Page 26 of Shadow of Death

“Yes. Yes she is,” Fifo said.

“Why do you both seem so weird about this? What’s the difference? I’m more human than anything else, and probably by a very large percentage.”

“The line of the originals was potent, no matter how far back the connection,” Fifo said.

“What side was it passed to her from?” Kicks asked him.

“As far as I can tell, her paternal line.”

I held out the phone to Kicks, since he seemed much more interested.

“Did you find out anything else?” he asked, not bothering to take the phone.

“No. That’s all I have right now. I’ll let you know if anything else shows up.”

“Okay, many thanks.” He looked at me rolling my hands, asking him to wrap it up, and waved back at me, as if he were getting to it even as Fifo continued on about how rare this was. “We need to conserve our battery, since we aren’t anywhere we can reliably charge, but many thanks. We really appreciate your looking into it.”

Fifo kept going, but Kicks ended the call pretty fast after that. I could practically feel the stiffness in him from where he stood not a few feet from me.

“I’ll go look for some more blankets and we can sleep in front of the fire tonight,” he said.

“Sure,” I said, watching him as he left. Why was he looking strange? If anyone should be weird, it was me, and I didn’t care.

He was still looking off when he returned and then laid out two different spots.

Since when was he looking for separate spots?

Then I remembered his former mate, the one who died after she got pregnant. Did this make pregnancy with a shifter more possible for me? Could I have children with Kicks? Could I die the way she had? Had I just stripped away what had made me safe?

He was taking off his jacket and rolling it into a pillow when I asked, “Hey, do you think that’s part of why they were able tosuccessfully turn Charlie? Because we both have shifter blood?” It wasn’t the exact question I wanted to ask, but it would do.

“Probably. Whatever Groza thought she knew about turning people might not have been the whole picture. It was probably in part what kind of genes they had to begin with.”

“Since I have the same blood, it might change things for me, too.”

He finally stopped moving around the room and looked at me. “I know.”

I’d been so worried about hurting him, not being me after this was over and doing something that could kill him. Or because I couldn’t fully integrate into the pack. I hadn’t thought of him walking away from me because I wasn’t human enough.

“We’ll talk about it after we get back,” he said.

I didn’t know what that meant, but I nodded. For once, we were on the same page—neither of us wanted to deal with this now.

Chapter Twelve

Rod wavedfor us to follow him onto the boat the next morning. We walked through the large ship that was nothing but pure extravagance with mahogany tables and leather couches. He led us downstairs to a level that wasn’t anywhere near as luxurious as above board but still quality. We were in the crew’s quarters, but I’d trade the spacious cabin for being tucked out of the way anyway.

“You were last to sign up. This is the best I could do. As it is, I had to double up some of the other crew.”

He opened the door to a cabin that was barely big enough for the two of us to stand in together. I’d avoided Kicks’ room at the mill, which was probably twice the size of this. There was a bunk bed built into the wall, but also a small bathroom attached. That was definitely a perk.

“It’s more than adequate for the two of us,” Kicks said

“Yes, it’s great,” I added, eyeing up the shower through the cracked door.

“I’ve got to get up to the wheelhouse. We’re going to rotate night shifts on the wheel, so pop up at any point and we’ll get you trained,” Rod said, and then left us alone in the tiny room.

Kicks and I stared at each other for a few seconds. “I’m going to take advantage of the shower,” I said, nodding toward the bathroom.

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