“Only thing Sanders, Dari’s dad, wanted from Bliss. It’s some kind of rare stone to protect the wearer from possession and other metaphysical entanglements he said. It’s kind of a welcome to the family gesture. Makes you all warm and fuzzy, don’t it?” Satan said with a smile that was truly horrific in his grinning skull. It almost distracted me from the others. I should have run from the uncles closing in on me but instead I stood there, holding the cord in my large, scarred hand, swinging the stone back and forth.
“Welcome to the family?” They were there. It was all the uncles, every single one besides Grim in the darkness of the winter rose garden waiting for the order to attack.
“Yeah. For the Intended, it’s not bad. Most fathers would stick something in your ribs for spending unchaperoned time with their daughters.”
I stopped breathing, so still that I could have been made of stone, motionless. “Intended?” The word came out different than all the other words, angry, dark, there was curiosity and something more there, something vulnerable.
Satan grinned. “You didn’t drain her dry. You’re supposed to be dead. Of course, since Dariana had her soul when we came back from Bliss, it was assumed that you were probably at large. I don’t know many people who work the death angle as successfully as you. At any rate, who else would be as lethal as you, who liked her for more than her ability to liven up an art show? You mentioned protecting her like you’ve put some thought into it.”
“I’m a Hybrid. I don’t have a House.”
Satan waved his hands dismissively. “Ancient House of Carlisle is enough.”
“My father’s house?” My voice was thick with disbelief. “There is no House of Carlisle.”
Satan shrugged. “Dari’s mother, who still has her guardianship, approves if conditions are met, which apparently, they are. You showing up all altruistic gives me the idea that you actually like the girl.”
“What do you want from me?” My voice was completely empty, void of emotion and attachment.
“Don’t die until she’s under control. That’s all. She needs you if she’s going to survive.”
“She’s nothing but soul bait to you. Why should I try to keep her alive only to be sacrificed for the good of the cause?” I asked in a cold hard voice that could chip ice.
Satan shrugged. “Lliam House of Caresh, Raoul House of…”
“All vying for the honor of playing guardian to the sacrificial lamb—she must feel very flattered.” I held the stone up before my eyes and took in the dull red color, like dried blood. “Victus sum.”
I held up the stone slowly, then taking a deep breath, dropped it over my head.
***
I sat up breathing hard, my legs tangled in the sheets and clothes that had managed to get twisted while I’d been sleeping. The bright room was still lit with the fluorescent bulb that I’d left on. With a thump I managed to land on the floor, twisting my wrist when it hit the ground, making me yelp.
The door flew open, my mother standing with her hands like claws, as she swept the room with her cold gaze. “Bad dream?” she asked in a low voice even as she smoothed her dark suit with hands suddenly pale and innocent.
“Mother, what are you doing here?” I asked, cradling my hand even as I tried to untangle my legs.
“We got here right after you fell asleep. Did you hurt your wrist?” My dad asked from behind my mother.
“Yes, but it’s not important. What was the stone? I know that stone,” I said, finally managing to get to my feet, trying to pull on my boots with one hand. The stone was the right size, the right shape to be the one that Devlin always had, the one he’d held sometimes when I thought he was looking at me, the one he’d probably had when he’d been killed. It would be the one with the right future, the future that Devlin had sacrificed my soul for. I blinked as I realized that they were staring at me like I spoke gibberish.
My mind raced as I tried to decide what to tell them and what to keep to myself. “I know about Lewis, that you set him up to be my Intended, some sort of guardian. You gave him the stone. What will they do to him?”
My parents both stared at me with identical blank faces.
My dad spoke first, his silvery eyes compelling me to calm down. “You have blue hair. I like it. I’d hoped that you’d stop dreaming him once your souls were straightened out. I haven’t given you anything to help you sleep for a long time. Maybe it was his painting that kept your soul in your body for so long.” My dad spoke thoughtfully, as though it was a philosophical treatise we were discussing. It made sense though, because the other time I’d dreamed him I’d been at Snowy’s house instead of in my room with my magic Axel.
“Can a painting do that?”
My mother shook her head, turning towards the hall to edge around him, giving him as much room as possible. “I’m still not convinced that this is the best way of keeping an eye on him while ensuring her safety,” she murmured, then louder, “Since you’re awake, let’s get some ice on your wrist and go home.”
“I don’t need any ice, I need answers. The best way to what? You don’t have to keep your eye on him. He should be free to do what he wants. I’m not going anywhere until I know for sure that Lewis is okay after running into the Uncles. Satan can’t be happy after what Lewis did to his face.”
“Dari,” my dad’s voice was gentle but there was steel underneath it that was a warning to somebody. “Lewis is under my protection, protection that I take seriously. Lewis did of his own volition enter the grounds of Slide in pursuit of Satan. The arrangement has already been made. You saw Lewis accept the stone?”
I nodded.
“Then he has agreed of his own free will to act as your Intended. That means he is one of us, something close to a Son or Daughter of Slide. There isn’t anything worse that they could do to him than take away his independence, but he did that to himself.”
I stared at my dad, seeing how much he hated losing his independence to my mother’s House, but there was something about that. Satan didn’t act like my father was a slave to the House, but something else entirely.
My father sighed. “In all honesty, Dari, Lewis hardly needs my protection. He knows what he’s doing. He’s half Wild, but capable of being as scheming and manipulative as any of them, begging your pardon, Helen.”
My mother’s face stayed the cold still mask. She didn’t acknowledge his apology any more than she’d noticed the insult. She was the only one who was still autonomous.
“Alex, are you coming?” my mother asked, quietly, but there was impatience beneath the calm.
“Will you go check on him?” I asked, grabbing my dad’s hand. I’d seen the uncles around Lewis. I knew that he was outmatched. My father looked down at me with his silver eyes, narrowing for a moment before he ruffled my now blue hair with a slender hand.
“Slide is a House of its word. Slide follows the Code as strictly as any House I’ve met. I’m sure that doesn’t mean anything to you…”
“What is the Code?”
“The House,” my mother said. “Cannot misrepresent. You, while training should refrain from sarcasm and any other hint of untruth. The House has its own plans for Lewis, not the least of which is to be your protector. They aren’t about to damage an asset.”
“That’s right,” my dad agreed giving my mother a small smile. “If Lewis has agreed to be your Intended then the House has given him their name, their protection from other Houses as well as from the members of the House. He might be held at the House until the ceremony, but he won’t be harmed, at least not more than he can handle. I’d rather escort you and your mother back to Sanders. I’m not saying you need my protection, but with all that’s happened tonight, it seems better to err on the side of caution. Do you mind?”
I looked up at my tall, lean, father, then at the hall that led to the kitchen where Grim had been pinned on the wall. The last time I’d insisted on protecting someone hadn’t really worked out very well. “He’s not as invuln
erable as everyone seems to think he is. If you’d seen him mostly drained by Jason…” I shivered.
He put an arm around my shoulder, walking with me after my mother, his comforting calm spreading through me at his touch. “You’re right. He has a weakness now that he’s never had before. I’ll return to the House after we get you home. I think we can make his weakness a strength. Maybe after all of this is done, you’ll be able to protect him.”
I leaned against him, glad that he’d mostly convinced me that Lewis would be okay. I hated that—me being a weakness people could use against him. That had to change.
Chapter 7
“Nobody got killed and Smoke even likes it,” I said, pushing my French fries around my tray, not looking up at Snowy and her fake cheerful smile, like I couldn’t tell when she was trying not to explode from holding back whatever scathing thing she had to say about my hair. It was the next day at school, and I could barely cope without Snowy’s trauma. Every time I closed my eyes I saw Grim stuck to the wall, or worse, saw Lewis’s glowing eyes. He was real, alive, at the House and tasted like fresh strawberries.
All day it had seemed unreal to go to school like everything was normal, particularly in Sewing class while Smoke went overboard with his ‘go-anti-normal-behavior-blue-hair-rocks’ speech. There were way bigger things than my blue hair. I’d wished he’d just be all, ‘yeah, cool’, but instead the whole Sewing class was staring at me when he was done, staring at my hair. I sewed more crooked seams with everyone staring at me than I had since the first day I began Sewing, either that or because my hands were trembling. Which was okay, because my project was horrible anyway. I should never have gone with purple satin for my first pair of pants.
“That’s so great. I’m glad to see your friends rallying around the…” she bit her lip, stopping the flow of the near insult. “Speaking of friends, have you seen Ash lately? I bet he’d love your new…” she shuddered slightly before spearing her grilled chicken with her fork.
“So,” Valerie said, sliding into the seat beside me, invading my space with her voluptuous self like Snowy’s table wasn’t completely off-limits. Her shimmering golden hair hung around her in waves, kind of a different look for her, but it didn’t make her look any softer, not with the way her eyes bored into me. Valerie hardly ever even came into the cafeteria during lunch, since it was Snowy’s territory. Snowy never ventured into the parking lot or the little café a few blocks away where some of the high school kids went for lunch, including Valerie. I’d never before fully appreciated not having Valerie in the same room as Snowy while I tried to eat.
“How many Smurfs were sacrificed for the glory of your fabulous new ‘do?” she asked, leaning her perfect chin on her hand, showing her flawless red manicure even as she smiled at me wickedly.
“Hi Valerie. Smurfs?” I asked, wondering if that was a color, like chartreuse or something else.
“Valerie,” Snowy warned, but I didn’t care about her insults, I mean, she was scary, yeah, but I didn’t actually care what she thought about me, not like Snowy.
“She doesn’t know what Smurfs are,” Valerie said, smugly, like that somehow made her point.
“No TV in her house,” Snowy answered, glaring at Valerie like she was hideously rude to bring it up.
I bit my lip, refusing to refer to the time at the movie theater when Valerie had seen the damage I could do. I shrugged off the guilt. She was one of the people who knew about Wilds, since she was one, although I still didn’t know why she’d chosen my town to live in.
“Valerie, what do you know about the person who wanted my brother dead, the one who hired Jason?” I ignored Snowy’s gasp, focusing on Valerie’s narrowing perfectly plucked eyebrows above her astonished emerald eyes.
She covered up her shock with a mocking smile. “Playing detective? How cute. I’ll send you a magnifying glass for your birthday. Is it true what I heard about Axel becoming Intended to Slide?”
“What?” Snowy asked, and I realized that with all the blue hair intensity, I’d completely forgotten to give her a run-down of all the other adventures I’d had. It had slipped my mind between the hair, or the fact that I was tired enough to sleep through my last two classes and still feel groggy and not up to sitting between Snowy and Valerie. Who was I kidding? On my best day I wasn’t up to sitting between them. I felt like a human shield between two atomic bombs.
“What does Intended mean?” I asked Valerie, giving Snowy an I’ll-tell-you-later glance that I hoped would keep Snowy from pulling her gun on me, only she probably wouldn’t have her gun at school, maybe nail clippers. I shuddered thinking what she could do with nail clippers, or worse, tweezers. Then again, that might be more pleasant than enduring more of her, I-thought-we-were-friends look with the big eyes and you-betrayed-me, pouty lips.
Valerie smiled cattily. “Knowing you, and knowing Axel, I’d say it means whatever he wants it to mean.”
“That’s not very helpful,” I noted.
“No help would ever be enough for you,” Valerie said, stealing a fry off my plate before getting up and showing me the backside of her extremely tight jeans as she left the table, apparently mission accomplish.
“It’s amazing that she can walk in those,” I said then added, “And in heels. Sometimes it’s kind of impressive how she works it. Mostly just annoying.”
Snowy only shook her head while she glared at her chicken.
“Did anyone ask you, or did they go ahead and engage you without your permission?” she asked in a low voice I could barely hear.
I blinked, surprised that she would go from being mad at me to my mother’s House with barely a breath. I blinked again when the word, ‘engage’ penetrated my over tired brain. “Er, I think he’s like a guardian, not an engaged person.” I shook my head, feeling my lips buzz like he’d left an imprint on my mouth. “No, they didn’t ask me. I think it all happened rather suddenly.”
She looked at me incredulously. “Aren’t you furious with him? He lied to you,” she reminded me. “He kissed you when you were underage and I thought that…” Her eyes narrowed. “What happened? Don’t tell me you actually agreed to meet with him and let him be part of your future,” she said, all intense, worried, and yeah, still mad. “I thought that you were interested in someone worthwhile for a second there, but I guess not.” She rose gracefully with her tray in one hand then waltzed off, leaving me there in a room full of other people who were trying hard not to stare at me. Snowy hadn’t been loud, but Valerie coming in and being chummy attracted all kinds of notice. Hopefully no one had heard about Lewis and stuff like my being engaged, or whatever. I started getting up, then froze as I remembered a part of the dream, the part where Satan welcomed Lewis to the family. It had meant something about welcome to Slide, not welcome to the family because we were engaged, hadn’t it?
And my Trainer was Intended to Slide, did that mean he was engaged to someone? Unless he was engaged to one of my uncles that only left my mother. I shook my head as I took my tray to dump it, knowing that I didn’t know, but would certainly be asking questions of the next relative I saw.
I came up short at the doorway as the Vice Principal, Ms. Clutch, blocked my path and looked down her sharp nose at me even though I was taller than her.
“Hey, Ms. Clutch,” I said, wondering why she was looking at me with that deadly stare. It reminded me of Ms. Briggs and the way that she could make you feel guilty even when you’d done your homework.
“You’re coming with me to the principal’s office,” she said, before turning and marching ahead of me over the marble floors, beneath the beautiful stained glass skylight, and through the long hall lined with lockers where people stared, or pretended not to stare as I followed behind, feeling like there should be bagpipes or something to play as I went to my doom.
Once we turned into the office beneath one of the twin towers, she marched straight to the principal’s door and rapped twice before entering, not waiting for any summons. I gave
a sort of smile to the secretary where she sat with poised nail polish brush, the bright pink of the wet polish somehow more foreboding than blood red would have been, before hurrying after Ms. Clutch.
The principal, Mrs. Hunt had pretty blond hair and a nice smile, at least every other time I’d seen her she’d had a nice smile. This woman still had the blond hair, but the lines of her face were so serious and the opposite of kind, strict and angry actually.
“Hi, Mrs. Hunt. You wanted to see me?” I asked, dropping into a chair with a sigh as I wished that I’d stayed home from school just so I could catch up on some of the sleep I’d missed, what with the sneaking out, the skewered uncle, and of course, the drive home where my mother had spent feeling angry, frustrated, worried, so that without lecturing me verbally I felt the burden of my actions.
“It has been brought to my attention that one of our students has failed to meet one of the codes of dress and conduct as clearly stated in the student handbook.”
I blinked at her. She tightly smiled and looked at me piercingly.
“There’s a dress code?” I asked, wondering what this had to do with me.
“The handbook is clear on the point of dyed hair,” Ms. Clutch said, leaning against the big oak desk with one hand while frowning at my offending hair.
“My hair is against the code?” I asked fingering a few strands and feeling a mixture of bewilderment tangling with amazement that they would bother writing down something that arbitrary. “Why? It’s a color. Who would be offended by a color? Isn’t there something in the handbook about diversity? Individual rights?”
As they looked at me, Mrs. Hunt with her stern expression and Mrs. Clutch like she was about to torture something innocent and enjoy it, I realized that I was the one in trouble, that what had seemed like an innocent thing at the time had become an issue for other people. It was scary and creepy to have Ms. Clutch glare at me, but I hated seeing Mrs. Hunt’s disappointment, like she’d expected better of me.
House of Slide Hybrid Page 13