through Lucas"s apartment for several minutes, but didn"t see anything that struck him as unusual.
Though difficult to say for sure, given the level of disorder, nothing looked out of place. He came across a pile of coasters with numbers scribbled on them from several area bars; all had female names associated with them. He used a finger to scan through the collection, noting the names of the places Lucas frequented. His luck with women emphasized the point that Erik had suggested; Lucas probably wasn"t aggressive.
Brand was tempted to believe that the young male, bored of the Denver scene, had moved off on his own. One fact made that conclusion difficult to believe, though. All of his clothes and personal items remained in the apartment. From what Brand could tell, nothing had been packed. If Lucas had left of his own accord, he"d taken nothing with him.
After four more hours of searching dark bars overrun 25
with longing, Brand fell into his bed near three in the morning frustrated and exhausted. He never caught sight of Arn or spoke to anyone who"d seen him.
Shortly after midnight the next night, the forty-eight-hour full-moon period would begin. Emotions, already almost overwhelming in his kind, peaked with the moon. There would no doubt be another body if he didn"t find Arn before then, and the idea that he would fail another female the same way he"d failed his mother kept him awake, staring at the ceiling, for a long while before sleep overtook him.
* * *
Alice"s stomach clenched when she reached her car. A familiar, rising whisper of violence filled the night. She tried three times before she managed to push the small button on her remote. The chirp of her car locking comforted her, though the implied safety was an illusion. Arn could force his way inside her car with little effort and he was close. Her only hope was that he might not know exactly where she was, yet.
She pulled out her phone to call Brand, and while trying to open it she dropped it. Nearly breathless with panic, she bent over to search the bottom of the car under her feet. Just as her hand caught hold of the plastic case, darkness obscured the streetlight that shone in her window.
Alice looked up into the shadowed face that had haunted every day of her life since he bought her more than two hundred years ago. He was every bit as cruel and huge as he was in her nightmares. She couldn"t contain the scream that tore from her throat.
26
Chapter 3
Brand woke not long after dawn with Alice on his mind. It wasn"t unusual for his first thought to be of her. He dreamed variations of how he"d found her almost every night.
In the heart-wrenching twist of events his subconscious had created tonight, she"d died in his arms. To still the frantic thumping of his heart, he forced himself to remember.
A whimper had drawn his attention to an uneven mound in the ditch beside the road. The shape shifted a fraction of an inch and then ceased. He closed the distance and knelt in the mud where she"d been discarded.
The blond hair was the first detail he noticed, curly and tangled. She lay on her side, her bare back facing him. One pale shoulder shuddered when she groaned. The curve of every rib in her emaciated torso was visible, and half-healed, sinuous cuts ran from her shoulders to her waist.
He pulled off his jacket and placed it over her. She was small enough that it covered her from shoulders to knees. He moved his hand to her forehead and felt the energy of her wolf buried under the unconscious mind. She was not powerful, but she was certainly one of the brood. He maneuvered his hands 27
under her and lifted her into his arms. She weighed very little.
Her bones protruded from her skin everywhere he touched her.
Her head lolled against his shoulder. Bruises darkened her jaw, and red lines from fingers marked the much too white skin of her throat. Dried blood from her nose and mouth covered the delicate curve of her cheeks.
That image of Alice so broken in his arms, before he"d even known her name, was the one that haunted him most.
He"d held her hand for hours, uncertain she"d survive, using his empathic ability to calm the fear that terrorized her even as she slept.
His cell phone rang from the living room, where he"d dropped his clothes the night before. Relieved