Arianna's Tale: The Beginning (35 page)

When I reached my locker, Wren was standing
there and I jumped, startled. “Hi…” I managed to murmur, looking at
him in confusion, but he just stared at me. “Okay…?” I opened my
locker and pulled out my stuff for sixth period before I closed it
to find confusion clearly written on his face.

“I’m sorry, Anna Gray,” he faltered, barely
shaking his head, “You are Austin and Jason Gray’s sister… aren’t
you?”

“Yes and no,” I replied, but his confusion
deepened, “I was adopted.”

His eyes widened, but then they shifted
behind me and he barely smiled. “I should go… Happy Birthday, Anna
Gray.”

He was headed down the hallway away from me
before I could really react, but then too-warm hands slid onto my
shoulders and I turned around to find Rayne behind me.

“You passed out…?” he skeptically questioned
and I barely nodded, my face shading pink, “Care to explain
why?”

“I think I saw Mark,” I whimpered and felt
the heat intensify in his hands before he shoved them in his
pockets, “And I realized I had turned off my feeling sense thing,
so I turned it back on, and all these overwhelming, distinct
emotions flooded over me and I passed out.”

“You think you saw Mark?” Rayne repeated and
I barely nodded my head as he inhaled a deep breath before taking
hold of my hand, “Let’s get to class and get out of here… Some of
the guys are going to check around the school….”

That night, they had a big cookout for me,
from which Alex was absent despite my knowing he had been the one
to cook the food. There were a few presents, but the main one was
telling me about the party they were throwing for me Saturday
night.

I went up to bed that night with worries
about Mark still in my head, only to find Rayne and Jack standing
at my doorway.

“We didn’t find any sign of him… not even
his scent,” Jack admitted almost silently, something nearly
apologetic in his voice.

“So what… you don’t believe that he was
really there?” I pressed and Jack’s gaze fell to his feet as Rayne
lightly took hold of my hand.

“We believe you saw him, but we don’t
understand how he disappeared without a trace. Granted, it was a
few hours before anyone got to the school and we have a lot of
supernaturals at the school that could have covered his scent,”
Rayne reasoned and I took a deep breath as I looked over to find
Jack staring at me.

“We’re going to keep a look out… at least
for a while, see if we can spot him… can you try to stay with
someone during the day? Do you
mind
staying with someone?
Because people have offered to walk you to your classes to help
keep an eye on things,” Jack added as I took another deep
breath.

“If I see him again, I’ll accept the
constant guard… okay?” I pressed, “Or if you guys can actually
prove I wasn’t hallucinating him….”

“We don’t think you…” Rayne started but I
barely shook my head.

“I might have been… I’ve been stressed… so
let’s all assume it was probably in my head, and just keep a better
eye on the school for a few days until I feel more sane,” I
bargained and saw them start to argue, “Or I can just wander around
outside by myself all day, maybe go hang out with the faeries or
something.”

“You are so stubborn,” Rayne sighed, shaking
his head.

“We’ll watch the school… you try to stay
alert, okay?” Jack countered and I barely nodded in agreement, “Get
some sleep, birthday girl.” He softly kissed my cheek before he
walked just down the hall to his own room.

“Happy Birthday, Arianna,” Rayne whispered
as he lightly kissed my other cheek and headed down the hallway
while I slipped into my room.

I didn’t see him again Thursday, and trust
me, I was so alert I was jumping at stupid little noises and
starting to get really weird looks from lots of people. By Friday I
had forced myself to calm down just a little, before everyone
started to think I was absolutely insane.

Rayne had to meet with our teacher after
sixth period, and it was taking forever, so I was pacing in the
main hallway, which was empty by then. As I turned around to start
pacing in the other direction, my feet froze to the ground. Not
fifty feet away from me, was Mark. My eyes widened, and I blinked a
few times to make sure he was there before that snarky grin crept
onto his face.

“Hello, Arianna… You haven’t been behaving
very well, now have you?” he chuckled in that creepy gravelly voice
of his and I turned and bolted away from him.

I thought about what Ty had said, and headed
for the doors to outside, to the sunlight and the daytime, but
before I could reach them his weight collided with my back and I
fell to the floor.

“No!” I screamed, kicking at him as I tried
to scramble back to my feet, but his bulky hand latched onto my
ankle and I felt my bone start to give as I screamed. “Let me go!”
I yelled, but he pulled me backwards, closer to him, all the while
keeping a hold on my ankle. When he reached for my shirt, my hands
darted up and pressed against him as I screamed “No!” Only that
time, my tear-filled eyes actually opened as I felt something, some
power, some energy, roll through me and into him and heard him
groan as he slammed into the wall. I hesitated only a second, and
then jumped to my feet, but the second I put weight on the ankle he
had been squeezing, it gave out and I fell back to the floor.

“Anna Gray, are you all right?” Wren’s voice
was behind me and I spun on the floor to face him, my eyes wide and
filled with tears. He could think I was crazy if he wanted to, but
Tobias had given me the clear impression he was a fae, so I pointed
behind me when I heard Mark moving.

“Troll!” I exclaimed and his blue eyes
darted past me and widened. The brightest light I had ever seen
suddenly filled the hallway and I had to shield my eyes from
it.

“You’re all right, Anna Gray,” Wren soothed
and I slowly blinked my eyes open to spot the faintest light still
pulsing around him before it completely disappeared.

How can I be all right when there’s a
troll in the hallway?
I panicked in my mind, but as I spun
around to try to make my point, there was the ugliest stone statue
in the middle of the hallway.

“Are you hurt?” Wren continued, but I was
still staring at the statue.

“Have to break it… burn it… Ty said that was
the only way…” I stammered, trying again to stand up, but I yelped
at the pain that burst from my ankle before I fell back to the
floor.

“Where is your Were?” Wren queried as I
looked at him in confusion, “They won’t like it if I mess with
you….”

“1110, Mr. Schuedler’s class,” I responded
and he barely nodded his head as his eyes inspected my face, “How
did you find me? How did you do that?”

“Don’t answer that,” Ty hissed as I saw his
chest rise and fall just a little too quickly, “Keep it shut,
Wren.”

“Oh, Ty… she’s adopted,” Wren countered as I
looked between them in confusion.

“I know that,” Ty growled in reply as he
knelt down beside me, “Where are you hurt?”

“Don’t you think they’ll come after her?
Especially after today?” Wren pressed and Ty nearly snarled as I
watched the strange smoke forming around him again.

“My… my ankle…” I stuttered, watching him
dazedly as he pulled up my jeans’ leg and pressed his hands around
my ankle.

Rayne came running down the hallway then,
panic in his eyes as I spotted another one of the turf-war people
behind him, walking slower with his hands in his pockets.

“Anna,” Rayne blurted as he fell to sit
beside me, searching my face and completely ignoring the fact that
there was so much tension in the air, “Oh gods, Anna… I’m so sorry…
are you all right?”

I gasped as bones shifted in my ankle, and
clung onto Rayne’s shirt as I glanced down at Ty while he pulled my
jeans’ leg back down.

“You’ll be fine,” he assured with the
faintest smile.

“What happened?” Rayne insisted, “What are
they doing here? How is Mark stone in the middle of the
hallway?”

“I’m a Lord,” Wren commented as Rayne looked
up at him, “I more or less keep a stash of sunlight in me at all
times… used it on her troll problem… but why we’re here….”

“Shut up,” Ty interrupted angrily, suddenly
back on his feet.

“So Ty doesn’t want me to explain,” Wren
remarked, shrugging his shoulders, “Why don’t you get her out of
here, Were…? We can take care of the troll.”

“I’m not leaving until I see the ash or
whatever becomes of that statue after it’s been broken and burned,”
I insistently interjected, “And you can’t tell Rayne to get me out
of here like I’m some…
thing
. I am a human being, not some
thing
that you can just do whatever you want to with….”

“You’re not human,” Wren laughed, but Ty
suddenly spun on him and Wren went flying out the door into a
picnic table, laughing the whole time.

“Wh… what?” I stuttered, watching Ty as he
slowly turned back to face me.

“Let’s get rid of your troll problem…” he
mumbled, walking past me and slamming one well-placed fist into the
statue as it crumbled to the floor. “Wren! Get in here and keep
your damned mouth shut!” Ty yelled as I scrambled to my feet with
Rayne behind me and watched in awe as Wren walked over to the
crumbled stones and merely lifted his hands towards them as they
became engulfed in blue flames.

“She needs to know,” Wren quietly remarked,
staring at his work, “They need to know.”

“I’m not an idiot,” Ty growled before he
looked up at Rayne, “I need to speak with you… in private.”

Once they were outside, I turned my
attention back on Wren, “What do you mean I’m not human?”

“Oh, don’t mind me any… it seems Ty has been
keeping an eye on you for a while now, hasn’t he?” Wren queried,
only briefly glancing up at me as I barely nodded, “Then he’s the
one who will answer your questions, not me.”

His hands fell to his sides and my eyes
darted down to watch the flames fade away from… nothing…. There was
absolutely nothing left.

“He’s gone… I mean… really really gone?” I
whispered with tears in my eyes.

“No troll can come back from such a thing;
it’s impossible… there is always at least one absolute way to kill
something supernatural, Anna Gray… don’t forget that,” Wren softly
remarked just before Rayne stormed back into the building.

“We need to get back to the house,” Rayne
stated in a barely contained rage as I nodded slightly, reaching
down and touching the spot on the floor where Mark had been, just
to reassure myself he was gone, and only feeling the remnants of
heat from the flames. I nodded again, more certainly, and followed
Rayne out of the school to the car.

“What’s going on?” I finally asked after
riding nearly halfway across town in absolute silence.

Rayne inhaled a slow, deep breath and looked
over at me while we were at a stoplight, “Did you throw some kind
of power at Mark?” I barely nodded my head and he sighed as he
looked back at the road. “I need to see something first… then we
can talk….”

The rest of the ride was silent, but he took
hold of my trembling hand and didn’t let go the entire way back to
the house. When we pulled into the garage, I was worried to find
Jack, Farren, Aeril, and Evan all standing there and wouldn’t budge
from my seat. Evan walked over and pulled my door open, his eyes
searching my face before he smiled and held his hand out to me.

“It’s okay, Anna. And just think, you never
have to deal with that stupid troll ever again. Isn’t that a
relief?” Evan queried and I found myself nodding without even
thinking about it. It was going to be so nice to never have to
worry about Mark again… but how the heck was I supposed to explain
any of that to my brothers? They were still going to be worried
about him…. “We’ll figure out how to let them know soon,” Evan
added and my eyes darted to him as he helped me out of the car.
“Now… we’re going into the basement, so stay close….”

My gaze darted up worriedly when Jack was
standing in front of me, but he pulled me into a hug and my nerves
slowly settled. His hand slid into mine as we all walked toward the
far wall of the garage. I was admittedly very confused until Rayne
pulled on a brass wall fixture and a secret door opened. It was
pitch black, and I couldn’t begin to see a thing, but Jack
carefully pulled me along beside him, whispering the number of
remaining stairs into my ear as we went. When my feet hit bottom, I
knew it—there was the faintest echo from the shuffling of our feet.
A moment later another secret door opened and let in a dim light. I
figured all of this was actually pretty good for keeping people who
didn’t belong down here from finding their way around… I certainly
never would have headed into pitch blackness without someone
guiding me through it.

As we stepped through the door into the
dimly lit room, a sparkling gilded frame had caught my attention,
but I stared into the oversized mirror in confusion.

I could still feel Jack’s hand in mine, and
I could see myself clearly in the reflective glass, but Jack wasn’t
there in the mirror. I stepped closer to it, moreso in confusion,
and Jack trailed behind me until I realized he was there, his
beautiful blonde-furred, emerald-eyed wolf form was with me. Even
in wolf-form, the silver around his pupils was visible, but I
looked over my shoulder to see human-Jack behind me, staring in
shock at the mirror, except by then, so was everyone else.

“What is this?” I murmured and he forced his
startled gaze to me before his eyes darted back to the
reflection.

“That mirror shows you the true forms of
others… I’m guessing you’re seeing my wolf-form…” he trailed off as
he resumed staring into the mirror in shock.

“So I only see true forms of other people…?”
I hesitated and he barely nodded, “So what is it you’re all seeing
that has you so shocked…?”