“Watch your language,” I snapped. “We’re in a church.” Bleh. I sounded way too much like my mom. I was glad she, April, and my siblings—the humans other than Dad, who had insisted on coming along—had been allowed to stay at the house. “It’s caused by silver, which means I can’t do much to heal it.”
“I told you,” Zach said to Ryan. “That’s why nothing happened when you tried to heal it yourself.”
“Pick at it,” Brent said, a little too much glee mixed in with his sarcasm. “You know what a cool scar that would be?”
I rolled my eyes.
“Hey, freak!” someone shouted in our direction. I looked up just in time to see the young, green-robed woman come bounding up to Daniel and me. She stopped just before colliding with Daniel’s chest—and punched him in the arm.
Daniel winced. She’d smacked him just below his still-healing bullet wound. But the wince quickly turned into a smile. “Jordan!” he exclaimed.
She laughed and jumped at him. Daniel caught her in a hug, gave her a quick squeeze, and then set her on her feet.
Both of my eyebrows went up in arches. So Daniel did know her?
Daniel looked at me and indicated the young woman. “Grace, this is Lisa Jordan. We met during my brief stay with the pack last year.”
“The Divine One!” she practically squealed. She grabbed my hand and shook it with gusto. “I have to admit, I thought you’d be bigger or something.” She shrugged. “But whatever. Thanks for saving my ear! Sweet, I think my superhearing is even a little better.” As she pointed at her ear, I noticed that her dangling black teardrop earrings were actually made of moonstones.
“No problem,” I said.
Lisa squeezed my hands and let go, then wrapped her hands around Daniel’s wrists, bouncing his arms up and down with excitement. “I’ve missed you, freak. But I can see why you wanted to come back here. She’s almost as pretty as I am.”
I couldn’t help staring at this Lisa Jordan. Not only was she still the only other female Urbat I’d ever met, but she was also gorgeous, with hair the color of candied walnuts and eyes a clear lake green. Her arms were toned, and her body was tall and slender like a runner’s. She looked like she was in her early twenties, and I couldn’t help wondering—if only for a fleeting moment—just how well she and Daniel had gotten to know each other before.
Lisa gave me a playful smile, as if she could read my thoughts. “Don’t worry,” she said, leaning toward me and still hanging on to Daniel’s wrists. “Daniel is way too young for me.”
I blinked.
“I turned twenty-one in 1985,” she said, even though she still looked that age. “I don’t go for teenagers. That’d be creepy.”
“Oh.” I laughed.
All the newcomers in the room looked like they were in their twenties, but some of them had more age behind their eyes.
Lisa leaned in closer to Daniel and took in a deep breath, as if drinking in his scent. “Yowza, but I do have to say, he’s even more appealing now that he’s got his true alpha on. Nothing quite like the smell of power to get my blood boiling.” She smiled at Daniel. “I knew you had it in you. And you wear it well.”
Daniel blushed. A full-on, red-in-the-face blush.
“Tell you what.” She lowered her voice so it was barely a whisper—kind of pointless in a room full of people with superhearing, but whatever. “That was so darn cool how you got two of Sirhan’s men to bow to you. Geez, I’m surprised Sirhan didn’t take off your head right there and then for it. Even despite all this ‘cure’ stuff.”
“What’s up with Sirhan, anyway?” I asked. “Why does he look the way he does? All man-wolfy?”