Marked (The Pack)

by Cox, Suzanne

  I gave a half smile. “Yeah, I guess now they’ll have to lock us both up.”

  I climbed in and Louise helped shut the door. The window between us rolled down. I glanced at Aaron who winked at me.

  “Remember, you can come back to stay with me next summer.”

  “Will you be here?”

  “No, sorry, but we could come spend a week or so here to visit.”

  “That would be good.”

  “I’m guessing it’s not me you want to see.”

  “I will want to see you, but I’d like to come here for a visit.”

  Louise smiled. “We’ll try and work it out.”

  Aaron started the car and we pulled away. As we went under the first of the trees overhanging the drive, I hung out the window and waved. Louise gave a big wave back. Settling into my seat I rolled up the window. In the front my mother had the visor down, mirror flipped open. She gave me that searching look again. I smiled at her. She openly stared at me in the mirror for a few seconds then snapped it closed. I was still smiling when we rolled onto the highway. The woods and moss and swamp that had seemed so foreign before, were like old friends to me now. The sun was beginning to shine through the tree limbs and make the dew drops sparkle. The cemetery appeared. I leaned forward, then quickly rolled down my window and stuck my head out again.

  “Stop!” I shouted.

  Aaron complied immediately without question. Halfway across the cemetery grounds I could see the woman wandering among the ancient tombstones.

  “Wait here. I’ll only be a minute.”

  I jumped from the car and shoved through the squeaky gate. Angeline Aucoin heard the noise and paused where she was to wait on me. Skidding to a stop I opened my mouth, but closed it, not sure what to say.

  “Goin’ home for a bit?”

  “Umm yeah. My parents came back and I’m going home now. Aunt Louise says I can stay with her next summer. We’ll come here to visit for a week or two. So maybe I’ll see you.”

  Angeline stared at me. “He won’t be here then.”

  I stiffened. “What do mean?”

  “The boy, he and his folks only been here a year or so. I’m thinking they’ll be movin’ on soon. Don’t know that they’re the homestead type. Construction business round here is slow. He’ll make more money somewhere’s else.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “His people come to my place. They talk.”

  “Where will they go?”

  “I’m not knowin’ all that, now.”

  I stood quiet for a minute, chewing my lip. Not sure what to think of Angeline’s information. Eric hadn’t mentioned moving, but his parents might not have said anything to him. They might not have made a final decision. Angeline could, of course, not know what the hell she was talking about either.

  “Well, I guess I should go now. I wanted to say goodbye. Tell Raina goodbye for me too.”

  “You’ll see her again.”

  “You think so?”

  “This ain’t over yet, girl.”

  A shiver ran through me even though the morning sun was already heating the air. “What do you mean?”

  “You heard me. You not done yet. Lots more for you, girl. Lots more.”

  “I… I have to go.” I turned and started to run, not bothering to shut the gate behind me. I hit the back seat with a thud.

  “Let’s go.”

  “You didn’t shut the gate, Alexis.”

  “She’ll get it.”

  “No bother, I’ll get out and shut it.”

  “Mom, leave it. Let’s go.”

  My mother stopped in motion. Aaron didn’t give her a chance to rethink it. He started the engine and pulled back on to the highway accelerating to the speed limit then passing it quickly. I took a deep breath and let it go slowly.

  “Friend of yours?”

  I glanced at Aaron and briefly wondered how much he really knew. Why hadn’t he gone running for the hills or at least refused to let me come home with them.

  “Kind of a friend,” I said softly.

  He nodded and kept driving. I didn’t know what else to say about Angeline, except that the woman said things that made my skin crawl.

  ***

  The trip home seemed to take half the time as the trip down to Lebeaux, even though in actual time it was the same amount. My mind had raced until finally I fell asleep. We’d driven straight through and pulled into the drive of our house in the middle of the night. Stumbling inside, I turned on the light in my room and went in to sit on the bed, still made exactly as I’d left it. Aaron came in with my big suitcase and set it down.

  “Want it anywhere in particular?”

  “Nah, it’s good there.”

  He stood there for a minute shifting his weight. “I hate you had to have a bad summer. You’re mom said it was unavoidable. I’m not sure I really agree.”

  I patted the bed beside me and he came to sit. “Don’t worry I won’t bite.”

  He laughed out loud. “I’m not worried, Lex, not for myself. I’m worried for you.”

  “I’ll be fine.”

  “So you keep saying, and your mother and aunt. Just remember you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to.”

  I gave him a half smile. “Actually, I’m kind of stuck with some of it. Can’t fight those old genetics, you know.”

  “One day they might find a cure, some kind of genetic treatment.”

  “I don’t really think they’re looking too hard. I think the people who are like this, sort of don’t mind.”

  He frowned. “But you mind.”

  “It’s all really new to me. I don’t like what I am, this thing that’s in me. But I can learn to handle it, just like somebody handles not being able to hear or some other disability. Though this isn’t really a disability. It’s more like a lot of enhanced abilities. I can do stuff other people can’t do.”

  Aaron tilted his head. “Really, like what?”

  “Oh, like throw you through that wall over there.”

  His eyes widened and I laughed. He started laughing too.

  “Okay, you’re kidding. I thought you were serious for a minute.”

  “No, I’m completely serious, but I wouldn’t do that.”

  He sobered. “You’re really that strong?”

  “And fast too. And there’s a lot of other stuff I think I’ll be able to do over time. Oh, and you can’t kill me. Well, you can but it would be extremely difficult.”

  He stared at her. “I promise I don’t have anything like that in mind.”

  I wadded up the t-shirt that had been lying beside me on the bed. “I know. I’m sorry you got caught up in the middle of this. My mom probably should have told you about me or the possibility of what could happen before you got married.”

  He tilted his head. “She did. You didn’t know?”

  “No, you guys have kept everything from me.”

  “I think your mom and aunt see how wrong that was. But you’ll have to educate us from here on out. I don’t know much else.” He put an arm around my shoulder and hugged me. “I guess we all need some rest now. Things will get back to normal or at least a new kind of normal. Let me know what I need to do to help.”

  “Thanks Aaron.”

  After he left I gathered my pajamas, the ones in the drawer that hadn’t made the trip to Louisiana, then headed to my bathroom for a shower. Somehow I didn’t think I could sleep until I’d washed away what my mom called “traveling dust”. This is what Angeline was talking about. There was more for me to learn and many more adjustments for me to make. That had to be it. But as I turned on the shower, a flash of blurred images raced through my mind. I felt a heaviness weighing on me, nearly crushing me. A premonition of something I couldn’t identify. I stepped under the hot spray wishing I’d never stopped at the cemetery on the way home.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  “Alexis Miller, back in the country.”

  I looked up from my ham sandwich at L
indsey Caine. Blonde, rich, beautiful and recently released from spending her summer under house arrest.

  “I was in Louisiana, not out of the country.”

  “Same difference. When did you get back?”

  I refrained from rolling my eyes, though it was difficult. “Hmm, let’s see, we’ve been in school for two weeks now, so about two weeks.”

  “You’ve been here?” Lindsey twirled a strand of blonde hair around her finger. “I can’t believe I’ve missed you.”

  “You didn’t. I spoke to you last week.”

  Lindsey did a good job of trying to appear shocked. “I don’t think so, Alexis. I know I haven’t seen you.”

  “Whatever.” I took a bite of my sandwich and waited for the other girl to move on. I’d decided on day one of school when my old so-called friends walked past me with a new group of eager recruits that I simply didn’t have time for that now. It wasn’t like I could ever tell them about myself.

  “You’ve changed, Alexis.”

  “Maybe so.” I said.

  “So, do you want to come over and sit at our table?”

  A year ago I’d lived to sit at that table, but now I realized surrounding myself with people like Lindsey would get me nowhere. Lindsey had no idea of the things that went on in the world, in my world.

  “No, I’m good. I’m almost finished.”

  Lindsey waited for a moment, possibly believing I would rethink my answer and join them. But I took another bite of sandwich and chewed until she gave up and walked away. I took a drink of juice through the straw of my juice box and tried not to think how Lindsay’s blond hair reminded me of Channing, then of course the image of the last time I’d seen Channing, headless, immediately came to mind. With a shiver, I took another swig of juice.

  “Turning down a seat at the table of the goddesses, that’s kind of weird.”

  I jerked as a brunette with super short hair slid into the chair next to me.

  “Do I know you?”

  “Sort of. I’m Emma Wright. I was here last year, but you were caught up with that crowd. I don’t think you actually saw me at school.”

  “Sorry, I didn’t realize what I was doing. Or maybe I did. I don’t know. I can’t explain it.”

  Emma laughed. “No need to explain.” She nodded her head toward the table Lindsay had returned to. “That’s kind of a high school nirvana for most people.”

  “Not for me, not now anyway.”

  “I figured you’d get it eventually.”

  I glanced at the girl. “I’m Alexis Miller, by the way.”

  This time Emma laughed even louder. A group at the end of the table glanced at us.

  “Sorry, Alexis, it’s just…” She tilted her head slightly toward me and her voice was lower this time. “I know you and though you didn’t see me at school, you did see me last year. You don’t remember it. I’m guessing you would now. I heard you had a little awakening this summer.”

  My eyes widened. “How do you know anything about me?”

  “I told you, we ran together last year, at night. But my parents got a call right before school started. They told me you had become aware of what was going on.”

  I put what was left of my sandwich down on the plastic it had been wrapped in. “Why haven’t you said anything before now?”

  “I was waiting. I wanted to see what you wanted, what you were going to do. I didn’t want you to know about me if you were going to stick with them.” She bobbed her head in the direction of Lindsey’s table. “I didn’t want to risk you telling them about me for some reason.”

  “I wouldn’t do that.”

  “I can see that now, but I didn’t know before.”

  I lowered my voice also. “How long have you known, about yourself?”

  “I had my first becoming over a year ago. But it was different for me. My parents are… that way. They helped me out.”

  “Couldn’t you have come to me and told me?”

  Emma set the water bottle she’d been holding on the table. “You’ve got to be kidding. Can you imagine what you would have thought of me? It wasn’t my place to tell you something that big.”

  I twisted my juice box. “Yeah, you’re right. It was really hard at first.”

  “It’ll get better.”

  A buzzer sounded over the intercom ending the lunch period.

  Emma bounced to her feet. “I’ll see you later, maybe we can hang out on the weekend.”

  “Oh, okay.” I watched Emma leaving. She smiled and waved to different people. I realized I’d spent the entire past year so busy ingratiating myself into Lindsey’s small group of friends that I’d lost sight of all the other people I went to school with. As though they didn’t exist. What else had I missed out on? Gathering my paper and empty juice box, I dumped them in the garbage and headed to class. For the first time since school started, I was excited about the new year.

  My excitement didn’t last long. With one class left for the day I ran by my locker to exchange books. My hand froze before it could reach the book I needed. For a few seconds I couldn’t breathe, then I jerked my head from side to side looking up and down the hall. Was someone watching me? Was the person who left this picture of Channing lying on top of my books hiding where they could see my reaction? I wadded the picture into a ball and stuffed it in my purse, trying to keep my heart from racing. I thought of running home right now, but they’d turn me in missing from my last class and someone in the office would make the “your daughter is skipping” call. I couldn’t explain this to my mother, not when I didn’t know myself what it meant.

  The bell rang and I hurried to class. Taking my cell phone from my purse, I stuck it in the waistband of my pants. Five minutes into the posted writing assignment, I went to the teacher’s desk and asked to go to the restroom. Pass in hand I went to a set of bathrooms on a hall with several empty classrooms. I checked each stall to make sure no one else was in there. Then I scrolled through my phone contacts until I found the one I wanted. Pacing the small room, I waited as the phone rang then someone picked up.

  “Aunt Louise.”

  “Hey, Alexis, aren’t you supposed to be in school?”

  “I am in school. I’m in the bathroom right now.”

  “Are you okay? You sound panicky.”

  “Someone left a picture of Channing in my locker. It has a combination and I’m the only one supposed to know it.”

  On the other end of the phone was silence. I didn’t know what I was expecting, some immediate reassurance that everything was okay, that this kind of thing was normal in werewolf land. I waited for Louise to speak, but all I could hear was an occasional breath and maybe footsteps like she was walking through the house. I couldn’t stand it any longer.

  “Aunt Louise.”

  “I’m on my way.”

  That definitely wasn’t what I expected to hear. “What? You’re coming here? You can’t get here immediately. What am I supposed to do?”

  “Do what you normally do, only don’t go running around by yourself. I’ll be there tomorrow.”

  “The picture, what does it mean?”

  Silence again, then finally, “I don’t know.”

  “You don’t know.” I held the phone away and stared at it. “You know everything.”

  Louise laughed, but I didn’t think it was very funny.

  “I don’t know this.”

  The phone went quiet. I stared at the bathroom floor then jammed the phone back in my pants and went back to class. Just when I thought life would be normal for a minute, I get this rude awakening. My life would never be normal again. I wished I’d never met Channing, but then I might not have ever met Eric. All I wanted was to get home and burn the picture in my purse.

  I found that staring at the clock on the wall of my last period class definitely made the time pass more slowly. When the bell finally rang I felt as if I’d ground my teeth down to the gum line. Crushed among the crowd, I flowed out the door and onto the sidewalk then
turned toward the bus stop. I couldn’t go home and sit by myself so I’d decided to take the city bus to my mother’s office and wait to ride home with her. Aunt Louise would have to explain this. Hopefully by the time she got here she’d know more than she had on the phone.

  I never made it to the bus stop. I halted mid-stride then my mouth moved but no words came out. Five feet away Eric grinned uncontrollably. I made two steps. He rushed the last three and caught me in his arms.

  “Bet you didn’t expect me.”

  “I can’t believe you’re here. You said it would be weeks.”

  “True, but I couldn’t wait weeks. I realized my uncle only lives an hour and a half from here. So I came to visit him.”

  “What about school?”

  “I took a few days off.”

  “Your parents were okay with that?”

  “Hey, it’s my senior year. I’d taken so many classes last year and before I got to Lebeaux, there really wasn’t much for me to do.”

  I stared at him, shocked, amazed and more than happy. Then the realization came. I had danger awaiting me, somewhere. Glancing around, I tried to imagine who could have left the picture. I wondered if they were watching.

  “Alexis, are you okay?” Eric caught both of my hands in his and kissed each one.

  “I’m… yeah, I’m fine, perfect. I’m surprised to see you.”

  He let go of my hands and tangled his fingers in the strands of my hair. He leaned closer until our faces were only inches apart.

  “I needed to see you, to make sure you were okay now that you’re home.”

  I stood on my tip toes and kissed him. “Why wouldn’t I be doing okay at home?”

  He shrugged. “I thought maybe those friends of yours that ignored you all summer might be giving you a hard time.”

  I shook my head and we bumped noses. “Nope, I’ve decided to ignore them.”

  He hugged me laughing. “Good for you. Now, can I drive you home, or are we going to stand on the sidewalk all day.”

  “I was really going to my mom’s office.”

  “Let’s go then. I’ll take you there. I can’t wait to meet your mom.”