Blood's Shadow: The Lycanthropy Files, Book 3 by Cecilia Dominic Read Free Book Online Page A

with certainty, but he seemed to shudder. “And here we are, then. I’ll just leave your car here so you’re not blocking anyone in.”
    “Thanks.” I made a mental note, addled as it may have been, to ask him about the Order later. We’d always maintained a cordial tone with our Council dealings, but this was the first day he’d decided to open up, and he’d only whetted my appetite for information.
    We got out of the car, and he held me steady with one hand as we made our way up the front walk.
    “Be careful,” he said. “You remind me more and more of him as you get older.” With that comment, which could have been a warning or compliment, he disappeared into the night.
    I rang the bell and leaned against a post. Lonna opened the door.
    “Gabriel?” Her eyes widened when she saw my face. “Come in. Max!”
    I stumbled forward, and she and Max caught me and brought me to a sofa. The house smelled of Italian comfort food—lasagna, garlic bread, and the clean scent of salad with vinaigrette along with them. I guessed there was a chocolate cake somewhere. And of course, alcohol.
    Selene walked out of the kitchen, and I bit back a snarl. Her friend had done this to me. She stepped back when she saw my expression, so I tried to make it more neutral. My head throbbed, and I grimaced instead.
    “What happened?” Lonna asked. “You look awful.”
    “I did something stupid and got whacked on the head,” I told her. “I may have a concussion.”
    Max, a medical doctor, came in with an old-fashioned doctor’s bag. “I knew this would come in handy sometime.” He took out a light and shone it in my eyes, then felt around my head. “For bone fragments,” he explained, “although it’s definitely possible to get a concussion without any damage to the skull.”
    I hissed when his fingers found a very tender spot.
    “It’s just a bump, but no fracture,” he said. “Happens all the time in sports—poor kids’ brains just get rattled around. Did you lose consciousness?”
    “For a few minutes.”
    He continued through a long list of questions and finished with, “I think you’ll be fine, but I want to get a CT to make sure there’s not any fluid buildup. We’ve got one at the Institute.”
    “I’m aware of that,” I said. “Bloody expensive machines.”
    Selene had been watching, and I couldn’t read her expression. Did she suspect I’d had a run-in with her friends? I wanted to tell her not to go anywhere, I needed to talk to her, but I didn’t want to spook her into going into hiding. I didn’t have enough to arrest her, so I’d just have to be patient and corner her later. Once I got rid of this damned headache.
    “I’m really sorry, but I need to go,” Selene said. “Gabriel, I hope you feel better.” In what seemed like a flash, she left.
    “Interesting,” was Lonna’s comment. “Y’all go ahead. I’ll stay here and clean up.”
    Max drove me to the Institute. Once we cleared the woods around the drive, I couldn’t help but think it looked sinister looming above the lawn and its stone walls lit with yellow semicircles from the spotlights. Only dim lights shone from within the building. I noticed the difference between when I’d approached it that morning and now, both with regard to how it looked and how I felt. This morning, I had been confident, a little impatient, and curious on my official visit as the Council member who had advocated for it and wanted to make sure it was, indeed, almost ready to start its mission. I thought I had the backing of my peers. Now I felt wobbly and uncertain, both physically and with regard to the politics around it. I would say meeting Selene was a bright spot, but not since her friend had bashed me on the head. At least David had demonstrated a crack in his armor, and the shadowy figure who had been my father took on more definition in my foggy memory.
    “Here we are,” Max said and pulled into one of the Co-Director parking