Waking up sucked nearly as much as passing out in the freezing-cold mud with an alpha werewolf threatening to kill me, but a lot less than getting chained up and chanted at by a shaman trying to turn me into a slave. So hey, chalk one up in the win column.
I blinked, then blinked again, and then gave up when my vision stayed stubbornly fuzzy. I was dry, and I should have been warm — I was in a bed, and under a pile of blankets — but I was goosebumpy and shivering in spite of what felt like a real feather comforter and a set of flannel sheets.
Looking around the best I could with only half my vision, I caught glimpses of ugly wood paneling, a ceiling painted mustard-yellow, and a few other items of bedroom furniture, probably a dresser and a nightstand and maybe a chair. There was some kind of psychedelic poster on the opposite wall, although thankfully I couldn't see it very well.
Not that anyone had ever accused werewolves of having a lot of aesthetic sense, but seriously? I was probably going to die in a place that looked like a set designer from That 70s Show threw up everywhere.
I tried to sit up, but yeah, still cursed. My muscles quivered with the effort of scooting up the bed and tucking the pillows behind my head a little more firmly to prop it up. There was a faintly musty, mildewy smell that made my esophagus tighten up and bile rise to the back of my throat.
"Hello?" I called out. "Anyone there?" Even if they were going to kill me — or, to save effort and blood clean- up, just let me die — they'd probably give me a glass of water, right?
A second later, heavy footsteps came nearer, and then the bedroom door opened to admit two werewolves, one of them welcome, the other one definitely not.
Jace Reese was five years or so older than Lucian, but aside from also being an alpha, he didn't have much in common with his younger — definitely not little — brother.
He wasn't glaring like he wanted me dead ten minutes ago, for one thing. He hadn't liked his cousin Jared very much, maybe because Jared had been an unbelievable prick who openly plotted to take Jace's place leading the pack. I thought Jace's stance was pretty reasonable.
Lucian, on the other hand, always thought Jared could do no wrong. When Jared died under questionable circumstances, Lucian blamed me. After all, if Jared hadn't been glamoured, or ensorcelled, or whatever Lucian thought I'd done to get his cousin to fuck a warlock, he wouldn't have had to sneak out of the pack's territory without telling anyone where he was going.
I thought Jared could have solved the whole sneaking- around problem by admitting he was seeing me to his family, but hey, I was biased against being the guy's dirty little secret, so sue me.
"Landon," Jace said with a nod. His tone wasn't exactly welcoming, but he didn't seem hostile, either. Lucian, glowering behind him with his arms crossed over his massive chest, had that covered for both of them. Jace just sounded...wary. And I couldn't really blame him, under the circumstances. "Looks like you ran into some trouble with the Kimballs."
"Looks like he's probably working with the Kimballs to kill you," Lucian grumbled, in the tone of a man who'd already said the same thing twenty times.
Jace turned his head to shoot him a quelling glance. "You know what they say about assumptions."
"Yeah, you're already an ass," Lucian shot back.
I really couldn't stand the guy, but if I hadn't been so weak, I would've had to fight not to laugh at the look of disgust on Jace's face. I'd always wished I had a brother, but these two made me wonder if it was worth it. I'd known all the Reese boys since we were kids, and I'd soothed the desperate, grinding loneliness and envy I always felt when I saw them together by reminding myself how much they beat each other up and argued.
And then Jace gently bumped Lucian's shoulder with his, a gesture of such understanding affection that my chest ached. Yeah, it was worth it. Too bad my only family had been a father who saw me as a walking magic battery.
"They definitely want to kill you," I put in, and the brothers turned to look at me in unison, two pairs of eerie light-blue eyes fixed on me with a little too much intensity. So maybe they had a few things in common, despite Jace's dark hair and slightly less-huge build and general ability not to be a dick. "But I'm not working with them." I had to struggle for breath to get the rest of the words out. This curse fucking sucked. "More like doing their dirty work for them, if they'd had their way. They kidnapped me last night."
Jace's eyes narrowed. "Kidnapped you."
My cheeks heated, and I couldn't quite make eye contact. His disbelief was kind of flattering, but convincing him was going to require admitting what a fucking idiot I'd been.
"There was this guy, okay? At this bar. He distracted me. And he managed to get enough witchbane in my drink that by the time I realized, I was already too drained to fight back."
"Distracted you how exactly?" Lucian demanded gruffly.
"How do you think?" I snapped. "We were in a club. You do the math."
Lucian made a gagging sound. "Can't keep an eye on your drink when you're bent over in a bathroom stall, right?"
Fury shot through me, fierce and bright enough to halfway counteract the draining effects of the curse for a second. I sat upright, fists balled in the blankets. "Fuck you, Lucian. Like you've never been ambushed by a vamp because you were too busy going down on a biker chick in a back alley. Oh right, you have."
He turned bright red and actually snarled at me, teeth bared. "What the fuck do you know about —"
"Just what Jared told me," I snarled right back. Not as impressively, since, you know, no giant canines sprouting out of my gums, but I gave it my best.
That shut him up. He froze, every one of his muscles going rigid at once.
Jace wrapped his hand around Ian's bicep, squeezing hard enough to break the arm of a normal human. "Out, Lucian."
"I'm not leaving you alone with this son-of-a —"
"Now," Jace said, low and quiet. It was more effective than shouting would have been. I wasn't a were, and I wasn't Jace's subordinate, but even I felt the pack leader's power behind that one syllable.
Jace stared Lucian down until he stalked out, muttering. He slammed the door, and then there was silence. It was pretty clear he was standing right outside and not going anywhere. Jace shrugged, sighed, and crossed the room to drag the chair over to the side of the bed.
Without Lucian there to put up a front for, I sagged back against the pillows, my head swimming in circles. Jace would give me a fair hearing, and he already knew how weak I was. There wasn't much point in trying to hide it.
"All right, Landon," he said, sitting down and resting his chin in one propped hand. "How about you focus less on pissing Lucian off and more on telling me what the fuck is actually going on here."
"But he's so easy to piss off."
Jace gave me a long look I couldn't interpret. "Not usually."
Right, I believed that. I'd never seen Lucian with less than a scowl on his face. "Whatever."
"Whatever works for me. What happened last night?"
"Can I get a glass of water first?" My throat was already dry as a desert, which didn't seem fair, considering how much rainwater I'd absorbed that morning. "And maybe a bathroom?"
Jace was actually grinding his teeth together by the time he'd helped me to the en-suite bathroom, waited for me to take a wobbly piss and fill a glass from the tap a few times, and then helped me get back to bed, but finally I was settled again.
I took a deep breath. "I was at the Morning Star last night..."