Read Online In Blood We Trust by Christine Cody - Free Book Online

his hand out to me. Just as I came near the bottom of the stairs, reaching out to him across that clearing, too, someone stepped in my way.
    A Badlander who knew me well.
    Pucci’s barrel chest was heaving. I could see it clearly because his khaki shirt had been torn open, revealing his dusky skin.
    â€œI don’t think so, Mariah,” he said, his breathing short, as if he’d been ripped away from his own dancing. “We don’t need your kind of trouble tonight.”
    Unthinkingly, I bared my teeth. He did the same until his girlfriend, Hana, intruded, grasping his shirt and hauling him away.
    â€œAntonio . . .”
    Then he did something I’d been waiting for him to dare the entire time I’d known him.
    He took a backhanded swipe at Hana, laying her out flat on the ground.
    In back of me, Taraline cried out, and it seemed as if the music should stop again, but it kept playing on as my violet sight pulsed and my blood simmered.
    Bad guy . . .
    I leaped forward, but at the same time, someone else did the exact same thing, coming at Pucci in a blurring run and slamming into him. The only reason I didn’t get to him first was that Chaplin had thrown himself against me, on his hind feet, pushing me back with his paws.
    While I struggled with my canine, Gabriel grabbed Pucci by the neck, lifting him high as the bigger man choked.
    â€œLucky for you,” Gabriel said over the music in his unruffled vampire voice, “I got here before Mariah did.”
    I panted as Chaplin batted me back up the steps. I wanted to punish Pucci for all the grief he’d given me in the Badlands, testing me with all his demeaning comments, always lobbying for my banishment.
    Chaplin whispered to me in Canine. Mariah-pup, Mariah-pup . . .
    He’d eased me to sleep so many nights with that song, cuddled in bed with me, and it soothed me now . . . but only far enough so that my change didn’t burst out all over.
    Hana had already gained her feet, grabbing Gabriel’s arm while he still held Pucci aloft.
    â€œPlease don’t, Gabriel. Please . . .”
    I finally found my own tongue, but my voice was shredded. “How far is he going to push you, Hana?”
    My friend—a Badlander who’d done her best to support me through thick and thin—leveled her liquid, dark gaze on me. A plea.
    One I’d seen a hundred times before.
    â€œGod-all, Hana.” I turned my face away from her. My sight rested on Taraline, who’d come to stand next to me like a lone jury, her veils hiding all expression.
    â€œHe didn’t mean it,” Hana said. “He never goes this far. He’s just excited because of the dancing and . . .”
    She trailed off. I didn’t believe her, anyway.
    Pucci choked while in Gabriel’s hold, and he wrapped both hands round my vampire’s wrist. He was starting his were-change, bones wavering under his skin.
    Did he think he could take on Gabriel and win?
    We’d caught the notice of the Reds nearest us, and some of the dancing came to a lull. Their stillness balanced my jittery pulse while the bloodlust that had never quite gone away from earlier in the night still boiled in me.
    One of the bad guys, I thought, staring at Pucci. A brute, just like the men who’d broken into my family’s home and forced that werewolf to bite me, the ones who’d killed my mom and brother.
    And Pucci would keep on being a bad guy until somebody did something about it....
    But as Hana buried her face against Gabriel’s arm, sobbing now, it was clear that my vampire wasn’t so far lost that his logic defied reason.
    He touched Hana’s shoulder, tilted his head, and I knew he was thinking that she was capable of saving herself, if she ever chose to.
    He released Pucci, letting him plunk to the ground.
    Through the dust, the big man held his neck, coughing. At the same time, Chaplin dropped to all fours, coming up the stairs to Taraline