Six, p.17
Six, page 17
“I think that is the least of my worries,” she said as her tail flopped onto Lorcan’s thigh. “When am I going to wake up from this?”
“If only we had gotten to you sooner,” Lorcan said. “If I had known—”
Paige flopped back on the bed and stared at the ceiling. “If only I had gotten the chicken pox like everyone else. My dad wouldn’t let me get any vaccines. He thought that the government was using them to tag us all in some grand conspiracy.”
“Well, it is partially a conspiracy, Paige,” Lorcan said as he lay back beside her. “Would that make your father feel better?”
“Vaccines are a vampire plot?”
“We do have a vested interest in keeping our primary food source healthy. If you lived through the Dark Ages, you would be looking to find a way to stop disease too. I was just impressed by human ingenuity. All we used to do was give our blood to save the infected we cared about.”
“So vaccines are a benevolent vampire conspiracy?” she asked.
Lorcan’s smirk returned. “A benevolent conspiracy with the bonus of eliminating potential werewolves,” he said.
“So if I’m supposed to be your enemy, why save my life?”
“I think you’ll find that not everything is as simple as it seems,” Lorcan sighed. “You didn’t have a choice in any of this, Paige, and you need all the help you can get. I thought my girls were responsible—”
“I told you, they didn’t bite me, but none of this weirdness happened until you showed up in my life.”
“Indeed, I fear that our arrival may have still caused this. If we hadn’t been chasing another vampire—”
“Another vampire?” she asked as she curled back up into a sitting position.
“Yes, there was a hunter following your mother, a young idiot with far more money than brains. This is far from his normal hunting territory, and until we realized who your father was—”
“There really was a vampire after my mother?” she asked. “Then they were the . . . they were in my house!”
Lorcan eyed her extended claws. “Paige, we were here to stop whatever Stefano was up to. I would not allow any harm—”
“Stefano?” she interrupted.
“Stefano DeMarco, a member of rival—”
“Did you just say DeMarco?” Paige gasped. She grabbed his arm, nicking his skin with her fully extended nails.
“Yes, Stefano DeMarco von Jaeger.”
Paige burst into hysterical laughter. Lorcan grimaced as the claws dug in deeper. “Are you sure it’s not Steve DeMarco?” she asked. “I mean, could my crazy dad actually have been right?”
“What are you talking about?” Lorcan asked.
“He told my mom a crazy story that my great-grandfather didn’t die in the war, but that he was a . . . he was a vampire,” she said, devolving into giggles. “Steve DeMarco, vampire!”
Lorcan studied her face, broken and bruised as it was. He focused on her oversize brown eyes and the ringlets already forming on top of her head. The more he inspected her, the more he gnawed his abused lower lip.
“Don’t tell me; he supposedly died in France in World War II,” Lorcan said. He rolled to his feet and began pacing around the room frantically.
“My great-grandfather is actually a vampire and actually here . . . in Memphis?”
Paige squealed as Lorcan snapped around and grabbed her arms. “Who bit you?” he asked furiously. “Did they send you to me?”
She shrugged him away. “How many times do I have to tell you that nobody bit me but you? Are you deaf as well as dead?” she snarled.
“Well, you aren’t the immaculate werewolf!” Lorcan barked right back. “Somehow infected fluids entered your body—”
Paige curled her lips back in disgust. As her tongue touched the pointy ends of her canines, she jumped to her feet as well.
“I wasn’t bitten, but I did bite someone!” she exclaimed. “So don’t get any crazy ideas of how fluids entered my body.”
“You bit someone?”
“The guy who attacked me . . . Irvine, Irvine Wolfe. Ugh, it’s so obvious it hurts,” Paige muttered. “He’s the werewolf.”
Lorcan began pacing again, faster than before. Soon he was shaking his head and mumbling, “No, no, no,” in a voice that became progressively more and more Irish.
“What is going on, Lorcan?”
“What is going on is that either you are the biggest coincidence to walk the earth this century or my enemies are trying to trap me. Damn it to hell! Why didn’t I see this sooner? Are you working with the Jaegers?”
“What?”
“I said, are you working with the Jaegers?” he barked.
She glared at him. “I have no idea what you are talking about,” she growled. “Pour me a drink, suck my blood, do whatever you have to do, but just tell me what the hell is going on.”
“My family has its enemies, Paige. First and foremost among them are the Jaeger. Last year one of the Jaeger tried to hurt my son and take someone of great value to him—”
“What does that have to do with me?”
“The Jaeger who tried to hurt my son was Stefano DeMarco. Now, how do you think it would look if the Jaegers found out that a family member of one of their own was in my custody?”
“What—?”
“This is not good,” Lorcan muttered. “If he watches your mother, then he might have seen something. Damage control must be done. In fact, there is only one thing left to do.”
“And what is that?”
“We need to teach you how to be a better werewolf.”
11
Ticktock went the clock on the wall. Ticktock. Ticktock. Paige shifted uncomfortably on her knees, the scratchy sisal of the carpeting digging into her shins. Her tail swished back and forth frantically. The methodical clicking of tiny pieces of plastic joined the ticking of the clock.
“Ugh,” Paige snarled as she pounded her fists into the floor.
Her companion across the room snapped the final brick into the tiny little barn she had created. She set the toy aside and flipped her bright violet braid over her shoulder.
“Really? You cannot sit still for a single minute?” Nadia asked.
Paige glared at the clock. “How can I relax and concentrate with that terrible ticking? You’re not helping either,” she snapped.
“The world does not exist for your comfort, Paige,” Nadia sighed. “You have to learn to tune it out.”
“The carpet is itchy,” she grumbled before switching to sitting cross-legged. Nadia opened another zip-top bag from a pile next to her. She dumped a mound of plastic bricks in front of her knees.
“Your one minute starts now,” Nadia said flatly.
Paige took a deep breath as the clock went ticktock. She closed her eyes and focused on the muscles in her toes and feet. The frantic clicking of her companion joined the fray. Next, Paige focused on her legs and her hips, and breathed deep from her core. Soon the ticking and clicking faded away, and she relaxed her shoulders and arms. Finally, she relaxed her face and neck as the clock’s minute arm moved forward.
“Very good; you can sit still for a minute,” Nadia said. A moment later she set a little cart next to her barn. “It’s only taken you an hour to accomplish this.”
Paige narrowed her eyes. “Why do you keep doing that?”
Nadia waved her hands over a veritable village of creations created from her bags of bricks. “I find a certain peace in creation,” she said. “When I was a little girl, my mother used to build these with me. We once built the White House using every brick we had. Of course it wasn’t white, so I stole all of the Wite-Out from her office and did a little painting.”
“So you get toys and I just have to sit here?” Paige growled. “This is my amazing training.”
“This is the beginning, yes,” Nadia said. She took her time to carefully dismantle each of her pieces while Paige grit her teeth. Only once all the bags were zipped and stacked neatly did Nadia focus on Paige. “Do you understand yet?”
“I need to find a way to focus, or I’ll be stuck here forever?”
Nadia smiled. “Very good,” she said. “You can be taught.”
So began Paige’s afternoon of meditation and deep breathing, followed by yoga and a half hour in a sauna with a pink-faced Russian. The exercises continued after a break to polish off a rack of ribs each, and by eight o’clock Paige was finally smiling and sitting peacefully on the rug.
“We need to figure out a focus for you, an activity you can use to relax,” Nadia said. “You’ve seen mine already. Now, Tina channels her frustrations into making bread. The kneading takes away all her frustrations. In a bad stress week, we end up donating about fifty loaves to a local church, and there are multiple homeless shelters that hope she has a bad day.”
“And the others?” Paige asked.
“Kayleigh and Kyle both use coloring books, though Kayleigh uses the lion’s share of them. It’s Toy that will drive you crazy when you are trying to focus yourself.”
“Does she sing or something?”
“Worse—she watches maudlin romantic movies on repeat. It’s gotten to the point where we have all memorized Dear John—”
“The movie with Channing Tatum?” Paige asked incredulously.
“Oh, just ask Toy—werewolves love Channing Tatum,” Nadia snarled. “Of course this happened because we already destroyed her copies of The Notebook and Titanic. We burned Titanic.”
“I don’t really know what I do to relax. I mean, I run.”
“Physical activity helps all of us. We need to find something mentally relaxing. Do you knit perhaps?”
Paige shook her head. She eyed the pile of Styrofoam containers in the corner of the room and the napkins wadded and strewn about. “Excuse me,” she said before crawling over and packing everything neatly into the original takeout bag. She snorted as she tied the bag shut. “I think I clean when I’m stressed. It’s just what I do.”
“Well, that is certainly a new one. I suppose we can try it. Now, are you ready to move into phase two of your training?”
“Do I have a choice?”
“Not really.”
“Bring it on then,” Paige sighed as Nadia motioned for the door.
Phase two consisted of laps around the gym, push-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups, and every other calisthenic workout that would make any old-school gym teacher proud. Once Paige was thoroughly soaked in sweat and slumped on a gym mat, Nadia dragged over a punching bag.
“Now let’s see what you can do,” she said, pointing to the bag.
Paige walked over and gave the bright red leather a jab. It barely moved.
“You call that a punch?” Nadia taunted.
Paige hit it again, slightly harder. Nadia burst into mocking laughter. “That was pathetic,” she hissed in Paige’s burning ears.
Paige punched it as hard as she could, but it still barely moved. She growled as she started jabbing both her left and her right into the infernal bag until finally her knuckles cracked and the whole unit shuddered from the force of her impact. Paige followed it, snarling as she punched over and over. Finally, she had to drop her hands as the bare knuckles oozed with blood.
“Every bone you break knits back stronger,” Nadia said. “Every cut seals up and makes you tougher. You have to learn the limits of what you now are and exactly how to surpass them—”
“Or else what?” Paige asked as she wiped away the blood to reveal unbroken skin.
“Or else creatures like me will kill you,” Lorcan sighed.
Paige whirled around to see the vampire perched on top of one of the ninja obstacles. The way he eyed her stained knuckles made Paige squirm.
“How did you get in here?” she said.
“I’ve always been here; you just haven’t learned how to find me yet,” Lorcan said as he swung from one trapeze bar to a small platform before hopping down and giving a little bow. Paige sniffed the air cautiously.
“An elder vampire can control the pheromones they release and stop the miasma,” Lorcan said.
“Which makes them very hard to track in a crowd,” Nadia added. “Furthermore, the best hunters among vampires can actually conceal their scent for hours, but that limits their ability to enthrall humans.”
“Very good, volchitsa,” Lorcan said. “It’s always a trade-off. If you want to distract humans, you become very obvious to berserkers. Nowadays berserkers are believed to be long gone, so you shouldn’t have too much trouble finding us, Paige.”
“Why are you telling me this?” Paige asked, stepping back from the pair.
“There are certain realities about your situation that we need to address,” Lorcan said.
“You mean the fact that I have claws, fangs, a tail, and a temper problem?” Paige snapped. “I already got that. I’m grateful that you kept my mom from finding me and that you don’t want me to hurt anyone. Believe me, I get that, but ever since I’ve been here, I’ve been drugged, locked up, or in chains, so the trust is a little fragile!”
“Lorcan,” Nadia hissed, “now might not be the time—”
“No, I think now is the time,” Paige countered.
“There is a lot to take in—” Nadia said.
“More than losing my home, my boyfriend? More than turning into a giant dog in my mom’s bathroom? Seriously, what the hell can you possibly say now that’s going to mess me up any further? Apparently my great-grandpa is a vampire and he’s been mind-fucking me and my mom for a while and wiping our memories, and I’ve been injected against my will with your blood, right, Lorcan, so just tell me, please tell me, how else can I be violated now?”
Both Nadia and Lorcan were eerily silent as Paige stared at them expectantly. Finally, Nadia shook her head and stepped aside in deference to the vampire. “I really can’t argue with that,” she sighed.
“The issue with your great-grandfather has escalated matters slightly. Normally we would sequester a freshly turned werewolf, for lack of a better word, for a year or so to help them adjust to their condition—” said Lorcan.
“But?” Paige asked.
“But your mother has been texting at least five times a day to check on you and she keeps calling. If your great-grandfather notices—”
“Then it sucks to be you,” Paige said flatly. “Where did you tell her I was?”
“Toy has been texting as you. You went over to Tina’s because you were upset over your boyfriend. However, at the same time, Kayleigh has been texting Calvin to say that you had to stay at your mother’s. Now your mother is insisting that you come home because she thinks, and I quote, that you are caving in and went running back to that two-timing bastard.”
“Yeah, that’s my mom. She won’t give up, ever.”
“Lorcan, you aren’t seriously considering—” Nadia said.
“Paige is right, Nadia. She wasn’t like the other girls. She didn’t ask for this. She didn’t choose to be here, and we have treated her like a prisoner since the moment she got here. We can’t just fall back on your mother’s methods.”
“My mother’s methods work, Lorcan, and we use them because it’s the only way to protect both us and the humans,” Nadia said. “Paige doesn’t even have a focus and hasn’t shown that she can stop her change. We can’t let her out in the world.”
“I am in the room, you know,” Paige interjected. “So please, before this turns into an argument around me, just both of you tell me what you want. I am so tired of all the riddles and the games and the beating around the bush!”
“We usually sequester a girl for a full year. Once she proves that she can control her change, we let her out. There are certain protocols, though,” Nadia said. “Our time of the month isn’t like most women’s, Paige. One week before our time, we buddy up. We are never alone; either one of the pack or one of Lorcan’s trusted servants keeps an eye on us.”
She pulled what looked like an EpiPen out of her pocket. “We also all carry these. One is adrenaline. The other is loaded with animal tranquilizer. One is in case we need the wolf. The other stops it. You should only use the pen as a last resort, though. Too many drugs weaken your own ability to control the change.”
“Nothing sounds completely unreasonable yet,” Paige said cautiously. “I was wondering about the full moon thing.”
“It’s not the full moon, actually. The hormones build up over time, and after about four weeks, you have to let out the aggression or it takes over. If you are rigorous with your exercise and your meditation, it’s quite bearable,” Nadia explained.
Paige tugged at her baby-fine growing hair. “You mean—”
Nadia flipped her own braid. “If you keep calm and follow the program, you only change enough to release the hormone tide. As you can see, I’ve been without incident for a while. I’d like to keep it that way. This particular hair color is a bitch to redo.”
Paige let out an audible sigh of relief. Lorcan, however, shifted uncomfortably.
“What are you not telling me?” Paige sighed.
“We require that you stay in one of our dorms the week of the change. Luckily we tend to sync after a month or two,” Nadia said. “We all feel safer if we stay under lock and key.”
“You mean I have to go back to my cell,” Paige snapped. “What else is new?”
“The dormitory is a little more comfortable at least,” Nadia said. “Tina and Kyle watch over us until the change. Once we’ve recovered, we are free to go.”
“So how do you work with all the time off? How do you date? I’m guessing the reason I always see you together in your little pack is because you have nowhere else to go.”
Nadia and Lorcan nodded. Paige shrugged and continued. “Will my mom be safe? Will you guys leave her alone? Can you make the other vampires leave her alone if I play nice and follow your rules?”
“Your relationship to another vampire makes this complicated—” Lorcan started.
“Yeah, it means that you need me to behave,” Paige said. “If they find me all werewolfy, I think it’s bad for you. If anything happens to me or my mom, it looks bad for you. If you have to make me disappear, I’m sure it will end up bad for you, so how are we going to make this work?”
