“Sam isn’t going to leave you alone, Layla,” Rianne said with a hard look on her face. “Don’t get me wrong. I appreciate him saving my life. I didn’t want to come back here either. But I’ve had plenty of time to think about how my life isn’t hanging out with vampires. Frankly, I want nothing to do with them, and neither should you.”
“What does that mean, then? You want to live here?” My stomach began to swirl with nerves and despair. I wanted my sisters to be happy, but Rianne didn’t like my uncle any more than I did. Unless someone had brainwashed her.
“Actually, I would rather live here than with vamps. Come on, Layla. That’s not who we are. And let’s not forget that you were fucked-up when you were with Sam. It was like you changed overnight.”
I pursed my lips. “That was because of his blood.”
She scratched her neck. “I still don’t understand why you even tasted his blood.”
So many things had happened in that short time span that I was beginning to wonder if I’d dreamed all of it. But she was right. And I had explained to her and Jordyn why I’d bitten Sam—he’d been on the verge of sinking his fangs into me. My quick response had been to bite him, although I had no reason to chomp on him during the throes of sex. But I wasn’t about to divulge that.
“It’s in the past,” I said. “There’s no sense in hashing it out again.”
She sighed. “For a second, I swore you were turning into the creature we hated and hunted.”
“Believe me, I thought I was too. But our parents would’ve told us if we carried the gene.”
She laughed. “You sound like you still believe you could turn into a vampire. We don’t have the gene. Even if we did, you would need Dad’s blood to make the change, and if he were alive, he would have to be a vampire.”
I swallowed a big gulp of coffee as I shivered. “I know. Let’s talk about something else.” I wanted to put the past behind me.
Jordyn breezed in with a huge smile, rosy cheeks, and a glint in her light-brown eyes that told us she was up to no good. I swear, our younger sister had been giddy for some reason. Then again, I’d been bedridden, so I’d probably missed something.
She slipped her phone into the back pocket of her black jeans. “Coast is clear. Cousin Noah is cleaning out his truck. The other cousins are in school. But we should talk before Aunt Tab comes in from the barn.”
Rianne hunched her shoulders. “There’s nothing to talk about.”
Something was off with her, but I couldn’t pinpoint what.
Jordyn fixed herself a cup of coffee before sitting beside Rianne. “What do you mean? We need to figure out our next move.”
Rianne stuck out her chin. “I know what mine is. I’ve been waiting for Layla to get over the flu to tell you both. I’m heading into Bozeman today to talk to an Air Force recruiter.” She’d had that dream of the military and flying jets for as long as I could remember, yet she didn’t sound as excited as I thought she would.
Jordyn lost the gleam in her eyes. “What? You can’t leave us.”
“Jordyn,” I said in a quiet tone, “we’re not going back to Massachusetts. It’s suicide. I’m also taking a break from hunting.” I couldn’t say I would completely give up our family heritage, but I needed to do something different for a while. “I’ve been thinking of the police academy.”
Both of my sisters reared back.
Rianne perked up, no doubt relieved that I wasn’t about to date a vampire. “That’s great. You would make a kick-ass cop.”
Jordyn gnawed on her bottom lip, suddenly despondent. I couldn’t help remembering that look when she lost her best friend in the seventh grade. Marybeth Wilson and Jordyn had been inseparable since first grade, but Marybeth moved out of state when her parents divorced.
I tucked my auburn hair behind my ear. “Jordyn, you realize that if we go back to Sam and company, Uncle Jack would cut off our heads.”
She mashed her lips into a thin line. “Since when do you care what he thinks?”
Rianne turned in her seat slightly to face Jordyn. “Why are you so hung up on the military vampires? Have you forgotten that Roman kidnapped you and a wolf shifter wanted to kill you?”
Jordyn pushed up the sleeves of her soft, pink V-neck sweater as if getting ready to throw down with Rianne. “I want to do some good in this world. Why not help them protect humanity?” She regarded me. “You told us that Sam’s father, Steven Mason, approached Dad to work for him. Did Steven ever tell you why?”
I dipped back into my memory and the conversation Steven and I had had in the viewing room on the naval base. I couldn’t remember if I’d asked him that very thing or not. “I don’t recall. What does that matter, anyway?”
“Well, I called him,” Jordyn said. “I asked him why he wanted Dad to work for him.”
Rianne and I looked at Jordyn like she’d lost her mind.
“Are you kidding me?” Rianne’s voice rose in pitch.
