Chapter Fourteen – Angela
Chapter Fourteen
Angela
I had to be home and showered before Rabbit got up so I could take him to school. He knew I went out at night sometimes, but I wanted him to feel like he was most important, because he was.
And Mark…might actually get to meet him. That silly hopeful ache inside my chest got bigger.
I unlocked the door carefully and crept in, past my mother’s snores. My room had its own bathroom, thank God, so I was showered, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed by dawn, rousting Rabbit for his own shower. I didn’t feel nearly as tired as I had the prior night—why? Mark?
No. Her. I looked down at my chest like there was a way I could see my wolf surging underneath my skin. She was close—close enough to give me her strength. If only I could trust her there. I reached for the cabinet over the coffee maker and pulled out my colloidal silver with its eyedropper.
Could I risk it? I liked feeling like this—powerful and present, ready to take on anything. I could see why the Pack worshipped it—this had to be more potent than any drug.
But my wolf was at heart an animal. She operated by different rules, ones I didn’t understand.
And as long as I was operating in the world of mortal humans, I couldn’t take that chance—I closed my eyes and swallowed an eyedropper full of silver, feeling it sizzle on my tongue.
Exhaustion came up almost instantly, as my wolf sank back and my frail body won.
Damn. I went back upstairs to put more concealer on.
I heard Rabbit’s shower cut out and him start singing the theme song to a video game he liked in Japanese.
And then someone rang the doorbell and pounded on the door.
Rabbit reached the stairs first, racing down ahead of me. “Hold up!” I shouted, as he went for the door. “What’d I tell you?”
Consternation furrowed his little face. “That only grown-ups can answer the door.”
“That’s right,” I said, shooing him away with one hand. I peeked out the peephole and didn’t see anything.
Had Mark sent flowers? I wasn’t the only one falling—I knew it.
Then I heard a motorcycle start up. Oh no. First Dark Ink—now my apartment? I leaned against the door till the bike was gone.
“Mommy?” Rabbit asked, sensing my fear.
I crouched down. “Shh. Go back and wake up Grandma.”
He didn’t want to, but he also didn’t want to disobey. Rabbit went down the hall as slowly as possible, looking back every chance he could. When he’d turned the corner, I opened the door.
There was nothing outside but a long box. I looked both ways down the hall before picking it up—there was something heavy inside, I could feel it rocking. With great reluctance, I took off the lid.
There was an unsigned note that read:
I still love you.
I mean it.
Over what I was very sure was Wade Davis’s severed cock.
I stumbled back inside and put it in my freezer where my mother couldn’t reach, as Rabbit tumbled back down the stairs. “Who was it? Grandma’s up!”
“It was nothing, sweetheart. An accident,” I said. But I knew the second I dropped Rabbit off at school, I was going to have to call Mark.