Free Fields of Blood (The DeathSpeaker Codex Book 2) by Sonya Bateman Page A

can tell you two have a…thing?” I said. “Or had one, anyway?”
    Sadie looked at me. “You can?”
    “Uh, yeah. You’ve got that love-hate thing, the whole ‘we got it on once’ forecast with a fifty percent chance of surprise angry sex.”
    “That is not your business, brother,” Taeral said tightly.
    “Trust me, I don’t want to know. I’m just saying I noticed.”
    “Oh, God,” Sadie said. “Taeral, have you ever thought that me and Gideon…um, you know? Be honest.”
    He didn’t answer right away. Eventually he said, “I suppose the thought had crossed my mind, on occasion.”
    “Well, you were wrong,” I said. “Just so you know.”
    Sadie drew a deep breath. “Okay, listen. We can’t let them get that impression. You’ve got to be careful. They’ll kill you.”
    I arched an eyebrow. “Overprotective father?”
    “I’m not kidding.” Something in her eyes shut down, and she turned back to the windshield. “I told you I left when I was seventeen,” she said. “I had a boyfriend—fully human. Lived in Elk Heights. His name was Michael Nelson.”
    I didn’t like the sound of that was .
    She swallowed briefly. “We’d been together a little over three years. I mean, we were just kids, but you know how it is. To a teenager, everything in your life is the most important thing ever. And…he asked me to marry him.”
    “At seventeen?” I said. “That sounds pretty serious to me.”
    “Well, it’s a small town. Kids marry young a lot, mostly because there’s nothing better to do. But I did love him,” she said with a shuddering sigh. “I thought I wanted to marry him, but I couldn’t see spending the rest of my life trying to hide the fact that I was a werewolf. I wouldn’t have been able to anyway—our time of the month is a real bitch.”
    “I’d have to agree with that,” Taeral said in dry tones.
    I had to assume she meant the full moon. Last month she’d gone away for a few days when the moon shone its brightest. No explanation, except that she didn’t want to be near anyone who would prefer to stay alive.
    “So anyway,” she said. “Instead of breaking it off with him like my family wanted me to, I told him the truth. And he, understandably, freaked out and avoided me. But a few days later, he found me in town—and said he was okay with it. That he was scared, but he still wanted to make it work. Because he loved me.”
    She stopped talking, and I thought she wouldn’t go on. But then she said, “I told my pack that Michael knew, and I was going to marry him. They were furious. They insisted I had to turn him, make him a werewolf. I refused. Turned weres have a lot harder time with control, and I wasn’t going to do that to him.” She closed her eyes and flinched. “So they killed him.”
    “Jesus Christ,” I said roughly. “They just flat-out murdered him?”
    “Yes, and not just him. They killed his whole family—his parents, his younger sister. In case he’d told any of them.” A dark look settled on her face. “My father, my brother, my uncle and cousin. One for each human, so none of them could get away. They killed them in their beds, and they burned the house down.” She shuddered. “Marlon, my brother…he took Michael. Told me he begged for his family’s lives. And for mine. He knew he was going to die, and he begged my brother not to hurt me.”
    “ A’ghreal . I am so sorry for your loss.” Taeral reached up between the seats and took her hand.
    She jerked it away. “Don’t,” she said. “I’m sorry. But get used to not touching me. If anything happens to you, either of you…I can’t lose you,” she whispered. “Please.”
    “Of course,” he said in a strained voice.
    I gripped the wheel hard enough to turn my knuckles white. I’d still help them, for Sadie’s sake—but I already hated her family. In my opinion, they were even worse than Milus Dei.
    No one could hurt you more than the people you were supposed to