Alex smiled wryly. “You do have the whole ‘play hard to get’ thing down.”
“Whatever.” I was definitely not responding to that one.
My phone beeped. Seven missed calls. I cringed and looked at the list of numbers. It wasn’t as bad as I thought. Only two were from Cambria. Four from Wes. One from George.
I called into my voice mail and listened to only the first half of the messages until I got to George. It wasn’t that I didn’t care; they were just full of lectures. First Cambria, hissing at me to get back to school before the bypass phrase changed. Then Wes going on about how sorry he was for reading my mind. By the last message from him, he sounded distraught and irritated, and I felt bad for him so I skipped the rest of the message to save myself from having to deal with that yet.
George’s message was, surprisingly, the most pleasant.
“Tay, oh wow, you’re never going to believe it. I secured the scholarship to Brown. Ivy League, baby! I can’t believe it! The recruiter said I have more potential than any rookie he’s seen in years. I’m on cloud nine. I….” His excitement faltered and I could hear him struggling to maintain the happy attitude. “I wanted to share it with you. I – I miss you. Talk to you soon.”
He hung up quickly, and I could tell he wanted to say more but held back. I knew that feeling all too well. I was genuinely happy for him about the scholarship, though. It was everything he’d ever wanted, and I was glad that at least one of us had a promising, normal future ahead of them.
Chapter Twenty Five
“How bad is this going to be for me, exactly?” I looked over at Alex, but there wasn’t enough light left to make out his expression. We’d been driving for over an hour, and I knew we were getting close to Wood Point.
“That depends,” he answered.
“On what?”
“On our method of entry. Do you want to announce your return?”
“Um, do I have a choice?”
“Yes.” He pulled the truck to the side of the road, throwing up a spray of gravel in our wake, and shifted into park. The truck idled like a weed whacker.
“Where did you say you got this truck again?” I asked.
“I didn’t say.”
“It’s not a rental, is it?”
“No.”
I waited but he didn’t say more.
“Okay. Why are we stopping?” I asked.
“We go on foot from here.” He killed the engine and wrenched the door open. The road was free of any traffic, and the air smelled like pine and darkness.
I got out and followed him as he cut a path straight into the trees. “But what about the truck?”
“Someone will be by to pick it up,” he said cryptically.
“Okaay. And the wards?”
“Not a problem.”
His tone was clipped, and he walked fast enough that he stayed ahead of me. Not that I would’ve been able to see him, even if he had been walking next to me. It was pitch black in the trees and even with my heightened sight, I could only make out the outline of his body. Still, I could tell the difference between ‘all business’ Alex and ‘don’t talk to me’ Alex. This was definitely the latter.
“Alex, wait.” He didn’t slow, and I grabbed his arm, halting him until I could come around and face him. “What’s your problem?”
“Nothing.” He shifted like he wanted to sidestep me, but I held onto his arm and waited. “We’re almost back to school. I assume you’ll want to forget about anything that happened between us once we’re there. I’m simply switching gears to accommodate.”
“Switching gears to accommodate? What are you, a robot?” He didn’t answer. “Look, I didn’t say anything because… well, it’s complicated. You know that.” I squeezed my eyes shut and then opened them again. “You haven’t said anything, either,” I said quietly.
“You’re right. I guess I figured I’d made my feelings clear.”
I laughed before I could catch myself. “Have you ever actually had a girlfriend? Because you really suck at this.” I held up a hand to silence him. “Don’t answer that. Seriously, though, you can’t kiss a girl and expect her to automatically know your feelings through osmosis or something. Besides, when I met you, you hated me. And now you’re kissing me. So, pardon me if that leaves me a little confused.”
“I didn’t hate you.”
“Pot-ay-toes, pot-ah-toes,” I said. “You were disgusted, at least.”
“You don’t disgust me, Tara. You amaze me, impress me, surprise me, and entertain me. You definitely don’t disgust me.”
He fell silent, and like before, he seemed to be waiting for something. I didn’t answer. I didn’t know what to say.
“Do I do any of those things for you?” he asked, quietly. There was something very serious in the question, and I knew he meant something much deeper than the words implied.
“Yes,” I whispered.
“And does Wes do any of those things for you?” he asked, his voice strained.
“Yes,” I repeated, feeling miserable.
I saw him nod in the darkness and was glad I couldn’t see his face, and he couldn’t see mine.
“I think its best that we leave it here then. For now.”
I swallowed a lump in my throat and stayed silent. A minute passed.
“Let’s get you back to school and focus on getting Miles,” he said.
“Okay.”
I moved aside, and we began walking again, this time shoulder to shoulder. The silence was different, more relaxed, and I knew that while it bothered him to pretend nothing had happened, he had accepted that things were this way, for now, and was letting me off the hook about it. I wondered how long that would last.
Within minutes, I began to feel the vibrations of the wards line. We were coming in at a different angle than when I’d left but the feeling was there just the same, and I halted.
“Cambria said the bypass phrase was being changed today. How are we going to get in?”
Alex answered by turning back towards the wards line and whispering, “E Pluribus Unum.”
All around me the vibrations fell away, and I knew the lines had been removed. I whirled on Alex.
“How did you know?” I asked.
“You aren’t the only ones with tools of manipulation,” he said.
He was walking again, and I hurried behind him.
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“Well, how did you get the phrase yesterday?”
“Cambria um…”
“Right. Details are sketchy.”
“She might’ve convinced Headmaster Whitfield to give it to us,” I said.
“There you go.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small cell phone. He pressed a button and the screen lit up, revealing a text with the same phrase he’d whispered.
“Cambria strikes again,” I muttered. “I can’t believe she sold me out so quickly and then jumped up to help you drag me back.”
“Not quite accurate,” he pointed out. “The dragging part, I mean. You’re not exactly kicking and screaming. Yet.”
“What do you mean?”
He halted and let out a sigh, like he was finally accepting some hard reality. “I think him showing up had something to do with it.” He gestured to a grove of trees up ahead and a figure standing in front of them.
I froze, unsure who it was at first. But then the figure stepped forward, and I heard the rustle of leather, and I knew.
“Wes!” I ran to him, not even thinking about whether reaching him would mean crossing the wards, and not caring, either.
He caught me and held me to him like a life raft. I buried my face in his neck and inhaled the scent of him, holding on just as tight. We stayed that way for a long moment, and then I could hear him whispering my name against my hair and I remembered where we were, and how I’d gotten here. Reluctantly, I pulled away.
“What are you doing here?” I asked. “How’d you get inside?”
“That would be your
friend Cambria’s doing.”
“Huh. Seems she’s been handing out that password like its candy.” My smile faltered when I remembered Alex. I turned, feeling embarrassed and guilty, but he was nowhere in sight.
“He left,” said Wes. “I can’t even smell him anymore.”
“Oh.” I turned back, determined to focus on the moment before me and not the one I’d left behind.
“Is everything okay?” He was still smoothing my hair, running his hand over it and wrapping it around his fingers.
“Yes, I...It’s been a long day.”
He nodded, looking unsure. “I’d like to hear about it, if you want to tell me.”
“I think we should talk about the other night first.”
“We should.” He hurried on before I could interrupt. “I’ll start. Tara, I’m sorry. There’s no excuse for what I did. I could lie and say it was a bad coincidence, me coming here on the night I did, but it wasn’t. I wanted to see you, to know everything that had happened to you since we’d been apart. I knew I could get the information quicker if I picked it out of your mind than waiting for you to explain it all. Selfish, completely, I know. But I never meant to use it as a weapon. I just didn’t expect to see everything I saw. And then the stuff with Miles.” He stopped and ran his fingers over my hair, onto my shoulders, down my arms, and folded my hands into his. “I’m sorry,” he repeated.
“For what it’s worth, he kissed me,” I said. It sounded weak, even to me.
“I know. I saw that. But you didn’t push him away, either. And I know you’re confused by it. Should I be worried?”
He sounded entirely too calm and rational, and it broke my heart. “No,” I insisted. “You shouldn’t be worried. It was–” I stopped. I couldn’t say it was a fluke, or a one-time thing, because it had happened again at the hotel. And that one had been mutual. I sighed. “It happened again.”
“Twice?” It was too dark to see his face but I could picture his brows raised.
“Yes,” I whispered. I stood very still. My arms were wound lightly around his shoulders, and I waited for him to take a step back or pull away, but he didn’t.
“All right,” he said.
“All right? That’s it?” I stared up at him, wishing I could see his face better.
“I don’t know. Is that it?” he asked, carefully.
“Yes. No. Not at first. But it is now.” I stopped, knowing I was probably screwing this up beyond repair. I took a deep breath and started again. “At first, I thought maybe I had feelings for him. Then I thought maybe it was because I missed you and we weren’t getting along. Either way, it doesn’t matter because I love you. I don’t want us to have any secrets.” I held my breath and waited for him to answer.
“So, you might have feelings for him, but it doesn’t matter because you love me,” he said, slowly.
“Um, right.” It didn’t sound nearly as noble and romantic when he broke it down like that.
“Okay.”
My eyebrows shot up. “Okay?”
“Well, not okay, but you’re being honest, and I can appreciate that. Besides, it’s partly my fault for not being around more. If I want to keep you, I guess I’m going to have to fight for you.”
I couldn’t believe how good it felt to come clean. “So you’re not mad?”
“I’m furious,” he said and the low tone of his voice proved it. But that was the only reaction that gave any indication he meant it. He was holding back, I knew. “But again, I can’t fully blame you for this. Or him,” he added, though his voice became more brittle when he said the last part. “Although, if I see him, I may have to make sure he feels the weight of his responsibility in all this.” There was extra emphasis on the word feel, and I decided to make sure they didn’t meet again, if at all possible.
“You should be mad at me, then, too,” I said. “I’m as much to blame.”
“It doesn’t matter,” he said.
“Yes, it does.”
“No, it doesn’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because I love you.”
“I love you, too.” I was on the verge of tears, and I didn’t know why.
“I know. So, it’s okay to be confused, as long as you choose me in the end.”
“Why are you being so nice to me?”
“Because I snuck into your head, and I shouldn’t have.”
“So, it would be different if you couldn’t read my mind?”
“Exactly.”
I shook my head. That logic made no sense to me, but if it kept us from fighting, I’d take it. “I would’ve told you about Miles, even if you hadn’t seen it,” I said. “I’d been trying to get a hold of you for days. You never answer your phone.”
“About that… I don’t want to fight so I’m going to be up front with you, too. No more secrets. There’ve been some attacks. I’ve been away a lot trying to find the group responsible. A lot of prominent Hunter families have been targeted. A couple of kids from your school, even.”
“You were a part of that?” I asked, remembering the hunting party Vera had mentioned.
“Vera brought me in, along with Cord and Derek. We kept to ourselves, sort of a side team, but we fed off the information from the Hunters. There was a girl with them, a tracker. She led us to their base, but they were already gone. We lost them after that.”
“Victoria. She’s my roommate.”
He nodded. “I wanted you to know. No more secrets. Things have been rough.” He ran a hand through his hair, sending it sprawling in new directions. “Training to lead hasn’t been smooth. There’s been a lot of opposition. Then these attacks happened and some of them weren’t only against Hunters. Some humans have disappeared up and down the coastline, under suspicious circumstances. Some have turned up dead, blood drained from their bodies. Everyone needs a scapegoat, and The Cause seems to be shouldering the brunt of it. No one wants peace when there’s a war brewing.”
He broke off, preoccupied with thoughts of the battles he spoke of. I took a closer look and realized he did look pretty disheveled, even for Wes. His shirt was only half tucked in and his leather jacket had new creases that didn’t really add to the stylishly unkept look he always wore.
“I’m sorry. I wish you’d told me things were this bad. Do you think Miles has anything to do with it?” I asked.
“I hadn’t really considered it until I heard he’d made an appearance here. I mean, I assumed all he wanted was you, but then I didn’t take into account his need for revenge against me, and possibly the rest of The Cause. Maybe.”
“He says he’s got some sort of project that will make us invincible or something. He wants to rule both the races and thinks he’s figured out a way to do it. With Miles, it’s a given that would involve killing innocent people,” I said.
“Maybe. Like I said, it wasn’t his style, but it’s possible. I’ve put Derek on it until I get back. He’s digging up what he can, using what’s left of our contacts, which aren’t many.” He pulled me closer. “We’ll figure it out, don’t worry. I’m glad you’re safe.”
“About that,” I said, hating that my entire explanation of the past day was going to completely ruin the reunion.
“Not yet,” he said, holding me tighter, as if he knew what was coming. “I want to enjoy holding you.”
I didn’t argue and when he leaned down and pressed his lips to mine, I forgot all about Miles and angry packs of Werewolves. All I could think about was how much I’d missed this and how completely perfect and right it felt to be kissed by Wes. All of the tension and guilt fell away and I kissed him back with an intensity that left us both breathless by the time we managed to come up for air.
“I missed you,” I said, by way of explanation.
I could see Wes grinning. “Good. I missed you.”
Then he was pulling me down so we were sitting on the ground, in each other’s arms, and kissing me again.
We didn’t come up for air for a long time after that.
When we did, it was Wes who pulled away first. His breath was labored and his fingers slowly uncurled from where he’d grabbed fistfuls of my hair.
“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think I need a break,” he said. His voice was gravelly and low. I shivered. “I’m not – I mean, not in the woods, like this.”
“Right,” I said, sitting up and attempting to clear my thoughts.
“So, let’s have it. Where were you really for the past twenty four hours?”
“Promise not to say anything until I’m finished,” I said. “Promise?” I prompted, when he didn’t answer.
“Yeah, okay. Promise,” he muttered. “This ought to be good.”
In a very condensed version, I told him what had happened from the time Miles had called, until the time Alex had brought me back.
“So, you have no idea who the pack of Werewolves was? Who they worked for?” he asked, as soon as I was done.
“No. They never said.” I braced myself for the torrent of lecturing sure to follow, but Wes was curiously silent.
“Alex saved your life,” he said finally.
“Yeah.”
“I guess I owe him a thanks for that. Damn. I really want to hate him.”
“You can still hate him and be grateful,” I said.
He cocked his head to the side with an unreadable expression. “I’ll take you up on that.”
“You will?”
“Yup. And I won’t even lecture you about how utterly stupid it was to go off alone.”
“You won’t?” This was starting to feel way too easy. I could feel a punch line coming.
“Nope. I’m going to give you a taste of your own medicine.”
“What are you talking about?” Definitely a punch line coming.
“I’m sending in reinforcements. I’ve spoken to Vera and it’s already arranged, too, so don’t even try to argue or go around me to change things.”
“What things?” I demanded, my voice rising. This couldn’t be good if he wouldn’t tell me who the reinforcements were.
“Cord. She’s on her way. We’ve enrolled her in your classes, and she’ll be rooming with you as well.”
“What? You can’t be serious.” I shoved him away and sat back, hoping it wasn’t too dark for him to see my venomous glare. It would’ve done Victoria proud. “I already have a roommate.”
Cold Blood Page 26
