Glyph

by Max Ellendale

  She took my hands into hers and held them in my lap to stop my fidgeting. “Is that why you quit your job?”

  “Yes.” No.

  “Is that part of why you quit your job?” She frowned at me again.

  “Yes, it’s part of it.” I took a deep breath.

  She hugged me. The sound of the purring in her chest soothed me. She gave up trying to expose my lies when I started to relax. “Tired?” Vanessa placed a firm hand on my back, rubbing in slow circles.

  I nodded. “Stay with me?”

  “Of course.” She kissed my shoulder. “Maybe in the morning, you’ll tell me the truth.”

  I closed my eyes. I kept feeling my body twitch every time I thought about the events of the night. The fear of getting caught and the fear that the Andrus would hurt Vanessa and Xany if I told them anything weighed heavily on me. I was glad Xany was leaving on Friday. I was glad Vanessa could bend and get away easily. I worried for Bailey and hoped he got home safe, and I worried for the potential werecreatures and people who would be kept in those containment cells in the future. I may have saved one life, but there were a lot more out there that I wouldn’t get a chance to help. But one life saved, one warrior of Gaia, was all I could ask for tonight. I fell asleep against Vanessa, and I think she held me all night, hoping that one of my dreams would reveal the truth.

  Chapter Seventeen

  I awoke around 6:00 a.m. As quietly as I could, I attempted to pry myself away from Vanessa and inadvertently woke her up in the process.

  “Morning,” I whispered.

  “Morning.” She groaned when the warmth of my body left her shivering. She curled up on the sofa, yanked the blanket off the back of it, and purred herself right back to sleep. I watched her for a moment before stretching and yawning my way to the door. The bags were still beside Xany’s apartment so I tiptoed into the hallway to knock on her door. I had to let her know that I’d changed my mind. I hadn’t planned for this. I hadn’t planned for anything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours. But I knew that leaving here was the best way to protect Xany and Vanessa—and myself, I suppose.

  Xany came to the door wearing her usual boyshorts and tank top, perking up as soon as she saw me. “Hi, Nee! I was hoping you’d stop by after work—is that blood on your shirt?” She scrunched her nose at the dark stain on the shoulder of my white T-shirt.

  “Hey. Oh, uh, yeah, probably. Sorry, I should have changed. But listen I need to tell you something…” I added before Xany could cut me off.

  “Is it your blood or is it from work? Ooooh, I bet it was something interesting. Was it gross?”

  “Xany!” I winced, realizing how loud I was. “Will you be quiet for a second, I’m trying to tell you something.”

  “Oh.” Her giggle reverberating down the hallway. “Sorry, I’ve been up for a bit. Tell me.” She bounced, reminding me of a hyperactive puppy.

  “I changed my mind.” I hesitated, not sure how to say the rest.

  “Good for you.” She nodded, grinning. Clueless.

  I huffed. “I changed my mind about going with you to Utah… I-I want to go.”

  Xany stared at me with a blank expression for a moment before screaming, “Yes! I knew you would!” She nearly knocked me over in a crushing hug.

  “Shh! Xany, it’s early!” I tried to quiet her, but it was too late.

  At least two neighbors poked their heads out of their apartments and grumbled at us. Vanessa came scrambling into the hallway, hissing wildly and ready to attack. Xany snickered at the entire scene. I sighed at her and waved Vanessa back into the apartment so she’d know everything was fine. She hissed at me and groggily disappeared back inside.

  “Chaos seems to follow you.” I huffed at Xany again before glancing at my feet and speaking softly. “Can I still come?”

  “Of c—” she started to shout so I put my hand over her mouth.

  “Use your inside voice, Xany.”

  She cracked up and supplemented shouting with bouncing. “Of course you can,” she said. “Caden and Mal will be here around noon. Have you packed?”

  “Um…no, but I don’t have much.” I forgot about the packing part of moving.

  She grinned. “Make the cat help you! I’m nearly done, then I’ll help. I’m gonna go call Caden and tell him you’re coming.” She giggled again, clearly pleased by the change of events. “I’m happy you changed your mind, Nee.”

  “Vanessa said she’d visit just like here, and you said there were hospitals there too.”

  “Of course there are hospitals there.” She hugged me again. I returned it a bit stiffly.

  We parted ways, and I returned to my apartment to pack while Vanessa continued sleeping on the sofa. I took a quick shower and dressed. I gathered some stuff from the bathroom and brought it into the bedroom. I didn’t have much. All my clothes, toiletries, towels, blanket, and pillows fit in my duffel bag. The rolling trunk I kept at the foot of my bed with all my important things had room in it so I put anything that didn’t fit in the duffel in there. In a few hours, I had packed every bit of my life into two condensed containers, minus the kitchen stuff which was negligible anyway. The only additional items I would bring would be the television and my laptop.

  When I dragged my duffel bag and trunk into the living room, Vanessa began to stir. She stretched. The rumbling in her chest told me that she’d enjoyed the sensation of unraveling her muscles. She rolled onto her stomach and peeked up at me from over the arm of the sofa.

  “You’re done already?”

  “Yes, thank you for your help.” I messed up her hair when I walked by, and she tried to swat me.

  “You’re sure you want to do this?” Vanessa sat up and stretched before leaving her perch on the sofa. She followed me into the kitchen to help me toss some junk into garbage bags. Emptying the kitchen was easy. So was the living room.

  “I’m sure.” I glanced around the room. “Did I forget anything?”

  Vanessa shook her head. “No, you don’t have anything to forget.”

  She was right. I owned less than nothing, without counting clothes. I didn’t really care about objects so the comment didn’t bother me much. “I know. Will you take the trash bags down?”

  “I will. What time are they coming?” She gathered two bags in each hand.

  “Noon.” I checked my phone for the time. “Which is in like twenty minutes.”

  “Be back in a minute.” She carried the bags out of the apartment.

  I sighed and looked around. I wasn’t sure that this was what I wanted to do, but I was doing it. What was the worst that could happen? Even if I didn’t like it there I could always come back to Wyoming. I had a ton of money saved up so that wasn’t an issue.

  Of course you have money saved up, you only buy basic necessities.

  I rolled my shoulders, suddenly bombarded by thoughts and fears about being homesick. I wasn’t the best at transitioning to new places especially when strangers were involved. When Vanessa came back, she looked at me with a furrowed brow.

  “What’s wrong?” She washed her hands in the kitchen.

  “Nothing, why?” I met her gaze after shaking off my thoughts.

  “You’re standing in the same spot like you’re frozen.” She dried her hands and came back into the room.

  “Just thinking,” I said. “How long will it take for you to be able to bend to the place in Utah?”

  “You’ll have to be there first and tell me what things look like so that I don’t bend into some random place.” She smirked. “Or in the middle of the ocean,” she added with a shiver.

  Bending was a handy ability but it was not without its limits. In order to bend into a certain place, you needed a guide. The guide was a person who was already there and was able to describe the environment to you so that the Bender can envision what the place looks like. Then the magics kicked in and boom, bending happens. Guides were not necessary but helpful. If you didn’t have a guide, you could bend into an unk
nown place and get lost. It was best to visit the places Benders plan to bend to by normal travel first; using guides could be inaccurate. The more you visited a place, the easier it was to bend there and the less time it took.

  “Caden said it’s a cabin, and it is northeast of Salt Lake City,” I told her.

  “That’s a start.” She smiled and pulled me into a hug. “Don’t worry, you’re a good guide. You’ll just have to tolerate a long ride with Xany and two wolves.”

  “Sounds like fun. Can’t you bend me with you?” The sarcasm rolled off my tongue.

  Vanessa snickered. “Nope. We’ll both end up in the ocean or something, and besides you’re the best guide I’ve ever had. Other than my mom, that is.”

  “You tricked me that time when we went to your parents’ house in Ireland for Christmas break in college, didn’t you?” Vanessa had a way of tricking me into a lot of things.

  “Yes, thank god you fell asleep on the drive to the airport because neither of us had tickets.” She grinned.

  “You drugged me, I swear. One minute I’m sleeping in a cab, the next I’m in the middle of Dublin in a mansion.” I swatted her arm, as she laughed.

  “No drugs. A little hypnotism, but no drugs.”

  “Vanessa!” I laughed and was about to swat her again when Xany burst into the room.

  “Hey, people!” She issued her trademark giggle that I was becoming familiar with. “The guys are outside. They’re gonna be coming up to get our stuff. Is that all you have, Nee?” She glanced at the duffel bag and trunk by my feet, perplexed.

  “Told you I didn’t have much.” I shrugged at her. “And we can take the TV if you want.”

  “Of course! You’ve got a cool flat screen thing. Mine is a fat screen and old. Yours is much better.” She began dragging my duffel toward the door.

  Vanessa snickered at her. “She’s in a hurry. C’mon, I’ll help carry,” she said.

  “Don’t let people see you, Vanessa. It’s one thing to see two giant Indian men carrying huge boxes, but it’s another to see a scrawny redheaded woman doing so,” I warned. Vanessa was not the most careful of Changers.

  “That’s so sexist of you, Shawnee,” she mocked, picking up the large trunk under one arm, which just looked down right ridiculous. “Not too noticeable, is it?”

  “Vanessa! Just wheel it.” I huffed in exasperation and gave her a light shove. Xany giggled from the hallway. Vanessa laughed and set the trunk down, tilting it up on its wheels to roll it out.

  “Better?” She exaggerated the heaviness by panting.

  “Wise ass. Yes, that’s better.” I began disconnecting the television from the cable box. The television was relatively light so I toted it out to the hallway and set it outside the door.

  Eventually Caden and Mal appeared in the hall and greeted us. Both men seemed very upbeat and excited to begin the drive. In all of fifteen minutes, my stuff and Xany’s was loaded on to the bed of Caden’s pickup truck. Having three Changers as your moving crew was very helpful. Xany turned in her key to the building manager. I kept mine…just in case.

  “It’s going to be about an eight to ten hour drive back, ladies, so take whatever you will need from your bags now,” Caden said as he and Mal secured our stuff with bungee cords to the bed of the pickup.

  I pulled out a blanket and pillow from my bag because I planned to sleep most of the way in order to avoid too much talking. I tucked my laptop under the seat in case I couldn’t sleep and needed an excuse to zone out on something. When everything was set to go, Xany and I climbed into the backseat. The guys were way too big for the back so Mal took the front passenger seat, and Caden drove. Xany sat behind Mal and kicked the back of his seat a few times to annoy him. He glared at her. I allowed a small smile at the ongoing antics of the siblings, then jumped when Vanessa appeared outside my window.

  “Send me text messages if you need to, okay?” She reached in the window, caressing my cheek. I nodded. I couldn’t believe it, but I got pretty tearful when she touched me. I didn’t like the idea of not being able to have access to her for ten hours. I worried about freaking out or having nightmares and not being able to control myself. It wasn’t like I had a backup plan, and of course I had no beer.

  “I will.”

  The others remained quiet to allow us our farewell. Vanessa smiled softly, seeing my emotion. Her cheeks and nose were red like they usually were when she was feeling emotional herself. “It’ll be okay, Shawnee. Xany will be there next to you. I’ll see you tomorrow morning, as soon as I can.”

  “Okay.” I tried to hide my sniffle, pulling the blanket up around me. I felt like a five-year-old being shipped off to sleep-away camp for the first time. She leaned into the truck and kissed my cheek, purring in my ear when she tucked a strand of hair behind my ear.

  “Have a safe trip.”

  I leaned into her purr and swallowed the knot in my throat when she stepped away from the truck. “Bye, Ness.”

  “We’ll take good care of her, Vanessa, don’t worry.” Caden sounded sincere.

  She nodded at him. I could tell she knew he was speaking the truth. Vanessa waved to us when Caden started up the truck. Xany waved back and bounced excitedly when she heard the engine come to life.

  We pulled away from the curb and started down the road. I craned my neck and watched Vanessa until she disappeared from sight. Somehow, it made me feel better that she stood there watching us too. I curled up under the blanket, tucked the pillow against my shoulder, and closed my eyes. I wanted to block out as much of this drive as I could. I was surprised at how quiet everyone was while we drove. Caden had soft music playing in the background, and within an hour, I was sound asleep.

  Chapter Eighteen

  I woke up at some point during the drive. It was still light out, but we were driving into the setting sun. Xany was asleep in the seat beside me with an empty bag of chips in her lap. Caden was now in the passenger seat, eating a cheeseburger while Mal drove. I sat upright to look out the windshield of the truck to see how far we had traveled. Mal noticed my movement and looked at me through the rearview mirror. He caught my gaze for a moment, and I saw his cheeks lift into a smile. The image of his hazel eyes in the mirror burned into my memory. My cheeks flushed with hotness so I slouched to avoid sharing any more glances.

  “Hungry?” he asked, his tone sweet. For some reason I thought he was grinning when he asked.

  “I’m okay.” I tucked my pillow under my arm so I could see out the side window. We were still traveling along Route 80 West, according to the highway markers, and I could see the snowy peaks of the mountains set in the distance. At this point, I was pretty sure we were passing through Salt Lake City.

  “How much longer?”

  “Not long,” he replied. “Maybe an hour. Our land is near Wasatch-Cache National Forest.”

  “Why are we driving through Salt Lake City? Isn’t that farther east?” I was a bit uneasy. Part of me wondered if this trip was an elaborate kidnapping scheme. It wouldn’t be out of the ordinary for werewolves to steal away Breeders. It wouldn’t be out of the norm for me to be kidnapped either. I didn’t have the best record when it came to luck.

  “Yes, but we want to enter through Hank’s territory. There is a small pack that patrols the northern part and into the Ashley Forest. It only adds about an hour to the trip, but it’s worth it to enter safely.” He glanced at me again in the mirror so I looked away.

  “Shawnee, you must be hungry.” Caden turned around to offer me a McDonald’s bag full of food. I shook my head no.

  “Thanks though.”

  “More for me then.” He grinned and took out another burger.

  It was odd talking to both men while Xany was asleep. I wasn’t in the mood to carry on any conversation so I curled up under my blanket again and pretended to sleep. Caden and Mal were silent for the remainder of the drive, but as Xany had mentioned once before, Mal could do some mind talking thing. Or Caden could. One of them. I bet they wer
e saying whatever they needed to say privately.

  The sun had set by the time the truck slowed down, and the texture of the road changed from smooth pavement to crunchy gravel. The blanket had rolled from my lap so I sat up to gaze out the window. It was nearly pitch black, except for the headlights. We were traveling along a dirt road surrounded by trees and, well, nothing. All I could see was the road and trees. The truck turned right, then left, and began a straight drive into darkness. Eventually Mal slowed down, and Caden bagged up the remaining food. I took that as a sign we were nearly there. We made another sharp right at a fork in the road, and I saw a wooden marker with script that was too small for me to read. After traveling for about a mile, the truck rolled to a stop, and Xany awoke as if the momentum of the moving vehicle was the only thing keeping her asleep.

  “Are we there yet?” She blinked the sleep out of her eyes and looked around.

  “You betcha.” Caden chuckled and got out first. “Let me get the lights, I’ll be back in a minute.”

  Xany and I exited the truck on opposite sides, slamming the doors at the same time. I inhaled the chilled air, catching the scent of wilderness untainted by the smog of the city. I heard a trickling noise that belonged to a nearby stream and the croaking of tree frogs somewhere in the distance. It was slightly warmer here than it had been in Wyoming. Mal killed the engine of the truck and stood beside us in the darkness. Just as the fear over realizing I was in a new place began to climb, light filled the area surrounding us. The floodlights on the roof of the cabin were blinding, and the light from nearly a dozen windows of the cabin blared into view.

  “Much better.” Xany giggled and hopped toward the cabin. “C’mon, Nee!”

  I held my breath as I watched her; my feet were frozen to the ground. Had I really done this? Secretly I had been wishing that this was all a dream.