Page 94 of Bad Medicine

“He can help you,” she said.“He can help us all.”

“Except blonde women who smackaround a kid,” Joe said, and when we looked at him, he grinned. “I’m justsayin’.”

Zach took a long drink of hiscoffee. “So,” he said. “Anybody up for hunting some daywalkers?”

“Let me get a shower and putsome pants on,” I said, pulling away from Lucy. “And hunting daywalkers isallwe’re going to fucking do.”

Right.

In the shower I looked at mytingling fingers, through which that amazing power had burst, and wasn’tsurprised to see them vividly discolored with varying shades of blue andyellow, as though I’d dipped my fingertips into cans of paint. My palms wereaffected, as well, but the colors there were more faded.

As I was getting dressed in theclothes I’d left in my old bedroom, my cell buzzed. I picked it up in a hurry,though I knew that surely if Lennon had escaped or somehow broken free andkilled half the wolves in the transport car, Jared would probably have calledinstead of texting.

I snorted, then read my text.It wasn’t from Jared.

Honey…I’m home!

I smiled.Just in time.There are daywalkers in the city and we could use a hand. Even yours.

Sounds like the fun is aboutto start.

You spelled shitshow wrong.Welcome back, Remy.

Then I shoved my phone into mypocket and went to join Zach, Joe, and Lucy, my mind clear, my body energized,my heart thumping with eagerness to hunt.

The release of magic had washedthe last vestiges of worry and guilt from my mind, and I felt the freedom of itwith every part of me. I bid a silent goodbye to my father, and for the firsttime since I’d watched him die, I let him go—and I forgave the child who’dbelieved she could have made a difference.

In what was fast becoming ahabit, I snapped the bracelet on my wrist. I would continue to wear it not tosomeday stop the shapeshifter, but to remind myself that I would protect theinnocent and the tormented, both human and nonhuman. I’d wear it to remindmyself that there were others protecting their innocent as well.

People like Sam.

Maybe he’d been right all along,and we were the same.

I paused in the dark hallway asI thought about what was to come. The daywalkers, the detective’s returningmemory, the angel Lucas, who would realize soon that he’d taken the wrong blade.Lennon, secure—for now—in the alpha’s grip, the council’s anger, my upcomingtraining with an asshole of a wolf elder, and the fact that my mother waskeeping secrets that were going to kick my ass.

But I wasn’t worried.

The beautiful, wild, mad magicswirled inside me like gently rolling waves, waiting with my wolf.

I felt my power.

So let the trouble come.

I was ready.