by Dean Murray
From the outside looking in, it was starting to appear as though she was addicted to the acclaim. I didn't know what to do about that other than hope that she'd pull out of it so we could at least leave the city. She'd stood by me when I'd spent half a year basically falling apart anytime I even thought of Dad and Cindi's accident. I figured that meant I should do what I could to support her while she worked through her own coping mechanism. It just would have been a little easier if I'd been going to another school, preferably not on the East Coast.
Brathingford was one of those grand experiments that someone with more money than sense had decided to undertake as a way of 'giving back' to the community. It had been billed as a school for anyone who showed promise, which was how it had gotten so much support initially from the city. The billionaire who had funded everything had run into absolutely zero issues getting the permits he needed to tear down a quarter of a city block and then rebuild it with the state of the art in teaching.
Projectors, smart boards, screaming fast Wi-Fi. If you could think of it, we probably had it, up to and including two full-sized swimming pools and a gymnastics gym that was only a slight step down from the Olympic Training Center in Colorado. Unfortunately, the construction had run severely over budget, which hadn't seemed like a problem until a massive shock to the real estate market had wiped out two thirds of the billionaire's fortune.
Suddenly the school needed to pay for itself and the students 'with promise' had started coming exclusively from the city's wealthiest. I didn't have anything against rich people—I'd known some really, really rich people that I'd liked a lot—but the students here all seemed like they lived in a permanent bubble.
A wave of dizziness swept through me, but I'd been expecting it, so I just grabbed ahold of the table I was sitting at and weathered the spell. I still struggled a little sometimes with thinking about Cindi and my dad, but by and large the attacks had disappeared, and when they did show up they weren't really very bad.
Mom attributed it to us getting out of Sanctuary, and therefore took credit for them in a roundabout way, but they'd actually more or less disappeared while I'd been dating Alec. My heart rate shot up a bit, but I knew my limits; I took a couple of calming breaths and felt my body start to relax a little.
These days I was coping better with the loss of half of my family, but I was struggling with a different loss. As long as I was careful to limit how much I thought of him during the course of a given day, I tended to be okay. It was still touch and go occasionally, but it seemed like the psychiatrist had been right for a change. Time and distance was gradually taking off the edge of having lost Alec.
I picked up the thread my thoughts had been following earlier and shook my head slightly as I looked around the bright, open study space. The girls almost all sported artificial tans and six-hundred-dollar backpacks, and they had never had to worry about anything more serious than whether or not they'd get asked to Prom.
Even before, back when I'd lived in Minneapolis, I still wouldn't have had anything in common with the kids in this school. After my experiences in Sanctuary, I almost felt like we were from different species entirely. There was a world outside these walls where people fought and died without the local news stations having any idea anything was happening, and I'd been in it up to my eyeballs for a few short months.
It put all of the games that the boys and girls at Brathingford played into stark perspective. Questions of whose parents were the richest paled against the fact that I knew there were things that went bump in the night, things that were all the more terrifying because they looked just like anyone else.
I looked back up at my enemy, the self-satisfied digital clock on the wall, and sighed. It was time to go to my math lecture. Brathingford heavily utilized recorded lectures to give students the chance to 'go at their own pace,' but I still had to go to actual classes from time to time. The concept was actually pretty neat because it meant that I'd been able to finish up my algebra class way faster than I'd expected. I just logged onto the intranet, watched a lecture, and then did the assigned homework problems. Once I'd demonstrated mastery of a particular concept, the system opened up the next section for me to watch.
Nearly all of my classmates were smart, but while some of them took advantage of the flexibility to learn faster than they could have, most of them just spent more time screwing around and less time in lectures.
I was back to having absolutely no social life since we'd moved, so I just liked that it meant I could avoid interaction with most of my peers and teachers more than I could have at another school. I still had to go to mandatory lectures, though, for whichever unit I was on. At least the lectures just covered much larger blocks of material and were more along the lines of a question and answer session where the students got to ask the teachers about the concepts they were either struggling with or interested in.
I also had weekly twenty-minute sessions with a counselor who checked to make sure that my progress through the various subjects was on track for me to graduate at the end of my senior year. I figured I might as well get as much out of the fortune that Mom was spending on tuition as I could, so I was well ahead of plan in every single subject.
I packed up my school-issued electronic tablet, and the coat that just barely sufficed for a New York winter, and headed off to the auditorium that had been assigned to my math section for the next hour and a half. I arrived early enough to get a seat at the back of the class—more because I wanted a corner to myself where I could ignore everyone else than for any other reason.
Ten seconds before the lecture started, a flash of movement caught my eye and I looked up to see Isaac sit down at the front of the class. His presence in New York was so unexpected that my mind struggled to accept that it was all real rather than some kind of hallucination. My thoughts automatically went to Alec and a flash of vertigo rocked me in my seat.
I got my systems back under control, but it was a close thing. I'd already used up too much of my quota of Alec thoughts for the day. I tore my eyes away from Isaac and focused on my tablet. I already knew I wouldn't learn anything important from the lecture. My professor was young, energetic and personable, but he was more flash than fire. He was capable of answering questions and explaining the concepts in the units we'd be reviewing today, but he was no Mrs. Campbell.
I opened up a history quiz that I'd been saving specifically for this lecture, and started through the questions, but my gaze kept flowing back up to Isaac. He looked much like I remembered. He was still as massive as a college lineman and unlike the rest of the students, all of whom sported only their tablets, he also had a pair of hardback books on his desk.
I watched out of the corner of my eye as Isaac blatantly ignored the lecture, instead spending the time reading from one of the books he'd brought. I'd suspected for a while that the teachers had been instructed to give certain students more leeway than the rest of us as a way of encouraging more donations. Isaac seemed to prove my theory beyond a shadow of a doubt, and it had the fingerprints of a certain obscenely rich pack alpha all over it.
I spent the rest of the lecture debating the best course of action, but in the end I simply followed Isaac out of the auditorium and into one of the quiet, smaller study nooks that were scattered around the sixth floor. A few of the other girls from the class had stopped at one of the tables closest to the spot Isaac had staked out. They'd probably made the same deduction I had and were all kinds of excited about just how much money Isaac represented.
"Hello, Adri."
I cocked my head at him and waited for several seconds before sighing. It was all that I could do to keep my voice to a whisper.
"That's the best that you can do? 'Hello, Adri.' You show up out of nowhere and you don't feel the need to explain?"
Isaac shrugged, obviously unshaken. "I haven't been able to decide how much you'd really want to know."
"How about we start with what it is you're doing here?"
"A
lec sent me to watch over you. I guess you could say you've got a bodyguard again."
Having someone else say his name was nearly more than I could take. It was surprising that there was more of an impact when Isaac said it, but it was undeniable. My breath caught, and for several seconds, it was all that I could do to fight off the vertigo.
My inner battle didn't go unnoticed by Isaac. It was almost impossible to keep secrets around a shape shifter, so Isaac got a front-row seat as I struggled to hold everything together. Isaac had always been considerate, though, so he didn't comment on just how broken I still was. He just waited for me to pull myself together and resume.
"What if I don't want a bodyguard? What if I'm doing just fine on my own?"
It was a calculated lie. Hopefully the way that I had phrased things would throw him off the 'scent' at least a little bit. The truth was that sometimes I couldn't sleep thinking about all of the things out there that could kill me.
"I'm sorry, Adri. I'm afraid I don't have a choice. Al...he didn't make obedience optional this time around. I'll try very hard to stay out of your way; but if I don't keep a close eye on you, things will get very unpleasant for me back home."
I couldn't tell if I'd succeeded or if he was just being polite and allowing me my illusions, but there were other questions that I wanted—no needed—answered.
"How are the girls? Is Jess dealing okay with everything that happened?"
The hands that he'd casually set on the table were suddenly gripping the heavy wooden edges with a force that made the entire table creak alarmingly. It was so rare to see Isaac in the grip of strong emotion that I just sat there frozen, unsure of how to proceed.
"Jess...Jessica is slowly rebuilding her life. She and her father seem to finally be reconnecting. She's adjusting to pack life, but it hasn't been easy. There are...pressures there that are hard on even those of us who remember standing off Brandon's pack together."
If I was a boy, I probably would have just left well enough alone, but I couldn't help myself.
"Things aren't okay between you and her yet then?"
Isaac shrugged, but the motion wasn't the nonchalant thing it had been a few minutes ago.
"No, not really. Every so often there is a glimmer there, but it never seems to last very long. We fought some vampires a little while ago and I thought I'd finally broken through to her, but she retreated back into herself."
The way he'd just casually mentioned vampires practically blew my mind. I'd wondered if that legend was also based on fact, but the pack had been so tight-lipped about everything while I'd been with them that I knew only barely more than nothing about the rest of the creepy crawlies out there. I wanted to find out more about the vampires, but it wasn't the right time for that line of questioning.
"I'm really sorry to hear that, Isaac. She probably just needs some time."
His smile was bittersweet, but he changed the subject with such smoothness that I almost believed that I'd imagined his near loss of control.
"Rachel is lonely, no more so than before you came to Sanctuary, but it was hard for her to transition back to being the only human in the pack. We got a new girl, Kristin, so Rachel isn't the only human any more, but Kristin doesn't interact with the rest of us very much. Rachel is pretty listless a lot of the time. Dom and Jasmin too. Jasmin hides it better than the other two, but they are all having a hard time dealing with the demands being placed on everyone."
That didn't sound very good. Part of me didn't want to ask, didn't want to know any more than I already knew. It was going to be hard enough knowing that Rachel was pining away from loneliness. Diving headfirst into a full knowledge of all of the pack's issues was just going to make it harder to hold to my resolution. Still, I couldn't stop myself from asking.
"What do you mean demands?"
Isaac took a deep breath. "I'm not sure you want to know that, Adri."
"You're probably right, but please tell me anyway."
"He's ordered the pack not to ever say your name, on pain of death, and he backed it up with an imperative from his beast. Even worse, we have a stream of challengers headed our way. Jasmin nearly died fighting the first one, because Alec was hoping that her beating a hybrid would make the other challengers scared to come up against the rest of us. He could have intervened before he did, but he waited until the last possible second to step in and save her."
Isaac paused for several seconds and then pushed the last bit out in what was obviously an effort.
"It's only a matter of time before Dom and Jess get pulled into challenge matches themselves and everyone in the pack is worried, either for themselves or for someone they love. Everyone but him. He doesn't seem to feel anything but rage anymore."
It looked like Isaac was going to say something else, but I raised my hand and cut him off.
"Thank you for telling me, Isaac. You're right, though; I can't take any more right now. I'm really sorry things in the pack have gotten so bad, but all I can do right now is make it relatively easy for you to keep an eye on me. At least that way Alec won't punish you when you finally get called back home."
I stood to walk away but put one of my hands on his shoulder before I left.
"It really is good to see you again. It's hard, even harder than I'd have expected it to be, but seeing you brings back a lot of good memories, too."
I made my way over to another table, one that was still within sight of Isaac's, but which would afford me some distance so that I wouldn't have to watch too closely as five or six of the most eligible girls in the school proceeded to throw themselves at him.
I knew my thoughts weren't very charitable, but I was already struggling with larger concerns. Isaac hadn't given me very much detail behind what was going on, but it was still enough to paint a picture that was the worst of all worlds, at least as far as I was concerned.
I'd left Alec because I'd been convinced that there was no other way to wake him up to how unjust he was being to the rest of the pack. He'd let Agony and the rest of the bullies from the Coun'hij kill Alison and the others, and he'd never even blinked. I'd been convinced he loved me enough that my leaving would make him realize he was in danger of losing other things, more important things.
Hearing that my actions had produced the opposite effect made me want to curl up in a ball somewhere quiet and just sob for days. I hadn't wanted to leave Alec; I'd loved him then and I still loved him now, but I hadn't been willing to sit by and watch him lose his soul to 'necessity.' I'd deprived myself of something I needed almost as badly as food and water, and he'd gotten worse instead of better.
Yet again I wondered if I'd made the right decision, but ultimately there wasn't anything I could do about it now. Him having ordered the rest of the pack not to talk about me was plenty sign enough. I'd known I wouldn't be able to go back, but having that simple, terrible fact confirmed hurt with a searing heat that made it hard to breathe.
Chapter 3
Adriana Paige
Upper East Side
Manhattan, New York
I exchanged cell numbers with Isaac on the ride home. My school was just a 'short' ride down the number 6 train and then a jog over on the L line. The relative proximity of the school to Central Park East had a lot to do with its success when it came to filling its classrooms with the children of millionaires and billionaires.
Isaac hadn't been able to find a vacancy in my building, but he'd apparently purchased a unit in the building down from mine. I knew how much we were paying for our two-bedroom unit on the twenty-third floor, so when Isaac casually pointed at the penthouse suite at the top of the building in response to my question as to where he was living, I nearly choked.
I knew Alec was rich, but it still boggled the mind that he'd casually drop millions, if not tens of millions, of dollars on a whim like that.
Isaac had faithfully accompanied me inside and up to my floor and then watched as I'd unlocked my door and disappeared into my apartment. I closed the d
oor as I reflected on just how odd it felt to have a bodyguard again. There had been a couple of weeks back in Sanctuary where I'd had someone from the pack with me at all times, and although it had taken some getting used to, I was now remembering the incredible sense of security involved in having a very capable, very deadly shape shifter at your side. That feeling of safety helped offset the whiplash of emotions I'd been through since seeing Isaac earlier in the day.
Mom was waiting for me, and she had an honest-to-goodness apron on for the first time that I could remember in weeks.
"Hi, sweetie. How was school?"
"Same old, same old. A bunch of yuppie rich kids with more money than sense."
That earned me a frown. Mom was shelling out some seriously crazy cash right now between our apartment and my school. She was bringing at least that much in with her photography work, but every so often her conservative Midwestern upbringing would rear its head and remind her just how much she was spending on a monthly basis.
She seemed to think that I was mostly joking when it came to my criticisms of Manhattan's number one school, but my comments still occasionally made her think twice about the spend.
"I really wish you'd put forth a little bit more effort when it comes to fitting in at school, Adri. A school like Brathingford can open up a lot of doors for you, but you'll have even more options if you'll actually make friends with some of your classmates."
"I know; they're all in line to rule the world someday, but I don't really care about ruling the world, Mom."
She looked up from the lasagna she was preparing and gave me a considering look. "What do you want then, Adri?"
That was the rub. I actually knew exactly what I wanted. It was the same thing that kept me up late, night after sleepless night. I could admit I wanted it inside the privacy of my own mind, but it wouldn't do any good to tell Mom that I longed to be back in Sanctuary with Alec—but not the Alec who sacrificed his friends and family, the Alec who stood in front of anything that would harm the pack and protected all of us.