Blood Bond (31 page)

“You know he’s not dangerous,” I said as the
pieces clicked into place. “You didn’t want me here in case CHAS
found out.”

“Precisely. If Steppe knows Astor’s back in
the game, he’ll follow the trail. One that leads directly to you.
That would be very bad.”

“What about George?” Panic leapt in my
throat. I couldn’t breathe. “If Steppe finds out, he’ll kill him.
We have to go back for him.” I clawed at the armrest, my fingers
itching toward the door handle. It didn’t matter we were barreling
down an empty highway. I couldn’t leave him.

“George will be safe,” Grandma assured me.
“He has Wes and Cord and the others to watch out for him. The best
thing was to split you up. No one else knows George was even
infected. As long as that remains secret, he’s off their
radar.”

“He’s safer away from you,” Alex added.

I nodded, feeling numb. “And that’s why we
had to leave so quickly.”

“Yes. I got word Kane’s hunting party is
close. If they’d seen you at Astor’s …” Alex’s mouth tightened.

“But how do they know I can shift?” I
asked.

“They don’t. Not yet, but Steppe knows what
you are. He’s just waiting for a reason to come after you.
Associating with Astor would be all he needs,” Grandma said.

“And Wes? He knows what Wes is. Does that
mean he’s in danger too?” I asked.

“One thing about Steppe, he plays by the
rules,” Grandma said. “And right now, The Cause is protected as a
neutral party.”

“Until he finds a way to change the rules,”
Alex said.

“Which won’t be much longer, if he has his
way,” Grandma added. They shared a look.

“What rule is that?” I asked.

“Steppe is petitioning the council to
reverse the amnesty treaty they have with The Cause,” Alex
said.

“Aren’t I protected under the amnesty
treaty?” I asked.

“You aren’t officially a member of The
Cause,” Grandma said. “You can’t officially join until you turn
eighteen, unless a parent or guardian allows it.”

“But will CHAS go along with that?” I asked.
I looked at Grandma. “Can’t you get the rest of the council to vote
against it?”

“Most won’t go against Steppe. We don’t have
enough on our side.”

“Tara.” Alex’s voice was careful,
controlled. “If they do rescind the law, it’ll mean every Werewolf
within The Cause and without will be fair game.”

Understanding dawned slowly, almost as if my
mind could shut it out if I concentrated hard enough. “This is
war,” I whispered.

Neither of them corrected me.

Chapter Eighteen

The airport made me claustrophobic. Between
the crowds shoving past with wheeled suitcases in their grasp,
beeping golf carts whizzing by with handicapped patrons, and
overlapping voices announcing flight arrivals via staticky
intercoms, I couldn’t think straight. I couldn’t breathe.

CHAS was evil. CHAS was the enemy. And they
were coming for me and everyone I loved.

I thought about the conversation I’d had
with Wes right before I left, about being scared of what it all
meant. I’d gone on about not being ready for the responsibility
that would come with the choices in front of me. I could barely
face who—and what—I was, and now I’d have to fight a war that
centered on that very fact. Not choosing was no longer an option. I
couldn’t run from something like this. It was too big, and way too
late for that.

Someone yelled. I was too wrapped up in my
thoughts to focus on the words. Alex pulled me out of the way just
in time to avoid being run over by a security guard on what looked
like a two-wheeled hover-craft.

“Watch it,” I said, not that the guy heard
me as he zipped down the concourse.

A monotone voice overhead announced our
flight. Grandma shuffled us toward the terminal. At the ticket
counter, the woman handed us our seat assignments and we filed onto
the plane. I felt better when we stepped inside the cabin, like
we’d finally made it to safety. Not that we were in danger before,
not directly, but the amount of adrenaline running through my veins
argued otherwise.

We ended up with two seats together and one
three rows behind.

“You guys sit together,” Alex said,
shuffling toward the seat further back. “I’m going to catch a nap.”
He stowed his bag and flopped into his seat, his eyes closing
before I could respond.

Grandma motioned for me to
take the window. As she stowed my bag, I checked my phone. A new
text from Wes:
love u. miss u. C u
soon.
Probably all I’d get until Grandma
said otherwise. Sidestepping my mother was one thing; I wasn’t sure
he was brave enough to do the same to Grandma.

The prompter hanging above my head blinked
on, indicating it was time to turn off all electronics. I closed my
eyes, searching for the mental cord that tied George and me
together. I felt his mind, calm and steady, as it had been since
I’d left Astor’s. What was he getting from mine?

Grandma settled in her seat and pulled out a
book, the cover of which had bloody-faced zombies being chased by
people with large guns. “Looks good,” I said.

“Oh, it is,” she answered, completely
missing my sarcasm.

How could she talk of war and espionage one
minute and lose herself in a make-believe story the next? I wished
I could turn it off so easily.

I leaned my head against the window frame,
trying to distract myself by staring out at the runway. The sun
dipped below the horizon, leaving behind a pinkish glow as twilight
crept in. It was beautiful in a way that was nothing like home. So
much open space, not a tree in sight. It wasn’t what I was used to,
but I could appreciate it.

It wasn’t long before the plane eased
forward and the flight attendant’s voice droned out over the
intercom as he pointed out the emergency exits.

Somewhere between takeoff and thirty
thousand feet, I drifted off.

*

My mom was on the front steps when we pulled
up. She slapped the single bright yellow rubber glove against her
thigh to an impatient beat only she could hear. I was suddenly very
glad for the Hummer’s tinted windows—she couldn’t see my fear.
Grandma parked and we all got out. I scurried to help Alex with the
bags, but he waved me away.

“I’ve got it,” Alex said, swinging our bags
over his shoulders.

“You go on ahead,” Grandma said with a wave.
“Alex and I need to chat.”

My shoulders slumped. I swallowed what felt
like a lump of cotton balls. Time to face the music.

“Hi, Mom,” I mumbled when I got close.

She stopped hitting the glove against her
leg. “Hello, daughter,” she said. She only called me “daughter”
instead of Tara when she was seriously pissed.

“Kitchen?” I asked.

“Oh, yes,” she replied.

I led the way.

The smell of bleach hit me before I’d
crossed the threshold. My eyes watered and my throat burned. I slid
onto the barstool, careful to breathe out of my mouth.

“Geez, mom, how do you stand it?” I
croaked.

“If you’re in here long enough, you don’t
notice it after a while.”

“You mean your sense of smell burns
away.”

Her left eye twitched. She gripped the
counter with white knuckles. “It wouldn’t smell like this if you’d
stop running off,” she snapped.

“I did it to save—”

“Spare me the ‘I’d do anything for my
friends’ speech, Tara.” Her eyes dimmed and instead of angry, she
looked exhausted. “I know why you went, who you went to see, all of
it.”

“All of it?” I repeated. I wasn’t sure what
those words really meant when it came to my mom. She rarely knew
all of it anymore. Maybe she thought she did but—

“Yes,” she said, “the bond, your shifting,
CHAS. All. Of. It.”

I shrank further into my seat. Apparently
“all” meant “all.” Grandma shuffled in with Alex in tow. He had his
hoodie balled up in his hands, covering the lower half of his face.
His eyes watered. Somehow, Grandma’s remained dry.

“Where are you going?” my mom called to her
as she passed. “I thought we were going to do this as a group.”

“Elizabeth, I am not doing this in here. It
reeks. I told you not to worry.”

“This is me not worrying,” my mom snapped
back.

Grandma shook her head. “Well, I’m not
staying in here.”

“Where do you want to go? And do not say we
can all squeeze into your bedroom,” my mom said.

“It is the only fortified room in the
house,” Grandma said. My mother glowered at her. “Fine, fine, we’ll
go out to the backyard. Where’s Cambria?”

“Out with Derek.” My mom glanced at the
stove clock. “She should be home soon. I told her you were on your
way.”

“She’ll find us. Let’s go.” Grandma motioned
for Alex to follow. They stowed the bags along the wall below the
stairs and headed for the back door.

“Tara, move it,” my mother ordered when I
didn’t follow fast enough.

The backyard was lit by motion-sensor lamps
mounted at the edges of the mulch beds. They lit one by one as
Grandma passed by. She didn’t stop until she reached the
gazebo.

“You think it’s safe to talk out here?” my
mom asked.

“Safer than breathing those death fumes,”
Grandma said. “I told you not to worry.”

“Please, Mother, you of all people should
know how impossible that is for me.”

“You’ve got that right,” Grandma said.

She zeroed in on me just as I sat on the
edge of the wooden bench, nearest the doorway. Even without walls,
I felt caged. Mostly by the locked stares I got from the others.
“All right, Tara, here’s the deal,” Grandma said. “You’ve been
keeping us in the dark for a while now. That stops tonight. You’re
going to start from the beginning and tell us everything. Don’t
stop until you’re finished. We don’t care how long it takes, so go
slow. We don’t want you leaving anything out.” When she was done,
she folded her hands in her lap, as if patiently waiting. Despite
her easy expression, I knew what she’d said hadn’t been a
request.

“Everything?” I repeated.

“Everything,” my mom confirmed. She didn’t
sound nearly as friendly or patient as Grandma. Across from me,
Alex slouched against the wooden bench.

“Starting from when?” I asked.

“The beginning,” said Grandma.

My brows went up. “So… birth?”

“How about the night you found out you were
a Hunter,” Alex said. I remembered the promise I’d made that I’d
tell him everything when there was time. His brow rose, daring me
to refuse. “You promised.”

I sighed. “I promised you. Not them. And for
the record, it’s not like you’ve both offered up anything that
would help make this easier on me. If I’ve kept things from you or
done things you don’t like, it’s only because I was forced to find
answers on my own.”

“Point taken,” Grandma said. “I know you
think we’re making you do this because you’re in trouble—” Grandma
began.

“I’m not?”

“Oh, you are,” my mom put in, “but that’s
not why we’re doing this. Not completely.”

“We need to know so we can protect you,”
Grandma said. “And we’re family, which means we’re there for each
other.” I tried not to roll my eyes, but I couldn’t help it. “Okay,
so maybe we haven’t done so hot on the second part before now, but
we’re changing that tonight.” Her voice hardened. “Start talking,
girlie.”

I opened my mouth, fully prepared to fire
back with something about how the women in this family needed to
learn to open up, and why did it have to start with me instead of
them—but instead, I started talking. The whole story. From the
beginning. Just like they’d asked.

Somewhere during my monologue—which took
close to an hour—I realized I wasn’t looking at my mother or
Grandma. I was looking at Alex. Watching him react to all of the
wolf stuff should’ve made it harder but it didn’t. It made it
easier.

I admitted how I’d killed Liliana more out
of confusion and fear than any real malice. How Wes had to erase my
memory of it because of how badly I’d freaked out after. I
especially didn’t look at my mother during that part, too afraid to
see the look on her face as she remembered that morning, thinking
I’d been sick with the flu.

Then about meeting Jack and Fee and all of
the training I’d done with Jack while I waited for Leo to make his
move. I heard my mom’s sharp intake of breath when I told her about
the bite and how Wes had carried and then driven me to Fee. She’d
never even known how close I’d come to dying. Realizing that made
me feel guilty for all of the things I’d never told her about my
new life. When I got to the part about Julie and the bloody message
scrawled at the scene, she’d started to interrupt, but Grandma
patted her hand and she stayed silent.

I kept my eyes locked on Alex. His
expression remained neutral. More than once, I saw emotion creep
into his eyes. Concern. Empathy. Anger. But he never looked away,
and I never saw the one thing I feared above all: disgust.

Then I got to the part about Miles. How he’d
fooled everyone, including me, up until the time he’d come on to me
in that warehouse. I’d forgotten about that until today—blocked it
out—and the look on Alex’s face was pure revulsion. Exactly how I
felt inside.

I hurried on in my retelling. On to Wood
Point Academy and the weird messages, the hints from Miles that he
was creating something that would carve out a place for him and me
as leaders. I told them about Miles appearing to me in the woods
that day. How he’d held me with his arm around my neck and
whispered things that made me feel like no amount of showers would
ever erase the grime he left behind. Alex scowled and his knuckles
whitened where he gripped the edge of the bench.

Still, I went on. I even mentioned seeing
Victoria’s parents in the clinic that night, and overhearing Kane
insist on secrecy. Alex didn’t look nearly surprised enough at how
much I’d heard. I’d assumed he’d guessed it. I did leave out the
more personal parts. Like Alex’s kiss in the woods the day I’d seen
Miles and his offer—or threat—to do it again when he thought I
wouldn’t feel guilty about it after. I faltered in my story as the
memory of it washed over me and then quickly hurried on, wondering
if he’d been thinking if it too.