Blood Rule (Book 4, Dirty Blood series) (22 page)

He looked sleepy and distracted and
absolutely gorgeous. My pulse sped at the sight of him.

As it had so many times before,
something in me pulled toward something in him. His head turned
reflexively. When he saw me sitting, he changed direction and
sitting next to me on the couch.

“
Good morning, beautiful,”
he said, his lips brushing my cheek before trailing lower, below my
ear.

I turned so our lips met. The kiss was
slow and lingering and despite it being our only contact, my
insides heated by the time he pulled away.

“
Good morning,” I said. My
voice was breathy with the effects of the kiss but his expression
changed, his amusement fading to concern. I stilled as he traced
his fingertips down my face and tucked a strand of hair behind my
ear.

“
You didn’t sleep well?”
he asked.

“
I wanted some time to
think.”

“
About?”

“
That.” I nodded at Vera’s
journal, which he’d shoved aside when he sat down.

“
Anything good in here?”
he asked, picking it up and thumbing absently through the
pages.

“
She saw so much more than
I realized.”

“
Like what?”

I flipped to the entries I’d read
earlier. “Read these,” I said.

While he did, I got up and poked
around the kitchen. I found the makings of coffee and got a pot
going. My hands needed something to do.

Wes followed me in and leaned against
the kitchen counter while he read. “Wow.” He finished the first
entry and flipped to the second. His expression darkened as he
read.

“
Did you see any of that?”
I asked when he’d set the journal aside.

“
You mean during my
once-a-month thought perusal?”

I nodded. “You said you saw me before
we met. I thought maybe you’d seen some of this.”

“
Sorry, no. Vera always
guarded her thoughts pretty closely. I never saw anything she
didn’t want to share.” His voice was tight. I tried to ignore it. I
couldn’t deal with his jealousy right now. I needed answers.
Facts.

“
And you think she didn’t
want to share these?”

“
Probably not. She never
told me about them. Or anyone else, it seems.”

“
How do you
know?”

“
I can read Jack and Fee
pretty well. If she’d told them, they never thought about it around
me. And she says in the journal that she kept certain things from
Fee.”

My shoulders fell. “I
understand.”

His features relaxed some. “Sorry I
can’t help. That second entry …”

“
I know.”

Wes closed the distance and put his
arms around me, his cheek against my hair. We stood that way,
neither of us speaking, both of us swaying in a gentle rocking
motion as we held each other. I was lost in thoughts of visions and
futures and wishing Vera was well enough to talk about it. Or that
Alex would wake up and explain himself. My worry was a dark cloud
permeating everything, including the void.

“
It’s going to be all
right,” he said finally.

I nodded against his shoulder,
listening to the percolating of the coffee behind me, and trying to
hold on to the peace that had found its way into the moment. Right
here, in the circle of Wes’s arms, I could pretend he was right.
That everything would be fine. I inhaled deeply, held it, blew it
out again. My mind quieted by another fraction.

It was working.

A sudden scream, high pitched and
abrupt in its end, shattered the moment. My breath caught and I
jerked free of Wes. “What the hell?” he began.

The scream came again. My eyes widened
as I recognized it. “Emma.” I took off for the stairs with Wes on
my heels.

We reached the girls’ bedroom as
George came out of his own, bleary-eyed and manic. He looked back
and forth between us, breathless. “What happened?” he
demanded.

“
Don’t know.” Without
knocking, I swung the door open and stepped inside the girls’
room—and almost tripped over Werewolf-Janie. She jumped when the
door hit her flank and then retreated farther into the corner with
a whine.

“
Janie?” I called. She
didn’t look at me.

I followed her gaze back to the center
of the room. Emma lay on the floor, writhing and wriggling against
some unseen torture. Her body rippled, shimmering in and out of
focus as two arms became fur-covered paws and then shimmered back
to arms in the space of a blink. At the moment, her face was human
save for the ears and her expression was one of intense pain.
Between screams, she whimpered or sobbed depending on the form her
torso and throat took.

“
Emma?” I took a tentative
step forward, unsure how to help or which form to take to do
so.

At the sound of my voice, her back
arched violently and she shook.

George pressed against me, shoving me
aside, and went to her. He kneeled in front of her and grabbed her
hand, stroking her fur-covered arm. “Emma, it’s me. What’s
happening?”

“
She’s stuck,” I said,
propelled into motion by his reaction. I went to Emma’s other side
and took her other hand. “Emma, we’re here. You need to shift. One
form or the other.”

“
I can’t,” she said from a
human jaw before it shifted again.

“
You have to. You can’t be
both,” I said.

“
Why is it hurting her?”
George asked. “Shifting shouldn’t hurt.”

“
I don’t know,” I said.
“Maybe she’s staying too long in the between.”

Emma cried out and went still,
unmoving except for the muscle in her jaw. A whine escaped her
closed mouth. I suspected it covered up a scream.

Janie whined back from the
corner.

“
Wes, take her out,” I
said, nodding my head at Janie.

Janie shook her head and backed
against the wall in protest. Wes halted. I locked eyes with Janie,
making sure she knew I meant business. “I need you to wait
downstairs. She needs the space. I’ll help her, okay?”

Janie stared me down, unyielding. I
summoned what I could of the alpha while still in human form. “I
mean it. Go,” I said.

She didn’t budge.

Something in her eyes flickered—an
orange spark behind the usual yellow. It danced and flared and even
when I summoned the alpha in me enough to make my skin ripple, the
brightness in her eyes didn’t fade.

I tensed, on the edge between human
and wolf. There was something more in her than worry for Emma.
George moved to join me but I waved him back. Seeing George stand
with me would set Janie further on the defensive.

Wes wasn’t as easy to dismiss. He
walked over so we stood shoulder to shoulder and then took a step
toward Janie. I slipped my hand into his to hold him in
place.

“
Janie,” I called,
softening my tone.

With Nick, I’d been hard. No mercy.
Maybe this time, if I showed her that I cared, it would get through
to her in a way I couldn’t with him. “I’m going to help Emma
shift,” I told her. “I’m on your side. You can trust me. I care
about Emma. About both you.”

Janie’s eyes burned brighter. “Get
away from my sister,” she growled.

“
Janie, I’m going to help
her.”

“
Look at her. You don’t
help. You hurt.”

“
Janie,” I said, ignoring
the insult. She was trying to incite a reaction. I didn’t need a
bond to sense her desire for a fight. “I am your alpha. I will
always protect you.”

“
What about Nick? Did you
protect him?”

Wes growled at that, a ferocious sound
despite the fact that he was still human. I chose my words
carefully and spoke them slowly, deliberately. “I protected you and
the rest of the world from what was in him. Now, step aside so I
can help Emma.”

Behind me, Emma let out another whine.
It only further agitated Janie. She pawed the floor, her nails
leaving behind scratches in the wood.

“
She’s hurting,” Janie
spat. “And it’s all because of you.”

“
Janie, listen to her—”
George began, but Janie cut him off.

“
No! I’m tired of
listening.” Her eyes clouded over in a yellow fog and then she
lunged.

Wes shoved me, but Janie was fast and
the space was small. Janie’s claws ripped across the edges of my
shoulder and caught my cheek as my skin began stretching into
something animal.

My flesh tore even as it became that
of a wolf. My knees buckled under the sudden flare of pain and my
belly hit the ground. The bond screamed at me, unintelligible and
black, as Janie was taken under by whatever she’d embraced when
she’d rejected me. There was no intention of stopping in her mind.
She wanted blood.

I knew what had to be done.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw
Janie coming again. I tried to get to my feet but my legs moved
like liquid. My face burned. My mind was a hurricane of darkness
with a tiny sliver of light at the edges that I suspected was
George. He’d dragged Emma’s writhing form against the far wall and
was shoving her underneath the bed to protect her. She was hurting.
Her pain only added to my own.

I couldn’t stand. And Janie was
coming, teeth first.

But then a russet wolf was there,
hovering over me until he blocked out my view of Janie entirely.
His fur stood on end as he locked eyes with his target. And then he
lurched forward, meeting Janie head-on.

I felt rather than saw Wes lock his
teeth against Janie’s throat. The pain in my face burned and
traveled into my own neck, pulsing there like the beat of a drum. I
swallowed, but it stuck in my throat. My mouth opened in a silent
scream. Part of me wanted to demand he stop. My instinct was to
protect Janie—and holy hell, did it hurt!—but another part of me
knew he was doing what was necessary.

Janie was lost.

Whatever had taken her place was a
danger. An enemy. And there was no way left to save her except to
end it.

Abruptly, the drumbeat ceased and the
darkness in my mind dispersed. Wes let go and turned back to me. It
wasn’t until he came forward and drew a rough tongue up the wounds
on my face that I realized his sadness was concern for me, not the
loss of her.

But the wound on my face was nothing
compared to the hole in my chest.

“
You okay?” he
asked.

I nodded. The scratches on my cheek
tingled as the Werewolf blood in my veins worked to heal the cuts.
My shoulder was already closed, nothing more than a
scar.

“
I’m sorry, Tara,” Wes
said quietly.

I nodded again. I didn’t have
words.

A hand fell lightly onto my shoulder.
I spun, startled, and found Emma—fully human—staring back at me.
Her blue eyes were wide but clear. Her hair stuck to her neck and
her cheeks were flushed with the effort it’d taken to take a single
form. She glanced over my shoulder at the still form of her sister
and her bottom lip trembled.

“
Emma, I’m so sorry,” I
said, my voice cracking.

She shook her head. “It’s not your
fault. She … We both felt it. I fought but … she gave
in.”

“
Are you all right?” Wes
asked her. He looked her over from top to bottom, though he still
hovered in front of me. Her shape was solid. Two arms, torso, two
legs. Even through the bond, she seemed firmer.
Together.

“
I think so.” She looked
down at her arms and legs. “I feel … like me.”

“
No darkness?” he pressed,
squinting as he tried to gauge the truth of her words.

“
No darkness.” She glanced
back at George and when he came forward, she smiled at him. It was
tentative and shy and reminded me of that first time I’d noticed
her looking at him in the woods back in Virginia.

Something fluttered through the bond.
It distracted me—and judging from the look on his face, him too.
“Thank you for holding my hand,” she told him quietly.

“
Of course,” he told her.
“I’m glad you’re okay.”

She nodded at him and then turned her
attention back to Janie. “What will we do with her?” Emma
asked.

“
Bury her,” Wes
said.

“
When you’re ready,” I
added. Emma nodded wordlessly. I looked at Wes. “I’m going to shift
in our room so I can get some clothes.”

“
I’ll walk you,” he
said.

I followed him to the door. When I
looked back, Emma leaned against George, her shoulders shaking with
silent sobs. Even if I wanted to, there wasn’t a thing I could say
to comfort her. With a nudge from Wes, I slipped out and left them
alone. Emma could say her goodbye and then we would bury one third
of my pack.

Another one lost to the
darkness.

I came awake to an electronic pulse
mixing with the nightmarish replay of Janie coming at me again and
again. At the sound, I sat bolt upright and stared wild-eyed around
the room until I realized the buzzing was a vibration. The phone’s
ring had been set to silent. Somehow, in sleep it’d seemed as loud
as a fire alarm.