Then it seemed to occur to him that we were cutting Adrian out and he sat back with a smirk on his face.
“This isn’t going to be easy,” Jonathan said.
“No one said it was going to be.”
“And you aren’t helping.”
I stared at him. He stared right back.
“I’m not sitting back on this one,” I said. “You need me.”
“How are you going to help in your condition? You can hardly get out of bed.”
“Give me a day, I’ll be fine.”
Jonathan didn’t look like he believed me but didn’t argue. He probably realized it would do no good.
“But how are we to find him?” he asked. “It isn’t like you stumbled on to wherever they are hiding. Your brother could be anywhere now.”
I thought about it. It would be easy to assume Thomas was living in the sewers somewhere, or perhaps in the middle of nowhere. He almost had to be. If he had taken over some big mansion or was terrorizing a specific section of the city, I would have heard of it by now.
But that wouldn’t be like him. He had to have found the sword somewhere. It looked almost exactly like the swords we had used when we had worked together.
I paled. “I think I know,” I said, my voice trembling as I spoke.
Thomas was acting like he remembered his training. He was coming after werewolves and vampires like he had done when we had hunted together. The use of the Tainted was new, but then again, he was using them as he used me. They were fighting at his side, following his lead. That wasn’t so different than what he had done when we had fought together.
And the sword. I kept coming back to the sword.
“Home,” I said, fighting the tears that were trying to force their way down my cheeks. I refused to cry in front of the two werewolves. “He’s gone home.”
21
I wanted to leave that night, but it was far too close to dawn. Doctor Lei led me down into the basement where the windows were completely black. A few mattresses that smelled of stale sweat and blood lay around the room. I chose one that smelled the least foul and settled in for the long day.
Jonathan wanted to continue talks about what should be done about Thomas, but I was in no mood. He came down more than once to try to get me to discuss it with him. I steadfastly refused, knowing if I were to start plotting my brother’s downfall now, I’d lose it.
Eventually, he left me alone to my thoughts. We planned on waiting another night before acting, which gave me time to figure out what the fuck I was going to do. I needed to go home, obviously. My gear was there, and Ethan would be having a fit by now.
Doctor Lei checked on me off and on. She never really said much outside a few grunts and mumbles about me moving around too much. As hard as I tried, I just couldn’t sit still. My back ached something fierce, and she was forced to rebandage my wound more than once.
Finally, the day faded and I was allowed to leave. Jonathan drove me back to my Honda and waited there as I checked the bike over.
“You could use our garage,” he said as I started up the motorcycle. “You don’t have to park all the way out here.”
I didn’t answer. I walked my bike out of the alley and took off down the road the moment I was clear. I wanted nothing more than to go home and take a long, warm bath. Lei’s clothes, combined with the stitches and healing flesh, were making me itch.
The drive was nearly unbearable. Every bump in the road made me wince. I cried out almost continually when the road got especially rough. While I might be healing, it was clear I wasn’t going to be nearly strong enough for a good fight for quite a while. Thomas and his Tainted had done a pretty good number on me. It felt like someone had taken my insides and stirred them around with a baseball bat covered in barbed wire.
I took my driveway slowly in a vain attempt to mitigate the jarring. I parked in the garage, closed the door, and entered the house through the side door. I fully expected Ethan to be in the basement working. I was wrong.
“Where have you been?” he asked, nearly stumbling over himself as he rose from the