Avoiding Alpha

Page 39

“We’ll see. What’s going on?” Dastien asked, changing the subject.
I considered pushing him to find out what the phone call had been about, but decided against it. If he didn’t want to talk about it, I wouldn’t force him. “Adrian’s making a list. You want to go with me to find this stuff?”
“Sure, where’re we going?”
“No idea.”
My phone rang in my bag, Aphex Twin’s ‘Polynomial-C’ telling me that it was Axel. I ran back through the lab, and answered it. “Hey, bro.”
“You rang?”
“Yeah. Like forever ago.”
“Sorry. I kind of had a night, so I slept in and then had classes.”
I laughed. “No shit. I got the email.”
“Jesus. I don’t remember emailing you. What’d it say?”
“Hilarious stuff. You’ll never live this one down.” I grinned as I remembered his confession about a girl he was crushing on. “But hey, I might need your help.”
“What’d you do now?”
“Why does it have to be something that I did?” I said as I walked to the window of the lab.
“Come on. I’m your brother.”
I blew out a breath, fogging up the glass. “Well, it’s not me. It’s Meredith. I don’t know if I told you, but she’s been cursed by Luciana.”
The sharp exhale on the other end of the line told me he knew all about Luciana.
I walked back across the room. “Meredith was fine, but that changed this morning. I need help finding some ingredients. Any chance you’d know of a place to get things like—” Adrian handed me a piece of paper. I glanced down at it. “Hundred year old sainted ashes?” I looked up at Adrian and he shrugged. Right. A saint’s ashes to get rid of a demon. Made sense. But who in the hell kept ashes of a saint around the house?
“I might know of a place, but I’d have to go with you.”
Whoa. Seriously? I thought it might be a long shot at best, but he must’ve been keeping up with the coven more than I’d thought while he was at school in Austin. “That’s fine. It’d be good to see you. I missed you on Sunday.” The only time I really went off St. Ailbe’s grounds was for Sunday lunches at my parents’ house. Dastien always went with me, and some of the others, too, to make sure I didn’t lose control. But last Sunday, Axel hadn’t made it back from college.
“Aww, sis. That’s so sweet.” His voice had a whining-tease to it.
“Shut up. I hate you.” But we both knew that was a total lie.
He laughed. “Meet me outside my dorm?”
“Sure. I’ll leave now, but it’ll still take me a bit to get there.” We were a good hour-and-a-half away, and that was if there was no traffic at all.
“Cool. Text me when you get here.”
“Will do. Later.” I put my phone away. The guys were staring at me.
“Really? You think he knows a place?” Adrian asked.
I shrugged. “He said so.” He was my brother. I trusted him with my life. And Meredith’s. “You two get to working on this stuff, and Dastien and I will cover the rest. We cool?”
“Yup. Go. We got this,” Chris said.
I looked up at Dastien. “How about you? Is it okay if you leave campus all day?”
He raised an eyebrow. “Yeah. I think it’s fine.”
“That wasn’t what I meant. Aren’t you supposed to be teaching? And keeping the animals under control?”
He grinned. “Yes, to both. But they’ll be okay for a couple hours and I called one of my Cazador friends to fill in for my martial arts classes. It’s fine. Let’s go.” He started to walk out. “But I’m driving.”
“What? No, I’ll drive.”
“Not a chance.”
I followed him into the hallway, waving at Chris and Adrian over my shoulder. “Later, guys.”
***
Dastien ended up driving, but that was fine because that meant I got control of the radio. We chatted and listened to music the whole drive to Austin. Finding something to talk about with him was never hard. Neither was being quiet. It was comfortable. Even when I felt like I was going crazy, being around Dastien made me feel calm.
He’d said it was because he was a strong alpha, and that centered my wolf. I wasn’t so sure that was it. I’d like to think that if neither of us were werewolves, if we were normal humans, that it would be just as easy. I’d feel just as comfortable.