Descendant (12 page)

I could almost feel the color draining out of my face. Was I real y that easy to read? The thought annoyed me—until I remembered something. She didn’t have to read my body language. She could hear my thoughts. I real y, real y needed to learn how to keep them from doing that.

“I can teach you,” Vanessa said sheepishly. “But until then, I’ll try not to listen in. I didn’t actual y mean to do it then. It just sort of happens sometimes...like when you’re around someone who’s feeling particularly emotional, and you’re not consciously blocking it out—sometimes thoughts just end up in your head, whether you want them to or not,” she explained. “But anyway, I’m out of your head now—promise. So talk—why are you so worried?

I didn’t real y feel up to talking, but it wasn’t like I could keep her out of my head even if I wanted to. But if I talked, maybe she real y would keep out of my head and I could actual y have a little controll over the conversation. “…I feel like he’s mad at me,” I said. “That’s why I was hoping he was coming. I wanted to talk to him.”

“Mad?” Vanessa repeated airily. “No, I don’t think so. He’s just not feeling well —that’s why I came instead.”

“He’s sick?”

“He went to bed as soon as we got home, and hasn’t come out of his room since.”

“Oh…” I said, frowning. “Do you think it has anything to do with what happened this afternoon…?” Vanessa looked confused, so I continued: “I mean, he fought, and was hurt…

confused, so I continued: “I mean, he fought, and was hurt…

he said he was fine, but he was bleeding an awfull lot…”

Saying those words out loud somehow made the gravity of the situation even more unbearable. “Ugh…I didn’t even thank him.”

“You were a bit distracted,” Vanessa said tenderly. “It’s been a difficult past few days for you…don’t be too hard on yourself.”

“But…”

“No buts. Now c’mon—if you’re real y that upset about it, why don’t we hurry up and get back? Then you guys can talk and sort things out.”

“…Okay.” I still wasn’t convinced that setting this right was going to be that easy, but I stepped forward anyway.

“Good,” Vanessa said with an approving nod. “So…Kael told me you were fast. But can you keep up with me, I wonder?” She turned and bolted across the yard.

I wasn’t real y in the mood to race, but I wasn’t about to turn down what sounded like a challenge, either. Much to my own surprise—and apparently to hers as well , judging by the look on her face—I managed to catch up with her in no time. Being able to move this fast…it was unreal. And so bizarre it was almost terrifying. What exactly was happening to my body, anyway?

We reached the cabin as quickly as if our destination had been the house just down the street rather than one a difficult, thirty-something mile hike away. We burst through the front door, still giggling from the invigorating run, and headed down the hall and into the kitchen.

Will and Eli sat on barstools around an island in the kitchen’s center. They looked up at us as we walked in, and I got the feeling we’d interrupted them somehow.

“Hey girls,” Will said. “Have a seat.” He gestured to the empty barstools across from them.

“Are you hungry, Alex?” Eli asked.

“Not especial y,” I said.

“How is Kael?” Vanessa asked. Wow. She didn’t waste anytime, did she?

“About the same,” Will replied with a shrug. “He came down to get something to eat a few minutes ago, though.”

“So he’s awake?”

“I guess…Why?”

Instead of answering Will , Vanessa turned to me. “You should go talk to him. His room is up the stairs at the end of the hall …it’s the first door on the right.”

“Um…” “Go on,” Vanessa insisted, putting an arm around me and steering back toward the door. “While it’s still early —you’ll be too...busy…to deal with it later.”

“I guess that’s a good point.” My stomach gave an unpleasant lurch. I’d been so busy worrying about everything with Kael, I’d almost forgotten why I was here in the first place. Somehow, I’d forgotten what was going to happen after the sun went down tonight.

So maybe this thing with Kael was weighing a little more heavily on my mind than I would’ve liked to admit. So that settled it—I was going to have to take care of it. I couldn’t stop myself from giving Vanessa one last nervous glance, but then I set off down the hall without looking back.

I made it to the top of the stairs and stopped. Kael’s door was cracked open, and a faint light spilled out from it and into the dark hallway. I took a few more steps, but my courage failed again just outside his door. There, I lingered for at least a full minute before I final y managed to wrap my fingers around the cold metal doorknob. I pushed the door fingers around the cold metal doorknob. I pushed the door open and stepped inside as quietly as I could manage.

Kael was lying on a bed in the corner with one arm across his face. It was covering his eyes, making it impossible to tell whether he was awake or not.

Maybe I should just come back later, I thought, taking a half-step backward. If he was sleeping, I didn’t want to wake him up—especial y if he wasn’t feeling good. I’d retreated almost entirely back into the hallway, when he moved suddenly. I froze.

“What are you doing in here?” he asked. He kept his arm over his face as he spoke.

“I was just…I just wanted to come check on you,” I said, taking a wobbly step forward. “Vanessa told me you weren’t feeling too good.”

“I’m fine.”

“Oh…That’s good.” I fidgeted with the sleeve of my jacket.

“Don’t you have somewhere to be?” Kael asked.

I frowned at the abruptness of his tone. “Not right this second,” I said.

“Well can’t you go find someone else to bother?” he asked, roll ing over on his side so that his back was to me. “I’m trying to sleep, in case you didn’t notice.”

I could feel the color burning in my cheeks. “Why are you being so rude?”

“Me? You’re the one who invited yourself into my room.”

“I was coming to check on you!”

“Well I’m fine,” he said.

“Fine!”

“Okay.”

“Good!”

“Alright then.”

Bal ing my hands into angry fists, I turned and stomped toward the door. I’d made it about half way there when I suddenly remembered the reason I’d come up here in the first place. I real y didn’t want to turn around and thank him after he’d just been so incredibly rude to me—but I had already walked all the way up here…

“Thank you, by the way,” I said briskly, turning back around to face him.

“For what?” he asked, roll ing halfway back over and glaring at me.

“For saving me earlier,” I spat, turning and resuming my stomp toward the door.

“If I’d realized then what a pain you were going to be…”

“What? You would’ve let Sera kill me?” I asked.

“I’m just saying I would’ve thought twice about getting involved. It was real y your problem, anyway—you brought it on yourself.”

I spun around, glaring incredulously at him.

“I told you it was dangerous to go off alone,” he said, sitting up and looking directly at me for the first time since I’d entered the room.

“You didn’t actual y think I was going to spend the rest of my life locked in my house, did you?”

“The rest of your life?” he repeated with a hollow laugh.

“Like we could expect that out of you. But even if we did, “Like we could expect that out of you. But even if we did, what would it matter? We would’ve been wasting our time.

You couldn’t even last one day.”

“So I—“

“You were too selfish for that, weren’t you?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Too selfish and too stubborn to let anybody tell you what to do—even when those people were trying to save your life.”

His words stunned me into silence. I stared blankly, my mouth dry and hanging halfway open in bewilderment. Was he real y that upset with me for not listening to him? When I final y managed to unstick my tongue from where it had lodged in the back of my throat, I could think of only one thing to say:

“You’re a jerk.”

“Ouch,” he said, lifting a hand to his heart. “That real y hurts.”

“This isn’t why I came in here,” I said, shaking my head.

“Well the door’s over there,” he said, pointing. “Feel free to leave at any time.”

“I was just on my way out, actual y,” I said through clenched teeth. I left without another word, and made sure to slam the door as hard as I could behind me. The pictures on the wall were still rattling from the slam when I reached the stairs. I could feel the sting of tears in my eyes. They didn’t fall , just formed a wall of water that blurred my vision and made walking down the winding stairwel kind of difficult.

I was angry. More angry than I’d ever been in my life. It wasn’t just because of Kael, either. His hatefull words triggered it, but the anger had been there—boiling beneath the surface, waiting for this opportunity to erupt.

I couldn’t take this anymore. I missed my father. I missed my normal, boring life. I wanted to go back, back to before I’d ever known anything about this horrible fantasy. Back to before I’d accepted this all as real, and decided I’d embrace it. Back to before I’d accepted the crazy idea that becoming a monster was my fate.

That was only this morning. I could still take it back, right?

Sure I could. I could go and tell Eli and the others right now.

Tel them I wanted out. Tel them I wanted to stay human—and they could take care of whatever threatened me and my family.

I heard their voices now, and I followed them to the room at end of the hallway. On the wall to my right, their shadows danced about in the light of a fire that I could hear crackling.

I paused, watching and wondering if it was too late to decide this.

Probably.

I should still go ask them, I told myself as I wiped away a few tears clinging to my eyelashes. But I didn’t move. I just stood there, alone, in the middle of the hallway.

“Alex?” Vanessa called. I heard her footsteps moving toward the hall , and I considered running and hiding somewhere. I didn’t want anyone to see me like this. I only had a split-second to decide; there was a door to my left so I sidestepped quickly and threw it open—to reveal a closet crammed full of coats.

“Alex?” Vanessa’s voice was followed promptly by her appearance as she peered around the closet door I was still holding open. “What are you doing?”

“…Nothing,” I said quickly. “I mean, I was just checking out this closet.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. It’s… nice.”

Vanessa gave me a look that was half-concerned and half-amused. “Do you want to talk?” she asked, gently prying my hand from the door handle and closing the door.

I wanted to say ‘no’, but for the second time that night my tongue seemed to be stuck. Before I could free it, Vanessa had one hand on my back and was guiding me down the hall and eventual y into a room on the right, just before we reached the stairs. The room, which looked like a small study, was dimly lit by a lamp sitting on a corner table.

Vanessa walked over to another lamp on the opposite side of the room and turned it on. But even with the light of both lamps, the room still seemed unnatural y dark.

“Alex?” she said uncertainly, turning to face me. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” I said, attempting a reassuring smile.

“You’re a terrible liar,” she said, raising an eyebrow.

I sighed, and let my forced smile slide back into a frown. “I know.”

“Did you go see Kael?” she asked. Her eyes held a knowing look, and I wondered if she was reading my thoughts.

I squirmed a bit, uncomfortable at the thought of having an audience for this embarrassing mental breakdown I was having.

“…Yeah,” I said.

“I take it the visit didn’t go very well ?”

“That may be the understatement of the year.” Vanessa looked at me expectantly, and I reluctantly elaborated: “We didn’t talk long. He seemed very…agitated.”

Vanessa nodded, looking unsurprised. “He doesn’t mean anything by it,” she said.

I gave her a skeptical look.

“I’m serious,” she insisted. When my doubtful gaze didn’t waver, she let out a good-natured sigh, shaking her head.

“It’s just… the way he is. He’s got a bit of a temper to begin with, and he’s sick…” She hesitated, then added: “and not to mention worried.”

“Worried?” I repeated.

Vanessa didn’t reply right away. Her eyes darted around, as if she was searching for eavesdroppers, then she leaned forward and spoke in a voice barely above a whisper:

“Look—don’t you dare tell him I told you this. He’d kill me if you did.” Her wide brown eyes were centimeters from my green ones. “Promise you won’t say anything?” she pressed.

“…I’m not going to,” I said.

Her eyes lit up at this, and all of a sudden I felt like I was back in junior high swapping secrets with my best friend.