Wounded by Stephen Cole

Author:Stephen Cole
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

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CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Kate and Tom passed most of the four-hundred-mile journey in silence, both lost in their thoughts. But it was a comfortable silence. They drove through the night to reach Salt Lake City as soon as possible.

‘We can pick up the Amtrak there, and also the library has free Internet access,’ Kate explained. ‘We went on a field trip to Salt Lake when I was twelve. Had to look up our family trees.’

‘Oh yeah, the Mormon Family History Library, right?’ Tom replied. ‘I read about that. The place to go if you’re into that kind of stuff.’ He frowned. ‘But your kind of family isn’t logged there, surely?’

‘Uh-huh. Under W for Werewolf,’ Kate deadpanned. ‘Stupid. Birth registrars don’t screen for freaks of nature. There’s nothing to mark out my family name as any different from yours. And I traced my family back to sixteen-oh-something.’

Tom nodded. ‘Purebloods, of course. Nice clear family line.’

‘We were known as Phelans back then. My ancestors came over from Europe.’

‘I kinda wish they’d stayed there,’ said Tom. ‘Remind me why we want free Internet access again?’

Kate glanced at him. ‘So I can e-mail my contacts and get them busy. See if we can find a warm trail for our medicine man Jicaque when we hit New Orleans.’

‘I guess he’s not likely to be in the phone book,’ sighed Tom.

‘It’s rumoured he’s retired,’ Kate confessed. ‘He was pissing off too many ’wolves, so they gave him an ultimatum: stop, and you can live.’

‘Terrific.’ Tom scowled. ‘So even if we find him, he’s not going to risk his life for my sake, is he?’

‘I told you, werelings are rare. You’ll arouse his professional interest.’ She shot him a glance. ‘Besides, who could resist you, huh?’

‘Funny,’ Tom snorted, and turned away to hide his flushing cheeks. He didn’t speak for the rest of the journey, staring out of the window as the Wasatch Front grew larger, and turning Kate’s compliment over and over in his mind.

Kate sent a myriad of e-mails from the library while Tom bought Amtrak tickets.

‘We can’t get there sooner than Thursday,’ Tom told Kate once they’d met back up outside the Mormon Tabernacle. ‘The next train to Chicago doesn’t leave till four in the morning, so we won’t get there till late Wednesday afternoon. Then the connecting train to New Orleans leaves at eight p.m., getting us in about four in the afternoon the next day.’

‘Did you swallow that schedule?’ Kate chewed her lip. ‘Jeez, this is going to be a long day. Still, hopefully by then we’ll have some leads to follow up when we arrive.’

‘How do you know we can trust any of these contacts of yours?’ Tom asked worriedly.

‘They’ve been my friends for three years,’ said Kate.

‘But you never met them!’

‘Mom and Dad can’t know about them. I wiped my Net cache each time I logged off, I have about a squillion e-mail addresses—’

‘OK, OK!’ Tom sighed. ‘Guess I’m just paranoid.’

‘I can’t imagine why,’ Kate smiled.

They passed the time drifting

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