Forsaken (28 page)

Dom
disappeared into my room talking quietly enough that I couldn't catch
more than a word here or there. There wasn't anything left to do but
face the music. I turned and met Russ' eyes as he held out the
notepad with the piece of paper on it.

"That
sounds like some pretty dangerous stuff that you're involved in,
Adri."

"Yeah,
it is. I actually thought I'd left it all behind in Utah, but I guess
you can't really go back. Once you know the world is a certain way,
you're always going to notice the bits that don't add up, even if
nobody else notices them."

Russ
nodded. "And the very act of noticing can sometimes drag you
back into that world. I understand, at least a little. That still
leaves me in a bit of a difficult position, Adri. Your mom would be
pretty pissed at me if she found out all of this and then realized I
knew and didn't tell her. More importantly, I'm not sure you're
ready to be doing the things that I suspect you're about to go
do."

I
almost laughed. He seemed to think I was going to mount up as part of
the supernatural SWAT team Dom was busy organizing. His powers of
observation had obviously failed him there.

"I'm
not going to go charging into the middle of a rescue mission, Russ.
I'll stay safely on the sidelines. Dom and the rest of the...group
will take care of things. Normally, I wouldn't worry too much about
them, but they are under a lot of pressure right now. It would be bad
if they went in unprepared and understrength."

Considered my statement for several seconds before sighing.
"I might be able to help out. I know a couple of guys who
turned mercenary after they finished up their tours. They might be
able to put something together, but it would have to be discreet. We
can't launch a full-scale firefight in Brooklyn."

"We
can ask Dom when she gets back out, but I expect that the Sanctuary
crew will want to deal with it themselves. The guys you know might do
the trick, but this is the kind of thing Dom and the rest have been
doing their entire lives. They have...advantages that your
friends aren't going to have."

I
got another very considering look. "What have you gotten
yourself into, Adri?"

"To
be honest, some days I'm not really sure. I'll stay out of the direct
line of danger, though, if at all possible. Is that enough for you to
agree not to tell my mom?"

Russ
nodded, and I realized what it was that I liked about him so much. He
treated me like an adult.

"Just try not to make me regret it, Adri. I really do like your mom."

Alec Graves
Graves Estate
Sanctuary, Utah

Tasha
found me in my studio again, but this time she came with a different
kind of proposition.

We'd
more or less recovered from the challenger who had almost killed
James and me. James was still pissed at me, but Jaclyn had agreed to
leave her people here for another few days to give me time to try and
bring James around. Dominic was actively trying to calm him down too,
but unfortunately even that was backfiring this time around. Because
she'd been the leverage I'd used against him, her efforts to smooth
things out were just making him angrier.

Isaac
was fully healed and seemed resigned to the fact that we were going
to have to deal with another challenger fairly soon. He seemed to
have bought into Ash's philosophy with a vengeance. As a dominant,
Isaac's life would be better in another pack than Ash's life would
be, but it would still represent a rough, potentially fatal,
transition period while he worked his way into the pecking order of
the new pack.

Jess
was still pretty much a non-asset when it came to a fight, but it
seemed like she was trying harder than before. She'd started out
scared of fighting, but after dealing with first the batch of
vampires and then the werewolves, she seemed to have realized that
being scared and ignorant wasn't any kind of protection when
something bigger and meaner than you came calling.

Jasmin
was a bigger concern than she'd been before. Whatever had gone after
her, Dominic and Rachel seemed to have gone at least slightly into
remission, but she hardly even looked at me these days. I'd been
trying to catch her alone and figure out what was going on, but she'd
been doing a masterful job of avoiding me so far. I could always
force the issue, but that wasn't likely to help her open up once I
finally had her in front of me. I second-guessed the decision on a
regular basis, but she couldn't avoid me forever. Eventually I'd get
a chance to talk to her, and it would be less confrontational this
way than the alternative.

All
in all, I was just glad to have made it to the end of another week.
Getting everyone back to school would go a long ways towards
alleviating some of the pressures inside the pack. It was a Friday
afternoon, and even sitting in my studio pretending to paint was
better than dealing with everyone's issues.

"So
when are you going to paint me, Alec?"

She'd
caught me woolgathering again. "Sorry, Tasha. You've never
evidenced any kind of interest in painting before now. What changed?"

"I
never asked before because I'm not interested in painting, I'm
interested in you. Now that I've been here a few weeks though, I'm
realizing that this is where you spend most of your time. This seems
like a good compromise. I'll sit for you, you'll paint me, and we'll
get to spend some more time together."

I
started to shake my head, but she looked up at me with such
earnestness that I couldn't bring myself to say no. I'd kept her here
for weeks, cooling her heels while she waited for me to work through
my issues and either say 'yes' or 'no' to her marriage proposal.

"Okay.
If you want to sit for me then I'll try to paint you. No promises
that what comes out the other end will be even half decent, but I'm
willing to try."

"Here,
or somewhere else?"

I
considered for a second or two, but there was really only one answer
if I wanted to preserve at least a shred of the privacy I'd come to
crave so badly over the last few weeks.

"Let's
do it here. I can arrange you on a stool and then come back and put
the background in after the fact."

She
lifted up the bottom of her tank top and raised an eyebrow
questioningly. It wasn't a very long tank top, so even that minute
action left a long expanse of firm, tan stomach exposed. The
invitation was perfectly clear, and I couldn't deny her substantial
beauty. I'd already gotten some pretty extended glimpses both before
and after the fight with the four werewolves, but I found myself
shaking my head almost before I'd had a chance to consider the
suggestion.

It
would have felt wrong on several levels, but it wasn't just that I
was old-fashioned. I knew Adri wasn't coming back. I knew I'd already
lost her respect, but there was a tiny part of me that was screaming
not to do something that would further disappoint her.

It
was a dangerous thing to be courting. A hopeless kind of hope that
was threatening not just the pack, but also any future chance I might
have of being happy. It was ludicrous. I probably wasn't going to
have much of a future if I didn't seal the alliance with Tasha and
her mother soon, but I just couldn't seem to let go of that last
sliver of hope. My mind knew better, but I was finally seeing just
how much stronger my heart was than my head.

"No,
let's keep your clothes on. There's no telling how frequently we'll
get interrupted."

She
nodded, but I could tell she wasn't completely happy with my excuse.
I thought about potential poses and backgrounds for a moment before
hitting on one that
felt
right. It took only a couple of
minutes to get her arranged how I wanted her. She was sitting so that
the painting perspective would be looking down at her from a couple
of feet higher as she looked off into the distance. It wasn't quite a
profile shot, but it was close.

I
adjusted the lighting inside the studio, making it brighter and
adding in more yellow, and then started mixing paints.

"I
know I ask this every day, Alec, but how are you feeling? Are you
back to full strength?"

"Yeah.
I'm a little stiff still in a couple of directions, but I'm good
enough. Is your mom coming under pressure? Does she need the boys
back in Tucson sooner than we'd discussed?"

"No.
In some ways, it would be ideal if we were able to send them back
before the next challenger arrived, but she's still willing to leave
them here through the end of the weekend. Believe it or not, I asked
just because I don't like to see you injured. So much depends on you.
You're carrying a pretty heavy load. It's got to be hard enough to
deal with when you're healthy. I can only imagine that it's a lot
worse when you're unable to get out of bed."

There
it was again. Every time I was tempted to dismiss Tasha as some kind
of cold-hearted manipulator, she turned around and said something
like that. There was a kinder, more vulnerable person lurking under
the armor that pack life had forced on her. I needed to find a way to
strip the armor off and get a clear view of the person beneath it if
I was ever going to have a prayer of moving forward with this
alliance, with this marriage. I knew it. I'd known it for weeks now,
and yet I still hadn't acted upon the knowledge.

I
deftly sidestepped the opportunity she'd just provided, and instead
of taking the conversation into deeper things, I guided it back to
the stuff that wasn't important. Safe stuff like finances, rumors
about the dispossessed, and the Coun'hij. We covered a variety of
topics for several hours until Jasmin burst into my studio with power
arcing off of her like an electrical storm.

"Alec,
I need the plane and I need Isaac. I'd really appreciate it if you
didn't ask questions."

I
took a deep breath and wished for a second that Tasha wasn't here.
Jasmin was hard to reason with at the best of times. When there was
someone else around, getting her to see sense became even harder. I
couldn't just send Tasha packing though, not without giving Jasmin
too much control of the situation. I had to keep the upper hand or I
risked her beast making her even more stubborn than normal.

"I'm
sorry, Jasmin. This isn't a refusal, but I need to know what you're
up to before I say yes."

Jasmin's
eyes flickered over to Tasha, wordlessly asking, but I slowly shook
my head.

"Out
with it, please."

"Dom
and...well, Dom's found Ben. He's in New York. They actually
found him a couple of weeks ago, but he didn't want anything to do
with me, so they've been keeping it a secret. I need to go to him
right now."

"Jas,
what's changed? He didn't want to see you before, why would he want
to see you now?"

I
hadn't meant the reminder to be cruel, but she still flinched. I
suddenly wondered just how much of the crazy erratic behavior I'd
seen out of Jasmin could be traced back to Ben in some form or
fashion. I'd been guilty of some pretty irrational things when Adri
and I had been dating. I should have keyed into the possibility that
Ben was the reason Jasmin had been so difficult, but I'd been so
wrapped up with my own issues that I hadn't even considered it.

Jasmin
took a deep breath and then told me the piece she'd been hoping to
keep a secret.

"He's
gotten involved with some vampires. It sounds like they've got their
hooks in pretty deep. One of them must be a mentalist because they've
made it so he physically can't make himself run away. I need Isaac so
I can go in and get Ben out."

It
was exactly the kind of thing the Coun'hij had been trying to stop
when they'd issued their prohibition against anyone traveling east of
the Mississippi. There were several thousand shape shifters in North
America, but the last time I'd seen any estimates on projected
vampire populations, it had put it at between five hundred and a
thousand of the blood suckers just in New York City alone. That would
have been bad enough all by itself, but the bit about them being able
to make more vampires by biting humans was at least partially true.
It meant that if they ever felt really threatened, they could grow at
a nearly exponential rate.

"How
many vampires are you going to be up against, Jas?"

"I
don't know, Alec. I wish I did, but I don't. It doesn't really matter
though. I'd go if it was a hundred and just hope I could find a way
to sneak in and out without running into problems."

"Okay,
here's the plan. You can have the plane, but get the one in New
York headed back this way so I've got options if I need to get
somewhere quickly. Leave Dominic out there to help you guys. You do
surveillance until you have a way in and out with a minimal body
count, and Ash decides what's minimal and what's not. I don't want to
lose any of you."

"Thanks,
Alec. Can I ask for one modification to the plan?"

"You
can ask, but I may not be able to give it to you."

She
didn't look like she wanted to ask, but something compelled her to do
it. "Can you call Dom back? It gives you a little more cover
while we're gone, but more importantly, I might need James to make
this work. I know you won't agree to both him and Dom, and I'd rather
have him than Dom. She's still pretty wobbly. Besides, Ben might have
accidentally created some extra visibility for...the person Dom
is there watching. Ash is saying that he could use some help back
here managing the damage control efforts to keep...a certain
individual off the vampires' radar."

My beast ripped free in a shower of clothes. I grabbed Jasmin by
the throat with one clawed hand and slammed her into a wall. "This
isn't the first time, is it? She's been in extra danger and none of
you have said a damn thing to me."