Page 75 of The Tracker's Rage

I peered at Eric’s scowling face, trying to see past his hardened exterior. Did he truly like me? Had he opened up his heart to let me in? It seemed he had been closed off for years, and with good reason. The pain he must have experienced when he lost his family was unimaginable. I’d nearly lost Mom this week, and it had been enough to make me forget all my resentment and start a clean slate between us. Family was everything, and I would be crippled without them.

“Perhaps, she reminds me of someone,” Eric said, as if he needed an excuse to like me.

“Bravo.” Damien started slow clapping like a prissy lady at the opera. “The tough and unmovable Eric Lone has found his heart.”

Really?Could Damien be any more insensitive. At this rate, he was going to send Eric’s heart back into hiding.

Time for a bomb that would stop all this nonsense. “Ulfen thinks someone is trying to create a hybrid pack.”

Eric and Damien fainted.

No, not really, but they did turn pale as ghosts and forgot all about their banter.

I had their attention again.

Chapter 27

Icould read theirexpressions like a road sign. Damien and Eric knew exactly what I meant by “hybrid pack.” As I explained what I had seen in my vision, I learned that they’d heard of the Unholy Vessel, and that, like Ulfen’s ancestors, Eric’s had also been involved in hunting down the bloodthirsty monsters after the mage was done with them.

“We have to find out more,” Eric said after I’d laid out all the cards on the table. “We need to get our hands on that pendant.”

“How?” I asked.

Eric looked at me as if I was stupid and he regretted liking me, whether or not I reminded him of someone.

I vaguely wondered who. His daughter, perhaps? Hopefully not his wife because that would be weird. I shook the thought away, refusing to give it credit.

“It’s simple, Sunder,” Eric said. “We take it from Stephen. I don’t know why Ulfen hasn’t simply done that. This is serious. If his son is, in any way, trying to create hybrids, he has to stop him. Hybrids are vile monsters. They have no respect for life. All they care about is blood and destruction. A sufficient number of them could raze the city to the ground in no time.”

I pushed away my empty cup of coffee as my stomach did a somersault that left me feeling nauseous. “But what if someone is controlling him like Ulfen believes? What if none of it is Stephen’s fault? I know him, and I don’t think he’s the kind of person who would come up with a crazy plot like this. If we openly confront him, we would lose our advantage. But if we lay low, he might lead us to the real culprit before they start creating hybrids.”

“She has a point,” Damien said.

Eric huffed. “What if they’ve already started creating them?”

“We don’t know that,” I said.