Blood Rule (Book 4, Dirty Blood series) (9 page)

“
Professor, this is Wesley
St. John,” I said, sliding in between them. “He’s very close to
Vera.”

He blinked. I watched him trying to
digest my words. He lowered himself to the chair. “Sorry. I know
who you are,” he muttered. “It’s habit.”

Wes relaxed against my shoulders, but
I kept myself between him and Kane as I approached the bed. I
wasn’t sure how my standing between them would help since I
undoubtedly gave Kane the same urge to fight—probably more after
what I’d done to Alex.

Kane went back to staring bleakly at
Vera’s motionless face. The monitors beeped into the silence. I
tried to think of something to say.

“
Will she wake up?” Kane
asked.

“
They don’t know,” I
said.

He nodded as if he’d expected that
answer. The room plunged into silence. I couldn’t stay here, not
like this, watching Kane look at Vera with a longing in his eyes
that didn’t match the fierceness of his features. It felt like an
invasion of privacy, like the night I’d spied on them from the
rooftop at Wood Point and seen them kissing. It was the first night
I’d realized Kane and Vera had a history. One that involved hard
choices and separate paths that only recently seemed to have
crossed again.

“
It was good to see you
again, Professor,” I said, shifting toward the end of the bed and
the exit beyond.

“
Wait,” he said. I froze.
He stared at Vera, but now his gaze seemed far away, outside this
room. “CHAS called me in today.”

It was not what I expected him to say.
A ripple of unease ran through me. “What did they want?” I
asked.

“
To know about you. Well,
you as a Werewolf. And about … biting Alex.”

I swallowed. Not good. “What did you
tell them?”

He rubbed at his face, the side
without the scars. When he finally met my eyes, he looked
apologetic. “I told them the truth. I can’t do anything
else.”

“
Yeah. I know,” I
said.

“
What will they do?” Wes
asked.

“
I don’t know. Their minds
seemed pretty made up even before I started talking,” Kane replied.
He frowned at me. “They’re out for blood, Tara. And Gordon Steppe
isn’t one to let up until he gets what he wants.”

“
I understand,” I said
quietly. It didn’t matter that Kane wasn’t gunning for me too—which
was a surprise considering his general hatred of all things furry
and four-legged. His testimony of the facts would be enough
ammunition against me.

I hesitated and then mumbled, “Thank
you.” I didn’t know exactly what for but Kane nodded as if he
did.

“
How’s Alex?” he asked. “I
haven’t been in there yet.”

“
The same. Unconscious but
stable.” I braced myself for whatever came next. Condemnation.
Accusation. Kane had watched me bite Alex. He’d seen the malice in
me, the intention to hurt.

Again, a pack’s worth of concern for
me leaked through the bond.

“
He did it to save your
life, you know.”

My head came up. My brows knitted.
“Did what?”

“
Called me. The team. He
said he knew you wouldn’t stop until you got Olivia. Said he was
doing it for the same reasons. But I knew it was you. That he
wouldn’t stop until he got you out. He’d do it over again, too so
don’t blame yourself. No one could’ve known …” He trailed off, his
expression torn.

I appreciated his attempt to ease my
guilt, even if it did seem to war with his reflex reaction of
condemning me, a Werewolf, for attacking a Hunter.

Still, it didn’t excuse Alex’s
betrayal. “He should’ve trusted me,” I said finally.

Kane didn’t answer. He stared stonily
at Vera.

I walked to the door, my hand on the
knob when he spoke again. “It’s not you.”

“
What’s not
me?”

“
He doesn’t trust himself.
If he lost you ...”

I caught sight of his expression as he
looked from me back to Vera. He didn’t finish. He didn’t have
to.

Swirls of tinted water, blue, yellow,
and every shade of green in between, washed down the tub drain.
Next to me, Cambria wrung out her wet hair and wrapped it up into a
towel on top of her head, turban style. I peeled off the rubber
gloves I’d worn to keep the dye from staining my hands and tossed
them into the trashcan. Cambria followed me into my bedroom,
rubbing the towel against her scalp.

“
This is going to be
epic,” she said, flipping her hair back and pulling a comb through
it. “What do you think?” she asked.

I shook my head. Cambria’s dye jobs
were something of a trademark but this particular color choice was
a lot even for her. Instead of a few thick streaks to frame her
face, she’d dyed the entire top half of her head neon yellow. The
bottom half was blue. Electric blue.

“
Cam, it’s …”

“
I know. Like I said,
epic.”

“
Exactly. Does, um, Derek
know you did this?”

“
Not yet.” She grinned. “I
can’t wait to see the look on his face.”

“
Me neither.”

Her smile dimmed. “You don’t like
it?”

“
No, I …” I couldn’t bring
myself to say anything negative. Not when she was so excited. And
not when the dye was permanent. “It’s bright. But I mean, in a good
way. You’re like sunshine.”

“
That’s what I was going
for! A cloudless sky.”

“
It fits.”

She turned back to the mirror,
admiring her handiwork. I couldn’t wait to see Derek’s face
later.

“
You haven’t said much
about your trip. How was it?”

“
Great. I got to meet a
bunch of Werewolves, see a new city. Philly is awesome, by the
way.”

“
And you saw your mom,
right?”

“
Yeah.” She
shrugged.

“
How was that?”

She’d yet to mention how it went. I
took that as a bad sign. But as her best friend, it was my duty to
pry.

“
Fine.” She leaned closer
to the mirror, concentrating as she swiped black eyeliner across
the top of her eyelid.

“
That’s it? Fine? Cam, you
hadn’t seen her in months. What did you guys talk about? Did she
meet Derek?”

“
Almost a year, actually.
We talked about the weather and how the house needs a new roof. And
yes, she met Derek.”

“
What did she think of
him?”

“
She told him he was hot
and then asked if he had a dad or an older brother.”

“
Oh.”

“
Can we talk about
something else?”

I decided to give her a break and
shift the attention. Cambria would talk when she was ready and when
it came to her mom, I didn’t like to push.

“
I got
expelled.”

She froze, the liner inches from her
face, and met my eyes through the mirror’s reflection. “What?” I
explained the letter Headmaster Whitfield had given me the day
before. Cambria whistled. “I leave for three days and look what
happens.”

“
Did your mom
freak?”

“
Only internally. For now.
I think she’s still too mad to talk.”

“
Is that why she keeps
going to the store for disinfectant?”

“
Yes. She’s cleaned the
oven three times since yesterday.”

“
Two schools in one year.
You’re a badass, Godfrey. An honest-to-God juvenile
delinquent.”

“
I know,
right.”

“
Bet Edie’s pissed. Did
she try to kick Whitfield’s ass?”

“
No. She was mad but I
think she’s preoccupied with CHAS. They called Kane in for
questioning about me.”

“
What did he tell
them?”

I relayed my conversation with Kane. I
had to stop twice to concentrate on some of the feelings coming
through the bond. I’d spent the morning at camp, settling squabbles
and trying to cure general boredom. They had an itch to explore, to
have more freedom to roam, but I couldn’t allow it. Not with so
many of them so … unpredictable. I couldn’t shake the image of Nick
as he came at me, clearly intent on putting me down unless I did it
to him first.

I hadn’t told Cambria about that. I
wasn’t ready to talk about it yet.

“
Steppe won’t stop until
he’s gotten what he wants,” she said when I’d finished.

“
I know. I’m not sure
exactly what that is yet.”

She frowned. “What do you
mean?”

“
He hasn’t made it a
secret that he wants the treaty rescinded so the Werewolves in The
Cause are fair game. But, now, with this whole investigation
they’re doing about me and the way Kane sounded, I don’t know. It’s
bigger than that.”

“
He wants the treaty gone
so he can hunt Wes and Derek and Jack and Fee like Thanksgiving
dinner. What’s bigger than that?”

“
I think he wants me, too.
And I think he wants to make it sting.”

***

Wes and Derek arrived after lunch.
Their expression upon seeing Cambria’s hair was
priceless.

“
Aren’t you going to say
something?” Cambria prompted after a full thirty seconds of
silence.

“
It’s … bright,” Wes said,
the words sounding more like a question.

I suppressed a laugh.

“
Right. Like the sun,”
Cambria agreed enthusiastically. She turned to Derek.
“Well?”

Derek blinked and looked away, as if
the brightness had rendered him mute. “Beautiful as always,
babe.”

Cambria beamed. “Thank you.” She
rewarded him with a quick kiss. Over the top of Cambria’s head,
Derek shot Wes a wide-eyed look. I pressed my lips together as she
led him away toward the kitchen.

“
You ready to go?” Wes
asked, kissing my cheek.

“
Can we stop by the
hospital first?” I asked.

“
Do we have
time?”

I glanced at the clock as I slid into
my shoes. “We should. Grandma isn’t expecting us until
five.”

My mother appeared as I opened the
door. “Tara, I’ve gotten all the—oh, hello, Wes.”

“
Hi, Mrs.
Godfrey.”

“
Where are you two going?”
she asked.

“
We’re going to run by the
hospital before it’s time to head to Grandma’s,” I said.

“
I’m going to finish
repotting those azaleas. Then I’ll get ready and head
over.”

“
I take it we’re out of
oven cleaner.” As soon as the words were out, I regretted
them.

My mother’s face turned bright red
from her chin to the tips of her ears. Bad choice of words. “We
are,” she said through tight lips.

“
We’ll see you there,” I
said and hurried out the door.

My mother said something I couldn’t
hear. I walked faster toward the Aston Martin.

“
I take it she’s still mad
about school,” Wes said when we were in the car.

“
You’d think she’d be used
to it by now. Apparently expulsion is my new MO.”

He didn’t smile at my joke as he
started the car and shifted into gear. I’d expected at least some
version of relief. When my mother had forced me to go, Wes had been
the least excited about me being that far from home. “Did you read
the separation packet? What reason did it give?”

I shrugged. “Officially? The fact that
I’m a Werewolf means I’m no longer eligible.”

“
But they already knew you
were half-Werewolf when they let you in.”

“
I think it’s the fact
that I can actually shift into one that tips the
scales.”

“
They shouldn’t be allowed
to change their minds like that.”

I agreed. After living among Hunters
and realizing how prejudiced they were as a whole, I was surprised
they’d let me enroll in the first place. “I think … Is it possible
they were influenced by CHAS? I mean, I’m being investigated. They
probably don’t want to be associated with me, whatever the outcome
is, right?”

“
Possibly. I know with the
Lexingtons gone, they’ve had to replace two of the council members.
I didn’t pay much attention to who, but they’re probably in
Steppe’s pocket. Most of the politician-types are.”

“
That’s what I
figured.”

“
Fee stays up on all that
stuff. We can ask her about it tonight at Edie’s.”

“
Fee’s going?”

He nodded. “And Jack and Derek and
Cord. The Cause plus you and your mom were mandatory invites from
what I hear.”

“
I didn’t know. So,
Cambria will probably go too then. Great, everyone can see her
hair.”

He gave me a look. “How was my
reaction to that, by the way?”

I laughed. “You did great.”

“
Those colors seemed a
little extreme, even for her.”