Cold Blood (21 page)

He didn’t say anything, and I spun, walking faster and staying ahead of him. He let me go without further comment. A few minutes later I could hear him speaking into his earpiece, checking in with Cambria. Then he fell silent again but I could hear his footsteps. No matter how fast I walked, he stayed behind me. Never any closer but never out of sight.

We finished our patrols without sighting–or sensing–a single Werewolf. When we reached Cambria and Logan, I was still walking ahead of Alex with a set jaw. I could see their expressions change the second they saw me. They looked nervous.

“
I’m going to shower,” I snapped, cutting straight across the lawn and heading for the school. I didn’t wait for them or look back to see who followed, but after a few seconds, I could hear someone padding up behind me on the grass. Cambria appeared, power walking along side me.

“
That bad?” she asked.

“
Worse. He offered himself as a body guard to me. And by offered, I mean blackmailed me into agreeing.”

“
Oh.”

“
Oh?” I glanced over at her. “He’s a jerk. I wish he still hated me.”

“
I think it’s a little late for that.”

“
What does that mean?”

“
Nothing. You go on up and shower. I’m right behind you.”

She slowed and I sped up, heading for Lexington Hall and trying not to scream.

Chapter Nineteen

I kissed Alex. No, wait, Alex kissed me. For some reason, it was important to remember that. I didn’t know why; it’s not like remembering it that way made it any less confusing.

It was dawn on Monday morning, and I’d barely slept the night before. I couldn’t. Alex had kissed me! What was I supposed to do with that?

Was I supposed to pretend it hadn’t happened? Go back to being the student? I mean, I had Wes. What was I going to tell Wes? I groaned and earned a muffled curse from Victoria, still trying to sleep across the room.

I sighed. Might as well get up. It wasn’t like I was going to sleep anytime soon. I threw the covers back and sucked in another groan. My arm, the one Miles had twisted and held behind me, burned with sharp pain. I lowered it and cradled it to my side. I’d have to be careful about that today.

I gathered what I needed for the shower and headed down the hall. The bathroom was empty this time of morning, and I took my time, using probably all of the hot water, and then spending an extra few minutes on drying and combing through my hair. The humidity of the bathroom counteracted the blow dryer, though, and I shut it off when I started getting sweaty. My hair would have to be its usual style; somewhere halfway between straight and wavy.

I dropped my stuff off back in my room, thankful that Victoria was still sleeping, and headed upstairs in search of an early breakfast. I was relieved to find the dining room open already and decided to go all out. Bacon. Eggs. French toast. Coffee and cream. The works. I was halfway through stuffing my face when Logan came in. He went through the line and came over with eggs and toast.

“
What are you doing here so early?” he asked, plopping his tray down across from me.

“
Couldn’t sleep. You?” I inhaled another forkful of syrup-drenched French toast.

“
I want to get over to the library at Rockford Hall for this essay I’ve got next month.”

“
Next month?” I shook my head, letting it go. “Why Rockford Hall’s library?”

“
They aren’t all the same. Rockford’s specialty is the sciences. Biology, chemistry, physics.”

“
What’s Lexington’s?”

“
Philosophy, poetry, the classics. Ashton’s is math.” I made a face. “Taylor’s is World History. And Griffin is Lineage. All of the libraries carry books in all categories, but each building specializes and has more books in that genre. I need something on quantum chemistry.”

“
Quantum huh? Okay, whatever. I’ll come.”

“
You will?” He blinked, like maybe I was messing with him.

I rolled my eyes. “Not for the physics books. I want to send some emails. They have internet there right?”

“
Oh, yeah. Only in the senior libraries.”

We dumped our trays and headed over to Rockford Hall. It was set up exactly like our building. The artwork was different, along with the flyers announcing clubs and events, but otherwise, it was the same; a grand staircase leading up from the front doors, with the monstrous cafeteria at the top, and the library at the far end of the second floor.

Once inside, Logan wandered off to find his book, and I found an empty computer station. One benefit to being up early was internet access. It wasn’t available during school hours since we were all supposed to be in class, and since the library only had two stations with internet capability, getting to use one usually involved standing in a line five people deep for a chance at ten minutes in your email box. But since the roof at Griffin Hall was out of the question, emailing was my only option.

I logged in with my student ID and booted up my email. I scanned through one from Sam; it was a single paragraph all about her weekend trip to DC with her older sister and the crazy clubs she’d stood outside of. It ended with a question about when visiting day was, and exactly how many ‘hotties’ to plan on seeing when she came. It made me smile.

The next was from Angela. Hers was a lot more laid back. She was busy with piano and school and trying to keep Sam from going completely insane on some girl who was dumb enough to try and flirt with Sam’s flavor of the week.

There was one from my mother. A couple of sentences:

How are you? How are your grades? Grandma says hello.

And one from Fee, which surprised me in a way that made my chest pang with homesickness. I didn’t even know she had my email address. I read slowly, trying to soak in every word:

Dear Tara,

Hope all is well at your new school. We miss you here, but we know you are safe and learning a lot more than Jack and I could teach you. I hear Wood Point is the best on the east coast and the weapons training is top notch. Keep those grades up. Jack says he’s going to test your combat skills next time he sees you, so be ready. Which is to say, he’s worried about you and misses you but won’t come out and say it. Just like he won’t come out and say when he’s overdone it for the day. I swear, nurses have infinite patience. I could never do this for a living. Wes being here is helping. I know he misses you, too, but summer will be here before you know it. Your Grandma has been coming around. She’s an amazing woman. Completely unprejudiced even though she refuses to join us outright. Did you know she’s a member of CHAS? Could be useful someday. There I go, being all political again. Either way, she’s a good friend to me. Oh, Jack is calling for me, and Wes sounds a little frazzled. Talk soon.

Love,

Fee.

I read it four times. By the end, tears had gathered in the corners of my eyes, and I blinked them back. I hit reply and fired off a quick email, answering the basic questions about school and assuring her that Grandma was definitely someone good to have on our side. Then I stopped. I wanted to ask more about Wes or have her give him a message, but I couldn’t. He’d been there. When she’d typed the email, he’d been in the next room. So he wasn’t hurt or too busy or whatever. And still I hadn’t heard anything from him. No emails. No voice mails. What did that mean?

I left the email as it was and sent it off, depressed and homesick. I clicked on the next one. It was from George. He missed me, he wanted to be friends, and I could call and talk to him anytime. I sat back and sighed, long and loud, and ignored the look it earned me from the librarian. I was homesick enough to miss George, but I wasn’t going to write and tell him that.

Instead, I opened a blank email and addressed it to Wes. My fingers hovered above the keyboard, frozen and unsure. I had no idea what to say. I’d already sent him three other emails, none of which had been answered. And email was definitely not how I wanted to do this.

I logged off and went in search of Logan.

He was all the way in the back with his nose in a book that looked like it might’ve helped put me to sleep last night. I waved to let him know I was leaving and kept walking. He barely looked up.

I hadn’t meant to do it, but I ended up on the roof of Griffin Hall searching like a spy for Alex. When I finally convinced myself I was truly alone I relaxed and slid down to the ground, leaning back on a massive air handler that was silent and still in the chilled mountain morning. I pulled out my phone and dialed Wes.

“
Hello?”

My heart flipped over and jumped up and down. “Wes?” My voice shook, and I bit my lip to steady it.

“
Tara? What’s wrong?” Any trace of sleepiness vanished.

“
Nothing’s wrong. Just calling to say hi.”

I could hear him letting out a breath and relaxing. “It’s really good to hear your voice.”

“
You, too.”

His tone matched the way I felt. It was comforting and heart wrenching and for a second, I closed my eyes and pictured how he would look saying these words. It was beautiful and way too painful, so I forced my eyes open again and tried to remember what I wanted to say.

“
Where have you been?” I asked.

The connection crackled and then cleared again. I froze, unwilling to move away from whatever sweet spot was allowing the signal to remain. “What?” I asked.

“…
Phone was broken,” he was saying. “I couldn’t get a new one until yesterday. Been trying to call you ever since.”

I’d missed the first part about whatever had caused his phone to break. His tone was changing from longing to fierce. “I can’t believe you went outside the wards. After you promised.”

“
What? How do you even know about that?”

“
Vera called.”

“
Oh. So you know about the Werewolf?” For a second I forgot all about the protective tone he’d taken and was relieved there was someone else I could talk to about it all.

“
The what?”

Vera must’ve left that part out. I sighed. “I only went out of the wards because I was chasing a Werewolf that had come through.”

“
No one said anything about a breach in the wards,” he said. He muttered a stream of curses that was a little harsh, even for him.

“
Wes?”

The sound of tires screeching against asphalt.

“
Wes?”

“
I’m sick of being kept outside the loop. I’m supposed to be in charge. This is ridiculous,” he said.

His voice was just short of a growl, and I felt a stab of temper. I’d barely spoken to him the past few weeks. No wonder he felt out of the loop.

“
If you wanted to be in the loop, you could’ve called me,” I said.

“
I didn’t mean you.”

“
What did you mean?” The static was back, full force. I had to pull the phone away from my ear because of the noise. I spoke into it like a walkie-talkie. “Wes?”

Nothing.

The connection ended.

I dialed him again, but it went straight to voice mail. That meant my signal was fine. His was the one screwing up. Great. I ended the call and set the phone down, resting my knees on my chin and staring at nothing.

I’m not sure how long I stayed that way, but when I finally pulled myself out of whatever blank daydream I’d been having, the first thing I noticed was that it was hot. Like sticky, sun beating down with no branches to shield me hot. As if in response, the air handler I was leaning on groaned and jerked and came to life, sending cool air into the building below me. It sounded like a helicopter was landing behind my head.

I stood up and brushed my pants off, not wanting to stay near the noise but not sure whether I was ready to go yet, either. If it was this warm out, I’d no doubt missed a class or two, and I wasn’t sure if that would go unnoticed.

Another one of the giant air handlers kicked on a few feet away and was irritating enough to send me on my way. I was still distracted, thinking about Wes and the way he’d peeled out, and trying to imagine where he might be going, that I wasn’t even focused on what was in front of me anymore. I barreled out of the door at the bottom of the stairwell and ran smack into a brick wall of a body. Large hands reached out to steady me. I stepped back and the hands fell away.

“
Ms. Godfrey.”

I looked up into the scarred face of Professor Kane. “Professor.”

I stopped there, unsure what else to say. I was so busted. And he looked mean enough to make it very unpleasant. But instead of lecturing me or sentencing me to the dungeons (it seemed like a possibility for someone like him), he stood there, watching me with a mild expression –it might’ve been amusement, but he couldn’t really pull it off with the scars and all–and a raised eyebrow. “In a hurry?” he asked.

I glanced at the exit behind him and met his gaze. “I guess so. I didn’t see you there. I’ll be more careful.”

Now there was definitely amusement. “Somehow, I doubt that.” He looked around. “Your trainer doesn’t know you’re here?”

“
I, uh, no.” Crap. So was I allowed to come and go from the rooftop as long as Alex was with me? For a rule follower, he seemed to have a lot less boundaries than the rest of us.

“
He’s probably working on that truck of his, if you’re looking for him,” he said.

“
He’s not in class?” I asked, and then clamped my mouth shut.

“
His schedule is a little different than yours,” he said, pointedly.

I nodded and waited for the lecture.

His gaze sharpened. “You know, I’ve wanted to speak to you for some time. You’re a very skilled fighter, especially for someone with no training or background.”

“
Thank you,” I said, and even though it was sort of scary, the way he looked at me like a tool instead of a person, I couldn’t help but feel a little proud that he’d noticed.

“
Do you have any plans after graduating next year?”

“
Not yet.”

“
You’d be a real asset to any of our search terms.”

“
Search teams?” I repeated. I tried not to show my horror. I knew exactly what search teams he meant. “Search and Destroy” would be the proper term, and I knew I could never be a part of something like that, even if I wasn’t half Werewolf.

Kane nodded. He didn’t seem aware of my revulsion. “Something to think about. I’d mentor you myself, if you were serious about it. You’ve got potential.”

“
Uh, thanks. I’ll think about it.”