Blood Rule (Book 4, Dirty Blood series)

by Heather Hildenbrand

  “And she still didn’t ask for help? She’s a Hunter. CHAS would’ve gladly gone after Leo on her word.”

  Grandma shook her head. “She’d been an outcast for so long. You have to remember how it was back then. She was a Hunter. Leo was a Werewolf. It was even harder than it is now. Her family disowned her. Every Hunter she’d ever known shunned her.”

  “So she took to the woods with Miles and never looked back,” I finished. It sounded surprisingly similar to my mother’s story. She’d been a Hunter who’d married a Werewolf and when he was gone, she’d run. Far and fast and never looked back. All to protect me.

  Grandma nodded. “Today marked the first day of the inquiry regarding her run-in with you.”

  “Run-in? That’s what they’re calling it?” I said around the mouthful of stale bread.

  “Tara,” Grandma warned. I shut up. Under the table, Wes squeezed my knee.

  I swallowed. “How bad is it?”

  “Right now? Not horrible. But they’re still asking questions. Problem is, none of the answers are going to make it better. You’re part Werewolf. And you can shift now. You’re alpha to an entire pack of man-made hybrid Hunter-wolves whose grasp on their own humanity is tenuous at best. And you attacked one of the most skilled Hunters of your generation and almost killed him.”

  My chest tightened in response to the last part.

  “Basically,” she finished, “they want your head.”

  We all took a deep breath. I took another bite of my sandwich. Chewed. Swallowed. “Oh, well, if that’s all,” I said finally.

  Grandma glared.

  “I thought you said it wasn’t horrible,” I said.

  “It isn’t. Right now they don’t have the legal authority to come get your head.”

  “Lucky me.”

  “In other words, it could be worse,” she said, still glaring.

  I hated seeing her angry, especially when it was aimed at me. My shoulders sagged. “What can I do?” I asked.

  “Absolutely nothing,” she said. “And I mean it. Lay low. Do not call attention. Do not break another rule. I don’t care if it’s the golden rule. Behave. And let me figure this out.” She rubbed at her temples, a gesture I rarely saw from her. Grandma was obviously stressed beyond the norm. I hated that I was the cause.

  “All right. I can do that,” I said. “I wish I could do more to fix it.”

  “They shouldn’t view you as the bad guy here,” Wes said. “There are more important things to focus on. Like Olivia. And what happened to the formula Miles used to create them in the first place. Or your blood and how it can heal the hybrids. I mean, shouldn’t we find out what else it can do?”

  Grandma shook her head. “Steppe doesn’t care about any of that right now. His priority is dismantling The Cause. Or at least making them susceptible to Hunter law.”

  “The law is cruel,” Wes said.

  “Then it and Steppe are made for each other.” I dropped my napkin onto my plate, over my half-eaten sandwich.

  “Tara, you should eat,” Grandma said.

  “I’m not that hungry.”

  “You should try,” she argued.

  “I will. Later. Promise,” I added when her brow rose. “I want to see Vera again.”

  Wes grabbed the unopened bag of chips off my tray. “How about a compromise? You can eat these while you sit with Vera.”

  I looked to Grandma for approval. “Deal,” she said.

  I shoved back from my chair. Grandma and Wes did the same.

  Outside the door to Vera’s room, my mother was speaking with someone. A large man with pants too tight in the waist, yet somehow loose everywhere else. Even with his back turned, he was familiar, though it was odd seeing my mother speaking to a man—it so rarely happened. I slowed, trying to place him. Grandma passed me by and walked up to them.

  “Hello, Vernon,” she said.

  He turned to greet her, his face reddening with the attention. Headmaster Whitfield, the principal of Wood Point Academy. What was he doing here? Maybe he came for Vera?

  He gave Grandma a tight smile and then turned to me. “Miss Godfrey, good evening,” he said. A large manila envelope was tucked under his arm. It had words printed on the front in letters too small to read.

  “Hello. Did you come to see Vera?” I asked.

  “Well, err, yes, that is ...” He seemed ruffled by the question. I eyed the envelope. “That and to speak with you. May I have a word?”

  “Sure,” I agreed.

  I didn’t move. I had a bad feeling about that envelope.

  He lifted a brow, glancing beside me at Wes. “In private?” he added.

  “I’m good here,” I said firmly. Wes tightened his grip on my hand.

  “Very well.” He freed the envelope from underneath his ample arm and extended it to me. I took it.

  He cleared his throat. “My handing you this letter shall be official service of notice of removal. You are forthwith no longer a student of Wood Point Academy due to your ineligibility and your recent assault on a former student. An appeal may be made within ten days if you choose and a hearing scheduled.

  “Otherwise, your records may be forwarded to an institution of your choice. No ill bearing has been made upon your academic records, nor will the reason for your removal be disclosed to a civilian. Should you have any questions regarding this decision, an inquiry may be made in writing to the board. The contact information is provided in your separation packet.”

  By the time he’d finished, his face was flushed and beads of sweat dotted his forehead. He threw a nervous glance at Grandma. “Sorry, Edie,” he mumbled. “It wasn’t up to me.”

  “Of course,” she said. Her words were gracious enough, but they were spoken through tight lips.

  “I’ll be going now,” Headmaster Whitfield mumbled. The change in his pockets jingled as he hurried off.

  “You’ll hear from me,” she called after him.

  He lifted a hand in a final wave and disappeared around the corner.

  The envelope was flimsy in my hand. I didn’t bother opening it or even looking at it. Instead I stared blankly at the wall in front of me. “Did I just get expelled?”

  “I think you did,” Wes said.

  “Again,” my mother added.

  I winced. Two schools in less than a year. I was on a roll.

  Some twisted and traumatized corner of my brain wanted to throw my head back and laugh. Expelled. Again. It was hilarious in a so-not-funny-and-actually-sort-of-pathetic kind of way.

  Reluctantly, I turned to face my mom and Grandma. Both of them wore hard expressions. My mother twisted her hands together, a sign her anxiety had spiked.

  I had absolutely no idea what to say. I couldn’t even be happy about it. All the time I’d spent hating being so far away from home, the bullying and mean comments from my classmates because of what I was. Dirty blood, mixed, impure. It was a relief not to have to go back again, but the look on my mother’s face overshadowed all of that.

  “I’m going home,” Mom said finally, her voice clipped. “I have work in the morning. Tara, do you need a ride?”

  “No,” I said, though the word came out sounding like more of a question. I was waiting for the part where she grounded me for the rest of my life.

  “Fine. I’ll see you later.” She stopped, held out her hand. “I’ll take that.”

  It took me a second to realize she meant the envelope. I handed it to her, unopened. She took it and left.

  Grandma mumbled something about checking on Alex and disappeared in the other direction.

  With nothing else left to do I pushed open Vera’s door. Maybe the beeping of the monitors would drown out the noise in my head that, for once, was caused by my own internal voices and not those of the pack.

  I stopped short, causing Wes to bump me from behind. “What …?” he began.

  Someone was already in the room.

  He sat hunched over in the chair, his back to me, his hand wra
pped around Vera’s. Unlike my confusion at seeing Headmaster Whitfield, I recognized the man immediately and panic surged. Through the bond, concern spiked as George and Chris both sensed the change in me and reacted. Even a few of the other pack members tensed up.

  I tried taking a deep breath. The hospital was full of witnesses. And I had Wes behind me. Did that make this better or worse?

  “Hi, Professor Kane,” I said.

  He turned to look at me, the scars that marred one side of his face illuminated harshly under the fluorescent glow of the bedside lights. “Tara.”

  Was his tone because of his worry for Vera or a reaction to me? I hadn’t seen him since I’d bitten Alex. My memory of that trek back to Olivia’s clinic—if you could call it that—was hazy. I’d been out of it from the strain of shifting and the echoing pain of my new pack in my mind.

  Kane had led us back and given orders to the others. By the time I’d woken, he’d gone back to the clearing to wait for reinforcements. I hadn’t seen him again.

  “What are the doctors saying?” he asked.

  “That she’s sick, and there’s nothing to be done.”

  He nodded and the pain that flashed behind his obsidian eyes was so real, so raw, that I knew he wasn’t thinking of me or Alex. Not right now.

  I took a step closer. Wes followed and Kane reacted, the pained look vanishing. He jumped to his feet, still gripping Vera’s hand, and glared at Wes. His lips curled back from his teeth, an animal-like growl emanating from his chest.

  “Professor, this is Wesley St. John,” I said, sliding in between them. “He’s very close to Vera.”

  He blinked. I watched him trying to digest my words. He lowered himself to the chair. “Sorry. I know who you are,” he muttered. “It’s habit.”

  Wes relaxed against my shoulders, but I kept myself between him and Kane as I approached the bed. I wasn’t sure how my standing between them would help since I undoubtedly gave Kane the same urge to fight—probably more after what I’d done to Alex.

  Kane went back to staring bleakly at Vera’s motionless face. The monitors beeped into the silence. I tried to think of something to say.

  “Will she wake up?” Kane asked.

  “They don’t know,” I said.

  He nodded as if he’d expected that answer. The room plunged into silence. I couldn’t stay here, not like this, watching Kane look at Vera with a longing in his eyes that didn’t match the fierceness of his features. It felt like an invasion of privacy, like the night I’d spied on them from the rooftop at Wood Point and seen them kissing. It was the first night I’d realized Kane and Vera had a history. One that involved hard choices and separate paths that only recently seemed to have crossed again.

  “It was good to see you again, Professor,” I said, shifting toward the end of the bed and the exit beyond.

  “Wait,” he said. I froze. He stared at Vera, but now his gaze seemed far away, outside this room. “CHAS called me in today.”

  It was not what I expected him to say. A ripple of unease ran through me. “What did they want?” I asked.

  “To know about you. Well, you as a Werewolf. And about … biting Alex.”

  I swallowed. Not good. “What did you tell them?”

  He rubbed at his face, the side without the scars. When he finally met my eyes, he looked apologetic. “I told them the truth. I can’t do anything else.”

  “Yeah. I know,” I said.

  “What will they do?” Wes asked.

  “I don’t know. Their minds seemed pretty made up even before I started talking,” Kane replied. He frowned at me. “They’re out for blood, Tara. And Gordon Steppe isn’t one to let up until he gets what he wants.”

  “I understand,” I said quietly. It didn’t matter that Kane wasn’t gunning for me too—which was a surprise considering his general hatred of all things furry and four-legged. His testimony of the facts would be enough ammunition against me.

  I hesitated and then mumbled, “Thank you.” I didn’t know exactly what for but Kane nodded as if he did.

  “How’s Alex?” he asked. “I haven’t been in there yet.”

  “The same. Unconscious but stable.” I braced myself for whatever came next. Condemnation. Accusation. Kane had watched me bite Alex. He’d seen the malice in me, the intention to hurt.

  Again, a pack’s worth of concern for me leaked through the bond.

  “He did it to save your life, you know.”

  My head came up. My brows knitted. “Did what?”

  “Called me. The team. He said he knew you wouldn’t stop until you got Olivia. Said he was doing it for the same reasons. But I knew it was you. That he wouldn’t stop until he got you out. He’d do it over again, too so don’t blame yourself. No one could’ve known …” He trailed off, his expression torn.

  I appreciated his attempt to ease my guilt, even if it did seem to war with his reflex reaction of condemning me, a Werewolf, for attacking a Hunter.

  Still, it didn’t excuse Alex’s betrayal. “He should’ve trusted me,” I said finally.

  Kane didn’t answer. He stared stonily at Vera.

  I walked to the door, my hand on the knob when he spoke again. “It’s not you.”

  “What’s not me?”

  “He doesn’t trust himself. If he lost you ...”

  I caught sight of his expression as he looked from me back to Vera. He didn’t finish. He didn’t have to.

  Chapter Five

  Swirls of tinted water, blue, yellow, and every shade of green in between, washed down the tub drain. Next to me, Cambria wrung out her wet hair and wrapped it up into a towel on top of her head, turban style. I peeled off the rubber gloves I’d worn to keep the dye from staining my hands and tossed them into the trashcan. Cambria followed me into my bedroom, rubbing the towel against her scalp.

  “This is going to be epic,” she said, flipping her hair back and pulling a comb through it. “What do you think?” she asked.

  I shook my head. Cambria’s dye jobs were something of a trademark but this particular color choice was a lot even for her. Instead of a few thick streaks to frame her face, she’d dyed the entire top half of her head neon yellow. The bottom half was blue. Electric blue.

  “Cam, it’s …”

  “I know. Like I said, epic.”

  “Exactly. Does, um, Derek know you did this?”

  “Not yet.” She grinned. “I can’t wait to see the look on his face.”

  “Me neither.”

  Her smile dimmed. “You don’t like it?”

  “No, I …” I couldn’t bring myself to say anything negative. Not when she was so excited. And not when the dye was permanent. “It’s bright. But I mean, in a good way. You’re like sunshine.”

  “That’s what I was going for! A cloudless sky.”

  “It fits.”

  She turned back to the mirror, admiring her handiwork. I couldn’t wait to see Derek’s face later.

  “You haven’t said much about your trip. How was it?”

  “Great. I got to meet a bunch of Werewolves, see a new city. Philly is awesome, by the way.”

  “And you saw your mom, right?”

  “Yeah.” She shrugged.

  “How was that?”

  She’d yet to mention how it went. I took that as a bad sign. But as her best friend, it was my duty to pry.

  “Fine.” She leaned closer to the mirror, concentrating as she swiped black eyeliner across the top of her eyelid.

  “That’s it? Fine? Cam, you hadn’t seen her in months. What did you guys talk about? Did she meet Derek?”

  “Almost a year, actually. We talked about the weather and how the house needs a new roof. And yes, she met Derek.”

  “What did she think of him?”

  “She told him he was hot and then asked if he had a dad or an older brother.”

  “Oh.”

  “Can we talk about something else?”

  I decided to give her a break and shift the attention
. Cambria would talk when she was ready and when it came to her mom, I didn’t like to push.

  “I got expelled.”

  She froze, the liner inches from her face, and met my eyes through the mirror’s reflection. “What?” I explained the letter Headmaster Whitfield had given me the day before. Cambria whistled. “I leave for three days and look what happens.”

  “Did your mom freak?”

  “Only internally. For now. I think she’s still too mad to talk.”

  “Is that why she keeps going to the store for disinfectant?”

  “Yes. She’s cleaned the oven three times since yesterday.”

  “Two schools in one year. You’re a badass, Godfrey. An honest-to-God juvenile delinquent.”

  “I know, right.”

  “Bet Edie’s pissed. Did she try to kick Whitfield’s ass?”

  “No. She was mad but I think she’s preoccupied with CHAS. They called Kane in for questioning about me.”

  “What did he tell them?”

  I relayed my conversation with Kane. I had to stop twice to concentrate on some of the feelings coming through the bond. I’d spent the morning at camp, settling squabbles and trying to cure general boredom. They had an itch to explore, to have more freedom to roam, but I couldn’t allow it. Not with so many of them so … unpredictable. I couldn’t shake the image of Nick as he came at me, clearly intent on putting me down unless I did it to him first.

  I hadn’t told Cambria about that. I wasn’t ready to talk about it yet.

  “Steppe won’t stop until he’s gotten what he wants,” she said when I’d finished.

  “I know. I’m not sure exactly what that is yet.”

  She frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “He hasn’t made it a secret that he wants the treaty rescinded so the Werewolves in The Cause are fair game. But, now, with this whole investigation they’re doing about me and the way Kane sounded, I don’t know. It’s bigger than that.”

  “He wants the treaty gone so he can hunt Wes and Derek and Jack and Fee like Thanksgiving dinner. What’s bigger than that?”

  “I think he wants me, too. And I think he wants to make it sting.”