Broken Blood (12 page)

“Tara, there’s someone there with you,” Wes said. “Get out.”

I had a fleeting moment to wonder how he’d known before the shadow emerged and spoke. “Put the phone down, sweetheart.”

The wolf was enormous. Dark fur, powerful muscles that bunched when he shifted his paws, and teeth that glittered in the light of the street lamp. Two more like him crept from the shadows behind Victoria, but she never wavered from her wide-eyed stare at their leader. Her face was pale, stark white broken only by the brilliant purple bruise along her jaw and the harsh red marks slashing down her cheeks and throat. She was almost scarier than they were—if not for the fear in her eyes and the way her hands trembled at her sides.

I stared back at the wolf. He stood less than three feet from her, his jaw hanging open, flashing his ample canines to intimidate her—and me.

It was working.

“Tara?” Wes called through the phone that now hung suspended a foot away from my ear where my arms had flung out in a defensive position.

“I’m here,” I said. The wolf’s ears twitched.

“Everything’s jumbled, I can’t hear you,” Wes said, his voice distant, like being filtered through a funnel. My inner wolf whined, willing Wes to sense the danger and come. But wherever he was now, it was too far to help us.

This one was all me.

“This is between us. Let her go,” I told the wolf.

“Gladly. We’re not here for her,” the wolf growled. He took a step away from Victoria—toward me. My relief was short lived. Behind him, two more wolves moved in. I threw a desperate glance behind me and then backed away in a slanted retreat, trying to draw them away. I couldn’t let them surround us.

I took another several steps sideways, away from the van where the others waited.

“Tara, talk to me,” Wes yelled. “Tell me where you are.” I ignored him but left the call connected. The wolf’s eyes flickered to the phone.

“Tara?” one of the other wolves repeated from where he stood near Victoria. “Tara Godfrey?”

“Yes. What do you want?” I asked.

His head tilted and he shot a look at his friend. “We found her,” he growled.

Victoria blinked as they drew closer, coming out of her frozen shock, and let out a small whimper. Inside my head, Steppe’s presence was open curiosity. The only hint of concern seemed to be whether I would tell them he was here with us.

What a guy.

“Two minutes,” Wes said, the words muffled by movement. I sighed. Wherever he thought I was, there was no way he could know for sure. Or get here. Or—

The wolf snorted. “He’ll never make it in time.”

“What do you want?” I repeated, my voice rising with desperation.

“We didn’t want anything but to be left in peace,” he shot back. “Look what we got instead. New laws that made us outcasts, fugitives. We are criminals simply by the fact that we exist. What do I want? For being convicted before I was ever guilty, I want justice.”

“None of that is my fault,” I said.

“Don’t even think about denying it. I know who you are. I’ve heard all about your war with CHAS. I’ve seen the footage of your destruction. It’s your fault, your act of treason to your own kind that drove them to change the laws in the first place.”

I had no idea where he was getting his information, but the look he wore made it clear he believed his own theory. Utterly.  “Killing me won’t change the law,” I said.

“No, I’m not naïve enough to think anything will. I’m not here to change things,” he said, creeping closer on silent paws.

Victoria backed away, but it only drew the other two wolves toward her. I took a step back, hoping to lead them toward me instead. But they didn’t stray from their target. I bit my lip. Through the phone, I heard a car door slam and an engine rev. I couldn’t allow myself to hope. There was no more time.

The black wolf opened its massive jaw and leaped for my throat.

I dropped the phone and sidestepped his angry teeth, closing my fists around a handful of fur as we both went down. Behind me, I heard Victoria yell over the sound of screeching tires and squealing brakes. Headlights cast a bright beam of light over me and the wolf, illuminating a patch of grass where the concrete ended and the picnic area began. I angled toward it as we fell. If I was going to be knocked over, that was the best place to hit the ground.

I managed only a glance of a rusty red fender before the momentum of my fall sent me rolling. I hung on and prayed I’d be at the far end of the wolf’s open mouth when we righted ourselves again.

We both landed on our hip, side by side, limbs tangled. The wolf growled and twisted, intent on pinning me down. I knew if that happened, there’d be no getting up again. The wolf’s jaw snapped and I scuttled backward, just far enough to avoid the teeth. The air between us echoed with a loud snapping sound as his jaw closed on empty air instead of my forearm.

There wasn’t time to feel relieved before he twisted and arched out to bite at me again. I shoved him away, barely holding him back by the handful of neck fur I held. But then his weight shifted and I felt my shoulder rolling awkwardly. I tried pushing against his momentum, but my piddly hundred and ten pounds were no match for his mass. I rolled onto my back and his paws came down painfully in the fleshy space just below my shoulders. I cried out and fell still, pinned.

The wolf stared down at me with zero remorse in his wild eyes. There was no hesitation, only methodical purpose. He wasn’t drawing it out. He wasn’t hurrying. It wasn’t about me. It was about justice. A fact I knew made arguing pointless.

I strained internally, willing, begging my wolf to take over. I could feel it rising, slowly, as if through mud. But it wasn’t fast enough—or capable enough—to give me the form I needed in order to stop the inevitable. The wolf let out a low sound from deep in its throat, a growl turned howl, and it leaned in.

I gave up and shut my eyes and waited.

Hot breath washed over me and my muscles tensed in anticipation. I waited for the agony of sharp teeth cutting into my flesh—but it never came. A second later, the weight pinning me suddenly vanished. I heard a grunt and then a set of scuffling growls.

I opened my eyes and blinked at the empty space where the wolf had crouched a moment ago. In its place, a hand appeared.

I followed its arm up and my mouth fell open. “Cambria?” I said.

She stood over me, a flash of teeth gleaming in the glare from a new set of headlights. “In the flesh,” she said. “And I come bearing gifts.” She pointed to where Derek, fully Werewolf, was locked in a head-over-tail wrestling match with the wolf that had just tried to eat me.

“Derek,” I said, my shoulders sagging now that the danger was being taken on by someone capable. “But how did you know I was here?” I asked, squinting up at Cambria again.

“GPS Barbie called Logan,” she explained, nodding to where Logan and Victoria were locked in an embrace so tight, they looked like a two-headed paper doll. “You want some help up or are you going to hang out down there for the duration?”

I grinned at Cambria, took her offered hand, and let her pull me to my feet. The moment my body was upright, I threw my arms around her and squeezed tight. There was a suspended moment of indecision and then Cambria’s arms wrapped around me, awkwardly patting, before morphing into a full-on death grip.

When we finally stepped back, her eyes brimmed with tears. “Are you crying?” I asked, unable to keep the disbelief out of my voice.

Cambria sniffled. “Shut up. I thought you were...”

She didn’t finish and I smiled crookedly. Until this moment, I hadn’t appreciated how glad I was that I could answer, “Well, I’m not.”

“Good. Because I’ve come to realize Logan is pretty sucky at a lot of BFF things, and you couldn’t have come back at a better time. My hair color is fading and I can’t choose the next one. Logan doesn’t know the difference between fuchsia and firebrick.”

“It’s red, okay. God.” Logan let go of Victoria and walked over, holding his arms up in existential frustration. “Of all the things you could say, are you seriously bringing this up right now? After all the time they’ve been missing ... We just got them back and this is what you want to say?”

“My priorities are straight,” she protested. “I hugged her first.”

Logan rolled his eyes and threw his arms around me. The brim of his tattered baseball cap poked at my forehead. I tucked my face lower and breathed in the familiarity of dryer sheets and dusty books that Logan always smelled like—and blinked back a new round of tears.

“I am so glad you’re all right,” he said into my hair. I nodded, at a loss for words, and hugged him back. “Both of you,” he added, pulling away to draw Victoria into his arms again. She looked back at him, her eyes big and round, her expression completely breakable. A tear escaped and slid down my cheek.

“Oh, hell,” Cambria said and threw her arms around all three of us in a group hug. I smiled through my sniffles until we all broke apart.

Out of the shadows, Derek appeared, his yellow wolf eyes shining as he looked at me. He stood close enough to brush Cambria’s arm and she automatically lowered her hand to his furry shoulder in a familiar gesture. “You are a sight for sore eyes,” he said and the way his jaw drew back to reveal his teeth looked like a really scary smile.

I bent down and threw my arms around his neck. “So are you,” I said.

“Whoa there,” Cambria said. “You can hug him for real later, when he has some clothes on.”

I straightened and shook my head at her. “Cam, he’s a wolf.”

“I know. He’s completely naked.”

I snorted and hugged her again. “I missed you so freaking much,” I said.

“Ditto.”

So adorable, the two of you. Can we go now?

I stiffened, the smile fading abruptly from my lips.

“What is it?” Cambria asked. Beside her, the hair on Derek’s neck stood up as he sniffed the air. Before I could answer, their eyes lit on something behind me. I turned, half terrified of another wolf, but it wasn’t an enemy.

Or at least, not anymore.

Mr. Lexington approached warily, his steps small and measured. His shoes scuffed uncertainly over the asphalt. Beside me, Derek’s legs bent into a crouch. I could feel him readying to spring at the new enemy.

“No!” I jumped between them and held up my hands. “He’s with us,” I explained. Victoria, her hand firmly in Logan’s, led them both to stand in front of her father.

“He helped us escape,” she said.

“But didn’t he also help get you captured?” Derek demanded.

“Yes, but—it’s a long story,” I said.

“A story we don’t have time for now. We need to go,” Mr. Lexington called from around Victoria’s shoulder. I nodded.

“He’s right. We’re headed to—”

“Professor Flaherty’s,” Cambria finished for me. “Your mom called.”

“We can caravan but we have to go,” Mr. Lexington said in a wavering voice that belied his anxiety. I caught him staring into the shadows where the two Werewolves that had attacked Victoria now lay, courtesy of Logan and Cambria judging by the metal stakes protruding.

“He’s right,” Derek said slowly, obviously wary of Mr. Lexington’s allegiance. “There will be more like these. They travel in packs, especially the ones bent on this kind of revenge.” He moved away, toward the red sedan they’d arrived in, still parked and running at the curb where he’d left it. He ducked inside and returned with a mouthful of clothes before disappearing behind a cropping of trees.

“You want to ride with us?” Cambria asked me. “We can fill you in and catch up on everything.”

I hesitated, debating my options, and then sighed. “I think it’s better if Victoria rides with you guys. You only really have room for one more anyway. I’ll see you there,” I said.

Cambria looked disappointed but nodded. “Okay, that works,” she said.

Logan gave me a grateful smile and led Victoria toward their waiting car. She caught my eye and held it for a moment before giving me a tiny nod. I gave her one back, grateful she wouldn’t say anything about Steppe until I was ready. Derek returned, human and clothed, and slid into the driver’s seat of his waiting car. I waved and followed Mr. Lexington to the van, the glow of the street lights falling away as I went.

That was a close one. If not for your friends coming along, I’d hate to think what would’ve happened. Strange how the whole world thinks you’re the one who caused their problems.

I remembered what Grandma and my mom had said about the world being different. And the video footage everyone kept bringing up, evidence of my supposed crimes.

Not strange,
I said.
Or surprising. Of course you’d paint me to be the bad guy. You’re becoming more and more predictable, really. It’s almost boring.

A smirk formed, painting itself along the walls of my mind until it stretched from left to right. I ignored it and climbed inside the van, opting for the empty bench seat and strapping myself in.

I gave a fleeting once-over to Steppe, who still sat in the far corner, and then faced forward. Astor was in the front seat munching on sunflower seeds.

“Everything all right?” he asked, unconcerned and thankfully unaware.

Clearly, he hadn’t been filled in on what’d just gone on at the other end of the lot. “Everything’s fine,” I assured him as Mr. Lexington slid in and shut the door. “Derek, Cambria, and Logan caught up. They’re going to follow.”

“That’s your young scientist friend, yes?” Astor asked, spitting a few seeds out the open window as we eased forward.

“Yes,” I told him.

Astor grunted. “I like him all right. More than that baseball player, anyway.”

“George plays football,” I corrected.

“Well. I forgive him,” he said before upturning the bag and sliding the last mouthful of seeds onto his tongue. I decided to leave that one alone.

“Crap, the phone,” I said, sitting forward and patting my empty pockets. “It fell out of my hands before and...” I sat back and caught Mr. Lexington’s eyes in the rearview. “Sorry,” I finished.

“Here,” he said, holding out something squared off and black.

“Another phone?” I asked, taking it and turning it over in my palm, already preparing to redial Wes. My heart hammered at the thought of simply hearing his voice. And worry—for what he might’ve done once the call dropped. How worried he’d sounded when I’d stopped responding. And after he’d been drinking...