Bloodfire (Blood Destiny) (13 page)

“It’s the way of the world, dear.
 
I’ll pass some of my yarrow ointment to
Tom when I see him.
 
It will help
with the healing and make this afternoon easier.”

Oh yes, great, I still had the Spanish
inquisition this afternoon.
 
Zippideedoodah.

“Use damp cloths to get the worst of the
blood off then re-apply the lotion.
 
You’re probably safe to bathe after the interview, as long as you don’t
go near them again for a few hours.”

“Yes, ma’am!”
 
I snapped off a sloppy salute.

Julia sighed deeply.
 
“Take care, Mackenzie.”

Tom returned not long after Julia’s
departure.
 
Fortunately, he’d
remembered to bring some scissors to cut off my clothes, along with some
brutally strong painkillers.
 
I
briefly considered saving my modesty and trying to dress the wound myself but I
knew that it’d be more sensible to just accept his offer of help.
 
He was actually surprisingly gentle,
peeling away my blood-soaked t-shirt carefully to reach the ugly wounds within.
He dabbed at them with the cloth that he’d brought, soaking up the worst of the
leaking blood, and then used Julia’s ointment as an antiseptic and healing
agent.
 

As he was binding my ribs up carefully
with a bandage, Betsy entered.
 
She
didn’t look particularly happy to see me lolling around half naked with
Tom,
in fact there was a dangerous flash of something in her
eyes.
 
I’d taken enough painkillers
to dull not only the pain but also my senses and wondered if I’d half-imagined it
for a second.
 
That was until she
started speaking.

“What the fuck?
 
You’re an item?
 
Since when?”

Oooookay, then.

Tom, naturally, was oblivious.
 
“It’s just for the Brethren.”

“Fuck the Brethren!” Betsy spat.

I couldn’t have agreed more.

“And what the hell were you doing in that
fight with Anton?”
 
She fixed him
with a hard glare and put her hands on her hips. “Do you want to go to London?”

“It would be amazing, wouldn’t it?” Tom
sighed expansively.

I didn’t think I’d ever seen Betsy that upset,
not even when her favourite soap character was axed in a horrific ball of fiery
death storyline.
 
I gaped at
her.
 
She was already in the throes
of shifting with her spine elongating and pockets of fur springing out on her
bare arms.

“Jaysus!
 
You’re tying that bandage all
wrong!”
 
There was a definite note
of hysteria in her voice now.
 
“Get
out!”

“Huh?”

“Get out!”
 
She pulled him to his feet and
practically threw him out the door.
 
I looked at her with shocked surprise and
was about to start speaking but she silenced me with a growl and went to work
on the bandage.
 
Tom and Betsy
– wonders would never cease.
 
An uncontrollable urge to giggle overtook me.
 
I tried to smother it and ended up
snorting in a most unladylike fashion.
 
She slapped me on my uninjured side.

 
“Don’t, just don’t,
even
go there, Mack.”

I snorted some more, now hiccupping a
little too.
 
She gave me a death
stare until I managed to subside and she spoke.
 
“Don’t think I’m letting you off with
this either, Mack.
 
When you heal,
and the Brethren have gone, and we’re all safe, I’m going to kill you too.”

I hugged her fiercely.
 
She seemed surprised to begin with but
then hugged me back.
 
“I mean
it.
 
You are going to be one dead
human.”

“Whatever you say, Bets.”

She humphed for a few
seconds before pulling back.
 
“Now put some clothes on.
 
We’re going to show those arseholes that
one little fight isn’t going to knock you down.”

*

At least this time I managed to avoid the
hole in the carpet on my way down the stairs.
 
It was a painful trek to the canteen,
however, despite managing to not fall on my bum down the stairs - and with
being doped up on painkillers to my eyeballs.
 
Even without shifting, pack members
would heal quicker than your regular run of the mill human like me so I’d still
have to do a fair degree of pretending not to be in mind-numbingly awful pain,
despite my mourning excuse.
 
Tom
admitted that he felt bad that he’d shifted during his fight with
Anton,
otherwise he’d have jumped on my bandwagon to give my
reason more validity.
 
It was a nice
idea, but I figured that if the truth did come out, the rest of my pack would
have a better chance if they could simply pin the blame on the unshakeable
geas.
 
Voluntarily helping to cover
up a human beyond the spell’s required bounds would be a different matter

Everyone, apart from Anton, was in the
airy canteen by the time we arrived.
 
There was a brief lull in the conversation when I walked in, some eyes
reflecting approval whilst others showed distaste and even a tinge of fear.
 
Whether that was because of the danger my
actions had created, or because of the danger of me myself, I didn’t know and
didn’t care to wonder.
 
I also didn’t
dare look over at the Brethren’s table to see what was in their eyes.
 
Aiming for a nonchalant air, I tried to
move towards the nearest empty chair without looking like I was in pain.
 
It really wasn’t very easy at all and my
head was woozy by the time I made it.
 
Betsy pulled up a chair beside me and chattered away as if there was
nothing remarkable at all going on.
 
Bit by bit, everyone else returned to
their
lunch.

Unfortunately I realised rather belatedly
that the outside catering Johannes had called had set up a buffet.
 
Excellent.
 
More walking.
 
More standing.
 
More pain. I reached down under the
table and began pulling out one of the screws from the side leg.
 
It took me some time, and poor Betsy was
struggling to find enough inanities to blather about to cover me, but I
eventually managed it.
 
Palming the
screw, I nodded at her and we stood up.
 
I dug the screw sharply into the palm of my hand.
 
The returning sharp pain was an antidote
to the constant drug dulled ache from Anton’s exertions, and would keep my
senses alert long enough to make it to the buffet table and back again without
fainting.
 
As I walked I pushed it in
further, breaking the skin and drawing blood.
 
When we passed the Brethren’s table I
thought I saw the Lord Alpha inhale sharply, but there was no way on earth that
he’d be able to smell a few drops of fresh blood right now after all the many
drops that had just been spilt in the gym.
 
Then I panicked that the lotion must have rubbed off during Tom’s
medical ministrations and that I hadn’t re-applied it again properly and my
humanity was starting to seep through.
 
However I must have imagined it because he returned to his plate, with a
brief flash of brilliant white teeth visible as he bit into a slice of crusty
bread.

I picked up a plate and lay it down on the
side so I could manage the buffet without letting go of the screw in my
palm.
 
With one hand, I randomly
selected bits of food to fill it up.
 
I desperately needed to eat but my earlier anticipation of dining on something
other than Johannes’ food had gone.
 
Now I just needed the calories.
 
Betsy was forking spoonfuls of what looked like a creamy curry on her
plate next to me when Lucy, the Brethren girl from earlier, came up.

“So, not much of a fighter, then?”
 
She inquired archly.

I blushed, annoying myself.
 
“Ummm…it’s complicated.”

“ I heard,” she said, with a glance over
her shoulder at Tom.
 
“He’s cute. “

I coughed slightly and continued putting
food on my plate, in an awkward one-handed fashion.

“You must be hurting a bit after that,
especially with not shifting. “ She peered at me from under her bangs.
 
“It might not be such a clever idea to
do that, you know.
 
Not shift.
 
I mean, I get the idea of honouring your
guy’s death and all that, but if you’re really sore…” her voice trailed off.

She had absolutely no idea.
 
“It’s fine,” I muttered.
 
“I’m fine.”

“Yes, so fine that you’re putting
chocolate cake on top of your shepherd’s pie.”

I looked down at my plate.
 
Oops.
 
“I have a varied palate,” I said
shrugging, wishing she would just go away.

“Lucy,” said a deep smooth voice, “can you
go and check on the status of the mage’s arrival?”

She snapped to attention and at once
bobbed her head, light brown hair bouncing off her shoulders as she did
so.
 
The Lord Alpha.
 
As if things couldn’t get any
worse.
 
Lucy marched off smartly
whilst he took a grape off a nearby plate and looked at me in much the same way
that a cat would like at a mouse before it pounces on it and kills it.
 
I squared my shoulders and craned my
neck slightly to look back at him.
 
I could just barely register Betsy’s panic from over his shoulder but I
kept my expression as calm as I could.

He popped the grape into his mouth and
chewed slowly.
 
Wasn’t he going to
say something?
 
His green eyes held
mine steadily but he remained silent.
 
Damnit, I needed to think of something to say then.
 
Weather?
 

“It’s fortunate the rain held off,” I
said.
 
God, I was an inane idiot
sometimes.

He continued to look at me without
speaking but I could swear there was a measure of amusement in his eyes now.
 
I felt waves of power emanating from his
still body and wondered briefly at the apparent fact that he’d had to fight for
the Brethren leadership position.
 
I
tugged nervously at my ponytail.
 
“I
mean, then you’ll be able to find the trail of whatever killed John without the
scent being washed away.”

He leaned closer into me and I caught a
sudden whiff of a deep, clean and very masculine smell.
 
I felt slightly woozy again and
tightened my grip on the screw.

He finally said something.
 
“Were you there?”
 

“Uh, where?”
 
I barely resisted the urge to take a
step back.

“At the beach.
 
When his body was discovered.”

I had no idea what to say.
 
Should I say yes or try and lie?
 
“Ummm….”

Betsy took that moment to rescue me by
dropping her plate to the floor where it made an almighty crash and splattered
food in twenty different directions.
 
The Brethren Alpha turned around so quickly it made my head
spin
.

She giggled.
 
“Oh, I’m so clumsy!
 
It’s just you made me nervous standing
there.
 
I had no idea that the
Brethren were so powerful in person, and you the Lord Alpha as well.”
 
I could swear she batted her eyelashes
just then.
 
“Just what is your
name?”

I walked away before I could hear the
answer, gripping my plate tightly.
 
I owed her more than one by now.

*

After lunch was over, the Brethren rose
smoothly as if they were one and headed outside.
 
Apparently this time they were all going
to the scene of John’s death to see it for themselves and then our interviews,
or rather interrogations, would begin on their return.
 
I was starting to feel more normal now
that I had food in my belly, but I definitely thought that a bit of an
afternoon siesta was called for.
 
That way I could wake up in control, out of pain, and ready.
 
The other pack members wandered off to
do their own thing, whilst I made for the dorm.
 
I supposed that I technically should go
to the room that Tom and I ‘shared’, but I knew that my narrow bed in the dorm
would make me more comfortable.