Bloodmark (14 page)

“Why?”

“Father just said no. I wasn’t even allowed to be alone with a boy who wasn’t family.” I laughed at the irony. At that moment, I sat alone on the beach with Grey, whom I had just spent the night snuggling with. Father would have a stroke if he knew. The vein in his forehead would burst right out of his big forehead. Mund would be mad too, but at himself for not fulfilling his duty to protect me. I was definitely rebelling against everything they had taught me, but I didn’t care. This was my chance to finally live my life.

“You didn’t hang out with boys who weren’t family? Not even friends?”

“Nope,” I said. “Just hung out with Mund and sometimes Quinn, but they’re my brothers.”

“None of your brothers’ friends either?” he asked.

“Father tried to set me up with Brychan once. One of his friends’ sons. But I didn’t want to marry him.”

“Marry him? You’re sixteen.”

“Yeah. Father thought he was a good choice,” I said. “I disagreed.”

“But you’re sixteen.”

“Actually, I was fourteen at the time, but we wouldn’t have been married until my eighteenth birthday. It was more of a betrothal.”

His nose crinkled up in disgust as he sat quietly watching the water rise up over his feet and back out to sea. I wasn’t betrothed now. I was free to love anyone I chose, and I chose him.

“Why didn’t you want to be with Brychan?”

I saw the truth in his eyes. “Don’t you mean, why did I choose you instead?”

He smiled, flicking sand on my feet, but the sea just washed it away. He was just as neurotic as I was. We both couldn’t seem to see in ourselves what the other one saw.

“Grey, I choose you. I will always choose you. I adore everything about you. But why do you want to be with me? You have so much more experience than I do.”

“I fell in love with you the moment I saw you walk into Baran’s shop that morning. You looked so entirely silly and sexy at the same time, wearing his Carhartt pants. I wanted to love you and protect you. I felt compelled to always protect you from any harm and be by your side, always. I can’t explain why,” he said. “I’ve only ever dated Lacey. And that was on and off since we were children. Her mom was one of my mom’s friends. So after my mom died, Lacey’s mom would baby-sit me when Dad was gone for work. Lacey and I are polar opposites. Over the course of our dating, we spent more time broken up than we did together. She always said I was too distant. And I didn’t talk to her, but I never felt comfortable talking to her. The last time we broke up was . . .”

“Was what?” I asked.

“It was stupid.”

“What happened?”

“Well, it was because she wanted to have sex, and I told her no. I know it sounds dumb, but I didn’t want to waste it on someone I didn’t really love. And she had already cheated on me so many times.”

“That’s not dumb.”

“It’s kind of embarrassing.”

I leaned over and kissed his cheek, and he pulled me into his arms, layering kisses on my earlobe and neck as we lay there, watching the sky as morning approached. The beach was beginning to populate with people who watched us curiously.

“Let’s get out of here. It’s feeling too crowded,” he said.

We drove down the beach where the water made the sand dark and wet, past everyone’s prying eyes. It would be hard to hide our relationship now that we made it so public, but I didn’t care. I would stand next to him and fight any battle.

The drive to my house was almost painful. I knew it meant he was leaving me there for the day. I hated the idea, but it was inevitable. He said he had stuff to do before his father got back. He came in to use the bathroom, and I found myself plotting how to keep him. Not that I couldn’t live through the day. I just wanted him to stay. He walked across the living room to where I sat and straddled me. He kissed my cheeks, first one then the other, followed by my chin, nose, and forehead. Then he stood to leave, but I wanted a kiss, a real kiss. I grabbed his arm and pulled his face back down to mine, kissing him until there was no breath left in either of us. He panted breath back into his lungs as he slightly tripped on his way to the door.

I spent the rest of the day and night dreaming of him. I couldn’t get him off my mind, and Sunday evening came before I knew it. I sat at the kitchen table, sketching the slain wolf from Grey’s T-shirt. I shaded in the wolf head, making it darker and more intense. There was something trapped in its expression. Was it fear?

The front door swung open, and Baran stumbled in, cussing in the language of the Bloodmoon. It was obvious he was enraged. I darted into the living room. His movements were murderous, and I was frozen in fear. Did he know I disobeyed him?

I started to back away from his fury, but his anger vibrated through my spine. I felt unable to speak and even more afraid to move. I watched him pace back and forth around the room, flinching every time he looked in my direction.

I smelled a human’s scent on him, one I recognized, but I couldn’t remember whose it was. It was accompanied by several wolves’ scents, a melding of unknowns, but one I did know.

Mund.

Panic started to take over, and my hands were shaking. If anything happened to Mund, a piece of me would die with him. He was all I had for so long. I couldn’t imagine living in a world without him. He was my only friend.

“Baran?”

He turned to me as though he noticed I was in the room for the first time. Pure hate poured out of his eyes. The door opened again, and Mund stumbled in. He was dirty, and his shirt torn, but it was him. I jumped past Baran into Mund’s arms, knocking him off the porch and onto the ground outside. All my fear disappeared. Despite Baran’s still raging voice, Mund laughed.

“I missed you too, kid,” he said as he stood up, throwing me over his shoulder, carrying me into the house. “I told you I would come for you.” He set me down on my own two feet and took in the sight of me. I was still wearing an oversize sweatshirt and a pair of hole-filled blue jeans.

“What?” I asked.

“It’s just odd to see you wearing anything but sheep hides.”

I shoved him playfully. “Just trying to fit in,” I said.

“You didn’t buy those with holes in them, did you?”

I grinned.

He shook his head and turned back to Baran, who was still pacing. “Let’s talk through this. What happened before I met up with you?”

I jumped on Mund’s back, but he tossed me on the sofa. “Come on, Ash, this is serious,” he said. I didn’t get to see him for weeks, and this was the welcome I got? I rolled my eyes and listened to their conversation.

Baran stopped moving and stared right through us, as though he were reliving it. “I went up into Canada to hunt, but on the way, I picked up a trail from a pack of wolves headed south into Michigan. So I tracked them. I picked up four scents. Two male, two female, and they were in a hurry. A human was tracking them. He moved on foot at speeds that matched, if not surpassed, theirs.

“I caught up to them to find only three remaining, and the remaining male was injured. The human had captured their companion. We tracked him, but it was too late, and the trap was set for us. That was where you picked up my trail and followed it to us, only to risk your own safety.”

I pulled my knees up to my chest and wrapped my arms around them. “What happened to the others?” I asked.

“Their companion, Leon, was dead before we got to him. The other three made it out alive. They headed back up into Canada,” Baran said. “I didn’t get a look at the Bloodsucker, but I will never forget his scent. Did you get a good look at him?”

Mund shook his head. “No. I kept my eyes on you.”

“The rumors are true—they’re back,” Baran said.

Mund shrugged and reached over, messing my hair into a snarly mess as he walked into the kitchen. “I see you haven’t changed a thing since I was here last,” he said, opening the fridge and scanning its contents.

“I get by,” Baran said.

“You’re drawing again, Ash, that’s great,” Mund said. I jumped up in a heartbeat, but my sketchbook was already in his hands. He looked at the drawing, then snapped his eyes up at me in dread and anger. “Do you know what this is?” he said, shoving the sketchbook in my direction. I shook my head no.

Baran pushed past me to see the drawing. “Where did you see this?”

I shook my head.

“Where did you see this?” Baran asked again.

“I don’t know,” I said. My heart pounded in my ears. “I dreamed it.”

He disappeared into his office and reappeared back again. He opened a large, hide-bound book, flipping through the hundreds of pages too quickly for a human to see any of the content. He removed a thin sheet of paper to reveal the same image I had drawn.

“The Bloodsuckers, as they are known, are the hunters of wolves, the original clan of human men Old Mother called on to hunt the forsaken packs. But when they started drinking wolf blood from our still-beating hearts, they absorbed our power and lusted for it and became Bloodsuckers. They began exterminating all werewolves from the earth. Our sacred blood gave them inhuman strength, speed, and sense of smell. The power corrupted them, and we became the hunted,” he said. “Most of what we know about them is just legend, but it is said if they drank the blood of an Elder God, they would corrupt all the human race. Without the love of animals, there is no measure for humanity. They were supposed to be extinct, but now . . .” he shook his head.

“After that human killed Leon with a silver blade and set the trap for us, and with Ashling’s drawing, I can’t assume it’s just coincidence any longer,” Mund said. “We have to take precautions. I will send for Quinn—we’ll need him. We have to keep Ashling safe.”

Baran studied my wide-eyed face. “I think you should join the school with her, Mund. Then you can stay close and protect her.”

“I agree,” he said and sat on the sofa. His spine stiffened, and he sniffed the air. “Baran, are you in the habit of letting humans in the house?”

“I don’t know, am I?” Baran asked.

“Grey dropped me off after the movie, and I let him use the bathroom,” I said trying to sound innocent.

“I told you to stay away from him,” Baran said.

Mund interrupted, “Who’s that?”

“Brenna’s son,” Baran said.

“Bloody hell,” Mund said. “Really?”

“Who’s Brenna?” I asked.

“None of your damn business, Ashling Boru. I gave you one rule to follow this weekend, and you couldn’t even do that. You will spend the next week locked in your room while you think about what you have done.”

I looked to Mund to save me from Baran’s unfair ruling. But he shook his head at me and said, “You best go, Ash.”

11

Free

Who was Brenna?
And how did Baran know her? That’s what I really wanted to know. Grey never said what his mother’s name was. Just that she died and how she died. I shivered remembering what he had said. Was Brenna why Baran didn’t want me around Grey? Or was there more to him and his secrets? I was old enough to hear what was bloody going on. Though, I shouldn’t have lied about where I saw the design . . . but I didn’t want to bring Grey into this, yet here he was. The center of all of it.

If Grey’s father was a Bloodsucker, then his father probably killed Leon. His job would be the perfect cover and would explain all the traps. But if Robert was a Bloodsucker . . . was Grey? Was Grey’s sole purpose in life to hunt me? Kill or be killed?

That sure was some kind of twisted Romeo and Juliet crap.

What kind of relationship ends well when the families are mortal enemies? I could name so many literary examples that all proved our love would be our demise. But for my entire life, I was told I wasn’t good enough, that I wasn’t part of the pack, so their rules didn’t apply to me. My life was my own. I just had to figure out what Grey was.

I knew Grey wasn’t a killer. He let me go that day in the forest. He didn’t know it was me, but he chose to let me go. I spent the night at his house, alone, and he didn’t hurt me. It didn’t make any sense. Unless I was the bait, and the trap was set to catch my family too. I couldn’t believe he would hurt me. I believed he loved me as much as I loved him. I needed to stop scaring myself. The self-torture bit was getting old. We loved each other.

Was his father a Bloodsucker? Robert was a very dominating, old-fashioned man, and there was the house, the carvings, the wallpaper, the wolf rug . . . my skin crawled with the memory. If his father was a Bloodsucker, maybe Grey chose not to be and that was what caused the friction between them.

Footsteps on the stairs interrupted my theories. Mund stood in my doorway, studying my angry face. He knew my moods as well as I did.

“I am sorry, Ash,” he said. “This is hard. We just want to do what is best for you and to keep you safe.”

“I guess.”

“So you have to understand that his wanting to keep you away from Grey is to protect you.”

“Do I?” I asked. “I don’t understand why Baran has some weird grudge against Grey and why that should affect me. Isn’t it my choice? Isn’t that what you always told me?”

Mund smiled back at me. I hated when he did that. He acted as if I were throwing a fit like a child, but I wasn’t a child anymore, and I was right.

“You know it isn’t that simple.”

“You can’t protect me from everything, Mund.”

“Ms. Boru, will you please hear me out?” he said with an exaggerated accent.

I almost laughed. He walked across the room and sat on the bed next to me, as still as a statue. What was he playing at? I mean, it was Mund. He was tricky, like a fox. Although he was a wolf, but whatever.

“Ash, what’s with this boy? Are you taking this stand because you really like this one particular human? Or is it because you want to stake your independence? Help me understand.”

I sighed. “I love him, Mund. When I open my eyes, all I want to see is his face. He makes me happy, Mund. He really does,” I said.

He wrapped his arm around my shoulders, comforting me. But he couldn’t fix this with a hug. I wanted Grey, that wasn’t going to change. My eyes welled up with angry tears, but I didn’t let them fall. I looked up through the puddles in my eyes to see Baran, but he wouldn’t look at me. I thought he was my friend.