Page 30 of Bad Blood Bear

Xander just said, “You’ve been spending too much time shitting in the woods, Teddy Bear, and not enough time being homeless in the city.”

He looked around the room again, and then shoved aside a small bookcase filled with junk. Behind it was a hole in the wall leading to the storeroom next door, which had more junk jammed against its door, preventing it from being opened from the other side.

“What’s that?” Tank asked, curious.

Xander gave him an unreadable look. “Bolt hole,” he said. “In case people come in the front, she can crawl through here and get out that window.” He pointed to the window in the room next door. “Give me a sec,” he added.

Xander crawled through into the storeroom and unpiled some boxes in the corner. The bottom one was half full of toilet paper. It made Tank smile and feel sad at the same time. Lissa had been so happy to have toilet paper.

Xander was pawing through the individually wrapped rolls, and found what looked like a sheet of white paper folded in half. He climbed back through the hole and handed it to Tank. “That’s all I got,” he said. “If we missed something, she’ll have to come back and get it.”

Tank unfolded the paper. It was actually two sheets of printer paper, with another thirty-six dollars folded inside. She hadn’t been spending much of the money he’d given her.

The top paper was a printout of a web page advertising organically grown products, including artisan bread. He looked down at the logo. The People of Ursus, and a cute black bear eating honey.

The next page was a color printout of a photo, maybe also from the website, of Lissa and a little wrinkled man who looked like he was about a hundred and three.

Brother Matthias. He was taking a bite out of something—a slice of bread maybe—and they were both laughing.

She must have printed this off the internet sometime after she’d left, he realized. At a library or coffee shop. The only keepsake she had.

She must have really cared about Brother Matthias. And this Damien fucker had probably murdered him.

Note to self: when you kill Brother Damien, do it slowly.

He put the papers and money into the box with the rest of her things. Xander didn’t say anything more, just picked up the box and started walking out. Tank grabbed the other half-filled box off the counter in the convenience store as they passed by, and they carried them out to the truck.

They were halfway back to the compound before Xander spoke. He said, “I was Turned, too, you know.”

Tank hadn’t known. Xander never talked about himself. Tank just stayed quiet, letting Xander talk.

“It was a girl. Cindi,” he said. “With an ‘i’. Who the fuck names a panther Cindi? She used to sign her name with little hearts over the ‘i’s.” He shook his head. “I was all crazy in love with her, and one night when we were in bed she just bit the shit out of my shoulder. No warning, no, ‘hey, do you want to be a panther for the rest of your life?’ Nothing.”

Tank said inadequately, “That sucks.”

Xander gave a mirthless laugh. “Yeah, it does. My animal would come out randomly and just tear things up. I couldn’t hold a job, couldn’t see my friends, couldn’t be around my family. And every time Cindi got near me, I Changed involuntarily and attacked her.” He paused. “I was pretty pissed at her when I wasn’t Changed, too, come to think of it.”

He stared out the window. “I tried to join a couple of crews, but it never worked out. My animal was too messed up, and I didn’t know shit about being a shifter. So I just went rogue, and then somebody who didn’t like me much sent Alexander Fucking Grant’s hunters my address. Hard to believe, right? ‘Cause I’m such a nice guy.”

He went silent, his hand out the window, running it up and down the air currents in waves.

“She might be scared to let you take care of her, but do it anyway,” he said quietly. “Nobody deserves that shit.”