Page 56 of Bloodbane

CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX

Something to Live For

{ R U B Y }

The ‘ I told you so’ stare from the house lands squarely on my shoulders, but it’s easy to ignore with my focus wholly fixed on the painful prickling currently chafing over my exposed skin. The afternoon sun isn’t as intense now as three hours before, already starting its slow descent to the horizon, but the rays of light landing on me feel like a nail file dragging over bad sunburn. There may not be flames or blisters— yet —but I make a mental note to avoid it in the future as much as I can.

“Verdict?” Thayne hovers in front of me, muscles coiled tight, ready to scoop me into his arms and rush into the safety of the house if need be.

“Not delightful, but not dying,” I surmise. “Don’t tell Eirik he was right.”

“My lips are sealed.” Thayne’s fingers draw an invisible zip line over his mouth before pulling me into a tight embrace, and putting those lips to good use, trailing kisses up my neck.

“C’mon, guys, not in front of the corpses,” Cooper sighs, nudging me with an elbow. “And speaking of corpses, what the hell are we doing with them anyway?”

I turn to face Cooper, staying tucked in Thayne’s embrace—not only because it has quickly become one of my favorite places, but because his hulking body is shielding me from most of the direct sunlight.

“I don’t know, Sheriff , what are we going to do with them?”

“Rubes, no. You can’t abandon me just because you got your supernatural merit badge!”

“Even Dumbo flew without his feather, Coop.”

“I can’t—”

“Yes, you can,” I cut in. “Look how you rallied last night. You took everything in stride with an open mind, you—”

“ Killed you ,” Cooper says pointedly.

“You took on an army of lycans with nothing more than a shotgun and a smile. Parking tickets and noise complaints are going to be a walk in the park after that. You got this; you’re ready. You don’t need me. You never did.”

“And if I fuck it all up?”

“We’ll have your back, whatever happens.” Ash comes to stand beside Cooper, Lucky right behind. “Now, pull on your big boy panties and tell us what you want to do with the bodies.”

“Right.” Cooper straightens. “We should separate them, right? Turned townies can go to the clinic for loved ones to claim. They didn’t choose to get tangled up in this, and their families shouldn’t pay the price of never seeing them again.”

I don’t even try and hide my grin. “Good idea. And the rest?”

“Usually, we’d do lunar burials as a sign of respect,” Thayne offers. “But given the circumstances…”

“They didn’t have any, they don’t deserve any,” Cooper finishes. “Burn the bastards.”

Thayne’s arms tighten around me. “You head inside. We can handle this.”

“No, I want to help.”

“You should listen to him, Rubik’s Cube. You’re starting to ash up,” Cooper states plainly. “You’re all webby already. Go inside.”

Following his gaze, I find black veins beneath the surface of my skin snaking their way up my arms, and my fingertips are charred—almost like a reverse frostbite.

“Go or I’ll put you inside myself,” Cooper demands, striding toward me. He stumbles on the second step, and Ash is beside him in a blink, ducking under his arm and taking his weight to keep him from face-planting into the ground.

“What was that about?” Finally relinquishing my spot in Thayne’s arms, I move towards my best friend.

“It’s nothing,” Cooper mutters, eyes not lifting to mine.

“Lying is not an attractive quality in a man,” Ash chimes in.

Cooper’s head snaps up. “I’m not lying. It’s just not… well, I mean, comparatively, it isn’t a big deal. In the grand scheme of things—of shape-shifters and blood drinkers and fights to the death—I thought it could keep.”

My body feels as if it’s on fire now, but familiar, cold dread unfurls in my belly. “What could keep?”

Cooper bends and hikes the right leg of his jeans up to the knee, giving me a perfect view of the twin set of curved puncture marks gouged into his calf.

“ You were bitten? Why the hell didn’t you say something? Damn it, Cooper!”

“Yeah, I got bit, big deal. You fucking died last night. This seemed pretty low on the important shit scale.”

I spin to Thayne. “The transfusion Grayson tried with me, will it work on Coop? I mean, since he’s not already a lycan, and there’s enough time before the next full moon. It could work, right?”

“We can try, if that’s what he wants. It wouldn’t be without risks, though.”

“No, I, uh…” Cooper shrugs before turning to Ash, eyes dropping to the tight seam of her lips, and I note her oddly absent opinion. “I think I’ll just let nature take its course.”

“Coop—” I take a step forward, but Thayne catches my wrist and keeps me from taking another.

“He’s made his decision.” Thayne nods surreptitiously toward Ash, to the bright red lips pushing equally red cheeks up.

The out-of-character bashfulness is a mirror of Cooper’s as they walk away, arms brushing together as they head toward the nearest corpse.

And there’s another thing I didn’t see coming. For all my enhanced senses, I seem to be missing a hell of a lot these days.

Without warning, Thayne’s arms slip around my back and under my thighs as he lifts me and carries me toward the house.

“I’m perfectly capable of walking, you know,” I huff in mock indignation, secretly enjoying being wrapped up in Thayne again.

In my alpha .

“That so?”

“Mhm. And running. Probably faster than you,” I tease as I circle my arms around Thayne’s neck.

“We’ll have to test that out one day—or night, rather. It seems your vampire blood is winning the battle for your body, but losing the war against sunlight. I need to get you inside.”

I don’t bother protesting. My arms look more like charcoal than flesh and blood, and the charring is spreading as heat blisters inside my veins. My limbs are heavy, weak. And, oh. This is what dying feels like.

Thayne stiffens, and two seconds later we’re in the doorway of the farmhouse, and I’m being lowered gently to the ground. I twist to look behind him, even though I don’t need to—the scent reaches me before I see them standing at the fence line.

Lycans.

There are six of them, but they seem alone, not clustered together. They all look vaguely confused, like they’re sleepwalking, unsure why they were drawn here. I recognize that feeling. It’s the same one I had when I’d closed my eyes in the kitchen and opened them again to find myself on my knees in front of Evander.

“They’re not here to hurt you,” Thayne says calmly, his body relaxing just a fraction. “They’re the betas that turned last night. For some reason, they were able to resist Draven’s lure.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to give them what he never would have offered: a choice. They can join the pack or not, but they need to understand what’s happened to them. To know that they’re not alone, and not going out of their minds. ” Thayne raises his hand and motions the strangers over.

Except… now that I’m really looking at them, none of them are strangers: there’s Jaxon Lang, owner of the town bar, Dean Wilson, a pilot who does supply runs for the local businesses, Isabella Rodriguez, who serves me coffee most mornings when I’m not having a supernatural-life crisis, Clark Parker, a nerdy, shy guy that by all accounts has never missed a single Dungeons I won’t make that mistake twice. My greatest curse has brought me unimaginable blessings here with you both. If you need time, Ruby, I’ll wait—”

“ We’ll wait.”

“For you.”

“Forever.”

Two sets of eyes—fire and ice—stare at me with hope and adoration . The wall around my heart cracks and crumbles, and warmth blooms inside my chest. I have spent my life trying to avoid connections and complications, and now, I can’t imagine my world without my pack, my found family, my loves.

“I don’t need time. I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be. Where I want to be. Fate has brought me home. ”