Shadowed (15 page)

"Yes we are, aren't we?" Adele smiled for the first time since she'd gotten home. "Hear that Aedan? Ashe's family is right here." Aedan walked through the door into the kitchen from the lower level.

"Where else would we be?" Aedan smiled slightly. "How's the penance coming?"

"Terrible." Ashe took another bite of his sandwich.

"Just what I wanted to hear," Aedan chuckled, this time. "The definition of penance to some is the confession of a sin, followed by punishment to make amends."

"Yeah, but most see it as self-punishment or abasement," Ashe pointed out. "Dictionary, you know."

"And this is certainly not self-imposed," Aedan sparred verbally with his son.

"In a way it is. I was just discussing with Mom that I knew what the consequences might be when I made the decision to go to Cordell. It was a calculated risk."

"Son, I should know better than to ever think you'd just go off without thinking about it first." Aedan sat down at the table and tucked more stray hair away from his wife's face.

"Is it bad? I didn't have time to look in the mirror today, it was so busy," Adele tidied her hair self-consciously. "And the chicken farm outside Dill City sent two trucks for chicken feed. They cleaned me out this afternoon and they didn't do very much to help load it up."

"Adele, I wish I could be there to help."

"I know, honey. But Ashe will be there to help in a couple of weeks, and maybe Sali too, if he wants."

"He wants to—he's already said so," Ashe said, brightening immediately. "And it doesn't hurt that he can spend some of his money on lunch at Betsy's." Ashe didn't say that Sali was jealous because Marco would get to spend his summer in Dallas, working for Mr. Winkler. "Dad, have you heard anything else on Amy's murder—the cashier from the grocery store?"

"No, son. But it's a little too soon, yet. Have some patience—you've already helped more than anyone expected. And just so you won't worry, those two agents will have compulsion placed before they get away from the area."

"Is that necessary, Dad? I think they can keep secrets."

"We're not going to take chances." The finality of Aedan's tone informed Ashe that there would be no argument on the subject.

"How ticked off are Chad and Jeremy gonna be over having their cars taken away? I guess Chad's was just a hypothetical car at this point, but it's almost the same."

"If they bother you, go straight to the Principal or a teacher right away."

"Like Principal Billings would do anything." Ashe was back to depression.

"Ben Billings is contractually obligated to protect all the students, not just some of them," Adele said, lifting her plate and soup bowl off the table and carrying them to the dishwasher.

"Contractually obligated?" Ashe shook his head. "That's not the Principal I know. He was almost dancing a jig when he handed that note to me last year."

"Ashe," Aedan's voice held warning.

"All right. I'll go study for my History final." Ashe carried his dishes to the dishwasher and loaded them in before slumping toward the steps leading to his downstairs bedroom.

* * *

"I hate grounding him," Adele said once Ashe's bedroom door closed downstairs.

"It's like grounding an adult family member," Aedan nodded. "Hard to do and harder to enforce. I get the idea that Marcus wouldn't have been so harsh with Sali if he hadn't gone off with Ashe."

"What?" Adele stared at Aedan in alarm.

"I think he doesn't trust what Ashe can do, somehow."

"But he's gotten into those crime scenes because Ashe can do those things," Adele snapped, rising and hugging her arms tightly about her waist.

"He's ex-special ops, Adele. He can respect a weapon, but he doesn't have to trust it."

"You're calling our son a weapon, Aedan? Listen to yourself."

"Do you think for one moment that others wouldn't see him the same way? I spoke with Trace and Jason, Adele. They told me they've seen the way those two agents—Lawford and North—look at our son after he gets them into those crime scenes. That's why compulsion will be placed; Nathan and I have discussed it already. Their Director is retiring, and if he thinks to place our son in danger, he'll get a visit as well."

"Aedan, one day Ashe is going to be an adult and he's going to make up his own mind. Would it be so bad if he worked for the government like some vampires and werewolves do? I imagine they'd pay him well for his efforts."

"My love, that decision may be taken out of our hands."

"You mean the Council, don't you?"

"Or the Grand Master. He knows whatever William Winkler knows, you can bet on that."

"I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but I'd rather see him work for the Grand Master."

"I'm hoping the Council doesn't learn of his talents." It was Aedan's turn to rise and pace. "Radomir owes Ashe blood debt and has promised not to volunteer the information, but if it is requested, he will not only be compelled to give it, he will be punished for withholding it." Aedan referred to the Council Enforcer who'd come the previous year to investigate the murders in the Cloud Chief and Cordell area.

"I'll have nightmares, now," Adele moaned. "Tell me they won't take my boy away. He's so young. They can't—they won't," she didn't finish. The possibilities were too horrible for her to consider.

"Vampire law states that someone must be eighteen years of age before the Council may conscript. That age should be raised, in my opinion. Meanwhile, we will attempt to keep the boy from their sight as long as we can."

"He's not yet fourteen and already he's lost so much of his innocence, going off to those crime scenes. Ashe has been hunted and shot by that psychopathic teacher and those aberrations he associated with—and now the Council may take my child away? Turn him into something even I might not recognize?"

"I was an Enforcer. Was I so terrible when you met me?"

"You're different and you know it."

"Perhaps not. I have to go, love. Trace and Jason are waiting to be relieved."

* * *

Ashe floated over the five mobile homes lined up neatly in the pasture behind his home. His father was joined by Nathan Anderson as they walked toward the small tent Trace and Jason had erected to provide shade during warm afternoons. Ashe, as mist, had zipped past the tent, finding Marcie Pruitt there, talking with Jason and Trace about the worms they were having trouble with in the vegetable garden. He'd heard Marcie ask both werewolves if they'd like to come to her home for dinner. Jason accepted, Trace didn't.

Figuring that his mother might check on him soon, Ashe swept through the nearly moonless night, misting through the roof of his home and then through the floor of the kitchen to get to his bedroom underneath. Sure enough, his mother was just about to knock on his door.

"Ashe, are you studying?" Adele asked through the solid wood of his bedroom door.

"Yeah." Ashe opened the door after becoming solid again. His computer showed a page depicting the Civil War in the background.

"If you want a snack before going to bed, let me know," Adele smiled at her son before closing the door again. Ashe knew she was checking to see if he were doing exactly what he had been doing—turning to mist and getting away from the house. Shivering a little over almost getting caught, Ashe sat down at the computer and began making notes on the Battle of Antietam.

* * *

"I overheard some discussion in Principal Billings' office this morning—I think the teachers are beginning to pick their favorite essays and argue their case," Cori set her tray down, brushed long blonde hair back one-handed and plopped down next to Ashe during lunch.

"Hear any names mentioned?" Sali looked up from his tray of spaghetti and meatballs to stare at Cori.

"Not really," Cori hedged, using a knife to quarter the large meatball a cafeteria worker had set atop a mound of spaghetti. "But Mrs. Rocklin and Mr. Dodd are arguing for the same paper. And I heard the word
him
, so it has to be one of the guys."

"Bet it's Rowdy," Sali muttered dispiritedly. Rowdy Hankins was a senior, an A student and had been accepted into Brown University. Word had it that one of the faculty there was a werewolf just as Rowdy was, and the Grand Master had cleared the way for the studious young wolf.

"Sali, don't get all depressed," Ashe said. "Want my roll?" He pushed his tray across the table toward Sali.

"Sure." Sali grabbed the yeast roll off Ashe's tray and added it to his own. "But a roll doesn't make up for a cell phone," Sali stuffed spaghetti in his mouth.

"Yeah." Ashe began to wind lengthy noodles around his fork. "Man, being grounded sucks rocks."

"Losing the essay contest sucks boulders," Sali offered.

"It sucks in Regolithic proportions," Ashe countered.

"You know, I'm not even going to ask what that means," Cori speared a quarter meatball and ate it. "Marco will be here around the time you two come off your prison sentence."

"
Nobody knows the trouble I've seen
," Sali sang off-key.

"Maybe we can hook Mr. Thompson up to the bars of your jail cell and bust you out," Ashe laughed.

"Mr. Thompson in a harness? Are you kidding?" Sali grinned at the imagery. "I thought people hooked horses up for that."

"Well, there's no chance of getting Wynn or her mom, so you'll have to settle for a buffalo," Ashe ate another forkful of spaghetti.

"Cause the itty, bitty bat is in jail too," Sali said.

"Hey, now," Ashe pointed his fork at Sali.

"Remind me again whose fault it is that the werewolf and his bat sidekick are in the slammer?"

"Oh, yeah," Ashe said.

"I'd have done the same thing if I could," Cori said. "It was a nice gesture, Ashe. Too bad you got caught."

"Well, confessed," Sali said. "After that cashier at Jerry's got killed. We saw her that afternoon."

"That's what Daddy said," Cori nodded. "Amy always talked to us whenever we went in to buy anything."

"She talked to everybody. Knew everybody, too," Ashe agreed. "That may have gotten her killed."

"That gives me the shivers—that being so friendly gets you dead." Cori shook herself.

"How's Marco?" Ashe changed the subject.

"Ready to take on a werewolf and a shapeshifter," Cori glanced up in time to see Jeremy and Chad staring at Ashe.

"You're dead meat," Chad hissed at Ashe before Mr. Dodd began walking toward Ashe's table. Jeremy hauled Chad away before Mr. Dodd could catch any of the conversation.

"Everything all right here?" Mr. Dodd stood at the end of the cafeteria table, his eyes on Ashe and Cori.

"Yeah. Everything's fine," Ashe shrugged.

"All right." Mr. Dodd moved away to stop a food fight in its infancy between third-graders.

"I guess it's a good thing we're grounded right now. We might have a fight on our hands if we weren't," Sali said, turning to watch Chad and Jeremy sit at a table near the cafeteria windows.

"They're supposed to be grounded too," Cori said. "But Susan Wilkes said she saw them wandering around outside yesterday when Jeremy's mother went into Cordell to run errands."

"Not surprised," Ashe said.

"If they have no conscience about setting somebody's house on fire and nearly killing three people, you know they're not going to stay inside," Sali huffed. "Mom watches me like a hawk, now."

"My mom
is
a hawk, and she calls or knocks on my bedroom door every half hour," Ashe sighed gloomily, recalling how he'd almost been caught after misting out of the house the night before.

"I heard something else," Cori toyed with her fork.

"What's that?" Ashe and Sali both turned to the pretty, blonde senior.

"That your Aunt Marcie and Mr. Landers had dinner together last night."

"Yeah. I overheard Mom and Aunt Marcie talking about Jason," Sali said. "I think Aunt Marcie likes him a lot. Says he's a gentleman."

"You knew and you didn't tell anybody?" Cori snapped at Sali.

"Hey, now, panther-pants," Sali snorted. "Is it any of your business?"

"Don't call me that." Cori rose in a huff and stalked toward the tray drop.

"Sali, don't pull Cori into your feud with Wynn and Dori," Ashe warned. "Cori is my friend, too."

"Can't help it," Sali muttered, staring at his nearly empty plate. Ashe watched as Cori walked stiff-backed out of the cafeteria before turning back to Sali.

"That's Marco's girlfriend, in case you're forgetting," Ashe added softly.

* * *

"This is more amusing than I initially imagined," Renegar was busily crashing cars in one of Ashe's video games. "It is much better when I know I am not actually damaging anything."

"Like that's possible," Ashe leaned over and stabbed his controller violently, doing his best to compete with Renegar, who was the first real video game competition he'd had in a while.

"It is certainly possible with my kind—we are quite powerful," Ren was moving along with Ashe, trying just as hard to compete. "You are quite good at this—I thought it might be simple to defeat you."