Hunted (38 page)

Dream
Stealer shed his wolf form and tackled Jackson with his towering
wolf-man form despite a glancing blow to his side from the bat. Dream
Stealer didn't move with the kind of speed and strength that I'd
remembered from the fight against Pamela, and Jackson still displayed
the same kind of unnatural strength and vitality that had kept Pamela
going long after she should have died, but with one arm broken and
Dream Stealer's bigger, heavier body pinning him to the floor there
wasn't much he could do to resist.

It
only took a couple of seconds for Dream Stealer to impale both of
Jackson's legs with the long talons that seemed to be standard issue
for guys like him and Alec. Once that happened, Jackson had even less
leverage and Dream Stealer was easily able to pin Jackson's uninjured
shoulder to the floor and execute him.

I
wasn't prepared for all of the blood. It wasn't any more than I'd
seen in the dream, but I'd known that wasn't real. This time I did
throw up, or least my body tried to throw up, there wasn't actually
anything left in my stomach.

Once
I was done, Cindi helped me back up to a sitting position. Dream
Stealer had changed back to his human form and was checking Tristan
for a concussion.

"He'll
be okay once his legs heal, but we're all going to need to talk about
what happened."

Nearly
every single part of my body hurt. Dream Stealer—he'd told me I
could call him Taggart—said that it wasn't normal for the mind
to induce phantom pain in the body like this after a dream, but
apparently that was one more side effect of the different way that my
power worked.

My
arm hurt of course, and would be hurting for a while, although when
it came to broken bones I'd come out quite a ways ahead of Tristan.
In addition, every single square inch of my skin felt like it had
been peeled off with a cheese grater, and I had a couple of different
spots in my stomach and chest where I felt stabbing pains every time
I moved.

I
vaguely remembered being stabbed in that general area, so I suspected
it was going to take the longest to return to feeling normal. All in
all, I couldn't think of a time when I'd felt more beat up, but I
would have gone through twice as much physical pain if it had meant
that I would be able to forgo the emotional and mental anguish I was
currently trying to deal with.

Dream
Stealer—Taggart—had loaded Tristan, Cindi and me into
Tristan's car and then driven us to one of the worst parts of
Minneapolis. Apparently there really were doctors willing to cast
broken bones and not ask questions.

Taggart
not only knew how to get in touch with the city's underground, he
also seemed to have the ridiculous amounts of money required to buy
his way in to see pretty much whoever he needed to talk to. While
Tristan was being taken care of, I'd given Taggart the spare house
key and he'd promised to have someone repair the damage from our
fight before my parents returned home on Sunday.

Normally
I would have asked about the cost of arranging all of that, but the
doctor had injected me with something to dull the pain while I waited
for my turn and I was more than a little out of it. As a consequence,
I didn't remember much of what happened for the next few hours, but
I'd woken Saturday afternoon and found myself in one of the largest
hotel suites I'd ever seen.

I
panicked for a second until I saw Tristan on the bed in the room
across from mine and Cindi asleep on a black leather couch that had
been positioned so that it was equidistant between the two of us.
Getting out of bed with only one working arm was more difficult than
I'd expected it to be. It wasn't that it wasn't doable or anything,
but I was realizing that I used my left arm for a lot more than I'd
ever realized.

I
made enough noise getting out of bed to wake up Cindi. She quietly
pulled Tristan's door closed and then came into my room so we could
talk. Taggart had filled her in on nearly everything and the parts he
hadn't known about she'd guessed correctly.

She
said she was sorry for being so jealous at how easy cheering had come
for me, and I said I was sorry for not having told her about the fact
that I was sharing people's dreams. We cried a little and hugged a
lot, and when everything was said and done things felt better between
us than they had in a really long time.

I
was surprised at just how calmly she was taking everything. If I'd
been in her place I would probably have run away screaming that none
of what I was being told was possible. I guess it's hard to argue
with your own eyes though and she'd seen Taggart shift forms and seen
Jackson move objects around with his mind.

While
Tristan and I had been unconscious, Cindi and Taggart had come up
with a plan to explain Tristan's injuries. Taggart had backed
Tristan's car into another automobile and then had fake police and
hospital reports created indicating that Tristan had been between the
two cars when they'd impacted.

I
wasn't sure how well it would hold up, but then again I would have
said it was impossible to fake police reports on such short notice
and in a town that was obviously not Taggart's normal base of
operation.

The
cover story included the fact that Tristan had been knocked
unconscious and that his identification had been inside of his car,
which explained why his parents hadn't been called immediately. There
were a bunch of other details that helped flesh everything out, but
that was the basics of what they'd come up with.

There
had been a lot of debate around what exactly my parents were going to
hear. In the end, it was both harder and easier than I expected it to
be. The only thing that everyone had agreed on was that Cindi
shouldn't mention vampires or shape shifters.

Watching
Cindi walk away, pushing Tristan in his wheelchair, nearly made me
change my mind, but I knew I had to go through with my decision, if
for no other reason than it was the best way to keep everyone that I
cared about safe.

Taggart
had been trying to give me space and time to deal with things in my
own way, but I could tell that he was getting impatient. He walked
over as I looked down at the blocky gray burner phone he'd given me
more than an hour earlier.

"I'm
sorry, Adri, but if you don't make your call now I'm going to have to
arrange for another vehicle."

Tears
started to come, but I choked down the urge to break into tears. I'd
already done enough crying to last a year.

"Tell
me again why this is the best option. It feels like pretty much the
same thing that would have happened if Pamela and Jackson had gotten
their hands on me."

"I'm
not going to be torturing you for starters. I'm also not going to
make you do anything you don't want to do."

"I'm
still leaving my family, maybe never to see them again, and I'm still
going to be turned into a weapon."

"I
can't change the realities of the situation, Adri. You can choose to
stay with your family if you wish, but you will be exposing them to
some degree of danger."

I
started to laugh and then forced myself to stop. I was a stiff breeze
from being pushed over into complete hysteria. If I got started
laughing I'd almost certainly end up in tears within a few minutes.

"And
you don't know how much danger they'd be in?"

"No,
there's no way to tell, not without knowing who Pamela and Jackson
might have told about their suspicions. Even if they just told
another vampire back in Atlanta that they'd found someone who was
potentially a powerful weapon then all of the evidence would point to
you. It ultimately doesn't matter how well I hide the bodies, there
is too much physical evidence between Tristan's legs and your arms.
It all points to the two of you having been involved in Pamela and
Jackson's deaths. At least it would for anyone who knows just how
unlikely they were to just disappear—for anyone who knows that
they were vampires."

Taggart
looked away from me for several seconds and then shrugged. "As
for the other, you're already a weapon. You've been a weapon almost
from the first day that your power awoke, you just didn't know it.
I'm giving you a chance to be your own weapon. Trust me, it's much
better to chart your own course than it is to simply be unleashed on
targets not of your own choosing at another's command."

I
nodded. "I know. Intellectually I'm on board with everything you
just said, but my heart hasn't signed on fully yet."

"I
understand. Take as long as you need to. I'll go see about arranging
another car."

"No,
I'll make the call now. If nothing else, I need to save Cindi from
the interrogation she's currently suffering through."

I
dialed my dad's number. I half expected it to go through to voicemail
since he wouldn't recognize the number, but it was his work phone and
he rarely let a call to it go unanswered, even when in the middle of
a family crisis.

"This
is John."

"Daddy."

I
tried, but for a second I couldn't get anything else out.

"Daddy,
it's me, Adri."

"Adri,
where are you? I'm on my way to get you right now."

"No,
you can't come. The letter Cindi just gave you is more for the police
than anything else. You'll need it to explain why I left, but I meant
it when I said I couldn't come back home, at least not for a long
time."

"I
don't understand, sweetie. Was it something we did? Your mom and I
had a lot of really good talks while we were away. I'm sorry we left
the two of you home alone, but things are going to be better, you'll
see. Just come home."

"I'm
sorry, I can't do that. I want to more than anything, but I can't.
It's not safe, not for you guys or me, either one."

"Are
you being held against your will?"

"No,
this is my choice. I…well, things happened. I'm not safe to be
around right now. I need time to learn how to…control things.
I'm sorry, Dad. I wish I'd been able to stay and say goodbye in
person, but I was afraid that you wouldn't let me go."

"I
don't care what happened, Adri, we can deal with it. Please just come
home."

"I
love you, Daddy."

Something
in my voice convinced him. I would have said it was impossible, but
apparently he knew me better than even I'd realized. He knew that I
wouldn't be doing this if I thought there was even the slightest
possibility of any other course working for all of us.

"I
love you too, Adri. If you ever change your mind we'll be here
waiting. I don't care how dangerous you think you are, it doesn't
matter what you're involved in, if you come home we'll be here for
you and we'll deal with whatever it is."

"I
know. Thanks. For that and for everything. I'm sorry I wasn't a
better daughter."

I
could hear the tears he was fighting off, they came through in the
way his voice thickened and quivered.

"You
don't have anything to be sorry about. You were everything I could
have ever hoped for. I'll miss you."

"I
know. I'll miss you too, Dad."

"Your
mom wants to talk to you. I'm sorry, I'd put you on speaker but this
damn phone hasn't worked right for months."

"Adri,
is it really you?"

She'd
been crying. I could hear it in her voice.

"Yeah,
Mom, it's me. I'm sorry I made you guys worry."

"You're
not coming home are you?"

"No,
at least not for a really long time."

There
was silence for several seconds and then a shaky sigh. "I'm
sorry that I made your last few weeks at home so difficult. Your dad
and I are going to work things out. If you do decide to come back
home, things will be different."

"That's
good, Mom. I think more than anything else that's what I want, for
you guys to take care of each other and Cindi."

"You
were always too selfless for your own good. I'm sorry that I didn't
spend more time with you and take you shopping like I did your
sister. I guess I was always just a little jealous of the bond your
dad has with you."

"It's
okay, Mom. Don't be too hard on Cindi. You guys probably already
realize that there is a lot she isn't telling you, but it's for your
own safety."

There
was a quiet thump as though the phone had been set down, and then I
heard the sound of distant crying. Dad picked up the phone a second
later.

"As
much as I'd like for you to stay on with us for hours, I suspect that
you need to be moving. Do you want to talk to Cindi before you hang
up?"

"Yes,
please."

"I'll
go get her."

I
heard Dad knocking on our…on Cindi's bedroom door a few
seconds later.

"It's
Adri. She doesn't have much time but wanted to talk to you. I'll
leave so you have some privacy."

"Hi,
sis."

"Hi,
Cindi. Are Mom and Dad punishing you too much?"

She
hesitated for a heartbeat. "No, not too bad. When you look at
everything that happened, everything that I did, they are probably
letting me off easy."

"This
isn't your fault, Cindi."

"Are
you sure about that? Maybe if I'd been a decent enough sister for you
to tell me what was going on, then Jackson never would have figured
out that it was you he'd run into in his dreams."

"You
can't think like that. Besides, it was really only a matter of time
until someone found out about me. Don't think about all of that
though. Get your grades back up, get back on the team, and enjoy the
next few years."

She didn't say anything for several seconds. "I'm not sure I'm going to rejoin
the team. There doesn't seem to be much point. I mostly joined
because I thought it would make it easier to finally find a
boyfriend. That didn't work out very well."