by Dean Murray
"Alec did what he had to do. These challenge matches are life and death for the pack. Alec saved my life years ago and I won't turn my back on him now. Not when he needs me, not when the pack needs me. I love you almost like a sister, Adri, but you don't know what he is up against right now. It's not that you're stupid, but you're ignorant of just how much evil abounds in the world."
I opened my mouth to respond, but nothing would come out. We stood in silence for a couple of minutes and then Dom gestured out at the streets. "We should be on our way or you're going to be late for school."
**
I almost didn't know what to do. We started off to school, but that wasn't what was bothering me. Dom had never been mad at me. I'd never even seen her get mad, not like that, and I didn't know how to fix things now that I'd ruined our morning.
Arriving at school didn't do the trick, but I found my respect for Dominic growing as I watched her during the day. Dom needed to register still, so we stopped off at the office first thing after we arrived. Alec and Isaac seemed to have done whatever spadework was required already. Dom handed over a check and gave the office lady her name.
As I watched the secretary do a double take at Dom's scar, I hoped that I'd been less obvious than that. It didn't stop there though. Every guy or girl we passed during the day had the same kind of response, but it didn't seem to rattle Dom in the slightest. She had better hearing than I did, so I knew she could hear the whispered insults that started around noon, but even being called Franken Freak didn't ripple the pool of calm that seemed to reside at her center.
A couple of hours after we finished up lunch I found myself reaching out and putting a hand on Dom's arm.
"Dom, I'm really sorry. You're right; there's so much I don't know. I didn't mean to take anything away from your accomplishment; I'm just worried about you."
Dom's smile was more hesitant than normal, but she looked into my eyes, seeming to weigh my sincerity for several seconds before nodding.
"You are forgiven, Adri. I know it's hard to watch someone you care about put themselves in harm's way, but that's the reason I have to do what I'm doing. James, Alec, all of the others are in just as much danger as I am in, more possibly."
There wasn't really a response to that. If someone you loved was in danger how could you do anything other than your absolute best to help them?
Dom patted my hand and then pointed to her scar. "I know this distresses you, but it really doesn't matter. All of the girls mocking me are more foolish than they know. Up until I met James, my looks brought me nothing but problems. If I'd built my sense of self around them I would have been very unhappy. It's the same with the exhaustion that is robbing me of my usual strength. There will always be those around me who are more dangerous than I am. What matters isn't what I can do or how pretty I am. What matters is whether or not I'm doing my absolute best to live up to my beliefs."
Something she was saying reached inside me and smoothed away some of the hurt I'd been carrying around with me for what already seemed like forever.
"Dom, do you hate me for leaving Sanctuary, for leaving Alec?"
Her smile was incredibly gentle. She paused, as if letting me fully take in the sentiment behind it, and then shook her head.
"I'm not going to lie to you, Adri. Life has gotten very difficult since you left. Not all of that is because of your departure, but some of it is. Even so, I don't hate you. You did what you felt like you had to do, and I respect you for it."
It seemed a weight had come off my chest. It was somehow easier to breathe now, and a matching smile made it up to my lips.
"Thanks, Dom. That means more to me than you know. What can I do to help make up for my earlier words though? Is there anywhere in New York that you've ever wanted to visit? We can spend the evening sightseeing if you want."
There was a flash of something that I was pretty sure was hope, and then Dom's face settled back to its normal pleasant expression.
"No, Adri, you don't need to do anything else to make things right between us. We should return home after school and do homework."
"That's not what you really want to do though, is it? Please tell me. I'd really like to do something other than just study tonight."
I could see Dom's hidden desire working on her, slowly chipping away at her reluctance to inconvenience me.
"If you won't let me make a gesture to make up for earlier, at least let me go with my friend somewhere that she wants to go."
Dom's smile was back. "Okay, I'll tell you my secret. My favorite author is doing a book signing tonight. Ever since Rachel told me about it I haven't been able to stop wishing there were a way that I could go meet her in person. She hardly ever makes it into the United States, but it is really out of the way."
"That's perfect. We're going to a book signing tonight, and that's all there is to it!"
**
Dom hadn't been kidding when she said the signing was out of the way. I texted Mom to let her know I'd be out late, and then we jumped on the number 5 train and headed out to Brooklyn. We swapped trains twice and then jumped on a bus in order to get to our destination, which proved to be a massive underground parking garage.
I thought it was an odd place to hold a book signing, but Dom apparently had done a little bit of research on her flight, and it wasn't uncommon for this particular garage to host multiple events during a given week, sometimes simultaneously.
We arrived to find a line that snaked up a couple of levels and an outrageous din that I was sure had nothing at all to do with the book signing. Dominic pulled three books out of her backpack as we stepped into line and started our slow journey towards wherever it was that the author was actually signing copies.
When she saw my interest in the books she was holding, Dom handed me one to look at. I opened it up, but it was written entirely in Spanish. "Vanessa Valencia. I've never heard of her before. What kind of books does she write?"
Dominic shrugged, seemingly at a loss for how to describe the books. After several seconds she took the book back from me and sighed.
"I think you would probably call it literary fiction. The part that calls to me is her characters. They are all so real, such ordinary people, but during the course of the novel there is always at least one who finds himself."
"What do you mean 'finds himself'?"
Another shrug, I was starting to see that we were talking about something that was important to Dom. Her natural shyness generally meant she had a harder time talking about something when it was central to who she was.
"It's a little bit like what we talked about earlier. The characters in her books decide what is really, truly important to them, and then they make the sacrifices that are required for them to live up to their beliefs. I think more than anything else that it was Mrs. Valencia's writing that gave me the courage to flee north and eventually find Alec's pack."
I nodded, not because I really understood, but because she'd told me enough to get me started. I made a mental note to get a translated copy of all three books, and then asked Dom about James and his latest modifications to his car.
Dom didn't love cars and tuning them anywhere near as much as James did, but she loved James, so she was quite capable of talking about his passions for long blocks of time. With the conversation safely turned to something less intimate, we both relaxed a little for the next half hour.
Dominic was halfway through describing how a turbo worked, when she suddenly tensed up and grabbed my arm.
"Adri, I smell vampires."
I leaned in close so we could exchange words without other people overhearing. "How many, and are they close?"
Dom paused for several seconds, and then shook her head. "Not close. The scent is very faint, so it's hard to say for sure, but I think there are two or three individuals in what I smell."
I looked around, trying not to be too obtrusive in my scan of our area of the parking garage, but I didn't see anyone that made me think 'Oh crap. There
's a vampire.'
"Faint like they aren't nearby, or faint like the scent is very old? There isn't much chance for the elements to wash away the scent down here, so an old scent trail could stay around for a long time."
She seemed to consider my words for several seconds before nodding grudgingly. "You could be right, but we should go anyways. It's too risky for you to be here."
Dom tugged on my arm, but I pulled back. She could easily pick me up and carry me back outside, but that would attract exactly the kind of attention she spent so much time and energy avoiding. She would need at least a modicum of cooperation from me if she was going to get me back up to the surface without making a scene.
"Dom, I know you're worried, but there's got to be at least a thousand people here. Unless you think we're really in immediate danger then we're going to stay and get you your autograph."
It was obvious I'd hit upon the perfect argument to make her pause, but even so I wasn't positive it would work on her. A few seconds later she sighed and nodded.
"Very well, we'll continue forward, but if the scent gets stronger then we're getting out of here, and I don't want you fighting me."
"You've got yourself a deal."
The next few minutes were pleasant. We talked about Sanctuary, but Dominic was a natural when it came to skirting around topics that would cause me unhappiness. The noise from whatever the other activity was that was going on at the same time was rising and falling now, but I still hadn't figured out what it was. There was a crowd. I could distinctly pick out cheers and even an occasional whistle. That was the piece that was cresting every now and then, but there was a metallic bit to it as well. It sounded like someone had buzz saws going at the same time.
We went down another set of stairs and I was finally able to see the cause of all of the commotion. There was a rough circle walled off a dozen feet or so away from where our line snaked past. It took me a couple of seconds to realize that the kids standing around the circle were pressing up against Plexiglas shields, and that the circle contained half a dozen remote-controlled robots busy trying to destroy each other.
Seven or eight other robots had already been dispatched, some of them in multiple pieces, lying at various places inside the arena. I couldn't see very well from where I was standing, but even so I could tell that the designs were incredibly varied, everything from hammer wielding contraptions to ones with spinning discs and even giant claws.
I was both simultaneously impressed by the ingenuity of the combatants, who were frantically controlling them with massive remote controls, and amazed at the sheer work they'd put into something that was being destroyed in spectacular fashion. I started to turn around to talk to Dominic some more, but stopped and felt my mouth drop open as I realized I knew one of the boys standing around the circle.
I started toward the circle, but Dom grabbed my arm before I could make it more than half a step. "Adri, where are you going?"
"I'm not going far, Dom. You stay here. I'll make sure I don't get out of view, but I need to go check something."
Dom let go of my arm with a worried look. I smiled reassuringly at her and then started back toward the circle. It only took a few steps to become certain I'd been right.
"Ben!"
He turned around and looked at me with confusion on his face for a split second before breaking out in a smile. He met me halfway between the arena and Dominic and actually gave me a hug with the hand that wasn't holding a massive remote control.
"I never in the world would have expected to see someone else from Sanctuary at this thing. Since when are you into battle bots?"
I shook my head and smiled again. I was smiling hard enough that I knew my face was going to hurt before long.
"I'm not into robots, I'm here with Dom. There's some kind of book signing going on for one of her favorite authors."
Ben nodded. "That explains it then; you never struck me as much of a gearhead. What are you doing in New York?"
"My mom moved us out here a little while after all of the craziness..."
It was the wrong thing to say, and I knew it almost as soon as it came out of my mouth. Agony's trip had been extremely unpleasant for me, but it had been as bad or worse for Ben. Despite all of Alec's effort to keep me at arm's length because he was worried I'd become addicted to his touch, I'd almost stopped believing it could really happen.
My doubts had been washed away when Ben had touched Jasmin and felt the full force of the Ja'tell bond. He'd been utterly addicted to her, but Agony's visit had prevented Jasmin from seeing Ben again for days after the bond had been formed. Ben had thought Jasmin was just stringing him along, so he'd left town, choosing a clean break rather than letting the addiction get even worse.
We sat in silence for a couple of seconds before I pointed at his remote control. "So you didn't just come to watch; you came to compete, too?"
Ben brightened up instantly. "Yeah, this was my first go at things and I made it past the second round, so I'm actually pretty happy with how I did."
"There are multiple rounds to this?"
His laugh was different than I remembered it being back in Sanctuary. It was lighter, more relaxed than before. I found my smile getting wider.
"Yeah, there are four rounds. This is the last one. It's getting boring now. Nobody has any surprises left so it's moving a lot slower now than it did for the first few rounds. I was starting to think about heading out. Let me get my robot and I'll walk with you."
'Getting his robot' proved to be a lot more involved of a process than I'd expected it to be. It was literally in multiple pieces.
"What happened?"
"One of the buzz saw robots managed to dart under me when I rolled over top of some loose parts. The next thing I knew, it had cut both of my axles."
I shook my head in astonishment as I helped him pick it up. It had to weigh at least forty pounds, which meant that getting it home was going to be a real pain now that he couldn't roll it along ahead of him.
"Do you mind if we walk up the line a ways? I don't want Dom to think I completely ditched her."
"Sure, no problem. You're going to have to help me carry it back up to the street though; there's no way that I can manage it by myself. I'm starting to think that next time I'll bring spare axles."
It felt like Ben's robot got heavier the further we hauled it. We didn't make it all of the way to Dominic. Actually, we didn't even come close, but we covered enough distance that she wasn't going to lose sight of me, which would help calm her back down. I'd been stealing glances at her while I'd been talking to Ben, and she'd been getting more and more concerned as the line had taken her further and further away from me.
"So what are you doing out here? What school are you going to?"
Ben shook his head. "No school. Honestly I don't know why I bothered with school back in Sanctuary as long as I did. I got a job with a sweet auto body shop. They've got a pretty exclusive client base and we do all kinds of crazy stuff. Today I installed a pair of turbos and then started drawing up plans for a secret compartment in an SUV."
"What do they need secret compartments for?"
"I don't know, they don't tell me that kind of stuff. The customer is always right and all that. Rich people can be pretty eccentric, though, so who knows what it's for. Remember all of the crazy stuff Alec used to do? I keep in touch with a couple of people back in Sanctuary, and the word there now is that he's got some new girl throwing herself at him. She's staying at his house and picks him up from school. Just more craziness."
I opened my mouth to respond and suddenly felt like the floor had moved on me. Ben caught me before I could hit the ground, but even so, it was plenty embarrassing.
"Are you okay, Adri?"
"Yeah. It's stupid, but sometimes I get kind of woozy when I think about him. Things...well, they didn't end well when I left Sanctuary."
It was only a partial lie. I did sometimes get unsteady on my feet when I thought about Alec, but this h
ad more to do with learning that he'd replaced me. Already.
Ben sometimes played the stupid gearhead when it suited him, but he wasn't an idiot. It took him only a fraction of a second to run back through our conversation from right before my near collapse and figure out exactly who I was talking about.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to take you back down memory lane. Are you doing okay otherwise? I mean, as long as you don't think about him."
I almost snorted at the incomprehensible thought of going more than an hour or two without thinking of Alec, but Ben didn't deserve that. Instead I just nodded.
"Yeah, overall I'm doing okay. My school is full of a bunch of stuck-up snobs, but I saw Albert a little while ago, and Dom flew out today, so that's helped. I was kind of surprised, actually, that it helped as much as it did. I only lived in Sanctuary for a few months, but I guess it set its hooks in me pretty deep."
It was Ben's turn to look like he was thinking of other times and places. "Yeah, I guess it does. I lived there my whole life until I ran away, so I don't really know any different, but I find myself thinking about home a lot more than I thought I would."
He'd been the one to bring it up, so I decided to go ahead and turn the tables on him. "How are you doing, Ben? I mean really."
"I'm okay. Work really is cool. They didn't even bat an eye when they found out I wasn't quite eighteen yet. All they seem to care about is whether or not I can do the job. I've actually been clean since before I got here. Whatever Jasmin did to me was a real mind job, but it had one benefit. I don't even feel the urge to use, at least not the normal stuff."
"You miss her?"
"I don't think 'miss' is the right word. More like crave. One of the guys at work does some hypnosis though. I've started doing a few sessions with him and that's helping a little. Mostly I just fight every hour not to jump on a bus and head back to Utah."
There wasn't a lot you could say after an admission like that. We both sat there in silence for a minute or so before I remembered to look up and check on Dom. Even from so far away, I could tell she was getting nervous. There was a massive wall that the line snaked around which was going to carry her out of view if we didn't move pretty soon.
