Page 93 of Obsidian and Frost

“I don’t,” I admitted. “That summit she’s at is not only closed-door, everyone attending is locked down, the whole thing warded. I can’t reach her there. Once she’s done, though, I’ll head out to her place. In the meantime, I can root out suspects on my own. Strickland’s connections.” Off her look, I explained, “My stepfather. He’s dead now, but he had a lot of connections in the wolf community—purists who, like him, hated my hybrid status. Contacts who are also pissed that my mom’s pack and many connected to it were ruined when all that shit went down—Jason Strickland losing his shit about it, trying to take my mom’s power and bringing in other alphas to fight alongside him. Every few years, some of them come out of the shadows and make a play to hurt me. It used to be her too, but her place is warded and she’s off-the-grid and when she’s at that property.”

“And in the meantime, you’re going to allow this protection to continue?”

“It bothers me, but it puts her mind at ease so I’ll suck it up.”

She smiled. “You’re a sweet son.”

I nudged her. “Aww, come on, you know well now just how sweet I am to those I allow close to me.” I whispered faux conspiratorially, “Don’t tell anyone. Gotta maintain the Halfblood Hound rep.”

She laughed, then nudged me back playfully.

After a few more strides, she stared up at me curiously.

“What?” I asked, amused at the cute look on her face.

“How do you do it, Lazriel?”

“What’s that?”

“Well, you just found out your mom sent along protection in the form of a group of near-Ancient level vampires to protect you from a threat, and yet here you are taking it all in your stride, and even joking around with me as well.”

I lifted a shoulder. “Bad things happen sometimes. To keep going, you’ve gotta find the levity, right?”

“Yeah, I guess you do.”

I wrapped my arm around her. “Stick with me, I’ll show you how.”

She sank into me as we walked together. It felt amazing. Soothing.Right.

“So, if you want, I can help you. You don’t have to track the long way with your wolf and vampiric senses. And I doubt that would even be possible with those vampires watching you. While you were talking, I accessed theirdeath essence.I have a lock on it. We can trace back from there to their clan, or perhaps an organization, or a boss they’re connected to.”

“Death essence?”

“It’s kind of like a magical signature, but for death-touched beings. Specifically the undead—vampires. With my Wraith side, I can lock onto it and use it to track them all over where they’ve been recently. Your mom may not tell you what you want to know, and I’m sure that won’t be enough for you. But I can backtrace these guys and their boss, or whoever they’re connected to, and we could get our information from that source.”

Ah,so that’s why she hadn’t said much. She wasn’t exactly docile, so I’d wondered why she’d barely contributed to the conversation. I’d figured she’d been studying and analyzing them to obtain answers that way and properly rule them out as threats to her standards. But it had been even more than that. I was fucking impressed.

“Wow, that’s a cool ability. Why didn’t you tell me about this?”

“I thought it might freak you out because you’re part vampire.”

“Don’t you know by now,Wraithqueen,I’m absolutely not easily freaked out?”

She laughed again, then we walked together in comfortable silence with her actually nuzzling against me as I kept my arm around her.

“Lazriel?” she spoke after a while.

“Yeah?” I murmured into her hair.

“What if it’s not a personal enemy like Strickland? I mean, his connections?”

“You’re worried it’sPuritas?”

“It’s a possibility. You’re a hybrid, part of Crossborn—an organization that creates better lives for hybrid beings and enables them to thrive.”

I could feel the fear from her that she was trying so hard to swallow down. But given that so much of her trauma was rooted in what they’d done to her, how they’d hunted her, with her own brother being a part of it, it wasn’t something she could shove away like it was just a brief bad thought.

“Puritaswent to ground after Corvin Morvain failed to use Ketheron to destroy the Guardian Movement—and a hell of a lot else. It’s been months and there hasn’t been a peep from them.” And her brother was imprisoned inThe Void,so he wasn’t an issue either.