Page 20 of Shadow Bound

“I’ve given you all the information you need to know.” She taps her wrist, even though a watch isn’t sitting there. “Ticktock, Ransom. He’s already four days ahead of you and I’m sure he’s sniffing out his next victim as we speak. You don’t have time to waste.”

“If you really cared about the victims, you would have already told me where he is,” I growl.

“I’m a work in progress.” She simply shrugs. “I’m new to this whole—caring—thing, and my need for answers is outweighing my already weak moral compass.”

I don’t doubt that. From what we’ve learned of Sterling, he doesn’t exactly seem like the kind of man who’d allow someone to have sympathy. I’m sure just like it was done to Jax, her empathy was beat out of her.

“I think you’re a lot more capable of caring than you think you are.” There’s something about her that I can sense hiding behind the tough exterior—a softness she conceals well. I’m curious about that side of her. I don’t think she’s as bad as she makes herself seem. She did risk her life for Pruitt, even after my twin was partially responsible for the death of her brother. If Ranger and Winslow hadn’t gone searching for the baby that night, her brother would probably still be alive. Though from what I learned of that night from Ranger, the brother was a straight-up psychopath.

“I’ll advise you against thinking that.” Isabeau’s body goes rigid. “I may not want innocent people to be hurt, but if it comes down to it, I’ll save myself every time. Don’t start to think differently.”

“You saved Pruitt,” I remind her.

“Saving Pruitt opened a window for me to be able to make my escape. In the long run, I was still serving myself,” she deflects.

“Fair enough.” Isabeau wasn’t raised like I was raised, in a pack where everyone has your back. She doesn’t know what that’s like. “Okay, vampire.” I nod. “I agree to your terms.”

Sawyer is going to kick my ass.

I extend my hand to shake on our new ‘partnership’, but she just looks down at it, frowning. “It’s a handshake, you know what those are, right?” She doesn’t know who Ironman or Captain America are, God knows what else she doesn’t know.

“I know what it is,” she snaps, annoyed. Her hands clench and unclench at her sides, while she continues to stare at my offered hand. After a big exhale of breath, she finally slips her smaller hand into mine. For the first time tonight, I take notice of the black lines snaking down her hand and fingers.Did she get a tattoo?

Her hand is also freezing, but she doesn’t seem bothered by the cold, if her light jacket is anything to go by.

My larger, warmer hand wraps around hers, both of our eyes now pinned to where we are touching. Stemming from the places of contact, an eclectic current of sorts zips under my skin, stemming all the way up to my scalp and down to my toes. My wolf, who’d been angrily pacing in my head, stills. This is the first time in years he’s been quiet—silent even.

Isabeau’s arctic stare shoots up, locking with mine. The corners of her eyes widen ever so slightly, that’s the only reaction she gives before she yanks her hand back from mine like she’d been touching fire.

Wordlessly, she shifts back a few paces, putting distance between us again. She runs her palm along her leather-covered thigh, like she’s trying to wipe away the feeling. I myself, stare down at my still humming hand, looking for signs of a change, but it looks normal, but itfeelswrong.

“Did you feel that?” I ask even though I know the answer.

Lifting her chin, an obstinate look on her face, she answers, “I didn’t feel anything but your big sweatypaw.”

Liar.

Before I can call her out on it, she backs away farther from me. “He’s in Colorado—the Rocky Mountains, to be precise. I’ll send you the coordinates of his last known location.”

I raise a single brow. “You don’t have my number.”

“Sure I do.” She turns slowly, giving me one last look over her shoulder beforewalkingaway.Why is she walking and not using her cool little shadow power?She only gets a few feet away before I remember something.

“Isabeau, do you know why the girl’s blood was missing?”

Her back goes stiff and she stops walking. She doesn’t turn and look at me when she answers. “I wouldn’t tell you if I did,” she curtly says and for the second time this year, I let her walk away.

I like it even less this time around.

Ihad no other choice but to go to Ransom for help. Even if it went against every fiber in my being to do so, I was out of options.

It would have been easy for me to hunt that wolf, I could have taken him out weeks ago, but I couldn’t be the one to do it. She would have known it was me and changed direction. I’ve been looking for her for ten months and I haven’t been as close to actually succeeding as I am now.

I know her tricks, she was the one who trained me after all, but because of that, she also knows mine. We are both playing a game of cat and mouse, neither one of us close to winning, but for the first time, I have the upper hand.

It just required making a deal with thatwolf.

Ten months ago, I told him I would never see him again, but it turns out, on top of everything else, I’m also a fucking liar. I’d been the one to seek him out when I realized he was my only option.

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