Forsaken (11 page)

"So
what happened?"

"Your
father fell in love with your mother, and Jaclyn fell in love with
Tasha's father. They both took humans as their mates, following their
hearts rather than seeking out the most powerful hybrid they could
find as so many of their peers had done."

I
was pacing now, but I couldn't decide whether or not to be angry that
Donovan had kept that information back from me for
so many years. My feelings toward Donovan were nearly as conflicted
right now as they would have been towards a biological father who'd
started trying to push me down the road he thought was best for me.

"Was
that the only reason the alliance didn't go through?"

Donovan
shook his head and sighed in unhappiness. "Some of your father's
advisors were worried that the move would be viewed as being too
aggressive by the Coun'hij. It was an all-or-nothing type of gambit
that was almost certain to cause an open confrontation between us and
the Coun'hij, and they weren't positive that we could stand off
Puppeteer."

"Do
you still have contacts with the Tucson pack?"

"A
few. We came so close to merging that most of the pack had a friend
or two in Tucson at some point or another."

"What
can the two of you tell me about Tasha? How powerful is she?"

Ash
shrugged. "I have some suspicions, but that's all they are.
Jaclyn keeps a very tight lid on her people, so there is very little
information out there when it comes to her pack members, but there's
even less information than normal on Tasha."

I
pinned Donovan to his chair with my gaze for several seconds before
he answered. "Ash's suspicions are correct. Jaclyn has been
ruthlessly suppressing the information, but Tasha hasn't ever
manifested a hybrid form. Some of her pack believe it is her father's
legacy, but you would tend to disprove that theory. I know that
Jaclyn is very worried about the future though. She so completely
outclasses the dominants in her pack that she's been able to protect
Tasha from most of the infighting, but once Jaclyn is gone, it is
almost certain that Tasha will lose her position and be relegated to
a role out on the fringe of the pack."

I
nodded, understanding a bit more about her plan now. "So by
combining our packs Jaclyn strengthens her position against the ongoing
incursions from the south, and by buying me time to manifest my
power, she'll also be ensuring her daughter's future after she's gone.
It's not a bad plan, assuming that the Coun'hij will let her get away
with it, and the dispossessed are a nonissue because she can drop any
of them pretty much instantly."

I
had to hand it to Tasha and her mother both. It was bold, almost to
the point of recklessness, but it was the best option available to
them. Sending Tasha to deliver it was risky. It would only be a
matter of time before our whole pack knew that she was only a wolf,
but without her presence here their plan wouldn't have had any chance
of succeeding.

"What
are the downsides?"

Donavan
was first this time. "Your mother won't be willing to leave
Sanctuary. Forcing her to do so would set her progress back decades."

I
nodded and turned to Ash, who didn't look entirely happy to be
sitting in the hot seat.

"When
you get right down to it, Jaclyn doesn't really need anyone but you.
You're the one who guarantees her daughter's position. The rest of us
are just foot soldiers to help beat back the cats. Anytime you try
and integrate two packs you're going to have some really, really
nasty fights as the dominants try to sort out the new pecking order.
Doing it on short notice, like we'd have to do for this to work, just
makes all of that twenty times worse. If you go through with this,
there's a very good chance that a couple of us will die."

The
thought had already crossed my mind, but it was good to have Ash's
perspective on it. He had spent a good chunk of his life being kicked
around by Onyx, so he sometimes had a different take on the power
struggles inherent in pack life than I did. I turned to go, but
Donovan spoke up before I could leave.

"Master
Alec, we haven't mentioned the most important consideration. This
alliance will only go through if you marry Miss Annikov. Jaclyn
Annikov is too shrewd to risk her daughter's future on an alliance
that doesn't bind you as tightly to her as possible. Should you marry
Miss Annikov, her mother will be watching you like a hawk. Any sign
that you plan to do other than remain faithful to your vows after her
death would lead her to take severe steps."

"I'd
figured as much already. Let's keep all of this between the three of
us for now. Also, anything we can do to keep Tasha clear of Addison
would probably be worthwhile to pursue. We all know that she's the
biggest leak we have, and I'd rather not start the negotiations out
by letting Tasha's cat out of the bag."

I
left Donovan's study and headed to Rachel's room. Dominic looked up
as I entered the room and motioned for silence as she walked me back
out into the hall.

"How
is she doing, Dom? Any sign of improvement?"

Dominic
shook her head, obviously distressed by Rachel's condition. She'd
assumed the bulk of the weight of caring for Rachel as my poor little
sister got worse and worse.

"No,
Alec. She spends most of the day unconscious now. There's no fever,
no symptoms at all other than a complete listlessness worse than
anything I've ever seen."

"What
did Doctor Samuels say when he came by?"

"He
still doesn't know what's wrong with her. I helped him draw blood
samples, but it was obvious that he didn't even know what tests to
run on them next. Alec, I don't think it's a natural phenomenon."

I
sighed. It was one more thing that I wasn't staying on top of, and
out of all my priorities Rachel should be at the very top, but I
didn't know what else to do for her. I'd hired a team of twenty
doctors from across the country and hooked them up to a continuous
video conference in an effort to find someone that could figure out
what was wrong with her. Doctor Samuels came by once every other day
or so to run whatever tests his peers came up with, but more and more
I was convinced that Dom was right. Whatever was wrong with Rachel
wasn't something the doctors were equipped to deal with.

"Can
I have a few minutes alone with her?"

"Of
course. Just call me on your way out and I'll come back and keep an
eye on her."

"Thanks,
Dom. I really appreciate it."

Dom
offered up a tired smile and then slowly walked away. Whatever was
after Rachel was still after Dom as well, and while she was dealing
with it better than Rachel, she was still getting worse, too.

One
more thing to worry about. I turned and went into Rach's room. Rachel
had pushed the sleeves of her pajamas up, revealing arms that were
much too skinny. Rachel had always been slender, but she'd really
lost weight recently.

I
watched for several minutes as Rachel restlessly tossed and turned,
but she didn't wake up and I didn't want to deprive her of whatever
little benefit she might be getting from her troubled sleep.

"I'm
sorry, Rachel. You deserve better than this, but I don't know what
else to do for you right now. Hang in there; the doctors will find
something soon."

I
stood to go, but Rachel's eyes snapped open and she grabbed my hand
with surprising strength despite her emaciated form.

"Dominic."

"Calm
down, Rach, you'll hurt yourself. I'll call Dom and she'll be back in
just a minute."

Rachel
shook her head desperately and suddenly her grip on my hand felt
fevered.

"No,
Alec. Dominic needs to take the center. If she doesn't, then
everything stands at risk."

My
mind spun wildly for several seconds before I realized that Rachel
had to be hallucinating. I sat back down and patted her hand.

"It's
okay, Rach. I'll help Dom take the center and everything will be
okay."

She
grabbed my shoulders and pulled herself up nearly to a sitting
position. "I know you don't believe me, Alec. I can see it. You
need to though, it's important."

There
was something about her tone and expression that stopped my response
before I could open my mouth. It was like something other than
my little sister was looking up at me from behind her eyes.

We
locked gazes for several seconds and then Rachel fell back into her
bed and closed her eyes. I checked her pulse as I dialed Dom, but
Rachel seemed to just be resting easily now. Dom arrived a couple of
minutes later, but didn't have any better idea of what to make of
Rachel's cryptic demands than I did.

I
thanked Dom again for taking care of Rachel and then left, wandering
more or less aimlessly through the house until Kristin intercepted me
outside of the theater room.

"Alec,
we need to talk."

I
stopped and looked at her, which seemed to unnerve her more than I
would have expected.

"I
can walk with you. Where were you headed?"

My
shrug didn't seem to help her state of mind any. "I'm not sure.
I didn't really have a destination in mind."

Kristin
looked at me for nearly half a minute. "I've never seen you not
know exactly where you were headed. Usually you're rushing somewhere
and heaven help anyone who gets in your way."

"I
guess I'm having an off day. What did you want to talk about?"

She
shook herself slightly, as though trying to distance herself from a
world where I didn't know where I was headed.

"When
Ash and I were on the run from Anton I had a dream about us being
attacked. The next day he attacked us and it went down almost exactly
like my dream. The only differences seemed to be tied back directly
to me having told Ash about my dream. I can't control it and it's
only happened once since then, but I'm pretty sure my dreams are a
form of precognition. Ash can back me up if you don't believe me."

"What
did you dream? You're not the type to overshare, Kristin, so you
wouldn't be telling me all of this if you hadn't just had a dream
that you figured you needed my help to deal with."

"There's
going to be another challenge soon, a huge black hybrid. In my dream
I saw the challenger standing over Ash. James was streaking towards
the fight, but before he could get there the hybrid ripped Ash's
heart out of his chest."

Her
voice broke a little as she related the details of Ash's death.

"You
told Ash what you saw?"

"Yes,
but he just asked me if I'd seen any of the actual fight and then
shrugged. I think he thinks that his knowing about the dream will be
enough to save him, that he'll do something different this time."

They
were still feeling their way forward in their relationship, but I
knew they really cared about each other. Kristin would do whatever
she thought she had to do when it came to saving Ash. I stared at her
for several seconds but she met my gaze without blinking.

"He
could be right. Knowing that the challenger will kill him might give
Ash the edge he needs to come out on top this time."

Kristin
balled both of her hands into fists and took a step towards me. "The
dream didn't have any of that kind of information in it. Ash would
have already gone into that fight knowing that it was for keeps. How
is he going to avoid it without more information than he has right
now? You need to keep him out of the fight with the black hybrid."

"Who
do I send in first instead? Jess is still pretty much worthless in a
fight, Dom practically has to rest when she gets to the top of a set
of stairs, and Jasmin isn't in much better shape than Dom right now."

"I
don't know, Alec. You're the boss; you need to figure it out. Send
James in, or get Isaac back here and throw his butt into the ring. If
you don't come up with an alternative then Ash is going to die and
I'm going to hold you responsible!"

A
threat like that wasn't a good idea at the best of times, but in my
current state I didn't have even a prayer of stopping the
transformation that ripped through me as my beast took exception to
what she'd just said.

Ash
had done his work well. Kristin was scared out of her mind—I
could smell her fear and most people would have been paralyzed by the
intensity of her feeling. Despite that, she threw herself backward,
drawing the handgun holstered under her left arm while she was still
in the air. Her training was already superb, but she didn't have a
prayer; I outmatched her physically by too great a degree for her to
compensate for my inborn abilities.

My
right hand closed over the top of her pistol before she could finish
bringing it around. Her backward lunge had bought her a fraction of a
second, but it still wasn't enough to compensate for my greater
speed. I'd covered the distance between us in a single step and my
left hand was already shooting forward towards her when I heard the
safety click on Ash's gun.

"You
both need to stand down. Kristin, you need to apologize to Alec.
Alec, if you hurt her, I swear I'll kill you. You're fast, but I've
got you dead to rights and this isn't my normal nine mil. These
rounds will go all the way through you and laugh as they blow big
exit wounds out the other side."

I
effortlessly ripped the handgun out of Kristin's grasp and then
turned towards Ash with a flare of power that left no question as to
who was dominant, but I didn't try to close the distance between us.

"Were
you planning on using those rounds this morning before Kristin told
you about her dream?"

Ash
shook his head slowly, but his gun never wavered. "No, I had my
normal caliber loaded up, but it's becoming apparent that they don't
work very well on hybrids. Too much tissue to go through before you
can get to something important."