Blood Rule (Book 4, Dirty Blood series) (13 page)

“
Because the two of you
and that pack of yours are neither one,” Grandma said.

Wes and I shared a look. “We’re both,”
I said softly.

“
And the rest of us?” Cord
asked.

“
Victoria has offered up
her home,” Fee said.

“
Victoria Lexington?”
Cambria and I asked in unison.

Our friendship with Victoria was
tenuous at best. She’d been the biggest bully when we’d been at
Wood Point together, stopping her torture long enough to begin
dating Logan—still the oddest pairing ever, if you asked
me.

The one remotely civil conversation
I’d shared with her was after her parents had disappeared. Miles
had kidnapped them and used the hybrid serum on them, turning them
both. I’d seen them twice since then and both times they’d tried to
kill me. Now, they were off the map, hiding
who-knew-where.

These days, Victoria rotated between
sad orphan girl and popular mean girl. Neither were versions I
enjoyed. Neither version liked me much, either.

“
Yes, Victoria Lexington,”
Fee confirmed. “With her parents gone, the staff was let go, and
the house is sitting empty. It’s perfect.”

“
I’m game. Her house is
pretty awesome. Indoor pool, Jacuzzi, movie room, the works,” Cord
said. For the first time since arriving, she didn’t look ready to
maim someone.

“
You’ve been there?”
Cambria asked.

“
I hung out there a few
times last summer,” Cord said.

Scratch that. Cord and Victoria being
friends. That was the oddest pairing ever.

Derek didn’t look nearly as excited
about their destination. “This is temporary, until we figure out
our next move, right?”

“
Yes,” Fee assured him.
“We need somewhere safe to figure out who’s with us and who isn’t.
And we need to decide the best way to fix this.”

Derek’s eyes narrowed. “And by fix,
you mean …?”

“
Fix,” she repeated. “I
don’t condone violence as a first choice. You know
that.”

“
But it is a choice,” he
said.

She scowled but didn’t argue. “Edie
and Elizabeth will both stay behind, keeping an eye on CHAS for
us.”

I frowned. “Is that safe? I mean,
Steppe has to know you’re both going to help me and I’m already on
his list. Won’t that make you both traitors too?”

Grandma smiled, but it lacked warmth
and showed too much teeth to be anything but threatening. “Gordon
knows better than to mess with me or mine.”

In that moment, I decided I officially
had the coolest grandma in the entire world.

“
And I’m going to side
with your grandma on this one,” my mom said. “It’s about time I
took responsibility for what I am.”

I wasn’t sure how much to believe her,
though her tone was surprisingly firm. I hoped whatever she lacked
in the badass department, Grandma would make up for.

“
The clock’s ticking,” Fee
said. “Everyone get home and pack what you can. We need to get on
the road.”

The huddle broke apart with everyone
gathering their things and heading for the door. Grandma hugged me
tight. Now I understood why my mother had done the same when I’d
arrived. They both knew they were saying goodbye.

“
I wish you could come
with me,” I said against her silver hair.

She pulled away, her smile fierce. “I
get to be on the front lines. Where I like it.”

“
And Mom?”

“
I’ll keep her safe,” she
whispered.

I nodded and started to go. Grandma
grabbed me tighter, holding me still. Her expression was intense
enough that I would’ve paused even without the pressure of her
hands on my arms. “Tara, this is big,” she said quietly. “After
today, things will be different. Forever.”

I nodded.

“
There’s a removable panel
behind my top left dresser drawer.”

“
What’s in it?” I
asked.

“
Supplies. Now, do you
remember what Vera said to you? About her visions and the
future?”

“
Yes.”

“
I want you to think about
that.”

I frowned. “About leading?”

“
Yes.”

“
But how can I lead a race
of people that hate me?” I asked.

“
One man doesn’t speak for
us all. Things will change.”

“
How do you
know?”

She squeezed my arm a final time and
then let me go. “Nothing lasts forever.”

***

Everything felt muted as Wes drove us
home in my mother’s car. The light. The sound. Even the air felt
quiet and close. The reflection of the streetlights cast a moving
trail over the interior of the car, haloing Wes in orange-ish light
before tracking a pattern across the hood and disappearing behind
us. For a moment, I was lost in it. No voices registered, no
concept of what we were about to do. Where we would go. Whether I
would ever come back. For a moment, it was all
meaningless.

This car ride, the patterned lights on
the dark interior, the somber faces of two people I loved. These
were all that mattered, because no matter where I went tomorrow,
right now I was here. In this car. With Wes and Angela.

Grandma’s parting words
came back to me:
Nothing lasts
forever.

And for some reason, despite knowing
she’d meant it about a government she hoped to crumble, all I could
think of was Alex. Motionless and cold in a hospital room that,
after tonight, would sit empty save for the patient himself and the
paid staff.

The thought of leaving Alex upset me
in a place I’d thought I’d buried. Even though he remained
unconscious, seeing Alex every day did something for me. Although
my choice had been made, I needed him.

What if he woke up and I wasn’t there?
What if he was all alone?

The thought gnawed at me even more
than the problem with Steppe. I couldn’t leave Alex alone. He
wouldn’t do that to me.

One by one, voices
trickled in, the more adamant ones interrupting my thoughts until
their thoughts took over.
I’m hungry. I’m
thirsty. I’m bored. I’m jealous.

The last one concerned me and I zeroed
in on who the thoughts belonged to. It was Janie, one of the
sisters always staring at George. I tracked him through the bond
and found him walking the perimeter. He wasn’t alone. I could tell
by his flow of thoughts that he was talking to someone, following a
conversation.

I searched the minds of the rest of
the pack but came up empty. Who was he walking with?

I tried honing in on George’s thoughts
more closely, but my thoughts—my ability to read him—felt
disjointed. Worry and anxiety, plans for escape and getting Angela
home safe, and wondering whether my mother would be okay without me
made everything a jumble.

I caught bits and pieces, images and
mental snapshots, as George walked and talked to whoever it was.
Directions. Plans for packing up camp and getting everyone ready to
travel. Who would he talk about this with, if not a pack
member?

Eventually, the two parted
company.

I still had no idea who it
was.

Thirty minutes later, Wes parked
curbside in front of Angela’s house. I got out and walked her to
the door. Her family’s minivan was noticeably absent in the
driveway.

“
You going to be okay?” I
asked her when we reached the doorstep.

“
I’ll be fine,” she
assured me. “My mom will be home soon. It’s you I’m worried about.
Can you call me and let me know you made it okay?”

I suspected phones would be
off-limits, especially with civilian police out looking for us too.
“I’ll try. But, Ang, be careful. You know way more than you should
about all of this. If anyone finds out …”

“
They won’t.”

I nodded, trying to believe her.
Angela was smart. I could count on her to be aware and careful, but
danger wasn’t always recognizable. Sometimes the monsters looked
like normal people until it was too late.

“
You be careful too,” she
said and started toward her door.

“
There’s one other thing.”
I gave her an apologetic smile. “I know my asking you this puts you
right back into the danger I told you to avoid, but …”

“
What do you
need?”

I told myself it wasn’t purely
selfish, my reason for asking. “The nurses at the hospital know you
now. I’ve vouched for you and they’ll let you through even if I’m
not there. Could you—? Would it be possible—?”

Her expression softened. “I’ll check
on him. On both of them,” she added.

“
Thank you.” I exhaled.
“But be careful visiting Vera. She may have other visitors in and
out.”

She nodded in understanding. “The man
with the scar, he shouldn’t see me, right?”

“
Right. But Alex …” I
swallowed. “He doesn’t have anyone else.”

Angela hugged me. “I’ll take care of
him,” she said. “You stay safe.”

I nodded, not trusting my
voice. I knew Angela would make sure Alex didn’t wake up alone. And
I told myself he
would
wake up.

I watched as she let herself inside
before trudging back to the car, my arms wrapped around my
middle.

I slid into my seat and pulled the
door shut. Wes leaned over and kissed my cheek. “Everything okay?”
he asked.

“
I asked Angela to look in
at the hospital. On both of them.”

“
You think it’s safe for
her to be there alone?”

Again, I ignored the ping of guilt and
told myself I wasn’t putting Angela in more danger. “I told her to
keep a low profile. Besides, I don’t think CHAS will be paying
attention. They have other things on their mind.”

“
Good point.” He backed
out of Angela’s drive and navigated the darkened streets toward my
house.

“
Are you okay with this?”
I asked after a moment of quiet.

“
Which part? The part
where I’m wanted for murder or the part where a secret government
is, at this moment, signing my—our—death warrant?”

I sighed. “The leaving
part.”

His shoulders deflated, as if my lack
of response to his sarcasm had taken the fight out of him. “I’m on
board for whatever keeps you safe.”

“
And my safety
aside?”

He glanced sideways at me. “I want to
kick their asses.”

My mouth curved in a small smile. “In
that, we agree.”

Another moment of silence passed. I
knew we were both deep in our own thoughts. Of leaving. Of running
and hiding. Of when we’d get to turn and face the enemy. The animal
in both of us wanted to fight. The urge to stay and do just that
was growing stronger, the closer we got to home—and to the
pack.

They knew what was happening now. That
CHAS was going to make it okay to hunt them. They wanted to hunt
right back. At this moment, I had over three dozen voices in my
head urging me to let them. I clamped my jaw shut to keep from
whining. It wasn’t an attractive sound as a wolf, let alone a
teenaged girl.

I asked another question, to distract
myself from the voices. “Why do you think they killed
her?”

“
Who?”

“
Mal. Obviously she knew
something, right? They got to her right before you did, to talk to
her about all the bond stuff. What do you think it was?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. Cord went
up there right after it happened to poke around. She didn’t find
out anything.”

There was something in his tone.
Something he wasn’t saying. “But …? You have a theory,” I
prompted.

“
It was something Cord
said about the girl’s apartment. Some notes she found. She didn’t
want to risk taking them or touching anything but she saw the
word
Unbinilium
used several times.”

“
Seriously? Why didn’t she
mention this before?”

“
No reason to. At the
time, Cord had no idea of the implication or what any of the
materials were. And it very well could be a coincidence. I mean,
she worked for the lab there at CHAS headquarters and they do a lot
of metal testing.”

“
What else was in the
notes?”

“
Stuff on immunities and
something called a purity cycle.”

“
What’s a purity cycle?” I
asked.

“
No idea.”

I stared distractedly out the window.
Familiar lawn ornaments decorated the yards of houses in my
neighborhood. We were almost home.

Next came packing. Then
leaving.

“
I don’t think it’s a
coincidence,” I said as Wes pulled up in front of my
house.

He looked over at me as he unbuckled.
“I don’t either.”

“
I think it was Steppe,” I
said.