Splintered (18 page)

"You are wise to make such a promise only
regarding the loyal members of your pack. It has come to my
attention that not all members of your pack are as loyal as you
might wish."

This was the big surprise. I could
feel it and apparently everyone else could feel it too. Agony's
people moved a step or two forward, crowding us. That didn't
surprise me as much as our response. I got a quick response to my
earlier question regarding how much damage Agony had done to our
unity. Rather than the entire pack clustering more tightly
together, the hybrids on the front and to the outside, we shifted
slightly further apart. Instead of a circular group we were a long,
irregular line.

Isaac moved closer to Jess and James
moved closer to Dominic. Jasmin settled back to where she was
nearly touching Rachel and the three newest members all huddled
together. Of the entire pack, only Alec and Donovan didn't move
from their places. They remained motionless and the pack moved
away.

"I assure you that any possible disloyalty will
be dealt with appropriately as a purely internal
matter."

Agony shook his head slowly back and forth. "I
wish it were as simple as that. Members of your pack have been
passing privileged information to an outsider for quite some
time."

The words made me think back to Mallory's
statement that but for the fact Vincent was with Agony, she would
have bet on there being a spy in our midst.

"While I would in any circumstance
mourn for the resources this individual has no doubt drained from
the pack, this betrayal is made worse by the identity of the
individual to whom the betrayal was made. I've only just learned
today that these individuals collectively planned on breaking off
to form their own pack and then launching a complicated plot to
topple the Coun'hij from our rightful place of
authority."

I
 knew Agony was lying. I figured it must be even more
infuriating for the shape shifters in our pack who could tell for
sure that nothing being said was true. I spared a glance at Alec to
see how he was responding, but he hadn't moved a muscle since Agony
had started his speech.

"If this had happened, untold
turmoil would have gripped the world. There would have been no
group prepared and able to deal with the myriad threats lurking on
the periphery of human society. The weres would have run wild,
their population exploding in a way it hasn't for centuries. Worse,
the blood drinkers would have likely become aware of our existence
and we would in turn have been hunted down by yet another foe whose
numbers aren't constrained by paltry things like
birthrates."

I started to turn towards Jasmin,
hoping for a clue regarding what Agony was referring to. I nearly
missed the attack. Agony's men had continued to slowly drift
forward as he'd talked. Our backs had been against the wall
already. There wasn't anywhere for us to go but closer together,
the hybrids crowding around Alec now that the threat was upon
them.

Vincent had positioned himself directly before
Alec, slightly in front of Agony. It was an optimal position for
guaranteeing Vincent a rematch with Alec.

Agony finished speaking, stepped
forward as he morphed shapes, and then fastened his claws on
Vincent's unprotected human neck. At the same time Abaddon sprang
forward and ripped Alison away from Jack and Sam.

I stumbled back into Donovan, my mind reeling,
and saw Isaac on the ground, knocked down by Oblivion who had
Jess's still form in his arms, hands pressed against her head as if
preparing to crush it.

Alec moved in a blur, not towards Agony as I'd
expected, but towards Isaac, knocking Isaac to the ground again as
he tried to roll back to his feet. "Hold!"

A yelp of pain and a sickening
crunch hauled me around to see Jack and Sam ignore Alec's command.
The two transformed into wolves and launched themselves at Abaddon
in a blur but Marco and another hybrid were ready.

The fight was longer than I'd
expected, but still brief and bloody. Abaddon and the others left
Alison, Sam and Jack on the ground, bloody heaps that would never
breathe again. Alec spent the entire fight with his foot on Isaac's
throat while the rest of the pack sat in stunned
silence.

Agony stood motionless for several seconds,
possibly waiting to see if anyone else would throw themselves at
his men.

"I apologize for the manner in which the
announcement had to be made, but you've been cleansed of the
traitor."

Alec was shaking now, but his foot was still on
Isaac's throat, his hand still motioned the rest of us back. "I ask
that your man unhand Jessica and return her to us. He's no doubt
drained her mind. As such, she's no longer a traitor."

Agony didn't like that. Even I could
tell that he'd expected Oblivion to kill her, but apparently he
wasn't able to dispute Jess's newfound innocence.

"We'll take our leave of you now."

At a gesture from Agony, Oblivion
released Jess and then the other group backed away from us and out
of the cavern. Dom, Jasmin and Rachel all rushed over to Jess'
nearly still form while Donovan set Alec's mother down and hurried
over to check Alison's body.

I meant to help, either with Jess or
with the others, but my body refused to function. Instead I numbly
watched as Donovan gently closed Alison's eyes and moved on to the
other two.

There was a ripping sound and then suddenly a
heavily scarred wolf crouched among the remnants of Andrew's
wheelchair. The old shape shifter launched himself at Alec with a
growl of hatred but his injuries robbed him of the speed and power
he'd have needed to have any chance. The attack was so slow that
even I saw it coming. Alec reached out and caught Andrew by the
throat, never even shifting forms as he slammed the old wolf into
the ground.

Isaac tried to use the distraction
to fight free, but Alec somehow spun him around in a blur of
motion. When the trio stopped moving Alec's left hand had
transformed to the deadly claws of his hybrid form, all of which
were wrapped around Isaac's human throat.

"If you transform I will kill you.
Jess isn't dead. The experiences are gone but she's still here and
she'll need both of you to deal with what's happened to her. I want
your word, each of you that you'll commit no act of vengeance, not
against me or the Coun'hij, without my permission. I can't have you
wasting yourselves in a futile attempt at balancing the
scales."

First Andrew and then Isaac nodded their
agreement. Alec released both of them. "Jas, Isaac, James and Dom.
We all need to be upstairs. There's always a chance that Agony's
men will decide to come back and clean house if we don't make a
good show of force. The rest of you follow as you're able, but
don't get between the fighters."

Alec and the others swept up the stairs. I
looked blankly at Rachel for several seconds before shuffling over
to Jess. She had started waking up.

"What…I mean, who are you and where
am I?"

Suddenly I wished that I'd opted to
help with Rachel's mom or one of the others. I was the last person
who should be trying to explain things to Jessica. I barely knew
myself what was going on.

"My name is Adri. I'm afraid that right now you
probably won't remember anything, but you're safe."

Jess nodded and leaned up against me. It
reminded me of the time I'd gone to a friend's house and her niece
had visited. The little girl had run to her aunt, curled up on her
lap and promptly gone to sleep.

"Do you remember your name?"

"No. That's odd isn't it? I mean shouldn't I
remember it?"

I shook my head. "No, actually I
expected that you wouldn't remember. It's Jess. Jessica actually,
but your friends all call you Jess."

"Friends…they are important. I'm
glad I have some. Do I have many? Are we friends?"

"You have a few friends, but the
important thing isn't the number, it's how loyal your friends are,
and you've got some very loyal friends."

Jess nodded happily and then looked
over at the others. "Are those some of my friends? Are they okay?
It looks like some of them are hurt."

"They will be okay, but if you feel
up to it we should go help them. If you want to take my hand I'll
help you up, but be very careful, you're quite strong."

That earned me a smile. "I think I'd
like to be strong. Maybe someday I can be as pretty as you
too."

We stopped in front of Andrew. He was doing his
best to control his emotions, but hadn't been able to slow the
tears that had started as soon as he'd resumed his human
form.

"You feel familiar. Do we know each
other?"

Andrew looked up at me with pleading eyes,
apparently unable to bring himself to respond. I cleared my throat
and moved Jessica's hand down to his arm.

"This is Andrew. You knew each other very well
and are very important to each other."

"Like family?"

"Yes, like family."

As we were carrying Andrew towards the stairs
Jess looked over at me. "How did my memories get lost?"

"A bad man stole them from you."

"Were my friends not around to stop
him?"

I felt my throat tighten up and
tears start to gather at the corners of my eyes. "No, sweetie, we
were all here."

"Then why didn't you all stop him?"

"I don't know."

Chapter 22

Alec made sure that Agony and his
men were well on their way and then he and the others came back.
I'd just finished helping get Andrew and Jess settled in their
rooms when Alec found me.

"I'm glad I caught you alone, Adri. We need to
talk."

I pushed past him. "I don't want to
talk to you right now."

Alec grabbed my arm, not holding hard enough to
hurt me, but hard enough I couldn't escape. "I know you're mad
right now. I didn't want you to see something like that. I've been
working from the first day to try and guarantee that you wouldn't
get involved in the infighting with the Coun'hij."

"Well, it's good to know this wasn't
just a one-off, unexpected kind of thing. Apparently you were
always capable of this kind of thing."

"That's not fair."

"You want to talk about fair? Let's talk about
Alison and Jess. Neither of them were passing information to
Vincent and you know it."

Alec let go of me and ran his hand through his
hair. "You're right. Neither of them did anything to deserve what
they got. Unfortunately what happened to them wouldn't have been
changed by anything we could have done. Alison was dead before any
of the rest of us could even move."

"Alison wasn't the only one who died
today."

"What? Vincent?"

I'd thought I was mad, but the thought of Alec
thinking of a piece of slime before he'd think of Jack or Sam
stoked my fury to a raging bonfire. "No, not Vincent. Sam and Jack
died trying to protect Alison and you never lifted a finger. They
were part of your pack. They trusted you, depended on you, and you
just let them throw their lives away."

"I couldn't stop them. I was only
barely able to stop Isaac. They chose to attack Abaddon. I didn't
force them to do it."

"You could have attacked. They were down a
hybrid and there was a chance that Oblivion would have helped or at
least stepped aside."

Alec shook his head. "We would have
lost. My power isn't working anymore and Oblivion wouldn't have
stepped aside. Jess losing her memories told us that. He would have
fought at Agony's side and the entire pack would have been
destroyed. I had to choose between Isaac or the other two and I
chose to save Isaac."

"You didn't choose Isaac, you
decided against Jack and Sam. You've never valued them. They've
been second-class citizens since the day they joined the pack. You
should have just killed them when you killed the rest of Brandon's
pack."

Alec's eyes had changed. They'd started taking
on the light blue of his beast, which was never a good sign.
Usually I didn't worry because I knew he wouldn't hurt me. Now I
was just too mad to stop and think of the implications.

"I chose Isaac because he stood by
me for years when those other three were helping Brandon try to
kill us all. I chose Isaac because Jess is going to need him over
the next few months or years as she tries to forge a new identity.
And yes, I chose Isaac because he's more of an asset to the pack
than Sam and Jack put together. That's the piece that really
bothers you, isn't it?"

"They shouldn't be second-class
citizens because they can't kill as well as Isaac. That's exactly
the kind of crap Brandon would have said."

Alec picked up a shake as he moved
towards me. "I hate to break it to you, but that's the way the real
world works. We aren't civilized. It's all we can do sometimes to
keep our beasts in check, and how well you fight, how well you can
kill has a direct impact on whether or not the pack survives to see
another day. If you scratch away the veneer of civilization out
there you'll find out it's exactly the same, you've just had too
much of a sheltered, perfect life to realize it."