“Tara?”
My chin jerked up, and there was no running. No looking away. Our eyes locked and it was like stepping off a ledge. Into another world.
The Isaac I knew had green eyes with flecks of gold. This Isaac had gold eyes with swirls of green.
So different.
And somehow the same.
“You’ve got a pretty bad cut on your head,” he said, his careful words failing to hide the grit in his tone. “Are you hurt anywhere else?”
He shifted on his feet, the slightest movement, and I flinched. He flinched too, stepping back and putting his hands up in surrender.
His bloody hands.
I squeezed my eyes shut, allowing myself three slow, deep breaths. It didn’t calm my pulse or erase the throbbing in my head, but it did give me a moment of clarity.
Whatever just happened, Isaac didn’t hurt me.
He was my only way out.
“My knees,” I whispered, my voice coming out as small as I felt. “I think I have whiplash.”
“Can you walk?”
He waited, carefully still. Unnaturally still.
How had I missed that?
“You know him, don’t you?” I pushed to my feet, one hand on the concrete wall beside me.
“Who?”
“Jay!” The words were hard to speak around the lump in my throat. “You knew who he was when you answered the phone.”
“Jacques Barbeaux. That’s his real name.”
Barbeaux?
Isaac and Jay werefamily.
“Is he your brother?” I didn’t know why that felt so wrong. Like I’d been tricked and betrayed, while somehow also being the betrayer.
“My cousin.” The tendons in his neck went taut as he glanced behind him. “I can explain everything, but not here. We aren’t safe. We need to leave before they come back with more.”
More.There were more.
I choked back a laugh.
Jay was a—werewolf?
What was next? Vampires? Witches?
I forced myself to straighten, to take another full breath.
Just get out of here. Get far away, and then you can think straight.
“Where should we go? He knows where I am.”