Soulless (Book #2 of Hunted)

Soul Friend

Once I reached the kitchen I sat down at the table and covered my face with my hands. I felt tears stinging in my throat. I didn't want to cry. Not now. Not when Keegan was still in the house. I couldn't bare for him to make fun of me.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and I turned to see Phoebe. She gave me a comforting smile and asked, "Are you alright?" I rubbed my eyes and gave a great sniffle and replied, "Yeah, I'm fine. I guess I never thought jealousy would be an issue in this relationship...Him being chained up in my basement and all."

She laughed softly and then said, "They've known each other for a very long time, Lori. There was bound to be some baggage." I sighed and glanced to the side when I heard Keegan coming up the stairs.

"So you decided not to defile my boyfriend?" I asked scathingly and he raised an eyebrow at me before laughing and saying, "There's nothing left to defile in that boy, Lorelei, believe me."

I blanched. That wasn't something I wanted to think about. It had never really occurred to me just how old Zane was. How many things he had seen. How many people he must have kissed...how many times he had probably had sex. I shook my head. No, it wasn't something I wanted to think about.

I took a deep breath and turned to face him grudgingly saying, "Thanks for getting the blood. That seemed to work well enough." He nodded and replied, "Yes, it was a good idea." He glanced at Phoebe and continued, "Now we just have to keep it up. I'd say four pints every six hours or so should keep him pretty mellow...or you know as mellow as he could possibly be."

"I'm not a pet hamster, Keegan!" Anton shouted from the basement and Keegan retorted, "You might as well be for how caged you are." He drummed his fingers against the table and looked at the two of us. There was an odd expression on his face.

"Are you alright?" I asked and his gaze found mine. His eyes were still green so I knew he wasn't hungry. He laughed nervously and rubbed the back of his neck replying, "Yeah...Your boy just got me a little hot and bothered and now there's nothing to play with."

"I'll give you something to play with," Phoebe mumbled and Keegan's eyes drifted over to her and he took a step forward. I slid in between them.

"My boy...yeah right," I mumbled. I looked up at him, my eyes hard and I asked, "How come you never told me you and him were a thing?" He blinked at me and replied, "We...It's not like that. Well sometimes it was like that, but we were--" He shook his head. In the two days I had known Keegan I had never seen him so flustered.

"It's deeper than that," I said and his gaze met mine. I could feel the tears again. I loved Zane more than anything, but that person in my basement wasn't Zane. It was Anton and Keegan was his...what was the term? Anam cara. Soul friend.

"It's okay," I whispered. It was. Because soon Zane would be back and I would be a friend to his soul.

"I'm sorry," he said and I bit my tongue to fight a scoff. I looked away from him and muttered, "No, you're not." He set his elbows on the counter top and leaned down to peer at me.

"I'm really not, but I should be. I've stolen the lover's of countless people in more ways than one so I have an idea of how much it hurts," he said and I glanced briefly at him, my breath catching in my throat at his closeness.

"More than an idea," I said and his brow creased. I looked away from him and continued, "A part of me feels like I'm the one stealing from you. After all, you had him first." And the other part of me wanted to stake Keegan in the heart with something silver for daring to seduce my boyfriend. Then I reminded myself that it was sort of the other way around.

"I had Anton first, Lorelei. Zane is all yours. I've barely shared two sentences with that one," he said and I rolled my eyes muttering, "They are the same people." He smirked and ruffled my hair saying, "You keep believing that and one day it might be true."