by Talia Vance
Rush steps forward and grabs Blake’s arm. At first I think he’s going to help Blake off the floor, but instead he pushes him back to the ground. “In my office,” he growls. “Now.” Jonah’s satisfied smile disappears when Rush turns his glare on him. “You too. And bring the girl.” Rush doesn’t even look at Joe when he addresses him. “Take care of this mess.” He turns on the high heel of a gray cowboy boot and walks away.
My eyes dart from Joe to Haley. “Take care of … he didn’t mean … ? Is Haley going to be okay?”
Joe nods. “Have you heard of hypnosis?”
“Yes.”
“It’s like that. A little stronger. The humans will remember a bar fight, but it will all be fuzzy, like they had too much to drink. The players will wake up tomorrow with limited memory, and more chips than they came with, so they won’t complain.”
“What about Haley?” Between Austin’s mind games and Joe’s hypnosis, poor Haley’s brain is going to be a scrambled mess.
“She’ll be fine. She’ll just think she drank too much, and what little she remembers will be pleasant.”
I want him to make her forget everything. Especially what she said to me. I want him to make me forget it.
Blake is on his feet. He walks out of the room without looking at me.
Joe’s hand squeezes my shoulder. “He’ll come around.”
Easy for him to say. He doesn’t feel Blake’s rage as it burns inside me, so strong that I barely feel the throbbing ache in my head anymore.
Jonah glares at me and tilts his head toward a door in the back. He doesn’t touch me, and I’m not complaining. I don’t want to be anywhere near Jonah Timken.
Rush’s office is a large room in the far corner of the restaurant that looks more like a lounge than a traditional workspace. There’s a table with two chairs, and a huge wrap-around couch. Rush is pacing by a blackened window. Jonah takes a seat in the center of the couch; Blake sits on the end farthest from the doorway. I don’t sit. I can’t afford to let myself get too comfortable. Not that the couch appears comfortable. It’s a shiny patent leather that looks like it would stick to your skin.
“Who is she?” Rush points at me even though he can’t meet my eyes.
“Isn’t it obvious?” Jonah leans back and stretches his arm out. “She’s the bandia.”
Rush laughs at that. “We just saw the bandia, fool. One’s dead on the floor of the game room. The other one got away. You saw what they were. More beautiful than any human girl. Capable of great power.” Rush crosses the room. He stands in front of me but doesn’t look at my face. “This girl ”—he says it like it’s a bad word—“is the least like a bandia I’ve ever seen.”
Blake sits on the couch in silence. He’s staring straight ahead, not rushing to my defense, not even watching as Rush picks up a lock of my hair and smells it. I only know he’s aware of Rush’s invasion of my personal space by the surge of adrenaline that isn’t mine.
Jonah barks out a laugh. “She’s the one that sent you flying into Colonel Potter’s head. If she’s not a bandia, I don’t know how you begin to explain it.”
“It was the other one.” Rush turns on Blake. “Why did you protect this human from Jonah? What’s she to you?”
Blake still stares straight ahead. He doesn’t even stop to consider his response. “Nothing.”
No, no, no! Please, I silently plead with him. Let me explain. But he’s closed me off. I can’t feel anything now but a wall of dark emotion.
Rush forces himself to look at me. I can see the effort it takes for him. “She knew how we fight. She pushed the dark-haired one out of the way.”
I nod at him. “I’m a breeder, sir.”
Jonah snorts from the couch. I’m glad at least one person is enjoying himself.
“Is this true?” Rush stares at Blake.
I half expect Blake to deny it, to throw me to the wolves and be done with it. Instead, he nods his head. “Ask Dr. McKay. Her DNA is off the fucking charts.”
It’s my turn to feel the pain of betrayal. He actually tested me? When did he get my hair? Wait, who am I kidding? When wasn’t he close enough to grab a few strands of hair?
“Why didn’t you tell me about her sooner?” Rush eyes me with more interest now, his eyes actually traveling from my head to my feet despite the effort it takes.
Jonah laughs openly now. Bad idea. If there’s one rule that seems to apply in Rush’s office, it’s that anything remotely fun is checked at the door.
Rush walks over to Jonah and kicks him hard in the leg, sending Jonah down to the floor with such force that even I gasp. “Don’t think you’re out of this. What the hell did you pull back there? Attacking Blake until he was unconscious? For a minute there I thought you were going to do the unthinkable.”
It’s a few seconds before Jonah can stop writhing enough to respond, his voice a rasp. “He started it.”
Blake stands up, smoothing his thighs with his palm as he does. “Are we done here? I’ll see if Joe needs help.”
Rush nods, as much a dismissal as a response. “Tell Joe to set up an initiation for the new breeder on Saturday.”
I want to say something, to remind them that I’m still in the room, but I can’t. I’m too busy trying to gather the thousand tiny pieces of my heart as Blake walks past me.
THIRTY-six
I’m nearly home before I realize it’s been my birthday for five minutes. I don’t feel any different. There’s no swell of magic, no flood of power. For a second, I dare to hope that they’ve all got it wrong. I’m just a girl, a girl missing a crucial pheromone who has a perfectly normal, if romantically challenged, life. A girl who can fit virtually any aspect of her world into a perfectly logical, science-based box. It’s a second of peace that I don’t deserve, but I give it to myself anyway.
In school on Friday, I don’t take off my bracelet. It’s probably safe to let guys see me now; the magic won’t slip out and give me away anymore. But I don’t want to be seen. Not now. Maybe never. And, birthday or no birthday, the bracelet still seems to shield me with some level of anonymity.
I find Haley at her locker. She turns so I’m staring at her shoulder. Christy makes a sad face and mouths “Sorry.” It might not be her call, but she’s not going to cross the line that Haley’s drawn in the sand, either.
It shouldn’t matter. After what Haley said to me, I should just let it go. But unlike Blake, I don’t drop people the first time they disappoint me. And it can’t be easy watching everything she thought she knew about me get turned on its head. It sure as hell hasn’t been easy living it. I let her walk away. I’ll be back, though. After lunch, and again on Monday, for as long as it takes.
When I get to the ranch, Marcy waves me over to the center of the ring. “Parker’s dad is back in town. We can have the check today.”
I flinch. “I’m not selling Dart.”
Marcy’s smile falls. “I know it’s emotional for you. But he recovered from the mountain lion attack just fine, and this is a better price than you imagined. He’ll be right here. You’ll still see him every day.”
She’s right. I shouldn’t let my personal feelings about Parker Winslow stop me from earning my college tuition. It’s not like Dart won’t be well taken care of. “I’ll think about it.”
“That’s my girl.” Marcy’s smile is back.
Jenna rides up on her little bay pony. “Hi Brianna,” she says shyly.
“Hi,” I say, noticing that the heel of her boot drops below Peppermint’s belly. “Hey Jenna, remember when I said you could ride Dart some time?”
She nods without stopping, her chin bobbing up and down and up and down.
“How’s now?”
She can’t stop the excited squeal that flies out of her mouth. “Really?”
I tack Dar
t up and bring him to the ring, taking Peppermint while Jenna cinches her saddle into place and climbs on Dart. She looks cute on him. He’s not so big that she looks out of place, nor so small that she’ll grow out of him.
“She’ll be graduating to a horse soon, right?” I ask Marcy as Jenna takes Dart along the rail.
I can practically see the dollar signs floating away from Marcy as she realizes where I’m going with this. To her credit, she smiles. “It might be a good fit. You realize that her parents can’t pay half of what Parker will pay.”
I nod. The price will still be more than what I’d hoped for when I first found him, enough that I can go right into a four-year program at U.R.D. The thought of going to the same school as Blake gives me a little thrill that I have no right to feel under the circumstances, especially since Blake hasn’t tried to contact me once since last night. Not even to text Happy Birthday.
“I’ll talk to her mother.” Marcy shakes her head.
Jenna reaches down to pat Dart’s neck as she eases him into a canter, and I know I’ve made the right decision.
After Dart is groomed and Jenna has fed him an entire two-pound bag of carrots, I go in search of Parker. Not to gloat. I have some questions. There’s something that doesn’t make sense now that I know the truth about Austin. Why did Austin date Parker for two years?
When I find her in the tack room used by Sam’s students, she doesn’t say a word to me. I don’t know if she knows that I’m not going to sell Dart to her, or if it ever really mattered to her that much, but she just goes on cleaning a bridle of butter-soft leather like I’m not even there.
“Parker.”
She finally looks at me.
I’m not sure how to ask, so I just say it. “What was the deal with you and Austin?”
She rolls her eyes at me. “Really? You came all the way over here to ask me about Austin? Like you have any real chance with him? Please. Or are you just a masochist? I’ll tell you exactly what Austin loved about me. Is that what you want to hear?”
“Spill.”
“Well, for starters, I’m beautiful. And of course there’s rich. I was class president of McMillan. As a sophomore. It was only natural that the two of us would end up together.”
“That’s it?” I don’t disguise the complete disbelief in my tone. There has to be more to it than Parker’s popularity. I’m sure Austin is popular in his own right. He wouldn’t need Parker on his arm to seal the deal.
Parker’s mouth opens and closes, and for a second she resembles a giant fish. “Well, he did always tell me I was descended from a beautiful goddess.”
“But you weren’t,” I say with a certainty I feel in my bones. “And let me guess. He broke up with you shortly after you turned seventeen.”
She opens her mouth again without saying anything. I don’t wait around for her to get it together. Parker Winslow has told me everything I need to know.
Austin was prospecting, looking for a Seventh Daughter to help him fight his war against the Sons. Only Austin doesn’t have the aid of the latest advancements in genetic science. Austin is flying blind.
Austin is not as all-powerful as he claims.
THIRTY-Seven
It’s not until my mom hugs me and tells me Happy Birthday that I realize how long I’ve been waiting for someone to say those words. It’s been nineteen hours and twenty-seven minutes.
Mom sits down at the kitchen table and holds up an ad mock-up for R.D. Magazine. “Do you like this one?” She waves the glossy picture of herself, complete with perfect smile and anchorwoman helmet hair.
“It’s nice.”
“I thought you were going out with Haley and Christy?” she asks. It’s kind of a tradition for the three of us to go to dinner together—no parents—on our birthdays. Tonight we were supposed to go to Olive Garden, eating too many breadsticks and not enough salad.
“Change of plans.”
Mom goes through another stack of photos. “I’m not sure whether to feature the new listing or the big ranch house from last month.” She holds up two more photographs.
“Definitely the ranch.” I plop myself down on the leather couch in the family room next to the kitchen. “It’s flashier.”
Mom scrunches her face at the pictures. “So you’ll be home tonight for your birthday? Your dad and I were planning to take you out tomorrow. You could invite a friend.”
I don’t bother to say that the list of potential invitees, never huge to begin with, has dwindled to zero. I shrug.
“Oh, honey.” Mom gets up from the table and sits down next to me. “You’re not still worried about Nana’s superstitions? It might be kind of cool, having powers.”
Mom did not just bring up something as uncomfortable as my effed-up legacy. “Trust me. It’s not cool. It’s the supernatural equivalent of someone putting an Uzi submachine gun in your hands and telling you to shoot,” I say.
Her lips pucker. “Has something happened?”
I’m not sure what to say, so I don’t say anything. “I think I might have a buyer for Dart.”
I know Mom won’t be able to resist the chance to change the subject to a more comfortable topic, and she doesn’t disappoint. “Is that what this is about? Well, you knew you were going to have to sell him eventually. Will you get a good price?”
I nod.
“That’s great! It’s what you’ve been working so hard for.”
I get up from the couch.
“Should I make the dinner reservations?”
“Sure.” Might as well take a page from Mom and try to act like nothing’s happening. The act might be the only normal thing I have left.
Mom smiles again, satisfied that she’s fulfilled her duties as a parent while successfully avoiding the messy stuff. “Will Haley join us?”
“I’m thinking of having it be just us this year.”
Mom doesn’t hide her surprise. “Really? That sounds great.” I can’t get a read on whether she’s truly happy or not. Now that we’re talking again, she might be nervous about trying to sustain a conversation for a couple of hours without a friend as a buffer. She stands up and walks back to the table, already rifling through her photos.
For some reason, I can’t not talk about it anymore. “Mom.”
She stops, frozen.
“Can you sit back down?”
She walks back slowly, as if afraid that if she moves too fast she’ll spook me and I’ll bolt. But I don’t. I wait for her sit down on the couch.
And then I tell her everything. About the night on the beach with Blake. About Austin and his plan to use me to kill all the Sons. I tell her about Jonah, how he attacked me and attacked Dart. I tell her about Sherri Milliken, about how I blew up Jonah’s truck. How Sasha was killed. How Blake doesn’t trust me now.
To her credit, my mom doesn’t flinch. She doesn’t ask a lot of questions. She doesn’t even attempt to lecture me about safe sex or responsible magic. She waits until I’m done before she asks, “Is that all?” with a soft smile playing at the corners of her lips.
I nod, then add, “And I’m kind of in a fight with Haley.”
She laughs, a kind laugh, and I find myself laughing with her. Finally, when we stop, she sits up straight. “Well, it does sound like a lot at once, but if anyone is smart enough to figure out how to make things right, it’s you.”
“You’re supposed to say that. You’re my mom.” But the truth is, I’ve missed hearing it. She used to always tell me how smart I was and how I could do anything I wanted to, until the fire and then Nana getting sick. Then she just stopped talking to me about anything that mattered.
“It’s the truth. What research have you done so far?”
“Research?”
“It’s the first thing to do, right? No need to reinvent the w
heel. All the big breakthroughs are just extensions of the thousands that came before.”
The scientific method. Mom was the first person to propose the idea that a chemical reaction in the lab must have been what started the fire. She gave me the gift of logic when I couldn’t deal with the reality of what was happening to me. She’s handing me the same lifeline now, but this time it’s not just an avoidance method.
“The problem is, when it comes to this stuff, I am reinventing the wheel. I don’t know anything about our past—not the secret one, anyway.”
A crease appears on my mother’s forehead. “That’s not entirely true.”
“What do I have? A bunch of rumors about what I might become and a bracelet that I wasn’t allowed to take off.”
Mom shakes her head. “Maybe our history wasn’t spelled out for you, but it was always there. Nana never let you forget the old ways.”
Nana told me about witches and faeries and black cats. I fail to see how any of that could prepare me for this. But Mom’s eyes are teary and I don’t have the heart to fight her, so I just nod.
“What?” Mom must see the doubt in my eyes.
“I just don’t see what witchcraft and superstitions have to do with anything. I’m not a witch.”
Mom smiles. “Nana never said you were. She said if you practiced magic you’d be burned as one. ‘Witch’ is just a word used by your enemies to demonize your power.”
“But I don’t think it works that way. There aren’t any spells or anything like that. I can just do things.”
“Have you ever tried to do a spell? Nana was so adamant that you not try.”
I have tried. Twice, with Christy’s book. But both times nothing happened. Well, not nothing, exactly. I did pass out and have those weird dreams about Danu.
“What did Nana tell you about me, exactly?” I ask.
Mom blinks. She doesn’t say anything at first, and for a minute I think I’ve lost her.
“She said you would conjure blue fire and control the sky and earth. I thought she was speaking metaphorically.” Her voice cracks as she speaks. “Then there was the fire at the school.”
