Curran rubbed my shoulders. "Put the sword down for a second." Fine. I put Slayer back on the night table and crossed my arms.
"Humor me. What's the harm in keeping Julie here? With us? She has a room already. She has a friend--Doolittle's grandniece really likes her."
"Maddie."
"Yes, Maddie. There are fifteen hundred shapeshifters in the Pack. One more screwed-up kid isn't going to break anything."
"It's not about that."
"Then what is it?"
"People around me die, Curran. They drop like flies. I've gone through life leaving a trail of dead bodies behind me. My mother is dead, my stepfather is dead, my guardian is dead, my aunt is dead--because I killed her, and when my real father finds me, he'll move heaven and earth to make me dead. I don't want Julie to live stumbling from one violent clash to another, always worried that people she cares about won't survive. You and I will never have normal, but if she stayed in that school, she could have."
Curran shrugged. "The only people who can have normal are the ones unaffected by all the fucked-up shit that happens around them. Julie doesn't want normal. She probably can't deal with it. She'll get out of that school and run right into the fire to prove to herself she can take the heat. It will happen one way or another. Keeping her away just ensures she won't be prepared when she's on her own."
I leaned back against the night table. "I just want her to be safe. I don't want anything bad to happen to her."
Curran pulled me close. "We can keep her safe here. She can go to one of our schools, or we can take her to somewhere in the city. She is yours, but now that we're mated, she's also mine, which makes her the ward of the Beast Lord and his mate. Trust me, nobody wants to piss the two of us off. Besides, we have three hundred shapeshifters in the Keep at any moment, and each one of them will kill anything that threatens her. Can't get safer than that."
He had a point. I couldn't have Julie staying with me before, when I lived in a shabby apartment with failing heat. It got attacked every time I found a lead on one of my cases. I'd worked for the Order of Knights of Merciful Aid back then, and it demanded every ounce of my time. Julie would have been on her own for most of the day, without me to take care of her and make sure she ate and stayed safe. Things were different now. Now Julie could stay here, in the Keep full of homicidal maniacs who grew teeth the size of switchblades and erupted into a violent frenzy when threatened.
Somehow that thought failed to make me feel better.
"You will have to train her one way or another," Curran said. "If you want her to hold her own." He was right. I knew he was right, but I still didn't like it. "We're about a hundred miles from Macon?"
He nodded. "Give or take."
"She'll be staying away from the ley line and she's carrying wolfsbane."
"Why?" Curran frowned.
"Because the last time she took off, Derek picked her up at a ley point and brought her here in a Pack Jeep. He even stopped to get her some fried chicken and ice cream. She had a great time, so I told her that if she pulled this stunt again, she wouldn't get anywhere near the Keep. I would either come myself or send somebody who would find her and take her straight back to the school. No going to the Keep, no getting attention from me and Derek, no gossiping with Maddie, no passing go or collecting two hundred dollars. She wants to avoid being caught, so she's walking home."
Curran grinned. "She's determined, I'll give her that."
"Could you send a tracker out there to watch over her but keep out of sight?"
"What are you thinking?"
"Let her walk. A hundred miles over rugged terrain, it will take her a couple of days." When I was a kid, Voron, my stepfather, would drive me into the woods and drop me off with nothing but a canteen and a knife. Julie wasn't me. But she was a smart kid, good on the street. I had no doubt she could make it to the Keep on her own. Still, better safe than sorry.