Unforgiven (Wanderers #3) (34 page)

“I’m starting to think I should just move my bed in
here.”

Ms. Kraft laughed lightly. “Ella, you just need to
work on your control. You think you need to tap into all of your
power to access it and use it, but all you need is a little. Have
faith in yourself and you will see all the great things you can do
without using so much power.”

“Is that why I keep passing out?”

“When you tap into your power like that it takes a
lot out of you and when you’re so young and not used to it your
body is overworked and needs a break.” She glided over to my
bedside. “How are your hands?”

“Okay I guess.” I clapped them together. “They don’t
hurt.”

She gestured for my hands and started to unwrap the
bandages. She flipped them over and examined them thoroughly. “They
look fine to me.”

There were no longer any signs of burns or scorch
marks anywhere. I thought this was strange because I felt how hot
the tree was. I felt it burn and seer the skin on my hands. “Your
power to heal must be increasing. I believe that’s how you were
able to heal the tree.”

“But I thought healers couldn’t heal themselves?”

“They can’t.” I looked at her confused. “All vampires
heal faster than humans and when you’re a healer the ability to
increase your healing intensifies as your power grows.”

“So I guess that means I can go?” I asked hopeful. I
really did not like this room.

“I will send the nurse in to check on you and then
you can join everyone else at dinner.”

So it was close to dinner time. That would explain
why my stomach was rumbling. The nurse checked me out and like Ms.
Kraft said I was okay to leave. I walked with Dean to the
cafeteria, afraid to be alone. “Where’s Cameron?” I asked.

“She went to go talk to Austin,” he said with some
guilt in his voice.

“Hopefully she’ll have better luck than I did.”

“Why would you say that?”

I looked at him suspiciously. He quickly turned his
head down and avoided eye contact. “What’s up with you?”

“Nothing,” he squeaked. Dean cleared his throat and
repeated, “Nothing.” I didn’t believe him, but I wasn’t in the mood
to get into it. I had enough drama for the day and it wasn’t even
over yet. I still had to face my friends and getting into it with
Dean would not be wise at the moment.

I braced myself as we walked into the cafeteria. The
second we descended the stairs the crowd went silent. I panicked. I
was ready to turn and run in the opposite direction. “Ella, don’t
worry. Whatever happens, I’m here for you,” Dean said, taking a
step forward. “Ladies,” he announced. “I’m back.” He threw out his
arms embracing the crowd. Girls giggled and ran up to Dean like he
was some kind of movie star or something.
So much for him being
there for me.

He looked over his shoulder at me and winked.
“Distraction,”
he projected. I rolled my eyes and hurried
past him to hopefully keep myself out of the spotlight for at least
the moment. I glanced at my normal table to see if any of my
friends were there and yep, all of them were. I nervously walked
over to where they sat. All eyes were on me as I approached. I
tried to think of something to say but all I could manage was,
“Hi.”

“Ella!” Riley cheered, jumping out of her chair and
crushing me in her arms followed by Dixon and Sienna. “I’ve missed
you so much.”

“You have to tell us everything that happened,”
Sienna said.

“Yes. I want to hear everything,” Dixon sang.

“You guys aren’t mad at me?”

“Why would we be mad at you?” Riley asked.

“Because I just left…I left you all to deal with
everything…alone.”

“Ella, we were more worried about you,” Sienna said.
“And we weren’t alone. We had each other.”

“Thank you,” I breathed.

“For what?” Riley asked.

“For being the greatest friends ever,” I said,
hugging them tighter before they all pulled me down to sit.

“So tell us what happened? Is he really alive?” Dixon
asked hopeful. I knew he wanted his friend to be alive just as much
as I did.

I was about to say yes when Roman sat down at the end
of the table. “Can we talk about this later?” I asked, hoping they
would take the hint.

“Please, don’t let me stop you. Go on, tell them,”
Roman said casually.

“It’s okay, I think we can talk later,” Dixon said,
giving me a sympathetic smile.

I got up to get something to eat and when I returned
to the table we were joined by Cameron and Dean. I noticed Austin
was there too, but he didn’t sit next to Cameron. “Hey, how are
things with you and Austin? Did everything go okay?” I asked,
trying to take the attention off of me.

“Yeah, it’s all good. We’re just easing back in to
it,” she said. “What about you and Roman?” she whispered.

“You really have to ask?” I shot a look down to the
end of table where Roman was silently glaring at me.

“Maybe I can get Austin to talk to him or Dean?” she
offered.

“Thanks, but there’s nothing that’s going to change
what I did,” I said, no longer feeling hungry. “I think I’m just
going to go back to my room and sleep.”

“Is everything okay?” Riley asked.

“Yeah, I’m sorry. I guess I’m just tired from the
flight and everything. I think I’m going to call it an early
night.”

“Do you want me to walk back with you?” Riley asked a
little concerned.

“No, but thanks. I’ll see you guys tomorrow.” I felt
bad for leaving. I just got there and spent a total of ten minutes
with my friends, but the looks that Roman was giving me made me
want to crawl under the table. I thought it best if I went back to
my room instead of forcing myself to be social.

When I got back to my room, I learned I no longer had
it to myself. “Okay seriously, what the hell are you doing
here?”

“Well, last I heard you went crazy and flew the coop.
I never thought you’d come back so I moved back into
my
room,” Mackenzie said.

“Okay, first off, you moved out so this is no longer
your room so get out.”

“Like I told you, that was only temporary. I wasn’t
expecting you to come back.”

“Mackenzie, I am so not in the mood for this.” I
pinched the bridge of my nose, feeling a headache coming on.

“I have to say, I was a little disappointed to hear
you survived.” I scowled at her. “And then when I caught wind of
you leaving the country to go find an old flame,” she laughed. “You
know I’m not surprised that one of your exes had to move to another
country to get away from you.”

“Last time, out,” I pointed to the door.

“No, this is my room now, you leave.”

“Mackenzie I am too tired for your shit.”

“Did you find lover boy? How was the, oh so tender
reunion with you and Roman,” she smirked. “No worries. I kept him
company while you were gone.”

“I’m sure you did,” I growled.

“It’s a shame Jack couldn’t stick around and finish
the job,” she smiled, bouncing on the bed.

“What did you say?”

“Please don’t pretend like you didn’t hear me when
you clearly did,” she said, examining her nails.

Something clicked and I remembered what Jack had said
about paying someone for information. “It was you. You were the one
who told him where I was and about my friends. I can’t believe
anyone could be that cruel.” She looked at me, pretending she had
no idea what I was talking about. “You’re the reason my friends got
hurt.”

“Whatever.” She shrugged her shoulders not caring in
the least.

That was it. I had enough. After everything she’d
done – the spell, kidnapping, basically making my life hell and to
find out she was Jack’s informant. Enough was enough. I lost all my
composure and self-control. I went on full attack and leaped at
her, tackling her to the ground. She screamed. I rolled us into the
dresser slamming my shoulder and allowing her to escape. “What are
you crazy?” she yelled.

“You’re the crazy one,” I said, reaching for her
again. She jumped out of the way and I fell into the desk knocking
everything to the floor. I recovered and attacked, but she was
prepared. She grabbed my arms before I got to her. She was stronger
than I thought. We struggled back and forth knocking each other
into the walls. We knocked down pictures, books, lamps. Basically
anything that was in our path.

She grabbed my hair and I threw my elbow back,
catching her right in the eye. I stepped back a few feet to catch
my breath. She wasn’t much of a fighter, but she was fast, getting
the advantage on me. Mackenzie leaped for me, knocking me to the
floor, and tumbling out into the hallway. Both of us were screaming
and yelling, punching and kicking.

Our commotion brought students out of their rooms and
soon the hallway was crowded. They all stood around and watched.
Not a few seconds later Dean and Roman were there to break up the
fight. “What is going on here?” Mrs. Daniels demanded.

“This crazy bitch attacked me!” Mackenzie yelled.

“You deserve it after what you did,” I spat back.

“Enough,” Mrs. Daniels shouted. “You two, office,
now!”

Mackenzie shot Roman a look to let her go. He
released her and she crossed her arms in a huff. Roman looked at me
and for a moment I thought I saw sympathy in his eyes and I thought
there was a possibility we might be able to get past all this, but
then his face turned angry again and he was gone.

“Wow Ella, you really know how to make a comeback,”
Dean joked. I rolled my eyes at him and left the crowded hall and
followed Mrs. Daniels to the office.

“Who would like to explain?” Mrs. Daniels asked,
sitting on the edge of Aidan’s desk.

“She started it,” Mackenzie yelled.

“That’s because you were Jack’s little informant,” I
spat back. “You were the reason he knew how to get in here and knew
where I was.”

“What are you talking about? I never met the
freak.”

“You admitted it to me,” I said annoyed.

“All I said was I wish he would have finished the
job.”

“Miss Hilliard,” Mrs. Daniels chastised.

“It was just a joke,” Mackenzie said, rolling her
eyes.

“That’s enough!” Aidan yelled, clearly not in the
mood to deal with this. Aidan leaned back in his chair and pressed
his fingers to his forehead, contemplating the actions he was going
to take.

Mrs. Daniels and Mr. Callahan talked it over and
decided it was best if Mackenzie and I no longer roomed together.
Unfortunately at the time there were no available rooms so I had to
stay in the guest housing for the time being – which was fine by
me. The further away from Mackenzie the better.

Since no fighting was a strict policy there,
Mackenzie was forced to stay for the summer and do manual labor
with the rest of us, which to me, was punishment enough for all of
us.

There wasn’t much more they could do to punish me
considering they were already having me do manual labor, extra
training sessions, and babysitting new students in the fall. So
they left me go with a warning. I think Aidan felt bad enough as it
was and knew how malicious Mackenzie could be.

When we were done, Aidan and one of the guardians
escorted me back to my room to collect my things which was
embarrassing to say the least. They stuck me on the top floor of
guest housing. The one and only floor that was empty. I wasn’t
complaining. I thought some solitude would be nice for a
change.

Aidan dismissed the guard and walked me to my room.
The walk down the hall felt like I was walking ‘The Green Mile’.
The silence was an eerie reminder that once these halls were filled
with guardians. But after the attack some of those guardians did
not survive and the rest were called back to heal or regroup and
all of this was because of me. I deserved this. I deserved to be
alone. My chest felt heavy at their absence and I felt like the
walls were caving in.

“Here’s your key. If you have any problems just let
me know and remember this is only temporary,” he said, giving me a
small smile. His smile fell when he saw my face. “Are you
okay?”

I shook my head no. “I just…I guess it’s finally
hitting me. All the people we lost in the fight. I never expected
the aftermath to be this…I don’t even know how to explain it. How I
feel?”

Aidan sighed and leaned his shoulder against the
wall. He ran a hand through his hair, clearly still not ready to
talk about this, but seeing he had no other choice he told me what
happened. “I’m not going to lie. It was pretty bad. We had a lot of
explaining to do afterwards, but none of us knew what to say. They
had so many questions and we just didn’t have the answers. Most of
the students were pretty shaken up. We brought in counselors to
help with the healing process, but to most this isn’t something
that’s just going to go away overnight.” He looked at me and all I
could feel was guilt.

“Ella, this was not your fault. I want you to
understand that. No one blames you,” I eyed him wearily. “They just
need an excuse for what happened and you were the easiest target,
but don’t worry, okay? Over time wounds heal and we will get past
this and the first step to healing is moving on.”

“I want to do something.”

“Ella, I don’t think there is really anything you can
do.”

“No, I mean I want to help with the healing process.
You’re right, we need to move on, but for some people it will be
harder. They need closure and I think I have an idea of how we can
do that.”

He pushed himself off the wall with his foot and
looked at me interested in what I had to say. “What did you have in
mind?”

“I think we should have a memorial service for all
the people we lost. Before everyone goes home for the summer. I’m
hoping that giving everyone the opportunity to mourn and pay their
respects to their loved ones will help them and maybe make it even
easier to return in the fall.”