Forbidden (18 page)

Alek shut his eyes. What would that have been like? To come from a human upbringing into both a massacre and a shifter society in crisis? He was amazed she wasn't insane. She must be one tough lady. He opened his eyes and tried to convey his admiration. “That had to have been rough. I'm impressed.”

“Not a cake walk, I'll admit. So there's not much here that can throw me off my game.” She paused and stared directly into his eyes. “Not
much
.”

Time seemed to slow while he drowned in the cool blue of her eyes. It wasn't until Scott uncomfortably cleared his throat that he blinked and shook his head. He shouldn't be liking her this hard, this fast. She wasn't staying, after all. This was just a way station on her way somewhere else. “Yeah, so … we should probably get cleaning.”

*   *   *

Claire blinked, feeling sound come back to her in a nearly audible
pop.
“Yeah,” she replied. “We should clean.” Light was edging the top of the mountain. The whole town was in the shadow, so it would be nearly ten when the sun was visible, but it was getting quickly light. She scooted out of the car with Scott holding the door. He seemed like a really nice guy, but not really her type. But it was obvious that she and Alek were tight. She'd have to corner him somewhere and ask him more about Alek's past. Against her better judgment, she was liking the gray wolf. She was still furious at him for getting her into this mess, but she was realizing that becoming the Omega would have happened one way or another. She was pissing off nearly everyone she met, and she wasn't even trying.

Scott started getting trash bags and bottles of cleaner from behind the seat. She decided to go inspect the bathrooms to see how bad they were. After the school boys' room, she didn't have high hopes. She walked in the women's room and … it was immaculate. The floors nearly sparkled and the scent of pine cleaner filled the air. Even the shiny metal strips that passed for mirrors over the sink, as well as the basins were spotless. “Wow, this is going to be pretty easy. Doesn't anyone ever come here?”

There was no answer from the boys. She went around the other side of the building to see what the men's room looked like. The roiling of negative emotions put her into a sneezing fit. Anger, betrayal, frustration, worry—all rising from Alek, with Scott bleeding all the worry with a healthy dose of fear. After the fourth sneeze, she was able to catch a clean breath of air. She peeked past them into the spacious men's room. It was the same, spotless. “What's up? Did someone get here before us? Will we get in trouble
again
?” She'd pretty much resigned herself that a beating was coming. Possibly more than one.

“I am getting
sick
of this shit!” Alek turned on his heel and brushed past her so fast she nearly tripped trying to get out of his way. He stormed off into the distance, headed back toward town. He broke into a run that made him just a blur of motion in seconds. She was surprised he could move that fast. He'd been pretty beat up in the accident too.

“Alek!” Scott called out after him and took a few steps before remembering she was there. “Aw, hell. He's going to die. He's an idiot and he's going to die. Get in. We need to try to stop him.”

She jumped in the front seat and hurriedly buckled her seat belt, wincing as pain shot across her back from the motion. Scott started the car and threw it into gear. “Why? What's happening?”

He turned his head briefly to catch her eye. “You met Denis, right? I think you got here about the time when Dad picked him up from getting arrested.”

She nodded. “He had to stay overnight because Alek was helping out with the accident.”

“Yeah, well he got picked up for tagging the bathrooms …
these
bathrooms, with spray paint.”

She was confused. “So why is it bad that the paint's been cleaned up? Isn't that what's supposed to happen?”

Scott sighed. “Alek is convinced that the mayor and police chief have been sweeping infractions under the rug … burying them so nobody outside of town finds out. What we can't figure out is
why.
”

Should she tell him? No. Not yet. First she had to find out who could be trusted. Right now, he and Rachel seemed the most likely to have information. She wanted to cultivate that so they could help her find what she needed. In order to do that, she had to make them trust
her
. “But wouldn't you, of all people, know?”

He raised his brows and flicked his eyes toward her before looking out the window again, scanning for Alek. “Why would you say it like that?
Of all people?
”

She shrugged, trying to personalize the comment so it didn't seem like an accusation. “In our pack, the Omega has more knowledge than anyone. Everyone talks in front of Juan like he's not there—like a waiter in a restaurant or a hairstylist. I've always been amazed at the things he hears. He knows
all
the secrets and his continued safety hinges on the fact that nobody dares tick him off or he'll reveal stuff they don't want other pack members to know.”

Scott was quiet for a long moment. “I do hear stuff, and I know stuff. The problem is I don't have anyone to tell who cares. I would
love
to have an hour in a locked room with a Council member. There'd be a well-deserved bloodbath in this town.”

Wow. She hadn't expected that strong of a reaction. That was
very
useful knowledge. “But you don't know why they'd want to hide infractions?”

Another silence and he tapped his finger on the steering wheel. “I have a pretty good idea. That's why we need to stop Alek. He's headstrong and way too honest for his own good. I don't dare tell him what I know because I can see him blundering in and accusing them of things. True things. And they'll just kill him.”

“Ah.” There was nothing more to say to that. They probably would. And knowing that the people in charge were capable of just killing him might just keep her alive.

“I like you, Claire. I think you're smart, like Alek. But you're realistic, like me. Alek is a little too idealistic. He believes that everyone should
want
rainbows and sunshine. But you and I … we know that a lot of people want bad things.”

How well she knew. “Yeah. So playing stupid is a good idea?”

He laughed, but there was a bitter, dark edge to it. “And playing dead. Keep your head down … don't let them know you have brains, and play dead if they find out you're smarter than you look.”

 

CHAPTER 14

Alek stared at the closed door for a full minute before raising his hand to knock. This wasn't where he'd planned to come. When he left the park, he had every intention of racing back to town and confronting Lenny in his office—demanding answers about every suspicion he'd been swallowing for ten years. But his mind kept going back to the scene in the school, with Rachel on the ground, stunned, and Claire the warrior, holding the attacker at bay. And then … and then, her backing down and lowering her eyes.

Why?

He knocked and it sounded so muted in relation to the screaming of questions in his mind. He wanted to pound, to kick, to yell.

But the tiny knock produced results. He heard soft footsteps inside and then the door opened. Rachel was indeed in pajamas, pale yellow flannel with tiny ducks. The color made her skin glow with an inner light. The hand not on the door held a bag of generic frozen peas to the side of her face. She seemed surprised to see him. But not nearly as surprised as he was to be here.

“Got a minute?”

She shrugged. “Sure. Do
you
?”

“I'll make time for this.” She backed up, clearing the way for him to walk in. He realized he'd never been in her apartment before, even though she lived in the same building. He was on the first floor, she on the second. But that one flight of steps seemed a million miles away today.

He stood in the center of the small living room and wasn't sure where to start. Rachel seemed to smell his turmoil and touched his arm. “Why don't you sit down? Something's wrong, isn't it?”

He sat on the floral couch, immaculately clean but several decades out of style, like pretty much everything else in the room. “Why did you put up with being the Omega? Why haven't you left … gone home, joined another pack or just escaped? Is what I saw today
really
your life?”

She sort of fell back into the chair, her face clearly stunned. “Wow. That is
so
not where I thought this conversation was going.” She tossed the bag of peas to him and he caught it. “You need those more than I do. I'll go get another bag.”

“Thanks.” They were still frozen and felt good in his hand. He tentatively raised the bag to his eye and felt the cold sink into the heat from the swelling. She was back in a minute and sat down in the same chair across the coffee table from him.

After a pause, her scent settled into an odd combination. Guilt, shame, pride, and hope mixed with other things. “Is that my life? Yes. It has been for the past four years. Why haven't I left? I don't have anywhere to go. Just like a lot of us.”

“What about your family? Didn't you have a parliament somewhere?”

She shook her head. “Y'know, for growing up in the same house, we really don't know much about each other. Didn't you notice that it was really easy for me to talk to Claire, like we were friends from a long time ago?”

He nodded. He
had
noticed that. “I just figured you guys clicked. Sometimes people do.”

“True. But sometimes, it's because you shared a common past. Claire and I were locked in the same prison, a few cells apart—kidnap victims of the snakes. That's where we met.”

She was serious. He felt the bag of peas slip through his grasp, hit the carpeting before he could stop them. “But you're an
owl,
not a snake. And you grew up in a house of owls.”

Rachel laughed, but not happy laughter. Bitter. “And because I'm black and the Williamses are black, and we're owls, we came from the same place? Is that what you mean?”

“No!” he exclaimed quickly, shocked by the implication enough to feel his face get hot. “I mean … I just … Oh, hell, Rachel.” He threw himself back into the cushions. “I don't know. I feel like I'm coming out of a fog that I've been in for my whole life.”

“You sort of are. You've always been wrapped up in stuff and don't really pay attention. It's just who you are.” He felt himself sputter, trying to think of a response that didn't sound stupid, but she waved it off. “Don't worry. I know it's not malicious, Alek. Heck, half of the family didn't bother to ask my past, and I haven't asked theirs. That part of us, what used to be before Luna Lake, it just disappears into a mist. But I don't have a home to go back to. At least not one that would celebrate, or hell, even
recognize
what I've become.”

“Like Claire.”

Rachel flipped the bag of peas over and put it back against her eye, twisting her body so she was sideways on the chair and could rest her elbow on a pillow. “Probably. We were both raised human, not part of the Sazi world. How do you go home again and explain to a whole extended family that you're back a decade later and oh, by the way, I'm now magical and can turn into an animal? Because even as the Omega, I'm a dozen times more powerful than the toughest S.O.B. in the 'hood. It would freak people out.”

He nodded, understanding finally. “Which is how the whole plague came to be. Fear.”

“Exactly. Did that answer your question?”

“Sort of,” he admitted. “But why do you put up with the abuse? Why not stand up and say ‘no more'?”

She let out a sigh. “That one is trickier. See—”

A knock sounded on the door and it made him jump. Was it Lenny? Would he be dragged out of here and Rachel take another beating? His eyes must have conveyed the questions because Rachel slipped over to the door, checking the peephole and sniffing delicately at the edge of the door. “It's just Scott.” She opened the door. “Wow, two visitors in one day. I feel special.”

Scott just rolled his eyes. “I was just over two days ago for our bad sci-fi movie marathon. You're not lonely.” He stepped inside and walked over to the couch and thumped Alek square on the head. Pain sang through his swollen eye from the sudden movement.

“Ow! What the hell?”

“You scared the bejebbus out of me! I thought you were going to confront the chief and mayor and get yourself killed.”

“I nearly did. Where's Claire, by the way? Is she still out at the lake?”

“Duh. Look at the sunshine outside. I dropped her off at the post office for her to clean the windows. She can walk to the school for her appointment. But she insisted I try to find you before you … as I said, got yourself killed.”

“And you thought to look
here
for him?” Rachel asked. “You do realize he's never been here before?”

“No,” Scott said, “I came here hoping you could help me look for him or at least keep watch out at the police station for any dead bodies being stuffed into trunks.” He paused. “Why
are
you here?”

Rachel spit out a laugh. “He just this minute realized that the Omegas are abused in this town and is asking why I put up with it.”

They were talking as though he wasn't even there. Again he felt his face flush. “It's not like I didn't know that you were the Omegas, guys. I just never…”

“Thought?” Scott prompted.

“Looked?” Rachel countered.

“Listened?” Scott added. When he finally growled, deep from his chest, Scott patted him on the shoulder. “Dude, chill. We understand. Really. Your kind of clueless isn't bad.”