Shattered (18 page)

Brindi sat down
beside me, almost close enough to touch, but not quite. Part of me
wanted to reach out and take her hand. She'd been torn out of the
world she knew and thrown into one that was even more dangerous.

I'd tried very
hard to convince her to stay in Ohio with Rachel, but she'd refused.
I'd told her she was essentially over the addiction and she'd
emphatically told me that I was wrong, that most of the time the only
thing she could think about still was when she would get to have her
next hit.

It seemed a
small thing to give her that shred of human contact that I knew she
wanted, but I kept my hands to myself. There was too much of a chance
that a decision to touch her right then would be more because I was
lonely than because I was worried about her. Besides, she'd gotten
more than enough contact while we were making the trip from the cabin
to the cars. The last thing I should be doing right now was giving
her even more of a buzz.

"Alec,
what is going on? How did we walk past those guards like that?"

Brindi was
staring at me again. There was a good reason this time—she'd
just finished asking me a question—but I'd caught her a lot
lately looking at me even when there wasn't a reason to be doing so.
The scary thing was the way that the look was changing over time.
What would I do when the addiction was gone but she still wanted to
be around me all of the time?

I needed
someone who wasn't part of the dominance posturing, someone I could
talk to, someone I didn't have to worry about looking weak around.
Rachel could have been that person, at least to a limited extent, but
I'd done everything I could to keep her away from me ever since we'd
left home. It was too dangerous for her to be with me—I didn't
want anything to happen to her, and for all that I couldn't protect
her from three states away, I would be even less able to protect her
if she was right here next to me. I was plain and simply in over my
head.

Brindi could
become that person. She knew it was dangerous, but didn't seem to
mind. The only problem was that I didn't feel the same way about her
that she felt about me. You could always say that she was a big girl,
that she knew what she was getting into, that she knew I didn't love
her, but it still didn't feel right. Even if I told her that nothing
could happen between us, if I let her stay around she would still be
putting her life into a holding pattern.

Sooner or later
Brindi would come to and realize that she'd wasted her life. I didn't
want her to end up hating me, but it was getting harder and harder to
see a way forward where nobody got hurt.

What I really
wanted was to spend time with Adri, but the universe seemed to be
conspiring to make sure that didn't happen. I had Isaac's phone
number, but I'd been so busy after the ambush trying to make sure
that everyone made it out safely and then after that with trying to
establish a dialogue with the other packs that I hadn't called him
and asked for her phone number.

No, that wasn't
the truth. It was what I'd been telling myself, but it wasn't the
truth. I hadn't called because I hadn't known what to say. It was the
same reason I hadn't made time to talk to Adri right before everyone
left the ambush site. I'd wanted to, but she'd been off with Dream
Stealer and I hadn't wanted to start a fight. Besides, Brindi had
been extra clingy after so much time apart and it hadn't felt right
to walk up to Adri and once again proclaim my undying love for her
with Brindi in tow.

It wouldn't
have been fair—to Adri or Brindi either one—so I hadn't
done it, and now I was sitting here on a plane wondering if I was
ever going to be able to make things right between us. I was starting
to suspect the answer was no. I'd waited too long.

One of the
calls I'd made on the hike from Carson's cabin had been to Isaac, and
for a second there I'd almost convinced myself that I was going to
ask him for Adri's phone number when he answered, but the call had
gone through to voice mail and I'd chickened out.

It was becoming
clear to me that I had some kind of self-destructive bent when it
came to not letting myself find someone to be happy with, but that
was a problem for another day. For now I needed to focus on getting
James' mom back.

"I'm not
sure, Brindi. I can only make guesses. Carson must know someone,
either a human or a hybrid, who is able to make people not see us."

"No, they
saw us. If they hadn't seen us they would have crushed us back here.
It's like they saw us, but just didn't care. What about cameras? Do
you think that we'll get caught somehow because of the cameras we
passed entering the base?"

Carson stepped
over Brindi and me and then sat down next to me.

"I should
have known it was too much to expect for the five of you to take this
all on faith."

I started to
respond hotly, but Carson held his hand up. "That wasn't a
condemnation. You're all intelligent and properly paranoid. I
appreciate your willingness to trust me, but it wasn't fair of me to
extract that promise from you."

"Does that
mean you'll tell us what just happened?"

"Yes, at
least in part. I was once a part of a group that had significant
resources. One of those resources is a hybrid who has a unique talent
that he calls shielding. He's able to form a kind of link with
someone after spending several hours with them and then use that link
to…obscure…their presence. From the time when I called
him until just now when I let him know that we were on the plane, he
made us effectively invisible. People and animals were able to see us
so that we didn't collide with them, but beyond that we might as well
have not existed for the last hour.

"Those who
saw us ceased to remember us once we were out of sight. Any
satellites, cameras or other electronic surveillance will have
completely failed to register our presence. By taking a regularly
scheduled flight we were able to make it completely impossible for
anyone to track our movements. We will arrive in California without
the Coun'hij or anyone else other than my friend ever being able to
track us back to my cabin."

My mind was
reeling from the possibilities of what Carson had just described.
"Carson, that is nothing less than amazing. This is exactly the
weapon we've been missing in our fight against the Coun'hij. Being
able to move around freely without fear of being tracked back to our
base of operation would allow us to operate against them with near
impunity."

Carson nodded,
but I hardly even noticed. My mind had already jumped ahead to the
question of what else such a power might be used for.

"Carson,
what happens if someone who is being shielded by your friend hurts
someone? What would have happened if I had punched one of those
guards back at the checkpoint?"

Carson's smile
was sad. "They would have stood there without moving and let you
punch them. If you were the kind of person to do such a thing, you
could have slaughtered the entire security detachment there at the
base and none of them would have done anything to defend themselves.
To anyone watching the soldiers would have seemed to sprout injuries
without visible cause for them. Afterwards the witnesses would have a
hard time remembering what happened. There would be no digital record
of your crimes. You would effectively get away with murder."

Even despite
the noise, the rest of the pack had heard Carson's explanation and I
could tell that they were all as shocked as I was. The individual
Carson had just described was possibly the single most dangerous
person in the entire world because you would never even see him
coming. He could end the war all by himself in a matter of weeks.

Carson allowed
us a few seconds to digest what he'd just said and then continued.
"And that is why my friend only grants the use of his ability to
a very small group of people that he trusts. The use of violence
while under his protection is an instant death penalty. While he is
shielding you he's aware of your location and if anything happens
while you're there, then he shields himself and comes looking for
you."

"What if
it wasn't you? What if it was an accident?"

"That
depends on how much he trusts you. It's possible that someone he has
a long history with will be given a chance to explain. Certainly my
friend will examine the crime scene and any witnesses available, but
there is one rule that my friend lives by above all else. He will not
be turned into a weapon and anyone who attempts to do so will die by
his hand."

My stomach
tightened up as I realized how much danger we'd been in. For nearly
an hour we'd merrily traveled along not realizing that any accidents
or murders along our path would have been attributed to us.

"That's
insane."

"I'm not
sure that is quite the right assessment of my friend, Alec, but by
the same measure I'm not sure that he would argue with such a
description. What I do know is that his talents are not something to
use idly. Like all weapons, he demands respect if you want to ensure
that he won't turn on you at a future date."

Jasmin and I
exchanged considering glances and I knew exactly what she was
thinking.

"Carson, I
would like to meet this group that you belong to. So far its
membership includes you, who can stop someone from getting angry
enough to shift forms; Grayson, who can immobilize large groups for a
limited period of time, effectively making them sitting ducks; and
this friend of yours, who sounds like the perfect assassin. Other
than the Coun'hij, I can't think of any other single group that is as
powerful as just the three of you. If there happens to be another
hybrid or two among your ranks with an equally useful ability you
might even be more powerful than the Coun'hij.

"It's now
obvious to me how you all managed to keep such a low profile, but I
would like to know more. I would like to understand your aims and why
you have stayed out of the greater conflict among our people for so
long."

Carson looked
away from me for nearly a minute, and when he looked back he looked
the saddest I'd ever seen him.

"I wish
that I could introduce you to the group you're describing, Alec. Once
upon a time I would have gladly made the case for your inclusion into
our membership. I believe you could have furthered our ultimate goal.
I think that your fire to see things change would have been good for
us, but that cannot happen now."

"Why? What
made you think I'm not worthy of meeting the rest of you?"

"It's not
a question of worthiness, Alec. The group you described no longer
exists. It's gone, fractured into dozens of pieces, many of whom
would kill you on sight. That group will never reassemble into
something useful, it's broken too badly for that. And the Father help
me, I'm the one who destroyed it."

**

Our exit from
the plane went smoothly. Carson called up his friend and he shielded
us until we were off of the base, at which point we rented a couple
of cars and started scouting the neighborhood where James' mom had
been staying.

We put Brindi
and Jasmin in one car and Jess in another and had them shadow James,
Carson and me as we walked through the area. I let Carson go off by
himself, but kept James with me. James didn't particularly like being
babysat any more than I liked babysitting him, but he was too wound
up to be walking around without a minder. With my luck, if I let him
out of my sight James would end up getting into a fight with one of
the local gangs and it wouldn't end up being the gang that actually
had his mom.

It was harder
than I'd been expecting to pick up the vampire's trail. Part of that
was the fact that everyone seemed to have vehicles, and part of it
was the fact that it was broad daylight so we couldn't use our wolf
forms. Mostly though it came down to all of the false positives that
we kept running into.

Every corner of
every block smelled like a vampire had been there at some point in
the last five or six days, which had me really worried until James
literally ran into a pair of gangers. He nearly started a fight right
there and then. As I pulled him back away from them I realized the
smell was coming off of them, it was just so faint that I almost
hadn't picked up on it.

We stepped away
from the two gang members and walked over to a shoe store half a
block over so I could call everyone else. It only took a second to
put together a conference call with the others.

"This
whole area smells like vampires, but it's the local gang. I thought
the vampires would be separate from the local human muscle, but it
looks like they infiltrated the Bloods here."

James shook his
head. "I think it's more than just that, Alec. I didn't bump
into those guys by accident; I was trying to get close enough to get
a good sniff around whatever cologne they were wearing. Unless those
guys are spending a lot of time rolling around with a vampire there's
no way that they would have picked up the scent that strongly."

"What
other explanation is there?"

"I don't
know, they weren't vampires themselves—it wasn't strong enough
for that—but it was still stronger than I expected it to be."

Carson broke
in. "I tend to agree. I had the same thought about the terrain
itself. The stench around here is both too strong and not strong
enough. How do we want to proceed?"

James looked
around for a second and then smiled. "I've got an idea. Jess,
pick up Carson and meet up with us at the pet store on the west side
of the projects. Once you're here strip out of your ha'bit and unlock
your doors."

It wasn't
necessarily a bad idea, but it was a good thing James had picked Jess
for it rather than Jasmin. Jasmin never would have agreed to having a
collar put on her let alone a leash too. Tinted windows or no tinted
windows, Jess didn't particularly like the idea of taking her clothes
off in the middle of downtown Los Angeles, but she did it and then
once I heard a low whine from inside I opened up the side door and
let her out.