by K. N. Banet
“I can’t turn her over to die. I can’t do it. What she did is…terrible, but…” I was breathing hard as adrenaline started pumping through my veins. I was about to dive headfirst into trouble that would most certainly kill me if I didn’t succeed. Again. “You and Landon said it yourselves. Alpha Vasiliev was an awful Alpha. He did terrible things. His own submissive wolves turned against him. What my sister did was wrong, but…”
Heath leaned onto the car and bent over, covering his face and blocking my view.
“You’re justifying murder,” he whispered. “There were better ways.”
“I know. You can go. You should. Um…You can drive back to the hospital and tell whoever you want what we just learned. I’m going with her.”
He looked up, a deep sadness in his eyes.
“And let you do this alone?” he asked. “Jacky…”
“Carey needs you,” I mumbled, tears flooding my eyes. “Right or wrong, I can’t leave my sister to die. Like Hasan and my siblings didn’t leave me to die.”
He straightened and looked down at me, his grey-blue eyes hard.
“And I can’t leave you,” he said with a bite. “Not again. Not like last time when I did what you asked and took everyone to safety while you were taken, beaten, and had to escape on your own. I left you once before, and you were tortured. I am not leaving you alone again. Don’t dare think I would.”
I had to take a step back. The intensity in his gaze was almost too much for me to keep eye contact. He was exerting his dominance, his sheer force of will, which had a lot of oomph behind it.
“What’s the next step in this plan of yours?” he asked softly, his body losing some of the tension.
“We need to get her a change of clothes,” I said, swallowing. “Then we need to find a safe place to stay. There’s a chance they’ll never figure out the death wasn’t accidental. We could just ride out the storm.”
He nodded slowly, then stepped closer to me.
“Never underestimate how serious I am when it comes to you,” he whispered, then walked around me, heading inside.
I leaned on the car and finally let the air leave my lungs, relaxing my shoulders.
This couldn’t have gone more wrong.
12
Chapter Twelve
When Heath and Gwen walked out of Everett’s home together, I had a better idea of how this needed to play out. Everett followed them, his eyes locking on mine. As Gwen and Heath climbed into the car, I stepped toward the werecat.
“Your werewolf gave me some very sparse cliff notes and said you two were going to take her somewhere even safer than my territory.” He rubbed his jaw as if he was considering what he was about to say. “I won’t tell anyone,” he promised. “Family for ones like us is more important than all else. Plus, I’m not looking to get on Hasan’s radar, not after what happened in February. I’m sure you’ll let your father know what’s going on when it’s needed.”
“Thank you.” I knew what it could cost Everett if it ever came back to him. “We can leave you out of it if this blows up. I’ll say my sister found a way to contact me directly through you, but….Well, it’s not lying to say you have no idea what’s going on.”
“Yeah, exactly.” He nodded. “You should get out of here. The less time you spend here, the better it looks for me. And, I guess, you three.”
“Thank you—”
“Jacqueline, daughter of Hasan, I want to say one more thing if I can be so bold.” His words wavered as though he didn’t want to say it, but at the last minute, decided it was right.
I waved him on, curious.
“I learned the hard way it’s best to leave your human family in your human life,” he said softly. “I know saying that is probably crossing over a line, but I don’t think your father and siblings would be too happy if you throw away everything to protect a human—”
“I don’t need your opinion on how bad this could get,” I hissed. “Unlike you, I know everything that’s going on. Stay out of it and keep your head down. If you have any reason to believe werewolves might try to enter your territory, you will call me, and I’ll get Heath involved. We’re not looking to start a war.”
“Of course.” He waved and started walking backward. “You have a safe trip and good luck with the…family reunion.”
“Yup.” I jumped into the car, taking the passenger’s seat. Gwen sat in the back, silent, her fear nearly choking me. Heath hit the gas and took us back down the dirt driveway. Once we were out of sight of Everett’s home, I turned to my sister.
“Do you realize your actions might start a war the supernaturals tried their best to end eight hundred years ago?” I demanded, glaring at her.
“Excuse me? Are you trying to give me a history lesson?” She huffed. “Yes, Jacky, I do know what the problems are between werecats and werewolves. That relationship and several others are trained into us before we’re even allowed to see a patient. I know the fae and vampires have a long, bloody history as well. I know most supernaturals don’t like witches because they’re pretty much humans. I’m not an idiot.” She raised her chin and looked down her nose at me. “I didn’t consider that when I went to Everett to get ahold of you. I just knew you would be able to help me.”
“Well, damn, and here I thought I was the reckless one in the family,” I growled.
“You’re the one who literally isn’t human anymore,” my twin retorted. “That’s not the point. I thought you would understand. I heard stories, you know. Not many have seen you in person, so only a few people at the hospital knew we looked alike. No one knew we were related when—”
“Not that hard to find out,” Heath muttered, shaking his head. “I did seven years ago.”
My sister’s glare at the back of Heath’s head could have killed the man.
“Moving on from that,” she snapped. “I did a lot of digging about you, Jacky. I learned about Dallas, Washington, and the incident that brought you into the hospital with…them. You’ve been putting yourself in situations like mine for at least a year. When this happened, you were the first person I thought to call.”
I looked away from her and back to the front, staring out the front window.
My reputation precedes me, I guess. I didn’t realize it was so fucking widespread.
“Where do you live?” I asked softly as we left Everett’s territory. She rattled off her address, and I punched it into the car’s dashboard GPS system. “Where are your kids? Do we need to bring them into custody?”
“You don’t know?” Gwen asked with a fair amount of bitterness to throw at me. “Daniel left me three years ago. He has primary custody of the kids because I work such odd and long hours. They’re in Minneapolis. So are Mom and Dad, not that you asked about them. They should all be safe, not that you care. I mean, you could have gotten all of that from a quick look at Facebook, but obviously, you don’t care enough to do that.”
“I didn’t look into your life, no,” I said softly, trying not to be angry. “I don’t stalk your social media accounts or theirs.”
“Yeah, because you finally found a reason to drop us—”
“No, because I’m going to live for a very long time, potentially forever, and you are all going to die of old age,” I snarled. “I am a species of supernatural the world doesn’t know about, can’t know about. Don’t get high and mighty with me, Gwen. I’m risking my life and Heath’s to keep you from being killed. I don’t need the animosity right now.”
“Sorry. I just…” She shook her head. “I didn’t think about how angry I would be, seeing you for the first time in twelve years. Avoiding me, our parents, not getting involved in the lives of your niece and nephew, and now you’ve walked in and…” She didn’t finish, so I took my chance to say something, hoping to get her to see my side.
“I wasn’t going to risk exposing my secret and my species for the love and affection of parents who always made me feel like I was second best,” I growled. “I wasn’t going t
o watch them, you, and your kids grow old and die. I had to do what I thought was safer and healthier in the end, and you know it. Don’t act like—”
“The werewolves keep their human families, but you cut us out of your life. We couldn’t even go to Shane’s funeral.”
“You never even liked him,” I muttered, getting comfortable in my seat. I didn’t need to look her in the eye for this discussion. She had always thought Shane was a freeloader, lazy, a deadbeat. He had been looking for what he wanted to do in his life, and we’d had time. We were only in our mid-twenties. We had plenty of time. Now, only I had plenty of time.
Fuck, sometimes I have too much time.
“And we’re back to that,” Gwen mumbled.
“Why don’t you two talk all of this out at a later time and let me drive?” Heath asked patiently.
“I like that idea,” I declared, reaching to turn on the radio. I looked back at her for a second and saw her sitting with her arms crossed. It wasn’t a pout. It was an act she put on to seem above it as if she knew she was in the right. It was something I was used to seeing since we had our first real fight at fifteen.
Before that, we had been as inseparable as twins people would see in movies. Too bad I didn’t remember a good chunk of those years.
We drove back into Rochester to my sister’s home. A small two-bedroom, it didn’t look like a home for a woman with two kids. Heath didn’t stop driving and park in her driveway, though.
“I want to case the neighborhood before I stop,” he explained when I gave him a confused look. “I want to make sure no one is watching.”
“Well, if they are, they’ll be able to see us in this car,” I reminded.
“No, they’ll be scoping out the house, not random cars driving through the neighborhood. Just let me check. There are a lot of cars parked on the side of the road.”
“I’ll stay down,” Gwen whispered. “Maybe you should too, Jacky.”
“If they recognize Heath, they’ll know I’m nearby,” I told her with a sigh. “The entire world probably knows he and I left Dallas together. Well, all the werewolves, anyway. The Dallas pack flew us up here.”
“Why do you run with these werewolves? You were just reminding me that you hate each other.”
“I don’t hate werewolves,” I whispered, looking out the window. Very much the opposite, in fact.
“Jacky and I have been allies for over a year. We’re…breaking in a new path, I hope, for the rest of our species,” Heath clarified. “We’re friends, and that friendship is begrudgingly tolerated by the rest of the werewolves and werecats. It’s not smiled on, but they have no reason to try to kill us.”
“Would they?” she asked.
“Yes,” I said in a voice so quiet, I didn’t know if she heard me. “If they feel either of us is betraying our own kind to help the other…” I inhaled as that thought ran through me. “Heath.”
“I know.” He shrugged. “They won’t execute me without giving me a chance to explain my side. You know that. If I can explain to them I felt justified that my actions were necessary to stop a small conflict from escalating into an all-out war, I’ll be able to walk. I already thought about that. Even if it wasn’t your sister, if any human went to a werecat, and the Russians decided to ignore that invisible line of protection, a war would start. We both know that. This is part of the reason the other Alphas in North America let me live near you and keep contact, so I can use you to stop conflicts on the same small scale.”
“It didn’t start when I helped Carey,” I reminded him. “The ones who turned against you still tried to kill me, and that didn’t almost escalate to a war between species until Hasan threatened to out everyone to avenge me.”
“I think the situations are a little different. Carey is a child of a werewolf and specifically, my daughter. Her role in any of these things is expected as the daughter of a werewolf. Gwen is a surgeon at the Mygi Hospital, neutral ground, and shouldn’t be at risk to begin with. She’s also your sister. Let’s ignore the familial relationship, though. Let’s look at this as if she’s any human who worked at the hospital. If the werewolves start killing the hospital employees, they declare their self-interests are more important than the health and wellbeing of all supernaturals. No one would let that stand, and the werewolves on the Tribunal would have to draw the line. Either leave the Russians to die by the hands of others, step in and protect them, or kill the pack off themselves. All of those situations turn ugly. All of them.”
“Oh yeah, that makes a lot of sense.” I couldn’t disagree. “So, there’s a strong chance you don’t get killed in all of this by the Tribunal. Like everything in our world, it’s politics.”
“Yes,” he said softly. “It would be better if I told them I was involved, but that risks exposing you and Gwen right now and…” He shook his head as he turned around another block. “I don’t want to do that yet. The more time we can steal without anyone knowing about the two of you, the better.”
“Definitely,” I agreed. “What do you think are my chances?”
“I won’t let you die,” he said, his jaw tensing and a twitch forming on his neck. “So, the chances don’t matter.”
“Wow, you two are intense,” Gwen said in the back. “More people don’t have to die.”
“You killed a werewolf Alpha,” I reminded her. “More people will die. It’s just a matter of time.”
“He—”
“Deserved it,” Heath growled. “Yes, we know. Heard that speech already. Once we’re in a better location, we can discuss your reasoning further.”
“Fine.”
It took another ten minutes before Heath pulled into Gwen’s driveway. We all walked to the front door together, Heath and I keeping our eyes, ears, and noses on alert for anything out of the ordinary for the suburbs. Gwen fumbled with her keys, but once the front door was unlocked and we made it inside, I locked the door again, refusing to leave any possible venue of protection unused. A front door didn’t offer much protection, but even the thirty seconds it allowed could be necessary.
Maybe I was just getting paranoid after so many adventures.
“Get something clean on,” I ordered. “Don’t bother showering. Your home isn’t safe to stay in for any length of time.”
“Of course,” she agreed and ran into the back room.
While she was gone, Heath and I searched the front side of the house, the kitchen, living room, and a small dining area. That was all my sister had.
Heath was checking for intruders, but I was looking at other things—pictures on the walls, framed portraits on the shelves.
I saw my parents. The picture had to be after I Changed. They seemed older. Gwen and I didn’t get our hazel eyes from either of them. Our mother had green eyes, and our father had dark brown. Our hazel came from somewhere in the middle, but I wasn’t a genetics expert. They both had brown hair, in two different shades. We matched our mother’s. We were both taller than her, but not nearly as tall as our dad, who reached over six feet.
I looked away from the picture, feeling the sting as I realized my mom was now fully grey. I had missed over a decade, and they had changed physically. They were doing the very thing I had never wanted to see. They were growing old.
I moved to the next set of pictures—baby pictures, kid pictures, and Daniel.
I can’t believe they split up.
It was disheartening. Gwen and Daniel started dating their freshman year of high school and were the couple everyone had wanted to be, even me. Everyone wanted to have their life. He became a fancy lawyer, and she became a doctor, and somehow, they stayed together through all of that and brought two kids into the world.
The fact she still had his picture on the wall made my heart hurt. I couldn’t bear to look at Shane. I had lost him, still madly in love until our last breaths. He left her, and she tortured herself, looking at his picture.
Finally, I hit one picture I really didn’t want to see. The complicated mix o
f emotions that ran through me as I stared at my face was one I couldn’t sort out, not then. She had a few pictures of us together and alone—graduating high school was prominent, one of us as teenagers, each holding a trophy from the county science fair. We were sixteen when that had happened. Gwen’s was first place. Mine was third place. She was grinning. I wasn’t.
Every kid in the county would have killed for that trophy, but I had known they would talk about Gwen the entire way home. Third place wasn’t good enough when the twin was first.
There was even a picture of us from the time I couldn’t remember. We couldn’t have been more than ten. We were fishing with our dad, who stood over us, beaming at the fish we caught.
“I loved that day,” she said behind me. I didn’t look at her as she walked up next to me and sighed happily. “Do you remember? You were so good at fishing, and I was the worst. Couldn’t catch anything to save my life until that fish. Once we both had a fish, he asked Mom to take our picture.”
“I don’t…I don’t remember that day.” Most of the time, I ignored the missing years, but their absence hit me when Carey brought them up. Every time she asked about those years, I felt the ache of losing them like an old scar. Now, it was like being shot.
“What?” She grabbed my shoulder and turned me to look at her. “You don’t remember?”
“Sometimes, when a werecat is Changed, they get blind spots in their memory. Bet it happens to werewolves, too.” I didn’t see any reason to lie to her. She was a doctor at a supernatural hospital, after all. “There’s no real explanation, but I have always wondered if it’s because brain cells might die during the Change. My memory loss is a bit worse than most, but I was dying when I was Changed. I had a lot of bad injuries and took some pretty terrible knocks to the head on the way down the cliff. So, I lost…about six years of my long-term memory. I don’t remember anything from like six to twelve. I’ve gotten used to it.”