Pure Blood_ A Nocturne City Novel - Caitlin Kittredge [110]
“But not too early,” said Dmitri, still smiling. It was the longest I’d ever seen him in a good mood and I felt discomfort churn in my stomach, that offbeat nervousness of irons left on or doors not locked.
“There’s a really ugly car pulling in,” Sunny announced. “Some blond chick driving.”
My stomach flip-flopped. “Shit,” I said aloud, just before Irina pounded on the door. Sunny opened it before I could tell her not to.
“I thought I would find you here,” she said to Dmitri, striking a pose in the center of my braided rug.
“Irina.” He sighed. “What the Hex do you want from me?”
“Nothing from you,” she snapped. “But from you.” She pointed one French-tipped finger at me. “You made promise. Have you delivered?”
“No,” I said honestly. “The one chance I had to stop the daemon blood is at the bottom of Siren Bay, probably in very small pieces. Hey, there’s an idea. You could always dive in and look for it. Without oxygen.”
“You have failed,” said Irina. “Dmitri, come on. The pack will deal with this Insoli whore.”
What was it with people calling me a bitch and a whore today? I was beginning to feel a lot like the former. I started to stand, to tell Irina to get the Hex out of my house and follow it up with force, when Dmitri spoke. “I don’t have to go anywhere, Irina.”
“What?” She devolved into rapid-fire Ukrainian, and Dmitri sighed.
“Irina, shut up. Just shut your mouth for once in your goddamn life.” He grabbed his T-shirt and stripped it off, hissing a little with the same jerky movement from the hospital.
Sunny said, “Hex me,” and I couldn’t even manage that. Dmitri’s right shoulder was one solid bruise, the cloud-colored purple and blue of a stormy sky, with twin weeping red marks at the center. A bite. A were bite.
Irina slapped a hand over her mouth. “Dmitri…”
“I’m no pack leader anymore, suspended or active,” Dmitri told her quietly. “So leave, Irina. Run on home to Sergei and Yelena.”
I recognized the humiliation bite for what it was—a mark not intended to harm, just to scar and let any other were know that the bearer had been demoted, in no uncertain terms. It’s the equivalent of pinning a sign on someone who gets fired that says I CAN’T HACK IT.
“Oh seven hells,” I groaned. “Dmitri, this wasn’t necessary…”
Irina’s sob cut me off. She broke, right there in front of me, and I saw the same wash of deep-seated betrayal that I’m sure had played out on my own face when she snuggled up to Dmitri outside Bete Noire. Hands shaking, her face lily white, she hissed at us, her lips drawing back over rapidly phasing fangs. “You… didn’t… tell… me…”
“Why would I?” said Dmitri. “You would have just tried to talk me out of it.”
“I’m your mate!” she screamed at him. I had thought about hurting Irina so often over the past week. So sure I’d be gratified to see her brought down to where I was living in these Dmitri-less days.
But I wasn’t. I felt rotten, and embarrassed for her.
“I’m not your mate,” said Dmitri. “I’m with Luna, and that’s the way it should be.”
Sunny, who had watched the entire thing silently but with ever-growing eyes, took Irina by the arm. “I think it would be best if you left now, Irina. For everyone.” She took her out to her car and I waited until she’d driven away before I rounded on Dmitri.
“You left, and I realized you’d gone to find a way to cure me,” said Dmitri. “And I knew Irina would never, ever do that. So I decided where I had to go, and I went to Sergei and he courted me out of the pack.”
“Are you Insoli now?” asked Sunny in a small voice. It was good she could talk because the only thing that would have come out of my mouth was yelling.
“No,” said Dmitri. “I’m still Redback, just… lower. I can be dominated, so it’ll behoove me to stay out of the Nocturne pack’s way for a while.” He turned to me, took both of my hands in his. “That’s where you come in.”
“Dmitri,” I whispered. “I wasn’t asking you to do this.”
“No, you weren’t,” he said. “But I’m willing and able, all the same. If you won’t change for me, Luna … I guess it’s up to