Turning her head, Tess had a moment of lucidity when she looked at Chloe through the glass separating them. “How could you do this to me? You lied, and now I have to lie. Luca lied! Everyone lied.... It was al a lie.” She sobbed, her shoulder jerking upward as if some invisible force propel ed the joint. “Everything’s breaking and breaking.”
As if to emphasize the point, every bone in her arm snapped. Chloe clamped a hand over her mouth, closing her eyes against the accusations on Tess’s face. There was nothing Chloe could say. It was her fault. If she’d walked away from the Normal when she should have, Tess would never have come into contact with Luca or Smith or Smith’s she-wolf. If Chloe hadn’t lied and kept lying, she wouldn’t have turned her best friend’s entire life into a lie.
A gentle hand settled on her shoulder, jerking her out of her misery. “It’s not your fault. She won’t even remember she said any of that to you when she’s done Changing.”
Peyton. Chloe’s muscles squealed in protest when she whipped around to look at the wolf behind her.
She gritted her teeth to stop a groan of pain and offered him a cool stare. “So, you’re not dead.”
“Not this time, no.” He gestured to a chair against the wal . “Do you mind if I sit?”
She shrugged. “If you aren’t dead, then why aren’t you in jail?”
Pul ing the chair to her side, he eased into it and sighed. “Because, despite al appearances, I’m not a criminal.” He angled a glance at her. “I am—I was—undercover.”
“You were a double agent.” Blatant disbelief colored her voice, but she couldn’t help it. “So, torturing me was just part of your cover? Because I have to tel you, you suck at your job if you’re supposed to protect innocent people.”
A dimple tucked into his cheek, but that was as close as he came to an actual grin. “I had to prove myself to Smith. They don’t just let you in to terrorist groups if you know the secret handshake.”
“Uh huh.” She crossed her arms over her chest, then dropped them when the motion pul ed at injured tissue. “If that was an attempt at an apology, you suck at those, too.”
“Thank you, Doctor. For the record, that wasn’t an apology,” he retorted drily. “I had a choice that night. I could either give them you, or I could give them Ivan Nemov’s son. I thought you’d prefer the cal I made.” He arched an eyebrow, but she remained stubbornly silent. “If you don’t believe me, and you stil think I should be locked up, maybe you should check your precognition and see if it’s tel ing you to run from the big, bad wolf.”
She glared at him, but couldn’t deny that the voices in her head were silent. No warnings of danger whispered around her. “Fine. It doesn’t mean I trust you as far as I can throw you, but you’re not completely evil.”
“Thank you, Doctor.” If possible, his tone went even drier. “My superiors wil be so pleased by your professional assessment of my character.”
“You know I’m not that kind of doctor. Even if I were, you’d be beyond my help.” She rol ed her eyes at his sarcasm, but his words caught her anyway. “Your superiors—Luca—knew you were a double agent, right?
Did he tel you which of us—”
“No. I mean, yes, of course he knew. It was his idea for me to infiltrate Smith’s organization. But, no, I made the decision to sacrifice you instead of Alex.” He tugged at the leg of his pants, twitching out a nonexistent wrinkle. “Which I’m sure Kingston wil want to discuss with me when he gets back.”
“He knows I would want Alex spared, if a choice had to be made.”
“It did.” Peyton shrugged fatalistical y. “Whether he wants to acknowledge that or not is the real question.”
“You’l forgive me if I kind of hope he punches you in the face real y hard.” She gave the wolf a saccharine smile, then decided to change the subject, just to throw him off. He might be able to answer one of her many questions for her. “What happened to the wolves Smith had locked up?”
“The same thing that’s going to happen to your friend.” He angled his chin toward Tess. “I’ve spoken to the local pack, explained what happened, and vouched for al of the new wolves. They’l be trained as Magickals and given a place in the pack, if they want to join.” He hooked an ankle over his opposite knee.
“The Al -Magickal Council is paying for the training, and for al their medical bil s. Your aunt had a hand in that.”
“Of course, she did.” Chloe smiled. Mil ie would have been al over this, just as Chloe had told Smith.
Mil ie had her fingers in every political pie, and anything that involved her niece’s case would have garnered special attention. Chloe couldn’t wait to see her again. She’d missed the old witch.
Peyton shifted in his seat. “I volunteered to train Dr. Jones myself. She worked as a pathologist for the Normal side of the FBI, so our people are eager to get their hands on her. She’l be useful to us once she’s wolf-trained.”
“What does Luca think about that?”
His face went careful y blank. If he’d been difficult to read before, now he was impossible. “Caval i is a vampire. Dr. Jones is a werewolf. Or she wil be when she pul s through this.”
That he stated it as a fact made Chloe thaw toward him just a little. He had no doubt that Tess would make the Change to wolf successful y. But he was right about Luca and Tess’s relationship. Vampires didn’t mix their blood with anyone else’s, especial y not their animalistic cousins. Before, Luca might have been al owed to turn her into a vampire, but now . . . Whatever possibility there had been for the two lovers was over.
Chloe ached for al the blows her friend had received, and for al those that were stil coming. She hoped Peyton was right and Tess wouldn’t remember what she’d said, that she’d let Chloe help her. Selfishly, she hoped she didn’t lose her best friend.
She turned on Peyton. “You’d better do a good job training her. She’d better be welcomed into the wolf packs with open arms.”
“I wil . She wil .” Peyton rested his hand on his thigh, his manner and tone as unruffled as ever. “You have my word on that.”
Her mouth worked for a moment as she examined his face. She wished she could tel if he was lying, but the man made his living going undercover and convincing evil people he was evil, too. The clear memory of bronze blistering her skin the two other times she’d met him made her voice rough. “Your word doesn’t mean much to me, Peyton. You hurt her in any way, decide to torture her to save someone else or to save your own ass, and I wil hound you to the ends of the earth. I wil take you apart piece by piece, slowly, and nail your wolfie hide to the wal . Is that in any way unclear to you?”
The corners of his lips twitched as if he was fighting a smile, but it never formed. “We’re clear.”
“Good.” Her eyes narrowed to slits. “I’m not kidding either. I don’t care if you’re a law enforcement officer or if it’s il egal to threaten you. I will do what I’m tel ing you.”
“I believe you. Ma’am.” He tipped his chin in a respectful nod.
She sniffed. “Wel , at least you’re not an idiot.”
The twitch was a bit more pronounced this time, and his midnight blue eyes glittered. “Kingston’s going to have his hands ful with you.”