Page 35 of Bloodbane

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

Drained and Discarded

{ G R A Y S O N }

The world blurs past as I race from the house, finding the forest quickly and pushing deeper in. Flailing branches splinter against my skin. I charge forward heedless of trees and rocks as they appear from the darkness, but no matter my punishing pace, I can’t outrun the demons hunting me. I move without plan or thought, uncaring where I end up as long as it’s far from here.

Ruby is a lycan. Ruby has always been a lycan.

The realization is a thorn lodging deeper into my mind the more I turn it over, trying to make sense of it.

The memory of our first meeting has not tarnished despite the years—still as sharp now as it had been then. I’ve revisited it beyond count since my revelation in the clinic, and yet somehow managed to miss the most glaring information of all. How could I have not known? I should have smelled it on her. But half-dead, drenched in my own cursed blood and shifter filth, I’d not even considered the possibility of the small, fragile form being anything other than human.

I snap to a stop to unleash my fury at the towering spruce before me. Bark splinters as my boot connects, sending the cleaved trunk smashing into a line of its kin before breaking apart. The howling wind swallows up the wooden debris.

The wolf-warm blood still singing in my veins and lingering on my tongue is a sour reminder that Ruby’s life is not the first collateral damage I’ve wrought. The irony isn’t lost on me that Thayne had so willingly healed me when I had been the one to destroy him all those years ago. It’s a truth that cannot be denied: I had stayed and watched it happen.

Thayne’s desperation to be turned had grown with each sunrise, becoming increasingly fearful that injury or illness would separate us. His frustration grew alongside, blooming bright at my refusal to give him what he craved. I couldn’t bear to see Thayne—a creature of light and love—sacrifice sunshine and warmth to subsist in cold shadows. A sunflower would wither away in my world, just like Thayne would have in time. Even if I were to cater to his every desire, eventually, whether in one year or one thousand, the shine would dull on his wish and he would want his old life back—the one wish I would be powerless to grant.

And so I had abandoned Thayne to save him.

Or so I allowed him to believe.

In truth, I lingered silently in shadows, watching the frantic search, willing him to give up. But easy surrender has never been in Thayne’s nature.

On the third day, he stumbled into the wrong alley and found a different kind of monster. Seeing the small body crumpled to the ground, bruises rising under his skin as blood rushed from his broken nose had been like sunlight scorching my heart. The desperate desire to intervene as I had that first day had almost been my undoing. But I’d steeled myself, held my position, and took my punishment—the sounds of flesh meeting flesh, Thayne’s cries of pain, and wet trails of betrayal dripping down his face.

I doubt death would flay me open as much as standing idle that day, but I deserved all of it and more. Thayne’s actions and the bloody consequences were my cross to bear—burned into the empty space my soul used to fill. And though I shouldered the blame squarely, the marks on that beautiful skin had been a transgression I could not forgive. Under the cover of night, I had tracked the bastard with Thayne’s blood on his knuckles to another alley and made sure he never left it.

It took four months for Thayne’s spirit to break.

Four months of my name spit from his lips in anger and dripping from them like a prayer.

Four months of bruised knuckles and split skin and fractured bones.

Four months of broken bodies in dark alleys left crumpled and discarded with the trash where they belonged.

I had waited and watched for another month, just to be certain. I’d wanted to linger longer. Forever. But having Thayne so close without being able to touch him was torture beyond even my limits. Still, I have never felt more like I was walking into death’s embrace than when I turned away from Thayne for the final time. Knowing I’d never again see those bright eyes shining up at me—filled with love and trust and desire—had almost sent me into the next sunrise with open arms.

An unfamiliar lycan scent drags me from the memories blistering inside me. I drop to a half-crouch, tension tightening my body. The unknown shifter steps out from the trees a hundred yards ahead of me and mirrors my stance. Her confidence is betrayed by the slight tremble of her legs as her wide eyes dart to the left and right before returning to me, the rapid pounding in her chest rising above the rushing of the wind.

Uncertainty stills my advance. There’s no way to know if the woman is from Thayne’s pack or the rival one, so I hold my position, waiting for her to either shift, spring forward and attack in human form, or simply turn tail and flee.

“Are you… Eirik?” The redhead calls hesitantly, holding her ground, still crouched in her defensive position.

That name on unfamiliar lips grates at me. “That depends on who’s asking.” I don’t raise my voice, knowing the shifter’s unnatural hearing will pick my words clearly from the squall.

“I’m Ash. Friend, not food.” Ash raises her palms as she straightens slowly, making no sudden movements. “I’m looking for Thayne. Is he with you?”

I eye her a moment longer before rising myself. If she’s lying, I can overpower her easily now I have my strength back. If she’s telling the truth, she’s one of Thayne’s pack—one of the few remaining loyal—and I shouldn’t tear her to pieces; she might be useful in the coming fight.

“Thayne’s… busy.”

Ash peers at me suspiciously. “Busy like busy busy? Or drained and discarded somewhere nearby?”

It takes more effort than I’d like to stop my lips from twitching at the sass. “ Busy .”

“Uh-huh.” Ash peers at me, seemingly running some kind of mental lie-detector test only she is privy to. “Okay,” she says finally, the earlier fear dissipating. “Well, this can’t wait. Can you point me in his general direction? I’m afraid I’m going to have to interrupt—”

“Whatever it is, it will have to wait until—” Until he’s not knot-deep in Ruby. I catch the truth between my teeth just in time. “Until he’s not otherwise occupied.”

Ash crosses her arms over her chest and takes a few casual steps closer, eyes raking over me from head to foot. “That glower might work for most, but honestly, you’re not actually all that scary up close. You’re objectively hot, sure—I can see why Thayne’s smitten—but I guess I expected… I don’t know, more , somehow, you know? I really don’t see what all the fuss is about.” She taps dark nails against her chin. “You are my first though, so maybe the next one will be more impressive.”

The declaration should make me bristle. Normally, I’d take it as a challenge and speed behind the redhead before she could blink, press my fangs against her throat just enough to pierce the skin, and make her reform her opinion. But instead, I’m rooted to the spot by two words: ‘ Thayne’s smitten .’

I clear my throat roughly, dislodging the trapped denial. Ash may be one of the few remaining loyal to Thayne, but she’s clearly not kept close in his confidence. Whatever feelings existed decades ago have decayed. Thayne had made that obvious.

“Do you want an apology for disappointing you or for me to deliver a message? I gather it pertains to that?” I nod to the ripped, blood-soaked denim covering her thigh. I don’t bother motioning to the large, yellowing bruise stretched across her left cheek.

“You should see the other guy,” Ash chirps. “I need Thayne’s help with a corpse. Or, more accurately, I need Ruby to collect a corpse, but thought it might go down a little smoother coming from him.”

“Let me guess, the other guy ?”

Ash nods. “I’ve never seen him before, but with the force-shifting, he’s got to be one of Arlo’s. I thought Ruby might be able to check some kind of facial recognition databases or fingerprints or whatever, and find out who he is.” She shrugs as unnaturally red curls dance in the air above her shoulders. “It might give us a head start in trying to figure out where Arlo is and what he’s planning. And just in case his buddies come sniffin’ around, it would also help if the scent trail was human.”

I keep my face neutral. It’s a solid enough plan, except Ruby isn’t going to be any help on that last part; she’s literally dripping in lycan scent. Hers and Thayne’s. The vibrations in my pocket save me from explaining the flaw in the shifter’s plan. Grateful for the distraction, I pull Ruby’s phone free and press it to my ear.

“Hey, Rubes? I-uh, I think I fucked up. Remember that I-O-U that you owe me?”

“Jones?”

“Uh… yeah. But you’re not Ruby.”

I identify myself reluctantly.

The hesitation on the other end of the line is filled with roaring wind. “Why do you have Ruby’s phone? Is she okay?”

“She’s fine,” I answer automatically before reconsidering. “She’s sick currently, but she’ll be fine in the morning.” Not human, but fine.

“ Riiiiight ,” Cooper draws out the word, pouring every ounce of disbelief possible into the single-syllable answer “Yeah, she was looking pretty shit. Why did she give you her—actually, never mind. Look, I really need to talk to her. I’ll be quick, but I need her help.”

“Help with what?”

Cooper sighs. “Look, man, I’m glad you looped your way out of the hole, but I really need to speak with her, alright?”

“Evans can’t come to the phone right now,” I drawl, matching Jones’s dismissive tone. “But if you’d like to leave a message, I can see she gets it.”

Cooper’s string of curses carries through the phone, and I can’t deny I’m a little impressed with his creativity. “Fine. Tell her that I’m out at the lake again. Old man Phillips called in some kind of disturbance, and when I got here, there was another one… uh, another corpse.” He pauses. “Hey, you wouldn’t have been out here in the last couple of hours by any chance?” An unlikely mixture of suspicion and hope threads through the words.

It doesn’t take a genius to connect the dots—clearly, because Jones had managed it.

“No,” I reply flatly.

“Hmm.” Cooper doesn’t sound convinced. “Maybe tell Ruby, at your earliest convenience, that I came out here when there was a break in the storm, but now it’s kicked back up and, uh, I’m kind of stuck. I can’t see two feet in front of me to get outta here, my battery is about to die, and I don’t want to be next in line. So if she could repay her debt and come save me sooner rather than later, that’d be swell.”

I lower the phone and turn to Ash. “It seems your corpse problem just became mine. How far is it to the lake?”

Ash jerks her head toward the left. “For you? A couple of minutes.”

I raise the phone again. “I’m close by, I can—” Help . I swallow the word as neon warning signs flash in my mind. No good comes of getting involved with humans, ever. It’s a lesson drilled into me through pain and blood, and yet, here I am once more, thinking about—no, not thinking, actively planning to go and rescue another one like a stray puppy. But Jones is important to Ruby, and if he dies when I have the chance to save him, it’ll be one more irreversible red mark in my ledger. “I can be there in a minute,” I say finally. “Don’t touch anything,” I add before ending the call, not waiting for Jones to finish his spluttering protests.

“So Ruby is busy too?” Amber eyes narrow shrewdly. “Just like Thayne. And yet you’re out here alone, covered in both their scents. Interesting.”

I tuck the phone back into my pocket, ignoring the bait. “You can go and take a flea bath, or do… whatever it is your kind do when you’re not howling at the moon. I’ll clean up your mess.”

Ash ignores the return barb, her tone turning curious. “Why are you doing this? Helping humans, protecting wolves? It doesn’t seem like a very vampirey thing to do.”

“I thought you’d never met one,” I deflect. “How would you know what we would or would not do?”

Undeterred, Ash presses on. “You’re willing to lay your immortality on the line for a fight that isn’t even yours. Why?”

“I have a debt. I intend to repay it.” The lie churns my gut. I can’t ever hope to make amends. The damage I’ve caused can never be unwrought, but I will honor Thayne’s request to do whatever is in my power to save Ruby’s life, and his. It’s the least I can do.

Ash gives me a strange look I can’t decipher before nodding and turning on her heel. She disappears into the forest, a blur of black and red. I twist in the opposite direction, the one she had gestured to, and jolt into motion, glad to have something to focus on other than the images of Thayne and Ruby playing out inside my mind.