Clarity (23 page)

“Didn’t you ever think we might need to know this?” I blurted.

“No, I didn’t,”
Opa
snapped.

“Mémère did,” I said. “She wanted to tell us about blood threats and stuff, but you wouldn’t let her. You could have done something before.”

“I’m doing something now,” he roared, and a shiver ran down my spine.

“There’s no point turning on each other.” Byron stood, holding up his hands. “We have the chance to end this, if we’re all willing. Are we all willing?”

“I’ll do whatever it takes.” I glared at my grandfather. “But no more secrets.”

Jeremy shrugged. “I’m up for the fight.”

Byron turned to my grandfather and waited.

The old man nodded after a couple of seconds. “I’m in, as long as we get to Vin.”

Ryan held
Willow
’s arm. “As long as I have your word that you’ll all help get my daughters back, I’m on your side.”

Byron shook his hand. “I swear to you, our goals and your goals lead down the same path. The more he sends after us, the less he has watching over your daughters. We’ll figure out a way to get them out of there safely. This fight is just the first step.” He looked at
Willow
, and his face softened. Again I wondered how my family could bear to be around her and Ryan after everything they had done. It seemed as though I was the only one with a problem. “
Willow
, can we trust you?”

She nodded, transfixed.

“You want to help Ryan. Don’t you?”

“Yes, I… yes.”

“Then you must listen to him. I know it’ll be hard for you to disobey Vin, but it’s the right thing to do.”

“But my father—”

Ryan squeezed her arm. “Vin set up your father. He had to fight. It was in his nature. Coming here was never going to end the way Vin said it would. He wanted to get rid of your father. That’s why he sent him here, so he could blame him when everything went wrong.”

Willow
’s jaw tensed, and her eyes grew cold as she held up her chin for the first time. “Then he must die,” she said simply, and the tone of her voice sent chills down my spine. I was the youngest of the group, the least experienced, and I suddenly saw what I was getting myself into. All of the other wolves had been raised like
Willow
, not like Ryan. They knew violence first. They knew vengeance. And for the first time, I desperately wanted to be like them.

Perdita

“Where’s Meredith?”

Gran shook her head, smiling. “She’s been busying herself with seeing her old friends. It’s as if she’s never been away. I’m meeting her for lunch shortly. What are you doing cooped up in here all morning?”

“Dad says I have to keep away from Nathan.” I forced a sincerely mournful look on my face.

“Nathan? Why?” She sounded shocked, exactly what I was hoping for.

“He thinks being around Nathan’s family has been making me miserable. Now I’m miserable because he’s banned me from seeing Nathan. I can’t win.”

“Oh, you poor thing! Of course you’ve been feeling down. His grandmother died, and it probably reminded you of me. Don’t worry, my pet. Nothing’s going to happen to me.” She hugged me.

I couldn’t believe how well the conversation was going. “Um, yeah. Exactly why. But he’s blaming Nathan anyway.”

“But you’ve been so happy since you made friends with Amelia and Nathan. You know what? I bet it’s the morphine.”

I was pretty sure Dad wasn’t on any morphine, but I didn’t argue.

“He doesn’t know what he’s saying. As soon as he’s home from hospital, everything will be fine. He’ll forget all of this nonsense. Don’t you worry. Now, if you need to see Nathan, then go. I know I can trust you to be good.”

She smiled so sweetly that I felt guilty for manipulating her. But I really needed to see Nathan to find out more about what had been happening. I couldn’t get a minute alone to call him, and I preferred to hear news face to face anyway.

I headed over to Nathan’s house, the entire time wondering if a strange werewolf might be watching me, but knocking on Nathan’s door made me feel even more uneasy.
Cú
greeted me fondly, and I was happy to see him, but
Jakob
was the one who opened the door. He nodded, and when I moved to go by him, he held my arm.

“I am sorry your father’s ill. I’ve been thinking about it. We should talk while you’re here.”

I didn’t fancy the idea of talking to him, and I definitely wasn’t planning on forgiving
Jakob
anytime soon. He intimidated me now that he wasn’t the jolly old granddad figure anymore, so I was more than happy when Nathan came to rescue me. He grabbed my hand straight away, and I felt a little stronger.

We went upstairs, but I hesitated at the door of his room.

“What’s wrong?”

I shrugged. “Don’t think Dad would approve, somehow.”

“It’s okay.
Opa’s
downstairs.”

“He’s not exactly sure of what’s right and wrong at the moment.” The truth was, I was terrified of going into Nathan’s room. The curse was so strong that it had made me act crazy more than once, and I didn’t want to go crazy in a boy’s bedroom.

Nathan looked puzzled. “We can hang out downstairs if you want.”

“Okay,” I said, a little too fast.

“Any word on your dad?” he asked as we headed back down.

“Nothing new. They’re running some more tests tomorrow. Not that they’re expecting to find anything.”

“That sucks. Bet he hates being the patient.”

“He’s so bad at it.” I laughed. “But at least he can’t stop me from seeing you while he’s stuck in the hospital. Gran let me come over.”

“Tell her thanks.” He leaned in for a kiss, and I forgot about everything, including stopping his roaming hands. That was an unfortunate side effect of getting close to Nathan.

Someone cleared their throat behind us, and our lips parted ways.

“What’s up?” Jeremy asked, waggling his eyebrows.

“Do you have a reason for being here?” Nathan said. “Apart from getting in the way, I mean.”

“Funny, little cousin.
Opa
wants to talk to you. I’m a messenger boy now. You wait until I find my mate. You’re
gonna
slide all the way to the bottom of the pack.”

Both of them laughed, but I felt a bit lost and more than a little embarrassed. My better judgement seemed to hide during important moments.

Nathan took my hand and led me into Byron’s office, away from Jeremy’s laughter. I felt as though I were about to get told off. Facing
Jakob
wasn’t something I wanted to do. I still felt as though he had caused my father to be attacked.

In the office,
Jakob
sat in Byron’s chair, twisting the lid on and off a pen. “How’s your father now?”

“Okay. The seizures have stopped, but he’s really weak. They’re still running tests.”

“I’ve been thinking about that. I don’t think he’s going to get better. There’s nothing those doctors can do to help him.”

I glanced at Nathan, but he looked as confused as I was. “So you’re saying what? He’s going to die? Be in hospital forever? What?”

Nathan squeezed my hand.

“I’m not psychic,”
Jakob
said thoughtfully. “But I think we need to reverse the effects of the transfusion.”

“How?”

He hesitated. “It would require another bite.”

I stepped back, my hands raised in protest. “Are you actually insane now?”

“It might be the only way,” he said calmly. “There’s something in a werewolf’s fangs. For the sake of ease, let’s call it a poison of sorts. When we bite our prey, the poison numbs them to a certain extent, so they don’t suffer—or get away—while we finish them off. In a human, that poison flows through the blood stream and is usually worked out of the system over time. For someone with the right blood, the potential is there to be turned into a werewolf. For others, it’s a kind of temporary blood poisoning. The transfusion may have warped the poison, corrupted the DNA. Basically inhibited the process. He’ll need a fresh dose to—”

“Hold on!” I cried. “What are you saying? You want to turn him into a werewolf?”

“No, no. That requires… an additional step. This will be perfectly safe.”

“How on earth do you know that?” Nathan asked.

Jakob
leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, suddenly looking incredibly tired. “Because it happened to your grandmother.”

Nathan stuttered something before backing away, looking completely confused.

“It’s a long story,”
Jakob
said, and I couldn’t help wondering how many secrets he held, how many lies he had already told us. “A similar thing happened. I pleaded for help. I was told I needed to give her a fresh dose or turn her into a werewolf. I couldn’t make that decision for her, so I… gave her a fresh dose. She was fine within a few days. It was only later that we tried… the additional step.”

“You bit her?” Nathan sounded horrified.

“I had no choice. She remained gravely ill until the fresh dose from my bite worked its way into her system. After her own blood had been renewed, that is.”

“But you said nobody can know,” I reminded him. “Even if this did work, you can’t bite my dad without revealing everything.”

“There are ways.” A dark smile curved
Jakob’s
lips.

I didn’t like that smile. “It’s the truth or nothing.” But I was shaking. I had nothing to use to bargain.

“That’s entirely up to you,”
Jakob
said and left the room without another word.

“He’s like a completely different person,” I said.

Nathan shook his head. “What did my grandparents go through before I came along? Why didn’t they tell us any of this stuff?”

“They didn’t want to scare you, I expect. Hasn’t he told you anything about his past?”

“Nothing like this. I wonder what that additional step is.” His brow furrowed in thought.

I could only make a face as my imagination ran wild. “Where’s Byron? We should talk to him about this stuff.”

“He’s not here. Do you really think he would let me bring a girl up to my room?” Nathan burst out laughing.

“A girl. As in one of many?”

“Yeah. Millions. Come on, random girl. Let’s go solve some problems.” He gave me a piggyback ride to the door.

How could I let a werewolf bite my dad again? Worse still was telling Dad why some animal was in his hospital room. I giggled nervously.

“Why is she so worried?” Jeremy called from the living room.

“How did he know that?” I whispered to Nathan.

“I heard that,” Jeremy shouted.

“Ignore him. He’s showing off. Let’s get out of here. We’ll take Amelia and get out for the day. Forget about all of this… weird stuff.”

“I suppose I don’t have anything better to do. Where do you want to go?”

He grinned. “How about the zoo?”

“Hmm.” I pretended to contemplate his suggestion. “Only if you promise not to scare the lions.”

He grinned and kissed the tip of my nose. “I promise.”

***

“I don’t think I’ve been to the zoo since I was a little kid,” I said. It hadn’t taken long to get the bus into the city once we persuaded Amelia to come with us.

“Sometimes we hear the animals at night when we’re hunting,” Nathan said, then looked embarrassed.

“That’s kind of cool,” I reassured him. “Amelia, you okay?”

She nodded, but the dark circles under her eyes seemed to deepen every day. “Just a little headache.” Her voice sounded odd, kind of croaky. I worried about her.

“The team has a match this weekend,” Nathan said. “I don’t think I’ll be welcome, though.”

“You could always turn up and see,” I said. “Besides, they all liked you at school. I bet they’re over it by now.”

“Nah. I was just new. Everyone kind of lost interest after a while.”

“Then they aren’t worth worrying about,” I decided. He smiled, but he still looked sad. I knew how much he enjoyed playing on the team. I hoped he wouldn’t let Aaron get him down. “It’ll work out.”

He didn’t look convinced.

Amelia’s phone rang, and when she checked caller ID, she grinned happily. “I’ll only be a minute,” she said, her cheeks flushing pink.

“New boyfriend,” I said.

“Don’t say that,” he groaned. “So… what non-werewolf stuff do you want to talk about today?”

“There’s non-werewolf stuff?”

A passerby gave us a funny look which only set us both off laughing. “I have a question,” I said. “Why were you expelled?”

“I’m not expelled. The principal let me off for punching Aaron.”