Splintered (Reflections)

by Murray, Dean

  "So Jasmin and I don't see eye to eye. That doesn't mean I'm going to leave her high and dry. Ben was pretty adamant about wanting the two of us there tonight to help defuse any awkwardness. It's not like she tortures kitties or anything, so if I can be there for her I will be."

  "Problems, honey?"

  Of course Mom came downstairs to catch the very last of the conversation. Thankfully I was getting good at avoiding references to anything out of the ordinary.

  "No, Mom. Just the usual teenage girl drama. Jasmin and I had a spat the other day, but she's hoping to catch the eye of one of the boys in school so we're going to meet him at the Funcade."

  I'd satisfied her with the first few words. By the time I finished up my explanation she was already thinking about some new location.

  "Okay, sweetie. Have fun, but don't stay out too late. It's a school night after all."

  "Sure thing, Mom."

  The Funcade was the only non-boozing hangout in Sanctuary. It consisted of a collection of arcade games, air hockey and foosball tables. There were a few other games and a limited menu, but it wasn't much to brag about. On the plus side, the fact that there wasn't any alcohol served there meant that my mom hadn't freaked out when I'd told her we wanted to go there. It was truly amazing how Mom could be completely disconnected from the world at large and still know which places were least likely to get me in trouble.

  Jasmin was waiting for us in one corner of the parking lot, car door open and music blaring. She nodded at me as I climbed out of Rachel's yellow VW Bug.

  "Thanks for coming."

  "Just because we had a fight doesn't mean I'm going to smash your dreams."

  "Thanks all the same."

  She stretched, allowing the white tank top to reveal a dark expanse of taut stomach. Honestly, I still didn't understand why that wasn't all it took to have Ben following her around like a homing pigeon.

  "Feels good to be able to just hang around in town without worrying about getting jumped by the other pack."

  Rachel laughed. "Right, like you ever let that stop you before."

  "Sure, but there's a difference between doing something and doing it while not having to worry about when it's going to bite you on the butt."

  We turned and started walking. The steps up to the front door had yellow tape on one side. As we got closer it became evident why. There was bare metal rebar where they'd carted away some of the concrete. It seemed kind of dangerous to me. Tape or no tape.

  Jasmin led us up to the door and then paused as if unsure how to proceed. Rachel smiled and stepped around her to get the door. Once we were inside it was easy to spot Ben. He was off at one of the tables, an order of deep fried mushrooms in front of him while he played on the game system he'd been fixing the last time I'd talked to him.

  "Hey, Ben."

  "Rach, Adri…Jasmin."

  Rachel and I made sure Jasmin was directly across from him so they'd get plenty of eye contact, and then we sat down.

  "So you got it working?"

  "Hmm? Oh, yeah. Later that day. Just took figuring out what exactly was wrong with it. Once you know enough about something it's usually pretty easy to fix it. Help yourself to some mushrooms if you want, guys. They're still warm and this is the only place you can get them in like a hundred miles."

  Rachel made some comment about the weather. I took the opportunity while Ben was answering it to unobtrusively size him up. He didn't look particularly good. His sleeves were just short enough that occasionally when he moved you could see the needle tracks. The skin around his eyes was dark and puffy. For all I knew he was high right then but I didn't think so. He was acting too normal. So not high right then, but his last hit hadn't been more than a few days before.

  Everything I'd ever been taught told me that Ben was a loser who was going to end up dead before he turned twenty; but the more time I spent with him, the more I could see what Rachel meant.

  Ben was a legitimately good guy. When he noticed one of the junior high kids the next table over watching him fidget with the Gameboy he tossed it to the kid without a second thought.

  "Enjoy, man. It's an okay game but the real fun was getting it working again. Let's go play some foosball, ladies."

  We played foosball, and air hockey, and some car-racing game that Jasmin absently smoked all of us at. I'd almost forgotten what simple, no-strings-attached fun was like. By the time we were inching towards my curfew, things were going really well. We had him opened up and talking about some crazy computer game he'd spent the afternoon playing.

  "I'm telling you guys, Zombie Realms is the best way to kill time you'll ever find. I mean there's like a zillion things to do. Grouping, soloing, raiding. We should get a group together some time. There's a free trial account so you could try it out and I've got a couple extra old computers that I fixed up and upgraded just enough to handle the game. If someone has a laptop or something we could all four play at the same time. I mean, if you guys want to."

  That last was said looking directly at Jasmin. It was actually pretty cute how into each other they were. Unfortunately Jasmin still wasn't her normal, unruffled self where Ben was concerned. Rachel jumped in before the silence got too awkward.

  "Sure, that sounds like fun. I'll bring my laptop and we can all do it. Depending on how many people you can put in a group, if you want we could bring Alec or Dom."

  "Sure, bring them both if we can round up machines for them."

  We were slowly headed outside, neither Jasmin or Ben willing to hurry our departure. Ben grabbed the door, holding it open for Rachel and me to go through. He followed Jasmin through and I happened to look back just in time to see him trip and start falling.

  Jasmin moved quickly, too quickly actually, but he was too far gone, already halfway down to the dangerous rebar by the time she grabbed his arm. Rachel screamed as Ben landed, rusty iron stuck through his thigh.

  Rachel and I hurried down the stairs, getting there just after Jasmin who'd jumped, landing gracefully between two of the metal rods. She already had her cell phone out, handing it to Rachel as it started dialing.

  Jasmin pulled me down next to Ben so I could support his head and shoulders while she ripped his pants leg away so she could see the wound. Rachel got through to a dispatcher while Jasmin started applying pressure.

  "We need an ambulance. Yes, someone's been hurt. At the Funcade."

  "Adri, talk to him while I work on this leg. Is he responsive?"

  My throat had completely dried up. It took two tries to get the words out.

  "Ben, can you hear me? Ben?"

  Having something to do focused my mind. First-aid basics started coming back to me. His breathing was shallow. I patted his cheek but got no response.

  "I don't know, can't you just get someone here? How much longer?"

  Jasmin shook her head. "The EMT's are probably still at least five minutes away. I think it ripped his femoral artery. Direct pressure isn't doing the trick."

  I hadn't had the benefit of the anatomy classes that Donovan had forced the pack through, but even so I knew that was serious. If an artery got cut you usually only had seconds before the person bled out.

  Jasmin undid Ben's belt and wrapped it around his thigh a couple of inches above the wound. A scrap piece of rebar finished off the tourniquet.

  "Rachel, tell them they'll need something to cut the rebar with."

  Rachel dutifully repeated Jasmin's instructions as Jasmin pulled my free hand over to where I could keep pressure on the tourniquet. I happened to be looking at Ben's face as she broke contact with him. It went from pleasantly blank to excruciating pain in a heartbeat. As Jasmin picked his arm up to check his pulse the pain faded back away.

  The dispatcher interrupted with more questions before I could act on what I'd just seen. "She says to check his pupils. He hit his head pretty hard."

  "They're staying dilated. Tell her he probably has a concussion."

  My throat had constricted again. "Jas
min, I don't think he has a concussion. At least that isn't all he has."

  Jasmin rounded on me with the barest beginning of a tremor to her hands and then forced herself calm again with a visible effort.

  "What do you mean?"

  "Let go of him for a second."

  For maybe the first time in my life I saw Jasmin, always put together and in control Jasmin, go white.

  "Jas, I think he's addicted to you."

  Chapter 14

  The EMT's didn't understand why Ben started thrashing when they pulled Jasmin away from him, but it only took them a second to realize he calmed down as long as she was touching him. They let her stay as they pushed Rachel and me further back so they could get some kind of power tool close enough to cut him free.

  By that time a crowd was starting to gather. The owner of the Funcade was among the watchers and I could tell he was thinking 'dead boy' and 'lawsuit' with about equal frequency.

  As the ambulance drove away with Jasmin and Ben in it, Rachel handed me her phone. A short while later Mom blessed our trip to the hospital and Rachel and I were on our way.

  The hospital was just waiting followed by more waiting. About midnight Mom called Rachel's phone and told me she'd be excusing me from school the next day. I managed to get permission to stay a little while longer so I could find out what Ben's surgeons said and then went back to waiting.

  About a quarter to one I got one of the better surprises of my life. I was lying back in a fairly uncomfortable chair when I heard familiar footsteps. As I opened my eyes Alec pulled me up into his arms.

  "You're back!"

  "I'm so glad it wasn't you."

  "Me too, but I'm worried about Ben. He's been in there for hours and nobody will tell us anything."

  Alec nodded and pulled his phone out. "Let me see what we can do about that."

  While Alec stepped away to make his call I noticed that Jasmin was awake. Once the doctors had put Ben under there hadn't been any need for her in the operating room so she'd been relegated to the waiting room with the rest of us. She'd curled up on a couch and closed her eyes.

  "Hi, Jasmin. Alec is going to see if he can get us an update."

  "Doesn't matter."

  "What do you mean? We've all been going crazy out here wondering what was going on."

  "He's going to survive. I couldn't stop him from falling, not without revealing what I was. I had a second to choose and I chose to obey Alec's orders. I let him fall. I kept him from being impaled through the chest, but in the end it doesn't matter."

  "You're not making sense. Of course it matters. You saved his life."

  "I saved his life, but addicted him to my touch."

  "So? He's addicted to half a dozen other things. That hasn't stopped him from functioning. He'll go through rehab or whatever and get over it."

  "It doesn't work like that. You don't know him. The things he can kick he avoids. Best case he'll never speak to me again. Worst case he'll follow me around like a puppy, only it won't be him, it will be the addiction."

  I opened my mouth to try and offer comfort, but Alec was walking back over, Rachel a few steps behind him.

  "Ben's stable. They've finished repairing the artery in his leg and they're just about done closing him back up."

  Whatever Jasmin might have said was cut off by Alec's phone ringing.

  "This is Alec."

  For the first time in ages I was actually able to hear Donovan on the other end.

  "Sir, you'll need to come home now. Your presence has been requested by the Coun'hij. Agony arrived about twenty minutes ago."

  None of it made any sense to me, but the very way that Alec's voice became cold and uncaring told me things weren't okay.

  "Have they hurt anyone yet?"

  "That is a relative concept. Nobody has been…permanently damaged."

  "Do what you can to guide Isaac and James through the minefield. I'll be home in ten minutes."

  Alec slammed his phone shut and turned to Jasmin. "We're leaving now. Rachel, take Adri home and then meet us back at the estate. Don't dawdle, but call when you're still a couple of minutes away so we can send out an escort. We can't afford a misunderstanding."

  Alec's phone was ringing again, but he ignored it, turning to me as he dug a business card out of his pocket. "You have to do exactly what I tell you. Go home and stay with your mom. If she's going to be gone for more than a few hours then call this number and ask the person on the other end to give you a ride into town. Stick to places with crowds as much as possible."

  "I don't understand. What's going on?"

  Rachel's phone was vibrating now, but Alec refused to be distracted.

  "Adri, focus. This is important. Don't spend any time alone that you don't have to. If necessary lie to your mom. If you can somehow convince her to take a weekend down in Vegas or up in Salt Lake, all the better. This is the whole reason I've tried to keep you in the dark. With any luck they'll decide you are a non-combatant and choose to leave you alone rather than suck you deeper into a world you're not supposed to know about."

  Rachel held her phone up. "Alec, it's Donovan. He says to tell you that Adri's been specially requested."

  "Damn it."

  I still didn't know what was going on, my mind was spinning like a bunch of stripped gears, but I was pretty sure I'd never heard Alec swear before. I followed the others out to Rachel and Alec's cars in something very near a daze. A shaking Rachel threw Jasmin her keys and then climbed into the back seat of Alec's Porsche.

  Alec had his phone back out. He was talking to someone named Shawn, but I didn't even try to follow the conversation. I'd had too many shocks in too short of a time. Rachel was putting on a brave face but I could tell she wasn't holding up a whole lot better.

  As we rounded the last couple of bends before the estate, Alec closed his phone again and turned to me.

  "Rachel has an idea how things are going to go down. She's been preparing for this her whole life. Whatever you think you're getting into, though, it's going to be worse than you could possibly expect. Don't speak unless spoken to, don't volunteer any information you don't have to when they do ask you questions, and stay near one of the hybrids. Jasmin will do in a pinch. I'll do everything I possibly can to keep you both alive."

  There were two huge guys waiting outside Alec's house when we arrived. I didn't recognize either of them, but there was no mistaking the low-level buzz of shape shifter energy. Jasmin pulled up a second later in Rachel's car.

  Alec led us up to the newcomers. "Agony requested our presence, take us to him."

  "Right. You know my favorite thing about going out on visits with Agony?"

  The shape shifter who had spoken was a black guy with dreads and facial piercings who looked like he could have given Brandon a run for his money in an arm wrestle.

  "I don't particularly care why you do what you do, Abaddon. Mostly it just matters that you've chosen to do so."

  "Ah, Graves. You're too much like your dad. That's the beauty of things though. You pissant pack leaders all start out so high and mighty, but by the time we leave you always bow and scrape just like you're supposed to."

  Alec's fists went white. Whatever he might have said was interrupted by Jasmin.

  "I find it equally interesting that someone of your breeding would abandon the position of his pack to go fawn over the Coun'hij. Did you lose any sleep when the Sacramento pack tore your friends apart?"

  "Your girl's got a mouth on her, Graves. You should do something about that before she gets hurt."

  Alec's smile highlighted the ice in his eyes. "Jasmin's as dominant as they come. She can say pretty much whatever she likes. If you want to call her on it be my guest, but you might want to do your job and get us to Agony before letting her rip your throat out."

  Abaddon pointed at the door. "Oblivion, lead the way."

  Oblivion looked like a recruitment poster for the Aryan Nations. Blond hair, blue eyes and a complicated web of tattoo
s up his arms that was oddly surreal. Oblivion looked at Abaddon for several seconds, as if to establish that he wasn't scared of the darker shape shifter, and then turned and opened the front door.

  We went through the halls in a clump. Jasmin, then Rachel and I holding hands in a desire for communal reassurance, then Alec with Abaddon taking up the rear.

  I'd spent weeks in the Graves manor and still didn't know all of it. We were quickly led to a sub wing I hadn't ever explored, and down three flights of stairs.

  The room waiting at the bottom had been carved directly out of the rock the house had been built on. The lighting was provided by a series of candles and torches. The flickering illumination concealed almost as much as it revealed.

  Alec took my hand as Abaddon moved around us to stand next to Oblivion. We were another few steps into the room before Alec's hand tightened around mine.

  It took a second for my mind to process what I was seeing. Isaac and James were in the front of the group, both sporting a large collection of gashes. I had a split second to wonder how hard you had to hit a shape shifter to make them bruise like that and then my gaze moved on to the other members of the pack.

  Jess and Dom had both shifted forms and their normally lustrous coats were heavily stained with blood. Further back, Jack, Alison and Sam had also shifted forms to reduce their vulnerability to attack. None of them had escaped without wounds either.

  Andrew and Addison, Jess's father and James's mother looked less the worse for wear than anyone else, but were both trembling with fear. Everyone was scared, but the older pair looked as though they'd already seen this course of events play out and knew the ending was going to be ugly.

  Standing almost to the very back of the group was Donovan. The old shape shifter was still in his human form, still unbowed, but the right side of his face was a mass of bruises and blood. The sight drew a gasp from me, but it was nothing on what I felt when I saw Alec's mother lying motionless behind Donovan.

  I half started forward, but Alec's grip stopped me from completing the motion. Jasmin was suddenly at my side, between Rachel and me, her voice low. "She's still breathing. She probably freaked out when Agony arrived and had to be tranqed."