Page 7 of A Token of Blood and Betrayal (Kennedy Rain #4)

“The vampire shouldn’t be here,” Blake said, staring at Deagan, whom he’d laid on the bed more gently than I’d expected.

I arranged the blanket up to his chest. “It’s the best place for him.”

“Not Deagan. The one who tried to kill you.”

I glanced at him, but his gaze remained on Deagan.

I hadn’t known he’d made the connection between Melissa and my brief stay in the hospital after my parents’ deaths.

Honestly, I still had a hard time moving past my first impression of her.

I couldn’t erase the memory of Melissa as the woman who’d lured a staff member to bite the hell out of her shoulder only to turn around and fake being a human.

But her master was cruel and manipulative, and when he’d learned my parents were looking to re-create the bloodsong spell, the magic that had created the Null, he’d assigned Melissa to recon duty.

She’d been watching me well before the night I met her at The Rain.

“She’s Christian’s sister,” I said. “I trust him.”

Blake gave me a blank stare. “You worded that carefully.”

“Yeah. It’s complicated. She’s saved my life more than once, but she has to obey her master’s commands.”

“Who is it?”

“Her master? Crusco. Jared has people looking for him, so she shouldn’t have to stay much longer.”

“Will Christian leave with her?”

That question was unexpected, and I hadn’t thought about it before.

Christian had been staying at The Rain on and off long before I returned home.

He’d been friends with my parents, and I was used to him being here now.

It would feel weird with him gone. “I’m not going to kick him out, but once Melissa’s free of Crusco, he doesn’t really have a reason to stay. ”

Blake humphed. It was an odd reaction and an odd conversation. He and Christian were definitely not buddies, but Blake didn’t usually bring up…

My eyes narrowed. “You’re jealous.”

I expected a firm denial; I received a casual shrug.

“He’s human,” Blake said. “You don’t have a reason to reject him.”

It wasn’t his words that got to me. It was his voice—low and quiet. Honest in a way that made me want to step closer. To offer comfort.

But if I stepped closer, I’d never be able to step back.

The emotions I’d locked down when I entered the Catalan fought to resurface. We were basically alone again, and that had to stop. Something had to change before my resolve shattered.

“I’ll make you a deal,” I said, my heart physically hurting. “I’ll talk to Nora and do my best to get her to rejoin the pack. If Lehr doesn’t mention Jared and lets her keep her independence, she has less of a reason to refuse.”

His dark, intelligent eyes took me in. He saw through my words, knew this conversation was a deterrent, a detour.

“Independence defeats the purpose of the pack. It makes her a stray.” He slipped his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “What do you want in exchange?”

My focus had to be on The Rain, on Garion, on helping Jared secure the compound because he was far better than anyone else who might take control.

Blake knew all this—or most of it at least—and he had his own priorities.

Somewhere behind his I-want-it, must-have-it instinct, he had to see we were only hurting each other when we were together.

“I want you to promise to stay away from me.”

Blake’s lips pinched flat. Seconds ticked past until, finally, he stepped closer. His wild, earthy scent cradled me, and he leaned forward. With his mouth less than an inch from my ear, he whispered, “No deal.”

As soon as Blake left, I collapsed into the armchair in a corner of the room and glared at the foot of Deagan’s bed.

Blake’s werewolf nature made his ego too big to give up.

I needed to remember that, to remember his instincts and his pack would always come first. He was enmeshed in a world of violence.

I craved a life of harmony. Not only did the paranorms refuse to accept that, they were trying to force me to change.

Lehr had placed a knife in my hand, knowing my conscience would object to killing Shelli, and not a soul had protested.

Blake hadn’t even asked me later if I was okay because murder was as common among werewolves as a moonlit run.

“Are you okay?”

I barely stifled a yelp at the question. Astrid stood in the doorway to the right, her grimoire tucked under her arm and concern etched onto her face.

“Yeah,” I said, injecting a fake levity into my words. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“I know how you feel about Blake.”

I almost laughed. She had no clue. Every time Blake and I were together around others, he was being an ass and I was giving him attitude.

Sure, a few people might question our recent interactions.

I was beginning to think Nora suspected something—Jared too—and obviously Lehr knew there was more between us because he’d felt the need to threaten Blake’s life.

But aside from those three? Everyone else saw us as adversaries.

We were adversaries.

“I’m fine. Blake was just being Blake.”

She pursed her lips but didn’t press the issue. Instead, she nodded toward Deagan. “Is he safe?”

“Yeah. He should be. I’m going to ask Christian to check in on him just in case. He left with Phedre and Thordis?”

Astrid nodded.

I was almost certain both the Valkyrie wanted to sleep with him, and honestly, I couldn’t blame them.

Not only was Christian mysterious-man-next-door attractive, he also had this quiet competence that made you want to get to know him better.

He didn’t make that easy though, not with the walls he’d built between himself and everyone else.

Everyone except his sister.

“You’re scowling,” Astrid said.

I gave her a brief smile to erase whatever emotion was on my face. “They probably dragged him to the fight club even though he should still be resting.”

Astrid knew the basics of what had happened in Arcuro’s compound.

“So should you,” she said. “You both need more time outside the Null with the poultice.”

“I know.” I nodded toward the grimoire tucked under her arm. “Making any progress on your research?”

Astrid had been studying The Rain’s treaty—the original document, not a copy—for weeks.

She was determined to unravel its magic.

She’d taken notes on the markings that were visible only to her outside the Null and on the ink-written words everyone could see within the void of magic.

According to her, the words and markings interacted with each other in some kind of “conversational dance.”

“I think I can make it work on a small scale,” Astrid said. “If I’m right, the spell can only be done in a place of high magic.”

“High magic?”

“You’ve heard of ley lines?”

“Only in fiction.”

“Fiction based loosely on fact,” she said. “Currents of power run through the earth. Owen’s store sits on an intersection. Camille’s shop in Cincinnati does too. The Rain should be at a crossing…”

“But it’s not?”

“Nope. I never noticed it before, but it’s like the Null sucked in the currents that would cross here.”

“That would mean there would be more magic though, right? Not no magic?”

She shook her head. “I think that’s where most witches get it wrong.

They’ve been trying to create Nulls since The Rain was first established.

No one has come close to being successful though.

They didn’t have the help of the treaty, and they were trying to eradicate the magic.

I think the lack of magic here is the magic. ”

I wasn’t sure I was following. “You’re saying The Rain isn’t a void?”

“Yeah. Instead, I think it’s a crazy-powerful spell fueled by the crossing currents.”

“Okay,” I said slowly.

“Look, a werewolf triggered the treaty’s protection spell when you first took over, right?”

I nodded. That was when werewolves had found Deagan in a bush at the edge of the Null. My parents had still been alive then. I’d still been a college student only temporarily covering a shift at my family’s hotel.

“If The Rain is a void of magic,” Astrid continued, excitement making her words come more quickly, “then why would that curse work? It wouldn’t have. It makes more sense that the Null is suppressing magic.”

I guess it was… plausible. I’d wondered why the protection spell had kicked in. “You said you can re-create it?”

Her eyes brightened. “I’ve thought about calling in the coven to test it, but I’m still missing something.

Something expansive.” She swooped her hands out wide, then turned the motion into a shrug.

“I can’t explain it. The spell just feels tight.

If paranorms are cool with living in a shoebox, I’ve got them covered. ”

“Maybe you could cater to tiny, flying fairies,” I joked.

She pursed her lips. “I’ve never seen one, but if they exist, they’d be under fey control.”

Oh. Well, okay. Maybe I hadn’t been joking. I knew I hadn’t encountered even half the paranormal species out there. I mean, prior to today, I hadn’t known djinn existed.

My mood soured. I wished I still didn’t know they existed.

“See if you can find the expansive element,” I said. “Just be careful with your research. Don’t let anyone know what you’re looking into.”

She nodded. Slowly.

“What?” I asked. Slowly.

“Melissa has seen some of my books.” Astrid half grimaced, half smiled. “I might have mentioned I was looking into the Null spell. Honestly, I thought she already knew.”