Page 35 of Mortal Blood
I rolled my eyes and squatted in front of her, taking her hands in mine and squeezing softly. “You haven’t called me that since I was seven years old.”
“The darkness—”
“Shh, I know. The darkness. It’s okay, it can’t hurt you here. You’re safe.”
I forced the word out. Safe? She should have been. But Kallan had been close enough to lay eyes on her, to dothisto her. Every hard won inch in her battle had been undone, and she was as bad as I’d ever seen her. As bad as…that night. The night I’d almost lost her.
“Come on, let’s get you onto the bed, yeah?”
She didn’t resist as I helped her to her feet, and she shuffled sluggishly towards the bed with my arm around her. Too sluggish. Like she’d been—
I almost dropped her in my horror. She staggered back a step and I quickly regained myself and pressed one hand to her back, guiding her to the bed.
She’d been drugged.
Fletcher had given her something, and she wasstillthis bad. The nausea came rushing back all at once. What the hell would she be like when the drugs wore off?
“The darkness is—”
I pulled back the sheets and helped her under them. “Rest, mom. The darkness will be gone soon, I promise. Just sleep now.”
As I tucked the sheets up under her chin, her eyes slid shut. I watched her for a long moment before turning and slipping back out of the door.
Cole’s arms were around me the second I stepped into the hallway, and I fell into them, releasing the sobs I’d kept hidden for my mom’s sake. For the sake of whatever was left of her. Cole said nothing, just stroking the back of my head as I let it out, holding me close against him.
We stayed there like that until I heard footsteps coming up the stairs. I straightened, dragging an arm across my eyes.
“Blaine,” Cole said, jerking his chin in greeting.
“Cole. I’d say it’s good to see you, but…”
“Yeah. Where’s Jax?”
“Waiting in the kitchen. With his…companion.” His eyes locked onto me. “Interesting company you keep, Cali.”
“I’m less interested in my company than the company my mother had today,” I ground out, and Cole placed a hand on my arm, but Blaine only chuckled humorlessly.
“Still fiery, I see. How is Angela?”
“How do you think?” I spat. “What the hell happened?”
“How about we head down to the kitchen and have this conversation in private?” he suggested, arching a brow at Cole.
The dynamics between them were complicated—Blaine was Cain’s alpha, which meant that technically, he outranked Cole. But Cole was the alpha heir, poised to take Cain’s place one day—as Blaine’s future alpha. And that might matter if there wasn’t a shit ton more than power dynamics going on between the two of them. As far as I was aware, Blaine was one of the few people who knew about Cole’s secret political engagement to Thessalia—before yours truly crossed his path and fate threw us all a curve ball.
The three of us made our way down to the medical center’s small kitchen, where Jax and Ling were talking in terse whispers. They broke apart as we stepped inside and I shot Ling a quizzical look, but she just shook her head.
“Why don’t you go and talk to Fletcher, Cali?” Blaine suggested, running his eyes over me. “You and your…friend.”
“Forget it,” I said firmly. “I want to hear what’s going on. And anything you can say in front of me, you might as well say in front of Ling, too.”
Blaine glanced at Cole, who dipped his chin in a curt nod.
“Fair enough,” Blaine said, shutting the door. “But what I’m about to say does not leave this room, am I clear?”
Jax ducked his head submissively at once. “Yes, Beta Blaine,” he murmured.
Ling gnawed at her lower lip and gave a hurried nod of her head.
