Hyacinth (6 page)

A shiver suddenly
ran down Selene’s back, and she frowned. She felt, for the briefest moment, as
though she was being watched by someone or something. The feeling was similar
to how she used to feel around Gideon. A faint queasiness passed over her, and
she took a deep breath and shook it off, reminding herself that he was gone. She
had nothing to fear anymore.

“That last comment
was for you too, Ellie,” Selene spoke aloud.

“How’d you know
I was listening?”
Ellie’s sheepish voice sounded in Selene’s head.

Selene glanced
to the branches of the tree above her and smiled at the black falcon perched
there. “Because I let you.” She patted the bench beside her. “Go shift and come
grab a seat. I’ll show you.”

Ellie spread her
wings wide and flew off. Several minutes later she strolled over, human once
more, and sat down. She dropped her backpack on the ground and grinned.

“Where were you
keeping that?” Selene wondered, looking at the backpack.

“Gotta have some
secrets.” Ellie winked. “Now come on… show me!”

Selene held out
her hand. Ellie grasped it and closed her eyes for a brief moment. When she
opened them again, she flashed Selene an impressed look.

“That’s a handy
skill to have. You can see the glow when someone is using their power,” she said.

Selene gave a
half-hearted smile. “It has good points and bad points.”

“That was a
pretty mean trick you played on Griffin, you know.” Ellie said.

Selene blinked
but didn’t say anything.

Ellie propped
her elbows on the back of the bench. “Bringing up your powers to make him
leave. Why’d you do it? He was treating you like a normal human being for once.
You were making progress.”

“What if I don’t
want
to make progress with Griffin?” Selene kept her expression neutral.

Ellie shook her
head. “No way. I don’t buy it. Why else would you choose to come to this
school? It has to be because you wanted to be friends with us. And Griffin is
the biggest roadblock. Am I on the right track?” She raised her eyebrows.

“I can’t be
friends with you.” Selene nibbled at her bottom lip.

“But you want
to, don’t you?”

Selene just
looked back down at her book.

“Yeah. I thought
so,” Ellie concluded and paused a moment. “I have a great idea! Come dancing
with us tomorrow night?”

Selene gave a
surprised laugh. “I don’t think so. Griffin would go ballistic. In fact, you’d
better watch it, or he might see you talking to me.”

“Oh, pooh,”
Ellie scoffed. “Anyway, he’s blowing off steam now. He’s nowhere near here.” She
gave Selene the onceover. “Are you really going to let my oh-so-cautious
brother dictate your actions?”

Selene chuckled.
“Nice try. But after so many years being dictated to by my own brother, I won’t
let anyone influence me. You included, Miss Ellie Aubrey.”

Ellie held up
her left and wiggled her fingers, flashing her engagement ring. “Soon to be
Mrs. Jenner.”

Selene’s eyes
lit up at the news. “Congratulations! But I won’t upset your family just for a chance
at some new friends in my life.”

“Well, I won’t
stop asking,” Ellie insisted as she stood up. She leaned over and gave Selene a
swift hug. “And next time Griffin isn’t biting your head off, I suggest you
don’t immediately push him away, sweetie.” Ellie picked her backpack up off the
ground, and with a wink and a wave, she walked away.

Selene sat in
stunned silence. Hugs had been few and far between in her life up until then.
Ellie’s effervescent friendliness could become addictive. With a mental shake,
Selene forced herself to turn to her studies. She did manage to read the words
on the page this time, but the beauty of the day had dimmed.

Selene looked up
from her computer to listen to her project team gathered around her kitchen
table. Remnants of pizza and cokes were scattered between books and computers. It
was mid-November and the five of them – Selene, Josh, Elayne, Cindy, and Gordon
- were working on the simulation project that would comprise the bulk of their
grade for the class. In the simulation for the assignment, they were the owners
of a car company and had to compete against the other groups in the class in
having a more successful car company simulation.

Selene was thoroughly
enjoying herself. Not only did she like the class and think the material was very
interesting, but she’d really come to like her group. They were the first
people in her entire life to treat her normally. Even before Gideon, the
Vyusher had treated her as a princess, held apart to be cossetted and petted.

But beyond that the
people in her group were very nice people and could also be hilarious. They got
their work done and made smart observations, but they did so while still
keeping things on the light and funny side.

“I disagree,”
Josh was saying.

“You would!”
Elayne joked as she reached for another slice of pizza.

“Yeah,” Josh
insisted. “There’s no way we’re going to dig our way out of this mountain of
debt. We should do what we can to maintain our market share lead without
looking like we gave up on revenue. I think we do that by launching another car
now. It’ll be too late after this.”

A collective
groan arose from the group. They’d been arguing this point for the last hour or
so and were no further along.

“Do you need me
to explain again the concept of making money?” Gordon, the finance whiz of the
team, asked.

“Okay, okay!”
Josh threw both his hands in the air. “No new car. But I’m telling you now that
if we still don’t end up cash positive this round, it’s all on you.”

“Finally he
gives in!” Cindy cheered.

“On that note… ”
Selene stood up and started gathering up trash to throw away. “Anyone want to
take home some pizza?”

“You paid, so
you keep it,” Elayne said, looking at the slices of pepperoni with longing in
her eyes.

Selene knew that
they were all the typical broke college kids, which meant food was low on the
priority list for bills. “I don’t like reheated pizza. So it’s just going in
the trash if I keep it. Seriously, someone take it off my hands.”

“In that case,
I’ll take some,” Josh said. The other four quickly followed his lead. Selene
pulled some foil out of the pantry and wrapped up their slices while they all
shut down their computers and packed up their bags.

She walked her
friends out. “See you in class tomorrow, guys.” She waved goodbye and went back
inside.

Smiling to
herself, she went to close the blinds and happened to see a falcon in the pine
trees. Without hesitation she snapped the blinds shut and then started pacing the
confines of her living room. She was so angry she wasn’t sure what to do with
herself. That golden-colored falcon had a glow inside him.

“Griffin,” she
muttered. He was keeping tabs on her. Deep inside, her wolf gave an irritated
growl.

If she’d been
thinking rationally, she’d have realized that she shouldn’t be surprised by
Griffin’s stalkerish behavior and that he might even be entitled to keep an eye
on her. She wasn’t even sure she was safe to leave by herself. Maybe someone needed
to stop her. But she wasn’t thinking rationally at the moment.

Maybe she should
just turn off his power and watch him fall out of that damn tree. She held in a
giggle at the mental image. Or maybe she should drop her mental blocks and tell
him to go away.

Eventually,
Selene decided to do neither of those things. She calmed down and finished
cleaning up the apartment. Then she got ready for bed. It was only several
hours later, as she still lay in bed wide awake, tossing and turning, that
something occurred to her.

If Griffin was
watching, and she ended up dream walking in her wolf form, then he’d see, follow,
and maybe even stop her. If the dreams were real and she really was the one
killing those people...

Suddenly,
strangely, knowing that Griffin was keeping an eye on her brought her a modicum
of peace.

And that finally
allowed her to fall asleep.

*****

Selene was back
on her bench a few days later, despite the unseasonable chill in the air. She
was studying for an upcoming econ exam when Ellie plopped down beside her.

“Hi, Selene.” Ellie
gave her an impish grin.

Selene shook her
head. “Griffin is going to be so mad at you.”

“So what?” Ellie
shrugged nonchalantly and pulled a protein bar from her backpack. “We’re
staging a rebellion.”

“
We
?”

“Yeah, we,” said
another female voice behind them. Selene turned and was stunned to see Lila and
Adelaide standing there. Other than her brief exchange with Lila when she’d
first arrived, she’d had no contact with the two girls. Now that she saw them
together, she realized how alike they looked. The girls got their coloring from
their mother, also a honey blond. Adelaide kept hers shorter than Lila’s
though. A pair of green eyes twinkled at her.

Selene narrowed
her eyes. “Okay. What’s going on here?”

“Well, we’ve
discussed it,” Ellie began. “Lila knows you’re being truthful, and Adelaide,
well, she never shares what she can see, but she does say it’s not bad. And you
led me to Alex and to my new family. You helped us.”

Selene just
shrugged. “Okay?”

“So we’re staging
a minor rebellion,” Adelaide said. “We’re going to be friends.”

“Huh…” Selene
ignored the small spark of hope those words inspired. She glanced at Ellie.
“And what does Alex say to this plan?”

Ellie gave an
exasperated sigh and rolled her eyes. “The boys are staying out of it. But they
side with us in spirit.”

Selene shook her
head. “I won’t be the cause of conflict in your family. I refuse to play a part
in causing any family pain ever again.”

Lila rested a comforting
hand on Selene’s shoulder, and a feeling of peace slowly started to wash
through her. Surprised, Selene could see a small glow coming from Lila slowly
fading as Selene’s mental anguish faded. She studied the glow as it went out.

“You can heal
emotions? That’s new.” She met Lila’s gaze.

Lila gave a small
grin. “I’ve only just started figuring it out. I can only do it if I can touch
the person. But Ellie says eventually I’ll be able to do it without touching.
And I don’t always sense the emotion. It uh…” Lila seemed a tad unsure of how
to word it. “…it has to be a very, mmmm, intense emotion for me to see it.
Apparently, I’ll get better at that as well.”

“Well, that’s
one I haven’t seen before,” Selene muttered. “And thank you for the help. But
my answer is still no.”

“The thing is… if
anything… I think you would actually help bring our family closer together,” Adelaide
said.

Lila and Ellie glanced
at each other. Adelaide rarely shared what she saw. Her gift was the ability to
see relationships between people - past, present, and future. But she usually
kept her visions a secret so as not to unnaturally influence anyone.

Selene shook her
head, unconvinced. “That sounds really nice. But even for that, I can’t risk
it.”

“Well, the thing
is, sweetie,” Ellie reached out and pulled Selene to her feet, “you don’t have
a choice in the matter.”

“I don’t?”
Selene could feel herself giving in. Friendship was such an elusive desire.
Something she didn’t deserve. And a small spark of hope now burst through the
barriers of both her natural reserve and of her fear of putting more lives in
danger.

“Nope,” Ellie
continued. “I’ve decided that we’re going to be friends. And that, as they say,
is the end of it. We’re treating you to a girls’ night out. No dancing. I know
I suggested that last time, but I was probably a little ahead of myself with
that idea.” She waved her hand as though shooing that idea out of way. “We’ll
start small, ease Griffin into it, so to speak. We’re going to take you out to
dinner tonight.”

*****

“You did what?”
Griffin’s voice was deceptively calm as he confronted his twin and her mischievous
cohorts.

“We took Selene
out to dinner,” Ellie repeated.

“That was nice
of you, girls,” Lucy said. She was sitting in the armchair working on some
intricate embroidery on Ellie’s wedding dress. Thanks to the
Svatura’s
slowed
aging, she still looked fairly young, with her lovely blond hair and green eyes
like those of her daughters.

Ellie smiled
triumphantly at Griffin. He crossed his arms over his broad chest and pressed his
lips into a thin line.

“No, Lucy, it
was not nice of them,” he insisted. “It was
dangerous
.”

“You’ve got to
let it go, Griff,” Ellie muttered.