Page 27 of Bloodbane
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
The Enemy of My Enemy
{ T H A Y N E }
I turn the shovel in my hand, unloading the last of the frigid earth covering the shrouds now buried six feet below. The service had been short without anyone stepping up to offer eulogies. That wasn’t a surprise given the few people Hudson and Carter hadn’t rubbed the wrong way had disappeared from the house not long after Arlo, bringing the pack down to seven.
Irrational as it may be, I’d half-expected Arlo to show up—either itching for a rematch or wanting to take the bodies of his friends. It was only when the small gathering disbanded that the tension finally eased from my shoulders.
“They would have helped if you asked.”
“That’s why I didn’t ask.” I drive the shovel into the ground and wipe the sweat from my brow with the back of my hand. “I needed some time to think.”
“Sharing is caring.”
My shoulder lifts in a weary shrug. I’ve already shared what I plan on sharing: not ready to answer the questions I know will follow the rest. Because how can I explain letting Arlo slip away again? I should have stopped him, or at the very least tracked him down the second I realized he’d fled. But once I’d laid eyes on Eirik, my whole world had flipped off its axis. Eirik, for his part, had been too focused on Arlo and then Ruby to pay me much attention, and when he had, it had been without any flicker of recognition. That, I had expected.
The scrawny, dumb kid who had fallen heart over head with a vampire is long gone. And staring through the bars, I could tell Eirik has changed, too. Not physically, of course—the flawless face that still haunts my nightmares is exactly as I remember it, unmarred by the past twelve years—but he’s harder somehow, as if time has ravaged him inside if not out.
But it’s his revelation that’s burrowed under my skin. It’s absurd—no, downright impossible—so why do I believe it?
“Have you ever heard of shifting at will? Without the full moon? In daylight?”
Ash scoffs. “Has Peter been in your ear again? I swear that kid thinks comic books belong in the non-fiction section.”
“I’m serious, Ash. Do you think it’s possible that Carter and Hudson figured out how to force a shift?
“I mean, possible? Sure, anything’s possible. Probable? Hell no. They weren’t exactly the sharpest pencils in the pack. Why would you think they did? It’s a very specific idea to pull out of your ass.”
Doing my best not to fidget under the shrewd gaze, I brace myself. I don’t want to do this yet—or at all—but Ash has always been my best sounding board, and now that Adams is gone, she’s the closest thing to a lycan expert that I have.
“Eirik said he saw them do it.”
“Eirik? Who the hell is Eirik?”
“Eirik Grayson is the vampire that killed Carter and Hudson.”
Red curls dance in the wind, blowing across Ash’s face as she stands frozen, staring at me with wide eyes. “Are you fucking seri—” she breaks off. “What the actual fuck are you doing engaging in casual conversion with a vampire? And in what world would you believe whatever contrived bullshit he’s telling you? Jesus, how hard did Arlo hit you?”
“I know how it sounds—” At Ash’s incredulous look, I shake my head, “—trust me, I know. But I can’t find another reason why a vampire would attack three lycans unprovoked, in daylight. For him to intervene when he was outnumbered and vulnerable… the only reason he would do that is to save someone.”
“Oh, yeah, of course. I’m sure he’s the dark, brooding, heroic blood-sucking type,” Ash throws back. “Why are you talking like you know him? How would you know what he would or would not do, exactly?”
My heart pounds in my throat as all the shameful secrets I’ve trapped inside—the ones I’ve never shared with anyone—claw desperately to stay where they are. I wrap a hand around the shovel handle, picking at the wood with a fingernail.
“Because that’s what he did for me.”
Ash’s eyes edge wider still before narrowing. “I’ve always suspected skeletons in your closet, Smith, I just wasn’t expecting vampires, too. I’m not sure whether to be impressed or repulsed.” She holds my gaze for a long moment before sighing. “Alright. Tell me everything.”
“It was a lifetime ago. I was getting my ass handed to me in an alley.” I scowl at the suggestive twitch of Ash’s lips. “Not like that. I had a bad habit of letting my mouth get me into trouble that my fists couldn’t get me out of. One day, some guy pulled a knife. I was sure I’d be getting fitted for a toe-tag that day, and I probably would have if Eirik hadn’t stepped in, in broad daylight, and, uh, stopped him.”
“And by stopped, you of course mean drained him like a pool in the winter?”
The barb finds purchase in my gut, but I don’t answer. “You asked me once how I got this.” I lift my shirt to reveal the long, jagged charcoal scar running from my collarbone to my navel, before dropping it back down. “The asshole got me pretty good but Eirik saved me: stopped me from bleeding out in that alley. He could have left me to die, or had me for lunch—” the corner of my lip quirks up as Eirik’s words echo in my mind, “—or a light snack at least. No one would have known I was dead. There was no one to miss me.”
My grip tightens on the shovel and wood splinters under my fingers as once-sweet memories turned bitter with time rush through me.
I had been smitten from the off. Maybe being born a shifter—even if I hadn’t known it at the time—had given me a more open mind, a readiness to believe in the impossible. Or maybe it had just been my intense and instant attraction to the most beautiful person I’d ever seen. In any case, I had not questioned the existence of a world within my own, and felt no hesitation or fear, only fascination and a touch of envy. I’d followed Eirik out of the light and into an abandoned building without a second thought. I hadn’t stopped asking questions until long after the sun had set, and then…
I rub a hand over the uncomfortable warmth creeping up the back of my neck.
“So, the alpha and the vampire, huh? How very Romeo and Juliet of you.” Ash’s sardonic comment has me rolling my eyes.
“I wasn’t an alpha then. It was long before I knew anything about lycans. Back when I was…”
“I swear to god, Tee, if you say normal I will kick your ass.”
My lips curve up. I shake my head. “Smaller.”
“Oh. So he didn’t take it well when you wolfed out?”
“He—it ended before that,” I murmur, unsurprised by the sharp sting of old memories. One look into those silver eyes and everything had come flooding back: all the thoughts, the feelings, the yearning. The pain. Everything I have fought so hard to bury has flared to life as if the past twelve years haven’t happened. I turn my face to the moon, almost full now, and will the light to chase away my dark thoughts. “Despite everything, I believe him. It’s the missing piece, the one that completes the puzzle—why Arlo, Gage, and Rob were in the clearing, the abandoned clothes, why the fight didn’t trigger a link, the wolves Ruby saw… it all just fits. The only thing I don’t know is how they shifted at will.”
“Well…”
A strange look flashes across Ash’s face before she lowers it, training her gaze on a black boot as she kicks at the icy ground. I know my best friend well enough to decipher the action.
“Out with it. Now is not the time for your secrets.”
“It’s probably nothing.”
“Ash…”
Ash drags her eyes back up to mine, uncertainty etched into the fine lines of her face. “It’s just… Everyone knows Arlo’s father was an alpha—he never shut up about it.” She rolls her eyes. “I didn’t believe him at first, so I did a bit of digging.”
“And…” I prompt, abandoning the shovel to step closer to Ash, drawn in by her story.
“And by all accounts, the whole Pretorius line is a bit mad—Arlo’s father and his father before him, and up and up it goes. There are stories of them experimenting—on vampires, witches, you name it—trying to find the key to immortality, shifting out of cycle, shifting into something other than wolves, the list goes on. Word is they wanted to wipe out everyone not wolf-kind, and have dominion over the normies.”
“Why didn’t you tell me any of this?”
“Because I thought it was all bullshit—campfire stories for pups. I never considered for a moment any of it was true.”
“But if it is, surely that information would have been passed down to Arlo.”
“I don’t know,” Ash draws out carefully. “That same rumor mill says Arlo was the greatest disappointment of his father’s life. If that’s the case, I doubt he’d think his bastard offspring worthy of such knowledge.”
Despite my frustrations with Arlo, I can’t help but feel a touch of empathy. There’s something soul-crushing about being unwanted by the one who sired you.
“Do you know why?”
“Apparently Daddy Dearest couldn’t keep it in his pants and knocked up a beta. Arlo was never going to be an alpha—I think that’s why he resents you so much. You represent everything he thinks he should be, what he thinks he deserves.”
“So maybe that’s his endgame. If he wants his own pack, he may be leveraging that knowledge to get it. And hell, judging by how many betas left with him, I’m guessing it’s working.” Or I’m such a shit alpha that they’d rather follow an asshole like Arlo.
“Whatever’s happening, it’ll get ugly before the end. Pack against pack? Our numbers are even but if they can force-shift, they’ll outmatch us in strength. We won't stand a chance if they come before the moon rises.”
The truth of Ash’s words lands hard. Unshifted, we don’t have a hope against claws and teeth—unless…
“I know that look. I hate that look.” Ash crosses her arms over her chest.
“Arlo isn’t in any condition to attack, not yet. He needs time to heal which means we have time to prepare. And I think… I think I may have an idea. But you’re not going to like it.”
“Why?” Ash’s brows pinch together before they shoot toward her hairline. “No. Oh, hell no. You can’t seriously be considering asking a vampire to play guard dog to a pack of wolves! Are you out of your mind or maybe you’re trying to chase off the rest of the pack? If you side with a vamp, especially the one that killed two of our own, there will be a mass exodus.”
“What other choice do I have?” I say flatly. “If I’m wrong and they attack before the moon, we’re all dead. So if the pack wants to run, they can. All I can do is the best I can with what I’ve got, which… isn’t much. Eirik knows more about what we’re dealing with than we do, and he’s the only one strong enough to give us a fighting chance.”
“You think you still have lover boy on a leash after all these years? Why would he risk his skin to help us?”
“The enemy of my enemy…” I shrug. “He seems to have a connection to Ruby, and Arlo, for whatever reason, wants Ruby dead. Eirik might be willing to call a truce and work together if I tell him we’ll help protect Ruby.”
Ash presses the heel of her hand to her temple. “Seriously? Your ex-vampire-boyfriend has the hots for your new girlfriend?”
The question is salt in my open wound. “She isn’t mine.” No matter how much I wish it. “She’s human.”
Ash tuts. “If you like each other, there are ways…”
“I’m not turning someone just to get my dick wet. And besides, it wouldn’t matter—she’d be a beta so I couldn’t be with her anyway,” I grind out, frustration sharpening my tongue.
“Wow. You want this chick bad, huh?”
“What I want doesn’t matter, I need to protect the pack. And right now, the only way I can think to do that is…”
“Grayson,” Ash sighs.
“Grayson,” I agree.
“It’s been a long time, Tee. He may not be the same… uh, person as he was. Besides, he could just turn Ruby himself and then she wouldn’t need protection.”
“He won’t turn her. Of that much, I’m certain. I offer Ash a reassuring smile I don’t quite feel. “As for the rest, we’ll find out where the chips fall tomorrow.”
The thought of using Ruby as a bargaining chip to secure a truce twists my gut, but if I don’t… I can’t face the alternative. As much as I hate it, I can’t protect Ruby or what’s left of the pack without help, so whatever the price, I’ll pay it. I can only pray I’m not handing Eirik another chance to rip my heart out… I’m not sure I’ll survive it again.