“If that got out or into the wrong hands…” Kess trailed off, unable to wrap her mind around the implications. Weres could be outed by anyone with access to that serum; their anonymity would be stripped away.
“It’s a problem,” Sebastian agreed. “I’ll have the Order look into this.” He turned his attention back to Laila. “There’s still the issue of you, my dear.”
“You were sent to bring me back, I know, I know,” the werejackal groused, subsiding back into the pillows of the couch with a frown. “How much trouble am I in?”
Kess watched as Sebastian began to move around the room. It was a glide, not a prowl, but it was almost hypnotic; the economy of motion, the muscles moving smoothly so that he seemed to flow rather than walk. She blinked herself out of her fugue state. Sebastian was definitely someone to be wary of—his skills were formidable. She cut her eyes at Cormac to find him watching the Anubis Knight darkly. He didn’t trust Sebastian either.
Finally he stopped his roving, coming to rest with his shoulder planted against a wall. He leaned casually against it, looking like he might be ready to discuss what to eat for dinner, and not Laila’s continued future with the Keepers of Divine Order. “That’s going to depend entirely on my report.”
Laila threw up her hands. “Well, it’s been nice knowing all of you.”
“Don’t be so overdramatic,” Sebastian chided. “Children,” he muttered softly, but not softly enough to keep a room full of weres from hearing. And he knew it, if his mocking grin was any indication. Kess smirked.
“While I am not thrilled with the way this hunter incident was handled,” he pierced Laila with a significant look, “I can’t overlook the results.” He turned to Kess. “You and your council dealt with a threat to all weres, not just those in Miami. While your methods may have been a little slapdash, you neutralized the threat. So as far as I’m concerned, Miami is still in capable hands. I will pass this along to the Order.”
Kess felt a huge weight lift from her chest. She hadn’t been sure what Sebastian would report back, and they were still under some kind of weird Keeper probation. If they had failed, who knows what the outcome would have been. She wasn’t as concerned for herself as she was for Finn and Rafe. They were latecomers to the problems of Miami, and even if they were on the council, they still shouldn’t be held as accountable as Kess.
“As for you,” Sebastian continued, turning to Laila, “we all know that you ignored a direct order from your father, who also happens to be your senior within the Order.” When Laila opened her mouth to protest, he waved her back to silence. “However, the call Kess made to him requesting your continued presence in Miami will mitigate that somewhat.”
Laila seemed to relax until the Anubis Knight spoke again. “There is still the issue of our meeting on the roof.” Laila frowned.
“Wait, you met with him?” Finn asked for the rest of the group. As far as anyone knew, she’d had no contact with the Keepers since she’d gone rogue.
“Technically, no,” she answered, crossing her arms across her chest in a gesture of belligerent defiance. “He would have had to catch me for it to be a meeting.”
Sebastian nodded his head. “There is that.” He paused, as if he were composing what he was going to say next in his head. “I am willing to overlook our encounter—or lack thereof—on the rooftop. For now. I understand that you were grieving for the loss of your brother and that may have affected your decision making.”
He pushed away from the wall and walked over to the couch where Laila sat beside Finn. He stopped in front of her and leaned forward at the waist so his eyes were level with hers. “Make no mistake though. If you defy Keeper orders again, I will deal with you. And it will not be pleasant. Do you understand what I am telling you?”
Kess was shocked when Laila nodded quietly. She’d expected another show of bravado. Instead, Laila had dropped her eyes from Sebastian’s in a show of submission. That was unexpected to say the very least.
“So Laila’s not going to get in trouble?” Finn asked, looking from one to the other.
“My orders were to return with Laila in tow and to assess the situation here in Miami,” Sebastian answered, giving Laila a little space. “My orders never said that I had to return with Laila before the hunter was neutralized; my orders never specified when I had to return with her at all. So as long as she willingly leaves with me, there is no cause for concern.”
Cormac turned to Kess. “Why did you really leave us out of it?”
Trust Cormac to know her better than she sometimes knew herself. She grimaced and decided it was time to confess. “I didn’t want to risk him harming any of you. After what he’d done to Rafe’s old pack members and to Mebis, I wasn’t going to risk any of you. I knew he wanted to hunt me and that Laila wanted to avenge her brother. It seemed the simplest way to deal with Lukas: use myself as bait and lure him into the swamp where Laila could take care of him. And none of you were put in danger.”
“You could have been killed,” Cormac said softly, but he didn’t sound angry.
“I could be killed crossing the street,” she countered. “It was worth the risk to keep everyone safe.”
Cormac sat there quietly for a few moments, then pulled her close to him. “That’s Alpha thinking,” he said, approval in his voice. Kess breathed a sigh of relief. She’d been afraid he would react badly, questioning her choices. “Nice job.”
“Thanks,” she whispered, smiling warmly at him.
“That’s not fair,” Rafe said suddenly, the words bursting out of him. “If we’re a council, we all need to act like it.” He stood. “That means no secret plans, no trying to protect the others. We’re either in this together or we’re not.” He sounded angry.
“Rafe’s right,” Finn agreed, looking at Kess. “You can’t just make these decisions all by yourself. Despite what Cormac says, you’re not an Alpha. You can run your cats like that if you want, but the council isn’t about one person deciding what’s right and leaving the rest of us in the dark.” He turned to Laila. “And that goes for you too. You can’t just come into this territory and ignore the rules, Laila. The council should have been notified of your plan and whereabouts—that’s the deal for staying in Miami.”
“I think you were just chastised,” Cormac observed drily, a smirk on his face. “If Burke could see you now, cousin.”
Finn gave him the finger, but didn’t otherwise respond to Cormac’s needling. “Are we clear? If you can’t follow your own rules, Kess, how can you expect anyone else to?”
Kess tucked her hair behind her ears. “You’re both right. I’m sorry. I guess I’m still used to being a solitary—it’s still hard to think about being part of a group.” She looked at Rafe and Finn in turn. “It won’t happen again.”
Sebastian clapped his hands together. “Nicely done.” He surveyed the faces in the room, seeming to take their measure. Kess thought he liked what he saw. “And now that we’ve suitably rehashed your adventures, I think it’s time I took my leave.”
The doorbell rang. “That’s the pizza,” Rafe said, leaving to go fetch it.
Sebastian followed him, then stopped in the doorway. “One question that still puzzles me: how was this hunter able to spot who was a were?” At their blank looks, he said, “Something to think about then.” Then he was gone.
Laila dropped back against the couch cushions. “Sometimes I really can’t stand that guy.”
Kess nodded at her. “Finally. Something we can both agree on.”
Chapter Forty-Three
They were swimming. They always seemed to have their more serious talks while doing something physical. Finn wondered if physical exertion made Laila calmer—he suspected it did, since she had such a problem keeping still for long periods. Their best talks always seemed to happen in the pool. Or after killing hyenas. Finn wasn’t sure what that said about their relationship.
Finn wondered if Laila knew anything was wrong. She was just going about
her business as usual, waiting out these few days before Sebastian would escort her back to New Orleans. The Anubis Knight was allowing her a little time to visit with her friends—and grieve for her brother—before carting her off to the Keepers for debriefing. Finn couldn’t decide if he were glad about that or not.
Everything just seemed suddenly so complicated. Finn didn’t do complicated—it was one of the reasons he was drawn to Laila: she was so uncomplicated. He wasn’t sure what to do with everything he wanted to say to her, sometimes thinking maybe it was better if he just kept his big mouth shut, but then finding he wanted to blurt out all the many ways she’d pissed him off. He was stewing. It wasn’t like him to stew. That was Cormac’s job.
Finn sat in the pool, his back against the wall, his elbows up on the deck. His sunglasses shaded his eyes from the blinding glare of the sun off the water and also hid how they watched Laila duck under the water like a porpoise.
Finally she swam over to him, breathing hard and smiling. He really liked her smile, especially when it was at him.
“So,” she said, mimicking his position at the pool’s edge, “you ever going to tell me what’s on your mind?”
He started, pulled out of his thoughts. It figured Laila would deal with anything between them head on. She didn’t have any other setting. He rubbed a wet hand over his face, trying to cool off and buying a space of time.
“I’m not getting any younger over here, you know,” she prompted.
“I’m kinda at a loss here, Laila,” he began because honesty was as good as anything else at this point. “I’m not exactly sure what you want from me.”
“Want from you?” She looked puzzled. “Who said I wanted anything from you?”
Oh yeah, this was going to go well. He took a breath. “I don’t understand why you felt you had to do this hunter thing all alone. You just kind of went off and closed me out of everything. I wanted to help you.”
Now it was Laila’s turn to think. She took a few minutes before replying. “I need you to understand that it wasn’t personal, okay. I wasn’t, like, consciously excluding you.” She paused, turning to face Finn. She bobbed in the water, the droplets on her skin reflecting the sunlight like she was covered in diamonds. “I had to be the one to take down Lukas. Do you understand that? It was my brother he killed, not yours, so—no offense—it wasn’t your place to be involved.”
He opened his mouth but she pressed a finger against his lips, a glint in her brown eyes. “How would you feel if it had been Cormac or Burke?” She waited a beat, then nodded at the understanding in his eyes. She took her finger from his lips.
Finn knew he’d go to the ends of the earth to find the person that killed his brother or his cousin. That’s what family did, that’s what being pack meant. Sometimes it surprised him how alike he and Laila were.
She continued to speak, her voice softer. “I love that you wanted to help me. I—I’ve never had anyone who’d want to do that for me before, except for Mebis. I kind of don’t know what to do with that.”
“Are you okay?” Finn asked because it was the only thing he cared about. He wanted to know Laila was going to be alright.
“I miss him,” she answered, looking away. “It’s like I’m missing something so fundamental to me, even more than a limb. Like an internal organ or something.”
“I get it. When my mom died, it felt a little like that.” He never talked about his mom or her death from cancer.
Laila nodded. “I saw him, you know. When we were all in the swamp and Zamiel was talking to me. I got to say goodbye to him.”
“Was that when you had the sword pointed at me?” Finn had seen her eyes go strange for just a moment—or so it had seemed to him. Maybe it felt longer to her. He didn’t doubt her words for a second. He’d just met a demon a few days ago; his girlfriend communicating with her dead brother seemed to pale in comparison.
She nodded. “We were in some kind of in-between place. Mebis knew I needed him and he came.” There was the sheen of unshed tears in her eyes as she spoke, but no tears fell. “That’s what brothers do.”
Finn watched as she ducked her head under the water. Even now she wouldn’t cry in front of anyone. Finn let her have her moment, not saying anything about it when she surfaced. If she didn’t want to show her tears, that was her right.
Laila slicked back her long blonde hair. “At least I got to say goodbye to him.”
“Your brother loved you more than anything else,” Finn said. “Hell, he pulled a gun on me to try and force me to go back to you when I was getting him away from the hyenas.” Finn hadn’t told her that before; it had slipped his mind in all the chaos of the night Kess and Samara fought for control of Miami.
Laila grinned. “Obviously you didn’t listen.”
“Nope.” He smiled back at her. “Like I told your brother, you were way scarier than he was. And he was holding a gun to my head.”
She laughed suddenly, a bright and tinkling sound, like chimes. “He said you were a good guy.”
“When did he say that?” Finn highly doubted Mebis was very fond of him.
“When we said goodbye. He gave you his seal of approval.”
Finn raised his eyebrows, surprised. Mebis had always been polite to him, but never what Finn would have called overly friendly. He’d just thought that Mebis tolerated Finn’s presence in his sister’s life, all the while waiting for her to get bored and find someone better. “Wow. I never would have expected that.”
Laila bumped against him, her hip striking against his leg under the water. “Why not? Mebis was an excellent judge of character.”
That’s kind of my point, Finn was tempted to say but decided it best to keep it to himself. “I meant, brothers are supposed to be suspicious of their sister’s boyfriends. That’s sort of their job.”
Laila smiled sadly, her scar crinkling. “He really was the best brother a girl could ever have.”
“No arguments there,” Finn agreed, putting his arm around her shoulder to pull her closer. He was half-surprised when she allowed it. “So are we okay?”
She was quiet for a long moment. He stared at her face, his eyes chasing the contours of forehead, cheek and jaw. When she spoke, he had to lean down to hear her. “Remember our conversation on the phone that day. The one where I didn’t feel like talking?”
Finn nodded, his chin brushing against her hair. “Yeah. You would hit a button once for yes and twice for no.” He wasn’t sure where she was going with this, but he was willing to play along.
“Beep.”
Finn smiled. It spread across his face slowly, but grew until he thought it might split his face in half. “Beep?”
She turned so she was looking right at him. She pulled off his sunglasses and laid them on the side of the pool. Laila put her face close to his, her eyes boring into his. “I’m sorry.” She put her hand against his cheek, a gesture as gentle as it was surprising. “I didn’t mean to worry you. Thank you for being patient.”
Finn leaned into her touch. He hadn’t been patient, not exactly. He’d only tried his best to be there for her. He’d only wished she’d have let him do more. He opened his mouth to say as much when her lips locked onto his, effectively cutting off his words.
When she let him up for air, she said, “I kind of love you too, Finnegan McNeil.”
He smiled into her warm brown eyes before claiming her mouth again.
Chapter Forty-Four
Cormac and Kess walked slowly down the street, hand in hand. She was taking him to a favorite sandwich shop, one where the portions rivaled even the epic scale of those served at Spanky’s back in North Carolina. She thought they deserved some alone time after the upheaval of the past few days. Laila and Finn had pretty much taken up residence in the gatehouse until Sebastian determined it was time for them to go. Kess suspected he was waiting for word of the new Keeper that would be assigned to Miami. Rafe had his phone surgically attached to his hand, texting Lenore every moment that
he wasn’t in school. It didn’t give Cormac and Kess a lot of privacy.
She pushed open the door and led him inside. The restaurant didn’t look like anything spectacular: Formica tables, chairs with patched plastic seats, paper placemats that held the menu. At this time of day it wasn’t crowded, which only meant the line wasn’t snaking down the block. They scored the last available table and squeezed into it, letting the noise of a roomful of patrons wash over them.
“When you said go somewhere we could be alone, somehow a greasy spoon didn’t exactly spring to mind,” Cormac said as he settled himself carefully into his creaking chair.
Kess grinned at him and tapped his placemat. “Trust me. It will all be worth it.”
They took a few moments to peruse the menu, even though Kess already knew what they wanted. When the server came by to get their drink orders, they were all set. Orders placed and drinks delivered, Kess reached across the table and took Cormac’s hand. He rubbed his thumb over the back of hers.
“You haven’t asked me when I’m leaving,” he noted absently.
Kess looked down. She had deliberately been avoiding that conversation. She didn’t want to think about him going back to North Carolina. She hated that she had no idea when she’d be able to resume her life there, with him, and it hurt to think of being without him. They’d just gotten to a good place; she wasn’t ready to say goodbye and start the long distance thing again.
“I’ve sort of been actively avoiding it,” she admitted. “I know you’re going to have to leave soon.”
Cormac nodded, taking a sip of his Coke. “Yeah, I’ve been trying to coordinate with my dad about it.”
Kess looked at him in confusion. Coordinate what with his dad? Coordinate what exactly? Could he be trying to stay a little longer? “I’m fairly certain your Alpha dad isn’t thrilled with you missing any more school,” she offered, knowing that Alaric valued his son’s education—not to mention his presence among the pack. “I’m going to assume he nixed a longer stay.” She tried not to be disappointed.
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