Page 67 of Bonded By Blood

Kendall’s grip relaxed and she flashed him a grin. “Yeah. Sometimes I still worry about leaving her behind eventually, though.” There was a beat of silence and by the time Joe realized he should have heard the warning, it was too late. “Which begs the question. Will you be leaving her behind, Joe?”

A lump formed in his throat as Joe found himself thrown right back into the train of thought he’d been lost in on his way to the airport less than an hour previously. Except, said out loud, and phrased like that … it was easier to think through. “I think that’s something for me and her to discuss first, don’t you?”

“Oh, come on!” But she was laughing again, so he couldn’t take her words of frustration too seriously.

They were less than ten minutes from the mansion when Joe’s phone buzzed with a new message, so he tugged it free from his pocket. He had a text from an unfamiliar number, but he opened it anyway. In his experience those were usually spam, but they were occasionally important, too. This one turned out to be from Adrian Colt, texting him at Jasen’s request, to inform him and Kendall that they were fine and on their way to the city. Joe imagined Jasen’s version of the message hadn’t been quite as detailed.

“What’s up?” Kendall asked when she noticed him typing out a response.

“Message from Colt and Jasen,” Joe replied. He summarized it for her as he saved the Slayer’s information to his contacts for future reference.

“They’re not coming to the house?”

Joe looked over at her. “You didn’t expect Jasen to bring a Slayer—a capable Slayer—into the Queen’s mansion, did you?”

Kendall stopped at a red light and pouted at him. “He’s our guest, not our enemy.”

“He’s a Slayer, Kendall,” Joe said, fighting a grin. “Invited—only by you—and reluctantly welcomed or not, he’s a threat. I imagine he’ll never actually meet Trista.”

Kendall let out a loud, frustrated groan, drummed her fingers over the steering wheel, and as soon as the light turned green, she flipped an illegal U-Turn. She directed them back toward the heart of town and entirely away from the mansion.

“What are you doing?” He didn’t want to ask. He suspected he knew, and he dearly wanted to be wrong. But since he was in the passenger seat, unable to control where she pointed the vehicle but still simultaneously in charge of her continued survival, asking the question seemed like the obvious thing.

“They’re cutting me out,” she said tightly. “Again. I’m sick of it. They always cut me out. Like I’m a child. A weak, disposable, meaningless child.”

“Kendall—”

But she wasn’t listening. She was just ranting at this point. “If they’re going to push me aside, then I’m going to involve myself. They can’t physically stop me from joining the hunt. Not unless they tie me up, and Bri won’t go that far. She’ll just get her desperate begging tone and cry when I don’t listen. So I’m skipping that part, because I’m too pissed off to care.”

Joe’s eyes widened at her words as she navigated them through traffic, toward downtown. He didn’t have a clue where she’d decided to take them—it wasn’t like they knew where Jasen and Colt were going, so she couldn’t be headed there. Which was good, considering her mood. Brianna probably wouldn’t tie her down and lock her away to restrain her, but somehow, Joe suspected Jasen would if he felt the need. At the very least, he’d drag her back by her hair without a care for the scene they made. Joe didn’t want that, and he doubted Brianna would.

Though, Brianna wouldn’t want this, either.

He took a breath and waited until Kendall’s rant wound down. “Can I at least come with you?”

“What?” she asked.

“When we get out of the car,” Joe said, clarifying. “Can I come with you?”

Kendall slowed to accommodate the traffic—he presumed, anyway—and glanced over at him. “You won’t try and stop me?”

“I’ve been feeling a little cooped up and useless myself,” he said. It was partially true. Maybe even a lot true, if he separated the pieces into different feelings. “Maybe this could be good for both of us.”

She looked over at him again and pulled her lip between her teeth for a long minute. She eased the car into a right turn lane, and said, “Okay. I guess you can come with me, then. But don’t you dare tell Jasen where we are or what we’re doing.” She laughed a little, the sound bitter. “Actually, if you did, he’d probably kill you. So it’s your head on the line and all that.”

Joe chuckled. She sort of sounded like Jasen when she said that. He waited until her attention was focused back on the road, as she tried to navigate toward a parking lot, to quietly unlock his phone again and send a quick text to Brianna. He couldn’t give her all the information she’d want, but he didn’t feel right leaving her in the dark, either. She probably had a way to track the phone, since she was the one who’d provided it in the first place, so as long as she knew not to panic in the meantime, he had to hope that was enough.

“Okay,” Kendall said after parking again. “I guess we just walk around from here and keep our eyes peeled.” She looked over at him and pointed at the glove compartment. “Phone in there.”

Joe arched his eyebrows at her. “What if I need it?”

“We’ll be together. If something happens, one of us can use mine,” she said. She bobbed her finger, as if she were repeatedly poking the air. “Or I leave you here and go somewhere else.”

“Okay, okay,” he said, making sure she saw him pull the phone from his pocket—where he’d returned it just seconds before she’d spoken up again—and set it in the glove compartment. “Happy?”

Kendall smiled at him. “Thank you.” She picked her own phone up from the in-dash charging station and pocketed it before climbing from the car. “Let’s go!”

Joe stepped out and looked up at the half-moon in the mostly clear sky. The sun had finished setting, but the stars weren’t fully out yet. It was going to be a long night.

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