Zander didn’t move. “You deserve to be pissed off at me, Addie, but I’m not running across Texas and leaving you unprotected. Kendrick told me to look after you. Those are my orders.”
“You keep saying you’re not one of Kendrick’s Shifters,” Addie pointed out. “So why are you obeying him all of a sudden?”
“Because you and his cubs are more precious to him than anything else in the world,” Zander said. “If he lives and you die, he’ll give up. I see that in him. He’s been through so much and he wants this happiness that’s dangling in front of him. He might harm himself—well, after he kills and dusts me.”
“If Kendrick dies, I’m going to be upset,” Addie said. “Not to mention his cubs and the rest of his Shifters. What do you figure your chances are against all of us?”
Zander’s dark eyes were hard. “You’re saying either way, I’m screwed.”
“Pretty much.”
Zander sat down again with a sweep of his duster, which he kept on despite the hundred degree temperature. “Then I’m staying.”
Addie balled her fists. “No, you—”
The electronic jangle of a phone cut her off. Zander reached into his pocket, frowning, while Addie’s heartbeat escalated to a sickening pace. A phone call meant news, probably bad.
Zander swiped his thumb across the screen. Addie noted absently that while the other Shifters had older model phones, Zander’s was brand new.
“Whoa,” Zander said.
He turned the phone around to show Addie the scarred and bent face of Lachlan.
“Addison,” Lachlan said. He spoke calmly, without hurry. “It’s you I wanted to reach, but your phone seems to have been disconnected. I want to show you something.”
Lachlan turned the phone around. Its camera pointed to a window, through which Addie saw the slightly blurred images of her sister, Ivy, and Ivy’s kids, Tori and Josh. They were in a kitchen, the familiar one of their own house.
Addie’s mouth went dry, her fingers going numb. “You leave them alone!” she yelled, her voice cracking. “Ivy!”
Zander glared into the phone, looking more furious than Addie had ever seen him. “You just made a big mistake,” he snarled at Lachlan and snapped off the phone.
Addie lunged for it. “No! He’ll hurt them.”
Ben was up, tight with anger. “No he won’t. We won’t let him.”
“I’m with you,” Zander said. He swung around, already walking away.
Jaycee leapt after him and grabbed at his coat. “Hello? Can you say trap?”
Zander shook her off. “I know it’s a trap. But are you willing to sacrifice those kids to not spring it?”
“And how did he know to call your number?” Jaycee continued.
Zander scowled. “I don’t know. Maybe he asked someone.”
“Or maybe you’re working with him, like I said,” Jaycee went on. “You healed him, he showed up here, he calls you when he has a threat.”
“I told you—I didn’t know anything about him, and I never saw him again after he was awake and alive.”
“Yeah?” Jaycee stepped to him. “How can you just walk away from patients you heal? You have to form some kind of bond with them—what you do is Goddess magic, like the Guardians have. Are you saying you get inside someone like that to heal them and you feel nothing?”
“Of course I feel something!” Zander shouted. The air shook as his bear growl burst out of him. “Why do you think I’m so crazy? If I hang around and take that person into my heart, I’d be more nuts than I already am. And when I can’t save them? When they die no matter what I do—how do you think that makes me feel?”