Marked by Destiny (2 page)

“Rouge, you
ready to go shopping?” Grace came barging through the door into the
pool-house-now-my-house.

I jumped off
the bed grateful for the interruption. I didn’t want to worry about
the future. I wanted to be happy in the present. I stuffed the
journal into the drawer beside the futon bed. “Almost, just need to
find a pair of shoes to wear.”

Grace went
straight into the small closet by the door. She grabbed a cute
little pair of maryjanes that would go perfect with my capris and
blouse. Grace would know exactly where to look; she had filled the
closet up for me.

“Thanks.” I sat
down on the end of the bed to put them on.

“Where’s
Michael?” she asked and glanced around. “He never seems to leave
your side these days. I was shocked when he didn’t put up a fight
about shopping.”

“He needed to
talk to Caleb.”

“And he left
you alone?” The mocking shocked look on her face was too much.

“The pool house
is maybe fifty feet from your place. I think I can manage on my
own.” I tossed a lone sock from the floor near the bed at her.

She easily
reflected it and laughed. “I believe you. It’s the men inside that
house,” she nodded in the direction of the large vintage house that
Caleb and Sarah owned, “that need to be reminded.” She checked her
watch. “We should get going if we want to get an outfit picked out
and
be at the school for the rehearsal this afternoon.”

“If we are
running late we can always shop inside your closet or mine. Half my
clothes still have their original tags on.” I smiled because Grace
loved to shop and had filled up that closet because hers was
already too full. I had never had money so I was thrifty when it
came to spending money.

“I’m an
excellent power shopper!”

“I have no
doubt, Grace.” I grinned and reached for my keys hanging on the
little hook near the door. I hesitated. I hadn’t driven the jeep
since Damon had forced me to drive it into the woods. I hadn’t even
gone inside it.

“I’ll drive.”
She pressed her lips together a moment. “It’s easier to find a
parking space with my little Beetle.”

I let my arm
drop to my side. “Okay. Maybe tomorrow I’ll take the Jeep out for a
spin.” I grabbed my purse and tried to hide the sigh of relief.

Outside, we
walked around the pool toward the larger house. Instead of going up
the wooded deck inside, Grace veered to the side and continued
walking around the house. “Has anything changed with… you know?”
she said quietly glancing up the windows by where we walked. We
were nowhere near Caleb’s office but she still remained cautious.
Grace knew about the mark on my back. It was the same as the one
Grollics had on their chest, except mine lay in the exact same
location but on my back as if it had been pierced through me and
ended up on the other side.

I shook my head
reminded that Michael would one day abhor me. Right now though, the
enemy hated me more. I had a gift (or curse, depending on how you
looked at it) which allowed me to control the wolves. I could turn
a Grollic into a servant if I wanted, except I had no idea how I
did it. I had found this antique journal-book that seemed to
explain werewolves but it wasn’t written in English or any other
language that anyone could read, except me. There were only a few
pages that appeared to be in English to me, but not to anyone else.
The werewolves didn’t want me to control them. They wanted me
dead.

I hadn’t looked
at the Wolf Book since Damon had nearly killed me back in January.
Months had passed and I kept making excuses not to look at it, kind
of like driving the Jeep. A part of me was terrified and the other
part wanted to pretend things were normal, even if it was just for
a few months. Graduation had been my mental count down. I should be
excited to graduate but what would happen after, terrified me.

“Earth to
Rouge.” Grace waved her hand in front of my face. “You need to move
your legs in order to walk.” She slipped her arm around my
shoulder. “I may be a speed shopping, but you need all the help you
can get.”

We headed
around the last corner of the house to the driveway where the cars
were parked Michael’s mustang was gone from its usual parking spot.
Funny, he didn’t tell me he had to go out. Just that he needed
to see Caleb.

Sarah, Grace’
adopted mother, came out the front door as we were getting into the
car. “Girls! Caleb just called and asked if you would mind stopping
off at his office.”

“No problem.
After we’re done shopping we’ll go by!” Grace replied.

Sarah shook her
head. “He means now, Grace.”

“Fine.” Grace
rolled her eyes at me as we got inside the car. “Great! Kiss
shopping good-bye.”

Michael had
obviously gone to the office to see Caleb. I had just assumed he
meant the office inside the house. I waved to Sarah as Grace
reversed and honked the horn at Sarah. “Do you know what he wants?”
Caleb just oozed of power and authority. It made me nervous.

“Not a clue.
Guess we’ll find out. It had better be quick.”

I had never
been to the office building. I had a bad feeling this had nothing
to do with Grace, but Caleb wanted to see me. My shoulder blade
burned where my birthmark had turned dark. My heart raced. Could he
know about the marking? Was it possible he had found out?

Chapter
2

We pulled out
the driveway onto the main road spitting gravel, with Grace not
even bothering to slow down; the fuzzy pink dice on her rear-view
mirror swinging like crazy.

She zipped
across town. I had no clue where we were going, so I stared out the
window and watched the scenery whiz by.

“What’s up?”
She pulled around a van to pass it and quickly back into the lane.
“Why’re you chewing your finger nails like I’m taking you to prison
instead of the office? It’s no big deal.”

I hid my hands
under my legs to stop the nervous habit. “Sorry. Why does Caleb
want to see us? Why couldn’t it just wait until we got home from
school or he got home from work? What does he do, by the way? I
thought he basically worked from home.”

Grace smiled
and shot me a sympathetic glance. “He wants to see me. You’re part
of this family now. He’s beginning to see that, so why not have you
see the office building he owns?”

“He owns an
entire building?” Seriously, why did this guy do?

“It’s a medical
building. I’m surprised Michael or I haven’t mentioned it before.
You know how a few years back there was this huge breakthrough in
the news about no longer needing blood donors?” She didn’t wait for
me to response. “That was all Caleb. The man is beyond brilliant.
He’s the scientist who figured out how to clone plasma and
blood.”

I laughed. I
didn’t mean to, but come on, I joked about them being modern day
vampires and they were the creators of synthetic blood? It was kind
of ironic.

We were at
Caleb’s office in about ten minutes. Built completely of dark
glass, the office building had a very modern look to it. I couldn’t
quite tell if it was five or six stories tall, as the glass
architecture had a very unique design and it was hard to tell where
one floor might end and a new one begin.

Grace parked in
the restricted parking area, a few spots from Caleb’s car. She
leaned over me and reached into the glove compartment to pull out a
parking tab to hang by the pink dice.

“We’ll have to
go through the front doors since you don’t have a pass to wear
inside. Next time, we can get one made up. We don’t have time to do
that today.” She shook her head and muttered, “Let alone shop.
We’ll be lucky to even get to school.”

I nodded, too
anxious to say anything. I wanted the butterflies in my stomach to
settle down before we were inside Caleb’s office.

We walked
around the parking area, to the front walk, and into the building.
I stopped and stared. No medical building I had ever been in looked
like this. Breath-taking. The main lobby had marble everywhere – on
the floor, the pillars, the front desk and a gorgeous waterfall.
The cascade of water was made up of a huge slab of agate that stood
over eight feet tall and the pond at the bottom had koi and
goldfish swimming around in it. The dark windows and incredibly
high ceiling reminded me of an ancient, reverent cave. Soft music
echoed softly from hidden speakers, filling the space with relaxing
tones. The view almost made you not notice the cameras or security
guards standing in several places strategically located
throughout.

Grace led me to
a room that required a security code to entire. She flashed her
badge at a guard who obviously recognized her and didn’t need to
see it. He nodded and then looked at me with open curiosity. I
wondered if he was one of them, or human like me. He looked pretty
indestructible. The sunglasses didn’t give me a chance to see his
eyes.

We headed to
the elevators. Inside, Grace hit the fourth floor, the top floor,
and then put a small key into the hole above the numbers and turned
it to the right. She left the key in until after the doors opened
and we were about to step out. Caleb’s office was obviously not
open to the public –like a hidden penthouse.

The minute we
stepped off the elevator it felt like we were stepping into Caleb’s
office inside their house. It had the same style, lighting,
atmosphere, all of it. You couldn’t tell if it was early evening or
morning. The high ceiling lobby and glass explained why it was
difficult to tell from the outside of the building how many floors
there were. The windows were double layered here and his office was
hidden from plain sight.

The floor
circulated around the lobby. You could look down at the people and
waterfall but they wouldn’t see you. Facing the elevator doors was
a large reception desk where a lady in her forties sat. I assumed
she was in her forties until I saw the pendant around her neck, and
realized she could be forty or three hundred and forty. Grace was a
step or so behind me. It had taken her a bit longer to get the key
out of the elevator. The reception woman’s eyes narrowed and turned
a lighter shade of blue at me. Then she noticed Grace and her eyes
turned back to a slightly less vibrant blue color.

“Grace! How
lovely to see you!” Her voice floated across the marble floor.

Odd. I’d have
thought it would echo against the stone.

“Nice to see
you as well Margarette. This is Michael’s Rouge.” It was funny to
always be introduced as Michael’s but it obviously was a marker
that I was considered safe – or off limits. Who knew which one they
meant?

“Hello, Rouge.”
She was very polite and smiled briefly; her face revealing
nothing.

“Hello,
Margarette.”

“Caleb’s
waiting for you, Grace. He made no mention that
she
would be
here as well.” She nodded her head in my direction.

Grace tsked.
She moved closer beside me and met Margarette’s glare with one of
her own, her tone turning sharp. “He knows Rouge’s with me. He’ll
be wanting to talk to her more than me.” Without saying another
word Grace took my hand and walked around the glass center to the
other side of the building.

The sound of
her heels “click-clacking” down the corridor filled the space and
our pace didn’t give me a chance to ask what she meant by the
comment. I thought she had said in the car that he wanted to see
her, not me. My heart fluttered in frustration against my rib cage.
I hated not understanding what was really going on.

She barged
through his office without bothering to knock. A guard stepped
forward but she held him back with a simple palm raised, warning
him not to come towards us.

The office was
almost as big as the cottage I lived in, and had volumes of books
along the walls, along with computer terminals set up at each
corner. TV monitors were set up along one wall and you could see
everything going on from the floors below. Caleb sat at his desk,
which was an exact replica of the desk at the house. He also had
the same red leather ottoman chairs in front of the desk that he
had at the house. The replication of atmospheres was almost
eerie.

“Good morning
ladies.” Caleb stood up from his desk as we walked in. He still had
the manor of a fifteenth or sixteenth century gentleman. I always
felt like I was in the presence of royalty when he was in the
room.

“It’s nearly
lunch and we’re running late for school, Caleb.” Grace crossed her
arms over her chest. “You failed to mention to Margarette that
Rouge would be coming in. She seemed slightly irritated.”

“Margarette
would have been annoyed if I told her Rouge was coming to see me
also. Either way, I will be hearing about it after you two have
gone.” He let a very small smile brush his lips but it did not
reach his eyes.

Grace marched
into the room. “Why did you want me to come here? We were hoping to
get some shopping in before we needed to be at the school for the
graduation rehearsal. That’s out of the question now.”

Caleb ignored
Grace’s remark, and looked beyond her, at me. “Michael mentioned
you’re planning on leaving the day after graduation.”

“Hi—I’ve...” I
cleared my throat and tried again. “I am.”

“You are?”
Grace spun around and stared at me in surprise. “Why didn’t you say
anything to me?”

I stared at
her, then Caleb and then back to my best friend. “I…I… Sorry.” I
hadn’t meant to keep it from her. It wasn’t a secret. Their family
knew I was going eventually. Why wait? “Last night Michael and I
figured it would be perfect timing.” I shrugged, hating to have
this conversation with Grace in front of Caleb. “I just hadn’t had
a chance to tell you.”

Grace’s face
softened.