“He and I have an understanding. He won't expose me or kill me because he believes I'm helping him to overthrow Nik. So as long as he believes that, we're safe. He won't jeopardize that chance. And as for him 'joining our cause', actions speak louder than words. He may very well be gathering evidence about possible halfbreeds but I think he has other interests.”
The dark-haired Were growled. “Halfbreeds are an abomination! What possible reason could he have not to agree with our cause?!”
“The same reason anyone has who wants us dead... they believe in 'equality' and abhor 'cannibalism' and 'murdering innocents.'” The young man made a face. “But not Njord. So why else...?” He smiled as if he had a bitter taste in his mouth.
The woman's face lit up. “He knows someone who's a halfbreed, someone he cares about.” Her voice was high with realization and excitement.
The young man's lips curved up into a smile. “Exactly.”
~Chapter 26 - Collide~
Two days later...
Thursday June 9th, 7:40 a.m.
Carr wrote up a strict timetable that Jaz was supposed to follow religiously. “Until,” he said, “you can handle me in a fight.”
Jaz laughed sardonically. She'd be doing this forever.
She accepted it much more willingly than either of them expected. The truth was though she kept up this act that she hated the gym and getting up early, she was actually starting to enjoy it. She felt better in herself. Her appetite increased, her body firmed up and slimmed down, she was stronger and more alert.
She didn't need to take her iron injection that week and she wasn't planning on taking the last one in the batch next week either. She hadn't touched her pills since her first attack and she felt great. Though she was instructed by Maria and Edda to let them know if she started getting any symptoms of low iron.
She had a blood test the day before and to her surprise her iron levels were in the normal range. Although she promised Maria and Edda to continue to take one to two pills a day for a while and then gradually wean off, she stopped altogether. It was stupid and reckless, but she was on too much of a high to care.
That Thursday morning, Carr timetabled for her to go out for a jog. He'd shown her the route after her first day at the gym. It was an hour long, there and back. The grounds were enormous and the up-and-down route gave her a hard workout.
Putting on her headphones of her iPod, she headed out, starting towards the building, turning right where the site used to be, then circling far around it to come back up the long way through the trees. Turning right again so that she passed by her cabin, which she could just make out through the thick curtain of trees, she jogged away from the lake and then uphill through the enormous forest that spread across to the east for miles; until it stopped just before the Log Bridge River. Woodlands bordered the other side, followed by fields of fragrant lavender and bright yellow rapeseed.
She was told to stop when she reached the edge of the first field and then head south-west back towards the main building.
This was her first run and it was tiring as hell. She was breathless but nowhere near as bad as she would have been two weeks ago.
She was jogging three quarters of the way through when she nearly smacked into someone as they ran across her path. She skidded to a halt, losing balance and sliding onto her bum.
The stranger slid to a stop just as he passed her. He whipped his head round to gape down at her. “Oh, I'm so sorry, I wasn't looking,” he panted.
Jaz yanked out her headphones that had Placebo blaring out, tapped off the song and then gazed up to find a very attractive guy smiling down at her, holding out his bronze hand. She blinked and said out of breath, “It's okay. I guess I didn't hear you.” She smiled, her eyes indicating her headphones.
He grinned at her.
She observed he was in running shorts and a t-shirt with sweat patches under his pits and on his chest. His copper hair was stuck to his gleaming forehead and his warm, almond eyes regarded her with polite curiosity.
“You were running too?” she asked as she took his hand. He gripped hers, pulling her up off the ground. She hastily dusted off the back of her sweatpants.
“I was. Though I don't have the excuse of an iPod to explain my carelessness,” he commented.
She smiled in response, pleased to find he wasn't an enormous giant, which seemed to be the trait of all the male and most of the female Weres here. She was five foot seven, not exactly a short arse, but at Deer Creek she felt like a dwarf. He, on the other hand, made her feel a little more like her true height.
“You're Jaz, right?”
She nodded, studying his face as she wondered what he knew about her. Then she realized she recognized him from somewhere. “I've seen you before.”
“Yes, we passed outside the gym a few days ago. I'd just come back from a one-on-one wrestle. Shame you missed it. I was magnificent.” He flashed a smile and she couldn't resist smiling too; his grin was infectious.
“Yeah, I remember now.”
He'd definitely undressed her with his eyes then. Now he only observed her with intrigue. She still felt uncomfortable around him, but then she usually did around strangers. She wasn't exactly a social butterfly.
“So I hear Carr has taken you under his wing.”
“Nothing is a secret round here,” she commented jokily.
He grinned his attractive smile. “And he's got you working this death trap?”
“Well, it was either this or wrestle a lion.”
The man laughed heartily.