Eternity (20 page)

“Okay, here’s
the deal,” Michael said to me. “We just found out that our
keyboardist has serious issues with stage fright. We didn’t even
realize it at first, but then as the day went on he started getting
kind of pale, and then he started rushing to the bathroom to throw
up. Finally, he told us he couldn’t do it. It would have been
really nice to have known about this issue before he joined the
band.”

“Seriously,”
someone mumbled. I thought it was Duncan, the bass player.

“Anyway,”
Michael continued, in a rush. “What I’m trying to say is that we
need a new keyboardist, like, right now. At first I thought that
seemed like an impossible task, since no one else even knows our
music, but then I thought of you. It would be really, really great
if you would play with us for tonight. I know you don’t like
playing other people’s music, and you’ve never heard our songs
before, but you’re a musical genius and I trust you. All of the
music is on paper, so you wouldn’t have to worry anyway. Please?”
He looked really desperate, and his eyes were actually pleading
with me. I thought that only happened in novels.

“Do I have a
choice?” I asked.

“No!” Leon said
from somewhere on the other side of the room, and Patrick
chuckled.

I sighed. This
was definitely not how I had planned to spend the evening. “Then we
had best get started,” I said. “The audience expected you ten
minutes ago.”

“Thank you!”
Michael exclaimed, and he gave me a quick crushing hug before
hurrying to the stage. The others followed closely behind, so I
went along as well, not really having a clue what I was doing.

The crowd
cheered when the band finally went on stage. I sat down behind the
keyboard, and quickly looked at the music while Michael was busy
making an introduction. It took only a few seconds to memorize it,
which was good because it was my job to start the song. I had never
heard it played before, so I could only hope I was doing it right.
I started anyway. I couldn’t help but add a few touches of my own,
and the rest of the band followed my lead.

They actually
were a lot better than they were before. Michael had a good clear
voice that he knew how to use, and Leon played the guitar with more
passion than I had ever seen in him before. I was most impressed by
Patrick though. He played the drums like a pro. I could definitely
picture him with a real career in music. Their songs weren’t
fantastic, but they could have been much worse. At least the style
was good.

We played six
songs altogether, and the audience seemed to be enjoying the show.
I looked out every once in a while to see my friends in the first
row. I could swear I saw Heather and Jack holding hands at one
point, and Melissa was practically entranced by Michael’s
singing.

Finally, the
show ended. There was lots of applause and cheering, and the band
stood up to bow. I wasn’t actually part of the band, so I snuck off
the stage instead of joining them. There was some food in the room
beside the stage, so I helped myself to a cookie and sat to wait
for the band to finish. They all seemed pretty excited when they
finally came in the room, and they were all giving each other
high-fives, which I thought was kind of cute. I couldn’t help but
smile.

“That was
awesome!” Michael was saying, and the others nodded in
agreement.

“I’m definitely
going to have chicks all over me from now on,” Leon said quite
confidently. Patrick laughed at him.

“In your
dreams, my friend,” he said.

“Juliet! There
you are!” Michael almost shouted when he spotted me. “You snuck off
when you were supposed to be bowing. You probably deserve more
credit than we do.”

“I’m not part
of your band. I was just filling in. It isn’t even my music,” I
reminded him.

“Who cares? You
played it way better than John ever did. We sounded a lot better
than usual, and that was probably thanks to you. You should really
reconsider joining.”

“No thanks,” I
said firmly. “It’s not really my kind of thing.”

“It should be,”
Leon said. “You were great. I liked the notes you added; they
really gave the music more depth without changing the melody.”

“Yeah, it was
pretty sweet,” Patrick added.

“Thanks, you
guys,” I said, and I meant it. It was nice to be appreciated.

“Hey, are you
sure you don’t want to watch the movie with us? I think it’s about
zombies or something, but it should be good. We’re going to go
watch it in about half an hour,” Michael said.

“I’m feeling
kind of tired now, so I’m going to pass,” I said. “I’ve had enough
excitement for one evening. In fact, I think I’m going to go to bed
now.”

“Alright.
Thanks again, and sleep well,” Michael said.

I walked back
to the south wing, though I stopped at the library on the way to
get something to read. I wasn’t actually going to bed, and I needed
something to do. I asked the librarian for the list of pseudonyms
used by Isadora, and I found a book by her that looked interesting,
though it was fiction. It appeared to be about dragons or something
like that, and it was published only twenty years ago. I ended up
going to sleep later than I planned because I couldn’t put it down.
I secretly wished that dragons were real, though I’d never heard
that they were. I made a mental note to look it up the next time I
was in the library.

Chapter
26

I had no
trouble sneaking into Adrian’s room the next night at seven
o’clock, as planned. I saw him and a teacher I didn’t recognize in
the kitchen when I walked by. The teacher wasn’t looking in my
direction when I passed, but Adrian was, and he winked at me.

I let myself
into his room and hid in the bathroom. I put the bag I’d brought
with me down on the floor. I thought it might be nice to actually
have some things with me, like a toothbrush. I’d also told Heather
that I would be gone so she wouldn’t worry, though I didn’t tell
her where I was going no matter how many times she asked. I would
have thought she’d have given up after the tenth time.

I heard the
door open a few minutes later, and Adrian came in. He immediately
locked the door and turned on his mp3 player, and I came out of the
bathroom and jumped into his arms.

“Should I feel
safe?” I joked after kissing him. “The door is locked and you have
music playing loudly. If I was in trouble, I doubt that anyone
would hear me scream.”

“Of course you
aren’t safe,” Adrian said, smiling. “You’re in here with me.”

We kissed some
more before sitting down on the beds. We just sat there and talked
for awhile, mostly about the past. Adrian told me what it was like
growing up as part of a pack.

“There wasn’t
much privacy,” he told me. “Everyone knew everything that was
happening to everyone else. Relationships and marriage were always
a big deal because of breeding, and there were a lot of rules about
marrying. We weren’t really allowed to marry people who weren’t
like us, though people did sometimes anyway. Usually when that
happened they would be kicked out of the pack and forced to move to
a new territory. People were allowed to marry werewolves from other
packs, but only if they had permission from both pack leaders. My
dad used to always tell me that I would get married some day and
have kids like everyone else, but it wasn’t really a priority for
me. There weren’t any girls in my pack I liked, and when I came
here I didn’t meet any wolves I liked. I found you instead. My dad
would have been furious if he was still alive, but my mom stopped
caring what I did a long time ago.”

“Could you
really get kicked out for loving someone who isn’t a werewolf?” I
asked.

“Yes, if they
knew about it. There’s only one other person here who’s from my
pack though, and he won’t talk. He does far worse things than I do
as far as pack law goes.”

“What would you
do if you were kicked out?”

“Probably
nothing different. I was never really into pack stuff anyway.
They’re more like family than anything else, but distant family.
I’m not close enough to anyone there to really care about leaving.
The only problem would be losing the protection of the pack. If I
ever stumbled into the territory of any pack, even the one I belong
to now, I would be vulnerable.”

“How many packs
are there?”

“I think there
are about fifty in the whole world. Most of them are in Europe, and
there are quite a few in the U.S. and Canada, but there aren’t many
anywhere else. Werewolves originated in Eastern Europe, so most of
us are Caucasian, though there have been a few other races that
have been bred in. Still, we tend to go where we’ll fit in, and to
places with plenty of forest.”

Everything he
was telling me seemed so different from the way I had grown up, and
also the way Jack grew up. He never had a pack, so he never had
anyone to support him through the transition and explain what was
happening, and he never had the same level of protection that
Adrian had. It was probably a good thing he never moved somewhere
else because he could have ended up in pack territory, and that
wouldn’t have been good.

After I learned
all about what it was like growing up in a pack, Adrian wanted to
know what it was like growing up in an orphanage.

“Well, it was
weird,” I said. “We probably had less privacy than you did because
we all lived together. I lived there for most of my life, but it
was never really home because I had nothing that actually belonged
to me, and there were always people coming and going. There was no
peace because there were always people around, and not all of them
were good. You get used to it, but it’s hard to enjoy it.”

“Why were you
never adopted?” Adrian wanted to know.

“Most of the
kids ended up in foster homes before they were ever adopted. People
want babies, not grown kids. There were babies there, but they
didn’t tend to stay long. Jack was an exception, though. He was
dropped off there as a baby but he was never even in a foster home.
I was never in a foster home either, even though my parents died
when I was three. I don’t think it was because there was anything
wrong with us. We both had a few interviews over the years, but we
just weren’t what they were looking for. It happens sometimes.”

“Maybe they
could tell you were different,” Adrian suggested. “Were there any
other people with special abilities in the place?”

“No, there
never were. It was just the two of us who were different, although
Jack never even knew until we were coming here.”

“Do you
remember your parents at all?”

“Yeah. I
remember them well because I have a good memory. I got my hair from
my mother and my eyes from my father. They were young, but they
loved each other and they cared for me as well as they could. They
died in a car accident coming home from a movie, and I was with a
babysitter at the time. I still remember when the police came to
the door, and when social services took me away. I had no other
family, so they put me in Pembrook, thinking it would only be
temporary, but of course it wasn’t.”

We continued to
talk for awhile until the teacher outside knocked to tell Adrian to
get to bed, since the music was still playing loudly to drown out
the sounds of our conversation. He had to turn it off, and we had
to be really quiet. Adrian went into the bathroom to get ready for
bed, and when he was finished I did the same.

Like last week,
we decided to share a bed. I liked it better because I felt closer
to Adrian, and it was comforting. I liked being in his arms even if
we weren’t doing anything other than sleeping, though that night
neither of us were particularly eager to get to sleep.

We started out
just kissing, but our kisses got deeper, and I lost track of
everything else. When Adrian started taking my clothes off, I
didn’t do anything to stop him. Actually, I helped him, and I
helped him get his off as well. I felt shy for only a moment. We
had seen enough of each other before anyway, though it was
different when we were that close.

I ended up
losing my virginity that night. It hurt for a moment, but that
moment passed, and after that it was wonderful. I loved him, and
being with him like that felt right to me because I felt more
connected with him than ever. When we were lying in each other’s
arms afterwards, he told me that he loved me for the first time,
and he meant it.

***

“You look happy
this morning,” Heather said to me when I sat next to her at
breakfast the next morning.

“I am happy,” I
said. “Why aren’t you?”

“I have a
headache, and I didn’t sleep well. Melissa started snoring before I
fell asleep and it kept me up half the night. Then Rhea got up
really early to go to the gym, and that woke me up.” She sounded
pretty miserable, and she looked tired. She brightened up a little
bit when Jack came and sat next to her though.

“Good morning,”
he said to us. He yawned and grabbed some pancakes before piling
them with syrup.

“Good morning,”
Heather responded. “Did you have a good sleep?”

“Eh, it was
alright,” he answered through the food he had in his mouth. Some
syrup trickled down his chin, but he wiped it away with a
napkin.

“Doing anything
fun today?” Heather asked him.

“No, I wasn’t
planning on doing much. I have a physics assignment to finish, but
then I was planning on going for a walk or something. Want to
come?”

An invitation
was clearly what Heather had been waiting for. I saw a burst of
yellow in her aura, and she couldn’t hide her smile very well. “I’d
love to,” she said.

I think Jack
was about to ask me if I wanted to come too, but I shook my head
slightly while Heather wasn’t looking, and he got the message.