Azure (The Silver Series Book 5) (23 page)

“
I mean the cold shoulder.
Your butlers showed more heart at seeing you than your mom. How
long has it been since you were last there?”

I forced an indifferent tone. “Thirteen
years. I moved to Two when I was six.”

She whistled, then stuck her bare feet on
the dash. “Well, when we find my parents you can meet them and see
how real parents are supposed to act.”

That struck too close to the surface. “At
least I know where my parents are,” I shot back. Gem fell silent
and I immediately regretted the statement. I let out a sigh. “I’m
sorry, Gem. I shouldn’t take out my frustrations on you. You don’t
deserve it.”

A smile touched her lips and her blue eyes
sparkled. “That’s alright. I know you don’t mean it.” She fell
silent, then said, “It was a beautiful house, though.”

I rolled my eyes. “Like I said, what good is
money if you can't use it to get what you want most?”

She sat in silence for a few minutes, then I
saw her smile out of the corner of my eye. “What?” I asked.

Her smile turned to a grin. “When they first
threw you in that cage, I didn't take you for the practical
type.”

“
Oh really? What did you
take me for, the beaten and bleeding type?” I asked with heavy
sarcasm that made her smile even bigger.

She shook her head. “The considerate type.
You have sincere eyes.”

That took me back. I opened my mouth to give
a retort, but none came. “Thanks,” I said after a minute.

She gave me another smile and wiggled her
feet on the dash. “You're welcome.” She turned up the radio and
began to sing off-key to a country song about horses and rain.

About an hour into our drive, her head
lolled against my shoulder and her breathing slowed. The trust she
showed me soothed the burned edges of my heart and I drove
carefully to avoid jarring her awake.

She slept for a half hour when her muscles
tightened and a yell tore from her lips. She stared unseeing at the
land around us, her eyes lost in her nightmare. I pulled over
quickly and put my arms around her. Her body shook like a leaf and
I felt her bones through her skin, reminding me of how frail she
was. “It’s alright, Gem. It’s just a dream. We’re not in Lobotraz
anymore,” I breathed into her hair.

She took several deep breaths, then held me
with her surprising strength. “It was horrible,” she said, her
voice soft and weak with fear. “He wouldn’t stop hurting me. I told
him everything I knew, but he wouldn’t stop.”

Tears soaked my shirt and I held her close.
“I know,” I said. “But it’s over now. You’ll never have to go back
there.”

She looked up at me, pain and terror in her
eyes. “Promise?”

I nodded. “I promise.”

She buried her head against my chest and the
sobs that shook her body brought tears to my eyes. I closed them
and felt the sorrow, fear, and desperation that made up those long
days in Lobotraz well up in my chest. I forced it down and focused
on Gem, rubbing a hand down her back and talking quietly until her
sobs slowed. She eventually fell back into an exhausted sleep and I
drove us slowly to the rehabilitation center. The fact that neither
of us had a home to go to after all we had experienced at Lobotraz
struck hard and I regretted my visit with my mom even more.

Chapter 20

“
Need a break?” Jaze asked
after I set Gem gently in her bed and shut the door.

I turned to see him waiting down the hall
with a pack in one hand. “What do you have in mind?” I asked. The
thought of getting away from the walls and the scent of recovering
werewolves was welcome.

“
I have a team following
the first lead we’ve found. Until we hear from them, we’re sitting
tight.” He tipped his head to indicate the walls and the scent of
fresh paint that emanated from them. “Some of us wait better
outdoors.”

“
Lead the way,” I said. “My
thoughts are so jumbled I might send us off a cliff.”

He laughed and glanced back at me. “I prefer
to avoid cliffs if at all possible.”

I grinned and followed him through the doors
to find Jet and Kaynan waiting for us. Kaynan handed me a pack and
we strode out across the desert, the night air cooling as it drove
the heat of the day from the sand.

We left the red rocks behind and crossed
sand dunes spotted with sage and the occasional cactus. The fresh
air was filled with scents of jackrabbits, snakes, and lizards
taking advantage of the last vestiges of warmth before the night
turned cold. After a short distance, Jaze knelt and untied his
shoes. He knotted the laces together and slipped them through a
loop in his pack so he could walk barefoot. Kaynan and Jet did the
same.

Jaze caught my eye with a smile. “Can’t say
you don’t have some things figured out,” he said, pushing his feet
into the warm sand.

I shrugged. “The fewer clothes out here, the
better.”

Kaynan lifted an eyebrow. “Whoa now, we need
to draw a line somewhere.”

We laughed and I nodded. “I didn’t say there
weren’t some downfalls to the situation.”

Jet took a deep breath and turned his face
to the rising moon. It was only a quarter full, but the brush of it
across my face stilled the confusion in my heart like nothing else
had been able to do. The others fell silent and for a moment we
were four individuals linked by a related affinity to the moon. I
regretted taking Gem inside. I should have let her sleep in the
jeep, bathed in moonlight. We continued on and my thoughts turned
to both girls. They were so different, and the hold they had on me
so completely diverse that I couldn’t compare them.

I concentrated on the landscape, losing
myself in the waves of sand underfoot. It looked like we walked
across a still, moonlit ocean, the waves frozen in soft curves that
accentuated the rise and fall of the dunes. Kaynan jumped when a
scorpion scurried away from the base of a cactus disturbed by his
footfalls nearby. “I think we should put our shoes back on,” the
red-eyed werewolf said warily, his eyes on the creature.

Jet laughed, surprising us all. “Afraid of
bugs,” he said in a tone laced with humor.

Kaynan glowered at him. “They can kill you
with their stingers,” he argued.

The light in Jet’s dark blue eyes danced.
“And you’re defenseless?”

Kaynan grumbled something about deadly
creatures who didn’t respect the dangers of a knife, but he didn’t
put his shoes back on. Jet continued to smile, the light of the
moon softening the hardened edge I was use to seeing from him. He
was like a different person away from the dangers and pain of the
other werewolves. It was like for a moment, he was allowing himself
just to exist under the midnight sky. I tried to do the same and
found myself appreciating the feeling of walking with three trusted
companions with no worry of being jumped or fought for leadership.
It was strange to find Alphas so comfortable with each other, a
rare thing that I appreciated even more for having lived at
Two.

Jaze stopped us near a dead, twisted tree
that had long ago succumbed to the desert heat. We lounged in the
sand and he pulled out a bag of marshmallows and graham
crackers.

“
S’mores?” I asked,
surprised. Roasting marshmallows felt a bit trivial after all we
had been through.

He tipped his head to indicate my bag. I
opened it and found several small logs. Jet dumped out the same and
Kaynan built them into a teepee for a fire. He shoved newspaper and
tinder scraps from the construction underneath, then lit it on fire
with a lighter. I sat back and enjoyed the warm flicker that bathed
the sand around the fire in rosy orange. The hum of the night
insects sounded fuller somehow with the light of the fire coloring
the edges of the darkness.

Kaynan broke several sticks from the dried
tree and used his knife to whittle the ends to a point. “Where did
that come from?” I asked, curious.

He glanced at the knife, then looked back at
me. “Do you remember Mouse, the scrawny werewolf from the house
who’s good with computers?” At my nod, he smiled. “He made this for
me as a thank you gift for saving his life.”

My eyebrows rose and Jaze said, “Tell it
straight. You took a bullet for him. It was one of the bravest
things I’ve ever seen.”

Kaynan shook his head. “I’ve seen braver,”
he replied in a tone that indicated they involved the other
werewolves around the fire. He pushed something on the blade and
the knife edges slid back into the silver band to form a straight,
thin bar. He hit the bar on his wrist and it wrapped around,
creating a solid wristband that appeared to not have any edges. He
pushed on the spot again and it opened, then the blades
appeared.

“
That’s awesome,” I
said.

He nodded. “Mouse’ll surprise you. Better
watch out for that one.”

“
He might avoid you to
death,” Jet replied with a touch of humor.

“
Jet,” Jaze said in a tone
of surprise.

Kaynan glanced at me. “Mouse is the most
loyal werewolf you’ll ever find. Jaze is the only one who holds his
loyalty.”

“
Justly deserved,” Jet said
quietly. “I admire him.”

All of us looked at the black-haired
werewolf in surprise. His dark blue eyes shone with a light of
humility. “He’s taught me the worth of loyalty,” he said quietly,
his eyes on the fire.

We fell silent and Jaze handed out the
marshmallows to go with Kaynan’s sticks. I held mine over the fire
and turned it slowly, watching the white flesh turn golden brown
and then black in the heat of the flames. Memories of Two glowing
red and gold against the sunset flooded my mind. I blinked against
the surge of emotion that strove to chase away the quiet peace I
found sitting by the fire.

“
I think it’s done,” Kaynan
said.

My eyes focused and I realized my
marshmallow had been reduced to a pitiful black lump that no longer
held even the interest of the lapping flames. I laughed and
scrapped it off with another stick, then accepted a new marshmallow
from Jaze. “Guess I’d better pay attention.”

“
Only if you actually want
to make a s’more,” Jaze replied.

“
Charcoal does come in
handy,” Kaynan said. He set a square of chocolate on his graham
cracker, then pressed his perfectly golden brown marshmallow down
with another cracker. “But s’mores taste better.” He held up his
completed creation for everyone to see and was about to take a bite
when Jet swiped it from his hand and had it in his mouth before the
red-eyed werewolf could even blink.

He stared at Jet in astonishment. “That was
impressive.”

Jet gave a wide grin that revealed
partially-chewed graham crackers and squishy marshmallow mixed with
chocolate.

“
Not that impressive,”
Kaynan said, pushing his shoulder.

Jet shut his mouth, but the grin on his face
refused to leave. I had an impression that Jaze’s team seldom had
the chance to relax like this. They savored the moments as I did;
all of us were reluctant to return to the problems that would come
back when we reached the rehabilitation center. Jaze handled so
much I wondered how he could relax at all.

I put my s’more together and took a bite,
relishing the taste of the chocolate mixed with the roasted
marshmallow and graham cracker. The feeling of being a young boy
again trying to find his place in the world surfaced and I smiled.
For now, it was enough to have a warm fire and good friends
surrounding it. I looked up at the stars and saw the miracle Jaze
spoke of in them. I glanced back and found him looking as well.

***

A scent touched my nose when we reached the
rehabilitation center. A werewolf dressed in black went to Jaze and
they spoke quietly for a few minutes. The werewolf handed Jaze a
small piece of paper, then disappeared into the night. Jaze’s eyes
met mine and my stomach tightened. “Our lead turned out to be
right,” he said. He waited until we reached the door, then handed
me the piece of paper.

A foul scent touched my nose. “What is
this?”

He watched me, his face carefully
expressionless. “I took my team to the bodies you ran to the other
night.”

“
Of the Hunters we killed?”
I hazarded quietly.

He nodded. “I had a team search through
them. Your werewolves were thorough about burning wallets and any
identification, but this was found in a jacket.”

He gestured to the piece of paper and I
opened it. An address was written in a barely legible hand. A
flicker of hope began to burn in my chest. I could scarcely bring
myself to ask, “Where does it lead?”

He met my eyes, his brow creased. “An
extremist Hunter training facility.”

I stared at the address. If Ron was in
charge of the Hunters, then we could find him through the facility.
I would tear down every door and interrogate each person within
those walls if I had to. It was the first thread of a chance to
locate Nora, and Jaze’s team had gone through the pockets of
decaying bodies to discover it.

I swallowed the knot in my throat and held
out a hand. “Thank you for finding this. I’ll leave right away”

He stared at me a second, then shook my
hand, a shadow of a smile touching his lips. “You're not going
alone, you know.”

“
I figured as much,” I
replied.

He smiled and pulled the door open; it felt
comforting to walk down the hall with a friend at my side once
more.

***

Footsteps rushed to meet us and I recognized
the sound before Gem came into view, her face flushed and lit by a
big smile that made her blue eyes glow. “Vance, Vance, I heard the
news! That’s so exciting! We’re going to find her.” She flew into
my arms and gave me a tight hug, then she hugged Jaze as well. I
would have laughed at the baffled expression on his face if it
wasn't for the fact that I was still recovering from the news. I
don’t know how Gem had overheard, but being able to share it with
her made it somewhat more manageable.