I considered that actionable and an easy reason to dislike him, but I was surprised Steven resented him so much for the same reasons.
He was still frowning when he asked, “Remember when Sebastian was shot?”
I nodded. It had been a hard time for me because Ethan had had to decide whether to challenge Sebastian if he felt he could no longer lead the pack. I’d urged him to forget the rules. But if nothing else, Sebastian and Ethan adhered to pack rules. I’d been convinced Sebastian would never step down, and they both believed that challenges were to the death. Ethan had since changed his stance because I’d requested it. Sebastian hadn’t.
“Sebastian was not up to par when Ethan decided not to challenge him.”
“That’s because Sebastian was healed; he was better.”
“Healed, yes. But he definitely wasn’t up to beating Ethan. In that situation, I’m confident Cole would have challenged him. He’s done it before, in his own pack, which is why he’s moved up the ranks so fast. We’re allowed to challenge if a person is too weak to maintain his position, but most people wait until the person is fully healed, even if the time needed goes past the pack’s standard seven days.”
We healed fast. A member could be challenged seven days after a major injury under the belief we should be fully healed by then. If it took longer, it was generally accepted that the person wouldn’t get much better, which left them with the decision to step down or be challenged for their position.
“Do you think Sebastian trusts him?” I asked.
“I think Sebastian sees him for what he is but also understands his value. He’s an asshole, but he is as good of a strategist as Sebastian, if not better. As you’ve seen, he’s got interpersonal skills that are better than Sebastian’s. Their approaches are different, but they both get results.”
I spent several minutes looking around his new rented home. A large window gave a perfect view of the forest behind the house, which he had to use often. The open space allowed him the freedom to roam in his animal form, something he enjoyed doing. And in the short time he’d lived there, his neighbors had developed an affection for him. But most people did.
“You like living here, don’t you?” I asked. I hoped he’d say he didn’t, because I was going to extend him an invitation to move back in with me, even knowing he would refuse.
He shot me a broad smile. “I really do.”
“Did you move out of my house because of Ethan?”
“Mostly because of Ethan.”
I nodded. “Everything is just different, but I don’t want you to feel like you don’t have a place in my life because of him.”
“I don’t. But you think things will business as usual and they won’t.”
That was inevitable. It wasn’t Ethan and Sky anymore; it was us and them. I looked down at my ring finger, knowing a ring belonged there. I conceded, “You’re right.”
He beamed. “I am most of the time.”
“And also the epitome of humility,” I shot back with a smile just as wide as his. I gave the room another sweeping look. Crumbs were on the coffee table and there was a hint of vanilla, cinnamon, fudge, and lemon. “They feed you, don’t they?” I asked.
He laughed. “Do they ever. My next-door neighbor, Mrs. Clave, has brought me dinner almost every day since I moved in.”
“She’s probably hitting on you,” I teased.
He shrugged. “She’s in her seventies, but she’s pretty hot and she cooks. It could work out.” There was a sparkle in his eyes, and the levity he always possessed had returned. His mellow personality made most of us forget he was a were-animal, too.
His eyes fixed on my wrist where the mark once was. I occasionally rubbed it, used to feeling it tingling.
“Josh still hasn’t figured anything out?”
I shook my head. He was just as concerned as I was. Something was brewing. Someone wanted Maya unleashed, which was the reason I refused to use magic. I refused to give her an opportunity to use it to her advantage.
It was odd how drastically the mood in the room had shifted, and we both withdrew into our thoughts. Mine were divided between the removal of my mark, Cole, the Red Blood, and the army Liam was forming. And I worried about Steven’s fate. I tended to push the latter aside because it was harder to bring myself back from the brink of frustration, fear, and sadness over it.
Steven chewed on his lip and then finally spoke. “Mom’s going to ask Sebastian to transfer me to the South.”
I kept my voice even, despite it not feeling level at all. “Do you want to go?”
“I want my mother not to worry about me and to be happy.”
“You didn’t answer my question. Do you want to go?”
He wouldn’t give me an answer because his mother’s happiness was his priority. “Moms worry—that’s what they do, Steven. Whether you are here, in the South, or even under her roof, every time you go out she’ll worry,” I said, broaching the topic cautiously.
“But she’ll worry less.”
It was my turn to be the voice of reason. “True. But she’ll worry nonetheless. If you want to go because that’s what you want to do, then do it. But don’t do it because you think it will stop Joan from worrying because you’d be deceiving yourself.” Dammit. I was giving him the same speech Ethan had given me about him right after the arrest when I’d demanded that Steven stay with me so I could watch him. For hours, I’d rambled and Ethan had quietly listened, and in the end, he’d tried to reason with me. As with Joan, unfortunately, reason hadn’t been in my grasp. I’d been reactive, and it hadn’t been a good place to be. Now I was trying to do the opposite.
The words felt better as I continued, “You have to do what’s best for you and this pack. And we need you.” Then I looked around his home. “As far as making her happy,” I said with a grin, “I bet she’d be flabbergasted if she actually walked into your home and it didn’t look like a pigsty.”
“Did she put you up to this? Because she said something like that this morning when she called.”
“No, but doesn’t it say a lot about your housekeeping skills that she knows it looks like this”—I waved my hand over the room—“even before getting here?”
“She’s sending someone to clean.” He looked at his watch. “They should be here in half an hour.”
I snorted. “You really should be more ashamed of that.”
He shot me a wolfish grin—he was undeniably part of the canidae family. “I should be, shouldn’t I?”
I stayed until the crew came, and it was, indeed, a crew. Maybe Joan had suspected Steven would need an army or the service had sent more cleaners because of time limitations. I shot Steven a look of derision as I left.
He shrugged, lacking the shame one should have in this situation.
Driving home, I decided to talk to Joan the moment I had an opportunity to get her alone. She wasn’t unreasonable. She was being ruled by her emotions. Her instinct to protect overrode logic and pack dynamics, but maybe once she considered her reaction, she would change her plan to return him to the South.
Consumed with thoughts about protective instincts, I hadn’t noticed I’d changed directions and was heading to Quell’s house. Or rather the home where he’d lived before Michaela had forced him to leave.
I might be able to convince Joan to change course, but I wasn’t sure I could say anything to change Quell’s mind. Or whether I should try. Ethan was right: my desire to help him had gone past altruism and into pure selfishness. I couldn’t let him die, even though the only reason he still existed was because of me. I couldn’t give him the death he wanted.
I had the nagging feeling there was more to this than him feeling he was ready to let his life go. Was it just something that vampires went through once they reached a certain age? Michaela’s words kept echoing in my mind—vampires who reached a certain age began to long for their humanity. For years, Quell was a misanthropic vampire who despised the human race for the inhumane acts it perp
etrated. He’d held himself to the same standards, revolted by the atrocities he’d committed while human during wartime. He’d tried to commit suicide but Michaela had saved him. She’d saved him, and he hadn’t cared that it had been a selfish act. She’d considered him beautiful and another lovely body to add to her collection. He’d translated it as her loving him and exhibiting some form of humanity that no longer existed in the human world. He’d clung to that belief despite how cruel she’d been to him and to others.
Pulling into his driveway triggered memories of the time we’d spent together. Regardless of whether his feelings went beyond friendship, he was my friend. I parked behind a pearl black sedan, the same one I’d seen Demetrius drive, and quickly got out of my car.
Demetrius met me on the walkway to the house’s front door. His dark eyes held a look of quiet contempt. He was no doubt still seething from me telling him Chris hated him. I wasn’t sorry.
He blocked me from advancing. “He will be fine.”
I attempted to go around him, and he blocked me again.
“Stay away from him. You want this to be better? You want him to accept his lot in life? Stay away from him. You aren’t the cure—you’re the disease.”
I had been called many things, but disease by far felt like the worst. I considered the source, Demetrius. The things most people considered virtues he deemed weaknesses. Perhaps he thought he could indoctrinate Quell.
“You won’t change who he is,” I said.
“But I will try.”
“Changing him will not make him better off. It won’t make him happy.”
“But it will save him. You asked me to help him, so let me,” he said gently.
I sucked in a ragged breath, unsure what to think. Sincerity and kindness rang true in his voice, and I was taken aback. Was Demetrius capable of being concerned about anyone other than himself? Was he more than a self-indulgent, petulant man-child?
I nodded and started back to my car.
“Chris should know about this,” he said.
I turned to him and rolled my eyes. He was incapable of selfless acts. As I moved toward my car, I caught a flash of movement. He was in front of the driver’s side door. His abysmal eyes had a dangerous cast. Standing taller, I refused to let him intimidate me.
“If I do anything to you, I’d spend my days having to deal with Ethan and your pack. I’m not foolish or arrogant enough not to understand that. Quell means nothing to everyone but you. I saw the concern on your face when you came to visit me. His life is as important to you as Michaela’s was to me.” He moved away slowly, but I kept my eyes on him. “You owe me a life. I want Chris, and you have two weeks to deliver her. If not, Quell’s life will be taken as payment. Make no mistake, he will be the first, but not the last. Bring her back to me!”
It wasn’t the first time he’d threatened others in my life. I knew he was talking about David and Trent.
CHAPTER 10
The next morning, I had dressed for the day before breakfast so I wouldn’t be receiving a proposal in my pajamas. When I saw Ethan dressed in a suit and tie, I figured he’d had the same thing in mind. We ate breakfast, discussing the meeting the day before and Joan’s request for Steven to return to the South. All the while, I looked around the kitchen, even searching for the bulge of the black jewelry box in his clothing. I’d peered into my glass of apple juice before drinking it, in case he’d reenacted a romantic-comedy cliché. Nothing. He watched me with a furrowed brow, a tilt of his head, and a mystified look.
“Are you looking for something?” he asked breezily, straining to fight a smirk.
I glared at him and chewed on my bottom lip, debating whether I should say something. I decided against it. “No,” I said in an overly chipper voice. I used the moment to ask, “Why didn’t you tell me about the DA making a motion to revoke Steven’s bail?”
He shrugged dismissively. “It wasn’t important. It wasn’t going to happen. He was grasping at straws. He has nothing, and he’s clinging to whatever ploy he can throw out there. I suppose next month he’ll make another motion and will continue making them until the trial is over.”
“Whether you felt it was relevant or not, I needed to know. We can’t have any secrets between us.”
He flashed me a grin that reminded me of the look of a cat cornering a mouse and getting ready to play with it. “Good.” He leaned over the table, scrutinizing me. “You want to tell me about your visit with Quell yesterday?”
My mouth dropped open, and I quickly snapped it closed. “Are you tracking me?”
He exhaled a sharp breath. “Sky, you are unique in many ways, but it doesn’t stop you from being predictable. You smelled like Demetrius, and the only way you’d see Demetrius is if it involved Quell. How did your visit with Quell go?”
I culled through the various ways to broach the topic. I opened my mouth to speak, and Ethan stopped me. “Truth, Sky. I don’t want an altered version. I want the unedited story.”
That’s exactly what he received. I told him about the visit, the fact I wasn’t permitted to see Quell, and Demetrius’s threat against Quell and possibly David and Trent. Ethan sat silently, taking it all in. Concern registered on his face and quickly faltered. He stood to get another cup of coffee and then leaned against the counter. After taking a long sip, he gave me a cool, appraising look. Things had shifted; his manner had slipped into professional stoicism. Ethan the Beta. I didn’t really care for that guy and didn’t want to discuss Quell with him.
“You killed Michaela. You didn’t think there wouldn’t be consequences, did you?”
“He won’t retaliate against me.”
“Sky, someone will pay for her death, and it may very well be you. I agree, he probably would never consider killing you. But understand the only thing standing between you and a painful, torturous death at the hands of Gabriella and Chase is him. We can retaliate, but it won’t change the fact you will be dead.”
I tried to speak again and was silenced by a squelching look. “Let me finish. I’ve tried to understand what’s going on with you and Quell, but, it really doesn’t matter if I do. Quell is a problem and has been for some time. I won’t allow him to continue to be one. This has nothing to do with us; it’s for the safety of our pack member—you.”
“Don’t you touch him,” I said sternly, putting enough steel in it to cause him to raise a brow. It was the same demand I’d made of Steven when he’d issued the same threat against Quell.
Ethan responded the way Steven had. “If he’s no longer a problem, I won’t. If he becomes one, I will. I’ll deal with your anger—I’m sure you’ll have a great deal of it. My decision won’t be contingent on your feelings but on whatever is right for the pack and its members.”
Neither one of us said anything for a long time. “I’m just trying to fix it.”
“I know. Problem is, some things and people are broken beyond repair. That’s Quell. You’ve forced him to stay alive when he doesn’t want to. Just let him go.”
A noncommittal nod was all I could give.
When Demetrius, Chase, and Gabriella entered the pack’s home later that afternoon, I became aware of just how perilous the situation I’d put myself in when I’d killed Michaela. Dressed in midnight-colored slacks and a shirt, Demetrius shot me a cool look of disinterest. Oddly, his clothing made his dark eyes stand out even more. He was a pool of darkness as he glided across the floor, the reaper, death in its most beautiful form. His confidence couldn’t be denied, nor could his arrogance. Sebastian and Ethan watched his approach. The room filled with strained hostility, as it did each time Sebastian and Demetrius met. They both respected and resented each other’s position. Each encounter was an opportunity for a subtle display of dominance in an even more subtle attempt to subjugate the other. They barely acknowledged each other before Demetrius turned and found a position against the wall. He surveyed the room and briefly allowed his attention to land on me. Although he didn’t speak, his eyes spok
e volumes as he changed his posture, standing taller, rolling his shoulders back, and honing his gaze. It was a warning, a reminder that I hadn’t met the obligation he thought I had to him—Chris. It all came back to Chris, and if I didn’t comply, my friends would pay with their lives.
The terrible duo were dressed in pale hues of blue and tan. Gabriella was in a slim-fitting single-button pantsuit. I could see the outline of the weapons she hadn’t bothered to conceal. Chase didn’t look as eccentric as he typically did with his hair dyed dark brown instead of its typical wild colors. He still sported piercings in his ears, brows, and now his tongue; he kept exposing and fiddling with the latter. But the conservative light blue shirt and slacks didn’t make him look as ominous as the dagger-like gaze he settled immovably on me. The bravery I tried to display wavered by the moment under their heavy scrutiny. They wanted revenge, and there was no doubt about it.
I understood why Sebastian had called this meeting. It was his subtle way of getting leaders of the otherworld together to see where they stood and if they had any intentions of joining Liam’s army.
The vampires looked like classically sculpted statues and stood off to the side, without making any effort to seem less vampirey. They didn’t breathe and needed to move minimally, which was off-putting. Their abysmal midnight eyes moved periodically over the room, and I was always the last place they looked. Gabriella was having the hardest time hiding her contempt.
“Do you want to step out until everyone has arrived?” Ethan asked me.
I shook my head. I’d killed Michaela; it wasn’t a secret, and I couldn’t hide from the truth. I distracted myself with thoughts of the recent changes in the house. Some books had been removed from the library. The dining room had been cleared out. There were several bedrooms that were now empty. The pack had several retreats, homes that were rather secret where we could go. Each pack was required to have several. This had once been one, but we’d begun to use it as a sort of community center. With more people frequenting it, we could no longer consider it a safe house or a place of refuge. Sebastian was preparing for a mass exodus.
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