Pure Blood_ A Nocturne City Novel - Caitlin Kittredge [53]
Shelby passed a hand over her eyes. Her shoulders were shaking and she turned her head away, ostensibly so I wouldn’t see her tears. For a cop, she cracked awfully easy. I’ve had purse snatchers who held out longer. “I’m waiting,” I said. “Tell me the truth now or I go straight to Morgan and get you suspended.”
She let out a harsh sound that could have been a laugh. “The truth? This war isn’t about Vincent Blackburn. It’s always been there. Blood witches and caster witches. We’ve always fought them, and they’ve always hated us. It never ends, so what’s the point of even trying?”
“The point,” I said, “is that I don’t appreciate almost getting turned into a chicken-fried steak because of some idiotic feud between a couple of bored old men. It stops here.”
Shelby flipped a hand at me, as if I were hopeless. “No, it doesn’t. Now Seamus will retaliate and they’ll scuttle back under their rock until the next stupid junkie turns up dead.” She levered herself up on her elbows. “You can’t stand in my uncle’s way. He’ll do what he has to do to protect my family. He always has.”
“People are dying,” I said. “Real people. They may be junkies and whores and the bottom scrapings of this city, but they’re people. Not blood witches or caster witches.” I sighed. My head hurt and I wanted to go home and wash the smoke smell off me. “Don’t you want to figure out who killed Vincent, bring it out into the open? Don’t you want to make this end?”
“It’s beyond my control,” said Shelby coldly. “I’m just the mutt of the family. They’ve always hated the Blackburns and they always will. I don’t know anything beyond that. I was never privy to the magickal secrets. Unworthy, you know.”
The bitterness in her voice could have been mine, when I talked about the were packs and the Insoli. I thought of my grandmother shaking her head and asking, Why couldn’t you have the same blood as your cousin? I too knew the stigma of being normal among the witches.
In spite of her lying to me, I felt my resolve to be hard-assed soften. “And why do the Blackburns hate your family, Shelby? I’ve seen enough relationships go wrong to know that loathing so deep doesn’t happen because of a few bar fights or stray spells.”
I sat next to her and straightened out her blankets, a gesture that Sunny would often perform after I’d woken from a nightmare when we were children, living with our grandmother. Shelby sighed and rubbed at her tears with the back of her hand.
“I’m sorry.”
I passed her a tissue without comment.
“All I know,” said Shelby, blowing her nose, “is that a long time ago, my family stole something from the Blackburns, and they’d kill—have killed—to get it back.”
“‘It’ being…?”
Shelby’s mouth quirked without any humor. “You think they’d tell me?”
I had to agree with her there. For all I complained about my dysfunction, Shelby must have had it ten times worse. I couldn’t imagine being so shut off from your own blood. Must be the were in me, that irresistible urge to form a pack.
Shelby’s breathing leveled off and her eyes fluttered. “Sorry,” she said again, yawning. “They’re giving me a bunch of painkillers.”
“Any idea when you’ll be out?” I asked.
“The doctor said less than a week. The rebar missed all of my major veins or vessels or whatever.”
I would never vocalize that I’d sort of gotten used to having her around, but still—it beat the hell out of the lone-wolf act, even if she never shut up. “Good,” I said aloud. “I’ll let Mac know you’re out of surgery.”
“Luna?” she called as I headed for the door. “I really am sorry.”
“I know.” I waved a hand. “Forget it.” If she hadn’t been sorry before the bomb went off, she was now, sure as there were seven hells.
My phone went off and I waved to Shelby, pantomiming I’d come back later. She was already asleep. I went into the stairwell so I didn’t fry someone’s pacemaker and answered.
“Luna, it’s Bart Kronen.”
Dr. Kronen calling was odd, but not totally unfounded. “You autopsying the bomb victim? I thought for sure I’d have to deal with that prick from day shift, the one who looks like Eli Wallach