The Culling (Book 2): The Hollow:

by Bell, A. C.

  “They’re no longer allowed to have anyone listen in. From this point on, everyone who talks to him has to go through me.” He stopped at a door halfway down the hall and stood with his back to it. His coffee bean eyes switched intently between all of us. “Know that the officers here have been taking steps to help him. His condition might be worse otherwise. He’s developed depression during his stay.”

  “Okay, now let us see him,” Nikki demanded.

  Morrison stepped aside and opened the door for us, but trailed us in. The unwanted company stopped mattering when I found Peter. His dark hair was a shaggy mess and a thick shadow of scruff darkened the bottom of his face. The addition of body odor made it clear he hadn’t been taking care of himself. Deep purple bags framed his bloodshot and puffy eyes. He’d been crying. He looked utterly and completely broken. His chocolate eyes flitted to the edge of the table at our entrance, but he wouldn’t look up at us.

  Morrison stepped up to the table and reached for the handcuffs that chained Peter to the table and twisted a key into it. It clicked open.

  Peter’s eyes widened. “You’re uncuffing me?” His voice was hoarse from disuse.

  “Ah, he speaks,” The man joked lightly as he slipped the cuffs from Peter’s wrists. “It’s not like they’d be much use if you decided you didn’t want them on, right?” Peter didn’t answer and instead frowned down at his hands.

  Not that he would say it, but Morrison was letting us hug our friend. He passed me to the door and I smiled weakly. “Thank you,” I whispered.

  He nodded and let himself out. Nikki and I moved uncertainly to the table and when Peter still didn’t look up, Nikki bent and gently touched his hands. His eyes welled and he clamped them shut, lips wrinkling in grief, but he didn’t pull away. Nikki cupped his hands in hers and tugged him to his feet. He engulfed her in an embrace. Held her so tight. She put her cheek on his shoulder and gripped him as if trying to put him back together.

  ***

  “How did you end up in Boston?” I asked. Peter fiddled with his fingers across the table.

  “Quinn, the girl who...died; She and her boyfriend found me. I Changed to get away from Gabriel, but I’d hurt my leg and they didn’t see me collapse on the street. He tried to swerve, but not in time.” He tried to clear his throat to get his voice back to normal.

  “I’ll get you some water.” Raiden crossed the small room to the tiny table in the corner, barely big enough to hold the small water cooler and a stack of paper cups.

  Peter continued his tale, massaging his forehead as he spoke. “I can’t even begin to emphasize how much you do not want to be hit by a car. Luckily, Quinn and her boyfriend didn’t just leave me there.”

  Raiden turned around with the cup and I noticed faint light glowing between his fingers. He met my knowing glance and the corner of his mouth turned up almost imperceptibly.

  “Here you go.” He handed the cup to Peter and reclaimed his seat beside me. Peter took a greedy gulp, emptying the small container in one go. He sighed approvingly and slumped more comfortably in his chair. He sounded more normal when he spoke.

  “Who knew water could taste so magical?” He said.

  I failed to stifle my laugh and my sputter made Raiden laugh. He then nudged my elbow with his and we both tried to be serious. Peter and Nikki scrunched their brows.

  “What was that?” Nikki asked.

  “Nothing. Sorry. So, where does a couple bring an injured wolf?”

  Peter tapped his fingers on the cup, looking at it instead of us. “They brought me to her apartment. I think they were afraid a shelter would euthanize me, but I was too out of it to say for sure. Apparently, her boyfriend was studying to be a vet. He must have given me something for the pain, but I was out by then. He set my bones and stitched me up. It must have been a few days later when I finally woke up, ‘cause my leg was a lot better. But I could also feel the Change trying to reverse. Quinn stayed around to take care of me, so I couldn’t let it, but I also didn’t know how to get out of the apartment as a wolf.

  “That’s when Gabriel found me. He told her he’d lost his dog in the woods and caught her license plate when she took me. Said the dog was a wolf mix. You wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. I was gonna let Gabriel take me to keep her safe but the Change started. He yelled at me to stop but to her, it looked like he was scolding me for having a seizure or something. When he kicked me, she hit him with a lamp. It was surprisingly effective, actually, but by then she noticed the dog on the floor was turning into a weird gangly dude.” He gestured to himself in semi-humorous self-deprecation.

  Nikki frowned and lightly pinched his arm. “Stop that.” I actually think he turned a little pink.

  Peter ran his fingers through his tangled hair and rubbed the back of his neck as an excuse not to meet her eye. “Quinn’s screams are probably why people called the police. I pride myself at being pretty fast at Changing. I was barely done when Gabriel started to get back up. I didn’t think it would be safe to leave her there. That was my first mistake. The second was assuming he wouldn’t be able to catch up to the bus at its next stop. The third...I didn’t notice she followed us after that.” He closed his eyes and rested his forehead against his palm. “Why did she follow? When I finally saw her, I got us away from him, but he found us in that stupid alley. My last mistake. He didn’t even hesitate to--” He cut off. Pain contorted his face. That was when Quinn died. I knew that moment was replaying in his mind as it undoubtedly had countless times. I wished so desperately that there was a way to make it stop.

  “Then Gabriel did do it. Why didn’t you tell them that?” Nikki asked.

  Peter leaned his forehead into his hand and his shoulders shook as he started to cry. I’d never seen Peter cry. He gripped his hair tightly between his fingers. “They’ll think I killed him, too!” He sobbed. “His nose was broken, he bled on her. They said it was a familial match to the sample they took from me!”

  Horror gripped me. That was what Cassandra had meant; She thought Peter had helped his ‘father’ kill Quinn. That they’d lured her to that alley to kill her together. And if they found out Gabriel was also dead, they’d think Peter killed him to cover his tracks or something. I tried not to cry as I watched Peter’s broken heart shatter all over again as he relived it. Nikki rubbed his back to soothe him.

  “Why didn’t you call us?” I asked.

  “It was my fault! I didn’t kill her but I may as well have!”

  I dipped low to look at him beneath the unkempt curtain of his dark hair. “This is not your fault. Do you hear me?”

  He met my eye when he realized this was the same thing he’d said to me after Gabriel bit Lorraine. “Adeline, this isn’t the same thing. Lorraine is still alive.”

  “It’s the same situation, just a different outcome. I’m sorry that Quinn died and I’m sorry that it’s killing you, but you didn’t do this. Gabriel was the monster.”

  “He was my father. What does that make me?”

  “No,” Nikki argued. She leaned closer. “He didn’t raise you. You have good parents, Peter. They raised you to be a good man, and that’s what you are. If you were anything like Gabriel, you wouldn’t be tearing yourself apart like this.”

  Peter clenched his eyes closed again as tears slid down his cheeks. He hid his face in his hands.

  We needed to get him out of there.

  ***

  “The man in charge is Donovan Fitch,” Raiden explained as we entered the lobby of what was apparently the building of every supernatural law firm in the upper east states, all the way over in Boston. If each firm had its own floor, there were eleven. Nothing seemed unnatural about the place. Regular elevator music chimed at us on our way up and no one was doing anything supernatural in the offices upstairs. At least, not at first glance. Then I noticed one man spinning a pen around in the air like a propeller while he stared at his computer monitor in thought. The woman in the cubicle next to him took a hand off of her keyboar
d to take a sip of coffee and the keys on the right side of the keyboard magically continued to type.

  A young man looked up as Nikki and I trailed after Raiden through a web of cubicles. Upon spotting Raiden, his mouth fell open. He stood to peer into the next cube and whispered with the person inside. Murmuring echoed after us and before long, a strawberry blond woman in a blue pantsuit intercepted us.

  “Mr. Cravitz, you’re back!” She babbled in wide-eyed disbelief.

  Raiden shook his head. “I’m only bringing him a case, Anne.”

  “He still hasn’t replaced you, so you would fit right back in.”

  “In eight years?” He looked surprised but shook his head. “I’m not here to come back. He should just make someone else Partner.”

  Nikki looked over her shoulder at me. “Partner?” she mouthed. I shrugged, just as clueless. Anne returned to her work and we reached the offices at the far end, walled completely in glass. Inside the left office, a man was facing the setting sun outside while he talked on the phone. I caught a brief profile of his face and instantly recognized him.

  “What?” I sprinted ahead of Nikki and Raiden and the assistant outside the office rose from her desk.

  “Hey!” She called after me when I pulled the door open without her approval. Raiden muttered something reassuring to her that I didn’t pay attention to. Wyatt Parker turned at his desk to scold me for interrupting but froze, mouth open mid-thought.

  “Wyatt?” My disbelief sounded angrier than I’d intended.

  “I’ll have to call you back,” he said into the receiver. “Adeline,” He acknowledged in nervous surprise as he set the phone in its cradle.

  Raiden stepped into view with his nose crinkled in confusion. “Wyatt?”

  “Christopher!” Wyatt’s face lit up and he held his arms open ecstatically, moving around the desk to greet his friend. When Raiden didn’t seem to share the enthusiasm, Wyatt paused.

  “Christopher?” Nikki scrutinized Raiden up and down as if deciding if the name suited him. “Wait, Wyatt? I thought we were here to see a man named Donovan Fitch?”

  “Yeah, that’s me, too,” Wyatt said with an anxious smile.

  Raiden scowled. “What do you mean?”

  “Uh, this is awkward.”

  I looked up at Raiden. “That’s his name. Wyatt Parker.”

  “Par...ker.” Raiden spoke slowly, knowing what the last name meant. His chartreuse eyes widened.

  “Now, don’t be mad.” Wyatt zipped back around his desk and opened the top left drawer and pulled Xavier’s journal out. “I left my father’s journal for Adeline back in the fall but then I had to leave for an emergency. I came back to see her a few months ago,” he explained. I was pulled back to the memory and sorrow filled my chest. Wyatt saw the change in me and grimaced in guilt. “Adeline, it’s okay,” he muttered.

  I folded my arms protectively around myself and looked down.

  “How is this possible? Dhampirs can’t contract the lamian virus.” Raiden shook his head, still trying to understand. “How did you get turned?”

  “He didn’t.” My voice was small and a little high as I strained to keep my emotions in check. When I managed to pull my eyes up to Raiden, his features had gone slack as he realized what I meant. Wyatt Parker had simply never grown old. Neither would I.

  “Adeline?” Nikki touched my arm in concern, but I turned and fled the room. “Wait!”

  I remembered seeing a stairwell sign and sprinted for it with her on my tail. Only once I was safely inside, did I begrudgingly let her see my distress. The wall supported me while I tried to calm my breathing.

  “Why are you scared?” Nikki held my shoulders so I couldn’t turn away.

  “Most people would be thrilled, right? Not growing old sounds great in theory, but how am I supposed to watch everyone I love die?”

  “Let’s sit,” she suggested. We slumped together on the top concrete step and I raked my fingers through my hair. Her arm wove around me and I felt my eyes well up.

  “I don’t know how to watch all of you grow old without me.”

  “I know it seems scary, but we won’t have any less time with each other. You’ll just be around longer. Besides, you might be sick of me in sixty years.”

  A laugh-sob escaped me. “That’s not funny.”

  “Then why are you laughing?” she teased. “So, Wyatt is your...?”

  “Great-grandfather.”

  “Why didn’t he come sooner?”

  “He said he had a falling out with his daughter, like, 200 years ago. She hated being a dhampir, so she cut contact with him. He didn’t know she’d had a kid until Dad was already dead.” We fell quiet for a few moments while Nikki processed. A thought gnawed at me, as it had done ever since I’d learned I wouldn’t grow old. I frowned down at my knees and clenched my hands together. It was a terrible, selfish thought, one that I didn’t want to voice. I did anyway. “I'm so afraid of ending up alone after you and Mom and Peter are...gone.”

  Nikki squeezed my shoulder. “You will never be alone. There will always be someone who loves you.” She was right, of course. It was irrational to think I wouldn’t find any new life-long friends in sixty or so years. “That actually brings me to my next question, but I don’t think you’ll like it; What about Raiden?”

  I scoffed. “What about him?”

  “You like him,” she said softly.

  I exhaled and rested my forehead on my arms. “Yeah.”

  “It doesn’t make you selfish.”

  “Doesn’t it?” Sure, you’re going to outlive everyone you’ve grown up with and care about, but see that cute guy? You can date him, now. “Besides, until five minutes ago he didn’t even know we were on the same field.”

  “Maybe not, but I think there’s something in the way he looks at you sometimes. I know you have this whole ‘strong independent’ thing going on, but being strong doesn’t mean you have to ignore how you feel.”

  I stared at the cascading steps below my feet to avoid her hazel eyes. “Right now, helping Peter has to be our priority, anyway,” I said.

  “Okay.” She squeezed my shoulder again and pushed to her feet. “Come on, then.” She offered a hand to help me up and encouraged me back to Wyatt’s office.

  The tension in the “room” was palpable through the glass walls. Wyatt was sitting at his desk once more to show Raiden the journal, though I got the impression he was using the desk to keep a safe distance between them. Raiden's arms were crossed tightly over his chest and he'd nudged the plush grey chairs across Wyatt's desk further apart so he could glare down at him. A deep scowl was chiseled into Raiden’s tightly clenched jaw as Wyatt spoke. How long had Wyatt lied to him about who he was? It reminded me of Slade. How long had Slade lied? I hoped Raiden wouldn’t be angry if the truth came out now that Kendra was back. They had such a great bromance.

  Raiden’s chartreuse eyes moved to me and held fast as I pushed the door open. I desperately hoped I didn’t actually turn as red as I felt I did. To focus on something else, I looked to Wyatt.

  “Did he tell you why we’re here?”

  “We didn’t get to that part,” Wyatt said timidly.

  “I guess I’ll start at the beginning, then.”

  “You're absolutely certain he didn't know beforehand?" Wyatt asked.

  All three of us nodded. "Yes."

  Wyatt rubbed his face with this hands, swiveling in his chair while he thought. He pulled his lips in and tapped his thumbs together under his chin. Nikki and I exchanged uneasy glances and I shifted uncomfortably in my chair.

  "The first thing we need to do is find this ‘Gabriel's’ body. Proving he's guilty is the only way to prove Peter is innocent. We'll need people who can testify to Gabriel's character and to the fact that Peter was unaware Gabriel was his father."

  Raiden folded his arms and tapped pensively on his ribcage. He looked down at me. "Do you think Lorraine would testify? Her case already proves Gabriel is dangerous and
reckless with exposure."

  "I can talk to her.”

  “That’s great, but we also need to convince the jury that Peter didn’t help him kill the girl."

  Raiden frustratedly tousled his hair. "I'll start compiling a list of people."

  "And I'll make some calls and get Peter released on bail. Adeline, Nikki, you should go get him."

  We didn't need to be told twice. Nikki and I bustled from the room and made a beeline for the exit until a hand caught mine. Raiden pulled me back toward him and pressed his car keys into my palm.

  A smile toyed with the edges of his mouth. "You don't have a car, remember?"

  My face was definitely red now. "Right, thanks."

  He gave my hand a reassuring squeeze. "Everything will work out."

  "I hope so."

  Was it just me or was there a confident glint to his eyes that had nothing to do with the case? "I work for what I want and when I work for something, I usually get it." He let go of my hand and sauntered back to Wyatt’s office. I took a deep breath and turned on my heel.

  "You zip it," I warned Nikki as I hastened past her smug, knowing grin.

  Evolution

  It felt strange to be wearing regular clothing again, to feel it cling to his body as he moved. Not like the loose grey fabric of the jailhouse jumpsuits. This was the wrong thing to focus on, perhaps, but Peter’s mind lingered on the contrast between how rough his jeans felt to how the soft dark blue t-shirt, almost too comfortable, made him wiggle beneath its cottony hug. They weren’t his clothes, though. They belonged to Quinn’s boyfriend. Or did he count as her ex-boyfriend now that she was gone? Quinn had been such a nice girl. His insides squeezed painfully. As with any time he thought of her, he couldn’t help but picture her face right before Gabriel had killed her. Twisting her neck. Letting her collapse. Her brown eyes had been so wide when she’d realized what was about to happen. Why hadn’t Peter made her run in front of him?