Savage by Nancy Holder Page B

flipped them.
    “Hands are dealt,” he said. “I’m going to wash up.”
    She heard him go down the hall to the bathroom. A call came in on her phone. Jumping, she took it.
    “Katelyn, it’s me,” Cordelia said. “Are you all right?”
    “So far,” Katelyn replied, realizing that sounded cryptic. “I’m fine. How are you?”
    “Dom found me. He was slashed in the fighting but he’s going to be okay.” She lowered her voice. “What happened with Magus?”
    “He told me more about their history. He’d been to your house, Cordelia. Your grandfather, Tommy Ray Fenner, attacked his great-aunt. Did you know that?”
    “ What? ”
    “Yes. She wasn’t a werewolf yet,” she began, then realized what she was saying. It was against pack laws to attack humans. “Listen,” she began, as she heard the door to the bathroom opening—”
    “My grandfather did not attack humans,” Cordelia interrupted. “Ever.”
    “Okay, okay,” Katelyn said. “But there was another mauling tonight.”
    “Oh, God. They can’t find out about us. Or about the mine. My daddy said it’s got piles of silver bullets. Silver knives.”
    Like the silver knife her grandfather had.
    “We have to find it first,” Cordelia went on. “You have to find it. Then no Fenner will dare lay a hand on you.” She exhaled. “Or on me .”
    “We could make the peace happen,” Katelyn said hopefully. “Us two.”
    “We’d definitely have a shot at it,” Cordelia agreed. “Promise to keep looking?”
    “I do.” Katelyn’s grandfather walked into the room. “So, yeah, they’re all back and safe,” she said into the phone. “Bye, Beau.” She disconnected. “School friend,” she told her grandfather.
    He raised his brows and nodded at the stove. “Sandwiches are burning.”
    She whirled around. A column of smoke was wafting from the pan. She groaned and lifted it off the fire.
    He walked up beside her with a fork and inspected the underside. “It’s just a little singed,” he said. He looked at her. “Everything all right?”
    Katelyn nodded, but she was replaying her conversation in her head. She realized she hadn’t told Cordelia about Wanda Mae. But she also realized she’d had no plans to. Everyone in Wolf Springs had secrets. Maybe that was the nature of life. The secret of surviving in this world, or any world. There were things you could never tell anybody. You just had to find out what they were.
    “Everything is fine,” she told her grandfather.
    You had to keep secrets, and you had to lie.

    Trick didn’t show up at school until Wednesday. Katelyn spotted him climbing out of his Mustang in the school parking lot and rushed over to him. He looked worse than her grandfather, his green eyes flat and lifeless, his cheeks hollow.
    “Trick, what’s wrong? Why haven’t you called me?” she asked.
    He looked at her hard. She blinked, waiting for his answer.
    “I was sick,” he said. “I lost my phone.”
    All the blood in her body crept up her neck and spread to her cheeks in a hot, angry flush.
    “Are you kidding?” she said, as they faced one another beside the open door of his Mustang. “You can lie better than that. You could have reached me if you’d wanted to.”
    He remained silent, and she was stung. Deeply hurt, she took a step away from him, and he didn’t make a move to close up the space. He bit his lip as if he were considering what to say to her, then gave his head a little shake and closed the door of his car.
    “What is going on?” Then a light went on. “Hey, so, I was the one who broke into your room. I’m sorry. I was so worried.”
    “Okay.”
    “ Okay? Just ‘ okay ’?” She reached out a hand. He visibly stiffened, and she pulled it back. “What happened out there? What’s wrong with you?”
    He started to speak. Then he grimaced and shook his head. Shadows ringed his eyes and he balled his fists as if just standing there with her was a monumental effort. She stood her ground,