True Connection (The Soul Mate Series) (11 page)

             
“No, they can stay. I’m just not ready to see the wolf part,” I explain, and he nods in understanding.

             
“Do you want to stay in here until your uncle comes?” he asks quietly, as he rubs circles into my back.

             
“I don’t know. I need more answers, but I’m afraid of what I might hear. Does that make sense?” I half smile.

             
He grins. “I won’t let anything happen to you, I promise.” He seals his promise with a kiss to the top of my head.

             
“I know, but I’m still scared,” I shiver.

I know deep down Seth is right, but this is weird.

Someone knocks on the door, and Seth leaves me to answer. When he pulls open the door, I see Flynn’s bulking figure in the doorway. I instantly picture him as one of the wolves from my dream, a larger than life wolf, dagger-looking teeth, and talons for claws. I shiver and shake the image away.

             
“I don’t think this is a good time Flynn, she’s kind of…”

             
“Seth, I’m fine,” I say, sitting a little straighter.

             
“Can I have a few minutes with her, alone?” Flynn asks.

Seth’s anger skyrockets. I try my best to let him know that I’m okay and he needs to calm down, without speaking.

              “I’ll be fine, you’ll know if something isn’t right,” I say. He nods, tight lipped and glares at Flynn before leaving the room.

I scooch to the foot of the bed and hug my knees, while I wait for Flynn to begin.

“I’m sorry, Jazzy. I didn’t want you to find out, especially not like this. None of us wanted this,” he says nervously.

             
I nod. “Does Henry know?”

             
“Not yet, but Barry is planning on telling him soon, because of this soul-eating prick,” he responds.

             
“I hope he takes it better than I did,” I mumble.

             
“You would’ve taken it better with some warning. From what I understand, no one really answered your questions until you got here, and, well, I don’t blame them. I can’t say I would’ve done anything differently. I
am
sorry. We didn’t mean to overload you.”

             
“No worries, it was probably coming anyway, or another breakdown,” I shrug. “I should be used to crap happening by now. My life was never really normal, and it’s gone off the deep end since March.” I’m trying to play it off like it doesn’t matter, but I’m sure he can see through me.

             
“I should warn you about a certain part of our protection plan,” he says and fiddles with the carpet. “Barry is going to ask your uncle if he can stay with you until the end of the year. The story is his parents are moving out of state, and he graduates in a few weeks, so he wants to stay until he graduates. The truth is his dad, our Alpha, will never leave our territory, and neither will he.”

             
“Why can’t you stay instead?” I groan. “Barry is so…Barry.”

             
He laughs. “He’s not all bad. Besides, he’s stronger than us, he’s the Alpha’s son, and Alpha ordered it. We don’t argue with the Alpha,” he pauses and taps his finger on his shoe, while giving me a once over. “You’ll be in good hands with him there, and with Jaynie, and I’m sure Seth will be around you more now.”

             
I purse my lips. “I guess I have to be okay with this arrangement then, huh?”

             
“At least it’s not permanent,” his face becomes a mask of seriousness and concern. “The guys and I are rearranging our schedule, so we have classes near you now. You’ll have one of us within yelling distance at all times. You’ll never walk to class without one of us, except when you have Seth.”

             
That’s wonderful. I roll my eyes. “Oh, well that’s going to be cozy, more time with you guys. I appreciate having you guys as protectors, but you guys can go a little, wait that’s a lie, a
lot
overboard.”

             
“Your being safe is worth more than rearranging a schedule,” he counters. “Who wouldn’t want a sweet girl like you to be safe?”

             
I let out a hollow laugh. “Who wouldn’t want me safe?” I repeat. “Uh, the jerk that’s stalking me?”

             
“We’ll get that demon,” he says icily.

             
It chills me and reminds me that he’s not just a human, like I once thought. “I have a question,” I say quietly.

             
“Fire away.”

             
“Will I have to see you guys in your other forms?” I cringe.

             
He appraises me again before answering. “You’re not ready for it yet. I’d probably send you into a coma if I shifted now. We aren’t that bad, I promise,” he laughs. “Just think of us as overgrown guard dogs.”

I nod. I don’t find any of this funny at all, in fact I’m feeling extremely overwhelmed. Tears prick my eyes, but I blink them away.

Knuckles tap on the door before Seth pokes his head in.

             
“Jaz, your uncle will be here soon,” he says calmly. I can feel his inner turmoil, so I know he’s trying to curb himself.

             
I nod and slowly stand so I don’t trigger any lingering dizziness. I step out the door and am met with a smirking Barry.

He gives me the once over and snorts. “Dang Jaz, it won’t be that bad living with me.”

              I roll my eyes and sidestep around him.

             
He continues talking, obviously ignoring my reaction. “It’s for the protection of you and your family, Princess. I think we’re gonna have fun,” he bumps my shoulder, knocking me off kilter and stumbling into Seth. “Come on, I promise not to show you my kills,” he laughs.

             
I choke a little.

             
“Dude! She’s freaked, don’t be an ass!” Flynn pounds him.

             
He deserves it for that comment.

***

              Once we get home, I take a long hot shower to try to wash away some of the craziness from the evening.

             
I wrap my towel around my head after I toss my pajamas on, and grab my ear buds and iPod, before sitting at my desk. I fish out my sketchpad and a pencil, and stare at them. Breathing deeply, I focus on the song to get a mental image of what I feel I should draw.

I envision a soldier sitting in the sand, holding a picture of his family, so I begin sketching.

Not much time passes before I’m startled by someone tapping on my shoulder.

             
I whip around and see Henry smirking. “Damn it! Don’t do that!” I pat my chest and yank out my ear buds.

             
“Sorry, for a minute there I thought you were sleeping. Whatcha working on?” he asks.

             
“I knew I wasn’t going to fall asleep yet, so I figured I’d just draw something. When it’s done, it’ll be a soldier.” I shoot him a small smile.

He nods. “You okay? You’ve been kinda…off, today.”

              “Yeah, I’m just nervous for tomorrow.” Not a total lie. I cross the room to the tote bag with the paintings and drawings I’m taking in tomorrow. I dig out the one I’m looking for, and without looking at it, I cross back over to where Henry is sitting on my bed.

             
“Do you remember, when I wouldn’t leave my room for a while after the accident?” I ask him.

             
“Yeah, Leland and I thought you’d have to be admitted with Mom,” he looks away from my eyes.

I know it’s still painful. It is for me.

He moves to stand and I hold my hand up to stop him.

             
“Don’t freak out, okay? I’m not a masochist. I just had an image stuck in my head, and it was driving me insane. Every time I closed my eyes, there it was. I couldn’t get away from it. So I did what I always do, I drew it out.” I hold up the protective sleeve. “I never looked at it again. I never really planned to, but I decided to take it in for Mr. Becker to see. Since you’re going to be there with me, I don’t want this to be a shock. I’m sorry I kept this from you.”

I take a deep breath before handing him the drawing. He takes it from me and slouches against my headboard. His breathing is uneven, but his eyes never leave the paper.

I know what’s going through his head, because it’s going through mine, too.

Mom’s shriek woke me up just before the slam of her brakes slid me to the floor of the car.

              As I collected myself, Mom and Henry swapped seats and the car started moving again. But Henry was driving faster than he would, given that Mom was in the car. I still didn’t know what happened, or when I even fell asleep. I reach up and pat Mom’s shoulder.

             
“You okay, Mom?” I asked her quietly. She shook her head and said something that sounded like, “It can’t be them,” but I couldn’t be sure.

             
Flashing lights suddenly filled the dark car, the ambulances, patrol cars, and fire truck being the reason. I could see a shiny red sports car with a crunched up front end. This S-turn is so dangerous, which is why Mom refuses to take this road. Even though they posted the speed limit down to 25mph, people don’t listen, and there are accidents here all the time.

Henry pulled off to the side of the road and a bumper sticker caught my attention. It’s on the back of a dark colored Mazda and read, “Pittsburgh’s Biggest Fan!” with the symbols for NHL, NFL, and MLB. The “Pitt U” sticker in the back window froze my lungs. The “My Son Tackled Your Son” and “My Daughter Spiked Your Daughter’s Face Off” stickers broke my heart to a thousand pieces.

              I jumped out of the car and took off running.

             
“Dad!” I screamed as strong arms caught me.

             
“I’m sorry. I can’t let you go over there,” A comforting, familiar voice said.

             
“That’s my Dad’s car!” I shouted through tears, “Sophie!!” I clawed and smacked at the arms as I struggled to get free.

             
“Jaz!” he yelled. “Stop right now! I can’t let you go over there. It’s too dangerous. Let them get ‘em out safely.”

             
“Are they…” My question fell flat and hung in the air around us. John is a friend of my Dad’s, a police officer.

             
“I…” He sighed and looked away for a minute. “It’s not lookin’ good, Sweetheart.” I let him walk me to the side of the road, where Henry was on the phone, and Mom was yelling at another officer.

             
I ignored the conversations going on around me, and watch as the firemen began to cut into the car to remove my sister. I couldn’t believe how big of a bitch I was to her earlier. She only wanted a daddy-daughter dinner. I’ll do her laundry, cook for her, help her recover, I’ll do anything.

             
I reach over and hold Mom and Henry’s hands as they remove my sister from the car and EMTs surround her. The firemen began cutting to get my dad out.

             
“Please Sophie, make it. You’re strong, just hang on. They’ve got you now,” I whispered, as I wiped tears from my face.

             
They retrieved my father from the car and one of the EMTs waved John to come over to them.

             
Movement on my right caught my attention. There was a guy in cuffs being led to the waiting police car. His head was hung over hunched shoulders and he was crying. It was also plain as day that he was stumbling drunk. He survived the crash with barely a scratch.

I looked back over to the EMTs and watched in horror as John came walking back over with his head also hung. With tears in his eyes and his head shaking, he said something that I couldn’t register. Mom started to fall to the ground screaming, but Henry caught her and just held on.

              I slowly walked over to the gurneys carrying my dad and sister. Grabbing a mangled hand of each, I stared at the stars.

             
Why? Why now? Why tonight?

             
“I love you…” I said to them, as an EMT escorted me back to Henry and Mom. Leland ran over and hugged me tightly.

The drawing is that night.

There’s a boy holding onto a woman to keep her from collapsing to the ground. Police officers, fire fighters, and paramedics all busy attempting to clear the road and do their jobs. Two crushed vehicles, a young man being led to a police car in handcuffs, with his head hung in shame. There’s a girl standing between two gurneys, holding a hand in each of hers. She’s looking up at the sky, with tears rolling down her cheek. In the sky are two faces, Dad and Sophie’s.