"C'mon, Fang," he said, moving to the bed. "Snap out of this. I miss you, little brother, and I could really use someone to talk to right now. I have one serious problem on my hands."
But it was useless. The Daimons had taken more than his brother's blood.
They had stolen his spirit.
The shame of what had happened to Fang was more than the wolf could face. Vane understood that. He'd felt it himself when he'd found out he was human.
There was nothing worse than being attacked and not being able to fight back. He flinched as memories assailed him.
The first time he'd turned human had been in the middle of a fight with an angry boar. The beast had stabbed him so badly that he still felt a pain in his ribs if he moved the wrong way. One minute, he'd been a wolf, and the next he'd been on his back while the boar bit, clawed, and tusked him.
Had Fang not come along "Get up, little brother," he whispered. "You can't keep living like this."
Fang didn't acknowledge him at all.
Vane ran his hand over his brother's dark brown fur, then turned to leave him there.
In the hallway outside, he passed Aimee Peltier. In human form, she held a bowl of beef soup in her hands as she came from the direction of the stairs.
The only daughter of the bear clan, she was a tall, thin blonde with an exceptionally beautiful face. Her brothers had a full-time job keeping the human men from coming on to her whenever she helped out in the bar that was attached to the house.
It was a job they all took very seriously.
"Is he eating?" Vane asked her.
"Sometimes," she said quietly. "I got a little soup in him at lunch so I was hoping he might take some more tonight."
She'd been a godsend to him. Aimee alone seemed to be able to reach Fang.
His brother seemed somehow more alert whenever she was near.
"Thanks. I really appreciate your watching over him for me." In fact, she spent a great deal of time with Fang. It was enough to make him wonder, but Fang hadn't moved out of his bed once since the night Vane had brought him here.
She nodded.
"Aimee?" he asked as she started past him.
She turned.
"Never mind. It was a stupid thought." There wasn't anything between his brother and the she-bear. How could there be?
Vane continued on his way down the hall, to the stairs.
He made his way downstairs, across the foyer, and into the small antechamber where a door connected Peltier House to the Sanctuary bar next door.
It opened into the bar's kitchen where two Were-Hunters, Jasyn Kallinos and Wren, were guarding it innocuously from the human kitchen staff, who had no idea why no one but a select few could pass through the doorway to the other side. It was mostly because those of the bear clan who had young kept their cubs on the top floor of Peltier House. Occasionally, one of the cubs would escape their nurse and roll down the stairs.
The last thing the Peltiers needed was for someone to call animal control on them for the unlicensed zoo that made their house a home.
Of course the idea of a human coming in and finding a wolf, panthers, lions, tigers, and bears asleep in their various beds was rather amusing to Vane. Or better yet, the dragon who slept coiled up in the attic. Someone really should keep a camera handy. Just in case.
Vane inclined his head toward Jasyn, a tall, blond Were-Hawk who was one of the deadlier inhabitants of the house. The price on Jasyn's head made a mockery of Vane's death sentence. Mostly because, unlike Jasyn, Vane only killed when he had to. True to his animal predatorial heart, Jasyn was in it for the thrill of the kill.
Jasyn lived to stalk and to maim.
As Vane neared the swinging door that led out to the bar area, it was slung back. Kyle Peltier came running through it in human form like a bat out of hell.
Vane stepped back out of the way.