Chapter 8 Nico #2
“I wish I knew more, Maddy, but we don’t,” Maddy’s mother said. “I’m sorry. I’m sure that test stirred up a bunch of stuff. Are you okay?”
Maddy nodded and ran a hand through her hair. “I’m good, Mom. It’s really not that big a deal, seriously. I was just intrigued. That’s all.”
“Are you sure? You know I’m here to talk anytime.”
“Yes, Mom.” Maddy smiled despite herself. “I’m good. I need to get going anyway.”
“All right, sweetie. I’ll tell your dad you called. Don’t forget your medicine, either.”
“Oh my God, yes, I won’t forget. Thanks. Love you, bye.”
“Love you.”
Maddy hung up the call and handed the phone back to me. “Satisfied?”
I nodded and tucked my cell back into my pocket. “Yeah, I could hear the whole thing. She doesn’t sound like someone hiding anything.”
“Does that mean we’re back at square one?” she asked.
“Well, we’ve been at square one for a couple days.
There’s no going back when we haven’t been able to leave square one.
” I rubbed at the stubble on my cheek and decided to ask the question that had been percolating in my head from the moment I heard her mention it.
“So, you really have no information on your parents? Your birth parents, I mean.”
She shook her head. “Never met them, never heard from them. They gave me up when I was a baby, so I don’t even have a connection from before.”
“All right, we can probably rule them out then. There has to be a different reason,” I said, then finished my beer.
“What about other relationships? Ex-boyfriends? Friends you’ve cut ties with?
Uh…current boyfriend? You know, stuff like that.
” I hoped she hadn’t noticed the awkward way I tried to add that last bit.
“Nothing I can think of. I don’t have a lot of friends.
Abi is my closest friend, but she seemed totally shocked about what happened to me.
I haven’t had a boyfriend in almost a year.
I honestly can’t think of anything else.
” She slung her hair over her back. “Nico, I can’t get it out of my head.
What that guy said before he stabbed me. ”
Her face changed, and she clenched her hands together. Her eyes went dark, and she started trembling. I thought she was going to make herself bleed, she was biting her lower lip so hard.
Moving over, I put my hand over hers. “It’s okay. You’re safe. Can you remember exactly what he said? You told me before, but I’d like to hear it again.”
A wavering breath breezed out between her lips, and she nodded. “He said I shouldn’t exist and that my bloodline was supposed to be dead.”
“See,” I said, starting to get frustrated, “that still makes me think it has something to do with your family. Those phrases sound exactly like someone talking about family. Bloodlines? What else would that be about? It has to be something massive, too, if it’s worth your life.”
I leaned back in the lounge chair and thought about it for a few minutes. Maddy was beside me, nursing her beer, staring off into the lawn and scrub pines beyond. I went over a hundred other questions and leads I could try with her, but each one seemed more tenuous than the last.
Once I was totally out of ideas, I tapped her on the thigh to get her attention. “You said you had a match on that DNA test? Who was it?”
She put the empty beer can down on a side table and grinned at me. “You think they’re trying to kill me because some ancient ancestor of mine pissed off one of their ancestors? That’s a hellacious grudge to hold.”
“Right, but if it helps figure this out, I’ll even start checking into your old pets. Maybe you had a dog that got Javi’s dog pregnant and he’s looking for child support. Come on, what was the guy’s name?”
Maddy looked up at the sky, her lips pursed. Finally, she shook her head in frustration. “I can barely remember it. Hang on, let me log in.”
I handed her my phone and watched as she typed away at the screen for a few minutes. I knew something was wrong when she frowned. “I don’t understand. It’s gone.”
I sat forward and tilted the phone screen so I could see. The DNA match window showed zero matches. Like there’d never been anything there to begin with.
“That’s bullshit,” Maddy said. “Abi was there, she saw it, she can vouch for it. There was one name there. Now it’s gone? What the hell?”
That didn’t make any sense. Not one single person in the world was linked to her?
How was that even possible? A sudden sadness filled me.
Maddy had to feel pretty alone. She had her adoptive parents, but not having any idea where you came from had to be a little depressing.
“Do you remember any part of the name?” I prompted.
Maddy let out a frustrated sigh. “It was a weird name. I remember that. I can’t be a hundred percent sure but…Udimus? Aidmos…Edemas?” Her eyes brightened. “I think that’s it. Edemas.”
A thousand phantom spiders seemed to be crawling up my spine. That name. What was that name, and why did it send shudders of fear through me as soon as she said it? Something from the past. My mind flitted through all the pack history I’d learned as a kid—thousands of years of lore and legends.
I remembered that name. It was unique. Connections started snapping together in my mind. Fog lifted and memory became certainty. The name had been unique, and the man it belonged to had been a madman.
Oh shit. No way. It couldn’t be. That was…impossible.
“Maddy?” My voice betrayed my fear and wonder. “This Edemas? Was his full name Edemas Hollander?”
The look Maddy gave me sent another bolt of fear into my gut. She looked pleased and relieved. I’d just scratched an itch that had been tickling her mind, and it meant something awful.
She nodded. “That’s it!” The pleasant surprise faded and she frowned at me. “How the hell could you know that?”
My blood ran cold, sending a dark chill up my arms. The puzzle was sliding together, revealing the picture. Her distinct scent? My wolf’s reaction to her? It all made sense now. She didn’t smell quite human because…she wasn’t fully human. She was a descendant of a line of wolves.
Javi’s guys were right. She shouldn’t exist. All the stories said the bloodline had been fully wiped out down to the roots. Maddy was of the line of Edemas. The Hollander Clan. Sweet Christ.
I put a hand to my head, fighting back dizziness. Royal wolves. A line that was so hated and reviled that all written history of them had been erased and destroyed. I looked at Maddy, and true fear enveloped me. How the fuck could I protect her now?