Chapter 8
“Anna… Anna, wake up…” That wasn’t Jack’s voice worriedly calling to me as I fought to focus on it. “Come on, Anna…” There it was again, but the more I woke up, the more aware I became of pain, sounds of fighting, growling, wet cement beneath me. I groaned as my pulse pounded achingly in my head and I could tell the sun was much too bright. “Hold on a second…” The voice came again and then I heard the snap of an umbrella and the bright sunlight stopped scorching against my eyelids as I managed to open them and found Evan kneeling beside me with the umbrella open over my head while I realized there were still dark clouds above us, but it was what was behind him that made me gasp. The car was totaled; it was nearly broken in half and formed an L-shape, more or less…. The part that had me pushing on the sidewalk to sit up wasn’t the fact that it was totaled, it was the side that was caved in, the passenger side, the side that had been off the road facing the field beyond the car. “It’s the troll,” Evan stated and my eyes darted to him as I flinched when the shock of pain ran down my head and neck, “I need to go help them… Sybil is going to help you.” I had heard the name before, but I had never met Sybil and Evan smiled softly. “Kiris is going to move you to the car, Sybil is going to help you, but they aren’t going to explain anything to you… Alex won’t let them… They’re going to take you back to the house and we’ll be there shortly. Get dried off and get some rest as soon as you’re at the house, okay?” I only barely nodded my head once before he looked past me and nodded his head. His yellow-gold eyes met mine and he closed his for a long moment, opening them and waiting until I closed my eyes as the sunlight burst forth behind my eyelids again and I found myself wondering why the barely-lit sky suddenly seemed so bright to me.
“Hi, Anna… I’m Kiris, you can call me Kris… Evan’s implying the light is hurting your eyes?” Kiris recited and I was confused because from the name, I had really expected a sulking Russian guy or something, but he sounded just as American as the rest of them. I managed to barely nod my head while I felt an arm slide under my knees and one wrap around my waist, and then there was air beneath me, but he was warm, werewolf warm. “So, Sybil and I are going to take you back to the house where it’s safe and get you cleaned up. And don’t worry, we got word to keep Alex away from you.” I sighed but let the werewolf warmth engulf me, that is, until he stopped walking and got really tense. “What do you want, fae?” Kiris growled and I felt the rumble in his chest as he seemed to work to contain his anger.
“Get the metal out of her neck,” Ty hissed and my eyes darted open and sped over to him despite the searing pain running across my neck and into my head and the ridiculously bright sunshine, but that time, the clouds weren’t so dark, the storm was passing. “Get it out now.” His eyes were glowing, the blue almost non-existent in them he was so furious.
“Troll,” Kiris dismissed, motioning toward the car as it suddenly all sank in and I looked over towards the car. That damage… Mark had caused it… Mark was here. Kiris’ arms tightened around me when I started moving, but I managed to get down and backed further away from the totaled car. “Anna…” Kiris beckoned with restrained anger and I actually took a second to look at him, confusion slipping into my eyes before I heard more fighting and looked past the totaled car again. Kiris’ facial structure was familiar, despite his spiked ash-blonde hair and strange yellow eyes; despite the clear difference in coloring, he looked like Aeril. “Anna, we need to get you out of here, you’re hurt,” Kiris tried again while I lifted a shaking arm and saw the bits of glass embedded in my skin and streams of red blood flowing down my arm.
“Get the metal out of her neck,” Ty repeated in a growl and I glanced at him again to find wispy bits of smoke billowing around him while my shaking hand started towards my neck but the look in his eyes made me stop, “Don’t touch it any more than you already are.”
There was suddenly a little girl standing at my side with short rusty red hair and deep brown eyes. She smiled as she reached for my neck with both hands, one hand pressing solidly against my skin while pain flashed through me when her other hand latched onto something that was sticking out of my skin.
“Don’t move,” she whispered gently, but I gasped when I felt the chunk slide out of my skin and the hand on my neck slid over the cut. Ty pushed her out of the way and I caught sight of the three-inch metal shard in her hand before his fingers slid across my neck.
“Why do you care?” I muttered, trying to distract myself from the tingling in my neck where his fingers kept sliding back and forth across my skin. His lips curled into the faintest smile as I realized the billowing smoke was gone and his eyes were icy blue again.
“What is there to make one care?” Ty queried in reply, his hands sliding down my arms and his gaze following after them as I felt more of that tingling. I realized distantly that the sounds around us were muted, the fear was gone, there was a coldness seeping into my skin that was soothing.
“You don’t seem to want me… not like they do… but you keep showing up when there’s trouble…” I reasoned, glancing down at my arms to find the bits of glass gone, the streams of blood were dried, not flowing fresh, “Jack seems certain you have a reason for your interest in me… but he thinks you won’t tell him the truth.”
“Because I can’t,” Ty answered softly, “I would if I didn’t think it would upset you… you aren’t ready to know, yet… Let them take you to the wolf house, it is safer there.”
“That’s where we were going before you stopped us,” I countered and he smiled distantly as his fingers slid across my neck again.
“The longer it was there… the more damage it would do… you have a mild metal allergy, don’t you?” Ty questioned and I barely nodded my head.
“But how do you know that…?” I pressed, the faint smile slipping onto his lips again, “You won’t tell me anything, will you…?”
When his hands finally fell back to his sides, the wind was howling and only a few remaining clouds blotted out the afternoon sun, but I couldn’t hear the sounds of fighting anymore and looked behind him toward the totaled car.
“They’re gone… they chased him out of town for the moment…” Ty murmured, “It doesn’t mean you’re safe… get to the wolf house….”
“Why?” I demanded but he only sighed and shook his head.
“Because you’re safe there,” he insisted, pushing me backwards as I stumbled back a step and felt warm arms wrap around my shoulders, “As much as I would love to, I cannot protect you from that troll on my own.”
Kiris turned me toward an SUV and I climbed into the back seat with Sybil while he climbed into the driver’s seat and we left. But as we drove away, I looked back to find fury in Ty’s eyes again just before he disappeared, and I spotted the totaled car again just before we rounded a corner and it went out of sight.
“They aren’t going to like that he healed you…” Kiris murmured under his breath, “You smell like faerie magic now….”
“He helped… isn’t that what matters?” I wondered and Kiris laughed hollowly.
“What will he want in return for his help? Don’t think a faerie gives away magic like that for free…” Kiris mumbled as we pulled up to the house only to find Austin standing outside the front door, his blue eyes worried until they landed on me, “Now you get to explain things to your brother….”
His words sank in as deep as the shard of metal had been. I was covered in dried blood, but there wasn’t a scratch on me anywhere. Before I could come up with a logical explanation, Austin was pulling the door open and pulling me out of the car and into a hug.
“I’m so glad you’re okay,” he whispered across my ear, his hand running into my hair to the back of my head as he took a step back and his eyes scanned across me, “They said there was a wreck… that you would be fine, but…” He trailed off for a minute as his eyes scanned across me again. “But then Jack came back in such bad shape and you weren’t here and I was getting really worried….” His
questioning gaze slid up to me, but I had a more important question.
“Jack’s hurt?” I blurted and he barely nodded his head, “He’s here?” Another slight nod before he took hold of my hand and started walking into the house. We wound our way up to the second floor and he started towards the door that Caiden was walking out of and pulling closed behind him.
“She wants to see Jack,” Austin announced, and Caiden’s startled deep brown eyes darted up to me.
“Doctor’s orders, he has to rest,” Caiden managed to say directly to me before he looked at my brother, “Sorry… she should be resting, too.”
“Caiden,” I coldly uttered and he slowly looked at me again, “Let me see Jack or I’ll call your brother.”
“You wouldn’t,” he gasped almost silently, but I just stared at him until he sighed and pushed the door open, “Only you, Anna… Not your brother.”
Austin’s hand slid out of mine as I stepped through the door while Caiden pulled it closed behind me. Jack looked pretty beaten up… not as bad as I had worried he would, but still worse than I had really seen any of the wolves looking. I crawled into his oversized bed beside him and took hold of his hand while I just stared at the rise and fall of his chest.
“I thought I told you to stay away from Ty,” he murmured and a tiny smile pulled up on my lips, “You smell like him… like faerie magic….”
“You can tell me to stay away from him all you want… he’s the one that keeps coming to me… kind of like you guys did when I first moved here…” I quietly considered, startled when he rolled over onto his side to face me. The pupils of his emerald eyes were ringed with silver again as he inspected my face.
“Were you badly hurt? I tried to get you out of the way as soon as I saw him…” he worriedly asked while I barely shook my head.
“What happened to you? Why was Caiden trying to keep me out of here?” I wondered while his fingers started brushing my hair out of my face.
“Troll broke my leg… I’ll be fine. Caiden reset it. Apparently, Alex has decided it’s a bad idea for me to be near you… apparently I’m staying tuned out too much, and I’m more or less turning my back on the pack,” Jack reasoned while I chewed on my lip.
“So what… Now I can’t pick you either?” I pressed and Jack chuckled softly, barely shaking his head before he kissed me.
“Nope,” he mumbled against my lips. His arms wrapped around my waist and pulled me closer while my hands slid around his neck. When we finally broke apart, I was quietly gasping for air and ducked my face into the crook of his neck.
“If I’m not supposed to pick you, why did you just kiss me like that?” I wondered as he laughed distantly.
“Why are you hiding from me?” he questioned instead, his fingers running through my hair. “I kissed you like that… because the last time I kissed you, I thought there would be other opportunities… this time, I know it won’t happen again….”
I backed away from him just enough to see the distance in his eyes before I kissed him. He inhaled a really deep breath when he gently pushed me away and fell onto his back, staring up at the ceiling.
“Anna… I only have so much self-control… you’re in my bed…” he groaned, running his hands over the top of his head into his hair, “And I pretty much have a gag order to stop messing with you….”
I was leaning over him when he opened his eyes again, they were bright emerald with the silver gone. A second later, the door opened and Rayne walked inside and over to the side of the bed where I was.
“So you send the other guy I can’t be with to get me out of your room…?” I wondered almost silently, my gaze shifting to Rayne who carefully lifted me up from the bed without saying anything.
“So I get the other guy you trust to get you out of my room until I’m able to clear up this crap with Alex,” Jack murmured in annoyance while Rayne carried me out of the room and across to my own room where he carefully placed me on my bed.
“Jack’s in love with you,” Rayne whispered as I barely nodded my head, “Do you love him?” I shrugged my shoulders.
“I love you…” I muttered and he laughed distantly.
“Arianna… you barely know me…” Rayne countered, but I shrugged my shoulders again and he sat down on my bed beside me.
“You guys barely know me,” I rebutted and he chuckled softly making my heart skip, “That doesn’t seem to stop you… so why should it stop me…?”
“Because you’re smarter than that,” Rayne replied, turning to face me as his blonde hair fell over his hazel eyes, “You’re way too smart to get involved with all of us….”
“Not exactly my choice,” I mumbled and he laughed softly again, “Why doesn’t my apparent, stench, seem to bother you?”
“What? Because Ty healed your wounds so you smell like faerie magic?” Rayne wondered with genuine confusion in his eyes as I nodded, “My pack and the local faeries had an arrangement… they kept our farms protected from the weird weather, we kept them protected from the local vampires… it doesn’t bother me because I grew up around the scent of faerie magic.” He leaned closer and softly pressed his lips to my cheek. “We chased Mark out of the country again… Evan stayed on his trail up into Canada somewhere….”
“How did he do that… to the car…?” I whispered and Rayne smiled distantly.
“He’s a troll… they’re big, bulky, ridiculously strong, and not exactly bright… he ran into the car at full force,” Rayne explained simply, “Jack barely had time to get you out of the way….”
“Is Evan the only one still following him? Is that safe?” I pressed and Rayne chuckled softly as his eyes scanned across my face.
“Evan is strong. He’ll be fine. Don’t you want to wash off?” he queried and I sighed but nodded before I headed across the room, collecting a towel and opening the bathroom door.
“You can stay if you want…” I dismissed before I stepped into my bathroom and climbed into a hot shower. I watched the dried blood wash down my arms in watered-down rivers and the fear slid back into every nerve ending of my body. Mark had nearly killed me… What did he want with me that he would nearly kill me?
I was actually almost thankful to find Rayne lying across my bed, his head resting against my headboard when I walked out of the bathroom in sweatpants and a tanktop. He didn’t even try to stop me when I climbed into the bed beside him and rested my head on his chest, but his arm wrapped around my shoulders and pulled me closer.
“You’ve had a rough day, Anna… get some rest…” Rayne gently whispered across my ear.
“I need to talk to my brothers… find out… what’s going on with…” I trailed off when he kissed my forehead.
“Get some rest… they’ll be here when you wake back up,” Rayne suggested, his werewolf warmth wrapping around me when he rolled onto his side and pulled me up against him.
The crash of my door against the wall jolted me out of a dream where I was surrounded by faerie lights and five werewolves. The lights had been landing on my arms when the door opened and I was confused when I woke up surrounded by warmth. It took me a long minute to remember that I’d fallen asleep in my bed beside Rayne, but once I did, I started trying to figure out what had happened to my door.
“That would be your little brother… I’m going to get up now, okay?” Rayne softly recited and I barely nodded my head before cool air slid over me when he rolled over and stood up from the bed.
“Anna,” Jason growled and I groaned as I rolled over to bury my face in my pillow, “How could you come up here and hide in your room without letting me even know you were home?”
“Austin knew,” I grumbled, pushing myself to sit up as I turned around to face his furious blue-green eyes, “Jason… what about Trina?” I hated to do it, I did… I hated the thought of him having anything to do with the werewolves, but it was already too late for that. I saw the fury briefly replaced by admiration before he looked angry again.
“Just because I l
ike Trina doesn’t mean my sister can keep secrets from me,” Jason hissed as he sat down on my bed beside me, “I was worried about you! How could you not tell me you were back here safely?!”
“I’m sorry,” I whispered while he hugged me tightly, “I just… I checked on Jack, got a shower, and didn’t really mean to fall asleep….”
“I hear Jack’s doing a lot better… I’m confused, Anna…” he trailed off for a minute, glancing at Rayne before he looked at me again, “I thought you kept telling me that Alex doesn’t want you near Rayne….”
“I’m not getting into the why of it all, but I don’t give a shit what Alex wants anymore,” I muttered, startling Jason as his eyes briefly widened, “I don’t care what Alex wants, Jason… But I am sorry that I didn’t find you to let you know I was back, okay? How are you holding up?”
“My dad’s dead… my mom dumped me on my big brother, and my sister’s all but disappeared lately… how do you think I’m holding up?” Jason demanded quietly, his gaze distant as it fell to the floor, “I’ve been really worried about you, Anna… You look fine, considering you were in a wreck earlier today….”
“Jack took most of the blow,” I explained vaguely, “I really need to rest, Jay… there’s been way too much going on lately… and school starts soon….”
“You can’t really be considering going to school with Mark still on the loose,” Jason blurted, but I only shrugged my shoulders.
“I can’t put my life on hold until he’s been captured again, either,” I responded with a sigh, “I can’t stop living just because of Mark… the cops can’t even find him….” I looked up to spot Rayne leaning silently against the wall, his arms crossed loosely over his chest. “I’m okay, Jay… I’m okay here with these guys, I like most of them, get along with almost all of them… I don’t know what’s going to happen with Dad’s house, but maybe Austin can sell it and you guys can get an apartment… it’s all stuff that will obviously have to be figured out later, but… I might stay here….”
“Stay here with the guy who you just said you couldn’t give a shit what he wants?” Jason pressed, “Sorry, don’t give a shit what he wants… That doesn’t make any sense, Anna.”
“We’ll figure it all out later, Jay… please, just let me get some rest,” I pleaded and he sighed but barely nodded his head as he hugged me tightly.
“We will talk about it later, though,” Jason insisted before he stood up from my bed and walked across the room. He paused in the doorway, his eyes scanning across Rayne leaning on my wall, then he sighed and walked out of the room, pulling the door closed behind him.
“Is Austin okay?” I asked and Rayne barely nodded his head as he walked back across my room and sat down at the foot of the bed beside me.
“As well as can be expected from any of you,” Rayne whispered, his eyes searching my face, “He went to the morgue today for the official identification… your father’s lawyer has been in touch with him… you’ll all have to meet him to hear the will… I think he’s helping Austin sort out the funeral arrangements….”
I sighed as I pushed on the bed to stand up, but Rayne gently pulled on my arm to keep me seated. “I need to help him,” I murmured, but Rayne barely shook his head.
“He said for you to rest now; he has it under control,” Rayne softly countered, “He also said that he’s sure he’ll need your help later, so don’t argue right now.”
“How are you still in my room?” I wondered with a sigh as I fell back to lie across my bed, “Why do you know so much about what’s going on with my brother?”
“I’m keeping Alex away; he’s too worried about keeping you here to argue with me,” Rayne admitted with a smirk before he shifted on the bed to look at me, “Your brother dropped by just a bit ago and updated me on everything since you were sleeping. He didn’t want to bother you.”
“Next time Austin drops by… don’t let me sleep through it,” I murmured, rolling onto my side as my hand slid into his, “And don’t leave me alone….”
“I’m not going anywhere, Anna,” Rayne assured as he lightly squeezed my hand, “Unless you want me to go get Jack….”
“I thought he was supposed to stay away from me,” I muttered in annoyance, but Rayne barely shrugged his shoulders, “Isn’t he at least slightly more bound by your pack leader’s rules than you are?”
“He is,” Rayne admitted, lying down on my bed beside me as those beautiful hazel eyes stared at me, “Love can break any binding, though….”
“Jack doesn’t love me,” I countered with a sigh, “He only thinks he does….”
“Jack is blackmailing Alex to keep him away from you,” Rayne chuckled softly as my eyes widened, “He does love you… even though you will probably break his heart….”
“Why would you say such a horrible thing?” I muttered under my breath, but Rayne suddenly shifted up onto his elbows so he was looking into my eyes.
“You are the one that says you love another… Jack knows that… he knows what the pack thinks is going to happen… whether you mean to or not, you will probably break his heart,” Rayne reiterated gently, his fingers lightly sliding across my cheek.
“Rayne, stop tormenting her.” I hadn’t even heard the door open, much less anyone come into my room, and bolted upright in my bed as I spotted Jack standing in front of the door and felt tears sting my eyes. “I told you I’d be fine, Anna,” Jack recited with that coy grin on his lips as I darted across the room and slammed into him almost full force, wrapping my arms tightly around him.
“What are you doing here? You said…” I stammered, slowly backing away from him as my eyes darted back to Rayne sitting up on my bed.
“You have feelings for Jack, Anna,” Rayne remarked nonchalantly, but there was a distance in his hazel eyes.
“But I…” I faltered, looking up into Jack’s emerald eyes, “But what about… the pack saying I belonged with Aeril? What about your stupid pack leader not wanting either of you near me?”
“Futures are ever-changing… it’s nearly impossible to predict a person’s future with 100% accuracy… but we do usually get a bit closer than this,” Jack considered thoughtfully, “Especially with so many pack members seeing the same future for you.” It was more than a little bit obvious that his mind was elsewhere as he stared down at me. “So what about you has thrown off our abilities so much…? Why can you hear Evan?”
My eyes widened suddenly, “Where is Evan? Is he okay? Is he safe?”
“He’s… busy,” Rayne added as I glanced back at him, “But he’s safe, so don’t worry, okay?”
We had Dad’s funeral a few days later. I just stared at him in his coffin, looking as though he were sleeping, but there was no energy from him. I hadn’t really seen many dead people in my life, and I was suddenly glad for that. Looking so lifelike but containing no energy was just wrong…. When the preacher started the ceremony, I still stared blankly at the coffin with Austin and Jason sitting on either side of me. Their mother had deemed us with her presence, but was seated on the other side of the aisle, far away from me, which I knew had been Austin’s doing. So many people turned out, that there wasn’t enough seating and there were people standing against the walls, and some even out in the hallway. Dad’s life may have been cut short, but his life had impacted so many people and that was how I decided to remember him. When we went over to the cemetery, their mother excused herself immediately after the preacher’s few words, but I stayed seated in my folding chair, staring at the coffin as it was placed in the ground, and continuing to stare as they started shoveling the dirt on top of it. I knew I was waiting for it to sink in, for me to really realize that my dad was dead and I’d never see his goofy smiling face again, never hear his apologies for a quick meal or him running off to a case. That was when the tears really started, when I thought about never hearing his voice again. I heard the creak of the chairs beside me, but my gaze didn’t waver from the ground, and I felt two overly warm hands slide into
each of my own. Jack and Rayne hadn’t left my side, and they wouldn’t for weeks to come.
It was a couple of days later that Austin, Jason, and I started sorting through the things in Dad’s house. We’d heard the will by then… the house now technically belonged to Austin. The money Dad had in the bank was to be split up mainly between Jason and me with a bit of it going to Austin. He didn’t leave anything to their mother, and let me tell you, she was not happy about that…. You would have thought she was a grieving widow right up until the moment the lawyer finished announcing the division of Dad’s estate, then her face got really red and her fake tears stopped, and she stormed out. Austin had decided he wanted to go through everything in the house and for us to keep whatever we wanted to, and whatever we agreed upon, we would donate to charity. He also decided that we would rent out the house for now, because none of us were quite comfortable in Dad’s house without Dad just yet. Alex and Amy actually let Austin and Jason move in, and Amy delivered the news that I was welcome to stay.
I don’t know how long it really took us to clean out the house, we kept getting distracted by old pictures and things that brought back old memories of Dad and we’d stop and talk about it for a while… but each night we’d go back to the wolf house to sleep, then each morning we’d go back to Dad’s and work for the day. Jack, Rayne, Trina, and Amy kept visiting us while we were there, bringing us food, carrying off the boxes of stuff we’d decided to donate, actually sweeping and cleaning up from our messes, and all in all just there as support. Don’t get me wrong, having Rayne and Jack both around was comforting, but also confusing and a bit awkward… But every time I came across something that made me cry, one of them was there, just there, a comforting presence.
It was one of the last days we were there, the second day we were finally tackling Dad’s office, that I saw Austin just freeze out of the corner of my eye. I looked down to find a file in his hand just before his blue eyes shifted up to me and he motioned toward the door with his head. Thankfully, Trina and Amy were in the room and so Jason didn’t notice when Austin and I slipped into the hallway at the same time.
“Um…” Austin faltered, which was so unlike him that I tensed as he turned the folder around so I could see Dad’s handwriting on the tab. “Do you want to look at this? Or should I hold onto it and put it away somewhere?” Austin’s voice was almost silent, and I could barely hear anything beyond his voice for the pounding of my heartbeat in my ears.
‘Arianna’s Birthparents’ Dad had written on the tab. I read it at least five times before I felt my breath catch in my throat.
“I… I’ll hold onto it,” I managed to strangle out and saw the worry in Austin’s eyes as he held the folder out to me. I reached for it twice, but finally let my hand fall to my side, “Just… take it back with us… okay?”
Austin nodded and I watched him walk over and stuff the folder into his bookbag. “Take a break,” he added as he walked back into Dad’s office, and I found myself wandering out into the back yard.
My birthparents… I guess even then I was forgetting that I was adopted… Dad was my dad, there was no question in my mind about that… He may not have been perfect, but he was still my dad.
“You okay?” Jack quietly asked from the doorway into the kitchen, but when I didn’t even move, he walked around in front of me. “Do you want to talk?”
“Birthparents…” I mumbled almost inaudibly, and saw the confusion on his face as I forced myself to refocus on the present. “Austin… just found the file… Dad…” my voice cracked and I sucked in a deep breath, “The file on my… my birthparents… but I… I guess I’m not ready to deal with it… not yet….”
“Then don’t deal with it yet,” Jack stated with a soft smile, his fingers sliding across my cheek until I suddenly hugged him and his hands wound into my hair. “Rayne is much better equipped to help you through all of this than I am… you should really… talk to him… whenever you’re ready to talk….”
“I want to kill that feckin’ troll,” I growled, feeling him tense, and spotting the worry in his emerald eyes when I pushed away from him, “How do I do it?”
“A troll will turn to stone in direct sunlight… but then you have to break the stone, and torch it if you don’t want the troll to ever come back again.” I was staring at Jack, but the words hadn’t come from him and I shifted enough to look behind him, out to the tree line where Ty was standing. “They may not be the smartest creatures, but it is nearly impossible to get them into direct sunlight,” Ty continued as I narrowed my eyes into a glare, “Now, Anna Gray… is that any way to greet the person who saved your life?”
“Saved my life?” I blurted in exasperation, “You helped, yes, and I appreciate that, but Jack is the one who saved my life.”
“The wolves still don’t know you have a mild metal allergy… do they?” Ty pressed and I winced when I spotted the thoughtful look in Jack’s eyes, “Because you, dearest Anna Gray, are afraid that it means something.”
“Does it?” Jack hissed, spinning around to face Ty and taking hold of my hand in the same movement, but Ty’s lips curled into a grin.
“Tread carefully, werewolf… figuring her out may just lead to her downfall,” Ty evaded, like Ty always evaded and I sighed as I scrubbed the tears from my face.
“Go away, Ty,” I murmured, spinning around and walking back inside, but not without hearing Jack and Ty still arguing out in the yard. As I rounded the corner to head to Dad’s office, Rayne was standing in the middle of the hallway, staring at the exact spot I walked into.
“They are… coupled off right now… I didn’t want you to walk in there and feel out of place or awkward or something stupid…” Rayne uttered while I kept walking toward him and peeked into Dad’s office to find Austin and Amy sitting on the sofa talking and Jason and Trina holding hands and whispering in the corner. The smile that slipped onto my lips was bittersweet.
“Will you take me back to the house?” I asked, glancing over at Rayne as he barely nodded his head and I actually stepped into the doorway, instantly causing all four of them to look over at me. “I think I’m finished for today. Rayne’s going to take me back to the house. You guys take your time, okay?” I saw Jason start to argue, but Trina discreetly squeezed his hand and instead he barely nodded his head.
“Go ahead,” Austin agreed with a soft smile, “We won’t donate anything without running it by you first, but that can wait until tomorrow.”
I nodded and felt Rayne’s hand slip into mine the second I was out of the doorway, and my eyes darted up to him. “How do I get the troll out into sunlight?” I demanded and he sighed as he led me out of the house to the car he and Jack had driven over only to find Jack already sitting in the backseat.
“It’s nearly impossible… It’s been done so few times, I wouldn’t know where to begin on accomplishing it,” Rayne admitted as we started back toward the wolf house.
Before school started, we finished cleaning out the house, and Amy helped Austin go through the process of advertising the place and actually getting it rented out to some local college kids.
Whatever Jack was blackmailing Alex with was definitely keeping the scum of the earth away from me, and I wasn’t about to complain. Sam, Caiden, and even Sage were really more or less avoiding me, though each for different reasons. Trina had become so engrossed with Jason that she stopped worrying about Aeril and me; and Jason was so engrossed with Trina that he stopped following me around everywhere and actually started to hang out with some of the pack kids that were his own age. The same could be said of Austin who spent all of his time at work, or with Amy until his college Freshman pre-class stuff started up right when my high school classes started. I had expected having Jason at the same school as me to become an issue, but it didn’t seem like it was going to. He really did spend his time with Trina, and when school started, they rode the bus together while Rayne drove me to school each day.
There was an open house th
e day before classes started, and despite being some of the only seniors there, Rayne had dragged me to it so that he could show me around the school in hopes that I wouldn’t be lost on my first day. He obviously had more faith in my abilities to navigate than I did… It did, however, give me a chance to get my schedule early, so he got his, too, and found out we were in two classes together. He insisted on going from classroom to classroom on my list and to my locker between each room so that I would know how to get from one to the other, all of which I still thought was crazy, because I wasn’t any good at remembering how to get around places.
“I want to feel like you’re safe,” he had remarked at one point, “I don’t want to spend the day worrying that you’ve gotten lost and gotten yourself hurt somehow….”
I focused, I really did, but I still didn’t think it was going to work. This school was nearly maze-like, and my classes were all over the place. We’d brought Trina and Jason over with us; Jason had to come because he was a Freshman, but Trina decided to come be his tour guide. Once we’d gotten to the school, they disappeared off on their own, but as Rayne and I were making our way through the halls with him constantly holding my hand and trying to point out landmarks with his other hand, I froze. Jason and Trina were making out in this really tiny little alcove. Just as I started to say something, Rayne tugged on my hand and led me further down the hallway.
“Anna… you wanted his attention elsewhere… he’s happy… isn’t that all that matters?” Rayne questioned as I leaned against the wall and sighed.
“What are the chances she could accidentally shift and hurt him?” I finally asked. It had been on my mind for a long time by then, for each of us.
“Slim, but possible,” he quietly admitted, “The older we are, the better trained we are to manage our emotions, especially anger, which is the worst trigger for accidental shifting… We don’t enter into relationships with humans lightly, Arianna. Trina doesn’t get angry much, and I trust her to be able to get away from him without hurting him if she ever does get that angry… just like I trust Amy, and Jack, and even myself.” I felt the tiniest knot of guilt in my stomach, but it shifted into butterflies when I spotted the look of pure desire in his eyes which he blinked away a second later.
“Why do you do that…?” I whispered, slightly surprised when he didn’t try to act like he didn’t know what I meant.
“Because you have feelings for Jack… and Jack loves you,” he answered almost silently, while I stepped slightly closer to him.
“But Jack never looks at me like that…”
“You never catch Jack looking at you like that,” Rayne corrected as his fingers slid across my cheek before he ever-so-softly pressed his lips to mine.
Someone cleared her throat, and he slowly backed away. When his eyes lighted on the person, they lit up into hysterics and he almost laughed. “Ironic,” he managed to blurt as I finally looked over to find Trina and Jason standing there, both with their arms crossed over their chests.
“We’re ready when you are,” Trina interjected into the silence.
The first two days of school were pretty normal school days. Jack was up bright and early to see me off with a homemade lunch, which he said he made for me so that I wouldn’t forget about him during the day. I absolutely got lost, but not so much so that I didn’t find my way to class by the second bell each period. When lunch rolled around, I didn’t even bother with the cafeteria; this school was relatively lenient about lunch and had several picnic areas available to the students, they just wanted us to stay on campus.
Day one, I was only focused on getting outside, but once I did, my feet froze. The tension in the air was absolutely insane from where I was standing. To the right of me were a bunch of people that were laughing and joking around, it was also the corner of the school building and more sunlight flooded onto it. To the left of me were a bunch of quieter, kind of brooding people, a lot of whom seemed to have earbuds jammed into their ears, and this side had more trees so it was more in shadow. My eyes locked with his and he grinned as he stood up from his table under a particularly tall tree, but then those ice blue eyes turned deadly and I looked up in time to spot a guy with fire red hair, pulled back into a ponytail, and deep blue eyes walking over to me.
“You’re Anna Gray, aren’t you?” he asked in a perfectly pleasant voice, but I glanced again at Ty to find him frozen with that strange smoke starting to form around him again. Oh boy was he ever pissed.
“Yeah… I must have gotten turned around…” I murmured, starting to turn toward the door and go back inside when the guy laughed and I swear the sunlight grew brighter.
“Don’t run off, you can come sit with us,” he offered, lightly resting his hand on my arm and motioning towards the cheery side of the outdoor area, “My name is Wren, by the way.” I still hesitated and he threw me a charming smile, “Well, come on.”
“But…” I faltered and he finally followed my gaze to Ty as the sky suddenly grew darker.
“Anna,” Tobias called from the doorway and I turned to him with absolute relief in my eyes, “I was looking for you. Rayne said we had the same lunch period. Come on.” He was smiling, but his eyes weren’t. Still, I smiled and nodded, turning to Wren.
“Like I said… I got turned around. But thank you for the invitation,” I stated with the most genuine smile I could manage, “It was nice to meet you, Wren.”
“You, too, Anna Gray,” Wren finalized with a smile, that like Tobias’, didn’t reach his eyes.
As soon as the door closed behind me, Tobias pulled me into a hug. “Don’t do that again…” he whispered urgently, “You know about Ty… he’s not the only fae at school… and there isn’t just one kind of fae, Anna… they really don’t get along, and you just walked into the middle of their turf war.”
“That explains a lot,” I laughed faintly when he stepped away from me, embarrassment written on his face, “So… where do we eat?” He laughed softly and led me out another set of doors to a smaller area with only four picnic tables and we sat down to eat amongst other werewolves.
That was day one, and day two was similar, minus the lunch fiasco, but I did run into Wren again towards the end of the day, and he was just as overly friendly the second time as he had been the first. That is, right up until Ty walked over, grabbed my arm, and pulled me away.
“Stay away from him,” was all he said before he, too, was gone and I was left wondering what in the world I’d gotten pulled into that time.
Wednesday was my birthday. I wasn’t the least bit surprised to wake up to breakfast in bed surrounded by nearly everyone in the wolf house, with Jason and Austin sitting on my bed beside me. After a chorus of happy birthday, and a bunch of birthday wishes and hugs, I got ready to go to school where I found my locker decked out in birthday decorations. At first period, there were balloons waiting on my desk for me, and at lunch Tobias pulled me outside to pizzas and birthday cake.
I suppose I should explain that I had shut off my sense feeling after finding out Dad was really dead because everyone’s sadness quickly got to be so overwhelming that I was nearly drowning in their sorrows without being able to even start to deal with my own. I guess if I’d tuned back into it, I would have better understood what was going on at lunch that first day, or even would have been able to know about the surprises beforehand (not that the surprises were a bad thing), but I definitely would have known that Mark was at the school that day before I spotted him hiding in the shadow of the building at lunch, but when I blinked again, he was gone. Right that minute I tuned back into it, and just as soon as I did, I gasped and passed out.
I woke up hours later in the clinic, but before I even opened my eyes, I realized my head was pounding and tried to focus on the why of it all. I noticed a whole bunch of feelings I wasn’t used to feeling; very distinct ones that were closer to hearing thoughts than just knowing feelings of others. One caught my attention so much that I focused on it, tracing the link back to the so
urce only to find myself looking into Wren’s eyes and him looking back at me, startled. I quickly slammed off my sense feeling and opened my eyes, blinking against the harsh overhead lights and looking around the sterile white and silver room until I spotted Austin sitting in a chair and his gaze shifted up to me.
“Hey, kiddo,” he greeted, pushing himself up and walking over beside the bed. He pressed the back of his hand against my forehead before he softly kissed me there, “This isn’t how you’re supposed to be spending your birthday, you know.”
“Sorry,” I whispered, slowly sitting up, “What are you doing here? Don’t you have college stuff today?”
“I’m your guardian,” he remarked with a shrug, “They called me, I came over. Care to tell me what happened?”
I looked around the room again only to spot the nurse walking towards me with a smile on her face. She briefly shone a light in my eyes and had me follow her finger with my eyes before she looked over at Austin.
“She’s alert, reflexes are fine… If you want to take her home, I’ll allow it, but I think she’s okay to go back to class. Since the day is nearly over, I’ll leave it up to the two of you,” she announced before she stepped back out of view.
Except, I stared after her in confused shock, searching for my sense feeling and realizing it was still open. The nurse had known my dad, she had actually really liked him, like as she kept trying to get him to ask her out, liked him. She felt really bad for us, for Austin… I fought with it for a long minute before I finally got the door closed on my sense feeling only to spot the worry in Austin’s eyes.
“Arianna… what do you want to do?” he finally queried, his eyes searching my face, trying to figure out what was going on.
“It’s only the third day of class… I think I should stay,” I answered and he inhaled a deep breath before he sighed and barely nodded his head.
“Okay, but if you need me, you have them call me and I’ll come back to get you,” he finalized, lightly hugging me when I stood up. The nurse popped back into view and handed me a pass to get back to class and told me that fifth period was just about to end. Austin walked with me out of the clinic and hugged me again just as the bell to end fifth period rang. I tossed my bag over my shoulder and headed for my locker while Austin watched after me for a long minute before he left the school.
When I reached my locker, Wren was standing there and I jumped, startled. “Hi…” I managed to murmur, looking at him in confusion, but he just stared at me. “Okay…?” I opened my locker and pulled out my stuff for sixth period before I closed it to find confusion clearly written on his face.
“I’m sorry, Anna Gray,” he faltered, barely shaking his head, “You are Austin and Jason Gray’s sister… aren’t you?”
“Yes and no,” I replied, but his confusion deepened, “I was adopted.”
His eyes widened, but then they shifted behind me and he barely smiled. “I should go… Happy Birthday, Anna Gray.”
He was headed down the hallway away from me before I could really react, but then too-warm hands slid onto my shoulders and I turned around to find Rayne behind me.
“You passed out…?” he skeptically questioned and I barely nodded, my face shading pink, “Care to explain why?”
“I think I saw Mark,” I whimpered and felt the heat intensify in his hands before he shoved them in his pockets, “And I realized I had turned off my feeling sense thing, so I turned it back on, and all these overwhelming, distinct emotions flooded over me and I passed out.”
“You think you saw Mark?” Rayne repeated and I barely nodded my head as he inhaled a deep breath before taking hold of my hand, “Let’s get to class and get out of here… Some of the guys are going to check around the school….”
That night, they had a big cookout for me, from which Alex was absent despite my knowing he had been the one to cook the food. There were a few presents, but the main one was telling me about the party they were throwing for me Saturday night.
I went up to bed that night with worries about Mark still in my head, only to find Rayne and Jack standing at my doorway.
“We didn’t find any sign of him… not even his scent,” Jack admitted almost silently, something nearly apologetic in his voice.
“So what… you don’t believe that he was really there?” I pressed and Jack’s gaze fell to his feet as Rayne lightly took hold of my hand.
“We believe you saw him, but we don’t understand how he disappeared without a trace. Granted, it was a few hours before anyone got to the school and we have a lot of supernaturals at the school that could have covered his scent,” Rayne reasoned and I took a deep breath as I looked over to find Jack staring at me.
“We’re going to keep a look out… at least for a while, see if we can spot him… can you try to stay with someone during the day? Do you mind staying with someone? Because people have offered to walk you to your classes to help keep an eye on things,” Jack added as I took another deep breath.
“If I see him again, I’ll accept the constant guard… okay?” I pressed, “Or if you guys can actually prove I wasn’t hallucinating him….”
“We don’t think you…” Rayne started but I barely shook my head.
“I might have been… I’ve been stressed… so let’s all assume it was probably in my head, and just keep a better eye on the school for a few days until I feel more sane,” I bargained and saw them start to argue, “Or I can just wander around outside by myself all day, maybe go hang out with the faeries or something.”
“You are so stubborn,” Rayne sighed, shaking his head.
“We’ll watch the school… you try to stay alert, okay?” Jack countered and I barely nodded in agreement, “Get some sleep, birthday girl.” He softly kissed my cheek before he walked just down the hall to his own room.
“Happy Birthday, Arianna,” Rayne whispered as he lightly kissed my other cheek and headed down the hallway while I slipped into my room.
I didn’t see him again Thursday, and trust me, I was so alert I was jumping at stupid little noises and starting to get really weird looks from lots of people. By Friday I had forced myself to calm down just a little, before everyone started to think I was absolutely insane.
Rayne had to meet with our teacher after sixth period, and it was taking forever, so I was pacing in the main hallway, which was empty by then. As I turned around to start pacing in the other direction, my feet froze to the ground. Not fifty feet away from me, was Mark. My eyes widened, and I blinked a few times to make sure he was there before that snarky grin crept onto his face.
“Hello, Arianna… You haven’t been behaving very well, now have you?” he chuckled in that creepy gravelly voice of his and I turned and bolted away from him.
I thought about what Ty had said, and headed for the doors to outside, to the sunlight and the daytime, but before I could reach them his weight collided with my back and I fell to the floor.
“No!” I screamed, kicking at him as I tried to scramble back to my feet, but his bulky hand latched onto my ankle and I felt my bone start to give as I screamed. “Let me go!” I yelled, but he pulled me backwards, closer to him, all the while keeping a hold on my ankle. When he reached for my shirt, my hands darted up and pressed against him as I screamed “No!” Only that time, my tear-filled eyes actually opened as I felt something, some power, some energy, roll through me and into him and heard him groan as he slammed into the wall. I hesitated only a second, and then jumped to my feet, but the second I put weight on the ankle he had been squeezing, it gave out and I fell back to the floor.
“Anna Gray, are you all right?” Wren’s voice was behind me and I spun on the floor to face him, my eyes wide and filled with tears. He could think I was crazy if he wanted to, but Tobias had given me the clear impression he was a fae, so I pointed behind me when I heard Mark moving.
“Troll!” I exclaimed and his blue eyes darted past me and widened. The brightest light I had ever seen suddenly filled the hallwa
y and I had to shield my eyes from it.
“You’re all right, Anna Gray,” Wren soothed and I slowly blinked my eyes open to spot the faintest light still pulsing around him before it completely disappeared.
How can I be all right when there’s a troll in the hallway? I panicked in my mind, but as I spun around to try to make my point, there was the ugliest stone statue in the middle of the hallway.
“Are you hurt?” Wren continued, but I was still staring at the statue.
“Have to break it… burn it… Ty said that was the only way…” I stammered, trying again to stand up, but I yelped at the pain that burst from my ankle before I fell back to the floor.
“Where is your Were?” Wren queried as I looked at him in confusion, “They won’t like it if I mess with you….”
“1110, Mr. Schuedler’s class,” I responded and he barely nodded his head as his eyes inspected my face, “How did you find me? How did you do that?”
“Don’t answer that,” Ty hissed as I saw his chest rise and fall just a little too quickly, “Keep it shut, Wren.”
“Oh, Ty… she’s adopted,” Wren countered as I looked between them in confusion.
“I know that,” Ty growled in reply as he knelt down beside me, “Where are you hurt?”
“Don’t you think they’ll come after her? Especially after today?” Wren pressed and Ty nearly snarled as I watched the strange smoke forming around him again.
“My… my ankle…” I stuttered, watching him dazedly as he pulled up my jeans’ leg and pressed his hands around my ankle.
Rayne came running down the hallway then, panic in his eyes as I spotted another one of the turf-war people behind him, walking slower with his hands in his pockets.
“Anna,” Rayne blurted as he fell to sit beside me, searching my face and completely ignoring the fact that there was so much tension in the air, “Oh gods, Anna… I’m so sorry… are you all right?”
I gasped as bones shifted in my ankle, and clung onto Rayne’s shirt as I glanced down at Ty while he pulled my jeans’ leg back down.
“You’ll be fine,” he assured with the faintest smile.
“What happened?” Rayne insisted, “What are they doing here? How is Mark stone in the middle of the hallway?”
“I’m a Lord,” Wren commented as Rayne looked up at him, “I more or less keep a stash of sunlight in me at all times… used it on her troll problem… but why we’re here….”
“Shut up,” Ty interrupted angrily, suddenly back on his feet.
“So Ty doesn’t want me to explain,” Wren remarked, shrugging his shoulders, “Why don’t you get her out of here, Were…? We can take care of the troll.”
“I’m not leaving until I see the ash or whatever becomes of that statue after it’s been broken and burned,” I insistently interjected, “And you can’t tell Rayne to get me out of here like I’m some… thing. I am a human being, not some thing that you can just do whatever you want to with….”
“You’re not human,” Wren laughed, but Ty suddenly spun on him and Wren went flying out the door into a picnic table, laughing the whole time.
“Wh… what?” I stuttered, watching Ty as he slowly turned back to face me.
“Let’s get rid of your troll problem…” he mumbled, walking past me and slamming one well-placed fist into the statue as it crumbled to the floor. “Wren! Get in here and keep your damned mouth shut!” Ty yelled as I scrambled to my feet with Rayne behind me and watched in awe as Wren walked over to the crumbled stones and merely lifted his hands towards them as they became engulfed in blue flames.
“She needs to know,” Wren quietly remarked, staring at his work, “They need to know.”
“I’m not an idiot,” Ty growled before he looked up at Rayne, “I need to speak with you… in private.”
Once they were outside, I turned my attention back on Wren, “What do you mean I’m not human?”
“Oh, don’t mind me any… it seems Ty has been keeping an eye on you for a while now, hasn’t he?” Wren queried, only briefly glancing up at me as I barely nodded, “Then he’s the one who will answer your questions, not me.”
His hands fell to his sides and my eyes darted down to watch the flames fade away from… nothing…. There was absolutely nothing left.
“He’s gone… I mean… really really gone?” I whispered with tears in my eyes.
“No troll can come back from such a thing; it’s impossible… there is always at least one absolute way to kill something supernatural, Anna Gray… don’t forget that,” Wren softly remarked just before Rayne stormed back into the building.
“We need to get back to the house,” Rayne stated in a barely contained rage as I nodded slightly, reaching down and touching the spot on the floor where Mark had been, just to reassure myself he was gone, and only feeling the remnants of heat from the flames. I nodded again, more certainly, and followed Rayne out of the school to the car.
“What’s going on?” I finally asked after riding nearly halfway across town in absolute silence.
Rayne inhaled a slow, deep breath and looked over at me while we were at a stoplight, “Did you throw some kind of power at Mark?” I barely nodded my head and he sighed as he looked back at the road. “I need to see something first… then we can talk….”
The rest of the ride was silent, but he took hold of my trembling hand and didn’t let go the entire way back to the house. When we pulled into the garage, I was worried to find Jack, Farren, Aeril, and Evan all standing there and wouldn’t budge from my seat. Evan walked over and pulled my door open, his eyes searching my face before he smiled and held his hand out to me.
“It’s okay, Anna. And just think, you never have to deal with that stupid troll ever again. Isn’t that a relief?” Evan queried and I found myself nodding without even thinking about it. It was going to be so nice to never have to worry about Mark again… but how the heck was I supposed to explain any of that to my brothers? They were still going to be worried about him…. “We’ll figure out how to let them know soon,” Evan added and my eyes darted to him as he helped me out of the car. “Now… we’re going into the basement, so stay close….”
My gaze darted up worriedly when Jack was standing in front of me, but he pulled me into a hug and my nerves slowly settled. His hand slid into mine as we all walked toward the far wall of the garage. I was admittedly very confused until Rayne pulled on a brass wall fixture and a secret door opened. It was pitch black, and I couldn’t begin to see a thing, but Jack carefully pulled me along beside him, whispering the number of remaining stairs into my ear as we went. When my feet hit bottom, I knew it—there was the faintest echo from the shuffling of our feet. A moment later another secret door opened and let in a dim light. I figured all of this was actually pretty good for keeping people who didn’t belong down here from finding their way around… I certainly never would have headed into pitch blackness without someone guiding me through it.
As we stepped through the door into the dimly lit room, a sparkling gilded frame had caught my attention, but I stared into the oversized mirror in confusion.
I could still feel Jack’s hand in mine, and I could see myself clearly in the reflective glass, but Jack wasn’t there in the mirror. I stepped closer to it, moreso in confusion, and Jack trailed behind me until I realized he was there, his beautiful blonde-furred, emerald-eyed wolf form was with me. Even in wolf-form, the silver around his pupils was visible, but I looked over my shoulder to see human-Jack behind me, staring in shock at the mirror, except by then, so was everyone else.
“What is this?” I murmured and he forced his startled gaze to me before his eyes darted back to the reflection.
“That mirror shows you the true forms of others… I’m guessing you’re seeing my wolf-form…” he trailed off as he resumed staring into the mirror in shock.
“So I only see true forms of other people…?” I hesitated and he barely nodded, “So what is it you’re all seeing that has you so shock
ed…?”
Rayne stepped over beside me, and inspected my face seriously before he spoke, “You know nothing of your birthparents…?”
“Austin has the folder with their information, but I haven’t even looked at it, so no,” I reasoned while shaking my head, “I don’t know anything about them, yet….” Rayne was face to face with me, staring into my eyes, but his left hand reached over my shoulder into thin air, except, it sent a strange shiver down my spine.
“You’re part fae,” Jack mumbled, my eyes scrunching in further confusion, “We can see faerie wings behind you, small ones, but that just proves it’s only a part of you… and you have the starburst mark on your forehead….”
“What is a starburst mark?” I wondered as Evan walked over in front of me and placed his finger in the center of my forehead, pressing a small circular spot before drawing lines out and away from it.
“Similar to a child’s depiction of the sun… but it is a starburst when referring to the fae,” Evan stated, meeting my eyes with absolute seriousness in his, “You can hear me talking because of your fae blood.”
My eyes widened and I jerked away from him. “You’ve known this whole time and you didn’t say anything?!” I blurted, but the others looked at me in confusion, “He says I can hear him talking because of the fae blood…. Is that why Ty can find me?”
“Yes… I’m rather certain with your coloring that you belong to Winter Court… but without your birthparents’ names, we can’t be certain,” Evan continued as I inhaled a deep breath and looked over at Jack.
“Will you take me back upstairs so I can get the file on my birthparents from Austin?” I requested and he instantly nodded, holding onto my hand as he led me away from the way we had come down into the basement. My birthparents… I still wasn’t entirely sure I was ready to know anything about them… but after the bits and pieces I’d caught of Wren and Ty’s elusive conversation, I felt like I needed to know….
When we got up to the ground floor, Alex was standing there and I flinched as his eyes swept across me.
“What were you doing in the basement?” his question was directed at Jack who slowly shook his head.
“Not now, Alex,” Jack growled, but his hand in mine didn’t grow warmer like it normally did when he was angry and Alex redirected his attention to me.
“I hear you have gotten rid of Mark,” he commented and I barely nodded my head only once, “You have a visitor waiting for you in the living room… I’d appreciate it if your fae wouldn’t follow you home.”
I pulled my phone out of my pocket and sent Austin a message. ‘Give the file to Jack when he asks for it.’ was all I said before I tucked the phone back into my pocket and looked over at Jack. “You go see Austin, I’ll go see my visitor,” I decided and Jack smiled distantly but nodded before he kissed my cheek and walked away. Alex started to reach for my arm, I saw him do it, but just then the others walked out of the basement behind me and Rayne growled in his chest. I took the distraction, and slipped away to the living room, hearing Alex interrogating them as to why they had been in the basement.
I knew the house well by then, and I knew where we had come up onto the first floor, so I rounded the corner to find Ty sitting awkwardly on the sofa, staring blankly at the television which was showing some kind of emergency news broadcast.
“How long have you known?” I demanded as his ice blue eyes shifted to me.
“I don’t know, exactly… you were using empath powers near me one time, and I knew for certain then… but I guess I had suspected since I was so drawn to you that first night at Jack’s party,” Ty explained calmly while I sat down beside him and he turned to face me.
“What are empath powers?” I wondered and he laughed softly.
“The ability to sense what others are feeling… I left you alone because you had enough to deal with and you weren’t doing anything too drastic, but today… that power you used towards the troll… it was too strong to be from a lesser fae, and too strong to not be noticed by any upper fae… that is what called to Wren and me… that is what will call our court’s attention to you,” he paused as I looked at him in blatant confusion, “You’re from Winter Court… I’m certain of it… and you are no mere changeling… you are of noble birth, and whatever reason you were sent here, I assure you won’t keep them away any longer. The only chance you have of staying hidden is to keep all of your faerie powers turned off.”
“Why have you been following me?”
“Because you are faerie raised in the human world… you don’t have the slightest clue how to protect yourself… I was trying to help,” he admitted with a shrug, “I’m an Earth-bound fae… can’t get back to Faerie unless I’ve been seriously injured, like with my friends… Apparently we’re not good enough to stay there with them… but whatever….”
“Anna, we have the file,” Jack commented from the doorway, and I glanced back at them before looking over at Ty while he stood up.
“I should go… I don’t want to know any more than I already do… be safe, Arianna,” he finalized before he disappeared, but I looked at the spot he had stood in with shock. Ty never called me by my real name; he always, always, called me Anna Gray. I also found myself wondering just how long they had all been standing in the doorway.
Jack walked over and handed me the file as they all fell to sit on the oversized sectional sofa. My hands were literally shaking as I opened the file to find my birth certificate on top.
Mother: Eira MistralFather: Dolan Rider
I don’t know what I had expected, but my heart thudded in my chest. I really was adopted, and sitting in front of me was complete proof of that. It was my real birthparents’ names, and I cautiously passed the paper to the others, fully aware of Evan and Rayne’s sharp intake of breath. When the paper made its way back to me, I looked up at them in confusion, “What’s the big deal?”
“Your mother was the fae,” Rayne stated, “Definitely Winter Court from the name… your father was literally a dark knight, his name translates directly.”
“We have to tell Alex,” Evan started and my eyes darted to him worriedly, “Your mother… Eira Mistral… Gods Arianna… she was… is…” he paused and took a breath, “She’s Winter Court royalty… if they find out who you are… you’re not full fae… but they’re not going to quit looking for you if they find out who you are….”
“Um… Evan says… we have to tell Alex… cause my mom is royalty…” I mumbled and they all froze and stared at me in shock. Rayne was the first to move, standing up from the sofa and pulling me along with him. I knew where we were going only a moment later, and Alex caught up to us just as we reached the dimly lit room with the mirror.
“It’s a pack problem now,” Rayne announced calmly and Alex barely nodded his head. Rayne pulled me around in front of the mirror, and Alex slowly walked around in front of it, too, but he froze.
The wolf I saw in the mirror was gorgeous, a deep black that could blend with the shadows and aqua blue eyes that didn’t belong on any creature, much less a wolf. What surprised me was how big he really was, especially since he had claimed Malcolm was bigger than most of the pack members. The other strange thing was the diamond on his forehead that was dark silver.
“You’re Winter Court fae…” Alex uttered, looking from the mirror back at me, “Partly so… The news… they’re looking for you…?”
“What news?” I instantly queried and he sighed as he glanced in the mirror again.
“Two fishermen were found dead in their boat in the middle of the lake… It was 80 degrees outside, but their cause of death was determined to be hypothermia,” Alex explained as tears stung my eyes.
“Her birthmother is Eira Mistral… Evan says she’s royalty,” Rayne told him and I felt Alex flinch.
“And her birthfather…?” Alex hesitantly asked, both of them essentially ignoring the fact that I was there.
“Dolan Rider,” Rayne stated and Alex flinched again, “It’s
rather obvious… he was a dark knight… Human, but not exactly normal….”
“What is a dark knight?” I finally queried, and Rayne lightly pulled me away from the mirror as Alex followed.
“Dark knights are humans granted minimal magical powers and an extended life in exchange for guarding and protecting the Winter Court fae… they’re supposed to keep the human world and the fae world separated… they can enter the human world without suspicion…” Alex explained calmly, “From what we know, there aren’t a lot of them… and I’m pretty sure they aren’t supposed to have relationships with the fae….”
“So what my parents did… was wrong…?” I faltered, but they just started dragging me toward the kitchen.
“We’ll take care of you, don’t worry about it,” Alex dismissed, but as we rounded the corner, we came upon Kiris. His name still didn’t suit him, standing there looking so much like Aeril… which is why I guess they called him Kris.
“Kris suits him better, don’t you think?” Evan remarked and I jumped and spun to face him as he laughed, “I didn’t mean to sneak up on you, Anna.”
“It’s okay…” I murmured distractedly because my gaze shifted back to Kris’ strange yellow eyes.
“He was born a wolf. Alex told you that happens sometimes. Kris was born in wolf-form so his coloring is a little more suited to a wolf than a human,” Evan explained, but Kris was darting his yellow eyes between Evan and me.
“You can really hear him,” Kris realized as Aeril walked into the room and ran his hand over Kris’ head, messing up his meticulous spikes.
“Hey, little brother,” Aeril greeted with a laugh while Kris darted away from him with a glare in his eyes.
“How many times do I have to tell you not to mess with my hair?!” Kris blurted but Aeril only shrugged.
“I just have to mess up those spikes… so stop spiking it,” Aeril decided and I giggled at how similar a conversation it was to one I’d had with Jason numerous times.
“You two sound alike,” I laughed softly as Aeril walked over in front of me.
“Do we?” Aeril wondered, brushing his hand lightly across my cheek, “I never noticed… Are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” I whispered and he smiled softly but Alex pulled his attention away as Jack and Farren made their way into the room.
“There’s only one way I can think of to keep her safe…” Alex started and I saw the tension spread through them, “I’m sorry, but a blood tie is all I can come up with.”
“You can’t ask that of her,” Jack countered but Evan leaned next to my ear.
“I’m going to show you something,” he started and immediately I was seeing strings, but they only went from me to the others around us. “Breathe deep for me,” he whispered and I took a deep breath as I was suddenly seeing the entire property from a birds’ eye view but I could clearly see each person around us. “A blood tie is an exchange of blood… it can effect both parties of the exchange… the strings you’re seeing now are linked to the elite group.” A breath later and those strings were replaced by innumerable other strings, “This is the rest of the pack… Red means you would have a positive benefit while the other party would have a negative… blue is good for them and bad for you… Orange is a little better for you and a little worse for them… purple is a little better for them and a little worse for you….” Those were the only strings I saw and so he shifted the view back to the elite group where I saw black and gray strings, a couple of red and purples and yellows and greens. “Blacks and shades of it means the exchange would be harmful to both parties… the yellow means you would both benefit from it… the greens are considered some of the best connections.” The image zoomed back into the room and he lightly grabbed my arm when I swayed. “We have to do this for when a pack member marries out of the pack… Alex is going to have Kiris look at these connections in just a moment, which is why I’m warning you now… Yellow and green strings are what we seek when we do blood exchanges with humans. You have yellow strings to Jack and Elisabeth… you have green strings to Rayne, and we know he won’t allow that… and one to me….” All of the strings suddenly disappeared except for the one that I somehow hadn’t noticed before that linked me to Alex and was pure white.
What is that? I thought and Evan’s hand on my arm tightened.
“I wanted to be the one to tell you… because he won’t tell you right and he won’t show you all of this…” Evan continued softly, “The white strings… we don’t see them often… like the black is the absolute worst, the white is the absolute best… it’s an ideal blood exchange. The thing is, you would definitely become part werewolf from the exchange. But it’s best, and it’s safest….”
How much part werewolf? Even in my mind it came across as a whisper.
“Depends on how much blood is exchanged… but with the white string… you’re going to be able to turn into a wolf… even with a drop exchanged…” he gently explained and I was suddenly looking around through my own eyes again, feeling as though the world had shrunk around me. What I did see was Alex giving some direction to Kiris who nodded before closing his eyes.
What happens in a blood tie…? I hesitantly queried but Kiris’ yellow eyes had bolted open and over to me in absolute shock. He touched his brother’s arm and Aeril’s eyes shifted to him only briefly before darting to me.
“What is it? Who are her safe connections?” Alex queried, but my arms were shaking as I stared back at Kiris and barely felt Evan still holding onto me.
“She has a white string…” Kris stated almost silently, causing all of the voices in the room to go quiet.
“Who?” Alex asked just as quietly and Kris glanced at my freaked out eyes again before meeting Alex’s aqua gaze.
“You,” Kris answered, “She knew that already though….”
“Who are her other safe connections…?” Alex quietly questioned, but the kitchen was filled with the elite pack members, all of them except Samantha.
“Green is to Rayne and Evan… Yellow to Jack and Elisabeth,” Kris answered simply, but he was watching me closely, “But… besides talking to Evan… I get the feeling she can do more than that with him….”
Alex slowly turned to face me, his eyes searching my face as he laughed distantly.
“What do you know that I haven’t told you yet?” he calmly queried but I shook my head, “Everyone has approved… and we’re going to have to do a blood tie… it doesn’t matter anymore because you’re going to find out everything.”
“I know you all do stuff… reading thoughts, seeing connections, seeing futures… that kind of thing…” I faltered and he just glanced at Evan, “I can see what Evan sees… He puts the image in my head and I can see it just like he does… but he can control what I’m seeing too.”
“Truthfully… you and I should do this blood tie…” Alex started gently, “I’ll allow, against my better judgement, for you to do the blood tie with Evan instead….”
“Evan says no,” I whispered, glancing at the hand that still clasped my arm, “He says it has to be you… He says… to have Liliana look closer at the connection between you and me….”
What does she do? I thought to Evan and a new picture formed in my mind of strings between everyone present in all sorts of colors including one between Alex and me that was black and purple.
The purple? I thought to Evan, since I didn’t see any purple anywhere else, and he barely nodded, What does it mean?
“Purple is the string of fate,” Evan told me, but Liliana jumped.
“Whoa! Do that again!” she exclaimed and Evan chuckled.
“She can see me talking to you,” Evan told me, flashing an image in my mind at the same time that showed a string between the two of us that lit up silver when he spoke.
“Sorry,” Liliana dismissed, her eyes flickering open and over to me, “That’s really cool… but Alex, your string to her is black and purple… Her fear of you and your intertwined fates.”
/> “Evan… tell her whatever she wants to know… we’ll do the blood tie first thing in the morning…” Alex announced, waving everyone away, “Go to bed now.”
“I want to sleep in the living room,” I murmured and Alex looked back at me before nodding his head.
“Sleep where you like. Don’t let anyone push you around, Arianna… if you don’t want them in there with you, tell them to go to bed,” Alex finalized before running his hand over his head through his hair and sighing as he went upstairs.
Evan finally released my arm as I wound my way through everyone and upstairs to change and grab my pillow and blanket. I froze when I got to the doorway to the living room and found nearly everyone lingering around it. Evan’s yellow-gold eyes met mine and he looked really serious.
Tell me who can stay he insisted within my mind and before I realized I had answered him, only Rayne, Jack, Aeril, Farren, and Evan were left in the room.
“I told them to leave,” Evan stated aloud and I laughed faintly and nodded.
“Thanks…” I mumbled and piled my stuff at the end of the sofa, “I’ll be right back… would you all please stay here…?” That was my first mistake.
“Yeah, we will,” Farren promised and I watched them stake claim to various parts of the sofa and the recliners in the room before I walked through the kitchen and out onto the back patio. That was mistake number two.
“A blood tie… with a werewolf I don’t even like… I mean, yeah, I get that he cares, he’s just got a strange way of showing it… and I know that it’s going to keep me safe from some… stupid court that I don’t know anything about to begin with, but still…” I said it beneath my breath, knowing I was still close enough to the house that my voice wouldn’t carry across the yard, “I don’t want to be fae….” That was mistake number three and I didn’t get to make another.
In a flash of black light he was standing before me; tall, angry, and definitely fae with the dark wings at his back. He grabbed my shoulder and that was all I remembered.
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D. J. Humphries
To Be Continued...
Another World in Arianna’s Tale
D. J. Humphries
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