Page 92 of Blood Magic

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Shadowfield was decked out with decorations and the big hall in the admin center building was full of tables holding insane amounts of food. People were dressed up, but only the kids were in costumes. Well, the kids, and my mother.

She’d dressed as a vampire, complete with fake fangs, lines of red makeup trailing from her lips, and fake scars decorating her deathly pale skin. She wore a cheap black cloak lined with red, and a white button-up shirt with a bowtie.

I sighed as I gave her a hug. “Mom. That’s just wrong.”

“Eat my shorts,” she said. “I’m obviously da bomb.”

I could only shake my head. “I’m glad you’re feeling better.”

She had to reach pretty far up to take my face between her palms. “Have fun tonight, kiddo. Let yourself go, aight?”

“Aight,” I answered, unable not to laugh. My mother really was da bomb.

The air was crisp and heavy with the scents of late fall and food and sweets and perfume and spicy cologne, and I stood there for a few minutes, overwhelmed. There were so many voices and so much activity, and everyone was full of a special joy. There was no room for resentment or exclusion. Wolves who would only have glared any other day smiled at me. One woman rushed to give me a plastic cup of punch and a tall, slender man came over with a plate piled high with cookies and tiny cakes.

I vaguely recognized him, but I wasn’t familiar with all of Jared’s wolves, or even most of them. “Thanks,” I said. “I’m Kait. I don’t think we were introduced?”

“I’m Shane. I know who you are, of course.” He grinned, a friendly grin that lit up his rather handsome face. “You should come around more. Let us get to know you.”

And I realized the gulf between us wasn’t all their fault. I’d been rather standoffish—understandable, for the most part—but maybe it was time to start fresh.

I set down my drink and held out my hand. “It’s nice to meet you, Shane. And I think that’s a great idea. I want to get to know my pack.”

He squeezed my hand and smiled down at me. “It won’t all be easy.”

I laughed. “That’s an understatement. But that’s okay. I don’t expect it to be.”

“Kait.”

Shane pulled his hand from mine and beat a hasty retreat as the alpha took my arm and glared after him, only turning to look at me once Shane was out of sight.

“What was that about?” I asked, taking a bite of my cookie. “He was being nice. I want to get to know them, Jared. They’re my pack, after all.”

His expression went from slightly angry to soft in a heartbeat. “And I will ease up on the overprotectiveness.” He gave me a wry smile. “I am not yet confident in their ability to behave.”

“If you haven’t noticed,” I told him, “I’m pretty badass.”

He laughed. “I have noticed.” He stole one of my cookies. “You keep putting it off, but I want to talk about the council and what they did to you.”

I smiled at him, mystified. “What they did to me?”

He didn’t look at me and his face became guarded. “You understand the vampires use magic, Kait. You saw what Axton did.”

“You think they put something inside me?” Of course they’d used magic on me—the elder had pierced me with a metaphysical claw, right through the heart, and proof of that magic had come out in Scarlett’s. I hadn’t seen a sign of it since, though, which made me think that maybe it was a one-time thing. Maybe it was something they’d done to show the nonhumans that I was a threat.

“I think they added to what was already inside you. I think we probably won’t know exactly what that is for a long time. Maybe it’s something that grows with time.”

“Or something,” I said, “that fades with time.”

He nodded soberly. “I wish you had not accepted the offer.”

Now it was my turn to look away. “I was lost in the moment. It felt right at the time.”

“And now?”

“Now…” I shrugged. “I just don’t know.”