War of Hearts(64)

“No, I get you. And you’re right. I wanted to be like my parents, to be human. Once when I was twelve, not too long before … before they died … I pushed a friend out of the way of a stray baseball. It would have knocked her out. It came at us with such a force, so I took the hit, knowing it would barely hurt. There were too many witnesses from the game to mess with their minds about it. And the school made a huge fuss and my dad got mad at me. He said that no matter what, I couldn’t step in to save other people from bad things because it would only expose me, and people would come to take me away.”

Her voice grew hollow, flat. “I cried so much because I hated that I couldn’t even save my friend without being told not to be myself. They hated seeing me in pain and that night, my mom told me something I’ve thought a lot on over the years.

“She said that when I turned eighteen and I was old enough to make my own decisions, I’d have the opportunity to learn about who I really was, and when I had that information, it would be up to me how I used it. It would be up to me to make the right choice about my abilities. I didn’t know what she meant then …”

“They knew,” Conall answered decisively. “They discovered what you are, Thea.”

He saw her nod out of the corner of his eye. “Yeah, I think so too. Now we’ll never know for sure.”

“One thing is for sure: Ashforth thinks he knows what you are.” Conall remembered the drug that hurt Thea. “The drug? Does it contain pure iron?”

“No. But I heard something when I was his little lab rat. He thought I was unconscious because he’d taken a lot of blood from me. But my blood regenerates faster than a human’s. Much faster.” She turned in her seat, angling her body toward him. “So we all have iron in our blood, right?”

“Right.”

“But it’s got oxygen in it. Like iron ore. Which is possibly why iron ore doesn’t affect me. There’s iron in food too. That doesn’t bother me. What I heard this lab guy that Ashforth had hired to run tests on me explain was that injecting me with an iron supplement overwhelmed my system while my blood tried to oxidize it. It isn’t like pure iron, which would probably paralyze me indefinitely if I were injected with it. Instead, it was … well, it burns. Like fire running through my veins. And when I was weak from the room he’d lined with pure iron, my body struggled to heal as fast as it normally would.”

“That’s why it didnae work when I gave it to you.” He flinched at the reminder he’d inflicted pain on her. “You’re stronger outside the room. Your blood oxidized it within an hour.”

“Exactly.”

It was then it truly hit Conall just how powerful Thea was. She had one weakness. That was it. One weakness. There was something comforting about the fact that Thea Quinn was so incredibly difficult to kill.

A true immortal.

She’d been alone so long because of it, not trusting anyone. But she’d trusted him. With her story, with her weaknesses. Conall owed her the same.

“You should know the drug mutes my ability to track you.”

She was quiet a moment and when he glanced at her, her expression was blank.

“I have no idea why. All I know is that my ability only works on sentient beings.”

“Sentient beings?” Thea frowned. “It works on animals too?”

“Aye. When Callie was younger, she would guilt me into looking for people’s lost pets whenever she saw a poster for a missing dog or cat. She once had me track down a bloody guinea pig.”

Thea giggled. Conall grinned at the sound. “That’s hilarious.”

“Aye, well, that’s Callie for you.”

“Tell me more about her.”

He grunted at having the conversation turned on him and his family.

“What? I want to know who it is I’m saving.”

The reminder he’d hand Thea over to Ashforth in exchange for his sister caused a flare of anger he had to forcefully quell. “She’s fierce,” he said, deciding he owed her this too. “Much like our mum. Callie is also an alpha and was the pack’s lead warrior before she got sick.”

“She’ll be strong again soon.”

A flood of confusion hit Conall. He was desperate to see Callie well again, but he dreaded the sacrifice it would take. “Aye. Well, she’s single-minded and opinionated enough. She’s also the bloody nosiest wolf I’ve ever met.” He smirked, remembering the many times she’d interfered in the love lives of their pack. Sometimes she triumphed, sometimes she just pissed people off. His smirk fell. “She cares too much.”

“Too much? Is there such a thing?”

“Aye. Callie cares about everything. Not just our pack and our lands, but everyone in the entire universe. She jumps from one crusade to the next. Sometimes it’s personal, an old university friend dying from cancer, or something bigger than us all. Like human trafficking, climate change, animal cruelty.” He looked at Thea, who was frowning. “It hurts her. I see how caring that much about everything hurts her.”

Thea gave him a sad smile. “You’re in awe of her.”

Conall nodded, grief clogging his throat as he turned back to the road. The world would be such a dark place without Caledonia MacLennan in it.

“It’s brave to care that much, Conall. I’m glad I have the chance to save someone like her.”