Blood Bond (36 page)

“You’ll figure it out, Tay, you always do,”
he said, lowering himself down next to me.

“You really like being a wolf, don’t
you?”

“Don’t you?”

“I don’t know.” I rubbed at the back of my
neck. “Seems like it’s one big headache. Literally.”

George frowned. “Do you mean your neck?”

“It aches, like a headache, only lower,” I
said. I caught his expression. “Why are you looking at me like
that?”

“You really don’t know what it is?” He shook
his head. “Wow, never thought I’d see the day I got to give you
Werewolf info.” He laughed. My patience thinned. “It’s your body’s
way of letting you know there’s a Werewolf nearby. Like an alarm
system. Every Werewolf has it.”

“No,” I said, “that’s what the goosebumps do
for me. This is different.”

“I don’t know anything about goosebumps, but
the prickly feeling on the back of your neck, that’s a Werewolf
recognizing its own kind. It doesn’t bother me as much as it used
to. Yours will probably fade.”

I thought back to when the prickle first
started, during my road trip with George. It was right after he’d
almost shifted at that truck stop and hadn’t really gone away
since. I frowned. If George was right, that meant my body now had a
double-alarm system. Great. I got to experience it all twice.

I looked over at George where he sat pulling
apart blades of grass. As much as I wished I could’ve protected him
from this, it was nice having him to go through it with.

“You never answered my question,” I said. I
bumped his shoulder with mine, “about whether you like being a
wolf.”

“Yeah, I mean, I feel good all the time. I’m
strong and fast. Basically everything I’ve worked at my whole life
comes easy now. No dieting. No PT.”

“But?”

“I miss my family. My mom is going to worry.
I need to figure out what to tell her,” he said.

“I know.”

“And my friends. Wes, Fee, and all of them
are great. But I miss the team.” He looked over at me. “Do you ever
miss your old life? Your old friends?”

“I still have them,” I said. For some
reason, the way he asked the question made me defensive. As if I’d
abandoned them. “I have you, and Sam, and Angela.”

“Yeah, you have me now. But Sam and Angela,
it’s not the same as it was. They have to know something’s up. They
barely ever see you anymore.”

I wanted to argue, but I couldn’t. I
remembered the day we’d gone to the mall, the way Angela cornered
me and demanded to know what was going on. I still hadn’t called
her. The thought made me sad—and desperate to focus on something
else. “Well, some of them won’t be missed,” I said.

Our eyes met. “Cindy Adams,” we said in
unison. Our matching laughter eased my melancholy.

“I’m glad we can laugh about that now,” he
said. “I mean, I really screwed up. I’m sor—”

“Uh-uh, don’t you dare apologize. It’s long
gone for both of us, so you don’t get to bring it up and feel
guilty all over again.”

“Fair enough. If I’d never kissed her, do
you think you and me …?”

“I’d already met Wes,” I said quietly.

“Right, I forgot. So, moot point.”

“Yeah.” Awkward silence descended. I knew we
were both thinking about earlier, the kiss. The weird tension in
the bond confirmed it. “Listen, about earlier …”

“You don’t have to say anything,” he said.
He wasn’t looking at me, but staring out over the yard. I could
tell he felt uncomfortable, but he pressed on. “It’s something
we’ll both have to deal with at some point. Just so happens I get
to feel it first.”

“That doesn’t mean it isn’t weird. I won’t,
I mean, I’ll try not to—”

“Tara, don’t.” He laughed. “Please don’t sit
here and promise me you won’t make out, or worse, with your
boyfriend, because of me. Because of this thing that ties us
together.”

“But I can’t,” I argued. “Not when it feels
like you’re in the room or something.” I made a face. Because when
it came down to it, that’s exactly how it felt. In the worst sort
of way.

“We’ll work on it, okay?”

“How do we do that? I can’t get it to shut
off unless I’m asleep.”

“We’ll practice, just like you’re doing with
Jack.”

My brows rose. “Yeah, because my session
with Jack was so promising.”

“We’ll figure it out. I’ll start taking naps
if I have to. I’m not going to keep you from a love life any more
than you’ll keep me from mine.”

“You have a love life?” I asked, then ducked
my head as I realized how it sounded.

He bumped me with his shoulder. “Well, not
as hot as yours, apparently. Not yet. But when I do, it would help
to know it’s only she and I in the room.”

“Agreed.”

“I have to say, though, after witnessing
what I did, even telepathically, Wes is one lucky guy. You were
never like that with me.”

“George,” I warned. “Do not go there.”

He went on, pretending not to hear me. “I
mean, wow. It was hot. You were hot. If you’d been half that way
with me, we’d—”

“George!” I shoved him hard enough to send
him sprawling off the end of the step. He might’ve caught himself
if he hadn’t been laughing so hard by then.

The door opened behind me, and Wes poked his
head out. “What’s going on out here? Do I need to separate you
two?” George and I shared a look, and he burst into laughter again.
He still hadn’t moved to get up. Wes looked back and forth between
us, confused. “What’s so funny?” he asked.

A slow smile spread across my face, and then
it bubbled up in my chest and I laughed right along with George,
with Wes looking on as if we’d lost it.

“What’s so funny?” Wes repeated.

“Kissing … you …” I managed before
dissolving into a fit again. For a second, he looked offended, but
then he shook his head and disappeared inside.

George and I didn’t get up for a long
time.

Chapter Twenty-One

Five days later, I sat on the back porch,
sulking, after another failed training session with Jack. Wes was
hiding somewhere inside after his attempts to cheer me up had been
met with steady glaring.

George wandered out to sit with me and gave
me the obligatory, “you can do it,” speech. I didn’t respond, and
we sat in silence for a while. He tried getting me to practice our
bond-blocking thing, but we’d been at it for days with no luck. I
wasn’t in the mood to fail at anything else today.

The back door creaked open. I looked up,
expecting Wes, and found Derek instead. “Living room, five
minutes,” he said.

“What’s going on?” George asked him, already
rising.

Derek shrugged. “Cord’s back. She’s got
news.”

George dusted his hands on his shorts and
extended his hand, pulling me up beside him. The mention of Cord’s
return had our attention. Jack and Wes tried calling her several
times for an update. She rarely answered and when she did, the
details were vague. Fee said Cord needed time on her own. I think
losing Bailey really rocked her, so we gave her the space she
needed.

But if she was back, with news …

George and I hurried into the living room
behind Derek. Wes, Cambria, Jack, and Fee were already there. I
leaned against the door frame next to George. The front door opened
and closed. Cord appeared with Grandma on her heels. The clock on
the wall showed my pickup time.

“Perfect timing, Edie,” Fee said.

“I hear there’s news,” Grandma said. She
settled herself in the chair near the window.

From my place against the wall, I watched
Cord. Her eyes were ringed with circles, her face pale. She’d
looked pretty rough before, when I’d seen her at Astor’s, but this
was worse. More than tired, her expression reminded me of the one
I’d seen on Fee that day in the kitchen—haunted, grim, bereft. It
looked even more out of place on Cord.

“Where’s Vera?” Cord asked.

“She’s in her room, resting,” Fee told her.
“She’s not up for this.”

Cord’s expression clouded. I knew how she
felt. I’d been in to see Vera a couple of times, but it hadn’t been
the same. The tea Fee brewed for her wasn’t doing much good
anymore. She spent most of her time in bed. She’d taken to watching
my training sessions from her window.

“I’ll fill her in once we’re done here,” Fee
said. She nodded at Cord. “Go on, what did you find out?”

“You guys know I’ve been looking for my
friend, Mal, the one I sent Wes to meet in DC,” Cord began.
Everyone nodded. “Well, I found her, and she’s dead.”

“What?” Fee’s eyes widened.

“How?” Wes asked. He slid forward to the
edge of the couch. Even from across the room I could feel the
tension of coiled muscles from every single one of them. It felt
like the moment we’d waited for these past few weeks—the moment it
would all begin.

“The paper said she hung herself. They found
her in an abandoned building with a sheet tied around her
neck.”

“Any witnesses?” Jack asked. Even he looked
ready to jump up and rush out.

Cord shook her head, her hair shaking
vigorously at her shoulders. “They interviewed a couple of her
coworkers. All of them said she was depressed.”

Cambria snorted. “I would be too, working
for those asshats.”

“What sort of information was she giving
us?” George asked.

“I don’t know for sure, but it must’ve been
important if they did this to silence her,” Wes said.

“It had something to do with the hybrids,”
Cord said. “Mal made it sound like CHAS knew a way to cure
them.”

“I’m going to call Logan.” Cambria got up
and pulled out her phone. “Maybe Astor knows what CHAS doesn’t want
leaked.”

“Good idea,” Derek said. He followed her
out.

“I have to wonder if it has something to do
with all the metal stuff,” Cord said. “Mal wasn’t suicidal. They
got to her. I should’ve never let her agree to that meeting.”

“You said it was her idea,” Wes said.

“It doesn’t matter. I should’ve stopped
it.”

Wes rose and went to Cord. He didn’t touch
her. She wouldn’t have let him. He looked her in the eye, held her
gaze. “It wasn’t your fault,” he said quietly.

We all knew he wasn’t only talking about
Mal. Cord drew a slow breath. “I know that, but someone has to
pay.”

He nodded. “They will.” I watched her take
his hand and squeeze until her knuckles turned white.

“We need proof,” I said.

One by one, all of us turned to Grandma.

“I’m already on it,” she said, whipping out
her phone and striding from the room.

“What do we do now?” George asked.

“We wait,” Jack said. He sounded just as
impatient as I felt.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Days passed. Training was slow and painful.
The routine with Alex wasn’t horrible. I still hated running, but I
was better at sparring than before, which made it more enjoyable
than it had been at the beginning—when I’d ended up on the ground
every three minutes.

Jack’s training was tougher. As in, no
progress. None.

He seemed clueless as to how to trigger my
wolf, using me as a punching bag or saying anything he could to get
a rise out of me. All it did was piss me off enough to yell at
him—something I’d never have done unless provoked. Even “friendly”
Jack scared the bejeesus out of me in a fight. I scowled a lot, and
swung my fists, landing a few of them on parts not covered by his
padding. All of it was from a body that was decidedly human.

Wes watched and sometimes joined in the
baiting. It led to real arguments after, so he’d stopped coming
around during the middle of the second week. He’d wait until it was
over to show himself, or sometimes he’d stay away until I was home,
showered, and fed. I was always in a better mood after that. My mom
had started letting him in, under the watchful eye of either
herself or Grandma. Alex made himself scarce during those times. I
wasn’t sure what he did, but I didn’t question it. He and Wes in
the same room wasn’t a pretty sight. Still, they endured it when
they had to.

Wes told me he still owed Alex for saving me
from Miles and then Mr. Lexington. He said his payback for the debt
was to not attempt to murder Alex every time he saw him. I figured
that was as good as I could hope for.

Cambria spent all of her free time—which was
all day, every day—with Derek. I asked her a few times what it
meant, how serious things were, but she brushed me off every time.
She’d stopped talking about her mom, even when I asked, so I
stopped asking. Despite my promise that night in the gazebo, there
really wasn’t anything I could do. Not right now.

The routine probably wouldn’t have felt so
monotonous if it weren’t for the hybrids—or, more specifically, the
absence of them. Victoria’s parents especially. For the first week,
I’d looked over my shoulder every time I left the house, on full
alert for some sort of attack. None came, and as the weeks passed,
I wondered if maybe they’d given up.

Grandma uncovered absolutely nothing about
Mal’s death. She’d said it was too difficult to work from here and
uncover anything useful, so she packed up and went back to
Washington. Cambria had put in a call to Logan and he said he’d try
to find out what Astor knew, but so far, nothing. Either Astor
didn’t know, or he didn’t want to share. Logan said every time he
asked about it, Astor went off the deep end and left to paint. I
think the questions reminded him too much of Mary Beth.

Everyone was restless and trying to hide
it.

Cord stayed in her room most days. She
claimed computer research into her friend’s death but I suspected
it hurt her to be in the same place where she’d last seen Bailey. I
couldn’t blame her. I still hadn’t gone into the woods behind the
house for that reason. I noticed the boys took a new route on their
daily run with George. I’d caught Jack staring blankly into the
trees one day before practice but pretended not to notice. Fee had
lost weight but she put on a brave face.