Threads That Bind (Havoc Chronicles Series Book 1) (15 page)

I had expected to be awake for several hours thinking through everything, but instead, I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

The next morning I woke up to my alarm, a feeling of dread surrounding me. I got ready for the day on autopilot, wracking my brains trying to think of a way to explain why there wasn’t a new car in the driveway. By the time I was dressed and ready to go, I still hadn’t come up with an answer.

Serious stares greeted me as I entered the kitchen. Obviously, my parents had been outside and seen the empty driveway. My mind raced, looking to some sort of inspiration, but I had nothing.

“Good morning, Madison,” said Dad. His voice sounded strange. It was that over-enunciation thing he did when he was angry and trying to remain calm. “There is a package for you on the counter.”

A small package wrapped in bright red paper sat on the island on top of a card in a matching envelope.

I opened the card first. It was from Eric.

Dear Madison,

I hope you didn’t get into too much trouble for my reckless actions last night. I couldn’t find a Jetta exactly like the one that was totaled, so I had to improvise. I hope that this will be an acceptable replacement.

Sincerely, proverbially, sophomorically and many other adverbs,

Eric  

Inside the box was a set of keys with a Mercedes symbol on them. I looked up at my dad, finally understanding the strange tension I had been feeling.

“It’s in the driveway,” he said.

 I walked outside and saw it gleaming in the morning light. The sleek metallic gray body rode low to the ground, a predator ready to hunt down its quarry. I had no idea what kind of car it was, except that it was a Mercedes and that meant it was expensive.

A lot more expensive than Mom’s Jetta.

“You know you can’t accept this,” Dad said.

No surprise there. I loved my Father, but I also knew he was a very practical man, and an expensive sports car like this was a huge waste of money in his opinion.

I didn’t know for sure how much money we had, but I was pretty sure from some oblique comments Mom had made in the past that Dad was loaded from some sort of inheritance. The “consulting job” he claimed to have was more of a hobby than an occupation.

Of course, you would never know Dad was wealthy from the way we lived. Everything we owned practically screamed middle class, and my parents wouldn’t dream of spoiling me by buying me my own car – no matter what tactic I tried. Mom let me co-opt her car most of the time, but they had both made it very clear that it was hers, not mine, and that usage was based solely on their capricious whims and could be revoked at any time.

So, given my parents’ attitude towards excess and wasted money, Eric couldn’t have picked a worse car to replace my mom’s Jetta with.

I examined the car more closely. I had seen other Mercedes before, but I did not recognize this one. When I attempted to open the door, instead of pulling out like a normal car door, it lifted diagonally into the air, like the wing of a large metallic bug.

Standing in the driveway, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to laugh or cry. In a few short months, my life had been turned completely upside down: I had strange super powers like something out of a comic book, giant monsters wanted my blood, and now Eric had given my mom an obscenely expensive car.

Could my life get any stranger?

“Who is this Eric person, anyway?” Dad asked. “I haven’t heard you talk about him before.”

“He’s a new kid who just moved into the Height’s area with his family. His brother is in some of my classes.”

Dad was immediately suspicious. “When a guy spends that much money to impress a girl – especially in high school – you know he has ulterior motives.”

I instinctively wanted to defend Eric, but I didn’t for two reasons. First, if you didn’t know Eric and I were Berserkers and a monster had crushed my car, it
did
seem strange for him to give me such a nice car. And second, even given that we were Berserkers and a monster had crushed my car, it
still
seemed strange. I didn’t know much about cars, but this one looked like it might have cost more than our house. Why give me such an expensive car to replace the Jetta?

I spent most of breakfast arguing with my parents about the car. They were united in their opinion that we could not accept it, and there was no budging them on that point. I would have had better luck trying to get them to let me tattoo a swastika across my forehead.

After some masterful negotiating on my part, however, I did manage to convince them to let me drive it to school and give it back to Eric.

 When I eased into the driver’s seat, I noted with relief that it was an automatic, not a stick. I had spent some time in my dad’s truck, learning the basics of a manual transmission, but I had never gotten very good at it. The last thing I wanted was to wreck this car while trying to return it.

Even though was an automatic, it was still extremely difficult to drive. The lightest touch on the gas pedal sent the car roaring forwards and triggered an automatic slam-on-the-breaks reaction. As a consequence, the first few blocks of the drive were punctuated by multiple loud squeals from both the car and myself.

To make things even more nerve wracking, after several minutes I noticed that someone in a large black truck was following me. The windows were tinted, so I couldn’t tell who it was. I recalled Mallika’s warning about desperate people who wanted to free and control the Havocs.

As I started to panic, I felt my senses sharpening and my reflexes quickening, a sensation that I was now starting to think of as “pre-zerking”. It gave me some of the physical powers, but I didn’t start glowing and destroying things.

In my pre-zerking state, I no longer felt out of control in this car. I pressed on the gas and was immediately slammed into my seat as the car leapt forward.

I took a quick right, sped forward, darted left, trying to lose the truck. After several minutes of this, I could no longer see the truck behind me. I doubled back towards the school and headed there as quickly as the car would take me, breaking most traffic laws in the process.

When I pulled into the student parking lot, Eric and Rhys were waiting next to their Range Rover. I parked next to them and got out, glad to have their company.

Glancing over my shoulder, I spoke before either of them had a chance to say anything. “There’s someone following me,” I said, “in a big black truck with tinted windows.”

“You mean that one?” asked Eric, pointing at the truck pulling into the school parking lot.

It was the same truck. How had it followed me here?

“Don’t worry,” said Rhys. “It’s just Aata. He had the assignment to watch you last night and to make sure you got to school safely.

Aata pulled up next to us and rolled down his window. He shook his head. “You drive like a maniac,” he said and then laughed. “Nice job. If I hadn’t felt you ‘zerking, I wouldn’t have been able to follow you.”

Eric looked at me quizzically. “You ‘zerked in the car?” he asked. “How did you manage to avoid destroying it?”

I blushed, partly from Aata’s compliment, but partly because Eric remembered me telling him that I tended to destroy things while ‘zerking.

“I didn’t ‘zerk,” I said. “I don’t know what you call it, but it was that sort of pre-zerk where you feel your reflexes sharpen, but you don’t fully ‘zerk and glow and destroy buildings – or cars. What do you guys call it?”

“Impossible,” said Eric. “Or at least that’s what I would have called it before we had a girl Berserker.” He exchanged a significant look with Rhys. “‘Zerking doesn’t work like that for us - it’s an all or nothing deal. I’ve never heard of any other Berserker who has experienced that, but I think it’s becoming clear that the rules have changed. We are going to have to question everything since the old rules don’t seem to apply to you.”

They wanted to ask me more about my pre-zerking, but the Mercedes had attracted a crowd of admirers and any pretense at privacy was shot. Aata drove back to the Berserker house, while Eric, Rhys, and I walked into school.

On the way in the door I handed the keys to Eric. He looked at them for a moment and then tried to hand them back to me. “What’s this for?”

“I can’t accept the car,” I said. “My parents insist I give it back.”

Eric seemed genuinely surprised. “But I was just replacing the car that had been destroyed. Your mom seemed fine with the idea.”

I didn’t make any motion to take the keys back. “Yeah, that was before she knew you were going to replace her Jetta with a Mercedes. My dad now thinks you have ulterior motives, and insists that I give it back.”

Eric raised one eyebrow. “Ulterior motives? I like the sound of that.” He tossed the keys up in the air, caught them in his hand and pocketed them. “He’s right. I did have some ulterior motives. I figured we were going to be spending quite a bit of time together as you get trained, and I thought this might provide a bit of a diversion during the off hours.”

I stopped in front of my locker. “Sorry, no diversions for me, apparently. Can we just arrange to get the Jetta replaced and then call it good?”

 Eric gave me a deep bow. “Whatever you desire. Your wish is my command.” He paused for a moment. “Or at least one piece of information I’ll consider before doing whatever I feel like.”

Since Rhys was in my first period class, he walked me to Physics. Eric accompanied us part-way, and once we reached the hallway that led to his first class, he reluctantly left.

After Physics, Rhys escorted me to History class. After History, Eric was waiting to take me to Study Hall. After Study Hall both of them escorted me to lunch. The whole thing seemed a bit weird. It was almost like they were in some kind of competition to see who could walk me to the most classes.

The three of us sat together at lunch. They joined me at my old table, rather than sitting at the more central location they had occupied before.

“Your table gives us more privacy,” explained Rhys. “We only sat out in that one so we could have a better view of the students while looking for the new Berserker.” The look on Eric’s face indicated that he disagreed with Rhys, but he didn’t object to the seating arrangements – not out loud at least.

During lunch it quickly became clear that Rhys and Eric had wildly different agendas for the conversation. Rhys wanted to make specific plans on how we were going to keep me safe and perhaps work out a schedule for protection, whereas Eric felt that the whole danger thing was blown out of proportion and that we should just relax and get to know each other.

I, however, wanted to know more about being a Berserker, so I began asking carefully targeted questions.

“What’s it like being a Berserker?” I asked.

My question must have taken them by surprise, because for a moment no one answered. Eric recovered first. “Long stretches of boredom punctuated by exciting events.”

“It’s a duty,” said Rhys. “There are some things that I love about being a Berserker, but it requires a lot of sacrifice.”

“Like what?” I asked.

“Like family and friends,” said Rhys. “Your social and communal identity. You give up being part of a larger group of people who share the same values, ideals, common experiences and memories.” Rhys reached out and put a hand on top of mine. My heart skipped a beat and it became extremely difficult to pay attention to anything but the warmth of his skin on mine. “Being a Berserker isolates you from the rest of the world. You can interact with individuals, but you can never get close. Getting close risks people discovering who we are and what we are guarding, and that puts everyone involved in danger.”

Eric’s eyes narrowed as he saw Rhys’ hand on mine. He set down his sandwich and turned his chair to face me. “This is where Rhys and I have a fundamental disagreement about life. He can’t let go of what he’s given up and start to enjoy life again.” Rhys started to protest, but Eric cut him off with a gesture. “Yes, there is sacrifice. I too had to give up my loved ones... eventually. But being a Berserker means doing things that other people can only dream of - strength, speed, endurance, and extended life. I’ve traveled all over the world, Madison. I’ve climbed to the top of Mount Everest and gone diving in the deepest ocean trenches. These are all things I would have never experienced if I hadn’t become a Berserker.”