“You kill them, don’t you?” I said. “You all were going to kill my sister.”
Isaac put his hand between my knees. “Not exactly,” he said. “We watch them first; see if they show signs of becoming a rogue like the rest of the Vargas bloodline. If they can’t be controlled, we have no choice but to kill them.”
“No matter the bloodline you’re Sired by,” Daisy spoke up, “chances are you’ll be just like them.”
“A fledgling of the Vargas bloodline is dangerous to humans,” Zia added. “A savage plague.”
A horrible thought crossed my mind. I almost couldn’t bring myself to ask. “Did one of you kill Julia?” I couldn’t bear the answer, but it was imperative that I knew.
“No,” Isaac said, “fortunately we weren’t the ones that had to end Julia’s life. The Change did it for us.”
Zia added, “Yeah, it was probably Alex that infected Julia; not sure, but girls have a hard time living through the Change. According to Trajan, the world’s werewolf population is about eighty-five percent male.”
“We were surprised your sister made it through,” said Nathan.
I looked around the room then, noticing how many girls were there. There were a lot. There were always a lot.
Isaac was still in-sync with my thoughts. “Most of the girls here,” he said, “are not fledglings of ours. Some of them infected by smaller random bloodlines; a few even kin to the Vargas bloodline.”
I felt the color drain from my face.
“You can easily pick them out of a crowd,” Nathan said.
I knew that Rachel was one of them. There was no doubt. Now I had more reason than ever to be afraid of her.
I looked toward the exit where Rachel last stood.
“Rachel is a bitch,” said Nathan. “She can’t help it because it’s in her nature to be hateful. But she despises the Vargas brothers and has never betrayed our trust.”
“A woman scorned,” said Daisy.
Isaac added, “She has to be put in line every now and then, but she’s not a bad person.”
“So this place is like a refuge?” I said, skipping over adding my own opinion about Rachel’s character.
Nathan smiled and hit Isaac gently on the shoulder. “Your girl catches on quick, bro.”
“Sort of,” Isaac said to me. “Most of them follow us wherever we move; a few find us here and there. It seems to grow by five every year.”
I had more questions, tons of them, but I was so overwhelmed by everything already.
I looked at Isaac then. “You really weren’t sick then,” I said, “were you?” He had already confirmed this before in the barn, but since last night I still didn’t fully understand it. And I was trying to wrap my head around all of these damn lies.
Isaac shook his head.
Zia said, “I really hope you’ll forgive me for all the lies and stuff. I’m really, really sorry.”
“I think your situation sort of lets you off,” I said. “It’s okay, honestly.”
“A week before a full moon,” Isaac began, “is when all werewolves are the most volatile. Not even an Elder can be one hundred percent sure of himself during that time. We have to make ourselves scarce, just to be safe.”
I laughed lightly under my breath. “Sounds like a time-of-the-month thing.”
Nathan’s mouth fell open. “Sick, but funny,” he said. “I like her!”
The cracker girl said, “Better than your last girlfriend, Isaac.”
I think she soured the mood worse than Rachel had, but I could take it. It wasn’t like I expected to be his first ever girlfriend, especially since he was...I had no idea how old Isaac really was.
I had to know.
And though already the very thought of it was making me nervous, I was fascinated by it just the same.
“Just how old are you anyway?” I said. “Was that a lie too?”
Isaac shifted, uncomfortably.
“You don’t really want to know that, do you?” he said grimly.
“Of course I do.”
“Don’t tell her, bro,” said Nathan playfully. “You’ll run her off.”
“No, really,” I said. “Just tell me.”
Isaac breathed in deep. I, on the other hand, wasn’t breathing at all.
“I’m...” he hesitated and I was turning blue, “...I’m nineteen.”
Silence. I could hear my stomach making funny little noises.
“Really, Isaac,” I said finally, “the truth.”
“Love,” he said, “I am telling you the truth. I’m nineteen years old.”
“But....”
Nathan started laughing and then Daisy and Zia joined him. When I saw Isaac’s face finally break into a smile too, I knew I was the butt of some innocent joke.
I just sat there, looking at each of them critically, waiting to be let in on it.
“How old did you think I was?” Isaac let the playful smile leave his face and he was on my side again.
“Ummm,” I said, gently biting my lip, “well, I don’t know. You’re sort of immortal, so I assumed—“
“She thought you were really up there, little brother,” Nathan said, still laughing. “Better start looking into wrinkle creams and microdermabrasion kits at Lancôme.”
Daisy laughed out loud and turned Nathan’s own joke around on him. “How do you know about microdermabrasion kits, Nathan?” she said accusingly. “Is there something you’re not telling us?”
Zia and Sebastian were eating this up as they stood off to the side; Zia enveloped by Sebastian’s arms. I wondered how long that would feel awkward to me.
Nathan’s eyes grew perfectly round, but even he couldn’t help but laugh.
Isaac kept his full attention solely on me, discounting anymore laughs on my account. “Yes,” he began to explain, “I’m only nineteen, but next year on the first full moon after my twentieth birthday, my aging will begin to slow as it does with all of our kind.”
I was instantly fascinated. “How does it...slow exactly?”
“Well, after that,” he went on, and by now everyone else had stopped laughing and were listening too, “for every ten human years, we will physically age only one human year.”
“Wow,” I said. “You’re like a real life Fountain of Youth.”
“I guess you can look at it like that.”
“That’s amazing,” I added, still not fully grasping it. “So then how old are you, Nathan.”
He stopped smiling then and I heard Isaac fake a small cough into his hand next to me.
“Nathan is pushing seventy,” Daisy happily answered for him.
“Hey!” Nathan said. “You’re a witch sometimes; you know that, Daisy?”
Inattentively, I began jotting down formulas in my head, trying to pinpoint this whole human/werewolf aging process and I was coming up short. “But that’d make you...” I thought about it harder just to be sure, “...you’d have to look seven-years-old, Nathan, and believe me when I say you definitely don’t look seven. More like around twenty-five.”
“Technically, I’ve lived fifty years after Abating,” Nathan explained, “but you have to add the twenty years I lived before Abating, too.”
“So he’s seventy-years into wrinkle cream inevitability,” Daisy laughed from behind.
“I think I get it…” I said and then went back a topic or two. “Wait, what about when you shifted, Zia? I mean, how did Sebastian not know something was...well, not exactly normal?”
“Like I said,” Zia began, “I was in my mediate form; easier to disguise, especially if it’s dark and other things are going on.”
I thought someone might tell me what a ‘mediate’ form was exactly, but apparently, everyone had forgotten so soon I was only human.
Finally, Isaac spoke up:
“It’s the form in-between human and full-fledged werewolf,” he said. “Like you saw Rachel earlier.”
“Oh....”
Isaac and I stayed with everyone in the
den for about an hour before we migrated up to Isaac’s room. I learned so much in that hour that I should’ve been mentally exhausted, but I was alert and ready to know more.
Nathan told me some about their father. Trajan Mayfair was actually General Vukašin Prvovenčani, dominant Black Beast of the Prvovenčani bloodline. His was the oldest and most powerful lycanthrope bloodline in existence, and Trajan, the most feared leader in lycanthrope history.
He killed his own father to take control of the massive army that his father commanded.
Trajan Mayfair was no do-gooder saint. He was a dangerous killer and only by time and age did he begin to tame his ways.
“My father doesn’t mingle with humans,” said Isaac, “unless he has to.”
Suddenly, I was no longer afraid of Rachel. I was completely afraid of Isaac’s father. This was a very different kind of fear; this fear demanded respect.
Isaac said then, “It’s another reason he’s going back to Serbia. Other than taking control of his army again, there are too many humans and fledglings here. My father has never been tolerable to fledglings, not even his own.”
“And humans,” I added, “He doesn’t trust himself around them, does he?”
Isaac just looked away from my eyes.
“Humans have always been,” he began, “a liability to my father; oblivious to the real dangers of this world and the weakest of all species. Though my father can be counted among the most notorious leaders of our history, it’s those like Viktor Vargas, reckless and power hungry, who are the greatest threat to the human race as a whole.
“Unlike my father, Viktor must steal the respect of his loyals,” he went on. “And he does it without regard for the consequences.” He glanced at me once. “You see; my father doesn’t protect humans because he has a soft spot for them. He protects them only to keep Viktor’s bloodline from wiping them out.”
I couldn’t speak for a moment. I felt insignificant and anxious.
“It’s been going on forever,” Isaac said, “this war between them—from the time I was born, I can only remember this war. My brothers and sisters and I were…” He stopped and stared at the wall, his jawline more pronounced. “…it shouldn’t bother me because I’ve known nothing else, but spending so much time around humans and seeing how they live and love, I guess it does make me somewhat envious.”
My heart fell heavy for him and I still had yet to learn exactly why.
“Envious of what?” I urged him softly.
Isaac shook his head. “My father never loved Sibyl. She was chosen because of her strength. At the time, there was no female more powerful than Sibyl.”
Isaac looked right at me then. “We were bred merely for war,” he revealed. “My training started before I could form a full sentence.”
My lips parted gently, stunned. I started to speak, but stopped myself because what I had wanted to say about Isaac’s father was nothing kind.
“I love my father,” Isaac said, “and I don’t condemn him for our ways, but experiencing human ways has made me envious.”
“So you were born this way,” I said. “You weren’t Turned like Sebastian?”
Isaac nodded once. “No, I’m a Pureblood,” he said. “Like all of my brothers and sisters. I’m proud to be who I am, proud that he is my father; don’t get me wrong.”
He stood from the bed and went to the window then. I followed and sat on the windowsill. “You don’t want to go with him to Serbia?” I said.
He looked down at me, his eyes soft with assurance. “I was going to go, until I met you. I couldn’t leave now for anything.”
It made me feel guilty. I didn’t want to be the reason he separated from his father.
“Adria,” he said, detecting that guilt, “I want to stay, not only because your life is in danger, but because I want to be with you.” He moved to stand in front of me and cradled the back of my head in his hand, pressing my face gently against his chest. “I won’t lie and say I didn’t try to stay away from you at first. I wanted nothing to do with you. I knew that if I followed my heart, I’d put you in more danger.”
I jerked my head away and looked up at him. “I don’t care,” I said. “You can’t take it back now anyway.”
“I wouldn’t do that to you,” Isaac said.
“Leave me?”
“No. You’re stuck with me.” He grinned.
I stood from the windowsill and pressed my lips against his. “I’d have it no other way,” I said and then he kissed me more deeply.
Something had been bothering me since long before I knew the truth about Isaac and although I didn’t want to ruin this moment with him, I had to ask and get it out of the way. As embarrassed as I knew it would make me.
I bit the inside of my mouth gently and crossed my arms, turning away from him. He detected something off right away.
“What’s wrong?” He appeared concerned.
I paused for an even longer awkward time than I had wanted. “Those girls…” I hesitated once more—just couldn’t get the words out in a way that satisfied my need to not seem overly jealous, or obsessive. “…well, obviously you’re attractive, but….”
He smiled knowingly, which made my face burn hotter.
By now, I had given up trying to word it right.
“It’s an Alpha thing,” Isaac said. “The girls around here naturally and instinctively want a powerful male.”
I think even Isaac was blushing a bit now.
“It’ll either be me or Nathan when my father leaves,” he added.
Half of me was relieved by his answer. The other half, undecided. I needed to get used to so many extraordinary things as it was. The possibility of Isaac becoming Alpha wasn’t something I could understand yet.
Isaac took me home late. I lost track of time more at his house every day, but I think he would rather I forgot altogether. I wasn’t safe at home. But I couldn’t worry Beverlee and Uncle Carl. They had been through enough.
ISAAC AND I SPENT every day together. When I was apart from him at school, he was with me in text messages, or watching the school from across the parking lot. To anyone else it might have appeared stalker-like, but Isaac had plenty of reason.
He and many others in the Mayfair house were hell bent on protecting me, including Nathan and Daisy Mayfair who had become like family.
Sebastian finally came back to school, shortly after Julia’s funeral, which none of us attended. Her parents decided on a private funeral for family only. They moved away from Hallowell the following day.
Sebastian was welcomed by everyone, even though his excuse for what happened was that he ran away; tore his room up out of rage.
Tori was not so welcoming, however. She hated him for leaving her like that, but hated him more for choosing ‘the freak’, Zia, over her and so every time she and her new friends passed us, Tori always had something spiteful to mutter. I was proud of Zia for keeping her cool, but only Sebastian and I knew there was more to it than maturity. Zia couldn’t lose it, or else Tori and the rest of the school would get one nasty surprise.
“Why do you even go to school?” I said to Zia outside on the football field at lunch.
“Well,” Zia said, “I don’t really have to. I only enrolled to keep track of you because of your sister. Now, honestly, you’re my agenda.”
I rolled my eyes.
“Here comes Harry,” I whispered.
Harry had not hung out with us in two days. I tried to talk to him on the phone, but he wouldn’t take my calls, and at school, he wandered around alone. This had to stop and Zia and I had to think of something worthy to tell him. It was no secret that Zia and Sebastian were together. I just couldn’t take this anymore, seeing Harry act this way and knowing it was partly my fault he was so hurt by everything.
I had never stopped thinking about what to tell him since he last spoke to me. But all of that thinking got me nowhere.
Harry approached swiftly, as if he too was tired of the silence.
<
br /> Zia looked at me and I could tell she was as unsure about what to do as I was. With Sebastian in the mix, the situation couldn’t be any worse. I winced when he stopped in front of us, his hands buried in the pockets of his jeans.
“I’m sorry, man,” he said to Sebastian. “I’m just glad you’re not dead, y’know?”
Zia and I locked eyes. We couldn’t move the muscles in our faces, but apparently this was going to resolve itself and I’d be able to breathe again soon.
Sebastian man-hugged Harry, gripping his fist in one hand and patting his back with the other. “Hey, no problem,” he said and then he dropped his voice. “I didn’t know about...,” he indicated Zia with the movement of his eyes. “...I really didn’t.”
Zia walked around in front of them. “Harry, I’m really sorry. Sebastian and I liked each other before I came to the school.”
“I know,” Harry said. His posture was awkward, but he was slowly becoming himself again. “It’s cool; I just wanted to get this out in the open so we could all get back to normal again. Sucks eating lunch at the loner table.”
I couldn’t help but smile. This was perfect. I got one of my best friend’s back without turmoil in-between.
“And Adria,” said Harry, “I feel like a real ass for dragging you into this.”
“No way,” I said, “I should’ve told you something.”
Harry argued, “You were stuck in the middle of it and that’s my fault—”
I put up my hand and stopped him.
“But enough of this,” he obeyed, “it’s done and over with. Have you guys heard what Tori’s been saying around the school?”
“Which part?” said Zia, “That I sleep around, or that Sebastian hit her when they were going out, or that she found Sebastian and I together and she busted my lip?”
“Yeah, I guess you have heard then,” said Harry. “That girl is psycho.”
“Yeah,” Zia grumbled, “there’s no way she could bust my lip.”
I was glad things were back to normal. The school rival stuff was no big deal. I didn’t care that because I was friends with Zia that the rumors about her included me also, or that I had enemies. Nothing anyone at school could do would ever match what I faced on the outside.