Blood Bond

by Heather Hildenbrand

  “Good. See you in a bit.” She opened the door and ushered us out, like we’d just left the principal’s office.

  George met us in the hall. “Angela’s in my room,” he said. “And Wes will be up in a few to, um, deal with Sam.”

  “Does Angela know that’s what he’s going to do?” Cambria asked.

  I nodded. “Yeah. She knows.”

  “Is she okay with it?”

  “I think so. She knows it’s the best thing for Sam,” I said.

  “Are you going to have him do the same with Angela?”

  I shared a look with George. “I don’t know,” I said.

  Wes came up behind George and slapped him on the shoulder. “Party in your room,” Wes said.

  “Looks like,” said George. “You ready?”

  “Let’s do it.” He looked at me. “We’ve got a vote to get to.”

  George knocked once and pushed the door open. Angela turned from the window and our eyes met. Everyone stopped, waiting for her response. I watched her glance once at Sam asleep in bed, then Wes. “Let’s take a walk,” she said to me.

  I nodded and followed her out.

  We ended up in the front yard, since there wasn’t much empty space in the house with everyone wandering around, gulping coffee, trying to wake up.

  “That night you broke up with George and called me for a ride … that was the night you killed that wolf-girl, wasn’t it?”

  “Yes.”

  “If I’d come to get you—”

  “There would’ve been another Werewolf, another time,” I said. “Don’t put this on you.”

  “I’m not, I just … I want to be here for you. I thought about it all night. I know you could have Wes erase my memory, make it so I don’t remember—like he’s doing with Sam—but I want to know.” She squared her shoulders, pulling herself up taller. “I can handle this. I think. I want to try.”

  I resisted the urge to throw my arms around her just yet. “Why?” I asked softly.

  “Because we’re family, you and I. And because the truth should always be faced, even if it’s hard or ugly.”

  “It’s messy,” I warned. “And dangerous. This world isn’t safe for humans.”

  “Neither is the one I left behind.”

  I stared back at her, still contemplating. “All right,” I said slowly. “If it gets to be too much—”

  “I’ll say so,” she promised.

  She stepped forward and we threw our arms around each other at the same time.

  “You know I’d choose you over George any day,” I said.

  She laughed. “No way. With that bond thing you guys have? Guys are emotionally dead inside. It must be a piece of cake.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Such a lie. He’s just as bad as a girl.”

  “What do you feel right now?” she asked.

  I paused, searching through the mood in my head, trying to separate what was mine and his. “Worry,” I said slowly. “For you and Sam. For me. And confidence. He’s more sure of himself as a Werewolf.”

  “Wow. That’s pretty good. And what about you?”

  “Worry.”

  “About the hybrids?”

  “About the vote Fee called. That they won’t let me go.” For a moment, neither of us spoke. My thoughts wandered to the coming evening, when Mr. Lexington would show up looking for me. What would he do if I refused to join him? Who would he go after next?

  “You’re also happy,” she said quietly, startling me.

  “Happy? Today?”

  “Maybe not today, exactly, but in general, with this new life. I’ve seen it on your face for weeks. Even before you left for Wood Point. It’s how I knew something changed. You changed.”

  Any answer I might’ve given was interrupted by the door opening. Wes came out. “It’s done. She’ll sleep for a while yet. I think Edie gave her another dose of that tea. Oh, and the vote’s in five. We should head around back.”

  “Outside?” I asked.

  “I think Fee’s worried about tempers. Everyone has a very specific opinion.” His voice took on an edge, and I slipped my hand into his. He held on firmly but he didn’t look any more assured.

  “Do I get a vote?” Angela asked as we walked.

  “Yes,” I said, cutting off whatever Wes had been about to say. “You get a vote.”

  Cord blocked my path as I joined the circle. “You’re on board with this, right?” she asked.

  Her directness startled me. “With going? Yes. I’m on board.”

  “You do know they’re all going to vote no.”

  “Wes won’t,” I said quietly.

  That silenced her. Her brows rose at him and then she glanced at Angela. “What about her? She’s not going for the Alzheimer’s scenario?”

  “No,” I said. “She’s one of us now.”

  Cord snorted but didn’t argue. “Fine, it’s another yes, anyway. Let’s hope it’s enough.” She stalked away and stood next to Fee.

  “What’s her problem?” Angela asked me.

  “Life.”

  “We’ll go around the circle, one at a time,” Fee began when we’d all assembled. “Give a yes or a no, that’s it. When we’re done, the vote stands. No arguments.” She looked at me, then Cord. “Also, the vote is for both of you. No one is going alone. It’s both or neither, understand?”

  “Do we know yet why they want both girls?” my mom asked. Her hands twisted nervously. She looked better, rested. I wondered how long she’d commandeered Vera’s bed for, because Vera looked ready to collapse. Dark circles ringed her eyes, her cheeks flushed bright pink.

  “No. Olivia, whoever she is, hasn’t said.”

  “I think it would be better if we waited, maybe called CHAS—”

  Fee cut my mother off with a sharp look. “We are not calling CHAS. I’m allowing you a vote. That’s more than fair, Elizabeth, since you want nothing else to do with us.”

  “Tara’s seventeen. She’s a minor. Legally, I can make the decision—”

  “And any deaths will be on your hands.”

  My mother pressed her lips together, her face blotchy red.

  Fee looked from face to face. “I’ll begin. I vote yes.” She looked left. “Jack?”

  “I vote no,” he said.

  “George?” Fee prompted.

  “No,” he said, looking straight at me.

  “What?” I stared back at him. “Why?”

  Something in the bond spiked. Determination. Protectiveness.

  We hadn’t spoken much over the course of the night, not since the others had arrived home. I’d just assumed he’d be on my side. I hadn’t even had a chance to mention Vera’s idea about the bond providing reassurance to the others.

  “No explanations. No interrupting,” Fee said. “Edie?”

  “No.”

  “Elizabeth.”

  My mom untwisted her hands and balled them into fists. “No.”

  “Vera?”

  “No.”

  I sighed. I’d suspected as much. Her support was “under the table.”

  “Tara?” Fee promped.

  “You skipped Angela,” I said.

  Fee’s mouth tightened. “Angela’s here as your guest. She’s an observer.”

  “This affected her as much as the rest of us,” I said. “She should get a vote.”

  “Humans have no place in this world, Tara, as evidenced last night. She’s lucky we’ve allowed her to remember it.”

  “Are you threatening me?” Angela asked.

  I shushed her and turned back to Fee. Her tone had been clipped and short, a clear message to let it go, to stop arguing. But I couldn’t. I’d waited too long to tell Angela the truth. I wasn’t giving it up easily.

  The skin on my hands and arms stretched and tightened. My neck tingled but I ignored it and stared at Fee across the circle.

  “Tara!” Wes hissed.

  I knew he was trying to warn me, probably to insist I back down in the power struggle I’d ig
nited, but I wouldn’t. More accurately, I couldn’t. The wolf in me had woken and it refused to lose.

  “Fee, humans are just as much at risk as we are by all this. Those hybrids represent everything humans need protecting from. If anything, they’re more at risk than we are. They’re frail, easy targets, and they have no idea they’re in danger to begin with. Angela should be able to represent them, to speak for a race that has no advocate.”

  When I’d finished, I clenched my teeth and waited. Despite the fact we stood outside, the air felt sucked dry. I couldn’t catch my breath, my skin wrapped tightly against my organs.

  Jack leaned over and whispered something in Fee’s ear. She shook her head and he whispered again. Her mouth tightened in response, but she didn’t argue.

  “You raise a valid point. Our war spills over to humans all too often,” Fee said slowly. “In the spirit of democracy, I’ll allow it. This time.”

  “And her memories, the decision to keep them, should belong to her. Not us,” I added.

  Fee stared at me with a fire in her gaze hotter than anything Jack had ever directed at me. I’d been wrong to think he was the only alpha here. So, so wrong.

  “That will be discussed at a later time.” Fee looked at Angela. “What is your vote?”

  Angela cleared her throat. “I vote yes,” she said quietly. My mom glared at her.

  “Thank you. Tara?”

  “Yes,” I said.

  “Wes?”

  Wes’s hand tightened in mine. I knew he was hoping his vote wouldn’t matter. At this rate, maybe it wouldn’t. “Yes.”

  Someone gasped. I was pretty sure it was my mother. Jack cleared his throat.

  “Cambria?” Fee prompted.

  “Yes.” She grinned at me.

  “Derek?”

  He looked at Cord like he wanted to hide. “No,” he said quietly. Cord’s face turned red. “I think there’s another way—” he began.

  “No explanations,” Fee cut him off. He mumbled something too low for me to hear.

  “Cord?”

  “Yes,” Cord said, drawing out the word like it was an obvious response.

  For a second, no one spoke. I knew we were all counting—and re-counting—in our heads.

  “It’s a tie?” Cord asked, disgusted.

  “It’s not a tie.” Alex stepped clear of the shadow provided by the back door and walked toward the group. “I get a vote too, right?” he asked.

  The question was unmistakably a challenge. My heart sank. I had no doubt what his answer would be. No more tie. It was over.

  Fee nodded. “You get a vote too,” she agreed. “What’s your answer?”

  He walked straight up to me and stared into my eyes. His lashes flickered, not quite a blink, and he sucked in a deep breath as if bracing himself. “Yes.”

  I practically heard jaws fall open. Mine included.

  “Seriously?” I whispered.

  He shrugged. “No explanations, remember.” Then he was strolling back to the cover of the shadows, and Fee was talking again, and Wes was tugging on my hand.

  Fee quieted the group and began dictating instruction on how the plan would work. Across the circle, Cord folded her arms and smiled smugly. Our eyes met, and I knew what she was thinking. Once we got out there, no amount of instruction from Fee would change her course. I knew, because I had the same thought, the same mission. Find this Olivia bitch and kill her.

  As soon as Fee’s final monologue—full of words like “stay together” and “we’ll be close by” and “don’t take risks”—ended, I went in search of Alex.

  He’d slipped away halfway through the strategic discussion, right after the part where I’d pointed out my bond with George and how it could be a real advantage with what we were doing. I was fairly certain he’d gone back inside, but when I looked, he wasn’t there. I went room to room, quietly at first, then calling his name. By the time I circled back to the kitchen, Cambria and George became curious enough to get involved.

  “Where could he have gone?” I asked.

  “Probably getting some air,” Cambria said. “It is a little thick with Werewolves around here.”

  “We’re not exactly his favorite,” George agreed. It wasn’t lost on me that he’d just officially put himself into the Werewolf category for the first time, but I was too distracted to give it attention.

  “He wouldn’t just leave,” I argued.

  “Is he patrolling?” Cambria asked. “Derek and Jack are out now. Maybe they asked for his help.”

  “Is who patrolling?” Wes asked, coming up behind me and sliding an arm around my waist. He pressed a kiss to my cheek. I barely felt it.

  “Alex. I can’t find him. I need to talk to him before …” I couldn’t decide how to finish it so I let it hang.

  Grandma appeared in the doorway. “Tara, sweetie, a word, please.” Her tone was a direct contradiction to her words—and warned me to tread carefully.

  “What’s up?” I asked, breaking away from the group and following her out the front door.

  She waved an arm at the front yard. “You tell me.”

  “Um …” I tried to see what she saw. “Dead grass?”

  “My Hummer. It isn’t here. You want to explain that to me?”

  A sick feeling settled in my gut as I looked at the empty spot where it had been parked since last night. “Alex.”

  “What about him?”

  “He’s gone.”

  “Uh-huh, and you expect me to believe you have no idea where he’s gone.”

  “Me?” I looked up at her. “What about you? I thought the two of you were tight. A spy team.”

  “Stealing a car is not the sort of thing a teammate does.” She pressed her lips together, centering all of her anger on me. It felt like a physical wall of pressure building between us. I realized for the first time just exactly how scary Edie Godfrey could be when she tried.

  I took a step back. “I don’t know where he is, Grandma, I swear.”

  “Uh-huh. Doesn’t mean it’s not entirely wrapped up in what you’re about to do.” She whirled so abruptly, I scrambled back to keep clear. She stomped inside and slammed the door behind her.

  I stayed where I was, deciding it was safer this way. The others filed out a minute later. Cambria looked shaken. Even with the door closed, I could hear Grandma’s muffled yelling.

  “She’s pissed,” George said.

  “I told you she’s scary when she’s mad,” Cambria said.

  “Alex stole her car?” Wes looked at the empty space in the front yard. He shook his head, and I caught the hint of a smile before he adjusted his expression and met my eyes. “He’s in deep shit.”

  “And then some,” George agreed.

  “Why’d he have to take the Hummer?” Cambria asked. “Does he have a death wish?”

  “Because he’s an ass,” I said. Anger swirled, building into something more. I couldn’t believe he’d just left like this, no explanation, nothing. My hands curled at my sides and still the anger churned. Something else lay under it, something I couldn’t pinpoint yet.

  “I’m sure it was an emergency,” George said. He was watching me warily. I knew he could feel my anger. I didn’t care.

  “This, right here, today, this is an emergency,” I said. “What could possibly come before this?”

  No one had an answer for that.

  The front door opened. I braced myself for Grandma, but Angela stepped out. “Tara, Sam’s awake,” she said. “She’s pretty confused. What do I tell her?”

  “I’ll go,” Wes said. “But someone should take her home. You don’t want her remembering this place.”

  “I’ll get my mom,” I said. “Sam knows her well enough, it won’t bring up anything she should forget.”

  “It’s almost four,” Cambria said. “Are you sure you want to ask her to go now?”

  “She’s gotta be good for something.” The words came out clipped and harsh. No one answered. They parted to let me
pass.

  I found my mom and she agreed to drive Sam and Angela home. Fee offered to go with. I suspected she wanted to be sure Sam’s memory loss was complete.

  Wes instructed Angela on the story she would feed Sam. A party had gone late. Sam had a few too many and we’d all crashed at my house. My mom had offered to drive them home.

  When they were ready, Angela hugged me. “Thank you for fighting for me.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  “Call me as soon as you can.”

  “I will.”

  “In the meantime,” she said, looking at George, “can you call with updates? So I know you’re all okay?”

  “Definitely,” he agreed, pulling her in for a hug and holding the passenger door open for her.

  “Good luck with Sam,” I said.

  My mom hugged me and patted my hair. “Be careful,” she said in my ear. “Listen to Cord, she’s experienced with this sort of thing.” I bit my tongue so hard it brought tears to my eyes. There was no use in arguing. Not now.

  I stood there waving to Angela until the car disappeared. Wes came up behind me and slid his arms around me. The movement seemed careful, measured.

  “He’s coming back, Tara.” His words were casual, almost off-hand. Anyone else listening would’ve missed the fact that what he’d said mattered.

  “I don’t care,” I said.

  “Yes, you do, or you wouldn’t be angry.”

  “I’m not angry.”

  “Liar. You’re hurt. He’s coming back, Tara.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Because I would.”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  My mom called at four on the dot to say Sam and Angela were safe. Sam’s parents were informed she’d caught a bug while staying the night at my house and should stay in bed. They’d loved Fee—who wouldn’t, really?—and even taken some of her tea to use on Sam through the night so she’d be better rested tomorrow. Angela would stay with her to talk her through the blank spots when she woke.

  During the phone conversation, the tingling on the back of my neck began. “Mom, I gotta go,” I said.

  “They’re there, aren’t they?” she asked.

  “I think so.”

  “Oh, dear.” I visualized her wringing her hands. “Have Cambria or someone call me as soon as it’s done, okay? Do what Cord tells you. And Tara? I love you.”