Splintered (10 page)

Ben was a legitimately good guy.
When he noticed one of the junior high kids the next table over
watching him fidget with the Gameboy he tossed it to the kid
without a second thought.

"Enjoy, man. It's an okay game but
the real fun was getting it working again. Let's go play some
foosball, ladies."

We played foosball, and air hockey,
and some car-racing game that Jasmin absently smoked all of us at.
I'd almost forgotten what simple, no-strings-attached fun was like.
By the time we were inching towards my curfew, things were going
really well. We had him opened up and talking about some crazy
computer game he'd spent the afternoon playing.

"I'm telling you guys, Zombie Realms
is the best way to kill time you'll ever find. I mean there's like
a zillion things to do. Grouping, soloing, raiding. We should get a
group together some time. There's a free trial account so you could
try it out and I've got a couple extra old computers that I fixed
up and upgraded just enough to handle the game. If someone has a
laptop or something we could all four play at the same time. I
mean, if you guys want to."

That last was said looking directly at Jasmin.
It was actually pretty cute how into each other they were.
Unfortunately Jasmin still wasn't her normal, unruffled self where
Ben was concerned. Rachel jumped in before the silence got too
awkward.

"Sure, that sounds like fun. I'll bring my
laptop and we can all do it. Depending on how many people you can
put in a group, if you want we could bring Alec or Dom."

"Sure, bring them both if we can round up
machines for them."

We were slowly headed outside, neither Jasmin
or Ben willing to hurry our departure. Ben grabbed the door,
holding it open for Rachel and me to go through. He followed Jasmin
through and I happened to look back just in time to see him trip
and start falling.

Jasmin moved quickly, too quickly actually, but
he was too far gone, already halfway down to the dangerous rebar by
the time she grabbed his arm. Rachel screamed as Ben landed, rusty
iron stuck through his thigh.

Rachel and I hurried down the stairs, getting
there just after Jasmin who'd jumped, landing gracefully between
two of the metal rods. She already had her cell phone out, handing
it to Rachel as it started dialing.

Jasmin pulled me down next to Ben so I could
support his head and shoulders while she ripped his pants leg away
so she could see the wound. Rachel got through to a dispatcher
while Jasmin started applying pressure.

"We need an ambulance. Yes, someone's been
hurt. At the Funcade."

"Adri, talk to him while I work on this leg. Is
he responsive?"

My throat had completely dried up. It took two
tries to get the words out.

"Ben, can you hear me? Ben?"

Having something to do focused my
mind. First-aid basics started coming back to me. His breathing was
shallow. I patted his cheek but got no response.

"I don't know, can't you just get someone here?
How much longer?"

Jasmin shook her head. "The EMT's
are probably still at least five minutes away. I think it ripped
his femoral artery. Direct pressure isn't doing the
trick."

I hadn't had the benefit of the anatomy classes
that Donovan had forced the pack through, but even so I knew that
was serious. If an artery got cut you usually only had seconds
before the person bled out.

Jasmin undid Ben's belt and wrapped it around
his thigh a couple of inches above the wound. A scrap piece of
rebar finished off the tourniquet.

"Rachel, tell them they'll need something to
cut the rebar with."

Rachel dutifully repeated Jasmin's instructions
as Jasmin pulled my free hand over to where I could keep pressure
on the tourniquet. I happened to be looking at Ben's face as she
broke contact with him. It went from pleasantly blank to
excruciating pain in a heartbeat. As Jasmin picked his arm up to
check his pulse the pain faded back away.

The dispatcher interrupted with more questions
before I could act on what I'd just seen. "She says to check his
pupils. He hit his head pretty hard."

"They're staying dilated. Tell her he probably
has a concussion."

My throat had constricted again. "Jasmin, I
don't think he has a concussion. At least that isn't all he
has."

Jasmin rounded on me with the barest beginning
of a tremor to her hands and then forced herself calm again with a
visible effort.

"What do you mean?"

"Let go of him for a second."

For maybe the first time in my life I saw
Jasmin, always put together and in control Jasmin, go
white.

"Jas, I think he's addicted to you."

Chapter 14

The EMT's didn't understand why Ben
started thrashing when they pulled Jasmin away from him, but it
only took them a second to realize he calmed down as long as she
was touching him. They let her stay as they pushed Rachel and me
further back so they could get some kind of power tool close enough
to cut him free.

By that time a crowd was starting to gather.
The owner of the Funcade was among the watchers and I could tell he
was thinking 'dead boy' and 'lawsuit' with about equal
frequency.

As the ambulance drove away with
Jasmin and Ben in it, Rachel handed me her phone. A short while
later Mom blessed our trip to the hospital and Rachel and I were on
our way.

The hospital was just waiting followed by more
waiting. About midnight Mom called Rachel's phone and told me she'd
be excusing me from school the next day. I managed to get
permission to stay a little while longer so I could find out what
Ben's surgeons said and then went back to waiting.

About a quarter to one I got one of the better
surprises of my life. I was lying back in a fairly uncomfortable
chair when I heard familiar footsteps. As I opened my eyes Alec
pulled me up into his arms.

"You're back!"

"I'm so glad it wasn't you."

"Me too, but I'm worried about Ben. He's been
in there for hours and nobody will tell us anything."

Alec nodded and pulled his phone out. "Let me
see what we can do about that."

While Alec stepped away to make his call I
noticed that Jasmin was awake. Once the doctors had put Ben under
there hadn't been any need for her in the operating room so she'd
been relegated to the waiting room with the rest of us. She'd
curled up on a couch and closed her eyes.

"Hi, Jasmin. Alec is going to see if he can get
us an update."

"Doesn't matter."

"What do you mean? We've all been going crazy
out here wondering what was going on."

"He's going to survive. I couldn't stop him
from falling, not without revealing what I was. I had a second to
choose and I chose to obey Alec's orders. I let him fall. I kept
him from being impaled through the chest, but in the end it doesn't
matter."

"You're not making sense. Of course it matters.
You saved his life."

"I saved his life, but addicted him to my
touch."

"So? He's addicted to half a dozen
other things. That hasn't stopped him from functioning. He'll go
through rehab or whatever and get over it."

"It doesn't work like that. You don't know him.
The things he can kick he avoids. Best case he'll never speak to me
again. Worst case he'll follow me around like a puppy, only it
won't be him, it will be the addiction."

I opened my mouth to try and offer comfort, but
Alec was walking back over, Rachel a few steps behind
him.

"Ben's stable. They've finished repairing the
artery in his leg and they're just about done closing him back
up."

Whatever Jasmin might have said was cut off by
Alec's phone ringing.

"This is Alec."

For the first time in ages I was actually able
to hear Donovan on the other end.

"Sir, you'll need to come home now. Your
presence has been requested by the Coun'hij. Agony arrived about
twenty minutes ago."

None of it made any sense to me, but
the very way that Alec's voice became cold and uncaring told me
things weren't okay.

"Have they hurt anyone yet?"

"That is a relative concept. Nobody
has been…permanently damaged."

"Do what you can to guide Isaac and James
through the minefield. I'll be home in ten minutes."

Alec slammed his phone shut and turned to
Jasmin. "We're leaving now. Rachel, take Adri home and then meet us
back at the estate. Don't dawdle, but call when you're still a
couple of minutes away so we can send out an escort. We can't
afford a misunderstanding."

Alec's phone was ringing again, but he ignored
it, turning to me as he dug a business card out of his pocket. "You
have to do exactly what I tell you. Go home and stay with your mom.
If she's going to be gone for more than a few hours then call this
number and ask the person on the other end to give you a ride into
town. Stick to places with crowds as much as possible."

"I don't understand. What's going
on?"

Rachel's phone was vibrating now, but Alec
refused to be distracted.

"Adri, focus. This is important. Don't spend
any time alone that you don't have to. If necessary lie to your
mom. If you can somehow convince her to take a weekend down in
Vegas or up in Salt Lake, all the better. This is the whole reason
I've tried to keep you in the dark. With any luck they'll decide
you are a non-combatant and choose to leave you alone rather than
suck you deeper into a world you're not supposed to know
about."

Rachel held her phone up. "Alec,
it's Donovan. He says to tell you that Adri's been specially
requested."

"Damn it."

I still didn't know what was going on, my mind
was spinning like a bunch of stripped gears, but I was pretty sure
I'd never heard Alec swear before. I followed the others out to
Rachel and Alec's cars in something very near a daze. A shaking
Rachel threw Jasmin her keys and then climbed into the back seat of
Alec's Porsche.

Alec had his phone back out. He was talking to
someone named Shawn, but I didn't even try to follow the
conversation. I'd had too many shocks in too short of a time.
Rachel was putting on a brave face but I could tell she wasn't
holding up a whole lot better.

As we rounded the last couple of bends before
the estate, Alec closed his phone again and turned to
me.

"Rachel has an idea how things are
going to go down. She's been preparing for this her whole life.
Whatever you think you're getting into, though, it's going to be
worse than you could possibly expect. Don't speak unless spoken to,
don't volunteer any information you don't have to when they do ask
you questions, and stay near one of the hybrids. Jasmin will do in
a pinch. I'll do everything I possibly can to keep you both
alive."

There were two huge guys waiting outside Alec's
house when we arrived. I didn't recognize either of them, but there
was no mistaking the low-level buzz of shape shifter energy. Jasmin
pulled up a second later in Rachel's car.

Alec led us up to the newcomers. "Agony
requested our presence, take us to him."

"Right. You know my favorite thing about going
out on visits with Agony?"

The shape shifter who had spoken was
a black guy with dreads and facial piercings who looked like he
could have given Brandon a run for his money in an arm
wrestle.

"I don't particularly care why you
do what you do, Abaddon. Mostly it just matters that you've chosen
to do so."

"Ah, Graves. You're too much like your dad.
That's the beauty of things though. You pissant pack leaders all
start out so high and mighty, but by the time we leave you always
bow and scrape just like you're supposed to."

Alec's fists went white. Whatever he might have
said was interrupted by Jasmin.

"I find it equally interesting that someone of
your breeding would abandon the position of his pack to go fawn
over the Coun'hij. Did you lose any sleep when the Sacramento pack
tore your friends apart?"

"Your girl's got a mouth on her, Graves. You
should do something about that before she gets hurt."

Alec's smile highlighted the ice in his eyes.
"Jasmin's as dominant as they come. She can say pretty much
whatever she likes. If you want to call her on it be my guest, but
you might want to do your job and get us to Agony before letting
her rip your throat out."

Abaddon pointed at the door.
"Oblivion, lead the way."

Oblivion looked like a recruitment
poster for the Aryan Nations. Blond hair, blue eyes and a
complicated web of tattoos up his arms that was oddly surreal.
Oblivion looked at Abaddon for several seconds, as if to establish
that he wasn't scared of the darker shape shifter, and then turned
and opened the front door.

We went through the halls in a
clump. Jasmin, then Rachel and I holding hands in a desire for
communal reassurance, then Alec with Abaddon taking up the
rear.