Page 16 of Shadow Bound

While I miss my family too, I know they’re all busy with their own lives. Ranger is busy with the final stages of construction on the house he’s building for Winslow. They’ve been living in an Airstream travel trailer since they were mated. Winslow herself is busy working at Esme’s shop, using her ability to see ghosts to help families find closure after their loved ones have died. Ryker is busy brooding, since Pru is gone. Even Remington is busy. She’s started dating our head enforcer. From what I’ve heard, they’ve been spending a lot of time together.

Even though a relationship between people who clearly aren’t mates is destined for failure, it doesn’t stop shifters from dating casually. Remi knows this about her relationship with Gage, but she doesn’t care. She’ll never admit it, but we all know she’s using Gage to nurse her ego after Jax blew her off. My sister decided last year that she was going to figure out Jax, but the demon would have nothing to do with her. For the first time in Remington’s life, she didn’t get what she wanted.

I would feel bad for her if I didn’t enjoy the bitter look on her face every time Jax and she are in the same room now.

“They’re ruling it as an animal attack.”

“If we are right and it was a rogue, then they’re not technically wrong.” I check the time on my dashboard. “Do you think it could be the wolf we lost last week?”

Sawyer nods. “Could be. His last couple of victims were left in a similar state. We’ll be able to tell when we check out the scene.”

“How far are we?”

“Still thirty minutes out.”

I press my foot down harder on the gas, determined to get there faster.

* * *

Her room is exactlyhow she left it. There isn’t a single thing blatantly out of place, no signs of a struggle anywhere. There’s a half-eaten granola bar that still sits on top of her stack of homework she’d left on the desk. Her cheer uniform is scattered across the carpeted floor where she’d taken it off before going out to meet her friends at a movie after practice.

Zoe was supposed to be watching some chick flick but instead, had got her throat ripped out and was left haphazardly on the side of the road like a piece of roadkill.

We went to the morgue with the intention of looking over her body, but her parents had already had her cremated since the attack was a few days ago. While I’m happy their daughter was laid to rest, I’m aggravated that we can’t use the body to pick up any scents of her attacker.

With nowhere else to turn, we decided to head to Zoe’s house in hopes of getting more information from her parents. More specifically, we needed to know the exact location of the attack so that we have a starting place to start tracking. While Sawyer is downstairs talking to Zoe’s absolutely distraught mother, I snuck upstairs to take a piece of Zoe’s clothing to get her scent.

I try to make it as quick as possible, not wanting to linger in the teenager’s bedroom longer than necessary. It feels absolutely disrespectful to be in her space. I scoop up a discarded T-shirt from the floor and bring it to my nose, inhaling deeply to commit her scent to memory. While I don’t feel good about it, I stuff the top into my jacket pocket so Sawyer is able to do the same thing later.

I’m sure her parents will forgive us for stealing from them if we find her killer. Like a doctor can’t promise to save someone’s life, I can’t swear to them I’ll find the fucker who took their daughter from them, but I’ll try my damnedest.

The stairs creak under my feet as I make my way back downstairs. The fox shifter’s parents are no longer in the living room with Sawyer like I left them.

“The mom broke down—started sobbing hysterically,” Sawyer explains before I have a chance to ask. “They went into the back bedroom to calm down, but they said we can let ourselves out.”

“Damn.” I shake my head. “I can’t imagine the pain of losing a child.”

Sawyer stuffs his hands in his jeans pockets. “It’s probably just as bad as losing your mate.”

We walk out the front door into the late afternoon day. Orange leaves that have fallen from the trees skim across the ground in the October breeze. Breathing in the crisp air, for the quickest second I think I catch a faint scent of honey and copper, but it’s gone just as fast as it came. I shake my head, trying to clear my head.

Fuck. You’re imagining her scent now? Get a grip.

“There’s something you should know,” Sawyer says as we climb into the cab of my lifted silver truck. “They left something out of the autopsy report, but Mom let it slip.”

I start the truck and back out of the driveway. “What’d you learn?”

“Zoe did die from blood loss but not because she bled out…” Sawyer gives me an odd look.

“Spit it out, dude, I’m growing gray over here.” Stopping at the red light, I tap my fingers against the leather wheel, waiting for it to turn green.

“Her blood was missing,” he finally elaborates. “Drained to be more precise. I don’t think this was a rogue wolf.”

My head snaps in his direction, picking up instantly on what he’s insinuating. “You think it was a vampire?”

He nods stiffly. “I think it fits, but the bite wound still looks like a wolf’s. It doesn’t make fucking sense. The MO is exactly the same as the rogue’s we’ve been looking for, but this is the first time the blood has been taken.”

My mind fills with images of the vampire that’s been consuming my thoughts for months now. Just like she promised that night, she disappeared into the shadows, without a trace. It would be a lie if I said I didn’t try and track her. I left the clinic not long after her and followed her honey scent all the way to the edge of town before it vanished into the wind. I’ve never chased a girl—never really needed to, but there I was tracking her through town. I didn’t even have a plan for when I did come across her again, I just left the clinic and tracked her.

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