Chapter 67

Erin’s POV

“No, we aren’t done here,” I protested, rushing to catch up to him. We were in the forest just outside of his pack and I wanted to reach him before he left. “Why don’t you remember anything.”

“There’s nothing to remember,” he muttered; he sounded so disinterested in anything that was going on. He had to be curious as to why he had no memory.

“Are there just gaps of memory loss?” I asked.

He finally stopped walking and growled in my face; it didn’t frighten me. If anything, I grew annoyed with his resistance.

“You are relentless,” he sneered. “Why does this matter to you?”

“Because I think something happened to you. This note isn’t a joke to me, and I saw you leaving it with my own eyes,” I say to him. “Just tell me what you remember last.”

“Gavin,” he muttered. “I remember Gavin.”

He said his name like it was a bad taste on his tongue.

“Alpha Gavin?” I asked, raising my brows. “What do you remember about him?”

“I don’t know. One minute I was walking here and the next he was standing in front of me and telling me to leave. I don’t know what happened before that and I don’t care.”

“That’s all you remember?” I asked.

He was hesitant for a moment; I knew there was something else he wasn’t saying.

“Bane, what is it?” I coached.

“It doesn’t matter. It was just a stupid dream or something,” he said, shaking his long head as he began to turn away again.

“What was a dream? Tell me about it.”

He paused once again and thought about how to say this.

“There was a voice,” he began. “In my head. It was some female telling me to do some pretty fucked up shit. Things I didn’t want to do. I have no idea who she was. But it doesn’t really matter because it never happened. As I said, it was a dream.”

The voice in his mind was a woman?

Could it have been the woman in the red cloak?

“Do you know what she looked like?” I asked.

“No, it was just a voice,” he muttered. “Now that I’ve answered your questions, I have a question of my own.”

A dark haze fell over his vision as he said that and I got an uneasy feeling in my stomach, but I didn’t make that known to him.

“Go on,” I urged, folding my arms across my chest.

“Who are you?” He asked, stepping closer to me. “And why do you care so much about this shit?”

“I’m a nobody,” I told him, now I was the one turning away from him. “And I care because a lot of people had gotten hurt recently and it seems like I’m being watched. I don’t like being a target; especially when others get hurt because of it.”

…

It had a suspicion that Bane was being controlled by the Slayers.

But I was hoping to be wrong.

I returned to Gavin’s packhouse feeling unfulfilled. I still don’t know who the woman in the red cloak was, but something was telling me that she must have been the voice in Bane’s head.

At this moment, I wished more than anything that Henry was around so I could talk to him about this stuff.

“You left again…” Gavin spoke in the darkroom as I climbed through the window.

I froze once my feet landed on the ground and I saw him sitting on my bed with his arms folded across his chest and a worried frown line around his lips. He didn’t look angry, just upset, which I’m not sure why bothered me even more.

“I’m sorry, but you can’t keep me prisoner,” I told him in return, folding my own arms across my chest. “I can’t sit idly by and wait for something to happen…”

“I have things handled,” he said, meeting my eyes. “Bane has been dealt with. He’s no longer a threat.”

“I know,” I said; he raised his brows, obviously surprised by my words. “I just spoke to him.”

He stood to his feet quickly and a flash of anger went through his eyes.

“You mean to tell me that you went to see him?!” He growled, fury rising through him. “What were you thinking? Do you have any idea how dangerous that was?”

“You just said he’s no longer a threat,” I reminded him.

“Yes, but you didn’t know that before you went to see him. You could have been signing your death certificate. Why do you have a death wish?”

“I don’t have a death wish,” I said in return, trying not to sound too offended.

“You could have fooled me,” he muttered. “Any chance you get you are running into danger.” His eyes darkened and for a moment, I saw recognition. As if he had just realized something. He took a step toward me, and I stood my ground. “Why is that?”

“I don’t have a death wish,” I repeated. “Quite the opposite actually. I want to find out who’s trying to gain access to me just as much as you do. I want to find out who burned down the hospital and hurt all those people. I want to know who’s using their powers to kill innocent people. We could be next and so far, it’s looking like I’m a target. I want to get to them before they can get to me—”

“Do you hear yourself?” Gavin asked in disbelief. “You have to trust that I know what I am doing.”

“Erasing Bane’s memories is only a temporary fix, Gavin.”

“I didn’t erase his memories.”

I frowned; he was lying to me.

“I’m not lying,” he said as if he read my thoughts.

“What?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at him. “He has no memory of anything except talking to you earlier. I even showed him the note he wrote me at the restaurant and nothing…”

“I have nothing to do with his memory loss. But I brought his mind back so he’s in control of it again.”

My heart fell into my stomach. My suspicion was correct; Gavin just confirmed that.

“The Slayers had his mind on lockdown, and I used my powers to get it back,” Gavin explained. “I realized what was happening when I saw the dark look in his eyes. He wasn’t Bane.”

“Bane mentioned that he remembered hearing a voice in his head. It was feeding him information and telling him to do bad things,” I told him.

He nodded.

“Yes, that would be the Slayers. That’s how Bane knew about you and that’s why Bane did the things he did and said what he said,” Gavin explained.

I allowed that to process for a moment longer; shaking my head as the thought settled in my mind.

“He doesn’t remember the woman in the red cloak, but do you think it could be possible that she was the voice in his head?”

“I suppose it’s possible, but we don’t really have a plausible reasoning to go off of,” he said, thoughtfully. “But if she really was the voice in his head, then wouldn’t that make her the leader?”

“It would yes…” I said, shaking my head. Worry was clear on my face. “Or maybe she is another vessel.”