“Thanks.” My voice came out in a hoarse whisper, but it was enough to shatter the tension.
Alex nodded and turned away, his face carefully blank.
“I’ll find you some clothes,” he said, scooping up the room key and heading for the door.
I walked into the bathroom and closed the door, leaning against it and just breathing. What had happened out there? We hadn’t even touched but it felt no less powerful than if we had.
I peeled off my jeans and dropped them in a heap on the floor, hoping Alex was true to his word about finding me clothes. Cambria wasn’t going to be happy when she realized I’d ruined her roommates outfit. She might not let me borrow anymore. I’d have to get Alex to take me to a clothing store in town before he took us back to school – and I’d have to use my emergency cash so my mother wouldn’t find out.
The water finally waned from hot to warm and I shut it off, my skin flushed pink from the heat and the steam. It was the best shower I’d had in weeks. It didn’t get this hot in the drafty dorm bathrooms at Wood Point.
From the other side of the door I heard, “I’m back.”
I hurried to dry off.
I debated whether I could walk out in nothing but a towel without my face bursting into red hot flames when there was a sharp rap on the door. I yanked the towel around me as the knob turned and the door slid open a crack.
“Here,” Alex grunted. He shoved some fabric through the opening, careful to keep his face turned away.
It was a motel-issue robe; once made of soft, fresh terry cloth, it now looked like a worn, faded washcloth. I looked up to mutter a “thanks,” but the door had already closed.
I pulled the robe on, used the towel for my hair, and eased out into the room. There was a full length mirror outside the bathroom door, and I caught sight of my reflection. I went closer and pulled the neckline of the robe aside, inspecting the puncture wounds on my shoulders left by the Werewolf’s claws. They were small and had already stopped bleeding, but they stung and ached like I’d been punched. Repeatedly.
The pain radiated out onto my arms and chest, so I pulled the robe a little further down and gasped. I was a collage of bumps, bruises, and scrapes. Some were newly forming, so they were blue and swollen, but some – thanks to my speedy healing – were yellow, gross, and looked three days old. I looked like a painter’s palette.
“Feeling better?”
I turned and found Alex watching me, frowning at the sight of the bruises and cuts.
“Yeah, thanks,” I said, trying to decide whether I could sit on the bed without revealing too much. The robe suddenly felt very small.
“Let me see,” he said, walking closer, eyes on my shoulders.
I braced myself against a shiver when I caught sight of his expression. It wasn’t passionate or suggestive or any of the emotions you might see in a guy who had a semi-naked girl in front of him. It was soft and gentle and made me wonder how in the world I’d ever overlooked this Alex. Or how different things might be if this were the version of himself he always carried.
He stood in front of me and waited, almost like he was asking for permission. Without a word, I pulled the fabric aside, revealing my wounds. My skin felt overly exposed under his sharp gaze, but I didn’t feel embarrassed or self-conscious.
Alex examined the wounds with the intensity of a scientist with his microscope. At one point, he pressed against a bruise and I winced. He pulled back and continued the rest of his exam without further contact.
A minute later, he walked away, and I felt some sort of loss I couldn’t explain.
He came back and produced a tube of antibiotic cream. He rubbed a small amount into the open cuts on my shoulders and bandaged them with gauze. I waited for the tension, like before, but his expression remained blank and his demeanor was precise and brisk–like a doctor.
When he was finished, he stepped back and his gaze swept over the rest of me. He frowned, and I wondered if he’d felt any of the sweeping heat and emotion that I had while he’d examined me. If he did, there was no trace of it now.
“Looks like you had quite a workout before I got there. Care to tell me about it yet?”
“If I say no, will you leave me alone or keep asking until I give in?”
“What do you think?”
I cocked my head to the side, not ready to answer. “How did you find me?”
He shook his head. “You snuck off school grounds. By yourself. Got attacked. Almost died.” He crossed his arms. “That means you go first.”
I stared back at him, pretending to think it over. My mind raced as I tried to figure out what story to give him. The ghost of a smirk appeared on his lips.
“And don’t give me that bull shit about meeting Wes like you told Cambria,” he said.
“She ratted me out. That’s how you knew?”
He shook his head again, refusing to answer. “You first.”
“All right, fine.” I decided to come out with it. If there was anyone I knew who’d be on my side about my fighting alone, it was Alex. “I’m here for Miles.”
“Miles?” Alex’s eyebrows shot up and his arms fell away. He apparently hadn’t seen that coming. “What about him?” His eyes narrowed, and I knew I’d better talk fast.
t="0" w"He called me yesterday and left me a message. He said I should meet him instead of waiting for him to come get me.” I started to pace back and forth in the small space between the bed and the door. “He didn’t say why but I think something must’ve happened to spook him. Anyway, he said to come here, to the edge of town, and he’d call me with further instructions on where to meet up.”
“So, you decided to rush right into it. Head first.” Alex sat on the bed, stiff and impatient. He’d gone back to glaring at me. “You never even thought to ask for help, did you? Just had to be the hero.”
“Of course, I thought about it,” I said. “I thought about how unfair it would be to ask any of you to come. Cambria, Logan… they don’t deserve this kind of danger. And you…”
“What about me? I don’t deserve it, either?”
“My best chance was going alone. Miles won’t hurt me. He wants me alive. I can get close enough to him to end this. Any other way would’ve meant more violence. This was easiest.”
“Uh-huh. And how’d that work out for you?”
I sighed, putting all my frustration into it. “Obviously, not well. But those Werewolves weren’t sent by Miles. They ambushed that clearing and killed Miles’ guy before I had a chance to stop them. I took out as many as I could before…Well, you know the rest. So, thanks for that.”
“If they weren’t sent by Miles, then who were they?”
He’d completely ignored my thank you, which grated on me, but I bit my tongue. I wouldn’t say it again. “I don’t know. The one who had me pinned said something about a mistake and death being the only way to right it. I think I did something to piss them off.”
Now it was his turn to get up and pace. “Great. Just great. You’re a magnet, you know that? Damn.”
He ran a hand over his face and the gesture, combined with those words, reminded me of Wes. For a moment, the emptiness I felt was more painful than the aching and stinging of my wounds, and I couldn’t even see Alex’s face in front of me. Only a mental image of Wes. Of the way he’d looked on our last day together before I’d come to school.
He’d told me not to forget him.
It made me feel guilty for standing in a motel room, with Alex, wearing nothing but a robe. But then the memory of the full moon came crashing back in, and I hardened myself against the guilt and pushed it away.
“You never said how you found me,” I said, moving to a new topic to clear my head.
“Cambria.”
“She told you I left but not where I was going.”
“Oh, that was easy.” His lips crept into a smirk. “I tracked you.”
“But I made sure not to leave a trail,” I said.
“You really n
eed to work on that.”
He was still smirking. And looking at me. And standing way too close. I stepped back and his smile faded, like he understood my reason for putting distance between us.
“I found you some clothes,” he said, pointing at a pile of fabric he’d dumped on the bed. “I’m going to go find us a car and then we’re heading back. I trust you not to leave while I’m gone.”
I blinked, totally giving away my intention with my lack of response. He doubled back and grabbed the clothes off the bed and tucked them under his arm.
“Unless you want to go see Miles wearing nothing but a bathrobe. Bet that would make his day.”
He sailed out the door like he couldn’t care less whether I stayed or went.
I paced for a while before finally admitting the aches and pains of my body were getting to me and stretched out across the bed. I didn’t think I could sleep, after all the adrenaline that had pumped through me that morning but I guess the aftermath of panic tended to make one drowsy. I drifted off to the mental replay of me growling.
*
A hand on my arm woke me. Not the pressure of the touch but the pain it caused.
“Ow,” I muttered, rolling away from whatever had pressed on my bruises. I eased onto my other side and came face to face with Alex.
His eyes were closed and his breathing was even. He was curled on his side, still in the same clothes he’d worn earlier. There was a small smudge of dirt under his right eye that I hadn’t noticed earlier. Actually, there was a lot I hadn’t noticed earlier. Like the exact texture of his skin, or the smooth olive color of it. I’d never been close enough to take in the details.
I held my breath as he shifted and brought his arm up to tuck under him. The arm that had fallen over me and woken me. I knew I should get up, move away, anything to put distance between us, but I couldn’t. Alex asleep was mesmerizing. The intensity he always wore when he was awake was gone. It made him more approachable. I wanted to enjoy being this close to him and not wanting to kill him.
“You’re staring at me,” he said, his lips barely moving, his eyes still closed.
I tensed. “You’re awake.” He didn’t answer and I felt awkward. I tried to think of something else to say. “Did you get a car?”
“I did.” His eyes opened slowly, almost lazily, and met mine. Something in my stomach leaped into my throat. I couldn’t speak. “Your clothes are over there,” he said, nodding his head towards the bathroom counter. His voice was low and gruff from sleep.
“Right. I’ll get dressed,” I said, scooting away and turning my head before he could see the redness creeping into my cheeks.
I felt his hand close over my wrist and pull me back to the pillow.
“I wasn’t telling you to get up,” he said.
“What are you telling me?” I asked, hating that I’d even voiced the question at all; afraid of the answer.
He didn’t respond with words, though. He leaned in and closed the gap, quick enough that neither of us had a chance to change our minds. Our lips met and held for a long moment and then his mouth moved against mine. This was bigger than the first time we’d kissed. That had been almost chaste, the way his lips had planted themselves on mine, unmoving and hard. This was different. Like a dance, starting slow and building into something heavier, something I wasn’t sure I could stop.
Alex pulled away first. He stared back at me with a fierce expression, and for a second, I thought it wasn’t over. But then he sat back and blinked and the moment faded. I pushed myself up onto my elbows and tried to breathe normally. Alex seemed like he was trying to do the same.
He cleared his throat and did a complete subject change. “You handled yourself pretty well on your own. I almost forgot to tell you that,” he said. “As for Miles, your plan wasn’t a bad one. But you need a team to help coordinate all of the possible what-ifs. We’ll go back to school and regroup and then try again, okay?”
I was too shocked to argue. Partly about the kiss and partly that he was so willing to, not only help me, but do it my way. “Okay,” I said, knowing my skepticism was showing.
“You don’t believe me?”
“I don’t think you’re lying,” I said carefully.
He laughed. “I’m serious. We can try again once you have time to heal.”
“You would let me walk in there alone?” I asked, eyebrows raised, fully expecting him to correct me.
“As long as I was nearby in case you needed me, yes. It’s a good plan.” I stared at him. “What?”
“Nothing. I…I’m not used to being treated like an equal,” I admitted.
“Why? Because you’re a Dirt- a hybrid? Or because you’re a girl?”
“Both, I guess.”
He nodded. “Hunters are pretty good with gender equality, as a rule. I’ve seen enough women in action to know you girls are just as good in combat, if not better. And I’ve seen enough of you personally to know you can handle yourself.”
“Thanks,” I said, understanding the level of compliment I was getting from him and that it didn’t come often.
“And if all else fails, you could always kick him between the hips.”
I stuck out my tongue.
He smiled. “Now, you can get dressed.”
Alex was waiting for me when I emerged from the bathroom in tight sweats – he said he’d swiped them from the lost and found at the front desk–and a white tee shirt. He’d opened the curtains a few inches and sunlight slanted in from an angle.
“What time is it?” I asked, pulling my shoes on.
“Three. If we leave now we can make it back by curfew.”
He looked out the window, scanning the parking lot. All traces of humor and closeness were gone, replaced by the rigid, almost military-like attitude he carried when it involved anything to do with Werewolves; it was as if the kiss had never happened.
I hadn’t missed the slip he’d made a few minutes ago, when he’d almost called me a Dirty Blood. Did he still think of me as nothing but a half-Werewolf? Did he still despise that part of me? He must be a little more accepting of it, if he wanted to kiss me. I didn’t know how to ask without making things awkward or way more complicated than I was ready for.
“Ready?” he asked, glancing at me and then back out the window.
“Let’s go.”
“Keep your head down,” he said as we headed for the car.
“You really think they’re looking for us?”
“I think you left a pretty obvious trail on the way in,” he said, wrenching open the door of a beat-up pickup and climbing into the driver’s seat.
I got in and pulled my seat belt on while he fired up the engine, which sounded less like a truck and more like a lawn mower with a cold.
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“It means you had a certain odor coming off you when we got here. You smelled… animal.”
I shifted in my seat. “You said that already. I’m sure it was those Werewolves.”
“I don’t think so. It was different. It was mixed with your scent, part of you.” He shook his head, steering us out of the lot and onto the main road. I wasn’t sure why, but I wished he’d let it go. I didn’t like knowing I’d smelled like one of them since I wasn’t sure exactly what that meant.
The subject fell away as he concentrated on getting us out of town. The way he watched the road and the mirrors, you would’ve thought we were being followed by Secret Service. I sat back and let him obsess; trying to figure out what the heck I was going to say to Headmaster Whitfield to explain my absence over the last twenty-four hours. Or worse, what I was going to say to Cambria.
My phone rang, jolting me out of my panic. I grabbed it from my pocket and looked at the readout. I glanced at Alex.
“Miles,” I said, my heart pounding.
“Answer it. Maybe he knows who attacked you.”
I nodded and pressed the button. “Hello?”
“Tara, you’re being a tease. What ex
actly happened out there earlier? I thought you were coming to meet me.” Miles sounded irritated underneath the smooth cockiness he exuded.
“I got held up. A pack of pissed off Werewolves with bad breath and rabid eyes tried to kill me. You wouldn’t know anything about that would you?”
“Kill you? Of course not. I don’t want to harm you.” Miles sounded genuinely surprised. “I want you by my side, an ally in the war. The future first lady of our kind.”
I gagged a little, and glanced at Alex who was watching me with a questioning expression. “So you have no idea who sent the pack of killer Werewolves after me?”
“No, but rest assured, I will find out. In the meantime, you will be safer with me than on your own. Why don’t we try this again?”
“No, Miles. Not today. Soon.”
Miles paused. I could feel his annoyance through the silent speakers. Something crashed in the background, and I thought I heard a muffled whimper.
“Soon,” he repeated in a tight voice. “I won’t accept any more delays. The next time I call you, be ready, my dear.”
The line went dead before I could answer. I dropped the phone into my lap.
“What did he say?” Alex asked.
I leaned my head back against the seat and tried to shake off the threat that had come across in Miles’ tone. “He’s pissed. No idea who wants me dead, but says he’ll try to find out. He wanted me to meet him. I think I pushed him too far when I told him no.”
“Do you think he’ll call again?”
“Eventually. He says to be ready this time. It sounded kind of ominous.”
“Good. It’ll be easier if he thinks he has to work for it. He’d be suspicious if you gave in too easily.”
“Typical guy then,” I muttered.
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