Fuck that guy. Scotty and Blade were going to locate every wendigo out there and put them out of commission before Skoll and Jon needed to take their next piss.
“Okay,” Scotty said, jamming her finger into Jon’s sternum. She could never let shit like this go. Also…hot. “Why do you think we’re overrated?”
Amused, Jon looked down at her finger. He wrapped his big hand around hers and gently pushed it away. But he didn’t release her. “Maybe notoverrated. Privileged, I guess.”
Privileged? Scotty’s family history was one giant tragedy. Mace had a tricky history with two fathers, a mother who was once an angel, a grandfather who was the Grim Reaper, and a bitter half-brother.
And Blade…his insides ached just thinking about it. His brother, Rade, had been traumatized as an infant by a psycho demon, and his baby brother, Chaos, had been slaughtered while in Stryke’s care. Their family had been torn apart, and Stryke only made it worse by walking away from them all. Now, he was back, and everyone acted as if nothing had happened.
Blade wasn’t ready to forgive and forget. So, naturally, nowhewas the bad guy. He was about to tell Jon where he could shove his opinion when the guy started blathering again.
“Let’s face it,” he said, “you guys grew up in palaces, with servants and guards. You were trained to fight from the day you were born. You’re like, blessed by angels and crap.”
“Not all of us.” Scotty jerked her hand away from his. “And fuck you. We’ve gone through some bad shit. Our lives haven’t all beenprivileged.”
“Really?” Jon snorted. “Ever gone hungry for days because one of your parents worked three jobs and the other was an addict? Ever been sold for drug money? Ever been hated just because someone in your family is the wrong color or wrong breed?”
“Seriously?” Scotty blinked, taken aback. “I can’t even imagine.”
“We have a sun bear in our lineage,” Jon said. “Sun bear shifters are small and considered cowardly and weak in the bear-shifter community. They’ve nearly been hunted to extinction. Soon, they’ll be as extinct as the pandas.”
“There were panda shifters?” Scotty got that look on her face, the one she got when she saw a kitten. “Aw, they must have been adorable.”
Jon’s gaze turned inward, his expression sad. “They were a gentle people.”
“That’s awful.” She moved one of the lanterns to the bathroom, gathering clothes and speaking as she went. “Is it rude to ask what bear species you are? Because whatever you turned into was huge. Bigger than any grizzly I’ve ever seen.”
“And shaggy,” Blade said. “I didn’t think grizzlies were that shaggy.”
“My family is from a rare, ancient line of prehistoric bears.” Jon started pulling stuff out of his pack and rearranging it.
“You mean, like a cave bear? Or a short-faced bear?” Scotty called out from where she was changing behind the curtain. “Aleka was always shoving pictures of dinosaurs and woolly mammoths and crap in my face during her paleontology phase.”
Blade remembered Aleka going through many phases before settling on demon archaeology. Growing up, she’d been one of the few people who could hold a conversation with Stryke. Hell, she’d been one of the very few whowantedto have a conversation with Stryke. Having brainiac siblings was something he, Scotty, and Mace all had in common, and something that came up often, since all their siblings were huge pains in the ass.
No one denied that Blade had it the worst, though.
“Wouldn’t that make you royalty among bear shifters?” Blade asked.
Jon snorted. “And now you see why having a sun bear in the family would be a huge scandal. A dozen of my family members were run out of society and left penniless. But not before they sterilized us.”
“That’s insane, man,” Blade said. Now, he felt bad about hating the guy.
But he still didn’t want him sleeping with Scotty.
“Enough chin wagging,” Jon said, clearly wanting to change the subject. He gestured to the supplies they’d brought. “We’re wasting time.”
He was right, and they got to work putting together light packs containing various supplies, water, purification tablets, protein bars, and one first aid kit per team. Then, as twilight stretched across the forest, turning the distant mountains gray, they weaponed-up and headed out.
“Let’s take the main trail and then split up at the river,” Jon suggested as they stepped off the porch.
Sounded fine to Blade. Scotty, dressed identically in black tactical pants and a turtleneck reinforced with ensorcelled, puncture-resistant thread, gave an affirming nod, too, and they slipped into the forest.
Dark shadows grew darker as they navigated the worn trail. Daycreatures gave way to night creatures, and silence descended, save the occasional hoot from an owl and the drone of nocturnal insects.
One of the insects buzzed past his head. Fucking mosquitoes. He lit up hisdermoire, and several of the bloodthirsty bastards popped as if they’d landed on an insect zapper.
Skoll looked at him in surprise. “I thought Sems needed physical contact for their power to work.”
