Surviving Today

by Mande Chambers

  What? He was an organized warlock. Sue him.

  His part done for now, he finally responded to Corbin. Welcome to the Not in the Mood club. How’d you knock him out?

  Same way your girl did. A love tap to the pressure point on the neck. Though, to be perfectly honest, mine might have been more like a punch. Anyway, let’s hope, at the rate these past two days have been going, that the only pings come from the people on this farm.

  Amen to that.

  All joking and ribbing aside, Scott really hoped the only pushes came from the farm. They all needed some down time and some time to regroup.

  And maybe some time to iron out an issue or twelve.

  Okay, Scott…uh, you’re not going to believe this.

  Hit me with what you’ve got Corbin.

  First off, how many physical bodies are on the property?

  That question caused Scott to pause. He did a quick mental count. There was Derrick and Corbin in the house. Megan, Max, and Julian in the loft. Brian, Logan, and Jay were in the makeshift cell. He and Kelly were on the other side of the barn.

  Ten.

  Damn. Okay. So, only three of the pings came back to me as normal. Now, remember that shifters brain patters are normal because they are technically still human. They have no other powers—for example, any of yours—other than the magical power to shift. They can communicate telepathically, but that is mostly to be able to communicate in animal form.

  Okay, I’m following you so far, even though we both know that a true shifter’s brain pattern doesn’t come back human, but you’re welcome for helping you to keep your supernatural secret from the free world.

  Okay, that’s a bit like the warlock calling the shifter black. I mean, the pot calling the kettle black.

  Uh-huh. Sure you did. Please continue oh wise one.

  A shifter’s brain, whether chemically made or born, is different from a normal human’s ping in one minor way.

  There’s a magical signature embedded in the ping that isn’t present in a normal human’s. Yeah, I know.

  Scott, all three normal pings had the signature embedded in them.

  Scott did another quick mental roll call to see if that tracked. It didn’t.

  No way, Evans.

  I’m as serious as a heart attack here, Raleigh.

  How the hell had he missed that one? Well, it looked like he wasn’t the only one with some explaining to do. How the hell did we not know?

  The same way we didn’t know about Firuz or Cortez.

  Yeah, that made sense, but still. He, of all people, should have known. Maybe he had and chose to ignore it. It was a distinct possibility. Denial was in his wheelhouse.

  Oh, Megan was going to so freak. Scott so didn’t want to be anywhere near here when that particular skeleton jumped ship.

  My head hurts. Are there any pings outside the property line?

  Nice change of subject. No, thank God.

  Thank you. Avoidance is my specialty.

  No shit. And denial is you friend.

  Okay. It was time to uncast the spell. They were the only supernatural being around. The terrible trio were free to sleep his spell off in their little box and the rest of them could hit the sack.

  And maybe, just maybe, they could also go back to doing the avoidance dance, followed by the much more fun awkward two step his cousin had so kindly told them about.

  Yeah, they were screwed either way this played out. He was feeling Shanna and Rhyder’s pain back in Ohio.

  Scott?

  Whoa. He hadn’t expected to hear her voice.

  Yeah, Megs.

  Julian is healed and down for the count in Dreamland. Max is moving him into the spare room in the basement.

  Good to hear sweetheart. Go get some rest.

  You sure?

  Yeah, I’m just wrapping things up here. I won’t be far behind you. And you really need to deal with Rick.

  Scott winced at the loudness of her mental sight. He raised her a mental picture of raised eyebrows.

  Look, at this point in the game, I may just knock his ass out for the rest of the night. More sleep is going to be required before I can even begin to deal with him. Alcohol is a viable option too.

  Chicken shit.

  Balk, balk. Look who’s talking.

  Who? Me?

  Yes, you.

  Anyway, you may not have to worry about Derrick. Corbin just recently knocked him back out. Rick was annoying the hell out of him and he pulled a repeat of your little move.

  I officially love that man again. See, this is the reason he is my best friend.

  Uh-huh. Night, Megs.

  She clicked off.

  Corbin came back on the mental line. Tread lightly around her.

  Bite me, wolf man.

  Not my job, warlock. Besides, I prefer my men uncomplicated and with a hell of a lot less baggage.

  Ouch. Major hit to the ego there, Evans.

  Corbin’s laughter rang out in Scott’s head. With as big as your ego is, I think it can withstand the rejection. Think you can pull off a protection spell?

  No problem. Night man.

  Scott countered the mental speaking spell and the searching for other paranormal lifeforms spell. The solid whiteness of his eyes slowly faded back to his natural eye color as he came back to reality. He focused on Kelly, who was standing in front of him, waving his hands like a cheerleader on crack in an attempt to get his attention.

  Scott blinked rapidly a few times. “Yeah, I’m back,” he mumbled, holding the sides of his head as the pounding behind his eyes made itself at home.

  “Everyone else went inside. Let’s get you inside.” Kelly looked over at the still sleeping figures in the box. “They going to be okay?”

  Scott nodded slowly, groaning at the pain the movement caused. “Yeah. Even if they do happen to wake up, they’re not going anywhere.”

  CHAPTER 30

  August 2000

  Akron, OH

  It had been a month since Shanna’s shocking revelation. School was starting tomorrow and D was in the park watching her from a distance. She leaned back against the trunk of an ancient maple tree as she brought her knees up to her chin.

  This was the place he had first spotted Shanna with her mystery guy.

  Yeah, that’s right. He had known about her secret friend months prior to her half assed confession last month. Just because he didn’t always call her on things, didn’t mean he didn’t know them or notice them. At the time, he had chosen not to focus on the other guy, hoping that she would come to him about it.

  Then, when she finally did admit to there being another guy in the picture, she dropped a major bomb on him immediately after the confession.

  Things had been tense at the Tiern house since the truth about the rape had slowly made its rounds to her army of brothers. Both sets of brothers were in super overprotective mode. Keeping Jarrett, Nile, and Zeke away was a near impossible feat.

  It wasn’t that D blamed the Corelsand boys or the Galvin boys for their reaction, it was just that she needed some semblance of normalcy to remain somewhat sane.

  Hell, he was pissed as hell at her and his protective streak was rearing its ugly head.

  She sneaked out of the house occasionally to have time to herself. He always followed at a safe distance to keep her safe and to make sure she had her alone time. He wasn’t sure she ever realized she was never truly alone.

  When she started crying, he couldn’t keep his distance anymore. He knew she needed space, but she wasn’t the only one hurting. And—despite everything that had gone down—he couldn’t stand to see her cry.

  “You know, the first time I saw you with him, you were sitting here in this exact spot alone in the dark. You two were facing one another in deep conversation,” he said in a sad tone as he approached her.

  Shanna closed her eyes. “You followed me here that night.” It was a statement, not a question. Her tone held no accusations. They were way past that stage.


  D smiled sheepishly, though it held no trace of an apology. He sat on the ground in front of her, bringing her against him so he was holding her, his chin on top of her head. “It’s been four months. I’ve been extremely patient and understanding. Don’t you think it’s time you told me who you’re secret boyfriend is?” he asked quietly, careful to keep his tone neutral.

  Shanna shook her head. “I-I c-can-n’t,” she hiccupped into his chest. “I-it’s complicated.”

  “Name one thing that involves you that isn’t complicated.” He sighed. He decided to take pity on her after the year she had. “All I need to know is if I should be worried.”

  She shook her head again. “No. Honest. He is just an old friend.”

  D didn’t respond. He just sat there and held her.

  Shanna sighed as she brushed her wet hair, eyeing her brother through the standup mirror attached to the closet door. She was wearing a pair of green cotton cargo pants, a cream colored cotton blouse, and a pair of brown suede boots.

  She pulled her long auburn hair into a bun at the nape of her neck, still wet. As she applied a small amount of liquid foundation onto her face, she asked, “Is there any particular reason you’re in my room? I’m not a toddler whose every move needs to be watched like a hawk and I don’t have to be upstairs for another fifteen minutes, so it’s not like I’m running late and holding you guys up. It’s a conundrum I can’t seem to figure out.”

  Danick, dressed in his usual khaki pants and polo shirt, sat on her bed and watched her apply the little makeup she occasionally allowed herself to wear like it was the most interesting thing in the world. “Well, I wanted to make sure you were up. D wasn’t quite up to the task this morning.”

  She closed her left eyelid, applying a thin line of brown eyeliner. “As you have witnessed for the past fifteen minutes, I’m quite obviously up and moving. And, let’s not sugarcoat things here. You mean, as understanding and loving as D is pretending to be, he is still pissed at me.” She repeated the process with her other eye.

  Danick blinked, taken slightly aback. “Well, I don’t think he is necessarily pretending, but pretty much, yeah. Can you honestly blame him, Shan? You lied to him for months about another guy and kept the fact that you were viciously attacked and raped from him. Hell, Shan, you lied to us all and you still are. I know better than anyone that you play things close to the vest, but c’mon. Even I have doubts that this guy is just a friend. If he was, you wouldn’t be protecting his identity like he was Jesus Christ himself and Rhyder and I would know him.”

  He sighed, leaning back on his elbows. “You’re protecting someone who isn’t your boyfriend. How is he supposed to feel?”

  At this point, D’s feelings were still invalid. As harsh as that sounded, she was just trying to make it through the day in human form. She had been attacked, raped, and left to bleed to death. That was a lot for a fifteen-year-old girl to deal with. Human or supernatural, that took a toll on the psyche.

  And, as for her brothers, they could take their judgments and stick them…

  Of course he would come first. Come on now, he’s the saint and you’re the sinner. That’s never going to change.

  That was especially true in Danick’s case. In his eyes, even though D had a drunken one night stand with his baby sister, he could do no wrong and she was the devil in sheep’s clothing.

  It was beyond screwed up.

  Welcome to her family.

  Shanna dropped the small pencil into her makeup bag. Yeah, she would probably feel better if she wasn’t holding this secret so close to her heart, right next to the bigger and more important ones. Unfortunately, this small secret was connected to her much bigger, more important secrets, and she just couldn’t take the risk at this point in time.

  At the same time, she was trying to protect them. They had no idea what was really going on behind the scenes, what Kai and Cristian were really into, who she really was, and, while she had no doubts at all that they wanted to protect her, this was her fight. They weren’t ready to take this kind of thing on.

  Shanna dug the small eye shadow brush into the pocket of light brown shadow, applying it to her eye so hard that it hurt. She controlled her life. It was time everyone figured that out. She quickly applied the eye shadow to her other eye. She smeared on some clear, shiny lip gloss onto her lips.

  Done primping, she threw the makeup bag onto the bed, narrowly missing Danick’s head. She turned around to face her brother. Her voice was soft when she finally answered him. “Let’s not play games here, Dan. You mean, you don’t know if this guy is just a friend or not. You can’t be sure if I am covering for him to cover up the fact that I cheated on your precious best friend. Let’s just skip right over the whole beat to the brink of death and raped portion of the whole scenario so you can justify your feelings.”

  Danick shot up like a rocket on the bed. “That’s uncalled for and you know it!”

  “No, what’s uncalled for here is that I’m the one who got raped. I’m the one who got attacked. Yet, I’m the one being treated like a criminal. You all can’t wait to make me out to be the villain who devastated the hero. So, if you want pure, unedited honesty, you, D, and the others can take your questions, your accusations, and your judgments and go fuck yourselves seven ways from Sunday.”

  Danick’s jaw dropped in shock.

  Shanna took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Okay, let’s go get breakfast before I decide to get anything else off my chest.”

  Danick pushed his hand through his hair. “I’ll, uh, follow you up for fear of turning my back on you and you turning all Scream psycho on me simply because you have something else you need to suddenly unload.”

  Shanna laughed as she led him out of the room, even though she knew he was dead serious.

  D inwardly groaned as he noticed Mercedes heading on a direct course for his locker. What had he done so badly in his short life span to deserve the attention of the Wicked Witch of the Midwest?

  Oh, yeah. There was the whole using her to forget about his issues last year.

  He took a deep breath. Okay, that was unfair. She was a beautiful, though slightly psychotic, young woman. A bit of a tramp, but, then again, that was exactly why he had chosen her to self-destruct with for that one night. She was willing, no strings attached, and no questions asked. She was just the type he had needed. He would welcome her advances, hidden innuendos, and playful flirtations in a heartbeat if he wasn’t with Shanna.

  And, if he was completely honest with himself, he wouldn’t be avoiding her like an embarrassed virgin if he had kept it in his pants last year.

  He so did not want to deal with her craziness right now.

  He would bet his small inheritance that all she wanted to do was gloat about the rumors going around about Shanna and this mystery guy of hers. He was currently dealing with his own insecurities over that and didn’t need any more help in that department.

  “You know, I hear she’s a good lay, but once used, she attaches like superglue.”

  D smiled, turning to Shanna’s best friend. “You have no idea, Corbott.”

  Del grabbed his arm and pulled him into the enclosed stairwell beside his set of lockers. He followed her up the two flights of stairs, emerging outside of his first period Spanish class.

  Mercedes was nowhere to be seen and hadn’t followed.

  “I owe you one,” he said, leaning against the wall.

  Del shrugged. “I just saved you for the moment. I think she may still be in a few of your classes.”

  “I can handle her in a controlled environment like that.”

  Del laughed. “Good luck to you then.”

  D watched with curiosity as she disappeared down the green carpeted hallway.

  “Fancy seeing you here.”

  Oh, c’mon! You have got to be kidding me right now.

  Shanna’s back stiffened as she closed her locker. “I had so better be hearing your voice in my head, Lanthani. If not,
you better pray that when I turn around, you’re already gone like the 90’s.”

  Patrick Lanthani—pain in her ass extraordinaire—chuckled and leaned against the locker beside hers. “And here I was expecting a warm, somewhat friendlier, welcome to my new school. You know, you squealing in excitement, jumping up and down, wrapping your legs around my waist—”

  “Well, you always were delusional.”

  “And you’re scared to tell your boy toy even a macromolecule of the truth.”

  Damn. He had her there. Hmm, tell D that the mystery guy she’d been hanging out with behind his back was Zeke’s neighbor and close friend? Someone who happened to be Lucian’s baby brother.

  Yeah, no thanks. She was still good.

  Oh, this so wasn’t good. Patrick was a junior. D was a senior. They were bound to have at least one class together.

  Shanna just hoped Patrick wasn’t going to cause trouble and that he would keep his big mouth shut. She didn’t need her life any more complicated than it already was. She was seriously at her breaking point. She needed some down time before she could even begin to handle this problem.

  By the shit eating grin on Patrick’s face, the dark haired hunk built like a god had ideas of his own.

  And that never ended well for her.

  “I warned you…”

  “And that’s ever stopped me…when exactly, Corelsand?”

  “Can’t you listen to me just this once?”

  “I’d rather have him as a friend than an enemy.”

  Shanna groaned. She didn’t even know why she was attempting to fight this.

  Patrick placed a hand gently on her arm. “Shanna, I’m not going to blow your cover. I have absolutely no desire to come between you and your Prince Charming. You know this has to be played this way if you are to stay protected.”

  “Where have I heard that line before?” she muttered.

  Before he could answer, the first bell rang. She headed for her homeroom, hoping that this wasn’t going to come back and bite her—literally.