[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
Page 47 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html by way of Louisiana. New Orleans." But when she glanced up at him again, her gaze had hardened just that quickly. "But I figured since you'd been skulking around my apartment, you would know that by now." "I never went into your apartment or violated your personal space." "Yeah, right," she scoffed, taking a liberal sip of coffee. "I told you once before, I am no liar. I won't say it again. My second point is this," he said, setting his cup down with angry precision. "My goal was to be sure you weren't savaged. My other goal was to find the infected one. 'Skulking,' as you call it, wasn't necessary. Going through your personal effects wasn't necessary to do that so I didn't." "All right, my bad But given all these circumstances, I have every right to think the way I do." He couldn't argue the point, especially not while sitting so close to her and absorbing her dancing shadows. They played across the table as she moved, touching his hand, grazing his skin, teasing the wolf within him. He watched her move the table flatware nimbly between her fingers in an absent gesture, not sure if it was a warning or just something she did when nervous. Then he realized what he'd said and why she perhaps seemed to mellow by slow degrees: he'd said his first task was to protect her, then the community at large, and not the other way around as it should have been. The tribe first, the pack first, with individual concerns always second. Whoa& "Okay," she said more quietly. "Let's say I believe that you haven't gone into my apartment, how'd you get my last name?" "Your brothers in arms called you that at the bar a lot more than they called you 'Sasha.'" She nodded and peered at him over the rim of her cup. He was practically lost in her smoky eyes until she lowered her gaze from his. "Right& at Ronnie's Road Hog Tavern& where you were spying on us for months." "Gathering intelligence, much like I'm sure you do on your missions. That doesn't make me a bad person, just informed. I needed to be sure, not just act on a whim." "That's valid," she said quietly after a moment. "So, the tribal councils, plural, are Blackfoot and Ute, then?" He nodded, his voice temporarily failing him as her hackles lowered and her tone lost its strident edge. "And more& each tribe has a legend of the honorable wolf as old as the tribes themselves," he murmured. "There's also a larger Federation of Clans." "In your culture, they're good wolves in general?" no She looked up at him, her eyes seeking. This had to be the truth; he'd confirmed what she'd heard in South Korea. Again for a moment his only response was a nod. "Then& tell me where the bad ones come from. What happened?" Her gaze searched his face, her eyes furtive and drinking from his. She wanted to hear his version of the story. "We have a saying that there is a good wolf and a bad wolf in each man or woman. That's the shadow wolf, a different species than the other." She shook her head. Did he mean good werewolves were shadow wolves or was there a completely new entity he was describing? Rather than tip her hand about how much she knew, she threw out a question as bait. "I hear you, Max& but how does one know which one will win, which one will be the one that comes out?" Her voice had become so quiet that he could barely hear her. She'd meant to bait him, but found a partial confession in her statement. Battle fatigue was wearing on her; it had to be the phase of the moon. "My parents were good people. Military, they tell me. Dad from New Orleans Cajun folks, my mom was African American from Alabama. They died in the line of duty in Rwanda. But Mom was attacked here, Stateside, before all that. Guess back then they were just learning about it all." She let out a resigned breath. "Anyway, short story is, she got the virus while carrying me and unwittingly passed it on. Does that make me a bad wolf, or a good one?" "I'm sorry, Sasha. For the loss." Page 48 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html "Yeah, well, I only did the early years in foster care, until Doc was able to rearrange his life to take me in. I survived." She looked at him hard, hating that her eyes were probably sad and the pain within them deep. But somehow just saying what she had seemed to ease the m burden of her recent loss. "That's why I hate to give up on anybody I care about& what if they'd given up on me? I just want to know which wolf it is and how to control it." He fought not to place his hand over hers. There was so much to tell her, and so much, still, that he didn't know. But he accepted her confession as the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |