Hunting Ground [Claiming Series, #3]

- 8 -

The drive back to the city sped by, mostly because the snow had long since stopped and the roads were clear. There was little enough talk, but the tension in the car was palpable.

Kane had folded himself into the backseat with Tessa, and Julie sat up front beside Asher. Neither vampire seemed at all happy with the turn of events.

Not that Tessa was. But on the way back she could feel an almost palpable gulf between her and Kane, bigger than what she had felt just the night before. Admittedly she had complicated their lives by bringing her pack in on this. As scared as she was, she wasn't sure she had been wrong.

            But Kane probably thought so, and it made her ache to think he might be made at her. Even the comfort he had offered such a short time ago as they sat in the snow seemed to have been temporary and to have drifted into the past somehow.

            It was Asher ho broke the silence. "You're going to be in serious danger, Julie. If those rogues figure out that you're thwarting them by killing the newborns before then can awake, they're going to want you with a vengeance"

            "They can't get at me during the daylight. By tomorrow night, I should have everyone in the morgue convinced to do the brain studies first."

            "I hope so. Because that's the last place I want you to be tomorrow night. By then they may figure out that something is going wrong with the newborns."

            Kane spoke. "The morgue might actually be a good place to meet them first. Assuming we want to draw them out. If they go there to protect the newborns or to find out what's going wrong, we can prepare."

            "Good thinking," Asher said.

            Tessa raised a question. "So when you set out to change someone, it never fails?"

            "Never," Kane answered. "No one has ever heard of a case. So they'll know someone is interrupting the process somehow, and the easiest place to look first is at the morgue."

            "But there must be others who won't be found until it's too late."

            "Clearly," he answered, his voice heavy. "Clearly."

            She longed to reach out to him. To take his hand and feel a reassuring squeeze from his fingers, but when she looked at him, the moonlight trailing through the window told her that he was as rigid and unyielding as a statue.

            He couldn't blame her for Julie's having to go back. That was clearly her decision. So he must be angrier than he had let on about her bringing in her pack. But she didn't know how to ask. Nothing about him invited questioning, and certainly not about a topic that had become so important. Or maybe she didn't want to hear the answer.

            "Try again," he said shortly.

            So she tried her mother again. No answer. "I'll call her in the morning. In town, they'll prefer human shape when it's light." She didn't want to think about all the other reasons her mother might not be answering. Couldn't bear to think about them. She had to believe the pack had spread out and was taking an inventory of the scents around the city.

            "Leave her a message with Soren's address," Kane said. "At least let her know in case she plans to head back to the cabin."

            So Tessa dialed again, hoping against hope that this time her mother would answer. Instead, she was thrown into voice mail and she repeated the message and the address Kane gave her.