Marked by Destiny (10 page)

I smiled and
winked at her; afraid if I said anything my voice might betray my
feelings. Michael pointed to himself and held up two fingers. Then
he put his palm to his face and blew a kiss my way. I pretended to
catch it and pull it to my heart. I turned back, letting the screen
door close quietly behind me.

I could hear
the two of them talking very quietly. I couldn’t make out any of
the words as they talked extremely low and in a kind of short-hand
– the gift of being what they were or the ability of twins. I
couldn’t be sure which.

I changed into
comfortable pj’s and headed to the bathroom to brush my teeth.
After, I packed the rest of my toiletries and the last remaining
things I needed for the next day. My diploma could be framed when
we got back. I yawned and began flipping the lights off before
crawling onto Michael’s side of the bed. Leaving only the small
lamp on beside the futon, I set the pillows so I could sit up.

The Wolf Book
lay beside the bed waiting for me. I took a deep breath, glanced
outside. Michael and Grace must have gone to the house as the
little porch was empty now. I grabbed the journal and opened to the
first entry in the book. I stared at the cursive writing a long
moment before finally reading it.

March
1860.

I, Bentos,
seventh son of Louis, have learned a most horrific family secret. I
am from a family of shape-shifters – Grollics. Ugly, terribly ugly
wolves. I am beyond words on how to explain. That is not the
terrible secret.

I have known
that for seventeen years. I have also known I am not one of
them.

My six older
brothers and father are all shape-shifters. However, today I
learned that I am special – or so my father Louis tells me. As his
seventh son, he named me Bentos to prevent the changing in me. It
is a gift, he said, that I should be free of the curse. I was the
one that could protect our family secret – the seventh child or son
had the possibility to be free. He gave me that gift.

It is no gift.
It is a curse! I am left without power and am weak. I have six
brothers who mock my frailty and weakness. I am cursed to be a
wretched man with no supremacy.

Or so I
thought. Today on my seventeenth birthday, my anger overtook my
reason as I broke my fast. Charles, my eldest brother, sat mocking
my misfortune, laughing at my weakness. Today, as I turned
seventeen, I should have had the transformation. It would not
happen because of the gift my father bestowed on me. I am tired of
feeling weak when I know that inside of me, I am brilliant and
strong of mind.

I have power
inside of me that is fuelled upon the anger that festers in my
soul.

I stood up,
defiant of Charles, and challenged him. He laughed at my defiance
and said I needed to learn the lesson of humility – to be put in my
place. I stepped around the table as my father came in to stop the
argument. Charles turned into a horribly ugly beast and charged at
me. Father could do nothing to stop him.

I knew if he
reached me, death would be my friend. I hated him beyond reason for
having what should have been mine.

Inside I
broke, and silent thunder erupted from me. It shook the house, and
I screamed for Charles to die that instant.

Suddenly
Charles lay dead at my feet.

My brothers
rushed in as my father screamed. They saw Charles and grew angry at
what I had done. They cursed me and said I had made a pact with the
devil in turn for Charles’ blood. They rose together and shifted
into Grollics.

I begged them
to stop but they would not listen.

I forced them
to stop. Lo and behold, the tide has shifted. I am no longer a
servant of the beast. They are mine to do with as I please.

Father was
terrified at what I had done. I set my brother Andrew to kill him
and mother. He attacked and father did nothing to protect
himself.

Who is the
weak one now, Father?

My mocking
brothers are now slaves, set to do my bidding.

I have this
power over the Grollic beast that I must learn to the best of my
abilities. I will educate myself on all the strengths this gift
possesses and conquer all.

I will find
any and all weaknesses of these terrible wolves. I will journal all
I know about them – to kill, to fear me, and my power.

I hate the
Vlko Dlak with a terrible venom.

I will use
them as slaves until they are nothing, and I have everything.

Bentos

I stared at the
hand written confession, because that’s what it was: a
century-and-a-half-old confession. My head shook at the maniac who
was the author of this journal. Bentos had been jealous of his
brothers and angered at his own weakness. He had killed his family.
He had been a horrible person who craved power and he’d done
terrible things with it. Someone that power hungry? He must have
wanted to control Michael and Grace’s kind when he found out about
them. How did he even know they existed?

I slammed the
journal shut and tossed it on floor by my backpack. I had read
enough.

I hated
Grollics like he had, but I was not him. Whatever Bentos was, I
would
never
become. I swore it.

Chapter
9

Early the next
morning I woke on my side of the bed with Michael quietly sitting
beside me.

“Did you sleep
alright?” Michael murmured as his hand caressed my cheek.

I smiled and
rolled over to stretch, enjoying the vision I had the pleasure of
waking up to. “What time did you and Grace finally say good night?”
I tried to remember what time I had fallen asleep.

“I came in here
about twenty minutes ago actually. Grace is sitting out on the step
writing a list of for us.”

“A list?”
Humans wrote lists – list for groceries, lists for packing, and
anything else we thought we might forget. Grace and Michael didn’t
need to write lists, they remembered everything.

Michael rolled
his eyes. “It’s a list of topics for us to discuss on the road so
we don’t get bored. I think she’s also making up some road games
for us to play.” He was trying not laugh, speaking quietly so Grace
wouldn’t hear him.

I smiled at the
thought of Grace drumming a pencil to a pad of paper as she tried
to come up with ideas for us. It was her way of being in the car
without doing the road trip. “It sounds like a great idea. Grace is
awesome!” I said it loud so she would hear. I winked at Michael. I
jumped out of the bed and headed towards the bathroom before he
could make a comment.

I used to have
short showers while living with my foster parents, just one of
their endless attempts to suck any form of joy out of my life; and
oddly enough, even though I now lived pretty much in the lap of
luxury, the short shower routine had still stuck with me. However,
today I spent extra time enjoying the hot water. I had no idea if
we were driving straight through or staying in hotels along the
way, so no way of knowing when I might next have the pleasure of a
hot shower. I had left all the travel planning to Michael, so I
could concentrate on school. After the shower, I dressed in a pair
of thin pants and a red tank top, figuring comfort on the road was
more important than looking fashionable. Besides, what did I know
about looking fashionable? I blow-dried my hair as quickly as I
could and added threw on some mascara, my only real concession to
my more “girly” inclinations.

Dressed and
ready, I headed to pack a few last things into my backpack. On the
coffee table, sat a Starbucks latte. I offered a thank you to
whichever caring soul had sought to sooth my need for caffeine.

Grace came
strolling in with her list, tossing it onto the table as she sat
down.

“Are you all
packed?” she asked.

“Pretty much. I
was thinking I should fill a cooler with some food.”

“Good idea.
Michael gets crabby if he doesn’t snack.” She watched me a few
moments, inhaling a sharp breath when I picked up the wolf book and
my journal.

“Everything
okay?”

She shifted in
her seat. “With me or with you?”

I gave her a
questioning look, trying to stuff my defensiveness back into its
black hole in my head. I was getting tired of all the weird
questioning from the Thompson family. It wasn’t Grace’s fault, but
I couldn’t stop myself. “I’m totally fine. Great in fact! What’s
your problem?” I hated the irritation in my voice but didn’t
apologize.

Grace stood,
crossing her arms over her chest. “Michael told me about the wolf
book. You can read another part again? How do you feel?” She tapped
her back, referring to my birthmark. “Do you
feel
any
different?”

I zipped up my
backpack roughly. “Did you say something to Michael?”

Grace shook her
head.

I sighed.
“Sorry. I just… I don’t know. I’m anxious about the book, about
travelling and what we are going to find out. Caleb’s irritated
with me. It seems Michael’s annoyed. I just want things to be
normal.”

“Normal? That
flew out the window a long time ago.”

“Doesn’t mean a
girl can’t dream.”

Grace laughed.
“You’re going to be okay. Michael’s with you.” She hugged me,
squeezing me tight. “I’m a phone call away if you need me. Remember
that.” She leaned in and whispered, as if afraid someone might
hear, “Just don’t keep too many secrets. They weigh you down.”

Didn’t she
realize? That was why I was going. I hoped to find some answers.
“I’ll miss you.”

“Me, too.”
Grace let go of me just as Michael came through the door. “Call
me.”

“I will.”

“Or I’ll bug
Michael and use him as a phone.” She ruffled her brother’s hair as
she ran by him. “Chat soon, big bro.”

Michael watched
her go with wide eyes. “What’d I do now?”

“Nothing!” she
called back, nearly at the house.

He shook his
head and turned to me and grinned. “You ready?”

“Almost. Just
want to empty the fridge into a cooler for us.”

Michael had the
back of the Jeep packed and organized by the time I had finished
the kitchen and tidied the pool house. While he left to load the
cooler into the Jeep, I had one last walk around. I couldn’t help
but feel a sense of change, the feeling that had been missing
during graduation. It bothered me that I was so apprehensive about
the future and that I would miss this place so much; that the next
time I came back here things would be very different. I was worried
the cloud I felt over my head wasn’t just common, every-day bad
luck, but more a sense of doom about what I would learn about
myself. All I wanted was answers. How could that leave me with such
a sense of foreboding?

Michael came
back to the pool house, to find me standing at the entrance. He
stood silently beside me for a few moments, and then put his cool
hand into mine. “Rouge, whatever happens, whatever you learn, it’s
the
past.
It’s not who you are right now, who you spent the
last eighteen years discovering. It isn’t going to change who you
are inside. You’ll still be you – the girl who I love, and who,
strangely enough, just happens to know how to talk to wolves.” He
squeezed my hand and led me outside.

We walked
around to the front of the house where the Jeep sat parked beside
Grace’s little Beetle.

Sarah was
waiting by the cars for us. She came over the moment she saw us. “I
hope you find what you’re looking for.” She hugged me and said
nothing more. She waved to Michael.

“Thanks, we’ll
see you soon and let you know if we find anything.”

She nodded and
headed inside.

I went around
to the passenger’s side of the jeep. Caleb stood leaning against
the door. I had hoped he wouldn’t be around to see us off, but
there was no avoiding him now.

“Hello Caleb,”
I said trying to appear indifferent.

I stood
awkwardly, not sure what to say or do when he didn’t reply.

Michael broke
the silence, “Caleb, I’ll see you in a week.”

A week? Hadn’t
we planned to be away for three or four weeks?

Caleb nodded
and moved to open the door for me. “Let me know if you learn
anything important from the book. If you are able to figure out a
way to decode it, have Michael call me. I’m sure whatever you learn
will help us—I mean you, it will help you.” He leaned over to speak
directly to Michael already inside the Jeep. “Watch yourself. I’ll
send Seth, just say the word.

That set off my
internal alarm bells. Something was up. And it had nothing to do
with me. I resolved to get answers out of Michael as soon as we
were on our way.

He closed my
door and walked toward the house. It was June and he still wore a
long tan coat, its tails flapping in the wind behind him. He still
had the presence of a seventeenth century lord and often dressed
the part. The interesting bit was that it suited him and made him
look very classy, instead of ridiculous. I hated myself for being
fascinated and terrified of him at the same time.

Michael started
the Jeep and drove down the driveway towards the road. He handed me
the GPS. “I put some maps under your seat if you want to follow
them.”

“What’s Caleb
concerned about? Has there been any trouble?” I watched his face,
searching for some clue to show he might be hiding something. “The
wolf kind?”

Michael looked
at me and then turned his eyes back on the road. “There have been a
few problems along the south-east coast. It seems that there is a
pack of wolves that have been attacking a number of cities. They
are obviously looking for something or someone, but Caleb, I mean
the Higher Coven, is unsure of what, or who. It is nothing to worry
about, as a few scouts have been sent out to try and determine what
the problem is. It has nothing to do with us.”