“Yeah…”
“The bullets don’t have to be silver.”
It took a second for me to catch on. “You want to teach us how to kill people?”
Charlie actually looked at me, although we were both careful to avoid direct eye contact. The lines of his face were hard, making him look severe and old. He reminded me of Alex’s brother Liam. Charlie was wearing the exact same embittered-at-the-world-and-Scout-in-particular scowl. “I want to teach you to protect yourself.”
“I have a black belt in three different disciplines. I know how to protect myself.”
“Do you think the other Packs are going to play fair? That they’re going to come in all noble and request a tournament with an impartial ref?” I flinched at the harshness of his tone. “This isn’t some sort of game, Scout. These people are power hungry and determined. Once they find out a about us, they’re going to just keep coming, over and over again unless we give them a reason to stop.”
“But guns—”
“You promised,” Jase interrupted. “You promised you would protect her.”
“At least learn how to use one, just in case.”
I nodded weakly, knowing it made sense to be prepared, just in case there was ever a need, but I hated it. If countless hours of reading comic books and watching super-hero movies taught me anything, it’s that good guys don’t use guns. And we were the good guys, weren’t we?
Chapter 11
After the night following my first Change, I didn’t dream. Well, that’s technically a lie. I did have this one reoccurring nightmare where I knew something terrible was going to happen and I couldn’t stop it, but it always faded quickly when I woke up, leaving just a general impression of impending doom. But the dreams that mattered, the ones with a 3-D Alex in Dolby digital surround sound, were noticeably absent. That’s why I was surprised when I found myself wandering the infamous stretch of beach.
“I was so scared you had left me forever,” I said, wrapping my arms around him. In the real, waking world I would have never been brave enough to admit my fears and dependency, but this was my perfect dream world. I knew Alex’s response even before he said it.
“Not yet. We still have work to do.”
Or, then again, maybe I didn’t.
“You’re leaving me?”
Alex’s hand lazily stroked down my spine. “Not yet. Not until you’re ready.”
“I’ll never be ready.”
His lips pressed against my temple. “Of course you will. You have to be.”
“Why? Because it’s my destiny?”
“No. Because they’re counting on you.”
And suddenly we were surrounded. There had to be hundreds of them. They were everywhere - looking down from the cliff, scattered along the opposite shore, sitting in clusters around our feet. A few full-grown wolves and coyotes were scattered in the mix, but most of them were still pups. Nicole pressed herself against my leg.
“Who are they?” I felt as if I was being watched by a thousand pairs of eyes. “What do they want from me?”
“They’re the forgotten. They need you to remember.”
The forgotten? Who needed me to remember? Seriously?
“That could be the most cheese-tastic thing I’ve heard in my entire life,” I said.
One of Alex’s dimples peeked through. “It sounded good in my head.”
I couldn’t help but smile in return. “So, for real this time, who are…” I went to gesture to the masses, but they had already disappeared. “Where did they go?”
“To find them you’ll have to go back to the beginning.”
“The beginning,” I intoned flatly. “The beginning of what?”
“Everything has a beginning, Scout.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Are you being enigmatic and obtuse on purpose?”
“Not everyone can be as literate and witty as you,” he said with another flash of dimples. “Anyway, this is supposed to be one of those really important coming-of-age experiences. How will you grow as a person if I just give you the answers?”
“Easy. I’ll employ the Jase Method. You tell me the answers, and I’ll memorize them long enough to pass the test.” That was an unpleasant thought. “Is there a test?”
“Tests. Pop quizzes. Trials by fire…” He kissed my temple where I’m pretty sure a blood vessel throbbed. “Don’t worry, though. You’ve always been good at tests.”
“That was high school. This is the real world.” The place where failing meant losing your best friend to the Shifter slave trade or getting “severely punished” by a man you once considered family. “I’m not so sure those skills translate well.”
Alex looked over his shoulder before leaning in and lowering his voice. “Want to know a secret?” I nodded, intrigued. “The real world is just like high school. The only difference is no one has the excuse of being a teenager when they act like idiots.”
“And you know this how? Because you’re so old and worldly?”
“The world is a lot easier to figure out when you don’t live in it anymore.”
At that, the world changed. The sky clouded over; the scent of rain filled the air. The wind tossed around strands of my hair, slapping them against my face.
I clung to Alex, knowing our time was running out. I held onto him with all my might, as if I could drag him back with me.
“Not yet,” I begged. When would I dream of him again? What if I didn’t? “There is still too much to talk about. I’m a Shifter and no one knows why. I think Toby wants to kill me, especially since I accidentally stole half his Pack.”
“Shhh… It’s going to be okay,” he soothed, capturing some of my hair and securing it behind my ear. “You’ll get answers when you discover the beginning.”
“Talley is going to get kidnapped by a Pack of Shifters straight out of Deliverance. Am I going to find the solution to that in this mysterious beginning of yours?”
Alex’s tone was more than a little patronizing. “It’s not just my beginning; it’s our beginning. Mine. Yours. Liam, Jase, Charlie, and even Talley. It’s all of our beginning.” A flash of lightning struck somewhere behind me. “And the Talley problem can be easily solved. All she needs is a mate.”
“A mate?”
“Ask Jase about it.”
A raindrop landed on my hand. Another splattered on my thigh.
“I love you, Scout. For me, it was always you. Forever and always.”
I reached for him, but he was gone. The lake faded until there was nothing but the occasional drop of rain against my hand.
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
The fact that I realized the water was dripping on me in the real world relatively quickly while only half awake made me feel somewhat better about being stupid enough to think it was raining in my bedroom.
“Sorry!” Talley said as I bolted up in bed, looking for the indoor storm cloud. “I didn’t mean to wake you up.” More droplets splattered against me as she bounced off the bed, slinging her wet hair over one shoulder.
I wiped my hand on the sheets and pushed back the mess that was my hair with the other. I swore I could still smell Alex mingled in the strands.
“For the love of all things sacred, what time is it, and why are you awake?”
Talley began twisting her hair into a complicated, princess-worthy braided knot thing. “It’s the butt crack of eight, and Jase and I have to go in to work early.”
Yet another reason summer jobs are evil. Everyone should be allowed to sleep until noon.
“Is the munchkin up?”
“Yeah, she’s insisting on making Jase and me cinnamon toast and honeyed milk for breakfast.”
Of course she was, because on top of every other anti-Scout thing about my little sister, she was a morning person.
“Does that mean I have to get up too?”
“She did mention something about redecorating the living room while your mom is at work.”
I slung my legs over the side of the bed, not at all thrilled about the challenging day ahead of me. Of course, sitting on the side of the bed is as far as I got for a while. There is no such thing as a good reason to move quickly in the mornings.
“Where do Shifters come from?”
Talley jumped a little at the sound of my voice as if she’d forgotten I was there. “Well, when a daddy Shifter and a mommy love each other very much, they share a special kiss. Nine months later, a baby Shifter is born.”
I lifted two fingers since British hand gestures didn’t offend her as much as their American counterparts for God only knows what reason. “I meant, what is the Shifter and Seer origin story? Does it involve Hellhounds? Cold ones? Do we get our crazy powers from the white moon?”
“Alex never told you this story?”
“No. Apparently that would be ‘cheating’,” I said, using air quotes.
“You’ll like this one,” she said, sitting down beside me. “It’s a love story.”
Uh-oh. “Does it involve a human and wolf making half and half babies, because I seriously might yak.”
Talley pouted. “When you say it like that, it sounds gross.”
“That’s only because it is gross.”
“No, listen.” She turned to look me in the eye. “It is a good story, and it’s not gross.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.” She made an X over her chest with one finger to seal the deal. “Do you promise to behave and listen?”
“Maybe.”
She wasn’t enthusiastic about my semi-compliance, but she continued on. “Back when the land was new there was a beautiful woman with skin like snow and hair that shone like the glow of the moon.”
“Oh yeah. She sounds totally hot.”
“Scout, keep the sarcasm to yourself.” She leveled me with her Mom look. “As I was saying, the beautiful woman —”
“Didn’t she have a name?”
“I’m sure she did, but it was lost to history.” Talley rubbed her forehead. “You know, this is why Mom quit reading to us when we were four.”
“I thought it was because Jase colored in all the books.”
Some more forehead rubbing and a deep sigh. “Are you going to let me finish before I leave for work?”
I nodded as I zipped and then locked my lips.
“So, the beautiful, forgotten named woman walked through the forest every night, and every night she was kept company by a wolf sent by God to protect her from the evils of the night.” I bit my tongue to keep from commenting. “Over time, the wolf began to love the woman and longed to be with her.” There was a chance my tongue was bleeding. “And the woman had grown to love her nightly companion.” Yep. I could definitely taste blood. “And so the wolf, who had the ear of God, asked to become human. God granted the wolf’s wish with the provision that one night of the month, on the full moon, he had to return to his true form.”
Oooookay. “And Seers?”
“Because she saw God, she became the first Seer.”
I thought about it. I looked at it from every direction, and.. “That is so entirely not helpful.”
Talley pushed herself off the bed. “It’s not supposed to be helpful. It’s just a story.” My eyebrows shot up at the dismissal. I mean, she was the girl I had to give the Santa Claus talk to in the third grade. “Want to tell me why you’re gnawing off the inside of your lip over a Shifter bedtime story?”
I released my flesh from the entrapment of teeth. “It’s nothing,” I tried to assure her, but she noticed my not-so-subtle attempt to move out of reach of her all-seeing hands. “Seriously, Tal. It’s no big. I’m just being my normal neurotic self.”
She still wasn’t convinced. “You know where to find me if you need me.”
“You’re the chick sleeping on the other half of my bed, right?”
Her nose wrinkled as she smiled. “Half is being a bit optimistic, don’t you think, Miss Bed Hog?”
I tossed a pillow at her head. “Watch who you’re calling names, Sally Snorer.”
Her laughter was cut off by my bedroom door being thrown open. “Talley Anne Matthews, we’re going to be late for work.” Jase noticed me in sitting there in nothing but an oversized t-shirt and threw a hand over his eyes. “Get a move on,” he called over his shoulder, getting away from the sight of sister legs as quickly as possible. Just before he started down the stairs we both heard him mutter, “Why do I always have to be the responsible one?”
Chapter 12
I spent my entire day thinking about beginnings. Not because I really thought Alex’s spirit had reached out from beyond the grave to guide me - one neurosis of him still being alive was plenty for me, thank you very much - but because it was the only lead I had to go on. Dr. Dunbar, the shrink who checked in with me weekly via Skype since the accident, said my dreams were a way to give my subconscious and suppressed memories voice. Since she seemed like a fairly logical and intelligent person, I decided to trust her on that one.
The problem was, I still didn’t know which beginning might hold the key. I was still leaning towards the origin of Shifters - if I knew what caused the first man to Change, then maybe my Change could be explained as well - but if all I had to go on was Talley’s screwed-up love story, then there was little hope on that front. But there were so many other beginnings to consider. The beginning of the Hagan-Cole truce. The beginning of my inclusion to the Shifter world. I found my thoughts most often returning to the first time I saw Alex at The Strip before school started last summer. I remembered how I barely got a chance to notice him before Liam distracted me with his utter Liam-ness. There could have been a clue in there somewhere, but trying to understand Liam was like trying to find a reason for the existence of Jersey Shore.
I was still mentally going over that first meeting, trying to recreate the whole awkward and confusing day in my head, when Jase and Talley came barging through the front door three hours early.
“I thought they weren’t getting home until after lunch,” Angel said, looking up from the bookshelf I allowed her to reorganize in lieu of rearranging the whole living room. She had taken over all kitchen duties when no one else was around to do actual cooking. She took her job to keep the two of us fed very seriously, planning out each meal and offering up as much variety and home-cooking as was possible with her microwave and toaster oven limitations. “I only have enough mozzarella cheese to make two tortilla pizzas. I’ll have to mix it with cheddar, and that won’t taste right at all.”
“It’s okay, Munchkin, I’m not hungry.” Jase threw himself on the couch and attempted to drill a hole in the wall with his eyes. Talley seemed to be attempting the same trick with Jase’s head.
“What happened? Why are you home?”
“We got fired,” Talley said. Her voice shook with anger.
“We quit,” Jase corrected.
The thought of Talley, who was the very definition of responsible, getting fired was more than a little perplexing. “Why on earth did you get fired?”
“We didn’t get fired,” Jase grit out. “I told you, we quit. I’m not going to work for some sleazy jerk.”
“Adam isn’t sleazy. And, unlike you, he’s not completely unhinged.”
Angel was listening in with rapt interest. I could see her committing every word to memory for a dramatic interpretation the moment my parents walked through the door. “Angel, go start getting your ingredients together and constructing your pizzas. I’ll be in to supervise the toaster oven part in a minute.”
“It’s too early to start lunch. We just finished our mid-morning snack forty-five minutes ago!”
I know I said I didn’t want people taking orders from me just because I was Pack Leader, but I would have paid good money to make Angel feel obligated to obey me. “Then go upstairs and clean your room.”
“My room is clean.”
“Then go clean mine!”
“What does ‘sleazy’ mean?” Angel asked Jase, standing
just far enough away that I couldn’t grab her up and wring her neck.
“It means he couldn’t keep his hands to himself and made inappropriate comments to his employees.”
My eyebrow shot up. “He did?”
“He asked me on a date. That doesn’t qualify as inappropriate comments.”
“Where were his hands if he didn’t keep them to himself?” Angel asked, confusion etched on her brow.
“Angel, seriously, don’t you have an elsewhere to be?”
“No. I want to know about Adam’s hands. Was he a umpiretee? Did they come off like Uncle Joseph’s leg?”
“I think you mean amputee, Munchkin.”
Talley quit glaring at Jase long enough to ruffle Angel’s hair. “There was nothing wrong with his hands. Your brother just over-reacted.”
“Over-reacted?” Jase bolted from the couch. “I over-reacted?!?! You’re the one who told him to back off!”
“Which he did! There was no need for further action!”
Screw the daytime soaps I was missing. This was getting juicy. “Could someone please tell me what happened, from the beginning?”
“Our supervisor at the pool, Adam, has been expressing interest in me. He’s always coming by the snack bar, goofing off and talking to me for way too long about individually packed pickles.”
“I like those,” Angel interjected. “They’re always super-salty and crunchy.”
“Well, a couple of days ago he started asking me out. I tried to turn him down nicely, but he wasn’t taking the hint.”
“Which was when you should have said something to me,” Jase added.
“There was no need for you to get involved! I can take care of myself!” It was a shame Jase wouldn’t spar with Talley. I think they may have been able to work whatever this was out better if they were able to throw a few punches at each other.
“You were really doing a bang-up job of it in the store room today.”
“Guys, really. Do we need to make Angel leave the room for this?”
Angel sat up straight in her pink Disney Princess beanbag chair. “I can handle it, Scout. I’m seven now, you know.” She turned to Talley with an expression of the deepest concern and understanding. “He tried to kiss you, didn’t he.”
Time Mends Page 9
