Silver (21 page)

TH
I
R
T
Y
-
Five

The truth has never seemed clearer to me than it does right now. We cannot change the past. We cannot change our future. The ending was written the moment Blake kissed me on the beach. Sooner. We might fight against it, but Austin's twisted smile tells me everything I need to know. I can't stick my head under my pillow and wait for this to go away. The war is coming. It's coming for me.

Austin looks at the dealer. No one moves as the dealer removes the top card from the deck and starts to turn it over.

Before he can lay it on the table, there's a sharp wind that starts at the center of the room, whipping the cards into the air and sending them flying in every direction. The card in the dealer's hand flies into the melee as the entire deck is blown around the room, along with cocktail napkins, straws, and assorted scraps of paper. But not before I see the card.

A three.

Austin stands, glaring at me. I shake my head at him—it wasn't me.

There's a movement by the doorway, and everyone turns to look. Sherri and Sasha walk in with the grace of supermodels, wearing crimson red gowns that cling in all the right places and heels that are impossibly high. They're dressed for sipping champagne, not fighting demigods.

Sherri Milliken laughs as Rush and Jonah surge toward them, outing themselves as Sons.

Sasha smiles her gorgeous smile. “Hi, boys.”

Austin is still watching me, but his face changes as he laughs. “Juliet, you've been holding out on me.”

Haley looks confused. She watches Sherri and Sasha circle Rush and Jonah.

Sherri looks over at me and winks. “Nice work, Paxton.”

Blake rises from his chair and grabs my arm. His eyes are dark, green with a hint of silver. I wish to God I could blame the look in Blake's eyes on Austin, but Austin's not influencing him anymore. The raw emotion in Blake's eyes is nothing compared to the lancing pain that slashes through me as I feel Blake's anger. More than anger—betrayal. My heart sinks, plunging with the weight of all that Sherri just implied in her statement to me.

I should have told Blake about Sherri and her death squad. But I couldn't tell Blake about her any more than I could tell Sherri about Blake. I walked away from Sherri and her bloodlust. But in the process, I led her straight to the Sons.

I need to say something now. The window on Blake's willingness to listen to me is closing even as all hell is about to break loose. “I can explain,” is all I manage to blurt.

There's a flash of silver light, and Rush and Jonah vanish. Sherri and Sasha are in trouble. They've lost the element of surprise; their advantage is already gone and they're about to find themselves on the business end of a very sharp knife.

If I don't do something, Sasha and Sherri will die. I can't sit back and wait for it to happen.

Blake lets go of my arm abruptly. The flash of silver light is the only warning I have before he disappears into thin air.

“Holy crap!” Haley is finally coming out of her Austin-induced coma, her eyes bugging out of her head.

“Stay here,” I say, as I race toward Sherri and Sasha. Austin's laugh is the only sound I'm aware of as I launch myself at Sherri, knocking her to the ground.

“What the hell, Paxton?” Sherri pushes at me but stops when Rush appears right where she'd been standing, his dagger drawn to slice at just the level of her neck.

Jonah stands with his arms around Sasha, his bright silver light only serving to illuminate the dark crimson that spills from Sasha's chest where his knife plunged. Sasha falls to the floor soundlessly, blood pooling around her in a dark circle.

“You can't stay in one place,” I tell Sherri. “Get up and get moving.”

I hear screaming from the back of the room. Crap—Haley's still in here.

I send a gust of wind at Rush, throwing him off his feet before he can disappear again. His back hits a stuffed moose head hard enough to make a cracking sound. He lands on a table, unmoving. Sherri is back on her feet but Jonah has already disappeared. Then there's a flash of silver near Sherri's back.

“Move!” I scream.

She's not fast enough. Blake appears behind her, his sword poised at her heart.

“Don't,” I plead. “Blake.”

He stares at me like I'm a stranger. Like he doesn't understand a thing about me. “Please,” I whisper. There's a flash of silver behind me and I concentrate on water, bringing the icy cold to the surface as quickly as I can.

I feel the blade of Jonah's knife at the base of my throat, but it's gone just as quickly, as Jonah recoils from the freezing cold of my skin.

Blake's face changes. He lets go of Sherri and lunges at Jonah. There's a clattering of sword and knife and then a blur of movement. They move so quickly, the only way to follow the path of their fight is by the crashing tables and smashing glasses.

I seize Sherri's arm and drag her from the room. We run to the parking lot. We go as fast as Sherri can manage in her five-inch heels, anyway.

“Get out of here,” I say. “You saw what they did to Sasha. You can't win this fight. There's too many of them.”

“No duh, Einstein.” She pulls off her heels and runs toward a car parked near the front entrance. She has the door open before she realizes I haven't followed.

“We don't have much time, Paxton. We need to disappear for a while.”

I'm tempted. I've never wanted to run away more. But I can't leave Haley in there. I can't leave Blake. “I can't.”

They're the words of a coward, but they might be the bravest words I've ever said.

“It's been nice knowing you.” Sherri slams the door. She starts the car and peels out of the parking lot, disappearing in a cloud of smoke, leaving only the smell of burned rubber in her wake.

I'm running back toward the restaurant when I feel the first blast of pain, so strong I fall to the ground. The pain isn't mine, but it might as well be. My head snaps back like it's been hit. Blake is hurt. I have to get to him. I force myself to my knees, crawling along the sidewalk into the front door of the restaurant. I try to block the pain from my mind. I don't have much time.

Joe meets me halfway to the back room and helps me to my feet wordlessly. I lean on him for support as we work our way inside.

Jonah is standing over Blake, his shirt bloodied. I pray that it's Jonah's blood. Blake lies on the ground, his sword a few feet away. I feel how weak he is, nearly unconscious. Before Jonah can raise his knife, I send a ball of ice at his wounded leg, hitting him square in the shin. Jonah collapses to the ground. I turn on Rush.

Rush seems to have recovered from his run-in with the moose head. He looks at me and then looks away, and I realize why he hasn't attacked me yet. I'm still wearing my bracelet. Even when he knows he should look at me, he can't.

Blake stirs beside me, rising to his elbows. When he sees me, a vein in his neck twitches. “What are you still doing here?”

“Saving your ass.” I can stand up without Joe now that Blake is out of danger.

Joe laughs and removes the arm he'd draped around my waist. “I knew I liked you.”

Jonah scowls at me from the floor but doesn't strike, and I know the immediate danger has passed. Haley is huddled in a corner with her face buried in Austin's shoulder. One look at Austin's face tells me everything I need to know. Austin is not happy.

Sasha's body lies on the floor, her crimson dress stained black. Blood coagulates around her. I cover my hand over my mouth, fighting against waves of nausea.

Rush steps forward and grabs Blake's arm. At first I think he's going to help Blake off the floor, but instead he pushes him back to the ground. “In my office,” he growls. “Now.” Jonah's satisfied smile disappears when Rush turns his glare on him. “You too. And bring the girl.” Rush doesn't even look at Joe when he addresses him. “Take care of this mess.” He turns on the high heel of a gray cowboy boot and walks away.

My eyes dart from Joe to Haley. “Take care of … he didn't mean … ? Is Haley going to be okay?”

Joe nods. “Have you heard of hypnosis?”

“Yes.”

“It's like that. A little stronger. The humans will remember a bar fight, but it will all be fuzzy, like they had too much to drink. The players will wake up tomorrow with limited memory, and more chips than they came with, so they won't complain.”

“What about Haley?” Between Austin's mind games and Joe's hypnosis, poor Haley's brain is going to be a scrambled mess.

“She'll be fine. She'll just think she drank too much, and what little she remembers will be pleasant.”

I want him to make her forget everything. Especially what she said to me. I want him to make me forget it.

Blake is on his feet. He walks out of the room without looking at me.

Joe's hand squeezes my shoulder. “He'll come around.”

Easy for him to say. He doesn't feel Blake's rage as it burns inside me, so strong that I barely feel the throbbing ache in my head anymore.

Jonah glares at me and tilts his head toward a door in the back. He doesn't touch me, and I'm not complaining. I don't want to be anywhere near Jonah Timken.

Rush's office is a large room in the far corner of the restaurant that looks more like a lounge than a traditional workspace. There's a table with two chairs, and a huge wrap-around couch. Rush is pacing by a blackened window. Jonah takes a seat in the center of the couch; Blake sits on the end farthest from the doorway. I don't sit. I can't afford to let myself get too comfortable. Not that the couch appears comfortable. It's a shiny patent leather that looks like it would stick to your skin.

“Who is she?” Rush points at me even though he can't meet my eyes.

“Isn't it obvious?” Jonah leans back and stretches his arm out. “She's the
bandia
.”

Rush laughs at that. “We just saw the
bandia
, fool. One's dead on the floor of the game room. The other one got away. You saw what they were. More beautiful than any human girl. Capable of great power.” Rush crosses the room. He stands in front of me but doesn't look at my face. “This
girl
”—he says it like it's a bad word—“is the least like a
bandia
I've ever seen.”

Blake sits on the couch in silence. He's staring straight ahead, not rushing to my defense, not even watching as Rush picks up a lock of my hair and
smells
it. I only know he's aware of Rush's invasion of my personal space by the surge of adrenaline that isn't mine.

Jonah barks out a laugh. “She's the one that sent you flying into Colonel Potter's head. If she's not a
bandia
, I don't know how you begin to explain it.”

“It was the other one.” Rush turns on Blake. “Why did you protect this human from Jonah? What's she to you?”

Blake still stares straight ahead. He doesn't even stop to consider his response. “Nothing.”

No, no, no!
Please
, I silently plead with him.
Let me explain
.
But he's closed me off. I can't feel anything now but a wall of dark emotion.

Rush forces himself to look at me. I can see the effort it takes for him. “She knew how we fight. She pushed the dark-haired one out of the way.”

I nod at him. “I'm a breeder, sir.”

Jonah snorts from the couch. I'm glad at least one person is enjoying himself.

“Is this true?” Rush stares at Blake.

I half expect Blake to deny it, to throw me to the wolves and be done with it. Instead, he nods his head. “Ask Dr. McKay. Her DNA is off the fucking charts.”

It's my turn to feel the pain of betrayal. He actually tested me? When did he get my hair? Wait, who am I kidding? When
wasn't
he close enough to grab a few strands of hair?

“Why didn't you tell me about her sooner?” Rush eyes me with more interest now, his eyes actually traveling from my head to my feet despite the effort it takes.

Jonah laughs openly now. Bad idea. If there's one rule that seems to apply in Rush's office, it's that anything remotely fun is checked at the door.

Rush walks over to Jonah and kicks him hard in the leg, sending Jonah down to the floor with such force that even I gasp. “Don't think you're out of this. What the hell did you pull back there? Attacking Blake until he was unconscious? For a minute there I thought you were going to do the unthinkable.”

It's a few seconds before Jonah can stop writhing enough to respond, his voice a rasp. “He started it.”

Blake stands up, smoothing his thighs with his palm as he does. “Are we done here? I'll see if Joe needs help.”

Rush nods, as much a dismissal as a response. “Tell Joe to set up an initiation for the new breeder on Saturday.”

I want to say something, to remind them that I'm still in the room, but I can't. I'm too busy trying to gather the thousand tiny pieces of my heart as Blake walks past me.

T
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six

I'm nearly home before I realize it's been my birthday for five minutes. I don't feel any different. There's no swell of magic, no flood of power. For a second, I dare to hope that they've all got it wrong. I'm just a girl, a girl missing a crucial pheromone who has a perfectly normal, if romantically challenged, life. A girl who can fit virtually any aspect of her world into a perfectly logical, science-based box. It's a second of peace that I don't deserve, but I give it to myself anyway.

In school on Friday, I don't take off my bracelet. It's probably safe to let guys see me now; the magic won't slip out and give me away anymore. But I don't want to be seen. Not now. Maybe never. And, birthday or no birthday, the bracelet still seems to shield me with some level of anonymity.

I find Haley at her locker. She turns so I'm staring at her shoulder. Christy makes a sad face and mouths “Sorry.” It might not be her call, but she's not going to cross the line that Haley's drawn in the sand, either.

It shouldn't matter. After what Haley said to me, I should just let it go. But unlike Blake, I don't drop people the first time they disappoint me. And it can't be easy watching everything she thought she knew about me get turned on its head. It sure as hell hasn't been easy living it. I let her walk away. I'll be back, though. After lunch, and again on Monday, for as long as it takes.

When I get to the ranch, Marcy waves me over to the center of the ring. “Parker's dad is back in town. We can have the check today.”

I flinch. “I'm not selling Dart.”

Marcy's smile falls. “I know it's emotional for you. But he recovered from the mountain lion attack just fine, and this is a better price than you imagined. He'll be right here. You'll still see him every day.”

She's right. I shouldn't let my personal feelings about Parker Winslow stop me from earning my college tuition. It's not like Dart won't be well taken care of. “I'll think about it.”

“That's my girl.” Marcy's smile is back.

Jenna rides up on her little bay pony. “Hi Brianna,” she says shyly.

“Hi,” I say, noticing that the heel of her boot drops below Peppermint's belly. “Hey Jenna, remember when I said you could ride Dart some time?”

She nods without stopping, her chin bobbing up and down and up and down.

“How's now?”

She can't stop the excited squeal that flies out of her mouth. “Really?”

I tack Dart up and bring him to the ring, taking Peppermint while Jenna cinches her saddle into place and climbs on Dart. She looks cute on him. He's not so big that she looks out of place, nor so small that she'll grow out of him.

“She'll be graduating to a horse soon, right?” I ask Marcy as Jenna takes Dart along the rail.

I can practically see the dollar signs floating away from Marcy as she realizes where I'm going with this. To her credit, she smiles. “It might be a good fit. You realize that her parents can't pay half of what Parker will pay.”

I nod. The price will still be more than what I'd hoped for when I first found him, enough that I can go right into a four-year program at U.R.D. The thought of going to the same school as Blake gives me a little thrill that I have no right to feel under the circumstances, especially since Blake hasn't tried to contact me once since last night. Not even to text Happy Birthday.

“I'll talk to her mother.” Marcy shakes her head.

Jenna reaches down to pat Dart's neck as she eases him into a canter, and I know I've made the right decision.

After Dart is groomed and Jenna has fed him an entire two-pound bag of carrots, I go in search of Parker. Not to gloat. I have some questions. There's something that doesn't make sense now that I know the truth about Austin. Why did Austin date Parker for two years?

When I find her in the tack room used by Sam's students, she doesn't say a word to me. I don't know if she knows that I'm not going to sell Dart to her, or if it ever really mattered to her that much, but she just goes on cleaning a bridle of butter-soft leather like I'm not even there.

“Parker.”

She finally looks at me.

I'm not sure how to ask, so I just say it. “What was the deal with you and Austin?”

She rolls her eyes at me. “Really? You came all the way over here to ask me about Austin? Like you have any real chance with him? Please. Or are you just a masochist? I'll tell you exactly what Austin loved about me. Is that what you want to hear?”

“Spill.”

“Well, for starters, I'm beautiful. And of course there's rich. I was class president of McMillan. As a sophomore. It was only natural that the two of us would end up together.”

“That's it?” I don't disguise the complete disbelief in my tone. There has to be more to it than Parker's popularity. I'm sure Austin is popular in his own right. He wouldn't need Parker on his arm to seal the deal.

Parker's mouth opens and closes, and for a second she resembles a giant fish. “Well, he did always tell me I was descended from a beautiful goddess.”

“But you weren't,” I say with a certainty I feel in my bones. “And let me guess. He broke up with you shortly after you turned seventeen.”

She opens her mouth again without saying anything. I don't wait around for her to get it together. Parker Winslow has told me everything I need to know.

Austin was prospecting, looking for a Seventh Daughter to help him fight his war against the Sons. Only Austin doesn't have the aid of the latest advancements in genetic science. Austin is flying blind.

Austin is not as all-powerful as he claims.