ruby blinked in disbelief at her son. She imagined that 'Uncle Carter' as Evan taken to calling the vampire probably slept all day and partied all night. His home was most likely not suitable for an impressionable six year old, what with the crypt and the coffin and all. What exactly was the affinity that her son had for the vampire? She'd never seen him take to a stranger with such enthusiasm. "I'm not so sure about that. We don't even know where," she shuddered, "Uncle Carter lives."

"He lives in a big city with buildings taller than this," Evan said. Stretching his arms up as high as he could, he stood on his tiptoes. Stretching out as wide as his arms could reach for emphasis, to show his mama how big the buildings were he saw in his mind's eye. "From his living room he can see everything." He hopped on the bed and jumped excitedly up and down on the mattress. "Uncle Carter is the guardian of the city. He keeps people safe, just like Spiderman."

"Honey, did Uncle Carter tell you this?" Ruby asked. Evan was breaking all the rules tonight, jumping up and down on the bed, staying up well past his bedtime and she couldn't bring herself to care. Evan's bedroom was the last room of the house to be packed up. Hanning had already loaded most of the family's possessions into the back of a battered pickup truck. Surprising really, how everything they owned had been loaded into less than a dozen cardboard boxes.

Tonight was the last night they'd spend in this house as a family. The last time she'd ever see Texas again. She was leaving behind a lot of bad memories she was glad to forget and along with them a piece of her heart. Her son's abilities terrified her. The truths he'd seen with such clarity and one day, soon, would be old enough to understand. That day she dreaded more than any other. When he understood the truth of the memories she'd left behind. "Evan, honey?"

"Nope."

Ruby's brows furrowed in worry as she watched her son's lithe body bounce up and down on the bed. She should be discouraging the bad behavior, but she was too confused by the things he knew and shouldn't. She was always grasping at straws, searching for explanations and the answer was always the same. He knew things he shouldn't and there was no reason why. "Did somebody else tell you that?"

"Nope." Evan shook his head and bounced higher than he'd ever dared. He was expecting his mom to put her foot down and make him stop, but she didn't.

"Then how do you know?"

Evan giggled. "I dunno, I just do. I've got special powers just like Professor Xavier, I guess."

Ruby snapped her mouth shut and stared at her son. She gathered him up in her arms and held him close, trembling in fear for her little boy. She'd watched him grow from a baby, taught him to speak his first words, fed him his first bite of food, and she'd never suspected a thing. Maybe, she shouldn't have taught him to speak at all. Maybe, it would have been better for everyone if he didn't. "Go pee and get ready for bed Evan."

Evan stared his mother. Confused about the sudden change in her and why she was so worried. He didn't use his special powers. Usually, the things he heard and saw were on accident. Listening in on people's thoughts on purpose was rude and he never breathed a word to anyone about the secrets he accidentally overheard. For the most part, he really didn't understand the things that people showed him. The constant chatter was a bunch of adult stuff that didn't make any sense to him anyway. Adults were always yacking in their heads. They never shut up.

"Mama, don't worry. I don't spy on people and I know how to keep a secret." He jumped off the bed and trotted into the bathroom to do his business. Closing the door behind him. He was a big boy now, six years old and didn't need any help peeing or brushing his teeth.

Ruby sank to the bed and wrapped her arms around Evan's pillow, inhaling his sweet little boy scent. His revelation shocked her as much as it held her curiosity. Her little boy was special. She'd always known that he was wise beyond his six years, but until now, she'd never really grasped the enormity of why.

Torr stood, entranced by the glowing embers of his father's pyre. Smoke and ash drifted into the darkening sky, carried by the chilly breeze that blew from the north. Wafting to far away places that he could only guess. The day was done and his duty fulfilled. The darkness chilled him to the bone. There was no warmth or no one to comfort him. He was alone, an orphan, but then again, he always had been.