Riven

by Dean Murray

"Try not to let Grayson get to you. He's always a little odd right after he gets done using his power like that. Don't be surprised if he apologizes for it later on."

  My beast sent out a little pulse of anger but he seemed to be too tired to get truly worked up at this point.

  "I know what I saw. One minute that cat was going to kill me and the next he was jerking around like he'd been electrocuted."

  Carson held up his hands in a 'cool down' gesture. "Look I've been in a few dustups in my day. It's not uncommon for people to come back with wildly different versions of what happened, even experienced operators sometimes get a little stutter in the memory department when the adrenaline gets really flowing. I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just saying that you were focused on your little corner and he was focused on his corner and the important thing is that we're all going to walk away from this particular mission."

  It felt too dismissive, but I just couldn't seem to muster up the indignation that I should be feeling. That made me worry once again that I'd lost too much blood, but when I looked down Carson was already putting the finishing touches on my arms.

  "I have to say you came out pretty lucky. I only caught bits and pieces of your fight, but I was sure that your arms were being torn to ribbons given the way those two were going at you. This isn't all that much worse than your typical sparring match."

  "You're right, I'm not nearly as hurt as I thought I was. Maybe my memory is fuzzier than I realized."

  Chapter 16

  Adriana Paige

  Graves Estate

  Sanctuary, Utah

  The wedding was just days away now, but I'd decided that I couldn't keep obsessing over it any more than I could keep obsessing over the gorgeous shape shifters who still threw themselves at Alec whenever they thought they could get away with it.

  Things had died down slightly right after Lori had been sent home in a cage, but they'd been slowly ramping back up. Sooner or later Alec was going to have to put another of them in her place or he'd find himself with a lap full of lithesome blondes.

  I pushed the thought away again and focused on what I had planned for the day. I was going to forget about the wedding and everything else and instead I was going to see if Rachel wanted to walk through the gardens.

  Dominic looked up and smiled at me as I knocked on Rachel's door and then let myself in. Rachel didn't acknowledge my presence, but I'd come to realize that was the new normal.

  "Hi, Dom. Can I take Rachel out to the garden?"

  "Hello, Adri. Sure, I'll put her in her chair and go with you, just give me a minute to remember where I put her favorite jacket."

  As Dom pulled herself to her feet I realized just how tired she was looking. It was as bad as before when Alec had been unconsciously draining everyone.

  "Dom, you look terrible—are you getting any sleep?"

  "Not quite as much as I should, but that isn't the main problem. My dreams have been really dark lately. It makes it so that I wake up not feeling very rested."

  "If you can help me get Rachel ready then I can take her out into the garden. You should stay here and take a nap."

  Dominic looked torn. "Alec will flip if Rachel doesn't have at least one bodyguard of her own."

  I waved the concern away as I stepped back out into the hall. Carson looked over at me with a barely perceptible smile as soon as my head poked out of the room. He was still sporting some bandages from the excursion to capture the cats in Vegas, but he and most of the rest of the group had hopped on Alec's plane so they were back already.

  The cages were still on their way back. The diesel was taking the long way home so as to avoid being stopped at a weigh station. Even Alec would have a hard time bribing enough people to cover up that kind of find.

  "Carson, is there anyone you trust who's free right now so they could shadow Rachel while we are out in the garden?"

  "I'm sure there is. I'll call into the ops room while you get Rachel ready to go."

  "Thanks, Carson."

  Dom was moving more slowly than normal and Rachel was completely passive, so it took nearly half an hour to get Rachel dressed in warmer clothes and situated in her wheelchair. James walked into the room a few minutes before we got done.

  "I hear you need a hand."

  Dominic looked like she was going to protest, but I beat her to the punch. "Yes, please, James. I just want to take Rachel out to the gardens on a walk and Dom needs to stay here and catch her breath."

  "Perfect, let's go."

  We left Dom with a frown on her face, but she stayed. As I pushed Rachel down the hall I spared a thought to hope that meant she'd be taking a nap.

  Jasmin was waiting for us at the back door, Ben strapped limply into another wheelchair. "Do you mind if the two of us join you?"

  I shook my head. "No, that would be fine. How did you know we'd be here?"

  She tapped her earpiece. "I heard Carson asking for an extra body. I figured this might be good for Ben. You know, put him in different surroundings and provide some stimulation."

  We'd been walking for less than twenty minutes before Kristin found us and asked if she could walk with us. We found a secluded corner of the garden that had a pair of stone benches and all stopped.

  I tried for small talk with Kristin while I unbuckled Rachel and helped her out of her chair. After the second time of not getting a response to my queries, I waved a hand in front of Kristin's face.

  "Are you okay?"

  "Oh, yeah, sorry. I haven't been sleeping very well lately."

  "There seems to be a lot of that going around lately."

  Kristin shrugged with a nonchalance that I suspected she didn't actually feel. We weren't good enough buddies for her to seek me out like this without something else being up.

  "It's not a big deal, at least I know what's causing it. It's got to be Dream Stealer again."

  My mouth dropped open. Alec had mentioned that one of the Coun'hij had the ability to go into people's dreams, much like the power that Mallory said that I'd manifested, but I hadn't realized that he was still targeting Kristin like this.

  "Kristin, that's a big deal. We need to tell Alec."

  "Why, so he can throw me in a cage?"

  I shook my head at her. "He's not going to throw you in a cage."

  "Don't be so sure. Dream Stealer has driven people insane in the past. I just need to hold out for a few more days though. He tends to worry around at the edge of his target pack looking for the weak link. If I can last a little longer then he'll go looking for someone else to break. Don't worry, Ash is keeping a close eye on me."

  It was a disturbing development, especially if Dom was up against the same kind of attack, but before I could decide what to say next James and Carson both stepped forward like they were going to try and get us out of the area.

  Jasmin sighed and waved them back to their posts before they got to us. "No use trying to avoid a scene now, guys, not as long as it's going to take to get Rachel into her chair."

  I looked over at Rachel, but she was completely lost in her own little world. She was currently watching invisible people walk back and forth in front of her. I was going to ask Jasmin what she was talking about and then I heard them.

  "...through talking to you about this, about anything."

  "No, you're not. You don't understand what you're getting into. You don't even know him, not really."

  "I know him better than I know you, but that's not important. The important thing is that he doesn't treat me like some kind of porcelain doll! He actually cares what I think about stuff."

  They were moving our direction at a pretty good clip. I could recognize their voices now that they were closer and my heart went out to Jessica and Isaac. The last thing they needed was half a dozen witnesses to their drama.

  The steps stopped abruptly, like maybe Isaac had grabbed hold of Jessica's arm.

  "Jess...Jessica, I'm serious. If you don't want to be with me then that's fine, I can accept that. Wyatt
isn't what he seems to be though. Carson told me something that makes me think that Wyatt isn't telling you the whole story. I mean how can he be? He appears out of nowhere, swears to Alec for two months and then he'll disappear again. You're going to get hurt."

  I heard a meaty thunk, like Jess had slapped Isaac, and then the lighter set of footsteps headed our way again as she yelled back over her shoulder at him.

  "You don't talk to me about Wyatt, ever. You're still just worried about your own ego and Carson is a meddling old woman who should be pushed out of a plane."

  Jessica came crashing through the hedges that surrounded our little piece of the garden and went to go stomping through the middle of our group, but Rachel stepped up in front of her. When Jess tried to go around her, Rachel slapped her with every ounce of power she could generate.

  If anyone else had done it Jess would have torn into them, but the action was so unexpected from Rachel, especially the new Rachel who hardly ever even recognized that there were other people around, that Jess just blinked at her for the couple of seconds it took for James to get between the two of them.

  Carson was only a step behind James, and he restrained Jessica as James put Rachel back in her chair. I half expected Rachel to struggle, but she just looked sadly at Jessica and shook her head.

  "'Show some respect. You shouldn't speak ill...well, you should just show some respect."

  The weird stuff was piling up faster than you could shake a stick at it. I needed answers if I was going to help Alec hold everything together, but I didn't know where to turn for help anymore.

  Chapter 17

  Adriana Paige

  Graves Estate

  Sanctuary, Utah

  I wasn't paying enough attention to what Carson was showing me and I knew it. We'd spent the last half hour walking through the park so that he could show me his progress with the flowers, and I'd only caught every third word or so.

  I realized he was on to me when we ended up back at the golf cart and he ended his update with, "...it sounds like we're agreed then. I'll rip out all of the flowers and put in ornamental ponds instead."

  I blushed as he looked at me with the barest hint of a twinkle in his eyes. "I'm sorry, Carson. You've been doing such incredible work out here and I didn't pay you anywhere near the attention that you deserved."

  He gently shook his head at me. "There's no need to apologize. In all honesty, this is more for your sake than it is for mine. I wanted to give you one last chance to make any changes to the plans before the big day. I'm happy with how things have turned out, but that's all of little value if you're not equally happy with the results."

  I shook my head and looked back out over the miniature greenhouses that had been constructed over most of the flower gardens. Nearly all of the plants that Carson had picked out were hardy enough to deal with what passed as winter in Sanctuary, but even so they wouldn't normally bloom until the warmer months of the year. The hothouses allowed him to control every aspect of their environment so that he could make sure they were perfect when the actual wedding arrived.

  "If I wanted to change anything this late in the game then you should drag me in to get my head examined. We'd have to pay all kinds of overtime to move everything around by hand now because the rest of the park is finished enough that we can't bring in any kind of heavy equipment. Besides, nothing needs changing because you've done an absolutely amazing job. Visually it's gorgeous and while my nose is only human good, the scents seem equally divine. You deserve to have me say as much and you definitely deserve to have me pay attention while you show off your handiwork."

  Carson looked over at Vivian, who was helping with my security for the day, and motioned towards the top of the bowl. "Give us a minute please, Vivian."

  Rebekka's daughter nodded and started the long trudge to the rim of the amphitheater. Carson watched until she was out of hearing range and then looked around as if to confirm that nobody else was listening to us. We'd scheduled the outing during the time when the various landscaping crews took their lunch, so we had the park to ourselves.

  "I meant what I said, Adri. More than anything else I just want you to be happy. Being able to serve the royal line in even a small way is more than a sufficient reward for my efforts. Would you like to talk about what's bothering you?"

  "Is it that obvious?"

  Carson bestowed another kind smile on me. Sometimes it was hard to remember that he was one of our top fighters. He was so even-keeled that he reminded me of an older, wiser version of Isaac before everything had come apart with Jess. Those qualities didn't usually go together with ruthless aggression when it came to life-and-death situations, but Carson somehow had them in spades.

  It was nice that Alec had assigned me a bodyguard who not only was one of the more deadly fighters we had, but also seemed to genuinely care about me as a person.

  "I don't think that anyone else realizes just how preoccupied you are, Adri, but I know you a little better than most."

  I shrugged. "I guess you're right, the problem is that I almost don't even know where to start. Sometimes it seems like there is more wrong than right. Isaac, Jess and Wyatt are a constant source of drama, I have this huge wedding that is completely over the top in every way, and those two things aren't even at the top of the list."

  I looked back in the direction of the house even though I couldn't see it, and sighed. "Rachel isn't herself anymore, Jasmin is unhappy all of the time, Ben is in a coma, and my mom is marrying Russ. It just feels like everything is in constant motion. How can I get my feet underneath me if events are rushing towards me faster than I can possibly deal with them?"

  I let myself sit down in the golf cart and put my head in my hands. There were a few seconds of silence and then Carson lowered himself down onto the seat next to me and cleared his throat.

  "I've wanted to be a gardener for as long as I can remember. You've been very complimentary about my work here in the park, but the truth of it is that I'm no more than a hobbyist. There is so much that I'd like to learn, but my time is spent learning how to kill people instead of creating beauty."

  I felt a flash of guilt. A huge percentage of Carson's time was spent babysitting me and I'd never really thought about the fact that he might have something else that he'd rather be doing. Alec was paying him, but money didn't really matter, not against the kind of vocation that Carson had.

  Carson seemed to read my mind. "There are good parts about what I do now, taking care of you for one, but when I look back over my life so much of it has been spent doing things that were important rather than doing the things that I wanted to do."

  "I'm sorry, Carson. I never really thought about that. You've got a lot of time ahead of you though, right? I mean given that shape shifters live for so long you've got, what, another couple of hundred years at least? You could do a lot between now and then."

  I looked up in time to see Carson shrug his shoulders. "The future is a path branching with endless possibilities, but I suspect that I'll never live to see peace arrive for my people. There will always be another group of monsters that need put down, another threat that needs dealt with. Unfortunately, for all that I love gardening, my true talents lie in other areas."

  Carson smiled as he looked off into the distance and for a second I wondered what he was thinking about. His expression had changed there for a heartbeat into something gentler than I'd ever seen out of him before.

  "My life hasn't been a waste though. I have a lot to be thankful for, a lot to be proud of, and I've learned a few things along the way."

  There was another pause, almost as if Carson was searching for the right words. "If you would like, I'll let you in on the part of gardening that was the hardest for me to accept early on."

  "Yes, please."

  "The plants are going to do what the plants want to do. All you can do as a gardener is try to encourage the behavior you want, provide the best conditions possible and then wait to see what the plant does with w
hat you've given it. People are the same way. Jess, Isaac and Wyatt will have to find their own path and the most that you can hope is that they will take advantage of the conditions here while they last."

  I nodded as the meaning of his words started to sink in. "I guess that holds true with Jasmin and Rachel too. It's just so hard not being able to help them more right now. You would think that I'd be used to feeling powerless given that I'm surrounded by people who are all stronger and faster than me, but I hate this feeling."

  Carson patted my arm. "That feeling is a good sign. The fact that you're feeling powerless now means that you've come to an understanding of just how much power you actually do wield. So many people go through life never realizing the extent of the influence they can exert through seemingly small things. They feel powerless all of the time, but this is a recent development for you, so it's a good thing."

  I shrugged. "If you say so. It doesn't feel like it though."

  "This feeling is a gift, especially for someone like you. You need to remember what it feels like so that when you are standing at Alec's side passing judgment on your people, you'll remember to be merciful."

  Tears started pooling in my eyes. I shouldn't have been surprised that Carson had seen through to the thing that was bothering me most of all. He'd shown an incredible amount of insight already in the past.

  "Carson, I don't want to be a queen. I don't want that kind of power. All I've ever wanted is to take care of my friends and family."

  "I know, Adri. That's part of what makes you so special. You understand your power, but you don't love it for its own sake. All of the best gardeners are that way. You're starting down a path that will help you become one of those rare people who know how to cultivate others, how to nurture them, while still remembering that ultimately it's their choice what they will become."

  "I suppose that it's too late to back out now."

  It was a pretty feeble attempt at humor, but Carson seemed to sense the truth behind it. I didn't want to back out on Alec, but I woke up every morning wishing that Alec and I could just go off by ourselves without all of the concerns of running a pack or ruling the moonborn.