Atoning

by Kelley Armstrong

  Maya snorted. "Oh, yeah. There's a good idea. Because none of us spent any time locked up and being tested because of our powers. And that was by fellow supernaturals."

  "This particular plot was overthrown about four months ago, which is why I'm rolling my eyes at these guys trying to take Tori now. I suppose that proves there are still pockets left, and we need to root those out. At least I'm comforted by the fact that this group only hoped to sell Tori to believers and weren't rekindling the movement themselves."

  "That might not be nearly as comforting to Tori," Maya said.

  Sean chuckled. "True. Sorry."

  "Don't be," Derek said. "There are days when I'd hand her over for free. I'm not looking forward to telling her she was the special one here."

  "Perhaps we'll skip that part," Sean said. "If she does learn the truth, I can point out that she was the backup choice. My sister, Savannah, was targeted when the group was still active. I'm not surprised this group aimed for Tori rather than tangle with Savannah. But they did go to an awful lot of trouble to get Tori, which may mean there was more to their plot."

  "I suspect there was," I said. "You can talk to Jacinda and Rae later. They might know more, but if these were the same people who convinced them not to move to Badger Lake, that suggests they had more in mind than taking Tori."

  "It does. You can leave that with me. You guys have done your share. More than your share. There was some concern that you weren't ready to go away to college next year, but this should squelch it."

  "Gold star?" Maya said.

  Sean smiled. "Gold star. And we'll need to figure out a way to make up for your lost weekend."

  "Actually, I do have an idea," she said. "We were thinking of a rec center..."

  The others returned that evening. Derek and I went to meet Tori, Simon and Kit.

  "You missed nothing," Simon said as he climbed from the van. "Next time, I'm staying home with you guys. I showed up for my art lesson, and my instructor was drunk, again. He spent the entire hour moaning about the harsh life of the tortured artist. Dude, you draw comics. If you aren't having fun, quit. Which I am. Him, at least. Not art."

  "He had a rough weekend," Kit said coming up behind Simon. "He missed you guys."

  "So did I," Tori said. "Because, without you there, he bitched and moaned to me."

  Simon turned on her. "Uh, who had to sit beside you on the helicopter and listen to the great and tragic story of the lost blue jeans."

  I looked at her. "You lost your jeans?"

  "I lost the jeans. The perfect pair, on the sales rack, no less. They fit exactly. Then, I took in more clothes to try on, and Haley bought them." She raised her voice. "So we are not talking until she returns them."

  "Then, we're not talking for a long time," Haley called from where she stood with Maya. "Because you put them in your discard pile."

  "Accidentally." She looked back at us. "Also, I lost two hours work on my MIT application project, because someone borrowed my computer and shut off my backups."

  Haley flipped her the finger.

  "So, we're hanging out tonight," Tori said to me.

  "Speaking of backups..." I said.

  "Oh, don't give me that bull. The only time you come around is when Maya and Derek are busy. It's a system that works for both of us." She turned to Derek. "I'm borrowing your girlfriend tonight. Deal with it."

  "So," Simon said. "To change the subject radically, how was your weekend? Anything exciting happen?"

  "Not really," I said as we headed into town. "Rae came back."

  "Rae? You don't mean...?"

  "Rachelle. She's back. With her mom. They'd gotten mixed-up with a crazy group that wanted to kidnap us, but Derek, Maya, Daniel and I shut them down. Captured them. Interrogated them. Called in the Nasts to take them into custody. Other than that?" I shrugged. "A completely uneventful weekend."

  Fourteen

  Monday night. It was Maya and Ash's birthday, and Simon, Derek and I were hanging out with them and Rafe. Rafe is Maya's ex. They're still friends. Which is good to see. When couples break up, if it isn't ugly, they say they'll stay friends, but they rarely do. That's one of the problems with living in a small place like this--couples get together, and, when it ends, it's awkward, and there's no place to escape. I saw that with Corey and Haley. With Haley and Simon, too, who dated briefly--very briefly. Really, it only happened because, of all the girls in Badger Lake, Maya and I are in relationships, Rafe's sister Annie is twenty, Tori is Simon's half sister and Sam is a lesbian. That left Haley, so of course Simon was going to give it a shot. It happened six months ago, and it's still awkward between them.

  The six of us were in the community center while the others put the final touches on the birthday party prep. Well, while Annie, Sam, Daniel and Corey did. I suspected Tori and Haley had found better things to do, at least until the party started. Yes, Tori and Haley were friends again, having come to a joint custody agreement on the jeans.

  Rae had offered to help with the party prep. Annie had taken her along, having appointed herself Rae's official "resident advisor" in Badger Lake. I appreciated that, because, otherwise, the job would have fallen to me, and I'm...I'm still working through how I feel about Rae.

  I'd like to think we can be friends. I just...I need time, more than I thought I would. However much I'd protested that I understood what she did, it still stung, and having her around brought it back. I'd work through it and see what happened.

  Daniel popped in five minutes before the party was due to start. He beckoned Ash out, with, "Need your help."

  "With getting ready for his own party?" Maya said.

  I braced for Ash to say that it wasn't really his party, he just happened to share a birthday with her. He'd said it before. Maya hated it, naturally, though it was, in a way, true. The Salmon Creek kids had grown up together, and they'd thrown birthday bashes for each other since they were old enough to organize them. I envy that, growing up with the kind of childhood you usually only read about it books. But Maya and Daniel make sure they do it for everyone now. Well, except Derek, who would sooner be devoured by fire ants than endure a party in his honor. I suspect Ash would prefer the fire ants, too. He'd just never say so to Maya. This time, though, he thankfully left without comment, Daniel saying only that it was a "construction thing."

  A few minutes later, Daniel returned and led Maya out. "The party is at the climbing ridge," he said.

  "To which you added a few holds for my birthday?"

  "That would be a spoiler."

  "Um, you haven't let me use it in two weeks. I kinda know you added holds."

  "Maybe I was adding something else."

  "Seriously?" She grinned at him. "What?"

  "Spoiler."

  She kept needling him as we walked. When she saw where we were heading, she said, "The climbing ridge is that way."

  "Yep, and your first present is this way."

  "At my house?"

  "Yep."

  We stepped from the woods to see Ash awkwardly sitting on the low front step of the rehab shed. Or it looked like the rehab shed. There was an entire second room on the back along with an external wire-covered run.

  "You..." Maya stared at Ash. "You did..."

  He shrugged. "You needed more room, and you said you'd like a run added someday so..."

  She ran over and caught him up in a hug before he could escape it. He wriggled free after a moment and said, gruffly, "Glad you like it. Wasn't just me, though. Daniel did the blueprints, and he and Corey helped with all the material prep."

  Maya turned to Daniel. He got the same exuberant hug, accepted with far more enthusiasm. When she pulled back, Corey stood there, arms extended. She rolled her eyes.

  "Hey, I promise not to grab your ass this time," he said.

  "Good, then I can promise not to smack you for grabbing my ass this time."

  "Nuh-uh," Daniel said. "Don't say that. The only reason he grabs it is to get the smack."

&
nbsp; Corey grinned. Maya smacked his outstretched arm and said, "There. We can skip the stages in between." She grabbed Daniel's hand and said to Ash, "Take me inside. Show me what you did."

  "Uh, party waiting?" Corey said, pointing toward the woods.

  "Go on. We'll catch up."

  We stayed at the party for a couple of hours. Then, night fell and Ash wandered off, and Derek took that as the cue that he could leave without being rude. I told Maya I'd come by in the morning to help with the animals, and I left her starting a climbing race against Rafe, with Daniel and Annie at the top of the ridge, shouting support and spotting them on their ascent.

  We'd decided Derek would Change. He usually only does it once a week, but the party gave us an excuse to be out late and Changing added to that, which meant no one would be looking for us back anytime soon. He Changed and we played, and then he Changed back, and we played some more.

  Afterwards, I was the one catching my breath, feeling as if I'd gone through my own workout...one a whole lot more fun than Changing shapes. I lay there, snuggled against him, heart still pounding, muscles still quivering, the chill night air freeze-drying my sweaty skin and feeling not one moment's inclination to reach for the blanket much less my clothes, content to just lie there and enjoy the aftermath. Derek did too, panting softly, until he got his breath, and then nuzzling and kissing me.

  A few minutes of that, and then a few more of whispered words and I love yous. That passed too, and I was about to reach for the blanket, knowing the next stage was usually a dozy half-sleep, but Derek got the cover first, pulling it over us and saying, "Can we talk about school?"

  My groan answered for me. But I followed it with, "We should."

  I flipped onto my side, facing him.

  "I know you think this should be your decision," he said.

  "Shouldn't it? If I choose to work--"

  "--your ass off to get an extra year of school in because your boyfriend whines about not wanting to Change on his own?"

  "You don't whine."

  "Yeah, I kinda do. But that's just the excuse, and I hope you know that. Sure, I don't like the idea of Changing without you there, but I don't like the idea of you not being there a whole lot more. I don't want to go to school without you because I don't want to go to school without you. But I can't say that to my dad, or he'll start worrying we're getting too serious."

  "Has he said--?"

  "No, he doesn't say it. Neither does your dad. But that's because your aunt does it for all of them. If I admitted I just don't want to leave you, I'd get a talk on how if we're meant to be together, we'll be fine, and a little distance isn't a bad thing. Dad knows you're the best damned thing that ever happened to me, and he doesn't want to interfere with that. But he's still a dad. He worries. In this case, he worries that I'm going to suffocate you, and you'll back off, and I'll get hurt."

  "That won't happen."

  "But he thinks it. He makes little comments, like wondering if you're spending enough time with Maya, reminding me it's important for you to have other friends. I know that, and I don't think I get in the way of that, and if I do, tell me."

  "You don't."

  "But it's my nature, to keep you close, and he understands that. So he worries. That's why I make excuses for staying home from college an extra year."

  "But you don't have to. You shouldn't--you're already so far ahead, and you're bored."

  "And my girlfriend has to work extra hard so I won't get bored?" He put his fingers to my lips. "Don't tell me you aren't working that hard. When's the last time you read a book that wasn't a text?"

  "I'll have a whole summer to relax after I get into college. A whole summer."

  "Great. And I hope you can cram a whole lot of aikido and archery lessons in, too, because you've been cutting those and skimping on your practice time, and, yeah, you did great this weekend, but I think that showed how important those lessons are. We can't go to college if we aren't ready that way, too."

  Before I could comment, he went on. "Let me suggest something, okay? A compromise. You slow down. Take the full two years. Let me try to get in a semester early. I'll start in the winter term, come home for summer and we'll both go that fall. Which is four months of me living in Toronto and you being up here, but I'll come back every weekend and holiday. That means you get time to finish high school at a reasonable pace while I start college earlier, and we both get to show our families that we can be apart."

  He didn't say our relationship would survive a term apart. There was no question of that. The adults in our families might worry that we were too serious, that one of us would get hurt. Aunt Lauren likes to remind me that the guy you meet at fifteen usually isn't the one you end up with. But sometimes it is. It just is, and there's no question of that. Not for me.

  "You aren't the only one who doesn't want to be separated," I said.

  "I know." He kissed me, starting as just a quick press of the lips before turning deeper, arms going around each other, moving as close as we could, as if already thinking of that parting. When he finally eased off, he said, "But would it be okay? As a solution?"

  "It would," I said, and pulled him back into a kiss.