Raising Innocence: A Rylee Adamson Novel(75)

Alex healed over the next twenty-four hours, and we got moved to a different basement suite, this one all in yellows that made me want to gouge my eyes out. I tolerated it because it had an extra room for Pamela, who for the moment, I had temporary custody of, much to Dr. Daniels’ fury. Agent Valley had come through, finding Pamela’s family and getting them to sign her guardianship over to me. Of course, the paperwork had to be finalized in the courts, but pretty much, she was mine.
Pamela was freaking ecstatic.
Finally, I was able to go back to see Jack, my fingers crossed that he was still alive. Pamela was with me this time, as was Alex, of course. Will came along, but only to stand at the door to make sure we weren’t bothered.
I didn’t bother to knock, and wished to fucking hell I had when I saw Jack and what looked like a pleasantly plump nurse going at it in his bed.
“Damn it, Jack, I’ve got a kid with me!” I spun and jerked Pamela around so she couldn’t see. “You knew I was coming!”
Jack let out a barking laugh. “Don’t begrudge me a fuck or two, certainly not with this beauty.” At the slap of a hand on bare skin the nurse giggled and a few moments later she passed us in the hall, a decidedly high color on her cheeks.
Shaking my head, I dared a look over my shoulder. Jack was under the covers, by himself this time, a grin from ear to ear.
“Get the fuck in here, girl. Tell me what the bloody fucking hell happened!”
Between Pamela and me, we spun the story out for him, with only the occasional grunt from him added in here and there.
“So, the vamp tried to fuck with your mind, did he?”
“Yeah, you could say that.”
“Don’t ever let your guard down around that nasty shit. Ever.”
I smiled, then frowned at the remembered pleasure Faris had stirred in me. “Yeah, I got that too.”
We sat there for a moment, and it was Alex who broke the almost silence.
“Rotters taste like shit.”
Jack burst out in a coughing laugh. “They do? Remind me never to fucking eat one.”
“Yuppy doody, Okee dokee.” Alex gave the old Tracker a thumbs up with one hooked claw.
Jack squinted his eyes at me. “You didn’t go after your sister yet.”
I chewed at the inside of my lip a moment before answering. “She’s happy. Healthy. There’s nothing wrong with her. I can’t give her anything she doesn’t already have in spades.”
“You think you can just let her go?”
That was the crux of it. I was afraid that I wasn’t good enough, that I couldn’t give her a better life than I could already feel her having. There was never a question of whether or not I would find her. I would find her now, that was a given. But I wasn’t ready yet to see her, see her happy with another family, and then walk away. Because the reality was, if I brought Berget into my life, she would be in constant danger. Just like Pamela. Except Berget had no ability to protect herself . . . so for now, I was chickening out. If going after a crazy ass witch and alpha werewolf who was enthralled by said witch was chickening out.
“No, but I have to find O’Shea first. He’s in trouble. Berget . . . if things change, I’ll go after her in a heartbeat. But right now . . . .” I looked at Jack, stared into his swirling tri-coloured blue eyes. “Right now, I need someone to train me before he dies. Can you manage?”
Jack snorted, and patted the sheets down around him. Laughing, his eyes twinkled up at me, the swirl of colors a reminder of what I was, what I would always be. A Tracker to the bitter damn end.
Jack gave me a wink. “You think you’re ready to learn what you can really do?”
I laughed, and touched Alex on the head. “What do you think, Alex? You think we should hang out with Jack for a while?
Rippling his lips up over his teeth, Alex started nodding his head at a speed that would have given me whiplash. “Yuppy doody!”
Smiling, I nodded slowly. “I couldn’t have said it better myself.”
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Dark Waters
An urban fantasy