 
Also by April Cronin

Contractual Attraction

The Placebo Effect

The Savanna Slasher Series;

Icing the Competition

Melting the Ice

Thin Ice

When Lightning Strikes

And don't miss April's next book;

Provoking Death!

By April Cronin

Copyright © 2018 April Cronin

Smashwords Edition

All rights reserved.

Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the permission of the author.

Cover Photo design by April Cronin, original photo licensed through CanStockPhoto

Title page photo by Dennis Skley.

All other images are public domain.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

To everyone who has ever had a dream...
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

First and foremost, I'd like to thank you, the reader, for giving me a chance. I've put a lot of thought into this book, and I hope you get as much enjoyment out of it as I have!

I'd also like to thank my husband for putting up with me. I can be pretty intolerable sometimes, and when I get lost in my writing, the kids tend to get a little out of hand, without his support and forgiveness, I never would have accomplished my goals.

And to the lovely women of Twitter, thank you for lending your names to my victims, I'm glad you enjoyed being murdered by me!

Last but not least, I want to thank my family and friends; Kevin, thank you for being my biggest fan! Jean and Michele, thank you for reading all the crap I put out and making some much needed corrections along the way, and let's not forget Susan and Hazel, two of my best customers! I'm honored to call all of you my family!
Prologue

Two weeks earlier;

Robert had been out of sorts lately, more so than usual, everyone saw it, and Keith sensed it. Robert attempted to act normal, but he didn't fool Keith who could hear the erratic way Robert's heart beat when they talked.

Something definitely seemed wrong, he only wished Robert would confide in him. Instead, Robert spent more time away from home, more time with Al. Which shouldn't have been so concerning, they both enjoyed a good game of golf, and Lord knew that man needed a break from the ranch, he'd literally work himself to death if given half the chance, but that wasn't it.

Even though Keith hadn't meant to, not at first, he'd followed him the other day. Robert headed straight to Al's office and stayed there for a while. And, because he wasn't much of a sleuth, after a couple of hours waiting out front in the parking lot, Keith finally left. While the visit shouldn't have been such a big deal, considering they'd been friends for a long time, it bothered him when he'd asked Robert about his day the next afternoon over lunch, and Robert lied.

He said he'd spent the day at a local shelter, helping out like he often had in the past. It didn't make any sense to Keith. What reason did he have to lie to him? They told each other everything; they were probably closer than most brothers.

It worried him. Just as the headaches did, and the dozens of other little tics he'd noticed lately. Like how he'd shake out his legs, or squeeze his eyes shut the way a person would when experiencing pain or having trouble seeing. He assumed nobody noticed, but not much got by Keith.

With the recent accusations being thrown around by the police, everyone on the ranch appeared to be on edge lately, and Keith had his plate full, no doubt about that, but he still recognized minute differences when it came to Robert.

Of course, his insistence that his dear friend saw a doctor fell on deaf ears. Keith had done a little research, wanting to match the symptoms and figure it out for himself, but without hearing it all from Robert, he really didn't have much to go on, a number of things might have been going on ranging from harmless to severe and even life-threatening.

In addition to seeing Al more frequently, Robert also spent a lot of time shut up in his office with the laptop lately, they hadn't had dinner together in almost a week. All the secrecy bothered him. Keith planned to catch up with him tonight and attempt to shake some information out of him. Hell, he'd get physical and literally shake him if he had to.

Keith finished with the ultrasound of the pregnant dog Robert had brought in the other day and put her in the temporary kennel they'd made for her in the clinic. It wouldn't be long before she gave birth, a couple weeks at best, and they wanted her to be comfortable, after which he fed her and closed up for the night.

Nearly to his truck; he had a date tonight with a hot real estate agent, he heard something strange. Like a low pitched gurgling noise accompanied by what sounded like a hoarse whisper.

Tom and Nicole had stopped off earlier to check in with him before leaving, so there shouldn't have been anyone but him and Robert left on this part of the property, and as the sun made its descent dipping below the horizon, even Robert should have been tucked away inside the house for the night.

He heard the commotion coming from over near the wolf enclosure, and fearing that one of the wolves may have been in trouble, or that a wild animal had stumbled into their habitat, Keith hurried in the direction of the barn. The closer he got, the quicker he realized that it sounded human and not animal, sending him into near hysteria.

He prayed it wouldn't turn out to be another incident like the one last year, especially since none of the wolves had ever shown an ounce of aggression, but accidents did happen. Keith ran as fast as possible, afraid of what he might find.

Nothing would have prepared him for what he saw though.

Robert lay on the ground, flopping like a fish, trying to right himself, his face askew, his cheeks flush, and his mouth lopsided. His eyes seemed unable to focus. Vomit covered the ground in front of him.

A stroke.

It had to be a stroke!

Keith scrambled to reach him, sliding into the dirt and lifting Robert into his arms, he carried him quickly into the animal clinic as Robert moaned, grasping at his head.

"My head... my head..." he murmured incoherently.

Keith held onto him with one hand, digging frantically in his pockets for the keys to the clinic, listening to Robert, he started running through the list of symptoms in his head, wondering if Robert had suffered from a ruptured aneurysm, the cerebral bleeding would have easily caused a stroke.

He had no idea how long Robert had been out there, lying, seizing in the dirt, but with a hemorrhagic stroke, time was of the essence. Crashing through the door of the clinic, Keith laid Robert gently on top of one of the tables, whipping out his cell phone and dialing 911.

They had a dog with a blood clot once, probably still had some medication around somewhere, but he didn't want to risk injecting him with a blood thinner and it making the bleeding worse. An aneurysm requires surgery. Keith had never performed brain surgery, and he definitely hadn't operated on a human before. His best, really, his only option, required getting Robert to the hospital as quickly as possible.

Robert began to sputter again, doing his damnedest to sit upright as his body continued to betray him. Keith realized he wanted to say something, so he leaned down, taking Robert's head in his arms.

"Help..." He moaned, the word barely louder than a whisper of air.

"The ambulance is on its way," Keith replied, doing everything possible to keep him comfortable, cursing himself for not being able to do more.

"Help..." He breathed again.

"I can save you, Robert. If you want me to, I can do it. I can save you."

Robert seemed to shake his head vehemently though it may have been a spasm. He coughed, choking on his saliva, desperate to be heard. Keith lifted his head higher, he took a deep breath, he tried to concentrate.

"The angels..." Robert said a little more clearly. His words still partially slurred, his voice shaky. "They can't... they can't..."

"They can't what? What can't the angels do? What are you trying to say, Robert?"

"Promise me... the angels... you won't let them... promise me..."

Keith heard the sirens wailing in the distance, Robert became more frantic as they drew closer to the ranch, he coughed and gagged. Keith realized that whatever he wanted to tell him had to be right there on the tip of his tongue, it probably made perfect sense to him, but the few broken fragments he'd been able to understand didn't strike a chord with Keith.

"The cure..." He spat, saliva dribbled out of the corner of his mouth as he attempted to speak. "The angels can't have the cure."

"What cure Robert? What angels? Please, I don't understand! Help me understand!"

Time was running out, footsteps sounded on the pavement, he heard the slamming of a door, then one of the paramedics rolled a stretcher into the clinic, the other right behind him. Together they lifted Robert onto it, the old man jerked and shoved at them, his eyes wild as he pinned Keith with a pleading glare.

"Madison..." He raged, that single word coming across clearer than anything he'd said yet.

One of the paramedics started to strap down his legs while the other fought to restrain his upper body, Keith did little more than look on in horror, watching as his best friend fought to get free. Likely confused, he didn't understand that they only wanted to help him. Keith willed him to relax, he begged him to calm down, tortured seeing him like this.

And all at once, he stopped.

With a last jerk of his body, Robert collapsed on the gurney. His eyes seem to roll into the back of his head, one of the paramedics swore, the other dropped the duffel bag he carried and began rifling through it.

In his panic, Keith leaned over him, pushing a medic out of the way and beginning to administer CPR as the other paramedic came up with a compression mask and attempted to pump oxygen into his lungs.

"No!" Keith shouted, "don't you die on me, Robert! Don't you dare die on me this way!"

The medic he'd pushed out of the way rushed back from the ambulance with a defibrillator, ordering Keith to step aside, but like a madman, he wouldn't give up, not now, he shoved the man backward, barely noticing when he crashed to the ground.

Keith had to save him, he had to save his friend.

Hours later, Keith sat on the porch steps, nursing a bottle of Jack Daniels, wishing himself into a drunken stupor, and ready to sell his soul to the devil if that would bring Robert back when Al pulled up in his Mercedes.

The two said nothing for a time, Al sat down next to him, a man he would have normally characterized as strong and intimidating, looked completely rumpled and defeated. They'd both lost their best friend tonight.

"Did Robert say anything to you, Al?" Keith finally asked.

Al remained silent another moment, he reached out and grabbed the near-empty bottle from Keith, taking the last swig and dropping it at their feet with the other bottles scattered in front of them. Al pondered his answer a moment longer.

"I'm fairly sure he understood the seriousness of his condition. He came to me a couple of weeks ago wanting to get his affairs in order." He replied solemnly.

"I begged him to see a doctor."

Al nodded. "So did I. He told me once, that sometimes a man just knows when it's his time to go."

"That's horse shit!" Keith erupted, kicking a bottle in front of him and sending it shattering down the driveway.

Al flinched, he'd known Keith almost as long as he'd known Robert, and he'd never seen the man lose his composure, it unnerved him.

"Did he leave any kind of note for me?"

"No."

Keith stood abruptly, shaking his head as he let out a string of curses, pacing the length of the porch.

"Robert told me this morning that he wanted to write you a letter, and that he'd give it to me when he finished it, he wrote one for Madison."

Madison.

Keith buried his face in his hands as he remembered the way Robert so desperately said his daughter's name.

'Promise me you'll protect my daughter.' He'd said during a conversation they'd had last week. Keith hadn't understood at the time, the request seemed a little out of place. Which meant he knew. He knew, and yet, probably because of everything going on, because of all the stress Keith already faced, he hadn't told him.

"Damn it," Keith swore, storming into the house and leaving Al behind.

Keith ran up to Robert's office, hell-bent on tearing the place apart, he opened every drawer, he checked the closet, everywhere. Frustrated, he rummaged through his bedroom. Nothing, absolutely nothing. Ready to give up, Keith decided to check one more place.

He found Robert's laptop right where he always left it, he typed in the password and pulled up the history log. Robert had been quite busy these past few weeks. He'd searched all kinds of medical sites, researching aneurysms, symptoms, treatment, and prognosis, so he'd obviously understood the risks.

He knew that he could be saved.

Why hadn't he gone to see a damn doctor?

Keith found a couple of word documents Robert had recently been working on, the first to his daughter, he read it with tears in his eyes. He couldn't help it. Keith understood how much Robert loved his daughter, how much he wanted her to be a part of his life.

He found a second letter addressed to him, but only about a paragraph long, like perhaps he had trouble writing it. He probably had no idea how to tell his best friend that he basically wanted to commit suicide.

The letter started off with an apology after which Robert pleaded his case. It read like a cop-out. Keith had a hard time picturing Robert as a coward, which only served to fuel his rage. Why had Robert been so selfish?

Robert asked Keith to remember everything they'd talked about, and his promise, his promise to take care of Madison, 'She's the one,' he wrote. And nothing else. Either he didn't have time to finish, or he'd still been searching for the right words.

But he didn't even get a goodbye.

Robert's final words haunted him though, she's the one.

The one? What the hell did that even mean?
Chapter 1

A Trip to the Zoo

Madison slipped the nipple of the bottle into the scruffy little black cub's mouth, and he suckled hungrily. She laughed as he pawed at her hands and growled, easily her favorite part of the job.

"Hungry little devil aren't you?" She asked the young hyena cub, who squirmed and wiggled in her grasp.

The pup gulped down the rest of the supplement and began biting the rubber nipple, pulling on it and growling more fiercely, before abandoning it altogether to nip and snap at Madison's fingers. Chuckling, she stood, and stepped over the siding of the holding pen.

As much as she enjoyed playing with the cub, the runt of the litter that needed a bit more than mamma provided, she needed to finish her morning rounds.

She had a pregnant New Guinea Singing Dog due for an ultrasound, and she needed to check on the rest of the hyena clan as well. She also had a public appearance scheduled with Koda, the resident gray wolf, and his companion Kona.

Today would be a busy day indeed.

"Hey Madison?" One of her coworkers called out when she'd finished washing the bottle and placing it on the drying rack.

"Yeah?"

"There's someone here to see you."

Madison cocked a brow, not often she got visitors at work, in fact, it never happened. "Can you have them wait in my office? I need to finish up here."

"He already is," the woman replied.

"Oh, okay. Thanks, Barb."

Madison finished filling out her charts for the hyena pup and took another look around the room to make sure she had everything back in order before heading to her office.

Though not much of an office, more of a supply closet really, it was an office all the same, and even better, it belonged to her. She had enough space in there for a small desk, an extra chair for visitors, and a bookshelf. She'd been with the San Diego Zoo for three years now, and barring any major medical procedures, worked as a zookeeper specializing in Canine care.

Still saving up for a place of her own, she rented a small apartment close to work for now, but once she had a house with a yard, going down to the local shelter and adopting a dog or two would be first on her list. She wanted to be surrounded by canines all day long.

Her apartment much like her office would be described as small and cramped. But it allowed her to save quite a bit of money, and one day soon she'd be able to afford a house to call home.

Heading down the hall towards her office, Madison let herself daydream about the future, about the prospect of buying a house, finally settling down, and filling it with love, which made her smile. She didn't give much thought to who might be waiting for her in her office.

She did a lot of community outreach, a big part of that being the animal ambassador program, so it might have had something to do with that. A school wanting a zoologist to come and speak to the kids, or a field trip that includes an animal encounter. Those sorts of things were requested all the time.

The tall Italian looking fellow in the posh suit that waited for in her office, however, surprised her.

With a perplexed look on her face, Madison extended a hand to the gentleman when he turned towards her from the bookcase where he'd obviously been examining her collection of books. A collection that ranged from books on veterinary medicine and zoology to romance and science fiction. Madison spent a lot of time at work, most of that tending to animals due to give birth, so having a variety of things to read often helped in passing the time.

"Hello, I'm Madison, and you are?" She asked, warning bells going off in her head as the man's eyes roamed her body from head to toe, taking stock of her khaki shorts and tank top with an odd smile.

"Forgive me," he apologized, his voice heavily accented. He sounded like he came from New York. "My name is Alfred Demello, but you may call me Al. And you are Ms. Adams?"

"Yes, sir."

He held up a hand, smiling sleekly. "Please, call me Al."

"Alright," she agreed, motioning for him to sit in the chair in front of her desk as she made her way around it and took her own seat. "Al, what can I do for you?"

Al opened a briefcase in his lap, shuffling through the contents before pulling out a small stack of papers, and closing the briefcase, laying them on top. "It's not so much what you can do for me Ms. Adams, but what I can do for you." He said with another of those smiles that really gave her the creeps.

"Pardon?"

"I'm a lawyer, Ms. Adams."

Ah, a lawyer, well that explains it. Of course, that left her wondering if she might have been in some kind of trouble. The Zoo had been sued in the past, a common occurrence actually, but lawsuits rarely include individual employees. She supposed if it had something to do with the animal ambassador program that it might make sense, but no incidents came to mind right offhand.

"I'm here to talk to you about your father's estate."

"My father's what?" She blurted, even more confused.

"Estate. I'm an estate lawyer for Mr. Robert Melton. Are you unaware of Mr. Melton's passing?"

Mr. Melton. Her father. Her biological father. Aware of his passing? No. Hell, she'd only known he'd even existed for the last decade. She'd never met the man, for that matter, she'd never had any communication with him at all, so how did anyone, especially a man she'd never met, expect her to know that a virtual stranger had died?

"When did he die?" she heard herself asking.

"About two weeks ago. He had a stroke." Al said, filling her in on the details.

With a sad smile that softened his hard features, Al explained how he'd known Robert, her father, who he described as a very stubborn man, for many years. He called him his long-standing golf partner and said he managed all of his estate or legal matters for over a decade. But Robert, who hadn't seemed himself for the past six months or so suddenly became determined to get his affairs in order.

"Sadly, two weeks ago, he suffered an aneurysm that led to a stroke, one of his employees found him too late I'm afraid." Al finished, pulling himself together again.

Despite this man being a complete stranger, and knowing she didn't owe him anything, Madison found herself defending her lack of a relationship with her father anyways. "I've never met my father." She told him candidly. "My stepfather adopted me when I turned four, he's the only dad I've ever known. So you'll have to forgive me if I don't seem more upset about the news. It's hard to miss someone you've never met."

"I'm aware of the dynamics involved in the situation, Ms. Adams. Your father told me everything."

Madison scoffed, a little offended by his remark. "And what exactly is that supposed to mean?" She nearly demanded.

Al chuckled. "Simply that I am aware of the dynamics, Ms. Adams. Now, shall we get down to business?"

Madison shrugged.

The lawyer handed part of the paperwork over to her, a second copy still lay in his lap. Madison accepted it gingerly, afraid it might bite her.

"If you'll turn to page three, we can try to get through this as quickly as possible so that you can get on with your day."

With the papers in her lap, Madison ran her hand over the cover sheet. 'The Last Will and Testament of Robert W. Melton.' She wondered what the 'W' stood for. And as she flipped through the first couple of pages, she wondered, not for the first time, what her father looked like, and what kind of man he might have been.

Because what kind of man would sign away the rights to their own child? Madison squeezed her eyes shut, blocking out the pain and the moisture. She didn't want to deal with any of this. She'd been down that road many times, and nothing good ever came of it, always best to let it go. For whatever reason, her father hadn't wanted her, but it didn't matter, because Rick had, and she loved Rick, who continued to be a wonderful father. Her father. Biologically or not, it didn't matter.

"Your father had a sizable estate, Ms. Adams, and he's left half of all his liquid assets to you, as well as a share in the company stock."

Madison's head shot up, "Say that again?"

Al smiled and nodded. "Mr. Melton was a very wealthy man."

"I gathered that. Look, Al, not to seem greedy or anything, but you said I only get half? Did Mr. Melton, er, my father, did he have another child? Do I have a sibling?" She asked with hope.

Madison had always wanted a brother or sister. Her mother refused to have any more children, afraid they would get sick like she had. A fear her mother had never been able to get past, despite how much Rick wanted a child of his own. While her childhood had been anything but lonely, filled with love, in fact, she'd always longed for a little sister.

"No ma'am, you are Mr. Melton's only offspring. In fact, aside from a sister in Pittsburgh, you're his last remaining heir."

"I have an aunt?" She asked, more to herself than anything, and smiling slightly when he nodded.

Her mother didn't have any siblings, and Rick, her stepfather, though he had both a brother and a sister, Madison didn't consider herself close to either of them. One lived in Europe, and the other in Florida, neither of them caring much to keep in touch over the years.

"Shall we get back to the matter at hand?" Al asked, breaking into her thoughts.

"Oh, yes, sorry."

"Now, as I said, you are entitled to half of his liquid assets, as well as his share in the Bank of Lancaster." Madison nodded while he continued.

She tried to take it all in as she followed along, reading over bits and pieces of the will herself, her father owned a one-eighth share in a very profitable private credit union, his sister, her aunt, owning two-eighths of the same bank, and the other five belonging to who she assumed would probably be business partners or distant relatives.

"You also get a one-half ownership in the not-for-profit sanctuary your father ran in Lancaster, the other half belonging to..."

"Wait." Madison interrupted. "What kind of sanctuary?"

"Dogs. It's all there in the will." He said rather gruffly, clearly annoyed with all the interruptions. "Listen, Ms. Adams, while I understand that this is all very sudden, and quite confusing, I have a flight to catch, my granddaughter is expecting. So I'm going to ask, very politely, that you allow me to finish and save whatever questions you might have for afterward."

Gulping, and feeling slightly guilty for reasons she didn't comprehend, Madison nodded and smiled weakly.

"Great. Your father basically left you half of everything, along with his stock in the bank, the other half he put into a trust to see to the care and management of the facility he left behind. A Mr. Keith Walker, the on-site veterinarian, is listed as the trustee. Now, as you look over the documents before you, I ask that you please keep in mind that the sanctuary meant the world to your father, call it his life's work."

The lawyer gave her a minute to consider everything he'd told her, before continuing, as he had admitted, it might be a little confusing, and definitely, a lot to take in.

"There is, however, one stipulation in your father's will." He pointed out, looking her dead in the eyes as he did so probably trying to gauge her reaction. Madison didn't speak, but rather implored him with her gaze, her brows rising. "Your father requested, that in order to receive your share of his estate, that you reside at the ranch in Lancaster for one full year."

Her brows furrowed, "I'm sorry, what?"

"As I said, the sanctuary meant everything to your father, and he had hoped that you might consider continuing his legacy. He decided that perhaps if you lived there for some time, and had a hand in running the place, you would want to stay there permanently."

"I'd never even met the man, and he wants to control my future?" She spat, completely taken aback by the request. "And what if I say no?"

He nodded, turning towards the back of the will, "If you'll turn to page ten, you'll see the stipulations fully outlined. You have thirty days to make a decision, but if you choose not to accept the requirements of this agreement, your share of his liquid assets would be turned over to the trust he set up for the facility, and his stock in the company would go to his sister. Now, when your aunt, I mean, when Miss Melton, passes away, though to be fair, she's only fifty, if she so chooses to turn over her remaining stock in the company to you, that would be her choice."

Madison sat back in her chair and let out a huff of air. She read along in her copy of the will as he spoke, everything pretty much word for word what he'd said.

"I have thirty days to make a decision you said?"

"That's right."

"And I call the number on the second page?"

Al opened his briefcase and put the will back inside, letting it click shut. Considering the look on her face he realized that she'd heard all she needed to hear. "That is correct, Ms. Adams. If you have no further questions for me..."

She looked up at him, a little dazed, speaking automatically. "No, you can go. I'll be in touch. Thank you."

With a curt nod, he got up to leave her to her thoughts.

"Congratulations on the baby." She said to his back, her tone still monosyllabic.

He turned at the door, that sleek oily lawyer's smile on his face, "Thank you."
Chapter 2

The Sins of the Mother

Madison sat in her office for another half hour, the first fifteen minutes with a blank stare on her face as she looked at the closed door the lawyer had left through, and the next fifteen reading through the will again.

Afterward, she called her supervisor and explained about her 'visitor' before asking to go home for the rest of the day. Given the circumstances, and the fact that she hadn't taken a single day off in the three years that she'd worked there, her boss seemed more than willing to oblige, telling her to take the entire weekend if she needed it.

A whole weekend. Hell, if she decided to agree to her father's request, she'd need a lot more than a simple weekend. She wondered if they'd grant her a sabbatical, ha, that's a good one! And if the numbers in the will were anything to go by, without seeing his full financial portfolio, she likely wouldn't even need a job at the end of the year anyway.

Her father had been a wealthy man, yeah, what an understatement.

She decided to go straight to her parent's house from work. Because her mother had told her she'd be on call this weekend, as a flight attendant for a busy airport in San Diego that meant she'd probably pick up at least one job over the next three days, Madison called ahead to make sure she'd be home.

She didn't knock when she got there, but rather, slipped her key into the lock and called out to her after walking through the door. "Mom, hey, I'm here, where ya at?"

"In the kitchen dear!" Tammy, her mother, called back.

Madison dropped her purse and keys on the coffee table on her way through the living room, but kept her father's will hugged tightly to her chest in the manila envelope she'd taken from work. She found her mother right where she said she was, in the kitchen. Tammy sat at the small dinette table that occupied one corner of the large kitchen, her feet propped up in the chair opposite her and a book in her hands.

She looked up and smiled as Madison approached, putting the book down and sitting a little straighter, her feet on the floor. "Hey honey, you surprised me when you called earlier and said you wanted to come over. Is everything okay?"

Madison pointed to the half-full coffee pot on the counter, "Is that fresh?"

Tammy nodded.

She helped herself to a cup, loading it up with cream and sugar, before sitting in the chair next to her mother. She laid the will on the table.

"What's that?" Tammy asked.

"My father's will."

Madison watched with curiosity as all the color drained out of her mother's face. On the way over, she thought about many things. She considered whether she wanted to and if she should take her father's offer, and more importantly, she wondered if her mother was aware of his death. Pretty obvious now that she had no clue.

"Robert's dead?" Tammy asked weakly.

Madison nodded, pulling the envelope towards her and slowly taking out the will. She thought about her father, and her life, the life she'd lived, and she wondered about the truth.

Her mother had told her shortly after her eighteenth birthday about Rick not being her biological father that he had adopted her soon after she turned four. Naturally, she'd been in shock at first, and didn't want to believe it. It had taken her a couple of weeks to come to terms with the knowledge that the man who had raised her, the man who had loved her, and called her his own, wasn't actually her father.

Of course, a lot of things made sense after that.

Like her height, on the taller side, at almost five-nine, Madison also had dark brownish black hair, depending on the light, and dark blue eyes that sometimes hinged on a more purple hue. A lot of people over the years had asked her if she had any gypsy or Romani blood in her since she looked somewhat exotic.

Both her mother and Rick, on the other hand, appeared quite fair. Her mother had dark blonde almost brown hair, and Rick's had been, before turning gray, a shade of platinum. Rick would have been considered average in height, while people tended to call her mother short, and they both had light eyes. Rick's were hazel and her mother's baby blue.

She also apparently got her love of all things canine from him, of course, she hadn't known up until a few hours ago that her father rescued and sheltered dogs, but it made sense with her mother being allergic to dogs, and Rick not really into animals.

When she finally got around to asking her mother about her father, she suspected she hadn't given her the full story, but out of respect for Rick, she had let it go.

Yes, her mother had been willing to give her all of her father's last known contact details if she'd wanted them, but in truth, she'd gone this long without knowing him, and since he hadn't made any attempts to see her, she figured it best if she left it alone. For surely he would have reached out to her if he had really wanted to be a part of her life.

Of course, now that she had this will in front of her, she began to look back on the things her mother told her and wondered how much of the story she'd left out.

According to her mother, at the time, they hadn't been in touch for years. Tammy told Madison she'd met her father on a flight to Vegas, he, being handsome, and charming, and she, with a layover.

So, they'd gone out to dinner, and well, one thing led to another.

She said she'd reached out to him several times after finding out about the pregnancy, but without getting a response. She feared his family might have had something to do with it. She described her father as a very polished gentleman, and he'd told her during their time together about his family being quite conservative. In her mind, his family had probably convinced him that she'd lied and only wanted him for his money.

She told Madison that after her first birthday, she met Rick, and they fell in love, and he loved Madison as well, more than willing to call her his own. They'd even made it official by having Rick legally adopt her at the age of four.

When questioned about that, Tammy said Robert had been only too willing to sign away his parental rights. And she finished the story by saying she'd written to Robert after Madison turned sixteen, to inform him that she planned on telling Madison everything after her eighteenth birthday, that it would be up to Madison to decide for herself if she wanted to reach out to him.

At that point, knowing that he hadn't wanted her, that he hadn't tried to get in touch with her, and that it would probably break Rick's heart if she wanted to get to know this man, this stranger, Madison decided to bury the knowledge about her biological father.

And she had. Until now.

"How, how did it happen?" Tammy inquired, her voice a bit shaky. "When did it happen?"

"His lawyer told me he had a stroke, about two weeks ago."

They sat there in silence for a few minutes, Tammy eyeing the will, and Madison eyeing her.

Madison finally spoke up, voicing something that had been eating away at her the whole way to her parent's house. "After reading his will, this doesn't sound like a man that didn't want his daughter."

Tammy's eyes shot to her daughter's face, tears started tracking down her cheeks. Her lower lip trembled.

"You've been keeping something from me, haven't you?"

She nodded, the tears falling with more gusto.

Madison's heart sank. "Well," she whispered, "now's a great time to get it off your chest."

After grabbing a napkin and blotting at her tears, Tammy took a sip from the bottle of water in front of her, and with a deep breath pushed away from the table. She left the kitchen, going up the back staircase, only to return a few minutes later with a box in her hands. She set it down on the floor next to Madison's feet and took up her seat again at the table.

Madison didn't bother to ask about the contents of the box, she feared she already knew the answer to that. Instead, she flipped the lid, and with a quick intake of air, stared down at a box full of letters and cards.

"There's gotta be a few years worth of cards and letters in there!" She gasped, pinning her mother with an enraged glare.

Tammy swallowed hard. "He wrote you a letter every year for your birthday since you were four. And he sent you a card for every holiday."

"Why did you keep these from me?"

"I thought it was the right thing to do," Tammy whispered, doing her best to hold in the pain and choke back the sobs that tore through her.

"Why would you think that?" Madison cackled angrily.

"You'd already been through so much, and I, I didn't want you to have to go through this too. You loved Rick, he was the only father you'd ever known, and I thought, I just thought it would be too much for you," Tammy cried. "You were only four, and still going through the treatments. I feared that if he became a part of your life, that you might have a setback, that you'd get sicker. I didn't want to lose you."

While her heart broke for her mother, because she did understand, even though it seemed selfish, her heart ached for her father. For the first time since she'd known about him, Madison wished she had met him. Only, now she'd missed her chance. They'd both been robbed.

"When did he find out about me?"

Tammy looked down at her hands, ashamed of herself, and afraid her daughter would end up hating her for what she needed to say. "Not long after your diagnosis."

"The match," Madison said rather than asked.

Tammy nodded.

At four years old, Madison had been diagnosed with Acute lymphatic leukemia. They hadn't told her until later when she would better understand, how a nice man had donated his bone marrow to save her life. But they never told her that her father had been that nice man. Given her biological makeup, they'd had a hard time finding a match in the registry, and now, realizing that her father had been the one to donate, Madison's stomach began to churn.

She tried to imagine her mother going to him, telling him for the first time that he had a four-year-old daughter, and that she needed a bone marrow transplant, that he may have been her only shot at surviving.

What must he have gone through? How must he have felt?

"Is that when you asked him to sign away his rights?" Madison dared to ask.

"You have to understand, Maddie."

Madison became nauseated. Lies, it had all been lies. She stood abruptly, ready to leave her mother's house and never come back. Her entire life, everything she'd ever known, all in shambles.

Tammy reached out to her, grabbing her wrist. "Please Maddie. Please let me explain."

She looked at her mother with such disdain. "You lied to me. All those years ago, you lied to me. And what's worse, you were never going to tell me the truth, isn't that right? You would never have shown me that box, you would've kept letting me think he hadn't wanted me, that he didn't love me."

"No Maddie, no! That's not true!"

"No? Then please, tell me, what is the truth!?"

Tammy cried in earnest now, still holding her daughter's wrist. "I wanted to tell you, honest I did. But I, I didn't want you to hate me."

Madison sat back down, "I would never hate you mom, but I'm honestly sickened by the idea of what this man must have gone through, what he must have felt. Tell me, did he sign me over willingly?"

"Yes." She admitted. "But only because I begged him." Madison flinched. "I'm sorry Maddie, I'm not proud of what I did, but I swear to God, I'd do it again. You have to understand how scared I was of losing you. And I don't mean to your father, he would have never taken you from me. But of the knowledge that you didn't belong to Rick, and how it might have hurt your chances of remission. It scared me to death, what if you hadn't made it? I did whatever I had to do to save you."

"So you're telling me he agreed to do it because you thought it was what was best for me?"

"Yes."

"And why didn't you tell him about me sooner? Why did you wait until then?"

"When I first found out about you, I was scared out of my mind. I wasn't the kind of girl that slept around. I'd been in a few serious relationships, your father being my first and only one-night stand. And I wasn't lying when I told you he came from a strict conservative family. I figured they would call me a liar, or a tramp only after his money. And I thought that if we did a DNA test to prove it, they might try to take you from me. I made enough money to take care of you by myself, and your grandparents loved watching you when I had to be out of town. I didn't need a man, until I met Rick, and he wanted so badly to be your father."

She understood. Madison understood her plight completely. And frankly, she didn't blame her one bit in that regard. She didn't lay blame at her feet until after her father had been aware and made it clear that he wanted to be a part of her life.

That part didn't seem fair to any of them, screw her illness, she deserved the right to get to know her father. She needed as much love as possible to get through it, and she didn't understand how her mother hadn't realized that. What was so wrong with letting another person love her too?

Another family for that matter. She suspected her father's parents had been alive at that point, wouldn't they have liked the chance to meet their only grandchild? No way to be sure, and now, she'd never know.

"What did he leave you?" Her mother finally asked after a few awkward minutes.

"Everything," Madison answered. "He left me everything. More money than I'll ever be able to spend in three lifetimes."

Tammy gasped, her hand going to her face. "His parents?"

"Gone. The lawyer told me he has a sister in Pittsburgh, but that's it."

"Oh, Maddie."

"Tell me, all of my medical bills, who paid those?"

"Your father."

"And my college tuition? Did you really take out a loan?"

"No. Your father paid it."

Madison shook her head. "All these years, you've let him foot the bill for everything, and yet, you wouldn't even give him the chance to get to know me! Did you tell him I didn't want him in my life? Is that what happened? When did he stop writing letters?"

"When you turned eighteen. I told him I'd leave that decision up to you, and I did. You decided you didn't want anything to do with him."

"Because you let me think he didn't want me!" She roared, standing and snatching the will off the table, tossing it into the box. She'd heard enough.

"Madison, please don't do this! I love you."

She turned to face her mother, box in hand, tears streaming down her face. "His lawyer told me everything is mine, all I have to do is go to Lancaster and live on his ranch for a year, and I get it all. He gave me thirty days to make a decision, but hell," she rasped, laughing mirthlessly, "I don't need thirty days. I just need to get as far away from you as possible."

With her mother sobbing, grabbing at her frantically and calling out her name between sobs, Madison hefted the box onto her hip and started to walk away, stopping at the coffee table to grab her purse and keys. She turned to find her mother hanging back inside the threshold of the kitchen.

"I'll call you once I'm settled."

And with a sad and disgusted look, she left.
Chapter 3

The Land of the Amish

She smelled it. The hot putrid stench of death.

Her ears pricked forward, her nose twitched. Getting closer. She licked her chops, catching another whiff as the east wind blew in her direction. She threw her head back and howled, a long low mournful sound.

She broke out in a run, her paws slapping the ground, claws sinking into the damp earth as she tore through the forest. The scent of decaying vegetation hung thick in the air but failed to mask the sickeningly sweet and cloying smell of blood.

Almost there.

Madison woke with a start. The captain of the plane turned on the seatbelt sign, informing everyone that they would be landing soon. Putting her seat in its upright position, and clasping the buckle around her waist, Madison took a deep breath, trying to relax, her heart still beating a rapid tattoo.

Shortly after the conversation with her mother, Madison left word on the lawyer's voicemail to call her back, he'd said he had a flight to catch, so he hadn't answered. He'd called her later that evening, and they began making preparations for her to travel to Pennsylvania.

He would book her a room at a B&B close to his office, she'd take the red-eye flight on Sunday, and after a meeting first thing Monday, he said he'd take her out to the ranch. Her father's estate would take care of everything.

Madison talked to her boss the next day, she really wanted to give them a two-weeks notice, but hadn't been able to, knowing that if she didn't go right away, there was a small chance she would end up changing her mind.

Though her boss seemed upset to see her go, he understood her decision and informed her that should she want to come back, she would always have a job waiting for her. That surprised Madison, but it made her happy too. She'd always prided herself on her strong work ethic.

Madison spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning out her office and talked to her landlord shortly before dinner time.

She met her stepfather for dinner that night. He'd heard about the argument between Madison and her mother, however, choosing graciously not to get involved, he didn't bring it up but rather enjoyed his time with his daughter instead. Her mother called her more times than she wanted to count, and once her voice mailbox filled up, she finally decided to shut off her phone.

Satisfied that she'd crossed all her t's and dotted all of her i's, Madison spent Sunday packing. During her conversation with her father's lawyer, she'd been informed that all of her bills would be taken care of by the estate, her rent would continue to get paid, as well as her utilities, and if she wanted to, the estate would pay for someone to go in on a monthly basis to clean her apartment as well.

Since she relied on public transportation to save herself a little extra money, she didn't have any car payments or insurance to worry about, but Al told her that while in Lancaster, she would be provided with both.

Like someone had given her a one year paid vacation, she had to pinch herself a couple of times to make sure she wasn't dreaming. It all sounded too good to be true. So sure there had to be a catch, Madison had yet to find one.

After packing what amounted to seventy-five percent of her wardrobe into four suitcases, and a fifth full of shoes and cosmetics, Madison made her way to the airport and checked in for her flight.

By the time she got through airport security, she still had a few hours before her flight started boarding, so she took out her tablet and looked up the area of Lancaster. She didn't have a physical address to go by, instead, she scouted the general area.

The city of Lancaster itself appeared to be a decent size, with close to sixty-thousand residents and another five-hundred thousand in the surrounding metropolitan area. Lancaster had a large Amish development to the east, as well as several other farming communities, with Pittsburgh almost four hours to the northwest. But at least Baltimore, Atlantic City, and New York were all within a two-hour drive.

Madison had always wanted to travel, other than one work-related trip overseas, she'd been to a few different states, but nothing east of Texas. She wondered if during her time there, she'd be able to sneak off and check out the neighboring cities, she'd love to visit New York or see the Atlantic ocean via the Jersey Shore.

She had no idea what kind of money she would have at her disposal while there, or what, if any other stipulations she had to deal with, but she hoped she would have enough time and money to do some exploring.

When she landed at the Harrisburg International Airport, she saw a young woman holding a sign that read "Ms. Adams" waiting for her after she got off the plane. She introduced herself as Molly, Al's personal assistant, and took Madison to get a luggage cart before helping her with her bags.

They loaded everything into a black SUV, and headed for Lancaster, normally about a half hour drive from the airport, at 4:00 am traffic seemed completely non-existent. They ran through a McDonald's drive-thru, and Molly got them both some coffee, before going to the bed-and-breakfast where Madison would be staying for at least one night.

"Al said he'd pick you up around nine," Molly told her in parting.

Madison nodded and looked around the room. The Lancaster Bed and Breakfast, a Dutch-Colonial style building on East King Street, boasted eight unique rooms. They put her in the Hawthorn Suite, the largest of the eight.

The suite looked heavenly with a queen size bed and a cozy little sitting area. Though the en suite may have been of a different period, the room had all the modern conveniences, including wifi, a flat-screen TV, and an electric fireplace.

A great little space.

After going downstairs and eating a deliciously hearty breakfast, Madison seemed almost sorry she'd only be staying the one night. Getting down to the ranch, snooping around and finding out more about her father had become her top priority though.

With breakfast out of the way, Madison headed back upstairs and took a shower, she only had another hour or so before Al got there, and despite being tired as hell, she wanted to freshen up.

Al knocked on her door at precisely 9:00 am, and since he worked in a building down the block from the B&B, he hadn't driven. Nearing summer, the temperature remained mild, something Madison would be grateful for as they made the short walk to his office.

They spent about two hours in the office while Al gave her a list of all the particulars before breaking for lunch, taking her to a place called Speed's Sandwich Shop, which had absolutely amazing food, then to the DMV to get a Pennsylvania driver's license.

A quick dinner later at the Lancaster Brewing Company after the busy DMV trip and Al took her back to the B&B, where he told her he'd pick her up first thing in the morning to head over to her father's ranch. She may have been a little disappointed about having to wait another day, but Madison still enjoyed getting to see and taste some of Lancaster.

Even though it remained fairly early, between the full day on Sunday, the red-eye flight where she got in hardly more than a nap, and everything she'd gone through today, Madison was whipped. She tried turning on the TV and closing her eyes, hoping to fall asleep to the sounds of a Big Bang Theory rerun, but her brain seemed to be in overdrive, simply overrun with thoughts.

Her meeting with Al covered a lot of information, and she still hadn't processed it all.

Her father's estate would not only cover her bills back in San Diego, but she'd also be granted a sort of stipend while living at the ranch for the next year. She would get x amount of money for food and entertainment, plus x amount of money for basic needs. And of course, all the bills and utilities the ranch encountered would continue to be covered.

It really was like a year-long paid vacation.

Al told her that her father had several vehicles in addition to the ones used by the staff and that she'd be welcome to use them at her discretion. After she'd acquired a license, Al said he'd be heading back to the office once he saw her to the B&B and would be adding her to the facilities auto insurance policy.

As for what her father's will stated about travel, she only needed to live at the ranch for nine months over the next year. Which left her free to travel as much as she wanted to for the other three months.

So simple. Live there and spend her father's money for a whole year. She didn't have to get involved with the sanctuary, she didn't have to work, she didn't have to do anything.

So why did she feel like there had to be a catch?

According to Al, there wasn't one. Her father simply hoped that if she lived there for a year, she wouldn't want to leave. Well, she'd be the judge of that. Madison loved her job at the zoo, it never seemed like work, and even though her father's estate would give her complete financial freedom, she'd probably go crazy without a job.

In the end, perhaps she wouldn't go back to work for the zoo, at least not in her former capacity, but nothing stopped her from financing her own field work for them... Say, an African safari? She would love to study wild dogs and hyenas in a better effort to understand them for the sake of those in captivity.

Her options would be limitless.

Madison considered all of that and more. A million thoughts or so it seemed, continuously streaming through her mind, even in sleep, as she dreamt about a lone wolf hunting in the night.
Chapter 4

A Whole New World

Madison woke up bright and early the next day, making sure she had all of her belongings ready to go when Al arrived. Double checking her appearance in the mirror, the idea of meeting people her father had known for years making her a bit vain, she became startled when she heard the knock on the door.

Al said he would be earlier than the day before since he wanted to get her there before the sanctuary woke up for the day, but she'd hoped she'd at least be able to get some breakfast before he arrived.

However, she opened the door to find, not Al, but Molly, dressed rather casually, with a McDonald's bag and a coffee in hand.

"Al couldn't make it, he asked me if I minded," she shrugged, handing the bag and coffee to Madison. "I didn't. Figured you might want something to eat before we left, the kitchen here isn't open this early."

Madison thanked her and sat down to eat as Molly began taking her bags out to the SUV. Thankful for both the food and the fact that she didn't have to lug the suitcases out herself.

Molly seemed like a sweet kid, but she couldn't have been much more than twenty if she had to guess. That youthful aura practically glowing. Probably only an inch or two shorter than Madison's five-nine, Molly had strawberry blonde hair, green eyes, and lots and lots of freckles. But she looked pretty. And so far, she'd been nothing but friendly.

Despite being pleasant himself, Madison hadn't been comfortable enough around Al to ask him some of the more personal questions that she had wanted to, but she liked Molly, and she felt at ease with her.

"Hey Molly," she said once on the road. "What can you tell me about the ranch?"

"Oh, everything!" Molly gushed. "I worked there doing community service for a few summers before I graduated, it looked great on my college application. I want to be a veterinarian."

"So you're in school?"

"Yeah, but I work as Al's personal assistant during the week when I don't have classes, he pays pretty well, and I still help out at the ranch sometimes on the weekends. It's mostly volunteers there, except for Keith, and probably like two others. That's where I met Al. Your father actually introduced me to him, he told him I'd make a great assistant."

A hint of jealousy started to take root in Madison as she listened to Molly babble on about having been part of the ranch, and her father's life, for quite some time. She really wished she'd been able to meet him now. So far, nobody seemed to have anything negative to say about him.

"Wow, so you knew my father?"

"Yeah, a really great guy. Like a second dad to me." Molly frowned when she saw Madison flinch out of the corner of her vision. "Sorry."

"No, it's okay." She said with a forced smile. "It's good to hear that he was such a great person."

"Oh, absolutely. An amazing man! What he did for those animals, I mean, he's my hero. I'm so sorry you didn't get the chance to meet him."

With a nod, Madison looked out the window, hoping to hide the tears that once again threatened to fall. She wished she had been given that chance too. Madison didn't normally hold grudges, but she thought it might be awhile before she'd be able to forgive her mother for what she had done, what she had robbed her and her father of.

"So the ranch is up ahead, not too far past Beechdale Farm," Molly noted a few minutes after the conversation lagged.

Madison didn't see much of the farm in question as they passed it from the left, with the entrance located a mile or so down a side street that they'd already driven by, but what she did see looked breathtakingly beautiful. Large, open, green fields, several outbuildings, at least one of them resembling a big barn, and what appeared to be a huge gray brick house.

The landscape in the areas that surrounded Lancaster seemed absolutely stunning. Lots of open farmland, and big beautiful historic homes.

"Is this still considered Lancaster?" Madison asked curiously as they continued down the road, passing another prominent farm.

"No, they call it Bird in Hand."

Madison laughed to herself. Interesting name, she thought.

As they pulled onto a side street and into a paved driveway, Madison noticed a small well kept house first with lots of open space followed by a barn and a large wooded area that the driveway wound between.

"How big is this place?" She dared to ask, knowing there had to be a lot more beyond the woods.

Molly laughed, "it's about a hundred acres, give or take a few."

"Wow," she replied, truly astonished as she continued to look around.

The house appeared to be a little bigger than she first realized, but not by much, and the pastures surrounding it dotted with horses of different colors.

"That house there is where the staff lives. There are currently four volunteers, they actually get paid in room and board, and a few of them have part-time jobs too. The other one, Mr. Gaffney, is retired. And your two paid employees live there as well, one is the groundskeeper, that's Chuck, and his wife Nicole is a trainer."

"And what do the volunteers do?"

Molly smiled, she really seemed to enjoy talking about the inner workings of the ranch. "One is a husband and wife team, an older couple, they own a feed store in town. The husband, Jack, he used to be a big-time horse trainer, so he and his wife look after the livestock, there are a couple of cows here too, and a small herd of goats. Jack and GeeGee also supply all the feed at a discount for being allowed to keep their own horses here and live on site. And the other guy, Tanner, he's quite a bit younger, around twenty, he helps Chuck, your maintenance man, keep everything running smoothly, he also works part-time at an auto shop in town, that's where your dad found him."

"I'm sorry, found him?"

"Yeah, your dad sort of had a habit of picking up strays. Tanner worked under the table at one of the more popular auto body shops in town, and they let him sleep in a cot in their back office. I guess he'd run away from an abusive home. Anyways, he's really good with cars, and fixing things in general, so your dad gave him a place to stay in exchange for him working at the ranch. He also paid for his tuition at the local college, he's going to school to get certified, and the body shop is taking him on part-time until he finishes."

That really touched Madison, her heart ached even more. Why would her mother have kept her away from such a wonderful man? A truly amazing and selfless man. She wondered if he'd always been that way, or if there had been some sort of turning point where he decided he wanted to give back to his community and others. Either way, it broke her heart to hear about how wonderful he'd been, knowing she'd never get to meet him herself.

"So, that's the main barn there," Molly continued, pointing to the large blue and yellow structure. "In addition to Jack's five horses, there are seven more. A few of them we rescued, but most of them your dad bought. He enjoyed trail riding and also used them for perimeter riding. He didn't like using ATVs when he checked the fences since it scared the animals."

"And where's everything else?"

"Up ahead beyond the tree line. We're almost there."

Molly hadn't been kidding when she said the place was fairly big, nor about it all being behind the tree line. As they drove through a patch of trees, she started to get her first look at the actual depth of the property. The tree line looked narrow in depth itself, but spanned the width of the property, the driveway cutting right down the center of it.

Molly seemed obligated to comment on it.

"Your father actually had visitors out pretty often, he did several school tours throughout the year and quite a few adoptions as well, but he didn't want uninvited guests to wander onto the property, so in addition to the gate out front, when he cleared the property he made sure he left this wall of trees in the front. He also owns the wooded lots on all sides of the farm which he used for trail riding. The cleared lot is only about sixty acres though."

Oh, only. Madison laughed to herself. As if sixty acres was anything to sneeze at!

Once they got into the clearing, Madison got a three-sixty view of the entire place, everything looked simply breathtaking!

In the right corner, she saw a large fenced area that looked a lot like a dog park. It had an agility course, a couple of in-ground pools, a big gazebo, fire hydrants, and plenty of trees scattered about randomly. Simply put, doggy paradise!

Two big barn-like structures sat on either side of the driveway, both with large fenced dog runs extending off the back, and a couple of other outbuildings towards the left side of the yard. Passing between the barns, a small cottage stood to the left, and another medium-sized barn to the right with a taller electric fence that extended into the wooded part of the property.

Beyond the cottage, she noticed a huge house, made from the same gray stone she'd seen at Beechdale farm. Not what she would have considered a grand house, but two stories, and probably a few thousand square feet at least.

"The barns we passed house the dogs, and the bigger one, on the left, it also has a state-of-the-art medical facility inside of it. And that barn, back there, that's for the wolves."

Madison's head snapped around to check out the barn she indicated. "He has wolves?"

Molly nodded. "There are twenty-five dogs on site, around five or so are permanent residents while the others are being evaluated or prepared for adoption, and a pack of ten wolves. Three of them are wolf-dogs, all rescued from an owner who bred wolf-dogs and found herself unable to take care of them any longer. They're all permanent residents."

Madison's head started to whirl, so much to take in. Horses, cows, goats, dogs, lots and lots of dogs, and now wolves. Yes, a sanctuary indeed!

"So this is the main house," Molly babbled on as they drove around the house towards a side loading garage. "You're going to love it here. It's a little under four-thousand square feet, four bedrooms, four full bathrooms and two half baths, basically anything and everything you'd ever need entertainment wise, and there's a nice pool out back. Your father loved to barbecue and threw lots of dinner parties for the staff!"

Gosh, the more she heard, the more she really started to wonder if she would end up wanting to live here forever.

"And who lives there?" Madison asked as the small cottage slipped out of view.

Molly parked the SUV in front of the garage and turned to face her, a dopey look on her face. "Oh, that's where Keith lives. He's the on-site veterinarian and a total babe."

Madison laughed as Molly giggled and rolled her eyes.

"Oh, my gosh, wait until you meet him, you'll see what I mean!"

"Has he worked here long?"

Molly seemed to take a minute before responding. "Yeah. I mean, he looks like he's pretty young, so I guess he probably hasn't worked here all that long, unless, like, he worked for your father while still in school, Baltimore isn't that far away after all, but like, he's been here longer than I have, and I've been around for five years now, so yeah, I guess he's been here a while."

Despite the mouthful of information Molly had laid on her, she didn't give Madison much time to ponder it, hitting the button for the garage door, and getting out of the SUV.

"Come on, let's get your stuff inside so I can take you around and introduce you to everyone!"

The garage, largely over-sized, easily accommodated the four vehicles inside. She saw a black Jeep, a sporty white BMW, a dark gray GMC pickup truck, and a black mid-sized Audi sedan. They all appeared to be less than a year old, and all of them supposedly at her disposal!

Once inside what appeared to be a mudroom, Molly asked her if she needed to use the bathroom before dropping off her bags and pulling her back outside through the garage, stating that since she didn't need to go, she'd be able to take a tour of the house on her own later. Keith and everyone would already be in the barns doing their rounds, and she wanted to get the introductions out of the way as she had to get back to the city for her afternoon class.

She took her to the smaller barn on the right side of the driveway first, though, to be fair, it didn't look that much smaller except for an add-on that the other one had, which she assumed had to be the medical facility.

Molly told her that the dog runs attached to each twelve by twenty stall stayed open all day which helped keep the mess down inside the barn, assisting in potty training as well. And each dog run had been individually fenced, the fencing extending three feet into the ground and boarded in the middle to keep the dogs from interacting with each other. The smaller barn housed fifteen dogs while the bigger barn with the medical facilities currently housed ten.

Molly continued to tell her about the different features of the barns as they walked past the stalls, which looked mostly like any other horse stall from the front except for the wire fencing that started at about shoulder height and ran damn near the length of the ceiling. She supposed that helped to make sure none of the dogs escaped by jumping over the stall door while still allowing the caretakers to be able to see into the stalls.

Each stall came equipped with an automatic waterer, both inside the stall and out in the dog run. The floors appeared slanted and made of a soft rubber mat for easy cleanup, with a drain in the middle and large raised platforms for an orthopedic bed in each stall along with several types of toys to keep the occupants entertained.

"So the stalls are cleaned twice a day, as well as the outside areas, and every dog gets to spend at least two hours a day at the dog park. An hour of that is used for training. Mr. Gaffney, his first name is Tom, and Nicole, Chuck's wife, are the ones that mainly help Keith with the training, your father was pretty heavily involved with that too. Tom used to be a vet tech, as well as a k9 trainer for the local police force, so he's a pretty good asset to have around."

"Sounds like everyone pulls their weight around here. My father sure managed to surround himself with good people." Madison mused, more to herself than anything.

But Molly readily agreed. "Oh, definitely. Everyone is fully committed around here, your father had such passion for this place, and it really rubbed off on everyone. We all love what we do here." Molly started to blush as she continued, "Since I'm going to vet school right now in Baltimore, Keith sometimes lets me help out with the medical stuff, I really hoped I might work with him full time, like, get paid for it, once I finished school."

"What did my dad say?" Madison prodded curiously.

Molly blushed harder. "I never got around to talking to him about it."

"Why not?"

"I guess I wanted to prove myself first." Molly shrugged.

As they neared the other side of the barn, Madison heard someone whistling a loud, cheerful tune, one that made her smile. It reminded her a lot of Rick, and how he used to whistle as he did the yard work.

"Is that you, Tom?" Molly called out.

A robust gentleman who looked to be in his mid-fifties backed slowly out of a stall, closing the door and locking it behind him. Madison noticed that all the stalls had locks on them, and she figured it probably had to do with safety, after all, they worked with dogs that some deemed as dangerous, and surely precautions had to be taken to make sure no one accidentally let any of them out.

"Well, hey there Molly, I didn't expect to see you until this weekend," he said pleasantly with a smile. He looked tall, probably close to six feet or better, with salt and pepper hair, dark brown eyes, and a warm smile. He also appeared to be in pretty good shape for his age. Molly had said he was retired, so though he looked to be fifty-something, she guessed he was probably closer to seventy.

The two bantered playfully for a minute, Molly laughing and smacking him on the shoulder as she rolled her eyes. They acted more like family than co-workers, a quality that Madison found utterly endearing. She liked everything about this place so far, and she'd barely begun to scratch the surface.

"So this is her?" Tom remarked, looking Madison over with a serious expression.

"That it is. Al asked me to bring her by. Tom, this is Madison, Robert's daughter. Madison, this is Tom Gaffney."

Madison and Tom shook hands, his expression softening. "You look a lot like him, you know."

She smiled. "No, I didn't. But thank you, I'm sure my father would have been proud that I look like him."

"Your father was always proud of you." Tom continued, his statement confusing her.

Molly wrapped an arm around her, attempting to move her back towards the door. She looked at Tom, "Tom," She said with a stern warning on her face, "not now." Molly told him before leading Madison away.

Madison looked back at Tom over her shoulder, he looked sad as he stood there scratching the back of his neck for a minute before moving on to the next stall and unlocking the door.

"What did he mean by that?" Madison asked.

Molly seemingly ignored her, pointing to the smallest barn in the distance and chattering on about how the wolves pretty much had the entire barn to themselves and that their "habitat" extended a fair distance into the woods, as they made their way across the driveway and over to the next barn.

Molly took her through a side door into the empty medical facility, telling her that Keith would probably be at the wolf barn still because he saw to them first thing in the morning before going to the clinic.

The "clinic" consisted of a small closed off corner office space that housed a desk with a newer computer, a row of filing cabinets, and a few bookcases jam-packed with all sorts of medical books and those relating to various dog breeds, training, canine diseases and the like.

She found no pictures or personal items of any kind in the Vet's office. It seemed kind of odd to Madison, however, being a private facility, it shouldn't have seemed that strange.

The rest of the facility looked a lot like the ones she saw on a regular basis at the zoo. The walls lined with cabinets for supplies, a couple of commercial-grade refrigerators, and a deep freezer for what she assumed held vaccinations and blood supplies, things that would need to be kept cool.

The room only had a few kennels in it, but three different exam tables, as well as a wash station. Anything they might need for almost every type of situation.

"They uh, they pretty much do it all here huh?" Madison asked, looking around the room.

Molly nodded, "Whenever a new dog arrives, they get a complete physical, blood tests, fecal smear, x-rays, the works. There's a small x-ray booth set up behind that door there," she continued, pointing to a door that Madison had assumed led to the barn. "And they get all of their vaccinations and are spayed or neutered if needed."

"And this Keith guy can do all of that here by himself?"

"Your dad used to help some, when Tom wasn't around that is, otherwise, it's mostly Keith and Tom doing the vet work, or me when Keith lets me. But if there is ever some kind of emergency, which has only happened like once since I've been here, there are plenty of on-call vets in the area who would be able to lift a hand."

Satisfied by Molly's answer, Madison took a peek into the x-ray booth and followed Molly through another door that led into the barn. This one looked much like the first, but perhaps a little shorter.

She met Nicole, while she cleaned out one stall, and her husband Chuck, as he fixed a clogged drain in another of the stalls. Molly told her that Tanner had classes and that she'd be able to meet Jack and GeeGee in the evening after they closed up shop for the day.

Everything seemed so overwhelming, so much she needed to take in, and so little time with which to do it as Molly continued to drag her from one building to the next.

She got to see each of the three outbuildings after seeing the Alpha Barn. Something else she needed to get used to she supposed. Each building had its own name. They called the main barn that housed the horses and other livestock the Pegasus Barn, the two dog barns the Alpha and Servile Barn, and the wolf habitat, like the horse barn, went by a more whimsical name.

The Lycan Barn.

Madison liked the term, having studied canines judiciously, she laughed to herself, wondering if her father might have been a fan of old monster movies, or enjoyed fairy tales.

The outbuildings got labeled by their uses. One bore the title of The Store and held almost every type of dog-related item imagined. Beds, collars, leashes, harnesses, various training tools to include muzzles, clickers, catch poles and the like. Food bowls, toys, and other items got stored there too.

The next building strictly held equipment to fix or maintain the property so they labeled it as such. And the third outbuilding held lots and lots of dog food and treats. Aptly called, The Feed Room.

Molly didn't take her to the Pegasus Barn, telling her that Keith would do that later.

"And, last but not least," Molly said almost excitedly. "I'll take you to the Lycan Barn where I'm supposed to hand you off to Keith."

Madison looked down at her watch, they'd been touring the grounds for the last hour already. "He uh, he spends quite a bit of time there, no?"

"Oh um, yeah, I guess so." Molly shrugged. "Keith is the only one who has keys to the Lycan Barn, aside from your father that is, I mean, um, well... Anyways, he spends a couple of hours there in the morning making sure everything is clean and everyone's healthy, before he feeds them, and makes the rest of his rounds. His spends another half hour or so with them for the evening feeding as well."

"You mean nobody else has access? Are they that dangerous?"

Molly stopped walking, turning to face her. "It's not that they're dangerous so much as it is that your father wanted to be very careful. You have to have a permit to own wolves in this state, and given the type of business that your father ran, the whole rescuing and rehabilitating dogs thing, this place actually gets inspected several times a year, so your father wanted to be extra sure that there aren't ever any problems. From time to time, Tom will come in here with Keith since he has experience with similar types of animals, but only Keith has a key now that your father is gone."

Madison figured that seemed understandable enough, in fact, she respected it. Her father had not only made sure that everything here at the sanctuary remained clean and organized, but that it also ran smoothly, with an emphasis on safety for everyone involved, from the staff to the animals, and especially any outsiders. He ran a pretty tight ship.

Many of the things he had done here she'd been trained to do at the zoo. More and more she realized she might like it here long after the year ended.

From the outside, the Lycan Barn didn't look much different from the other two barns, except for a keypad in addition to the traditional bolt lock like the others, and hot-wired fencing that wrapped around the enclosure in three separate strands, one near the bottom at ground level, one in the middle, and one at the top preceded by barbed wire that slanted to a degree much like what one would see at a prison.

Molly knocked on the door and fidgeted nervously as she waited for Keith. Madison found her discomfort to be quite amusing, wondering exactly how good looking this doctor had to be if merely the idea of him made Molly, who seemed to be quite composed otherwise, swoon like a love-struck teenager.

After waiting for about five minutes, Madison finally found out why Keith had Molly in such a tizzy.
Chapter 5

Dr Feel Good

Dr. Keith Walker, DVM, didn't disappoint, a babe indeed.

Based on first appearances alone, Madison would probably have guessed he might have been in his early to mid-thirties, but she supposed, if blessed with good genetics perhaps closer to forty, especially if he'd been employed by her father for as long as Molly suspected.

Whatever his age, he looked damn good, she had to give Molly credit, a man that looked as good as Keith did would probably make almost any woman nervous. Madison guessed his height was somewhere in the neighborhood of six feet, possibly even an inch or two north of there, and all lean muscle.

His shirt clung tightly to his broad shoulders and wiry frame, making her mouth want to water. She'd almost bet that under that button-up shirt of his, he owned a six pack of abs and one of those v-lines that led down to his... oh God, she needed to get ahold of herself, and fast! Directing her gaze back up to his face as he walked out to greet them, locking the door behind himself, Madison noticed how intensely his eyes seemed to bore into hers.

He didn't even notice Molly standing there next to her, but stared directly into her eyes. That penetrating gaze of his, wow! As the sun backlit his appearance, his light-colored eyes seemed to glow. Madison had never seen eyes that color before, so cold, like ice, and yet, there was heat in his gaze that shot straight through her while he took a second to look her over.

Keith had dark blonde hair long enough that it curled ever so slightly across his forehead, his brows darker and shapely, expressive even, and his eyelashes long, like those of a woman, framing his eyes and serving to make them even more dramatic than they would have been on their own.

His face, a dramatic combination of angles and contours, his chin strong, his jawline square. And he sported the perfect amount of facial hair to make him look more rugged than pretty. Madison found herself wondering if he had dimples when he smiled, or if he got little crinkles around his eyes, it took all of her willpower not to drool.

No, Molly hadn't been kidding when she'd called the good doctor a total babe.

Not wanting to be ignored, Molly stepped in front of her, a big sloppy smile on her face. "Good morning, Keith." She beamed.

Though his eyes wavered a few times, Keith finally met Molly's gaze, the hard expression on his face softening ever so slightly. Madison had no clue why, but the way he looked at Molly made her jealous. She didn't want to question it, especially considering Molly's age, as if it made a difference, but she found herself wondering how close Molly and Keith might have been.

They talked for a couple of minutes, Madison blocking out every other word as her thoughts ran rampant, but she somehow managed to catch snippets of the conversation. Molly told Keith that Al had been too busy to bring Madison by and that she'd been asked to show her around some and leave her with Keith. Things Madison had already heard of course.

And Keith asked Molly how classes were going, to which Molly replied with fine, pulling out her cell phone and checking the time.

"Shoot," she exclaimed, looking quickly back up at Keith with a soft, sad, smile. "I really need to get going."

"Don't worry, I'll take care of her," Keith replied, his eyes lighting once more on Madison and making her flush.

Something about the way he looked at her made Madison nervous. As if he looked right through her.

Molly backed away slowly, one shy smile after another, tucking her hair behind her ears as she repeatedly said goodbye. With a wave, Madison thanked Molly for showing her around, noticing that Keith's glare never left her face. Probably sizing her up or something.

"You're taller than I thought you'd be," Keith said soon after Molly left, his eyes slowly roaming her body.

"Excuse me?"

Keith didn't answer, giving her a brooding stare, he turned away, pulling out his keys and unlocking the door to the barn. "Are you coming?" He asked over his shoulder when Madison didn't immediately follow.

She cocked her head and huffed a little, everyone here seemed so... strange. Didn't anyone give straight answers anymore? Why all of this evasion?

Madison followed him into the barn, standing close to one of the walls and looking around as he flipped the deadbolt behind her. The Lycan Barn looked different from the others in many ways. They entered into a hall, to her left she found a closed off space that looked like it took up quite a bit of real estate, Keith bypassed the door and continued down the hall.

The barn opened into two distinct spaces with a four-foot wall that ran the length of it in the middle. Wire fencing extended from the top of the wall to the ceiling, and the gate in the center had two separate locks.

Yeah, major emphasis on safety.

The other side of the barn contained a wash station, supplies, and a few travel crates. Madison supposed the connecting room housed feed and any miscellaneous supplies. The sounds and smells, however, seemed similar to the other barns, excited whining, and the strong scent of air freshener.

Keith waited until she walked over to the wall before saying anything, "They're amazing creatures, aren't they?" He asked.

Madison refrained from lacing her fingers into the fencing to touch the large wolf that immediately jumped up to greet her.

She prided herself on being cautious and not immediately trusting an animal she'd just met, no matter how friendly they seemed, but the urge to stroke its thick fur was overwhelming. She turned to look over her shoulder and found Keith within inches of her to her right, their faces a mere breath away.

"He's beautiful," She whispered, looking back at the wolf.

The room beyond the wall maintained some similarities to the other barns with its slanted rubber floors and a single large drain in the middle, it had two watering troughs as well, one on each side, however, she saw no toys, or dog beds, the wolves enclosure completely bare but for those watering troughs. It also had a large rubber flap in the middle of the outer wall for the wolves to come and go as they pleased.

The interior of the enclosure had four animals wandering around in it, the large black wolf still propped against the fence and whining incessantly, and three more. Two of them the typical agouti color of the gray wolf and one mostly white with hints of discoloration.

Keith laid a hand on her shoulder, startling her as she continued to stare into the eyes of the massive animal before her. The other three wolves hung back nervously.

"It's okay, you can touch him."

Madison took a deep breath, slowly reaching into the enclosure and touching a small white half moon shape on the animal's chest. The wolf stopped whining as she touched him, looking at her intently and panting ever so slightly.

The moment she laid hands on him, a sense of calm she would never be able to explain came over her. The other wolves laid down behind him, they watched her with a tranquil intensity that should have freaked her out, but only made her more comfortable.

She let her fingers twirl in a small circle around the crescent shape for another minute or so before finally taking a step back and nearly bumping into Keith who remained close behind her. He moved to her side quickly, smiling when she blushed.

The wolf jumped back from the fence, sitting on his haunches and watching the exchange between them, the other three remained in their prone positions, the white one whining a little as it quivered.

"What's his name?" Madison asked, breaking the strange silence that had fallen around them.

Keith chuckled, "The woman who owned them really liked Star Wars. His name is Darth."

"As in Darth Vader?"

"Yes."

That made Madison giggle. "And the rest of them?"

"I'm sure Molly already told you, but if not, there are ten altogether in this pack."

"Yes, she said as much, and that they came from a breeder? Is that right?"

Keith nodded, leading her in the direction of the door they'd passed earlier. It turned out to be a walk-in cooler. Multiple shelves lined the walls stacked from top to bottom with white butcher paper. A wheelbarrow sat in the middle of the room half full of small packages. Keith loaded a few more stacks into the wheelbarrow and pushed it back out, Madison on his heels.

"A little less than a year ago, Robert met a lady in North Carolina that had been responsibly, if you want to call it that, raising wolf-dogs with her husband. She had a pack of twelve. Two males, and five females, all one-hundred percent gray wolf. She also had five dogs, three females and two males, mostly husky or shepherd mixes."

"So what happened?"

"After her husband died, she had a hard time keeping up with it all. She hadn't starved them or anything, they simply needed more care than she could give them on her own and if she turned them over to the county, they'd be put down. Shelters don't often adopt out wolf-dogs, so she sought out your father. He got the proper licensing and brought them all here."

Madison sensed Keith's inner turmoil as he told the story, and she understood. As much as he didn't like the idea of breeding wild animals for profit, he had sympathy for the woman too. Darth seemed so sweet, clearly, she and her husband had spent a lot of time loving and socializing these animals.

"Molly said that three are part dog?"

Keith nodded, parking the wheelbarrow in front of the gate and pulling a garbage can over next to it as he began unwrapping the raw cuts of meat.

"Robert adopted out all the dogs within the first couple of months, if nothing else, the old lady socialized her animals well, despite all the precautions we take here, these animals have never shown even an ounce of aggression. One of the female wolves came in pregnant though, she gave birth to four pups, one stillborn. The old lady told us that a husky mix sired them."

The other six animals came pouring in through the rubber flap as Keith started tossing the meat into the enclosure, making sure each animal got some. Three looked a bit smaller than the rest, one an agouti like the first two, and the other two a mixture of whitish gray. Madison assumed those were the wolf-dogs.

Keith began pointing out the animals one by one and naming them. She'd already met Darth, the alpha male, and none of the others bore his distinct coloring.

"Of the two agoutis, the one with more white on her face is Storm, and the other one is Trooper. The white one is Sky." He pointed to the new arrivals next, "That one over there, the white with the gray points, that's Star, and the gray one with the white and brown is Chewbacca."

Despite herself, Madison had to laugh at that one.

"Chewbacca is the other male, though he's the submissive, and that last one over there, the reddish brown one is Leia. Your father ended up naming the three pups, he stuck with the space theme, but he didn't keep it true to Star Wars," he laughed. "The agouti looking one is Venus, the one with the white socks is Luna, and the other is Mercury. They're all female."

"Have they all been sterilized?" Madison asked, watching with intent as he threw out the last of the meat and the wolves attacked it with vigor.

Keith nodded. "That's the first thing we do with every animal that comes in. Unless of course, they come in pregnant, like Storm."

"Does that happen often?"

"No. But it does happen. We actually have a dog that Robert rescued right before he passed that's due. Molly's hoping she'll hold off until this weekend, because she wants to help, but I'm not sure she's going to wait that long. I had to move her to my cabin this morning, she's panting heavily."

"Is that, is that safe?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I mean, aren't most of the dogs you guys bring in dangerous?"

Keith smiled as he led her out of the Lycan Barn, having finished cleaning up and locking the door behind them. With the sun shining brightly on his face, his eyes took on that pale glow, and in answer to her earlier thoughts, yes, when Keith smiled, he had little crinkles around his eyes.

He didn't appear to have dimples, but the overall effect? No less stunning. The way the sun glinted off his hair, turning strands of it to gold while deepening the caramel undertones, and his mouth curved, his lips neither too full nor too thin, his smile a dazzling white, it was almost too much for Madison to bear.

Had she ever seen a man more beautiful or masculine than Keith? What a total oxymoron! Madison easily felt the virile masculinity that flowed through his veins, but at the same time, he had such pleasant features that she almost didn't want to tear her eyes away. Like some sort of hypnotic spell, a trance that pulled her under. Deeper and deeper until her limbs simply quit responding.

While every fiber of her being screamed danger, the electrical impulses in Madison's head continued to misfire, rendering her in a sort of paralyzed state. She could do little more than breathe when he smiled at her.

Quite a disconcerting sensation.

Only when he finally spoke again did Madison snap out of it, shaking her head, embarrassed for acting like some sort of star-struck fool!

"Al didn't explain any of this very well to you, did he?"

"Huh? What?"

"The sanctuary, he didn't tell you exactly what it is that we do here, is that right?"

"Oh, um, yeah. He and Molly both told me that my father rescued aggressive dogs and tried to rehabilitate them. Molly said some five dogs are permanent residents."

"Well, that's certainly part of it."

Keith walked around to the side of the barn, appearing a few seconds later in a little red golf cart that kind of resembled a Corvette. Madison laughed, this place seemed full of surprises, and she was eager to see what the actual house looked like.

"Hop on, Molly said she already showed you around the dog barns, so I'll take you on a quick tour of the Pegasus Barn before I start my rounds. We can talk on the way."

Keith pulled to a stop beside her, and Madison climbed in. "This is cute," she teased.

He shrugged, "What can I say, Robert had his moments. He was like a big kid at heart."

"You knew my father pretty well, huh?"

"Yeah, but we can talk about that later. There's a lot we need to go over first." Keith cleared his throat, his whimsical smile fading. "We don't rescue only aggressive dogs here, in fact, we don't particularly target them at all."

"Come again?"

"There are a lot of county and state-run shelters in Pennsylvania, and most of them aren't classified as no-kill shelters. When a shelter fills up or even gets close to capacity, the dogs that are less likely to be adopted are euthanized first. Robert worked with a lot of rescue organizations in the state and surrounding areas, trying to save as many death row dogs as possible. The ones he couldn't place at other shelters came here."

"So this place is kind of like a last resort?"

"Yes, exactly. We work with the dogs, train them, teach them skills, and try to place them. Some have gone on to become service dogs, search and rescue, or work with local K9 units, we've even produced a few movie stars. But there are some, as Molly said that are permanent residents, we call them bite cases. They've had too many strikes against them and can never be adopted out."

"So they'll live here for the rest of their lives?"

"That is the hope. A lot of what happens here in the future depends on you though."

"What do you mean?"

They pulled up to the horse barn before she got her answer, Keith put the cart into park and smiled in an attempt to cover up his foul mood. Obviously, there was a lot more that Madison still didn't understand. Possibly the "catch" she'd been waiting for.

"We can talk about that another time. Let's go meet the horses."

The Pegasus Barn looked much like any other horse barn, twelve sizable stalls, a feed and tack room, a small office and an attached half bath. She saw five horses in one of the nearby pastures and a couple of cows with some oddly spotted goats.

"Your father has seven horses here, two of which are rescues and Jack is currently working with a local rescue group to get them homes. The other five horses your father bought and the ones out in the field belong to Jack and GeeGee, which brings us to twelve in total. We don't have any ATVs here, Robert said the loudness of them might spook the animals, so we ride the fence line once a week on horseback."

Keith took her to the first stall where a large black horse with feathering on his legs, and one rear white stocking stamped impatiently.

"Jack feeds the horses in the morning and usually leaves the stalls open. GeeGee feeds them at night. I asked him to leave ours stalled this morning because I wanted you to meet them, a couple can be hard to catch without a little incentive."

The large horse placed his head over the stall door, and Madison reached out to greet him, gently rubbing his muzzle as he lipped her. She giggled.

"This is Tonka, he's a favorite of Tom's."

Each stall had a nameplate on it. The next one read Lily, a pretty little paint, mostly white with a few large brown patches here and there.

"Lily's a good roping horse, don't let her calm demeanor fool you though, she's got a lot of get-up and go." Keith gave the horse a pat on the neck and moved to the next stall. "Have you ever ridden a horse?" He asked.

Madison nodded, "I took lessons in high school."

"Good. This next horse belonged to your father, his favorite, I wanted you to have him." Keith waited until Madison got closer, digging into his pocket and pulling out a sugar cube, "Here, Fury doesn't like most people, but he's a sucker for something sweet."

Madison reached out to take it from him, instantly recoiling as their skin made contact. "You're so cold!" she yelped.

Embarrassed, Keith shoved his hands in his pockets. "Poor circulation," he admitted begrudgingly before acknowledging the horse that poked his big head over the gate to check out the newcomers.

Madison gasped. Fury was big, like Tonka, but his coat a smoky gray color with a jet black mane and tail, that also had subtle streaks of white and gray throughout. Fury easily had to have been one of the most beautiful horses she'd ever seen. He also had a black dorsal stripe and zebra markings on his legs. She noticed a few white patches on either side of his stomach, and his face was what they called bald, or completely white, both of his eyes a sky blue.

Fury nickered to her, shaking his head as he waited impatiently for her to hand over the sugar. He lipped it out of her hand carefully before backing up into the stall and away from them.

"He's so pretty."

"That he is and well trained too. He doesn't always have the best ground manners, but once you're in the saddle, he's a hell of a ride, he'll do whatever you ask him to."

After seeing a bay colt that her father had recently purchased for Jack to train, Keith introduced her to his horse, a leopard spotted appaloosa named Apache. And the two rescues, both sorrel mares.

Madison helped him let all the horses out of their stalls, and they hopped back into the golf cart, Keith driving her up to the house. "You go take a look around, and after I'm done with my rounds I'll check in on you. Okay?" He said, handing her a ring of keys, with a remote for the garage attached.

Nodding, Madison took the keys and headed for the side of the house, back through the garage and into the mudroom.

The mudroom opened up into a utility room that housed a nice washer and dryer setup. There she found loads of cabinets and plenty of counter space for folding clothes, even a laundry shoot that looked like it connected to the upstairs.

She came to the kitchen next, or more aptly, a chef's wet dream. Like something straight out of a showroom catalog, all shiny and new. State-of-the-art everything, and any sort of kitchen appliance she might ever need!

An envelope sat ominously on the polished granite, her name scrawled on the front of it.
Chapter 6

Room with a View

Madison nervously picked up the envelope, pulling out a seat at the breakfast bar and flipping the envelope over. The flap hadn't been closed but tucked inside, she opened it slowly and pulled out a single sheet of paper. A letter, signed by her father. Madison's heart did a couple of flip-flops, beating rapidly as she started to read it.

'My dearest Madison,

If you're reading this letter, that means I'm already gone, and sadly without ever given the opportunity to get to know you. Words will never begin to explain to you how sorry I am that we never met, but please realize that I loved you. That I wanted you.

I won't tell you that I loved your mother, we were virtual strangers, but I think, given the chance, I might have. That doesn't change my feelings for you though. When I first found out of your existence, I fought tooth and nail for the chance to be a part of your life. But your mother insisted that it would be for the best if I didn't.

Letting you go is the hardest thing I've ever had to do, and I regretted it with my last breath and every day before that. I don't blame your mother, though I should, she loved you, and she feared for your life. I guess I would have done the same if I had been in her position. But I'll never know.

As I sit here and write this, I want you to understand how much I loved you, and how proud I am of the woman you've become. This ranch is my life's work, and in a way, I dedicate it to you. It is my last wish that you will give this place a chance. I trust that you'll come to love it as I have, and I truly hope you'll decide to carry on my legacy.

If you have any questions about anything, anything at all, Keith can answer them. He's a great guy, and my best friend. He'll never steer you wrong, you can trust him, Madison. Al will make sure you have everything you need, and I hope you'll make yourself at home here.

I love you Madison. I always have, and I always will.

- Dad'

Madison read the letter three or four times, tearing a little more up each time. It amazed her that she'd been able to hold it together at all. She ran her fingers across the paper, wondering if she might somehow capture his essence through his words. It seemed strange to her, mourning this man she'd never met. Yes, he might have been her biological father, but she hadn't known him in any capacity. Through his words, however, through all the cards and letters he'd written over the years, that she'd been reading little by little at night before going to bed these past few days, and what Molly and Keith had so far told her, she had slowly started piecing him together, making him real.

She almost pictured him.

Madison got up, folding the letter and tucking it into her back pocket. She wanted to explore the rest of the house, see if she might be able to find any pictures of her father. Tom had said she looked like him, only one way to find out. She desperately wanted to put a face to the name, to the feelings.

The kitchen led in two separate directions, either into the formal dining area or into the great room. Both rooms looked like something out of a home and garden catalog. She assumed her father had used a professional when decorating.

She found a staircase hidden behind a door near the utility room, that she supposed led down to the basement, and from the great room, she had access to the lanai outside and the pool. The covered porch had an outdoor kitchen, seating and a fireplace. She loved the pool with its large and lush landscaping that included a waterfall and an attached hot tub. It even had a small slide.

The great room, decorated in a beautiful classical theme, had a piano, and from the great room, she saw three more rooms. A formal living room, a powder room, and a library, with floor to ceiling shelves, packed full of books. The library also boasted a comfortable looking bay window, and several other seating options surrounded a large red brick fireplace as well.

The front foyer, with its grand staircase and large banister, nearly took her breath away. She almost expected to see a crystal chandelier, though, so far, she noticed all the light fixtures appeared to be practical and energy efficient. Her father might have had more money than he would ever be able to spend in several lifetimes, but he didn't seem prone to waste. Everything looked tasteful and practical.

She found a master suite on the other side of the foyer, again, tastefully decorated, and comfortable.

Upstairs she looked at three more bedrooms, each with its own en suite, and an office with a fireplace. The largest suite upstairs, also the most masculine room she'd seen yet, had to be her father's. A single picture graced his nightstand, a picture of her as a baby.

Madison picked it up and her heart ached.

Looking around the room, she attempted to get a sense of the man that she'd been robbed of knowing, robbed of loving. Other than a small TV on his bureau, and a nightstand on either side of the large four-poster bed, she saw little else.

He'd kept the decor of the room simple with browns and reds while the other rooms were cool blues or light greens. His bathroom, another simple room when compared to the rest of the house, had floors with a wood look tile, and a large walk-in, stone shower. He had a soaker tub that looked like it had never been used, and the medicine cabinet had already been cleaned out.

Like the other bathrooms, it had clean towels and unopened toothbrushes, mouthwash, soaps. Everything ready for guests. For her.

The house also had paintings everywhere. Paintings of dogs, wolves, and horses. Native American artwork, sculptures, and statues. The kitchen was full of herbs and spices, the decor reminding her of an Italian restaurant with its wine and cheese theme.

The entire house looked like a showpiece waiting for someone to breathe some life into it.

Madison stood at the threshold to the office, looking in, some odd sensation she was unable to explain calling to her, pulling at her. One foot in front of the other, she reluctantly crossed into the room. Madison startled suddenly as something ran through her and hushed whispers floated around her head. She tried to concentrate, she tried to focus and listen to what they said to her, but she couldn't.

She'd never experienced anything like this before, and it both scared and fascinated her at the same time. The room seemed to be charged and teaming with electricity. The currents so strong they pulled on her from all directions.

Madison began to wander about the room curiously. She noticed first the small fireplace that sat opposite the large desk on the other side of the room. She ran her hands along a couple of bookshelves that held a mixture of books and antique knick-knacks. Some paintings hung on the walls, a few of horses, a wolf, and one in particular of a couple that drew her attention.

The portrait had been done in oils and was of a gypsy woman and a medieval man. As she stood there staring at the painting, the little hairs on the back of her neck stood up. The man had a light skin tone and blonde hair, while the woman might have been her sister, they looked so much alike, she saw it in the eyes mostly, they had the same eyes and the same dark coloring.

Who was she? And what about this man?

A slight knock sounded from behind her, and instantly the whispers surrounding her vanished, the current in the room flatlined. She turned to find Keith in the doorway, a peculiar look on his face.

"Are you okay?" He asked with concern while standing his ground outside in the hall.

"Who is this?" Madison heard herself ask.

He shook his head. "I'm not sure, probably an ancestor."

Madison's eyes widened for a second. She looked back at the painting, imploring the woman with her mind to spill all of her secrets. But the line appeared dead. Whatever supernatural occurrence she'd stumbled upon when she first entered the room had vanished with the appearance of Keith.

"You're done with your rounds already?" She inquired, turning and walking towards him.

Keith moved out of her way to allow her to pass, following her down the stairs and into the kitchen. "It's almost noon."

"What?" Madison looked at the clock on the microwave, sure enough, the clock read ten minutes to noon.

How had the time gotten away from her so quickly? It hadn't been much later than eight when she'd first walked into the house, had she really spent the past four hours looking around? How long had she been in that room staring at that painting?

Little chills ran down her spine. Creepy.

"Did you see the whole house?"

"Um, no. I didn't go down to the basement yet."

Keith gave her a puzzled look. "What have you been doing for the past four hours? Did you take a nap or something?"

Madison looked behind her, expecting to see the office or even the stairs from this viewpoint. "No, I uh." She stammered, wanting to tell him about the strange things in her father's office, the voices, and the energy. But she figured he'd probably call her crazy or something. "I guess I got a little emotional reading my father's letter."

Keith nodded as though he understood, walking over to the door off the utility room, he opened it, and motioned towards the stairs. "Well come on, the basement's the best part of the house."

Madison tried on a smile, afraid it might be a little forced, but she followed in his direction anyway. "We'll see about that, the library is pretty amazing."

"I'll agree with you there, but just wait."

Keith wasn't wrong.

The basement opened into one large room with two doors. One, a two-piece bathroom, and the other, a walk out to the lanai. At one end of the room, opposite the walkout, hung a large black screen with a grouping of movie theater seats in front of it. Off to the right side of the room sat a wet bar with a partial kitchen and pub style seating.

Gaming tables of every kind filled the middle of the room and a collection of fair-style food carts lined one wall.

Only one word came to mind. "Wow." She blurted as she looked around in wonderment.

Keith laughed. "Your father enjoyed entertaining. We either had a movie night, a casino night or played cards or billiards, something different every weekend. And lots and lots of pool parties during the summer. Since we all spend so much time here, he wanted to make sure no one ever got bored."

Madison smiled as she looked at him, a genuine smile. The way he talked about her father told her how much he loved him. And with every new bit of information she received, she saw that her father loved his staff, his family, as much if not more so.

It really felt like home to her, and she'd only been there a couple of hours.

"How about some lunch?" Keith asked, breaking into her thoughts.

"Okay," she agreed, following him back upstairs.

Keith made his way around the kitchen with ease, going to the large pantry she hadn't even noticed and grabbing a loaf of bread before pulling some lunch meat and condiments out of the fridge. He made a sandwich, handing her a bottle of water and a little bag of chips as well before heading over to the breakfast bar with his own food, what looked like a wrap made out of meat, and a bottle of water.

"What, are you on some kind of weird diet or something?" Madison teased.

With a laugh, he cocked a half smile that set her insides to a slow boil. "Sort of. I mean, I'm a man, what can I say, I like meat."

Thankfully, she recovered quickly from her hormonal onslaught. "So you're a meat and potatoes kind of guy?"

"More meat, less potatoes."

Something about him bothered her, but Madison had a hard time putting her finger on it. She took a bite out of her sandwich instead. Roast beef, and quite rare at that, but she loved it, in fact, she hadn't tasted anything that good in a long while.

She looked up to find Keith watching her intently. That hypnotic gaze of his, with his brows furrowed, burning a hole right through her. As if trying to read her thoughts or something. She swore she felt his mind probing hers. God, she needed to get a grip! She sounded delusional, crazy even. First voices, now this? As if he read her mind...

Yeah right.

Keith finished his food and wiped his mouth with a napkin. Folding his hands in his lap and contemplating her as he watched her watching him.

Madison wanted to do something, say something, to break the tension between them. The room had so much sexual tension she feared she might drown in it.

"You said earlier that the future depended on me, would you care to explain that to me now that we have a minute?"

He stayed silent a moment longer, perhaps going over his response in his mind. "Sure," he finally said. "Al told you that Robert's estate set up a trust for the ranch, which encompasses half of his available assets, excluding his share in the family business of course. Is that right?"

"Yes."

"And he told you that all you have to do to receive your half of the estate is to live on the ranch for at least nine months out of the next year. Correct?"

"That's right."

"Great. Here's what he didn't tell you. If at the end of the year you decide not to stay here and invest your share into the ranch, we will be forced to close operations."

Madison's eyes widened in shock. "What? I don't understand. Isn't that why he set up the trust? Why wouldn't he tell me that?"

"Al didn't want to put any undue pressure on you. I don't care though, you deserve to know to what extent your decisions over the next year have on this place."

Madison listened in a sort of stunned silence as he continued.

"If you don't fulfill your end of the bargain and forfeit your inheritance, the sanctuary gets it all and continues to run as normal. However, for as long as you remain here over the course of the next year, my trust doesn't get touched, and the ranch is funded by your half of the estate. Once the year is up, if you want to leave, my trust is all we have. It's not enough to keep things going at the rate we are. We'll have to close our doors to any future animals in order to care for the ones we have."

"Oh."

"This place depends on you Madison, and your father had hoped that by requiring you to live here for a year, that you would fall in love with the place as he had, and want to use your own money to keep it going."

With her appetite suddenly gone, Madison stared down at her food in disgust. "I had no idea." Just like that, her world seemed to change, her thoughts, her hopes for the future, she watched them go up in flames. And yet, she wasn't the least bit angry.

Her father had given her the choice. Nobody else could make it for her. And though the knowledge that the ranch rested squarely on her shoulders hurt a little, she remained thankful that Keith had told her the truth. She had the ability to go into this experience with her eyes fully open. She'd already decided to give the place a chance, but now, knowing how much they all had on the line, she wanted to make sure she put her heart and soul into the next year. With so many lives depending on her, she wouldn't half-ass anything.

While her father hadn't expected anything of her beyond actually living there, after meeting some staff members, seeing how much they loved the place and everything they did, all the effort they put in, especially Keith, she wanted to make sure she put in as much effort as everyone else.

Madison wanted to get her hands dirty. She'd basically been training for this exact job her entire life. She might as well have a purpose while she stayed here.

By the time she came to this conclusion in her head, Madison looked up to find Keith gone. She looked around the room for a minute, realizing he'd cleaned everything up aside from her water bottle without her even noticing it. How did he manage that one?

Damn. She needed to stop getting lost in her own head.

She heard a scuffling noise behind her, and as she turned, she watched Keith come in from the utility room, all of her suitcases in his arms.

"Where do you want these things?" He asked.

"Oh, um..." She quickly got up from the breakfast bar, going to him and grabbing a couple of suitcases from him. "I want to stay in my father's room."

"You sure you don't want to stay in the downstairs suite? It has the biggest closet."

Madison considered him for a second, "No, thanks. As weird as this might sound, I want to be close to my father."

"That doesn't sound weird at all." He smiled, leaving her in his wake as he headed for the foyer.

Despite the heavy suitcases, and the fact that he'd only let her carry two of them, Keith made his way up the stairs with agile grace, dropping her luggage gently in the hall outside the door to her father's room.

"I'll let you put them wherever you want." He looked down at his watch, and back up at her with an indiscernible gaze. "I need to go and check on Jewel. I'll be back in a bit."

Madison set down her own suitcases and pushed a strand of hair out of her face, "Jewel? Is that the dog that's about to go into labor?"

Keith nodded, "Yes, but she isn't about to go into labor, she is in labor."

"Can I come with you?"

"Sure."

Madison followed him out of the house through the front door, noticing for the first time the beautiful landscaping around the front steps, flowers in full bloom, roses, tulips, and sunflowers, as well as several shrubs and a couple of fruit-bearing trees between her father's home and the small stone path that led to Keith's cottage.

"It's not as grand as your father's place, but I don't need much," Keith said as she looked around.

The cottage had one big open living space. Off the kitchen, a dinette seated two and opened into a square shaped living room that included a sofa, a side table and lazy boy centered around a medium sized flat screen TV. She noticed an open door off the kitchen that housed a washer and dryer, and in that same general area, a dog started whining.

On the other side of the living room, opposite the front door, an open closet did its best to hold in a ton of coats and sweaters. Next to that, another door, this one closed. She figured it probably led to the bedroom and imagined it had an en suite since she didn't see a separate door for the bathroom.

Keith led her into the utility room, where sure enough, a large baby gate separated the utility room from an addition, not more than six by six feet if she had to guess.

A medium sized white dog with brown patches and lots and lots of spots, or ticking, as they called it, laid on a plastic-wrapped dog bed panting heavily and whining intermittently. When she noticed Keith her tail began to wag.

"Aww, poor thing." Madison blurted out, earning a sympathetic smile from Keith.

"You worked at a zoo, right?" He asked, opening and stepping through the gate into the room.

"Yes, I worked mostly with the singing dogs and hyenas, but sometimes I did public appearances with the resident wolf and his canine companion."

"And you worked alongside the vet? You administered vaccinations, routine care?"

"Yes."

"Did you ever help deliver any litters?"

Madison followed behind him, standing back towards the fencing as he crouched down beside her. The dog licked his hands, her stomach jumping and quivering. "I helped deliver a litter of hyenas a couple of weeks ago, I had to take care of one of the pups, the runt of the litter."

Keith ran his hand over the poor dog's swollen stomach, checked her teats, moved her tail and examined her. "She's going to push the first one out any minute. We're not going to interfere though unless she needs us to." He stood, crossing to one side of the fencing and grabbing a couple of towels off of a countertop nearby.

"Is she a death row rescue?" Madison inquired, her eyes never leaving the dog as she accepted a towel from Keith.

"No. Someone dumped her off at Jack's store one night, probably didn't want to deal with her being pregnant. It happens more often than you might realize. People aren't stupid enough to tie an animal up outside the gate here, we have cameras, but a lot of folks are aware that Jack lives here, so he's gotten a few drop-offs over the years."

"That's so sad. What kind of dog is she?"

Keith shrugged. "Some kind of hound. Probably a pointer cross. Lots of people like to hunt hogs, she might've come from a hunter who didn't want to deal with puppies. Damn stupid if you ask me. We do a free spay and neuter clinic once a month, open to anyone, there's no reason for this."

She saw it again, that anger, the turmoil. She easily sensed it in him, nearly palpable as it rolled off him in waves. His body trembled while he tried to control it. This passion he had for animals, she found it endearing.

Jewel's whining became more insistent, she bent and began licking herself, a small black blob protruding from her body. Madison looked on with a nervous excitement.

It didn't take long for the first time mother, who gave birth to five wriggly little fur balls. Three males and two females, two of them brown and the other three mostly white with various patches.

All the puppies seemed to be healthy and started nursing quickly without much fuss. Keith checked the mother again and the two of them left the young family in peace, retreating into the kitchen.

Since she felt so at home around Keith, it didn't occur to Madison that she might be overstepping her boundaries when she reached for his refrigerator door and announced she wanted something to drink, assuming his fridge would be stocked with water as her father's had.

"Wait," Keith called out, a fraction of a second too late as she opened the door and gagged.

The same butcher paper packages as those in the Lycan Barn filled the refrigerator, and several large pitchers of what looked like blood sat on the top shelf.

Madison clapped her hand over and mouth, dry heaving a little.

"I tried to warn you," Keith laughed.

"Oh my God, what is that? Is that blood?"

"Pig's blood."

"Why do you have blood in your fridge?"

Keith walked back into the utility room, opening a small fridge up and grabbing out a bottle of water, handing it to her before leading her into the living area and helping her sit down on the sofa.

"I usually ate with Robert, so I use my fridge to store any extras, the blood is a special order from the local butcher who provides us with all the meat, I use it sometimes in dog food, it's healthier than you might realize."

Madison tried to absorb that, but it honestly seemed a little off to her, kind of creepy even.

Keith left her for a minute, presumably to go and check on Jewel and the puppies again, when he came back he had a couple of fanny packs in his hands, extending one to her.

"I need to go help Tom and Nicole with the training, why don't you come with me? You can see how we do things around here. And you can help us feed everyone for the night, afterward, I'll take you back up to the house and cook you dinner. I'll even answer any questions you have about Robert, I'm sure there's plenty you want to know. How does that sound?"

Looking into his eyes as he spoke, the nervous energy that surrounded her started to slip away. She nearly forgot the fear that gripped her when she saw the blood in his refrigerator. It was one of the strangest sensations she'd ever encountered.

"That sounds good," she agreed, finishing off her water.

Madison spent the afternoon shadowing Keith. They helped Tom and Nicole let each and every dog out, though to be fair, the two had been at it since eight that morning, after cleaning and feeding them. Each dog got around twenty minutes or so of one-on-one time, learning the basics, sit, lay down, heel. Leash manners and the like.

Though they tried to use natural methods, everyone had a catch pole, safety was always their first concern, she'd been told that a few of the dogs would try to bite no matter what, as Tom and Nicole had plenty of scars to go around. Though Keith bragged that he'd never been bitten himself.

Not that Tom and Nicole ever complained, it seemed as if everyone had completely and unconditionally devoted themselves to the ranch and the animals.

Madison met Jack and GeeGee later in the day when she and Keith helped them feed the horses, and he also introduced her to Tanner while he helped Chuck fix the irrigation system in one of the pastures after a cow had somehow damaged it.

Al ended up stopping by as they finished up in the Lycan Barn. He apologized for not being able to get there sooner and handed Madison a large overstuffed packet that he said included a full breakdown of her budget, her new debit card and the keys to a safe.

The contents of which she had to go through on her own, per her father's instructions.

Al bid them a good night, said he'd be back in a few days to check on her and answer any new questions she might have and left almost as quickly as he'd come.

With Keith at her side, the two of them stealing the occasional glance at each other, though his seemed more brooding and intense than anything, Madison made it through her first day, and she felt a little less like a stranger by the time she and Keith got back to the house.

"How do you like your steak?" He asked once they made it inside.

Madison stretched, her whole body ached, the muscles in her back were nice and tight, protesting her every movement. "Um, medium. Hey, do I have enough time to go up and get a shower first?"

"Yeah. Actually, that sounds like a great idea. I'm going to head home and clean up too. I need to check on Jewel anyways. I'll start the grill when I get back."

After setting the envelope Al gave her on the nightstand, Madison tugged her earlier abandoned suitcases into her father's room, leaving them inside the walk-in closet, that looked plenty big enough despite what Keith may have said, and headed straight to the bathroom.

She didn't bother to lock the door behind her, but walked directly over to the shower and turned it on. Steam filled the bathroom instantly as the hot water beat down on the pebble floor. Stripping out of her sweaty clothes, Madison looked at the mirror and noticed how quickly it had already fogged up.

She flipped the switch for the ventilation fan to clear the steam in the air, and reached forward, wiping the mirror in a circular motion to better see her reflection. She had bags under her eyes, darkened by her bleeding mascara. She basically looked like a raccoon.

Madison sighed, great. She'd spent the entire day with one of the hottest men she'd ever met, and she looked like a fricken raccoon! Pulling the hair band out of her hair and letting it flow loosely around her head, Madison turned away from the mirror and towards the shower.

Coming face to face with the man from the painting.
Chapter 7

The Ghost of You

Keith had only been back in the house for a second, just long enough to set a couple of steaks down on the counter when he heard the scream. A deep guttural sound, like a lamb being slaughtered, the noise penetrating his senses on every level. Without hesitating, he tore through the house and dashed up the stairs.

He found Madison pressed up against the counter, her eyes wide, her mouth slack as she breathed erratically and stared straight ahead. Her pulse jumped rapidly in her throat and her bare breasts heaved with the effort to pull in oxygen.

Though completely naked, Keith hardly noticed, looking from her to the empty space in front of her and back again.

"Madison!" He shouted, quickly going to her side and grasping her shoulders. "Madison, what is it?"

Madison turned to face him, her eyes rolling back in her head, her knees buckling as she collapsed in his arms.

Keith noted the sheer terror on her face before she fainted, he gently cradled her in his arms and laid her on her father's bed. Afterward, he walked back into the bathroom to turn off the shower and began searching the area. He started in the general vicinity of where he'd seen Madison's eyes fixated, but when he found nothing amiss he opened the linen closet and looked down the laundry shoot.

Nothing. He saw absolutely nothing out of the ordinary in the bathroom. Not even a spider. Not so much as a cobweb in that bathroom.

So what the hell had she'd seen?

Or did she see anything at all?

Keith grabbed a robe off the back of the door, laid it on top of Madison, and sat down beside her, lightly rubbing her back.

"Madison. Madison, can you hear me?" He asked quietly.

She started to moan, her head lolled from side to side.

"Madison, come on, come back to me."

"Who are you? What do you want from me?" She mumbled, her eyes closed tightly, her body covered in goosebumps and quivering slightly.

Keith stood abruptly, he looked around the room, and yet he saw nothing. But he could feel it.

Why hadn't he recognized it before? The dampness in the air, that cold breeze that hovered slightly out of reach. He looked down at Madison again, she'd curled up into the fetal position, clutching the robe to her, and yet, she was still on the verge of unconsciousness.

What the hell had she seen in that bathroom? Or more accurately, who had she seen?

He suddenly remembered Roberts last words. Of all the conversations he'd had with Robert, the many times they'd talked about history, ancestors, about magic and Robert's gypsy heritage, Keith had been skeptical. Better than most, Keith understood that sometimes things are not as they seem, and there are other things in this world that would never be explained.

But this idea that she might be the one? That she may be the key to it all? He shook his head. Nonsense. Complete fiction. But how else did he explain it?

"Remember," he whispered.

But who was he?

His voice urged her onward. Her paws ate up the ground beneath her, the pale light of the moon spearing through the trees to show her the way. Not that she needed it, she'd hunted these forests for years, every corner of this land. Her nostrils flared, pulling in the smells of the night. The decay of vegetation, the dampness the evening rain had left behind, she smelled it all, but nothing stood out stronger than the scent of blood.

She skidded to a stop at the edge of a clearing, her claws digging into the earth, churning it up as she grabbed for purchase. The scent of blood had become overwhelming here, and a shadow lingered underneath a lone oak tree covered in moss. The clouds began to cast a halo around the moon, light spilling into the clearing but stopping inches short of the imposing tree.

Breathing deeply, she began to change. Her bones cracked and snapped in fits and pops as her body became more erect. She squeezed her eyes shut tightly to ward off the pain. She braced one large paw up against the trunk of a small spruce tree, bending it with the force of her agony. She clawed into the bark until it scraped the sensitive flesh of her budding fingers, moaning as her spine finally straightened, the worst of it finally over.

Putting one barefoot in front of the other, she took her first wobbly steps into the light. The clouds shifted, shadows danced on the ground, but the figure shrouded in darkness under the tree never wavered, never moved.

Fear began to choke her, each breath harder than the last, grasping at her throat she willed her lungs to work, but the cloying scent of death rattled her to her very core. She forced her feet to carry her closer to the large oak, a single step at a time.

She fought the urge to turn and run, she willed her lungs to drag in one breath after another. As the clouds continued to shift in the sky above her, casting light where none had been, the aging tree finally started to give up its spoils.

A boot.

She saw a man's boot, worn and scuffed, splattered with blood. Her heart hammered in her chest as she inched closer, covering her mouth with her hands to hold back the bile scalding her throat. She'd hunted many a deer in these woods, but a man? This kind of death seemed foreign to her.

The boot belonged to a leg, a long lean leg, his trousers ripped and torn, his skin sliced and covered in crimson. He had his left leg tucked up under his right thigh, his shirt in tatters. What had done this to him? An animal?

No. A man. He'd been sliced and diced by the sword of a man. She sensed his pain, his fear, and his agony. His energy surrounded her, engulfed her body and brought her to her knees in front of him.

The ground cried out beneath her as it swallowed his blood. His soul demanded revenge against those that had ripped him from his vessel before his time. She found a familiarity in his angst. She'd met him before, she'd known his touch. She'd loved him.

As the light of the moon reached his face, she let out a blood curdling scream.

The Duke of Uradel

Madison gasped, abruptly sitting upright and crashing into Keith's body as he continued to lean over her. Her eyes wide in fear, she looked around the room, searching for something, someone. But she saw nothing.

"Madison," Keith urged, holding onto her shoulders, trying to ground her in the here and now. "Madison, you're safe. I'm here. You're okay, look at me."

She tried to hold onto his voice, finally locking eyes with him and calming the instant she did. Her breathing slowed, her heart rate lowered, and the tremors vanished as she stared into his cool gaze.

"It's okay," he told her again. "You're safe."

She closed her eyes, repeating his words. "It's okay, I'm safe."

"Do you want to tell me what happened?"

Madison took a minute to let her emotions settle. With Keith beside her, she found it easier to calm down and relax, but somewhere in the back of her mind, that fear tried to reach out to her again. She looked around, she sat on the bed, a robe wrapped around her, Keith there next to her. But how did she get here?

Madison remembered turning on the shower but after that? No, that wasn't quite right. She'd turned on the shower, and the bathroom filled up with steam, so she flipped the switch for the fan... and then?

The man.

The man from the painting.

Madison shivered. She'd seen him, there, in the bathroom with her. Clear as day she'd seen him! Not some kind of trick of lighting or something, the man from the painting had definitely been there in the bathroom with her. She'd been scared, so scared, and she... she what? She fainted?

She honestly didn't remember.

"What," she hesitated. "What happened?"

Keith stood, trying to put a little distance between them, hoping it would make her a little more comfortable.

"You fainted, don't you remember?"

Madison looked at him quizzically. She didn't remember him being in the bathroom with her. Why didn't she remember that? "I, I don't." She admitted. "The last thing I remember is turning on the shower and flipping the switch for the ventilation fan, and..."

"What? What happened Madison?"

She laughed and shook her head, pulling the blanket tighter around her, "Nothing, it was nothing, I must be going crazy. You probably think I'm nuts."

Keith knelt in front of her, attempting to reach out, but pulling up short at the last second when Madison flinched. "You're not nuts," he said softly. "You obviously saw something, and it scared the shit out of you. I'd sure like to figure out what you saw though."

Needing a minute alone to figure it all out for herself, Madison peeked around the door to the bathroom and looked back at Keith. "I'm going to skip the shower for now, but if you'll excuse me, I need to get dressed."

Keith realized that he wouldn't get any more out of her, so he stood and excused himself, telling her he'd go and get dinner started.

She waited for him to go, feigning a smile when he stole another glance at her before disappearing down the hall and breathed a sigh of relief, not entirely sure what had happened, she wanted to work it out in her own mind before she said anything to Keith about what she really saw. She'd felt like enough of a fool without having to admit it to him.

Madison got up and walked to the threshold of the bathroom. The hairs on the nape of her neck stood on end. She noticed an energy here, it surrounded her, cold, with an underlying sense of anger, even a little pain.

Closing her eyes, she tried to get a grip on herself. Ghosts, they didn't exist. Right? She must have imagined it. That's all. The painting in her father's office had left an impression on her, a strong one, and she must have conjured the man up, nothing more. Her imagination playing tricks on her.

Of course, that certainly didn't do anything to ease her growing sense of panic.

After going to the closet and slipping into a pair of sweatpants and a baggy t-shirt, Madison left the room, stopping in front of her father's office for a minute before heading downstairs to face Keith, still not sure what to say to him.

Her father's office was nearly dark, she made out the shadow of the painting on the back wall, but she couldn't see it. Remembering her earlier time lapse, or more aptly, her lost time, nosing around in her father's office, Madison dared not walk into the room again. Instead, she reached around the doorframe feeling her way up the wall until she came across the light switch and flipped it on.

The room lit up quickly, the painting illuminated by the pale yellow light, and despite her ghostly encounter, she saw nothing sinister looking about it. Only a beautiful portrait. The colors, the brush strokes, whoever painted it did so with love and expertise.

The woman looked young and pretty, her big blue eyes alight with mischief. The man strong and masculine, but with a touch of grace, compassion even. Before she realized it, Madison had walked into the room, and she stood in front of it, unaware of her movements until she reached out a hand and ran her fingertips lightly over the canvas.

"Remember." The voice whispered softly.

Startled, her hands clawing at her t-shirt, Madison turned and fled the room.

What was happening to her?

Throughout dinner, though he eyed her skeptically, Madison remained thankful that Keith let the earlier incident go after she explained how she hadn't slept much in the past few days with everything going on and that she thought she'd seen a huge spider in the bathroom.

She claimed to be deathly afraid of spiders, and though she had a healthy respect for them, it couldn't have been further from the truth. There honestly wasn't much in this world, at least when it came to animals, that Madison truly feared. But not wanting to sound like a candidate for the looney bin, she figured it best not to mention she'd seen a ghost.

Or assumed she had.

Because the idea of actually seeing a ghost sounded completely crazy, didn't it?

Keith nodded as if he understood her explanation and finished getting dinner on the table. He'd thrown a couple of steaks on the grill, his so rare she almost expected it to moo and managed a nice salad and a baked potato to go with it.

Of course, Keith did without the potato, though he did have a salad. The way his shirts seemed to stretch across the expanse of his chest, said that he obviously took good care of his body, but as she loaded up her potato and dug in, a world without carbs seemed unfathomable to her.

Upon sitting down, Keith placed a large pitcher of ice water in the center of the table, along with a bottle of white wine after pouring a glass for Madison and insisting it would help take the edge off.

The only thing missing from the evening would have been some soft music and candlelight. For such a casual meal with a virtual stranger, Keith certainly appeared to have pulled out all the stops. That or he simply enjoyed hosting. He did have an air of sophistication about him like he might have been from another time. He was like a puzzle, and Madison seemed to be having a hard time putting the pieces into place.

Keith finished his food, and after putting his dishes in the dishwasher he cleared away the remnants of dinner, leaving Madison with only her own dishes to deal with.

"I uh, I have a date tonight." He admitted nervously, his gaze shooting to the floor before their eyes met.

His bashfulness seemed almost endearing to Madison, she laughed softly when she joined him in the kitchen to clean up after herself. "Well, don't let me keep you." She told him while closing the door to the dishwasher and drying her hands on a nearby towel. "I'm sure I can manage to keep myself occupied for the evening."

Keith moved away from the counter where he'd been leaning with his arms folded across his chest, taking a step or two closer to Madison in the process. He looked like he wanted to reach out to her, but he didn't, letting his arms drop to his side instead.

"Are you sure you're going to be okay?" He asked with a concern that truly warmed her heart.

Madison nodded, tempted, as he had seemingly been, to lay a reassuring hand on him as well. The need to touch him overwhelmed Madison, she hadn't been prepared for it. And she couldn't for the life of her understand it. Every inch of her body urged her to reach out to him, to connect on the most basic of levels.

Like some magnetic current trying to pull them together, Madison saw the pained look on Keith's face and realized it affected him too. There was something here, something that both frightened and excited her at the same time.

Keith finally broke their strained eye contact, pulling open a drawer and taking out a pen. He scrawled something down on a notepad that hung on the refrigerator before tearing off the top piece of paper and handing it to her.

"That's my cell phone number," he said, setting the pen on the counter and stuffing his hands into the pockets of his slacks. "If you need anything, don't hesitate to call."

Madison closed a fist around the small sticky note and smiled gently. "Thanks."

With a curt nod, Keith turned to leave, Madison watched him go, waiting until he'd nearly disappeared into the foyer before remembering something and going after him.

"Hey, Keith?" She called out, catching him as his hand reached for the front door.

"Yes?"

"Sorry, um, I uh, I wanted to ask you about tomorrow." Madison stammered, having a hard time getting the words out when he turned to face her and some sort of déjà vu overtook her in one fell swoop. The look on his face, the soft smile that ran the length of it, little crinkles forming around his eyes, his lips full and only half-cocked now as he watched her watching him, it all felt so familiar.

The oddest sensation came over her like they'd been here before. But that seemed impossible. Shaking her head to clear the fog, Madison tried desperately to get ahold of herself. Unsure whether the house or the sheer delirium from lack of sleep caused the uneasiness, it agitated her.

And as she stood there debating mentally with herself about what she should do to abate the weirdness surrounding her, Keith continued to watch her contently, a myriad of expressions flitting across that pretty face of his.

"What about tomorrow?" He asked, finally cutting through her mental haze.

Madison rubbed a hand on the back of her neck as she regained control of her thoughts and emotions. "Sorry, I really need to get some sleep." She exhaled audibly for effect. "Anyways, I've been going over this whole situation in my head, a lot actually."

"And?"

"And I'd like to help."

Madison's heart did a little somersault when Keith's slow smile widened and he closed the gap between them, his hands falling gently on her shoulders like an afterthought, or not a thought at all.

"That's great!" He blurted, pulling away quickly, as if their mere contact had scorched his hands. "I mean, that's fantastic news. We're lucky to have you here Madison."

With a gulp to smother the heat and excitement that had bubbled up, Madison's gaze remained steady on his. Confused about this thing between them and not completely sold on the idea that it wasn't some sort of mind trick, she soon realized it grew more intense the longer they hung around each other.

She had to ask herself if it had been this way throughout the day. She didn't think so. She'd certainly found him attractive and caught herself admiring him more than once during their afternoon together, but the gravitational pull between them hadn't been nearly this disconcerting.

So how did she explain it?

For that matter, why had she been experiencing any of the thoughts and emotions she'd had since coming here? And suddenly it hit her.

The house.

From the moment she'd walked in the door she'd sensed it. Something calling to her, pulling at her and clogging her ability to think rationally. But did a house do all that?

She didn't have time to dwell on it though as Keith spoke again, her internal warning system going silent in her mind while his words filtered through. "I really need to go, but I'll meet you here for breakfast in the morning okay? Say, 6:00 am?"

Feeling utterly lost, and not for the first time, a little frightened, Madison nodded, trying to reassure not only him but herself. She needed time to figure out what plagued her, and while part of her didn't want him to go, she'd never be able to focus with him in the house.

"Oh, one more thing," Madison called out before he shut the door.

"Yeah?"

"That safe Al told me about, can you tell me where it is?"

"Sure, it's in the closet in the office. Have a good night." He said with a smile, quietly closing the door behind him and leaving her to her own devices.

Madison sighed. In the closet in the office. Of course that's where it would be.

Her father's office, probably the last place she wanted to be, turned out to be exactly where she needed to go. She assumed the answers to all her questions would likely be found in there much to her dismay.

Now that Keith had gone, Madison seemed to breathe a little easier. The air didn't appear as thick, and the fog that had surrounded her nearly dissipated. She simply didn't understand it. Earlier, when they'd worked together on the ranch, she hadn't experienced even a small degree of the things she'd encountered this evening.

It had to be something about the house.

She had no other way to explain it. Sure, her mind had gone a little wobbly the first time she'd laid eyes on him, and yes, she'd noticed an intense desire to be near him, to touch him, but that might have been lust. Simple animal attraction.

This, this seemed like something else.

Almost eerily similar to how embarrassed she'd been when Keith had found her staring mindlessly at the painting in her father's office, or even like that pull surrounding her when she'd peeked in on it the second time around. The energy. The whispers. The ghost.

The ghost.

Before she had any idea how she'd gotten there, Madison found herself in her father's office once again, the light on, standing on the other side of the threshold staring at the painting in front of her.

Madison groaned. "This is insane!" She yelled in frustration.

Marching over to the painting, Madison lifted it slightly off the wall, making sure she wouldn't break anything when she took it down and satisfied that she wouldn't, she pulled it off the wall and took it downstairs where she set it on top of the kitchen counter.

She meant to have a talk with Keith tomorrow about that painting, surely he knew more about it than he'd first said. Whatever she might be able to learn about the damn thing, she became determined to find out. No stupid painting would have enough power over her to drive her to the brink of insanity.

By the time she walked back into her father's office, after making a pit stop in her bedroom to get the envelope with the combination to the safe, the peculiar sensation that had been plaguing her all evening finally subsided. She found no menacing aura, or malevolent force surrounding her. The office appeared like any other room in the house. A plain old ordinary room.

Strange indeed.

If she'd been firing on all cylinders Madison might have noted that the house didn't plague her, but the painting. However, having put the portrait out of her mind, for now, she focused on the task at hand. Going through her father's belongings.

Her eyes widened in shock and surprise when she opened the door to the rather small safe and the huge stockpile of contents didn't automatically spill out. As full as that thing looked, how any of it stayed in place now that she'd removed the barrier holding it all in was beyond her.

He had so much stuff. SO MUCH STUFF. Madison figured she'd never get through it all in one night. Hell, it would probably take her every night for the next month or longer to get through it.

But obviously it had been important to her father that she did, and for that reason, she promised herself she'd spend every night in this office if she had to until she'd looked through each and every item.

Letting out a long breath, Madison grabbed a file folder from the top of the pile and got to work.

After his rather odd evening with Madison, Keith stopped by the cottage for a minute to check on Jewel, grabbing his sports coat on the way out once satisfied that she and the puppies would be fine for the next few hours without him, he headed off to meet his date.

He used his drive into the city to reflect on his time spent with Madison so far. After all the conversations he'd had with Robert, the things he'd learned through him, as well as on his own over the past couple of weeks following Robert's death, he still hadn't been prepared for her.

Deep down he realized that she had that something special, something, different. And though he trusted Robert implicitly, as much as he didn't want to fall victim to folklore and fiction, he had to admit to himself after the strange encounter earlier in the bedroom and the ensuing events, that Robert had quite possibly been right and his insane ancestors hadn't been crazy after all.

But that would mean, no, he didn't want to go there. Not now, not ever if he had it his way.

Some things in this world didn't and probably never would make sense to him, and this, all of this craziness and nonsense appeared to be one of those things. While willing to entertain a lot of crazy theories, myths even, because such things would never be, or at the very least, hadn't so far, been factually substantiated, the things that Robert had proposed sounded extremely far-fetched, even to someone like him.

But how else did he explain it? How did he explain the sudden attraction, no, that wasn't right, more like a pull, a forceful push even, something powerful and stronger than any sensation he'd ever dealt with before.

And yet, it hadn't happened right away.

Sure, he'd noticed the tightening in his gut, the tension, the lust, from the moment he'd laid eyes on her. Madison was beautiful after all. She had the exotic beauty of her gypsy ancestors, but with the flare and grace of her American heritage as well. Curves in all the right places, a mouth he wanted to devour, and the face of an angel.

But in his time on this earth, Keith had seen plenty of beautiful women, some probably even more so than Madison. So needless to say, as pretty as she might have been, the physical attraction didn't draw him in.

Even with all the impossible things that Robert had told him about his daughter, about her past, her history, though surely her beauty and the larger than life persona that Robert had created played a role in his initial reaction to the girl, that strange occurrence hadn't happened until that moment in her father's bedroom. That's when he began to feel enticed by some mystical force he didn't see.

Definitely weird. He and Robert had been warned long ago, though not in any specific terms, that the painting, a picture of which they took with them on their visit to Germany had been cloaked in dark magic, though he'd never really questioned what that really meant until now. Until he'd found Madison staring at it, completely unaware that she'd been lost in some sort of trance.

And that's exactly what it looked like.

While Madison had gotten herself together after the incident in the bathroom, Keith, having recalled how she'd looked when he'd found her in the office, in a similar state to the one she'd been in the bathroom before collapsing in his arms, he'd quickly started the grill and slipped downstairs into the safe room.

The safe room, hidden behind false wall panels in the basement powder room, a place Keith hadn't yet thought to mention to Madison, housed an intricate camera and security system, as well as a cellar stocked with almost anything one might need to survive for at least a couple of months.

As he came to trust Madison, and he assumed he would at some point, probably after she'd gone through the contents of her father's safe, and he could better judge her ability to keep an open mind, Keith would decide how much of the truth he wanted to give her.

For now, though, he'd keep her father's paranoia to himself, as well as the secret room downstairs that he used to keep tabs on everyone and anyone that ever set foot in his house. Not that all rooms had cameras, of course, some, like the bathrooms, merely had voice recording equipment. But the office, as well as every other "common" room in the house, had dual capabilities.

So in the few minutes that Keith had to spare, he found the monitor for the office and rewound it to earlier in the day. He'd watched as Madison slowly walked into the office, while she approached the painting, and ran her hands gently over the canvas, then proceeded to stand there for the next three hours, staring at it.

Such a peculiar thing. Peculiar indeed.

He found himself even more shocked when he fast forwarded to the live footage and saw her in that exact same spot once more. He had to do a double take to make sure he wasn't seeing things. But nope, live footage. Madison had gone back into the office after her freak out in the bathroom.

She stood in front of the painting in her sweats and a t-shirt that while too big, did nothing to hide her feminine curves. Keith swallowed, images of the two of them flashing through his head. Images of him touching her bare back, running his hands over her shoulders, along the smooth column of her throat.

Blinking away what he assumed had to be visions of lust, he watched Madison reach out once more to touch the rough canvas.

And suddenly he'd heard it.

A whisper, hardly loud enough for the microphone in the faux AC vent to pick it up, but with his keen sense of hearing he'd been able to make it out clearly.

"Remember."

Startled, Keith took a step back. So freaked out by that one simple word, and the flood of images that flitted through his head, he scrambled out of the room, almost forgetting to put the wall panels back into place.

How he'd managed to pull himself together before Madison appeared downstairs a few minutes later he'd never be sure. But he'd managed. He'd even found a way to keep a straight face when she'd told him the lie about the spider in the bathroom.

Yeah, a spider his ass.

But before he called her out on it, before he demanded a more reasonable explanation, an unfamiliar sensation crept over him. One of calm, of serenity, but laced with an underlying degree of anger and pain.

He had to fight to control himself as every fiber of his being pulled him in her direction. Robert's words came back to haunt him.

"She's the one."

Yes, he understood that now. As much as he didn't want to believe it, any of it, he wouldn't deny it now. Only, there had to be darker forces at work here. He seemed sure of it. Things that he and Robert didn't know, wouldn't have known, and he'd have to figure out how he would fight them and keep Madison safe.

Because he had promised Robert that he would keep Madison safe.

Gripping the steering wheel as he reached his destination, Keith steeled his resolve. "I promise." He whispered harshly to himself before turning off the ignition and stepping down from his truck.

Keith found his date sitting at a table by herself with a cup of coffee and a book. She smiled sweetly as he approached.

"There you are," she purred. "I was starting to think you might not come."

"Sorry," he apologized with a seductive smile of his own. "I had dinner with the new manager of the farm."

His date pouted a little, her bow-shaped mouth turning down. One of the features Keith liked most about her. Those long full lips, he couldn't wait to bite into them.

"And here I assumed we would have dinner together." She whined in her thick sultry voice.

Keith took her hand in his, kissing the tips of her fingers as he pulled her to her feet. "Darling," he whispered, "I have a better idea, why don't we skip straight to dessert?"
Chapter 8

Family Secrets

The first several documents Madison opened all pertained to the ranch and its inner workings, as well as a thorough look at her father's financial portfolio. She found it odd that in a day and age filled with technology her father still kept physical records, but perhaps he'd been the paranoid type. It made her smile. The further she dug though, the more she wondered why she'd even bothered in the first place.

If there had been anything of import in that safe she'd yet to find it. While it made her happy to see that her father's finances looked well tended, and it gave her peace of mind knowing exactly how he spread out his wealth and who looked after it, it honestly bored the crap out of her.

Al had already told her he had more money than she'd be able to spend in several lifetimes. She'd been told as well that her Aunt agreed to oversee everything and anything involving her father's share in the family company, and seeing as her Aunt's own wealth continued to accrue, the family business appeared to be in good hands.

She'd also been given the contact information for the longtime investment firm her father had been using. So why she still sat here at, what time was it? She turned and looked at the clock on the desk, saw that the clock read 10:00 pm and stood to stretch.

Rolling her neck to get the kinks out she walked to the window and pulled back the curtains. The office faced the front of the house and looked out over a large portion of the farm, she also had a really good view from her second story vantage of Keith's little cottage.

She saw a light on in the back of the house, she assumed it had been left on for Jewel, but otherwise the place looked dark. Feeling a headache creep in behind her eyes, Madison began to rub her temples and looked back towards the desk where the contents of her father's safe had been stacked into neat little piles.

She groaned. As much as she wanted to go through it all, she didn't care about the money, not really. If her father had simply stuck a bunch of copies, of what his financial planners probably had stored in their computers and filing cabinets, in that safe, count her out. She had no interest in it.

Her father had set the ranch up to work with or without her, everything else was semantics.

Torn between calling it a night and getting through another pile, Madison took another long look out the window. The night seemed incredibly quiet and dark. Off to the left of the house, from her current viewpoint at least, she noticed a big eerie shadow, the wolf enclosure, and it surprised her that, being creatures of the night and all, the wolves didn't make more noise.

Tapping on the window however she discovered they seemed thick, likely double pained, and probably soundproof. Practical or not, her father hadn't spared any expenses when he'd built the house, there was no denying that.

Deciding that she'd get through one more pile at the very least, Madison began to close the curtains, surprised when she saw headlights coming up the driveway. She took another peek at the clock on the desk, it said a quarter after 10:00.

And yet the truck pulled up behind the cottage and only Keith got out of it.

Huh. She said to herself, must not have been a very good date.

She wasn't completely sure, but she thought he'd left her sometime after or right before eight. Two hours didn't seem like much time for a date in her book. Hardly enough time to do anything. Although she supposed it depended on what kind of date they had, he'd already had dinner after all.

Imagining Keith and another woman getting freaky beneath the sheets together made Madison all flustered, and even a bit jealous. Groaning inwardly, she stepped away from the window and sat down in front of the desk, her back against it as she grabbed a small box that sat next to one of the piles.

Why did it matter what Keith did in his spare time? None of her business, and besides, for all she knew, they might have gone to a movie or had coffee or something. In her opinion, two hours with a man like Keith wouldn't have been near enough time to do the kinds of things she imagined doing.

Which only served to make her flush harder.

Shaking her head and laughing at herself, Madison flipped the lid on the box, the air getting trapped in her lungs as she looked inside. After slapping her chest a couple of times and choking, she finally managed to calm herself down.

What the hell?

Old and intricate, were the first two words that came to mind. It hung on a tarnished silver chain, and she wondered if it might be some kind of charm or talisman. She worked with a girl named Ona at the zoo, she and her family had come from New Jersey, having split from Massachusetts after the Salem Witch Trials, and had spoken many times about voodoo and witchcraft.

Pulling out her cell phone, Madison took a picture of it and sent it to Ona, asking her if she'd ever seen anything like it before.

While she waited for a response, she examined the charm a little closer. It had a circular pendant made from silver with different symbols etched into it. One that looked like a stick figure, but without a head. Another that looked like a crude heart, one shaped like a pitchfork, and the last one, a little more familiar, the symbol for eternity.

In the middle of the pendant, she noticed an off-white cylinder that while slightly stiff, rotated. The same symbols as on the silver part of the charm had been etched into the tube as well, one on each of the four sides and the middle of the cylinder at first glance appeared to be glass. A beautiful, shiny, blood red glass.

Upon closer examination, however, two things became apparent to Madison. The center of the tube wasn't glass, but rather, made of diamond instead, and the more she turned it, tilting it this way and that, she discovered that someone had hollowed out the diamond and placed a red liquid in the middle.

A small sadistic part of her wondered if it might be blood, but since that idea seemed too morose for her, she decided, at least for the sake of her own peace of mind, that it had to be red wine.

As she worked on chasing the last of the morbid thoughts away, her phone began to vibrate, nearly startling the crap out of her. She picked it up and read the display, Ona.

"Hey, Ona!" Madison exclaimed, both happy to hear a familiar voice and curious to see what her friend thought of the antique charm.

"Hey, Maddie! How're things in PA? I mean, I know you just got there and all, but what's it like?"

"It's pretty great, my father's farm, gosh, you'd love it here. You'll have to come visit. Soon."

"Oh, for sure!" Ona agreed readily.

"How are things at the zoo? Are you guys going to be able to manage without me?"

"I think so," she laughed reassuringly. Gosh, it'd only been a couple of days, but Madison already missed Ona and the rest of her friends at the zoo so much. She'd have to go home and visit in a couple of months. "Now," Ona said, cutting into her thoughts of nostalgia, "about that talisman."

"Talisman? Is that what it is? I mean, it sort of looks like that necklace you always wear."

"Yeah, that's definitely what it is, but it's not one I'm familiar with. Probably not from here in the U.S., it looks way too old for that."

Turning the talisman over in her hands, Madison looked for something that might indicate its origin, but other than the symbols she'd already seen, she didn't find any other markings on it.

"Well, my mom told me that my dad has some Romani in his ancestry, maybe that's it?" Madison asked, remembering the conversation she'd had with her mother when she'd first found out about Rick not being her biological father.

"Yeah definitely could be Romani, the gypsies are known for magic, legend has it that the gypsies first harnessed magic and made it their own. My grandma told me I'm descended from some gypsies that later moved to Africa after being cast out of Europe."

"Oh wow, that's pretty cool, you never told me that."

"Yeah," Ona chuckled. "Who knows, we might be related! Anyways, I'm getting ready to head to a party at a friend's house, if you send me some better pictures I'll email them to my Grandma and see if she can help."

"That would be great! Thanks, Ona, I'll get them to you tomorrow. Have fun! Miss you!"

"Miss you too girl," Ona replied, ending the conversation.

With a smile on her face, Madison looked at the talisman again and put it safely back into its little box, setting it apart from the rest of the surrounding clutter. She'd take pictures in the morning when she had better light.

With her earlier headache gone, and her sense of energy renewed, as well as her curiosity now thoroughly peaked, Madison slid another stack of files and folders in front of her and started going through them.

She'd decided that she wanted to try and make some kind of sense out of everything, and because so much stuff had been, well, stuffed, into that safe, she'd buy a locking filing cabinet the first chance she got and put the files where they belonged.

Over the course of the next hour, of the three piles she rummaged through, as well as separating the piles she'd looked through earlier, only one of them contained anything of interest, not until she got to the very bottom of the pile did she'd find it though.

Opening a thick envelope that had once been sealed by a wax stamp, something she didn't even realize existed anymore, she came upon an extremely detailed report of her family's ancestry. At least, her father's side of it. The report even included a DNA analysis on her father. Pages upon pages of records detailing her father's background and family history. Starting with his parents and heading all the way back to the first record, recorded in the 1200's.

She had no idea how her father had gotten such an extensive report, or why he cared enough to go back as far as he had, but it amazed and intrigued her all the same. Al had told her that her father's ancestry included the Mellon's of Pittsburgh, but he'd forgotten to mention exactly how big her extended family was.

According to the report, Madison discovered she still had a lot of living relatives, most of them in Germany, where the Mellon's had migrated from, their name changing from Mellor to Mellon after arriving at Ellis Island. And finally, her great-great-grandfather, who had split from his family in Pittsburgh to move to Lancaster, changing his name once again, from Mellon to Melton.

But she supposed he did that as more of a financial move than a personal one, while he'd broken from his family, he didn't break from the family business, going into banking himself, but he'd wanted to be set apart from them.

Madison wondered if her father had ever reached out to any of the Mellons.

Setting aside her family tree, Madison focused in on the DNA test results. It appeared that her father, despite relatives moving to America, which had become a melting pot full of immigrants, remained nearly eighty percent Romani. The other twenty a mixture of Irish and German. Madison understood that genetics were a tricky thing, so she wondered how much of her father's Romani blood she had inherited herself.

Her mother claimed to be English and German, or at least, that's what she'd been told by her own parents, and it made sense, given her fair skin and features, but Madison had dark, and exotic looks, which only meant that she favored her father. She became more interested now though in finding out what her DNA said about her after seeing her father's test results.

Definitely something worth looking into.

And with that, Madison yawned, realizing that midnight fast approached, and she'd need to get up at 5:00 to make herself presentable before Keith came over at 6:00 for breakfast. One of these days she would have to get to bed early and make up for her lack of sleep lately.
Chapter 9

Learning the Ropes

Madison woke the next morning more refreshed than she had any right to be. With a little over five hours of sleep under her belt, more than she'd gotten in a single night since meeting Al nearly a week ago, she felt like she wanted to take on the world.

After taking a quick shower and slipping into a button up flannel shirt and some comfortable jeans, clothes fit for working outside and getting dirty in, Madison headed downstairs to find Keith already in the kitchen working on breakfast. The smell of which, she would describe as heavenly.

Keith served her coffee, bacon, and eggs, with a side of toast, and a rundown of the daily workings at the ranch. He said he started at the Lycan Barn, where he did everything from feeding to cleaning, afterward heading straight to the clinic to check the charts and pull in any animals that needed treatment.

Tom saw to the Servile Barn, while Nicole handled things in the Alpha Barn, and of course, Jack and GeeGee took care of the livestock. During their rounds, everyone had to fill out charts and make notes for Keith if any of the animals needed medical care, and while they all had their own assignments, if someone finished early, they usually helped each other out. After the animals were fed, and their containment areas cleaned, they began exercising and socializing the dogs. And at around 4:00 pm, the animals were fed again.

It seemed like a lot of work, a never-ending cycle. The same thing, every day, seven days a week. Madison wondered when they all got the opportunity to have lives, but she realized that since they loved what they did, it probably wasn't considered work to them.

And being this busy certainly didn't prevent Keith from going on dates, did it?

Remembering how she'd seen him come home after only a couple of hours, Madison blushed, her mind going back again to what he and his date might have done in that short span of time.

"So," Keith finished, thankfully unaware of the direction Madison's thoughts had taken. "You can either wander around the place on your own and figure out how best you can help, or you can tag along with me again. What do you say?"

Because she glossed over the last bit of what he'd said with her daydreaming, Madison found herself improvising. "How often do you guys ride the fence line?"

"Once a week, usually Saturday, we make a day of it."

"Oh, that sounds nice."

Keith chuckled, "It's a lot to take in, isn't it?"

Relieved, since she didn't want to admit that she'd been wondering about his personal life when she should have been listening to him, Madison nodded. "Yeah, a little bit."

"You can shadow me for a few days until you find your place, okay? How does that sound?"

"Perfect."

Finished with breakfast, Keith cleaned everything up, including Madison's dishes, something she could easily get used to, and tossed her a bottle of water, grabbing a black thermos out of the fridge as well and looping the strap sideways over his neck and shoulder.

Afterward, they headed outside and straight to the Lycan Barn. Madison, having forgotten all about the painting and wanting to talk to Keith about it, had fun working throughout the day, it seemed almost relaxing even. As if the night before had never happened, the tension and odd feelings between them gone as well. The fact that the painting hadn't been on the counter where she'd left it, completely slipped her mind.

Keith put Madison through her paces, telling her how to do each individual task and allowing her the opportunity to try it out for herself, only stepping in if she needed help. A rather nice change of pace for him, and amusing as hell to watch her try to push a wheelbarrow full of meat into a den of wolves. While she hadn't shied away from touching the raw meat as she put in the wheelbarrow, she'd almost tipped it over twice, before finally getting it into the enclosure. Keith felt tempted to help her, but she made it much too entertaining for him to stand back and let her do it instead.

He also enjoyed watching her try to play with each and every wolf that got within her reach while she fed them. Some of the animals, like Darth, seemed more than willing to roll over and submit to a good belly scratch, while the more timid of the pack, Luna and Venus, tripped over themselves in fear trying to grab a chunk of meat and scramble away.

Madison, despite her clumsiness, possessed a natural ability with the wolves and he knew she would gain the trust of even the most fearful animal in no time. Keith supposed it came with the territory of having worked with wild canines at the Zoo in San Diego, but moreover, he realized it probably had a lot to do with her heritage too.

Robert didn't have any formal training, but nor had he ever had a problem with any of the animals at the ranch, not even the aggressive ones. As if they'd been able to sense the wildness in Robert, no matter how diluted, and they respected and loved him for it.

By mid-afternoon, having watched Madison tend to Jewel and the pups, and help him patch up the paw of a dog that would have required a muzzle had Tom been in the room, Keith felt satisfied that Madison would fit in perfectly at the ranch. With her compassion for the animals, as well as her extensive knowledge of medical care, Keith hoped he'd finally be able to give Tom a break once Madison got the hang of things.

More than up there in years, Tom had talked about taking some time off to visit his daughter in Jersey more than once. He'd yet to follow through with it though, probably because almost everyone saw how tired Robert became in the years following his first set of mini-strokes. Robert didn't like to complain though. He worked himself to death instead. Literally.

Madison appeared to have a lot of her father in her, even if she'd never known him, Keith noticed the same stubborn streak in Madison that Robert often displayed. Which was one of the reasons he was determined to look out for her. She reminded him so much of Robert, and Robert had looked after Keith, trusted him, and loved him. How then, could he not keep his promise?

After last night though, he understood it wasn't going to be easy.

How long did he have before she started asking questions? Remembering the painting, and how he'd found it on the kitchen counter when he'd showed up to make breakfast, he realized he didn't have long at all.

Madison was smart, smarter than most people would probably have given her credit for and Keith wasn't going to underestimate her, not even for a second. After he'd taken the painting back to his place, wanting to study it a bit more, perhaps even ask his old friend Lucas about it, he'd gone up to Robert's office, only to find the contents of the safe stacked in piles around the front of the desk. Judging by how she'd arranged things, he supposed she'd already gotten through all of Robert's financials, which he'd put in the safe as a filler. A distraction to anyone who might have broken in and snooped around.

It wouldn't be long before Madison found the records Robert kept pertaining to his family history and all the research he'd done on all things paranormal. Being as Madison hadn't said anything about it this morning though, Keith realized she might not have made it that far yet. It wouldn't take her much longer though, so he needed to start preparing himself for what he was going to tell her.

How did one go about telling someone that their father suspected they were born of some magical werewolf lineage though? Damned if he knew. Keith found it hard to believe himself, and he'd seen the proof. Madison would only get his word and the crazy ramblings of a self-professed madman.

That was one conversation Keith wasn't looking forward to.

The next couple of days saw Madison and Keith falling into a comfortable routine. Keith made breakfast, they ate lunch separately, and Madison took care of dinner. They spent their mornings together in the Lycan Barn, and then Madison would help Tom or Nicole in their respective enclosures while Keith made his way to the clinic to catch up on paperwork or see to the never-ending care of the animals.

Madison spent her nights and her lunch breaks in her father's office. She'd asked GeeGee to pick up a filing cabinet for her, and spent every free second of the past two days putting her father's financial paperwork in order, as well as looking through the remaining contents of the safe.

There were a lot of things she didn't understand, notebooks in a language she didn't recognize, pictures of people, places, and artifacts, articles on some of the craziest things she'd ever read. Some of them dating back to the sixteen hundreds! Her father spent a lot of time gathering information on what she considered fairy tales and folklore, and it honestly surprised her that he needed to store it in a safe.

What was more peculiar was his computer. While it wasn't a particularly new model, it looked like he hardly ever used it. Absolutely nothing was stored on it, and when she looked at the history, besides a few searches for directions and restaurant selections, it almost seemed like it was purely there for show.

Madison, being quite the capable snoop and techie, dug a little deeper into the computer's system, but she was surprised to find that there weren't any files to recover. Either the hard drive had been wiped clean, or her father simply didn't use that computer. Adding it all up, her father seemed a little eccentric if she did say so herself. Then again, the man spent the last twenty years or so in the company of animals and little else.

Or had he?

In the second to last stack of things she still needed to go through, Madison found her father's passport. He hadn't used it in over a decade, but in 2006, he'd traveled to both Germany and France, having stayed, according to the stamps, for a couple of months in France, and nearly six months in Germany as well as a brief visit to Tanzania in Africa.

Her father as a world traveler was quite an intriguing thought, but moreover, it helped make sense of other things. A lot of what she'd already looked at possessed roots steeped in Germany, and if one were researching such things, why not go straight to the source? It sounded like a pretty exciting adventure to her, she'd always wanted to get out and see the world.

During her first year with the zoo she'd taken a trip to Africa, where they'd picked up a pack of hyenas that the zoo agreed to care for after their habitat was destroyed, but other than that, the word travel hadn't really been a part of her vocabulary. Knowing she might possibly find living relatives in Germany though, Madison thought about how cool it would be to travel there like her father.

Did he meet them? Maybe he spent time with them on his travels? And what of the trips to Africa and France? She'd glanced at her father's files on their ancestry several times now, she didn't see anything that made her wonder if they were part, French. Perhaps his time there was strictly for pleasure. Or he simply wanted to visit Paris. She'd certainly visit Paris if she ever got the chance to travel to Europe.

Fantasizing about Paris and the Eiffel tower, or sipping some fancy coffee drink at a sidewalk cafe, Madison nearly missed the picture of the painting that sat ominously underneath the folder that contained her father's passport. She was so busy getting into the daily routine of the place, she'd completely forgotten about the painting and all the strange things that encompassed it.

Picking up the picture, she studied it carefully. Without the whispers and the weird energy surrounding it, she was able to note the delicate brush strokes and the radiant colors. Whoever painted it was gifted, to say the least.

As for the woman in the portrait, gosh, she really did look a lot like Madison. The hair, black with hints of blue. The brows, expressive and dark, and the eyes, just a shade away from being violet, the nose was different however, the woman's was a bit larger, whereas Madison had her mother's small pert nose. And the chin had a cleft; while Madison's was smooth and a tad stubborn. But whoever she was, she looked beautiful.

The man in the photo was equally attractive. He wore his blonde hair long, tied back at the nape of his neck and draped over his shoulder. His eyes were like ice, and his face regal, sophisticated. Had it not made her feel a bit foolish, she would have said he looked a little like Keith, only more masculine, where Keith's features were softer.

Turning the photo over, Madison noted a couple of names, as well as a date. 'Annalise and Gabriel, 1587.' Well, at least now she had a name to put to the face. After turning it back over and looking at it for a few more seconds, Madison found herself looking up at the wall where the painting once hung for a comparison, and it was only then, did she remember that she'd taken it down and put it in the kitchen.

But that was two days ago. And she didn't remember seeing it since, nor did she remember moving it. As she began to think about it a little more, things started to click into place. In the last two days, she couldn't pinpoint one instance where she'd felt strange or out of sorts. Or a time where she'd been uncomfortable around Keith, a little flustered from time to time, sure, but nothing to the degree of that first night.

Madison stood up, looking at the clock on her father's desk, she saw that it was just after 2:00. Keith scheduled an appointment at 3:00 with a potential adopter. Assuming he'd probably be in his office, giving the would-be-adoptee a check-up, or a bath, she headed in that direction.
Chapter 10

Criminal Lover

Damien woke up that morning to the loud, annoying shrill of his cell phone. He wasn't due at the station for another couple of hours, and after the night he'd experienced, all he wanted was a few extra hours of sleep. No such luck.

"Crowley." He said into the phone, his voice harsh, his tone sharp.

"Damien? Hey, it's Julie, I'm at work, and I'm sorry to be calling you so early, I should have just called this into the station, but, well, I figured you'd want to hear it first."

Damien grumbled, rolling out of bed and grabbing his shorts off the floor. Nearly falling over as he tried putting them on in the dark, he stumbled to the window and tore the blinds open, sunlight streaming in and nearly blinding him. The phone wedged between his shoulder and his ear, he finally managed to get his legs into the right holes.

"Is she still there?" He asked gruffly. Needing no further explanation.

"Yes." Julie replied.

"I'm on my way."

Damien picked up a pair of slacks that were tossed carelessly over the arm of a chair, and after sniffing them, slipped them on, heading to his closet to finish getting dressed. One of the best parts of being a detective was not having to wear a uniform. One of the worst was the hours. Some nights, like last night, he feared he'd never get to go home.

After spending what amounted to an eternity at the scene of a grisly crime, the murder and sexual assault of a child, all he visualized was sleeping for the next several weeks. It really wore on him at times. Like this latest string of cases.

There wasn't a lot of crime in the land of the Amish. Certainly not like there was in a bigger city, like, say, New York, where his family was from, and most of them still worked for the NYPD, but Damien found that he enjoyed the slower pace. Lancaster PD wasn't as big an outfit as some of their neighbors, he was one of only four detectives, and caught most of the sexually related offenses himself.

Like a one-man special victims unit. Some days were slow, and others seemed to last forever. It turned out to be the stepfather who killed the poor girl last night, a pretty open and shut case actually, but Damien was nothing if not thorough, and he stayed behind at the scene to make sure it was processed correctly. He wasn't about to let the sick son of a bitch walk because some rookie crime scene tech fucked up.

Dressed in yesterday's pants, and a slightly wrinkled button up shirt, Damien grabbed a protein bar and a cold coffee out of the fridge and slid behind the wheel of his pickup truck. It wasn't department issued, but they didn't have the money offhand to replace the patrol car he'd smashed up a few months back during a high-speed pursuit, so they agreed to let him drive his own truck, paying for the insurance and maintenance on it.

Which suited Damien just fine. He liked his truck, it was clean and reliable. And it was his, he didn't have to share it with anyone else at the department.

After putting in a call to his captain, filling him in on what little details he gathered during the brief conversation with Julie, a nurse at Lancaster General, that he'd been seeing off and on for the last few months, he made the short drive to the hospital. His mind already racing as he imagined what he might find, what condition the girl might be in.

Over the last six months, he'd caught three cases of sexually related assaults that, while certainly seemed sexual in nature, were anything but textbook. And while he had a prime suspect in mind, he was having one hell of a hard time nailing the son of a bitch.

A quick stop at the front desk and Damien was led back to one of the nurse's stations, where he found Julie nervously pacing behind the desk.

"Oh thank God, there you are!" She sputtered, crossing to him and going directly into his arms.

Julie was a little thing, her parents second-generation Asian-Americans, she was short and petite with black hair and brown eyes. And she smelled sweeter than any woman had a right to. Holding her in his arms, Damien amounted it to having his own little slice of paradise. Which, given the circumstances, gave him pangs of guilt. Just down the hall was a woman who said she'd recently been assaulted. Likely scared and confused.

And yet, here he was, happy. He really needed to start keeping his personal life out of his professional one, but it seemed hard to do with Julie. They had an amazing connection and always managed to have fun together. Another six months or so and he might consider asking her to move in with him.

And with that thought, he set Julie aside and asked her to take him to the latest victim.

Ms. Kieri Krycek, a thirty-four-year-old real estate agent, sat motionless in the hospital bed, staring down at her hands. She looked pretty despite the dark circles around her green eyes, and the smudges of makeup.

"Ms. Krycek?" Damien clarified. His voice full of compassion and sympathy.

He'd been doing this job for over a decade now, and he found that with a little charm, and a lot of patience, he was usually able to handle his victims fairly easily. Whether it was his unconventional good looks, or his soft and silky smooth voice, he never seemed to have any trouble getting his female victims to cooperate.

"Please, it's Kieri," she replied, almost too sweetly as she looked him over. Whatever thoughts plagued her a few moments ago didn't seem to bother her now.

"Alright, Kieri, my name is Detective Crowley, can you tell me what happened?"

"Honestly, Officer..."

"Detective," he said, correcting her as he cut her off.

"Sorry, Detective. Like I told the doctor, and the nurses, and my sister, I don't remember what happened."

Damien tapped his pen on the open page of the notebook he'd pulled out to write down her statement. He'd heard this same rhetoric from three other women already, and it was really getting old.

"Okay, Kieri. Why don't we start with what you do remember?"

Kieri nodded, some of her frustration easing. "My sister came by this morning on her way to work, we work at the same office, and I was supposed to have an open house this morning, when I didn't show up, she came looking for me. She found me lying in bed, but I don't remember how I got there."

"Your sister, that's Jasmine Carmaigne, correct?"

"Right."

"Okay, so you didn't show up for work, and Jasmine ran by your place to check on you and found you asleep in bed, but you don't remember how you got there?"

"Uh-huh." She replied, a little annoyed.

Damien smiled, trying to set her at ease again. Having a victim recount their details over and over certainly became frustrating, he understood that, but it needed to be done. Not only did it sometimes jog a person's memory if they heard their story from someone else's point of view, but it was imperative that the details were as accurate as possible.

"And what were you wearing?" He asked, throwing her for a loop.

"What?"

"When your sister found you in bed this morning, what were you wearing?"

Kieri needed to think about it for a moment, her reply strained as she began to sort out the details. "A t-shirt, the same one I wear to bed every night, and my panties."

"So nothing out of the ordinary?" Just like all the others.

Kieri shook her head.

"Can you tell me the last thing you remember before waking up this morning?"

"Sure. I'd gone to this coffee shop in town to hook up with this guy I met. But that can't be right," she argued with herself, her frustration pushing through her words.

"Why can't that be right? Also, what coffee shop was it? And can you tell me the name of the man you were meeting?" Damien asked though he feared he already knew the answer to that last question.

Kieri bit her lip, growing nervous as she considered her response. "You're going to tell me I'm crazy or something."

"Try me."

"Look, I'm not some drunk floozy, I don't just hook up with random men, I don't do drugs, I'm straight-laced. I work, a lot, and not much else. So when I met this guy at the feed store, I dunno, we kind of hit it off..."

"Which feed store?" Damien cut in.

"What? Oh, um, Pet Food Experts, on Greenfield Road, I take care of my neighbor's dog sometimes, and I did a house showing out that way, so I stopped to get some dog treats. He was paying for a bulk order, he said he worked at some animal rescue. I thought it sounded sweet." She said, rambling on. "I'm too busy to have any pets, so we were talking about that and then they called him Dr. and he said he worked as a veterinarian. That made him pretty hot in my eyes. Next thing I know, we're exchanging phone numbers."

"Okay, so you met him at the pet store, exchanged a few words, and then he gave you his phone number. How long before you met him for coffee?"

Kieri seemed to hesitate, perhaps unsure about trusting her own memory at this point. "We called and texted each other back and forth for a couple of weeks. He asked me out on Sunday night. He told me to meet him at the Prince Street Cafe on Tuesday night around 7:30, but he didn't get there until after 8:00."

"What happened next?"

"I honestly don't remember. The next thing I recall is my sister shaking me awake." Kieri looked down at her hands, wringing them together. "Do you really think this guy might have done something to me?" She asked, her voice only a decibel or two above a whisper.

Damien reached out and placed a hand on hers, giving it a gentle squeeze. He smiled at her sympathetically when her gaze met his. "We're going to get to the bottom of this, Kieri. That's all I can say. Now, I'm going to need you to describe him for me and tell me his name. Do you remember his name Kieri?"

"He's tall, he has blonde hair and blue eyes. Keith. His name is Keith Walker."
Chapter 11

Accusations

Madison found Keith exactly where she figured she would, but the scene she stumbled into was not at all what she expected. Keith stood next to a table, with a medium sized brown dog who had wiry hair, hooked up to one of those haunch holders groomers used as he affixed a small pink bow around one of her ears.

It seemed like such a small thing, but also so sweet. The dog's bottom wiggled, and she made several attempts to lick Keith on the face, he thwarted her advances each time, but the smile he wore told Madison how much he enjoyed the interaction.

"What's her name?" Madison asked, startling the dog who barked a couple of times before Keith gently patted her on the side and told her to shush.

Keith hadn't been surprised to see her though, in fact, the face he made said he had been expecting her all along. "Annie. Her name is Annie." He answered.

Madison held out a hand for Annie to sniff and reached around to give her a good scratching behind the ears. Meanwhile, Keith grabbed a brush off the counter behind him and got to work on her damp coat, brushing out any tangles he came across.

"How did Annie end up here?"

Keith laid down the brush, walking over to a folder that lay on his desk and opening it up for her to leaf through. She found several pictures inside, and they looked nothing like the dog on the table. Annie had been rather dirty, and mangled, her fur caked in mud, leaves, and debris. Another picture showed a close up of her neck after she'd been shaved. A large open wound ran across the underside of her throat like someone had left a collar on so small that it eventually dug into her skin.

"Someone dropped her off at animal control, and no one dared get near her. Every time they tried she would snap at them. They talked about putting her down, but your father happened to be there picking up another dog, and he agreed to take her."

Madison scratched Annie under her chin, and Annie responded by licking her hand enthusiastically. "I can't imagine this little sweetheart trying to bite anyone, but it's no wonder she did with that gaping hole in her neck!"

It angered her that someone had done that. Annie seemed about as sweet as apple pie and absolutely adorable to boot! She would have guessed some kind of terrier, perhaps an Irish Terrier or a Lakeland, given the color of her coat and her size, neither of which breeds were easy or inexpensive to come by. So why anyone would have tied her up outside and left her to rot was beyond Madison's comprehension.

"How long has she been here?"

Keith closed the folder, setting it down on the table and attempting to untie Annie as she squirmed and wriggled with excitement. "About a year. It took time for her to heal, and we wanted to teach her some manners, she came here completely vulgar, not very lady like at all."

Madison laughed, the way he talked about Annie, one might assume he spoke of a human being. But that might have been partially true in the eyes of some, after all, animals appeared as, if not more intuitive than some people, most of them certainly nicer to be around.

"Will she get adopted today?"

"I have a woman coming all the way from Texas to meet her, I doubt she's going to leave here without Annie."

"All the way from Texas? Wow." Madison exclaimed, surprised by the reach of her father's efforts. She hadn't realized people came from all over to adopt the dogs her father rescued. But she supposed that when you found the right one, you would go to great lengths, or in this case distances, to meet them.

Madison smiled to herself as she realized the same logic might be used for people too.

The sound of a couple of dozen barking dogs interrupted what remained of their moment. Keith slipped a leash around Annie's neck and the three of them headed outside to meet her potential adopter.

The ruggedly handsome gentleman that stepped down from the big white pickup truck in the driveway, however, was not the little old lady Madison expected. And judging by the scowl on Keith's face, he definitely didn't look like a welcome visitor.

"Detective." Keith ground out through clenched teeth, picking Annie up and practically shoving her into Madison's arms.

"Mr. Walker, I can't say it's a pleasure to be seeing you again."

Before Madison said anything, Keith turned to her, his expression stern, "Madison, can you please take Annie back into the clinic and secure her in one of the crates?"

"Sure."

Madison walked away quickly with Annie squirming in her arms. Keith had addressed him as 'Detective' and it sounded pretty clear that the two of them knew each other, the how and the why of it all concerned Madison though.

What did a cop want with Keith?

Keith led Detective Crowley away from the barn and towards his cottage. It'd been more than a month since he'd had the displeasure of talking to the arrogant Detective, and since he already knew, based on previous visits, why he'd shown up here, he sure as hell didn't want anyone who might be nearby to hear their conversation.

"Would you like something to drink?" Keith asked him after they'd gone inside and he indicated that he should sit at the table in the kitchen.

"Nothing for me, thanks."

Giving the man a smile that looked anything but pleasant, Keith sat down at the table across from him, waiting for what he expected to be nothing short of an interrogation.

Detective Crowley pulled out his notebook and slid a pen out from behind his ear. "Mr. Walker, can you tell me where you were at around 6:30 this morning?"

"Here."

"Can anyone verify that?"

"Yes. I had breakfast up at the house with Madison..."

"Madison? The girl outside with you a minute ago?"

Keith sighed audibly, letting his frustration be known. He really didn't want to get Madison involved in this. "Yes. Madison is the new owner of the ranch. She's Robert's daughter."

Detective Crowley looked up from his notes, "Huh, I didn't know Robert had a daughter."

"Well he did, or, does. As I said though, I had breakfast up at the main house with Robert's daughter, and we headed to the wolf enclosure."

"Together?"

"Yes, together. Madison is a zoologist, she has experience working with wild animals, and she'll eventually take over caring for the wolves here." Keith explained as if he owed this particular individual any explanation at all about anything.

"Alright, I'll have to speak to Madison to verify what you've told me."

"To verify what?" Madison interrupted, quietly closing the back door behind her and walking into the kitchen.

Keith caught himself before he ended up shouting at her to leave, grumbling under his breath instead. He really didn't want Madison involved, some things were better left unsaid, and this happened to be one of them.

Damien got to his feet hastily, his chair scraping the floor, as he held out a hand to Madison. "Good afternoon Mrs..."

"It's Adams, Ms. Adams, but you can call me Madison. And you are?"

Madison declined to take his hand, folding her arms across her chest as she came to a stop behind Keith, it appeared to Damien, as though she had already taken sides, and he began to wonder what sort of relationship, the two of them had.

"Very well," he conceded, sitting back down at the table. "Madison, I'm Detective Crowley, Mr. Walker here and I were discussing his whereabouts this morning, around, oh, say, 6:30?"

Damien watched with practiced composure as Madison frowned, looking down briefly at the back of Keith's head before turning her attention back to him.

"I woke up at 5:00 this morning, I found Keith in the kitchen making breakfast by 6:00, like he has every morning since I've been here."

Damien nodded, noting that in his book. At least now he didn't have to ask him about the two previous mornings as well. "And how about Tuesday night?" he inquired, looking straight at Keith. "Between 8:00 pm and the following morning?"

Keith continued to face forward, giving nothing away and probably trying to bore a hole into his head, Damien supposed, but he found it interesting when Madison cocked her head, her hands reaching out in front of her and gripping the back of Keith's chair.

"I'd gone into town," Keith answered after another couple of minutes. "I met a woman for coffee at the Prince Street Cafe, I got there sometime around 8:00."

"And after that?"

"We ordered a couple of drinks, and walked to the park down the street, she bought a taco. I'd already eaten."

Damien scribbled it into his notebook, it all sounded innocent enough, not that he bought it. He'd already spoken to the barista at the cafe, she hadn't been working that night, but she'd pulled both the video footage and the receipts for the evening around the time in question, and so far, it jibed with what Keith said.

The park he mentioned, however, he knew it well, an open community space up the road from the cafe and it changed from night to night. They called it a "pop-up park" and the activities varied. He probably wouldn't find anyone to prove or disprove what Keith told him at this point.

"What time did you arrive back home?"

Keith shrugged, "a couple of hours later, I'm not sure. I didn't check the clock."

Madison cut in, coming closer to the table and standing in between them. "I watched Keith pull up a little after 10:00." She claimed.

Keith glanced at her strangely, almost surprised that she came to his defense. Damien had a hard time believing it too.

"You're sure?"

"Yes," Madison said adamantly. "I spent the evening in my father's office, and the window overlooks the farm. I needed a break, so I looked outside, and I noticed Keith's truck pull up, and I remember thinking that it seemed strange." She looked at Keith, and quickly back at Damien, her face flushed with heat. "Keith told me he had a date, and I thought it weird that he would only be gone for a couple of hours. I looked at the clock, it must have been about 10:15."

Damien tapped his fingers on the table for a second, glancing at Keith and wanting to wipe that smug little smile off his face. He knew Keith had something to do with what happened to Ms. Krycek, the problem being he didn't know what that something was. He became more determined than ever to find out though. The pretty boy doctor appeared to be hiding something, he could feel it, and whatever it was, he'd figure it out, eventually.

"Well," Damien said, getting to his feet and closing his notebook before shoving it into his back pocket. "I thank you for your time, Mr. Walker, Madison. I'll let myself out." Surely there was nothing left for him here. Even if he asked what he assumed to be the right questions, Ms. Adams, Madison, proved to be more than willing to stand up for him. Whether or not he bought her story and Keith had gotten home two hours after meeting Kieri at the cafe, he still remained the last person to lay eyes on her before her lapse in memory.

One way or another, he'd prove that Keith had something to do with Kieri's lost time, as well as the three other women who claimed to have met up with him before succumbing to short-term memory loss.

Standing in the kitchen, Madison waited until she heard the Detective's truck start up, watching out the window while he backed down the driveway, before she spoke. "Do you want to tell me what the hell is going on here?"

Keith stood abruptly, crossing to the utility room to look in on the puppies. "Not particularly."

"Oh, really? I go and stick my neck out for you and what? I don't deserve an explanation as to why you're being questioned by the police?"

"Madison, I didn't ask you to 'stick your neck out for me,' in fact, I didn't want you to."

"Well, gee, you're not welcome then, Keith. Though, a simple thank you probably would have sufficed."

Keith crossed the distance between them, laying his hands on her shoulders and forcing her to look at him. She got a good impression of his rage, a completely tangible and almost palpable thing.

"I didn't want you getting involved in any of this, Madison. This is my problem. Damien is my problem. Do you hear me?"

A little frightened, Madison took a couple of steps back, breaking their contact.

Keith saw the uncertainty in her eyes, and realized what he'd done, he wanted to reach out to her again but knew he shouldn't. He didn't trust himself with her, not in this house. The anger, the words, while certainly his own, he would have never lashed out to such an extent. He usually maintained more control over his emotions.

"I need some air," he said, getting ahold of himself. "Will you come outside with me?"

Madison nodded, following a few feet behind him as they walked out the back door and Keith headed in the direction of the dog park.

Satisfied when he didn't see anyone nearby, Keith led her to a shady spot under a large oak tree and leaned back against the trunk. "Madison," he began, knowing he needed to choose his words wisely. "There are things I need to tell you, things you should be aware of. But now isn't the time. And I need you to trust me on this. Can you do that? Can you trust me?"

Madison didn't say anything at first, she stared at him blankly as she considered his words. She had no idea what he meant, things he needed to tell her? It sounded cryptic and secretive. She'd grown so tired of secrets. Her mother, her stepfather, hell, even her father, they all kept secrets, and they all kept them from her.

How many more secrets did she have to withstand?

"Are you in some kind of trouble?" She finally asked.

"Yes, and no." He replied, his face expressionless.

"What does that even mean? Yes and no? You either are or you aren't."

He understood her frustration, to say he didn't would have been a lie. Madison dealt with lies and deceit her whole life, and the biggest secrets were yet to come. But as he watched a little red Toyota pull into the driveway, this conversation and the answers she desperately yearned for would have to wait.

"Is this the lady?" Madison asked, looking at the car as well.

Keith nodded, "Yes, it's her."

"I guess you should get over there, and Keith?"

"Yeah?"

"In answer to your earlier question, yes, I can trust you. I DO trust you, you're about the only person I trust right now, so don't screw it up."

Keith stood watching her walk back up to the main house for a minute before meeting Annie's new owner at the clinic. Whether she'd been telling Damien the truth, and he suspected as much, Madison, as she said, put her neck out for him. And he wouldn't soon forget it.

She'd also told him he happened to be the only person she trusted, which meant a lot to him. He would have to do his best not to screw it up. He'd already made too many mistakes these past few months, been less than careful, and now it had come back to bite him in the ass.

Robert, of course, felt bad about Damien and the things he accused Keith of even though there might have been a shred of truth to the accusations. Robert did everything in his power to protect Keith, especially knowing he inadvertently caused him to do what he'd done, to begin with.

But now with Robert's death, Keith didn't need to be here twenty-four seven, so he'd make sure something like this didn't happen again. He'd be more careful, much more careful. For now, though, he'd made a date with a hot little brunette and her soon to be new owner.

Madison slammed the door shut behind her. In a couple of hours she'd need to help Keith feed the wolves, but honestly, she considered telling him to do it himself. He refused to give her direct answers, sidestepping her questions. It infuriated her!

She'd become so sick of the lies and the secrets. So tired of everyone treating her like this fragile little thing! Damn it, she wasn't going to break! She thought she'd proved her strength already. She'd beaten cancer, she'd grown into a strong confident woman, and she'd followed her dreams.

Despite everyone assuming they needed to shield her from the truth and walk on eggshells around her, she'd made something out of her life, out of herself. She simply wanted everyone to treat her like the tough, independent woman she'd become. Up until now, she thought Keith would.

He'd seen the woman in the little girl, she'd been certain of it. He didn't see her as Robert's little girl, but as a woman, a strong, capable woman. Moreover, he treated her like his equal, and in the few days they'd spent together, she'd come to admire and respect him. Hell, she'd even developed a little crush on him, of course, that being beside the point and all. She wanted Keith to respect her, and she wanted him to treat her like a normal human being.

How stupid of her.

With no idea why the cop showed up, or what, for that matter, Keith's part in all of it might have been, it frustrated her to no end. One more thing in a long line of them to piss her off. And of course, thinking about it, and Keith's pigheaded response to her wanting to help, only made her more aggravated about the whole situation.

What was his deal?

One would assume he'd be happy she'd been both willing and able to provide him with an alibi. Just like a man to get pissed off at a woman for trying to help. Whatever, he'd said he'd deal with it, butting out and letting him handle it probably wouldn't be the worst idea. The rational part of her brain said to mind her own business, but her conscience reminded her he obviously wasn't doing a very good job of handling it, or else the police wouldn't be questioning him about...

What the hell had he been questioned about? His date? She'd walked in on the conversation a little late, but it certainly seemed like the whole thing revolved around his date. Did something happen? An accident or something? Or, and this seemed like an avenue she didn't want to go down, perhaps the woman might have said Keith did something to her?

The last line of reasoning sounded impossible. In two hours? How could she conceive Keith had driven out to Lancaster, sexually assaulted a woman and rushed back home, all in two hours? Other than being totally crazy it made absolutely no sense to her. With technology these days, she'd bet the cafe would be able to provide video footage, and if it showed Keith with the woman in question, wouldn't it mean he'd probably only have enough time to drag her into some alleyway or his truck, have his way with her and shove her back out into the streets. Surely someone would have seen him do it?

Heck, even if the woman lived nearby, and he'd gone back to her place, it still didn't seem like enough time to assault her, at least not if he wanted to be smart about it and hide all the evidence.

And clearly they didn't have anything concrete to pin on him, the cop wouldn't have left without him otherwise. None of it made sense, and until Keith wanted to fill her in on the details, she would be grasping at straws. He gave her no choice but to trust him. So she would. Madison suddenly noticed something digging into her thigh, reaching into her pocket, she pulled out the carefully folded up picture of the painting.

The painting!

Damn! She'd forgotten all about it! Her whole reason for seeking Keith out in the first place, and she'd forgotten about it from the moment she saw him putting the pretty little bow on the dog's ear. Imagining the scene again made her smile. He must've been one of the most handsome men she'd ever met, and the way he interacted with the animals simply melted her heart.

How anyone deemed someone as sweet and loving as Keith as capable of hurting even a fly, let alone a woman, seemed beyond her. But those were mostly her feelings coloring her perception. She'd already admitted to having a crush on Keith. Real feelings for him, not the imagined kind, and they seemed to grow each time she got near him.

Even in his anger, as he gripped her shoulder, and basically yelled at her, Madison resisted a strong urge to reach out to him, to show him affection.

Wait, what?

Madison slowly remembered the moment when Keith turned on her, when, in an instant of weakness, a millisecond of rage, he'd become someone else. Someone she didn't recognize. No, not quite. She conjured up her feelings as clearly as possible, she'd been scared, and a little angry herself, but some part of her, something deep within her subconscious recognized something off about Keith.

Like a kind of déjà vu, but every time she tried to grasp the memory it faded. It remained forever out of reach, and it really started to annoy her. Especially since the emotions she'd experienced before didn't plague her these past couple of days. Not since...

Not since she'd taken the painting down and put it in the kitchen.

But she picked up those same vibes in Keith's house today. The pull. An urge to be near him, to protect him, an innate sense of trust in him. She somehow realized he would never hurt her despite his sudden outburst because she'd recognized the difference in him.

Had Keith taken the painting back to his place? It sounded like the only explanation capable of making sense to her. But would he have? Someone moved it out of the kitchen, but since those strange feelings no longer plagued her, she hadn't given it any real consideration.

Keith happened to be the only other person not including Al with a key to the main house and the code for the alarm system though, so it must have been him. But why did he take it with him? Why wouldn't he have asked Madison the reason she'd put it in the kitchen, to begin with? Unless he'd been getting those weird déjà vu moments too and wanted to figure out why. Could that be it?

Madison really needed to stop allowing herself to be distracted long enough to get some answers out of Keith.
Chapter 12

Strange Desires

Frustrated and tired as hell, Damien walked into the ADA's office, hoping Jaci would be in a good mood and willing to go to bat for him. His luck fell short as of late but hopefully with another name to add to the ever-expanding list, she'd finally be able to pull a damn rabbit out of her hat. Everyone called Jaci a magician in the courtroom after all.

"Jaci!" He exclaimed with exaggerated enthusiasm.

Jaci, however, wasn't buying it. She'd barely glanced in his direction, taking a sip of her coffee and flipping the next page of whatever magazine she pretended to be reading. Things looked pretty slow these days, besides arraigning that psycho child killer this morning, Jaci didn't get much action.

A shame, especially since Jaci had always been particularly nice to look at with her long legs and creamy mocha colored skin, but she acted like a real she-wolf in the courtroom. She tore the defense and their witnesses to pieces faster than a Tasmanian Devil. You never wanted to get on Jaci's bad side.

"What can I do for you, Crow?" She asked absently, flipping another page.

"Oh, nothing much. Just wondering if you might be able to get me a warrant, that's all."

He piqued her interest. Glancing up, her hazel eyes flickered with mischief. "Oh?" She asked. "And what might you need a warrant for?"

Damien grimaced, as fast as he'd gotten her attention, he would likely lose it. "The Melton place."

With a sigh, Jaci dropped her head, her eyes landing back on the magazine.

"Oh, come on, Jaci, I only need a warrant, that's it. There's been another victim, you can't keep ignoring this!"

"Another victim you say?" Her tone flat, disinterested, she didn't even bother looking at him. "If this victim is anything like the last three, I'm sorry Damien, I can't help you."

Damien wanted to pound his head against a wall, he kept getting nowhere with this case, and the one thing that might help him tie Keith to it all, a warrant to search the property, seemed no closer to being signed.

"Four victims! Four!" He shouted at Jaci, who, while appearing bored, at least looked at him at this time. It annoyed the hell out of him, trying to talk to her when she ignored him. "Four women, Jaci, and all four say they'd been out on a date with this Walker guy before waking up two days later with no memory of the past forty-eight hours. That can't be a coincidence!"

"I agree with you Damien, but it doesn't change the fact that I can't get you a warrant for the Melton place. We've been through this more times than I'd care to count, there are five sitting judges at the courthouse, and they all happened to be besties with Robert Melton. Is your memory so short that you don't remember what happened the first time I tried this?"

Damien grumbled, no, he had a perfectly good memory. It simply pissed him off that women continued to be attacked and he'd been helpless to stop it, especially considering Keith Walker remained virtually untouchable barring some major piece of evidence linking him to one of the women.

At first glance, it looked like your typical date rape case, but the deeper he dug, the weirder things got.

Because they didn't have any evidence. They dusted each woman's house for fingerprints, but never found Keith's among them. They found no DNA, no fluids, no hairs, no fibers, hell, even without getting the test results back for the last two rape kits, preliminary tests showed no signs of sexual assault at all. Virtually nothing to go on!

No drugs or alcohol in their systems, though, to be fair, forty-eight hours provided more than enough time for whatever, if anything, in their systems to disappear, but it didn't make it any less strange. These women all reported two days of lost time after going on a date with Keith. Two days where they remember nothing before waking up in their own beds, in their own clothes.

And weirder still had to be how none of the women remembered eating, drinking or having gone to the bathroom at any point while still managing not to relieve themselves or defecate in their beds. It ultimately suggested they'd been mobile at some point, so why didn't they have any memories of it?

And of course, Keith had come up with an ironclad alibi for all of the times and days in question.

Keith insisted he met each woman in public, fairly close to where they lived, and according to his own admission, spent two to three hours with all of them. He never saw them a second time or spoke to them afterward, and unfortunately for Damien, no less than three people at the ranch, each time, reportedly saw him there throughout the day, during the two days following his date. He'd also, much to Damien's dismay, already offered up, even at the reluctance of Robert, his DNA for testing if they wanted it.

Of course, since they didn't have anything to match it to, he saw no point in getting a sample. It frustrated the hell out of him. Furthermore, when Jaci attempted to get him a warrant after the first attack, hoping they might find something in his home, or at the clinic, Robert Melton and his lawyer tore the ADA's office to shreds.

Robert Melton, not only the trusted golf buddy of every single justice on the bench, also became a major benefactor come election time. Even with his death, Damien wasn't foolish enough to hope a judge would be willing to suddenly turn on him.

They'd already warned Damien and Jaci to stay away from Robert Melton and Keith Walker, and without some kind of definitive proof, he'd likely never get a warrant to search the property.

Madison decided against helping Keith feed the wolves, she worked with Nicole that night instead, while pumping her about information on Keith's social life. To which Nicole proved to be quite informative.

According to Nicole, before it became apparent that Robert's health might be failing, Keith would frequently take time off, disappearing for days at a time. That all stopped after what she referred to as the 'incident,' though.

A woman they all assumed Keith had been seeing for some time, showed up at the ranch one afternoon, and while Madison didn't find that odd, she began to understand why things around the ranch were the way they are as Nicole continued with the story.

Keith apparently, never brought girls back to the ranch, being as he and Robert liked their privacy, he also made it a point not to tell the women he dated what he did for a living or where he worked. Which seemed a bit paranoid to Madison. But this one girl probably followed him for months as he'd said he'd long since broken things off with her.

She'd come to the ranch spouting nonsense about Keith being responsible for her addiction and how he abandoned her, since Madison couldn't imagine Keith as some sort of low life drug dealer, especially considering the money he made working for Robert, she, like everyone else, assumed the woman dealt with mental health issues. Nicole said her father forcefully removed her from the property and threatened to call the police if she came back.

A warning she clearly dismissed because Nicole said the girl came back that night and ended up getting attacked and mauled to death by a mixed breed they recently rescued at the time from a fighting ring. The safety measures currently in place hadn't been implemented yet, and the dog somehow got loose.

Nicole admitted, that while she suspected Keith did go out from time to time, he didn't, at least not in the last six months, stray too far away from the ranch for more than a few hours, and she doubted he did much dating anymore.

It became clear to Madison that he blamed himself for the girl getting killed.

Having learned more about Keith in one conversation with Nicole than in the fours days that she'd known him, Madison saw a clearer picture of him as a person, and perhaps now understood what he needed to tell her. Armed with that knowledge, she decided they would have a nice long chat over dinner.

Only, he didn't show up.

Pissed that her pot roast would go to waste, Madison threw some leftover food into a container and marched over to Keith's cottage, not even bothering to knock, but rather charging right in.

"Keith!" She yelled, scaring Jewel who started to bark, her puppies whining as their nursing session was interrupted. Madison bit her lip, whispering an apology to the dog in an attempt to calm her down, before going in search of Keith.

And she found him. Boy did she ever.

Keith appeared a moment later in the living room, his head wet, a towel wrapped low around his lean waist and droplets of water dripping down his chest, sliding over his chiseled abs and disappearing beneath the towel. Mouth gaping open, Madison did her best to stop herself from drooling.

There wasn't one inch of Keith's body that she could see, not covered in lean muscle. Like some sort of alabaster statue carved by a master sculptor. Other than celebrity athletes, Madison didn't think she'd ever seen a body so immaculate before. And when she finally began to gather her wits about her, Madison found herself moving towards him.

Or rather, they were moving towards each other. Her brain tried to break through the fog surrounding them, but the miscues became debilitating. Every time her mind said stop, she took another step forward. The intense look on his face called to her, pulling her in. He didn't say a word, and yet volumes were spoken between them.

Madison imagined what it would be like to run her fingers along his body, she saw herself tracing the outline of each muscle, she tasted the little drops of water on her lips as she kissed him. And she smelled the musky scent of his cologne as he engulfed her in his embrace.

Like looking through a kaleidoscope, a million different images of the two of them ran through her head, but not a single one of them made sense. His clothes, his hair, their surroundings, everything looked different.

Not until Keith forced her away from him, and their lips broke contact did Madison realize she hadn't been imagining anything. Everything she'd seen, everything she'd done, it all happened. She'd run her hands along his naked chest, she'd kissed him, and he'd kissed her back.

"You should go," Keith whispered harshly.

Madison nodded. With no idea what had come over her, she wondered if she'd been possessed, but either way, Keith was right, she needed to leave. Because all she thought about, was doing it again.

After tearing out of Keith's cottage, Madison ran home as quickly as possible, not catching her breath until she got inside, her back leaning up against the door. With no idea why this happened, or more accurately, how it happened, she became flustered by what she'd done.

She'd kissed Keith.

She'd touched Keith, and she'd kissed him, intimately. And it felt, amazing. Despite not understanding the why or the how of things, pressing her lips to Keith's seemed natural and simply beyond amazing. He gave her a sense of homecoming, a degree of familiarity even, but that didn't make any sense considering she'd never met Keith before coming to the ranch.

Hell, nothing about the past four days made any sense to her, and every time she tried to understand it, she became gripped in the throes of some mystical occurrence. That's the only way she'd been able to describe it. Supernatural.

Perhaps her father hadn't been crazy at all. Werewolves and witches, vampires and ghosts, maybe everything her father spent years researching actually existed. Why else did he have such a keen interest?

As she grabbed a bottle of water out of the fridge and began to wonder if insanity ran in the family, Keith walked through the front door. At least he looked fully clothed this time. Madison flushed with color when he came into the kitchen, still thoroughly embarrassed by her wanton behavior. She'd never thrown herself at a man before, especially without even realizing it!

"About what happened back there..." Keith began after the silence became uncomfortable.

"I'm sorry!" Madison blurted, cutting him off. "I honestly have no idea what came over me, Keith, I'm so sorry."

Keith smiled though, shaking his head. "It's okay, Madison, really. You don't have to apologize to me. There's a perfectly good explanation for what happened."

"Is there? Is there really a good explanation as to why I attacked you with my mouth? Because I sure as hell can't come up with one."

Laughing, Keith rounded the kitchen island and sat down at the breakfast bar. Madison certainly had a way with words, he found himself really starting to like her.

"If I give you the shorthand version of what I believe happened, can you be satisfied with that for now? There's a lot I'm still not sure about, some things I need to figure out, people I need to talk to, but I think I've got a slight handle on it."

Madison leaned over on the counter, deciding to keep some distance between them should her inner slut get out again, not that she thought it would. Her mind seemed rather clear at the moment. Thank God for that.

"Alright, go ahead and tell me I'm crazy," she joked, trying to cut the tension between them.

Keith gave her a skeptical look, "You're not crazy, Madison." He assured her. Right before blowing her mind. "You're haunted."

"Excuse me, what?"

Madison swore she'd heard him wrong. Haunted? Isn't that what he said? And that was supposed put her at ease and assure her that she wasn't crazy? Suddenly it hit her though, she'd never told Keith about the ghost in the bathroom, or the strange sense of urgency she'd noticed every time she got near that painting.

She'd chosen instead, to say nothing to Keith at all.

Laughing, Madison wondered if he read minds or something because damn it if nothing else made sense.

"What's so funny?" Keith asked, surprised by her reaction. He didn't really know what to expect when they finally had this conversation, when he confessed his concerns to her regarding the painting and her ancestry, but insane laughter didn't seem right.

"I'm not sure," Madison chortled. "For some reason, you telling me what I've already been thinking for the past few days, somehow it just seems funny to me."

And because he couldn't help himself, Keith laughed too. She might've been right, perhaps it was a little funny. After all, who ever heard of being haunted by a ghost into voyeurism?

"This might sound a little strange," Madison chimed in a few minutes later after their laughter subsided into fits and giggles. "But when we kissed earlier, it seemed almost like, like I knew you. Is that weird?"

Keith shook his head. "No. It's not strange at all. I felt it too. Kind of like, well, almost like seeing pictures from a previous life or something, one where we'd been lovers."

"And that doesn't seem weird to you?"

"Madison, there's so much I need to tell you, things that you probably won't believe, trust me, I didn't at first myself, and I'm not really what you would call, 'normal' to begin with."

"I dunno, you seem pretty normal to me, but then again, I don't really know you, do I?" Madison reasoned, coming around the counter and pulling out the seat next to him. "When were you going to tell me about Danielle?" She asked, changing tacts, she'd had enough talk about ghosts for the night, all things considered.

Keith sighed, heavily. "Okay, wow, Danielle. So Nicole told you about Danielle?"

"I asked her about your social life."

"Why were you curious about my social life?"

Madison shrugged. "After that little run-in with the cops this afternoon, and the fact that you were literally only out on your date the other night for like two hours, let's just say I found it a little interesting, and I didn't think you'd come right out and tell me the truth. So I asked Nicole, and she told me about Danielle."

"What exactly did she tell you?"

"She told me that before my father got sick, you dated often, usually leaving for days at a time and that about a year ago, one of your girlfriends stalked you, followed you home, and got attacked by a loose dog and died."

Keith grimaced, he still remembered the night all too well. Danielle had been a mistake, but of course, he didn't realize that until it was too late. She'd been unstable, to begin with, and he only made it worse. She became addicted to him, to what he did to her, unable to handle life without him. Or the fact that he'd rejected her at all.

Robert had been the one to find her.

The dog, ironically named Mercy, attacked her outside the barn, she'd probably been on her way to Keith's house at the time, and after Mercy showed her anything but what his name implied, he'd lain by her corpse, protecting her dead body fiercely.

Fearful that he would attack again after tasting human blood, Robert made the fateful decision to put him down. Nobody questioned Keith at the time, he hadn't been home anyway, but rather in New York, with Hayley. He'd needed comfort, and a release of sorts after Danielle showed up the first time, so he'd sought out Hayley, another one of his "regulars" as he called them. Though, after Robert told him what had transpired, he'd broken things off with Hayley as well.

And he decided from that point on that he would never mix business with pleasure again.

Keith remained only too grateful that Damien didn't connect the death of Danielle to him. He kept waiting for the day when he did, or when he expanded his search and found half a dozen more cases like the ones he currently invested himself in figuring out.

Keith hoped that wouldn't happen, that the women he'd 'dated' in Delaware, New Jersey, and Maryland hadn't sought medical care or talked to the police, but he didn't fool himself into thinking it couldn't become a possibility. At least he took comfort in knowing Damien didn't tie those cases, if they existed, directly to him. He'd been too paranoid, so he stopped using his real name, and he usually wore a baseball cap, and contact lenses.

If only he'd continued to be so careful. Well, next time he would. He'd stop being so naive and go back to 'dating' away from home, and using an alias. With Madison here now, he'd be able to go out for longer periods of time, get back to doing things in a way that wouldn't land him in the path of the police.

"Keith?" Madison called. "Earth to Keith, where are you?"

With a shake of his head, Keith brought himself out of the past, realizing he must have spaced out on her. "Sorry? What?"

"I asked you about Danielle, and that Detective here earlier, what did you say his name is? Damien?"

"Yeah, Damien, what about him?"

Madison noticed that at the mere mention of the cop's name, Keith's mood seemed to sour. Okay, definitely some bad blood there.

"This Damien guy, is he saying you have something to do with Danielle's death?"

"I doubt it," Keith admitted, and for once, he gave her the whole truth, no evasion. "I'm not sure what Damien assumes I did, but I'm pretty sure it has nothing to do with Danielle."

"Hmm," Madison mused, her thoughts running away with her. "I bet if you took away whatever leverage this Damien guy thinks he has over you, he'd probably go away."

Keith laughed, "You underestimate Damien, the guy is like a dog with a bone. Not even Robert and the threat of a lawsuit could make that man disappear. And now that Robert's gone, well, he'll eventually come after me that much harder."

"What is it that he wants from you? Like, what are you not giving him?"

"Your father liked his privacy, Madison, so it's not what I won't give him, it's what Robert didn't want to give him. I didn't have the right to do it, and Robert flat out refused. He wanted to protect me I guess."

"A search warrant? Is that what you're evasively talking about right now?" Madison demanded, "And by the way, I find that quality in you highly annoying."

Keith laughed, "Noted. And yes, Damien has been chomping at the bit trying to get a search warrant. But Robert seemed pretty chummy with every judge in the county, hell, probably every judge in the state, it would be like one of them signing a death warrant for themselves as far as their careers were concerned, nobody is stupid enough to cross Robert."

For some reason, Madison enjoyed hearing that. Knowing her father had been not only well-liked and incredibly powerful in his own right, but that he remained fiercely loyal and dead set in his convictions. That he trusted Keith so implicitly made her realize that she should too.

"Is there anything on this property that you or my father wouldn't want the police to see?" Madison asked, though she figured the answer would be no, she wanted to be sure. What she considered doing sounded crazy, and her father, God rest his soul, would probably be rolling over in his grave if he knew.

"Of course not," Keith answered without hesitation. "Why?"

Madison held up a hand, pulling her cell phone out of her pocket and asking Siri to dial the Lancaster Police Department.

"What are you doing Madison?" he asked, his voice slightly shaky.

Madison didn't respond. She waited for someone to answer on the other end. "Yes, hi," She said as a female voice came on the line. "I'm looking for a Detective Crowley. Okay, thanks, yes, I'll hold."

Keith looked at her as if she'd grown a second head, unsure of what game she was playing at, but he didn't like it.

"Hi, Detective Crowley, this is Madison Adams, we met earlier this afternoon? Yes, the Melton place. Look, this has all been one big misunderstanding, and I wanted to go ahead and give you and your department permission to search the property. Provided of course, that you leave everything the way you found it, and are as discreet as possible, I wouldn't want to upset any of the staff here."

Keith felt his stomach sink, his heart nearly giving out on him. Did she really just give them permission to search the property? Was she nuts? God, he started to wonder about her sanity, either that or she was freaking brilliant! She might be right, let them poke around a bit perhaps and they'd leave him alone. Because they would never find anything amiss.

There was nothing to find after all.

He listened as she finished up the conversation, wishing he'd been able to hear what Damien said on the other end, but she moved too far away from him, and the volume on her phone remained low enough that, while he heard Damien's voice, he could only make out every other word. Damien thanked her, and they set up a time, all and all he seemed surprised by Madison's call.

Damn, Keith wished he could be a fly on that wall, what he wouldn't give to see the expression on the bastard's face!

"Alright," Madison said with a look of pure feminine delight. "We're all set, Damien and his technicians will be here tomorrow morning, and we're going to tell everyone it's an inspection by the state."

"And you're sure this is a good idea?"

"Of course," she replied confidently. "What have we got to hide?"

More than you know, Keith said to himself. More than you know.
Chapter 13

What's my Age Again?

Damien leaned back in his chair, propping his feet on the desk as he chewed a pencil, trying to make sense of his conversation with Robert Melton's daughter. He'd been fighting the last six months, pulling out every investigative trick he came up with to obtain a search warrant for the Melton place, but Robert had been firm in his convictions.

Robert maintained Keith Walker's innocence despite whatever foolish notion Damien conjured up. The old man had been sure of it. So sure of it in fact that he threatened Damien's job if he so much as came near him again. Robert dies, and his daughter does a complete one-eighty. Where the hell had she been six months ago?

Curious about Ms. Adams, he'd placed a call to a private investigator friend of his, even though a detective himself, he could only obtain so much information on his own, red tape and all. So far, he'd found out that she'd moved to the area and obtained a driver's license this past Monday, and she'd previously lived and worked in San Diego, California. He also learned that her parents were listed as Tammy and Rick Adams. Not Robert, which didn't necessarily mean anything.

As he had no reason to suspect Robert's daughter of anything, lies or otherwise, opening an investigation into her past wasn't so easy. No, Damien suspected she'd told him the truth anyway, Keith had very likely gotten home a few hours after leaving, but two hours seemed like plenty of time to do... something, to all of these women.

And Damien was adamant about finding out what that something could be.

Tomorrow would be a good start; though he suspected he'd likely come up short. Ms. Adams appeared so sure they wouldn't find anything incriminating at the ranch, which meant they probably wouldn't. Either there was nothing to find, or they'd already gotten rid of the evidence. He'd bet on the latter himself because he didn't buy the doctor's innocence, he, like any other good cop, didn't believe in coincidences.

Damien realized it would take some time to hear back about his inquiry into Robert's daughter's background, so after filling his captain in on the latest development, he stopped off at the crime lab and put together a small team for the following day's excursion. Afterward, he met up with Julie for dinner before going back to his place to let off some steam.

Madison and Keith spent the bulk of the evening together at the clinic. In addition to making sure that absolutely everything was in order, and properly labeled, Madison asked Keith to pull the invoices for the entire ranch. Anything they ordered or bought in the last six months, she wanted a copy of the receipts.

She also asked him to make copies of his bank statements for the last few months, doing the same for herself, even though she'd only been here a few days, and she went back through the records she'd filed and pulled her father's financials as well. If Lancaster PD wanted to dig around in her father's affairs, she'd make sure they got more than they'd bargained for.

She wanted to show them that not only did the ranch have nothing to hide but that they were idiots to be looking in Keith's direction, to begin with. She'd keep them bogged down with paperwork for the next few months if nothing else, and that alone made her smile. Madison didn't like being pushed around, the ranch belonged to her now, in the short time she'd been there it had become her home, and the staff, her people, she wouldn't let anyone try to intimidate her or anybody she perceived as valuable to her.

And Keith was definitely valuable to her, probably even on a deeper level than she'd first realized.

While they'd worked, Madison attempted to resume their earlier discussion about ghosts, seeing as they both agreed that they were being haunted, and none too subtly at that! Keith told her that the painting had a lot to do with it, but he still wanted to wait and hear back from an old friend before explaining how he arrived at that conclusion.

For now, the painting would remain at his place, and Madison would stay as far away from the cottage as possible. Keith assured her that whatever mystical force this turned out to be, it didn't seem to affect him without her around. And since his reasoning appeared to be sound, Madison didn't object or question him further, she trusted him to keep her in the loop if and when he found anything out.

She didn't, however, mention the talisman she'd found in her father's safe, or tell him how she'd sent pictures of it to her friend back home. Frankly, it hadn't even crossed her mind. Madison didn't connect the two, the charm was just something she'd been interested in. Whether or not it contained a supernatural power didn't really concern her. With everything currently going on, she'd put off looking through the last couple of folders from her father's safe as well.

Madison suddenly became concerned about the contents of the safe though, while she figured it didn't contain anything that might be construed as incriminating in any way, she still didn't want someone to assume her father had been some sort of lunatic. After sharing her concerns with Keith, he came up with a viable solution, one that ultimately surprised her.

"Why didn't you show me this, to begin with?" Madison asked as Keith lugged the safe down into the basement.

"I wanted to make sure I could trust you." He replied with a wink.

Keith pushed the false panels in the basement powder room aside and hefted the safe and all its contents with ease, into the safe room. Annoyed, Madison pushed past him and walked into the small ten by five space. While certainly not a large room, it came well equipped and shed light on one of the bigger mysteries Madison had stumbled upon.

The room had a table that spanned the length of it, two giant monitors sat on either side, broken up to show video footage of every common room in the house, as well as each of the barns, the clinic, Keith's cottage, barring his bedroom suite, and the common rooms of the staff housing as well.

In the middle of the screens sat two computers, a desktop hooked up to the security system, and a laptop, which explained why the computer in the office had hardly ever been used. Her father apparently had all the technology he needed downstairs in his little hidey-hole. Two chairs occupied the room, which suggested to Madison that Keith often spent time down here as well, and under the table, hidden by a rug, he showed her a steel door.

Keith flipped a switch cleverly hidden under the table and Madison heard what sounded like a locking mechanism disengaging. Keith easily opened the hatch on the floor and led her down a narrow set of steps into a storm cellar.

The storm cellar, which sat under the house, looked like one big open space, probably the size of the kitchen, and filled with crates and boxes. Keith explained that they had enough food and water down there to hold over a small army for a couple of months if needed as well as boxes of books and magazines for entertainment.

When she dared to ask why her father had felt the need for the safe room, let alone the secret lair, as she called it, Keith shrugged. "Paranoid I guess. He never really explained it to me, then again, I never really asked either."

"It doesn't seem... odd, to you?"

"Not really. But that's probably just me."

Madison didn't understand how he could be so cavalier about her father's paranoia, but as she looked around the cellar, impressed by what she saw, at least she admitted that her father never half-assed anything. The cellar had electricity, and running water she realized after spotting a spigot in one corner, and she also noted a couple of boxes labeled bedding. Once again, he'd thought of everything.

"God," she sputtered, opening one box and finding stacks of cash in small bundles. "Did he expect a damn apocalypse?"

Keith walked over to where she stood, peeking into the box himself, he laughed. "That's certainly like Robert, ready for anything."

Madison wanted to laugh too, she really did, but she found the whole situation more sad than funny. What kind of life did her father really have if he was this paranoid? And what did it have to do with the contents of his safe? She realized the two were tied together somehow. She also wondered what Keith's part in all of this was.

Keith seemingly had a hand in everything. He seemed integral to every last part of the ranch and her father's life, so much so that Madison wondered just how long they'd known each other. Keith didn't look that much older than her, but Molly said he'd been around for at least six years.

God, there were still so many things Madison didn't know, so much she didn't understand. She had a ton of questions and none of the answers. Keith had told her he trusted her, so perhaps now would be a good time for him to start filling in some of the blanks.

Once they got back upstairs, Keith handed her a piece of paper rolled into a tube. "What's this?" she asked as she slowly unrolled it on the countertop.

"It's the blueprints for the entire property, Robert had two copies made, the original one with the safe room and cellar on it were destroyed, and this is the copy he registered with the county."

Madison studied them for a moment, saw that they were exactly what he said they were, and rolled them back up. "What am I supposed to do with this?"

"Give them to the technicians tomorrow, that way they don't feel the need to go looking for anything extra. I don't necessarily think they'd expect to find false panels in a bathroom, but you never know. Better safe than sorry."

Madison agreed, and in doing so, she wondered if that made her a bit paranoid too. What did she honestly care if someone looked in her father's safe? She hadn't seen everything in it, but she'd yet to find anything that would interest the police.

Plenty of people collected weirder things than stories about werewolves and vampires. She really shouldn't listen to that little voice in her head, the one ringing all those warning bells. But something deep down kept whispering to her to be careful. Not everything was as it seemed.

Ha! What an understatement!

"Hey, Keith?" she asked, pulling a pizza out of the freezer and putting it into the oven she'd preheated before going downstairs with him.

"Yeah?"

"My father seemed really interested in the paranormal, why is that? You said he got that painting from a relative in Germany, I saw his passport, he'd been in Europe for a little while, did he know the painting had a supernatural element to it? Is that why he'd gone there?"

"Wow, um, that's a lot of questions," He said, sitting down at the table and taking a sip from the black thermos he seemed to always have on him.

"Oh, trust me, I have a lot more, those are just the ones that came to mind first."

"Alright," Keith laughed. "I'll see if I can't answer as many as possible while you eat."

"Aren't you going to have some too?"

"Bizarre as this might sound, pizza isn't really my thing, I'll eat something when I get home."

"You mean you actually have something in that fridge of yours other than blood?" Madison teased, wrinkling her nose as though grossed out by the very idea of it.

Keith shook his head, ignoring the jab. "Your father and I spent almost a year in Europe together researching his ancestry."

"Wait..." Madison cut in, remembering something. "You two went together? But that was almost eleven years ago. How long ago did you meet my father?"

Keith gulped, hoping she didn't notice. He figured they'd have to have this conversation sooner or later, but he really opted for the latter. It hadn't been this hard to talk about his past with her father. Robert seemed to just know. And, thankfully, it hadn't bothered him in the least. He wasn't so sure Madison would feel the same way.

"I met your father in 1998."

After a brief pause in the conversation in which he watched Madison doing the mental math, she seemed momentarily distracted when the timer for the oven buzzed loudly. Thankfully it gave Keith enough time to catch his breath and swallow his nervousness while she cut the pizza and came to the table with a couple of slices and a bottle of water.

"Okay, so you met my father in 1998? You must have been pretty young; when did you start working for him?" She asked between bites, making steady eye contact all the while.

"1998."

Madison stopped chewing, cocking her head, "What?"

"Let's just say I'm older than I look."

She studied him for a moment, not sure what to make of his answer or if she should ask for a better explanation. Luckily for Keith, because his nerves began twisting into knots, Madison decided to let it go, at least for now.

"Alright. Fine. I guess men are allowed to be finicky about discussing their age too. Moving along."

Keith sighed inwardly realizing it wouldn't be long before she asked another question that would bring her closer to the truth.

"You said you guys traveled there to research his ancestry, why?"

"A person isn't allowed to be curious about their heritage?"

"Sure they are. But my father took a DNA test, and he hired a private investigator to dig up his lineage, dating all the way back to the 1200's. Isn't that enough?"

Keith nodded, "For some people, yes, it might have been enough. But once Robert realized he still had living relatives, however distant, in Germany, he decided he wanted to meet them and get a first-hand account. I became a little curious too, so we did it together. You're making this out to be some kind of top-secret mission, Madison, and it's not nearly as fascinating as it seems."

Madison didn't agree. It was more interesting to her than he'd ever imagine. She'd grown up wanting to be part of a huge family and knowing she had an extended network of relatives out there thoroughly intrigued her. How many of them were still alive? What were they like? Did they really practice witchcraft and magic? She had a million questions. If only he knew.

"And all of this paranormal stuff? Where does that come in?"

"Didn't you read any of the stuff in your father's safe?"

"Some of it. There's a lot there, and most of it's kind of repetitive, like different accounts of the same stuff. It didn't really make any sense to me."

"Then you must not have read all of it," Keith responded, getting up from the table. "Madison, you're from a long line of gypsies, your heritage is surrounded by folklore and legends, all of that so-called paranormal stuff, it's all a part of your ancestry. Go through the rest of the safe, I promise it'll all make sense. I'm going home, I'll see you for breakfast."
Chapter 14

Fruitless Efforts

When Madison came downstairs the next morning, she didn't find Keith in his usual spot, standing in front of the stove. Madison had been here a full five days, and in that time, she'd come to enjoy having breakfast with Keith, and not because he knew how to fry an egg or made a mean stack of pancakes.

Keith made for good company, she enjoyed their interesting conversations. Madison talked about home a lot, and he gave her little insights into his youth as well. His father had been a doctor, like his father before him, while his mother owned an alterations shop. And there had been a younger brother named James, who he said passed away much before his time.

It seemed lonely this morning without him.

She found a stack of file folders on the counter waiting for her, and a note, as well as a bag from Dunkin' Donuts. Keith wrote that all the receipts and papers she requested should be in the files and that he would let her deal with the police while he kept everyone else busy and out of the way.

She wondered if she'd upset him in some way last night. It didn't seem like Keith to avoid her. Or perhaps it was, hell, what did she know? Except for that little voice inside that told her otherwise.

Shaking off that sinking feeling, Madison enjoyed her muffin, gathered all her things and headed for the clinic.

Damien got there at exactly 10:00 am and didn't seem at all surprised to be met at the gate by Madison rather than Keith, after all, she'd been the one to orchestrate the whole thing. After politely handing him a rather large box filled with file folders and explaining that they held copies of any and all purchases made by the ranch or any of its staff members over the last six months, as well as the financial records for herself, Walker, and her father, Madison gave him a list of the chemicals and medications on hand, and began instructing them on how the search would go.

She seemed like quite the bossy little thing. And he almost admired her for it.

If not for the fact that she undoubtedly covered for Keith in some way, Damien might have actually respected Madison for her ability to take charge and the thoroughness with which she saw the job through.

Madison informed him that while she'd given him her permission to enter every building on the property, they shouldn't disturb or destroy anything or anyone. And due to the nature of the ranch's operations, Madison would accompany them everywhere. Counting his blessings for being there at all, Damien didn't balk at any of her demands.

For good measure, in addition to a team of five crime scene technicians, Damien brought along a friend of his in computer crimes, and a couple of canine teams, one from the narcotics unit and the other a cadaver dog, presumably, to search for dead bodies.

In order to respect the privacy of the staff members, Damien and his techs kept it to a simple walk-through in their quarters while allowing the dog handlers a sweep through as well. Other than a couple of joints and a bowl tucked away in the dresser of one of the younger staff members, they found nothing out of the ordinary and wanting to be charitable, Damien gave the young man a warning and left it at that.

Madison took them through the barns next, one by one, starting with the livestock. They'd let all the horses out in the field, which made for a pretty quick search and as expected, turned up nothing of interest.

The dog barns seemed a little harder to maneuver. Though some of the dogs had already been taken out to what she called a training field, others still remained, and Madison made them wait for her to enter each individual enclosure and lock them out in their dog runs, for safety reasons of course.

The clinic took the longest as they attempted to match the chemicals and medications to those on the list Madison provided, but since they kept the place in meticulous order, it felt more tedious than anything.

At one point, while inspecting the clinic, Madison treated Damien to that stubborn tenacity Robert had been so famous for which surprised him even though it shouldn't have, Madison claimed to be Robert's daughter after all. However, it might have been the intelligence she'd shown while verbally manhandling his technician rather than plain arrogance that caught him off guard.

"Do you have a warrant?" She asked Damien's IT guy.

"Well, no... but I thought..."

"You thought what? That I would hand over the clinic's computer? We're trying to run a business here, and I've already been far more gracious than you deserve."

"Yes, ma'am..."

"You're welcome to take that nifty little laptop of yours and clone the hard drive, but I'm not going to let you walk out of here with it. Besides patient records and business contacts, you have everything of importance that pertains to this ranch and the people that live here."

Damien gave her credit for being such a smooth operator, he could see why Robert entrusted her with his home and business. Lancaster PD did business with Robert a few times in the past, seven of their ten dogs were rescued and trained by this very ranch, though after hearing about Robert's death, Damien didn't give much more than a passing thought as to who might take over.

Looked like they found the right woman for the job.

Thank God she wasn't completely like her father though, he might never have gotten this opportunity otherwise.

The little blunder with his IT guy aside, the rest of the search operation went smoothly and quickly, with absolutely no results. The barns looked clean, the storage areas organized and free of anything incriminating, and the house appeared spotless.

Though he found the wolf barn to be quite fascinating, he saw absolutely nothing of interest from a legal standpoint at the Melton property, which made him curious as to why Robert fought so hard against letting him do a search the first time around.

He had a hunch he knew though.

Keith probably learned to perfect whatever crimes he kept committing; that's what it came down to. Whatever evidence he hid, Robert's daughter probably wasn't in on it. He worried about her, she was attractive, young, and living with a predator.

His tail between his legs, Damien apologized to Madison for having to put her through this ordeal and thanked her for her cooperation. Keith failed to show his face the entire time, not that Damien held the desire to see him or the notion to apologize for accusing him of well, anything.

Damien and his crew packed up, leaving with enough files and paperwork to keep them busy for the next several weeks, and he didn't look forward to it. Today might as well have been a colossal waste of time. No closer to figuring out the case, Damien grumbled to his colleagues about getting one hell of a headache on top of it all.

Madison watched them go and headed inside, straight to the safe room. As she suspected, Keith sat in one of the chairs, watching the monitors.

"How long have you been here?" She asked.

Keith shrugged. "A while."

"Thanks for the muffin."

"You're welcome." Keith turned towards her, a weary look on his handsome face. "You care to go out for dinner tonight?"

"What did you have in mind?" Madison sighed, sliding bonelessly into the chair beside him. After what amounted to one awfully long day, she felt absolutely exhausted mentally, and the last thing she wanted to do right now was cook; good thing Keith read her mind.

"I could go for a good steak."

"Outback?"

"Sure," he chuckled, getting to his feet and lending her a hand.

Keith must not have known his own strength in that moment, or the safe room might have been a tad too small, because while helping her to her feet, Madison suddenly found herself coming up hard against his body, which wasn't soft by any means.

Nearly knocking the breath out of her, Keith laughed low in his throat as he looked down into her eyes to apologize, it had been one hell of a day, and clearly, his reaction time was a bit off. But when their gazes met, something flickered in her eyes.

Despite the incident last night, the tension slowly began to build between them, and neither of them needed a ghost to tell them they were attracted to each other. But Keith knew better, and with that knowledge, he realized he'd be taking advantage of Madison, something he refused to do.

Until he told her the truth, all of it, he needed to find a way to keep himself, and her if necessary, in check. He couldn't allow himself to lose control. Not with her. So Keith wrapped his arms around her, and though he wanted to do much more than merely hug her, he pulled away moments later, a soft smile on his face.

"I wanted to thank you," he said.

"For?" she whispered absently, lost in the sensation of her body against his.

"For today, for sticking up for me and having my back. I'm not sure how I would have gotten through all of this without you and Robert, and since he's not here, I'm thanking you."

Madison wanted to believe there was more to it than that. She hoped he'd faced some inner struggle, and that thanking her proved that he could be a gentleman. Because the way she felt, the thoughts swirling in her brain, the emotions fighting and clawing to the surface couldn't possibly be in vain. Forget about the ghost, forget about the supernatural pull between them, this seemed real. There had to be something here, and she didn't want to let that something go.

At least not without a fight.

"Sure, anytime." She agreed, gathering up her thoughts and feelings and compartmentalizing them for now.

She'd come to the ranch to get to know her father, to escape from her mother, and to find herself. But now that she'd spent a few days here, she realized she'd never want to leave. There would be plenty of time to convince Keith that this thing between them was worth exploring.

For right now though, she'd settle for dinner.
Chapter 15

When You're Evil

When the front door slammed shut, Cybil sat up in bed a little straighter, her robe slipping down her shoulder and exposing the swell of one creamy breast. She seemed not to notice though, turning down the volume on the TV while she waited for her companion to enter the room.

Sean walked in moments later, carelessly tossing his leather jacket onto a chair in the corner of the room and dropping a brown paper bag into Cybil's lap before heading into the attached bath.

Cybil saw that her lover was in a foul mood, and as she pulled a bottle of lukewarm butcher's blood out of the bag he'd given her, her own good spirits seemed to fall. She continued to grow quite bored with their current situation, she figured Sean wouldn't be able to handle much more of this wait and see game either.

He came out of the bathroom within minutes, a scowl on that pretty face of his.

"Oh, don't pout." Cybil chided, pursing her lips together and tossing the bottle of blood at him.

"I don't want this shit," he grumbled, setting it on the bedside table and coming down on top of her, his mouth finding her bare shoulder, his lips slowly working their way across her collarbone and towards the top of her exposed breast.

Cybil sat back, her head rolling against the pillow in delight as the weight of his body pressed her into the mattress. "What do you want?" She asked breathlessly.

Sean moved the silky fabric of the robe further down her arm, taking as much of her breast into his mouth as possible and sucking her rosy nipple into a tight peak. Cybil moaned, threading her fingers through his hair and holding his head in place as he gorged himself on her flesh.

She moved beneath him, her body arching into his, begging to be touched, needing the heat of his skin against hers.

Sean pulled away though, looking down at her with a smirk on his face as he admired what little of her lay before him. "You know what I want." He told her, reaching for the belt of her robe and slowly undoing it, pushing it aside to uncover the rest of her glorious curves. Cybil had an amazing body, slender and curvy in all the right places. And she'd always had a penchant for making a man, feel like a man.

Pulling his shirt up over his head, Cybil ran her fingers along his torso, delighting in the texture of it. She took pleasure in the way his muscles rippled and quivered under her touch. If Sean had set out to bribe her, it was working... so far.

He let her have her fun, enjoying the way she traced his nipple and twisted her fingers in his chest hair. Then, as her hands slipped lower towards his jeans, he gripped her wrists and held them with one hand, high above her head.

Cybil liked it when he took control, it made her vulnerable, as if he held all the power, even though she had the ability to break his neck in a single snap, or tear his head off with ease. Role-playing was her favorite thing. A helpless little lamb, and he the big bad wolf. Just the thought of it sent shivers down her spine.

"Just one," Sean murmured to her, dipping his tongue into her navel and sending a little ripple of pleasure through her.

Cybil smiled, pulling a hand free of his grasp. She tucked a finger up under his chin, tilting his face up and forcing him to look at her. "Not. Yet." She purred, placing her palm on top of his head and pushing him lower.

Sean's eyes flickered in rage but he allowed her to guide him towards the intimate divide between her legs. He grew angry for being kept on such a short leash, but the best way to make Cybil pay was by torturing her with pleasure until she eventually broke. Many times he'd gotten what he'd wanted simply by devouring her body until she begged for mercy.

Releasing his hold on her other wrist, Sean tucked his hands up under her thighs and pulled her closer to him, then he used his mouth to conquer her. He licked the length of her, and he sucked her into his mouth, using his tongue to fracture her sanity.

Little by little he tore at her resolve, his lips enticing her, taking her to the outer fringes of passion and desire. He teased and tormented every contour of her delicious femininity. His technique potent, Cybil soon found herself vexed. He decimated her senses one by one, sending her into a near catatonic state.

Cybil realized she would have given him just about anything he asked for in that moment if only he'd bring her to climax. She should have thought better than to test his anger, he became insufferable in such a mood. Though rarely did he afflict so much agonizing pleasure on her as he did now. He made her yearn for things that words couldn't begin to describe.

A fire built inside her, the sweltering heat engulfing her, the flames lapping at the frayed edges of her self-control. Her blood started boiling, her restraint slipping. Craving a competition with all the ferocity of the beast contained inside her, Cybil bit into her wrist, driving herself over the verge of hysteria, and plunging headfast into one of the more intense orgasms one might hope to manage.

And when her blood flowed, as it dripped slowly down her body, Sean became more voracious in his pursuits. Like an addict getting his next fix, one hit of her lifeblood and he turned into a savage beast, the animal inside him hungry for more.

Sean swiftly mounted her, tearing off his jeans and crashing into her. His body colliding with hers in the most primitive of ways. He sank every ounce of energy into her, pounding his flesh against hers. A fast, reckless, and vicious mating, almost to the point of painful as they reached for the ungodly bliss that waited for them at the other end of the tunnel.

He pitched himself into the darkness, and she held onto to him with every last scrap of strength she had. He became feral, yet she didn't seek to tame him. With a wild abandon she sacrificed herself for his pleasure, she welcomed his fury as he buried himself inside of her.

Cybil waited until Sean rolled over, then she slipped from the bed and snatched her robe out from under the tangle of bloody sheets, leaving Sean to catch his breath while she went into the bathroom and took a shower.

She came out a while later to an empty bedroom, the bed stripped, the soiled sheets in the hamper by the closet door. Sean may have enjoyed his sex with a bit of dirt and grit, but he'd always been meticulous otherwise, one of the qualities she liked best about him. She counted on him to clean things up.

And Sean remained equally adept at disposing of a body.

Fond memories came to mind while she hunted through the closet for something to wear. Gone for nearly thirty years, Cybil had been less than a month into her return trip to the States when she ran into Sean. She'd scoured the eastern coast of the U.S. looking for something she'd been forced to leave behind, only to find out that he'd left.

Then she found Sean. Bored and lonely while following a lead in Boston, she ran into Sean, like, literally. He looked breathtakingly beautiful, and she sensed the evil running through his veins. Cybil virtually smelled the blood of the innocent on his hands. She found it exciting, exhilarating even, to finally come across someone as sadistic and manipulative as herself.

So, of course, she'd seduced him and lured him into her little games. He'd been almost too easy really, her one regret, because she honestly enjoyed the chase. She liked her men better when they crawled to her on their hands and knees, begging for mercy.

Not to say that it hadn't been worth it, in the end, Sean proved to be invaluable to her. Capable of so many things, but intelligent whereas most of her pack members often acted recklessly, and calculating where others appeared more basic in their execution.

He was also a lot of fun in the sack.

Cybil had missed that most, someone to entertain her both in and out of bed. Sean filled that void quite nicely even if he would only be a placeholder in the grand scheme of things.

After six years of searching, and six years of torturing innocent people from all walks of life, all over the United States, Cybil had finally found what she'd been looking for. And yeah, maybe she could have found him a lot sooner if she hadn't allowed Sean to distract her the way he did, but what was a journey without a little fun along the way?

It didn't matter now, they lived within miles of what she wanted, and while her lackeys handled things back in Siena, Cybil tasked Sean with watching after the thing she treasured most. She kept tabs on Keith, she knew his habits, his haunts, and most of all, about him being hunted.

He kept company with dangerous foes, and played a game he wouldn't win in the end without her, Cybil had seen the hunter's kind before, she'd found pain and loss at their feet, her life had been brought to near ruins by the very ancestors of the cop that plagued her champion, and sooner or later, she figured she would have to step in and fight this battle for him.

But she had to be patient, just as she continued to tell Sean. The scientist was valuable to her, and to her kind, which included him, and she would need time to regain his trust, to build a new bridge after having burnt the last one. And if all else failed, she'd need a backup plan which required research and preparation.

Cybil found Sean in the living room of the small condo they rented off of Parkside Avenue. While nowhere near as posh the lifestyle as she was used to, she said they were laying low and called it an adventure. Sean called it a shit hole, and he would know, having grown up in a trailer park in Florida.

He sat on the couch, one leg tucked under the other and a foot resting on the coffee table while he read the newspaper. Something Cybil still didn't understand. With technology so advanced she didn't get why he continued to refuse reading the news on the extravagant tablet she'd bought him. He insisted he found comfort in it though, so she left him be. Far be it for her to mock him for wanting to hold a stinky piece of paper in his hands if it made him happy.

"Read anything interesting?" She asked her words accented in a washed out version of the English language, something Sean found funny since Cybil had been born in Italy.

"No, but you might be particularly interested in the news I have concerning you beloved, pet." He replied, heavily lacing that last word with a degree of venom and distaste. It became clear that Sean was both jealous and territorial, attributes that greatly pleased Cybil.

"Oh, do tell."

Sean folded the paper up and set it on the coffee table, crossing one leg over the other as he leaned back and flung his arms over the couch.

"Well, for starters, as you know, Lee said there's been another attack and that your boy is getting quite sloppy in that regard, but you're the one who convinced the silly little twit to go to the police in the first place, so that's not really the interesting part. She did say that our hunter friend is growing restless though."

Cybil frowned, she wasn't quite ready to get more involved, but it looked like time might be running out. Damien didn't appear to be progressing fast enough.

"It also seems that your boy has a new friend."

"What do you mean, a new friend?"

Sean smiled, it looked deliciously vile, his lips cocking to one side while his brows furrowed in a villainous glare. He apparently took great pleasure in Cybil's discomfort, something she'd have to keep and eye on.

"I haven't been able to pump our dear friend Lee for much information lately, she's been quite reluctant to take our relationship to the next level." He mocked, his brows rising seductively. "But she's informed me that the ranch has a new owner."

Cybil rolled her eyes, "And this affects me how? I don't give a damn who he works for, the old man he seemed so fond of is gone, we assumed someone would take over, if anything, it helps. Now that someone else is there, he may not need as much persuading to leave."

"I'm not finished." He hissed, sitting forward, growing tired of being patronized. "Lee said that Damien, our little hunter, has assembled a task force, he's convinced your scientist is responsible for the attacks on these women."

Cybil smirked, pleased to hear that at least part of plan to isolate Keith appeared to be working in her favor.

"Lee tells me, however, that according to her friend down on the ranch, this new owner, a woman, has basically thrown herself into the middle of it all, even though she's only been there since Tuesday," Sean said, his tone lighter as he watched Cybil's smile fade, a spurt of jealousy baiting her with every word.

So far, almost everything had gone exactly as she hoped it would, now was not the time for distractions, and Cybil didn't like what she was hearing at all. She began chewing her lip, frustrated by the news Sean had gathered from their intel.

Sean leaned back again, a lazy smile on his face, he rather enjoyed causing her pain. "She also suspects," he said with childish amusement, "that your doctor has grown quite fond of the woman already. Ms. Adams, I believe it is, the old man's daughter."

As she sat on the loveseat across from him, Cybil glowered, repeatedly bouncing her cell phone on the arm of the couch as she assessed the situation. She considered herself meticulous when it came to planning things but with jealousy coloring her perception, Cybil seemed on the edge of losing control of the situation.

Which played right into Sean's hands.

For months now, Cybil had eyes and ears down at the ranch, which included a source almost too willing to gossip, so she'd known just how close Keith and the late owner, Robert, had been. She realized that while Robert lived, Keith would never leave him, some sort of blind loyalty, and Cybil had been prepared to take steps, then, as luck would have it, Robert had succumbed to natural causes.

But this newest wrinkle deeply concerned her on more levels than one.

"I wonder if they've slept together yet?" Sean mused, trying to push her over the line. "I mean, they've only known each other for about a week now, but Lee did say she'd heard that Keith couldn't seem to keep his eyes off her. Lee said she's really pretty. Do you think Lee's pretty?" He asked, smiling stupidly.

Cybil started seething with rage, so much so that it became a palpable thing. And it pleased him. He had her right where he wanted her, watching as she failed to control her emotions. It would only be a matter of time now before she gave into her temper and exploded.

"How do you feel about killing someone for me, Sean?"

His smile widened. "What did you have in mind?"

"I simply thought that I might be able to give you what you want after all. And in the process, you'd be killing two birds with one stone."

"Or perhaps with a serial killer instead of a stone?"

"Precisely." She smirked, folding her hands in her lap. Cybil couldn't afford any more distractions, it seemed past time that she sped up the process and made sure to isolate Keith from those around him. And she knew exactly how to do it.
Chapter 16

Dark Storm on the Horizon

Nearly a week after he searched the Melton property, Damien had managed to go through every report, every receipt, every scrap of paper he'd been given, and he hadn't found anything. Not only did Keith and Robert keep their records in perfect order, he found absolutely nothing incriminating in any of them. Their orders appeared timely and everything coincided with the product they'd found at the clinic.

He was, however, a little curious about some of the chemicals ordered. Speaking to the forensic pathologist down at the lab he discovered that while not traditionally found in Veterinary medicine, Keith might have used the compounds to aide somehow in advanced healing, but would need extensive knowledge in pathology to even attempt something of that degree, as mixing chemicals and running controlled tests or experiments could be rather dangerous.

Of course, this information merely made Damien even more suspicious of Keith Walker and prompted him to look further into his background. He'd run a standard criminal background check after the first attack, but seeing as he found nothing and the man always came up with an ironclad alibi, he didn't bother running a more thorough check into the man's personal life.

He supposed now would be as good a time as any given this new bit of information. Something about Keith set off alarms in his head, the man just didn't sit right with him, but he couldn't have said why. All outward appearances, Keith seemed like a genuine hero. He rescued and rehabilitated unwanted dogs, he gave them hope, he gave them new lives.

But there was more, there had to be more. The four women were proof of that. He may not have had any idea what really happened to any of them, but he knew Keith Walker had something to do with it.

He hit another wall with his latest background check though too. Vital statistics listed Keith Walker as having been born in 1983 on an American military base in Germany, giving him US citizenship. His parents listed as Lucas Romano and Kaila Walker, his father an Italian general, and his mother an unmarried sergeant in the Army, thus why he took his mother's last name and moved with her back to the US.

He'd been raised in New Jersey, and according to transcripts attended college in Maryland, studying Public Health, before getting a degree in Veterinary medicine. Which would explain his interest in pathology as well. Everything about Keith Walker appeared to be squeaky clean. He literally couldn't catch a break.

Until he finally did.

He'd been about to leave the station for the night when the hot new records clerk, emphasis on the hot, came into his office.

"What's up Ace?" He asked.

Ace, her first name Beverly, recently transferred in from Boston and hoped to work in forensics someday. For now the twenty-one-year-old with the long legs and the hot ass, worked in the records department while she studied down in Maryland.

"I've been going over those papers you gave me, and well, I found an anomaly, so I did some more research, and, you're going to want to take a look at what I found." She beamed, obviously proud of herself as she opened a folder on the desk in front of him and showed off her find.

"Well, I'll be damned," Damien said thinking out loud. "This is good Ace, real good."

"I hoped you'd think so. I also hoped you let me keep digging, I like this whole sleuthing thing, logging evidence, and filing papers all day isn't all it's cracked up to be you know."

"Yeah, of course. I'll ask the captain to bring you in on the case, I sure as hell wouldn't have found this otherwise."

Ace smiled, she liked Damien, both smart, and handsome, he also held a reputation for being damn good at his job, which she respected. Apart from Molly, a girl in her English Composition class, she really didn't have any friends, and she hoped one day that Damien might consider her a friend, or maybe even something more.

Damien thanked her for all of her hard work, assuring her she'd hear from the Captain, before turning back to the folder she'd dropped off and ultimately dismissing her. Ace took the hint, retreating as quickly as she'd come.

As he looked at the evidence a second time, Damien almost didn't want to believe it. This latest information opened up a completely new avenue for him to explore, and one that didn't make much more sense from a logical standpoint than his first assumption.

There were people in this world capable of creating entirely new identities, most of which happened to be reserved for those in top government agencies, and usually held up under scrutiny. Keith did not appear to be one of those people.

While true that he possessed an identity that would have held up under most circumstances, Ace somehow managed to find the loophole. Because according to records from the Maryland School of Veterinary Medicine, Keith Walker did not graduate in 2007.

But a Keith Welker did, only, he graduated ten years earlier.

Damien had no idea why, or how he'd forged transcripts, but he supposed it might not have been that difficult for someone with his intelligence given that only the year and one letter of his last name needed to be altered, but it sure as hell put an interesting twist on things. As well as raising a lot of questions.

Like, who is Keith Welker? And what happened to him?

Things at the ranch finally calmed down. Madison and Keith enjoyed a nice dinner together on Saturday, and on Sunday, she and Molly bonded while on a trip through Amish town to rescue a dog abandoned near one of the local farms. Madison enjoyed the drive, the countryside looked beautiful, reminiscent of another time since the Amish remained so set in their traditional ways.

They picked up the dog, a Catahoula from the looks of it, from a ten-acre spread owned by a Mennonite family just south of Ephrata. Although the farmers thought the dog, with his patches of merle and his hound dog face, looked completely adorable, they claimed to have enough animals and weren't in the market for a new one.

Rather than take the dog to the local shelter though, they called Keith, informing Madison that they'd adopted a collie mix from her father a few years ago. It made her smile, between seeing the good deeds first hand, and listening to Molly recount various memories on the trip over, Madison began to forget all about her father's eccentricities and paranoia, quickly falling in love with the man he was.

Not for the first time Madison wished she'd been able to meet him. She still hadn't found it in herself to speak to her mother again though. She called her stepfather when her flight landed, and they'd spoken a couple of times during her first week on the ranch, but she refused to talk to her mother.

After putting the dog Madison named Dodger, into Molly's SUV, they headed back to the ranch where they showed Dodger to his new home, the kennel recently vacated by Annie, and went in search of Keith, to find out what needed to be done as evening set in.

The rest of the week found Madison falling into a routine. Breakfast with Keith, seeing to the Lycan Barn on her own, then working with Dodger, who she'd taken a special interest in since rescuing him, lunches were spent organizing and going through the contents of her father's safe a second time, actually reading the material and not just skimming over it, and then dinner either by herself, or with Molly, who was on a summer break from classes, and moved into the downstairs suite for the time being.

Having Molly around was a lot of fun, they watched movies together or played games at night after dinner, and Madison loved hearing Molly tell stories about her father, but it had its drawbacks too. Keith seemed to be avoiding her like the plague whenever Molly came around.

Molly slept in until at least noon though, so he still joined her for breakfast at the main house, but Keith refused her nightly dinner invitation, saying he had a lot of work to do and would just eat at home. Then, on Saturday night, she couldn't even find him to invite him over. Molly told her later that he'd gone out for the night while asking Madison if she wanted to go to a club in town with her and one of her friends.

Madison politely declined, not nearly finished going through the stuff in her father's safe. She needed to go through two more piles, the same two piles from the first time around. So she told Molly to have a good night and made herself some coffee before heading for the safe room.

For whatever reason, she didn't want to move the safe back out of her father's little hidden lair, which she'd been using during her lunch break to go over everything, avoiding Molly at night seemed almost impossible, and she found it hard to come up with an explanation otherwise for why she spent so much time in the downstairs powder room. She did, however, have the safe moved into the cellar.

With the night to herself, Madison didn't feel the need to rush like she did in the afternoons, so she took her time reading every piece of paper in each individual folder. For the most part, none of it made any sense to her. Not the first time she'd read it, and not the second time. A lot of it, to include a couple of handwritten journals, were written in Romani, and since she found translating it to be an arduous task, she didn't even bother to attempt it.

What she did learn, however, was that her father either had a vast imagination, or he honestly believed in vampires and werewolves. Ghosts she understood, having seen one in the flesh so to speak and the origins of which she was surprised to learn made quite a bit of sense.

Her father, as well as their ancestors, believed that heaven only remained open to a select few, those chosen to rule the world along with Christ during the second coming of the lord. They wrote that the meek would inherit the earth, so it made sense that not everyone went to heaven, but what happened to those that died?

The gypsies came up with an interesting take on that. According to them, a person's soul was recycled, and while it waited to be reborn, it wandered the earth, some of them peacefully, some in agony, and others just restlessly depending on how they died.

Her father's research spoke of the devil, and how he'd been an angel once, that he currently ruled the earth, and thinking about all the death and destruction, hell on earth didn't seem so far-fetched to Madison.

With a friend like Ona, she even bought into the whole witchcraft thing. She'd read herself, in the Bible about angels coming to earth and taking mortal women as their brides, about the flood of Noah's day, and how it wiped out the wickedness those angels created before being forced back to heaven.

So when her father wrote that his ancestors believed that those angels returned, mating with gypsy women and creating magical offspring, she didn't doubt it for a second. How else did one explain the unexplainable?

Vampires and werewolves though? That seemed a bit out there. People that didn't die? Or, at the very least, couldn't be killed easily. People that survived on the blood of humans? That smacked of cannibalism, and she wondered if it might have been some diluted person's way of romanticizing it. And the idea of someone being able to turn into an animal, well, that sounded too fanciful to her.

All she'd read to this point sounded like suppositions and opinions, she'd yet to read anything she considered factual like the articles about witchcraft and reincarnation. Her father collected stories about villages being decimated by wolves, about bloody wars, and Vlad the Impaler, but nothing about how vampires and werewolves came to be.

Things didn't just exist in this world, they had to be created, but she'd try to reserve her judgment until after she'd read everything in the safe.

By the end of the night, she was close. With two more folders to go through, she suspected they would likely be the most important and provide her with the last missing pieces of her father's beliefs.

Beliefs that she still didn't understand what, if anything, involved her.

The first folder her father labeled Cain, a biblical name that she was, of course, familiar with. In it, she found a sordid tale of a young man who murdered his brother due to jealousy over a woman and winning God's favor.

A man cast out and forced to walk the earth alone, forever to remember what he'd done, and never finding contentment or purpose. She read, and this is where it got really interesting for Madison, that Cain met a woman named Lilith in his travels, a woman made for Adam out of the same dust before the creation of Eve, who coupled with the devil himself after refusing to be subservient to her husband.

She'd been known as the creature of the night, though never named in the bible otherwise, and upon seducing Cain, she convinced him to partake in a blood ritual where he would consume her lifeblood, and with it the true knowledge of good and evil, as well as the gift of immortality granted by the devil.

However three angels visited him afterward, each of them asking him to repent for the murder of his brother, and upon refusal, they cursed his newfound immortality. First, with a weakness to fire, second, a sensitivity to sunlight, and third, with a beast like urge that would only be quelled by the taste of human blood.

Little shivers ran the length of her spine as she read it. She didn't want to imagine such a curse, but at the same time, she could see it, and the devastation it caused so clearly. She remembered the stories about Vlad the Impaler, and she wondered if he'd been one of Cain's creations.

Her thoughts running away with her as she imagined her father coming across one of these creatures, had he met one? Perhaps he'd been attacked? He'd definitely put together enough information on them. From their creation to the beginning of their bloodlines, dating back to four individuals before the time of surnames.

John the Mason, Peter the Blacksmith, (Bloody) Mary the Weaver, and Elizabeth the Baker. He said that the creation of all vampires came through them, the second coming of Cain's bedfellows after his first creations committed suicide once they'd learned they no longer possessed the ability to procreate.

Of course, she found information about vampire menstruation too, her father clearly did his research. He concluded that female vampires didn't menstruate because their bodies healed so fast that the lining of their uterus didn't shed, and their eggs became absorbed back into their bodies before ever even being released from the fallopian tubes, but the men still copulated. They knew early on though that even if a mortal woman got pregnant, she would die within weeks as the baby ate her from the inside.

Madison imagined what a terrible ordeal it would have been given the times they lived in and understood why they hadn't continued to try. Why bother when they could just "create" another?

The details on creating a new vampire became a little more sparse, her father noted that a person needed to drink the immortals blood and that the bite of a vampire alone wouldn't be enough, but he didn't go into further detail, and honestly, it felt a little too morbid to Madison anyway.

She couldn't imagine why anyone would want to be a vampire, living forever sounded enticing, but having to consume blood, and practically hide during the daylight? It didn't seem like much of a life to her. But what did she know? She still wasn't even sure she absolutely bought into all of it.

The second folder he'd labeled Peter, at first, she thought it may have been one of Jesus's apostles. But when she opened it, some thought, a feeling of déjà vu, came over her. Peter Stumpp. She'd seen that name before, she just needed to remember where.

Peter Stumpp would apparently be the answer to her werewolf questions though. Her father wrote that as a young boy, he'd been bitten by a rabid wolf, but rather than dying of rabies, it somehow bonded to his DNA, it made him stronger, if not a little more temperamental too. And as an adult, he'd married a beautiful gypsy woman named Emily Smith, creating two children, a girl, Camille, and a boy, Julien.

While Julien appeared, for all intents and purposes, normal, his daughter "inherited" a special trait from him, one that seemed to be enhanced by the magic of her gypsy mother, and once she reached the age of maturity, her raging hormones caused her to shapeshift into a wolf during her menstrual cycle, which is where the myth about the full moon came from.

Not until a few generations later, a grandson of Camille, Tristan Mellor... wait, Mellor? She knew where she'd seen that name! Putting the folder aside, even as it just started to get good, Madison searched frantically through the piles until she came up with the envelope holding her father's family tree.

There, there it was! A couple of pages back she found what she wanted, while her ancestry included a lot of Melton's and Mellon's over the years, she knew she'd find it. Mellor. Her lineage could be traced back to the first and last Mellor to arrive in the United States. Gina and Kyle Mellor, whose last name would be written down as Mellon in the book at Ellis Island.

Gina and Kyle, whose ancestry went all the way back to Tristan Mellor's brother Zechariah, the great-grandson of Peter Stumpp. And there it was, the reason her father became obsessed with vampires, werewolves, witches, and ghosts.

According to her family tree, her heritage was steeped in the supernatural.
Chapter 17

Call me Kenny

They flirted all night. He called himself Kenny, and she told him her name was Amanda. She was pretty, but not in the traditional sense, her nose a bit big for her face, her eyes a little too small, and her hair a dull brown.

But she seemed funny. He liked that. He also liked the direction their conversation headed. Amanda admitted to being lonely, no boyfriends for the last few years, she said she worked a lot as a sales representative but since she worked from home most days this happened to be the first time in months that she'd been out. A neighbor invited her to the bar, but after a few drinks decided to leave early.

Amanda didn't want to go home though, she only lived a couple of blocks up from the bar, a tiny studio apartment she told him, that she shared with her cat.

She was exactly the type of woman he looked for. Low self-esteem, she lived alone and worked from home. No real friends or family in the area. Nobody to miss her, at least for a couple of days.

With his baseball cap pulled low, and his contacts in to hide the color of his eyes, Keith readily accepted Amanda's invitation to go back to her place. That's what he loved most about New York City, the women appeared so accommodating. And even more reluctant to report things to the police.

They sat on Amanda's futon for a bit, laughing and joking as they had at the bar, then he leaned forward, kissing her lightly, testing her receptiveness. Amanda smiled, she laughed, and she responded. She couldn't remember the last time she'd been with a man, and certainly not one as good looking as him.

Keith kissed her passionately, and he imagined kissing Madison, his lips gentle yet frantic as they interlocked with hers. He laid her down, kissing the side of her mouth, then trailing his lips across her face and down her neck before biting into her carotid artery.

Amanda moaned, her mind slipping into unconsciousness as her body convulsed with the orgasm that spread through her like a wildfire. She should have been afraid, she should have screamed for help, for through the pleasure, she noticed the agonizing pain of her lifeblood falling away.

But no sound escaped her, even her moans subsided, her eyes rolled back into her head, and her thoughts became muddled. Her body wouldn't move, her limbs refused to respond, even as the last quake of ecstasy rolled through her, she felt nothing. She went limp, her muscles lax as he continued to take his fill.

Keith pulled away once her heartbeat slowed to less than sixty beats per minute knowing that if he took anymore he'd kill her. He wiped the blood from his face, licking the last of it from his hands and the side of her neck before pulling a pocket knife out and cutting a small strip in his finger. He opened her mouth and squeezed the wound, letting blood slid down her throat. Then he filled a glass of water in her kitchen and forced her to drink it, making sure she consumed his blood while rinsing out her mouth in the process.

Satisfied that his blood had begun to take effect, and she wouldn't be waking up anytime soon, he undressed Amanda, putting her in a floor-length nightgown he'd found hanging over the shower curtain rod in the bathroom. Then he laid her gently on the futon before pulling a small medical kit out of his back pocket.

He used a cloth soaked in peroxide to wipe her face and neck, then he took out a syringe filled with a special concoction he'd created to aid in the healing process. The teeth marks on her neck were small, and her blood began to clot, but they would still scab, and he didn't want to leave anything to chance.

His blood in her system would ensure she slept long enough for the serum to work its magic, and in a couple of days, when she finally woke up, she wouldn't remember a thing.

To help matters some, Keith scrounged around in her kitchen and came up with a bottle of vodka, pouring some into a glass and dumping the rest down the drain before setting the empty bottle and a glass half full on the side table next to the futon.

Hopefully, she'd think she'd been rejected at the bar and came home and got so drunk she passed out. At this point, he didn't really think it would matter if she did go to the police, she would have a vague description and a fake name, not many people would take sympathy on her for taking a stranger home with her, especially if they found no signs of a sexual assault.

And there wouldn't be any. Keith hadn't had sex with any of his donors since Hayley, more than a year ago. Hell, it'd been more than six months since his last sexual encounter period! But regardless, he couldn't afford any more ammunition where Damien was concerned.

Keith checked her vitals to make sure her heartbeat remained strong and threw a blanket over her before he left the apartment, making it a point to pull his cap on snug and look down in case the building had any cameras.

As Keith walked down the street towards his truck, he felt uneasy, but he didn't know why. Almost like... somebody might have been following him. Or perhaps he was just being paranoid because he'd been careful this time. Climbing behind the wheel of his pickup, Keith looked around before shutting the door, he didn't see anyone, but he couldn't shake the idea that someone out there was watching him.

As Damien went to get out of his truck, his cell phone suddenly beeped wringing a curse out of him after having finally gotten home from a long grueling afternoon spent at a library in New Jersey. He felt both tired and irritated. Looking down at the screen, he noticed he had a voicemail, and hoped to hell the station hadn't called.

Today was supposed to be his day off, bad enough that he'd spent it rummaging through old newspaper clippings and consensus records, but if his captain thought he would come in now, this late at night, he was stupid.

Dialing his voicemail, Damien made a mental note to switch cell phone providers, he lived in a well-populated area of downtown and saw no reason for such spotty reception, especially in his profession.

"Damien? I mean, Detective Crowley? This is Kieri, Kieri Krycek?" She said as though she had been talking to him directly. "Anyway, I wanted to call you and tell you that I remembered something from that night..."

Damien grabbed a pen and paper out of his center console, prepared to write down whatever information Kieri relayed, but he came across a sudden pause in her message, he pressed the phone closer to his ear, trying to hear something, but it sounded muted, like she had been talking to another person and covered the receiver with her hand, then he got a loud click, and the robo voice telling him 'end of message.'

"Damn it!" He swore, stuffing his key back into the ignition and starting the truck, throwing it into reverse he backed out of the driveway in a hurry. He tried calling Kieri's number several times, but it always went straight to voicemail.

After calling the station and getting her address, a place damn near across town, he requested a unit at the scene and switched on his lights, speeding off into the night. He had a bad feeling about Kieri, now he only hoped he would get there in time.

Damien reached the address he'd been given within twenty minutes, a patrol car already parked in the small driveway. Kieri lived in the end unit of a row of townhouses in an affluent neighborhood. And so far, nothing seemed out of place.

Approaching the house, a young officer emerged from the patrol car to greet him. "Detective Crowley? I'm Officer Maxwell." He said exchanging pleasantries. Damien shook his hand, and the two walked up the driveway to the front door. "I got here about ten minutes ago and knocked on the door, but no one answered. I called it in and received permission to enter the premises."

"And?"

"There's nobody home, the place is clean, nothing out of the ordinary."

"Damn." Damien spat, walking into the house and looking around for himself. The kitchen looked a little cluttered but other than probably needing to hire a cleaning lady, he found no indication of foul play.

So where was she?

He'd called her office and her sister on the way over, the office had been closed for a good five hours already, and her sister, though irritable about being woken up, appeared cooperative and informed him that she hadn't seen her sister since they'd left the office together at five that evening.

Damien became more worried about her, but with nothing to go on, he headed to the station to see if he might be able to get her voicemail cleaned up, and track down the luds on her cellphone. Maybe he would find her that way.

On the way to the station, he ran through a mental list of everything he'd learned that day at the library in New Jersey. Because he simply refused to let go of the fact that there was something off about Keith Walker, he'd spent his entire day off researching who he now thought to be some sort of imposter or con man.

Per consensus records, he'd found out that a Keith Welker had been born in 1947 to Macy and Joseph Welker of Salem County New Jersey, and had a younger brother named James who died in 1975 of complications from Aids.

Keith Welker had attended John Hopkins University in Maryland where he earned his Masters in Public Health and later his Ph.D. in 1978 with a course study in Epidemiology. He'd done a short stint at the CDC in Maryland before taking a job at the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.

The job ended in 1982, and apart from the 1997 college transcripts where he earned his license to practice veterinary medicine, he found no other income records of Keith Welker. He also stumbled across an open murder case involving his parents in 1980, and a record of their house being sold in 1996, but nothing on Keith. No tax records, no job, no income of any kind.

One big mystery, and a baffling one at that. If Keith Welker were alive today, he'd be seventy years old, and with no certificate of death, it seemed a possibility, but given his lack of well, anything, Damien highly doubted it. Keith Welker had probably been murdered along with his parents, or sometime thereafter once he'd sold their house.

Nothing about this case made sense. And now Kieri had gone missing.

Damien was still waiting to hear back from law enforcement in New Jersey who agreed to fax over the last copy of Keith Welker's driver's license and any information they had on him. He really hoped that shed a little more light on things.

As it stood, he had an open homicide case, a missing person who may or may not be dead, and an imposter at the center of it all that had committed bizarre attacks on four innocent women.

And now Kieri was missing.

Once at the station, Damien quickly headed to the crime lab and handed his cell phone over to the IT guys. While he waited for them to clean up the voicemail, he got on the phone with the cell phone provider Kieri's sister said they both used, and asked them to fax over the luds for Kieri's phone as well as the current or last known GPS location.

His tech guys proved to be faster.

"Alright, so," Jim, one of the IT guys began. "I cleaned it up the best I could, but I'm not sure it's going to do you much good."

"Just play it."

"Okay, here goes."

"Damien? I mean, Detective Crowley? This is Kieri, Kieri Krycek? Anyways, I wanted to call you and tell you that I remembered something from that night... what are you doing here?"

"That's it?" Damien groused. "What are you doing here? That's all she said?"

Jim shrugged. "That's it. I mean, it sounds like she dropped her phone or something at that point, you get that crash at the end, but yeah, that's it."

"Fuck." Pacing now, Damien started to grow impatient. "Get the damn cell phone company back on the line!" He yelled, storming towards the bullpen to get some coffee while he waited. He'd become tired of waiting, he needed answers, and he needed them now.

This whole thing was turning into one big cluster fuck.

"Detective?" Someone called from behind him.

"What?" He snapped, nearly tearing the young officer's head off.

"A call just came in near Paradise, they found a body in an abandoned car on the side of the road by some Amish farm. Someone stripped the plates, no registration or insurance information, no purse or ID, the victim's a female, Captain said I should let you know."

Damien swore under his breath as he ran from the station, hopping into his truck and heading out. He turned on his police scanner, and radioed into dispatch for the exact location, praying to God that the victim wasn't Kieri Krycek.
Chapter 18

I'll be Watching You

Perched high up in an old oak tree, Sean watched the scene unfold below him, admiring his own handiwork. He still tasted her on his tongue, remembered her muffled pleas, and the stench of her fear. And he enjoyed it, all of it.

He'd met sweet adorable Kieri for the first time at a bar downtown, shortly after her altercation with Keith. She said she'd gotten off work a few minutes ago and really needed a drink. She looked beautiful with her dark windswept hair and those freckles on her face. She reminded him a little of that actress Isla Fisher, but without the red hair. Seemed a real shame he'd been told to kill her, well, almost.

He followed her from her office to a local grocery chain, intercepting her as she got out of her car. She'd been so surprised to see him, she dropped her phone in the process. Sean didn't give her time to recover, knocking her over the head as she leaned down to pick it up and shoving her into her car.

He drove her out to a secluded farm with a big barn, once used to house dairy cows, and long since abandoned. He rigged one of the stalls in order to tie her up with her arms spread wide, kneeling on the ground, and he used a special kind of slip knot, that once she woke up and began struggling, would get tighter and pull her higher with each tug.

It didn't take long before she stood on her tiptoes, screaming bloody murder for all the good it would do. No one would hear her out here.

Sean placed a tarp under her for easy cleanup and took the opportunity while she'd been knocked out to relieve her of her clothing as well. While not planning on raping her, which wasn't really his thing, he didn't want any loose fibers or anything of that nature to be found on her body.

Doing it this way made it easy to clean up his mess afterward. He'd even worn a hair net in addition to the gloves on his hands and boots. Sean remained nothing if not meticulous, hadn't Cybil told him that a dozen or so times already?

He also enjoyed being called cruel and sadistic.

When Kieri finally realized that no one would be coming to her rescue, she changed tactics, begging him not to hurt her instead. Pleading with him to let her go. She swore she wouldn't tell anyone.

Yeah, right... And Santa Claus was really the Easter Bunny.

With a few hours yet before the body could be discovered, Sean decided to take his time, to fully enjoy the experience, although he still no idea what Cybil planned to do next, he refused to take this opportunity for granted.

He'd spent fifteen years honing his skills, and developing a pattern before he'd met Cybil, and for the next seven years, they tore through the US together, Cybil getting her kicks as Sean grew into himself. She liked to play games, leave little clues for him to follow, the prize, a person of her choosing that she let him maim or murder to his heart's content.

All while Cybil stood by and watched. She really got off on that.

But since she'd left him alone this time, she didn't get to control how this happened, besides, she didn't care since she was too busy tracking down her pet and keeping tabs on him anyway. Sean still didn't understand what was so damned special about that guy. He wasn't any better looking than himself, and from what he'd learned through Martin, Cybil's right-hand man, he hadn't been nearly as fun either.

Ah well, he'd had better things to think about, turning back to Kieri who had struggled to keep her toes on the ground.

Snapping back into the present, he laughed to himself as he remembered how she'd looked. It really was a shame about Kieri, Sean usually only exterminated those that truly deserved it, while Kieri in all likelihood may have been an innocent.

Collateral damage.

As he saw the cops scramble around below him like ants, Sean wondered how exactly this fit into Cybil's plan. He'd followed Keith on the evening of the last "attack." He knew how it all went down that night, and it honestly made him a little jealous, Cybil put him on such a tight leash lately that he'd been forbidden to feed on a human for the past two months as they tailed Keith. That being beside the point, of course.

Cybil had given him instructions to plant fake evidence that suggested Keith and Kieri had recently spoken, kill her and wait for Cybil to call before dumping the body where it would easily be found. Sean supposed Cybil wanted it this way so that Keith would be accused and try to run, she hoped that if they isolated him, he'd be easier to get to. But Sean didn't think it should be that easy, and frankly, when it came to Keith, he didn't really want Cybil to get her way.

So he'd done things to his own liking.

Over the years, Sean had developed a pattern, nearly the same every time with perhaps a slight variance here and there. First, he liked to torture his victims, tying them in uncomfortable positions that put a heavy strain on their bodies, and slowly making little cuts that while they hurt like a bitch, were hardly large enough to bleed.

Or sometimes he would pour acid on them. After which he practically ripped out their throats, shredding it like some savage animal, quenching the beast inside him while taking them close to the point of exsanguination, without feeding them his own blood, of course, because turning them would never be part of the plan. And lastly, if mutilation wasn't enough of a shock factor, he enjoyed fucking with the police by posing them in some whacked out childlike manner, usually curled up in the fetal position, or clutching something.

He imagined that a psychiatrist would say his chosen method was due to early childhood abuse, and they'd be wrong. At least partially. Sean had never been physically abused in his life, but his sister had.

Shaking his head to block out the pain that came with those memories, Sean continued to look on with amusement as they packed away Kieri's body and loaded her onto a stretcher. He was about ready to leave when a pickup truck came screeching to a stop near the barrier on the road, a tall, dark figure, muscling his way over to the ambulance and demanding to see the body. He leaned forward to get a good look at the Detective's face.

And he laughed as Detective Crowley lost his lunch. Or maybe it was his dinner.

Madison stood up and stretched, hours after reading the last of the contents of her father's safe, and making sense of it all, she'd gone up to his office to send a few emails. She sent one to Ona, asking if she'd learned anything from her grandmother yet, and she sent one to Rick, telling him about her adventures this week and how she thought about adopting Dodger, her first rescue.

She knew Rick would laugh at her, he'd probably tell her if she didn't quit now she'd end up personally adopting every dog in that place. And he wouldn't be wrong to think that way, she'd already thought about it herself. But she knew she'd never be able to give them all the attention they deserved, best to let them find homes of their own.

Dodger was a different story though, she felt close to him. He was so sweet and attentive, he wanted to follow her everywhere when she let him out of his enclosure. And he seemed extremely well behaved. He'd make a great house dog.

She also asked Rick about her mother, she may not have been ready to talk to her, but she wasn't completely heartless either. It was still her mother after all, and she loved her despite her flaws, she just couldn't quite forget everything she'd done, not yet anyway.

At about midnight, Madison logged off, having spent the next couple of hours after catching up on her email doing research on gypsies and werewolves. She still didn't care so much about the whole vampire thing. If they existed, great for them, she didn't see what, if anything they had to do with her.

Werewolves and witches though, well, she found them incredibly interesting, and if real, if they were part of her DNA, just icing on the cake! But with her eyes starting to droop, she let it go for the night, she would pick up where she'd left off in the afternoon on her lunch break. Going to the window, she noticed Keith's parking space still empty, and she wondered where he'd gone. Another date maybe? Possibly even spending the night?

She didn't want to admit it to herself but the thought made her a little jealous. And as she came to terms with that, she saw his headlights pull in. She sighed with relief knowing he wouldn't be spending the night in the arms of some woman and headed off to bed.
Chapter 19

Kiss of Death

Damien sat in the waiting room outside the coroner's office reading over the reports of the responding officers and looking at the pictures the crime scene techs provided him with. Although tired as hell, he didn't want to leave until he'd gotten a preliminary report.

Poor Kieri.

And in a more trivial way, he guessed, poor him. The guys were never going to let him live it down for puking at the scene like some rookie, but he'd been unable to help himself. The scent alone would have turned damn near anyone's stomach, but the gruesomeness of it all, he'd been a detective for over a decade now, and in all that time, he'd never seen a murder this grisly before.

It looked like she'd been mauled by a wild animal.

The door to the coroner's exam room finally opened, saving Damien from having to relive that particular moment, but his relief was short lived when the coroner, invited him in to view the body while she gave him her preliminary report.

Kimmy, a short redhead with a stocky build, handed him a face mask and pulled back the sheet, exposing the mutilated corpse of Kieri Krycek. Damien almost gagged, it didn't get any easier to look at it the second time around.

Kimmy pointed one gloved hand at a section of Kieri's thighs, "See here?" she asked, not really looking for an answer. "These are chemical burns, probably hydrofluoric acid, pretty easy to come by. And up here," she continued, indicating a dozen or so marks along the rib cage. "These small lacerations, I'd say whoever did it used a very sharp and probably compact tool."

"Like a scalpel?" Damien dared to ask, already thinking that Keith had done this.

Kimmy shrugged. "Possibly, or a small pocket knife. Either way, this guy knew what he was doing, very precise, with minimal bleeding. Mostly about inflicting pain for him, and probably not his first rodeo."

"Any sexual trauma?"

Kimmy shook her head. "Nope. No signs of rape or sexual trauma at all. You want my opinion? This seemed more about revenge than anything of a sexual nature to me, he probably only took off her clothes to cover his tracks. Less evidence to find that way, I honestly don't expect to find anything that will help you catch your guy, aside from that burnt flesh and gutted deer smell, she reeks of bleach."

"Great." He grumbled, more to himself than anything. "Cause of death?"

"Exsanguination, the cuts, and burns appear to be pre-mortem, but whatever he did to her neck, and I'll have to run some more tests," Kimmy paused, glancing back at the gaping hole in her throat. "because right now it looks like some kind of animal ripped her throat out, she died pretty quickly. I'd put the time of death somewhere around 10:00 pm, plenty of time to dump the body and get away before your guys found her. I'll have a more thorough report written up for you in a couple of days after I do an autopsy."

Damien looked at the body reluctantly one more time, he would never be able to get that image out of his head.

Kieri's body had been mutilated, while she'd been alive through it all, afterward someone had literally torn out her throat, her trachea severed in two, her head nearly decapitated, and then the bastard shoved her in the back seat of her car, rolling her up into the fetal position and abandoning her on the side of the road like a piece of garbage.

It angered him something fierce. Kieri was an innocent. She hadn't done a damn thing to deserve this kind of treatment. Not a damn thing.

With a heavy heart and a sour stomach, Damien found his way back to his office. He wanted to write up his report and take his ass to bed. But he realized it would have been a fruitless effort, sleep would've eluded him even if he'd been shot with a tranquilizer gun. No, he needed to go over the information he'd gotten from the library, and write up a few theories because that's all he had at this point, and afterward, he might try to get in a few hours of sleep in the on-call room.

He needed to be here though, the first forty-eight hours were the most crucial in any murder investigation, after that, the likelihood of making an arrest became significantly reduced. Besides, he also needed to check in with the guys down at the crime lab to find out what, if anything they got out of her car, and he was still waiting for the luds to come back on her cell phone. He wanted to know who she'd talked to that day.

His IT guys were also trying to work on that voicemail again, figure out if they could enhance it any more in hopes of possibly pulling the voice of whoever she'd been talking to right before her message cut off.

Snagging a cup of day old coffee, and loading it up with cream and sugar to cut through the bitterness, Damien plopped into his chair, noticing a sticky note stuck to a folder that sat on all the clutter he'd been going through earlier.

'This came in for you,' it read.

Damien opened the folder, he found a fax sheet on top from the Salem County Sheriff's office. He hadn't been expecting it until tomorrow and began to think he might catch a break yet, if only it had come before Kieri lost her life.

What surprised him most though, was the face that stared back at him on the copy of the license for Keith Welker, circa 1982, the year Keith Welker essentially disappeared. He would have been thirty-five years old at the time and damned if he didn't look identical to the current Keith Walker.

But that was impossible... Right?
Chapter 20

Death was Arrested

Keith and Madison had just finished clearing the remnants of breakfast the next morning when Tanner came rushing in through the back door.

"What's wrong?" Keith asked, concerned by how pale and ashen Tanner looked.

"The... cops... are here," he panted, having just run up to the main house from the staff quarters upon seeing the police approach the gate.

After exchanging glances, Madison and Keith headed outside together. All sorts of things ran through Keith's mind. Had someone tailed him last night? Perhaps they discovered Amanda? He thought he'd been more careful this time.

Detective Crowley and a uniformed officer pulled up near the cottage as they walked out of the house, and Keith's stomach tied itself in knots. Aside from when he'd come out with his miniature task force to search the property, Crowley always came alone, it made him extremely nervous that he needed to bring an extra cop along with him.

"Mr. Walker?" The Detective said, his tone clipped. "I hoped I might have a word with you."

"Sure," Keith replied, looking at Madison and giving her a nod to indicate that she should go.

Madison crossed her arms over her chest though, digging her heels in mentally as she stared him down. Rolling his eyes, Keith turned back to Damien and his officer sidekick. "What can I do for you?"

"You can start by telling me where you were last night around 10:00 pm, and I'd advise you to be very careful about how you answer that question."

Keith smirked, growing irritated at this point. "In New York, I left around 4:00 and got home just after midnight. I can go and grab my EZ-pass out of the truck if you'd like to verify it."

"You do that," Damien growled, turning toward Madison as Keith walked to his truck. "Ms. Adams, you seem to be pretty well versed when it comes to Mr. Walker's personal life, is there anything you'd like to add?"

Madison shook her head, "No, not really. Molly, a girl that works here, she told me right after dinner that Keith had left, and like he said, he got home after midnight, I spent most of the night in my office catching up on some correspondence and saw him pull in about that time before going to bed myself. I don't know where he'd gone though."

Damien instructed the officer to write down both Madison and Keith's statements, his eyes wandering the property as they waited for Keith.

Keith came back a few minutes later, handing his EZ-pass over to the officer. "Did you need something else?" He asked when Damien made no move to leave.

"Yes, I'm going to need you to turn around and put your hands behind your back."

"Excuse me?" He and Madison seemed to say at the same time.

The young deputy laid a hand on Keith's shoulder, forcing him to turn and pulling his arms behind him, securing them with a pair of handcuffs.

"What the hell is this?" Keith groused.

"Mr. Walker, you're under arrest for falsifying documents and practicing medicine without a license, you have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against..." Damien said, continuing to read him his rights.

But Keith stopped listening, too busy trying to figure out what the hell was going on.

"Why are you taking him? What are you talking about? Doesn't have a license, that's ridiculous! I've seen it myself in the clinic! Do I need to go get it for you?" Madison shouted, torn between following Keith and the arresting officer or continuing to hound the detective who seemed to rather enjoy the whole debacle.

"By all means Ms. Adams, you're more than welcome to show us his license, and while you're at it, be sure to dig out the one for Mr. Keith Welker as well. No doubt it's hidden around here somewhere."

Welker. He'd said, Welker. Shit. Keith dropped his head, trying to slow his breathing and heart rate before he lost control. He couldn't remember the last time rage consumed him like this. He wouldn't give into it though. He needed to maintain what little restraint remained.

Madison's tirade sputtered to a stop, she stood dumbfounded for a minute while her gaze followed Keith's path toward the waiting police cruiser.

"Madison," Keith called out as the young deputy lead him to his car. "Madison, I need you to call Al. Just call Al and tell him what happened. He'll handle the rest. Don't worry about me, just call Al."

Her eyes narrowed, clearly confused and at a loss for words, she nodded. Madison glared once more at Detective Crowley as he climbed into his truck, secretly wishing she could smack that smug look off his face, then she pulled out her cell phone and ran through her contacts, heading for the house as she dialed Al's number.

With absolutely no idea what was going on, Madison got a distinct impression that the truth would raise far more questions than it would answer.

Her conversation with Al was brief, no sooner did she get the words 'arrested' and 'falsifying documents' out before Al swore and told her he'd take care of it. She didn't even have enough time to tell him the little tidbit about Detective Crowley mentioning the name Welker.

Confused, Madison felt completely helpless, and yet, angry and curious all at the same time. Faced with an overwhelming urge to do something, she hurried into the clinic and found Keith's certification and college degree, pulling the certification frame off the wall first and opening it up.

She carefully pulled out the license, only to discover a second one hidden beneath it. It seemed Detective Crowley might have been right about one thing at least. And it certainly looked like a clever hiding spot, something she probably wouldn't have thought of herself.

It reminded her of how growing up, her mother would always put one school picture on top of the other, replacing the one before it in the frame. So simple, and yet, genius really.

At first glance, the two certificates looked identical, only after Madison looked closer did she notice the difference. On the top copy, they listed his last name as Walker, whereas on the bottom copy it had been spelled, Welker.

And while it seemed strange to her, it didn't overly concern Madison. People changed their names all the time. Her father's own ancestor changed his last name from Mellon to Melton to distance himself from his family. If Keith changed his last name, it would stand to reason then that they would issue him a new license with the updated spelling. Perhaps after the incident with Danielle last year he sensed a need for a semi-fresh start.

So far, this proved nothing in her mind, and she wondered if it wasn't some sort of mixup. The certificates in hand, she was nearly ready to head down to the station herself and shove them up that snarky detective's ass, when curiously, she noticed the date on his degree.

A conversation with Keith from the other day suddenly came to mind.

She'd asked him when he started working for her father. He told her 1998, which didn't make any sense to her, but she kind of figured he may have been pulling her leg and let it go.

According to the degree from the Maryland School of Veterinary Medicine, Keith Walker graduated in 2007. Which would concur with her original thought that Keith was somewhere in his mid-thirties. It also cemented the idea that he'd been joking about working for her father in 1998. Not that he couldn't have, but it would have made him a teenager.

Her hands shaking, not quite sure what she would find, Madison reached for the frame and carefully pulled the diploma out. As with the first one, there lay a second copy underneath, and like before, the spelling of his last name appeared different. What concerned her at this point though, was the date, 1997.

This degree had been issued to Keith Welker in 1997. Which didn't make any sense. Changing your name, okay, yeah, she could understand that, but manipulating the year you graduated? That didn't make any damn sense at all!

Her heart beating a mile a minute and her thoughts strewn out in multiple directions, Madison turned on the computer and began searching through personnel records. Keith Welker didn't exist, the only surname she came across in the employment records was the latter, Walker.

Damn. Madison wished she knew a good PI, someone to run his social security number or check his driver's license. Pulling up a search engine, she supposed Google would be the next best thing. Madison hesitated, not sure she wanted to know the truth, and as she slowly typed in the name Keith Welker, she hoped to God that Google didn't find anything.

Several links popped up, some writer out in California, a Nascar driver in Florida, a few partial matches, either the last name or the first. A hockey player in Chicago, the name of the villain in some fantasy movie series. She kept scrolling.

She found what she hoped she hadn't actually been looking for on the second page. An article made reference to a doctor in Bethesda, Maryland, who worked for the National Institute of Health, his experiments and research making vital strides towards the war on HIV/AIDS, and finding a cure. The article though dated recently, cited initial research from a paper written in the late seventies.

But that couldn't be right.

Madison flipped back to Google, typing a Ph.D. in front of Keith's name. A slew of new links and articles popped up, most of them dated more recently, again referencing the important work this doctor did for the Health Institute in the late 1970's. She scrolled through until she found a consensus record, opening it and closing her eyes as she did so.

She wanted, no, needed, to know the truth, biting her lower lip, she slowly opened one eye, and then the other, reading a consensus record from 1979. Dr. Keith Bradley Welker Ph.D. born to Macy and Joseph Welker in 1947. His parents listed as living at the time, his father a doctor, and his mother a seamstress, their names and occupations in line with what he'd told her in casual conversation.

She found a younger brother named James listed as well, though marked as deceased in 1975, the cause of death put down as complications from AIDS. And though he'd never told her how his brother died, Keith had said his brother James was dead.

Madison felt absolutely sick to her stomach by then. She had no idea what to believe.

If Keith, that is, the Keith she knew, was one and the same, that meant he would be... she quickly did the math, born in 1947, that would make him, what? seventy? That sounded insane! He'd said he looked younger than he actually was, and maybe she could have bought into him being forty-five since he'd graduated from vet school in the late nineties, but seventy?

Impossible.

There must have been some sort of reasonable explanation for all of this. Keith, if that even was his real name, had remained evasive as hell with her since they'd met, but how could she really be expected to believe he was seventy years old? And what, he'd just stopped aging?

Like he was immortal or something...

Chapter 21

Murder by Numbers

Keith waited with a practiced patience in one of the sparsely furnished interview rooms at the police department. They had yet to fingerprint him or take him down to booking, which made him question their real motives.

If fraud was all they wanted to charge him with, Keith had to wonder why they didn't simply get it over with. Book him and let his lawyer bail him out already. He figured it would only be a matter of time before Al got there and raised all sorts of hell. What were they waiting for?

He didn't have to wonder long.

Detective Crowley strode into the room carrying a folder with a scowl on his face. Keith could sense the different emotions surrounding him, his pheromones emanating like a blinking beacon in the night. He was angry, stressed, and frustrated. There was also an underlying sense of disappointment. Whatever he'd been looking for while he'd made Keith sweat, he obviously hadn't found it. Which gave Keith a small feeling of elation and satisfaction.

It wouldn't be easy to explain away the deception, and Keith had a feeling things would get much worse by the time this was all over, but he'd get it all figured out eventually. Robert told him he'd prepared for exactly this type of situation, he had a plan, even if Keith had no idea what it was, Robert put a failsafe in place.

Now it fell on Al to get the details all sorted out and set the plan in motion.

"Do you want to tell me what you were doing in New York last night?" Detective Crowley began, his hands clasped over the folder on the table.

Keith leaned back, his expression flat though his eyes glittered wickedly. "Sure, but only if you tell me what relevance it has to the pending charges."

Damien seemed to be having a hell of a time holding onto his composure. Images of Kieri's mutilated body kept flashing in his mind. Keith looked good for this, that or he probably just wanted him to be. Damn it, he HAD to be. Damien couldn't find any logical reason why anyone would want to hurt Kieri.

Okay, so he didn't know the woman personally, but from what her sister said, or at least what he could make out through her incessant sobs as they'd spoken when she'd come to ID the body, Kieri didn't have any enemies, no disgruntled clients, no ex's with an ax to grind. Nothing. He couldn't find a single reason for anyone to want her dead.

But that didn't make her anymore alive either. She was gone, and it was his job to find out why, as well as who. Problem was, Keith's EZ-pass had him leaving the state last night at 5:00 pm and traveling into New York City, precisely as he had said, and didn't put him back in Pennsylvania until about half an hour after they'd already discovered Kieri's body. And he'd confirmed since he'd pulled the surveillance photos that it had, in fact, been Keith driving the truck.

That wasn't to say, at least in his mind, that Keith couldn't have driven over state lines and backtracked taking a different route, kidnapped Kieri, killed her, abandoned her car with the body inside, and hot-footed it afterward back across state lines to follow his previous route home, effectively giving himself an alibi.

It seemed a little far-fetched, and he had to admit, however begrudgingly, that the timeline looked tight, but it was still a possibility. He'd seen people do crazier things to provide themselves with an alibi.

And if he couldn't go on his intuition alone, he also had a slew of text messages from a cell phone found in Kieri's car that the technicians pulled out from under her seat. The last message from a number listed as belonging to Keith. It looked like they'd been texting quite regularly and had plans to meet up that very night around 8:00.

Everything he had might have basically been speculation at this point, but after they booked him for fraud, they'd have his fingerprints and DNA to compare to the samples the technicians had found in and on her car.

He figured Keith and that slick lawyer of his would find some way to beat the fraud charges, though he was quite interested to see how that would all go down, especially with the weird things surrounding his identity, so Damien realized he had to make this interview count.

Even if Keith hadn't done the dirty work himself, he still remained the only one with a motive to want Kieri out of the way, now he simply needed to prove it. Keith's answer frustrated him though, the guy was smart, too smart, which meant he'd probably be better off laying all of his cards out on the table.

Wanting to catch his reaction, Damien blindly opened the folder in front of him, laying out the images of Kieri one by one. Keith's eyes widened, he didn't bother masking his emotions, his mouth going slack, his pupils devoid of color and his face ghostly white.

Shit.

Either the man deserved an academy award for being an amazing actor, or he was genuinely surprised.

"What the fuck is that?" Keith spat, his words laced with fear and confusion.

Alright, Damien told himself, perhaps he hadn't done it himself. His reaction sure as hell seemed real, and though he assumed Keith wouldn't likely give up his alibi for whatever reason, the timeline remained pretty tight, and no judge or jury would buy the scenario where Keith drove over state lines and arrived in New York at 5:00 pm, only to turn around and take the scenic route back, meet up with Kieri at 7:00 pm, kill her and dump her body at 10:00 pm, drive back to New York, and once again across state lines via the expressway by 11:30 pm.

It was a bit of a stretch, even for him. Before seeing his EZ-pass, Damien was convinced that Keith had done this, now he wondered who would be willing to kill for Keith? Ms. Adams? Not likely. A clean background check had already come back on her.

She'd been adopted by a man named Rick Adams shortly after turning four, and hadn't, up until her arrival in Lancaster a couple of weeks ago, stepped foot in the state of Pennsylvania as far as he could tell. According to the PI, she hadn't even heard about the adoption until she'd turned eighteen, and had never met her father. Being that she'd been in the area for such a short period of time he doubted she'd be willing to stick her neck out that far for a man she barely knew.

Even if the two of them were chummy enough already and sleeping together, a woman, who by all accounts looked like a saint according to her background check, wouldn't kill for a man because the sex was good. At least, he hoped not. He'd have to start looking into the employees on the ranch, possibly one of them would kill for him.

Somebody had.

Damien pushed the photos closer, Keith gagged and immediately shoved them back. "What's the matter, Keith? Did your hired gun make a mess of things?"

"My-my what?" he sputtered.

"Oh come on Keith, you're the only one with a reason to want Kieri dead." To nail the point home, Damien took out a tape recorder and played back the voicemail where she'd said she remembered something about that night.

Keith gulped, his eyes slid towards the pictures, sweat beaded on his brow. "I didn't do that. I wouldn't hurt her, I didn't hurt her." He insisted, shaking his head.

"But you were supposed to meet up with her last night, isn't that right? What happened Keith?"

Keith looked at him strangely, "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Opening the folder once more, Damien pulled out a screenshot of the text messages and pushed them across the table. Keith took a moment to look them over before shoving them back in Damien's direction.

"That's not my number." He said automatically.

Damien looked at the number listed under his name and back at Keith, "What do you mean?"

"Are you deaf? Or stupid? I said that's not my phone number."

"Alright, fine, so you have a burner phone. No big deal, we'll find it."

Keith looked at him incredulously. "You can't be serious! You honestly think I did this? I already told you I was in New York! Hell, you have proof!"

"No," Damien cut in, stopping him mid-rant. "I have proof that you crossed state lines at 5:00 pm, and again at 11:30 pm, but you refuse to tell me what you were doing during that time, that's seven hours unaccounted for."

"What the hell does it matter what I was doing? You're crazy to assume I drove all the way the hell out there, turned around, and what? Took some backwoods roads into the state, murdered Kieri and drove back to New York? That's ridiculous!"

"Okay, fine, you were in New York, you took a trip there to give yourself an alibi while you had someone make sure Kieri and her claims against you disappeared." Damien accused, hoping to rattle him and anger him into confessing.

"You're fucking insane!" Keith roared. "Why would I want Kieri dead? We had ONE date, and I haven't spoken to her since!"

"Hey, I don't know what goes on in your head, she might have remembered something she shouldn't have, and she was ready to tell me. I'm simply speculating as to your motives at this point, only you know why you wanted her dead."

"I didn't want her dead!"

Damien smiled. "Alright, now we're getting somewhere. So you didn't want her dead? Possibly just a little scared? Your guy take things a little too far?"

"That's not what I said, you're putting words in my mouth."

The door to the interview room suddenly swung open, Al, Robert's big Italian brute of a lawyer charging into the room and taking command of the situation.

"Don't say another word, Keith." He demanded, pinning his client with a fierce glare before basically snarling at Damien. "This interview is over."

Damien sat back, pushing away from the table a bit. "Fine, have it your way, we'll book him."

"You will not be booking anybody, Detective Crowley." Al spat, slamming his briefcase down on the table and glowering. "Keith and I will be leaving, and you will stay the hell away from my client or so help me God I'll slap your ass with a restraining order faster than you can bat an eyelash."

Damien stood abruptly, knocking his chair over with a loud clang in the process as he leaned on the table and got in Al's face. "The hell you say?" he growled. "Your client is under arrest for falsifying documents and practicing medicine without a license! And if he doesn't want to cooperate, I'll book his ass right now!"

Turning towards the door, Damien yelled for another detective, telling him to come into the interview room, what he got instead was his Captain and a tall intimidating man in a suit with an FBI badge attached to his lapel.

"What the hell is this?" Damien barked.

His Captain sighed. "Let him go."

Al sauntered around the table, helping Keith to his feet and ushering him out the door. They paused briefly while the FBI agent and Keith exchanged a few words before going on their way, Keith looked back at Damien with a smirk on his face.

Grumbling under his breath, Damien made a move towards the door only to be stopped again by his Captain.

"Let him go." He said more sternly.

The FBI agent stuck his hand out, his expression stern.

Refusing the gesture, Damien took a step back, a look of consternation on his face. "Who the hell are you?"

"I'm special agent Anthony Malone with the FBI's witness protection unit." He replied, allowing his hand to drop back to his side.

"Witness protection?"

Damien's captain laid a hand on his shoulder. "Special agent Malone came down to the station to clear up the fraud charges."

"So, what? You're saying Walker is in witness protection?"

"That's right." Malone interrupted. "Mr. Walker is under witness protection, and I can assure you that he has all the necessary credentials to practice medicine, so you'll do well to drop this investigation and stay away from him. Or you'll have the FBI to deal with."

Damien waited until the FBI agent left the room and turned, slamming his fist down on the table. "Fuck!" he yelled, startling his captain in the process.

"Crow!" He shouted to get his attention.

Damien took a breath, forcing himself to calm down. "Sorry Cap."

"It's okay." He reassured him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Are you sure this guy is good for it?"

"He might not have done it, but he's involved, somehow. I know it."

"Alright, be careful."

"Cap?" He questioned.

"Look, I trust you, Crowley, you've never been wrong before. If your gut is telling you this Keith guy is involved somehow, I trust you, but stay away from him until you have definitive proof. I'm not telling you to stop investigating, but stay away from him."

Damien nodded, stuffing the pictures back into the folder and thanking his captain for the support before dashing out of the interview room and heading for the lab.

"Hey, Thompson." He said breathlessly as he barged into the room.

"What up?" Thompson replied, looking up from a microscope.

Damien handed him the folder. "Can you pull some prints off of these for me and run them?"

"Sure, how many people have touched it?"

"Only me and the perp."

"Alright." He said taking the folder from Damien and sneaking a peek, gasping as he did. "Yikes!"

"Sorry, guess I should have warned you."

"Would've been nice." He agreed with a laugh, looking at the grisly photos again with a grimace. "I'll have the results for you in about an hour if this guy is in the system, alright?"

"Great. Thanks!" Damien had no idea what this would prove, but he hoped Thompson could come up with something.

Witness protection his ass...
Chapter 22

Truth Hits Everybody

Madison printed out almost everything she found on Dr. Keith Welker Ph.D. DVM. From his birth and his family records to research he'd done while working for the CDC and the National Institute for Health. She also printed out a paper citing a chemical compound he'd discovered to better aid in the healing process during his residency while studying at the Maryland School of Veterinary Medicine.

The one he graduated from in 1997.

Madison was even lucky enough to stumble across a picture of Keith and his graduating class from way back in 1978, and surprise surprise, it didn't look like he'd aged a day.

Grabbing everything she'd printed out, Madison ran back to the main house and into the safe room, wanting to check something from her father's research. It didn't take her long to find what she was looking for either, so she re-read a section on lycans and the oldest known lycan, a French woman who lived to the age of a hundred and twenty-two before dying in the late nineties.

Because she wanted to be sure she covered her tracks, Madison used the laptop in the safe room to look her up and noted how the woman had indeed aged. Which meant Keith wasn't a werewolf. God, she didn't understand why she was even considering this. She'd only decided a few months ago that she believed the possibility of magic existing after a recent camping trip with Ona. She'd gone to the river to clean up and when she came back, Madison watched in stunned silence while her friend started a fire simply by snapping her fingers together.

Ona explained her heritage to Madison after that, and showed her a few "parlor tricks" as she'd called them. The experience changed everything for Madison, it really opened her mind to the unknown. Despite Ona's very real powers though, she was still having a hard time believing the things she'd read in her father's safe. The whole ghost thing was obviously real and easier to accept, however, having experienced it first hand.

But werewolves and vampires?

If either of those existed why hadn't they taken over the earth? If vampires were so mighty and all powerful why would they hide in the shadows? What did they have to be so afraid of? People? What could people do?

And werewolves? Really? Her father expected her to have blind faith in the belief that people could turn into animals? It all sounded so insane! Furthermore, she was supposed to believe she came from a long line of werewolves herself, if true, why didn't she turn into one?

Hell, even if she DID buy into the whole werewolves fairytale, why did it matter? Keith clearly wasn't one. So what did it make him? A vampire? What a ridiculous notion!

A ridiculous notion which made so much sense when she actually considered it.

Keith's skin felt cold to the touch, his eyes practically glowed, he stored blood in his refrigerator and little else, and according to her findings, he was at least seventy years old.

But what about the other things? Some things didn't add up with the vampire rhetoric. Like how vampires were supposed to be extremely sensitive to sunlight. While true that her father's findings and explanations didn't completely expand on exactly how sensitive they were, Keith didn't seem to have any problems.

He also ate meat and salad and drank water. Whereas Madison assumed vampires would only be satisfied by the taste of blood. Some things didn't fit, they didn't make sense. And even if all true, if Keith was some sort of super vampire or something, why would her father, who obviously knew, do everything in his power to befriend and protect him?

She had so many questions, and with Keith getting arrested, she had no idea how she'd get the answers. It became obvious to her that he did, in fact, possess the proper certification to practice medicine, but how did she prove it? 'Oh, here you go officer, this is proof that Keith Walker, or Welker, whatever you want to call him, is licensed. Oh, I'm sorry, what did you say? This man who looks thirty is almost seventy?'

Yeah, she didn't see the conversation going too well. Heck, even if they gave her the benefit of the doubt, how would they deal with it? Would they want to run some sort of tests or something on him? Would they try to exterminate him for being a bloodsucking killer?

Gosh, had Keith killed someone?

It brought forth a whole new avenue she hadn't even considered exploring. The blood in his fridge, was it pig's blood? Or human? No, no, she pictured the bill from the butcher in her mind, Keith regularly ordered gallons of pig's blood. It definitely wasn't human. Did it make him some sort of... wow, she didn't even know what to call it! Did they consider vampires who drink animal blood vegetarians? She shook her head, that didn't seem right.

But she began to wonder if he'd ever killed someone, if he'd killed Danielle himself and if her father then covered it up with the whole dog story. She remembered her first interaction with the detective, and how he'd been asking about Keith's date with a woman.

His date.

Is that what he did on his "dates?" He went out with women and drank their blood? Was it a way to quench his thirst for human blood so he would be able to maintain an animal diet? Were the women willing participants? She didn't think so, not if one of them complained to the police. So how did he do it?

A knock on the door to the powder room startled her. She'd spoken to Molly earlier in the afternoon when she'd finally gotten out of bed. Molly made plans with a friend of hers she called Ace, they were going into the city together, and everyone else would be busy taking care of things in Keith's absence. She'd even told Tom to tend to the wolves so she could selfishly delve into her obsessive research, desperate to understand what was going on.

Did someone other than Keith know about the safe room? Maybe someone saw her go into the powder room and wanted to check up on her? Madison stepped through the small opening she'd made, having not completely removed the false panels and crept closer to the door.

"Who is it?" She called out hesitantly.

"It's Keith, can you unlock the door?"

Madison felt so relieved to hear his voice she completely forgot the possible implications of him being a vampire and threw the door open, practically jumping into his arms.

"You're alright!" she gasped, wrapping her arms around his neck and hugging him tightly.

Keith, completely caught off guard, found himself reciprocating the hug as he looked past her into the safe room and noticed the screen of the laptop. Madison was researching vampires, and he instantly stiffened in her arms.

Madison recoiled slowly, her senses finally getting the better of her, and realizing Keith had an idea as to what she'd been doing in the safe room, she backed up a couple of steps and allowed him enough space to enter the room.

"What is all this?" Keith asked hesitantly as he picked up a couple papers she'd printed out.

Madison leaned back against the wall, "I hoped you'd tell me." She remarked.

Keith let out a long sigh before sitting down in one of the two chairs and picking up another paper. "You're a smart girl, Madison. I'm sure you've finally figured it out."

"So it's true? You're a... a..."

"Vampire?"

Madison gulped audibly, and Keith sensed the shift in her emotions. He smelled her fear and hesitation along with the confusion and anxiety. Precisely the reaction he'd been expecting from her.

"And my father...?"

"Robert knew."

"And he was okay with it?"

Keith laughed, he pictured the thoughts going through Madison's head. The natural reaction to learning vampires existed and the thought that they were all bloodsucking killers, evil soulless monsters. Hollywood did a pretty good job of painting them into wicked beasts.

And while it may have been true, some vampires were all of those things, he'd met plenty, including himself, who weren't.

"I've never killed anyone if that makes you feel any better." He said quietly, hearing the rapid beat of her heart, and hoping to ease her mind enough for her to take a step back and go into this next conversation rationally.

His admission appeared to be enough. Madison pulled out the chair next to him and sat down after locking the powder room door again and pulling the wall panels back into place.

"How is it even possible?" She asked skeptically. "I thought..."

"What? That all vampires are killers? undead, evil, soulless monsters?"

Madison shrugged. "Yeah, something like that." She laughed, trying to picture Keith as some creature of the night, skulking around with dripping fangs and glowing red eyes. "I guess I always assumed if vampires existed, they would be demons or something."

Keith chuckled, the sound helped put her more at ease. She'd spent time with this man every day for the better part of the last few weeks. She heard him speak passionately about her father, and about animals. She'd seen him tenderly talking to the wolves and the dogs, treating everyone he came across with kindness. She couldn't imagine him as some soulless demon. He didn't fit the narrative.

"Everything you've ever read on the internet, in books, or seen in the movies, forget it. It's all basically garbage." Keith began, ready to enlighten her after realizing she would keep an open mind. Like father like daughter, he supposed. "While I'll admit there are hints of truth in every myth, nobody has gotten it totally right."

"So what's the truth? Are you telling me it's not like Twilight? I mean, I haven't seen you sparkle in the sunlight." Madison giggled, becoming more and more amused by the conversation. "But, like, do you have special powers or something? Can you read my mind? Is your bite painful and venomous?"

Keith laughed louder, he'd always been annoyed by the way writers and producers tried to romanticize vampyrism, while he supposed immortality had its perks, he found some really big downsides to being immortal too, definitely not something someone entered into lightly.

"No, I don't have those kinds of special powers, I can't fly, I can't read your mind, and contrary to what Hollywood says, it takes more than the bite of a vampire to turn someone, being bitten won't even kill you."

"Alright, I'm listening. Tell me what being a vampire really means."

They sat in the safe room for the next hour as Keith attempted to explain it all to her. He started by retelling her the origin story she'd already read, and how it had taken Cain nearly a century to get his bloodlust under control before he discovered how to turn someone. That a person needed to be completely drained of their own blood, or exsanguinated and then consume the blood of a vampire in order to be turned.

Madison asked what would happen if he didn't completely exsanguinate a person and Keith explained that their blood would attack the vampire blood, fighting it off like a virus and eventually destroying it, the body was in a kind of paralysis during that time, one so strong that it became a sort of hibernation where the body and all of its functions essentially shut down during the process. Most people didn't remember anything after waking up.

And when Madison asked if a person actually died while turning, Keith told her no. That's why they called them immortal. The vampire blood sort of reconfigured the body, taking over the DNA, bonding with it, changing it, transforming it even, much like a person fighting off the infection, the individual remained in a comatose type state while that happened, but it usually didn't take more than a few hours, whereas the latter could be a few days and during that time, the individual would be at their most vulnerable.

When discussing how to kill a vampire, Keith said that burning them, ripping out their heart, or decapitation seemed to be the best methods, but tearing out one's spine, or chopping off a major limb would eventually cause them to bleed out as well and prevent the vampire from healing. Otherwise, the healing process took seconds or minutes depending on the injury, and to illustrate, Keith pulled out a pocket knife and cut a semi-deep slash into his palm, grimacing in pain as he did so.

Madison's first instinct had been to grab his hand and look for some way to slow the bleeding, but Keith pulled back, taking a handkerchief out of his back pocket and wiping away the blood to show her that the cut had already healed.

Madison rubbed her thumb over where the gash had been, looking up at Keith with wonder and fascination in her eyes. "It's gone!" She exclaimed.

Keith nodded and moved onto the next misconception. He informed her that vampires could eat or drink anything, often times that coffee and other warm liquids helped with circulation and kept the body warm, and alcohol, though he didn't get drunk, usually did the same, as the burning sensation spread throughout the body.

However, a vampire wasn't able to sustain himself on such things, he'd eventually wither up and dry out. And while that didn't kill a vampire, it was a slow and painful process that none of them wanted to endure. To top it off, everything other than blood became completely tasteless after the transition, thus why Keith preferred not to eat any of it.

Animal blood kept a vampire alive and semi-strong, but they always lusted for fresh human blood, it often came down to control. Something determined by the type of person you were before turning.

Keith confessed to her that being a vampire made you a more intense version of yourself. As Lilith had said to Cain, blood equaled life and power, it gave them knowledge of good and evil. Becoming a vampire allowed a person to tap into the full potential of their brain. It made you a stronger more self-aware person.

Vampires were smarter in that they used all parts of their brain. And while capable of many things, things most normal humans couldn't do, they weren't by any means the supernatural creatures people assumed they were.

Keith said that while he would more than likely be able to outrun the fastest human in the world, catching a cheetah or even coming close to such speeds was a fallacy.

"Yes, I can run faster, I can jump higher, and I'm definitely stronger than The Rock, but..." he laughed.

"You're not Superman?" Madison finished for him.

Keith shook his head. "No, I'm not Superman." He said. "But I can read emotions, and I'm fairly adept at projecting them as well."

"Say that again?"

"Because a vampire uses all parts of their brain, we can do certain things, beyond those that I've mentioned. I can read emotions, they're kind of like pheromones, like an aura if you will."

Madison sat up a little straighter. "Alright, what does my aura tell you right now?"

Keith seemed to take a deep breath, his eyes intently roaming her body for a second before he smiled, half of his mouth cocking upward in a delicious smirk that made Madison's heart beat a little faster.

"You're excited." He said his grin broadening. "A little aroused. Nervous even."

Madison's eyes darted towards the floor, her cheeks flushed with heat. "Alright, yeah, you can stop it now."

Keith laughed. "I can also make you feel things."

"Feel things? What do you mean?"

"Would you like another demonstration?" He asked seductively, leaning forward a bit.

Madison swallowed, "N-no, an explanation would suffice."

"Fair enough. I can't make you do things, I don't have the power of mind control, no vampire does to my knowledge, but we can all conjure up our own emotions and well, I don't think the word force, is the best one to use here, but, it's kind of like that. We can open ourselves up to others and reach out to them emotionally, you can feel what I'm feeling, or what I want you to feel."

Madison remembered one of her first encounters with Keith, how nervous she'd been, and the sense of calm that had flowed over her when she'd looked at him, and he'd looked at her. "I'm pretty sure I know what you mean, you helped me calm down after that incident in the bathroom, and when you touched me in front of the wolf enclosure, I got this sense of peace and serenity."

Keith nodded. "I try not to use my emotions to influence people, it seems like an intrusion of their privacy, but sometimes it's warranted."

"What about all those times..."

Keith shook his head, knowing exactly where her thoughts were headed. "No. I'd never do that. That was something else. I'm still waiting for my friend Lucas to get back to me, he lives in Paris, I met him shortly after being turned, and he's very well versed in everything paranormal."

"You still think that was a ghost?"

"Yes. And we can talk about ghosts and witchcraft another time."

"Fair enough. How about you tell me how you were turned?"

Smiling, Keith let out a long breath. "Where do I begin?" He said.

Madison tilted her head. "How about the beginning? You're definitely something special, anyone can see that, so why don't you start by telling me how you're so different from the vampires you describe?"

Keith nodded, but decided to break for dinner first instead, he made a couple of steaks and they sat down at the table together. Once finished, Keith took her back in time, he talked about his family, growing up in the sixties, evading Vietnam by going to college, wanting to study cancer, and later infectious diseases after his brother had been diagnosed with HIV. He told her about his research, how he'd found an animal protein that slowed down the progression, and how he realized the cure might be found in something as simple as a grain of rice.

"So what happened?" Madison asked. She became enthralled in the story as it unfolded in front of her. She imagined everything with vivid detail as he spoke of it. She wondered if he projected it on her in some way. She saw Keith graduating from high school, going off to college, the smile on his father's face when he'd decided to go into the field of medicine.

She pictured his brother, a rogue, a rebel, and handsome, just like Keith, and she sensed his pain as he spoke of his brother's illness and the fight to find the cure.

"I met Cybil in 1979."

"Cybil?" Madison inquired. "Is she your, oh, what's the word... sire?"

Keith nodded. "Yeah, sire, she was my sire."

Madison listened with interest as Keith began to illustrate that fateful day and how his entire life changed forever.

"Probably one of the most beautiful women I'd ever seen," Keith began with a smile that quickly withered up and died, turning into a sickening scowl. "And easily the most ruthless."

The way Keith spoke of her, with her modelesque looks and her bipolar attitude, he might have been describing just about every one of the cheerleaders Madison had gone to high school with. He'd even used the word himself, calling her the snot-nosed cheerleader type. Her beauty drew him in, and she gave him just enough to make him think he'd been the only one in the world that mattered, then she ripped the rug out from under him, morphing into a manipulative bitch.

"When I first met her, she told me she was an intern at the department where I did research, I worked mainly with animal-based proteins and rice."

"Yeah, I remember reading about that. You were trying to find a synthetic blood product that might help fight the virus, acting like an extra antibody or something like that."

Keith smiled at her. "Did a little research of your own, huh?"

Madison flushed as he continued.

"We got a lot of interns, so I didn't really question it at the time, and frankly, when she started hitting on me, I was flattered. I may have been kind of an introvert back then."

"Back then?" Madison interrupted.

"Okay, so I've always been an introvert. No different back then, one might even say it was worse. I'd had a couple of girlfriends in college, and this one girl in high school, but I was hardly a Casanova."

"You know, I find that really hard to believe. Have you looked at yourself in the mirror? Wait, can you even see your own reflection?"

Keith rolled his eyes. "Of course I can. As I was saying, I'd always been more interested in studying than into girls. And after my brother died, I guess you might say I became a little reclusive, there were even times where I'd go through these periods of not eating and then binging to cover up the weight loss, sort of like a man possessed."

Madison's heart broke a little as she listened to him. She imagined that Keith and his brother must have been close and that he'd probably been devastated by the loss and the fact that he'd been powerless to prevent it. For him to admit to basically having had an eating disorder, she found that her respect for him grew immensely. It was a sore subject for women, so she only imagined how much more embarrassed a man might be.

"I came from a wealthy family, but my parents had pretty much shunned my brother because of his lifestyle. They called him sexually immoral, even though he'd gotten HIV through sharing needles and not having sex with another man like they'd assumed, they seemed convinced he deserved what he got, and who knows, maybe he did, but I loved him, and when I couldn't help him, I swore I'd find a way to help others like him."

Keith said his parents refused to help him in any way financially with his research, and that grants and pharmaceutical companies would only pump so much into it, at times he almost felt like they didn't want him to find a cure, but they also knew that his work was important on a broader spectrum, that it had possible military applications, and they seemed to allow him to get to a certain point in the process before finally closing down his research.

That's where Cybil came into the picture. They'd been dating for a few months before his work was ripped out of his hands and they told him to cease and desist. Cybil acted interested in his work, but she had her own agenda, and Keith had somehow known that, despite agreeing to work with her.

"Cybil came from old money, she was loaded, and she had a friend who owned a warehouse suitable for the kind of research I did. She and Martin, her friend, had promised me all the money I would need and more, to continue my research privately. I was thrilled at first, but when she told me what she wanted out of the deal, I began to question things. And it all kind of unraveled from there."

"How do you mean?"

Keith sighed, he headed to the fridge and pulled out his thermos, taking a long drink of what Madison assumed had to be blood, and then he leaned over the counter. "I'm still not totally sure how Cybil found out about me, or my research. But it became clear pretty quickly that she'd lied about actually being an intern and had a rather lengthy agenda. She wanted me to develop a synthetic blood for her using only plant-based ingredients, and in exchange for meeting her specifications, she'd fund my own research for as long as it took."

At first, though it went beyond all of his ethics and morals, Keith had agreed to Cybil's terms, and when he wasn't at work, he would be in her homemade lab testing formulas and studying plant matter. All the while, Cybil continued to play mind games with him. Unlike Keith, Cybil's moral compass had been corrupted, and she wasn't against using her emotional tactics to get what she wanted.

She bewitched Keith, seduced him, made him feel things he probably wouldn't have otherwise, all the while laying the groundwork for what she really wanted.

Him.

"Almost a year into my research Cybil finally told me her deepest darkest secrets. And at first, I'll admit, I thought she was off her rocker. I mean, vampires? Werewolves? Hybrids?"

Madison cocked her head. "Hybrids?" She asked slightly perplexed. "My father's research never said anything about hybrids."

"It wouldn't have," Keith answered, straightening away from the counter and walking over to an office nook that had essentially been turned into a holding place for cookbooks and the like. He pulled out his key ring and slid a small key into a drawer that Madison hadn't even known was locked, producing a folder and bringing it to her.

On the front of the folder, in her father's handwriting she saw a name, Madison looked up at him strangely. "Why wasn't this in the safe?"

"Your father wanted me to give it to you myself after you'd figured everything out." He shrugged as she gave him another odd look. "Don't ask me why. He almost never gave me a straight answer, honestly, I'm pretty sure there's a lot your father didn't tell me, like he had all the pieces to the puzzle but he wanted me to figure out where they went on my own."

Madison remembered the journals and documents written in Romani, "I know just what you mean." She agreed, flipping the cover of the folder and pulling out a typed report, to include a thorough diagram of a family tree for a...

Luca Romero.
Chapter 23

Family Tree

According to the report, Luca had been born in the early part of the 15th century to a vampire named Tobias Romero, and a gypsy named Catalina Jull.

"He was a real hybrid?" Madison asked suddenly, looking up at Keith as her eyes sparkled with curiosity.

Keith would swear later on that his heart skipped a beat, the way she seemed so fascinated by it all, like her father had been. He saw no fear in Madison now, whereas he'd been terrified after seeing Cybil's true face. As beautiful as her brown eyes might have been, glowing almost red, like rubies, when her glistening fangs descended when she'd torn into... No, he had to stop himself, he didn't have the time or the stomach for a trip down memory lane. Taking another swig from his thermos, he joined Madison once more at the table.

"I presume you've read the story of Romeo and Juliet?" He asked, throwing Madison completely off guard.

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Check the names again Madison, do you notice anything, strange, about them?"

Madison took a moment to study the family tree again, shaking her head in the process, at first, she had no idea what Keith meant, until she saw it, her head darting up. "Romero? And Jull? Is that what you're talking about?"

Keith nodded. "Now, it's said, and obviously I can't prove this, but it's said, that Romeo and Juliet was based on the tale of the first hybrid."

"Interesting. Do tell."

"Well, the way I heard it, long before Luca had been born, before his parents had even met, lycans and vampires consorted regularly. That is, until a young lycan woman accidentally bit her vampire lover and he died. Nowadays, a person has a much higher chance, given the current advances in medicine, of surviving the bite of a werewolf and in all likelihood, probably wouldn't even turn, but at the time, a bite usually caused humans to go senile, since, as you're already aware, shapeshifting came from a virus, lycans are basically a walking rabies infection waiting to happen."

"So he got dementia?"

Keith shook his head. "No, not quite. That's usually what happened to people bitten by werewolves since they weren't capable of treating the rabies virus, the vaccine hadn't been discovered yet, but a vampire bitten by a lycan deteriorates much faster. I guess it has something to do with them being made up of mostly blood rather than water like normal humans."

"So he died pretty quickly?"

"In a matter of days, and it was an agonizing process as the virus ate at his brain, and made him hallucinate, the works. As you can imagine, his sire, as well as the rest of his vampire family took offense to his death, and they sought out the young lycan. One of them lost control and bit her, and realized too late that she wouldn't be able to stop herself, she ended up draining the lycan dry, and only then did they discover, as her body basically caved in on itself, that she'd been several months pregnant."

Madison gasped. "Oh my God!"

"Up until that point, no one realized the possibility of carrying an immortal child, most mortal women died after a couple of weeks of conception, and here this lycan had gone almost five months already. It shook them to their core, and from that point on, they steered clear of each other. A bite from either proved fatal, and the idea of a hybrid, an unknown, scared them all to death."

"I can imagine. But that didn't stop Romeo and Juliet, did it?"

Keith laughed, he really enjoyed this, and Madison appeared to be eating it up. "Anyway," he continued. "Tobias, a direct descendant of John the Mason during the Roman empire and Catalina, a young lycan out of Greece, her parents related to the original clans of India, met and fell in love."

"Isn't that the way all love stories go? So what happened next? Did their parents start feuding?" She asked comically, nearly on the edge of her seat.

"Well, considering Tobias was already more than a century old, I doubt he had any sort of parents, but their clans didn't seem very happy about them being together after what had happened the last time their two kinds had consorted, and when Catalina turned up pregnant, vampires began to hunt her, they wanted the baby dead."

"That's horrible!"

"A sign of the times they lived in, unfortunately, people got scared. So Catalina fled to a distant relative from another pack, and she had the baby in secrecy. Tobias and Catalina have never been seen again, some say they committed suicide, others say they were murdered, and every so often someone will swear they're still alive, that having a baby turned Catalina into a hybrid, and they started a new life together."

"What happened to the baby?"

"They named him Luca Romero, and the pack raised him. He wasn't like other vampires, but able to walk in the daylight without getting sun poisoning, and he not only ate meat, but he survived off of it. He also didn't have a bloodlust as strong as a vampire's, he controlled it more easily, not needing to feed as often."

Madison flipped the folder open once more and looked at some of the other papers, skimming over the exact story Keith had told her, and more. Luca had apparently taken a lycan bride of his own, a name Madison was familiar with.

"Luca married a Mellor?" She asked excitedly.

Keith nodded. "A cousin of the woman that your family is descended from. She was said to be very beautiful, and unfortunately, as was common back then, it's said that she died during childbirth. But she managed to birth a beautiful little girl."

"Adeline." Madison provided, looking from him to the family tree and back again.

"Yes, Adeline, who would later marry a vampire who, like her grandfather Tobias, had been sired by John the Mason."

"Small world."

"Oh," he laughed. "It gets smaller still. Keep reading."

Madison did as he suggested, learning that Adeline would go on to have seven children, one boy, and six girls. She began reading the names and what little information had been written about them out loud.

"They had a son named Godric, who is presumed to be alive, and never had children to anyone's knowledge. A daughter named Beatrix, later slain by a hunter. Wait, does this seriously say hunter?" Madison looked at Keith questioningly. "Are there really such things as hunters? Like, Buffy the Vampire Slayer kind of shit?"

Keith laughed at first, then suddenly had a eureka moment, he snagged the folder from her hands and took a closer peek at Luca's bloodlines.

"Of course." He said aloud, more to himself than anything.

"Am I missing something here?" Madison asked, a little lost.

Keith put the folder back down in front of her and began pacing, his lips moving though no sound came out.

"Keith?"

He stopped and looked at her. "Huh? Oh, sorry."

"You wanna fill me in on this sudden revelation of yours? Or are you going to keep talking to yourself?"

Sliding into the seat next to her, he talked quickly and animatedly. "I'm not sure why I hadn't realized this before, probably because I've never encountered one myself... but.."

"Encountered what before? You're not making any sense Keith."

"A hunter. Damien, I'm fairly sure he's a hunter."

"A vampire hunter? Damien? I mean, Detective Crowley?"

Keith nodded enthusiastically, his expression, though grave, lit up like a Christmas tree. "The Bible talks about a man named Enoch, whose lineage later includes Noah, but anyway, I read that he never died, but rather that he entered heaven with God, he would have been the first, before the time of Christ."

Madison cut him off again, he was losing her, and fast. "Okay, well, thanks for the Bible lesson, but I don't see what that has to do with hunters and Damien."

"I'm getting to that part. Enoch had children, the first, a son named Methuselah, whose name roughly translated, means 'man of the dart, or spear,' the first hunter, born to start hunting down Cain's creations. God called them an abomination, and he wanted them destroyed. To, I guess you might say, balance things out, and make sure Satan and his army never had the opportunity to rule the earth."

"And you think Damien might be one of these hunters?" While not quite ready to buy into this newest theory quite yet, at least he had answered one of the questions that had previously been nagging at her. Vampires hadn't taken over the earth because they did have something to fear, hunters.

"Don't get me wrong, hunters aren't like the Buffy variety, they don't have special skills or strengths, it's this innate hatred of immortals. It's bred into them, even if they don't realize it at first."

Madison felt a little chill go through her spine. "What happens when they figure it out?"

"It's nothing good, Madison. I can tell you that." He replied, his tone somber. "Like I said, I've never met one, but I've heard stories."

"What kind of stories?"

"One of Cybil's men, Martin, he told me how Cybil's mate had been hunted down and slaughtered like a pig gone to market. The hunter acted mercilessly, as if he didn't have a soul anymore."

"But Damien seems like a pretty normal guy to me, he's followed the law so far."

"So far." He echoed. "But I sensed something off about him from the moment I laid eyes on him, and he's been hounding me, he can't let it go. It makes sense. He hasn't connected the dots yet. But he will, and God help me when he does. Martin said it's like a switch being flipped. They lose all sense of identity, their sole purpose becomes annihilating what they perceive to be a threat. And once they start, they won't stop until every last vampire is dead, not unless you kill them first."

Though in her gut she understood what he said to be true, Madison tried desperately to hold onto logic and rationale as fear began to claw at her. "What, is that like, the story they tell you guys to keep you in line? To stop you from going rogue and killing everyone? A vampire's version of the boogeyman?" She laughed unsteadily.

"I wish it was, Madison. I wish it was."

Madison noticed the goosebumps on her arms and rubbed at them under the table so that Keith wouldn't see how freaked out she'd really become. Not that he would notice, the way he stared straight ahead at nothing in particular. Peering down at the folder in front of her, Madison read the next line of Luca's progeny. Trying to get her mind off Damien and hunters.

"Adeline had a daughter named Grace, she married a human. It says she had several children and she's listed as deceased, but it doesn't say how."

"She had an accident." Keith chimed in absently.

"Pardon?"

"Grace, she died in a riding accident. The horse trampled her, crushing her skull, her injuries were too extensive for her to heal."

"Oh." Madison acknowledged, moving onto the next one before she pictured the accident in her head. "A Daughter named Jane. She married a lycan and had three children. Also presumed to be dead."

Keith looked at her and blinked a couple of times before shrugging to indicate that he had nothing to say, so Madison continued.

"A daughter named Ann," she said before practically choking out the next part. "Slain at the hands of a hunter, her own husband?"

Keith's brows rose a bit, but he didn't comment. He seemed to become more stoic with each revelation, possibly accepting some preconceived fate that hadn't yet been handed down.

"A daughter named Frances, also killed by a hunter."

Madison gasped and looked up at Keith in shock as she read the next name on the list to herself. "Cybil? Cybil is an original hybrid?" she choked out.

Keith nodded, pushing away from the table and walking towards the counter, his back to her, he braced himself against the breakfast bar. "Martin told me that Cybil's mate wasn't the only one to die at the hands of a hunter. That's why I really need to take this situation as seriously as possible. A hunter doesn't care about morals or ethics, he doesn't see a person, he only sees a monster."

If she hadn't read it for herself, Madison would have had a hard time trusting the words coming out of Keith's mouth, the tale sounded so sad, and even a little sadistic, that a loving God would have ordered such a death sickened her.

"Cybil married a vampire named Eric Black, sired by Peter the Blacksmith. They had two children, a boy, and a little girl. Her son was slain sometime in the late 1700's, he'd been hunted for nearly a century by multiple generations of the same family before they finally beheaded him. But it's the little girl's story that really nails the point home."

"Tell me they didn't kill a child?" She asked, already fearing what the answer might be.

"Worse. A toddler, she wasn't even two."

"They killed a baby? How... but that's... I mean..."

Keith shook his head, his back still to her. "Hunters don't care," he spat, whirling on her and startling her. "They aren't people anymore Madison, not at that point. All they see is evil, they can't see the soul inside of you, and they don't care. They aren't trying to save you, their only job is to damn you for being the monster you are. There were three of them, they tore the child from Cybil's arms, and even as she fought them, they ripped the child limb from limb, like a rag doll. Cybil was lucky to get away, and she and Eric didn't have any more children after that."

"And now she has no one," Madison whispered automatically, wondering if the death of her children may have played a part in turning her into the callous woman Keith described her as. Pain like that, well, she imagined that it would do a lot to a person. And she instantly thought of her mom. Tammy had only been trying to protect her even if it seemed like a selfish thing to do. Perhaps it might be time to forgive her.

"No. Now she doesn't have anyone. But she's made plenty like her." Keith said, pulling Madison into the conversation once more.

"Like you?"

"Like me."

"And how did that happen, Keith? What did she say to you to make you want to be like her?" She asked, trying to get back on topic as they'd veered quite a bit from their original conversation.

Shoving his hands in his pockets, standing before her, Keith bared his soul. "Love." He said simply, making Madison's heart ache more than it already did. "She had me so messed up, so bewitched by that point that I thought I loved her and was fool enough to assume she loved me too."

"Maybe she did."

Keith shook his head. "No. Eric had been murdered in 1950, after having lived with him for centuries, I doubt she got over him that quickly."

"Twenty-nine years is a long time, it's possible she might have finally been ready to move on."

"Twenty-nine years is a long time to someone like you, but when you're staring down eternity, twenty-nine years goes by in the blink of an eye, it's nothing. Cybil wanted that serum, that's all she wanted, I was only a toy she liked to play with, something to pass the time. She did what she had to do to keep me under her thumb."

"I don't get it." Madison confessed. "If all she wanted was the serum you were working on, why did she have to turn you to get it? Why make you think she loved you? Was she really that vindictive?"

"More than you can imagine, but it wasn't just that. I was obsessed Madison, and I don't mean with her. The way a hunter obsesses over vampires that's how I felt about finding the cure to Aids. I drove myself into the ground trying to figure it out and create that stupid serum for Cybil at the same time, there was hardly anything left of me when she offered to turn me. She dangled eternity in front of me like a carrot, and I the starving little bunny rabbit. She told me she would help me, she would give me everything I've ever wanted and then some, and I trusted her. I counted on her to help me find the cure, and assumed at the end of it, that we'd be together forever, in love."

"So you let her turn you."

"Yes. Turning allowed me to tap into a part of my brain that I didn't have access to before. It gave my body the strength to go non-stop, and it gave my mind the opportunity to reach new heights. I got close, so close, right there." He said pinching his fingers close together to illustrate. "Another couple of months and I would have found a cure for aids. No doubt about it."

"What stopped you?" she asked, listening to his somber tone and knowing this story had anything but a happy ending to it.

Keith gave her a sort of sad half-smile, sensing her sympathy. "Cybil became furious with me, I'd stopped focusing on her project and poured myself into my own work. She threatened to kill me, and when I dared her to do it, knowing she wouldn't, knowing I might be her only chance at creating what she wanted, she murdered my parents instead."

Madison inhaled quickly. "What?" She asked breathlessly.

"She kidnapped my mother, and she made me watch as she tore her throat out right in front of me." Keith winced as the images of long ago flooded his memory. His mother's screams, the tears running down her face as she begged for her life. The way Cybil's eyes glowed, her fangs glistening, piercing her mother's skin, digging, ripping, ravaging, and yanking out her esophagus, spitting it on the floor at his feet. Keith had cried, he'd begged, he'd literally gotten down on his knees and begged Cybil not to. He'd promised to work day and night to finish, but Cybil hadn't cared. She said she'd warned him, and he'd needed to be taught a lesson, that if he didn't do the work now, she'd kill his father too.

"After I quit my job at the health institute, it took me less than a week to make the synthetic blood for her."

Madison became torn between disgust and curiosity. She felt horrible about what Keith had witnessed, but she wanted to understand it all at the same time. "What did she want it for?"

"Cybil said she grew tired of being hunted so easily. For example, a normal vampire can't walk in the sunlight unscathed, a minimal amount of exposure can cause a lot of pain, they get sun poisoning in the same way a human might after too many hours in the sun, but it happens in a fraction of the time, minutes is painful, hours can be deadly. And it takes longer to heal. Which made them easier to hunt since they usually stayed indoors during the day. Hybrid's don't have that problem thanks to the wolf DNA, which is also why we can, for a time, survive off of raw meat, but we all still crave human blood."

"And she didn't want to anymore?"

"Right. Because like sunlight for a vampire, feeding on a human isn't always easy to hide."

"That's what you're doing when you go out, isn't it?" Madison wondered out loud, more pieces of the puzzle falling into place.

"Yes."

"And Danielle?"

"Danielle would be what I might have referred to as a donor, though a friend of mine, Lucas, used to call them groupies." He chuckled, some of that dread finally leaving his expression.

"I'm sorry, groupies? You mean, people actually let you feed on them?"

Keith broke out into a mischievous smile. He closed the short distance between them and sat down beside her once more, laying a hand palm up on the table. "Would you like to see for yourself?"

Madison gulped. She eyed his hand for a moment, her gaze darting to his eyes and his mouth a couple times as well. Slowly and hesitantly, she laid her wrist face up in his hand and watched nervously as Keith guided it towards his mouth.

His eyes narrowed as his lips touched her soft skin, he heard her pulse jumping wildly. He sensed her emotions. She was scared and excited. Her eyes remained glued to his mouth. He pulled away slightly. "Are you sure about this?" He asked, pulling her gaze to his.

His eyes began to glow, Madison's mouth dropped as she watched them turn from a pale blue to an electrically charged and radiant blue-green. She became so mesmerized by the color of them that she almost missed the long slick fangs protruding from his lips. With another gulp, Madison nodded, too transfixed to decline at this point even if she had wanted to.

Keith slid his tongue over his fangs with a smile and lowered his mouth to her wrist. When he pierced her skin, there was a quick stab of pain, but as his fangs slid into her willing vein, a rush of pleasure consumed her. Not quite a full-blown orgasm, but she felt like her body teetered right on the edge of one. She tried to concentrate on the sensation, her breath quickening, her body ready for whatever came next.

But he pulled away instead. Grabbing a paper towel Keith wrapped it around her wrist and applied pressure. It took Madison a few minutes to come back down to earth. She looked at him with a tired smile on her face.

"You couldn't have gone another minute or so?"

Keith burst out laughing. "You're something else." He teased, placing her free hand over the makeshift bandage and leaning back in his chair, his head shaking in disbelief.

"Well, I can see why you'd call them groupies, there probably isn't a single person alive that wouldn't enjoy that."

"Which is why I have to be careful." He replied in a more serious tone. As great as it might be, and he understood from his own experiences, a vampire still had to be careful with whom they shared their secret. "I made a mistake with Danielle."

"Is that what she meant when she said you got her addicted?"

"Yes. It can be like a drug. A person with an addictive personality, like Danielle, would certainly form a dependency. That's why I cut her off, and that's why, after her death, I stopped using donors."

While it made sense to her in some ways, other parts of his explanation didn't add up. "So how does it work? Wouldn't a person wake up the next morning and wonder why there are bite marks on their neck?"

"Well, the neck isn't the only place we can feed..." Keith joked seductively, getting serious again in the next minute when Madison's brows rose with interest. "Remember what I told you about drinking a vampire's blood when you still have your own blood in your body?"

"Yeah."

"Well, that's how I do it. I would go out on a date with a girl, we go back to her place, probably kiss a little, I bite her, take enough to render her unconscious, and give her some of my blood. Afterward, I would inject her with a healing compound I made before putting her to bed. When she wakes up a few days later, the marks are gone, and she's none the wiser."

Though she had been open to almost everything else Keith had shared with her, Madison couldn't help feeling a little sick about this particular revelation. While she supposed the women did get a certain amount of pleasure out of the deal, he essentially did it without their permission and consequently stole a couple of days worth from their memory. It didn't sound like something a man of his morals would do.

"Madison?" He asked, sensing her anger and disgust building. He understood his methods weren't exactly righteous, but the other way had gotten an innocent woman killed, at least no one had died doing it this way.

Until Kieri.

Keith slammed his head back against the chair and let out a silent string of curses. He'd fed off of Kieri, and now the woman was dead, he realized it hadn't been a coincidence either. God, he had so many things he still needed to tell Madison. And she wouldn't like any of them.
Chapter 24

You Don't have to put on the Red Light

Alexis leaned up against the back of the strip club and slipped one of her heels off, rubbing the ball of her foot. She took the sneakers she kept in her purse out and put them on one at a time, stuffing her heels into the bag and zipping it up before heading home through the well-lit alleyway. She only had to walk a couple of blocks to get to her apartment building, so it never really made any sense for her to drive.

"Phoenix?" A man's voice called from behind.

A little annoyed, she turned to face him, surprised to find him both young and attractive. Alexis had been working at Club Good Times for about a year now, and even though it was a strip club, it seemed like more of a family. The girls were all very supportive of each other and their dreams. The money might have been good, but not many people dreamed of being a dancer all their lives.

She certainly didn't. Alexis had a son to take care of and used the money from the club to pay for their apartment at Saint Peter's, as well as her tuition for school. She wanted to be a social worker, she loved kids, and she had a thing about abuse.

Joey's father abused her, but since he was also a cop she'd been powerless to stop it, which is why she fled Miami and ran more than a thousand miles away to Pennsylvania. Her mother grew up here and always talked about a little place near Lancaster. Alexis didn't have any family, her father died when she was a child and her mother passed away right before Joey had been born, but Lancaster always sounded like a nice place to live.

Of course, if it hadn't been for the manager of Club Good Times giving her a job and advancing her the money to get into an apartment, she might not have made it on her own. The club was the only family she had right now, and while quite thankful for them, that didn't mean she wanted to work there long-term. She wanted a job with a purpose other than stripping for perverted old men and drunken bachelors.

She wanted more for Joey. And she thanked God he was still too young to understand what mommy really did for a living! Showgirls this was not!

"Um, hi, I'm sorry, can I help you?" She asked pleasantly as the gentlemen came closer. He definitely appeared to be quite attractive, and rather familiar to her as well, she didn't place him off the top of her head though. She only hoped now that he didn't turn out to be one of those sleazy customers that constantly solicited the girls for private sessions outside the club because she absolutely didn't do that kind of stuff.

"You don't remember me?" He asked, looking almost hurt. "I met you in the club last night, you gave me a lap dance, and we had a really nice conversation about..."

"Florida!" She chirped, flushing and placing her hand over her mouth, embarrassed by her sudden outburst.

He smiled though, the way his lips curved making him even more deliciously handsome. "That's right. You said you came from Miami, and I told you about growing up in Tallahassee."

Alexis giggled, "I remember now. You said your name is Sean, right?"

Sean nodded, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his bombers jacket, which seemed a bit out of place given the unusually hot weather they were having, but Alexis shrugged it off. He was so cute after all.

"I came by to see you again, but they said you'd left."

"Yeah, I uh, I had first shift tonight." She smiled. "You really came to see me?"

"Absolutely. I like you Phoenix."

"Actually, it's Alexis." She replied, extending a hand. "It's nice to see you again, Sean."

"Alexis. I like that. I'm glad I caught you, would you like to go and grab a cup of coffee with me, Alexis?"

Alexis looked down at her watch, she hadn't told the sitter when she'd be back, she didn't usually work first shift, and she honestly figured she'd pick up a double. "I'm not really a coffee person." She told him, grimacing when she noticed the way he suddenly frowned. "But I guess we could go down the road here to Union Station and get a soda or something."

Sean's mischievous smile came back, he turned and propped his arm for her to slip hers through, with another glance at her watch, Alexis looped her arm through his and followed him up the street. Her apartment building was directly across from where they were going, even as cute as he was, she decided to make it a quick drink so she didn't have to pay the babysitter any more than she already had to.

Annoyed, because it seemed like it was taking Sean forever, Cybil waited impatiently in place for them to round the corner of the club, and the second they did she shoved a taser into the stripper's side, though to the casual observer it probably looked like they were walking alongside each other in the same way Sean was.

"Don't make a sound or I'll light your ass up like a fucking Christmas tree, understand?"

Alexis whimpered a little, but nodded, following them to the parking lot and getting into the back seat of a large SUV as Cybil opened the door and gave her a little shove. Sean got behind the wheel while Cybil climbed in next to her, the taser still firmly in hand, not that Cybil needed it, but it certainly made things easier.

Alexis looked from Cybil to Sean, "Why are you doing this?" she cried. "If it's about money, take what's in my purse. Please."

Cybil laughed. "Stupid whore, I don't want your money."

Sean said nothing, in fact, he didn't acknowledge either of them, he started up the vehicle and took a left on Union Street, heading back towards Lancaster.

"Please." She begged again, tears beginning to slide down her cheeks. "I have a child."

Cybil cocked her head slightly, more of a tick really, but she continued to ignore her. She had no sympathy for a woman who sold her body on the streets.

"I promise you I'll give you whatever you want, but please, please don't hurt me. Please don't leave my son without a mother."

"Shut up!" Cybil growled, pressing the taser into her neck.

Alexis began to sob in earnest, hiccuping as the tears came faster.

"Stop crying!"

"Joey's only 2." She said through the moisture in her eyes.

"And you probably don't even know who the father is! You fucking whore. Shut the fuck up!" Cybil spat, trying to ward off her empathy for the woman. She had once been the mother of a two-year-old herself. Would she really leave a child without a mother?

"I do," Alexis retorted. "My husband, he lives in Miami, he's a cop. I swear, he'll give you whatever you want."

Cybil became tired of listening to her lies, she pressed the taser closer to the woman's skin and hit the button, delighting as she watched her body convulse, the taser snapping and popping with electricity as it finally rendered her unconscious.

"Is that really necessary?" Sean asked, pulling into a driveway and shutting off the engine.

Cybil shrugged, "I got tired of listening to her babble. Now, why don't you be a good boy and get her inside?"

Sean rolled his eyes, thankful that Cybil hadn't seen the gesture in the dark, she always took offense to shit like that. She didn't like it when he acted rudely, and getting on Cybil's bad side, as Alexis had learned, was never a good thing.

After stripping her down and strapping her on top of a steel table he'd recently added to the old barn, Sean took a step back and admired his handy work, waiting for his next instructions from Cybil.

"What now boss?" He asked mockingly.

Cybil ignored his childishness, she had work to do. After having watched Keith leave the police station earlier that day, and no less than an hour after he'd gotten there, Cybil realized that Sean must have fucked up somehow.

She hadn't been particularly happy with the photos he'd shown her, the way Sean had killed that girl appeared too similar to his regular pattern for her liking, and the fake cell phone had obviously been a dead giveaway as well. No, this time she had to do it better.

After putting on some gloves and rifling through the whore's purse, she came up with a sleek new iPhone and set to work. She found a rather long conversation between the stripper and the aforementioned husband, and realizing that some text messages became quite graphic she decided they would do. Using a prepaid phone as a hotspot, she downloaded an app that would allow her to edit any SMS message she wanted to and started changing some of the texts.

She altered the date, the time, the number, using Keith's instead, which she had gotten from Lee, and parts of the actual messages, leaving the more graphic ones. Satisfied with her work, she laughed wickedly to herself and uninstalled the app, tossing the phone back into the purse, along with a card that she carefully pulled out a plastic bag. One of Robert's business cards she'd watched Keith tack to the corkboard of a general store a couple of weeks ago.

"Wake her up." She told Sean, standing over the slight woman with the bright red hair and blue lipstick. It looked gaudy in her opinion and really made the girl seem like a whore. She'd been wearing a torn t-shirt and some old jean skirt, but the makeup was a dead giveaway. Nobody would see her bright hair and lips, and those bold smoky eyes and assume she was anything other than a whore.

Alexis woke slowly, moaning as Sean waved smelling salts in front of her nose, but as she began to try to move, realizing her limbs wouldn't obey, she grew frantic, her heart raced, her breathing became erratic, her eyes nearly bulging out of their sockets.

Thick leather straps lay across her ankles and her thighs above the knee, two on her upper body that pinned her arms to her sides as well as another strap along the top of her forehead, limiting even her vision.

"Oh God, oh God, oh God." She began to chant, squeezing her eyes shut. "This is because of Joey, isn't it? Did Tony hire you guys? He wants Joey back. Oh God."

Cybil stepped closer to her slapping her hard across the cheek, causing Alexis to cry out. "Damn, would you shut up?"

Sean stood off to the side watching, fiddling with a scalpel and a pair of scissors, admiring their sleek blades and wondering what Cybil had in mind with a table full of medical tools. "Are we going to operate on her?" He asked with a sexy smirk on his face as he held up a large knife, skimming his fingers lightly down the steel backing.

Alexis pinched her eyes closed again, sobbing more theatrically.

"Oh, now see what you've done!" Cybil scolded. "I just got her to stop fucking crying!" Cybil slapped her again. "Stop it!" she yelled.

With her eyes still closed, Alexis moved her mouth silently, her tears having finally abated again.

"Aww," Sean said, pointing to their captive. "How cute, she's praying."

Cybil groaned, forcefully turning the woman's head underneath the leather restraint. "Do you honestly think God is going to help a Jezebel like you?" She rasped when Alexis opened her eyes.

"I'm not a whore," Alexis argued, hoping to appeal to them this time. "I haven't slept with anyone other than my husband, dancing pays well. I swear I'm not a whore. I never cheated on him, if that's what he told you, it's a lie."

Shoving her head away from her, Cybil climbed on top of her, straddling her naked body and leaning down into her face. Watching the exchange, Sean rather enjoyed the scene in front of him and voiced his pleasure with a teasing moan. Cybil shot him a warning glance before turning back to her prisoner.

"I'm sorry, Alexis is it? I don't know who your husband is, nor do I care, so I want you to do yourself a favor and shut up. You're not leaving here alive, accept that, and perhaps I won't let Sean torture you first."

Alexis began to pout again, confused, and scared out of her mind, she didn't understand what she'd done to deserve this, and she grew more and more afraid of what they would do to her.

"Well that's no fun," Sean grumbled, letting the scalpel he'd been holding fall back onto the table with a loud clang.

Alexis winced at the noise.

"I still don't get why we have to kill her." He continued, talking as though she weren't in the room.

Cybil gave him a stern glare and turned back to her captive running a finger down the side of one cheek. "It's called collateral damage, sweetheart." She purred, laughing to herself when Alexis tried to shrink away from her touch. "And nobody's going to miss one dumb stripper, are they?"

Panic seemed to bubble up inside of her, trying to dig its way out. But the sting of her cheeks from the woman's unforgiving fist was more than enough of a reminder for her to try and keep calm.

However, nothing could stop the terror she felt when Cybil's eyes began to glow, as the brown hue became red, they glittered viciously at Alexis, and when her mouth opened, her lips parted to reveal incisors the size of an animal's. Alexis started thrashing, she squirmed underneath Cybil and the restraints, throwing all her weight into it as her adrenaline finally kicked in, that fight-or-flight reflex really working over time.

Cybil tossed her head back and laughed, she seemed to feed off the hysteria, breathing it in like she'd never tasted oxygen before. Alexis continued to struggle, wetting herself in process. But not even that deterred Cybil, who, in one quick movement bent over Alexis at an angle and tore into her throat like a savage.

Alexis began choking and sputtering, blood bubbled in her throat, sliding out of the corners of her mouth, Sean stood by licking his lips, and Cybil dug in deeper. Blood spewed everywhere, Cybil became covered in it, her clothes soaked, her hair streaked in red.

As Alexis took her last wheezing breath, a blood bubble popping in her throat, Cybil finally sat up, spitting the woman's windpipe into her hand and licking the blood from her mouth. "Mmm, tasty." She moaned, sucking the crimson liquid from her gloved fingertips. She didn't even mind the subtle hints of latex, it had been years since she'd fed on someone this way. The violence, the power, seductive in itself, but the taste of fear, that was the best.

Cybil climbed off the table, throwing the poor girl's throat in a nearby garbage can. She started stripping out of her bloody clothes on the way to what had once the barn's wash station in order to hose down, which left Sean with cleanup duty.

Not that he minded.
Chapter 25

Another One Bites the Dust

Damien wasn't a homicide detective, so he only learned about the second body after the M.E. came to deliver the report on Kieri. He'd been right in the middle of filling out a missing person's report.

"You look like shit Kimmy." He joked, noticing the dark circles under her eyes, and her worn-out appearance overall.

"I feel like shit." She responded wincing when she caught sight of the little boy in his stroller a few feet away from where a young woman sat filling out paperwork. "Oops. I caught another body early this morning." Kimmy said in a lower tone of voice while setting the report for Kieri on top of the desk.

"Like the last one?" Damien asked with both interest and dismay.

Kimmy nodded. "I think she might have been a dancer."

Damien's stomach churned, his heart sank, he turned and looked at the woman and the little boy. Kimmy seemed to understand.

"Are they here filing a missing person's report?"

"Yeah. That's Marissa, the babysitter. She says the boy's mother never came home from work last night, a dancer at Club Good Times. I was getting ready to head over there as soon as we figured out what to do with the boy. Looks like I'll need to call social services after all."

Kimmy grimaced, "Did they give you a picture?"

Damien nodded, pulling the picture out from underneath the statement he'd been writing up, and handing it over.

"That's my Jane Doe alright."

With a sigh, Damien stood and walked over to the young babysitter, Kimmy looked on, her heart breaking when the young woman slumped in her chair, burying her face in her hands while she began to cry, the sound ringing loudly throughout the bullpen, and drawing several of the other officer's attention.

"You're sure?" She sobbed.

Damien shook his head. "The M.E. confirmed it, but since her next of kin is in Miami, and you're listed as her emergency contact, I'm going to need you to formally identify the body for me."

Marissa looked at Joey, who sat peacefully in his stroller and looked around all wide-eyed clutching a tattered teddy bear to his chest. "What's going to happen to Joey?"

"We'll have to get a hold of the boy's father, but until then, the state will find a family to take care of him."

"Oh God, I can't believe this."

"Let me know when you're ready to view the body."

Marissa nodded, pulling Joey and his stroller closer to her, whether to comfort herself or the boy, Damien didn't think it mattered, they'd both need it.

Stopping for a second to talk to another officer to inform them of the situation, and directing them to see to Marissa and contact social services, Damien walked back to Kimmy, who sat at his desk, waiting patiently, and asked her to take him to the latest victim.

"This one isn't quite like the other." She said on the way to the morgue.

"How so?"

"I found multiple ligature marks, so it looks like she'd been restrained, probably to a table or something, but no pre-mortem wounds like the first time."

"They didn't torture her?"

"No. Whoever did this killed her quickly, I doubt if she felt it at all."

"Okay, so what about it is the same?"

"Well, if you had read over my report on the Krycek woman, you'd know that the damage to the throat appears to be animal related trauma."

Damien stuck his hand out in front of him, stopping Kimmy before she'd reached the door to the exam room. "Say that again?"

"Something bit into her throat. She had teeth marks on either side of the wound, large incisors, about the size of a small bear or a large wolf."

"That doesn't make any damn sense."

"That's what I said too, which is why I've called in a veterinary pathologist. I've got someone coming in to look at the wound on the Krycek woman, I suppose I'll have them take a peek at this one too, it looks nearly identical, if not slightly smaller but some kind of animal ripped these poor girls' throats out."

Kimmy opened the door, pulling out two masks and two sets of gloves handing the extras to Damien. The scent of bleach overwhelmed him.

"He bleached the body again?"

"Yes," Kimmy answered pulling the sheet down far enough that Damien would be able to see the exposed wound. "Whoever did this was much cleaner this time around."

But certainly no more merciful, Damien said to himself as he examined the wound. Kimmy was right, without all the blood and gore the last body had, it made it pretty easy to see the distinct outline of a large animal's incisors on either side of the gaping hole in her throat.

"I don't get it." Damien groused. "Why would anyone use an animal as a murder weapon?"

"I don't understand it myself, but I'm definitely curious as to how they got the animal to attack her without so much as inflicting a single scratch on the rest of her body. A bear trained or not, would have clawed her to shreds."

"A trained attack dog?" He asked, wondering about Keith once more and the fact that he had a slew of aggressive dogs at his disposal.

"No. That's no dog bite, the teeth are too big, and spaced too wide. The incisors are larger than those of a dog. Like I said, it looks like a small bear to me."

Damien thought about that, remembering her earlier observations and imagining the wolves in Keith's care. "Or a large wolf?"

"Possibly." Kimmy agreed, covering the body back up and disposing of her gloves and mask as they left the room. "Wolves have been known to go for the head or throat, but there haven't been wolves in Pennsylvania in over a century."

"Who caught this case?"

"Torres and Fields."

"Great, thanks, Kimmy. And uh, can you get me a copy of the pathologist's report when it's finished?"

"Sure, no problem."

Kimmy was right, there hadn't been wild wolves in Pennsylvania in a long time, but he knew of an entire pack of domesticated ones that might have been trained to do the job. Picturing the implications, Damien hurried back to the station, nearly running through the bullpen on his way to see the officers who'd gotten the case after a brief check in with his Captain to tell him he would be taking it from them.

"Yo, Frank? Where's Fields?"

Frank Torres shook his big beefy head, "I dunno, bathroom? What's up?"

"I need you to tell me what you've got so far on the body in the morgue, I need to see your reports."

Frank glowered but shuffled around a few papers until he came up with the folder. "Yeah uh, the Jane Doe..."

"Alexis Johnson." Damien butted in.

"You know her?"

"No, but I recently filed a missing person's report on her, that's not the point though. What do you know?" He asked again, taking the folder from his meaty fist and looking through it himself.

"Right, Ms. Johnson, we discovered her body near Gordonville, some farmer found her out in his field wrapped in a tarp. She was naked, curled up in a ball clutching her purse. We didn't find a wallet or identification, only a cell phone, some makeup and a hairbrush, along with a business card, forensics has everything, they're supposed to give me a report here in a bit."

"Great. I'll go talk to forensics and you go see the Captain."

"What?"

"It's my case now Torres."

"The fuck you say?"

"Talk to the Captain."

Damien walked away, headed towards the forensics lab and laughing to himself as he imagined the bigger man scowling at his back and in all likelihood flipping him the bird.

When he got to the lab, he immediately headed to see Thompson. "Thompson, my man, I'm here to see you about a purse."

"I'm not so sure it's your style." Thompson joked, spinning in his chair and picking up a small ziplock bag. "Glad you're here though Crow, I meant to ring you this morning before they brought in all this shit."

"Oh yeah?" He asked, perching a hip on the edge of the other man's desk. "And why's that?"

"I got a hit on those fingerprints you gave me," Thompson remarked holding up a finger before Damien could get a word in. "Wait, wait, I'm not done, it gets even better. The fingerprints on the folder you gave me match those on the business card they found in Jane Doe's purse."

"You don't say?" Damien smirked.

"Yes, they belong to a Mr. Keith Welker, he was fingerprinted when he took a job at the National Institute of Health back in 1978."

"Wait, what? That can't be right. That guy is like seventy."

Perplexed by his response, Thompson turned around and grabbed the printed copy he'd made of the comparison. "What do you mean that can't be right?" he asked, showing the pictures to Damien. "It's an exact match, are you trying to tell me a seventy-year-old can't commit murder?"

"But this guy isn't seventy."

"Okay, now you've lost me."

"Is there any way to manipulate your fingerprints?"

"Well, sure, I mean, to some degree. You might be able to burn them off, scarring and what not, but not like this, you can't fake someone else's fingerprints, Damien. You wanna tell me what's going on here?"

Damien shook his head, he had a hard enough time trying to figure it out himself. "No, not really. What else did you find in that purse?"

Accepting the brush off, Thompson picked up another set of papers that had been stapled together, "Here's a copy of all the text messages and phone calls we found on the vic's cell phone, some pretty juicy stuff in there. You'll find the conversations between your vic and your perp to be the most interesting."

"My perp? This Welker guy? There are text messages between him and the vic?"

"Mmm-hmm. Quite a bit of them, going back about a week, and he seemed pretty angry." Thompson rubbed his chin as he appeared to ponder something. "Are you sure a seventy-year-old wouldn't commit murder? You might rethink that idea once you read some of those texts."

Leafing through the pages, Damien looked up and replied absently, "Yeah, maybe. Thanks again Thompson, come see me if you find anything else."

"Sure thing boss." He said to his back, shaking his head as Damien walked away.

Thompson had been right, Damien told himself on his way to the Captain's office. The text messages between Alexis and Keith got quite graphic, with some extremely violent undertones. And there was no mistaking it this time since it showed Keith's number listed under his name in the text message.

The message that disturbed Damien the most as he knocked on the Captain's door, however, was the one where Keith said he'd rip out her throat and feed it to the sharks if he didn't get what he wanted, and that would be the first message he showed his commanding officer.

"Does this qualify as definitive proof?" He asked.

The captain read over the messages for himself, frowning as he did so. "It's still speculative if you ask me."

"You're kidding, right? He threatens to rip out her throat, and two days later her throat gets ripped out, and you think that's speculation? Well, how about this, we found his fingerprints on a business card in her purse. Is THAT definitive?"

"Well, yeah, I guess it's better when you add the two together, but it seems a little sloppy if you ask me."

"So maybe he's getting sloppy."

"The bodies are bleached, no hair, no fibers, no nothing, and you're saying he's sloppy enough to leave behind his business card?"

"I said a business card, not his business card," Damien argued, leaving out the part about the card belonging to Robert. "He probably didn't wear gloves when he took her wallet out of her purse and accidentally grabbed the card."

"I suppose. It's a good theory. Alright Crow, go bring him in, but understand that if you're wrong about this it's your ass that lawyer of his is going to nail."

"I'll remember that." Damien laughed, rushing out the door and making his way to the DA's office to get a warrant.
Chapter 26

Omega

"I don't get it," Madison said after a long stretch of uncomfortable silence fell between them.

"Pardon?" Keith asked, still lost in his own thoughts. He sensed the reel of emotions Madison went through, anger, confusion, disgust, empathy, she underwent almost every emotion possible as she tried to digest Keith's admission, and during that time, the more he analyzed it, Keith had to do his best not to blame himself for Kieri's death, he had enough blood on his hands already.

"You're like two different people. I don't understand how you go from a compassionate, and ethical man to a callous monster. Does the urge to drink human blood really trump your morals? You rescue and rehabilitate animals, I've seen how much it bothers you when you take in these sick and abused dogs, I felt it Keith, you're not very good at hiding it when you talk about them. And yet you can conscientiously go out and assault women?"

"Now wait a damn minute!" Keith sputtered, appalled by the comparison.

"No, I'm sorry. What else would you like me to call it, Keith? How are you any better than a rapist? So you don't have sex with those women, but you certainly don't give them a choice in the matter either!"

"Because it's too dangerous! Have you not listened to a word I've said? Danielle is proof of that, damn it! How many more women would you have me kill?"

Madison stood and turned her back on him, her frustration boiling over. "Danielle was an accident! An accident, Keith!" She shouted, whirling around to face him and towering over him as he still sat at the table. "You've been doing this for over forty years, how many women have died before her?"

Keith pressed himself against the back of his chair, honestly scared of the slight woman screaming at him. Worse than that, she'd been right. Because of Cybil and her brutality, Keith had sought others like him, determined to live a pacifist lifestyle. Only, he hadn't anymore, he'd strayed from the path.

Cybil had dragged innocent men and women before him, demanding he feed in the same fashion as his sire, as her pack. Without the least bit of morality, she tortured and murdered, disposing of the bodies with little care or thought to who they may have left behind. And though she sought a cure to her fierce bloodlust, it often contradicted her actions. Many times she'd acted like a savage beast, her pack members feeding on her predatory instincts and treating anyone, even teenagers, like prey.

It was little wonder to Keith back then that someone had hunted her. Who wouldn't want to exterminate such a beast? After being turned, he'd considered doing it himself, but Keith realized he wouldn't be strong enough, and even if he used his intelligence to get the upper hand, her pack would have destroyed him. Once he'd seen her for what she really was, he wanted to finish the serum and get her out of his life as fast as possible.

After nearly two years of traveling the world, two years of hunting wild game and eating raw meat, or drinking butcher's blood, and feeling like half a man the entire time, Keith met Lucas and Kaila, and Lucas taught him how to manage his own bloodlust.

"I wouldn't want to imagine being Cain, or any other pure-blood for that matter," Keith said quietly, drawing Madison's attention after she'd turned her back on him having finished chewing him out. "Vampires have been hunted to near extinction, Lucas told me many years ago that there are probably less than a hundred of their race left, and nobody's even sure if Cain himself is still alive."

Madison raised a brow, "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Before Danielle, I gave people a choice. It wasn't like this, and honestly, until now, when you brought it up, I never realized I was doing anything wrong. I didn't hurt them or kill them, and I've never raped anyone..."

"But?"

"But you're right, I never gave them a choice either, and that's not how Lucas taught me to live."

"I'm glad to hear you say that, but I'm still a little confused, what does that have to do with vampires? I mean, you said so yourself, you're a hybrid, you can survive off of meat, you don't even need blood."

"That's not quite what I said. I said we were able to survive off of meat, it's not the same though. Vampires can survive off of animal blood as well, but it doesn't quench their thirst, in fact, it makes it worse. Only the blood of humans can truly quell that urge. I can't imagine that sensation being full-blown, the need to feed so strong that you'd kill a person for it. That's where vampires and hybrids differ."

"Control?"

"Yes, control. A vampire often can't control himself when he feeds, it takes years of practice, and as you can imagine, the body count they leave behind can be staggering. It makes for an easy target, that's why most of them haven't survived. They aren't afforded the time to learn restraint. Hybrids have more control."

"You'd assume it would be the other way around." Madison mused.

"Why, because wolves are fierce predators?" Keith smirked, finally breaking through Madison's cold exterior and sensing her mood towards him shift a little, even if she refused to smile back. "Call it the gypsy magic if you must, but hybrids learn control faster, as I said, I've never killed anyone, but that doesn't mean I don't have the urge. Whereas a vampire usually feeds once or twice a week, I can stave off the hunger longer. Drinking pigs blood and eating raw meat affords me the ability to feed once or twice a month depending on how stressed out I am."

"So you still have to?"

"I still have to. After Cybil left me, I told myself I didn't want to be like her, the stories I can tell you Madison, you'd call me a saint, so I fed strictly on animals for the first two years after being turned, and let me tell you, It made me sick. Kind of like the flu on steroids."

The thought of that made Madison queasy. "For two years?" She asked her empathy flooding Keith's senses.

He nodded. "Yes. I felt sick every day. And the urge to drink human blood became overwhelming. I'd look at a person, and hear their blood pumping, like sheer torture. But I fought it, and every day it got worse. It got to the point where I was almost delusional. Thank God I met Lucas when I did, or I might have snapped and killed someone."

"So this Lucas guy turned you on to groupies?" Madison said with a slight chuckle, though still a little put off by the idea of Keith drinking blood from helpless victims, she trusted him when he said he didn't realize how bad it looked from the outside.

"Yeah. He taught me how to read people, how to tell which ones would be easiest to exploit, and how to approach them. He showed me how to feed without hurting anyone. Lucas and his pack were a Godsend."

"You keep saying pack, do vampires really travel in packs?"

Keith laughed. "If you're imaging a motorcycle gang right now, I'm going to throttle you."

Madison pressed her lips together and closed her eyes, stifling her laughter.

"Vampires usually travel in groups of three or more, hunter's call them nests. With lycans and hybrids, we prefer the term pack, and it usually consists of at least four or five members."

"And yet, you're alone? Why is that? Are hybrids and lycans as rare these days as vampires?"

"I'm what you would call an omega."

"The lone wolf."

Keith nodded. "Your father was my pack Madison, as strange as that may sound, he was enough, after all, he is descended from lycan blood. Anyway, in answer to your other questions, lycans are thriving in this day and age, most probably don't understand what they are, they simply carry the virus, and the ones that can shift, are incredibly adept at covering it up. You'd be amazed to learn exactly how many people in the U.S. and all over the world carry the lycan gene. As for hybrids, the numbers are somewhere in the thousands, though probably only a few hundred in the U.S."

"Why is that?"

"The U.S. is the third most populated country in the world Madison, more than three-hundred million people, can you guess how many potential hunters are born each year? For reasons I can't begin to explain, there are probably more hunters here in the U.S. than anywhere else in the world. Of course, it might have something to do with the fact that the U.S. is one big melting pot. Unfortunately, it's not as safe here."

Madison digested that for a minute, going to the fridge and taking out the milk before pouring herself a bowl of cereal, they'd been at this all night and her stomach began to protest. "So why are you here?" She asked. "You said you traveled the world and made friends abroad, why come back?"

"It's not that simple. Cybil left me completely alone in this world. Despite what she promised, after I finished the serum for her, Cybil killed my father too, afterward, she and her pack took off without a word."

He remembered it vividly, he finished the serum and tried it himself to make sure it worked. The stuff had the worst flavor, like a mix between bleach and battery acid, it even burned going down, but it worked, for nearly a month after Cybil fled he hadn't needed or craved a drop of blood, and had been able to manage on raw meat alone. Not that he'd been too eager to continue drinking his own creation, once seemed more than enough for him.

But no sooner had he handed over the mixture he'd made and the formula to create more to Martin and started cleaning up the lab did they all disappear. Keith had spent about two hours in the makeshift lab purging every last trace of evidence concerning Cybil's project, per Martin's order, only to find the small house where Cybil and her pack had been living empty.

At first, he tried to be grateful. Now that he understood Cybil didn't love him, didn't care about him in the slightest for that matter, that she'd been using him the whole time, he hoped he never saw her again. She'd brought him nothing but grief. He only wished at that point that he hadn't fallen under her spell at all, that he hadn't given up his life, and his soul, for a fleeting romance.

On the way to his parent's house, he vowed to himself that he would use his newfound immortality to continue his initial work, that he would find the cure for HIV and many other diseases. But when he'd walked through the front door of his childhood home, when he smelled the stench of death, strong and pungent, when he'd found his father's mutilated corpse, he'd nearly lost it.

She'd taken everything from him and given him an eternity to suffer.

"My father had been stabbed, right through the heart. She'd already taken so much from me, my job, my soul, my mother." Keith sighed, remembering it all, reliving it again. "Everything, she took it all."

"Again, why did you come back, Keith?"

"Because I wouldn't let her take me too. I'd considered revenge, chasing her to the ends of the earth and killing her in cold blood, but in the end, I didn't want to give her that much power over me. So I took off in search of others like me. A journey of self-discovery, you might say, and I found Lucas. He taught me how to live in this world alongside humans, how to go about life undetected, I wanted to come home and pick up the pieces, to make something of myself."

Keith had spent seven years discovering himself and learning what made him and others like him tick. He'd traveled through Africa, Asia, and Europe, finally landing in France where he'd met Lucas and Kaila, and they'd shown him how beautiful life could be. There had been a time when Keith wanted to stay. Paris was beautiful, and Kaila, well Kaila seemed pretty amazing.

There was even a time when Keith had wanted to take Kaila as his mate, but he had too much unfinished business back in the states, even with his family long gone, their memories remained, and Keith needed to deal with it. He needed to face his past head-on before he made any plans for the future.

Kaila and eternity had to wait.

"I realized I needed to come home and face my family. My brother's life had been cut short, and my parents, well, they basically suffered because of me. I allowed myself to become so consumed by Cybil that I was too blind to see the monster inside her, they died because of me, so I owed them... something."

Madison understood that. She wanted to call him crazy for thinking that way. Even if he'd realized what kind of person Cybil was beneath the glamorous facade, he couldn't have known that she'd be capable of killing his family. But Madison felt the same way about her father. Robert had died of natural causes, but she wondered what his life might have been like, hell, what her life might have been like if she'd only taken the time to get to know him.

So yeah, she appreciated what he might have been going through. Forget about the money, forget about the ranch, forget about all of it, Madison decided to honor her father's last wishes because she felt like she owed him at least that much after having ignored him her whole life, even if by no fault of her own.

"I can understand that. You came back to pay your respect to their memory, but that doesn't explain why you stayed."

"When I first went back to my parent's place, I found this dog..."

"A dog?"

Keith nodded, telling her the sorry tale of a scraggly little mutt that had taken up residence in his abandoned family home. Skinny and near death, mangy, starving, and yet he'd still retained his pride, growling fiercely to protect what he perceived to be his own territory.

Keith had taken pity on the dog, slowly attempting to gain its trust as he cleaned up the house and made it a home again. In only six months he'd brought the dog back from the brink of death and made a friend for life.

"After that, I decided what I wanted to do with eternity."

"Become a vet?"

"Yes. Animals don't have a voice, and unlike humans, they're pure. I wanted to help them the way that dog helped me. So I did. I went back to school, sold my parent's house to pay for tuition, and shortly after graduation, I met your father."

And soon after that, he'd learned about Madison.

Sixteen-year-old Madison who, struggling to learn how to drive, seemed oblivious to the power she held.

Madison smiled to herself, Keith had been through so much, and it warmed her heart that out of all the places he might have ended up, he made his home here at the ranch, with her father.

Suddenly, the dogs started barking, a loud cacophony as all twenty-five joined in.

"What the hell?" Keith blurted, going to the front window and looking out. It was barely dawn, still too early for anyone to be out and about. "Shit!"

"What? What is it?" Madison asked with concern as he came charging back into the room.

"It's that fucking Detective!" Keith headed for the basement, rushing down the stairs and into the powder room, Madison hot on his heels.

"You d-didn't escape, did you?" She stuttered as she followed him into the safe room.

Keith didn't stop there, pushing the rug aside and climbing down into the cellar. Now that he realized Damien might be a hunter, he didn't want to take any chances.

"No, I didn't escape!" He half shouted. "But I'm sure as hell not going to wait around here until he goes all psycho hunter on me, I need you to figure out what the hell he wants before I show my face above ground again."

Madison nodded. "Okay, yeah, I can do that. But, how did you get out of the fraud charges by the way?"

Keith smirked up at her from the bottom of the steps. "My friend Lucas set up my identity for me a few years back with the help of some friends of his in the FBI, I didn't know until last night that I was considered part of the witness protection program, your father forgot to tell me that little tidbit."

Shaking her head, Madison laughed, yeah, based on everything she'd learned about her father so far, that certainly sounded like something he would do. Witness protection... now that was funny! Madison waited as Keith flipped a switch in the cellar to close the door, covering it back up with the rug before putting the panels back in place and heading outside to greet her unwanted guests.
Chapter 27

Bite the Bullet

Detective Crowley hadn't come alone, he'd brought two other officers with him, and though she was a little nervous, she tried holding it together.

"What can I do for you, Detective?" She asked in what she hoped came across as a pleasant voice.

Damien motioned for his officers to hold back, approaching Madison with long swift strides that ate up the ground. She hadn't noticed until that point how tall he really was. His height alone made him an intimidating man, but she remained partially reluctant to believe that beneath that roguishly handsome exterior hid a ruthless killer.

She decided to tread lightly either way.

"I have an arrest warrant for Keith Walker, or whatever the hell his name is," Damien replied gruffly, trying to hold onto his composure.

"For what this time?" Madison demanded, heading him off at the pass as he started in the direction of Keith's cottage.

Damien attempted to ignore her, but Madison stood her ground, refusing to let him by.

With a hand on his hip near his holster, Damien thrust the warrant in her direction. "Murder." He answered maliciously.

Madison's mouth fell open, the air rushing from her lungs as Damien shoved the warrant into her grasp and evaded her at the same time. "Murder?" She choked out, now following in his wake as he reached the back door of the cottage and began pounding on it.

"Keith Walker?" He shouted, ignoring a stunned Madison once she finally caught up.

The other two officers made their way over, prepared to subdue Madison if necessary. She gave them both a menacing glare and stepped between Damien and the door to the cottage.

"He isn't home." She spat, finding her voice once the initial shock wore off.

"Where is he? His truck's right there." Damien groused, pointing to the large Silverado that sat in the driveway.

Madison had to be quick on her feet. "He's riding the fence line."

Damien grumbled under his breath, nodding to his officers in the direction of the main house. "We'll wait inside with you then until he gets back if that's okay?"

"Fine."

With the warrant still in hand, Madison turned on her heel and marched toward the house, tempted to slam the door shut in their faces. Murder! Ha! Once inside, with a smile that looked like more of a snarl on her face, Madison motioned them to the table and walked into the kitchen busying herself by making coffee as she tried to come up with another plan.

What was she supposed to tell them in a couple of hours when Keith still hadn't surfaced? And what if they checked the barn and realized none of the horses were missing? She'd really jumped the gun this time!

"Do you want some coffee while you wait?" She asked more graciously, stalling for time as her thoughts ran a mile a minute, scrambling to come up with some way to get rid of them.

The two deputies accepted her offer readily, but Damien declined, looking around the kitchen and what little else he could see of the house while he waited.

Madison fixed herself a mug and sat down at the table with them, hoping to seem a little more cheerful as she tried to wheedle information out of Damien.

"Can I ask why you assume Keith did this reprehensible thing you're accusing him of?"

Damien stayed silent for a moment, the two officers with him lost in their cell phones. Madison figured he wouldn't answer her, but then he looked at her, and the smug little smirk on his face gave him away. The arrogant bastard was dying to get something off his chest.

"Oh, I've been hunting Mr. Walker for some time now." He eventually answered.

Madison gulped. Keith's theory becoming a little more believable by the minute.

"I'm not actually supposed to talk about this, but, what the hell, it's only fair, Ms. Adams, that you understand what kind of man your father hired." He boasted, making himself more comfortable by leaning back in his chair. "I didn't arrest Mr. Walker yesterday for simple fraud, I picked him up on the suspicion of murder, the fraud charges were only the sticking point until I proved he murdered that girl."

"And now you have proof?" She asked wearily, wanting so badly to trust in Keith's innocence, and hoping to God he hadn't murdered that girl in New York the other night.

"No," Damien admitted begrudgingly. "Not for the first girl anyway, Walker had an alibi, but I'm positive he's involved in it somehow, and when I connect the two, you can bet I'll make sure he goes down for it... but the murder from last night, well, that's a different story, I have ample evidence to..."

"Wait..." Madison butted in, holding up a hand. "What do you mean last night?"

Damien gave her a curious glance, and the two officers stopped dallying with their social media apps long enough to pay her mind as well. "I have evidence that puts Walker at the scene of a murder last night." He said cautiously.

"That's impossible, he's been here all night."

In one quick fluid motion, Damien pushed back from the table, the chair clattering to the floor as he leaned into Madison's face. "You want to run that by me again?"

"I'd rather show you." She replied, her voice laced with steel. She didn't particularly like the fact that the detective's face got within a scant few inches from her own. She smelled his cologne, and though he didn't exactly broadcast his emotions the way Keith did, she noticed he was angry. Almost like a small glimpse of what Keith had described to her.

She found a madness in his eyes. He buried it deep, but a glimmer of it rose to the surface when she'd challenged him. Damien didn't like being wrong about his instincts, and Madison saw now how dangerous he would be if he understood the truth.

Hoping that Keith had stayed put, Madison asked the officers to wait in the kitchen, and led Damien down the stairs into the basement, opening the door to the powder room.

"What the hell is this?" He barked, backing up a step as she walked inside.

Madison didn't answer, she threw a fleeting smile over her shoulder and began moving the panels aside. She heard Damien's quick intake of breath before the heel of his boots clicked on the bathroom tile behind her.

"Why wasn't this listed on the blueprints?"

Madison shrugged, walking into the safe room and heading for the monitor on the left, "We're allowed to have a panic room, aren't we?"

"How convenient." He rasped, watching the monitor as Madison began to rewind the tapes. "And I suppose you didn't tell us about this room during the search for a reason? Perhaps you were hiding something in here, or you simply didn't want us to view the tapes?" He prattled on, turning his attention to the monitor on the right that showed footage of the barns and cottage.

"I guess you'll never know, now will you?" She retorted, tired of his relentless accusations. She realized Keith had done some less than pure things, but a murderer he was not. At least, she seemed pretty sure he wasn't.

Damien scoffed. "Are there any other secret rooms in this house?"

Having rewound the footage to earlier in the day when Keith had first gotten home from the police station, Madison stopped, facing him. "I'm sorry, do you have a warrant to search the property?" She asked snarkily.

"I can get one."

Rolling her eyes, she turned her attention back to the monitor behind her, "Good luck with that."

Damien watched in utter dismay as Madison slowly fast-forwarded the tape.

The time stamp showed clear as day at the top left of the screen. He saw Keith walking in through the utility room and down the stairs to the basement. A few hours later they both emerged from downstairs and headed into the kitchen. Hours went by, Keith and Madison sat down at the table, ate, one or both got up and paced. They talked animatedly to each other. But Keith stayed there, all night, and well into the morning.

Madison stopped the tape when Keith took her wrist in his hand. "Satisfied?" she practically gloated.

Damien remained quiet for a moment contemplating. "Can you make me a copy of this?"

"Sure."

Madison carefully copied only what she'd already shown him, uploading it into an email and forwarding it to the address he gave her. His voice sounded clipped, his answer short. Damien didn't seem pleased, and it showed.

Not bothering to put the panels back in place, Madison quickly followed him out of the safe room and back into the kitchen where he addressed his officers and ushered them outside without so much as an explanation as to why they were leaving without their perp in custody. The officers looked baffled, exchanging confused glances before giving Madison a thorough once over.

The way their eyes roamed her body almost made her feel dirty, she hoped to God they didn't assume she'd done something untoward with the Detective in their absence. Intent on following them out the rest of the way, Madison saw the warrant lying on the counter and grabbed it before rushing out the door.

She caught up with Damien right before he got into his truck.

"Detective Crowley!" She called out. "You forgot this."

Damien reached for the papers, and noticing the marks on her wrist, turned her hand to get a better look. "What's that?" He inquired.

Madison sneered at him, ripping her hand from his grasp and pressing her arm tightly against her side. "It's nothing. One of the dogs bit me."

Damien glowered, but said nothing at first, getting into his truck and closing the door. "You should be more careful." He told her through the window. His voice eerily flat.

The way he said it made the little hairs on the back of Madison's neck stand on end. She watched him back out of the driveway, a little unnerved by her encounter, and once he was out of sight, she hot-footed it back inside and into the basement to spring Keith from his hiding place.

Cybil slammed the door shut behind her, rattling the cheap paintings on the wall. Sean chuckled, he didn't need to see the scowl on her face to realize that things still weren't going her way. She had a stupid plan, to begin with, the only reason he'd gone along with it at all was that she'd finally allowed him to kill someone, and to feed again. He wasn't a dog though and grew tired of the leftover scraps.

They'd raided a couple of blood banks after arriving in the area and setting up camp, but it didn't take long for them to run out. While he usually only needed to feed once or twice a month, Cybil's appetite had been increasing regularly, frankly, it worried him. She had to choke down a pint of butcher's blood four or five times a week lately simply to quell the urge.

Of course, it became a point of contention for Cybil, something they couldn't even talk about for more than two minutes without her trying to verbally rip his head off. She'd always end the conversation with "that's why Keith is so bloody important!"

Right, because their history together had nothing to do with it.

Cybil hadn't come to America alone, she'd brought with her, three men and two other women. Her 'pack,' as she called them. And Sean had sort of bonded with Martin, her right-hand man for all intents and purposes. Before settling down in this shit hole, Sean and Martin hunted the clubs together, bringing back food for the rest of the group.

During one of those hunts Martin, who could only be described as the infamous tall, dark, and handsome type, filled him in on the reasons why Cybil spent so much time looking for this particular scientist, to begin with. Martin had been aware of Cybil's first mate, being as it was his brother, and he knew about her children, her life, her lineage as well. Martin also understood the relationship she'd had with the man she came back to America to track down.

She might tout the lie that she only wanted him in matters related to her growing thirst, but Martin, who never particularly liked the guy, didn't appear shy when it came to talking about how much Cybil had doted on Keith, how much he'd meant to her, and that she'd created him to be her mate before having to flee from the hunter on her trail. He only hoped now that it would be too late to rebuild that bridge.

Cybil might find some way to convince him to help her with her bloodlust, but considering she'd killed his mother, for whatever reasons, noble or not, and had abandoned him once she'd gotten what she'd wanted, Sean suspected that it wouldn't be as easy to force Keith back into bed with her.

Especially not now.

Lee seemed to think that Keith and this woman, Madison, might be rather chummy, and Lee hadn't been wrong about any of her intel yet. Imagining it made him all warm inside. Maybe he didn't love Cybil, hell, he wasn't even sure he knew what love was, but she had a banging body, she was amazing in bed, and her quick temper made for some really interesting entertainment value. He definitely didn't want to share her with anyone else.

The other four members of her pack, excluding Martin, whom she'd never been intimate with, were couples, and whether people wanted to believe it or not, most vampires weren't into swinging with each other, they usually mated for life, unless, of course, like in Cybil's case, one died.

Cybil might have liked a good threesome now and then with a random stranger they'd brought home for dinner, but that was more or less her simply playing with her food. Sean suspected Cybil didn't engage in sexual activities with more than one partner at a time. She didn't seem like that kind of girl.

Which meant that if she ever got her claws back into Keith, Sean would probably become nothing more than her cast off, she might even kick him out of the pack. Hell, she'd have to. Sean considered himself an alpha, he'd never let another man take his mate without a challenge, and Keith, well, he sure didn't seem like much of a fighter.

Cybil threw her trench coat onto the back of the couch and strode, gloriously naked, into the bedroom, letting out a frustrated sigh as she passed. Sean couldn't help but gloat, if it weren't for that viper's tongue of hers, he'd probably even rub it in her face.

He told her from the start that her plan was full of gaping holes. Her idea to find someone on the inside remained about the only part of it that made sense, and it didn't hurt of course, that Lee was pleasant to look at. Working for the police station, Lee made it possible to keep tabs on Damien and the progression of his case, she also served well to get information to Damien without suspicion.

Like that little snipit about Keith's identity being fake.

Lee proved equally helpful when it came to keeping an eye on the whereabouts of Keith. Cybil hadn't had much trouble sneaking through the woods, but she hadn't been able to get close enough to the ranch to really sleuth without all those damn dogs sounding the alarm, so, having an undercover that just so happened to be best friends with one of the ranch hands, became a definite plus.

Women loved to gossip after all.

And what had it cost them? Nothing so far.

Lee knew what they were, she was enthralled by them, she wanted to be them. If only she realized how dangerous her infatuation really was. They didn't plan on killing her or anything, leaving a trail of bodies for no reason, especially innocent ones, wasn't usually part of Cybil's repertoire, but turning Lee, and releasing her back into the care of a hunter, probably wouldn't be the smartest thing either.

Especially considering how quickly Cybil's plan seemed to be escalating these past few days, even if it hadn't exactly been going the way she wanted it to. Detective Crowley looked to be on the verge of breaking through, Cybil had said as much, he simply needed a little more coaxing.

Sean had no idea what that actually meant, he'd been with Cybil and her pack for the last seven years, and in that time, while they may have killed a few sleepers, they'd never come across an active hunter. Sean didn't understand exactly how dangerous they were, he had only what Cybil and Martin had told him to go off of.

But my how he'd enjoyed watching Cybil drain and truss up those ignorant hunters they'd met along the way. She acted like a she-wolf protecting her cubs, ripping them limb from limb. She never did share though, she called it her personal mission to rid the world of hunters. She didn't bother giving them a chance either, a teacher, a dentist, hell, one of them had even been a garbage man! Didn't matter to Cybil, they had potential, and they needed to be snuffed out.

Until now.

The plan was to activate Damien, to bring out his true nature and focus all of his attention on Keith so Cybil could swoop in to save the day. Of course, it also involved isolating Keith from those around him, people like Robert who would have protected him. Even if it meant labeling him a killer, she didn't care, she'd planned to whisk him back to Italy with her once she'd disposed of the hunter, so what did it matter if she soiled his name here in the states in the process?

They hadn't counted on Madison though.

Sean tracked Keith's movements, found out who his recent donors were, and Cybil convinced them all to report their attacks to the police once she'd learned they had a hunter in their ranks. They really should have counted their lucky stars there, had it not been for Damien, the plan would have been a full-on kidnapping effort, and with Martin and the rest of her pack back in Italy, it wouldn't have been easy for only the two of them.

But things became complicated when the investigation went south. Robert kept getting in the way, Keith always seemed to have an alibi. That's when Sean started getting cozy with Lee, his hot little double agent. He'd been tempted a time or two to turn her himself, run away with her and never look back. A real sweet young thing, highly corruptible, and she had legs for miles. The idea of living without Cybil though proved to be too much in the end.

Seeing as things had yet to go as planned where Keith and Damien were concerned, he still had hope for the two of them. Damien was stonewalled at every turn. Keith somehow always managed to come up with an alibi, little miss Madison taking up exactly where her father had left off, and Lee said the FBI was in on the case now too, trying to force Damien to back off.

Judging by Cybil's pissy mood, Keith, and his pal Madison had probably found a way to explain away the latest evidence too. He'd told Cybil it wasn't strong enough, but did she listen to him? Nope. She always had to learn things the hard way. If she'd only listened to him the first time around and allowed him to dispose of Kieri's body on Keith's property, they probably wouldn't be in this predicament now.

"Have you talked to Lee today?" Cybil demanded as she came into the room wearing a robe, her hair dripping from the shower.

She smelled like soap and wet dog, a combination he found surprisingly seductive. Sean always loved her scent after a transition, it probably had something to do with the lingering lycan DNA in his own genetic makeup, but Cybil couldn't stand it, she always insisted on washing herself two or three times afterward until the odor dissipated.

Sean shook his head, his nostrils flaring as she got closer. Like some exotic perfume that only he picked up.

"So what are you waiting for?" She asked, hands on her hips standing before him. "Call her and find out what the hell happened!"

"Weren't you there?"

"No, of course not. I simply go traipsing around town in my trench coat for no reason! Don't be so bloody stupid, Sean. I watched the detective pull up, and that woman..."

"Madison?" He supplied with a snicker.

Cybil glowered, her eyes shooting daggers at him. "Whatever. She told them he'd gone out riding the fence which was a lie, I saw him from the window only moments before, and they went inside together and came out half an hour later when the detective left. I didn't hear what she said to him, but he seemed angry. I want to know what happened, I want to know why they didn't arrest Keith!"

"Probably because your plan sucks, did you ever consider that?"

Cybil huffed like a petulant child and turned on her heel, "Just call her." She snapped over her shoulder.

Sean rolled his eyes, grumbling under his breath as he strolled into the kitchen to grab his phone off the counter where he'd left it.

Cybil reemerged seconds later, her mood shifting faster than the changing tides. "Better yet," She called from the doorway to the bedroom, her robe askew, hanging half off her body and exposing a bare breast. "Why don't you invite her over for dinner? It's high time we had a little fun around here, don't you agree?"

Sean's smile became deliciously evil, he sent Lee a text, closing the distance between them. Cybil waited until he was barely out of reach, taking a step back for each one he took forward, his fingers skimming the opening of her robe.

She came up against the side of the bed, shrugging out of her robe while he continued to bear down on her. His phone buzzed as he managed to fill his palm with the weight of one breast, using his fingers to tweak her nipple.

"She said she gets off in half an hour and she'll come right over." He purred, tossing the phone into a nearby chair.

Sean leaned Cybil back over his arm so that her breasts thrust upward, greedily pulling one into his mouth and lavishing her with his tongue.

Cybil moaned, "Wonderful. Tonight, my love, tonight we feast." She said huskily as he came down on top of her, pressing her into the mattress.

Sean took a minute to bask in the glory that was Cybil's nakedness, shivering with excitement as he undressed and imagined what the rest of the night might bring. Whatever he put up with, from her crappy attitude to her unrealistic demands, it all seemed worth it in the end when she took off her clothes and embraced him with her sexuality.

She had been right about one thing though, tonight, he would definitely feast.
Chapter 28

Don't Cry Wolf

Damien felt beyond frustrated by the time he got back to the station. He'd been so sure that he had him this time. He got pissed realizing that the prick had somehow wormed his way out of this one too! He'd caught him fair and square! Even though he imagined that slick lawyer of his may have been able to spin it as circumstantial, he'd been willing to bet his career that a jury would have convicted him of conspiracy to commit murder at the very least!

There was no doubt in Damien's mind that Keith was somehow involved in the murders. Maybe he hadn't done them himself, and it definitely looked that way, but he'd had a hand in them. Damien needed to somehow put the entire puzzle together, then he'd see the bigger picture.

Crumbling up the arrest warrant, Damien stuffed it into a passing trash can, nearly running headlong into Ace, who came barreling out of his office. "Oh, hey Ace." He said, rubbing the back of his neck.

Ace looked a little startled at first but recovered quickly. "Hi, um, I um, I just came to see you for a minute, but you weren't here." She mumbled.

"Well, here I am. Did you need something?"

"I uh..." She trailed off, looking more and more like a deer caught in the headlights.

It actually began to improve his sour mood, perching a hip on his desk, Damien smiled at her. "You what?" Her big doe eyes grew wider, she gulped.

"I wanted to see what you were doing for dinner tonight." She finally spat in one quick breath. "I realize you've been really busy and what not with this case, and a bunch of us have been talking about going out for a burger or something, so I figured I'd see if you wanted to come."

Despite himself, Damien laughed. Ace was right, he'd been extremely busy with the case, so much so that he hadn't seen Julie in almost a week now, and it was starting to wear on him. Ace looked cute as hell though, stumbling over herself to ask him out, it seemed sweet. Shame she was a tad too young for his tastes, and of course, he already had Julie.

"Sorry, I'm going to have to pass," He no sooner said, before she nodded, gave him a little wave and tore out of his office.

"Okay, bye!" She chirped.

Damien shook his head, strange kid that one.

Moving around his desk, Damien noted that things seemed a little out of place, and wondered exactly how long Ace had been in his office, or if she'd been looking for something. But that didn't make much sense, while she'd certainly seemed surprised to run into him, he had no reason to suspect her of snooping, especially considering she had been a part of the case from the start, all she had to do was ask if she wanted to know anything. As if he had much to tell...

An envelope lay upside down on his desk, not giving it a passing thought, Damien flipped it over, it was the lab report Kimmy had promised him yesterday, morbidly curious, he ripped it open in his haste to read the results.

Both Kimmy and the animal pathologist she'd brought in for the consult agreed that the marks on the throat of the two victims came from animal-related trauma. Impressions from both the upper and lower canine teeth clearly visible, and while Kimmy had suspected they may have come from a small bear, as Pennsylvania was teaming with them, the pathologist disagreed and stated that the two appeared genetically similar to that of a wolf.

The marks on Kieri's neck looked slightly larger, probably belonging to a male, while the ones on Alexis had likely come from the bite of a large female wolf. Considering wolves hadn't roamed freely in the state for more than a century, Damien had a hunch that this might be the break in the case he'd been looking for.

His energy renewed, he picked up the phone and dialed Kimmy's extension. She answered right away.

"Kimmy?"

"Uh yeah?" She drawled. "What's up?"

"It's Damien, I'm going over those lab reports..."

"Interesting findings, don't you agree? I don't necessarily concur with the doc, but hey, she knows animals better than I do, so who am I to argue?"

"That's exactly what I wanted to talk to you about! Listen, if I got you a mold, or, pictures or something, would you be able to compare them to the impressions from the wounds?"

"Well, yeah, probably. You got a suspect in mind? Who the hell around here has wolves?" She asked, barely taking a breath between questions.

"That's not important," Damien answered, gathering his things together as he finished up the call. "I'm going to head down to the DA's office right now and get a warrant, I'll give you a call when I'm ready for you to come out and get a dental mold or whatever."

"O-kay." Kimmy replied, a tad lost in the conversation. "Whatever you say, I'll be here."

"Great!"

Slamming the phone down, Damien rushed out of his office, he needed to get to Jaci's before she left for lunch, he wanted to nail that bastard, today.

Madison had just finished up in the Lycan Barn when Damien, a police cruiser and an SUV from the medical examiner's office pulled up. Luckily Keith wasn't home this time. After her run-in with Damien earlier in the day, she'd filled Keith in on what had happened, he scolded her like a child for taking the detective into the safe room, and afterward, they'd simply gone about their morning.

She still had so many questions she wanted to ask him, but the animals needed tending to. During their lunch break, however, Keith surprised her by telling her about Robert's strange behavior in the weeks leading up to his death, how he suspected her father had been aware of his illness and that because he assumed Madison would never have come to the ranch on her own, decided not to get medical help.

Instead, he'd taken the time to get his affairs in order, he'd taken steps to make sure that Madison would be safe from whatever he imagined might be a threat to her. He armed her with the knowledge of her ancestry, of the things that lurked in the night, and he'd given her Keith, her own personal bodyguard.

Even though so far, it was Madison protecting Keith.

Of course, neither of them had any idea what they were supposed to be on the lookout for. Keith had been through the safe, he said a sticky note had been left on the folder concerning Luca, but otherwise, Madison basically knew as much as he did. It didn't help that Keith didn't speak or read Romani either because the two journals she'd leafed through contained the only other pieces of the puzzle.

Keith had said something about angels, about her father murmuring about angels and the cure while he lay dying, but it made no more sense to her than it had to him that day. There had long been rumored to be a "cure" among the supernatural, but Keith had no idea what that actually meant. A cure for what? And had Robert really figured it out? They didn't know.

Madison wished more than ever at that point that she'd made the effort to get to know her father. Maybe then she wouldn't feel so lost. She wanted to understand, but without knowing what he meant, it was like walking through a dark forest with only a pen light to guide her. At least now she understood that there were monsters in the dark that she needed to be weary of.

She asked Keith if they'd ever had an encounter in particular that he could remember, where her father had been outwardly scared or worried. But Keith drew a blank. Madison sensed that he was holding back, he had something he didn't want to tell her, but she hadn't bothered to call him out on it, he probably wouldn't have told her anyway. If there was one thing she'd learned about him so far, it was that Keith gave you only what information he wanted to give you, and on his own time-frame.

She found it rather annoying, that evasiveness about him, and he was so good at it.

She did learn, however, that Robert wasn't the only one who knew about Keith. Tom, along with Jack and GeeGee all knew the truth, they'd been friends of Roberts for too long, and had been involved with the ranch from the get-go, which would have made lying to them quite difficult. Of course, according to Keith, they'd all been told he maintained a strict animal diet.

Nonetheless, they all seemed to trust Robert's judgment, giving him the benefit of the doubt, and over time, coming to trust Keith on their own. Nicole and her husband had only been added to the staff in the last few years, replacing a trainer and maintenance man Robert let go after fifteen years, claiming that he needed to downsize.

It became her father's way of making sure no one got suspicious of the fact that Keith didn't age. Sneaky, and underhanded, but she supposed it got the job done.

They didn't really talk anymore about vampires, lycans, or hybrids. Madison had a lot of digesting to do from their earlier conversation, so she kept the thousands of questions she still had to herself. At least for now.

Keith left shortly after lunch, he told Madison he had a house call to make, a service dog they'd adopted out to an elderly couple, and that he'd probably be back in time for dinner. Despite all the things that had been going on recently, Madison had no real doubts that he was telling her the truth, but it helped that when he left, he'd taken a medical bag with him that she'd helped pack.

She had no reason not to trust him when he'd said he hadn't realized how awful his feeding habits looked from her point of view, so Madison didn't assume he'd make up some appointment in an attempt to go out and feed, not to mention, it was the middle of the afternoon, and he swore he'd always fed at night, never during the day.

Knowing he wouldn't be out there assaulting some woman didn't make her any less nervous though as Damien, an officer, and a woman in a lab coat walked steadily towards her. The detective carried what Madison assumed to be another warrant, and the lab tech had a large briefcase in her hands as she looked around at her surroundings with interest.

"Ms. Adams," Damien said gruffly, handing her the warrant when he noticed Keith's truck was gone. "Where is Mr. Walker?"

Snatching the warrant out of his hands and opening it up, Madison smiled at him mockingly. "I'm afraid he's not here."

The young officer that had come along for the trip chuckled under his breath, amused by the exchange he earned a nasty glare from Damien.

"Is there something I can help you with?" Madison continued, looking over the warrant, but admittedly a little confused by the legal jargon.

"Is that where you keep the wolves?" Damien indicated the barn behind her.

"Yes." She replied hesitantly. "What's this about?"

"We have a warrant to take pictures and dental impressions of all the wolves on the property. Mr. Walker said you used to be a zoologist, I assume that means you can assist us with this? I wouldn't want to have to call animal control out here, I'm sure that would be quite stressful for them."

"Wait, you want to do WHAT to them?"

Kimmy stepped forward, pushing her way in front of the men. "Hi, I'm Kimmy. I'm sorry if the detective here seems a little brash, I need you to help me get a mold of the wolves teeth. There have been some animal attacks lately, and these are the only wolves registered in the area, we need to rule them out."

"I see," Madison said a little more politely, though she glowered in Damien's direction. "Well then, if Detective Crowley doesn't mind waiting out here, I'd be glad to help you with that. Our wolves are very friendly, so I'm sure this won't take long." She said, shoving the warrant into her back pocket and leading the way.

Damien seemed about to object, but Kimmy threw him a warning glance and followed Madison into the enclosure where she closed and locked the door behind them. Thank God Keith wasn't here, these wolves were his babies, she could only imagine how he'd react to Damien's latest set of demands. He already seemed to be under so much stress lately, she'd hate to see him lose it. Especially if he was right about the detective.

"I'm afraid I don't quite understand," Madison remarked, hoping to get the inside scoop as she pushed a wheelbarrow into the walk-in to get some meat and draw the wolves into the barn. "Why do you need these molds? Is this about those women that were killed?"

"I'm not really supposed to talk about it," Kimmy replied, watching with fascination when Darth bounded in, sliding to a stop in front of the fence.

Madison walked to a storage cabinet next and pulled out a bottle of sedatives and began lacing the meat with it. The wolves might have been friendly, but they would probably get stressed out about having their mouths filled with plaster.

"I get that, but do you honestly think wolves killed them?"

Kimmy shrugged.

Madison stuffed pills into small chunks of meat, ignoring Kimmy's reluctance to talk as she continued, "Wolves don't usually attack people, so what makes you think a wolf did this? Are there even wolves in Pennsylvania? I mean, there's not really enough land to support a pack, especially not in this area." She prattled on, unlocking the top portion of the gate so she could feed the wolves the tainted meat.

"You don't believe these were random attacks do you?" Even though Kimmy did little more than raise a brow, Madison realized she was on the right track, and she started putting the pieces together one by one.

Keith had been questioned and accused of murder, twice now, but he'd had an alibi both times. He'd also said he had no idea who the second victim was when Madison pulled up an article about her online and showed him the picture. She'd been a stripper, and though Keith admitted that he and Robert had been to the club a couple of times over the years, he swore he hadn't been there in at least two or three years.

Apparently vampires and hybrids alike didn't get drunk, not that it mattered as he said that particular club was a BYOB bar, but it seemed he didn't really care for women with loose morals either. Keith hadn't been a monk all these years, but he seemed selective, he liked his women smart and classy. After all, he came from a different time, and strippers weren't his type then or now.

All of that aside, Keith suspected that he was being set up, and now that Madison knew they were looking at injuries consistent with animal attacks, she began to wonder if he was right. Damien didn't look stupid, despite his reservations connected to the initial assaults, of which Keith was guilty, he had solid proof that Keith couldn't have killed either of these women, but he still assumed Keith had been involved somehow.

One by one, as the wolves poured in through the flap in the wall, Madison tossed them a hunk of meat, making sure each animal got one. It would take a little time, but pretty soon they'd all be groggy and pliable. Madison took that time to educate Kimmy.

"You know, those wolves you see in the movies, they aren't really wolves. I mean, you can try to train a wolf, but you'll never get it to behave like a dog, they're wild animals, and they have instincts, one of those instincts being an inherent fear of humans. They use dogs in those movies, mostly cross breeds that look like wolves, and sometimes even dogs that have wolf content in them, but it's still only a small amount which makes them easier to train."

Once Madison had dosed them all, most of the wolves left, Darth and one of the larger females stayed behind, hoping for a few more scraps.

"How long will that take?" Kimmy asked, ignoring Madison's comments.

Madison walked over to the fence where Darth leaned against it and reached in with her fingers, scratching his thick black fur. "Oh, about ten minutes or so. Did you want to pet him?"

Kimmy stood staring, flushing a little when Madison noticed. She shook her head.

"This is Darth, he's really gentle. Actually, they all are. When I first came here, I was honestly a little intimidated. The Zoo in San Diego, where I worked, they have a wolf, but he's pretty old, and not nearly as big as some of these guys." She commented as she indicated Darth who looked to be slowly wearing down.

"Keith told me the lady who owned them spent a lot of time with them, and that one of the females had even been trained to do a few tricks, but I never did get her to, not even if I tried offering her meat."

"Never?" Kimmy chimed in, her interest peaking little by little.

"Nope. Tom, one of the guys who works here, he used to train police dogs, he told me some stories, and he also said it takes a special kind of dog to the job. A lot of training, and a ton of patience. Wolves are definitely patient, but they aren't very trainable."

"That's why they use dogs in movies, right? Isn't that what you said?"

Darth suddenly fell to the floor with a thud, the female who had been hanging out darting sluggishly for the exit and managing to get halfway out before finally collapsing as well.

"That's right." Madison agreed. "Well, looks like it's time, guess we should get this over with."

Kimmy, still a little hesitant, followed Madison into the enclosure. "You don't think any of these wolves could be trained to attack someone?"

"No, I don't. I couldn't even get one to sit, and I tried for days. Add to that their natural fear of people and the fact that wolves in the wild rarely attack humans, I'm sorry, I just don't see it. Besides, have you seen all the security around this enclosure? Nothing is getting in or out, and I'm pretty sure I would have noticed if Keith or anyone else for that matter was transporting one of these guys around."

Kimmy pulled on a pair of gloves, getting her supplies ready, she looked at Madison and shrugged, "You're probably in on it too."

Madison laughed, she liked Kimmy. "Maybe I am."

It took a good hour, and Madison had to placate Damien more than once during the process, but they'd managed to get a mold of each animal fairly quickly and without much fuss. One of the young wolf-dogs proved to be their biggest challenge, coming around as Kimmy pulled the plaster mold from her teeth.

Luna freaked out some, but Madison had been working on gaining their trust in the weeks that she'd been here, so it only took a little coaxing on her part to keep her calm.

Leaving the enclosure, and locking everything up, they found Damien right where they'd left him, outside the barn, pacing furiously while his deputy sat on the hood of his car picking at his fingernails.

"All done." Madison chirped.

"It's about damn time," Damien grumbled. "You got everything you need, Kimmy?"

Kimmy nodded. "Yup, I'm going to head back to the lab now."

Madison was about to breathe a sigh of relief when she watched Kimmy head towards her SUV, but Damien stopped her.

"What about that one? Did you get that one?" He asked, pointing towards the woods near the back of the house.

"What are you talking about..." Madison trailed off, following the direction he indicated and watching while a huge wolf, certainly bigger than any of the ones they housed, though not comically so, turned and darted off into the foliage.

That's when Keith pulled up.

"Detective Crowley," He called out, approaching them. "Imagine my delight in seeing you here, again." He said sarcastically before addressing Madison who still looked a bit shocked after watching the lone wolf dart into the woods beyond her house. "What's the medical examiner doing here?"

Kimmy put her supplies in her vehicle, but stood by, waiting to see if she'd need them again.

Madison handed Keith the warrant as Damien finally spoke. "We came to collect samples from your wolves."

"My wolves? What the hell do they have to do with anything?"

"They think you've trained one of them to attack and that you used them to kill those women," Madison answered bluntly, pinning Damien with a fierce glare in the process. He shrugged, not bothering to deny it.

"You're not going to fucking touch my animals, Crowley, you can take your warrant and go to hell."

"It's too late," Damien responded, a smug look on his face. "Ms. Adams here has already been more than accommodating."

"Madison?"

Madison suddenly felt guilty, she looked at him sympathetically. She probably should have called him and told him what was going on, but she didn't want to worry him. She knew he'd react this way, but she also realized that none of her father's wolves were responsible for this, so it had probably been for the best that she'd tried to appease them and send them on their way.

"I'm sorry," she admitted. "I should have called you, but, they had a warrant, there's nothing you could have done."

Keith wanted to lay into her, she sensed it, when Damien cut him off.

"What about that other wolf?"

"What other wolf?" Keith asked, puzzled.

Madison shook her head. "We only have ten wolves, and Kimmy got a sample from each."

Damien looked at Kimmy who nodded. "How do I know you aren't lying to me? I saw it with my own eyes, we all did."

"We only have ten." Keith ground out. "I can show you our intake logs if you'd like, we also took pictures when we brought them here. We took in seven wolves. Two males, and five females. One of the females was pregnant, she had four pups, one of them died. It's all documented."

"I'll need to see all of that."

Madison nodded, heading towards the clinic with the doleful-looking deputy on her heels. When she came back a few minutes later with a file folder full of information on the wolves, Damien and Keith were still squared off, staring at each other.

Kimmy sat in her SUV with the door open, climbing out and heading back towards the group when Madison did. "What'll it be Crow? I need to get these molds back to the lab." She told him.

Damien took a minute to skim through the folder Madison handed him before replying. "You're sure you looked at all ten?"

"Yes."

"Head back to the lab then, I guess. Let me know what you find out."

Kimmy gave a curt wave, and got back in her SUV, the deputy, however, remained nearby, his hands on his hips as he waited for instructions.

"How far back does this property go?" Damien asked, looking from Keith to Madison and back again.

"It's a few acres, all woods, it backs up to another farm, and there are definitely no wolves out there, I would know. I ride the fence line of the property and enclosure at least once a week." Keith said adamantly, still a little confused about what was going on.

"Right, that's what you were doing yesterday when I stopped by."

Keith's lips seemed to turn up on one side, "Sure." He shrugged.

Damien looked fit to kill. She saw something in his eyes, a spark of anger, something, the way he squinted, how his brows drew together, Madison could tell Keith was getting to him. She wanted to smack that dirty look right off his face, if Damien was what he said, baiting him probably wasn't the best idea.

"Deputy Kershaw?"

"Yes sir?"

"I want you to head over to the surrounding neighbors and ask them if they've seen anything strange."

"Strange sir?"

"Yes, like a big black dog, or a wolf roaming their land."

Keith's brows furrowed as he listened to Damien's instructions, he slid a sideways glance at Madison, his eyes questioning her.

Once the deputy was out of earshot, Damien turned his attention back to Keith.

"I don't know how you've managed this whole thing, but I'm certain you're involved. I'm going to figure it out, and God so help me when I do, I'll make sure you pay."

"Good luck," Keith responded, his eyes smiling though his lips remained flat. "There isn't an animal here capable of what you showed me the other day, so good luck with that Detective."

Madison stood by quietly while she watched their little pissing contest. Men, she said to herself as they continued to exchange words.

Damien shrugged him off. "Maybe it wasn't one of your wolves, it's probably just a really big dog, you have really big dogs here don't you?"

"Sure, and they're all as gentle as little lambs, the only bite cases we have right now are a couple of chihuahua's and a cocker spaniel, did you want to take a mold of their mouths too?" Keith mocked.

Damien suddenly reached forward, grabbing Madison by the wrist and ripping off her bandage, in all the chaos Keith had forgotten to give Madison something for the wound, the large bite that encompassed her wrist was bruised in colorful shades of purple and yellow, the fang marks still deep red punctures in her skin.

"So which animal did that? Looks like it had to have been a pretty big dog to me!"

Madison gulped, snatching her arm out of his grasp and turning away so that it was hidden from view.

"We got a new dog recently that I forgot about." Keith ground out, his emotions beginning to boil over so much so that Madison almost saw the waves radiating off of him. She wondered if Damien did too.

"Yeah? What kind of dog?"

"A mutt, what does it matter? Do you have a warrant for all the dogs too because this one only includes the wolves." Keith spat, throwing the warrant at him and wrapping an arm around Madison to lead her away. "Now, if we're done here, you can go."

Damien stared at them a moment longer, his eyes growing cold and distant, sending a little shiver down Madison's spine as she looked over her shoulder at him. She still felt the heat of Keith's emotions, he attempted to hold it together, but for how much longer, she couldn't be sure.

Madison sighed a huge breath of relief once they got inside and saw the detective's truck pulling out of the driveway, but when she caught the look in Keith's eyes, her hackles rose all over again. Keith pulled away and sat down on one of the sofas in the living room, rubbing his temples.

"What's wrong?" Madison asked hesitantly.

"You mean besides the glaringly obvious?" He countered.

"What's that supposed to mean? We know none of our animals have attacked anyone, what does it matter if they took molds of their teeth?"

"That's not it."

"Well, what is it?"

"Damien said you guys saw something? What did you see?"

Madison stared at him blankly. "Oh, that."

"What was it Madison?"

"I saw a wolf."

"A wolf? You're sure?" He asked, getting up and coming before her, placing his hands on top of her shoulders. "You're sure you saw a wolf?"

Madison nodded slowly. "It was huge and black, but it also had like, this dusting of white or gray on it, and its eyes..." She shivered, trying to look away. Keith gripped her a little tighter though. "Its eyes were, well, they were almost like a red color, or a really deep orange. It looked creepy."

Cursing under his breath, Keith quickly turned away.

"What? What is it?" She begged, coming around in front of him again.

"It's Cybil."
Chapter 29

V is for Vampire

By the time Damien got back to his office, after helping his deputy with the door-to-door search around the neighborhood, Kimmy was already waiting for him.

"What took you so long?" She teased.

But Damien wasn't in the mood. "Officer Kershaw and I checked with the neighbors in the area to see if anyone had ever seen anything weird." He answered with annoyance.

"You mean like a giant red-eyed wolf?"

"You saw that too, huh?"

Kimmy nodded. "I've never seen anything like it, I almost thought that I'd imagined it after having spent the last hour in that enclosure until you said something about it. Whatever that thing was, it had to be huge and looked kind of scary, to be honest." Kimmy shivered, "did you get anything from the neighbors?"

"No." He huffed with a sigh. "Nobody said anything. A few complaints about barking dogs and howling, but they've never seen anything."

"Tough luck." She mused. Damien rolled his eyes. "I'm afraid the news I have for you isn't much better."

"Nothing matches?"

Kimmy shook her head, "Not one. Even the biggest male was smaller than our female sample."

"Damn."

"Hey," Kimmy chirped, standing as she got ready to leave. "You think that thing we saw was some kind of coywolf or something? I've heard about wolves and coyotes breeding, and lord knows we have plenty of coyotes around here."

"Probably not. I've never seen a coyote that big."

"I've never seen any canine that big, at least not outside of a monster movie." She joked, headed out the door.

"Wait, what did you just say?" Damien barked, racing to catch up with her.

"Oh, come on Crow, we're not dealing with some kind of monster here. It's not like it's a werewolf or something, it's probably a really big dog. Great Danes are big, hell, so are wolfhounds, which, you know, are used to hunt wolves."

"Right, right. Really big dog. I'll uh, I'll talk to Jaci about getting another warrant."

Kimmy gave him a strange sideways glance, "You do that, be sure to tell me if you need any more molds done."

But Damien had stopped listening, he nodded absently as she waved on her way out, and headed straight to his computer, opening up his email and downloading the video Madison had uploaded to him.

While he waited for it to load, Damien pulled up a search engine and looked at local folklore on werewolves. After reading the first couple of paragraphs, he rolled his eyes.

"I must be going crazy," he mumbled to himself out loud, thankful there was no one in earshot.

Switching tabs on his screen, Damien clicked on the video, fast forwarding it all the way to the end and freezing on the very last frame. He had noticed earlier how quick Madison was to stop the footage right there, and though he wondered why, he'd been more concerned at the time with the fact that his lead suspect had once again slipped through his grasp with an ironclad alibi.

It was obvious that the footage hadn't been doctored any since he'd watched while Madison did little more than pause the live feed and rewind it. That didn't mean Keith wasn't involved somehow, it only meant he didn't get his own hands dirty.

Of course, Damien had yet to come up with a plausible motive for why Keith would want the stripper, er, dancer, dead. A couple of deputies had been dispatched to the club where she worked, and the statements he got weren't out of the ordinary. Nor did the manager of the club, or any of his girls recognize Keith.

He had camera footage from the last forty-eight hours at the club as well, and so far, his IT guys hadn't spotted Keith or anything else out of the ordinary. It also turned out that the text messages appeared to be fake. Someone had used an app to edit the messages, that became clear when they got the luds on the phone, and Keith's number hadn't been listed, but several calls from her ex-husband were, apparently they'd been in a custody dispute, well, looked like the father would win that battle.

Poor kid, he said to himself. The babysitter told him that Alexis had run off because her husband was abusive, though she seemed pretty sure he'd never hurt his kid, only the wife. Because that made it so much better. Damien couldn't stand abuse, merely the thought of it made his blood boil.

Trying to get himself back on track, Damien looked closely at the frozen picture on his screen. There was something there, he knew it. And it only took a second to figure out what it was.

Keith and Madison sat at the table together, her wrist lay palm up in his hand, which probably wasn't so odd in and of itself, but the fact that the very nasty dog bite was missing told him everything he needed to know.

There had been something about that bite that really bothered him, pushing away from his desk, Damien hurried out of the station and over to the lab. Luckily, Kimmy didn't have a life, and he found her sitting in front of a microscope looking at samples of something.

"Kimmy!" He huffed, causing her to jump and almost knock over the microscope in the process.

"Holy shit!" She squeaked, pressing her hand against her chest. "You scared me, Crow!"

"Sorry, I didn't mean to. Look, hey, I was hoping you would show me the bites on those girl's necks again."

"Um, okay, sure. Do you mind if I ask why though?"

Damien followed her into the icebox where the bodies were still being stored until they were released to the families. "Ms. Adams, the zoologist, she had a bite on her wrist, she said she'd been bitten by a dog."

Kimmy pursed her lips, her brows lowered, "You think it could be the same one?" She asked a little skeptically.

"Probably."

Scrunching her face, Kimmy shrugged as she pulled out the two drawers and lowered the sheets to slightly above the collarbone. "She did kind of joke when I suggested she might be involved."

Damien inspected the wounds one at a time, a mask pressed up against his face as he used a pen to poke at the bite marks. "What do you mean?"

"She told me that she would have noticed if anyone tried transporting one of the animals, so I said, well, perhaps she'd been involved, and she laughed, saying 'Maybe I am.'"

Finished prodding at the corpses, Damien stood back with his arms crossed over his chest while Kimmy closed them back up. "What if you're right?"

"Right about what?" She asked on their way back into her office. "Her being involved? I don't really think she is."

"No, not about that."

"Then what?"

Damien sighed. "Kimmy, what do you know about werewolves?"

Kimmy stared at him for a few minutes, and satisfied that he was pulling her leg, she burst out laughing. "That's a good one Crow, next you're going to tell me a vampire did it!"

Her words suddenly hit him like a freight train. A million jumbled thoughts sorting themselves out as if by magic. One by one, each piece fell neatly into place. His breathing became erratic, he might have been having a panic attack for all he knew, but whatever it was, it felt... wrong.

He needed to get away, he needed some fresh air. Trying to play it off, Damien chuckled, though the sound seemed a bit faint. "Yeah, vampire, that's it, you're a funny one Kimmy."

"Are you okay?" She asked, his complexion going pale, his eyes dark as he backed slowly out of her office.

"Yeah, I uh, I just remembered something."

"You sure? You don't look okay. You should sit down."

"No, I probably just need to eat something, that's all."

"Yeah, I guess."

"Thanks, Kimmy, I'll tell you what I find out."

"Okay." She replied, still looking at him as though he'd grown a second head.

Damien got back to the station as quickly as possible, and because Kimmy was right, he did look kind of scary, he told his captain he would be taking the rest of the day off and headed straight home. Downing a couple of aspirin and a sandwich, Damien's stomach settled some, at least the shakes had gone, but he still wasn't himself. Something was happening to him, and he didn't understand it.

Thoughts and images streamed inside his head like a black-and-white picture show. One by one he relieved each memory from the last few months. The attacks, the women, something about them bothered him. They all had time they didn't account for, they'd all gone on dates with Keith, and they had all been admitted to the hospital because of anemia.

The victims, the bites to the throat. The assaults, anemia.

Was Keith a vampire?

Even as he considered it, his head erupted in one of the most violent headaches he'd ever had. He rubbed furiously at his temples. Almost like his skull was splitting in two.

Keith Welker was seventy years old. The fingerprints of Keith Walker matched those of Welker's to a tee.

Was Keith a vampire? He asked himself again before falling to his knees in agony.
Chapter 30

Once Upon your Dead Body

"What do you mean, it's Cybil?"

"The wolf, it's Cybil," Keith replied automatically, his face devoid of expression as he slumped back down on the sofa.

Madison came around and sat down on top of the coffee table in front of him. "The wolf? The wolf is Cybil?" She asked again for clarification, not sure she'd heard him right.

"She's a hybrid Madison."

"But you're a hybrid, are you telling me you can turn into a wolf too?"

He shook his head. "No, it's different, I'm not a true hybrid. I'm like a copy, I share some of her DNA, but I'm not really a hybrid."

"So... what you're trying to say is, it's like a diluted form of the virus?"

"Yes. I can walk in the sunlight, and my bloodlust is controllable to a certain extent, but I'm more or less an enhanced version of a vampire. Cybil was born, not created. Her grandfather was half vampire and half lycan. Her grandmother one-hundred percent lycan. And her parents, as you've already read, Adeline, her mother, who was likely more lycan than vampire, mated with a vampire. Cybil can breed, and I'm sorry, I get that it all sounds so barbaric, like we're talking about animals..."

"Well, we kind of are."

Keith smiled weakly. "Yeah, I guess so. Anyway, Cybil is immortal, but she also has a lot of lycan in her DNA, she can shift."

"Into a wolf?"

"Yes, into a wolf."

"And you're sure that it was her I saw, and not some other lycan?"

"I'm sure," he nodded empathically. "The wolf you described, a large black phase with red eyes, that's Cybil. I've seen her do it, and I'll never forget the color of her eyes, they looked like rubies."

"Oh God, Keith. Why do you think she's here?"

"I'm not sure."

"I wonder if she's the one who's been setting you up?"

"Probably. But I don't understand why."

Madison wanted to ask him about his last encounter with Cybil but the front door suddenly opened and Molly walked in with her friend Ace.

Keith stood immediately, an uncomfortable smile on his face.

"Oh, hey Keith!" Molly gushed, rushing up to him and giving him a hug.

Keith grimaced at Madison, while patting Molly awkwardly on the back, but smiling again when she finally pulled away.

"Hey, Molly, Ace, what are you girls up to?"

Ace stood near the door, eyeing him and twirling a long lock of blonde hair around her fingers.

"Oh, not much," Molly said with a nervous smile on her face. "I got out of work a little while ago and Ace called to ask me if she could come over tonight and watch a movie on the big screen downstairs."

"That sounds like fun." Madison chimed in, going over to Keith and looping an arm around his shoulder. "Keith and I were just getting ready to go back to his place and check on Jewel, the puppies are getting SO big."

Molly's smile seemed to wither a little, her eyes going flat. She obviously didn't like Madison's hands on Keith. Doing her best to stifle her amusement, Madison dropped her arm back down to her side.

"Oh! Puppies? I LOVE puppies!" Ace squealed. "Can we come and see them too?"

Ace was tall, almost taller than Madison even, and she seemed pretty fit like she lifted weights or something, but beyond that, Madison had always kind of figured she was an airhead. It had surprised her when Molly told her she wanted to work in forensics and had a job down at the police station.

The police station! Damn! Why hadn't Madison thought of that before? They should be pumping Ace for information, she'd probably know what Damien was up to.

"Sure," Madison answered much to Keith's dismay. "They're really cute!"

Ace and Molly lead the way, with Keith and Madison hanging back slightly. Madison plastered on a smile every time Molly glared back at them while she bickered with Keith about letting the girls come along.

Keith had finally broken down and admitted to Madison that he avoided Molly at all costs. It wasn't that he didn't like her, she was smart, and he realized she'd make a wonderful veterinarian one day, but the giant crush she had on him unnerved him.

He'd known her since she was fifteen, and even now, though she'd recently turned twenty, he still thought of her as a child.

"This isn't a good idea." He growled under his breath.

"Oh, get over yourself, you can stand to be in the same room as her for ten minutes."

"It's not about that."

Madison flashed the girls another smile as Molly reached the back door, "So what's the problem?" She argued between her teeth.

It was too late for Keith to answer though, before they crossed the threshold Damien's truck flew down the driveway, skidding to a halt a few feet from where they stood.

Keith almost sighed with relief, that is, until the detective got out and started walking briskly towards them. The look in his eyes, the pure evil that shined back at him... for the first time in his long life, Keith knew real fear.

"Why detective," he said with a forced bravado as he straightened his spine. "Back so soon? Did you wind up getting a warrant for the rest of our animals?"

Madison walked back out of the house after hearing the commotion, but Keith put out his arm, preventing her from going any further, Ace and Molly stood inside the door, listening intently.

"No," Damien replied coldly. "I'm afraid this is a social call."

"Really? Well, I wasn't aware that I invited you over." Keith retorted, his voice laced with steel.

"I don't need your permission you stupid son of a bitch," Damien growled under his breath before lunging and snagging Keith by the shirt front, dragging him away from the house.

Madison started forward, but Keith turned and pinned her with a glare that warned her to stay back. This was his fight, and he was a lot stronger than her, and a lot stronger than Damien.

"Detective Crowley?" Ace blurted, rushing outside as Damien's fist missed the side of Keith's face.

Madison gasped when Damien wound up to take another shot at him, but Ace was fast, and in an instant, before anyone could stop her, Ace forced her way between them.

"Damien? What are you doing?" Ace asked, laying her delicate hands on his chest in an attempt to restrain him.

Keith had told her about this, how hunters would basically go crazy, and nothing could stop them. Like flipping a switch, he'd said. And my, how accurate his metaphor had been! The man before them now seemed nothing like the good detective they'd dealt with earlier. She suddenly became very scared for Ace. Would Damien care that she was in his way? Or would he simply go right through her?

To everyone's surprise, most of all Damien's, Ace managed to push him back a few feet, effortlessly.

"Damien?" She said more forcefully. "What are you doing here?"

Damien stopped fighting, his lips curled into a snarl as he stared at Keith, but Ace finally managed to get his attention. He looked at her, his eyes seemingly soft for a moment before they ultimately drew together in a menacing glare. He grabbed ahold of Ace's shoulders, moving her aside.

"I should be asking you the same question Ace, what the hell are you doing here?"

Ace looked a little affronted, but she answered sweetly, all the same, trying to use her blatant sexuality to diffuse the situation. "I'm here to see my friend, Molly, of course."

Damien looked over at Molly and back at Ace. "Something's different about you. Something's not right."

"Whatever do you mean?" Ace chuckled.

Keith and Madison exchanged glances, she wondered if he was thinking the same thing. If Cybil was planning some sort of attack on Keith, the best way to do it would be to have someone on the inside. Perhaps someone who had a friend on the ranch and worked for the police department? And hell, Damien was right, Ace did seem different somehow from the normally shy and quiet girl she'd met on several occasions.

Could it be that Damien sensed vampires now that his switch had possibly been flipped?

"You're not yourself Ace." Madison agreed.

"On the contrary," Ace purred, running a finger along Damien's shoulder and down the length of his arm. "I've never felt better."

"What did he do to you?" Damien growled.

"Oh, Damien, you know, I've always had a soft spot for you, it kills me to see you this way."

Damien shrugged her off, his eyes never leaving hers though as she walked around him in a slow circle. Everyone else stood their ground while they watched, poor Molly looked like she might have been on the verge of having a panic attack leaning against the open door of the cottage for support.

"What did he do to you?" He asked again.

Ace closed her eyes, spreading her arms and throwing her head back in laughter while spinning. "Freedom, Damien. They gave me freedom."

Damien turned his attention towards Keith. "What did you do to her?"

"I didn't touch her."

"You think he did this?" Ace burst out laughing. "Keith? The gentle little veterinarian? Ha!"

"If not him Ace, who?"

She stopped, glaring at Damien with one brow cocked. "I've never actually liked that name you know. I'd prefer it if you'd call me Lee."

"Alright, Lee, who did this to you?"

"Oh, come on Damien, don't get your little panties in a bunch. They didn't do anything to me that I didn't want."

"They?" He demanded, looking in Keith's direction. "Do you mean to tell me there's more than just you out there?"

Before Keith answered, Lee's laughter rang out again, amused by Damien's anger she simply couldn't help herself.

"Of course there are! You didn't honestly assume that sweet innocent Keith here has been ripping women's throats out, did you? I mean, come on! Sure he may have been feeding on them, but Keith's never killed anyone, have you, Keith?"

"Lee," Keith warned. "You should probably back off now."

"Why? What the hell is he going to do?" She smirked. "Arrest me for being a vampire?"

"You have no idea what you're getting yourself into Lee, he's not..."

"He's not what? A very good detective? That's pretty obvious." She whispered mockingly, walking in a tight circle around Damien. "Hell, even I realized what you were Keith, and it certainly didn't take me as long as detective dufus here to figure it out."

Damien stood still though a muscle in his jaw twitched occasionally. Madison had a death grip on Keith's arm, watching helplessly as everything continued to unravel in front of them. Keith tried his best to defuse the situation, but Lee was obviously brimming with overconfidence. Madison wondered if it had something to do with her being newly turned.

She hadn't seen Lee in about a week, but the girl's personality had done a complete one-eighty during the transformation. She seemed cocky, and arrogant, with blatant sexual overtones. And if she wasn't careful, Madison feared she might get herself and Keith, killed.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Damien asked, his tone a little softer. "If you knew, all this time, what he was, what he's been doing. Why didn't you tell me? We're supposed to be on the same team, Lee."

"She needed you to figure it out on your own."

"Who's she?"

"She assumed you would have figured it out after all the attacks. The blood loss, the lapse in memory. But you didn't. So she had Sean kill Kieri, but you still didn't figure it all out."

"Sean?" Keith said more to himself than anyone else in particular. Madison squeezed his arm, but the look he gave her came up blank.

"Yeah, Sean. He's really cute." Lee replied, sliding her hands along her body seductively. "He's the one that made me this way."

"And he killed Kieri? Why? So I would suspect Keith did it and realize that he was a vampire?"

Lee shrugged. "That was the plan, although, to be honest, I'm not really sure why she cared if you figured it out or not."

"Because he's a hunter Lee, and Cybil obviously wants him to kill me."

Damien seemed surprised by that statement, his eyes shifted rapidly like he might have been listening to some inner monologue.

"Oh, come now, she doesn't want you dead Keith. Cybil's gone to a lot of trouble to find you after all."

"But that's the only thing that makes sense."

"Is it?"

Keith cocked his head, confused. Why else would Cybil set a hunter on his trail if not to kill him? He and Madison exchanged glances, she shook her head, no closer to understanding what was going on than he was.

"Enough!" Damien roared, suddenly grabbing Lee by the arm and pulling her closer. "This man Sean, you said he killed Kieri, is he the one responsible for Alexis's death too?"

Momentarily stunned by Damien's outburst, it took Lee a second to regain her composure, some semblance of fear creeping into her features. But she managed to trample her emotions quickly, yanking her wrist from his grasp.

"Who, the stripper? No. Cybil killed her."

"Why?"

"Stop," Lee fumed, growing tired of this game of twenty questions. "She didn't tell me the specifics, all Cybil said is that she wanted you to know, but you needed to figure it out on your own. I'm merely a pawn in her little game, you'd have to ask her why she killed the slut and the stripper because I have no idea! Probably because they deserved it!"

"Innocent people don't deserve to die, Lee." Keith cut in, remembering his own parent's death too well, all the memories of his time spent with Cybil flooding back.

"What about you Lee? Did you deserve to die?" Damien grumbled.

Lee smiled, all cat-like and feral. She leaned in, taking Damien's hand and pressing it to her breast. "Does it look like I'm dead Damien? Can't you feel my heart pounding? I've never been more alive."

"You disgust me!" He spat, shoving her away from him and reaching into his trench coat all in the same movement, swiftly pulling out a sword that had to be at least two feet in length and looked quite deadly.

Molly gasped from behind them, and Madison, who like everyone else, had completely forgotten that she was there, ran to her aid as the young girl crashed to the ground.

Lee backed away slowly, her hands in the air, pure terror written all over her face.

Keith immediately jumped in the middle. "Put the sword down Damien, why don't we talk about this, you and I, man to man."

"Man to man." He mocked, advancing on them. "You haven't been a man for a very long time as far as I can tell."

"Nobody has to die Damien."

"You can't kill what's already dead."
Chapter 31

Righteous Kill

"Damien please," Keith protested, "there must still be some part of you in there, you know this is wrong, she's innocent, I'm innocent. And you're a cop for God sakes!"

Damien tilted his head to the side, his eyes, going black as his pupils dilated beyond normal, closing to mere slits while he seemed to ponder what Keith had said. "You couldn't be more wrong. Everyone's little whipping boy is long gone. It's like you said Keith, I'm a hunter."

It became hard to draw the line between good and evil as Madison watched Damien's posture change radically. He wielded his sword with the practiced expertise of a soldier or a medieval knight.

"I'm a hunter, Keith." He said again, his voice low, and raspy. "And you're the prey."

Keith braced himself for impact, Lee stood a few feet back with nowhere to go, her back up against the side of the barn. With every instinct inside him ready to fight, he bared his fangs, his face contorted with rage, his eyes glowing brightly.

But as Damien lifted his sword high, prepared to slice into the first piece of flesh he made contact with, Keith hit the ground. He felt himself rolling, unable to stop, the momentum carried him far out of Damien's reach.

It seemed like one big blur, it happened so fast. He'd been on his feet, ready to fight, and suddenly he found himself skidding across the dirt and wiping at the sand in his eyes. Screams, loud and panicked, rang in his ears. A blood-curdling howl of pain, followed by another howl, this one low and deep, mournful.

Keith looked up, brushing frantically at the bits of gravel and dirt that still obscured his vision. He saw movement close by, a scuffle, the sound of shoes scraping against the driveway. Somebody grunted, a woman gasped, and then he smelled it. Blood.

The cloyingly sweet, metallic smell filled his nostrils. Someone gagged, choking as they lay dying a few feet away. Keith scrambled to his feet finally able to check out his surroundings.

He saw Cybil first, still in wolf form as she slowly limped away from the fray, he assumed that she had plowed into him, knocking him to the ground and out of harm's way. He caught sight of Molly next as she ran towards the barn where a body appeared slumped over, a head lay a few feet away.

He grimaced. It had to have been Lee. Cybil might have pushed him out of the way, but Damien's sword hadn't missed, after all, he'd simply hit another target. At least from the looks of it, Lee hadn't suffered much.

When his eyes finally settled on Damien, he gasped, running those few feet as fast as possible, and pulling Madison, who sat straddling Damien's lifeless body, to her feet. He cradled her in his arms, rushing her into his cottage as he checked her for wounds.

She was covered in blood. Her hands shook as she stared blankly ahead. She seemed nearly catatonic.

"Madison!" Keith shouted. "Answer me, dammit!"

"She's fine." A familiar voice called from behind.

Keith turned to face her, "Cybil."

She smiled, despite the contempt she saw in his eyes. "Don't just stand there, love. Be a doll and get me something to wear."

Though a million disgraceful thoughts ran through his head, a thousand choice words he'd like to say to her, Keith did as she asked. Fetching one of his shirts and throwing it at her face. He no more wanted to see her naked than to see her at all, but if he had to, he at least wanted her clothed.

"What are you doing here Cybil?" He demanded, walking back over to Madison and placing a wet cloth against her face.

"Looks like I'm saving your ass, you might try to be a little more grateful you know."

"Grateful? Molly is outside probably having a heart attack after watching her best friend get beheaded, Madison is catatonic and possibly bleeding to death, and there's a vampire hunter laying on my front lawn that looks as though he's been gutted like a pig! And I'm supposed to be grateful to you? You did this Cybil, all of this is because of you!"

"Oh quit with the dramatics already Keith, you sound like such a girl." Cybil chuckled, making herself right at home on Keith's sofa. "Molly is fine, I gave her some of my blood, she'll be out for at least a couple of days, and I doubt she'll remember much of anything. As for Madison, none of that blood is hers, or can't you smell the difference?"

"What? What do you mean you gave Molly some of your blood?"

"I can't very well have her calling 911 now, can I? How would you go about explaining the death of one of the counties most decorated detectives, Keith, especially with you being his only lead in the murder of two women?"

"Murders that you set me up for! Why, Cybil? Why did you do it?"

Cybil ignored him, she walked into the kitchen, picking up Keith's landline and dialing a number. Keith shook his head, turning back to Madison, who, though still unresponsive, started getting some of her color back.

Cybil remained quiet a few moments before telling whoever might have been on the other end of the line that she had a couple of bodies she needed to get rid of, before hanging up and coming over to where Madison sat at the kitchen table, pushing Keith out of the way.

"Cybil." He warned.

She rolled her eyes, searching Madison's face for some sign of life. She looked like a doll, her face calm and serene. "She'll be fine." Cybil finally said, pushing by Keith once more and taking up her spot on the sofa again.

Keith grabbed a fresh towel for her face, he was worried about her, he didn't understand why she wasn't responding. He'd seen people go into shock before, but this seemed different. She was breathing, but her body appeared stiff otherwise, she didn't even blink.

"What happened out there, Cybil?"

"Do you mean before or after I saved your life?"

Keith ground his teeth, ready to let her have it. Cybil's tongue lashing would be delayed however when Madison inhaled sharply, finally coming to.

"Oh, my God." She gasped. "Oh my God, Keith, you're okay! You're okay!"

Madison rushed to her feet, albeit a little unsteadily and flung herself into Keith's arms. He held her tightly, glowering at Cybil over her shoulder.

"I'm okay." He assured her.

Madison let go slowly, nodding. "When I saw him raise that sword, he, he swung it, and oh God, there was this, this..."

Cybil smiled, giving a little wave as Madison's eyes finally landed on her.

"You!" She said, her tone accusatory. "You did this, this is all your fault! Lee is dead, and it's all your fault!"

"Why hello Madison, I'm Cybil, and yes, it's a pleasure to meet you too."

"Go to hell."

Cybil stood, Keith's shirt coming to about mid-thigh on her and revealing her beautiful long, lean, legs. Madison had to admit as she looked her over that the woman looked simply stunning. She wanted to kill her, but God she was beautiful.

"Gosh, if you two aren't perfect for each other. Martyrs the both of you. Though, if I'm not mistaken, Madison, I don't think you had much choice in the matter."

"What are you talking about?" Keith asked, holding Madison back before she could attempt to throttle Cybil.

"Why don't you ask her?"

A knock on the door stopped Cybil from saying anything more as she left to answer it, disappearing outside with a tall stranger Keith didn't quite see. But he caught his scent. A vampire and he stunk of blood and decay. Of evil. Keith shivered. He wondered if the stranger was Sean, the man Lee had talked about.

"I killed him, Keith," Madison said once Cybil had gone.

"What?"

"Damien. I killed him."

Keith pulled her into his arms, rubbing his hands along her back. "Shh shh, it's okay, it was self-defense."

"No, no I don't think so. I killed him Keith, and I liked it."

He held her at arm's length, devastated by the pain he saw in her eyes. "That doesn't make it any less self-defense Madison, he would have killed you."

"Would he have? I didn't see him trying to attack Molly. Oh, God! Molly!" Madison became frantic suddenly, struggling to get out of his grasp.

"Calm down Madison, Molly's okay, she's resting, she'll be fine."

"Oh God, that poor girl, I can't imagine what went through her head, what she's still going through. Lee was her best friend!"

Keith winced, "You should really sit down, Madison."

"What aren't you telling me?"

He sighed. "Cybil gave her some of her blood, Molly probably won't remember anything."

"But that's good, isn't it?"

"I guess, if you want to look at it that way."

"How else should I see it, Keith? Cybil unleashed a hunter on you, she got an innocent girl killed, I, I murdered someone, Keith! I wish to God that I didn't have to remember that!"

Keith bowed his head, he felt sickened by it all. This was his mess, his fight. Cybil was his problem. He should have left in the beginning. Instead of dragging Robert down with him, instead of getting Madison and Lee caught in the crossfire, he should have left.

"I'm sorry."

"No, no. No, Keith, that's not what I meant. You don't have anything to be sorry for. This isn't your fault, it's Cybil's doing."

"But she's here because of me, don't you get it, Madison, this is my fault. I brought her here."

Madison took Keith's face in her hands, forcing him to look her in the eyes. "Stop blaming yourself for what Cybil has done. You couldn't have known she'd come back, especially not now, it's been what? Forty years since you've seen her?"

Despite himself, Keith smiled. "Pretty close to that, at least thirty, but I should have assumed she'd be back at some point. I should have been ready, you're father was always ready, he would have seen this coming."

"How do you figure? Because it seems to me that Cybil had already been here long before my father died."

"What makes you say that?"

Madison shrugged, letting her hands fall to her sides. "Lee said Cybil wanted Damien to know what you were, she set him on your trail. She realized Damien was a hunter, you said yourself she'd been hunted in the past, she probably knows how to spot hunters, even the inactive ones. Which leads me to assume that she had a hand in those women you fed off of going to him in the first place. At least, that makes the most sense to me."

"None of this makes any sense." He replied, running the back of a finger down her cheek.

Madison leaned into his touch, suddenly needing the reassurance. The entire day had been one big shit storm right from the beginning, knowing she still had Keith to lean on made it seem at least somewhat tolerable.

"Well, don't you two look cozy?" Cybil teased, interrupting their moment.

Cybil had only been gone a few minutes, and Sean must have brought clothes with him for in that time she'd managed to slip on a pair of jeans and some tennis shoes. She hadn't changed out of Keith's dress shirt though, instead, tying it in a knot at her waist. The look was simple and relaxed, as well as incredibly sexy.

Something, that for whatever reason, made Madison jealous as hell.

Here she was, covered in someone else's blood, and Cybil looked ready to hit the beach for a casual stroll along the shore. Not until that familiar sensation began to draw her in again did Madison realize something wasn't right, she wasn't right.

"I need some air." She said quietly, brushing past Cybil on her way out the door.

With a scowl, Keith followed her out. Cybil smiled to herself, waiting a beat before doing an about face to catch up.

"Don't let her get to you," Keith said gently, coming up behind Madison who stood looking out at the woods beyond the house.

"No, it's not that." She replied.

Keith felt helpless, he wanted to comfort her, he wanted her to understand that everything would be okay, but with Cybil in their midst, and two dead bodies to deal with, one of which had fallen at her own hands, he wasn't sure they would be okay, least of all, her. How did he help her cope with something that he'd never experienced himself?

He'd seen death, he'd witnessed the murder of his own mother! But never had he killed someone, he didn't realize what it meant to take a life, a human life. Even in the moments before Damien attacked, in his rage, ready to defend himself, to protect Lee, the idea of killing Damien hadn't entered his mind.

He would have subdued him, he probably would have called the police... and then? Well, he would have run. Killing Damien, killing anyone, hadn't been part of his plan. He wanted to live a normal life, or as close to one as he could get.

And he wanted to be with Madison.

From the moment he'd laid eyes on her, he knew she was something special, Robert's obsessive findings had only clarified that for him. He'd waited, he'd lived his life, and now she was here. However, when Robert had said to protect her, he didn't think that involved seducing her too. Madison was human after all, and despite the movies, he'd never even considered turning her, so a future? With Madison?

Not likely.

He'd simply have to settle for having her in his life. Although, with Cybil in the picture now, things became a lot more obscure.

"What can I do to help?" He asked, wanting so badly to pull her into his arms and hold her, ease her mind a little.

"Well, you might start by turning on the sprinklers," Cybil suggested, walking towards the pickup truck parked on the far side of the cottage.

"Didn't I tell you to go to hell?" Madison barked.

"Sweetheart, this is hell, just take a look around."

Madison snorted, shaking her head, however, Cybil had a point. There was blood all over the ground and in multiple places. The stench of death almost overwhelming, but at least the bodies were gone.

"What did you do with...?"

"The bodies?" Cybil supplied. "They're in the back of the pickup, we'll take care of them, Sean is very adept at disposing of bodies." She smirked, indicating with her head in the direction of the white Ford behind her.

"Speaking of bodies..." The tall stranger Keith had seen earlier said, walking towards them with a limp Molly in his arms. "What am I supposed to do with this one?"

Madison gasped, hurrying towards him. "Molly!"

"Why don't you have Madison here, take you up to the house and show you where to put her," Cybil suggested, giving Keith a stern glare. "And take your time, the adults need to have a little chat, don't we, Keith?"

Madison felt uneasy about leaving the two of them alone, and even less comfortable going anywhere with Sean, who reminded her of almost every charming and deadly serial killer in the history of serial killers, but Keith nodded to her, his way of telling her that everything would be fine.

Yeah, fine.

She pinned Cybil with a menacing stare, hoping that she understood the message, and told Sean to follow her up to the main house, they'd put Molly in her bed, at least that way she would be someplace safe where she could rest peacefully.

"Now then..."

"What the hell are you doing here Cybil?" Keith interrupted. "And don't give me any of that crap about saving my life, you're the one who put it in danger in the first place. I know you're somehow behind everything, all of it. The girls I fed on, the murders, Lee. You did this, why?"

Cybil sighed, pulling down the tailgate of the truck and exposing the bodies. She smiled when Keith flinched, scooting on the tailgate and crossing one leg over the other. "I came back for you." She replied simply as if that were enough.

Keith scoffed. "You came back for me? Is that right? It's been more than thirty years Cybil, you had plenty of time to come back for me! Or were you hoping that if enough time passed I'd forget that you murdered my parents and left me to deal with the mess on my own?"

"You have every right to be angry with me for leaving you, Keith."

He snorted.

"But I'm fairly certain you have some of your facts wrong." She continued.

"Do I? Because I'm pretty sure I remember watching you tear my mother's head off, and you were the last one to see my father alive, or are you telling me he shoved a butcher knife into his own chest?"

"I didn't kill your father, Keith, and you don't know the whole story behind your mother's death either, but I didn't come back here to rehash old memories."

"No, of course not, you were only trying to protect me back then, like you are now, right? I mean, I'm sure Damien and I would have run into each other at some point, and he probably would have figured out I'm a vampire, turning him into a soulless, demon-killing monster. Have I got that right?"

Cybil shrugged, climbing down from the back of the truck. "Pretty close."

"Fuck you, Cybil! Why are you really here? What do you need? You lose the recipe for your precious serum? Huh? Is that it? You never gave two shits about me or anyone else for that matter, why should you start now? What do you need?!"

"How dare you!" She roared, slapping him hard across the face and knocking him to the ground. "You don't know a damn thing about me, Keith! I'd watch it if I were you!"

"What are you going to do, Cybil? Kill me?" He retorted, climbing to his feet. "You couldn't do it then, and you won't do it now. You need something from me or else you wouldn't be here, so why don't you tell me what it is so we can get on with it and you can leave. Or haven't you done enough damage already?"

"Let's get one thing straight, you need me right now as much as I need you."

Keith burst out laughing. "Why? Is there another hunter nearby that I should be worried about? Are you going to tell the police that I'm a vampire and I killed Damien? What the hell could I possibly need from you?"

Cybil cut him off, mid-rant. "Madison was possessed."

"What?"

"When she killed the hunter, she'd been possessed."
Chapter 32

Say you'll Haunt me

Stunned, Keith turned away for a second, checking to make sure Madison hadn't come back outside yet. "You're sure?"

She nodded. "Listen, I have no idea what the bloody hell is going on around here, but I can say with absolute certainty that Madison was possessed. I watched the whole thing, I felt it, Keith. One minute she's trying to get that Molly girl to come around, and the next she's fighting the hunter for his sword."

"Fighting him for it? You mean...?"

"I mean... that as much as I enjoy the little twit assuming she killed him on purpose, the truth is she got damn lucky. The bastard fell on his own sword, she didn't kill him, but she was possessed. And whoever it is, he's only getting started."

"He?"

"Yes, he. He's strong, and he's angry, and whoever the hell he is, he's got you in his sights."

"Who's got Keith in his sights?" Madison asked, startling both of them.

Sean followed a few feet behind, curiosity written all over that handsome face of his.

"Cybil said you were possessed." Keith supplied before she answered.

"You mean like before?"

"This has happened before?" Cybil inquired, stepping between the two of them, though she focused her attention solely on Madison.

Madison nodded, flushing slightly.

"You guys got some sort of haunting or something?" Sean asked, feeling left out.

Keith shook his head. "Not exactly."

"Well, what is it then? A relic, some sort of amulet?" Cybil wanted to know.

Madison was beginning to feel overwhelmed. She realized something hadn't been right, the whole time she'd been grappling with Damien trying to gain control of the sword, she'd felt... wrong. Like she'd been standing outside herself and watching, but at the same time, she sensed the moment his soft flesh gave way as he tripped and the sword plunged into his stomach. And suddenly she found herself straddling him, pushing it to the hilt.

There'd been blood everywhere, she gagged on it, but she had to make sure he was dead. And deep down, some part of her had enjoyed it.

"It's a painting." She informed them quietly. "A painting of one of my ancestors."

Cybil's brows rose.

"Keith and I have both felt the effects of it, but usually only when we're inside together. I don't, I don't understand."

"The door was open," Keith told her, running through it all himself. "Cybil said he's getting stronger, he must have been able to affect you because the door had been left open."

"Cybil," Madison broke in. "How did you know I was possessed?"

"She has the sight," Keith answered for her.

"I can speak for myself, thank you. And to answer your question, both my grandmother and my great-grandmother were lycans, you know, gypsies."

That made a lot more sense to her, Madison recalled all the research she'd read. How Angels had mated with gypsies, and that their magic allowed the lycan virus to mutate, causing the shapeshifting as well.

"So you're a hybrid witch, is that what you're saying?"

Cybil laughed, a low, husky sound, one more sexy attribute that annoyed Madison on almost every female level possible

"Something like that. Witch is usually only a term used by American's. Gypsies, prefer to be known by their gifts alone. Our abilities usually vary after all. I'm not into hexes or potions, but I have a very keen sense when it comes to spirits."

"My father's research talked about stuff like that." Madison blurted, regretting it almost the instant it came out of her mouth.

"Your father's research?"

"How do we get rid of this spirit?" Keith butted in, trying to change the subject before Cybil asked any more questions.

"Well, first, you need to find out who it is, and how he got in there. After that, it should be pretty easy to exorcise him. And I can help you with that. I have contacts all over the world. In the meantime though, he's going to get stronger, and pretty soon, it won't matter if that door is open or closed, he's going to jump into the closest body and make them do his dirty work for him."

A chill ran down Madison's spine, Cybil's words haunted her. She understood what it felt like, being possessed, watching yourself doing something you'd never have done on your own.

"And you said he's after Keith?" She asked nervously.

"Yes. And he's not going to stop until he kills him. That spirit didn't try to kill the hunter, my dear, he wanted to kill Keith, he simply missed is all, but his aim is bound to improve. That's why the two of you need me, I can help you. You can't possibly do this without me."

Keith shook his head in disbelief. Though he realized Cybil might be right about some things, he doubted the ghost was after him specifically, especially when considering the interactions he and Madison had with it so far. "And what do you get out of it?" He demanded.

"Let's hold off worrying about what it is that I want for a little while longer, shall we? The point is, I have invaluable resources at my disposal, and right now, I want to help you."

"You might be surprised then Cybil because I have plenty of contacts too." Keith retorted, ready to be rid of her.

After closing the tailgate, Sean came up behind her, whispering something in her ear. She nodded.

"Mark my words, Keith, you will need my help with this." She looked at Madison. "It's been a pleasure meeting you Madison, we'll be in touch."

Madison sneered at her, looping her arm in Keith's for comfort as they watched her and Sean get into the truck and head down the driveway.

Keith waited a beat until they were out of sight and led Madison inside, stopping to turn on the sprinklers first. Near dusk already, all the animals had been taken care of, and the staff had called earlier to say they were going into town for dinner together, but if anyone wandered up this way later, the pools of blood might be difficult to explain. He was glad overall though that no one had been around to hear or witness the commotion, thank God for small favors.

Once inside, Madison ran straight upstairs to shower and check on Molly. Keith took the opportunity to put together a couple of sandwiches. He doubted Madison would be hungry, but it might give them something else to focus on for the time being at least.

"Do you think Cybil is right?" She asked taking a seat at the table and opening the bottle of water in front of her. "What if this ghost is really after you?"

Keith shrugged. "It's hard to say. I don't have the slightest idea how to communicate with spirits, and she does. But after the things she's done to us over the past few weeks, this might be her way of inserting herself back into my life."

"She likes to play games."

"Cybil lives to play games. It's who she is."

"What a bitch. I'm sorry Keith, but I don't understand what it is you saw in her."

Keith laughed. "Hindsight? I don't either."

They shared a good laugh for a moment, letting the events of that one long ass day fade, even if for only a minute while they ate their sandwiches and pondered their next moves.

"So what do we do now?" Madison finally asked as the silence stretched on.

"Now? Now we try to figure out who's haunting us. Cybil was right, we need to know who it is, and how he got in there. I'll have to reach out to my friend Lucas again, he said he'd dig into it for me, maybe he's found something by now."

Madison cocked her head to the side. "But I already know who it is."

"What?"

"Remember that night, in the bathroom? I saw him."

"Why didn't you tell me this before?"

"I dunno." She shrugged. "I figured I was crazy at first, and then, I don't know, I guess I kinda forgot about it with everything else going on."

"Alright, fair enough. So do you want to tell me who is it? Who did you see, Madison?"

Madison got up from the table, going to the sink to rinse off her plate. "It's the man in the painting." She said turning her back on him.

Keith said nothing, he stared into the empty living room in front of him. It couldn't be. That wasn't right. Madison must have been mistaken. That was the only explanation he came up with.

"Did you hear what I said?" She reiterated, coming back around to the table and noticing his blank expression. "Keith? Keith, are you okay?"

Refocusing, Keith looked her dead in the eyes, "That's... impossible."

***
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

After a lot of strange dreams, April decided to turn one of them into a story, and she was hooked. The author of several other novels, including four based on some of hockey's hottest men, a few of April's other interests include watching sports and spending time with her family.

April currently lives in Florida with her husband and two young sons, where she is hard at work on her next novel! She loves to hear from readers and welcomes comments readily!
