Broken (39 page)

"Now you know how Rachel feels. I'm afraid
that with the sole exception of a couple of differences, that it'll
be business as usual."

I finally settled on a white button up, and
headed to the bathroom so I could change.

"So are you going to tell me what the
differences are, or is that part of the stuff I'm not allowed to
know?"

Alec's chuckle was muffled by the closed
door, but still brought a smile to my face. "The biggest difference
will be that we're going to have to shuffle some class schedules to
make sure Brandon and his pack don't have access to you or Rachel.
Everything else is just kind of a corollary to that. At least one
pack member will need to be with you whenever you leave the
house."

I spit out the toothpaste currently
prohibiting me from being able to respond, and swung the door open.
"Alec, it's the middle of the semester. We can't just walk into the
office and tell them we want to change our schedules. It doesn't
work that way."

**

After seeing Vincent's 'accident', and
knowing he'd probably been trying to kill or at least seriously
injure Ben just for the fun of it, I couldn't really argue with
Alec. Rachel seemed relatively unfazed by the idea of bodyguards,
but I wasn't especially excited about yet another point of
difference between me and everyone else. Still, school was both
better and worse than expected. As Alec had intimated, the day
started out with a trip to the office. Not just me, not even just
me and Alec. The entire pack trooped into the room, filling it with
impeccably dressed, mostly gorgeous, shape shifters, who gave off a
perceptible tingle of energy if you knew what to look for.

I'd really thought Alec was tilting at
windmills right up until he politely, but firmly asked for a brief
meeting with the principal and was ushered into the other man's
office five seconds later. Alec drew the blinds, which didn't do
anything to muffle the principal's raised voice. Fifteen minutes
later, after the unmistakable feeling of Alec's power had crested
to the point where it almost felt like there was a breeze blowing
from the office, we were all sitting down with the bewildered
school counselor and playing musical classes. Only it turned out
Rachel and I were the only ones not changing our schedules. I
started to protest being treated differently than everyone else,
only to feel my mouth click shut as Rachel shook her head at
me.

It wasn't until Alec was walking me to
Biology that I finally got an explanation. "You and Rachel are the
ones who need the most sleep, ergo you don't change classes."

"That's crazy." I would've stopped. You can't
really have a good disagreement while you're walking down the hall,
but we happened to be holding hands, which he used to keep me
moving along. And here I'd been so excited back in the councilor's
office when he'd taken my hand.

"It's not crazy. Everyone who swaps classes
is going to be doing double homework for the duration. Assignments
for their old class, which they presumably still want to get credit
for, and assignments for the new class so as not to make any more
waves than necessary with their temporary teacher. It only makes
sense to place that burden on the ones who can most easily deal
with it."

That last part had been said in a near
whisper, due to the fact that we were right outside Mrs. Sorenson's
class. Everything he was saying made sense, but didn't resolve the
real reason I was so worried.

"I can help. I could switch at least one
class and still keep up."

Alec shook his head. "Adriana, you're
struggling in two classes already. How do you propose to handle yet
another set of homework?"

I felt my mouth slam shut. He seemed to know
everything about everyone, but it still somehow caught me by
surprise that he knew so much about me.

"But they'll hate me even more." I already
wished I could take it back, but it was too late. I saw Alec's
thoughts mirrored in his eyes. It took less than half a second for
him to figure out who I was talking about.

"They don't hate you. A few of them are
scared almost senseless, but nobody hates you."

"They were willing to kill me. They wanted to
trade me back to Brandon." It came out as something less than a
whisper, but apparently Alec's hearing was acute enough to catch
that too.

Alec drew me close, heedless of the open door
and the twenty staring kids. He placed the side of his face against
mine and whispered into my ear. "I'm not going to let anything
happen to you. If there's a way to keep you safe I'll find it."

The feel of his breath caressing my cheek
sent tingles racing through my entire body, but even that couldn't
completely reassure me. Still, I gave it my best effort, and if my
smile wasn't entirely convincing, it was at least good enough to
temporarily reassure Alec.

I followed him into class, pausing while he
handed his note to Mrs. Sorenson. It was almost worth all of the
craziness and exhaustion of the last seventy-two hours to see her
eyebrows rise in astonishment as she read the innocuous piece of
paper essentially giving Alec carte blanch in her classroom.

"This is highly irregular, Mr. Graves. In
fact I don't believe the administration can legitimately expect me
to comply."

Alec's smile could have been used to sweeten
pretty much any beverage you could imagine. "I promise not to get
in the way. In fact if you could just find us a couple of desks in
the back corner you'll hardly know we're here."

The look she shot me was so venomous for a
second I thought my heart was going to stop. "Ms. Paige has an
assigned seat towards the front of the class. Based on her
scholastic performance to date it would be highly irresponsible of
me as an educator to allow her to change seats."

I was just far enough off to the side to
watch as Alec's eyes very slowly and pointedly drifted down to
stare at the note in her hands. For a second I wasn't sure she'd
gotten the hint, but then those same hands clenched reflexively,
nearly tearing the note before she caught herself and smoothed it
back out.

"Ms. Bellarose, please move up to Ms. Paige's
old seat."

Alec politely collected his note and led me
to our seats.

Any enjoyment I'd just experienced as a
result of seeing one of my least-favorite teachers put in her place
quickly soured as she started the class and launched into her usual
barrage of questions designed to demonstrate my stupidity.

Alec had apparently gotten under her skin
even more than I'd realized. She abandoned her usual practice of
stopping once I missed my first question, and instead continued to
grill me, her smile continuing to grow each time I failed to answer
something correctly.

My earlier commitment to rededicate myself to
school notwithstanding, the weekend hadn't exactly been conducive
to mastering the intricacies of our latest subject. Her smile was
wide indeed by the time the bell finally released me to flee in
defeat and embarrassment.

Alec paced me all the way back to my locker.
"Is that normal for her?"

I started to laugh, only to cut the motion
short as I realized there was a better than even chance I'd end up
crying instead. I settled for just nodding as I swapped books and
slammed my locker shut.

Alec pursed his lips for a second and then
nodded, not at me, but at whatever decision he'd just made. "We'd
better get you to your next class. Dealing with that will have to
wait until later."

I wanted to ask what he meant, but the halls
were already full of other students, and I was pretty sure he'd
tell me when he was ready and not a moment sooner anyways.

With a sigh, I followed him into the crowd. A
few minutes later I'd been handed off to my next babysitter, James
this time, and was safely ensconced in Mr. Whethers' class.

Mr. Whethers looked more than a little
confused after reading James' note, but he simply added James' name
to his roll, and then absently waved the two of us towards seats. I
would've enjoyed English if not for the wildfire buzz created by my
little scene with Alec outside of Biology. Mr. Whethers repeatedly
asked various clumps of giggling and or staring girls to be quiet,
but his efforts were largely wasted.

As time went on the speculation seemed to
grow both wilder and louder rather than petering out as any normal
person would've expected. The former was probably due to an almost
complete lack of anything resembling actual fact. The volume was no
doubt designed to see if they could draw a reaction out of me and
thereby figure out how I'd gone from dating one of the two most
popular boys in school, to dating the other one in the space of
just one weekend.

The prevailing opinion among the popular
girls off to the left was that I was the biggest slut ever. The
equally-vindictive but more scholastically-minded group in front of
us was convinced I was just playing with Alec in an attempt to make
Brandon jealous.

It was all so far off that part of me wanted
to laugh. I couldn't care less if Brandon was jealous, and Alec
hadn't even kissed me yet. Even so, hearing my name said with such
disdain by so many different people took its toll over the course
of the class, and before long I was once again fighting the urge to
break down and cry.

Luckily by the end of the class, Mr. Whethers
had become so frustrated with the complete lack of attention being
paid him by the gossipers, he'd actually started writing them up
for detention.

As class finally ended, James cracked one of
the first smiles I'd ever seen grace his face. "Wow. I never
would've thought anyone could push old Whethers so far. He just set
a school record for the most detentions assigned in a single
class."

With James' considerable frame opening a
route through the crowded hallway, it took almost no time to make
it to my locker.

Jasmin was waiting for me, and if she didn't
exactly look overwhelmed with joy, she at least wasn't
scowling.

We were just outside Mrs. Campbell's class
when a muted hiss from Jasmin alerted me to impending danger. I
didn't realize what was happening until I felt the rising tingle of
energy wash over me. It was both warmer, and weaker than normal,
and for the first time I realized that Jasmin's power was different
than what I'd felt from Alec. It arched back and forth between us
with a fury that jolted me all the way down to the soles of my feet
as Vincent and Cassie came into sight.

The answering surges of power from the two
rival shape shifters made my hair stand on end as Jasmin shoved me
into the classroom, moving with only slightly more than human
speed. I probably should have cleared out of the way, but despite
there being nothing I could do to help Jasmin if it came to an open
fight, I wasn't going to abandon her.

As Vincent and Cassie got closer, something
about them seemed off. It is amazing how the mind focuses in on
minutia when things get really scary, but I couldn't think of
anything else until I realized it was their eyes. Cassie's had gone
a pale, unearthly green, while Vincent's had deepened into a near
black. If eyes really were the windows to the soul, he'd become so
twisted and warped there wasn't much left that could truly be
considered human.

The halls had emptied remarkably fast,
especially considering how much gossip there was for the rumor
mill. It was almost like some primitive survival instinct had
kicked in and steered everyone away from ground zero.

With the two of them so much closer, I could
feel their energy beating at Jasmin and me. It was all I could do
now to remain motionless as they entered what even I knew was
striking range of Jasmin.

"Awfully exposed out here aren't you
precious?"

Vincent's voice was a low, unnatural thing,
pitched so it was just barely audible for humans.

Cassie's expression made my stomach tighten
up and my gorge rise. It wasn't right for a girl to look at another
girl like that. Like she couldn't wait to watch Vincent do all
kinds of terrible things.

"Payback sucks doesn't it?"

Jasmin's complete stillness was an eerie
counterpoint to the waves of power still beating at me. I somehow
knew she was just seconds away from springing, when the sound of
running footsteps caused all three to turn.

Alec appeared around the corner, followed by
Isaac, just a split second before Brandon sauntered into view from
the opposite direction.

The tingly feeling grew exponentially more
powerful with so many more shape shifters present, rubbing my arms
did nothing to ward off the feeling that entire colonies of insects
were skittering across my skin.

Mr. Rindell's appearance forestalled what I'd
been sure would turn into a full blown fight. He sized up the
situation with the canny eye of an educator who'd seen more fights
over his career than most gang leaders. "Class is about to start,
and if every one of you isn't where you're supposed to be before
the bell rings, you'll have detention for the next month."

Vincent's hiss was still almost inaudible,
"This isn't over."

I felt my knees almost collapse as the two
packs slowly backed away from each other, and Jasmin joined me
inside the classroom.

Mrs. Campbell gave the two of us a
considering look after reading Jasmin's note, but sent us off to a
pair of empty seats at the back of the classroom without comment.
We were starting a new unit, but I couldn't concentrate on the
lecture.

Alec's unshakable calm over the last few days
had somehow convinced me the other members of his pack had been
overreacting. Somehow I'd come to believe the coming dispute with
Brandon's pack would somehow be resolved as easily as a normal
teenage dispute.

After experiencing such intense, barely
restrained violence, I was starting to see just how ludicrous
that'd been. People had already died over what was going on here.
It hadn't been real, either because I hadn't examined Simon and
Nathanial's lifeless bodies, or maybe because I was repressing the
experience like I'd done with so many other parts of my life
lately.