Blood Rule (Book 4, Dirty Blood series) Read Free

Revenge?
    “ And give back his watch,”
I added.
    Nick went to his tent, stuck his nose
inside, and came away with something silver in his mouth. He
dropped it in front of Rafe and looked back at me. “Are we done
here?”
    “ Yes.”
    “ Good. I’m taking a walk.
Watch my tent.”
    “ We’ll do that,” Wes said
before I could respond. Probably a good thing. I’d only come back
with something sarcastic and I knew Nick wasn’t far from wanting to
stay and make this into something bigger. Something he
shouldn’t.
    I let him go.
    When he was gone, I knelt beside Rafe.
“May I?” I asked, gesturing to the singed spots on his
fur.
    “ Go ahead.”
    The burnt hair was coarse underneath
my fingertips, interrupted by the strangely smooth patches of
exposed flesh. “Cambria, can you take him to the house so Fee can
look at these?” I asked.
    “ Sure,” she
said.
    “ I don’t need all that,”
Rafe protested. “I’ll heal fine in my own time.”
    “ I know that, but Fee’s
special tea will help the process along.”
    Rafe made a face, his snout lifting
until his front teeth showed. “That tea of hers is an atrocity. I’m
sure I’ll heal without it.”
    I caught the laughter before it
escaped. “It is an … acquired taste,” I agreed. “But I need you
feeling better. I need us feeling better,” I added with a pointed
look.
    He sighed. “Fine. I’ll drink the
tea.”
    “ Thank you.” I patted his
head before I could help myself but he didn’t seem to mind. “I’ll
check on you later,” I called as he followed Cambria back through
the maze of camp.
    “ Check on me too,” Cambria
called.
    I cast a long look into the trees in
the direction Nick had gone. If I expanded my senses, I could hear
his footsteps as he moved farther away from camp. His voice in my
head wasn’t as pronounced as I was used to. It felt muted. I
strained to listen.
    His mood was … gray. I wasn’t sure
what it meant, but it wasn’t the first time I’d sensed it from
him.
    “ You all right?” Wes
asked.
    “ Hmm?” I turned my
attention away and found Wes studying me. “I’m fine.”
    I began making my way back toward my
tent before he could argue. I didn’t want to have this conversation
here. Or anywhere, really.
    “ I’ll meet you there in
five,” Wes said, bounding into the trees. Probably in search of
shorts so he could reappear on two legs.
    “ Hey, Tara, is Rafe going
to be okay?” Emma, a blond hybrid around my age who preferred her
human form when her body would cooperate, stood before me with
watery eyes and a trembling lip.
    “ He’s going to be fine,” I
assured her. “He went up to the house to have some of Fee’s tea so
he’ll get better even faster.” Emma grimaced.
    I began walking again but she stopped
me. “Is there anything I can do for you—or George, or anybody?” she
asked. “I want to help.”
    “ Um, well. You could try to
make some of these tents more stable,” I suggested. “Some look
ready to keel over in the next big wind.” I suspected those were
the ones whose owners couldn’t shift to their human form. Something
that happened more and more often as the animal in them took over.
No fingers and thumbs made bolting a tent down pretty
hard.
    “ No problem. Janie and I
will get right on it.”
    “ Thanks,” I said as she
hurried off in search of her sister.
    I picked my way back through camp,
fielding questions and containing squabbles. Nothing like what’d
happened with Nick. More like what came from living in close
quarters with the same people day in and day out.
    Wes was waiting for me when I finally
made it back. He pulled me in for a hug and I pretended not to have
a pounding headache as I listened telepathically to the rest of the
pack try to figure out what’d happened. Or whether Nick had lost
his mind.
    Please don’t ask me to
explain any of that because I have no idea.
    “ He’s getting worse,” Wes
said when I pulled away.
    “ Yeah.”
    “ What’s