Page 117 of Mortal Shift
Raw, undisguised pain flashed over his face, and he ground his teeth together and seemed to banish it with sheer determination and anger, but a trace of it still lingered in his eyes.
“She died. Hit by a fucking car, of all things. They let me out to go to her funeral.”
Bitterness burned through his words, and I sure as hell didn’t blame him.
“They made you come back?”
“As far as they’re concerned, they held up their end of the deal.”
“Shit. I’m sorry.”
“Why? You didn’t do this.” Then his eyes hardened. “You’re a part of it, though. You’re a human and you’re here, pretending you’re one of them.”
“Like I said, it’s complicated.”
It sounded weak, even to my own ears, and the guy’s unimpressed look called me on my bullshit.
“Look— Shit, I don’t even know your name.”
“Sam.”
“Cali,” I returned. “I’d say good to meet you, but…”
One side of his mouth twitched in what was almost half a smile, then fell back into place.
“I’m mated to a shifter…or near enough, anyway. When the council found out we were fated, they insisted I attend. And belief me, there was not a single place on earth I wanted to be less.”
“Was,” he said, and I nodded.
“Was.”
“The place grows on you?”
I snorted half a laugh. “The place most definitely doesnotgrow on you. Some of the people, though… Well, turns out my mate isn’t so bad, I guess. Except they’re going to execute him for the attack on Thaden if I can’t prove he’s innocent.”
“Is he? Vampires and shifters hate each other.”
“It’s c—” I stopped myself.
“Complicated?” he suggested, lifting a brow.
“Not my story to tell,” I amended. “But I know he didn’t do it. I don’t suppose you saw anything that might prove his innocence, while you were in there?”
“Like what?”
“Like a neon sign with the real culprit’s name on it?” I suggested hopefully, and he shook his head.
“I only saw his head, sorry. And like I said, no-one bothers to explain things to a human round here.”
“Yeah,” I said, with a defeated sigh. “Don’t I just know it?”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
It was a long week, and Ling spent most of it stopping me barging my way back into Astor’s office and demanding to know why I hadn’t been allowed to see Cole yet, and the rest of it stopping me climbing the wall and running to the pack to find out what the hell was going on. Probably for the best. I’d already traded one favor to the innkeep, and that was going to cost me badly enough. I didn’t need to land myself in it any deeper.
At least I hadn’t been hauled off for speaking to one of the resident humans at the academy, so I guess Sam hadn’t been any keener to let slip about that than I had been. But now I knew how the academy was sourcing their humans—or some of them, at least. And I had to do something about it, because he was right: I was a part of this academy now, and that meant I was involved. And if I turned a blind eye, I was no better than the vamps who’d lured him in here. I just wished I had some idea what I could do about it. I was a little short of allies in that department. Well, all departments, really. I didn’t trust Thessalia, despite her past with Cole, not least because she seemed to regard humans the same way the rest of the vampires did, like they were cattle she could snack on whenever the mood took her, by some sort of divine right. The only reason she treated me even a little different was because I was Cole’s mate, and honestly I still wasn’t completely sure she wasn’t planning on slitting my throat the moment I stopped being useful.
The closest thing I had to a vampiric ally, Thaden, still hadn’t regained consciousness, and I hadn’t been able to get anywhere near him. Thessalia had point blank refused to take me in to visit him. She claimed it would be too hard to explain away my presence, and maybe she was right. But I couldn’t shake the niggling feeling that she was hiding something.
