Hunter

Chapter Nineteen

Titus

I tapped my fingers on the wheel of the car as I followed Ximena's directions to the garage. As we drove by some houses I knew how to get the ball rolling.

"Is every house occupied in town?" I asked her.

"Not all of them. Maybe three or four are empty. Why?"

"I was just wondering what happens when you get new people in town. Where they stay? Whether they build their own place."

"Usually we know when someone is coming. There are never any surprise drop ins or refugees. Mom always knows when we're about to receive someone new. Its some divination trick of hers. So we're always ready. There's always a house empty. The only surprise we've ever gotten is Alf."

"That's your brother right?"

"Yep. Showed up two years ago and was immediately made part of the family. I guess mom liked that he was a little crazy. All her kids have a little crazy in them." She smiled like the psycho she was. I was used to psychopaths so it didn't scare me or make me uneasy.

"You seem to have a lot of crazy."

"I make up for Yau's minimal darkness." She shrugged. "Why you asking about the state of our town?"

"Because I'm trying to figure out where to go next." I said not completely lying.

At some point when this was all over I would have to figure out where to go next. What I was going to do with my life.

"Well Kitty I don't think this is the town for you." She said.

"Why not?"

"I've seen you shifted. I've felt the power that comes off you in waves. You're like my brother. You're a couple steps beyond being an Alpha. So unless he decides to leave town you can't stay here." She said. "Alpha males are never friendly with each other. You'd rip each other apart."

"You're not worried it'll happen now seeing as we're on our way to him?" I asked an eyebrow raised.

"Oh I'm counting on it." She grinned. "Alf has too much control over himself. I want to see him snap. Someone with such power should not have that good of control."

"Hhmm." I hummed in response not knowing what to say.

I got the feeling Ximena was smarter than she let anyone think. She knew what she was doing. In the few minutes I spent with her at Alexandria she knew exactly what would push me off the deep end. She could piss off anyone. Adonis included and he was the most put together person among us. I got the feeling she couldn't piss of her brother. And that made me uneasy. And I understood what she was trying to do. I was willing to help her do it.

We got to the garage and I followed the bulky dude covered in tattoos. Parking where he directed us. The minute I stepped out of the car I felt it. And my spine straightened. Ever since the shift I could hear better, smell better the whole physical boost of being a supernatural. It was like taking a dose of the super soldier serum.

But I could also sense things beyond physical. I could sense magic, power. I could tell the guy with the tattoos was a bear. I could tell the dude approaching us with a straight face was a wolf. A beta. How I knew that I don't know.

But it wasn't him that had me coiled tight ready to pounce. It was who was strolling in behind him. Black hair poking out off a cap he wore backwards. A barely visible scar going from eyebrow to the bottom of one of his eyes. He felt powerful. Like Ximena said beyond Alpha. Stronger than an Alpha. And he also felt dark. Not the way Mel did.

Mel's darkness felt like silence. Like a starless night sky. She felt like chaos but more poetic. More beautiful. His darkness felt cold. He felt like hell. Like a nightmare.