Protected (Book 1 in the Ariya Adams trilogy)

by Anna Applegate

  “You don’t need to be worried.”

  He was so sure, it made me sad to know I’d probably be betraying him if Emma wanted me to. I’d choose them over my safety. I went back to kicking the punching bag, and he walked around to hold it in place for me.

  “Let it out, Ariya. If you keep your feelings in, they can crush you.”

  “It was my grandfather’s wish, you know. That I work so hard at learning self-defense. He wanted me to be able to protect myself. Apparently, he was the same way with my mom until she had me.” I stopped kicking. “He knew about us, didn’t he?”

  I realized he must have if my grandmother knew what she was. It’s not like she would be able to hide that forever, could she? That’s why he refocused on me when I was born. The story was that once a child was born she had the power, not the mom.

  James replied, “Your grandmother told him before they were married. He’s the reason she didn’t turn, you know. She didn’t want a life without him. It was the truest love I’ve ever seen.” He seemed in awe when he spoke of them. So, James had known them.

  “What happened to her, James?” He was quiet. “Please? My whole life I was told she had a heart attack. We all thought my grandfather went crazy when she died. Was it bad?”

  “It was.” He sighed and ran his hands through his hair, letting go of the bag. “The Protectors have always kept the secret of who the child with the gift is. Around the time your grandmother was due with your mom, there were rumors of werewolves getting closer to figuring out who they should be targeting. We couldn’t understand why or how they knew who we were protecting. We have always prided ourselves on our ability to cover our tracks.”

  “When your mother was born, my father, who is known as one of the greatest Protectors, took her away to hide her. Your grandmother no longer had the gift at that point, so we needed to protect her baby with our best. One night the werewolves attacked your grandparents’ house, thinking she hadn’t delivered yet, and that they were stopping the bloodline. It wasn’t a true surprise, but we weren’t as prepared as we should have been. We thought she was safer since she didn’t have the gift. We didn’t know how it was possible for the information to have been leaked. There were a handful of us there still, a few were with your grandmother. I was pushed aside and so I grabbed your grandfather.”

  “You were there?” I couldn’t believe it.

  I knew he was older, Caroline had told me he was 250, for crying out loud. I knew he was a Protector, too, but I hadn’t really grasped how intimately he must know my family.

  “I was her Protector.” My heart fell. Poor James. He looked devastated. “I was just about to escape with him, and turned to find that the others with your grandmother had fallen. Your grandfather had to watch your grandmother get killed by a werewolf. He tried to fight me, but my concern was with getting him out. He was innocent and life needed to be saved somewhere.”

  “I had failed with protecting your grandmother, so I would save him if I could. Many protectors were staked that night and killed for good. We couldn’t risk saving so many and revealing where your mother was, so they had to get left behind. We got away, but something in your grandfather snapped. Your grandmother couldn’t defend herself and he told me that no one in his family would ever experience that again. When my father brought your mother back, when we thought it was safe, your grandfather had made it his mission to teach her everything about self-defense. When you were born he knew the gene had passed and you needed the training as well.”

  Tears fell from my eyes. My grandfather, who we all thought was crazy, had only wanted to protect us. He was truly in love with my grandmother and had watched her die in front of him, and there was nothing he could do.

  James came out from around the punching bag, “Ariya, it’s okay. He truly loved you.”

  That sent me over the edge. I had judged him for so many years and he only had my best interest at heart. I stepped into James chest and buried my face. I was in a full-out breakdown. All the information I had learned over the past few hours had been overwhelming. I couldn’t even find comfort in understanding having a breakdown was normal for me with my family’s history, because it meant I was supposed to be a vampire and couldn’t control the emotions.

  James wrapped his arms around me. He held me tightly and, for a moment, everything felt okay. I wanted so much to stay safe with him, but I wouldn’t be able to. Emma would have her way eventually. Whatever her plan was, she was going to win. I was going to fight it all I could and I wasn’t going to get my friends killed. I would stay here and be comforted while I could be. James had started stroking my head and was repeating that it was going to be all right.

  I pulled away after a few more moments. I sniffled and wiped my eyes and nose with my hands.

  “Sorry,” I said.

  “You don’t need to apologize. I’m sorry you’re getting overwhelmed with all of this. It’s why I was trying to keep it from you. All of us, we didn’t want you to be hurt.” He brought his hand up to my cheek, wiping a tear away that I had missed.

  “It’s better to know. I just have to process everything. My class is going to start soon. I’d better go stretch out.”

  He looked as if he was going to pull me into him again, but started backing up and walked away. I turned my focus to my breathing and stretching and spent the next hour focused on making sure my movements were swift and sure throughout my class. They would probably come in handy soon. Concentrating on my movements made it so that I could go a whole hour without thinking about vampires, Emma, and the dangers ahead.

  Everyone but James was at the house when I got back from my class, including Emma. She was the last person I wanted to see. It had been easy pretending she and Devon weren’t working together when she wasn’t around. I was going to have to focus on keeping a scowl off my face while she was here. She smiled a bit too brightly when I walked in.

  “Ariya! How are you feeling after all the news? Come sit down. Remember, I’ve been through this and I can do it again and get you through it. It’s a lot to take in.”

  Just the sound of her voice was causing my body to react negatively. Closing my eyes for a moment allowed me to work on calming my heart rate down, as I was sure the vamps in the room could hear it speed up. Get a grip, Ariya!

  James walked in the door behind me a minute later. I assumed he had been following me to make sure I was okay. I smiled a small smile at him. It was so hard to suppress my feelings for him, especially knowing that some part of him felt something, too. Whatever it was between us, it wasn’t going to just disappear overnight. After he was so wonderful today, I could probably extend that to a couple more months of being love struck. I should have known having him being the one comforting me would only cause more distress, but comforting from him was exactly what I had wanted.

  “I’m okay,” I responded to Emma’s question, which I realized I still hadn’t answered. However, she had stopped paying attention to me. She walked up to James and squeezed his arm. He pushed by her with only a small acknowledgement that she was even there.

  “I’m going to go hop in the shower. Will you all be here awhile?” I realized I had to sound somewhat interested in speaking to her and spending time with my friends.

  “Of course! I thought it would be great to get to know each other better. Just you and me today, Ariya? What do you say?”

  Emma had taken full advantage of my question and somehow twisted it to have meant me asking if she specifically would be here awhile. This was a situation where I could agree or raise suspicion. Actually, I doubted anyone would be suspicious about why I wouldn’t want to do something with her. It’s not like my feelings for James or Emma were a secret.

  “That sounds great. I’d love to hear more about how things were when you were human and your transition. Is that okay?”

  I turned to look at Caroline and James. Caroline was frowning and not bothering to hide it. James just looked confused and worried. I’m sure his co
ncern stemmed from me talking about transitioning. That clearly was a subject that was not open to discussion with him.

  After a moment, his expression went void again. “Whatever you want, Ariya.” James sounded tired. I didn’t know vampires got tired.

  He sat down on the couch, but Caroline got up and followed me into my room. I knew she was not going to be as much of a pushover as James just was.

  “What are you doing?” she asked. “I thought you didn’t like her?”

  “I don’t know, Care. It seems kind of cool to get to know your great, great grandmother. I want to hear about how things were for her. I want to get some perspective. I know you don’t like her and I probably will end up not liking her either, but while she’s here, I might as well chat with her, right? She isn’t going anywhere. Plus, that will give you all some time off to stop having to watch over me. I’ll be with one of you, and you and Nick can enjoy some time together and James can – “

  I had no idea what James did in his free time, actually. We hadn’t talked about it. “Play hockey or something,” I finished.

  She didn’t look convinced, so I pushed it further. “The emotions thing is really starting to take its toll and I want to hear how she dealt with it.”

  Caroline frowned at me, but seemed to accept that answer. “All right. I’ll see you when you get back then, I guess. You need to remember, Emma isn't one of us, Ariya. I know nothing about her and I don’t trust her.” She walked out, shutting the door to my bedroom behind her.

  Caroline was frustrated now. If only she knew how right she was. I sighed. I wanted to enjoy these moments of peace and quiet to myself. I had this gut feeling that the bad that had been creeping toward me was close. With Emma requesting some quality family time, it was probably coming in the next few minutes. Would she try something with me, was that the point of this outing?

  I showered slowly, enjoying the loosening up of my muscles after such a hard work out. Reluctantly stepping out, I dried off and sat on my bed to comb through my wet hair. I was in a trance and barely heard the knock on my door. My robe was all that was going to serve as cover at the moment. I was expecting it to be Emma, telling me to hurry up. Instead, it was James. He tried to hide the surprise at the state I answered the door in, and I felt my cheeks flush.

  “Ariya, sorry, uh sorry.” It felt good that he was reacting to me. Ridiculous distraction! Why was he able to do this to me? “I just, are you sure you want to spend time with her?” he said, going back to strictly business self.

  “Yes, James. It’s fine. I’m not a child. I can make my own decisions. You all aren’t far and I doubt anything is going to happen when I’m with a vampire. It’s fine.” He was staring hard at me, trying to get more out of me or possibly figure out the purpose behind my decision to spend time with Emma.

  “Be careful,” he replied, but it looked like that wasn’t at all what he wanted to be saying to me at the moment. No, you aren’t going to over think things again, not now.

  “I have to finish getting ready. I’ll see you later, okay?”

  “Yeah.” His mouth was set in a grim line, and he backed out of my room.

  Hurrying now, since it had taken me some time to finish with the interruption, I dried my hair and threw on a t-shirt and some jeans. My go-to would be most comfortable if I was going to be put through anything. I could move around well in the jeans I chose just in case I needed to fight back for any reason. If Emma was going to make me come with her now, I was ready. I walked into the living room and Emma smiled and asked in a bubbly voice asked if I was ready to go.

  “I thought bowling would be fun, and lunch? There really isn’t a ton to do around here.”

  “Sure.” It took a lot of hard work to smile genuinely at her. “Bye, guys.”

  We left the apartment and didn’t speak until we were quite a distance away.

  “Come on, Ariya, why so glum?”

  She was twisted. “I know why you’re getting me away from everyone. Why don’t we just get on with it?”

  “What are you talking about? I just want to spend the day with you, dear.” Then she leaned in closer. “Why would I take you when they know I’m the one who is with you? That would have fingers point straight to me if something happened. I’m not an idiot, Ariya. I know how to make things look like accidents and rule number one is always have another person, or in our case another thing, to blame such accidents on.”

  She was toying with me. She knew that saying she wanted to spend the day with me would make me assume that was it for me. That’s why she was smiling so cruelly now. She wouldn’t win. I silently swore to myself she wouldn’t be the one finish me off and that I was going to do whatever it took to beat her and protect my friends.

  We didn’t speak most of the way towards the bowling alley, which was fine with me. The things she did say were to taunt me. Asking me how James was doing, telling me that living with him was a dream. She even went so far as to start describing old steamy scenes between the two of them. This was quickly becoming the worst day ever.

  “Oh, my favorite is when he makes that noise right before he..."

  "Enough! Emma, enough. I know what you're doing. Stop it."

  My anger surprised me, although at this point perhaps it should have been considered normal to have such violent reactions to various things going on in my life. Maybe I wasn't as afraid of her as I thought. If I had to listen to one more comment about how she and James had done anything, though, I was going to punch my fist through the next wall we came across.

  "What? This is what girlfriends do, isn't it? We're supposed to be talking about guys, and since we share one, I thought we could swap trade secrets on how best to turn him on. Did anything like that with you happen? Or have you all not explored that part of your relationship yet?”

  She grinned at me maliciously and said it in such a sickeningly innocent voice. She knew she was getting to me, but for a moment, I forgot she was a vampire and I was a mere human. My hand moved to slap her across the face, but I wasn't quick enough. This was the first time I purposely tried to hit anyone in my life, so the fact that I had gone for it in the first place was startling. She grabbed my arm, growled, and spun me around so that her teeth were at my neck.

  "I don't miss feeling so out of control," she whispered before she released me. She stood before me with that evil grin of hers, proving she was in fact trying to get a rise out of me and had succeeded.

  "Don't forget who you're speaking to, Ariya. I could do quite a number on you and heal you so quickly with my blood that your friends would never know. Don't tempt me to take you before it's time."

  Her eyes had narrowed and I saw the monster I had unleashed. The darkening of her eyes was frightening. They had turned completely black and her face grew paler than it normally was. When she opened her mouth again, I noticed her front teeth had elongated. It wasn't possible for me to think of my friends in this light, but this is what a true vampire was. This is where the nightmares came from. Shuddering, I just stood there, wishing I could be stronger and ignore the fear that was gripping me. At the moment, walking away from her seemed to be the best option.

  We continued on as I clenched my hands hard into fists to try to distract me from the bouts of anger, and then pain welling up in me. How could James have ever loved her like she says he did? How was it possible? I tried not to say much more. We were almost to the bowling alley. At least I would have time when going up to bowl to get away for a second, and not have to fake anything with her.

  The trouble with a small town is you can never go anywhere without seeing people you know. As luck would have it, when we were heading to the front doors of our destination, Riley and Helen were walking up right in front of us. I stopped short, remembering the conversation he had with James at Thanksgiving. What would he think if he saw Emma and I here together?

  Helen saw me and waved before I could decide to try and bolt. It appeared there was no way out of talking to them. Riley was fro
wning as they waited right inside the front doors for us to walk in.

  “Hey, Ariya,” he said, and he nodded at Emma.

  “Emma,” she filled in for him.

  “What are you all up to?” He looked confused and rightly so. In his mind, I was at the bowling alley with James’ new girlfriend.

  “Oh, we’re just hanging out, getting to know each other. Girls’ day, you know?” Emma nudged me as she spoke to show our girlfriend status, I guess.

  Plastering on a smile that I knew Riley would see through wasn’t going to make this situation any better. Please don’t ask any questions, I thought, hoping if I repeated it enough Riley would keep quiet. I knew what he would say to me if we were on speaking terms. He’d ask why I tend to put myself in situations like this. He’d say there was no reason for me to be nice to this girl whom my ex was seeing. Not that James was my ex, but Riley saw it that way. He’d say I was being too naïve, too nice, and ask what I was thinking.

  “Huh,” he said in a terribly short, curt way. ”How do you two know each other?”

  “We’re related,” Emma giggled as Riley’s eyebrows shot up in the air.

  I couldn’t look at him for fear he would keep pressing questions on us when he saw my mortified face. Fiddling with my jacket allowed me to avoid eye contact with him.

  “Are you all planning on playing a game or two?” I asked Helen, trying to draw attention away from Emma and me.

  That was a stupid question; why else would they be at the bowling alley? For the re-heated, frozen pizza?

  “Yeah! Are you all, too? We can team up – it’s always more fun with a group.” Helen was smiling.

  I tried to put on my best genuine smile, dreading that I had even asked a question and opened my big mouth. What could I say to get out of playing with them? Spending more time around them would also allow Emma to get to know more people I cared about. The way she was eying Riley up like a piece of meat was disturbing. A shiver ran up my spine at that thought.