The House (13 page)

“I am nobody’s
prize,” I whispered and I slapped him hard across the face. His
head rocked back and it left my hand stinging but it was worth it
to see the look on his face. Unfortunately, he didn’t let go and he
was probably just as strong as I was so I wasn’t entirely sure how
to make him let go. It was probably rather stupid of me to hit him
but it had felt very good to let out my anger. It was also an old
wound that he had touched.

“Come on …
don’t tell me you haven’t thought about it.” I’ll never understand
why every male shifter I know thinks I’m easy. I mean, I’m no prude
but I’m not that easy. It always griped me that nobody believed I’d
grown up at all. Then again, most of the people who went by my
reputation didn’t really know me all that well anyway.

“What makes
you think that I have? Now let go of me now before I hurt you.” I
glared at him and he did the opposite; he held me closer and
started whispering in my ear. I wondered where everyone had gone in
such a short space of time but since I couldn’t see past Alex’s
body I couldn’t tell. I half wished that I’d continued with
Hunter’s rather depressing conversation.

“Oh, come on …
I must be the only one here you haven’t fucked,” he said.

“And with that
you just lost any respect I may have ever had for you. Now let me
go!” I shouted the last words and felt my power spill up and over
my skin, flowing into Alex. He gasped and tried to hold on tighter.
I did something I would normally never do; I upped the power
streaming into him. His other form is a rhino so it didn’t work
like an electric shock like it had with Eddie but it can’t have
been comfortable. I could feel it like heat across my skin and I
got the feeling that to Alex it felt more like burning. I was
ignoring the impossibility of what I was doing and just went with
it. I had long ago learnt never to say never when it came to
magic.

My vision had
started to swim by the time he actually released me. My power was
still spilling over me, too far gone to pull back completely. I
didn’t panic because panicking might have sent my power into
overdrive and I did not want to see the consequences of that. Of
course, my power wasn’t exactly behaving normally so I couldn’t be
sure. Maybe panic would have shut it down cold like any normal
shifter.

My eyes didn’t
work properly but I suddenly knew that Stripes had chased after
Hunter and that Luke was stood next to us waiting to see the
outcome. I knew that Alex wanted me simply because he had a human
girlfriend and he was looking for an excuse to break up with her.
Because he couldn’t tell her his secret. He still wanted her, still
loved her, and he couldn’t dump her so he needed her to finish it.
He also couldn’t lie and the only thing she’d never forgive was if
he cheated.

“Next time you
want to dump someone don’t try to use me,” I spat and turned on my
heel to stalk back towards the house. I didn’t know what to do; I
felt cold and betrayed. Someone who we’d let into our home had
tried to hurt me and it felt so much worse than if a stranger had
done it. I knew that he would never really have hurt me. I knew
that he wouldn’t have really pushed if I’d said no but my fragile
psyche couldn’t handle it. A combination of the vampyre attack and
Hunter bringing up some old insecurities. Not to mention memories
of when I wouldn’t have said no, of when I hadn’t felt I could say
no.

“Trix?” Eddie
was standing in the doorway. I wondered how long he’d been there. I
did not want him to have seen what Alex had done, it set a bad
precedent. At least I’d said no. In truth, a few years ago I may
not have said anything; I would have let him take me. I was kind of
a slutty teenager for a while.

“Go away,
Eddie,” I said. Yes it was rude, and yes it was a little childish,
but I just wasn’t in the mood to play games.

“Fine.” And he
walked away. I should have gone after him. Marie would still skin
me if he ran away, even if I had an excuse. I sighed. I just
couldn’t face it.

“Trix.” I felt
Stripes’ arms circle my waist. She held me in an almost perfect
parody of the way Alex had. I didn’t need the comforting as such,
he hadn’t hurt me, just brought up some old memories that I’d
rather keep buried.

“I’m fine
Stripes but someone needs to talk to Alex. If he’s not careful he
might let slip to his girlfriend; he probably won’t even mean to,”
I said quietly and I felt her nod behind me.

“Maybe it
wouldn’t be such a bad thing to tell her. I mean, if they really
are good together …” she said, with the least possible emotion.

“Stripes!”

“I know, I
know, but there’re plenty of humans that know about us … what’s one
more?” she murmured. We were all too aware that even suggesting
such things could get you locked up with the key thrown away. And
that would be a light punishment.

“It’s too
dangerous Stripes. That kind of talk ... it’s dangerous. What’s one
more human knowing about us? What’s one more human hunting us?” I
sounded old and tired. I’m not old, twenty-two isn’t even old for a
human, but I’d seen too much of the world too early. I was also
especially careful when it came to human hunters. I had first hand
experience of what they could do.

“Only if she
tells,” Stripes whispered in my ear and then she let go. Louder,
she said, “You should go and find Eddie; Marie will go ape if he’s
gone when she gets back.” I just nodded and walked into the
hallway. I wasn’t really sure where he’d gone, but at a guess
probably back to bed and not to sleep; he seemed to hide in his
bedroom whenever anything happened. I decided that the best thing
to do was to forget about Alex’s problem and Stripes’ solution; it
wasn’t my job to deal with it. And it was akin to treason to talk
about it.

Marie had
managed to convince Eddie to move to a room closer to the rest of
us. It put him in the room just the other side of the bathroom to
mine. I wasn’t entirely pleased with the new arrangement but it
really wasn’t my place to comment or complain so I didn’t; I just
sighed and knocked on his door.

“Come on,
Eddie … I know you’re in there.” Nobody answered so I knocked
harder and had to stop to keep from breaking the door down - when
you have superhuman strength you have to be careful about things
like that. “Eddie please let me in.” I leant my head against the
door and knocked half-heartedly a few times before sliding down to
sit against the door. If he opened it I’d probably fall backwards
but, oh well, I was way past caring.

“Why are you
sitting outside my door?” Eddie asked. He’d just walked out of the
bathroom and I had to smile. I’d nearly broken down his door and he
wasn’t even in the room. Mind you, I’d damaged things far more for
far stupider reasons. Sometimes it was even by accident.

“I came to
apologise.” I looked up at him for a minute before I realised that
he was standing there because I was blocking the way into his room.
“Oh, right.” I got up using the wall for support and stood aside,
letting him open his door. It gave him the option of refusing me
entrance and for a second I thought he would. He surprised me when
he stood aside to let me in. “Thank you,” I said.

“Take a seat.”
He motioned around the room. It was sparely decorated with a bed, a
chair and an old chest of drawers. He hadn’t changed a thing. Marie
stripped and repainted the walls a greyish, off-white colour every
time someone moved out so that they could put up whatever colour
they wanted. I wondered if he realised that the sparseness of the
room was so that he could make it his own.

I sat on the
folding metal chair as he seated himself on the edge of the neatly
made up bed. I only ever make my bed when Marie threatens me to do
it. The room looked more like a prison cell than a bedroom and it
gave the impression that he didn’t plan to stay long. Either that
or he was obsessive compulsive and had to have everything super
tidy all the time. It was possible but I was thinking the former
was more likely. He wasn’t planning to make this his home, just
passing through.

“It’s very ... umm … clean.” I said. There wasn’t anything
else to say and it was
immaculately
clean.

“I guess it’s
a bit bare.” He surveyed the room like he was seeing it for the
first time.

“What colour
do you think you’ll paint it?” I asked and he just looked at me
blankly. “You don’t have to leave it like this; you can choose any
colour you want. There’s some furniture in the loft as well, you
can look through it. Make it more homely,” I told him.

“Oh ... maybe.
I don’t want to inconvenience you or anything.” He didn’t sound
entirely sincere but the only way I could think to not make it
worse was to ignore it and take him at his word.

“It’s no
trouble. We do it every time we get someone new.” I tried to smile
and I knew it was strained but right then it was the best I could
do. I just hoped that he’d get the furniture out himself; I hated
the loft with a passion.

Everybody was
gone by five; once the fun’s over people just don’t stick around
the place. Maybe it reminds them too much of what they are as the
majority of shifters start out human. Most of them seem very human
to me, especially when they start to fight what they are. I had a
feeling that’s what Eddie had been up to and it was going to make
teaching him difficult; I was dreading having to start. He found me
in the TV room about ten minutes after the last person had gone
home.

“You alright?”
he asked. It made me smile my sad smile. He was so naïve it was
unbelievable. Nobody really bothered to ask how I was anymore,
nobody really wanted the answers. “I heard about what happened with
Alex.” He sounded outraged that Alex had tried to force himself on
me; I actually did laugh at that.

“Alex is
afraid. He came here, he saw me and he thought I’d give him an out.
You don’t have to sound so outraged; I can take care of myself most
of the time.” He looked confused; somehow, I doubted anyone had
ever tried to rape him. “I get hit on a lot because I go to the
clubs dressed like a tart. There’s been some over-eager humans that
I had to put in their places as well. To be fair, I did have quite
a reputation as a slut as well and Alex was pushing his luck, but
he wasn’t going to actually rape me.”

“I just
thought ...” I glared at him and he stopped. “Sorry, it’s your
business. Are you going to teach me?” He looked like he wanted to
say more. I’m glad he didn’t though because whatever was written on
his face probably would have caused an argument if he’d said it out
loud. I didn’t need any more arguments with him, there was only so
far I could be pushed before I decided that whatever Marie did to
me for chasing him away would be worth it.

“I’ll teach
you as much as you can learn,” I smiled. I had a feeling that I was
going to enjoy this. I just had to remember not to scare or hurt
him too badly in the process. He probably needed a softer hand than
the way I’d been taught. “What do you want to learn first?”

“How did you
just shift your hands when you fought Hercules?” he asked.

“You mean
shimmering. I think you should probably start with the basics. You
seem new and I don’t think you are and that means that you don’t
have enough control for your power.” I stood up slowly and walked
towards the door while he just watched me. “Well, come on then, I’m
not going to teach you in here.” Bless him, he got right up and
followed me out to the garden. I did not understand him at all. He
seemed so sure and self-righteous, but then he started with this.
It felt like he was a child - he was just so unsure, following me
like a puppy. It was slightly unnerving.

I lead him out
to the clearing where the cars had been taken away to somewhere by
the boys. I probably could have taught him inside but I didn’t want
to risk the furniture. He was more than new, he was powerful. It’s
a dangerous mix; he had power going spare and no idea how to use
it. We didn’t have that much furniture to waste.

“Alright,
first things first, I want you to call up your power,” I said. We
stood about two metres apart, facing each other. He was in his
standard jeans and t-shirt combo with a thick jumper to keep out
the winter chill. I know I shouldn’t judge by how someone looks but
he just looked so normal, so human, that I had trouble imagining
him calling anything.

“How?” he
asked me. The concept was so alien to him he didn’t know where to
start.

“What do you
mean how? The power that allows you to have two forms, the power
that reacts when you feel mine.” He just stood there, eyes closed
in concentration, but he wasn’t actually doing anything. We stood
there in silence for at least ten minutes and he screwed up his
eyes tighter and tighter. I could see the muscles in his arms
clenching and I had to admit that he was definitely easy on the
eye. Yet there was no building of power, not even a whisper from
him. I spent my life surrounded by a subtle wash of magic; it was
as natural as breathing to me. I wasn’t sure I could explain it to
him if he didn’t understand.

“I can’t do
it,” he said finally. I jumped at the sound of his voice in the
quiet.

“Yes you can,
it’s a part of you. You just have to find it,” I said. There was
only so much I could explain, most of it was natural, or should be.
He tried again, the strain evident through his whole body.

“It shouldn’t
be this hard. You should be struggling to hold your power back not
struggling to find it,” I sighed. There was something wrong with
Eddie. Either something had gone wrong with his change or he’d
fought what he was for so long that he’d buried his power too deep
inside himself to ever voluntarily find. “Just relax, you’re trying
too hard.”