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“How nice of you to ask. ” I watched her light up, wishing I had a bad habit to count on in stressful times. “Jorgen—a bitten member of the Deepest Snow pack—came after me. ”
Sike’s eyes narrowed. “Anna’s going to have words with them then. Now that her place is assured—we can’t allow that kind of affront. ”
“Why them, though? It was supposed to be some other were. Viktor. ”
She took a deep drag and exhaled smoke. “I checked him out. He’s too young. Too brash. House Grey would never make use of him. And if they were orchestrating things against Anna—they would have done it here. ” She drew a circle in the air to indicate the church behind us, her cigarette leaving a tracer of light behind. “She’s in. She can make her own House now. ”
“Yay?” I asked with sarcasm.
“You’re so small-minded. You don’t even realize what that means. ” She blew smoke out of her nose like a dragon. “Because she’s alive she can make more blood whenever she wants. People who belong to her will never have to go to Y4 and beg. ” She smiled, and I could imagine a time in the near future when the act would show the world her fangs. “Blood is power, and Anna’s a fountain of it. ”
“So you’re saying I’m safe now?” I asked her, my hands tucked into my armpits. She was calm and glamorous, dressed up for the occasion, smoking dramatic, and not shivering. I was her opposite, and becoming too cold to care.
“I’m saying get to Y4, get the shots, and stay there until we come and get you. Don’t worry, the Shadows can protect you until dawn. ”
I inhaled her secondhand smoke deeply and leaned forward. “About that—”
A rush of vampires came out the doors, talking among themselves. And a car pulled up behind Sike. She turned and knocked on its hood twice, then smiled at me. “See? Good as my word. What were you going to say?”
I couldn’t tell her what I wanted to, with so many vampires in earshot. “You shouldn’t smoke. It’s bad for you. ”
“What’s it matter? Soon I’ll be dead. ” She pursed her red lips and took another drag.
“You’re not dead yet. ”
She looked at the cigarette she held and gave me a sour grin. Then she dropped it and stomped it out with a snort.
* * *
Sike flagged down Gideon and put him in the car with me. Our driver was under strict orders—from people who were far more frightening than I could hope to be—to take me to the hospital. The claw marks on my leg were screaming as I got inside, and I hoped that was all mechanical injury and not were-infection starting.
“Fancy meeting you here,” I told Gideon in the backseat. He was wearing gloves and a leather coat now. It looked like he’d upgraded his webcam for a lens that sat on his forehead like a third eye. He groaned an acknowledgment and put a hat on his head.
The limo driver took off without asking where we were going; I figured he already knew. I tried not to move, and cursed vampires for getting me into these messes.
I wanted to call ahead and warn Y4 we were coming—and also text Lucas and ask him what the fuck was going on. I didn’t want to believe that he could be in on it. And with the cuts on my leg, it was impossible to get comfortable.
Gideon saw me fidgeting, reached into his coat, pulled out a new-looking phone, and offered it to me.
“Thanks. ” Maybe people looking for cigarettes and people wishing they had their phones fidgeted the same. “I don’t know his number, though. ”
Gideon kept holding it out. I took it, turned it on, went for the call icon, and hopped onto the contact list. “When did you get this?”
Gideon grunted. Jake’s name, my parents’ names, old nursing school friends—“You backed up my phone for me?”
Gideon shrugged. To think I’d been only worried about my brother making long-distance calls before now. I pulled up Lucas’s information and sent him a text message. Jorgen attacked me. What the fuck? He would be a wolf until dawn, but maybe I’d hear from him in the morning.
* * *
We drove along, in from the countryside until we hit the freeway, and then the freeway to the less good part of town. Two exits away from County, the driver looked up.
“So where’s your house?” He peered at us through his rearview mirror.
“What?”
“Your house. It’s around here somewhere, right?”
I tensed in the backseat, and then hissed in pain. “I thought you were taking me to the hospital. ”
“Oh, I can’t. The weather’s just awful. ” The limo began to slow.
I looked out the window. It was snowing, but no more than it’d been an hour ago, and the road ahead of us was empty. In other circumstances, it would have been pretty in the moonlight. The driver braked the limo to a stop.
“I can’t drive in this ice, lady. ” His reflection frowned at me. “I don’t want to get trapped down here in this weather. You need to make up your mind. ”
“What are you talking about?” I leaned forward, gritting my teeth, and Gideon grabbed my hand. The driver reached to put the limo in reverse.
“Never mind. We’re here. ” I opened my door, hopped out, and Gideon followed. The limo driver did a U-turn in the middle of the intersection and drove away.
