Torn (15 page)

"Dog, get a load
of the looker."

"Oh, baby, it
almost hurts. I need to tap me some of that."

Their whispers carried
back to me, but I could only hope they were too faint for Adri to
hear. As the production started, the entire audience quieted down
and I temporarily lost myself in the experience.

The lead actor had a
force of personality that validated his selection for the part. He
wasn't quite Broadway material, but it was quickly apparent that the
cast was going to give us a quality performance.

The music helped lull
my beast back into a state of near dormancy and even went a little
ways towards improving my mood until it came time for Fantine's
descent into prostitution.

The idiots sitting in
front of me fixed not on the tragedy her life had become, but on the
baser nature of the events, and quickly were whispering the kinds of
things that weren't brought up in polite society.

The patrons in the
immediate area were starting to evidence signs of discontent, but
predictably that just egged them on to greater efforts and additional
volume. Adri turned around and shot them both a dirty look, but that
just served to give them a new target.

"Oh sweetie,
don't you worry, we've been aching to get our hands on you all night.
We're saving plenty of loving for you later. Meet us out back after
this crap is over and we'll give you a real show."

My control snapped as
I saw her blush in embarrassment. The integral instincts, the ones
that I'd fought to keep suppressed all night roared to the forefront
and I reached down and placed a hand on each of their shoulders.

My grip wasn't as hard
as I could have made it, but it was still forceful enough to cause
them pain. They both tried to turn around to confront me, but I
increased the pressure and yanked them back into their chairs as
another snap of power filled the area around me.

The hiss of pain I
drew out of the one on the right was fortunately drowned out by a
sudden crescendo in the music, and then I was leaning forward and
speaking deliberately into their ears.

"You're both not
worth the effort it would take to kill you. You can either shut up
and stay, or you can leave, but either way you will show respect to
everyone here or I will hunt you down and rip your arms out of your
shoulders."

As threats went it
didn't feel especially impressive, but it was backed up by the
steadily increasing pressure from my hands, and enough metaphysical
juice to make them nearly wet themselves. I released them and then
leaned back to see what they would do next.

I half expected them
to turn and confront me, but they were so unnerved that they remained
shaking in their seats for several seconds. The arrival of an usher
shook them out of their shock and they turned back as though
intending to demand my ejection from the theater.

I allowed the waves of
power hammering at them to peak again. A few seconds later they got
up and left, leaving behind a noticeably relieved audience.

The rest of the play
was well performed. In another time and place I would have enjoyed
it immensely, but my thoughts returned again and again to the simple
fact that I'd misjudged Adri. Only now, when it was too late to do
anything about it, did I realize just how badly I wanted her to think
more of me than she did.

The sense of
desolation quickly grew, and when the curtain finally closed on the
performers for the last time I exited the theater with such speed
that I got questioning looks from both of the ushers I slipped by.

It wasn't until I
handed my token to the valet that I realized just how tired I was.
It'd been so long since I'd spent time among humans on the night of a
full moon that I'd forgotten how exhausting it was to try and keep up
the facade of humanity.

I climbed into my car
as soon as it was brought around and let my control slip somewhat as
I dropped it into gear and pulled out in to traffic. It was an
incredible relief to let the power run off me in sheets, but I had
nearly two hours of driving still ahead of me, and as the night
progressed I found that even the effort of just retaining my form was
becoming increasingly draining.

When I finally pulled
up to the estate I didn't even bother pulling my clothes off. I
simply staggered out of my car and let the change rip through me. I
drunkenly speared the scraps of clothing with my claws, and then
stumbled back to the grotto and curled up on the hard rock
surrounding the pool.

Mere seconds later I
was asleep and dreaming. It'd been a very long time since I'd shared
a dream with Adri but it no longer bothered me when I saw her running
through the underbrush ahead of me. I wasn't positive it was the
real Adri, but I knew she wasn't a shape shifter.

Lost in the perfect
joy of running and being with someone I couldn't be with in real
life, I bounded along behind her. I maintained enough distance that
she wouldn't realize she was being followed, but stayed close enough
to watch the lithe perfection of her form as she skipped from rock to
rock across the stream or jumped a large ravine that would be
impassable to any mere human.

I wanted to stay
there, to follow her forever, but reality called me back all too
soon, and I awoke to Rachel shaking me.

"Alec, you need
to get up. Jasmin and the others are back and they're not very
happy."

I thought about
shrinking back down to my normal shape, but decided against it. If
they were truly unhappy then I'd be better off remaining as a hybrid.

"How was the
opera?"

"It was good.
Exhausting, but good. She's not a moon born."

Rachel's smile was
sincere without being smug. "I knew that, Alec, but I'm glad
you're convinced finally."

Jasmin and the others
came around a corner as we finished speaking, and they were all in
their human forms so I allowed mine to shrink down as well.

"So was your
little field trip worth all of the bleeding we went through?"

I didn't like her
tone, especially not on the night of a full moon when my beast was so
close to the surface, but I forced the anger away.

"She's
definitely not a shape shifter. What happened tonight?"

Isaac came to the fore
and I realized that his arm was heavily bandaged. Jasmin didn't give
me much of a chance to process the information. "Oh nothing
much, we just ran your patrol and then got jumped by nearly the
entire pack while still in neutral territory."

I rechecked to make
sure everyone was standing there, and felt a wave of relief as I
verified that nobody had been killed, or even wounded so badly as to
be confined to bed.

"Not Brandon
though?"

Now Isaac spoke up, as
befitted his right as second of the pack. "No, but Vincent and
the others pressed us pretty hard. This time they had the initiative
and we were heavily outnumbered. Vincent used one of the submissives
as a distraction and then nearly chewed my arm off before we managed
to beat a fighting retreat."

If Vincent had managed
to get fangs into Isaac's arm then the odds were very good that Isaac
had some fairly deep gashes to his chest and back. I'd have to be
mindful of that and ensure that James didn't challenge until Isaac
was fully healed.

I bowed my head
slightly in respect for what the pack had accomplished without me,
and then clasp Isaac on the uninjured shoulder. "I appreciate
what you all did, and I'm sorry for the injuries you sustained. Now
that we know for sure Adriana isn't from the Coun'hij we can begin
laying long-term plans again."

Jess crowded next to
her boyfriend, shooting me a dark look as she led Isaac away, but she
didn't voice whatever she was thinking, and they all split up to go
to their rooms. A human would have assumed that was it, but I knew
we'd just experienced a shifting point. I'd burned up some of the
goodwill I'd garnered with them over the years, and there wasn't
anything I could do in the short term to affect that.

Rachel hugged me again
and headed into the house. I knew I had things inside that needed
done, but my nap had refreshed me more than I would have expected and
I found myself wanting to stretch out my legs and run.

I dropped down onto my
hands and knees and shifted over to my wolf form, taking off through
the darkness with all of the speed inherent to my kind. I thought I
was running just to run, that there was no purpose to my direction,
but all too soon I found myself close to the tree where I'd told Adri
I would check for notes if her situation worsened again.

I approached it
cautiously, but there were still no scent traces to indicate that
Brandon's pack had come through the area. There wasn't anything to
indicate Adri had been here either.

It was a foolish,
pointless thing to do, but I found myself jumping up to the burnt out
crook of the tree to verify that there really wasn't a note from her.
I'd spent most of the night with her and yet still more time while
I'd been asleep, but I found myself wanting more, like an addict
who'd just come down off of a high and needed another dose to avoid
facing the world once more.

I loped slowly in the
direction of her house, unsure what I'd do once I finally arrived. I
slithered between trees as I got closer, careful to stay out of sight
of the pool of light from the pole-mounted light off to the side of
the house. The lights were all off inside, but I could smell the hot
metal of their Jeep's engine even from here, so I knew that Adri had
safely arrived.

It almost seemed like
I could feel her presence calling out to me. I somehow knew exactly
which window was hers and without really thinking about what I was
doing I allowed my forms to shift once again and resumed my hybrid
form. I crept close enough to the house to hear both heartbeats.
The constant, slow beating of sleep assured me enough to climb the
thirty-foot pole and carefully unscrew the large light bulb just
enough for it to go dark. I looked down at the house and realized I
could see into Adri's room less than ten feet away.

I meant to leave, I
told my body to lower itself to the ground, but something about the
view had sent my heart racing. The view was familiar somehow, but I
needed to be closer.

It was a pretty good
reach, even for a six and a half foot hybrid, but I sunk the talons
on my feet into the pole and carefully reached out with first one hand
and then the other, fastening my claws into the wooden overhang of
her roof.

I spread my weight as
broadly as possible and then let go of the pole and swung across the
empty space. I sunk my newly-freed talons into another section of
the roof and finally looked down through the window.

I almost lost my grip
and plummeted to the ground as I realized what I was seeing. Adri
was peacefully asleep on her bed, covered in a thin tank top and a
well-worn pair of shorts. The full moon made it easy to make out the
graceful curve of her arm and the slow rise of her chest.

She glowed with the
light of life, the only living thing in the dark room, and I knew
that somehow this was what I'd been trying to draw. The window
frame, the vague details I'd filled into the corners of the room,
they were all the same. The only thing lacking was the beautiful
figure that, despite my best efforts, seemed to be more and more
central to my life.

I stayed too long. I
lost track of time, as I watched her breathing and listened to the
sweet gurgle of her heartbeat. By the time I came back to myself
even my tremendous strength was starting to flag as my arms began to
shake. Suddenly I wanted nothing so much as to be home, to be in my
studio painting the unearthly beauty before me. I took one last long
look at Adri and then quietly dropped the twenty feet to the ground
and headed for home.

I was a man possessed.
My sense of duty and Donovan's respectful nagging served to tear me
away from my painting long enough to accomplish most of the tasks
waiting on me. We caught up on a number of different items
pertaining to the family holdings, I spent some time with each member
of the pack, ground through all the homework that had to be finished
up, and then retreated back into my studio and locked the door.

I mixed paints until I
had a range of silvers and whites that seemed like they might do Adri
justice, and then became frustrated when I failed to get the curve of
her side or the angle of her head right. Normally I had a visually
photographic memory, but as my lack of success continued I began to
wonder if it'd failed me or if my talent just wasn't equal to the
task.

It was a quiet night
with no sign of Brandon's pack. I released everyone to range about
our territory as they willed, and then snuck off towards Adri's
house. It was a stupid thing to do. She was an incredible distance
outside of our territory, but it was almost like I wasn't in control
of myself anymore.

The light hadn't been
fixed, so I shifted to my hybrid form and quietly scaled the pole. A
few seconds later I was once again able to see the source of my
inspiration. I'd only had a few moments to drink in her beauty
before a stray breeze brought me the smell of Vincent and Simon
rapidly approaching from the direction of town.

The dreamy,
unpractical side that'd led me out into the trap was instantly
displaced as I realized there was a reasonable chance I was going to
die out here. I dropped to the ground and shifted back to wolf form
on the fly.

It didn't matter
whether they'd come by last night and smelled me, or if they'd just
chanced upon me tonight. My only concern now had to be getting back
to our territory before they caught me.