Chapter Twenty-three – Jack #2
Jonah took a menacing step forward and Angela reached out a hand. “Someone knew she was pregnant, Jonah—and someone knew that if she had your child, you’d take the Pack. We couldn’t see the pieces before, but now we can.”
“Too bad everyone we could ask for answers is dead,” said a man who’d introduced himself as Wyatt. I’d already noticed Daziel wasn’t among their number anymore—I’d been looking at everyone’s hands. I assumed his carcass was in the forest now, and what wasn’t gnawed off had been left to rot.
“Not everyone,” Nikki said. She hitched her blanket higher around herself, and the little girl from the ball pit stayed near to her.
“She told me she was pregnant. Wanted to know what to do. I warned her.” She cast glances around their group, daring anyone to challenge her.
“I couldn’t handle it anymore—I didn’t want anyone else to die. Not like that.”
Jonah jerked his chin at her, urging her to continue.
“Somehow, she already knew what she was getting into. She wanted the baby and the change, and she said she’d figure out a way to survive—and then she told me she’d succeeded.”
The crowd went so quiet you could’ve heard a pin drop. It was then that I realized they were mostly men, and precious few women.
“I was ecstatic. I mean, if she figured out a way to keep women alive through their pregnancies, then—everything could change here. For the better. I told Daziel about it, and I thought he was as excited as I was—but then Bella’s mood changed and she left.
When I’d heard she’d died I’d assumed things hadn’t worked out. Because they almost never do.”
“When instead what’d happened is Daziel and Murphy went to murder her,” Angela said. “Because that kind of power would’ve been a threat to Gray.”
Nikki nodded. “Because they didn’t care about what happens to us,” Nikki said, sharing a look with Angela.
Jonah rounded on Nikki almost faster than I could see. “You got her killed!” He grabbed her by the neck and hoisted Nikki high. Her blanket fell to the ground as her daughter shrieked.
“Jonah, no!” Angela shouted, reaching for her.
“Her, and my child!” Jonah’s arm started to shake in anger, as his other arm swatted Angela back. “Aren’t you mad at her too? Didn’t she lure you and your friend in?”
Angela stopped at that. “She did. But that was a long time ago, Jonah. And she was only a small part of a much bigger problem—”
“Well there’s no one else here to kill now for it,” he growled darkly.
Nikki’s daughter squealed. Her hair was black, just like her mother’s—and I remembered the crawling black wolf that I’d seen earlier that night.
“Put her down!” I shouted, just on the verge of whammying him.
Jonah looked over his shoulder to glare.
“How’d you get out of the cage? Because I was the only one here with thumbs last night, and it wasn’t me!
” I ran past him, out into the field where Gray had died.
“A black wolf brought this up—one with broken teeth and a bleeding jaw.” I found the piece of metal and tossed it at Jonah’s feet.
He slowly set Nikki down, shoving her away, before picking the metal up—it looked like the curve of a lock to me.
He sniffed it, eyeing her. “Your wolf did that?”
Nikki held her throat. “I don’t know,” she said hoarsely. “All I know is that I wanted her to—right before I changed.”
Jonah looked at her intensely, and she seemed to wither underneath his gaze.
“You are forgiven,” he said, and then drew her near.
He licked a streak across her forehead as though giving her his blessing, and then he turned to face the group.
“No Pack member is ever going inside a cage again.” He hurled the piece of metal into the forest, then spoke again to the throng.
“I’m pack leader now. Your wolves know the truth—but do you agree?
” Whoops filled the air, along with howls from human throats.
Even Rabbit cheered, excited to have something to cheer for.
I gave Angela a helpless look, and she smiled back at me—and then I felt dawn hitting, hard.
I closed my eyes and tilted my head—the international sign for ‘it’s almost bedtime’—so she came and took my hand.
I let her lead me into the farmhouse. There was still a ruckus going on outside, but the wolves had all day to celebrate, so why not? I had no doubt that soon they’d all be drinking, hollering, and eating breakfast—while I’d be dead in a closet somewhere.
Angela led me upstairs, and into a small room. “I think this is safe. It smells like Nikki, and she owes you, big time.” She opened up a door and pulled on a light.
“Closet. Called it.”
“Sorry,” she said, giving me a sad smile. She let me go in first, pushing my way past all sorts of clothing, making a space among shoes on the floor. The way she stood—the tension in her shoulders—I knew, but I still needed to hear her say it.
“You’re not going to be here when I wake up, are you?”
She licked her lips. “Sorry, Jack.” She stepped in after me, closing the door behind herself with a sigh. “If we stay here too long, Rabbit will get ideas.”
I nodded. But just because I knew it was coming didn’t mean it didn’t hurt. “You still want to raise him human?”
“Yes. But without silver. I’ll figure something out.” She glanced back, as though she could see through the walls, into her past. “The Pack doesn’t make its money investing in stocks, Jack. This isn’t the life I want for him.”
And neither was mine, my unlife, that is. No matter what I felt about her, or toward her—or Rabbit, for that matter—it didn’t change who I was. I swallowed and braced, trying to steel myself against her loss. “You think Jonah’s honorable?”
She blinked, considering this. “Yeah. He won’t come after me.”
I wasn’t going to ask her how she could be so sure.
“Back at Bella’s—her spirit showed me some things.
I thought they were recipes, like for food, but it seems more likely they’re for magic.
She was a smart girl, if she came up with a cure for their pregnancy curse, she’d write it down.
” I watched Angela’s jaw drop as I spoke.
“The books are behind her water heater.”
She rocked back on her heels. “I’ll tell them. Maybe the Pack could afford to hire one of those magicians to help, too, now that their priorities are realigned. If they could look at her notes….”
“She was always saying she could cast spells. I just didn’t believe her in time.”
Angela nodded quickly. “It’s a chance worth taking. Even though Rabbit and I are leaving, these are my people—and Jonah’s not the type to do science for science’s sake.”
I nodded too, trying to stop from fading away, fighting dying for as long as I could. “I can’t believe I’m not going to see you again, Angela.”
“You might,” she said with a soft sad smile.
“You just shouldn’t count on it for the next decade or so.
And—it’s never going to be like this,” she said, gesturing between us.
I couldn’t help myself, I caught her hand.
She didn’t fight, so I pulled, and she was in my arms and my face was in her hair, her body pressed against mine.
“I have to go back, Jack,” she whispered, and I knew what she meant—to her normal boyfriend and her somewhat normal occupation and to being a normal mom.
“I know. I do too.” Somewhere back in Vegas, Paco was probably worried sick about me—and I would still need to feed most every night.
There was never a world in which we happened or worked.
We’d been lucky to get the time we did. I felt compelled to say something, I wasn’t sure what, but she tilted her head up to kiss my jaw and my lips found hers.
I’d never fought dawn for so long before, trying to drink her in.
“Don’t fight it,” she said when she pulled back, in imitation of me before I’d bit her in the hotel bathroom. I sank, pulling her with me to the closet’s floor. “Don’t fight it, Jack. I love you. Don’t fight,” were the last sounds I heard.