Forsaken (15 page)

The
lady behind me let out another long-suffering sigh, so I
took another couple of steps, closing the distance that
had grown between me and the people in front of me. My nose wasn't
providing much help when it came to monitoring Adri's status. The
stale scent of vampire hadn't gone anywhere. In fact it was oddly
stronger sometimes than others. My beast knew the scent meant danger
and she was acting up more than normal. I could feel my power snap
out of me and then recoil back and lash out again.

My
beast usually didn't act up as much as the wolves inside the rest of
the pack, but today she was in rare form. So far none of the people
in line seemed sensitive enough to realize anything was out of the
ordinary, but I knew from past experience that if Adri had been
standing next to me the flares of power would have been making her
very uncomfortable.

I
took another step forward and then turned back and checked on Adri
again. She and Ben seemed to be getting along well. I could just hear
her laughing at something as Ben handed her phone back to her. The
laughter sounded a little forced, but she still looked more relaxed
than she had earlier in the day.

Another
sigh from behind me triggered another step, and then suddenly I was
able to see Mrs. Valencia. She was sitting at a table, which was
exactly what I'd expected, but there was an expanse of empty space
between her and the front of the line.

I
would have known if I'd dropped one of my books, but I still found
myself double-checking that all three of them were safely in my
hands. Adri had been gracious to agree to accompany me, but she
didn't understand just how momentous an occasion this was for me. I
knew I probably wouldn't get a chance to exchange more than a couple
of words with Mrs. Valencia, but I still knew it would be one of
those moments in life that I would treasure for however long I had
before death caught back up to me.

I'd
told Adri that Alec had saved me, that he'd given me the kind of life
that I'd never even hoped—much less expected—to have, but
that was only part of the story. It had been the characters in Mrs.
Valencia's novels who had given me the courage to set out towards
the United States in the first place. I owed a debt of gratitude to
Alec that I would never be able to repay, but there was an earlier,
in some ways greater, debt that I owed Mrs. Valencia.

My
father had been wrong about so many things, but he was right about
the need to repay debts. I had no special power and would never
develop one. A few of my kind developed the ability to track their
prey regardless of how much time or space came between us and them,
but we weren't ever blessed with the amazing, multi-form talents the
wolf hybrids sometimes manifested.

I
didn't need the ability to see into the future, though, to know what
my destiny had been. I'd been firmly slated to an early, unremarkable
death long before I ever made it out of my teenage years. In so many
ways every day of the past couple of years had been a gift, one for
which I remained profoundly grateful.

I
took another few steps and then, almost as if time had skipped
forward, I was the next in line to talk to Mrs. Valencia. I took a
deep breath, trying unsuccessfully to calm the power arcing around
me, and then crossed the barrier of empty space between us. She
looked up and smiled as I approached, but there was an odd hitch to
the motion as she saw my scar.

I
couldn't help the brief flash of disappointment that coursed through
me. I'd meant everything I'd said to Adri. I was mostly adjusted to
my maimed face, but I was still human. It hurt a little bit when
someone I didn't know responded like that, but it was worse when it
was Mrs. Valencia reacting so poorly. I'd somehow thought that she'd be
above those kinds of concerns. I sighed a little and then held out my
books as I finally reached her table.

"Thank
you for writing these, Mrs. Valencia. I...well, they made a big
difference in the course of how my life would have gone."

She
took the stack of books and opened the first one, but she wasn't
moving as fast as she had with the person who'd been standing in
front of me in the line. She cocked her head to the side and looked
up at me as she signed the first book.

"I
have people tell me that frequently at these kinds of things, but I
think you really mean it. You're quite a ways from home, aren't you?"

I
nodded my head in surprise at her insight. "Yes, I'm out
visiting a friend. My home is in Utah."

"That's
not what I meant, child. You're not from Utah, not originally at
least. You originally come from somewhere much farther away than
that."

Another
nod, this one full of discomfort as my internal alarms started
sounding.

"How
could you know that?"

"I
have been on the face of this earth for a very long time. I know
things most people don't know. For example, I know you can slip this
form and run on four feet."

That
last bit had been said in something less than a whisper, another clue
that she knew more about the moonborn than she should have. No normal
human would have been able to hear her words, even from just a couple
feet away. She was putting me in a difficult position.

"You're
not supposed to know that unless you're one of us."

Her
smile was sad. "There are many things which I would do much to
unlearn, but the presence of moon's children isn't one of them. Your
secret is safe with me."

"How
did you learn of us?"

"You
hide yourselves from the vampires, who in turn hide themselves from
the humans. Did you never consider that there might be others who
hide themselves from you?"

She'd
just finished signing my second book, but she'd done so in an absent
manner. We both knew the conversation was the important part of what
was happening. My beast was bubbling just below the surface, shedding
power as it worried about her implication that she wasn't human, but
instead another, unknown threat.

"Is
my friend in danger from you?"

She
looked down the line, and smiled again. "No, child. Your friend
isn't in any danger from me, at least not danger that I can control.
Your concern for her does you credit."

The
third book was signed, but she reached over to a pile of bookmarks
and picked one up. "Would you like me to fix that for you?"

She'd
pointed at my cheek, at the angry scar that had caught her attention
earlier.

"That
depends on the price involved."

"You're
wise to ask. In dealings with one such as me, the price is often more
than one realizes at the time payment is agreed. I will extract no
price beyond a few hours of your time, and a promise that you won't
tell anyone about me. In fact, I believe I can teach you a new skill
that you'll find very valuable. I expect that skill will extract some
additional cost over the years remaining you, but that will flow from
natural consequences. I won't stir the pot up and make the terms more
onerous than they would have been otherwise."

I
opened my mouth to respond and then shrugged as I realized that I
didn't truly know if I wanted my cheek fixed. "I'm not sure."

She
smiled, almost as if I'd passed some test, and then wrote a phone
number on the bookmark and tucked it into the top book.

"That
is understandable. If you decide in the affirmative, call me, but
know that I'll be in New York for only a short time. It may be many
years before we have another chance to meet up again."

She
handed me my books and then turned to motion the next person in line
forward. I accepted my possessions back from her and then headed back
toward Adri and Ben. My head was spinning. I'd come here hoping for a
couple of words from someone I respected more than almost anyone
else, and instead I'd gotten so much more than I'd even dreamed was
possible. I wanted to tell someone, Adri or James maybe, about the
experience so they could give me advice as to whether or not I should
trust her, but secrecy had been one of the conditions of her help. I
couldn't break that condition until I was firmly resolved that I
wouldn't be going to her for help.

I
could have traveled all the way back to the penthouse in a daze,
nearly worthless as a bodyguard, except that in that instant I
suddenly knew where the vampire smell was coming from.

**

Dom
didn't look like herself as she walked back to Ben and me. I'd
watched out of the corner of one eye as she'd gotten her books
signed, and I'd noticed that she'd spent two or three times as long
with her author as everyone else was getting.

I
wouldn't have expected Dom, of all people, to suffer from celebrity
shell shock, but it was obvious that she wasn't firing on all
cylinders. There had been a second there as she'd gotten closer to us
where she'd practically tripped over her own feet. She stopped a
couple of feet away from us and carefully put her books back inside
of her backpack.

"Hi,
Ben. I'd heard rumors you were out here somewhere on the East Coast,
but never expected that Adri and I would run into you."

Ben
nodded and pointed at the robot we'd packed all this way. "Yeah,
I'm working at a garage. They let me use the tools after hours, so I
put together this beast and entered the competition."

Dom's
smile was very nearly her normal, gentle expression, but I knew her
too well to be deceived. Something was bothering her, and it went
beyond just a case of hero worship.

"Well,
I'm sorry to see that you didn't win. Maybe next time you'll come out
on top."

Ben
shrugged and gestured back the way we had come. "It's okay. Half
the fun is building the robot. I've got a bunch of ideas already that
I can't wait to go back and try and implement. Do you mind helping
Adri and me lug this thing back up to the road? Once we're up there I
can call one of the other guys from the shop to come pick me up, but
he'll complain if I make him hunt for us down here."

Another
plastic smile. "Sure. Adri, if you can carry my backpack I think
I can get this side by myself. Mrs. Valencia actually told me there's
a shortcut off this way."

I
didn't buy it, not for a second, but Ben seemed to already be mostly
thinking about the modifications he was going to do to his robot. He
just nodded and picked up his end of the robot. I watched as Dominic
picked up her half and then I started around her so I could walk
closer to Ben.

Dom
grabbed my arm with her free hand and steered me gently, but firmly,
back behind her. It suddenly clicked for me that she was in full
bodyguard mode, and she was viewing Ben as a threat somehow. I opened
my mouth to tell her she was being silly, but the look she shot me
was so fierce that I shut up and let her do her job.

A
couple of minutes later we entered a stairwell and Dom made her move.
She pushed the robot forward, running Ben into the wall, and then
grabbed him by the throat.

"Why
are you working with vampires, Ben?"

"What?
Why did you just do that? I don't know what you're talking about!"

Shock
had frozen me in place for a second, but I stepped forward now. "Dom,
calm down. Ben's not working with any vampires."

Dom
looked back at me for a second, and her eyes weren't the gentle brown
orbs that usually graced her face. Her beast was only barely
controlled and even I could tell it would take only the slightest
provocation to push her into a transformation.

"The
smell I kept telling you about is coming from him. He's not a
vampire, not yet at least, but he's associating with them. Even
worse, he just lied to me."

Ben
opened his mouth, probably to tell Dom to let him go, but whatever he
was about to say was cut off as she picked him up by his throat,
easily holding him up against the wall despite the fact that she was
using only one arm.

"You've
lied to me once already, Ben. I'll know if you lie to me again. I'm
going to let you down now, but if you lie to me again, I will kill
you."

I
was pretty sure Dom wouldn't actually kill Ben, at least not without
more provocation than he'd demonstrated so far, but her voice was so
deadly serious that I didn't blame Ben for believing her.

"The
guys I work for at the garage are decent but really, really odd. I
thought that was all it was until just now when you said I was
working with vampires. It fits, not just their schedule, but
sometimes I see them doing things that are crazy like lifting parts
into place without needing a crane."

Dom's
voice was subtly different than normal. I'd heard something similar
out of Alec when he was at the point of transforming into a hybrid,
but Dominic had never evidenced the kind of control that would let
her arrest a transformation partway through the process.

"Truth.
Very good, Ben. Do you intend to hurt Adri?"

"What?
No, of course not. Why would you think that?"

"Because
there is no such thing as a decent vampire. Eventually they will suck
you into their web, it's just a matter of time. I can't do anything
about that right now, so I'm trying to figure out how far they've
sucked you in."

Ben
had been in shock up until that point, but I could tell he was
getting angry. "Look, I'm not involved in anything. I'm not going
to hurt Adri, and you can't just throw me around like that."

Dom
took a step forward and Ben backed up slightly, pressing up against
the wall in an unconscious attempt to keep some distance between the
two of them.

"Do
you know of anything that's currently in motion that could result in
Adri being hurt?"

"You
mean besides the fact that you've gone ape-crap psycho since the last
time I saw you? No. I'm not involved in anything illegal or dangerous
or whatever."