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West sighed. My gaze jerked to him. I hadn’t noticed him shifting back, and now he’d already gotten his clothes back on. He was just buttoning up his shirt, a patch of white that looked like a bandage disappearing under the fabric, along with a six pack that would have made most pro athletes cry with envy. Even if he was a jerk, I found I was a little disappointed to have missed the fullview.
Then he started talking again.Unfortunately.
“My kin has a village just south of Morgantown, West Virginia,” he said in a clearly reluctant tone. “Or do you want to cower even farther away thanthat?”
Aaron gave him a measured look. “I think that’ll do.” He turned to Kylie. “You don’t have to come with us if you’d rather stay here, but I think you’d be better off spending a little while out of town. If the vampires caught your scent, you could become atarget.”
Kylie openly ogled his bare—and buff—chest and gave him a sly grin. “Oh, don’t worry, I’dmuchrather hang out with you guys than those creeps.” She held out her hand to me. “Road trip! Just like we alwayswanted.”
I managed to smile as I twined my fingers with hers. This wasn’t the road trip I’d been imagining I’d take with my bestie. For one, I’d have preferred to kick it off with fewer semi-dead bodies. And to go without the threat of vampire vengeance hanging over us along theway.
Chapter 14
Ren
For the thirdtime in as many days, I woke up in an unfamiliar bed. With no air conditioning in this home that was more cabin than house, the heat of the late June morning hung thick in the air. I’d kicked off my blanket, and the sheet was twisted around mylegs.
I sat up on the twin bed, taking in the room I’d only seen in semi-darkness when we’d arrived late last night. A few of West’s canine shifter kin-folk had put us up for the timebeing.
Kylie was sprawled on the matching bed across from me, her face buried in the pillow. A faint snore drifted up from it. The only other furniture in the room was a well-worn rug, a cedar wardrobe that gave off a sweetly pungent scent, and a stool by the window. Daylight streamed in across the woodenfloor.
I peeled off my sheet and poked around in the bag I’d packed before our rushed departure from the city. The guys had given Kylie and me the okay to stop by our apartment briefly, so I had a few sets of my own clothes, not Marco’s fancy get-up. Since it seemed possible we might need to run—or fight—again, I grabbed a pair of sweats and a comfortable tee. Once I was dressed, I pulled the dark waves of my hair back into abraid.
Mom used to braid my hair, when I was little. The ghost of her fingers brushed over the nape of my neck as I twisted and wove. My throattightened.
Follow the crystal, her voice had told me yesterday. I’d spent an awful lot of the drive to West Virginia staring at that crystal slab, and I still had no idea how I was supposed to follow it anywhere. If the pattern on it was supposed to tell me, I was still at a loss. It just looked like a random jumble of lines and dots tome.
Why did you have to go, Mom?I thought at her, wherever the hell she was.Why couldn’t you have stayed so we could do this together? Why didn’t you explain anything before youleft?
I couldn’t get any answer to those questions right now, of course. I sighed and eased open thedoor.
The house was either empty or other inhabitants were still sleeping. The spread on the kitchen table suggestedsomeone had already come through. A rich sugary smell wafted off fresh-baked blueberry scones. I hesitated, but the table was obviously set in anticipation of guests. I grabbed one, slathered some butter on it, and walked toward the front door as I took abite.
The crumbly pastry melted on my tongue. That was heaven, right there. I closed my eyes, savoring it. Then I peekedoutside.
The village we’d stopped in was apparently entirely made up of shifters. Aaron had told me more about shifter culture during the drive down. From what he’d said, it was pretty common for shifters to set up communities of their own, keeping the illusion of being normal human beings to anyone who happened to pass by, but having a little more freedom to be themselves the rest of the time. “It’s easier than constantly being on the alert, remembering you have to blendin.”
Standing on the cabin’s doorstep, looking across the packed earth of what appeared to be the village common, I could see the appeal. Most of the people ambling into the shops or chatting with friends looked like regular human beings. But over here a group of older teens were preening, a few of them experimenting with letting their canine ears protrude from their human hair. Over there, a couple of foxes who must have gone out for a morning run ducked into their house through a swinging back door. There was a sense of openness in the air that made it hard for yesterday’s worries to followme.
As I watched, a familiar figure came into view at the edge of the common. The morning sunlight caught on the silver mixed into West’s light auburn hair, reminding me of the silver-tipped ruddy fur of his wolf form. He was walking beside an elderly woman who was gesturing as she talked. When she finished, he said something to her that made her face lightup.
West took her hands in his and bowed his head to her. As he let go, she patted him affectionately on the cheek. Then she shuffled away,smiling.
A couple of the teens sauntered over. From their expressions, whatever they said was pretty cheeky. West gave the first boy a playful cuff to the ears. They feinted back and forth a bit, West clearly giving the boy space to try his strength. He let the younger guy get in a few taps of his fists before grabbing him in a quick flip and setting him down on hisass.
The boy shook his head with a rueful laugh, and West grinned—a real, relaxed grin, not the tense smiles that were the most I’d seen from him before now. An ache filled my chest as the bond between us tugged at me. That man over there, acting the alpha for his people... That was a man I could really fallfor.
As if he’d sensed my gaze, West looked my way. Our eyes locked. A flicker of heat passed through me, speeding up mypulse.
I shouldn’t just stand here and gawk, right? I pushed myself off the cabin’s front step and ambled into thecommon.
The two teens standing with West peered at me as I approached. At first I thought it was just normal curiosity. But one of them waved to the rest of their group. Before I’d even reached West, I found myself surrounded. They looked me over from head to toe with subtle twitches of theirnoses.
“You’re the dragon shifter,” one of them said in an awed tone. “This is so cool! We’re, like, the first people to meet you now that you’reback.”
“Oh,” I said, feeling awkward. “Yeah, I guess so. It’s good to meet youtoo?”
“Ihaveto see you shift,” one of the guys said. “It must beamazing.”
