B005WNXOTE EBOK

by Dean Murray

  "Alec, mom needs you. Where are you?"

  "I'm in the garage. I'll be there in a moment."

  Jasmin turned to leave. I thought about stopping her. She was hiding something, and that didn't bode well for her continued cooperation, but there was a limit to just how far I could press her. Bleeding both of us, her especially, to get my answer would be poor repayment for someone who'd chosen to stick her hand into the meat grinder we were headed towards.

  Rachel met me just inside the front door.

  "I'm really sorry Alec. I tried to calm her down but she won't listen to me."

  "It's ok, Rach. I should have remembered this was coming. It always happens within a day or two of the big break down."

  I went to step around her, but she reached a hand out to stop me.

  "Alec, I was wrong to ask you to promise that. I can see that now. I shouldn't have traded on the guilt you feel to get something that could have put the whole pack at risk."

  My sigh was more expressive than I meant to make it. Her resulting smile was the one she used when she was just moments from crying.

  "Anyways thanks for being willing to stand up for me. Oh, and for being willing to stand up for Adri. I think maybe she and I could be real friends someday. She seems different than all the other girls."

  It seemed cruel to deprive her of her latest hope. I couldn't help but think maybe I should do it regardless, but I didn't.

  "Well, if the two of you are going to be friends you should probably know she doesn't like to be called Adri. I'm not sure why but her heart races every time anyone says Adri instead of Adriana."

  Her smile had transformed to a happy thing, and I took my leave. Once I arrived outside Mother's room, I steeled myself with a couple of quick breaths and then knocked on her door, letting myself in after several seconds.

  Mom was curled up on the window seat sobbing. She was always frail looking, but currently looked even more fragile than normal. I gathered her into my arms and began rocking her back and forth until she registered my presence.

  "Oh, Alec. My poor, poor child. Whatever will we do without your father? You're so young. You won't even remember him."

  She broke into wracking sobs again and I wished I could hand this duty off to someone else. She was still replaying the past, but the worst was still to come. The loss had been the worst part for her. For me it was when she told a toddler she'd take care of him. I wasn't a toddler anymore, but she didn't even realize it right now. Didn't realize it and didn't understand that I already knew she wouldn't fulfill her promise to take care of us.

  Chapter 6

  It would have been bad enough if last night had ended with my futile efforts to console my mother. Instead I'd had a full night's worth of homework which had been cut short to go out on patrol.

  Apparently Brandon hadn't been pleased by just how badly Nathanial had been hurt. With the sole exception of Nathanial, every other wolf in his pack conducted an extended patrol around the edges of our territory. I'd been pretty confident when his scent told me he was along for the ride, that there wouldn't be any actual violation of our territory, but it was the kind of threat we had to honor.

  Neither James nor I had been at one hundred percent but we'd gamely kept up for hour after hour as Brandon's pack had dared us to step over the line into neutral territory. Predictably it hadn't been easy to keep certain members of our pack from taking the bait.

  Conducting such an exercise with a freshly-reopened wound had made it all the more frustrating. Despite my slight fear that I'd bleed out before the night ended, I'd awoken to find that my side was mostly healed.

  Depressingly enough, the high point of the night was when I found the answer to our physics problem in one of the reference books I'd purchased upon enrolling in the class. Luckily it was a fairly straight-forward explanation and I was able to just barely complete typing up my solution before it was time to go to school.

  Once I'd arrived at school, I'd dealt with the normal round of trash talk and posturing from Brandon. Dream Adriana had pegged us correctly. Nearly everything we did in public came back to some kind of dominance game or another. Most of the kids that'd grown up in Sanctuary were so used to it all that they didn't even realize what was going on, but I hated it. If Brandon hadn't been so set on shredding our pack and soaking up the remnants, I would have been more than happy to leave him completely alone.

  It was foolish to attribute the insights she'd displayed in my dreams to the flesh and blood person, but I found myself looking forward to seeing her again. She was extremely frustrating, but in less than a week she'd noticed things that people who'd been here their entire lives hadn't ever even given a second glance. She'd drawn the wrong conclusions with most of it, but the fact that she'd come even that close was intriguing.

  I walked into Physics more than a minute earlier than usual and headed straight to my desk only to almost stumble when Adriana pulled her desk close to mine and hissed at me.

  "So very nice of you to finally come to class on the day our stupid assignment is due."

  It shouldn't have been so shocking, I had plenty of people who really didn't like me, but her words were so different from what I'd been expecting that I felt my face freeze into the expressionless mask I used when I couldn't afford to let those around me know what I was thinking. I pulled my typewritten sheaf of paper out and set it on her desk so she could review it.

  Looking astonished, but still very sure of herself, Adriana pulled several handwritten sheets out and all but threw them at me. She was right. There was some background information that she could have covered in more detail, but it was a very concise answer to the problem we'd been presented.

  I felt a momentary pang at not having coordinated with her to avoid duplication of effort. I'd had a rough couple of days, but she had no way of knowing that. The charitable feelings I'd been working up to suddenly evaporated as she opened her mouth again.

  "You were right. You never even came to class, and you got the right answer. Did you cheat? Is the answer to this problem out there somewhere on the Internet?"

  I felt my expression slip into true anger for just a second before I managed to bring it back under control.

  "No, I didn't cheat. I did the research to find the answer, presumably just like you did. Next time you feel like insulting me, please suppress the urge."

  She choked back whatever denigrating response she'd been contemplating, and then Mrs. Alexander arrived. I'd always enjoyed the study of mechanical advantage. Levers, pulleys, ramps. They were simple things, but they'd allowed humanity to begin its first steps towards mastering the environment around them.

  Unfortunately I couldn't take any pleasure in the lecture with Adriana radiating dislike at me from just a few feet away. The only event that even came close to pulling me out of my funk was when Patty and Sammy exchanged whispered rumors about some celebrity being in a massive car wreck. Adriana's pulse momentarily shot up at exactly the same time. It was ludicrous. There was no way that she could have consciously heard their whispered conversation. Human ears weren't that acute, but there was no other explanation for why she'd chosen that moment to almost enter a panic.

  There was nothing to be done. For everything I learned about her two new, unfathomable things floated to the surface. Once the bell rang I followed her up to the front of the classroom to hand in my answer.

  Mrs. Alexander's eyebrows rose slightly at the sight of not just one, but two reports being turned in for our group.

  "Oh, Adriana. It looks like you've been busy."

  As I passed over my typewritten pages she grinned conspiratorially at Adriana. "Somehow I rather suspect you both have the same answer, Alec just used twice as many words to get there."

  Adriana shot me yet another dirty look that I hadn't earned. How was it that after just a few days even the teachers felt obligated to defend her? I'd spent my entire life trying to prove I was making my way on my own talents rather than my family's money and sh
e won their approval with a few sheets and a smile.

  My mood wasn't improved any when Jasmin slid into her adjacent desk at the start of pre-calculus.

  "Word on the street is that the new girl got a ride into school from Brandon."

  My desk creaked in protest as I felt a momentary surge of rage.

  "Apparently she didn't need our protection after all. Too bad you didn't know that earlier or you could have saved yourself some pain and blood."

  "That doesn't make sense. Brandon never does anything without a reason. Why would he befriend someone who stopped Cassie from hurting Rachel?"

  Jasmin shrugged and fished out her homework assignment. "Beats me, but if she's stupid enough to fall for his lines then she deserves whatever happens to her."

  I couldn't agree. Especially not once I stumbled upon the likely answer.

  "He's doing it to punish her. He'll addict her to his touch and then he'll cut her off."

  Jasmin's eyes suddenly got a little wider. "How did I miss that? That explains a lot. I thought some of those girls were being a little aggressive, but if he's formed Ja'tell bond with them, then that would explain it all."

  "Damn incubus. His own pack should tear him apart for that."

  "You know that'll never happen. He's got everyone but Vincent terrified of him, and it was probably Vincent's idea."

  Jasmin's tone was a darker thing than just her words would have implied. She didn't like what Brandon was going to do any more than I did.

  The idea of Adriana being reduced to something worse than a meth addict touched on all kinds of things I didn't want to think about. Forming Ja'tell bond with a human was always looked down upon. It was somewhat acceptable when the shape shifter in question did as my father had and married the poor human they'd addicted, but even then it wasn't a topic for polite company.

  I was still futilely looking for a solution that would stop even more girls from being sucked into Brandon's clutches long past when school had ended.

  Now that Rachel had begun staying after school for math tutoring every night I'd begun sending the rest of the pack home and finding an empty classroom within earshot of the lab. Usually it was a chance to knock out a good chunk of my homework, but after my conversation with Jasmin I found myself unable to focus.

  I finally packed all of my things up early and headed out to my motorcycle. The shiny, blue Yamaha R1 wasn't a very practical vehicle, but it was more fun to drive than even my Porsche. Rachel exited the lab and all but ran to me. It was nice to have one person at least who was glad to see me today. I pulled out my blue helmet and the black motorcycle jacket that should offer her a margin of protection if we happened to wreck. She grimaced at having to wear safety items when I was blessedly unencumbered, but she knew the drill. I'd walk away from just about any accident conceivable, but she wasn't nearly as durable.

  I handed the gear over with only a portion of my attention. My focus was on the pair of girls that had walked out of the school shortly after Rachel; more specifically on one of the girls. Britney wasn't of interest. I'd long ago established just how shallow and self-serving she was, but Adriana was a different matter.

  I'd contemplated a dozen different plans to keep her out of Brandon's clutches, but none of them were viable. Adriana seemed to be returning my stare despite the fact that at this distance, with my eyes covered by sun glasses there was no way she could be certain I was looking at her.

  She was such an enigma. She stood up to Brandon's pack and then accepted a ride into school with him. She defended my sister and then chose Britney Samuels as a best friend. Not to mention the persistent lack of additional information about her. It seemed impossible in this day and age of computers and universal Internet access for anyone to have left no trace after seventeen years of life.

  Her expression was mostly made up of the emotionless mask that she normally wore, but there was the briefest trace of something else. Something I couldn't identify at this range, not without scent clues, but which made me want to protect her.

  Rachel swung up behind me, and then waved as she saw Adri for the first time. Adri's return wave was a little hesitant, but it seemed to satisfy Rach.

  "Time to go big brother."

  The bike dropped into first gear with a satisfying clunk, and then I spun it around with a hiss of heating rubber and shot out of the parking lot.

  There wasn't anything more I could do for Adri. She'd made her choices and was going to have to deal with the fallout.

  Chapter 7

  I'd spent a restless night after getting Rach home. There'd been more patrols, followed by a debriefing with Donovan, and a full set of homework. I managed to get enough sleep to function, but not enough to really feel rested.

  The first couple of classes didn't do anything to move the day along more quickly. Wuthering Heights was one of the most depressing studies of how badly people could mess their lives up if given even a slight chance, and History was a complete waste of time.

  Jasmin blew out of History so fast that I didn't even get a chance to say goodbye. Even more surprising she wasn't at her locker when I went to deposit my books. I could have tracked her down by following her scent trail, but we were finally scheduled to start a unit on painting, and I didn't want to miss anything.

  Art almost made up for the previous few hours. I couldn't actually work on the kinds of stuff I was truly passionate about, but it was still nice to sit down, mix paints and apply brush to canvas.

  My good mood nearly evaporated away when I met up with Jasmin and felt the traces of power on her.

  "You swore an oath." Rage nearly brought my voice up into the audible range for humans.

  "Yes I did, but I'm not under any obligation to tell you what it was about."

  "I can find out. All I have to do is figure out who witnessed for you."

  "There was no witness, Alec. You may as well give up because I'm not going to tell you anything else."

  Her words hit me like a physical blow. She wasn't lying, which was possibly the craziest thing she'd done so far. Oaths were always witnessed to ensure that someone could explain the circumstances of the oath. Once your beast was bonded to a course of action, it would complete that action regardless of right, wrong, or even questions of legality.

  The witness served to give mitigating evidence in the event that the oath resulted in an action that brought punishment down on you. There wasn't generally much mitigation that could be taken into account, but if you were forced into an oath that could potentially result in your being killed, the last thing you wanted to do was forgo any possible defense.

  There was a chance I could beat it out of her, but whatever else I held common with Brandon, I didn't like being a monster.

  "You shouldn't have done that without consulting me. If nothing else recent events should have taught you that."

  "I'm sorry. I really am, but it had to be done. I'll undergo whatever form of punishment you decree, but I'm not going to budge on this."

  She was right. It wouldn't matter what I did to her. Short of death, nothing was going to impact her resolve. I left, too angry to eat.

  Rachel found me in the art room five minutes before lunch ended.

  "Alec, are you ok?"

  "Oh fine, just watching the pack splinter around me."

  "It's Jasmin isn't it? Dom told me she could smell the ritual on her."

  I grunted in response, assuming the matter was closed until Rachel wrapped her hands around my arm.

  "Alec, I know it's hard to deal with her sometimes, but she's got a good reason for what she's doing this time."

  I heard a snap as the brush in my hand splintered. Rachel knew what was going on, but I already knew she wasn't going to tell me. She wasn't as strong-willed as Jasmin, I could have tortured it out of her, but if there was anyone in the pack I couldn't bring myself to hurt it was Rach, and she knew it.

  I threw the brush into the trash and went to leave but she hadn't relinquished her grip on my arm
. "Alec, everyone's talking about Adri having collapsed. What else have you heard?"

  My laugh wasn't very gentle. "You forget sis. For all that you feel isolated you hear more about what's going on among the student body than I do. I haven't heard a peep about any of this."

  Rach looked for a moment like I'd gone too far. I finally reached out and pulled her into a hug. "I don't know what everyone is talking about, but she did collapse in Physics her first day here. It seemed like it was a trick, so I suspect she's just trying to cash in on her newfound fame as Brandon's latest toy."

  She wasn't happy with me now. "Alec, she's not like that. We've talked a little after school and I really don't think she's pretending."

  There was no point continuing the conversation. I disengaged myself from Rachel and headed off to class.

  Rachel had a point. While I didn't really converse with anyone outside the pack, I had the ability to be in the know if I wanted to be, I'd just been tuning out the background chatter lately.

  I spent part of my time in Chemistry listening to whispers and came away astonished. The girls in the school were being even more brutal than normal and it looked like Britney, Adri's supposed best friend, was leading the push. If Adri had really been hoping to generate popularity out of her attacks, it had just backfired on her in a major way. Somehow I'd gone from being disgusted by her antics to feeling sorry for her.

  I hurried straight to Physics, and was pleasantly surprised to find Adri had beaten me to the class. She registered my presence about the time I sat down, and momentarily seemed confused as she reached for her notebook.

  She looked over questioningly at me, and the sight of her with her mask removed actually drew an honest smile out of me. It had been so long since someone had returned my smile it took me a second to realize she was smiling at me. She blushed and broke eye contact as the bell rang.

  Mrs. Alexander finished up the roll and opened up the floor for any questions that the class might have regarding the light unit we'd just finished up. Predictably, the first hand up was Sammy's. I'd shared three classes with her over the last four years and she'd been the teacher's pet in each of them.