Victor

by Taylor Longford

  So I made the call and twenty minutes later I met Alexa out on the driveway in front of the garage, where'd I'd just said goodbye to Samantha. "How's school going?" I asked her.

  "Two and a half weeks and I'll be out of that dump," she laughed. "I can't wait for graduation. Our class is gonna break every rule in the books. We're even gonna break a few laws."

  I nodded, understanding the rebellious nature of youth…even though I personally had never had a chance to let loose like that. Hell, I was an authority figure at sixteen. "Did you bring some wood with you?" I asked, hoping she was prepared to use her magic.

  She fished a necklace from her purse and looped it over her head. It was fairly gaudy with large random shapes of wood strung together in no particular order. But it was wood and that was the main thing. "What do you think?" she bubbled. "I've used it before and it worked every time."

  "That oughtta do it," I said and motioned her toward the house.

  Of course, Hooligan started growling as soon as Alexa walked down the steps to the family room. And the menacing sound only got louder as she moved closer.

  I knelt beside the wolfhound on the rug. "She's here to help," I told him softly as Alexa laid her palms on his flanks. But my reassurances didn't stop his lips from curling back over his gums. I think he'd have taken her hand off if he'd had the energy.

  "Poor doggie," she crooned. "Why are you growling at Alexa?"

  "Because he's a good judge of character," Havoc grunted.

  Alexa shot a dirty look in his direction then scowled at me like I should do something about my cousin's attitude. But when I just shrugged, she turned her attention back to the big dog. "Let's see if Alexa can help you," she said.

  In response, Havoc pushed out a hard snort, and this time I glared up at him until he looked away.

  Alexa closed her eyes and started moving her hands over Hooligan's brindled coat, starting at his neck and working her way down over his shoulders, hesitating when she reached his side, then sliding toward his flanks. Slowly, her hands moved back over his stomach, while his chest lifted with his labored breathing. "There's something bad here," she intoned in a spooky voice while MacKenzie rolled her eyes. "Something bad that needs to come out."

  "What is it?" I asked seriously.

  Without opening her eyes, Alexa shook her head. "I don't know, exactly. But it's something square. No, rectangular. Something purple."

  The room went very quiet for several moments before Havoc broke the heavy silence. "Does it look like a sponge?" he asked with a heavy dose of sarcasm.

  Alexa opened her eyes and fried him with a vicious glare. "I don't know," she cut back at him. "I just know what I saw. There's something bad in there. If you want to save the dog, you should probably take him to the vet for an operation."

  "Yeah, right," he answered, giving me a dark look before he stalked from the room.

  "What's wrong with him?" she asked, her tone innocent but her eyes flashing with anger.

  "He's just upset about Hooli," I explained and pulled her up to her feet. "He's worried. We're all worried."

  "Well, I just told you guys how to cure the dog," she snapped. "So I don't know why he's mad at me."

  "He's not mad at you," I soothed as I steered her toward the entry and out of the house. "He's just stressed."

  "Well, you shouldn't let him talk to me like that," she insisted. "And if you don't get rid of that sponge, the dog will probably die."

  "I know," I agreed, wondering when she'd decided the purple rectangle in Hooli's stomach was a sponge. I closed the door behind me and sighed with a feeling like relief as we crossed the driveway to her car. "Thanks for coming," I said while she dug her keys from her purse.

  "See," she exclaimed, throwing her arms around my neck. "I can do good magic."

  I was grateful for her help. And her show of affection should have felt good. But it didn't. Carefully, I unwound her arms. "Thanks," I told her again and opened her car door for her.

  But before I could get her safely packed into the SUV, she went off on a tangent. "I've been thinking about taking a road trip this summer. In a couple of weeks. Tara's coming along. It would be killer if you could come too."

  I opened my mouth to turn her down. I didn't fancy being stuck in a car with her and her friend on a long trip like that, or in a hotel room in Las Vegas. And the house we were moving into in Boulder needed a lot of work; I'd been looking forward to the renovation project. But as she gazed up at me and batted her eyelashes, I found myself telling her I'd think about it.

  She clapped her hands and fairly jiggled with excitement. "We're going to have so much fun!" she squealed and hopped into the car, waving furiously back at me as she headed down the driveway.

  "Aye. Fun," I muttered, rubbing a hand over my jaw and wondering why I needed to think about a trip I didn't want to go on.

  When I stepped through the front door again, Havoc was glaring at me from the living room.

  "What?" I asked.

  "Road trip?" he said scathingly. "You're thinking about taking a road trip with Alexa?"

  "Aye. What's wrong with that?"

  MacKenzie looked surprised as she joined the rest of the pack loitering in the living room. "Road trip? Where?"

  "Las Vegas," Havoc growled.

  "Las Vegas!" MacKenzie exclaimed. "You can't go to Las Vegas with Alexa!"

  "Why not?" I gritted, starting to get a little annoyed with everyone's attitude. Not that I really wanted to go to Las Vegas. But I didn't want my pack telling me what to do, either.

  "Because it's full of chapels," she said. "Wedding chapels. It's where people go when they want to get married fast."

  "We'll lock you in your room," Defiance muttered, pulling his short ponytail through his fist.

  "And turn you to stone," MacKenzie added mutinously.

  Her threat startled me. "You…wouldn't do that," I said uncertainly.

  "Oh, yes I would," she insisted in a low mother-bear growl.

  I leaned back until my shoulder blades touched the wall behind me. "You guys need to just chill. If I want to go to Las Vegas with Alexa, I'll go. Even if it means bailing in the middle of the night."

  Havoc completely lost it. "What's the matter with you?" he demanded.

  "What do you mean?" I countered in a low growl.

  "Listen to yourself, man! One week you're crazy about Samantha. The next week you're talking about going away with Alexa. It doesn't make sense."

  "It makes perfect sense," I argued.

  "How do you figure that?"

  "Because Samantha isn't interested in me and refuses to even see me. And when I asked her to come over here and help Hooligan, she thought I was lying. But Alexa offered to help."

  "Help?" he exploded and pointed at the front door that Alexa had just used to leave. "You call that help?"

  "Aye," I insisted with a tired sigh. "She came here trying to help."

  "Did it never occur to you that maybe she did it?"

  "Did what?" I asked carefully, not sure what he was suggesting. But I didn't think he was trying to tell me that Alexa had saved Hooligan.

  "Alexa gave Hooli the sponge," he gritted. "That's how she knew about it."

  "What are you talking about?" I muttered, thinking it was strange that I was in the position of defending Alexa.

  "Alexa fed Hooli the sponge!" he shouted.

  "Why do you say that?" I asked calmly.

  "Because she knew! She knew there was a sponge in Hooligan's stomach. She even knows what color it is."

  "She might be wrong. It…might not be purple."

  Havoc dug in his pocket and pulled out a twenty-dollar bill, slamming the money on the coffee table in front of the couch. "Twenty bucks says there's a sponge in Hooligan's stomach and it's purple."

  Something told me he was going to win that bet. I reached up and rubbed the back of my neck. "She is a witch, Havoc. Maybe she saw the damn thing in his stomach."

  "And maybe she put it ther
e," he exploded.

  With my back propped against the wall, I crossed my arms over my chest and considered the possibility. "Why would she do that?" I finally asked.

  "So she could show up here and appear to help him! So it would look like she was using her magic for good! So she could get to you!"

  I pushed out another sigh. "Samantha was the first one to suggest the idea of a sponge. Why don't you suspect her?"

  Havoc's mouth dropped open as he stared at me. Then he lifted a long finger and stabbed it in my direction. "You have lost your mind. Tell him!" he roared, whirling on Valor. "Tell him he's insane!"

  As I turned my gaze on Valor, he shared a careful look with Dare before he got started. "We're confused," he admitted. "You've led the pack since you were sixteen, Victor…brilliantly. You've always been smart and fair and you've always made sensible decisions. We've never questioned your judgment before."

  "If you have something to say, spill it," I growled.

  "Alright," Valor agreed. "Something strange is going on, Victor. Lately, you're making decisions that just don't make any sense."

  "Starting with?"

  "Starting with Alexa," he answered. "Agreeing to meet up and talk with her. Deciding to go to that concert with her. Inviting her here to MacKenzie's house thinking she'd sincerely want to help Hooligan. It's…crazy."

  "Is it?" I cut back at him. "Just because she isn't perfect like Mim and MacKenzie and the rest of the girls?"

  "It's more than that," he argued quietly. "She's not a nice person and you know it."

  But I plowed on. "My father married someone who wasn't perfect. Someone who his family insisted wasn't good enough. She was my mother!"

  "That was different," Dare argued, as if my comparison surprised him.

  Defiance's reaction wasn't as subtle. "How can you compare that girl to your mother?"

  "Why shouldn't I?"

  "Are you crazy?" Defiance gritted. "Yeah, your mom was wild and hotheaded and unpredictable. But she was never nasty. She was never mean."

  "How do you know Alexa's mean?" I persisted. "She just performed good magic right here in front of your eyes."

  "Unless it wasn't magic," Havoc grated.

  Defiance shook his head doggedly. "Even if I didn't know that Alexa almost killed Whitney with her nasty fantasizing, I could tell just by looking at her. So could you if you weren't so…so…"

  "So what?" I demanded.

  "So…blind," he growled. "It's almost like…"

  "It's almost like he's bewitched," MacKenzie cut in softly as everyone turned to stare at her. "It's almost like Alexa has cast a spell on him." She turned her head sharply and locked her gaze on Valor's eyes. "Is that possible?"

  "Nay," I scoffed before my cousin could answer.

  Valor didn't look so sure. "I…don't know," he answered.

  "Oh, come on!" I shouted, finally losing my temper. "A witch can't make someone like them."

  "Maybe not," MacKenzie answered slowly. "But if Alexa was trying to make you fall in love with her, couldn't her spells affect your behavior? Couldn't they make you do things you wouldn't normally do?"

  To be honest, I was insulted that MacKenzie thought I could be spelled so easily. "Alexa isn't even very red," I snorted with a dismissive wave of my hand. "Her spells wouldn't have any effect on me."

  "What if she had something that belonged to you?" Defiance challenged me. "Wouldn't that strengthen the spell?"

  "Like what?" I demanded, feeling so done with the conversation.

  "Like a personal item," he suggested. "Like…a piece of your clothing or something you valued."

  "Nothing of mine is missing," I shot back with an impatient glare that lasted several seconds.

  "She's not a nice person," Valor reminded me quietly.

  At that point I was starting to get good and truly pissed. I was ready to tear my hair out, or what was left of it. Next thing I knew, I was lashing out at my family and friends—my pack. "I'm not going to stand around here while you guys insult my girlfriend!" I shouted.

  Okay, maybe girlfriend was a strong word for what I felt for Alexa. But it was what Samantha wanted anyhow so why shouldn't I go ahead and make it official? Why shouldn't I announce to the whole world that Alexa was my girlfriend? Why shouldn't I shout it from the frickin' rooftops?

  "Your what?" Havoc exclaimed, moving slowly across the room toward me.

  I gritted my teeth and steeled myself, ready to do battle and knowing that Havoc could be a formidable opponent when he got his hackles up. The guy had a lash for a tongue.

  "When did she become your girlfriend?" he demanded, prowling closer.

  I pointed toward the family room. "When she came over here and tried to help. When she performed good magic right in front of your eyes."

  "Your girlfriend," he repeated in a menacing rasp. "So you're in love with her."

  I opened my mouth to say yes but couldn't make the word come out.

  "How many times have you kissed her?" he asked sharply, edging another short step toward me and entering my personal space.

  Again I opened my mouth to answer. But strangely, I'd never kissed her. Sure, there had been times when I'd felt compelled to cover her lips with mine, like the night of the concert while the band was on stage, and later on in the parking lot. But both times I'd bailed at the last minute.

  "What about your barbs?" Havoc asked next, and braced his hand on the wall next to my face.

  "What do you mean?"

  "Do they bleed when you're around her?"

  "Nay," I admitted offhandedly and twisted the silver band on my wrist. "But I've been around a lot of girls."

  "A lot of girls you didn't care about."

  "I'm just saying I'm older," I argued, flicking my eyes impatiently upward. "That means I have more self control than a younger gargoyle."

  "Your self control wasn't that great around Samantha," he pointed out in a soft slide of words. "You filled your gloves with venom."

  And that got me pissed. Really pissed. He just kept pushing and pushing. And the more he pushed, the more I wanted to strike back. Wheeling on him, I threw my fist at his face, only pulling the punch at the last instant. My knuckles slammed into the wall beside his head, creating a huge hole.

  Havoc backed away, looking stunned, as if I'd suddenly grown two heads. "Victor. What the hell's wrong with you?"

  "I don't know," I snarled back at him, and shook out my fist. "I'm…just edgy. And…conflicted. And you won't stop pushing when you should shut the hell up."

  "Victor, where is this coming from?" Dare asked quietly. "You don't even sound like you."

  I looked down at my feet and fought for composure. It was one thing for Havoc or Defiance to give me crap but when Dare and Valor started to weigh in, it was time to take a hard look at what was going on. At that point, I had to consider the possibility that something had gone way far in the wrong direction. "Who do I sound like?" I rasped.

  "Alexa," Havoc answered.

  "Or Ryan Myerson," Defiance added darkly.

  I took a deep breath and let it out with a sharp curse. This was my pack. I knew they were on my side. I knew they had my back in any battle that might come up. But I didn't understand why they were fighting me on this. They just didn't understand that Alexa was trying to change. "I'll fix the wall tomorrow," I growled at MacKenzie. "Right now, I need to get out of here."

  Ripping my jacket from the wall in the entry, I slammed through the front door. And outside, I headed for the cliffs in the park. When I reached them, I did some pretty serious internal seething as I stood staring out over the forested ridges toward the eastern plains. Of course, it wasn't long before I heard footsteps making their way through the woods toward me. And as the sound of a leather sole scraped on rock, I turned to see who they'd sent as their delegate.

  My shoulders sank a notch or two when Dare's dark head lifted above the slope behind me. Sending Dare was really fighting dirty, because I couldn't shout at him like I
would if it was Defiance or Havoc. I knew Dare would use nothing but calm words and sensible reason.

  As he stepped closer, I lifted my arms out from my sides and asked, "Is my interest in Alexa so out of line?"

  "Way out of line," he answered quietly as he stopped beside me. "She tried to hurt Whitney, Victor. Sure, she didn't realize her magic was going to work the first time she made Romeo act up in the arena. But when she did it the second time, she knew she was risking Whit's life."

  "But…couldn't she be getting nicer?"

  Dare sighed and followed my gaze out over the hills. "If she was getting nicer, we'd know. She'd look prettier to us."

  "Is she…such a monster?"

  "Nay, she's not a monster," he allowed. "Not yet. But I don't think she's getting any better."

  "Well, how's she supposed to improve if nobody ever gives her a chance?" I growled. "I wish you guys would just give her a chance."

  "Let make a deal," Dare suggested after a few moments of consideration. "Why don't you move up to Boulder this weekend, after Hooligan's operation. You wanted to be there to keep an eye on Chaos anyhow, right? Spend a week away from Alexa and see if it bothers you to be separated from her."

  "What do I get in return?" I snorted, not particularly happy with his proposal.

  "In return, we'll plan a housewarming party in Boulder. We'll invite Alexa and have dinner and spend the evening together. And the rest of the pack will try to see…what you see in her."

  "You'll keep an open mind?" I insisted.

  "We'll do our best," he promised.

  "Okay," I told him and grasped his arm to seal the bargain.

  He smiled. "Don't thank me yet," he murmured, like he wasn't expecting things to turn out the way I was hoping.

  But I was determined to show my pack that Alexa was a changed young woman. And determined to get over Samantha. So I gave the Pine Grove senior a call and told her I was leaving town but wanted her to be my date at the housewarming in Boulder on the following weekend.

  Chapter Eight

  With her mom's permission, MacKenzie skipped school on Wednesday so she could take Hooligan to the vet. Havoc carried the big dog out to the garage and arranged him carefully in the back of the Jeep. Then he took off with Valor and Mac to get Hooli an x-ray.