Eternity (16 page)

“She’s lucky
she still has her guts. She could’ve been killed!” Heather
exclaimed. I don’t think I had ever heard her so upset before.

“Melissa’s
right though; what she did was really brave. Adrian could’ve killed
Michael. I wonder why he tried to attack him?” Rhea said.

“Who knows?”
Melissa replied. “That guy’s got a wicked temper.”

The others
agreed, and then all I could hear was the rustlings of blankets and
bodies getting comfortable.

When they were
all in bed, Heather spoke again. “Do you think she’ll forgive him?”
she asked.

“The werewolf?
I hope not,” Melissa said. “I mean, he seemed okay before, but what
he did was pretty serious. I hate to think what could happen if he
flips out again.”

“You met him
before?” Rhea asked. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen him around.”

“Yeah, he was
out in the woods when we were playing with fire,” Melissa
explained. “I think we kind of got him into trouble, but he didn’t
seem to care. He was pretty good about it.”

“He’s still
creepy and dangerous,” Heather said, yawning. “I don’t trust
him.”

Melissa yawned
as well. “I guess we’ll see what happens,” she said, and that was
the last thing I heard.

***

When I woke up
the next morning the pain in my arms had subsided, so I was able to
get out of the hospital gown. I had to take a bath instead of
showering because I didn’t want to get my bandages wet. I even
taped some plastic over them for protection. It took a long time to
get ready and dressed, but I felt like my wounds were healing
already, far faster than they should be. Dr. Hughes, who was a
witch, must have put something on my arms to help them heal. I knew
I would have to go back to the infirmary to have the dressings
changed, but I went down to lunch first. I had missed breakfast by
sleeping in and taking so long to get ready. I hadn’t even seen my
roommates at all that morning, and I was kind of glad.

I found Jack in
the cafeteria sitting at a table by himself. He jumped up when he
saw me and gave me a thorough look-over. He looked like he wanted
to give me a hug or something, but he seemed to remember that it
wouldn’t be a very good idea.

“You’re
alright! Thank goodness! I was really worried, and I couldn’t get
anyone to tell me anything. When I went to the infirmary you
weren’t there anymore, and the doctor was worried about you. She
said you ran off when you should’ve been resting. You never did
follow orders particularly well.”

I sat down
across from where he was standing, and he sat down as well and
continued eating his lunch, though he kept glancing at me like I
was going to pass out or something, even though I felt fine.

“Of course I’m
alright,” I said. “It really wasn’t that bad. Plus the doctor here
is much nicer than that old guy I had when I broke my arm. I’m kind
of surprised they don’t have a healer or something though.”

“Yeah, I am
too. I actually asked Ms. Coleman if there was one, and she said
there are at least two alive, not including the gods, but neither
of them work here, so we just have a witch doctor instead. She
knows regular medicine and magical remedies.”

“I think she
might have used a magical remedy on me. I feel like I’m healing
really fast.”

“You’re not
just trying to make me feel less worried, are you? I’ll never
forgive you if you’re lying to me,” Jack whined. He knew me too
well. While I was feeling like I was healing quickly, I had
downplayed the initial injury. Good thing he wouldn’t know, I
thought.

“Don’t be
silly,” I replied, and helped myself to some food. I carefully kept
any signs of pain from my expression, though the pain was still
there.

“Want me to
kill Adrian for you?” Jack half-joked.

“That won’t be
necessary. I hold no grudge.”

“What?!” he
exclaimed, looking shocked. “The guy could have killed you!”

“Yes, I know,
but that was my fault, not his. Everyone continues to remind me of
what could have happened. The important thing is that it
didn’t.”

“Jules, it’s
not just what could’ve happened, it’s what could still happen. You
really need to stay away from him. That’s the second time he almost
killed you. You might not survive a third.”

“Both times
were accidents and they were both my fault,” I argued. “Adrian
isn’t a bad person. I can see that more plainly than most people,
because I can see what he’s feeling. Yes, he has a temper, but so
do you, if you haven’t forgotten.”

“Sure I do, but
I haven’t hurt anyone. I haven’t even tried. Adrian definitely
tried to hurt Michael yesterday, and there’s no excuse for
that.”

“Do you
honestly think he wants to be violent?” I asked, getting angry.
“He’s afraid of himself and what he might do. I see it all the
time.”

“That doesn’t
change anything.” Jack was getting angry now too. “If he can’t even
trust himself, how could you possibly trust him?”

“Maybe that’s
all he needs. If he knows other people believe in him, maybe he’ll
start believing in himself.”

“No, Juliet.
He’s dangerous, and you need to stay away from him.”

“I’m not going
to abandon him, Jack,” I said, and I got up and walked away.

Chapter
21

Of course, I
regretted it ten minutes later, after my anger had died down. I
knew that Jack was trying to protect me, and I had treated him
poorly. Still, even though he was looking out for me, I didn’t feel
like I was wrong. I really believed that Adrian could change
because I knew that he wanted to. He just needed someone to help
him, and I didn’t think a therapist would be the best person for
the job because he only ever listened to people he cared about. I
knew he cared about me, and I was in love with him.

I wasn’t sure
when I had come to realize that, but it was true, so I knew I
couldn’t walk away. He meant too much for me to be able to do that.
I already missed his rare smiles and I missed talking to him, and
it hadn’t been that long since I had last seen him. What I wanted
most at that moment was to see him and talk to him and tell him
that I was okay. He was probably torturing himself about what
happened. I hoped he wouldn’t try to stay away from me for my own
safety again, but I knew it was a possibility.

I thought of
going to look for him, but I realized that I had no idea where he
was. I got the feeling from what I had been told that he wouldn’t
be in the west wing, and I doubted that he was allowed to do any
regular activities. I figured I would have to wait until Monday
afternoon to see him, since he was supposed to go to class as
usual, though I didn’t want to wait that long.

I spent the
rest of the day in the library. It was almost empty, so I didn’t
have to worry about everyone staring at me, which had seemed to
happen when I was in the cafeteria. What happened the day before
was the talk of the school. I felt like people were trying to get a
glimpse of my wounds or something so they could tell their friends.
It was a little unnerving.

I managed to
find an interesting book about werewolves. From it I learned that
it was normal for young wolves to have tempers, but it usually
subsided a year or two after they first started turning. There had
been a lot of incidents throughout history in which a young
werewolf attacked someone with little or no provocation, and some
wolves were more violent by nature than others. I was glad that the
myth about a werewolf bite wasn’t true. You could only be a
werewolf if you were born one.

According to
the book, what was happening with Adrian was normal, and he would
grow out of it eventually. I didn’t understand how other people
could hate him for something that he had no control over. Judging
by what Paul had said on the first day, it wasn’t even the first
time something like that had happened.

I was looking
for another book to read when Sydney came into the library, who I
hadn’t seen in a while. She excused herself from the friend she was
with and came over to see me. Her friend looked me over from head
to toe and sneered before going to sit down at a table. I was used
to such looks from girls, so I wasn’t bothered. I recognized her as
the girl I saw sitting with Sydney on my first day at the school,
and I had seen her with Sydney a few times after that. I don’t
think I’d ever seen her smile.

“How are you?”
Sydney whispered as she reached me. “I heard about what happened,
though I wasn’t there. Everyone’s talking about it. You look a lot
better than I expected you to. In fact, you look almost perfectly
normal, aside from the bulges your bandages are making in your
sweater.” She pointed to my shoulder, where it wasn’t hard to see
that there was something there. “Does it hurt much?”

“Not anymore,”
I answered honestly. I had gone to the infirmary before I went to
the library to have the dressings changed, and the cuts were closed
and healing quickly, as I had suspected. Dr. Hughes had put some
more healing cream on them before bandaging them back up, and I
could feel it working. The pain was almost gone.

“That’s good.
You could always ask a god for help, if you need it. I remember one
time when my sister was sick, and we couldn’t find a healer. She
had a brain tumour, but it hadn’t gotten too big yet. My mother
told us all to ask the gods for help with healing her, because they
sometimes listen. Anyway, one day my sister woke up feeling
completely normal, and there was a white rose lying on her bedside
table. We took her to the doctor later that same day for an MRI to
see if her tumour was growing, and it was completely gone! She’s
been perfectly healthy ever since, and my family gained a whole new
outlook on life.”

I smiled at the
happy ending to her story. “I just have a few scratches, not a
brain tumour,” I said. “I don’t think I need any more help than I’m
already getting.”

“Suit yourself.
Just thought you should know, I guess, since you didn’t grow up in
the same way that most of us did, with parents who were like us and
supported our gifts. I can’t imagine what I would’ve done without
my family.”

“What is your
ability, anyway?” I asked. I had never asked before, so I didn’t
know.

“I can
manipulate earth,” she said. “It’s fairly common. There are lots of
people who can manipulate an element. Even some vampires can, I
heard.”

“My friend
Melissa can manipulate fire,” I told her.

“Ah, I see. She
was one of the people who got in trouble for playing with fire in
the woods after hours, wasn’t she?” She didn’t mention my
involvement, so I figured she hadn’t heard.

“Yeah, she
was,” I said.

“How’s your
ability going? You can see auras, right? You must have no trouble
reading them by now.”

“I actually
have a few abilities,” I admitted. “I’ve been working on the other
ones lately. I don’t really need help with reading auras, since
I’ve been able to see them my whole life.”

“Wow, that’s
awesome! Most heroes only have one ability. How many do you
have?”

“Three, as far
as I know. Two are easy enough, but one of them is a little more
difficult to get the hang of,” I said, referring to my drawing,
which I was still learning to control.

“Wow,” Sydney
said again. “I wish I had other abilities. It would be so cool to
-”

“Syd?” an
annoyed voice interrupted. I turned and saw that the friend Sydney
had come in with was there. She stood with her hands on her hips,
and she couldn’t resist glaring at me with her small dark eyes.
“Are we going to find that book, or what?”

“Sorry, Jackie.
I’m coming,” Sydney answered. She gave me an apologetic look and
went off with her friend, leaving me to continue searching for a
book to read.

I found a book
about Amun’s time in early America that looked interesting. Not
long after I sat down to read I was interrupted again, but this
time by Patrick.

“Juliet!” he
exclaimed when he saw me. “Michael’s been looking for you
everywhere!”

That was news
to me. “Where is he?” I asked.

“I’m not
entirely sure. Last time I saw him he was in the ballroom, but that
was twenty minutes ago. He could be anywhere by now.”

“Thanks for
letting me know,” I said, and Patrick nodded. I put my book away
and went to go find Michael.

I found him
about an hour later in the music room. He was playing a soft melody
on a guitar, and he didn’t look up as I approached. Instead of
talking to him, I went over to the piano in the corner of the room
and started playing along. He looked up when I started playing, and
I smiled at him. He looked relieved to see me, but he didn’t stop
playing, and neither did I, until the song was over.

“You’re crazy,”
were his first words to me after he set down his guitar.

“I couldn’t do
nothing,” I argued. “Things could have been much worse if I had.” I
stopped myself for a second. “Great. Now I’m talking about what
could have happened like everyone else,” I complained.

Michael laughed
at me. “Well, if everyone else has been giving you a hard time, I
won’t bother,” he said. “Actually, even though I don’t think you
should have jumped in front of me, I still owe you a thank you. You
probably saved my life, though I never would’ve wanted that to
happen at any cost to you. I really should’ve taken you more
seriously when you showed me that drawing.”

“You don’t need
to thank me,” I assured him. “I’d do it again if I had to. I just
wish I’d realized what was going to happen sooner, or that I’d been
able to draw something that gave me more clues. I’m going to work
as hard as I can at improving my ability.”

“Did you see
exactly what you drew?”

“Yes. I
recognized the images from both drawings as soon as I saw
them.”