Destiny Binds (19 page)

Charlie peppered me with questions about school as I dug through the cabinets in search of a Pop-Tart. I wanted to laugh at the absurdity of it all. We were really supposed to sit around, eat a casual breakfast, and have prosaic conversation? They were planning an assault just five minutes ago! How could they change gears so quickly?

“Where are you going?” Charlie asked as I made my way out of the kitchen with my generic strawberry toaster pastry in one hand and a cup of acerbic liquid in the other.

“I was thinking about hitting a few sales on Sunset and then heading down to Chateau Marmont to spend the afternoon lounging by the pool while Jensen Ackles feeds me peeled grapes.”

“Sunset is overrated, and you hate grapes. Stay and play with me.” Was it horrible that part of me wanted to do just that? “Canʼt. Iʼve got a ton of errands to run.” I hurried out of the room before Charlie could respond, knowing that if I lingered he would convince me to stay.

As far as Mom and Dad are concerned, Iʼm the good twin. Jase isnʼt necessarily bad, he just has a habit of attending out of control parties, staying out past curfew, and giving misinformation as to his whereabouts. On the other hand, I have our librarianʼs home number on speed dial. For that reason, my parents never considered that I wasnʼt telling the truth when I said I was spending the night with Talley.

I blamed Alex for my subterfuge. He hadnʼt answered any of my texts or voicemails, which left me with no other options. It wasnʼt exactly as if I could tell my parents that I was going to traipse through the woods looking for my boyfriend, a wolf, to warn him that my brother, a coyote, was planning some sort of attack. Iʼm not sure which part would come closer to giving Mom a coronary - that Jase was a Shifter, or that I had a boyfriend I failed to mention.

I studied the map one last time before getting out of the car at Pelican Landing. According to the good people at the Lake County Visitors Bureau, Chestnut-Oak was three miles due east. I decided the best option was to simply start walking in that direction and hope Alex picked up on my scent before he Changed. With any luck, I would come up with a contingency plan before the sun disappeared.

I hadnʼt been in the woods long when the clouds began to roll overhead, causing a premature loss of the sun as a directional guide. Since I had skipped the whole Girl Scout thing in favor of activities Jase and I could do together, my ability to navigate in the wilderness was fairly pathetic. As far as I could tell, moss grew on more than one side of a tree and the compass feature on my phone was less than helpful. I would have called Talley, whose mother insisted on an outdoor survival seminar two summers ago, but the trees blocked all reception.

The most logical thing would have been to follow the lakeʼs edge around to the Chestnut-Oak campground. Unfortunately, the lake wasnʼt where it was supposed to be. I was stomping around in circles, trying to figure out where someone could have hidden a freaking lake, when the first raindrop fell. It was quickly followed by a million others. The thunder and lightning werenʼt far behind.

My options for shelter were pretty limited. I eventually found a place where a large tree had fallen over onto a big rock near the base of a hill. It wasnʼt the Hilton, or even a nice dry cave, but it blocked some of the wind and rain and could possibly prevent anything from smashing in my head.

The rain was cold. Not just cold, but icy cold. In fact, I felt certain there was sleet mixed in at times. As the wind ripped through the flimsy protection offered by my hoodie, I began to realize the fairly hopeless situation I had gotten myself into and began to pray that either the storm would pass over or that some kind person would come to my rescue.

Apparently, Alex wasnʼt the only one avoiding my calls. Or maybe God just didnʼt feel the need to answer the prayers of complete morons.

The last time I checked my still serviceless phone, it was just before two. After that, I couldnʼt seem to get my fingers to work well enough to dig into the pocket of my soaking wet jeans. My last thought before closing my eyes was that this was an exceptionally stupid way to die.

***

When I first heard my name I thought I was delusional, or that an Angel of Death had come to call me from this world to the next. Either way, it didn't seem worth the effort to open my eyes.

I decided to go with the Angel of Death theory when I felt my body being lifted off the ground. Apparently, he decided if I wasnʼt going to get up and follow him to Heaven, he would just carry me through the Pearly Gates. Of course, that was assuming I was going to Heaven.

According to what Reverend Jessup taught from the pulpit every Sunday, I was good to go, but what if God wasnʼt Southern Baptist?

What I needed to do was to get a look at my angel. Surely a demon from Hell looked different than one of Godʼs messengers. If it was a demon, there was still a chance I could escape, provided my legs remembered how to work, although that was seeming a bit doubtful.

Finally, my curiosity won me over and I lifted my exceptionally heavy eyelids. A pair of steely grey eyes met mine.

“Alex?”

“Heʼs heading this way. Are you okay?” he asked with a complete lack of concern.

“I think so,” I said. Or, at least, I tried to say. It sounded more like “Hubbla ho.” Another face appeared in front of mine. This one had grey eyes too, but they were filled with a mixture of worry and relief. “Youʼre going to be okay,” Alex said, his blazing hot hands caressing my face. “Weʼve got you. Youʼre going to be fine.” I smiled, grateful that God decided to answer my prayers after all. And with that thought I returned to the beautiful oblivion of sleep.

***

I was lying in bed, enjoying the feeling of being cocooned in the blankets, when Angel shifted beside me.

“Did you have a bad dream?” I mumbled, my eyes still refusing to open.

“The worst,” said a voice that did not belong to a six year old girl. “But then I found you, and now everything is okay.”

My eyes finally flew open and darted around in utter confusion. This was not my bed, not my room, and definitely not my little sister.

“Good morning, Sunshine,” Alex said, brushing a strand of hair from my face. “How are you feeling?”

My memory started coming back to me in bits and pieces. Dark woods. Violent storm.

Valiant rescue. I could vaguely remember what had felt like a stinging hot shower, despite Liamʼs gruff warnings about watching the temperature and Alexʼs assurances that he wasnʼt an idiot. I remembered having to muster all my strength to put on the pair of sweatpants and Tshirt Alex gave me because, despite my depleted state, I knew I couldnʼt stand the embarrassment of either of the Coles seeing me naked. I softened at the memory of falling asleep in Alexʼs arms.

“Better,” I finally said.

“You had me worried.” Alex leaned forward to kiss me and I jerked back, throwing a hand over my mouth. His eyes flew wide open in shock, causing him to look a bit like an anime character. “Whatʼs wrong?”

“Morning breath,” I said, my hand still planted firmly over my mouth.

I couldnʼt tell if Alex thought I was being adorable or insane; those looks were fairly interchangeable on him. “The bathroom is through the living room and kitchen, on the left.

There should be some new toothbrushes in the top, right hand drawer.” I muttered a thanks and bolted. Even without the directions, the bathroom wouldnʼt have been hard to find. Alexʼs home proved to be a very small trailer, or maybe “pre-fabricated home” was the more PC term. It only took me three strides to cross the living room, but two of those put me between Liam and an episode of
NCIS
he was watching with the volume turned off.

“Sorry,” I said, keeping my head down and wishing I was invisible.

“For what?” he asked, stopping me in my tracks.

He was sitting in the middle of the couch, the roomʼs only furniture, a brown bottle clutched in one hand. I was once again struck by how he simply looked like a bigger, angrier version of Alex.

“Iʼm sorry,” I repeated. Liam just continued to stare at me in a way I had never experienced before. I was used to indifference, annoyance, curiosity, and disdain. With Alex, I had even become accustomed to being stared at with adoration. Hatred, the pure, unadulterated form that was radiating off of Liam, was new.

To be fair, he had every right to hate me. It was my fault that Alex forced him to live here. I was the one that put them in danger from the Hagans and the Alphas.

“Iʼm sorry for everything.” My voice was a whisper, but it was all I could manage with my throat so constricted. It didnʼt matter anyway. Liam was a Dominate. His hearing was so good he could probably hear my thoughts.

Apparently, my response suited him, or maybe he decided I wasnʼt worth his effort. Either way, he released me from his penetrating gaze and turned his attention back to a silent Abby and DiNozzo.

I practically flew into the bathroom, grateful to have a door between me and Liam. The top, right-hand drawer did, in fact, have new toothbrushes inside. It had like fifty of them, all wrapped individually in plastic.

The reflection staring back at me from the mirror was not encouraging. Dark, bruise-like circles shadowed my eyes, my lips were chapped to the point of cracking open, and a wind burn had my face a rather unattractive shade of red. I quickly learned that boys do not keep moisturizer in their bathroom, which was rather unfortunate. At least there was a hair brush to work all the tangles out of my hair. I would have felt a touch more confident going back to Alex if I had a straightening iron or some concealer, but I had to abandon that dream. When I finally made my way back to Alexʼs room I kept my head down and eyes averted, grateful Liam chose to ignore me.

Alex had fallen asleep. His left arm was flung up over his head and his body was turned so that my original spot on the small, twin-sized bed was left open. It looked so warm and inviting that I was already crawling between the covers when it occurred to me that my parents might not approve of such behavior.

I was frozen, half-in and half-out of Alexʼs bed, the angel and demon on my shoulders really going at it, when Alex reached for me. “There you are,” he said, his voice thick with sleep. He pulled me down onto his chest and I made no move to resist. “I missed you.” I sighed as I snuggled into him. His body was so warm. I didnʼt think I would ever be warm enough again.

We lay in silence for a long while. I would have thought he had drifted off again, but his fingers were combing through my hair in a lazy, soothing manner. As I listened to the steady thumping of his heart, I took in my surroundings.

Alexʼs room was much tidier than my own, but that could have just been due to necessity.

His bed and chest of drawers took up nearly all of the floor space, leaving just enough room to walk around. His school books were stacked on top of the chest of drawers next to a picture of an attractive looking couple. The woman was long and slender, exuding a dancerʼs grace even in stillness. Thick, wavy brown hair framed her heart-shaped face. The man had a ruggedness about him, like I had always imagined a rancher would look. He had obviously passed on his grey eyes to both of his sons.

The only other decorations in the room where some newspaper clippings taped to the wall beside the bed. There were five of them, and they were all of me.

“Youʼre thinking that Iʼm a crazy stalker person, arenʼt you?” Alex asked. He must have been paying more attention than I thought.

I rested my chin on his sternum so that I could see his face. “You are a stalker,” I said.

“What else would you call a guy that follows you around in his sleep for ten years?”

“So you think Iʼm a creeper?”

I reached up and kissed the underside of his jaw. “I think that youʼre my hero. Thank you for coming to my rescue.”

“Anytime,” he muttered into my hair. “No, I donʼt mean that. What I meant to say was, donʼt you ever scare me like that again. What were you doing out there?”

“Ummm...I was coming to save you?”

“Save me? From what?”

“Jase. And Charlie.” I still had trouble saying Charlieʼs name in front of Alex. It was due in equal parts to the pang I got in my chest, and the look on Alexʼs face. “I overheard them planning to do something to you last night. When you wouldnʼt return my calls or texts, I decided to go look for you.” Really, it seemed like a sound plan at the time. “Then I got lost and that freak storm came up out of nowhere.”

“The storm came from Arkansas, which is not technically ʻnowhereʼ. Theyʼve been talking about it on the local weather for nearly two days now. Youʼre lucky we didnʼt get the tornadoes they were predicting.”

“You do realize that you have an unnatural fascination with weather forecasts, right?”

“Too bad I canʼt make some of it rub off on you,” he snapped.

“Iʼm sorry,” I said as I tried to disentangle myself from his embrace. “I didnʼt mean to make you angry.”

His arms tightened around me, holding me fast. “Iʼm not mad at you. Honestly, I donʼt know if itʼs even possible for me to be mad at you.” He loosened his hold and began tracing patterns along my spine. “Iʼm upset by the whole situation. This...
animosity
the Hagan pack has towards us is ridiculous. Someone is going to end up getting hurt and for what? Turf? Pride?” The hand on my back had clenched into a fist. “Liam thinks we should just leave, move back up north. Itʼs the only conversation we have anymore.”

“Where will you go?”

“Weʼre not going anywhere.”

I was selfish enough to be happy at his declaration. However, I was also practical. “Why not?”

“Do you want me to leave?”

“God, no.” It was bad enough when he was gone in November. I couldnʼt imagine how painful it would be if he left me now. “But I do want you to be safe.” Alex let out a single chuckle. “Itʼs not me Iʼm worried about. I know how much you care about Jase and the others. You wouldnʼt be able to forgive me if one of them got hurt.” I thought perhaps he wasnʼt giving the Hagans enough credit. “And then thereʼs you. None of us would be able to live with ourselves if something happened to you.” I could think of at least one exception. Liam would probably throw a party if I got good and battered. He would declare it a holiday if I managed to go off and get myself killed.