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Tanner planted his hands on the edge, pinning Isaiah in. “And I will not let it take anyone else. I don’t care if you hate me. I don’t care if any of you hate me. I will protect you from it, no matter the price.”
“It,” Isaiah said.
Tanner frowned.
“You saidit. Not Nash.”
“Doesn’t matter. They’re the same.”
“No, they’re not. He’s still Varu, he may be Mah, but he’s still our people. His name is Nash Kelli, and he was murdered and infected.He’snot evil.”
“That thing inside him—”
“Thatthing.Not the man, Tanner. Not the man. Nash isn’t lost. His mind isn’t consumed. He knows who he is. He loves. He feels remorse. He’s still one of us. And Luca loves him. Our Cana loves him.” Isaiah’s throat threatened to close. He forced himself to breathe. “We had a duty to try anything we could to allow them to stay together. Anything.”
Tanner put a hand on Isaiah’s chest. “And I already did that when I held you down while Jelani cut you open. When I choked your screams so the others wouldn’t hear you. Soitwouldn’t hear you. When I held Cassie’s hand steady so she could thread a needle dangerously close to your heart. When I watched Elani draw the Rakta. When I carried you to the bed and stayed there because I didn’t know if you’d live through what we’d done.”
All things Isaiah couldn’t deny, even if he only remembered the pain.
“I did myanything,” Tanner said. “For you. For the Cana. And while the rest of you might be blinded by what looks like a calm sea, I feel the storm building. I know beyond that blue horizon something terrible is rising.” He pulled away. “I wanted to believe this would work. But when I looked at Nash yesterday, it wasn’t the man who looked back. It was that thing in him. It’s playing us, Isaiah. Especially you.”
“No…”
Tanner held Isaiah’s face. His touch conveyed all the words betas often failed to speak. Their love, their protectiveness, their worship. Their willingness to suffer the worst death to keep those around them safe.
“That first day you injected Nash, we all felt your fear. We all felt your doubt. The Anubis should have never known what you were doing, but it did.”
“It reacted to Luca’s emotions.”
Tanner stopped Isaiah with a brush of his thumb over his lips. “Perhaps. But if that were true, why didn’t it try again the second time? Or the third? Because there hasn’t been a day when Luca has been anything but angry at you for convincing Nash to do this.”
Enough that Nash wanted Luca to wait in the trailer rather than glare at Isaiah the entire time.
“The Anubis didn’t manifest because it was working,” Isaiah said.
“A few drops of Rakta can’t kill something that powerful. At best, it’s an inconvenience.”
“Which is why we were doing it daily. Once it built up—”
“That takes time. And every day, for almost a week, you’ve injected Nash Kelli, and it’s been silent.” Sadness and worry left shadows in Tanner’s eyes. “It never reacted to Luca’s emotions. It’s biding its time.”
“That’s ridiculous. Why would it do that?”
“Because it likes to play with its food.”
“Without our wolves, it would kill us in one blow.”
“It would. Which is why it’s allowing us to think we’re winning.”
“The Anubis doesn’t think.” Isaiah tried to go around Tanner.
Tanner gripped Isaiah’s arm. “It’s learned.”
Isaiah huffed. “It can’t learn.”
“It can remember.” Tanner made Isaiah turn around. “It knew who we were when Nash brought Luca here.”
It had.
