Blood Rule (Book 4, Dirty Blood series) by Heather Hildenbrand Page A

I’d rather deal with traffic than
take the chance of being away from the pack if something
happened.
    “ She said she has some
questions for you. She’ll find you later,” Mom added.
    This was news. Grandma had yet to
really question me on anything that’d happened that day. She’d been
there when I’d given my initial recounting of events and that had
been good enough for her. It made me wonder what had changed to
make her want to bring it up again. The thought of Steppe having
made any sort of progress in his witch hunt exhausted
me.
    “ Fine,” I said.
    Something about my tone, the weariness
in it, must’ve caught my mother’s attention. She turned away from
Vera to study my face. “Have you been here long?”
    I shrugged. “I sat with Alex for a
couple of hours before coming in here.”
    “ I’ll sit with Vera. Go
grab some food and fresh air. Hopefully Grandma will be here when
you get back.”
    “ Mom, I’m
fine—”
    “ Humor me. There aren’t
any kitchen appliances to scrub if my worry spikes.”
    I smiled at that. “All right. You want
me to bring you something?”
    “ No, I’m fine. Go,” she
said, waving me away.
    I hesitated a moment longer, watching
as she pulled a chair across the scuffed linoleum and sat next to
the bed. In profile, I was struck by how much my mother resembled
Vera. I’d never noticed, although I’d never really looked either.
The shape of her chin and nose, slim and narrow and almost regal in
the way they held their heads up, made it impossible to deny the
relation.
    It made me sad. I’d only recently come
to know Vera and already, I was losing her.
    I was always losing people.
    As I made my way down the hall, my
phone rang. I fumbled with it a moment, my fingers clumsy in their
haste to silence it inside the hospital’s walls. The two nurses at
the desk shot me dirty looks but I ignored them once I read the
incoming name. I accepted the call with a smile and quickened my
pace, heading for the closest exit.
    “ Hey, Angela,” I
said.
    “ Tara, wow, it’s good to
hear your voice. How are you? What did I miss? Any change? Is he
awake?”
    Angela had been gone for the past ten
days. Family vacation. Even though she’d been allowed to keep her
memories and knowledge of my world, family vacation was sacred.
She’d had to leave and forfeit cell phone reception since towers
were scarce in the part of Mexico her family visited. She’d tried
calling a few times but it was always so patchy and full of static,
I wasn’t sure how much of my words got through.
    It was good to hear her voice,
uninterrupted by static and dead air.
    “ Sam’s got a new crush,” I
said.
    Angela snorted. “I asked what I
missed,” she said and we both laughed.
    Sam had stayed but I hadn’t really
spoken to her much. She remembered nothing since Wes did his
memory-wiping thing, probably good after her breakdown the night
Olivia’s hybrids went after her and Angela. Alex had saved them
both and been rewarded with a stab in the leg from Angela, who
didn’t know whether he was a friend or enemy in the confusion and
shock of all she’d seen.
    The blast of warm air on my cheeks as
I exited the hospital helped too. “No change,” I told her. She
sighed and I sensed her disappointment. I appreciated her concern
for Alex. It was amusing to see a sort of friendship developing on
her end, especially after she’d basically tried to kill him.
“There’s something else, too.”
    I told her about Vera and Nick,
abbreviating the second part as much as possible, downplaying the
violence that had overcome him at the end. I didn’t want to scare
her, but I needed to vent. I paced back and forth on the sidewalk
that led to the parking garage. The area was empty of foot traffic,
but I kept my voice low anyway.
    “ I think I need to move
them but I have no idea where,” I said.
    “ Tara, I hate to say it,
but even if you move them, if they lose themselves and go off the
deep end, there will