Authors: Tammy Blackwell
“
Yep. Got it.” Whatever it
was he said. I just needed him to get out of the way so I could
go.
“
I’ll try not to hurt you,”
Liam called to me from across the patch of grass we had chosen as
our arena.
I flexed my fingers. “Same here.”
Jase stepped back.
“
You ready?” I
asked.
Liam stuck out his hand,
palm up, and then flicked his fingers a la Neo from
The Matrix
.
“
Oh, please,” I said. “That
is so cliché. Do you really--” And then he was right in front of
me, his way-too-freaking-huge fist barreling towards my face so
fast I really didn’t have time to dwell on how he got
there.
In a move that was both an attempt to show
off and an effort to get some space between the two of us, I dove
forward, tucking my body in for a summersault once I hit the
ground. When I bounced back onto my feet I was at the other side of
the grassy area, and he was already coming back at me.
He punched. I blocked. He kicked. I blocked.
Punch, punch, punch. Block, block, block. Then, just when I was
expecting a kick, his arms clasped around me, pinning my elbows to
my side, and he tossed me. I’m pretty sure his plan involved me
being on the ground with him towering above, but it didn’t work out
quite that way. I hooked my foot behind his ankle as I went, which
caused us both to tumble.
I could feel the shift as I rolled; my
senses got sharper as my mind was overtaken. The human part of me
remembered Jase’s advice to pull back, but I couldn’t. Wolf Scout
was already in control, and, if the snarls were anything to go by,
Liam wasn’t thinking with his human half either.
We rolled on the ground like animals. After
over a decade of martial arts training, I knew at least a dozen
different moves I could execute from the ground, but I didn’t use
any of them. Instead, teeth and fingernails came into play. I could
smell Liam’s blood on the air as well as my own.
I wasn’t aware of the screaming until
someone ripped me off Liam. I tried to lash out at the arms around
me, but that’s when Talley’s shouts of “Stop!” and Jase’s
assurances of “I’ve got you” started clicking in my brain.
“
It’s okay, Scout. I’ve got
you,” Jase cooed into my ear. “I’ve got you.”
“
What’s wrong with you?” I
asked, pushing myself back and only accomplishing landing on my
butt.
Jase looked at me as if he didn’t know who I
was. “You were crying.”
Crying…?
“
I was laughing, you
idiot.” I caught sight of Liam behind Jase. He was grinning like he
just found out he was getting an extra Christmas this year. “We
were having fun.”
“
Fun? You’ve got blood
gushing from your lip!”
“
And you broke something
when you hit the tree,” Talley said. “I heard it.”
“
The only thing broken is
the tree, and it shouldn’t have gotten in my way.” I used the
bottom of my shirt to wipe off my mouth. “New demand,” I called
over Jase’s shoulder. “We’re going to start doing this on a regular
basis, or I walk, deal?”
Liam’s smile was blood-tinted. “Deal.”
Chapter 13
Less than twenty-four hours after trying to
kill my brother, I found myself fighting back tears as I told him
goodbye.
“
Do you still consider me
your Pack Leader?” We were alone in the bedroom, the television
blaring to cover our voices.
“
As long as I live,” he
said without a hint of irony.
“
Good. Then consider this
an order. Do what you can to aide Liam’s rebellion, but when it
comes down to it, your loyalty is to our family. Protect them and
yourself, even if it means turning your back on everything else.” I
didn’t have to explain how I was including Charlie and Talley in my
definition of “family”. Jase knew.
He ducked his head and offered his throat in
the Shifter’s sign of submission. “Understood.”
I wasn’t sure how Shifter custom dictated I
respond - amazingly, Liam hadn’t covered that aspect of our world
yet - but after a few seconds of Jase standing in such an awkward
pose I had to do something, so I grabbed him and pulled him into a
hug.
“
I’m lost without you,” I
muttered into his shoulder.
“
I don’t care what our
blood says,” he responded. “You’re my sister. My twin. My other
half.” My rib cage threatened to collapse from the pressure his
arms. “I would die without you, so please stay the hell
alive.”
“
I’ll try.”
He released his hold enough that he could
pull back and see my face. “Pinkie promise?”
My eyes pricked, but I blinked the tears
back. “Pinkie promise,” I said, as my little finger slipped around
his.
***
Like most families, our vacations always
included cars and planes, although we once rode a train to New
Orleans. Traveling via Greyhound was new to me, but I've traveled
on charter buses for long school trips, and the bus Liam and I
boarded in Lexington three hours later was much the same. The floor
was a little stickier, the seats a bit more worn and stained, and
the smell just a hair on the wrong side of pleasant, but if you’ve
seen one big bus, you’ve seen them all: High-back seats covered
with loud, patterned fabric were arranged in two rows of two. Long,
tinted windows stretched the entire length. A small closet-type
thing occupied the back corner and was the source of the odor.
Liam led me straight to the back and
motioned for me to take the window seat. There were plenty of empty
seats available, but he parked himself in the one beside me. I
wanted to ask him what he was thinking picking the seats closest to
the bathroom when we both had super-smelling abilities, but then I
noticed how the other passengers would get near the back, notice
the smell, and then head closer to the front.
As we pulled out of the city and onto the
Interstate, neither of us spoke. We were both perfectly happy being
lost in our own head space. I would have also enjoyed being lost in
my own physical space, but even though Liam in no way spilled over
onto my seat, his size and power made me feel dwarfed as I pressed
as tightly to the window as possible.
We were already leaving Cincinnati, the
first of a million stops, when Liam asked, “What are you thinking
about?”
My eyebrows shot up. Liam was starting a
conversation? One that wasn’t a lecture? And he was doing so by
expressing interest in what I was thinking?
Since I was sitting down with a seat back
behind me, knocking me over with a feather would have been
impossible, but you could’ve stabbed me with the pointy end without
me noticing.
“
I was actually thinking
about you,” I answered honestly. When Liam pulled back a smidgen,
his eyes full of unease, I rushed to clarify. “I was thinking about
your ultimate betrayal.”
“
My ultimate betrayal?” His
shoulders slumped. “Listen, Scout, I--”
“
I mean, Canadian, Liam?
You’re a freaking Canadian? How am I supposed to deal with that?” I
had to work at not breaking into a grin at his startled response.
“Do you secretly listen to Celine Dion and Avril Lavigne? Do you
douse all your food with maple syrup when I’m not looking? Do you
have a poster of Alex Trebeck stowed away in your overnight
bag?”
Liam smiled, one of his real folded-cheeks
smiles, and I fastidiously ignored what the sight did to me. “You
are impossible.”
“
Although, this could work
to my advantage,” I mused. “Do you happen to know Ryan Reynolds?
Because it would be kind of cool to meet him. And talk to him. And
maybe touch him…”
“
Yes. Of course I do. You
know, all Canadians know each other. I’ve got Estella Warren on
speed dial.”
“
Who is that?”
“
Americans,” Liam sighed
dramatically.
“
And
Bryce
? Really?”
That wasn’t met with even a hint of humor.
“Bryce is dead.”
“
I’m just trying to imagine
the person he was,” I railroaded on. “Bryce.
Bryyyyyyce.
That’s the name of a
Mustang-driving, cheerleader-dating, popular quarterback if I’ve
ever heard one.”
At first I thought he wasn’t going to
relent, that I had gone too far with bringing up his past, but then
he said, “Americans are quarterbacks. Bryce played center.”
“
Basketball?” That I could
understand. We Kentuckians are all about some hoops, and my family
is particularly enamored since Jase is pretty much a basketball
rock star.
“
Ice hockey. It’s Canada,
remember? Try to keep up.”
I leaned into his personal space, putting my
face mere inches from his.
“
What are you
doing?”
“
Looking at your teeth,” I
said. “You have all of them. I don’t buy this hockey
story.”
He flashed his teeth, something between
smiling and baring them, and I saw my assessment was right. They
were all there.
“
This one, this one, and
this one,” he said, pointing at three different teeth, “have all
been broken.”
“
Ah-ha. The old Shifter
thing worked to your dental advantage.”
“
Yeah. Thank God I didn’t
knock any out, or they would still be gone.”
I thought about that. “Because the Change
repairs damage but can’t regrow something that’s gone?”
“
Exactly. Matter can’t be
created or destroyed, only changed. Or Changed. Or something like
that.”
We sat there for a bit, me watching the
world whip by while Liam tried to derive meaning from the stains on
the upholstery.
“
So,” I said, once my
curiosity could no longer be contained, “I need you to say
it.”
“
Say what?”
“
It.”
I nodded my head slowly, giving him a
come-on-you-know-what-I’m-talking-about look. “You might as well
get it over with.”
“
I honestly have no idea
what you’re talking about.”
“
Say it, Liam. Say ‘out and
about’.”
His laughter was so abrupt and loud many
people turned their heads in our direction.
He never did say it, but it was okay. I made
him laugh, and not by ineptitude. It was a small victory, but it
felt more like winning the war.
***
We had to change buses in Columbus. There
was enough time to grab something to eat before we hit the road
again, so we found a little run-down place selling barbecue and
filled our bellies. Liam is a pie man, and since I honestly can’t
think of anything to say against them, we ended up splitting a
homemade coconut cream pie that tasted like it was made by a
blue-haired granny who loved butter like a grandchild. We didn’t
chat the entire way through the meal the way I would have if it had
been Talley, Jase, or Charlie keeping me company, but it wasn’t the
absolute silence of meals past either. We remarked on our food and
fellow diners. Liam asked why Western Kentucky barbecue was so
superior, and I explained something about dry rubs, smoking
processes, and sauces that may or may not have been one hundred
percent true. It was, for lack of a better word, nice.
There was a three hour ride until our next
stop, and during that time I drifted off to sleep. I was somewhat
surprised to find myself back on a familiar stretch of beach.
“
Alex Cole,” I said, making
my way to where he lounged on his favorite rock. “It’s been a
while.”
“
Yes, well, it seems I’m
not quite as trusted as I once was.” Nicole scampered up behind
him. “My comings and goings are more guarded these days, and all
extraneous visits are nipped in the bud.”
I sat down beside him and greeted Nicole
with a scratch behind her ears. “So what you’re saying is you need
something and that’s the only reason you’re here?”
Alex lifted a shoulder. “Apparently, not
that anyone will tell me what that might be.” He directed his last
words to the clouds.
“
Are you talking to God or
the angels?”
He turned, dropping one leg to the ground to
brace his weight. I readjusted ever so slightly so we would be
face-to-face. “You know I can’t answer that, right?”
“
I know,” I said. “But you
know I can’t keep myself from asking.”
His dimples showed. “I know.”
Nicole, not liking her place in our new
seating arrangement, got up and moved around until she could drape
herself over both our legs. I stroked a hand through her
multi-toned fur, marveling at the softness. She was even fluffier
than I remembered Alex being, probably because she was still a
puppy.
“
Her coloring is almost
exactly like yours,” I said to Alex. “I really should have figured
out she was your sister sooner.”
Alex’s eyes flew wide. I didn’t realize he
was holding a breath until it came rushing out in something between
a sigh and laugh. “And that, I assume, is why I’m here.”
I continued stroking Nicole’s fur. “Liam and
I talked.”
“
About…?”
“
Everything.” I was still
coming to terms with it all. I thought my story was a sad one, but
Liam and Alex experienced more tragedy in a few short years than
most people are forced to endure over their entire lives. Then
there was the whole anti-Alpha movement, and the fact they wanted
me to be their champion or sacrifice, depending on how you looked
at it. “It was a long talk,” I said.