Splintered (5 page)

I wrapped my arms around Alec before he could
evade me.

"It's so good to see you."

He rested his cheek on the top of my
head and sighed. "It's good to see you again too. Would you think I
was incredibly pathetic if I told you I'd headed over this way half
an hour ago in the hopes that your mom's light would go out before
yours did? I've been kind of worried that having her back would be
a tough adjustment for you."

"No, I don't think it's pathetic. I think
that's the most thoughtful thing anyone's done for me in a
while."

Carefully holding me by the
shoulders, Alec stepped back far enough that he could see the
evidence of my crying jag. He had to have known as soon as he
arrived. He'd probably been hoping if he gave me a few seconds to
adjust that we could talk about it without me falling completely
apart.

"Are you okay? I knew it would be
hard to go back to living by your mom's rules but I didn't think
there'd be tears involved."

The words and tone were both perfect. A double
helping of concern and a touch of humor intended to defuse any
awkwardness.

I hid my head against his chest as fresh tears
broke free of my eyes. It was all I could do to mute the sobs but I
had to. If Mom came in right now she'd freak out.

Alec picked me up and carried me over to my
bed. Moving like I weighed nothing at all, he wrapped me in a sheet
and then curled up next to me.

"It's okay. You're not alone
anymore. You have the whole pack and I'll do everything I can to
keep you safe."

It would have been the perfect
opportunity to tell him exactly what was bothering me, but there
wasn't anything he could do about it. He wasn't lying. He'd do
everything he was able to protect me, to love me, but there was no
guarantee it would be enough. More and more I was understanding
that there were far too many things out of his control. He was
bigger than life, bigger than me, and it felt like only a matter of
time before he was pulled away from me despite all either of us
could do.

In the
end, I chose silence and he gently rocked me until I fell
asleep.

Chapter 5

It was crazy, but after everything
that had happened to me over the last few weeks, I'd almost
expected Mom's trip to have changed her. I'd thought maybe I'd wake
up to a home-cooked breakfast like Dad used to make. Instead the
usual note had been waiting for me on the kitchen white
board.

Gone to shoot a promising location I
saw while prepping the pamphlet. I'll be home before you're back
from tutoring. Love you.

--Mom

I still hadn't told Mom I'd quit the tutoring
lab. It wasn't the kind of news designed to make a parent feel like
everything was going the way it ought to be. I pushed the thought
aside, grabbed a packet of string cheese to nibble on and headed
outside.

Alec was waiting in my driveway, and his smile
lit up my face in return.

"I thought maybe I'd have to catch the school
bus."

"I've been thinking about you since I had to
leave this morning. I was hoping that your mom would leave early
today so I could drive you in to town."

Alec helped me into his car and then we were
rolling down the lane.

"Alec…thank you. For last night I
mean. I don't mean to be one of those needy, whiny girls. It's
just…"

He turned the full force of his gaze
on me and it was like my brain hiccupped. "You don't have to worry
about anything. It's I who should be thanking you. I needed last
night as much or more than you did. Thank you, Adriana Paige, for
being who you are."

Now that I was caught up with the
rest of the class in Algebra, life was easier, scholastically
speaking. During biology Alec and I listened with one ear while we
played a game of 'Would You Rather.'

Alec kept throwing curve balls in the game and
somehow I ended up stuck in the Swiss Alps with a snowboard that
was missing the back bindings and a price on my head.

Alec walked me to my next class and then time
stuttered by until lunch. Rachel met Jasmin and me at our
lockers.

"Alec asked me to let the two of you know he's
not going to be around for lunch. He said he's sorry, but I think
it's the perfect opportunity for us to have some quality girl
talk."

Jasmin actually blushed and then the rest of
the pack arrived and it was too late. As we grabbed our food and
sat at our normal table I counted heads and realized we were down
more than just Alec.

"Where's Sam?"

Alison shrugged. "With Alec. They
didn't say what they were up to, just that they were going to be
gone for an hour or so."

The conversation between the girls
skittered around for a minute or two before Rachel got everyone
busy talking about another shopping trip to Vegas. Everyone made a
valiant effort to include me, but I just couldn't lose myself in
the idea of buying more pretty clothes that I'd never be able to
wear for fear my mom would freak out. She was plenty self-absorbed
most of the time, but if I came back sporting the kind of clothes
Rachel was going to want to buy me, she'd instantly know I'd spent
more money than I could possibly have made in two years of working
at the tutor lab.

The boys were discussing motorcycles. As usual
when it came to boisterous conversation, James had taken the
lead.

"I'm telling you, man. The new 900cc
Kawasaki has way more potential than the other bikes this year. You
could easily crank another twenty horses out of that thing without
even replacing any hardware."

Isaac shook his head. "I don't know.
I mean you're right that the Kawasaki is a better machine but those
things are already pushed pretty close to spec. I'm not sure even
you can crank that kind of power just by tweaking the fuel
map."

James shook his head in mock
disbelief. "You're crazy, man. They aren't cars, but it's the same
principle."

Jack chuckled along with Isaac.
"You're both wrong. I happen to know on good authority that Alec
just ordered another R1. Now that's a machine. It starts out with
ten percent more power and it's got a frame that's fifteen percent
lighter."

It was like a cold front had just blown in.
Isaac turned towards Jack and suddenly the air was dancing with
invisible shape shifter energy. An answering flare of power rushed
out from Jack but it was obvious he was outclassed.

Jack still didn't look like he was going to
back down though until James turned on him as well. The other
members of the pack were all buzzing with power too, but it was
just the reflex response to danger, not the hostile presence the
two hybrids were generating.

Alison reached out to Jack, possibly just to
try and calm him down, but I noticed Jasmin go utterly still at the
motion. Jas wasn't paying attention to Jack, but she was ready to
take Alison down if things boiled over to some kind of
confrontation.

For a brief moment things teetered on the edge
of violence and then Jack looked down and the tension slowly melted
away. It was the kind of freaky thing that had happened all the
time when Brandon had been trying to drive us into a misstep, but
it felt wrong to happen when we were all supposed to be on the same
side.

The group broke up before lunch was over, all
heading off in separate directions in an attempt to regain our
composure before we had to interact with the humans again. I felt
myself rubbing my arms. Apparently it had been too long since I'd
seen the preliminaries when shape shifters were about to throw
down. It hadn't affected me this badly before.

Mrs. Campbell stopped me near my
locker.

"Adriana, I've been meaning to talk to you. The
load at the tutoring lab has gone up over the last two weeks. I
don't know if you're still unavailable, but I'd love to have you
back."

I felt a surge of relief as she offered me a
way out of the looming confrontation with my mom.

"That would be really great, Mrs. Campbell.
Things have really opened up lately for me and I'd love to help
out."

"Well then, shall we say tonight? I'll let
Albert know to expect you."

I all but skipped to my locker and
opened it. I never expected to find a note sitting on top of my
physics book. For a heartbeat I thought maybe it was from Alec, but
I opened it to find Sam's awkward scrawl.

Alec wanted me to let you know he's
going to be out for the rest of the day. Alison wants me to see if
you want to do lunch Saturday, and I wanted to let you know that
I'm getting writer's cramp.

--Sam

By the time school ended I was definitely
missing Alec. It was going to take a lot more effort than I'd
realized to re-accustom myself to only seeing him an hour or two
per day. I was trying to distract myself by working on homework
when Albert stopped by my table.

"Hey now, we don't hold with any of that
history stuff here."

Albert had always been able to draw a smile out
of me.

"Some of us have better things to do than just
sitting around solving equations all day."

"Ouch." Albert sat down on the edge of the
table. "So how have you been? We've missed you around
here."

"I'm okay. Just been a lot of things
going on lately. What about you? How's Fatal Angst?"

I could always count on steering the
conversation around to his band to make Albert
uncomfortable.

"They're not bad. We got a new bassist who also
does backup vocals. Some of the guys are starting to talk
big."

His tone was casual, but something he really
didn't care about wouldn't have made him so uncomfortable. I guess
it's possible to get desensitized to that feeling, but mostly it
seemed like the strongest reactions are all driven by how important
something is to us. I wasn't going to 'out' him though.

"That's great. I mean I hope you guys go really
far."

Albert rolled his eyes. "Right, we'll be
topping the charts next week. It's nice though, the sound's
starting to come together. Hey, you should come down and take in a
set sometime."

That was dangerous. Not for me, not
really. Skin addiction or not, I was starting to really understand
that my heart would always belong to Alec. It was dangerous for
Albert though.

"Thanks, but now that my mom's back in town I'm
lucky to make it ten minutes away to visit Alec. I'm pretty sure
she'd freak out if I said I wanted to go to Vegas to take in a
real-live rock group."

He flinched a little but mustered up a smile as
he said his good byes.

I more or less sleepwalked through
helping the few students who hung around until my shift, and then
came up for air when Rachel bounced over and hugged me.

"Hey, Dom texted me for help. Don't
worry though, I arranged you a perfectly good ride."

I followed her gesture, half
expecting to find one of the jocks we both detested. Alec's smile
as my eyes found him sent butterflies rampaging about my
stomach.

"Sorry I missed class again. Can I make it up
to you on the way home?"

The drive home was companionable. There was
plenty of silence, but it wasn't the kind of quiet that awkwardly
demanded I try and drown it out.

"So I've got some good news for you and some
bad, Miss Paige."

"You're not starting off great if you're still
hoping to make up for ditching out on me again."

Alec chuckled at my attempted humor. "The bad
news is I'm going out of town for a few days. A week
tops."

My mood imploded. "Where now?"

He always got the same look when he was trying
to tiptoe past something he didn't think it was safe for me to
know.

"I don't think I can tell you that,
not right now. Suffice it to say it's work-related and it's not a
trip I'd be taking if I didn't have to."

A sigh escaped me despite my best efforts. "You
do know that time spent with me while I'm asleep doesn't really
count, not from a relationship standpoint."

Crap. I'd just said the 'r' word.

"Maybe not for you, but it does for me. I'll
take whatever I can get."

I felt my cheeks heat up. Alec reached over
almost as if to take my hand before he thought better of
it.

"I really wish I could take you with
me."

"Yeah, I don't suppose that would
work, not now that Mom's back."

He hesitated, on the verge of saying something
before shrugging. "In good news, Christmas is just around the
corner."

I put my head in my hands. "Somebody needs to
teach you the meaning of 'good' news."

"For your information, I have it on good
authority that most people do think the arrival of Christmas is a
good thing. Rachel goes positively giddy at the
thought."

"That's just because it's the perfect
opportunity for her to spend obscene amounts of your money on
people who can't refuse her gifts without looking like
Scrooge."