Shattered (34 page)

"Why are
you telling me this?"

"Two
reasons. I think your heart is in the right place and I'd like you to
have all of the tools you can in your fight to help people. That's
the first reason."

"What's
the second?"

"My
parents and sister are missing and you're the only person I know who
has a prayer of finding them now. I want you to use your ability and
tell me where they are being held."

"If you're
really right about what I can do then why should I tell you? The
better option would be for me to just tell the local police
department and have them send in the SWAT team."

I shook my head
at her. "That would be a very big mistake. The people who
kidnapped my family aren't regular criminals. They are from my world,
the new one that consists of people like Isaac who are too dangerous
for normal police to deal with. I'd beg you to believe me, but I
don't think that's necessary. I think your ability is screaming at
you that every word I'm telling you is true."

"What
exactly would the police be dealing with?"

"Vampires,
and not the sexy Brad Pitt kind. They would be going up against
people, against creatures really, that are faster and stronger than
any human could hope to be. That would be bad enough, but they are
also harder to kill and they have abilities of their own. Your SWAT
team could enter the building and all of a sudden find themselves
surrounded by fire. Pyromancy, telekinesis, the ability to read
people's minds and possibly even force them to do something against
their will, none of the abilities that vampires display are the kinds
of things you can use for good."

"You make
a compelling argument."

"I hope
so. Vampires are nothing more than vicious, murderous parasites, and
my family is being held by a group of them that are threatening to
cut pieces of them off and send them to me. I need to know where they
are so that we can hit their base before they are expecting it. It's
the only chance my family has."

"Okay,
Paige. You've convinced me. I could tell that your parents and sister
were lying to me all along, but I didn't push them like I would have
otherwise because I knew they were all decent people. They don't
deserve what you're describing. Get me a map of the area where you
think they are and I'll do my best to locate them for you. In return,
as soon as I'm done I want to walk out of here a free woman and never
hear from any of you again. I'll make your file disappear so you
won't have to worry about someone else hunting for you."

"You won't
come after our people once you're free?"

"Not
unless they do something else illegal."

Isaac cleared
his throat and she shot him an incredulous look. "You don't
really expect me to give you carte blanche to break any and all laws
right here in my city."

"Not any
and all, but we're about to break into a building that is no doubt
private property and murder a bunch of vampires. They have it coming
to them, but I'd rather not start out our relationship by violating
the terms that both parties agree to at the outset."

"We don't
have a relationship, Isaac. You guys kidnapped me so you could make
me an accessory to murder. I believe the little blonde princess's
story, but that doesn't mean that I'm going to be sending you all
Christmas cards."

Based on the
way that the phone moved, Isaac had just puffed up like he was going
to bite her head off, but I managed to get my response out first.

"Isaac's
right. Look, we aren't going to run around indiscriminately
slaughtering people. What we do will be justice, just a kind of
justice in an arena that the courts aren't prepared to enter."

"So fine,
I can't stop you. Do whatever you want, but if you want me to tell
you where your family is then you're going to need to promise to let
me go as soon as I'm done."

"That's
the thing, you might not be able to stop us, but you could make our
lives very difficult. I want your agreement not to come after us for
that reason, but I also think that you might need our help at some
point in the future. If you are really going to use your talent to
find people who would otherwise be unfindable, then sooner or later
you're going to go after someone taken by people from our world. If
that happens you could do worse than to have someone like us to
call."

"You would
do that?"

I nodded. "I
can't speak for everyone, obviously, and even I have commitments that
I can't always just abandon at the drop of a hat, but there isn't
much benefit to having an ability if I can't use it to help make the
world a better place."

I could see
Heath nodding from where he was standing behind Detective Belarose.
"I'd come help too."

One by one all
of the rest of the shape shifters piped in with their willingness to
help if she ended up trying to rescue someone from the clutches of
vampires or worse.

"You all
look like tough guys, but it turns out that you're all just a bunch
of sentimental idiots like me. Fine, you've got my promise. Break
whatever laws you need to break and I won't come after you as long as
it's just the bad guys who get hurt, but so help me if I find out
that you're taking down civilians in the process. I will end you all
and you'll never even see it coming."

I completely
believed her threat, but I smiled anyway. Sometimes having an
avenging angel poised above you was exactly the thing you needed to
help you choose to do the right thing. We could have done a lot worse
than her as far as avenging angels went.

"All
right, unless one of you human lie detectors thinks that she just
lied to us, please untie her and get her a map, preferably several
maps. Our backup plan just came together. One way or another we're
going to take these monsters down."

Adriana Paige
Sleep Tight Hotel
Albert Lea, Minnesota

I still hadn't told Taggart about the pills by the time that we stopped for the
night. I kept telling myself that it didn't matter, that I was going
to go through with my plan regardless of whether he was still willing
to help me, but I knew that was a lie.

It did matter
because it wasn't fair to spring this on him at the last minute and I
knew it, but I just hadn't been able to get the words out. As Taggart
checked us into the hotel, I fingered the package of sleeping pills
that I'd slipped into my pocket before we'd left the bunker.

I managed a
smile as he came back with the keycards to our room, but I didn't say
anything then either. I kept my mouth closed and just kept running my
fingers back and forth over the package of pills that was either the
key to saving my family or the crutch that was going to deny me
everything I'd ever wanted.

We rolled our
suitcases to our room and then Taggart sat down on his bed and
pointed at the tiny bathroom. "I'm not going to be able to fall
asleep for another hour or two, but given how late you've been
sleeping in I thought maybe it was best to give you some time to
unwind. You didn't get a chance to shower this morning but if you
just want to watch television instead that is fine too. I'll try not
to complain too much about your program selection."

It was the
perfect opportunity. He'd already brought up the fact that I'd been
off my normal sleep schedule, but I was too much of a chicken to take
it. Instead I just nodded wordlessly, grabbed my suitcase, and
retreated into the bathroom.

I was basically
operating on autopilot as I stripped down and climbed into the
shower. I needed to tell Taggart what had happened. It was the right
thing to do, which should have been a good enough reason all by
itself, but if I needed another reason on top of that, then I should
do it because I'd promised Alec that I would.

Every single
bit of the universe seemed to be screaming at me to just come clean
with Taggart, but even despite all of that I was hesitating. I wanted
to call Alec. I was past due to be checking in with him as it was,
but I knew if I called him that he'd want to know how things had gone
when I told Taggart about the pills.

I couldn't talk
to Alec about Taggart because Taggart would overhear our
conversation. Besides, it felt wrong to call Alec back up and expect
him to re-convince me to do something that I'd already agreed to do.
There wasn't any way around it. I needed to make this decision on my
own.

It should have
been an easy decision. I knew that no matter how badly I'd screwed up
Taggart wasn't going to let my family die just to teach me a lesson,
which meant that if I didn't tell him now, I was risking my
relationship with him as well as my relationship with Alec. Against
that were some pills that might or might not make me stronger inside
of the dream for the relatively short amount of time that Taggart and
I would need to kill the vampire in charge of the group that had
stolen my family from me.

It wasn't until
the last of the conditioner had been rinsed out of my hair and I went
to turn off the water that I finally let myself see what the real
issue was. I didn't want to lose my power. I hadn't had it for very
long, but in that short time it had somehow become an integral part
of how I saw myself.

Ever since I'd
first started dream walking, my ability had brought me problems. It
had thrust me into a world that I was still supremely unprepared to
navigate, but it hadn't
just
brought me problems.

My gift had
brought incredible things into my life. If it wasn't for my gift I
never would have met Taggart or Alec either one. Even more than that,
I liked who I was right now. I wasn't just another helpless human. I
was part of something bigger. I was part of the team that had come
within inches of saving Agony.

I had the
respect of people like Isaac, Heath and Dominic. Taggart and Alec
both thought I was important. They both needed me right now, but
there was a nagging voice in the back of my mind that kept telling me
that none of that would still be true if my ability was suddenly out
of the picture. It was the same voice that was worried that I'd
irrevocably damaged my gift when I'd taken that first dose and a half
two nights previously.

I'd still been
able to dream walk last night, so I knew that as long as I was still
taking the pills my gift worked, but if I told Taggart that I needed
the pills in order to still function as a member of the team he would
stop me from taking any more of them. Cost-benefit wouldn't even
enter into it for him. He would just say that he didn't want to risk
me, that my life lost to some future overdose wasn't worth the
continued use of my power, and I'd lose my access to the pills.

He wouldn't
physically stop me from taking any more of them, but once he knew the
score I wouldn't be able to continue to deceive him. That meant that
it would quickly boil down to a choice between the pills and Taggart,
between the ability that made me strong and Taggart, between the one
thing that made me matter and one of the few people I wanted to
matter to.

I stepped out
of the shower and got my first good look at myself of the day. When
I'd changed earlier I'd been too angry, too focused on getting
dressed, to notice the amount of body fat I did or didn't have on my
body.

I stood there,
still dripping wet from my shower, and almost couldn't believe my
eyes. I was still skinny, but somehow I'd put on five or six pounds
over the last twenty-four hours. I now looked like I'd looked when
I'd been on the cheer squad rather than like a famine victim.

It was
wonderful. It meant that I once again had the energy reserves I
needed for an extended block of time dream walking. It was also scary
because it didn't make the least bit of sense. I couldn't even begin
to explain it.

The first dose
of whatever was in the sleeping pills had burned away more weight in
one night than I usually used up in three nights. For the second dose
to have had the opposite effect defied reason. No, the more logical
explanation was that the pills had somehow damaged my ability and
that was the reason that I had suddenly started putting weight back
on.

The idea of
losing my gift made me start shaking so badly that I almost couldn't
towel off and put on my clothes, but somehow I managed. Once I was
dressed, I carried my things out of the bathroom and dropped
everything but my jeans on my bed.

Taking a deep
breath, I fished the pills out of my pants pocket and tossed them in
the navy bedspread next to Taggart. "I took those both of the
last two nights. I know it was stupid, but I've been sleeping in so
late that I felt like I had to have them if I was going to go to
sleep so that I could dream walk to see my family."

Taggart looked
slightly confused. "They look like regular over-the-counter
sleeping pills. Is that not the case? Did you replace the pills in
the box with something else?"

"No, it's
sleeping pills, but I took a really big dose two nights ago and it
did something to me."

Now he looked
concerned. Not angry yet, but I knew that was coming.

"What do
you mean?"

"When I
went to see my dad everything was different, Taggart. I was stronger
inside the dream than I ever remember being before. Even though I was
inside of his dream I could still manifest things as easily as I can
inside of my own dream, maybe even easier."

"You mean
it amplified your ability?"

"Yeah, it
amplified it a lot."

"Oh, Adri.
These types of things are never a good idea. Bodies, human and hybrid
both, are meant to achieve a kind of equilibrium level. Disturbing
that balance always has consequences and they usually end up being
unpleasant if you push things far enough."