Descendant (13 page)

“Do you want me to pinky-promise?” I mused.

Vanessa smiled and shook her head. “I don’t think that’ll be necessary,” she said. “Just swear you won’t say anything to him?”

“I won’t,” I agreed again. “Just tell me.”

“He wouldn’t want you to know, and he wouldn’t admit it if you called him out on it—but he’s been real y worried about you.” She said all of this within a single breath, inhaling sharply once she finished—as if she’d been waiting all day for a chance to say it to someone.

for a chance to say it to someone.

“…Well doesn’t he have good reason to be?” I asked, confused as to how this was supposed to be a big secret.

Vanessa looked disappointed that I wasn’t nearly as excited about her revelation as she was, so I continued: “I mean, haven’t we already established that my family and I are basical y walking targets?”

“Well yes, and of course we’re all worried about you,” she said, somewhat impatiently. “But it’s been different with Kael. First of all , he’s Kael—and he’s actual y concerned about someone other than himself. You have no idea what a big deal this is. And he’s been so concerned about you that he’s kept within a half-mile radius of you since everything that happened at the lake Saturday.” She folded her arms across her chest and nodded, as if that settled the matter. I was hardly convinced though—after all , he didn’t seem to want me within a half-mile radius tonight.

“He’s just in a bad mood tonight,” Vanessa said, as if I’d voiced my thoughts aloud.

“What about last night?” I asked. For some reason, I was suddenly determined to prove her wrong. “After he walked me home...he didn’t seem to want to stick around then, and he said he was coming straight back here.”

“What Kael says and what Kael does are usual y two completely unrelated things,” Vanessa said. “He didn’t come back last night. And this morning? He followed you to Boone. He was right behind you—and I think that may be part of why he’s so upset…” Vanessa said, her tone growing excited with realization. “Because things got so close with you and Sera, even though he was there…Yes! I bet that’s it. And I bet—”

“Okay, so he doesn’t actual y hate me or want me dead. I got it.”

It’s not that I didn’t appreciate her trying to reassure me. I just had a lot of other things on my mind at the moment. And despite what Vanessa claimed, thinking about Kael right now still made me angry. He’d been obnoxious—whether or not he had a legit excuse to be was kind of beside the question.

“Just thought you should know,” Vanessa said with a shrug.

“Thanks,” I said, flashing her a quick smile before walking over to the door. I nodded down the hall , toward the room I’d heard Eli and Will ’s voices coming from earlier. “What are Will and Eli doing?” I asked, trying to redirect the conversation.

“Probably waiting for us,” Vanessa said. “Or for you, rather.”

“For me?”

“Yeah. Sun’s almost set,” she explained, looking at me uncertainly.

“Oh yeah…” And my argument with Kael slipped a little further from my mind. My time as a human was running short. I needed to tell Vanessa I’d changed my mind. Now.

“Are you sure you want to go through with this?” Vanessa asked, placing her hand on my shoulder. I looked down at her hand, but didn’t speak. What the heck was I waiting for?

I think what upset me most about everything Kael said was that I knew he was right. He’d known me for less than three days, and he’d already figured me out. I was stubborn—probably way too stubborn for my own good. Yeah, I could admit that.

But he’d called me selfish too. That one was harder to swallow, because all along I’d been telling myself I was doing this for my family— because I wanted to protect them. Well that was one reason for sure. But it wasn’t the only one. For better or for worse, I knew there was no way I could step back and trust my life—or Lora’s, or Mom’s— to anybody but myself. I’d never been one to rely on others, and I wasn’t about to start now.

and I wasn’t about to start now.

“Alex?” Vanessa said again, giving my shoulder a little squeeze. “Now would probably be the time to tell me if you’re not sure about this,” she said, looking at me anxiously.

As she spoke, I stared out one of the low windows lining the hallway. I could see shadows of the distant mountains, and pink and orange ribbons stretched across the dark blue sky — remnants of what had probably been a pretty spectacular sunset. A flood of warmth swept over me, followed immediately by a tingling sensation that started at the base of my neck and ran down my spine and along each of my arms. It was the same pins-and-needles feeling that had been bugging me earlier this afternoon, except now it didn’t seem nearly as unpleasant.

I looked back and met Vanessa’s concerned eyes. Then I took a deep breath and nodded. “I’m sure.”

“How do you feel?” Eli asked.

We were sitting in the same room I’d met him in last night.

Each of us had claimed one of the squishy leather armchairs arranged in front of the fireplace, which was glowing faintly.

“The best I’ve felt all day, actual y,” I said. And it was true—my headache from earlier was completely gone, and the numbness was final y giving it a rest too. In fact, I felt perfectly normal.

I mean, despite the fact that I was about to turn into a werewolf.

That minor detail aside, I felt great. Judging by everyone else’s faces, though, it didn’t look like I could say the same for them. I might’ve been smiling at the fact that I no longer felt like my head was going to split in two, but the second they heard my response the three of them exchanged anxious glances.

“…That’s interesting,” Will said after a minute. Vanessa and Eli nodded in timid agreement.

“That’s… very interesting,” Eli seconded.

“Interesting? Why is it interesting?”

“It is not…entirely unheard of…” Eli began in a voice devoid of its usual intell ectual authority. “It is just strange that you do not seem to be suffering from any of the il -effects that usual y accompany one’s first shift.”

“But I have been. I’ve been sick all day,” I pointed out.

“Yes, but it is strange that now, this late in the evening of a full -moon, for you to not be experiencing any negative side-effects at all . They should be at their height right now.”

“You mean I should be in more pain now?”

“…The initial transformation is often painful, yes.”

I grimaced automatically , but Eli just smiled. “Your body is completely rearranging itself, after all ,” he said. “It is fascinating how it happens, real y… If you would like, I can explain the details—” Behind his glasses, Eli’s eyes shone with excitement. I looked away, not wanting him to see the fear in my own.

“Maybe we’ll save that for another time?” Vanessa interjected, eying me with a worried look on her face. “I don’t think she needs to hear those gruesome details right now…”

“It is not gruesome— it is science…” I heard Eli mutter as I gave Vanessa a gratefull look.

“You know what else is weird?” Will said, getting out of his chair and stepping between Eli and Vanessa, who were now throwing dirty looks at each another. “Has anybody looked at the time recently?” he asked, his own eyes darting toward the clock that hung above the fireplace. I followed his gaze, and saw that it was after ten ‘o’ clock.

“Wow—when did it get so late?” Vanessa asked. Al three of them turned and looked at me.

“You don’t feel…weird at all ?” Will asked after several seconds of awkward silence.

I shook my head, confused. “I told you—I feel perfectly fine.”

“Huh…” Will continued to watch me, looking skeptical. Eli didn’t seem to be able to take his eyes off of me, either. I shuffled uncomfortably in my seat and drug my fingers along the armrest, trying to think of something to say that would direct the conversation toward anything but me. But before I came up with anything, Eli spoke: “At the lake… you both saw Sera attack her, correct?”

Will and Vanessa both nodded.

“And the wound? Kael told me it healed almost immediately… Did either of you actual y see it before it healed?” Eli’s voice was calm, but his eyes had a funny gleam in them. It looked a little like desperation.

“I pulled her away from Sera myself,” Will said. “When she came up out of the water, I saw it.”

“And we are sure it was deep enough for the toxin to have entered her bloodstream?”

“Deep enough?” Will said with a short, humorless laugh.

“Her arm was barely in one piece.”

“And you saw the mark last night, Eli…” Vanessa said quietly. “We all did.”

“I know,” Eli said. He seemed frustrated, and uncomfortable silence fell over us again. Determined not to let it set in, I decided maybe this was a good time to retry the conversation I’d started with Kael earlier.

“Speaking of Sera,” I began. “Can I ask you guys something?”

“Of course,” Vanessa said, looking at me curiously.

“How much do you guys know about her? I mean… it’s just been bugging me since I found out—you guys knew it was her that day at the lake, right?”

“Yes…” Will said slowly. “We knew.”

“So why didn’t Kael just tell me who she real y was?”

A look of unmistakable surprise spread across all three of their faces.

“…He was probably—” Will began.

“He told me he did,” Vanessa interrupted furiously.

“He told me to stay away from her,” I said, turning to her with a shrug. “He didn’t say why, though. And I asked him, after everything that happened earlier… but he didn’t seem to want to explain. I mean—I probably would’ve been more likely to listen to him if he’d told me that Sera was the one who’d tried to kill me.”

“No kidding,” Vanessa said, her jaw clenching.

“Why would he lie about something like that?” I asked, frowning..

“Probably because he—“

“This is not real y something we need to talk about right now,” Eli interrupted. “We have more important things to worry about…” He gave Vanessa a stern look—or at least a stern a look as someone with his boyish face could give —and then he turned to me. “How are you feeling, Alex?” he asked.

“I’m feeling just as good as I did the last time you asked me —you know, two minutes ago?” I answered.

“That’s good,” he replied, seemingly indifferent to my sarcasm.

(We’ll talk later,) I heard Vanessa think.

I met Vanessa’s eyes briefly and gave her a discreet nod. I don’t think it went unnoticed, though, because a second later Eli was frowning at both of us, shaking his head.

I almost wished I hadn’t brought up Sera, because for some reason everyone seemed on edge after that. Most of the evening, we’d been talking, laughing—we’d even played cards earlier. Now everyone was off in a world of their own, intent on not letting anyone else interrupt it. The silence made every second the clock counted off all the more painful, and after about fifteen minutes of it I found myself sorely wishing I’d just kept my mouth shut.

Still , I was looking forward to talking with Vanessa about it later. Because for some reason beyond my knowledge and control, I cared about Kael’s motives all of a sudden. I couldn’t help it—which was real y annoying, since the last thing I wanted to think about right now was him. I shouldn’t have been thinking about him. I shouldn’t have cared why he did the things he did, why he acted the way he did. I’d meant it when I called him a jerk earlier. That’s exactly what he was—and a lying jerk, at that.

So why was I still thinking about him?

“Alex?” Vanessa’s voice made me jump.

“Huh?”

“I asked if you’d like a blanket and pil ow? It’s getting late, and as long as nothing’s happening you might as well rest.”

“Um… sure,” I said.

Vanessa’s face was more somber than I’d ever seen it as she leapt to her feet and hurried toward the door.

“What if something happens during the night?” I asked nervously as Vanessa disappeared into the hallway.

“We aren’t going to leave you, Alex,” Will said, giving me a reassuring smile.

“Aren’t you guys tired, though?” I asked, feeling a yawn coming over myself.

coming over myself.

Eli gave a small chuckle. “We can go days without sleeping, if need be. We will be fine,” he said.

I was thinking about how awesome it would be to not have to sleep for a week, and was about to ask Eli if werewolves were just as tireless when Vanessa came back. She had a pillow tucked under one arm and a blanket draped over the other.

“Here you go, Alex,” she said, attempting a smile. A worried frown took its place pretty quickly. Will ’s comforting smile had faded, too, and Eli was massaging his temple between his fingers, his frustration from earlier obviously enduring.

And so for what seemed like the hundredth time that week, I didn’t know what was going on. Obviously, the fact that I wasn’t transforming despite the full moon was a problem—but I had no idea why, or what it might possibly mean. I wanted to ask, but the frustration on Eli’s face and the anxiety on the other’s told me they probably didn’t have any answers to give me. Not tonight, anyway. So I left my chair, took the pillow and blanket Vanessa had given me and stretched out on the couch closest to the fireplace instead.