Hidden Realms

by Unknown

  A fight between a hybrid and a wolf was usually a foregone conclusion, but a fight between a hybrid and two wolves was more like a matchup between sledgehammer-equipped glass rods. They would both look for the golden window of opportunity in which they could obtain a killing grip and I'd attempt to kill one of them fast enough that there was no chance for his fellow to kill me in turn.

  I should have been scared. I was scared for Adri, worried I wouldn't be in time, but not afraid for myself. Nathanial and Simon had helped Vincent kill two hikers earlier in the year. There were other incidents in St. George and Vegas that I suspected were related to Brandon's pack, but that one I'd been able to positively tie back to those three.

  The trip to the coroner's office hadn't left me, even all these months later. It was finally time to rectify the wrong I'd let slide out of my fear of the Coun'hij.

  I was close enough now to hear Adri running along ahead of me. She slipped again as the wolves closed to within a few dozen feet. I heard her crash down the slope and then her journey was arrested by a meaty thump as something semi-yielding connected with a rock.

  A yelp of pain followed a second later as she tried to stand, and then I was shifting forms as Nathanial sprang towards her. He never even saw me coming, but Simon had already adjusted to my presence and darted in to try and hamstring me.

  I threw Nathanial into the canyon wall and then swiped at Simon, just missing as he dodged behind a large rock that drew a shower of sparks off of my claws. A growl escaped me as I tried to spin back around and intercept Nathanial.

  I was a fraction of a second too late. Powerful fangs latched onto my shoulder only just before a second impact nearly knocked me to the ground. Nathanial's refusal to release my shoulder and go for a new grip was his undoing. I reached up with my left hand and sank my claws into the softer flesh of his stomach at the same time that my own fangs latched onto his neck.

  Simon's efforts to transform his attack into something lethal left me bleeding and savaged, but I largely ignored him as I pulled and ripped until an abrupt snap caused Nathanial's jaws to loosen.

  Even through the pandemonium of the fight I still heard Adri's pulse peak and then abruptly stop.

  Chapter 20

  My sudden worries Adri had somehow died were unfounded. After a short pause her heart resumed a thready, irregular cadence.

  As Nathanial had dropped to the ground I'd absently grabbed Simon and held him at arm's length as I surgically ended his life as well. Most of my attention was on Adri, and once I was sure both wolves were dead I hurried over just in time to catch her as she came out of the attack.

  In my haste I'd forgotten to switch forms, and her eyes had no sooner fluttered open than plain, old-fashioned shock took her away again.

  I knew the results of my actions would come crashing back down on me later, but all I could think of in that moment was getting Adri away to safety. Mindful of the slashing claws on the end of my fingers, I picked her up and began running back to the Hummer.

  I wasn't nearly as fast carrying her in my hybrid form as I would have been on four legs, but I pushed myself nearly to the point of collapse. My wounds were opening back up and my lungs were burning, but I had to get her to the Hummer with enough of a lead for us to get out before Brandon's wolves found the bodies and pursued.

  When I finally stumbled into the wash containing the Hummer I wanted to lie down and sleep but instead I shifted back to human form, buckled her into the passenger seat, flipped the vehicle around and started back out the way I'd come.

  With each second that passed I expected Brandon to come bounding out of the darkness and tear the Hummer open like a coconut, but after what seemed like an eternity we finally reached the road and I was soon throwing the vehicle around curves at the top speed it could handle.

  I breathed a sigh of relief as we finally pulled up to the estate. Adri was still breathing and her heartbeat had steadied slightly. I yelled for Donovan as I unbuckled her and hauled her into the house.

  Donovan and Rachel both met me at the examination room, and Rachel's surprised gasp was mirrored in Donovan's wide eyes and suddenly graceless movements.

  "It wasn't me. She was at the party with Brandon and the rest. They kicked her out and sent her off in the dark. This was all from falling down, except maybe the leg. Nathanial and Simon were after her. I killed them and ran."

  His shock finally starting to give way, Donovan moved to check my wounds but I shrugged him off. "Make sure she's okay first."

  Rachel calmed me down somewhat while Donovan cleaned and bandaged Adri's scrapes, and then disappeared to grab Adri some new clothes.

  "They were going to be for Jasmin's birthday, but they should do for Adri until we can get her something better."

  Donovan helped Rachel dress Adri and then came back around and started on my wounds. They'd already started healing with my transformation back to a human, but the shoulder especially was deep enough it was going to need to be taped up in order to heal.

  "I'm sorry, Donovan. I've ruined everything. Brandon will demand satisfaction, and he'll be within his rights because of the Ja'tell bond. It was a stupid move, but I couldn't sit there and let them kill her."

  Donovan shook his head as he worked.

  "Master Alec, the only action worthy of you was the one you took. You could no more have watched her die than your father could have let Agony kill me. As for the Ja'tell bond, that's yet to be established. Perhaps she really is his, but even still, the old rules never would have condoned casting her off and setting his pack upon her like that. We'll weather the storm as it arrives. Doing less wouldn't allow us to remain true to ourselves."

  Donovan clasped me on the arm and then limped out of the room. Rachel looked up from where she was folding Adri's old clothes. "I'm glad you saved Adri, Alec. Whatever happens as a result I think it was the right choice."

  I nodded, and then looked down at Adri for the first time since Rachel had returned with the change of clothes. She was wearing a tank top and shorts, and I was struck by just how much she looked like my incomplete painting of her. The sight pulled at my chest, and left me feeling like a small boy suddenly arriving in a strange new world with no idea how anything functioned.

  Rachel smiled sadly at my expression and then walked over and hugged me. "Take her to your room and lay her down on your bed. You need to be somewhere that you can keep an eye on her, and reassure her when she wakes up. She's going to be really freaked out by everything that's happened."

  I nodded and then gingerly picked Adri up. She was so light it was no burden to carry her to my room. I set her down and once again was struck by her sheer beauty. Almost without conscious effort on my part I found myself back in my studio.

  Somewhere along the way I changed into a new set of clothes, jeans with a shirt although I never bothered buttoning it up. The painting was too consuming to allow for such mundane things.

  I painted with small, delicate strokes, stepping out into my room from time to time to study my subject once again. There was no logical reason the painting had to be finished tonight, but somehow I knew it did.

  The terrible events she'd just experienced, the things she'd witnessed couldn't leave her unchanged. They hadn't had a chance to process through her mind yet, but they would; and when that happened the girl I was painting right now would in some ways cease to exist. This level of innocence, of gentle goodness couldn't possibly be sustained in the world our pack lived in.

  I worked with a furious energy that pushed me for hours, but never quite succeeded in capturing her true essence. I collapsed against the wall as I realized it was time to abandon this painting. It wasn't truly complete but I didn't have the ability to complete it. I absently inscribed a simplified form of my sigil into the bottom corner and began cleaning up my paints.

  I was nearly done when I heard Jasmin return to the house. The events of the last few hours came crashing back from the un-land where I'd shoved them. Moving with a quic
kness that threatened to tear my wounds back open, I ran to the bedroom door and pulled it closed behind me.

  Even with my efforts at speed I still only managed to intercept Jasmin in the East Drawing Room. It was too close to my bedroom, and there was too much chance we'd wake Adri, but Jasmin wasn't in the mood to be maneuvered anywhere else.

  "Did you wreck your bike or tangle with Vincent or what?"

  "Neither. Nathanial and Simon tried to kill me."

  Jasmin wasn't stupid. She started fitting the information into place very quickly and came up with the pertinent question almost immediately.

  "Those two wouldn't leave a kegger for anything short of a chance to murder someone. What were you doing at the party, Alec?"

  "I was worried about Adri. I was careful to make sure that nobody knew I was in the area, but then Cassie kicked Adri out of the party and the next thing I knew Nathanial and Simon were after her. I had to protect her."

  Jasmin was pacing now. It wasn't a good sign. Her internal state was usually mirrored by her external being.

  "You felt the need to protect Brandon's girlfriend? Do you realize you've just given Brandon the perfect pretext to come after all of us?"

  I opened my mouth to respond, but Jasmin bulled right past my efforts.

  "When exactly were you planning on telling the rest of us that you'd just declared war on Brandon and the others? Did it ever even cross your mind we might be in danger running about on our own after something like that?"

  "Brandon isn't going to launch an attack right now, Jas, and you know it. He's got the golden chance he's been looking for to finally make the law work for him against us."

  Jasmin was trembling just the slightest bit now, a preliminary sign she was starting to lose control of her beast.

  "That's not the point, Alec. You never even thought about the rest of us."

  Our voices had risen high enough to wake Rachel. She appeared on the other side of the drawing room still in the fuzzy pajama's Jasmin had given her last Christmas.

  "Jasmin, he had to help her. He couldn't let them kill her. She's important to him. You know exactly how he feels, how…"

  Whatever Rachel was about to say was cut off as Jasmin spun around and took a threatening step towards her.

  Protecting Rachel had been reflex for as long as I could remember. I picked Jasmin up and slammed her onto a table, shattering a piece that had been in my family since before my father had been born.

  Jasmin started to thrash about in an effort to fight me, but accessing a skill possessed by only a few moonborn, I shifted the hand holding her into my hybrid form. She calmed down almost instantly as she felt the razor-sharp claws pierce the skin of her throat.

  "Don't do anything else to threaten Rachel, or you'll be very sorry…"

  The rest of what I was going to say was interrupted by the sound of the garden door slamming shut.

  The wash of power I'd let loose as I'd pinned Jasmin hadn't tapered off yet. I added one more command to the imperative I'd just finished issuing. "Don't leave the house, and don't call the rest of the pack here."

  As soon as she nodded her acceptance of the order I spun around and headed for the same door Adri had just used to exit the house. My hand lapsed back into its human form as I skidded on newly soaked flagstones. Sometime between when I'd left the East drawing room and when I'd hit the door, the sky had cut loose with the kind of torrential downpour that wasn't usually found this far from the ocean.

  The rain was so intense I could feel the scent trail washing away even as I tried to follow it. The sudden fear she'd leave without ever giving me a chance to explain all of the insanity she'd just been through pushed me to new speeds. I was just barely close enough when lightning struck to see her dart into the greenhouse.

  The thunder rolled over me almost concurrent with the blast, almost as if something were riding the storm, egging it on to greater fury as the strikes got closer and closer.

  I slipped into the glass-walled refuge just in time to catch Adri in the act of putting shoes onto her doubtlessly-battered feet. She was entirely soaked through. She should have looked terrible, but still somehow managed to take my breath away.

  The perfect symmetry of her form pulled me towards her without any conscious thought on my part, only my step was met with horror as she stumbled back away from me. It was as if someone had reached out and slipped a knife into my chest.

  I knew I hadn't been injured, that there was no physical explanation for the sudden pain, but it was there nonetheless. She'd seen the side of me never presented to the outside world and she'd been repulsed by it.

  She opened her mouth, to scream in terror, or possibly to curse me, but I couldn't bear to hear it. I spun around and left at a full run. Deprived of its target when I'd entered the greenhouse, the storm's fury had abated, leaving me with nothing in which to hide from the prying eyes of men or gods.

  Deprived of all other sanctuaries, I headed towards the grotto that'd served me so well in times past. Mere distance couldn't offer respite though. Somewhere along the way my interest in Adri had turned to something more substantial. Without really realizing what I was doing, I'd sacrificed everything I held dear on behalf of someone who was never going to return my feelings.

  Full knowledge of what I'd done roared through me with a fury that ate away my reason. There was only hatred, loss and despair left to cushion the anger, and it wasn't enough to control the beast raging through me.

  The heavy, pottery planters holding cuttings from our original Lagrimas del Angel plant caught my attention, and I stalked over and picked the closest one up in my right hand. I threw it into the unyielding stone of the grotto walls, and not even the softness of the moss and climbing ivy managed to cushion the impact enough to stop the planter from shattering into thousands of pieces.

  I was on my third planter when Adri stumbled into the grotto and almost fell into the reflecting pool. I'd been so engrossed in the destruction of the roses I hadn't heard her approach. Her appearance startled me so much I froze with the heavy planter dangling from my grasp.

  Faced with the very thing I'd just had denied me, I found myself unable to meet her gaze for several seconds. When I finally managed to muster the courage to fully turn and face her, my voice came out low and rough.

  "Go away!"

  Without meaning to I'd imbued the command with the same whip of power I'd used to give Jasmin the imperative earlier. I saw Adri's eyes go wide for a moment, heard her heartbeat spike as she struggled not to obey, but she somehow stopped herself from leaving.

  I couldn't help but feel a renewed spark of respect at the strength of will required for her to do that. My next words weren't tinged with anything but my sense of loss.

  "Leave. Leave now and I won't follow you."

  Adri took a trembling breath and then stepped ever so slowly in my direction.

  "It was you the whole time, wasn't it? The bank. The mayor. Were you responsible for the Les Misérables tickets too?"

  Why now? Why did the fates choose to continue to rub my face in how amazing she was, in just how much I'd lost without ever truly owning it?

  "Why? What possible difference does it make one way or the other?"

  "Because I want to understand. Why me? Why would you do all of that for me?"

  "You really don't understand? You saved Rachel from a beating. If for no other reason, then for that."

  It wouldn't have worked with another shape shifter. It didn't work with Adri either. She was still moving with exquisite care, somehow managing to close to within a few inches of me. I felt myself tremble as she cautiously placed her hand on my arm. The planter dropped to the ground as I let her closer to me than I'd let anyone other than Rachel since I'd first shifted to a wolf.

  The horror I'd seen earlier on her face had vanished, replaced with an incredible compassion, gratitude and the acceptance I'd given up hope of ever seeing on her face or the face of anyone not of the pack.

  "Tha
t isn't why you did it though. Is it?"

  I shook my head, imminent tears making my voice rough.

  "No, I just did it for you. Maybe not so much at first, but I couldn't get you out of my mind. You were everywhere I looked. In my class, at lunch, even in my dreams. I couldn't get away from you."

  Her heart skipped a couple beats as she moved ever so slightly closer to me.

  "Do you still want me to leave?"

  "Do you want to leave? I won't stop you if you do. If you can convince your mom to leave town there's even a chance you'll be safe from Brandon."

  She was so close now that I felt, as well as heard, the shivers that ran through her at my words.

  "He's like you, isn't he?"

  I laughed, but it was nothing more than an attempt to avoid breaking down as we returned to the fundamental reason she couldn't really want me.

  "You mean a monster? Yes, we both feel the call of the moon. Does that scare you?"

  I felt her move against me again as she shook her head. "No. I guess a little, but not like it should. You wouldn't hurt me after everything you've done for us."

  "I could kill you without even meaning to. You're so fragile. All it would take is an accident, a momentary loss of control. I really am a monster."

  The words burned, but she deserved the truth, not the kind of sugar-coated lie Brandon would've fed her.

  "No, you're not. I don't understand what you are, but you aren't a monster. Brandon is. Vincent, Cassie. They're all monsters, but you aren't."

  I finally risked looking up and fully meeting her eyes. "How can you know that when sometimes I'm not sure myself?"

  She took another deep breath and then moved her hand from my arm to my stomach. She wrapped both arms around me and pressed her face into my chest as I stood paralyzed, unable to move for fear of startling her.

  "Thank you for saving my life. Were those wolves some of Brandon's friends?"

  "Simon and Nathanial."

  She trembled slightly at the acknowledgment that someone she'd known, however slightly had been intent on killing her.