Page 68 of Blood Moon
“You didn’t?” he said, catching my lie. “Not too long ago, you were annoyed to be in my presence.”It wasn’t that I wasn’t annoyed; it was that I was less annoyed. Progress.
“So were you,” I reminded, wishing I sounded quippier.
“I guess some things change,” he said, another step closer. “So does that mean we’re friends?” It was then that I glanced up. And there engraved in his face was this look that tugged at my insides. It was divine and mischievous. A bitter kind of splendor. Who was I becoming when I looked at him? And this friend thing … he’d brought it up again.
“I don’t know what it means,” I said honestly. “I don’t know what any of this means.”
Julian stepped past me, his arm brushing gently against mine, and he sat on a concrete bench that faced the roses. I joined him, wrapping my arms around my center, and we both stared ahead.
In our line of sight, past the rose bushes, there were no buildings. Only parking lot and road. Further out, a tangle of trees wrapped in nightfall. Beneath them, wild grass that opened into a forest.
And then it was us.
I looked at Julian watching the night, and I wanted to tell him that I was lonely, that all my friends had other things to do. That I was scared. That I was confused. That my entire universe was warping and bending to the folklore of this town.
But I didn’t.
Julian had a point when he asked whether we were friends or not. It wasn’t that we couldn’t be friends, but to no degree had he ever seemed like he wanted to be friends with me until recently. Our history together was intentionally bleak.
“Be honest, okay? Why do you want to be my friend?”
Julian kept his gaze forward. “What do you mean?” he asked, and there was caution there. I felt like he knew what I meant, but still, he wanted to hear me say it.
“I think you’re very aware,” I started, pressing my palms into the bench. “I can still see the way you looked at me when I got on campus—like the idea of me being alive was repulsive. And then came all the warnings. You told me I shouldn’t be here. It wasn’t safe for me.” I swallowed, not wanting to say the rest, but I did anyway. “You said that you hated me … that my existence was miserable,” I pointed out, and Julian looked to the ground. “All of a sudden, a switch flipped, and here we are now.” I took a breath. “What I need from you is the truth … of all the people here on campus, why isn’t it safe forme?” I knew it wasn’t just the animal attacks—there was something else, something Rena was terrified of, too.
“I …” Julian said, and then he stopped, examining me with this god-awful look in his eyes. A look I was unfortunately already too familiar with: He was contemplating if I could handle it, and I hated how he doubted me.
My jaw tightened. “Just say it, Julian. Tell me why it’s not safe for me here, on this campus. Tell me there’s a reason for every warning. For everything you’ve put me through. You wanted me to forgive you, and I’m here now, asking you to give me a reason to.” The words came out abruptly and spluttered. In my head, I pleaded with Julian. I begged him. I needed to know.
He looked away, a callous gust following him. “It’s your blood, Mira.”
My face squished in misunderstanding. “What?” I said, as if I hadn’t heard him—because what did he mean by that?
“You, your blood, your family’s blood … it has a certain scent that makes you game to people like me.” As if my world couldn’t get any more confusing, here it was, spinning out of control with no safety belt.
“A scent that’s different from others?” I asked, and what Julian had said earlier dawned on me. At lunch today, he’d mentioned I smelled different, but I hadn’t considered it could be detrimental to me. “Game, as inhunting?” I probed, my stomach turning.
Julian nodded once. “Yes, Mira, as in hunting. It’s why it isn’t safe for you here, on this campus. At any turn, you could be hunted, killed, hung up as a trophy. You are a prize to those like me.”
I felt the dizziness again, along with an inexplicable pain in my fingers that made them throb. “I … I … I …” I started and then stopped, at a loss for words. “But you said this place—these grounds,” I corrected, “were sacred. That wars couldn’t be waged here.” I said it in a gasp.
“Warsbetweenwolves,” he explained. “Not against hunting.”
My heartbeat was so loud in my ears, I didn’t catch “I don’t understand” before it slipped from my mouth. I gripped at the rough edges of the concrete bench to keep myself from toppling over. My face burned. I was to be hunted. To be killed. My whole life, I had ever feared anything with Bobby as a sheriff …
I gulped.Wait …
I touched the pendant. A bloodline older than werewolveswouldbe human. Humans had to have been around long before a possible mutation of any paranormal being. Therefore, my family, whom I knew nothing about, could be part of an ancient bloodline. One that was coveted to those like Julian. It was why they’d need protection.
As for what side of the bloodline … it couldn’t have been Bobby’s family because if he knew, for a second, that I would be put in danger by going to college, he’d have had a much harder time letting me leave—adult or not. But he’d insisted I go.
“Why now?” I demanded, turning to Julian. “I’ve been alive, in this area, for eighteen years. I’ve never felt like there was a threat. Wouldn’t I know? Wouldn’t there have been signs?” And as soon as I said it, answers came tumbling in. The wolves that had been in my backyard the day Rena left; they’d probably been looking for me. Bobby’s findings … everything made sense now. Rena wasn’t workingwiththe werewolves, she was fighting them to protect me. If it wasourblood that was the problem, then maybe she had hoped to draw them away. Maybe that was why she couldn’t return. She’d be tracked.
My breath stuttered as pressure built behind my eyes. Perhaps it was why she’d left so suddenly. Why, in her letter, she stated there were important matters Bobby and I needed to know—matters she couldn’t detail in writing. And that’s why … that’s why she sent the necklace.A ward. Protection.
I spoke again, biting down to keep the tears from coming. “If my blood has a scent that’s enticing, then why haven’t you …” The rest of the sentence refused to come. My heart tremored. “Why haven’t you hurt me?” I thought again of all the times we were alone, of every chance he’d had.
“Because I don’twantto kill you,” Julian said, an unshaking promise in his eyes, like his soul was trying to enfold itself around my own.
