Fate Succumbs (28 page)

“
Chick in a Super-Man shirt
and cardigan,” I acknowledged back.

The other girl, the one who looked almost
identical to the first but sported decidedly more adult-like attire
and had tamed her hair with a twisty-ponytail thing, held out a
hand. “I’m Michelle,” she said. “Please ignore Marie. No one ever
bothered to teach her manners.”

“
Scout,” I said, my hand
still down at my side. “Sorry, but I don’t shake hands with Seers
whose powers I don’t know.” Speaking of Seers whose powers I didn’t
know, I really needed to find out what Rachel was packing. I hoped
it was something like the right answers to those word quizzes in
the
Reader’s Digest
or how to put a computer together. Anything other than whether
or not two people were mates.

“
Don’t worry about her,”
Rachel said. “Michelle is latent.”

“
And I See need, which
doesn’t require contact.” Marie tilted her head to the side and
pursed her lips. “Scout… Scout…” Her eyebrows shot up. “The
senator’s granddaughter! I knew I knew you from
somewhere!”

Of all the things for me to
forget, why did it have to be that whole long lost senator’s
granddaughter thing?
How
could it have been that whole long lost senator’s
granddaughter thing? I mean, I know I had this whole Challenging
the Alpha Female thing going on, and I spent half a year playing
Survival of the Fittest in the Canadian wilderness, but you would
think I could remember I was one of America’s Most Wanted Amber
Alerts or whatever.

“
I’m not
really--”

“
You know, you’re much more
attractive in person than that picture they kept flashing on MSNBC.
I think someone there must hate you.” Marie turned and started back
down the hall. Since it was towards the direction of food, I
followed. “So, you like killed some Stratego and almost killed the
Alpha Male?”

My heart skipped a beat, but Liam replied in
his normal bored tone. “It was a group effort.”

I wasn’t sure what to make of Marie. If
Rachel had spouted off knowledge of what went down at the lake last
summer I would have been uncomfortable, but it would have made
sense. But having this girl who had a Post-It note stuck to her
butt casually mention something which marked us as her enemy
bothered me.

“
You can relax,” Michelle
said from behind me. “We’re not exactly Team Alpha around here. I
think Marie did a little cheer and dance when we got the call that
Stefan was in the hospital and not expected to live through the
night.”

“
What have you got against
our supreme rulers?” Liam asked.

Michelle looked up into his hard face and
didn’t even flinch. “They kill female Shifters.”

I stopped so quickly Rachel clipped my leg
with her walker. “You know?”

“
Of course I know,” Rachel
said, clomping around me. “Why do you think I left the
Den?”

“
You know, but you don’t do
anything?”

This time it was Rachel who stopped
abruptly. “I’m a seventy-nine year old woman with two fake knees
and a bad hip. What exactly is it you think I can do, Miss
Donovan?”

“
I don’t know, but
something. Something other than just sit here and let it happen.” I
could feel Wolf Scout pushing to the surface as my anger level
rose. How on earth could someone let that happen? How could Rachel?
Nicole was her
niece
.

Rachel straightened her back as much as she
could. “I have done something. I’ve given those who oppose the
Alpha Pack a place to stay when they need it. I keep records of
things they would rather be hidden. And I’ve waited here for her
return, for the day…” A surge of Seer power so strong it almost
knocked me off my feet. “I’ve waited for you. Now, the question is,
what are you going to do, Lilith?”

***

I couldn’t believe we were back to this
again.

“
Listen, I really
appreciate your opinion and all, but I’m not the first Seer or
whatever it is you think I am.” I sat at a dainty looking table
while Michelle filled my plate with a ginormous heaping mound of
the best smelling spaghetti my nose ever encountered. The bread,
whose timer had beeped just as Rachel was throwing out the L-name,
smelled even better.

“
What I believe is the
truth,” Rachel said, her British accent making it sound extra
haughty. “It’s all I am allowed to believe.”

Since my mouth was stuffed full of noodles
and meat sauce, I raised my eyebrows at Liam, requesting a
translation.

“
Aunt Rachel Sees truth,”
he explained around a mouth full of bread.

Truth Seer. I knew there had to be one of
those out there.

Of course, that didn’t mean she wasn’t
full-on crazy, which I quickly started to suspect.

“
And the truth as I See it
is this: You, Harper Lee ‘Scout’ Donovan are Lilith, the first
Shifter." Didn't she mean Seer? "The Daughter of the Creator.
Artemis. The moon, sent to watch over the night.” I started to
protest, but she cut me off with a look that said there would be
sever repercussions should I open my mouth. “Do you wish to hear
the truth of your story?”

I wished to hear her say she was just
kidding.

“
Scout is the moon.” Liam’s
tone said he also found Rachel’s mental stability
suspect.

“
And God’s daughter,” I
added helpfully.

Rachel didn’t seem fazed by our sarcasm. “He
goes by many names. God is merely the most popular.”

“
I’m Southern Baptist.
Let’s stick with ‘God’.”

“
Well, then, when
God
created the earth, he
left its care to his children. His son resided over the day,
bringing brightness and warmth to all those who lived beneath.
Later, that son would go on to make his own choices which would
lead to the Thaumaturgics and Immortals, but in the early days, he
was nothing more than a light unto his people. His sister, on the
other hand, protected the creatures of the night, looking after
each of them with warmth and compassion.”

“
Especially a wolf,” I
said, figuring this was how her story matched up with the one I
already knew.

“
Yes,” Rachel said. “Every
thirty days she would leave her heavenly home and walk amongst her
people upon the earth. Wolf, the first of his kind and the most
fierce of the night’s creatures, walked with her on each visit.
Over the years, their affection for one another grew, until they
could no longer bear to be apart those other twenty-nine days. That
is when they petitioned The Creator, your God, for a chance to be
together forever.”

“
Oh wait. I do know this
story.” Marie gestured with a whisk she was using to make some sort
of batter. “The Creator said they could be together, but there was
a price to pay. Lilith could never return to her place in heaven,
giving up the care of the night to her brother. Both of them were
made humans, except on the one night when her brother was allowed
to rest. On that night, they Changed into wolves so they could
watch over the land.” Marie spooned a bite of batter into her mouth
and broke into a huge grin, obviously pleased with both her
knowledge and whatever it was she was making.

“
You forgot the part where
they both became mortal,” Michelle added. “But their spirit was
supposed to live on. They would be reborn over and over again,
becoming the eternal leaders of a new race of people.”

This was so not the story Talley told
me.

“
That’s great and all, but
I’m not Lilith. And anyway, I thought she was the first Seer. What
is this crazy first Shifter business?”

“
What sense would it make
to have a woman become the first Shifter if no female Shifters
exist?” The way she asked made me feel like I was being taken to
task by a stern British headmaster who believed strongly in
corporal punishment.

“
They changed it? Turned
the first Shifter into the first Seer to keep the power tipped in
the Alpha Female’s direction?”

“
What do you
think?”

I thought it would take a lot of effort to
change a hand-me-down story. “If Lilith was the first Shifter,
where did Seers come from? Are they dusk and dawn personified?”

“
The servants of the night,
which shone on high with the Moon, were sent to Earth to keep her
company and protect her.”

The servants of the night,
which shone on high…
“So, you’re a
star?”

Rachel smiled. “Yes, or I suppose you and
your fellow Southern Baptists might call us fallen angels.”

A pair of grey eyes met mine from across the
table. I expected to see more of this-lady-is-batshit-crazy, but it
was replaced with thoughtfulness and…

Crap.

“
You don’t seriously buy
into all of this, do you?”

“
It makes
sense.”

“
In what crazy, topsy-turvy
world does this make sense? Bizzaro-Shifterland?”

“
The one where a girl who
shouldn’t be a Shifter, is. The crazy world where that girl Shifter
can Change at will and hold her wolf form for an infinite amount of
time.”

I wanted to pound my head against the table.
Why was I the only one to realize how stupid this all sounded? I
wasn’t the reincarnated anything, let alone God’s daughter. I mean,
God doesn’t even have a daughter.

“
I suppose there is no use
in me pointing out that you can also Change at will and hold your
wolf form for an infinite amount of time?”

“
Of course he can,” Rachel
answered. “He is Wolf. He bares the mark on his hip.”

“
The only thing on his hip
is that stupid paw print tattoo.”

Rachel’s face was smug. “It’s not a
tattoo.”

“
Yes, it is.” I looked at
Liam. “Tell her.”

His non-response said everything.

“
You told me it was a
tattoo.”

Liam put down his fork and leaned onto his
elbows. Most people would have looked comfortable and compliant in
the same pose, but not Liam. Maybe it was muscles which had always
been massive, but became more clearly defined over the winter as he
chopped down half the forest and trained with unwavering focus.
Maybe it was the set of his jaw or firmness of his mouth. Or maybe
it was the intensity of his stare. Whatever it was, there was no
doubt Liam was the exact opposite of comfortable and compliant. “I
never said that. You assumed, and I let you.”

“
So… what? You’ve always
known you were going to grow up to be the Alpha Male some
day?”

“
What I’ve always known is
my life isn’t mine to live.” He dismissed me and my million
questions by turning to his elderly aunt. “You know what we intend
to do?” he asked her.

There was absolutely no apprehension coming
from the old lady who once could have been an Alpha herself.
“You’re going to right what has been wrong for far too many
years.”

That sounded so much better than “kill
them”.

Liam nodded. “There may be others coming
here in the coming weeks. Can you promise their location and
identities are kept from The Den?”

“
I will continue as I
always have, providing shelter and safety for those who seek
it.”

Something in my chest clenched at the
realization that this was it. This was where we would make our last
stand and fight for the future of Shifters and Seers the world over
against unbeatable odds.

This is where I would sacrifice my life so
no one else would have to pointlessly die.

Liam’s thoughts must have gone to the same
place. “Will we win?”

“
Fate is on your side,”
Rachel said. “How could you not?”

Chapter 25

There were no mirrors in Canada. Well, of
course there are mirrors in the country of Canada, but there
weren’t any in our tiny cabin. Maybe if there had been, if I had
seen the changes come over me slowly, I wouldn’t have quite so
frightened by the person looking back at me from above the sink in
one of the Safe House’s many bathrooms.

The basics of what make Scout Scout were
still there - the silvery blond hair (which had grown out into a
rather wretched Friar Tuck hairstyle); the pale skin (although the
forty-five minute shower had managed to put a little color in my
cheeks); and the ice blue (bloodshot) eyes - but the rest of me was
different. The lack of proper nutrition left me sharp and angular
while the nonstop training corded my arms and legs with muscles. I
never considered myself soft and feminine before, but compared to
the hard and hungry warrior in the mirror, high school Scout was a
Disney Princess.

I leaned in closer, fascinated by the dark
circles under my eyes. How did they get there? What was the dark
stuff? Skin discoloration? Bruises? The dark parts of my soul
coming to the surface?

I kept tilting forward until my forehead
tapped against the glass and closed my eyes. I thought about just
staying like that for the rest of ever, but despite the desire to
collapse on the linoleum and take a little nap, I went in search of
Liam. Again I got a hint of emotion, one that somehow felt like
Liam instead of me, telling me he wanted to be left alone. It made
me hesitate, but not for long. There was too much for us to discuss
before I could actually go to sleep. I followed his scent up to the
second floor. He didn’t answer when I tapped on his door, and a
test of the knob proved it to be locked.