Defiance (Heart Lines Series Book 5)

by Heather Hildenbrand

  Chapter Eleven

  Sam

  I smoothed out the wrinkles in my skirt while I paced the lobby of CCU’s administration building. It was so strange to be back here. Stranger still to be summoned to the dean’s office. I wasn’t a nerd, but I also wasn’t the kind of girl to be in trouble, so this was a first. I almost hadn’t believed it, but my mother’s short phone call last night left no room for doubt. I had an appointment with the dean first thing and if I valued my life, I would be here with bells on. Only my mother could say a phrase like “be there with bells on” and sound scary. But it wasn’t even the impending disciplinary action or lectures that made me feel like I was some other version of myself. And for once, it wasn’t Hina either.

  So much had happened to me since I’d enrolled at CCU. And so much had happened to me just in the last couple of weeks that I’d been gone. It probably should have weighed on me more, the fact that I’d cut classes in order to run off to RJ’s house in Oregon to hide out from an evil god that turned out to be right there among us. But in the face of a supernatural war, school just hadn’t seemed so important.

  Unfortunately, I was going to have to find a different way to explain myself to the dean. Not to mention my own mother.

  I checked the time and blew out a breath. Goddess. My mother was going to be here any minute.

  I smoothed my skirt again and kept pacing. At this rate, I’d wear a hole in the floor before the meeting ever started. But there hadn’t been time to reunite with her beforehand. I’d only barely made it here this morning after stopping by my apartment to grab clothes appropriate for a dean’s meeting. The place had been ransacked and Alex had gone rigid with the evidence: the predominant scent had been Hunters.

  CHAS.

  And not just CHAS but Simon Brooks III himself.

  We’d gotten in and out as quickly as possible after that. And Alex had abandoned his plan of spending the hour apart so he could try to find out where Brittany and Breck were or what they might know about RJ’s plans. Instead, he was across the lobby, lounging on one of the benches underneath the window, pretending to read my Sociology textbook. Secretly, I thought hunting for the assholes who wrecked my closet sounded way more fun.

  At least we hadn’t worried about dealing with rabid werewolves. Before leaving Harold’s this morning, Safar had done something so magical even I wasn’t sure how it worked and claimed the wards she’d put around me would last a few hours—long enough to go to my meeting and get back again without every werewolf for miles scenting me and trying to attack.

  I couldn’t tell if Alex had been disappointed about how easily we’d traveled here or if his bad mood was centered around CHAS tossing my place apart. His shoulder was still hurting—a fact I guessed from his constant frown and the way he held his arm close to his body. He wouldn’t complain, that I knew for sure, but I hated that he was in pain.

  Unfortunately, every time I even considered using my magic, my stomach rolled and threatened to empty itself into my lap. I’d held off, praying I’d figure it all out when the merge happened. I couldn’t just be suddenly allergic to magic … could I?

  As if he’d sensed me, Alex looked up and caught my eye. I felt my body relax and then tense in a different way. Alex’s eyes did that to me every time. And maybe I’d been too caught up in the danger to notice it. Trying to stay alive, trying to convince people not to kill him… for better or worse, we’d left that behind at least for the moment. And right now, all I wanted was to be Alex and Sam. A guy and a girl. Preferably alone.

  Behind me, footsteps approached. I might not have noticed them at all—too caught up in the moment and my fantasies about what it might be like to just be myself with Alex someday, no danger or enemy to fight—but the sound of my name shattered it all. Not just any name, either. My full name.

  “Samantha Autumn Knight. Is that you?”

  I arranged my expression—neutral but smiling—and turned to greet my mother. “Hi, Mom.”

  She wore a gray business suit that felt out of place in such a laid-back tiny college town. But the familiarity of what might as well have been a uniform for her and the same honey highlights she’d always had made my chest ache. She stopped short, still at least five steps away, and stared at me with her jaw hanging open.

  “What?” I asked, glancing down and smoothing my skirt for the millionth time. “Do I look okay? Should I have worn—?”

  “No. Your clothes look fine,” she said, closing her mouth and blinking fast. “I just … you’re different. I didn’t recognize …”

  I pressed my lips together, afraid I’d give too much away if I spoke. I had let Kiwi trim my hair while I was in Guam, but that had been months ago. And the clothes— I probably hadn’t worn anything this nice in a while but they were still mine. Was my appearance that different just from putting the strange depression behind me?

  “California has done you good. You look beautiful,” she said at last and then as if she’d just remembered it, her arms widened and she pulled me into the hug she’d almost forgotten.

  I hugged her back, inhaling the familiar scent of rose soap that reminded me so much of home, my chest hurt.

  “It’s good to see you, Mom. You look great too,” I said.

  She pulled back, smoothing my hair and smiling before her expression became a lecture in itself. “I just wish it were under better circumstances.”

  I ducked my head. “I know.”

  She forced her expression a little brighter, flashing me a tight smile as she picked at the ends of my hair. “Let’s go get this over with and then we can catch up, all right?”

  I nodded, resisting the urge to glance back at Alex. I could feel him watching us and my heart thudded an extra beat at the thought of Alex Channing in the same room with my mother—staunch resistor to all things magical. If she’d had any hopes for me to find love after the strange descent I’d made into depression, I knew Alex was not what she would have pictured. Not in a million years. Then again, neither had I. No one could have seen it coming. And it wasn’t something I was really prepared to explain. I prayed he’d stay on his bench pretending to read until this whole thing was over.

  Even after we checked in, I stayed close to my mother, answering questions about Kiwi and my apartment and my job at Oracle. Hopefully she wouldn’t investigate too closely any of those things because while my answers were truthful they were no longer current. Any semblance of a life I might have had ended when Alex and the sick werewolves had crashed into it. Now, my life was made up of running, hiding, and magical attacks—both from offense and defense. And I couldn’t remember the last time I’d worked a shift at Oracle.

  After a short wait, the receptionist escorted us back. My heart thudded as I walked out of Alex’s line of sight and around the corner. I was on my own now. Not that he could help. Even Alex Channing couldn’t defeat the threat that was my mother.

  Chapter Twelve

  Alex

  Sam wanted to be proactive by coming back to Half Moon Bay. Which somehow translated to me doing recon on an all-human college campus at nine in the morning while my shoulder ached like a bitch. I really couldn’t understand how my life had ended up here. But then, if I were being honest with myself, Sam’s words weren’t just true for her. They were true for me. I had lived my entire life reactively. I’d responded to losing my mother and watching my father spiral by shutting people out. I’d reacted to feeling something for Tara all those years ago by betraying her. I’d reacted to Sam that first time by … well, I’d done nothing to help her that was for damned sure. The same could be said of the second time. I’d been bitten and infected by that damned werewolf last year, and I’d reacted. I’d hurt Sam, and I’d left. It was all reactionary.

  I thought of what Edie had said to me when I’d seen her last. About taking responsibility for my own life. She hadn’t been wrong. And Sam was right. We needed to be proactive. We needed to complete this merge before Hina totally eclipsed Sam.

&n
bsp; I pulled out the phone Harold had offered me this morning when we’d left. It was an account under his name so it hopefully wouldn’t be traced back to us, although if CHAS showed up right now I wouldn’t be sorry. From the moment I'd seen Sam's trashed apartment, I'd been in the mood to kick someone’s ass. Preferably someone like Simon Brooks III.

  I kept reminding myself it wouldn’t be good for us to be found, though, and instead, I dialed Edie. She picked up on the third ring sounding breathless and impatient. And it was so familiar to me, my stomach tightened in fear. Fear that she’d get tired of my shit and someday wash her hands of me—or worse, send CHAS to arrest me. I didn’t for one second think I was fooling her with my whereabouts. But I forced myself to press on. Proactive.

  “Hey, Edie,” I said, the words sounding gritty in my own ears. “It’s me.”

  “Alex,” she said. “Are you all right?”

  My eyes watered. I was a wanted fugitive and high on her personal shit list and still her first question was to make sure I was okay. “Still alive,” I said and she chuckled.

  “Well the list of people who will be disappointed to know that just keeps getting longer and longer.”

  I grinned and some broken hole in my heart filled again and healed over. “You miss me,” I said.

  “I missed kicking your ass myself,” she clarified. “No one else gets to shoot you but me.”

  “Maybe you should put out an inter-office memo.”

  Edie chuckled, but when she spoke again, all humor was gone. “RJ got past us all, Alex. I’m sorry for what happened.”

  It wasn’t for her to carry, but it meant a lot just the same. I swallowed the lump in my throat. “I’m just glad he’s been outed. You’ve frozen his credentials?”

  “I’ve blacklisted him.” There was a pause. “And you.”

  I swallowed hard. “I understand.”

  “You don’t. In light of Brooks’ report, you’ve been cleared for your part with Indra, but— there’s something else.”

  “What is it?” I asked, knowing this wasn’t going to be good, whatever it was.

  Edie sighed and my nerves frayed even further. “Mason.”

  Silence hung heavy between us.

  “Mr. Harding is being a prick about what happened with his son. Making noise,” she said quietly and from the softness of her tone, I knew this was serious. “Brittany and Breck both vouch for you. They’ll clear you if you just come back and tell—”

  I shoved the textbook aside and twisted toward the wall so that my voice wouldn’t carry. “I don’t intend to hand myself over to Brooks again, Edie. I’ll do a lot for you, but not that.”

  “I heard about your interrogation,” she said and there was white fury in the words. To anyone else, she might have sounded calm and almost friendly, but I knew. “Simon Brooks has been removed.”

  “Hot damn,” I said, sitting back slowly against the bench and enjoying the way it felt to know that. “Wait. How did you hear—?” I stopped as soon as I knew. “Winters.”

  “He’s a good soldier.”

  I scowled, jealousy spearing through me before I could stop it. “He’s a brownnoser.”

  “He saved your ass by reporting in,” she said, reproach in her tone. “We knew where you were and had planned a raid two days before Indra showed up. He didn’t give you up. He saved you.”

  That was news to me. But I didn’t bother to answer.

  Deep down, I knew I was being petty but I couldn’t help but hate on Breck for the simple fact that he’d been the one on the inside of the agency. For once, it wasn’t me. But then I hadn’t wanted it to be and that was the part that left me hollow. Edie might have been right about Breck, but I didn’t like how much things had changed. I didn’t like not being the golden boy anymore.

  She sighed and changed the subject. “How’s Sam?”

  “Being proactive,” I said, and when she didn’t respond, I clarified. “We figured out our next step. Something to help Sam get a handle on what’s inside her.”

  “Can I help?” Edie asked, and I pressed my lips together before slowly shaking my head.

  “No. I don’t think you can. Not this time.” She was silent and we both knew things had changed too much to ever get back to where we’d been. At least when it came to CHAS. But that was a conversation for another time. “Just … we need to know what RJ’s planning so we can figure out how to stop it.”

  “We’re working around the clock to understand his plans,” she promised.

  “Edie, we have less than three weeks to figure out how to save the damned world—”

  “I understand that. We’ve got some other cleanup going that has made it hard to focus.”

  “What kind of cleanup?”

  She hesitated and then said simply, “Werewolves.”

  “Rabid?”

  She grunted an answer I could only assume was a “yes” before adding, “They’ve stepped up their game or the infection has worsened. We don’t know, but it’s worse just since your showdown at RJ’s.”

  “How bad?”

  “Five attacks a day, sometimes more.”

  “Nationwide?”

  “Citywide. And according to our international partners, attacks in these numbers are happening in every major city across the globe.”

  I sat back, stunned. “But … the humans …”

  “So far they’re mostly still clueless. The attacks are targeting Hunters. It’s as if they’ve got the scent or something. I would say they’ve been instructed somehow, but they can’t retain logic in that way once they’re … Anyway, we’re doing what we can to contain it, but we don’t have much longer before it’s too big to control. If that happens, we’re looking at a global ‘coming out’ for Hunters and werewolves alike. And that’s not a world I want to live in, honestly.”

  “Shit, Edie. The equinox,” I said in a hoarse voice. “What could he possibly be planning then that could make all this worse?”

  “I don’t know, but we really don’t have the manpower to put on finding out until we can get these attacks under control.”

  I felt my fist tighten and my shoulder ache until I had to resist the urge to pick up the textbook and fling it across the mostly-empty lobby. This was horse shit. I needed to be stronger. I needed to go find RJ myself.

  “Whatever you’re thinking, just don’t do it alone,” Edie warned.

  I didn’t answer and we both knew that was as good as telling her my plan was exactly the thing she’d just warned me against.

  “You should know that we recovered Koby.” I loosened my fist, listening more carefully now. Edie knew it too. “He had an interesting story to tell about his time with Indra.” She paused and then added, “You might want to start there.”

  I sat up straighter. Was she inviting me to steal her asset?

  “Is he in custody?” I asked, already wincing at the thought of breaking anyone else out of CHAS.

  “No. He’s been debriefed as much as possible and released.” She hesitated and then added, “Winters is in charge of guarding him and Brittany until they can be reinstated.”

  Good. So Brittany had returned and cleared herself. Sam would be glad to know it. But that’s not what Edie wanted me to know. She wanted me to know I had a team at my disposal. If I went to get them.

  I tried not to sound too excited. “I see.”

  “Don’t say it like that,” she warned.

  “Like what?”

  “Like you’re not even trying to hide what you’re thinking.” I chuckled, but she went on trying to warn me. “CHAS has a team looking for you and Sam. And if they find you—”

  “They won’t.”

  “Why not?” Edie scoffed.

  I didn’t answer. I couldn’t tell her it was because we were back in the last town they’d look for us—the one town they thought we wouldn’t be stupid enough to return to. Or that Safar’s wards worked on Hunters too. It would give too much away, and while I was relieved to know Edie and I w
ere still friends—hell, family—at least for now, we weren’t on the same side. Not enemies, but not allies either. Not today, anyway.

  “Magic,” I said simply.

  Edie huffed and hung up.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Sam

  Dean Harmon’s office smelled like sauerkraut. That was the first thing I noticed. The second was that said sauerkraut was still on display on a side table near the window where it sat baking in the cheerful sunlight. My already-nervous stomach rolled at the strong smell, and I looked away.

  “Good morning, ladies. Please come in.” The dean himself, possibly the roundest man I’d ever seen, totally ignored the pungent aroma along with the current buffet for one that had been there for goddess-knew-how-long and waved us in toward the two chairs that sat opposite his oversized desk.

  He smiled tightly at me and then offered a hand to my mother who shook quickly and murmured a stuffy greeting back to him. When they parted, I watched in awe at the way he folded his body into the rolling chair behind his desk. The mahogany surface was stained with rings left behind by coffee mugs left to sit too long on the exposed wood. In between the stains, piles of papers and files covered every empty space. The dean shoved them all aside and picked up a manila folder labeled with my name, opening it and frowning down at the reports there in a way that suggested he used that face a lot.

  When he looked up, it wasn’t a parental lecture in his eyes, but condescension. I bit back on my growing temper. This guy had barely said a word to me and already I didn’t like him.

  “Thank you both for coming in. Mrs. Knight, your trip all the way out here is a testament to your obvious commitment to the circumstance at hand and your daughter’s education as a whole. Samantha, I hope your mother’s presence here and this meeting we’re having today serve as a wake-up call. Do you want to start by telling us why you haven’t attended any classes in the last two weeks?”

  I pressed my lips together to keep from going off. A wake-up call? Was this guy for real? In the chair beside me, my mother shifted to look at me, and I felt them both waiting for me. I had to give them something.