Blessed (32 page)

“Jealousy, directed at a newcomer whose intellect made them look like mere animals by comparison.” A chastised male began to whine, and Ivo conked him on the head with a crutch. “I say a Wolf is as strong as his loyalties, even more so when they are tested to extremes.

“I won’t pretend to understand why you would fight alongside Satan’s minions or take one as your mate.”

His words shocked my teeth back to normal. Zachary had to be horrified.

“Yet as it was foretold, the End Days are coming. We face an era of great change, fear, and uncertainty, but at the same time, an era of great heroism. Should you succeed in defeating the Abomination, young one, you shall be welcomed back to the training pack as a member in full standing. You shall be admitted to study demonic history and sorcery by my side. You shall be welcomed back with feast and song and remembered in legend until the last Wolf draws his last breath.”

Very poetic, but what? Was Kieren leaving with us to chase down Bradley? Was that what he and Ivo had been talking about in the
biergarten
?

“You will be celebrated . . .” Ivo glared at me. “No matter the mistakes you have made. We understand too well the seductive power of evil.”

Ouch. Still, the professor had just offered everything that Miz Morales had ever dreamed of for her son, everything that Kieren worked his whole life to earn.

So long as we succeeded in defeating the Abomination.

Kieren raised his gaze to challenge Ivo’s and reached for my hand. “Quincie has
never
been a mistake.”

The SUV had been crowded before, but I didn’t mind sitting on Kieren’s lap. I curled my fingers in his hair, feeling guilty because, inside, I was celebrating.

I understood that Kieren had seen the pack as the answer to mastering his shift. I understood that — like me — he’d have to struggle not to hurt anyone. I knew what a burden that could be, and it made more sense to me now why he’d felt he had to leave in the first place. But despite all of that, the ongoing threat, Clyde’s dire condition, and the fact that the infected — including Aimee — were facing impending undeath . . .

No matter that none of it could end well, in that moment, my only thought was,
Kieren is coming home. With me.

I glanced at Aimee in the back row with Clyde’s legs in her lap. She opened my copy of
Dracula
and offered me a little wave that said she was happy that Kieren and I had been reunited for good, even if he was in a big, bad mood.

I appreciated the support. I’d needed more girlfriends near my own age.

Since I’d had to get along without Kieren, I’d connected with new people . . . Mrs. Levy and Mr. Wu . . . Clyde and Aimee . . . Nora, Freddy, and Zachary. And I’d nearly cemented myself in the Morales family.

Harrison, I could take or leave. Because of course the person that I liked least was the other neophyte. It still mystified me why Zachary had let him come along. Maybe, though, it was because he had access to things like on-call private jets.

Over an hour later, we arrived at Detroit Metro Airport. Alongside a small business jet that Harrison called Dracul One, Zachary pitched the car keys to him.

“You’re sure?” the vampire asked. “I’d understand if you’d rather that Freddy —”

“Nice of you to say so,” my GA replied. “But you were her friend, too.”

Zachary’s great love, Miranda, I realized. The SUV had belonged to her.

“How ’bout I ride with you?” Freddy asked his twin.

Harrison paused. “I was hoping to stop by the castle. There’s something I’d like to pick up along the way.”

“No problem,” was the reply.

The plane’s interior resembled a long, narrow luxury-hotel suite. Custom cabinetry, black leather chairs, ottomans, and sofas. Plush black carpet with a red border, two bathrooms with black marble sinks, a shower. There was even a new-car smell.

On a side table, I noticed a glam shot of Sabine on the cover of
Eternal Elegance
magazine. Beside it, a silver decanter held a warmed bottle of blood-infused Cabernet.

Aimee, still carrying Stoker’s
Dracula,
observed, “Evil travels in style.”

Zachary and Kieren hauled Clyde up the stairs and through the length of the jet to a bedroom in the back. Aimee followed, saying she’d watch over him.

The angel grabbed a cup of coffee from the galley and then slid into the desk chair of the small executive office. “I’ll give Nora a call, see how it’s going at Sanguini’s, and ask her to contact Kieren’s parents. That’ll give them time to process what she has to say before we touch down.” Damage control.

Up front, Kieren sank into the leather sofa in the lounge area, but I lingered outside the office doorway. “About Freddy, you know, traveling with Harrison . . .”

Zachary looked out a side window at the twins walking toward the hangar. “Don’t let their bickering fool you. They’re more devoted to each other than either would admit, and Freddy is much tougher than he seems.”

“Still, Sabine’s castle? Where humans equal appetizers?”

“Freddy has been there hundreds of times before,” Zachary replied. “Remember, he and Harrison were raised by servants of the vamp aristocracy. As an adult, Freddy spent much of his career interacting with the undead hierarchy, royalty included, as an event coordinator. Plus, Harrison is a neophyte.”

Leaning against the doorway, I said, “So he still has a soul.”

Zachary pulled his cell phone out of his jeans pocket. “That’s right.”

“But no GA,” I whispered, shooting a look down the aisle at Kieren.

“That’s right, too.”

I moved to stand across from the desk. “It’s not right. It’s not fair. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not Harrison’s biggest fan. But he needs help, too.”

“Which,” Zachary said, “is why Freddy wanted to spend some time with him.”

Kieren and I hadn’t talked much on the way to the airport — too crowded. But I knew him well enough to tell he had mixed feelings about leaving the Wolf pack. And I suspected he wasn’t looking forward to dealing with his mama’s disappointment, either.

I understood that Miz Morales was concerned about Kieren’s inability to fully shift and the dangers that came with that, but the pack hadn’t been able to help him. And while I didn’t know the whole story, it struck me as deeply hypocritical that Meara seemed to want her children to take exclusively after their Wolf heritage, especially since she herself had given up pack life over twenty years earlier.

“How’re you doing?” I asked.

Kieren held up the copy of
Eternal Elegance
magazine. “Scary.”

With a grin, I reached into my backpack and presented him with the U.T. admission letter that I’d found when I cleaned out his school locker. “Check this out.”

Kieren briefly brightened, then sobered again. “Quince, I’m still not safe to be —”

“How about we try some optimism?” I suggested. “We’re together again. So what if everything’s not perfect? Let’s take it one disaster at a time.”

He still looked doubtful. “Some things never change. My mom, for instance.”

“Oh, yeah?” I booted my cell and showed him a pic of his folks decked out as Gomez and Morticia.

“Quincie!” Zachary called. “Phone!”

I hurried to join my GA in the small office toward the back of the plane.

“Can’t talk long, hon,” Nora cheerfully reported on the other end of the call. “Sergio’s waiting to go over some changes in the meat order. How ’bout you swing by tomorrow, and we’ll get caught up?”

It didn’t surprise me that they’d both gone in on a Sunday. With Sergio hovering, though, she couldn’t speak freely. Especially since he was among the infected. I was sure Zachary would fill me in on whatever he’d gleaned from the call, but I also wanted to hear the latest news from the chef herself.

“On a scale of one to five,” I began, “one being a picnic basket of bunnies and cream puffs and five being ‘holy crap,’ how’re we doing?”

“Between three and four,” she replied. “I’d say I should have some time to chat then. But you feel free to stop by anytime. After all, you’re the boss.”

Translation: some funkiness had ensued at Sanguini’s, but nothing that couldn’t wait till morning. I hoped.

At Zachary’s suggestion, I’d hung back in the plane and let Kieren go down first to meet his parents, so all I knew about their reunion was that, afterward, he was quieter.

Later, back at the Morales house, Roberto had called Clyde’s parents while Meara examined the Possum, who’d been stationed on the fold-out sofa in their home office.

I’d expected yelling, grounding, that the Moraleses would confiscate the keys to Kieren’s truck and The Banana and ban me from Sanguini’s until I turned twenty-one.

At least for the moment, though, they’d seemed too relieved to see us home alive and too freaked out about Clyde’s coma to bother.

“It’s not good,” Miz Morales told us, “but you were smart to bring him to me. I have a call in to Detective Zaleski. He should be able to obtain a few spell ingredients.”

Unlike the students at the Wolf pack, Meara didn’t turn to healing magic lightly.

Good magic. Evil magic. The cost of magic. I was starting to appreciate why Sabine avoided it to the extent possible.

“How can we help?” Kieren asked.

His mama poked him in the injured ribs, making both of us wince. “Stay out of trouble.” She frowned at her son. “I want to hear everything that happened — later.”

I briefly considered cutting out of the house for a few minutes, giving the Moraleses their privacy and swinging by Sanguini’s for fresh porcine blood. But Roberto had mentioned ordering pizza, and it was time to play human girl again.

That’s when Meghan opened the front door, having just been dropped off by a friend’s parent. She caught Kieren’s scent and, yelping, thundered up the stairs.

We intercepted her halfway on the landing.

“Kieren!” she shouted, clamping onto his leg. “Kieren, Kieren, Kieren!”

I understood exactly how she felt.

I begged off the pepperoni pizza, explaining that I didn’t have the energy to eat, and trudged upstairs to Kieren’s room to turn in for the night. He’d insisted that I take the water bed, claiming that it was easier on his ribs to sleep on a more solid surface.