Night Broken

Page 28

Hey, pretty lady, he said. He hesitated, but when she didnt acknowledge him in any way, he just grinned and kept going.
Christy went right for Adam as if none of the rest of us were there.
This is your fault, she said viciously. I felt so horrible, bringing my troubles here, and it was your fault.
Careful, I murmured, but she didnt pay any attention to mewhich was foolish of her.
I should have known when Troy was killed. It took me a second to figure out who Troy was, Id never heard the name of her boyfriend whod been killed. The only time bodies start appearing around me is when there are werewolves involved, she continued.
Juan Flores isnt a werewolf, I said, but again I spoke quietly, and she didnt appear to have heard me.
Adam didnt say anything. He took a deep breath and justaccepted what she said. It was the first time Id ever seen a real fight between them. Watching him as she spewed guilt all over him, I realized that he enjoyed our fights almost as much as I did. When we fought, he roared and stalked and fought back. He didnt let his face go blank and wait to be hit again. Being willing to accept responsibility for the well-being of others was part of being Alpha, part of who Adam was, and she was very, very good at using that against him.
Tears leaked artfully down her face. I tried. I tried, then I had to run. But I cant get away from you, cant get away from the monsters. They follow me wherever I go, and it is your fault.
Adam wasnt going to defend himself. Honey wrapped her arms around her stomach and turned away. Honey believed herself to be one of the monsters, too, and so Christys venom spread over Honey as well.
Enough.
Adam didnt make you go sleep with some complete stranger because he was handsome and rich, I said coolly, but this time at full volume. There wasnt a wolf in the house who hadnt heard Christy, so they could listen to me, too.
Stay out of this, she snapped at me, wiping futilely at her cheeks. This isnt your business.
When you blamed Adam, whose only fault that I can see is that he has poor taste in wives, you made it my business, I told her.
Honey cleared her throat. You do know you are one of his wives, right?
I raised an eyebrow. Happily, he doesnt know how bad off he is with meand I intend that he never will.
Life came back into Adams eyes with a wicked glint, and I saw a hint of his dimple. Better, I thought, better.
Christy knew shed lost control of the scene. Her eyes narrowed at me, and she lost the tears. Juan came after me because of Adam.
You slept with a complete stranger, I said. Not Adams fault youJesse had come down the stairs, with Ben and Darryl trailing behind her, so I didnt call Christy a slutmade a poor choice.
He was a friend of my best friend, she said. Rich, charming, and handsome, he wasnt a complete stranger. I had no way to tell that he was a monster.
You didnt know enough about him for Warren to find him. You didnt know where he lived, what country he was from. I bet you didnt even check to see if he was married or not before you chased after him. How long did you know him before you hopped into bed with him? An hour?
It probably wasnt fair to use what Jesse had told me about her mothers dating habits against Christy, but she hadnt been playing fair, either. The tears had been cheating, and when shed realized just how many of the pack had started to filter into the kitchen behind her, she would doubtless use them again.
He approached me, she said defensivelynot to mention falsely.
Are you stupid? How long did you live with the wolves? I asked her incredulously. You do know that most of the people in this room can tell that you are lying, right?
Stupid. She wasnt stupid, just self-absorbed and unwise. She didnt like people thinking badly of her, so she lied.
I stalked away from her, incensed that most of me wanted to play fair instead of just ripping her to shreds the way shed ripped into Adam. It felt disloyal to Adam. It felt like I might be letting her manipulate me into feeling sorry for her.
As I turned back toward Christy, I saw Jesse standing a little behind her. Jesse was Christys daughter, and I wouldnt do anything to hurt Jesse. With a good reason not to destroy my enemy, I paced back until I was face-to-face with Christy again.
Look. I tried to keep my voice gentle. No one cares if you sleep with a football team, none of whom you know and all of whom are half your age. I repeated it so she could hear the truth in my words. We dont care.
Christy went pale in genuine hurt, making me reexamine what Id just said.
That doesnt mean that we dont care if one of them hurts you. Thats another matter entirely. Call us, and well go take care of it. But you have to quit flinging blame around.
It wasnt my fault, she said, quietly, believing it. But then she aimed her venom at me and increased the volume. Not my fault. It wasnt.
Juan came after you because you slept with him, then you ran, I told her, but then I started thinking about what that meant. If you had waited and told him you werent interested, he might have left you alone. I worked through the germ of the idea. If hed been leaving bodies everywhere he went, Warren would have figured it out. But there werent bodies, there werent fires until you ran. I knew there hadnt been bodies, because Warren had looked for bodies left the same way as his victims here in the Tri-Cities. Why hadnt there been any other bodies? Thats not your fault, I told her, but it is interesting.
She stared at me, her fists clenched.
Had your friend slept with him before? I asked.
Christy was competitive. I knew, because Jesse talked to me, that Christy had slept with her best friends husband just to prove that she could. Maybe shed done the same thing with her best friends lover, assuming that Flores had been her friends lover. I didnt care. I just needed to know if Flores had slept with women other than Christy.
Christy didnt answer, but her clear skin flushed pink, telling me Id hit the mark. All the marks.
He didnt stalk her?
No, she whispered. He didnt stalk her. One night, and he was done with her. She was pretty bitter about it. But she doesnt have an ex-husband who is a werewolf.
Guayota hadnt sounded like he cared if Adam was a werewolf, he sounded like he wanted Christy back. Why stalk Christy and not her friend? What was different about Christy?
The question rang in myhead while I answered the nasty venom in her last sentence. The only thing Adam has to do with this is that you bragged about being an Alpha werewolfs ex-wife to catch Juans attention. Juan had known that Adam was a werewolf and that he was Christys ex-husband. Could have been that hed researched it, but there was a hint of competitiveness in the way hed confronted Adam. The kind of competitiveness that happens when a mans lover brags about a previous lover.
She didnt answer me, so I knew that my shot in the dark was right that time, too.
This guy has nothing to do with werewolves, I told her. Guayota hadnt cared that Adam was a werewolf, hadnt cared about Adam, really, except that he stood between Christy and Guayota and that he had been Christys husband. Congratulations, Christy. You just met one of the weird things in the world that dont fit neatly into the fae or werewolf category.
Weird like you, said Christy.
Well, yes, I agreed. I thought that went without saying. Weird things like me.
What are you, exactly?
I hadnt realized she didnt know, but I wasnt going to let her change the direction of the conversation. Not when Id been getting some interesting information about Guayota, and not while Christy was still trying to make the situation be someone elses, be Adams, fault.
This isnt about me, I said. Ask me some other time, and Ill tell you. So you got Juans attention, and maybe because you know to look for odd things and dont discount them the way someone who hadnt been married to a werewolf might, you realized he wasnt just some rich guy on the make, not just some guy at all. He scared youbut not because he was so possessive. He scared you the same way Adam scared you. If Juan Flores had been exactly what he presented himself asa bored young businessman not opposed to sleeping with any pretty woman who threw herself in his pathit would have been okay. Instead, you got a man who was a lot more than he appeared to be on the surface. It scared you, and you ran.
He cut his hand, she said, in a low voice. And it healed like Adams cuts and bruises healed.
I closed my eyes. Shed known he wasnt human, shed known, and hadnt warned any of us.
Why didnt you tell me that? asked Adam, sounding, of all things, hurt. Did you think that we wouldnt help you?
I wasnt hurt. My hands curled with the effort of not smacking her because shed put everyone in dangerand hadnt told us everything she knew.
I didnt know there was anything else out there, she said. The fae are locked up where they belong. He wasnt a vampire. I thought he was a werewolf.
Then why not tell us? asked Mary Jo from the doorway of the kitchen.
Christy looked around and realized it wasnt just Adam, Honey, and me who had been listening. Jesse, Ben, Darryl, and Auriele were in the kitchen, but behind them, in the doorway, in the little hallway beyond, and standing in the stairwell, the rest of the wolves had been a silent audience until Mary Jo had spoken.
Because that would have meant that she put her foot in it, I told Mary Jo, and everyone else. Because, until she saw the video, she really did think he was a werewolf and that the reason he was coming after her was because she told him that Adam was her ex-husband, Adam the famous werewolf. She believed that knowing about Adam was why he came after heras a strike at the Alpha of the Columbia Basin Pack. She thought that if she hadnt told him about Adam, he wouldnt have come after her. She thought it was her fault he knew her connection to Adam, and she didnt want anyone to know that. And shed thought that if it hadnt been for Adam, Juan Flores would have just let her run awaywhich made it Adams fault again. She believed it was Adams fault because otherwise shed have to admit her guilt.
But he wasnt a werewolf, Christy said. So it wasnt my fault he killed Troy, burned down my building, and killed all those women here.
No, I said, tiredly. It wasnt anyones fault, Christy.
Between your looks and running, you triggered some sort of psychotic episode. He fixated on you and gave chase. Not your fault. I looked at her until she dropped her eyes. Not Adams fault, either.
Auriele bustled over and put her arm around Christys shoulders. It was a good thing that you had us to run to, she said. Another woman might not have.
It is my fault, said Christy, believing it because that was the attitude that would win over the most people. That was one of Christys gifts, her ability to shift her worldview whenever it was to her advantage. She turned her head into Aurieles shoulder and burst into heavy sobs. I was so stupid to trust him.
Shoot me now, I thought. Id known that shed turn on the tears once she had the right audience. Jesse gave me a tense smile, then turned and slipped out of the kitchen and away from her mothers theatrics.
I found Adam.
I blame her, I muttered grumpily, if softly. My voice hadnt been quiet enough to escape wolf ears, but none of the people gathered around Christy looked my wayeven with very good hearing you have to be listening first.
Adam kissed my head and dragged me closer until my back was tight against his front. He dropped his mouth to my ear. Okay. As long as you keep in mind that just because you blame her doesnt mean it is her fault. Though hed put his mouth to my ear, he didnt bother whispering.
Only if you remember that while she is drumming up sympathy for her heaping helping of guiltshe doesnt really feel responsible, I said. Just for now responsible.
Sounds like you know our Christy as well as those of us who lived with her, said Honey, leaning a shoulder lightly against both of us in a gesture of solidarity. She looked at the pack, and said, Some of us, anyway.
On the far side of the werewolf pack trying to comfort Christy, Ben shared a cynical smile with us. He wasnt petting Christy, either.
The pizza guy came after that and broke up the comfort-poor-Christy party. Pizza places dont usually deliver that far out in the boonies, but Honey, it turned out, had an arrangement with a place in Kennewickan arrangement that included a huge tip for the driver and a surcharge on the pizza.
The food was a signal, and as soon as the last scrap of pizza was gone, everyone retreated to their Honey-assigned sleeping places. Adam and I got the formal living room. Jesse opted into the giant upstairs room with her mother, where theyd decided to watch some disaster film from the seventies that had just made it to video.