Archaic (22 page)

"I won't let it happen," he told me. He eyes held mine, assuring me, but he couldn't be with me all the time. What if I did manage to get away? "We will have to keep watch over you."

"All of the time? It's only a matter of time before I have an episode when there isn't anyone to stop me. And worse, what if I hurt someone while trying to get to him? I don't want to hurt anyone, but I know I'm capable of it."

It was difficult to say, to put my fears into words.

"It will take a little planning but it is possible," Tyler said. "Although, it'll be difficult to watch over you at school. We can't all be in our classes and yours."

Jared looked at him and pinned him with a look.

"We can post some cars around the school," Danny suggested.

Jared nodded.

"How many more days do we think we have left before the change?" Danny asked. He wasn't sitting anymore. He was pacing back and forth in front of us.

"I don't know, maybe five days," Jared answered, watching Danny pace. The truth was none of us had any idea how much longer I had. It was a guessing game.

"It would be so much easier if we were able to contain her," Tyler suggested.

Contain me? What was I--an animal? I laughed. Nope, I was turning into a monster. They all looked at me and I shrugged, not wanting to voice my internal thoughts.

"That's not going to be easy, especially when her grandmother doesn't have any idea what's going on," Danny said.

"What happens when I start acting really strange when I have the episodes? Anne will notice something isn't right. She can't find out about all of this; I don't want her life to be in danger," I said.

"Ava is right. We need to get Anne out of town," Jared agreed.

The doorbell rang. Jared left to answer the door and he soon returned with the rest of the Archaic following behind him into the living room.

Jared waited for everyone to sit down before he started talking.

"We have a new problem. It seems that when Ava enters an emotionless state, she wants to go to Mason. It happened earlier today and Mason was waiting across the street for her. I managed to stop her but this means we're going to have to keep a very close eye on her at all times."

"It makes it more difficult to watch her if Anne doesn't know what's going on," Neve said, voicing what we had already been thinking.

"I know, that's why we need to come up with a way to get Anne out of town for the week," Jared explained.

Then I remembered her telling me she was going to be going to the city to see some of her clients.

"She did mention she would be going into the city next week for a couple of days," I mentioned, feeling a little hopeful as I tried to remember which days she'd mentioned she'd be away.

"Do you know which days?" Catherine asked.

"I think it was Tuesday and Wednesday."

"What about school?" Jennifer asked.

"Let's tackle one problem at a time," Jared suggested.

"Anne usually travels to the city every few weeks to see her bigger clients," Catherine mentioned. I could already see the wheels in Nathaniel's mind turning as he took his phone out of his back pocket.

"All we need to do is make sure she has enough appointments with different companies and spaced out so she will need to be away for the week," Nathaniel said as he began to press the buttons on his phone.

"Is that even possible?" I asked, not sure how they were going to pull that off.

"Yes," Nathaniel murmured, already engrossed in what he was trying to accomplish on his phone.

"How are we going to pull that off?" Jennifer asked with a doubtful expression. I didn't need to know her well to be able to see she was the pessimist of the group.

"I have some contacts there who should be able to help me," he continued to explain as he concentrated on the task of looking for whatever he was looking for on his phone.

Within thirty minutes, he'd set up multiple appointments, enough to keep Anne busy for the week in the city.

"How did you do that?" I asked.

He flashed me a smile and said, "Money talks."

I didn't understand. They all lived in the same area as I did. Anne was well off, but I was pretty sure she didn't have the type of money to do what Nathaniel just had. Jared saw the confusion on my face.

"We have money. We just don't flash it around," he explained. "It helps when we need to cover up things," he added with a shrug.

"I need to email all the necessary information to Anne's office," Nathaniel explained before he left.

"One problem solved. Now we need to decide how we're going to handle school," Jared said.

"It might raise too many questions if Ava is off school for the entire week," Catherine warned. "Maybe it would be best to have her go to school for the first two days and then when things get worse we can keep her home for the rest of the week."

It sounded good. Just two days, and then the rest of the time they could keep me contained like Tyler had described.

"It isn't the most ideal situation, but I don't think we really have a choice," said Jared. It was better than nothing. I smiled at him, trying to feel hopeful that enough had been done to keep everyone safe from me, even myself.

"Next problem," said Danny. "Tyler and I have contacted the other Archaic groups, but no one has ever heard of this type of thing happening. So far no one has any ideas on how to stop it." I felt disappointment overwhelm me--I had hoped against hope that one of the other groups might have known a solution.

"Has anyone here got any ideas?" Jared asked as he scanned the room. Nobody answered. They looked among themselves, but no one said anything. There was going to be no way to save me, and in less than a week I was going to die. I took a deep breath to try and calm the overwhelming feeling of panic trying to take hold of me.

The deep breathing routine wasn't helping. I felt the panic attack threatening take over, and I drew in a sharp breath. Jared turned toward me on the two-seater sofa.

"Breathe, Ava," he said as I felt the air lock in my lungs. "It'll be okay."

He kept whispering soothing words that I wanted to believe. I expelled a breath and took in another deep breath. My lungs eased. Jared's eyes softened as he watched me keep my panic from overwhelming me. I wanted to believe him. I wanted everything to be okay, but the reality was that there might not be a way to stop what had already been set into motion.

He leaned over and kissed me on the forehead. The gesture pulled at the warm and fuzzy feeling inside of me.

"This meeting is over," Jared instructed to the Archaic. "Ava's had enough for today." They started to filter out of the room.

"I just want to have a word with Tyler," he gently informed me.

"Okay."

Jared left me sitting on the sofa while he went to talk to Tyler. Catherine came to sit down next to me.

"It'll be all right," she said, trying to comfort me. I gave her a weak smile. I wasn't convinced.

No one had any answers. No one had any ideas on how to stop what was happening to me. I was changing and in a few days it would complete. I would be a monster. Jared would have to do what he had promised.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

I was back in the house by the time Anne arrived back from her weekend away. I tried to pretend everything was okay when the deadline for my change hung over my head like a guillotine, but I still tried to sound happy and smile while Anne told me about her weekend.

"As long as you had fun," I said.

"So what were you up to this weekend?" she asked me.

"Not much. I spent most of the time at home, reading and watching TV. Nothing exciting." I added a shrug of my shoulders to add to the lie.

I couldn't exactly tell Anne that I'd cut myself and that in an emotionless episode nearly walked straight to the monster that had nearly killed me.

We talked for a little longer. I was tired. It had been a very busy and eventful weekend and all I wanted was to crawl into my own bed and sleep. I said good night to Anne and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. She hugged me close and I hugged her back.

In my room, I got my pajamas and went into my bathroom. It was spotless; there was no evidence of what had happened on Friday night. Someone had cleaned everything up. I showered quickly and got dressed into my pajamas. I brushed my hair and teeth. I switched off the bathroom light, and as I entered my bedroom I stopped.

Lying on my bed with his eyes closed, his arms bent and his hands under his head, lay Jared.

What is he doing here?

He was dressed in a shirt and sweatpants. His leather jacket hung over my chair in front of my desk. At least my bedroom door was closed because I could just imagine my grandmother's face if she saw Jared lying on my bed. It wouldn't go down well at all.

Although, remembering the last time she'd met him, he'd be able to charm her within minutes.

"What are you doing here?" I asked him in a hushed tone.

"I'm here to make sure you don't wander off in the middle of the night," he replied lazily, with his eyes still closed. I hadn't thought of that. He had a point and I couldn't argue with that. Nobody could guarantee that I wouldn't have an emotionless episode in the middle of the night and decide to climb out of my bedroom window to find Mason.

Mason. Just the thought of his name sent a shiver of fear down my spine.

Jared hadn't mentioned anything about this earlier on as he'd helped me pack up all of my stuff and walked me to my house a few hours earlier. I'd asked him for a couple of hours on my own before Anne arrived home. With everything that had been going on, I'd needed some normality, to just forget for a few moments about everything that had been on my mind. I felt like my life was spiraling out of control and that slowly but surely I was losing myself.

Burying my head in the sand and ignoring what was happening to me wasn't going to change anything, but I had needed a time out. He hadn't left me unguarded because I'd seen Tyler's black SUV parked across the road.

I stood in my bedroom, watching Jared lying on my bed looking completely relaxed. He looked at me and studied me for a moment. The impact of his eyes as they locked with mine made my stomach flip. I switched the light off and walked to my bed. Jared adjusted himself and he lay on his side on top of my comforter, facing me. I climbed under my comforter and turned around so that I had my back to him. He didn't touch me at all.

I wasn't sure exactly what we were. We had feelings for each other but I didn't know exactly what that meant. Was it casual or was it more? No guy had ever pulled feelings from me like Jared did. My inexperience and the answer to the question stopped me from asking. I didn't want to be something that he saw as casual.

I closed my eyes and tried to go to sleep. Every cell in my body was hyperaware of every slight movement he made beside me. Somehow I managed to fall asleep.

Later, in the middle of the night, I woke up. I felt strange again and I tried to move but Jared was holding me from behind, his arm draped loosely around my waist. Slowly I looked back to see he was sleeping. I eased out of his hold, disgusted by his touch but trying not to wake him. Once I had climbed out of the bed, I stopped and turned to make sure I hadn't woken him up, but he moved slightly and then stilled.

The burning need to find Mason overwhelmed the nothingness inside. Finding him was the only thing that mattered. Quietly, I walked to my bedroom window and opened the curtains to peer out the open window. Across the street, standing near a streetlight, was Mason. The sight of him urged me to him.

I turned around and saw Jared was still in the bed, sleeping. I crept to the other side of my room and tried to open the door. It was locked. How was it locked? My hands released the handle and saw my key was missing from the lock. I never locked my door.

"You looking for this?" asked Jared quietly, taking me by surprise. I turned to see him holding something in his hand as he sat facing me in the bed. I didn't move. From the moonlight that filtered through my bedroom window, I could see what he was holding in his hand. It was the key to my bedroom door.

"You can't keep me here," I stated. I was adamant. He gave a hollow laugh and climbed out of the bed and walked toward me until he stood a couple of feet in front of me. He was tall and formidable. I could feel the power emanating from him as his eyes held mine.

"Yes, I can," he stated matter-of-factly. He had that cocky look on his face. He was stronger than me. He was right, he could make me do whatever he wanted. I had to think of a way around this. The need within me burned deeper, turning desperate.

"You have to let me go," I insisted calmly.

He didn't bother to respond and remained where he was, watching me with hard eyes.

"I belong to him. I need to get to him," I told him coldly. There was a moment of hurt on his face at my words before it disappeared.

"You don't belong to him," he whispered as he stared at me intently. There was emotion in his voice. He felt something for me, but I felt nothing for him. My mind started to think through scenarios to use his feelings for me against him.