Forsaken (13 page)

Maybe we were better matched than I'd realized.

Adriana Paige
Upper East Side
Manhattan, New York

Life
had gotten a little better after dinner with Albert. The girls at
school were just as bad, but I found I was able to keep things in
perspective more so than before.

Isaac
and I had settled into a comfortable routine, which mostly involved
me hanging out at his place whenever my mom wasn't around. Albert
occasionally texted me after they'd finished a big show, or when a
new song seemed to be coming together better than he'd expected it
to.

All
in all, it seemed like he was doing well, and somehow knowing that he
was out there helped me to deal with all of the stupid craziness of
being in high school and having to deal with other high-school girls.

Isaac
tended to get a little antsy if I left my building without him, so
I'd taken to hanging out in my lobby each morning until he showed up
to escort me to school. I was downstairs, trading texts with Albert
while I waited, when I got the second best surprise since I'd arrived
in Manhattan.

It
wasn't Isaac who picked me up, it was Dominic.

"Sorry,
Adri. I know this is a bit of a last-minute kind of change, but Alec
wanted Isaac back, so he flew me out to take his place late last
night."

Dom
yawned and then gave me a cheery smile, but I found my eyes pulled
mercilessly over to the side of her face.

"What
happened?"

"Another
challenge match. Alec has tried to keep me out of them so far because
I've been so tired all of the time, but something made him put me in
on this one."

She'd
given me a lot to process already. I was reluctant to dive into the
inner workings of the pack, but that was trumped by my concern for
Dom.

"What
do you mean 'tired all of the time'?"

"I
can't really explain it. Rachel and I seem to have it the worst, but
I think it's impacting Jasmin, too. I'm just always tired. I'm
weaker and slower than normal, too. It's been going on for weeks.
Don't worry though. I can still defend you from a lot of the nasty
stuff out there; we'll just have to run away from more of it than
normal."

I
shook my head and pointed to her building. "I don't care about
having a bodyguard; I care about the fact that you're sick. You
should get back to the penthouse and spend the day in bed resting."

"I'm
fine, Adri. I've spent a number of days in bed resting over the last
little while, and it hasn't made any difference. I'll be fine. Also,
I really worry about you in this city. I've already crossed over an
old vampire trail, and I've only been in the city for four or five
hours."

There
it was again. Vampires. It made sense that there would be a
heavy concentration of supernatural parasites in New York, but the
thought of walking past them and not even being able to tell what
they were gave me the willies.

"Okay,
you can come with me, but I'm serious about you not overdoing it. If
you start feeling like you've done too much, I'm putting you in a cab
and sending you back here."

Dom's
smile still transformed her face into something angelic. The angry,
red scar didn't change that, but it was still concerning.

"So
tell me about this challenge match."

"I'm
not sure there's much to tell. Ash was still injured and Jasmin
wasn't quite back to normal so Alec sent me in first. I did awfully.
It had been so long and I felt so weak that the challenger didn't
have any problems dodging my spring. Once he pinned me though, I
realized that my best hope was to play dead, so I waited until he let
go of me and turned around to face James. Once his back was to me, I
attacked."

Dom
looked around and then leaned in closer to me. "I managed to
kill him myself. It isn't the kind of thing I'll probably ever be
able to repeat, but it should help buy the pack some breathing room.
If a hybrid as powerful as Raphael falls to our submissives then
there will be some who decide we're too dangerous to challenge."

I
forced myself not to show the horror I felt at the thought of gentle,
kind Dominic killing someone. I knew she could still smell the shock
on me, but as long as I didn't frame the feeling with words she
probably wouldn't know for sure what it was that had disturbed me so.

"What
about your cheek? Shouldn't it have healed by now?"

Dom's
sad smile had an air of tranquility to it that surprised me. "No,
it will never fully heal. Raphael had a power that was very similar
to what Agony wields. I have a matching set of marks here on my ribs, but James
still thinks I'm
pretty, so they don't matter."

I
was angry now. How could Alec send Dom, one of the weakest members of
the pack, in to fight something as monstrous as this Raphael must
have been?

"That's
terrible, Dom. I can't believe you can be so calm about everything
that happened. What was Alec thinking?"

There
was fire behind Dom's gentle eyes now and I suddenly found myself
wondering if I'd ever seen her really mad before.

"Alec
did what he had to do. These challenge matches are life and death for
the pack. Alec saved my life years ago and I won't turn my back on
him now. Not when he needs me, not when the pack needs me. I love you
almost like a sister, Adri, but you don't know what he is up against
right now. It's not that you're stupid, but you're ignorant of just
how much evil abounds in the world."

I
opened my mouth to respond, but nothing would come out. We stood in
silence for a couple of minutes and then Dom gestured out at the
streets. "We should be on our way or you're going to be late for
school."

**

I
almost didn't know what to do. We started off to school, but that
wasn't what was bothering me. Dom had never been mad at me. I'd never
even seen her get mad, not like that, and I didn't know how to fix
things now that I'd ruined our morning.

Arriving
at school didn't do the trick, but I found my respect for Dominic
growing as I watched her during the day. Dom needed to register
still, so we stopped off at the office first thing after we arrived.
Alec and Isaac seemed to have done whatever spadework was required
already. Dom handed over a check and gave the office lady her name.

As
I watched the secretary do a double take at Dom's scar, I hoped that
I'd been less obvious than that. It didn't stop there though. Every
guy or girl we passed during the day had the same kind of response,
but it didn't seem to rattle Dom in the slightest. She had better
hearing than I did, so I knew she could hear the whispered insults
that started around noon, but even being called Franken Freak didn't
ripple the pool of calm that seemed to reside at her center.

A
couple of hours after we finished up lunch I found myself reaching
out and putting a hand on Dom's arm.

"Dom,
I'm really sorry. You're right; there's so much I don't know. I
didn't mean to take anything away from your accomplishment; I'm just
worried about you."

Dom's
smile was more hesitant than normal, but she looked into my eyes,
seeming to weigh my sincerity for several seconds before nodding.

"You
are forgiven, Adri. I know it's hard to watch someone you care about
put themselves in harm's way, but that's the reason I have to do what
I'm doing. James, Alec, all of the others are in just as much danger
as I am in, more possibly."

There
wasn't really a response to that. If someone you loved was in danger
how could you do anything other than your absolute best to help them?

Dom
patted my hand and then pointed to her scar. "I know this
distresses you, but it really doesn't matter. All of the girls
mocking me are more foolish than they know. Up
until I met James, my looks brought me nothing but problems. If I'd
built my sense of self around them I would have been very unhappy.
It's the same with the exhaustion that is robbing me of my usual
strength. There will always be those around me who are more dangerous
than I am. What matters isn't what I can do or how pretty I am. What
matters is whether or not I'm doing my absolute best to live up to my
beliefs."

Something
she was saying reached inside me and smoothed away some of the
hurt I'd been carrying around with me for what already seemed like
forever.

"Dom,
do you hate me for leaving Sanctuary, for leaving Alec?"

Her
smile was incredibly gentle. She paused, as if letting me fully take
in the sentiment behind it, and then shook her head.

"I'm
not going to lie to you, Adri. Life has gotten very difficult since
you left. Not all of that is because of your departure, but some of
it is. Even so, I don't hate you. You did what you felt like you had
to do, and I respect you for it."

It
seemed a weight had come off my chest. It was somehow easier to
breathe now, and a matching smile made it up to my lips.

"Thanks,
Dom. That means more to me than you know. What can I do to help make
up for my earlier words though? Is there anywhere in New York that
you've ever wanted to visit? We can spend the evening sightseeing if
you want."

There
was a flash of something that I was pretty sure was hope, and then
Dom's face settled back to its normal pleasant expression.

"No,
Adri, you don't need to do anything else to make things right between
us. We should return home after school and do homework."

"That's
not what you really want to do though, is it? Please tell me. I'd
really like to do something other than just study tonight."

I
could see Dom's hidden desire working on her, slowly chipping away at
her reluctance to inconvenience me.

"If
you won't let me make a gesture to make up for earlier, at least let
me go with my friend somewhere that she wants to go."

Dom's
smile was back. "Okay, I'll tell you my secret. My favorite
author is doing a book signing tonight. Ever since Rachel told me
about it I haven't been able to stop wishing there were a way that I
could go meet her in person. She hardly ever makes it into the United
States, but it is really out of the way."

"That's
perfect. We're going to a book signing tonight, and that's all there
is to it!"

**

Dom
hadn't been kidding when she said the signing was out of the way. I
texted Mom to let her know I'd be out late, and then we jumped on the
number 5 train and headed out to Brooklyn. We swapped trains twice
and then jumped on a bus in order to get to our destination, which
proved to be a massive underground parking garage.

I
thought it was an odd place to hold a book signing, but Dom
apparently had done a little bit of research on her flight, and it
wasn't uncommon for this particular garage to host multiple events
during a given week, sometimes simultaneously.

We
arrived to find a line that snaked up a couple of levels and an
outrageous din that I was sure had nothing at all to do with the book
signing. Dominic pulled three books out of her backpack as we stepped
into line and started our slow journey towards wherever it was that
the author was actually signing copies.

When
she saw my interest in the books she was holding, Dom handed me one
to look at. I opened it up, but it was written entirely in
Spanish. "Vanessa Valencia. I've never heard of her before. What
kind of books does she write?"

Dominic
shrugged, seemingly at a loss for how to describe the books. After
several seconds she took the book back from me and sighed.

"I
think you would probably call it literary fiction. The part that
calls to me is her characters. They are all so real, such ordinary
people, but during the course of the novel there is always at least
one who finds himself."

"What
do you mean 'finds himself'?"

Another
shrug, I was starting to see that we were talking about something
that was important to Dom. Her natural shyness generally meant she
had a harder time talking about something when it was central to who
she was.

"It's
a little bit like what we talked about earlier. The characters in her
books decide what is really, truly important to them, and then they
make the sacrifices that are required for them to live up to their
beliefs. I think more than anything else that it was Mrs. Valencia's
writing that gave me the courage to flee north and eventually find
Alec's pack."

I
nodded, not because I really understood, but because she'd told me
enough to get me started. I made a mental note to get a translated
copy of all three books, and then asked Dom about James and his
latest modifications to his car.

Dom
didn't love cars and tuning them anywhere near as much as James did,
but she loved James, so she was quite capable of talking about his
passions for long blocks of time. With the conversation safely turned
to something less intimate, we both relaxed a little for the next
half hour.

Dominic
was halfway through describing how a turbo worked, when she suddenly
tensed up and grabbed my arm.

"Adri,
I smell vampires."

I
leaned in close so we could exchange words without other people
overhearing. "How many, and are they close?"

Dom
paused for several seconds, and then shook her head. "Not close.
The scent is very faint, so it's hard to say for sure, but I think
there are two or three individuals in what I smell."

I
looked around, trying not to be too obtrusive in my scan of our area
of the parking garage, but I didn't see anyone that made me think 'Oh
crap. There's a vampire.'

"Faint
like they aren't nearby, or faint like the scent is very old? There
isn't much chance for the elements to wash away the scent down here,
so an old scent trail could stay around for a long time."