Page 13 of A Token of Blood and Betrayal (Kennedy Rain #4)

“I know.” Her eyes were just as bright blue as her brother’s.

She didn’t have his hero complex, but she had saved my ass more than once.

If I ignored her eccentricities and her tendency for strange social experiments, she might eventually become a friend.

For now, my life was too crazy to deal with someone who was just a bit too much.

I didn’t have a good reason to send her away, and Christian would be back soon, so I opened the door wider and motioned her inside. “Is there something I can help you with?”

“Nope.” She sauntered into the kitchen. “I’m here to help you with your djinn problem. I’m great at finding loopholes, and I consider Garion a friend too.”

Each word twisted a knife in my spine. She shouldn’t know anything about the token. She shouldn’t know anything about Garion. “Christian talked to you.”

She tilted her head. “Christian knows?”

Either she was a great actress, which I already knew to be true, or… he hadn’t told her?

“Oh, you told him,” she said. “That makes sense. No, he didn’t tell me. Don’t get mad, but I, um, have a bad habit of eavesdropping.” A hint of maybe genuine guilt slid into her expression.

I couldn’t decide whether I should erupt and send her out the door or stay calm and demand she tell me everything she’d overheard since coming to The Rain.

And when had she eavesdropped? In the employee corridor where I first confronted Garion?

Or later at the cemetery? I remembered that brief pressure to look over my shoulder last night. Had that been her watching?

“It’s cursed,” I said abruptly. “Anyone who uses the token gets hit with all the side effects. They’re bad.”

She blinked. “I wasn’t planning to use it. You hid it, right?”

“Have you told anyone about Garion?” I asked, ignoring her question.

“Just you,” she said. Then she strolled into the kitchen.

“Keep it to yourself, please.” I watched her open a cabinet. “If people learn what he is, it’ll be dangerous. For him and for us.”

She closed the cabinet then looked at me as she opened another. “Us?”

“The Rain, the staff. Christian. Everyone really. The more word gets out, the bigger the chance is someone will try to steal it.”

She shut the second cabinet, then looked at me with wide eyes. “Stealing is wrong.”

Growing up in The Rain, you’d think I’d be used to weird people, but Melissa had multiple personalities.

Which one was the most legit? The woman who’d pretended to be human months ago?

The person who’d risked punishment from her master to go AWOL and heal her half-drained brother?

Christian loved her. He’d changed the trajectory of his life to save her from Crusco and, as much as he could, the paranormal world.

He was reliable and trustworthy. Most likely, his sister was as well.

Melissa crookedly pursed her lips as she stared into the fridge. “You have nothing to eat.”

The front door swung open. Christian entered carrying a Rain Hotel tote bag overflowing with vegetables.

“Food!” Melissa half walked, half danced her way to take the bag from him.

His now-empty hands hung in the air for a few seconds before he lowered them to his sides. “What are you doing here?”

“Helping.” She set the bag on the counter. “Are you cooking?”

“Yes.” His frown shifted from Melissa to me.

“She knows about the token,” I said.

His gaze shot back to her. “Melissa?”

She gave him an apologetic look. “Sorry.”

“She eavesdropped,” he said. When I nodded, he shook his head. “I’m sorry.”

It’s not your fault. The words were on my lips, but I held them back. “She can’t tell anyone.”

“She won’t.”

“If Crusco finds out—”

“He won’t.” His voice carried a conviction that cut straight through me. Christian couldn’t stop Crusco, not really, but he’d still stand in the way and take blow after blow. That kind of unrelenting loyalty was part of what made me trust him.

“Watch her,” I said gently.

His shoulders relaxed. “I will.”

Movement to my left drew my attention. Nora strolled in, phone in hand. “Jared’s on speaker.”

Her focus unhurriedly shifted from me to Christian to Melissa and lingered on the vampire. “Get out.”

Melissa leaned against the kitchen counter, crossed her arms, and returned Nora's gaze in a way that too closely resembled a challenge.

"She knows about the token," I said, playing peacemaker.

Nora’s eyebrows arched.

“My time is limited,” Jared said, his grumpy impatience lashing out from the phone’s speaker.

Right. I needed to concentrate on solving problems instead of refereeing egos. “Nora told you about the token?”

“Yes,” Jared said. No elaboration of course.

I refrained from rolling my eyes. Barely. “What do you know about djinn and fey bargains?”

Nora strode to the couch. Jaw clenched, I followed to make sure I heard Jared’s response.

“Djinn are rare. At times, there have been no known djinn in existence. When they are made, they are the cause of many wars. You cannot let knowledge of Garion spread.”

I looked at Melissa as I sank onto the couch. She was still in the kitchen with Christian, who’d finished unpacking the bag and turned on the stove. Undoubtedly, both were listening in.

“I know,” I said. “But I need information that will help me break my bargain with Canyon.”

“You will not break the bargain.”

I gave the phone a skeptical look. “So you have a solution?”

“Nora gave you an option,” Jared said.

I frowned. Nora was sitting across from me. She set her phone in the middle of the coffee table between us.

“I meant it when I said to call my father,” she said, her voice cool, almost detached. She wanted nothing to do with Lehr. Neither did I.

“That’s not happening,” I said.

“It is the obvious solution,” Jared replied. He sounded distracted by something.

“No. I will never go to Lehr for help.”

“I share your lack of admiration,” Nora said. “But you don’t even have to speak to him. Start a rumor. Make sure he knows the time and place you plan to meet the night king.”

I just shook my head. Why had I expected them to have any ideas other than bloodshed?

Nora sniffed. “You’ve barely taken any lives. The few you have somehow managed to kill deserved to die.”

She didn’t understand. This wasn’t about the paranorms. It was about me. I was human. Murder wasn’t acceptable in my world, and I didn’t want to become someone who defaulted to violence.

“You must overcome your hesitancy to kill,” Jared said.

“I need another solution,” I said.

“There are none.” Jared sounded dismissive, as if this conversation was unimportant. Like he had better things to do.

Something sizzled on the stove. Anger burned in my chest. I clenched my jaw to hold back the words I wanted to fire at both Jared and Nora. Lashing out wouldn’t help Garion.

Needing a moment, I looked toward the kitchen.

Both Melissa and Christian were watching me.

Melissa’s gaze was sharp, but Christian’s held a crease of concern, like he thought my vehemence toward Lehr and killing was more than the situation called for.

He didn’t know Lehr had forced me to kill Shelli. No one outside the pack did.

“Let’s focus on the bargain,” I said with Oscar-worthy calm. “Maybe there’s a loophole or a way to convince Canyon to change it.”

“There isn’t,” Jared said.

“There are always options,” Melissa piped up. She’d drifted closer to our conversation.

I acknowledged her words with a nod, hoping that would be enough for her to stay quiet because Jared would just love the idea of a fledgling vampire offering her advice.

She didn’t get the memo.

“Astrid has a full coven,” Melissa said. “You have the token and the Null.”

“Who is that?” Jared demanded.

“Christian’s sister,” I replied, but my thoughts drifted, something she said tugging at me. A coven, the token, the Null. The words pointed to something obvious that I couldn’t quite see yet. If I just focused harder—

“Kill the fey or kill Garion. Those are your only options.”

Kill Garion? Jared’s words raked down my spine like claws.

“How dare you.” My whisper rolled through the room like a shock wave in slow motion.

The air turned crisp, brittle, and absolutely silent.

Melissa leaned back a fraction, not retreating but no longer eager to insert herself in the conversation.

Christian tensed like he was ready to put himself between me and whatever came next.

And Nora just tilted her head, assessing me like a new blade.

When the atmosphere allowed sound again, it came from Nora’s phone in the form of static punctuated by distant voices.

“A moment,” Jared said. I didn’t know if he was talking to us or to the others with him at the compound, but I needed a hell of a lot more than one moment to calm down.

“I don’t need help,” I said, my voice tight. “I’ll find a way to protect Garion and—”

A cry blasted from the speaker. Then a scuffle. Then angry shouts.

Nora grabbed her phone and shot to her feet. “Jared!”

I jumped up too, worry instantly extinguishing my rage. Jared was an ancient, arrogant vampire, but he was Nora’s husband. My ally. My friend if he’d pull his head out of his ass and remember he didn’t have to be a monster.

“Jared,” Nora demanded again.

Someone’s scream ended suddenly. Profanities crescendoed.

“Answer me!” Nora squeezed her phone tight.

More noise blasted from the small speaker.

The cacophony blended together until I couldn’t make out individual words or voices.

It sounded like a war or massacre. Maybe both.

Was someone challenging Jared? He was Aged.

He had Aged followers. Surely he could fight off an attack.

The screams probably belonged to whoever was stupid enough to—

The phone went silent. If someone was moving or breathing, I couldn’t hear it over the pounding of my heart.

“Jared?” Nora’s voice was flat, a self-preservation tactic.

“Jared?” I don’t know why I said his name too. If he wasn’t able to answer Nora, he wasn’t able to answer me.

There was a soft scrape and then something else, maybe the swish of fabric or a soft exhale.

“I must go,” Jared finally said.

A whoosh of relief eased the tensed muscles in my neck and shoulders, and Nora’s death grip on the phone relaxed.

“What happened?” she asked.

“Satine is here.” The call disconnected.