Moon Crossed (Werewolf Hunter Series): Season 1 (Episodes 1-6) (Crescent Hunter) (63 page)

“Why don't we
talk about it next week? We'll see if you're ready.”

“I
am
ready,” I insist.

“I'll go with
her,” Zane offers.

“We'll talk next
week.” Hayden gets up from the table. “I'm going to see
what info we can get about the lab.”

We hug by the door. “Be
careful, and I really am ready to get back out there.”

“I know. I'm just
not sure I'm ready for you to be back out there.” He tilts his
head to the side.

I smile. “Let me
know.”

“I will.”
Hayden leaves.

Zane sits and makes the
offer. “I'm on patrol tonight. You could probably come with
me.”

“Nah, I'm going
to keep my nose clean. Besides, I've still got plenty of samples to
run in the lab.” I get up from the table to take a shower. “If
I don't see you before you go, be careful.”

He hugs me. “I
will.”

Seventy days

I
couldn't have asked for a better birthday present; well, maybe the
boys coming home, but this is second best. I'm so close to a cure.
The fact that I'm almost completely sure that hybrids can't get the
moon-touch has gone a long way in my research. I've always had a
feeling that hybrid blood could somehow be helpful. Isolating the
immunity factor is what’s difficult.

I really need more
samples, but I'll get them. Hayden's going to be letting me back out
on patrol. I don't think he realizes that I need to keep myself busy.
It helps take my mind off of everything.

My cell phone dings
from underneath a pile of papers that I have to dig through to find
it.

Hey, Chica, you
home? ~Lili

Whoa, I haven't seen her since the funeral; she hugged me, but we
didn't talk. What does she want? It's pretty sad that I'm wondering
what her motive is, instead of my first thought being that maybe
she's here to wish me a happy birthday.

What's up? ~Claire

I want to see you.
~Lili

Hmm, do I trust her? Do
I set myself up for an ambush? I can let her in and put the
protections up on the house. But that would be a problem for Ben. I'm
pretty sure he's still upstairs.

Hey, are you still
here?
I reach out to him telepathically.

Yeah, just got out
of the shower. Did you need something?
he answers.

No, just wondering.

I stare at my phone for
a solid minute.
Sure. I'll be here for a bit. ~Claire

See you in five.
~Lili

I go upstairs and clean
myself up a bit. I hope she's alone. I really don't want to see
Lenny.

“Hey, I was
thinking we could try to do something normal tonight. Like maybe
watch a movie or something,” Ben says, coming down the stairs.

“Maybe, we'll
see.” I look at the door, waiting for Lili to get here.

“What's up?”
Ben eyes me.

“Lili's coming.”
I say it slowly.

“Weird.” We
look at the door like we're expecting it to do some kind of a trick.
“If it's okay, I'd like to hang out. You know, make sure
everything's cool.”

“Yeah, that's
cool. But we may go up to my room for girl talk if she needs it.”
I shrug. “Maybe she broke up with Lenny and needs to chat.”

He shrugs and goes into
the kitchen. “I wouldn't want to interrupt your
girl talk
.”

I open the door and
Lili walks up the steps and straight through the door. She turns to
me with a worried expression. “Hey.”

“Hey, are you
okay?” I ask her.

She looks around the
house. “Is anyone here?”

“Yeah.” I
narrow my eyes at her. “What's up?”

“I need to talk
to you privately.” She heads for the stairs.

“Sure.” I
follow.

We get up to my room
and she sits on the bed, putting her backpack on the floor. She's not
looking me in the eye and worrying the edge of her shirt. I remain
silent and wait for her to start talking.

“How are you
holding up, you know, since...” Her concern sounds genuine.

I pull my lips in to
hold back my emotion. “I'm okay.”

She matches my
expression. “I didn't really get a chance to talk to you at the
service.” She looks back down at her feet. “But thanks
for letting us come.”

“You're my
friend, Lili. Of course I wanted you to come.” I don't even
know what that means anymore. Friend.

“Well, thank
you.” She nods and shuffles her feet on the braided carpet.

“How is
everything?” I ask, wanting to get to why she's here.

“Good.”

“Lenny? How's
he?”

“He's good.”
She looks away and we have another long bit of silence.

I can't help but ask
about the boys. “How's Locke?”

“I really haven't
seen him.” She continues looking everywhere in the room.

“Oh, have you
seen Tor?”

“No.” Her
short answers are killing me. She either wants to talk or she
doesn't.

I'm ashamed, but have
to ask, “What about Cole?”

She shoots me a
venomous look. “I haven't seen him and I'm glad.”

My head hangs.

“Claire, I really
wish you would let him go,” she pleads.

“If only I could.
Do you really think I want to love him?” I throw my head back
in frustration.

“Love?” Her
expression twists with disgust. “Cole Jackson is an asshole
womanizer who wouldn't know love if you shoved a
Love For Dummies
book up his ass.”

“Wow, when you
put it that way...” My eyes widen and I can't help but wonder
why she's so upset with him.

“Just trust me on
this?” she says, then gets very silent. I want to ask her more
about it, but she's not going to elaborate. She fidgets quietly on
the bed and it's driving me a little crazy.

“Lili?”
This silence sucks.

“Yeah?”

“Why are you
here?” I ask her point blank.

“Oh, Claire,
I-I-” She looks at her backpack. “There's something you
need to know.”

“Okay, tell me.”
I try not to snap at her, but I don't want her to beat around the
bush anymore.

“I was helping
out at the compound.” She looks around nervously and speaks in
a hushed tone. “And I found some things.” She shakes her
head. “I should have just put them away, not touched them and
moved on. But something told me that I needed to look at them,
and when I saw them I knew you needed to see this.” She reaches
into her backpack and pulls out a stack of papers, handing them to
me.

“What is this?”
I thumb through the photocopied notebook pages. The dates on the
ledgers go back as far as twenty-five years. I continue to scan the
pages quickly to see if I can discern what they are. I come to a page
with molecular structures and immediately recognize the moon-touch
and the hybrid gene markers. “Oh my God.” It rides out on
a horrified whisper.

“What is it?”
Lili worries her hands together.

“Where did you
get this?” I ask her, shaking the pages.

“Pike's office,”
she answers nervously.

I blow out a troubled
breath. “He's been experimenting on hybrids.”

“What do you mean
by hybrids?” Lili asks.

“Hybrids are a
cross between a wolf and a hunter. He's been experimenting on them
for years.” I sit next to her on the bed in shock.

She looks at me with
great apprehension. “What are you going to do?”

“I don't know. I
have to talk to Hayden, but I think we need to bring this to the
council.” I shake my head in disgust.

“Claire.”
She looks at me with worried eyes. “I'm worried about Lenny.
Things are...bad.”

“What do you
mean?” I don't know how she thinks I can help.

“Pike is really
losing it.” She shrinks back on the bed. “And I'm pretty
sure he's launching an all-out war on other packs and hunters.”

“Yeah, we already
know that.” I pull my lips to the side. “It's coming.”

“What are you
going to do?” she asks.

“Fight.”

Sitting at the kitchen
table and sulking over Lili not so much as mentioning my birthday
feels as pathetic as it is. I don't know why I bothered showering
because no one's going to come see me. Oh my God, listen to me.
“Nobody loves me, everybody hates me, I'm gonna eat some
worms–”

“Seriously, why
would you eat worms?” Ben says, coming into the kitchen.

Not realizing he was
here, I could die from embarrassment. I'm so used to his presence
that it doesn't really put me on alert anymore. “It's just a
song my Da used to sing when I got pouty.”

“Are we feeling
pouty today, little Claire Bear?” he asks in condescending baby
talk, putting both hands on my shoulders.

I swat him away. “Shut
up.”

“So, what's up?”
he asks, going to the fridge.

“Nothin'.”
I fidget with my phone.

“Why are you
dressed?” He eyes me curiously.

I quirk my brow at him.

“I mean, like...”
He's trying to recover. “You brushed your hair and stuff.”
Poorly.

“Thanks, Ben.”
I roll my eyes.

“What I mean is
that you always look beautiful. But it seems like you've made an
effort.” He looks down at his feet. “I'm failing at this.
Please stop me.”

“It's okay.”
I laugh a little. “I know what you mean.”

“I'm glad to see
you taking steps to rejoin the living is all that I'm trying to say.”
He comes back to where I'm sitting and holds his hand out for me to
stand up. He circles his arms around me in a comforting hug. “I
know it's been hard on you.”

I hold back the tears,
because right now I don't want to cry anymore. I don't want to think
about Aunt Rain, the boys, the information Lili brought me, none of
it. “It has, but you being here has made things almost
bearable. Thank you.”

“I care about you
and I'm here for you,” he says, squeezing me tighter. “Porch?”

“Sure, I was
about to go out anyway.” I put my coat on and head for the
door.

Ben starts the heater.
The days aren't freezing yet, but the nights are rather chilly; it
doesn't help much, but I notice when it's not on.

I plop down in my
chair, lighting my cigarette with Cole's lighter. Ben eyes my
lighter. “You still using that thing? I would have thought
you'd have gotten rid of it.”

I shrug, looking away.
“I still have a bunch of his stuff. I was hoping he'd come back
for it.”

Seriousness clouds his
demeanor as he leans forward, taking my hand. “Claire, I don't
want to be harsh, but you already know that Cole isn't coming back.”

“I know, but what
am I supposed to do with the stuff?” I shake my head.

“Throw it away,”
he says without emotion.

“I can't throw it
away.” I look at him like he's crazy.

“Look.” He
pauses, tilting his head with remorse. “He didn't leave
anything here that he cares about.”

Ouch.

I know he means me. I'd
throw myself away if I could. “I know, you're right.”

“So don't hold on
to it. He doesn't care about you or any of the crap he left behind.”
He leans back in his chair. “Just let it go.”

“You make it
sound so simple.” I can't look him in the eye.

“It is. You've
said it yourself a hundred times: he never cared about you. You were
nothing but a conquest to him. It's true.”

We sit in silence for a
solid minute while I contemplate how much it feels like I'm digging
my heart out with a rusty spoon every time I think about the fact
that Cole never cared. He took advantage of me, used me, and doesn't
even have the decency to miss me a little bit, send me a text on my
birthday, or even acknowledge my existence. Yet I still try to hang
on. “But this is a really bad ass lighter.” I hold it up.

“Hmm, it is.
But...” He draws the word out. “What if you had an even
better bad ass lighter?”

“I'm not going to
buy myself a lighter. Not one of these anyway.” No way, they're
like fifty bucks.