ChapterTwenty
The phoneon my nightstand vibrated, so loud it felt like it was right inside my head, trying to shock me awake.
I groaned into my pillow and turned my head the other way, trying to ignore it, hoping it would stop.
It didn’t.
“For the love of God,” I muttered to myself as I reached out a hand for it—a hand so white it startled me half awake.
And when I saw my mother’s face on the screen of my phone, I almost burst out in tears. The clock on the nightstand said it was six thirtyin the morning. Why was she calling me atsix thirtywhen we talked six hours ago?
“Hello?” I mumbled on the phone because I knew thatnotpicking up, or even turning my phone off right now, had a very high chance of giving her a heart attack. As much as I was feeling like I’d gone through the sewer—several times—I still couldn’t worry her like that.
“Honey, wake up,” Mom said in a rush.
“It’s six thirty,” I said. “Pleaselet me sleep.”
“No! No time to sleep. C’mon, get up. I got something.”
My eyes opened to the weak sunlight streaming in through the windows on the other side of the bed. “You got something?” Had I asked her to find something for me? She’d already sent me everything she knew about those ingredients. So…
“Yes,something.Get out of bed, brush your teeth, and call me. ASAP.” She hung up the phone.
I wanted to cry so badly. Half my mind was made up to just turn off the phone and go back to sleep, but then I remembered the report. The Chief said eight a.m. I’d need at least an hour to put everything down.
So muttering curses under my breath at first, then out loud, I pushed the cover off and dragged myself out of bed. Taking in a deep breath, I stood up, expecting my legs to be shaky. They weren’t. My arm throbbed a little bit from the wolf bite, but I couldn’t feel the other wounds I’d gotten the night before in the fight. And my muscles were sore, especially my legs, which was ridiculous, because I hadn’t fought with mythighs. So why were they…
My cheeks heated all the way. Embarrassment rushed throughout me, as the memories of the morning before took over my mind. My thighs werenotsore from fighting. They were sore from…otheractivities. With Dominic.
Damn. Yeah, I wasn’t going back to sleep now even if I had all the time in the world.
I washed my face, used the toilet, and brushed my teeth, too, just like Mom said. Then, I made myself a cup of coffee with my eyes half closed still, but my mind buzzing. The few seconds I waited for her to pick up, the only thing I could think about was that freaking wolf-ass on top of me, under me, inside me…
“Hey, baby!”
Mom’s cheerful voice made me turn around, cup of coffee in hand. I’d put the phone over my small dining table—that same table where Dominic had done things to me—and I sat down in front of it. Like that, it was almost like she was really there, not just on the screen of my phone.
“Just so you know, I didn’t sleep until midnight,” I told her, my cheeks still heated, but she wouldn’t knowwhyat least.
“I know, honey. I couldn’t wait,” she said, leaning into her camera, her purple eyes analyzing every inch of my face.
“Nothing changed,” I told her because I’d caught a glimpse of myself in the bathroom mirror. Still white. Just as white as the night before when I’d called her.
“I can see,” she said, then smiled brightly, leaning back on her chair. I knew that smile. It was one she only gave me when she was about to tell me something she thought I’d like.
I put the mug down and leaned closer to the phone, too. “What is it, Mom?”
She pushed her thick purple hair behind her back and straightened her shoulders, as if she was about to make the biggest announcement of her life.
“I think I found it,” she said. “I found how to counteract it.”
My brows shot up. “Counteract what?” In my defense, I was still half asleep and sore and aroused by those stupid memories, and I’d barely had a sip of my coffee.
“The drug!” Mom’s smile fell as if she were disappointed by the fact that I had no braincells to use right now.
“Crackdown?”
“Yes, Crackdown!” She leaned closer and closer until she took up the screen of my phone with just her face. “I’ve been doing some reading, and I think I know what it is that does it. Not just the magic, but it’s Denkin’s Dust, too. It’s powerful, Teddy. And when formulated correctly, and with the right help from other ingredients, it can literally pull out magic from anything—an object, a plant, any creature.”