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  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 understand the strength required to do wh
at 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 to losing control, 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."

  Chapter 26

  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."

  I nodded as I accepted the tests back from Dom. Adri needed a few minutes to talk to Mrs. Campbell, so I took the opportunity to pay Mrs. Sorenson a visit.

  "More blank checks from the administration, Alec?"

  At one point it'd bothered me that certain teachers took an instant, inexplicable dislike to me, but I'd long since chalked it up to something I couldn't control. If someone was determined to hate you there generally wasn't much you could really do about it.

  "No, but I'd like to discuss Adriana Paige's grade in this class with you."

  "That's none of your business, young man."

  I felt a smile cross my features ever so briefly. Her pulse and breathing all but screamed that I was right. She was trying to hide the fact she'd been holding Adri to a different standard than the rest of the students.

  "Be that as it may, I came across some information that causes me to worry about the quality of teaching in this school."

  I held up the tests and sighed.

  "I remember a fair amount about this section, Mrs. Sorenson, but more importantly I've noticed that John and Teresa's answers to several questions aren't substantially different than Adri's, but you marked hers wrong."

  "How did you get those?"

  "That's irrelevant. The question is what you're going to do about this? I'd hate to have to take these to the school board. Once I do that there'll be the inevitable witch hunt and who knows what they'll turn up, or what they'll do about it."

  It always made me a little sick to threaten people's livelihoods, but the way her breathing spiked told me there were plenty of other discrepancies to turn up.

  Her voice dropped to a pale shadow of its normal, arrogant tone.

  "What do you want from me?"

  "I just want you to do what you're paid to do. Go back and re-grade Adri's test the same way you graded the rest of them. Given how well she's doing in the rest of her classes I expect that you'll probably find her work deserves an A."

  I left Mrs. Sorenson trembling at her desk and went straight to the Spanish classroom. Things were even easier there. Mrs. Tiggs had been skating on the brink of getting fired for years. I'd never had a class from her but even I knew she spent more time with the television on than she did actually teaching.

  I met everyone out in the parking lot and smiled at how Adri's face lit up when she saw me. Despite all of the reasons to be worried or unhappy I spent the next hour or so in a pleasant haze as the pack crowded around the table in the informal dining room and consumed a respectable dinner.

  Donovan caught my eye as I stood up from the table. I followed him back to his office and felt a surge of surprise as he flicked on the white noise generator that would shield our conversation from the ears of the rest of the pack.

  "Master Alec, I hold you in the greatest of respect but feel I must caution you against what you're doing with the young lady."

  I stomped on a flash of anger. It shouldn't be this hard to keep my temper, but for whatever reason it was harder to control myself when it came to Adri.

  "I haven't even kissed her, Donovan. I haven't behaved in the slightest bit inappropriately."

  Donovan made himself smaller, assuming a submissive pose in an attempt to help me leash the anger.

  "I didn't mean to imply you had, Alec, but you need to understand what you're doing to her. You have strong feelings for her, it's only natural that you want to touch her, but it would be wrong to do so. You'll form the Ja'tell bond with her!"

  His words slowed my wrath, providing something for reason to work on.

  "You supported my father's decision to marry Mother. Out of the entire pack it was only you and Addison who did so. Why would you deny me Adri now?"

  "You know how you feel about her, but do you really know how she feels about you? If you addict her to your touch before you truly know she loves you, you'll be no better than the drug dealers Jasmin ran out of town last year."

  It was like I'd been struck a physical blow, one I reeled back from mentally as I tried to regain my footing.

  "I never meant to harm her."

  Donovan came forward and clasped me on the shoulder.

  "I know, Alec, but the only way you'll be sure of her love is to keep her at arm's length. Otherwise you'll always wonder if she would have chosen differently but for the Ja'tell bond."

  Chapter 27

  I went through the rest of the eve
ning in shock. Donovan had meant to slow the growth of my feelings but it had the opposite effect. I'd stopped denying my love for Adri inside the privacy of my own thoughts.

  His efforts hadn't been entirely fruitless. I'd spent my entire life watching my mother pine over something she'd never have again. She'd loved my father, but she'd also been addicted to him. It was a potent combination that would never be replicated again, and so she lived out her remaining years a ghost in corporeal form.

  I'd sworn never to do that to anyone. It'd supported me for years, kept me clear of any number of girls my age who'd been willing to throw themselves at me, but I'd forgotten my resolve in the rush of emotions Adri had awakened.

  I went through my nightly ritual like a sleepwalker. I completed homework, grimly reviewed our far-flung enterprises with Donovan, and then dutifully endured my time on the machine.

  Adri had spent most of that time with Dom studying her Spanish homework. I made myself scarce until the rest of the house retired to bed, and then finally returned to my room. I'd wanted desperately to spend the evening with her, but couldn't risk her normal ability to read me.

  I watched her sleep for several minutes before finally showering and then lying down next to her. I salved my conscience by making sure there was a thin sheet between us, but couldn't silence the nagging suspicion that I was just too weak to cut myself off completely.

  My retiring so late meant I woke up only a few minutes before Adri did. I was lying on my side gazing at her when her eyes first flickered open. I couldn't resist smiling at her, but her response was entirely unexpected. She smiled back and then moved in as though planning on a kiss.

  I pulled back. I didn't want to, but I wasn't going to leave her a broken shell once I was gone. I avoided her advance and hoped her ESP was up and running enough to realize it wasn't that I didn't like her.