Intertwined (15 page)

Aden massaged the back of his neck, his muscles knotting in anger. “A joke.”

“I’m sorry.”

He wanted to punch the wall as he imagined the laugh everyone was probably having at his expense. “Shannon’s somewhere inside,” he said stiffly.

Mary Ann regarded him with sympathy before leading him to the cafeteria.

A few minutes later, he found himself parked at a table with
Mary Ann and Shannon. Though they were the only three in that particular section, kids occupied the tables around them, just as he’d seen in movies.

He was very aware of Penny, staring wistfully at Mary Ann, and Tucker, glaring from Mary Ann to Aden with loathing. Shannon kept his head bowed, and Mary Ann kept up a strained, meaningless chatter. Aden looked for “John,” but never caught sight of him. No one seemed to be laughing at him, either, so he was able to relax. A little.

Overall, it was an uncomfortable ordeal. He much preferred the isolation of the forest, and that surprised him. How many hours had he spent daydreaming about friends and normalcy? But maybe, in the woods, he would have found Victoria. If only.

Finally the bell rang, signaling it was time to head to their next class. Chairs were scooted back, footsteps began to pound.

“W-wait for me after school,” Shannon said to him. “We can all walk home together.”

Aden met Mary Ann’s gaze. She’d been rendered immobile, half sitting, half standing. Panic flittered through her eyes. After school, she was supposed to lose the wolf so they could talk.

Shannon must have caught the tension-filled undercurrents, because he said, “N-never mind,” and tried to shuffle away.

Sensitive as she obviously was to others’ feelings, Mary Ann pasted a grin on her face and grabbed his wrist, stopping him. “Walking home together sounds great. I was just trying to remember if I’d told my dad to pick me up or not.”

“Oh. Okay.” Shannon’s posture relaxed.

“See you then,” Aden said, trying to mask his disappointment, and strode to his next class. Looked like his talk with Mary Ann would have to be postponed. Again. They couldn’t spill secrets with an audience present.

Would they be able to talk in the morning? Or would something stop them then, too? And tomorrow after school was out; Shannon would probably want to walk with them again. At this rate, they’d never have a single moment of privacy. Unless…he could tell her everything without ever having to speak a word.

Determined, he used his next three classes to write. About himself, his past, the things he’d done, the things he’d witnessed and the things he needed from Mary Ann. He didn’t skimp on the details, didn’t try to paint himself in a more favorable light. He wanted her to know the truth.

I have a bad feeling about this
, Elijah said when he finished.

Aden groaned. Not another one. But it didn’t matter; he wouldn’t let it matter. He was still giving Mary Ann the note. What happened after that would be up to her.

L
ATER THAT DAY
, Mary Ann read the bottom of Aden’s note for the millionth time.

Mary Ann’s arm fell to her side, the paper crinkling between her fingers. Her mind whirled with questions. Four
other people swirled inside Aden’s head, their voices constant, always distracting him. Except when he was with her. Somehow, she quieted them.

Did she believe all of that? She didn’t want to, and honestly hadn’t the first thousand times she’d read his letter. Then her doubts had begun to give way to curiosity. The curiosity had given way to uncertainty, and the uncertainty had finally given way to acceptance.

A week ago, she hadn’t known werewolves and vampires existed. Now, there was no refuting it. Why couldn’t there be a boy with people trapped inside him, as well? People who could time travel and wake the dead. Predict the future and possess other bodies—the last of which she’d seen firsthand.

How was she able to stop them? Why her? She was nothing special.

She nibbled on her bottom lip, no answers sliding into place, and peered up at her bedroom ceiling. It was smooth and white, a blank canvas just waiting to be colored on.
I can reason this out,
she mused, pepping herself up.

Okay, so. Aden thought the best way to free the souls was to find them bodies.
She
thought, drastic as it was and impossible as it seemed, that should be a last resort. Until they reached that point, it made sense to figure out exactly who the people inhabiting his head were. Or maybe who they’d
been
. He’d mentioned that while they didn’t recall any life but the one they shared with Aden, they did have moments of déjà vu and recognition. That had to mean something.

Maybe they were ghosts and Aden had unintentionally
drawn them. With that thought, she found herself eyeing her room for any sign of a spectral being, hands clutching her comforter, breath emerging shallow and heavy. Werewolves and vampires were real, so why not ghosts, too? Were there any around her? People she’d known, perhaps? People who had once lived here?

Her mother?

Mary Ann’s heartbeat skidded out of control, and tears of hope burned her eyes. She blinked them back. Her mother could be here, watching her, she thought, dazed. Protecting her. Her greatest desire was to see her mom again, to hold her, hug her and tell her goodbye. The car accident had taken her so suddenly, there’d been no chance to prepare.

“I love you, Mom,” she whispered.

There was no response.

Concentrate, Gray. You have a job to do.
She cleared her throat and quashed her disappointment.
Where was I?
Oh, yeah. If the souls trapped inside Aden’s head were actually ghosts, wouldn’t they remember their lives fully?

Good point. Either their memories had been wiped when they entered his body or they were something else. Angels? Demons? Were there such things? Probably. But they probably weren’t the souls trapped inside Aden. Again, they would have remembered their own identities. But again, their memories could have been wiped.

Ugh. This was getting her nowhere. Could the four be talking to him like Wolf talked to her? Perhaps they weren’t
truly inside his head but were tethered to him and simply projecting their voices.

She immediately discarded that idea, as well. Aden heard them—if they weren’t actually inside him, wouldn’t he see them, as well?

Mary Ann tapped her chin. First thing she needed to do, as she’d initially thought, was figure out who the four were so that she could figure out what they’d been. Aden said they’d been together since his birth.

“Which means I need to go back to the beginning,” she said, her voice cutting through the silence of her room. To do that, she needed to gather some information. She made a mental list:

Find out who his parents were. Or rather, are.

Find out where he was born.

Find out who was around him the first few days of his life.

The beginning of what?

At the sound of the masculine voice inside her head, she jackknifed to a sitting position, hand fluttering over her once again racing heart. Wolf loomed in her bedroom doorway, huge and black and beautiful. His fur gleamed in the sunlight, and those pale green eyes regarded her almost gently. His ears were perked, pointing like an elf’s. Clothing hung from his mouth.

“How’d you get in?” she asked.

I walked.

“Funny.”

His lips seemed to twitch around the material.
Last time I was here, I left one of the lower windows open, so I would be able to climb through whenever I wanted.

“I should have known.” She eyed the clothes. Jeans, a T-shirt. “Are those for me?”

No. For me. When I switch forms.

Had she heard him right? “You’re going to…”

Show you my human form, yes.

Excitement spread through her veins, encompassing her entire body in seconds and making her shake. “Really? Why now?”

Ignoring her, he paced to her bathroom. The door closed with a swish. Mary Ann set Aden’s note on her nightstand and stood. Then she sat back down. Her knees were a little weak. What would Wolf look like? Was he someone she knew? Every time she tried to picture him, all she could see was a hard, muscled body. His face always remained in the shadows.

The phone rang, startling her, and she jumped.

Mary Ann glanced at caller ID, and her trembling intensified. Penny. She crossed her arms over her middle, anchoring her hands under her armpits so that she couldn’t reach for the receiver.

Another ring.

As she sat there, Mary Ann was surprised to feel hurt, pure and undiluted, rather than anger. She loved Penny, she did. And Wolf and Aden were right. Making mistakes and then hiding them was human nature. But she couldn’t act as if nothing had happened, nor could she trust Penny not to do it again. With someone else. Someone Mary Ann actually adored. For some reason Wolf popped into her mind.

At the fourth ring, her machine picked up.

“I know you’re there, Mar. Talk to me. Please. There’s so much I want to tell you.” A pause. Penny sighed. “Fine. We’ll do this over the phone. I wanted to tell you what had happened. I did. Remember at the café, when I mentioned that Tucker would stray? I was trying to work up the courage to tell you but I stopped myself. I was too afraid of
this
. Of losing you. I didn’t mean for it to happen.” There was another pause, crackling static. “We’d both been drinking and neither one of us was thinking clearly. In my mind, I justified it because I knew you didn’t love him. I told myself I would only be hurting you if I told you, that unburdening myself would be selfish. I was wrong. I see that now. Mary Ann…please.”

Beep.

Silence.

Mary Ann’s jaw started trembling, right along with her body.

The phone began ringing again, and she glanced at the caller ID, expecting to see Penny’s number. Would she answer this time? What would she say? She saw Tucker’s number instead, and her teeth ground together in irritation. Was something in the air? A call Mary Ann vibe?

Him, she didn’t love. Him, she wanted nothing to do with. She wasn’t even tempted to pick up the phone.

His message was shorter than Penny’s.

“I’m sorry, Mary Ann. If you would just talk to me, I could explain, make you understand. We could be friends, like you said. Just…call me or I swear to God…” The words ended in a growl.

Click
. Silence.

She shook her head. They were over, done in every way, and talking wouldn’t change that.

“Are you ready?”

Wolf’s voice. His real voice. Deep and rough…unsure. Was he as nervous as she was?

“I’m ready,” she called, her voice now trembling, too.

The bathroom door creaked open. There was a shuffle of footsteps, and then a boy was leaning against the wall across from her, staring over at her.

First thought to run through her head: she’d never met him before. The second: oh my God. He wasn’t exactly beautiful, his features were too sharp, but that only added to his appeal. He looked wicked and ruthless and capable of anything.

He had black hair, as silky and shiny as his fur had been, and his eyes were still green. That, however, was where the similarities with the wolf ended. He was taller than she had guessed, stacked with muscle and sinew, and had wide shoulders and long legs. His skin was a tantalizing golden brown. He wore a plain white T-shirt and faded jeans that hung low on his waist. No shoes or socks.

Her stomach had yet to stop flip-flopping. She’d lain in bed with this magnificent creature. She’d held him in her arms and petted him. She, who spent her spare time reading, who studied no matter how much she hated it and wouldn’t know fun if it slapped her across the face. She, whose most defining feature was a fifteen-year plan—a fifteen-year plan she no longer even thought about.

Funny. She’d once thought abandoning her life’s plan would be a reason to mourn. Right now, she only wanted to celebrate.

Until doubts took hold.

Had she bored Wolf to death? He ran wild in the woods. He could shift between animal and human. She was plain ole Mary Ann.

What are you doing? Blank your thoughts.
He could read auras. Did he know what she was feeling right now? How she was drooling over him? Oh, great.
Gonna be sick.

“Well?” he said. “Do you have nothing to say? You’re bright pink, green and gold. Excited, nervous and nauseous.”

Her cheeks heated. Her skin was probably the same colors as her aura.

“So what are you thinking?”

“You can’t figure it out?” No way did she want to say it aloud.

“Mary Ann,” he said, exasperated.

She’d take that as a no. “I’m thinking you are…normal.” Not true, not true, oh, not true.

He popped his jaw. “Normal.” His harsh tone suggested that was a very bad thing.

Not knowing what else to do, she nodded.

Silence stretched between them. Neither moved.

Say something. Anything.
“Aden thinks I’m some sort of superability neutralizer. If that’s true, why didn’t I stop you from changing from wolf to human? Or maybe a better question is why didn’t you change
back
into a human when you first approached me? Of course, both of those questions hinge on the fact that I’m a neutralizer, which I might not be.”
Dear God. She was babbling.
Stop!
“You know, you could stop glaring at me. That might help.”

He scrubbed a hand down his face and laughed without humor. “All this time I agonized over the decision to show myself to you, my true self, afraid of your reaction, and this is what I get,” he said, and laughed again. “You act as if I didn’t do it. As for your ability to neutralize, maybe you can, maybe you can’t. Shape-shifting isn’t supernatural or magic or whatever you’re thinking. It’s a part of who I am, how I survive. You can’t stop humans from breathing, can you?”

“No.”

He nodded as if he’d just proven his case. “My name is Riley, by the way. Not that you asked.”

“My name is Mary Ann,” she responded automatically, then blushed again. “Sorry. You knew that.” God, this was awkward. Part of her wished he’d go back to wolf form. That, she knew. That, she was comfortable with.
That
, she didn’t want to drool on—and then subsequently kill herself in embarrassment for said drooling problem. Maybe it was best to change the subject. “So why were you so nervous about showing me your true self?”

“I knew your expectations were high. I wanted to meet—or exceed—them.” He didn’t wait for her reply but crossed his arms over his chest, pulling the material of his shirt tight against his biceps. “Anyway, you never answered my question. When I first walked in, you were talking about starting at the beginning. The beginning of what?”

Nope. She wasn’t gonna go there. “Sorry, but I can’t answer you now, either.”

He straightened, looking slightly offended. “Why?”

“It involves Aden, and you want to kill him.”

“Yeah,” he said, not denying it, “but I’m not going to. My friends like him.”

“Friends?”

“You. And my charge, Victoria. Vampire princess and all-around pain in my—well, just a pain.”

Victoria. The vampire princess Aden had talked about with longing? The vampire princess who had put stars in Aden’s eyes? Must be. Friends, Wol—
Riley
had called them. “Aden told me a little about her.”

Riley nodded stiffly. “You shouldn’t know about her. No one should. My job is to keep her safe and the more people who know about her, the more
unsafe
she is and the angrier her father will be with me.”

“Aden and I will keep your secrets, believe me. To talk about them is to paint targets on our backs.”

“No one will make you a target,” he said, and there was so much fury in his tone she was momentarily speechless. He strode to her, sat beside her. Their shoulders brushed, and she shivered.

There was a beat of silence, of utter tension.

She wasn’t sure what she wanted him to do just then; she was only sure she wanted him to do
something
. Anything but move away from her.

“I just meant,” she said softly, “that they’ll think we’re crazy and gossip about us.” Another thing to drool over: his protective nature. But did that protective nature mean that he and Victoria were more than bodyguard and princess? More
than friends? Her hands tightened into fists. Was she…jealous? No. Surely not. “I thought vampires and werewolves were enemies. I mean, Aden said the vampire told him to stay away from you.”