Splintered (12 page)

"Fibonacci's sequence?"

"Yeah, we standardized all of the unlock codes
on all of our vehicles. It was a safety measure in case something
like this happened."

We pulled into my lane. The Jeep was just
visible in the darkness.

"Things are going to be okay, right,
Alec?"

"I don't know. We've been operating under the
assumption that my power would serve as an equalizer against the
Coun'hij. That's the only reason we haven't been in a panic since
Brandon went down."

"So we're okay then."

"The fight against Vincent was a test. I reached out for my
ability and there wasn't anything there."

Chapter 16

Alec - Graves Manor,
Sanctuary

I felt jittery the whole way back from dropping
Adri off. I'd hoped to have more time. I'd known since right after
I'd killed Brandon that my power wasn't manifesting any more. I'd
hoped it was still just in the development stage, that a few weeks
would see it come back.

It wasn't the kind of thing I could
risk getting around, even to Donovan, so I hadn't mentioned my
concerns to Mallory. The one time I'd visited she hadn't said
anything so I'd figured nothing had changed as far as she could
tell.

To have Agony on our doorstep now,
while we were still trying to integrate a third of the pack, was
bad news on just about every level.

As I pulled into the garage I got a
call from Donovan. "Master Alec. In light of current circumstances
I've turned on the motion sensors. It appears as though someone
just entered your bedroom. Would you like me to send Isaac and
James to meet you?"

There was the rub. No matter how scared we
might be individually we had to pretend it was just another day. If
we started huddling together like a bunch of scared puppies it'd
just be a matter of time before Agony's guys tore us
apart.

"No, there's no need. If you could
have someone clean the hallway around the corner from the second
library I would appreciate it though. I noticed it's starting to
look worse for the wear."

"Indeed, sir. I'll have it looked
into at once."

It was indeed Agony who was waiting for me
inside my room, browsing one of the books from the array of shelves
that took up most of my walls. I spared a brief moment to hope that
I'd shut the door to my studio before I'd left. It was
self-locking, but I occasionally left it open if I wasn't working
on anything important. The last thing I needed was to throw Agony
any more clues how important Adri really was to me.

"Graves. I was surprised to find out you left
rather than see to our comfort."

"I was within my rights. Because of our age,
various members of the pack have appearances to keep up with the
community. No one asks any questions when an adult is reclusive.
When minors aren't enrolled in school it nearly always makes people
curious. We considered home schooling, but decided we couldn't get
away with it for more than one or two of us."

"Indeed. Appearances must be
maintained. I find it interesting that you didn't kill Vincent. I'd
understood your hatred for each other to be quite
virulent."

He was probing. It'd been inevitable when I
didn't use my power, but I'd hoped to have a few minutes to gather
myself first.

"You're a member of the Coun'hij. You don't
voice idle observations, so I have to assume you're referring to
the fact that I kept the confrontation to a purely physical
fight."

"Indeed."

"Have you never desired to best
someone on their own terms? Vincent has always claimed to be equal
to the best the moonborn had to offer. He believes he can take
anyone in a straight fight despite having been proved wrong on a
number of occasions. I want him to die by my hand and know in doing
so that I've bested him on equal terms."

"What a romantic idea. Only two
young men, barely more than infants, could possibly hope to
perceive the world so."

"Youth does not necessarily equate to
foolishness or weakness."

Agony set the book down and moved closer. I
fought the urge to tense up. A hybrid with the kind of power I'd
displayed in the fight with Brandon wouldn't worry about a physical
confrontation with Agony.

"But power doesn't necessarily equate to
wisdom. What do you intend to do with your newfound strength, young
Graves?"

"For now I wish for nothing more than to be
left alone with my friends and family."

"A good answer for a human. You and I know our
kind doesn't think like that. Power must be exercised in order to
serve as a deterrent. The tales that Vincent has carried are of a
wondrous ability that allowed you to knock two large packs to the
ground. A power like that would virtually guarantee you a spot on
the Coun'hij. Rather than ruling over a pack of foolish youngsters
you could sit with my brethren and me and determine the course of
our race."

"I have no desire to rule anywhere.
A thousand years ago it wasn't uncommon for the most powerful
warriors to keep their own counsel. I see no reason to do
differently."

"Ah. But things have changed. With the
southerners broken, their efforts turned inward towards ruling that
snake pit they call home, there's no longer the mortality rate
among us there once was. For every functioning pack there are at
least two or three loners who've proven too strong to be ruled but
not strong enough to rule in turn."

Agony turned his back to me, picking up my
physics textbook with a condescending shake of his head.

"I'd hoped to do you a favor. Your killing
Vincent in a manner that overwhelmingly proved your superiority
before all my other men would have gone a long way towards
preventing the kind of unrelenting challenges that are otherwise
only a matter of time."

I shook my head. "I'll deal with the
dispossessed if and when they show up."

"I guess we'll see. You're either remarkably
confident for someone so young, or trying to run a spectacular
bluff."

Once Agony left I paced my room for a couple
minutes. The wisest thing would be to go to bed, to follow my
normal routine, but I didn't think I'd be able to sleep in a room
Agony had so recently defiled with his presence.

I debated options for several seconds before
heading towards Donovan's study. Agony would have his men
monitoring the phones as expected, but there was one phone in the
house that didn't route through the closest phone line.

After Agony's first visit, Donovan
had paid a small fortune to have a phone line run directly from his
office to three separate locations in town. It wasn't the kind of
thing that would manage to stop law enforcement, but with the
advent of the internet, we'd been able to add one more level of
camouflage. Isaac was every bit as good with programming and
networking as James was with vehicles. He'd created a device that
routed a random set of frequencies through all three phone lines
and then added a fourth stream of encrypted data that went out over
the internet.

It wasn't perfect, but unless you anticipated
where we were calling and got a tap at that end, it was pretty much
unbreakable.

I ran my finger over the scanner at Donovan's
office door and let myself in. I flipped on the white noise
generator, queued up Isaac's program and dialed Shawn's
number.

"This is Shawn."

"Hey, Shawn, it's Alec."

"I wondered if I'd get a second call
from you today. You've got Isaac's trick going full
bore?"

"Yeah. Agony's in typical form. He's got
Vincent with him and seems to pretty much be hoping for a replay of
the last time he was here."

"That's the rumor we heard last night. I would
have called to warn you but by that time I figured there was too
much chance they already had your lines tapped."

"How much trouble am I in?"

"If you can replicate the trick you did with
Brandon I'd say pretty much none. Just challenge Agony on the spot
and kill him."

"Yeah, if I want to end up on the Coun'hij and
then spend all of my time trying to avoid a knife in the
back."

"There is that. Well, assuming
you…don't want to escalate things like that then you're in for a
hard road. Even on the Coun'hij there's only a couple of people
more powerful than Agony. Puppeteer tops the list. I guess Oblivion
could probably take him too, but all indications are that he's as
firmly in Agony's pocket as always."

"Do you have any good news for me?"

"Maybe. There's a straw on the wind. I heard
some rumors that a few of the Coun'hij enforcers were pissed about
being given conflicting orders. Agony initially wanted an extra six
or seven hybrids to accompany him, but for some reason cut back on
the size of the party a few hours before he left."

"So the other leaders overruled
him."

"Right, which probably means two things. He's
scared to death of just what you're capable of right now, and the
rest of the Coun'hij was worried he was coming to fabricate an
incident."

"Not just that. They are worried they won't be
able to cover up the incident if he brings an army
along."

"Right. It's the first real sign that they are
worried about losing control since the last time Agony was in
Sanctuary."

"Thanks for the intel."

Chapter 17

Mom had been waiting for me. She'd noticed it
was Alec who dropped me off rather than Rachel or Jasmin. I could
tell she wasn't entirely buying my story about him having met us at
the hospital, but she let me break past and go to my
room.

Just before I went to bed I got a
single text from Jasmin.

Ben?

**

I woke up about noon. Mom was
already gone. I threw some clothes on and stumbled downstairs. The
note on the fridge was like she was reading my mind.

I'll be out until later today. Stay
home and get your homework done. I didn't call in to excuse you so
you could play all day.

I called the hospital and convinced them to put
me through to Ben.

"This is Ben."

His voice sounded different, high
maybe?

"Ben, it's Adriana. Jasmin asked me to call and
find out how you were doing?"

"Jasmin? Is she there with you?"

"No, she sent me a text."

"I don't understand. Why hasn't she been
returning my calls?"

His voice was changing. The dreamy edge was
wearing off, there was a hunger growing in it.

"I'm sure she'd like to, but some stuff came up
that she has to deal with."

"What aren't you telling me?"

My mind went back to Rachel's words from
earlier. "I'm sorry, Ben. I'd like to tell you but it's not my
secret to share."

"She's in danger, isn't she? Don't
bother answering, I know she is. For her to do something she
doesn't want to do pretty much means she has to be. She'd tell
anyone who wasn't bigger and badder to just eff off."

"There's a certain element of risk,
but you don't need to worry about her. We're working to make sure
everything is okay."

"I want to help. What can I do?"

"It's not exactly that kind
of…"

Ben's voice was eager now,
insistent. "You trailed off. You thought of something."

"I need a ride into town, the Funcade. I know
you can't leave the hospital yet, but if you know someone that
could help me?"

"Don't go anywhere, your ride will be there in
the next half hour."

**

I was expecting a parent or maybe a
grandparent. I wasn't expecting Ben to pull up in a battered,
primer-gray Mustang. It looked nothing like Brandon's sleek, new
machine but I recognized the insignia.

"How did you convince them to let you out of
the hospital?"

"I didn't ask, I just got up, dressed myself
and left. I hitchhiked home and grabbed my car."

I climbed into the car and noticed blood
soaking through his pants.

"You're bleeding. You could kill yourself if
you open your leg back up."

"That doesn't matter. All that matters is
Jasmin. We have to protect her; have to make sure she comes back to
me. We're supposed to be together."

The engine in the old sports car groaned as Ben
stomped on the gas. He was taking the turns almost as fast as Alec
had last night, but with less control.

"Slow down. We aren't going to do anyone any
good if we get into a wreck."

Ben eased up a little, but kept tapping the
steering wheel. It was like they'd given him a dose of meth at the
hospital. His words came in staccato bursts like his thoughts were
racing away and then stopping abruptly.

"Where do you need to go?"

"The Funcade."

"Jasmin's at the Funcade?"

"No, her car is though. I need to get
it."