Marked (23 page)

"Master
Alec, please be still. I'm attempting to diagnose things that
normally require very large pieces of equipment that we don't have
access to. Unless you are prepared to take the risk of visiting a
real hospital I'm going to need your cooperation."

Alec's
mom took me by the arm, the one that still worked, and pulled me out
of the room. "What are you?"

"I
don't know what you're talking about."

"Don't
you? I saw you move just now. You made it to Alec before
Donovan
even got turned around. No normal human could move that fast. I don't
know how you've managed to trick Alec and the rest into believing
your lies, but I'm not going to let you get away with it."

I
suddenly felt incredibly tired. It wasn't just the days of poor sleep
or the night I'd just spent doing battle with Dream Stealer—although
both of those were part of what I was feeling. My exhaustion also had
to do with the fact that even with everything else that was going on,
I was still having to deal with all of the usual problems of normal
life.

You
expected there to be problems with your fiancé's mother, but
I'd thought I'd sidestepped that particular concern due to the fact
that Samantha Graves had spent most of the last two decades barely
aware of the outside world. Speaking solely for myself, I could have
been perfectly happy if she'd remained the way she was, but I knew
this was what Alec and Rachel had been wanting for years.

I
was willing to sacrifice anything for Alec, I'd just been hoping this
wasn't a sacrifice that I would end up having to make.

"I'm
sorry, Mrs. Graves, but I really am exactly as I've presented myself
to Alec and the others. I'm a normal human girl who happens to have
the ability to touch people's dreams, an ability which I just used to
save Alec."

I
never even should have seen the blow coming. I'm no martial artist,
but Samantha didn't do anything to signal the fact that she was about
to hit me. One second she was standing there in front of me with her
hands on her hips and a scowl on her face, and then in the next she'd
thrown a punch directly at my throat.

It
was all the more surprising given the fact that Alec's mom looked
like a stiff wind would blow her halfway across the state, but then
again she apparently knew enough to pick a target that didn't require
a lot of force to put someone down.

I
wanted to panic and scream, but her fist seemed to be moving in slow
motion and I found that I had plenty of time to dodge to the left as
I raised my one good hand up to knock her arm to the side. It was
surreal because I seemed to be moving just as slowly as she was, but
even with the air dragging at me I was still able to move quickly
enough to save myself.

I
bounced off of the wall next to me and threw myself hard to the right
in an effort to avoid Samantha's next attack. Seeing everything
happening in slow motion was a huge advantage over the normal state
of affairs for me, but it wasn't a magic bullet. I was faster than I
normally was, but that wasn't enough to compensate completely for the
fact that Samantha was some kind of hand-to-hand ninja and I could
only use my right arm.

In
my effort to get out of the way, I went too far and would have fallen
if James hadn't grabbed me from behind. Samantha's second punch
whipped past my ear, but James easily blocked her follow-up kick with
his shin as he moved me around behind him, safely out of her reach.

"I
don't know what's going on, but Alec isn't going to be happy if you
hurt Adri."

"My
son is being tricked by this
thing
.
You saw how quickly she moved—there's no way she's what she
claims to be."

"James,
don't you dare lay a hand on Samantha! Come away from there."

James
shook his head in response to his mom's order, that or maybe in
response to Samantha's accusation. We never got a chance to find out
which, because at that instant Samantha threw herself forward in an
attempt to get past James so that she could take me down.

Alec
and Ash were the only members of the pack who seemed to have spent
any real amount of time learning to fight in their human form, which
wasn't necessarily a black mark against James. In a fight against
almost any normal human, James' superior speed and strength would see
him through without too much problem and any fight against another
shape shifter would always end up escalating to claws and fangs.

James
would have been fine in a normal fight, but he was handicapped by the
fact that he didn't want to seriously injure Alec's mom. Samantha
apparently wasn't operating under the same kind of concern.

She
raked him across the cheek with her fingernails a split second before
she threw a knee at his groin. Whatever had sped up my time sense was
apparently still in effect because I was able to follow not only
Samantha's attacks but also James' responses to them.

It
was obvious that James hadn't actually been expecting Samantha to
attack him. He pulled back enough that she missed his eyes, but then
had to check his reflexive slap that probably would have snapped
Samantha's neck.

That
slowed him down so much that Samantha was easily able to duck
underneath his blow. The knee she threw at his crotch was as
perfectly executed as anything I'd ever seen before. Even now,
I
couldn't have hoped to get out of the way in time, but James simply
punched her in the leg, stopping her strike with enough force that I
knew Samantha was going to have bruises all of the way down to the
bone.

Against
another shape shifter James would have followed up with something
designed to put Samantha down for the count, but rather than doing
that he backed up half a step as though trying to give her a chance
to reconsider what she was doing.

That
was a much bigger mistake than I would have expected it to be. I
heard the door to the bedroom thrown open at the precise instant that
Samantha reached back and pulled out the hair sticks that had been
holding her bun in place. A split second later she shoved the one in
her left hand into James' leg.

I
was close enough to James that I could feel him start to sway forward
as his leg began buckling. As Addison screamed, I stepped forward,
trying to get around James so that I could intercept the chopstick in
Samantha's right hand. I didn't actually expect to be able to
successfully stop Samantha—I was probably going to end up being
stabbed instead of James—but I wasn't going to just sit there
and do nothing.

My
world had narrowed down to the shiny silver stake in Samantha's hand,
so much so that it took me a second to realize what had happened. As
Samantha dropped bonelessly to the ground I looked up to find Donovan
stepping through the bedroom doorway and Alec looking at his mother
with his hand outstretched. Alec couldn't rush to my side, but that
didn't mean that he couldn't use his power.

"Enough,
Mother! That is the last time that you will attack Adri, James, or
anyone else currently in this vehicle. I want your word on it."

"You
don't know what you're facing, Alec. I can't make that kind of
promise!"

Alec
was obviously still weak, but he pushed himself into a sitting
position with a grimace. Donovan looked back and forth between James
and Alec.

"Master
Alec, it's not wise…"

"Be
still, Donovan. I'm realizing that we don't have time for you all to
baby me along. Please see to James."

Alec
looked back down at his mother and sighed. "I will have a
promise out of you, Mother, or I will have you locked up in a cell
somewhere safe. I'm grateful that you gave me life and took care of
me during those first few years before Father was killed, but your
knowledge is woefully out of date at this point. I need Adri and
James for what I suspect is coming, but more importantly, they are my
friends—more than friends really. They've stood by me for long
enough for me to know their hearts and they aren't guilty of what you
seem to think they are."

Alec's
gift was still going strong, still potent enough that his mother
couldn't pull herself to her feet, but he apparently toned it down at
least slightly because she pulled herself up into a sitting position.

"You
don't know what's out there. You're too young to know what you're up
against."

"Then
tell me, Mother. What is it that I'm up against? I killed Agony. My
people and I drove off Puppeteer's werewolves, and I've spent the
last several days fighting Dream Stealer. During that time I've
always known where James and Adri stood. Even when they couldn't
support me they still at least gave me the courtesy of telling me
they were leaving before they left. What's more, I've stood next to
Adri as she promised to do everything she could to support me in my
war against the Coun'hij. I heard the truth in her voice when she
promised to help me, but even beyond that, I had her intent confirmed
by someone whose ability is such that they know the intent behind
such promises."

To
everyone else Alec probably looked stern and resolute despite being
confined to a bed, but I knew him better than that. He was only a
hair's breadth from breaking down and telling his mother just how
much betrayal he felt from all of her years of neglect. He was nearly
to the point of telling her that Donovan, Mallory, Jasmin, Isaac and
even James had all been a much better family to him than she had.

It
was an understandable urge, one I could relate to because of how
absent my own mother had been for various parts of my life, but it
was the wrong thing to do. I wasn't even sure that the woman who'd
offered me a distracted welcome into her home was the same person as
the one who'd just stabbed James. Either way, if Alec said what he
wanted to say right now, in front of all of these witnesses, he would
destroy any chance of having a meaningful relationship with his
mother.

I
shook my head slightly, praying that Alec would understand, but he
was so focused on his mother that I wasn't even sure that he saw me.

"I'm
not a child, Mother. You've been gone a very long time and I grew up.
If you're going to continue traveling with us then you're going to do
it under the same terms as everyone else here. You'll do it having
sworn fealty to me."

I
would have said that nothing could shock this new, ultra-confident
Samantha Graves. She'd listened to everything up until then without
even blinking, but the mention of swearing fealty drew a gasp out of
her.

"That
hasn't happened since the monarchy."

Alec
nodded. "I've declared myself to be the third king. I will
restore the monarchy or die trying."

As
I'd scooted forward and to the side to make room for Donovan to see
to James, I'd accidentally brushed up against the very edge of what
Alec was doing to his mother. It wasn't the first time that I'd been
exposed to his power in action, but it had been a long time since I'd
had it focused, even indirectly, on me.

Even
back when Alec had used his ability to defeat Brandon his absorption
ability had been incredible, but he'd apparently gotten more powerful
since then. Just brushing up against the edges of the field that was
draining the strength from Alec's mom left my feet feeling like a
couple of blocks of wood. It was nothing more than pride and
determination that kept me on my feet after that. I was impressed
that Samantha was sitting up and carrying on a conversation. If there
had been any question about just how determined this new version of
her was, then it had just been settled.

I
was even more impressed by what happened after Alec said that he was
going to restore the monarchy or die trying. Samantha looked like
she'd just had an electrical current sent through her. She went from
slouched against the wall to sitting straight up and even looked for
a second like she was going to make it up onto her knees.

"…Restore
the…oh, Kaleb. What have you done? All those memories hidden
away for all of this time… We've been operating blind…such
a tremendous risk that you took and I never even…"

Samantha
collapsed mid-sentence and I somehow knew that the ripples from what
had just happened were going to be far-reaching indeed.

Adriana Paige
Interstate 70
Just west of St. Louis, Missouri

Apparently
I still hadn't completely assumed the tough-as-nails persona that I'd
been projecting since Alec had been shot. Despite everything Samantha
had done to me since she…woke up, I still reached for her as
she collapsed. In the heat of the moment I'd completely forgotten
about Alec's ability, but he must have already shut it off by then
because I got only the faintest shadow of a tingle as I reached for
Alec's mom.

Her
breathing was fine and I was checking her pulse when I looked up to
find Alec kneeling just across from me.

"Is
she okay?"

"Her
vitals seem normal as far as I can tell, but I'm not the expert…"

Donovan
called out from the sofa where he was tending James. "Master
Alec, do you want me there or can I finish up on James first?"

Alec
wasn't any less conflicted about his mother than he'd been a second
ago, but he took a deep breath and then shook his head. "Make
sure that James is out of any danger first. Mother was the aggressor,
it wouldn't be right to take care of her first."

In
all the confusion I'd forgotten about Dom, but in that second she
stepped out of one of the tiny rooms that contained the sets of bunk
beds and shook her head. "She's your mother, Alec. I'll go
finish up with James. Donovan can see to her."

Just
saying that Dom looked bad wasn't enough. She looked like she'd aged
at least two or three decades since she'd tried to heal Alec. Her
hair was still the same color, but it had lost its luster and her
skin had age spots that should have been an impossibility on someone
her age.