Splintered (16 page)

Chapter 20

Alec - Graves Manor,
Sanctuary

I was in Donovan's office waiting
for him when he and Jasmin got back. It was the one place we were
virtually certain had remained locked up the entire time Agony had
been here, but even so I didn't fully trust the belief we were safe
there. The conversation I'd had with Shawn previously would have
created waves between Agony and me if he'd heard it. If what
Donovan now knew got out, members of the pack were going to
die.

Donovan opened his mouth as if to talk as he
came through the door, but I held up my hand. I turned on the white
noise generator located next to his desk and then pulled out a
sheaf of paper. Using my body and the top sheet of paper I blocked
as many sight lines as I could just in case Agony's men had somehow
planted some kind of camera in the room.

"The bug sniffers aren't finding anything, but
I know Isaac's talked for years about creating a bug that only
transmits intermittently maybe coupled with some kind of sensor
that tells it when people are in the room."

"Understandable, sir. May I?"

Donovan's generally neat script was hurried and
cramped.

A. was successful. M. thinks you
should give Agony whatever is needed to survive yourself. We must
buy time for your power to reemerge. O. fed A. memories of last
visit here. Possibly an ally?

The situation was bleaker knowing that Mallory
hadn't been any more able to come up with a brilliant solution than
I'd been. I'd expected as much, but still clung to the hope she'd
see a way out of the situation that would guarantee everyone both
their lives and their self-respect.

I let the top sheet fall back over
Donovan's writing and then fed all dozen or so sheets through the
shredder at once.

"Do you think she's right, Donovan?
Is that really the best option available to us?"

"From a long-term standpoint I think
it is. I understand the likely consequences as well as anyone, I
think, but I still would urge you to do exactly that."

Donovan reached down and placed his hand on my
shoulder in a rare gesture of physical comfort. I looked up to meet
his eyes and saw in them an understanding of what it would cost us
if Agony decided to force the issue. Donovan had been, to one
extent or another, a father to most of the pack.

I couldn't see any way of surviving a fight
with Agony's men, not with him and Oblivion thrown in, but the
thought of letting one of our friends die still left me feeling
sick.

"What about the second piece?"

Donovan considered for several
seconds. "I think if it were true it would change everything, but I
think it unwise for us to create any plans that include that as a
requirement for success."

"You're probably right."

I spared a moment to hope we didn't lose
anyone. That would be bad enough all by itself, but losing someone
and then finding out later that Oblivion would have backed our play
would be even worse.

I stood to leave and then heard something hit
the reinforced steel walls of the office hard enough to make the
room shake.

I was out into the hall just in time
to see Abaddon throw Isaac into the wall again. Isaac shifted into
his hybrid form as he rebounded, and turned on his opponent with
more fury than I'd seen out of him in years.

The attack caught Abaddon off guard.
He was slow changing, which allowed Isaac to get in a solid slash
across his chest. Jess was huddled in the corner rocking back and
forth as she sobbed quietly.

Abaddon shrugged Isaac off in a
complicated move that I'd never seen before. The two hybrids sprang
at each other and once again Isaac was the one that went flying. He
sailed down the hall, past Jess and nearly hit Jasmin before he
managed to get a grip on the floor and bring himself to a
stop.

Abaddon rushed past me, knocking
Isaac back into the west drawing room. I picked Jess up as I
followed along the trail of destruction they'd created. Jasmin
joined me just inside the room where we could watch the
fight.

"Did you see how it started?"

Jasmin shook her head. "No, but
judging by the state Jess is in, Abaddon did something to her or
tried to do something. Isaac sprang to her defense and Abaddon
started kicking the crap out of him."

Her summation of how Isaac was
faring was unfortunately accurate. Abaddon's style of fighting was
completely different than anything I'd ever seen before. Rather
than trying to get behind Isaac where he could clinch and get a
death grip, he kept knocking Isaac away.

Isaac wasn't fighting with his
normal calm. Instead he was fighting stupidly. It was every bit as
bad as what James usually did, and the result was every bit as bad
as I would have expected. Against someone like Vincent, Isaac
probably would have already lost the battle for positioning and be
seconds from death. Instead he was bleeding from a dozen different
places to Abaddon's two and maybe a minute from losing the
fight.

There was a desperation to the fight
now as Isaac sensed it resolving in Abaddon's favor. Isaac charged
again, getting his talons into Abaddon's right leg before being
driven back with a flurry of slashes.

Jasmin crowded in close to my side.
"Shouldn't we do something? I mean it's three to one. We could
easily kill Abaddon and shift the balance of power in our
favor."

I shook my head. That was exactly the kind of
thing that Agony was looking for. "It's a dominance fight. They
have to work out who's dominant to who."

Jasmin looked like she was going to
argue with me but Donovan shook his head at her. I turned back to
the fight as another crash announced the destruction of more
furniture. Isaac was on the ground now, struggling to get up as
Abaddon glided forward.

I moved between them, but mostly faced Isaac.
"You're beaten. He's dominant to you and you're going to have to
just deal with it."

Isaac shook his head. "Jess. I have
to protect her."

"No, you've just proved you can't protect
either of you. Stand down."

He wasn't going to listen. I could
see it in his eyes, so I did the only thing I could to keep him
alive. I stomped down on his arm nearly hard enough to break bone
as I let the hands holding Jess turn into nightmarish things that
were topped by the same kind of semi-retractable claws he and
Abaddon were already sporting. I didn't have to actually say
anything, the threat was clear.

I turned to Abaddon. "There's no
need for the fight to continue. You've proven you're dominant to
him, killing him would be a waste."

"It's my decision, my right."
Abaddon's voice came out deeper than normal, but there was an edge
to it that couldn't be explained just by the different physiology
between human and hybrid forms. He longed for the kill.

"He's your second and he wasn't any
kind of challenge. Maybe I shouldn't stop with him."

My beast surged forward, filling the
room with a level of power that made the fireworks that had
accompanied their fight look like sparklers. As powerful as Agony
and the rest of the Coun'hij ultimately were, it was the sick
pieces of work like Abaddon and Marco who ultimately made it
possible for such a small group to hold an entire race
hostage.

The entire Coun'hij would have been swarmed
under decades ago if not for the fact that they'd drawn together so
many like-minded hybrids who lived for the sadistic thrill of
seeing the rest of us brought low.

It was all I could do to stop myself
from springing at Abaddon. My beast had largely been quiet for the
last few weeks. Even the fight with Vincent hadn't really drawn it
to the surface like this. Somewhere along the way it had gained
power, had eroded more of that slim margin of willpower I used to
keep it leashed.

I was so busy trying to master
myself that it took me a minute to realize Abaddon had actually
backed up a step. I stalked forward, just enough to make him
nervous without actually getting close enough to make him attack
me.

"If you attack me it will be the last thing you
ever do. The same tradition that gives you the right to kill Isaac
right now would finally give me the pretext I need to end
you."

I loosened my grip on my beast just
the slightest bit and felt my eyes bleed over to a lighter blue as
the power level impossibly ratcheted up even more. I could almost
see Abaddon's thoughts. He'd been told to create incidents, to tear
at the bonds holding our pack together. He'd been prepared to do
that, eager even after my fight with Vincent had made him think
stories about my power were so much hot air.

Faced with the very real possibility
that I'd just been holding back for some incomprehensible reason,
Abaddon wasn't so eager anymore. He'd already lost a certain amount
of status when Isaac had attacked him rather than bowing down
before his towering reputation. He could regain it if he pushed me
into a fight and then killed me, but he'd never felt that kind of
power out of a single individual before.

Abaddon backed slowly away and then disappeared around a
corner. I set Jess down next to Isaac and then left the room. I
could feel Isaac's eyes follow me out of sight. I didn't need to
look back to know they were filled with hate. We'd stood together
against Brandon's overwhelming numbers, against James' craziness,
and never flinched, but I'd just burned that history up like
cobwebs. It remained to see whether or not any loyalty would
survive the next few days, but I'd had no other choice. This at
least gave him and Jess both a chance to see tomorrow.

Chapter 21

Mom and I had the biggest fight ever once
Donovan left. Apparently she'd been watching from the upstairs
window. Seeing Jasmin leave all banged up and Donovan limp away
after talking to me alone had apparently been the last
straw.

"You're not to talk to Alec or any of his
friends ever again. I don't even want you associating with them at
school."

"That's not fair. None of us have done anything
wrong!"

"No, you've done plenty wrong, you're just not
admitting to the rest of it."

"If Dad were here he'd be
reasonable."

Mom's eyes blazed at my unfair jab. "Yes,
please remind me of what I've lost. You're so busy wallowing in
your self-pity you never bother to think about the fact that this
is hard on me too."

"Right, because it was my choice to uproot you
and drag you halfway across the country."

"I did what I had to do to take care of
us."

I nearly turned and walked away. It would have
been the smart thing. I would have gotten in trouble but nothing
compared to what came next.

"No, you did what you've done so you
could go play photographer. I haven't done anything wrong, but it
would serve you right if I had. You spend most of your time out in
the mountains expecting me to raise myself. Well, guess what. I did
and now you've got to deal with the fact that I'm an adult too and
you've been away too much to have any idea what I do with my time.
Dad would roll in his grave if he could see you now."

Mom slapped me. Not like Marco had slapped me,
lazy and secure in his own power. Mom hauled back and hit me with
everything she had. I ran upstairs and locked my bedroom
door.

I guess it was a moral victory. I'd pushed her
so far she'd done something she regretted. It didn't feel like I'd
won, it felt like my world was coming to an end.

Mom came by half an hour later and tried to
apologize through the door. I put my head under the pillow and
ignored her. Eventually she walked away and I quietly cried myself
to sleep. We'd finally crossed a line. There'd been plenty of
tension and resentment between us before but we'd buried it deep
enough that neither had really realized it was there. Instead we
had tried to pull together to make our life without Dad and Cindi
work.

I didn't see us ever going back to
that semi-happy state of affairs. Every time we looked at each
other we'd think about the things that'd been said. We'd been mad,
but mad sometimes just meant you were actually honest for a
change.

I tried to lose myself in music
again, tried books, homework. Nothing worked. I settled into a kind
of funk where nothing mattered. It wasn't a panic attack, but it
had some of the same overtones as how I felt when I woke up
afterwards.

I heard Mom come back and try to
talk to me again, but the knowledge didn't manage to pierce the
comfortable numbness that surrounded me. Even when she got
frustrated and yelled through the door it didn't manage to move me.
Her words slid around the edge of my protection and then slipped
away.

Eventually darkness came bringing with it extra
insulation from the world. I don't know how long my phone rang
before it finally pierced the numbness. I finally looked down and
saw Alec's name on the caller ID.

"Adri, where have you been?"

"Home. Here in my room."

"I'm sorry, but I need you here. Agony's
demanded your presence again."