Torn (27 page)

Brandon abruptly
closed the distance between us and growled at me. "Too bad
your pack has such an idiot for a leader. You're going to die, and
then they'll finally be exposed and helpless. It may take a few
months, but eventually they'll fall and then I'll absorb whoever I
don't kill. All for a skirt."

His barb, intended
more for the rest of the pack than it was for me, safely delivered,
Brandon backed away, turned and left.

After the face off
with Brandon we'd all gone back to the cafeteria. Nobody was really
in the mood to eat, but we'd all learned a while ago not to skip
meals. Whatever supernatural forces stoked our abilities and
strength, there was still a hefty need for food to help fuel the
fires.

I could see the fear
and worry on everyone's face, but now wasn't the time to tell them
about the backup plan.

I gave Adri's hand a
squeeze and then turned her over to Isaac. She was off to History,
while I had to go sit through English. I caused quite a stir when I
walked into class and handed Mr. Whethers my note. He'd apparently
seen more than one of them over the course of the day. He didn't bother
reading it but shot me an unhappy look as he sent me to the back of
the class.

A couple of the other
students looked like they wanted to ask me questions, but I was saved
having to ignore them by Mr. Whethers, who kept a much tighter rein
on the class than normal. I endured the time, barely able to focus
on what was being said, and then fled back to the lockers and met up
with Adri.

Isaac gave me a
respectful nod and then disappeared off to his next class. Adri on
the other hand had a considering look about her as I led her towards
Physics. I could smell a new person as we got down to the end of the
hall.

It took only the
briefest look inside the room to verify that we did indeed have a
substitute. Under other circumstances I probably wouldn't have
skipped, but that considering look combined with my own restlessness
to convince me otherwise.

I convinced Adri I'd
be able to persuade the secretaries to make our absences go away, and
then we headed out to a cluster of trees roughly fifty feet from the
school.

Once we'd sat down
with our backs to a tree Adri looked up at me with a grin.

"So is this
nearly-complete disregard for consequences typical?"

I stared at her for
several seconds, attempting to divine just how much of her gaiety was
assumed. She looked away from me and tried to let go of my hand, but
I maintained my grasp on it, stopping her from moving further away.

"Please don't.
I didn't mean to make you nervous. It's just that you continue to
surprise me."

"It's more than
a little creepy how you all can do that. Are all shape shifters born
with the ability to read people's minds?"

I found myself smiling
at her.

"Minds no,
scents yes. The human body is quite marvelous in how many different
systems it recruits to match its mood."

She was thoughtful for
a moment and I wondered if she was going to drop whatever bomb she
was holding in reserve. I finally broke the silence.

"Actually, none
of us are born with any unusual abilities. All of the changes tend
to show up more or less around puberty. And no, disregard for the
consequences of my actions isn't typical. In fact I've spent nearly
a decade weighing almost every word."

"So dashing off
to rescue an admittedly stupid teenage girl and landing yourself in a
fight to the death that you probably can't win isn't how you normally
run your life. Why did you do it then?"

I felt my beast try to
surge to the top of my consciousness, but I clamped down on it.
Isaac hadn't quite been violating orders as long as he hadn't told
her anything the Coun'hij could come after her for.

"Apparently
Isaac's decided there are a few things you should know. Don't try
and tell me it wasn't him, you didn't know that particular piece of
information an hour ago, and nobody else has had the opportunity to
tell secrets."

She tensed up with
worry but I waved her concerns away.

"In answer to
the core of your question, Jasmin thinks it's because I've finally
gone over the edge, that in essence I've snapped due to the stress,
and this, 'obsession', as she terms it, is merely a novel way of
committing suicide."

She gasped ever so
slightly at the word suicide, but I didn't give her a chance to
interrupt.

"The other
school of thought is that I'm more of a healer than anyone realized,
and that I couldn't resist your obvious need."

I'd obviously lost
her. It was nice that Isaac hadn't entirely spilled his guts.

"Wait, what do
you mean?"

I felt myself settle
down a little as it became evident she didn't know too much yet. She
gave me an expectant look and I realized I hadn't answered her
questions.

"You glow. All
of the time. Until now we always thought someone had to be a shape
shifter to do that."

"But I'm just a
normal person. Why would I appear different than anyone else?"

"With shape
shifters, we believe it's because the animating energy, the soul if
you will, burns more brightly than normal. I think it's tied in with
what allows us to shift forms. With you, there isn't any obvious
reason, but I think that Dominic has probably hit upon the root of
the matter."

I'd entered lecture
mode without really pausing to think about how the information was
going to strike her. As that understanding finally made its way
through my unusually slow brain, I paused and cast about for a
different way to say it all. A subtle tightening of her eyes warned
me that her lie detector was starting to go off, so I finally just
answered her.

"You know that
our legends indicate a belief we were created in order to watch over
and protect humans? Well, Dominic believes that your light
represents a defense mechanism. We don't know of any accounts where
humans have burned so brightly, but it's possible the primitive parts
of you, the ones that remember what it was like to be watched over
by our kind, hit upon a way to call for help from us, while not
admitting a problem to your own kind."

She seemed to
contemplate the implications of what I'd just told her and then
nodded slowly.

"So you're
saying that I was, am, so broken I glow so your people would be able
to pull me aside and fix me."

Her smile was a little
tremulous, but it was enough still to loosen the sudden knot in my
chest.

"I guess that
makes sense. Nobody likes to be told there's something wrong with
them, but I can't exactly say everything is just Jim Dandy. Not when
I still collapse at the mere mention of what I've lost."

I hadn't meant to
bring the conversation around to her father and sister, but there it
was. I'd avoided prodding the open wound but that hadn't stopped
Donovan or I from continuing to try and dig up information about what
had happened. We'd found nothing, which was incredibly maddening but
I'd forbidden anyone from asking her about it. She could volunteer
whatever she wished, but I wouldn't contribute to her pain.

I waited expectantly
and she finally offered another brave smile.

"So you're just
one of those guys that can't resist trying to help the broken girls
huh?"

"No. That's
Dominic's theory, I didn't say it was mine. I did what I did because
when I close my eyes I still see you there."

Her pulse and
breathing sped up, but I took it as a good sign. It was an unfair
advantage to be able to know her mood, but it gave me the courage to
continue.

"I don't know
why, not really. Your incredible, unearthly beauty helps, as does
your stubborn determination to continue soldiering on, despite how
badly you've been hurt. That doesn't explain it all though. Neither
does the fact that you stepped in and saved Rachel from a beating I
couldn't stop."

I'd faced death at
Brandon's hands multiple times and was going to die in just a week's
time, but I was too scared to do what I really wanted to do. Instead
of leaning in, I remained where I was and just brushed a stray strand
of hair behind her ear.

"Whatever the
reason, since your arrival here, I just feel like parts of me that
were missing have come back home. Even when I thought you were some
kind of...rogue...shape shifter come to destroy my pack, I was still
drawn to you."

The glimmer of tears
should have warned me she wasn't quite on the same page as me. If
I'd been thinking rationally I wouldn't have assumed the emotions she
was feeling were necessarily positive. I shouldn't have been so
quick to assume that all of her revelations had been made. She
looked up with the emotionless mask that had been gone for the last
few days and shattered me.

"Alec, what if I
were to go back to Brandon? Would that stop everything from going
wrong? I mean, then you wouldn't have been poaching his property or
whatever you call it."

It was so unexpected.
I nearly lost control of my beast. There was a reason Rachel, for
all that she loved and trusted me, was careful with what she said
around me.

In some ways I wasn't
really just one person, and the primitive, powerful side of me wasn't
governed by the modern, cosmopolitan rules that the rest of the world
functioned on. Concepts like right and wrong, property and ownership
were recognized beyond almost anything else.

It was that simple
fact that gave Brandon the right to demand my death, but in that
moment I knew he'd never really cared about Adri. If he had, there
wouldn't have been any formal challenge, he would have just come
directly to the estate and killed me.

The sound of a
breaking branch brought me back to myself before I completely gave
way to my other side. I'd snapped the tree branch I'd been holding
onto in half. Adri's eyes were wide with fear, but it was obvious
she didn't really understand the strength required to do what I'd
just done from a sitting position. All the leverage had been against
me. If she'd really understood how close I'd just come, she'd be
running away in terror.

It was only the spark
of confusion in her expression that allowed me to continue. The
confusion and the fact that in some ways she'd tamed me. I couldn't
give myself over when there was still even the slightest chance she
wasn't rejecting me.

"You're saying
that because you're worried for me? Not because you really want to
go back to him?"

She shook her head
slowly and I shoved my beast back down to my center with relief.

"No, I want to
stay, but how can I knowing it will mean you're going to be fighting
to the death?"

I realized I was still
holding the branch and tossed it away with a sigh.

"I've spent
years learning control, but sometimes I still forget just how
breakable everything around me is. If you go back to Brandon, you
support his claim that you belong to him, and I'd still be forced to
challenge him. If I didn't, he would be justified in killing
whichever two of my friends he wants."

"So there's no
way you can avoid fighting him?"

"No, but it's
not too late to save you. I can have you on a flight to Paris
tonight. It's the only way to guarantee your safety."

She shook her head
with such resolve that I realized for the first time I was going to
have to overcome more than just my own reluctance to send her away.
Looking at her most people would never imagine the steel at her core,
but it only made sense. Whatever she'd been through had nearly
destroyed her. All loss wasn't equal and for whatever reason it'd
represented nearly her entire world, but she hadn't given up, hadn't
curled up and died.

And now she was
showing that steel again.

"I'm not
leaving. I believe you when you say my going back to Brandon won't
solve anything, but I'm not going to run away and leave you all to
deal with the mess I created. I wish you'd stop asking me to."

I nodded, wishing
there were a way to convince her to flee to safety at the same time I
was internally sighing in relief that she wanted to be here.

"You have as
much right to see this through as anyone else does, but it's almost
certainly going to get a lot uglier before it's over. Your freedom
is going to be incredibly restricted, at least as bad as it was
today. We'll escort you to school, stay just long enough to ensure
we don't get in trouble, and then hurry back to our territory. At
least if Brandon's pack does come after us there, we're within our
rights to do something about it."

Somehow we'd all made
it through the last hour of school despite an increasing pattern of
provocations from Brandon's people. In addition to failing Biology,
Adri was also failing Spanish. I'd heard enough bad things about
Mrs. Tiggs that I pulled Dom aside as soon as she and Adri met back
up with the rest of the pack.

"Alec, that
woman is terrible. She seems to have something against poor
Adriana."

I nodded as I passed
her the graded tests Donovan had procured for me. Fax machines were
an incredible thing. One of them was Adri's, the other two belonged
to people who were doing very well in the class.

"Can you look
these over quickly and let me know if you see any discrepancies?"

I'd spent most of
Pre-Calc going through the biology tests that'd been scanned into the
school system, so I already knew the kind of stuff she was going to
probably find."

"Alec, this is
not fair. She's marked Adri off for many things that she didn't dock
these two for. See, the tilde here and the accent mark there. Not
only that, Adri's is a more technically correct answer on the essay
question."