“How, exactly, am I a hypocrite? I’m not sleeping with a human.”
“Okay, you’re not beingdirectlyhypocritical, in, like, a literal sense,” she amended. “But you let every asshole in that bar date human girls. We play “Another One Bites The Dust” and hand out a free shot every time one of them gets dumped. If you aren’t trying to control their lives, why are you trying to controlmine?”
“I’m not trying to control anyone’s life. Not yours, and not Vance’s. What I’m trying to do is keep you safe and uphold the rules I set for the members of this zone, both of which arevitallyimportant to me. And one of those rules—one of the most important—is that you are off limits to the shifters in the zone.Allof them. If I go back on my word, I’ll be eroding my own authority. They won’t believe there are any real consequences if Vance is able to ignore the rules. And this isn’t justarule, it’stherule.”
“But it’s a rule you had no right to make! I get that Faythe accidentally infected that guy years ago, but that sounds like a random anomaly. I mean, guys around here sleep with human girls all the time, and that has never happened to any of them. Right?”
I could only nod. We would definitely know if a woman one of them had slept with had been infected. Especially considering our recent scouring of local hospital records. But…
“That’s a different situation. Their random hookups and short-term relationship disasters are one thing, but you and Vance…that looked serious. And not new or recent. Which means you’re taking that risk over and over, while most of those other girls out there—” I waved my arm in the general direction of Buford. “—will dump their shifter boyfriend fairly quickly and never be in harm’s way again.” I sighed, silently begging her to understand, even if she wasn’t happy about it. “And Vance knows that. He agrees with me. But he broke the rule anyway.”
“And what does that tell you?” she demanded, still clutching her bag. Determined not to settle in or make herself at home. “We both knew how you felt, and we both broke the rule anyway. For the pasteightmonths.”
Eight months. Two-thirds of a year. Nearly half my time as Marshal.
“How is that possible? How did Tucker not know?” And despite the fact that his apartment was directly below Vance’s, he hadn’t known. That had been clear in his reaction.
Davey shrugged. “Tucker usually works the early shift at the bar, and he goes out of town a lot. I think he has a guy up north. We worked around his schedule.”
That could not have been easy. And I understood her point: this was not a casual relationship. But that only emphasizedmypoint: they were taking that risk far too often.
“I want in,” Davey said.
I crossed my arms over my chest. “In—?”
“I want to volunteer for Faythe’s program.”
“No.” Pain shot through my chest at the thought, though I’d known it was coming. “No. Absolutely not.”
“I’m exactly what she’s looking for. A female family member of multiple known shifters, who already knows about your world. Who’s in it, even if I’m not of it. And I want to beofit, Charley. I don’t care if you’d actually be my boss then. I’ll follow orders, I swear to god. I’ll do everything right. And then you wouldn’t have to worry about me, because I’d be able to take care of myself!”
“No! It isn’t safe! They haven’t even started testing the procedure yet, and even once they do, it’ll take a long time to perfect. And even then, it won’t be risk-free.”
She threw her hands in the air, her bag bobbing on her shoulder. “Nothing is risk-free!”
No argument there. “Some of those women will still die, Davey. They’re not all going to make it.” Faythe hadn’t said that aloud, but she knew it. “The only difference, in those cases, is that the women will be choosing to take that risk.” Though I couldn’t personally understand why they would.
“Exactly! Yes, my choice comes with risks, but it also comes with benefits. It’ll let me into a world I’ve been stuck on the outside of for three years. It’ll let mebelongwith the people I already know and love.”
“No.”
Storm clouds rolled across her eyes, and she looked for all the world like Ben. So determined. So strong. “Iamgoing to volunteer, and you can’t stop me.”
“Of course, I can.” Every word I said bruised me deep inside, but I said them anyway, through teeth I couldn’t quite unclench. I’d rather be bruised from hurting her feelings than destroyed from losing her. “I’ll be running the program with Faythe. I can exclude you.”
“Nowyou’re being a literal hypocrite. You just promised to help Faythe do the very thing you won’t let me do.” Davey crossed her arms over her chest, pinning the bag to her side. Mirroring my stance. “But I don’t think she’ll let you exclude me. I’m the sister of a woman who actually survived infection—the most genetically similar to you of anyone in the world. I’m their single best chance at making that happen again. At least at the beginning of the program. And I’mgoingto be first in line.”
She marched past me, and I darted in front of her to block the door, my pulse racing. Terror burning in my veins. “The first women will be the least likely to survive. The doctors will still be working on the technique and the medications, and—”
“No, the first women will be themostlikely to survive, because there will be fewer of them, and all the attention will be on them, and the program will have all this pressure to succeed, so the council won’t shut it down. And they’ll be testing that new antibiotic compound in the lab before they ever inject it into a human. By the time—”
“Davey, we can readdress this after the program is up and running. When Faythe and her doctors have proven it can be done. Consistently.”
She shook her head. “I’m going to help them prove it.”
“No—”
“And then you won’t be able to keep me and Vance apart.”
