Everyone looked back at Kane, but he was watching Vera and didn’t say anything right away. Finally, he cleared his throat and nodded.
“We’ll start searching for someone tomorrow. In the meantime, Betty, you can fill in.” Kane nodded at the butch girl across from me.
Her eyes widened in surprise. “But sir, I’m not capable of the level of security that Vera is.”
“You’ll do fine,” he said, cutting her off. “I’ve seen what you can do and it’s perfectly acceptable for our needs. Go ahead and get started. It’ll take you awhile to link the entire grounds. Carver, go with her. Assemble the others and have them patrol double time until we’re secure again.”
“Yes, sir,” they said, in unison.
They pushed back from their chairs and left the room, single file.
“All right,” said Kane when they were gone. “The usual suspects will need to be hunted down.”
“What does he mean by ‘usual’?” I whispered to Alex.
Alex shook his head and Kane went on, watching me now.
“There are a couple of new possibilities to consider,” he said. “One, we’ve got a nasty pack of Weres with a taste for alumni tearing things up. School grounds could be next for them.” He paused, letting the possibility hang, and his gaze returned to me and sharpened. “The second is Miles De’Luca. Son of Leonard De’Luca. Twice as crazy and twice as capable of destruction due to his ah, DNA structure. Add to that an unhealthy infatuation with our girl Tara here and we’ve got a serious problem.”
Everyone in the room looked at me. I could feel myself going red at the mention of Miles’ “unhealthy infatuation.” Was that worse than “stalker?” Because I was pretty sure “unhealthy” didn’t even begin to cover it. No one looked all that surprised by the information Kane provided, though, which was pretty good evidence that everyone had been informed like Cord claimed. Even Professor Flaherty nodded calmly, like she’d heard it all before.
“Do we think this is the De’Luca boy then?” Professor Flaherty asked.
Alex opened his mouth, probably to tell her “yes,” but Kane cut him off.
“We think there are multiple possibilities,” Kane said. “We can’t discount the Were pack as we’ve yet to identify them.”
Alex stayed quiet. He shifted in his chair and it squeaked.
“Um, have you considered the Were pack and Miles are working together?” I asked.
No one said anything right away. They all looked at each other.
“It’s a possibility,” Kane said finally. “Either way, we’ll get people out into the field to see what we can learn. Our contacts in the area are reliable enough, and we should be able to find out more about both groups within the next twenty four hours. In the meantime, Tara, you and Cord stick together.”
Cord and I wore mirrored grimaces.
“Vera, you can assist Betty with the new wards, yes?”
Vera nodded. “Of course.”
“Alex, how’s the bump?” Kane asked.
“I’ve had worse,” he said.
“Your eyes are glassy. Get a good night’s sleep, and check in with me tomorrow. I can use you for extra patrols.”
“I’ve got training with Tara,” Alex said.
“Cancelled,” Kane shot back, shaking his head. “I need you in the field.” Kane turned back to Cord. “Cord, here’s an earpiece. We’re on frequency six unless there’s an emergency. Then it’s frequency one.”
He tossed her an ear band that looked identical to the ones Cambria and I had used the night I’d left for town. Seemed like forever ago, when really, it had been only a day. Cord took the earpiece and strapped it on looking less than thrilled.
“Anna, you and I can make a patrol schedule that doubles things up. We’ll split shifts. That work for you?” Kane asked.
Professor Flaherty nodded, her red hair bouncing where it had come loose from its bun. “Sounds good,” she said.
“Anything else?” Kane asked. No one spoke. “Dismissed.”
Cord stalked out first and disappeared into the hall. Alex followed behind me. Vera was still talking to Kane and Professor Flaherty had taken a seat closer to the front, to work on the patrol schedule, no doubt. Headmaster Whitfield looked around, like he was uncertain whether he was still needed here or not. I heard Vera telling him to get some sleep and they’d call him if they needed anything.
“I can’t believe this.” Cord pushed off from the wall when she saw me and put a hand on her hip, blocking my path. “I leave you for five minutes and not only do you run off, but you manage to stumble upon the only dead body within miles. How am I supposed to keep an eye on you?”
“I’m confused,” I said. “Are you mad because I ran off without you or that I found a dead body and you didn’t?”
She glared at me and then huffed out a breath. A high pitched beeping sound cut off whatever nasty response she’d been trying to come up with, and I looked around, panicking, for the source of the sound.
“I think that’s your phone,” Alex said.
I grabbed it out of my pocket and stared at it like it was a foreign object. I wasn’t used to it ringing anymore. The number that came up wasn’t one I recognized but I needed to get it to shut up. I flipped it open.
“Hello?”
“Tara, did you get my message?”
“Miles?” A shot of adrenaline instantly pumped itself into my blood stream, and I couldn’t catch my breath. Cord and Alex fell silent and stared at me like they were straining to hear Miles through the phone. “What do you want?”
“I sent a messenger to tell you the answer to that. Did he not reach you?” Miles’ voice held the usual calm and crazy, but I put his meaning together.
“That Werewolf that attacked Alex. That was your guy.” It wasn’t a question but Miles answered anyway.
“Yes. A special message for your new boyfriend and then a message for you. It’s time we were together. The project is complete.”
I stared at Alex in horror. “You tried to kill him? But he’s not – what project?” I couldn’t keep up with everything Miles said. And the fact that he only alluded to the violence he caused didn’t help in knowing where to start a conversation with him.
“You’ll see. Now where is my messenger? I need him.” Miles was growing impatient; I could hear it in his voice. It irritated my temper.
“Your messenger boy’s dead,” I snapped. “I’d take it as an omen and surrender now. Where are you?”
“Dead? You can’t seriously tell me that little Hunter-in-training managed to take down my newest pet?”
Miles was a combination of disbelief and anger, and my temper wanted to push him. “Believe it. With a screwdriver, of all things. I hear Werewolves are seriously susceptible to metal. You should look into it.”
“Watch your tone with me, girl,” Miles snapped. I could hear the anger in his voice now, and I was glad to have finally caused him to lose his control, no matter the consequences. “I’m tired of waiting. You will join me.”
“Not if the human race depended on it, or any race for that matter.”
Miles’ voice went quieter but there was more violence in it. He reminded me of a coiled snake. “I’ve been far too patient with you. I will have you, though, one way or another. Mark my words. You will come to me, in the end.”
The line went dead, and I lowered the phone.
“Well? What did the ass have to say?” Cord demanded.
“The usual. Threatened me with affection, then with death, I think,” I said. “He’s determined to get me to come to him.”
“He sent that Werewolf tonight, didn’t he?” Alex asked. His hands were balled into fists at his sides.
“Yes.” I nodded. “He said the guy was supposed to kill you and then come get me and tell me where to meet Miles.”
“He still thinks you’ll go willingly?” Alex asked.
“He says I will one way or another, whatever that means.” I shuddered without meaning t
o because there had been a real threat in the way he’d spoken the words. I couldn’t shake the fact that Miles was way too determined to give up or utter empty threats.
“You think he’ll try again,” Cord said, watching Alex.
“Without a doubt,” he said.
“Good.” She raised her chin and her eyes glittered. “He doesn’t know I’m here and I, for one, can’t wait to see him again.”
There was something underneath Cord’s threat, but I had no idea what it was. There was no way she was acting like this out of protection for me. Or duty to Wes. There was more. But I knew better than to ask, or expect an honest answer if I did, so I let it go.
Cord blinked and the hungry look in her eyes faded as she focused on Alex and me again. “Say good night and let’s go already. I’m tired.”
I looked at Alex, feeling suddenly very self-conscious with Cord so close. I wanted to ask how his head was feeling, and if he was okay, but I was pretty sure that wouldn’t be appropriate as far as Cord was concerned. “Um, I guess I’ll see you later,” I said.
He nodded. “Be careful.”
I followed Cord down the stairs and out into the courtyard towards the dorm. The last thought I had as I drifted off was of Miles and how he’d described that Werewolf as his pet.
Chapter Thirty
Cambria woke me up on Saturday. It took me a minute to realize it wasn’t an emergency. I wasn’t used to her being so wide awake before me. Even on school days she was dragging and gulping coffee until the end of second bell before she resembled a person. But today, she was wide awake, shower bag in hand as she stood over me and shook me awake.
“What the hell?” Cord mumbled, from her cot across the room. “Shut the noise off. It’s the middle of the night.” She wore a padded eye covering, like something you’d wear in a spa, and didn’t bother removing it to yell at us. Then she rolled over and went back to sleep.
“I’m going to shower,” Cambria said. “You coming?”
“Sure.” I grabbed my stuff and followed her out. Cord didn’t move except to burrow further underneath her blankets. At least I’d get the morning away from her.
“She’s a dream in the morning,” Cambria said.
“Late night, remember?”
Cambria stuck out her tongue.
I’d made a stop at her room last night on the way in from Griffin Hall and filled her in on what had gone down at the garage, and then at the meeting after.
“And again, I miss the action. I’m getting real tired of that, you know,” she’d said when I was done.
And that was it. No “Wow, you’ve got a big, political choice to make,” or “What are you doing about Miles-the-crazy-stalker?” or “How pissed do you think Wes will be when Cord calls him behind your back about Alex?”
Those were all the things going through my mind, but all Cambria could think about was how often she was left out of the action. I’d give almost anything to be left out of the action, for once. I didn’t tell her that, though.
We reached the showers and Cambria slipped into the stall beside mine. “So, what are we doing today, Mission Impossible?” she called over the steady stream of hot water.
“Mission Impossible?”
“That’s your new nickname. You’re always on something new and dangerous and against the rules,” she explained. “A girl after my own heart.”
I shut off the water and stepped into the stall to change. “I hate to disappoint, but I was going to find Logan and make him help me with my lineage project.”
“Eww. You’re talking about the library, aren’t you?”
“That’s the place.”
Cambria sighed, long and loud. I rubbed a towel over my hair and stepped into flip flops before yanking the curtain aside and heading for the mirror.
“You don’t have to come,” I said.
Cambria’s curtain slid open, and she followed me to the mirror, adjusting her lacy black sleeves. “I’ll manage. Nothing else to do. I can’t even sleep in these days. Too wired with everything going on. Besides, I want to hear from Logan anyway. He needs to spill the details about how he came to be walking Victoria to her getaway car. I need to hear this.”
We found hot coffee and prepackaged donuts in the cafeteria and that was fine by me. I swiped a helping of each and went in search of Logan. I figured we could head to the library first since, even on a Saturday, that was the most likely place to find him.
I wasn’t wrong.
Logan sat at our usual table, surrounded by stacks of books – all of which could rival Webster’s in thickness and word count – and was hovered over an open one on the table in front of him. His hat was pulled down low, facing front, so it was hard to see his expression except that he seemed to be concentrating extra hard.
“Hey,” I said.
Logan’s head snapped up, and he quickly pulled his hands underneath the table and into his lap. I caught sight of a black cell phone at the same time shades of red began creeping up his neck.
“Hey,” he said, trying – and failing – to sound casual.
“What are you doing?” Cambria asked. She stared down at Logan with a sharp gaze.
Logan shifted, and I was pretty sure he was sliding the cell phone into his pocket. “Nothing, um, I mean reading,” he said, gesturing to the open book in front of him. “What are you doing? In the library? On a Saturday?” His brows went up, turning the attention back to Cambria.
It worked, a little. “I’m at an all-time low for boredom. And I needed a good story to go along with my liquid breakfast.” She raised her coffee cup in salute and sank into a chair. “So? Are you going to tell us?”
“Tell you what?”
“We want to know how you came to be the one walking Miss Ice Queen herself to her getaway vehicle yesterday. It’s a mystery no one can seem to unravel,” Cambria said.
Logan looked from Cambria to me. I sipped my coffee and waited. I wanted to hear this as much as Cambria did. The redness was creeping in again; up Logan’s neck and into his cheeks. He pulled his hat down lower over his eyes and glared at us.
“None of your business, that’s how,” he said.
Cambria and I exchanged a look, eyebrows raised.
“Wow, that sounds sort of serious,” I said.
Cambria nodded. “Kind of covert. And pre-meditated. Maybe I should call him Mission Impossible.”
Logan’s brows wrinkled. I laughed and that must’ve finally pushed him over the edge. Logan glared at Cambria, then at me, then at Cambria again.
“Look.” His voice had lowered to a sort of hissed whisper. It got our attention. “I don’t have to explain myself to you two. Just because I hang with you doesn’t automatically make me one of the girls. I’m not going to sit here and gossip with you about my love life, okay? You have each other for that. I’m a guy. Guys don’t feel the need to share about that crap. And I’m not dumb enough to tell you, anyway, since all you’re going to do is give me a hard time seeing as how you hate her.”
He stopped and let that sink in. I stared at him and neither Cambria nor I said anything. “And for your information,” he went on, “She’s not as mean as she pretends, you know. She’s got layers.”
With that, he slammed his book shut and stuffed it into his backpack and stalked out. Silently, of course, but still… it was Logan. I’d never seen him mad before, so it was kind of shocking.
“Did he say the Ice Queen has layers?” Cambria asked.
I looked at her. “I think he did.”
We stared at each other for a beat and then burst out laughing.
“Like an onion?” Cambria hissed, between giggles.
That made us both laugh harder, and I had to put a hand on the table to keep from falling onto the faded carpet. I couldn’t breathe. Cambria was wiping tears from her one exposed eye.
That’s how Cord found us.
“What the hell, you two? Are you off your meds or what?” Cord took Logan’s empty seat and gave us a d
irty look and the stacks of books an even dirtier look. She had her hands wrapped firmly around a coffee cup and still looked half asleep.
I wheezed, trying to catch my breath, but I didn’t bother to answer her. Cambria was pulling it together, too.
“Oh, man. I feel kind of bad for making him so angry. I’ve never seen him like that before,” I said.
“He’ll be fine,” Cambria assured me. “For all his talk about being one of the guys, he’s really kind of sensitive, but he’ll get over it. Always does.”
“He really likes her,” I said.
“Are you talking about studious surfer boy?” Cord asked.
“Uh, Logan? Yeah, I guess you could call him that,” I said.
“He’s not bad looking. If you’re into that type,” she said.
“And what type is that?” I asked.
She shrugged. “Smart. The kind of smart that’s also sensitive. Not my thing.”
“What, smart? I agree,” I said. Cambria snorted.
She sneered. “Funny. I was thinking the same about you, two-timer.”
That hit a nerve. I could feel my temper kicking in. I set my coffee cup down a little harder than I’d anticipated, sloshing warm liquid onto the table. “I’m not two-timing anyone.”
“Okay, now that we’ve got that settled,” Cambria cut in, “What’s today’s plan? Besides sit around and wait for Miles to attempt a snatch and grab?”
Neither of us answered. I was too busy biting my tongue, still trying to prove I could control my temper, instead of the other way around.
“Okaay,” Cambria said, drawing out the word.
“I’m going to call Wes,” I said.
I stood and grabbed my coffee and what was left of my donuts. Cord stood, too, but I avoided her eyes. I wasn’t calling Wes because I felt guilty, despite what she probably thought.
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