Free Entangled (Guardian Academy Book 2) by Jessica Sorensen

head throb. I bring my fingers to my temple, wincing.
    His expression plummets. “Alana, I really don’t think you’re fine. When you fainted, you—”
    “I didn’t faint,” I whisper. “I …” I, what, Alana? You don’t even know what happened. “I think I need some fresh air.”
    Without looking at the dead bodies, I make my way back to the road. I figure Jax will stay behind and finish up his job, but instead, he follows me down the path to his car.
    I climb into the passenger seat without saying a word, flip down the visor, and cringe at my reflection in the small mirror. Blood marks scuff my cheeks, jawline, and neck, painfully reminding me of how it felt when the vampire sank her fangs into the fey’s neck.
    I frantically start scrubbing at the blood with my fingers as tears burn in my eyes. Is it my blood or the fey's? It doesn’t really matter.
    For a few minutes, I was her. I felt her pain. I felt what it was like when the blood was spilled from her throat.
    “You landed in some blood when you fell,” Jax says, sliding into the driver’s seat. He shuts the door and watches me with worry. “That’s where the blood came from.”
    I don’t respond, my fingers moving violently against my flesh, desperate to wash off the blood and the memories.
    “Alana, stop.” He captures my hand and draws my fingers away. “You’re making your skin bleed.”
    I glance at my reflection in the mirror and note the fresh wounds my fingernails inflicted along the base of my throat. Swallowing hard, I close the visor, highly aware his eyes are tracking every single one of my movements.
    “You said you didn’t faint,” he says, letting go of my hand. “If that’s not what happened, then what did?”
    “I don’t know,” I mutter, flopping back in the seat.
    “Okay … Then how do you know you didn’t faint?”
    “Because …” God, how can I even try to explain this to him? And should I even try to explain it to him?
    His gaze bores into me. “Whatever it is, you can tell me.”
    “You don’t know that for sure.” I rest my head back against the seat and stare up at the ceiling. “Not when you have no idea what I’m about to say.”
    Silence drifts between us, and I shut my eyes. But the moment my eyelids close, red floods my vision, and I open them right back up.
    “You know it took me a year to tell my parents I’d been bitten by a werewolf,” he utters quietly. “And the only reason I told them was because they started questioning why I was disappearing all the time. And not just all the time, but whenever there was a full moon. The thing is that I probably could’ve told them right from the beginning, and their reaction would’ve been the same, but instead, I chose to suffer in silence for a year.”
    I turn my head toward him, and my gaze collides with his. “Did you feel better when you told them? I mean, were they understanding?”
    “My mom was more understanding than my father.” He rotates in the seat. “But even though my father … struggled with my change, I was still glad I told them because they were there to help me through it whenever I was struggling. My mom helped me more than my dad, but still … Without her, I don’t know who I’d be today.”
    My thoughts drift back to Dash and the tension he carried when he spoke of their father. Jax’s expression conveys the same stiffness at the mention of their dad, which makes me question just what kind of a man he is.
    “How do you know I have a secret to tell?” I ask. “Maybe I’m just acting weird because the rotten stench of death plaguing the air is making me delirious.”
    “Werewolves have a sixth sense about these things.” He extends his arm toward my neck and presses two fingers against my racing pulse. “Your pulse has been beating like crazy ever since you woke up. Something’s wrong.” His fingers trail down the side of my neck, sending shivers through my body. “You’re scared for some