Splintered (8 page)

Jenny started talking very quickly.
Funny how people being kept in line only through fear tend to turn
on you the first chance they get. I left her tied up so she
couldn't call for help and exited the room.

The cozy suite of rooms I'd been in led
directly back into the unfinished interior of the building.
Apparently there was another set of rooms on the far side; I just
needed to cross the wasteland of post-industrial refuse to get
there.

I found the two huge bruisers I'd been
expecting earlier outside the room just where Jenny had promised.
Sergen apparently had decided to amuse himself while he waited. The
closer guy, a huge islander wearing a shoulder holster over his
white tank top, stepped forward to block my way.

"No tourists allowed. Turn around and go back
the way you came."

"Can't. I have an appointment with
Sergen."

"He's busy."

I casually slammed the palm of my hand into his
sternum. For all the ease of the motion, it carried enough force to
knock him back into the wall in a rain of sheet rock.

I'd already turned towards the second
bodyguard, a skinny white guy, but he moved faster than any human
I'd ever seen before. I flipped my briefcase into his arm. It hit
with a sickening crunch as his gun discharged into the ground at my
feet.

I expected the second guard to fold up around
his shattered appendage, but he went for his backup gun as he was
still falling toward the ground. I could hear footsteps as Sergen's
other men on site were alerted by the gunfire.

The guard got a shot off as I kicked him. An
awl of fire burned through my side as the guard hit against a
concrete pylon.

I gathered up the fallen gun and hit
the door to Sergen's room with my shoulder, splintering it as I
went through. The room's three occupants were in various states of
undress. I ignored the first girl, focusing instead on Sergen and
the gun he had pressed up against the second girl's
head.

"Who the hell are you?"

The hostage was a slender redhead
whose eyes had all but rolled back up inside her head in fear. She
was at least a couple of years younger than me and my jaw clenched
as I took in the numerous bruises dotting her arms and
face.

He was
getting jumpy. Only seconds until his men would come flooding into
the room, and he was losing his nerve. I only had a heartbeat to
decide on a course of action. I let the handgun drop.

Chapter 10

Despite having told Mom that I had more friends
than just Alec and Rachel, I was pretty stunned by how fast my
calendar had filled up. Aspen with Alec, lunch with Sam and Alison,
dinner, sort of, with Ben and the crew.

Being busy with friends was pretty much foreign
to my existence. It had seemed to reassure Mom though. Obviously if
I had that many friends and she hadn't seen Alec since, I must not
be in some kind of nightmare co-dependent relationship.

Not only had Mom not freaked out
about my Saturday lunch appointment, she'd actually been excited to
hear that I was going to the Funcade with Rachel, Jasmin and Ben. I
hadn't talked to her about Aspen yet. I was pretty sure the
parental leniency was only going to go so far.

Sam and Alison arrived as I was running through
Mom's latest batch of pictures with her.

"Hi, guys, this is my mom. Mom, Alison and
Sam."

Alison swept into the house and
waved at my mom. "Hi, Mrs. Paige. We've heard a lot about you. How
was Europe?"

"Exhausting. They kept me so busy with shoots
it was all I could do to drag myself back to my hotel room each
night. I didn't see much in the way of sights, but it was good
experience."

I swung the door shut behind Sam and cleared my
throat. "Do you guys mind waiting for just a minute? Mom and I were
just about finished running through the stuff she shot yesterday.
She hates it when I bail midway through, says it ruins her artistic
vibe."

"Don't be silly, dear. I don't expect your
friends to just sit around. We've already been through most of the
decent stuff. Don't let me hold you up."

Sam smiled earnestly. "Actually,
Mrs. Paige, we'd love to see some of your work. Were you shooting
in Zions again?"

"I was. There's a spot just west of Angel's
Landing that I've been trying to catch in the right light almost
since we arrived."

We all crowded around Mom's
laptop.

"What about this one, Adri?"

"I don't know, Mom. I think the
birds actually ruin it. If you sell it as a smaller print they look
like smudges and even with a larger print they're kind of
asymmetrical, not in a good way."

Sam shook his head as we finished and Mom set
her laptop down. "That's amazing. I mean it isn't very often you
get to sit in on a piece of the creative process like that. You're
really good, Mrs. Paige."

Mom blushed slightly. "Thanks. I'm
still a long way from being where I need to be but I do appreciate
the flattery. Careful, Alison. Sam seems like he could be quite the
heart-throb."

Alison chuckled. "Oh, he's good, but
not nearly as good as he thinks he is."

"I guess we can't all be Casanovas
like Alec."

Sam said it with a smile, but there was an edge
to his eyes. I was so busy wondering if he and Alison had been
fighting lately that I was halfway to the door before I realized
Mom's expression had become just the slightest bit
fixed.

"You know Alec well, Sam?"

"Yeah. As well as anyone really knows him I
guess. He's kind of a private kind of person."

I never would have believed that things could
go bad this quick. Whatever had Sam bent out of shape would have to
be addressed later. For now I just needed to get him out of the
house before Mom completely freaked out.

As if reading my mind, Alison
punched Sam lightly in the shoulder. "Alec's a good guy and you
know it. Not many people would take in the Dominics and Jasmins of
the world like he has."

Mom's expression didn't unfreeze much, but I
figured nothing I could say would really fix things right
now.

"Shall we head out,
guys?"

There was exactly one fast-food
place in Sanctuary, and it was surprisingly empty for a Saturday. I
managed not to say anything until we made it to Big
Al's.

"What is up with you today, Sam? You
do remember that I'm dating Alec, right? After that comment, it's
going to be that much harder to convince my mom that Alec's not
some kind of monster."

"No pun intended, right?" Alison had
the grace to look abashed, but Sam's words weren't the apology I
was expecting.

"I'm serious. My mom was already
freaked out. She's got this thing against rich guys."

"You're right. I shouldn't have said that.
Things are just getting pretty bad with Alec gone. The dominants
are all riding us pretty hard. Alison is little more than a slave,
fetching and carrying for Isaac and Jess."

Alison put a hand on Sam's arm.
"That's not entirely fair. We're shape shifters; that's how things
work. Dominants boss the submissives around."

"Right, which is totally in keeping with Alec's
squeaky-clean image. If anything it's worse that we're being
treated like that here. I thought we'd finally be beyond this
crap."

I grabbed a French fry while I
stalled for time to think. "I thought things were a lot better
since you guys came over from Brandon's pack."

Sam shrugged. "It's all relative. We
get the crap kicked out of us no matter where we go; Alec was just
more misleading about what we were getting into."

Alison looked for a second like she was going
to interject something, but instead looked down and grabbed a fry
of her own.

I shook my head. "That doesn't sound
right, doesn't sound like what Alec is trying to do."

"Maybe you're right, maybe he isn't
trying to do that to us, but that's what's happening. Even Jasmin
has been riding us lately, and she has less reason than anyone. I
know Jack is kind of a maniac, but none of us has done anything to
her."

"I'll talk to the others. No promises, but
we've been through a lot together so maybe it will
help."

Sam smiled. "Thanks, Adriana. By the way, good luck helping
Jasmin catch Ben. He seems like a pretty hard sell."

Chapter 11

Alec still wasn't back in town by the time
Monday rolled around. I was starting to feel jittery and tired.
Someone else might have taken that as evidence Alec really was
right about the whole Ja'tell bond thing. I knew I was just missing
him. A bad day with Alec beat a good day without him.

Lunch seemed tenser even than the week before.
I thought about it for most of the next two classes, but couldn't
decide if things were really worse, or if I was just reading into
it more because of my lunch with Alison and Sam.

The one bright spot all day was the
fact that Rachel and Jasmin were coming over for a strategy session
after school. Capture Ben indeed. It wasn't the kind of thing I'd
ever expected to get involved in, let alone look forward to, but I
actually was looking forward to it.

Rachel waited around for me to finish up my
session at the tutoring lab.

"I feel bad that you have to wait for me every
day."

"Please. If I wasn't in the tutoring lab I'd
just be home doing some other homework assignment. This way not
only do I get the assignments done that I'd otherwise be tempted to
procrastinate, but I also get to hang out with you."

"And drive your new car?"

"It's true. If I didn't have the excuse of
needing to drop you off, then I'd probably have to carpool in with
everyone else."

I shook my head as we turned down my
lane. The Jeep, and therefore Mom, was gone but Jasmin was waiting
for us. I unlocked the door and we all settled into the living
room.

Jasmin absently handed me a small package.
"Alec sends his regards."

"He's back?"

"No, he's unavailable still, but he was asking
about the necklace he gave you last week. I told him you hadn't
been wearing it. He thought maybe the chain that came with it was
the problem."

I pulled the paper off the small box and found
a small silver chain that was even more delicate than the one
that'd come with the glass pendant.

I closed the box back up and sighed. "I wish
he'd get back here. I miss him."

Jasmin pulled out a notebook and
shrugged. "He'll get back when he gets back, but for what it's
worth I wish he were back too. The terrible trio need their butts
kicked again."

The comment was too reminiscent of what Sam had
told me on Saturday. "I don't understand why you guys are so hard
on them. I mean sure, Jack is a psychopath, but Alison and Sam
don't deserve what's happening to them."

"Don't be so sure. Besides, it isn't
a matter of deserving it or not. They are throwing off the power
dynamic in the pack. They were small beans in Brandon's pack, but
not all the way at the bottom of the totem pole like they are now.
Until they accept that's their new place it's just going to cause
problems."

"Why does it have to be like that though? Just
because they are smaller and weaker doesn't necessarily mean that
they deserve to run errands for James or serve as a punching bag
when he has a bad day."

Jasmin frowned. "I don't make up the
rules, Adri, that's just how it is. Trying to turn the pack into
some kind of democratic knitting circle is just going to make
things worse in the long run."

"Worse for everyone, or just worse for the
dominants?"

"For everyone. Shape shifters aren't civilized.
Not really. In our world you have to be able to back things up with
violence and muscle. The pack could come under attack at any time.
If the best fighters aren't running the show then what incentive do
they have to defend the weaker pack members when everyone's lives
are on the line?"

I looked to Rachel for help but she refused to
meet my eyes. "You stood up for me despite the fact that I'm not
any kind of asset to the pack."

For a second it seemed Jasmin wasn't going to
respond. "No, Adri. I didn't stand up for you at all. I backed down
because Rachel stood up for you. More importantly, I backed down
because Alec was willing to die for you and I knew we couldn't
survive without him."

"So it wasn't selflessness at all, it was just
more dominance in action?"

"I'm afraid so. You're my friend now, but back
then it was simply the natural result of the strongest member of
the pack sticking up for you."

"Right. I'll keep that in mind."

Rachel came over and hugged me, but Jasmin
wasn't done. "Adriana, I know Alec has been shielding you from most
aspects of pack life, but you need to understand what he's done.
He's essentially put every member of the pack on notice that he'll
kill to protect you. It's the same thing he's done with Rachel, the
same thing he's done with his mother, and to a lesser extent the
same thing he's done with Donovan. The rest of the pack generally
all likes those people so it's mostly unnecessary, but it's a
factor in why their lives don't suck when James has a bad
day."