Raven's Blood

by Cassandra Lawson

Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Layla stalked after Danny. Stupid jerk had followed her until she’d told him what a stupid jerk he was. Since then, he’d been doing his best to avoid her. “Don’t you dare pretend you don’t know I’m here, you son of a bitch!” she shouted at him. She’d been trying to track him down for hours. He’d had someone else take her from the main building and stayed behind, probably to suck up to Graham.

  Danny let out a long-suffering sigh and turned toward her. His hands went up in surrender. “I’m not pretending I don’t know you’re there. I’m ignoring you. There’s a big difference.” He gave her what she was sure he believed was a boyish grin. Under other circumstances, it might have been cute. At that moment, it just pissed her off more.

  “And don’t you dare try playing innocent. How could you treat Raven that way after all she’s done for us? You know for a fact she’s not betraying us.”

  Danny looked around nervously and grabbed Layla’s arm roughly, dragging her toward his house. “I will not allow anyone to risk the safety of our people. Raven has proven her loyalties lie with the vampires. She’s been corrupted. Maybe that’ll change after she’s been back with us for awhile, but until it does, she’s a danger to us all. You need to get your temper under control and think clearly. We’re at war with the vampires, and Graham is just trying to do what’s right.”

  Layla stumbled up the stairs behind Danny. She was so shocked by him manhandling her, she hadn’t thought to punch him.

  Danny shoved her into his home and slammed the door shut. He looked around to make sure his roommate wasn’t there, and then he leaned against her body and put his hand over her mouth. His lips were right by her ear when he spoke. “Stop struggling and listen to me. I don’t want anyone outside this house to hear what I’m saying.”

  Layla stilled, but Danny didn’t move away.

  “You’re right,” he said. “I was wrong to doubt Raven, but I can’t go back on that now. I heard some of what Graham talked to her about, and it confirmed what she was telling us about the vampires. She’s in big trouble.”

  Layla’s eyes widened, and she started to struggle again.

  “Layla,” Danny warned, “I need you to calm down. In order to help her, we have to play this smart. Graham has to believe I don’t trust Raven anymore. I need him to believe the rest of the team feels the same. After your scene, Graham will never believe you’re on his side, so you need to continue being pissed at me. I considered letting you continue thinking I believed Raven had betrayed us, but I figured you might stab me in the balls.” He actually smiled.

  When he removed his hand from her mouth and stepped back, Layla punched him in the nose. “That should make it seem more convincing,” she said with a sweet smile. “Don’t ever manhandle me again or I will feed you your balls.”

  Layla stormed out of Danny’s home and down the stairs. Her big exit was nearly ruined when her heel got caught on one of the broken steps. Luckily, she grabbed the railing before she fell on her face. It was hard to look like a total badass when you were tumbling down the stairs.

  She’d never been this angry. Danny had been her best friend for as long as she could remember. Raven had always insisted one day they’d end up as a couple, but Layla couldn’t even picture it. Danny was the boy who’d tried to teach her how to pee standing up when she was four. That was actually her first memory of him. You couldn’t have romantic feelings about someone who’d made fun of you for not knowing how to pee the right way.

  Having him even consider keeping her out of his plan seemed like a huge betrayal, but doubting Raven was almost unforgivable. Even though he believed her now, that didn’t make up for his initial distrust. Raven was much older than them, and she’d taken care of them both a lot during childhood.

  Layla’s father had been older and in poor health when she was born. Her mother had only married him out of fear of being alone. Layla couldn’t really blame her. The world was a scary place. Sadly, she’d never taken to parenting. When Layla’s father had died, her mother had become increasingly distant and neglectful. That’s when Raven had started taking care of her most of the time. She’d ended up living with Raven after her mom had disappeared. No one actually knew what had happened to her, and Layla would be lying if she said she cared.

  Danny’s mom hadn’t been a bad person, but she’d been off in some ways. Danny had often been found wandering the streets at all hours of the night. Sometimes it had been because he’d wandered away from home. Mostly, his mom had forgotten to bring him back when they’d gone somewhere. Raven frequently took him in and worked hard to help his mother do right by him. Every member of their team had similar stories about Raven.

  Layla couldn’t believe Danny hadn’t trusted Raven. He was lucky she’d just punched him in his nose. If he hadn’t changed his mind about Raven, she really would have cut his balls off and fed them to him.

  She wished she knew what had made him suddenly change his mind about everything. It must be something really bad or he wouldn’t have made such a complete turnaround that quickly. She’d like to believe that, given a few hours or days, he would have gotten over his initial distrust of Raven’s return, but she knew he was stubborn, and it was hard for him to admit when he was wrong.

  Layla sat on the steps in front of her own home. She lived alone in the two bedroom home she’d shared with Raven. She’d been so distraught about Raven’s capture that no one had moved in yet. At one time, Muriel had lived there, too.

  She wanted to go upstairs to curl into a ball and cry, but that wasn’t how Raven had raised her. She was strong, and she would make Raven proud. Standing, she dusted off her worn pants and headed off to find a member of her team to train with. While punching Danny had taken the edge off some, she still had a lot of pent-up aggression, and she figured she might as well put it to good use.