Bite Back 05 - Angel Stakes Read Free Page B

but I was too blissed out to deal with it.
    Diana spoke quietly. An intercom or something. I was drifting.
    My eyes opened to see Julie and Keith sitting on either side of me. Julie was speaking, like you speak to patients who you’re not sure can hear you.
    “I’m in, if you’ll have me,” she was saying.
    I blinked, tried to rewind. She was talking about being in my House.
    “I mean to say, where else am I going to find such crappy humor and good snark?”
    I chuckled, but Diana said something sharp and Julie dropped her eyes.
    “Okay. Okay.” She took a deep breath. “You were there for me when the Nagas came after me. You kept Keith and me alive.”
    “You were being hunted by the Nagas because you helped me,” I said.
    “No. We took a stand against what was happening in Ops 4-10. You were just the key we used.”
    There was an exchange of looks between Julie and Keith. I felt their paths were different. Each was feeling their way.
    “You trusted me,” Julie said. “Enough to have me guard Jen. I didn’t realize how much that meant at the time. I do now.”
    She shifted uncomfortably. “There’s lots we have to discuss. I…I’m freaked about some of what goes on…”
    She stumbled to a stop, and Keith took over. “Me too,” he said. “But it’s not just about what’s happened in Denver.” Another glance, almost guilty, but he seemed to be drawing some strength from Julie. “It’s about before, too. When you and I…when we were together in 4-10.”
    We’d been an item until I’d gotten bitten. First, they isolated me from the rest of the battalion, then they sent me away to Denver. I guessed our relationship hadn’t had a chance. I didn’t begrudge him the love that he and Julie shared now.
    “Not your fault,” I said, my words slurring. “Neither of us knew what being Athanate would mean to me.”
    He shook his head. “It’s not that, Amber. I’m sorry I wasn’t better for you then, but I’m talking about before that.”
    I frowned.
    “I knew—” he started.
    “ We knew,” interrupted Julie.
    He nodded. “Yeah. We knew there was something wrong, something that had happened before you joined up. We knew it and we did nothing. We let you down.”
    “We were a team, and we let you down,” Julie said. “We owe you.”
    I tried to sit up, but I had no strength.
    No. Not that. No obligations.
    More pacifics drifted down from Diana. I could barely move.
    The others were coming in, sitting down in a circle around me.
    Alex. Jen. Bian. Yelena.
    They were all tense, even Bian, and Jen had been crying, however much she tried to hide it.
    Diana started speaking again. “This is the heart of it, Amber. We need to go back, down into the depths of your strongbox, the very core of it, and find the things you kept there.”
    Her fingers were cold, reaching, reaching, pushing me down.
    Someone was screaming as I sank back into the darkness.
     

Chapter 5
    Therapy Session
     
    Spring is here, but I’m still wearing a jacket this evening.
    I’ve wrapped it tightly around myself, my hands jammed deep into the pockets as if I was cold. It’s comforting.
    I don’t know why I’m here.
    Everyone has heard the news, of course. Bad news pulses through the air faster than radio waves.
    Lario had folded me into one of his big hugs that smelled of his good cooking and told me to take a couple of days on full pay. I skipped school. Cassie’s been trying my cell, but what is there to say?
    I’ll talk to her tomorrow.
    I feel bad that I just walked out of the house this evening, but Mom didn’t seem to be hearing anything I said and Kath has been crying all day.
    I walked and walked, as if I could get away. Now it’s time to face it.
    The Final Ruling came in, and we’re bankrupt. There’ll be no trouble selling the house, thank God, but that won’t clear the debt.
    Mom has work. I tossed my college forms this morning and I’ll start applying for a full-time job. Tomorrow. Maybe I can keep