A Rose Among Thorns- Book 2 in the Corvale Pack Series

Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Joseph

My thirst was what woke me this evening. Before the sun had even set I shot up out of bed and was halfway towards the kitchen when I suddenly remembered what had happened last night.

That crazy chick tried to kill me! What the hell do I do now? Kick her out? No, that'd make my possible-future-father-in-law suspicious, and I need to be in his good books when I reveal that I'm Juliette's mate.

Juliette. I've hardly had the time to even think about us yet. I'll try and find her at the pack meeting and apologize. I also had to start the 'evil vampire stalking my pack' business and find my mother's adoptive parents for her, apparently they went missing twenty years ago and she believes that there's something that Richard isn't telling her.

God, I have so much crap to do.

I entered the kitchen to find that creepy shadow...flipping pancakes? I don't even know how it was doing it, but the pan was moving to its will and the spatula moved in the air when it waved at me.

"God, Warren, how high did you flip them?" The crazy bitch asked, and I looked up to see her kneeling on the ceiling and was wiping pancake mix off the lights. 

'Warren' shrugged and took one off the pan and put it on a plate, which she skidded across the counter towards me.

"Oh, there you are! You're up early!" She fell down to the floor and stared at her feet guiltily.

"I was hungry." I muttered, pulling the plate towards me. I grabbed a glass of pop and pressed it to my forehead to try and numb the throbbing in my head.

"I'm sorry about yesterday."

"You can't let yourself get out of control like that again, you could kill someone." I said out of nowhere. 

"I know, I was just so excited to actually talk to someone other than Warren, I just forgot about the necklace, WILL YOU CUT IT OUT?!" She half screeched at the shadow, who'd been tapping her on the head with the spatula. She rolled her eyes,” No, I haven’t forgotten that stupid deal, why are you bringing it up now?” She turned to me and walked closer.

“What is it?”

“Damn, Warren, you’re right,” She went over to the cupboard and grabbed a mug, and a knife before coming back to the island, ”You’re thirsty, aren’t you?”

“Your magic shadow is clever.”

 “You could have mentioned it earlier,” She rolled her eyes, before slashing the blade across her palm.

“Wait, what are you...”

“I am your blood bank, remember? I told you that Richard doesn’t trust you to behave yourself, so he made me your donor.” She said calmly, squeezing her hand so that the crimson blood dripped faster into the cup. It was difficult to tear my eyes away from it.

“I didn’t think you guys were serious,” Damn, impressing him is going to be harder than I thought, “Are you...okay with me drinking that?” I pointed to the cup, but didn’t look at it.

“It’s no big deal, I heal almost instantly so my blood replenishes itself,” As she talked, she picked up the knife again to slash her hand a second time, and the sound of drops of blood splashing against the inside of the mug filled my ears,” It’s kind of a downside to being me.”

“How is creepy healing a downside?” I asked, as the shadow snaked a hand across the counter to grab the bloody knife as she put it down.

“You could clone a frigging army from my blood. Vampires would go nuts for it, and a life in a cage isn’t a life worth living,” She said, and hastily shoved the cup my way, “That enough for a few days?”

“Yeah, I’ll be fine.” I shrugged, keeping my eyes on her back as she climbed up the wall to clear up the mess on the ceiling again.

Tabitha! That was her name! I thought, as I drank her blood. The familiar pins and needles sensation we had whenever we drank blood sprinted through my veins, and I sighed as the sun set behind the mountains.

“So...this is where you work?”

“What were you expecting? That I just sat on my ass all day repeating high school over and over? Please...” She scoffed as she dragged me towards a derelict building about half a mile from any houses. She shoved me through the door and slammed it behind her.

“No, I thought you were a teacher...a crazy-ass art teacher or something...” I trailed off as she clamped a hand over my mouth.

“Me? Around children? Do you seriously think that Richard would allow that?”

“You were around that kid yesterday.”

“Oscar,” She started, opening the door to a basement,” Is different...look it’s very complicated. I’d rather not talk about it.”

“But...he will be my brother in law, I guess. I have a right to know about him.” I called to her back as we walked down several flights of wooden steps.

“Ask him yourself.” She muttered. The walls were made of stone and lined a floor of packed dirt. Torches buzzed overhead as we walked down the long corridor.

Finally, we turned a corner, and I saw the largest laboratory I’d ever seen. One wall was dedicated to a colossal whiteboard, several feet high with a ladder attached to the top to write more of the several notes scattered across it. Another wall was filled with an array of computer screens, some with CCTV footage and others containing scans and information about different pack members. There were several rows of desks containing all sorts of apparatus, some whistling while others boiled over, spilling into sinks. That’s when I noticed that the scarred boy was walking towards us, a pair of goggles on his head.

“Alpha, what brings you here?” He bowed his head like the last time, but he kept his eyes on Tabitha. She folded her arms and stared at her feet.

“She’s giving me a tour. I wanted to see what I have inherited.” I said, even though his eyes were still fixed on the girl.

“Great, I love to see how you’re spending your time. You should be here, not doing a job any other were could do.” He said to Tabitha, he’d clearly lost interest in the fact that I was here. I felt slightly offended.

“Weres like your father?” She said darkly, and the boy fell silent, “Alpha, this is where I work. Oscar was placed here to help with the investigation.”

They glared at each other in silence. The shadow waved at me and pointed to rows of gurneys in the far end of the lab. I quickly got the hint.

“What are these?” I asked loudly to break them out of their trance.

I reached one of the gurneys and on it was a white sheet. I pulled it back to reveal a corpse, drained grey by lack of blood. The body was female, and had only two little holes in its neck. I jumped back in shock.

“Evidence,” Tabitha said, a smirk pulling at her mouth at her reaction,” You have a problem with dead bodies, alpha?”

“No...no...I’ve just...never seen them before.” I stuttered, while the boy scoffed.

“Well, the entire pack has, our children have seen this,” He spat, then opened a door, where I could see several more rows of gleaming metal,” This is what has happened to us while you were sipping tea with the rich kids. It’s time for you to stand up and protect us, before there isn’t anyone else left to protect.”

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