The Marked Son (Keepers of Life) by Shea Berkley Page B

of the car.” I thrust out my jaw and glare up into the star-spangled night. “God! She just keeps the surprises coming, doesn’t she? Too bad they all suck.”
    “Don’t say that.” Grandma wraps her warm fingers around my arm. I can feel her shaking. “Your mother is—”
    “Yeah,” I interrupt, saving her the effort of lying. “I know. You forget, I lived with her longer than you did. I know exactly what she is.”
    I have no energy left. Shaking from the weakness that’s suddenly infected my body, I tug the screen door open. “I’ll leave in the morning.”
    “What?” Grandma blocks my way inside. I could pick her up and toss her aside, but she doesn’t seem to understand that fact. Her eyes have taken on a strange light. “You aren’t going anywhere. You’re home now.”
    Home? I don’t know what the word means. She’s upset. She doesn’t know what she’s saying. “You don’t owe me anything. Why should you? You don’t know me.”
    “Yes, I do. You’re my grandson, and that’s all I need to know.”
    “Even if Mom’s right?” I challenge. “I’m no angel.”
    “No one around here is. We’re all a rotten bunch of apples, so you’ll fit right in. You’re staying, and that’s that.”
    I stare at Grandma. Her pale eyes crackle with undeniable authority. It won’t last long, her wanting me. I change friends faster than I do TV channels, and no one has ever kept in touch. I disappear, and they’re happy to let me go. Grandma just doesn’t know any better yet.
    She lets out a breath of pent-up air. “Go to bed. I’m gonna pray that tomorrow is a better day.”
    “Whatever.”
    She pushes me inside. “Just wait. It will be.”
    I head toward my room, my feet dragging. I’m barely holding it together. My insides melt, but there’s no warm fuzziness to this feeling. It fans out in wave after dangerous wave. And when I reach my bed, I fall onto the too-soft mattress and stop thinking.
    Yet sadly, I live on.

Armed and Dangerous

    The hounds were out in force. Navar’s nasty creations, more monster than manageable, were scratching the land and sniffing the air when Kera stepped back into her own realm. She hadn’t thought they would be so close. With her mind filled with Dylan, she’d burst through the barrier and into a net of trouble. She cautiously moved away, but not fast enough.
    The hounds yipped and howled, catching her scent. She sped through the forest, lunging around the brush and vaulting over obstacles until she reached Lani’s sister and the caves where society’s undesirables hid. She released a sigh of relief only when she crossed the secret entrance, still invisible because of its collective spell that also covered any scent or tracks leading there. For now, she was safe. At least, as safe as she could be.
    She’d let the shock of finding Dylan alive in the human realm distract her and she’d nearly been caught. Her foolishness surprised her.
    To those who stopped to stare, she nodded a harried greeting. How scandalous she must look, all disheveled. Yet the few mothers she spied rocking their children wouldn’t condemn her. Their eyes held only curiosity and concern.
    The people were a ragged group, and their plight tugged at Kera’s heart. Through no fault of their own, they were bound to a dark existence. Their skin had grown pale and thin, and their eyes red-rimmed. Yet, these were the strongest of their kind. Disease had ravaged many, taking the weak and helpless, and now hunger threatened those who remained. Tunnels were being excavated in an effort to secretly bring in supplies, because with Navar and his men so close by, she and her father had been forced to cut back on their weekly visits.
    With shaking hands, Kera wiggled into the space allocated for Lani and her sister Signe. She found Signe huddled around an earth heater, a metallic contraption that poked into the ground and gathered the earth’s heat, keeping the cave warm and dry. She was humming