Skinned by Blakely Chorpenning

Author:Blakely Chorpenning [Chorpenning, Blakely]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780984701070
Published: 2019-07-26T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

What sleep I got was quiet. I remembered nothing of dreams or nightmares.

After readying ourselves for the day, I knocked on the door between ours and Gage's room. He opened it all too swiftly, as if he were standing just on the other side waiting for his escape.

"Top of the morning to you," I smiled.

Frowning -something Gage rarely does- he leapt into my room, plastering his body against the wall, shaking his head. "She wants me to meditate with her."

"And that's bad?"

"The nymph never talks. She only wants to meditate and do yoga and 'eat clean'. You know who acts like this? Serial killers."

"And people who like clean colons."

"Serial killers who eat clean colons."

Patting his shoulder, I said, "Exactly. You're safe."

Darien yelled through the motel door, "Bus in five!"

"Grab your serial killer. Let's go."

As I walked across the parking lot, the straight red hair of Tomas' wife caught my attention when the door opened to their room. She must have driven through the night. I wasn't aware that she was joining our band of merry misfits. Honestly, I wasn't aware that she had joined the world again. Ever since the loss of Jack, the enigmatic woman was lost for words. Mute.

Her presence hung as unforgiving as an albatross around my neck.

Everyone piled into the new bus, fingers crossed that it stayed on four wheels today.

Though Venus and Foust were sitting behind the driver, they kept looking back in our direction. I was unsure if they were staring at me or Cody, so I stared back until they stopped.

"Winning a staring contest?" Darien asked.

I shrugged.

"You can't blame them for being nervous, sister."

"You always assume that I'm judging someone. How very judgmental of you, brother."

He smiled. "Maybe. Or maybe I'm usually right." He turned his attention elsewhere.

Darien was right. Before the Dissenters, I hated every shifter who wasn't lepe. I left them to rot when they needed help, never giving them a second glance in my rearview. Part of me had known it was wrong, but the rest couldn't be bothered with inter-shifter bullshit. I thought myself above it. Above them.

Looking at the many faces on the bus, I made myself memorize something unique about each one of them, whether it was a physical trait or something I had learned about their personalities. The feel of Arrie's warmth, like a well overdue sunbath in August. Cody's ease at which he took in the world around him. Foust's birthmarks, calling to mind a master painter's canvas. Chandler, Linay's charge, and her melancholic lips. They pursed together in a permanent frown, making her seem both childlike and old beyond her years.

See, damn it, I wasn't an obnoxious ass bag. Maybe my brother was projecting his own biases onto me.

Darien noticed me glaring in his direction. "I feel you judging me from across the bus," he laughed.

Shaking my head, fighting back a snide comment, I focused on our mission for the rest of the ride, which made for a great time killer. We arrived at Elder Kit's farmstead before I realized we had left the highway.

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