Broken (49 page)

He held Britney before him, ostensibly
caressing her, but in reality using her as a shield, his dark eyes
daring Alec to attack.

Britney was apparently unable to sense the
crackling power surrounding her. She looked completely unconcerned,
ecstatic even to be where she was, clasped in Brandon's left
arm.

Brandon's lips drew back, but it wasn't in a
smile, it was the human equivalent to a showing his hackles.

"Break it up! You kids back off!"

The words seemed to float in from far away.
They certainly didn't have an effect on any of the shape shifters.
Vincent was moving too slowly for my human eyes to detect any
change, but I was sure he was closer now than the last time I'd
looked.

The feeling of insects marching across my
skin intensified as James started shaking. Jasmin and Dominic both
followed suit within seconds, and the feeling doubled as several of
Brandon's wolves went into near convulsions.

"I said break it up!"

Mr. Paterson shoved his way past a pair of
Brandon's wolves, and for a split second I thought they were going
to turn and kill him. A heartbeat before they moved a low,
barely-perceptible growl washed over the entire scene.

I realized that the sound was coming from
Alec, spreading out from him in ripples of calm. As the noise
touched the shaking wolves in either pack, they calmed down, saving
Mr. Paterson from injury he'd never even seen coming.

"This ends now. I don't care who started
what, you guys are done dancing. Alec, you and your friends leave
now. Brandon, you guys are out of here in the exact opposite
direction and I mean now."

For several seconds nobody moved.

"I'm not talking because I like the sound of
my own voice people. If you leave now, I'll forget this ever
happened. If someone doesn't start moving in the next three
seconds, I'll see the whole lot of you expelled and brought up on
charges."

Mr. Paterson was still too new to know what
he was dealing with. For a moment it looked like Brandon was going
to let Vincent knock the teacher into a wall, but then he gestured
Vincent back. Brandon's pack seemed to relax slightly, and then,
presumably acting on a signal from Alec that I couldn't see,
Dominic and Jasmin fell back to help Jess and I.

Even with Dominic under my right arm, I
couldn't hop along without jostling my ankle, and I felt tears
gathering in the corners of my eyes again. Alec carefully lifted me
into his arms before I took more than two or three hops.

Jasmin had her cell phone out before she'd
even made it to the stairs, and the sound of a massive engine under
hard acceleration heralded the arrival of our limo.

I laid back in my seat as everyone else
settled into their spots. Alec pulled out his pocket square and
used it to dab away at my tears. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to set
you down so hard."

Jasmin interrupted before I could say
anything. "Any slower and you'd have been cut off from the rest of
us by those mutts."

My confusion must have been obvious. Dominic
looked up from Jess. "Vincent and Cassie cut Jess and Isaac off
from the rest of us."

Rachel leaned in so she could whisper. "Jess
is terrified of what Vincent and Brandon will do to her if they get
a chance. She collapsed, and then everyone stormed the area."

The limo hit a particularly nasty bump, and a
wave of pain drove questions about what exactly Brandon had
threatened out of my mind. I'd never noticed how bad the roads
between school and Alec's house were. Each jostle sent waves of
agony up my leg, and Jess's quiet sobs kept time to my suppressed
gasps.

It was one of the worst half hours of my
life, and by the time we made it to Alec's house, I felt like I'd
been wrung out. Alec yelled for Donovan and the first aid kit as he
carried me inside, and set me down in the living room.

Donovan appeared a few seconds later, and
edged Alec out of the way. He stripped off my shoe and then his
prodding fingers brought another couple hisses out of me as he
checked for a break. Apparently satisfied with whatever he'd found,
he pulled out a syringe and filled it from a little vial while Alec
gently scrubbed my ankle down with an alcohol pad.

"Fortuitously, it's not broken, but I'm
afraid it's one of the uglier sprains I've seen. I can take care of
the pain though."

There was a reason I'd never had the
slightest inclination to give blood, but fear of needles or not, I
couldn't bring myself to protest, so I just shut my eyes and
gripped Alec's hand as Donovan stuck the needle in several
different locations

The blessedly-welcome numbness quickly spread
out to encompass my entire foot. Working with a sure quickness any
surgeon would have envied, Donovan wrapped my ankle and then
examined his handiwork with a nod of approval.

"That should take care of the pain and
immobilize it so it can begin healing, but it is vitally important
that you don't put any weight on it Mistress Paige."

Alec gripped Donovan's shoulder in thanks,
and then nodded as Donovan excused himself to go see to Jess.

"We should go too. Poor Jess."

Alec shook his head. "They've already got her
mostly settled down. James and Dom have already split off, and
Jasmin and Rachel will leave next. She just needs some time. Time
and Isaac."

Once again it boggled my mind that they could
all live with so little privacy. Alec interrupted my thoughts.

"I'm sorry to have ruined your night. I
wanted it to be perfect. I should have known that wasn't possible.
Not with everything hanging over our heads."

It felt funny to smile. The gesture belonged
with perfect times, not ones in which people other than me were
having nervous breakdowns. Then again, a bad night with Alec still
somehow managed to beat most other good nights.

"Everything was almost perfect. If there was
anything less than ideal, it wasn't your fault."

"Still, I'd like to make it up to you."

He looked down at my ankle and then smiled
with a hint of mischievousness. "I suppose dancing is out, but I
think I've got something that'll do just about as well."

Alec carefully picked me up before I could
respond. A few seconds later we were outside, traveling through the
darkness with a breakneck speed that would've been suicidal with
merely human vision.

I was completely lost by the time we came
around a corner and my inferior eyes were finally able to see the
first hints of light up ahead.

Alec slowed, to prolong the suspense as we
got closer. Even so, it was only a few more steps before the grotto
materialized out of the darkness before us.

I'd thought it'd been breathtaking two weeks
ago bathed in the light of the full moon. I'd been amazed at its
lush beauty the couple of times I'd snuck back during the daylight.
Neither of those compared against what lay before me now.

Soft light came from dozens of floating lamps
that'd been placed in the pool, all of which gave off an aching,
white luminescence that seemed perfectly matched to the brilliant
white of the rose petals scattered over the surface of the
water.

It wasn't until we got closer that I could
make out the purple edging to the petals.

"Lagrimas."

Alec's voice was husky, "Nothing else would
be appropriate. Not for you, not tonight."

As we continued forward I was able to make
out the other additions to the grotto. The hundreds of petals had
been joined by a dozen of their potted sisters. Their rich,
heavenly scent filled the air from scores of perfect, tall buds,
and I found myself leaning forward slightly in Alec's arms in an
effort to capture more of its essence.

Alec circled the pool and then stopped before
a wooden easel that'd escaped my notice. The subtle tinkling of the
tiny waterfall behind us was suddenly joined by a slight, but
definitely cooling breeze that dove down into the grotto before
making its way back out using the path we'd just followed in.

It didn't seem fair for things to cool off
now when it was so inconvenient after so many weeks of oppressive
heat. I was still musing over the injustice of it all when Alec
shifted me around so I was held in just one arm.

"There's something I'd like you to have.
Something I hope will help you remember what you mean to me..."

He trailed off, and then seemingly at a loss
for words, reached out and lifted the black velvet that'd been
covering the painting. Another graceful gesture flipped on the set
of soft lights surrounding its border.

As always with Alec's paintings, it took me a
second before I could shift my perspective enough to translate the
beautiful formations of light into something I could tie to the
drab, dreary world I inhabited.

It was the same grotto where we now stood.
The warm glow from the climbing ivory and roses formed a backdrop
awash in the silvery light of a full moon. Just visible off to one
side was the pool, alive with enough microscopic life to give it a
pale glow of its own to compliment the off-center reflection of a
hundred tiny lights.

A few seconds later I finally recognized that
the subject of the piece was a female, reaching out towards the
point of view with glowing hands.

"She's beautiful. It's how I always imagined
an angel would appear."

Alec was silent for so long I finally tore my
gaze from his masterpiece long enough to find that he was staring
at me with surprise.

"It's you, Adri. Of course it's
beautiful."

For a second I couldn't seem to breathe. It
seemed so utterly impossible. Maybe it could've been a painting of
Cindi, but not one of me. I couldn't possibly be the gorgeous
figure he'd brought to life on his canvas.

I opened my mouth to protest, and then the
expression on her face finally registered for me. Compassion.
Acceptance of the viewer, combined with an obvious desire to mend
grievous hurts. It was exactly how I remembered feeling. My
questing eyes finally found the last, missing piece. There was the
gratitude. Misplaced on her perfect face. Wrong on the features of
someone who couldn't possibly need help from a mere mortal, but
still there.

"It's so beautiful. I don't know what to say.
Are you sure you want to give it up?"

Alec looked back up at me, and his eyes were
filled with incredible need. I was suddenly struck by the
similarities to the me he'd painted, and what I saw written on his
face.

It seemed impossible he would be unsure, that
a glorious being like him could ever need anything I could provide,
but I couldn't deny it was there.

There was no way of knowing what it was, but
I didn't care. Whatever it was he needed I wanted to give him. I
opened my mouth to say as much, but my vocal chords wouldn't
cooperate.

I was still trying to verbalize my feelings,
when his free hand came down to my chin and gently pulled it up. My
heart seemed to stutter and threaten to quit as his lips slowly
came down to meet mine.

My only other experience had been so terrible
that I nearly panicked, but before I could formulate a protest, or
even decide if a protest was what I wanted, our flesh touched. The
contact immediately drove every other thought from my mind.

His lips were the perfect combination of firm
and soft, and the heart that'd been all but stopped a second before
sped up to heart attack rates, slamming itself against my chest in
an effort to get closer to him.

All of my senses were blending together. I
couldn't tell if he smelled incredible, tasted like heaven, or if
it was all just a side effect of the energy which had gone from
tingling to crackling as soon as our faces touched.

My inhibitions, the ones that'd always kept
me from acting on the occasional amorous impulse, evaporated
sometime in the first half second, and I found myself with both
arms wrapped around his neck, clinging to him with all my
strength.

Later I'd probably claim it was to steady
myself against the wave of dizziness, but right now I knew it was
because I wanted him more than anything I'd ever experienced.

Alec pulled me away, held me at arm's length
while I gasped for air, and then once I calmed down a little, he
smiled and pulled me in close again, just for a hug this time.

I tried to turn it into a kiss, but he deftly
avoided my attempt, burying his face in my hair. "I'd like to, I
truly would, but I don't think that would be fair to you. Even
letting that happen was a mistake. I've never come so close to
losing control."

He wasn't breathing hard, and normally a
comment like that would've made me doubt his feelings for me, but
what I'd just felt was too powerful to deny. I could still see
traces of desire in his eyes; and for the first time since I'd met
him, I was absolutely positive he wasn't ever going to leave
me.

"I don't think it was a mistake. I want to
kiss you again, but I'll behave."

"You like the painting then?"

I nodded, and then shivered. It's amazing how
a near complete loss of physical control can burn through your
energy reserves.

Alec frowned, "I'm sorry. I forget sometimes
how much easier it is for you and Rachel to catch a chill. Let's
get you inside where it's a bit more temperate."

It seemed like such a waste, leaving the
grotto after all the work that'd been put into transforming it, but
Alec waved away my protests. He easily cradled me in one arm, while
carefully picking up my painting with his free hand.

A short time later, we were back inside the
house and headed towards his room. Cuddled up against his chest
with the familiar, warm tingle caressing my skin, my system
apparently decided I was completely safe, and started shutting
down. I was doing a fairly respectable job of hiding my drooping
eyelids, but all my efforts were undone by the prodigious yawn that
ambushed me as he set me down on the bed.