Hey guys. Sorry for the slow update. I've had a lot on my plate recently, including a death in the family and other depressing things, but it's settling down now and I'm back... sort of. Anyway, here's the next chapter. After this one there'll be three more left of this arc, and I'm still deciding whether to purse the next one. We'll see. Enjoy, and thanks for all the reviews last time!
X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X
"Sorry, I can't talk right now," Beck says, and Jade stares at him in disbelief. This is Beck, the one person who always has time for her, who never turns her away. She may have taken him for granted at times, but she's always appreciated the way he puts his friends first. And here he is, turning her away when she needs him.
"Oh," Jade says, unable to hide her disappointment. It's the start of lunch the day after she'd found out that both Tori and Beck are hunters, and she'd just invited Beck to hang out with her that afternoon. And, to her immense surprise, he'd said no. "Well, okay. When will you be able to talk?"
"I don't know," he replies absently, his eyes roaming over her shoulder. Then his expression lights up, and Jade follows his gaze to see none other than Tori Vega, walking across the hall with Cat, both mid-laughter as if one of them had just told a joke. "I have to go," Beck says, and, leaving Jade no time to reply, he skirts around her and heads straight for the girls.
Jade stays where she is, watching as Beck reaches the girls and says something to them. Tori's eyes narrow and Cat's smile slips, but then Cat shrugs and breaks off from the group. While Beck and Tori walk out the door together, Cat comes back over to Jade, looking perturbed.
"What did he say?" Jade demands as soon as Cat reaches her.
The red-haired girl hesitates. "He just wanted to talk to Tori," she says cagily.
"Did he say what he wanted to talk to her about?" Jade presses. There's something going on between Beck and Tori, and if they're both hunters it probably doesn't bode well for her. But there's no way they can know about her. She's always so, so careful, and Cat wouldn't have told them. Would she?
"No," she says, and at last Jade gets a read on Cat – she's not hiding something, she just really doesn't want to talk about it.
Jade sighs. "I'm sorry," she says, and she means it. "If Beck and Tori really are," she pauses, quickly scanning the area to make sure no one's close enough to overhear, "hunters, then I don't want you to get caught in the middle. You shouldn't have to choose between me or them."
She doesn't add that she knows what Cat would choose, and that she's not ready to face that eventuality.
"Thank you," Cat says softly. A moment passes between them, and then, acting on the unspoken agreement that the conversation is over for now, she says, "I'm starving. How about you?"
And for the next ten minutes, they're both just normal teenage girls. They each get a serve of spaghetti from the food truck and sit down at their usual table, joining Andre and Robbie. Jade notes that Cat sits directly next to Robbie, and gives her a suggestive look that Cat chooses to ignore. While Jade picks at her spaghetti, still feeling the effects of last night's Change, Cat and Robbie start talking about someone's latest Slap update. Andre gets involved after a moment – apparently there'd been some kind of scandal involving two juniors and a senior – but Jade carefully stays out of it. All of her attention is on just staying awake.
About halfway through lunch, Beck and Tori grace the table with their presence. They seem frazzled, Tori in particular; her eyes are wider than usual, and she's more jittery. Beck looks mostly annoyed, but his irritation seems to fade as he joins in the conversation. Tori, however, also stays out of it. Every now and then Jade catches the other girl looking at her, but she looks away so quickly it's like she's scared of being caught.
Jade keeps an eye on her, curious and unsettled. Does Tori know? If she does, why hasn't she done anything? And if she doesn't, why does she smell like –
Her thoughts cut off in mid-sentence, her eyes widening as she glances between Tori and Beck. There's another reason Tori would smell like him. And it would explain why she only smells faintly the same. Because it's Beck's scent, and Tori's just picking it up. And the only way to do that is to spend a lot of time with the person.
"I just don't think it's right to do that to your friend," Robbie is saying, apparently taking the side of one of the juniors involved in whatever scandal is going on. "You can't just -"
"But her friend gave her permission," Andre objects mildly. "She shouldn't have to check in with her every time she and the guy go on a date. Her friend broke up with him months ago."
"But permission isn't the same thing as encouragement," Robbie points out. He looks at Cat, as if waiting for her support, but she stays silent. Jade wonders what she's thinking. "Just because her friend said she could date her ex doesn't mean she should."
"They were over, though," Beck says, although his voice is more neutral, like he hasn't quite taken a side yet. "They'd been over for a long time and everyone knew it."
"That doesn't make it okay." It's not until all eyes turn to her that Jade realizes she's spoken aloud. She's not even talking about the junior-senior scandal; she's talking about something more personal. About the possibility that Beck, her ex, might be dating Tori, her friend. And the fact that he's a hunter just adds the proverbial cherry on top of the crap sundae that is her life. Suddenly wanting the attention off her, Jade gives what she hopes is a dismissive snort. "But whatever."
After an awkward moment of silence, while the others all try to figure out why Jade suddenly felt the need to chime in, Beck says, "I mean, I guess it's still kind of questionable. But it's not, like, abhorrent."
"What do you think, Tori?" Andre asks suddenly, and the girl in question blinks in surprise.
Jade can see her making an effort to bring herself back into the conversation, and wonders where her mind had been. (She also wonders when she started caring about what was on Tori's mind.)
"About what?" Tori asks finally. She still seems out of it, as if whatever she and Beck had been talking about had really gotten to her. Then she blinks, remembering the conversation that she'd probably only half heard. "Oh. I guess… I can see both sides."
Robbie laughs. "Way to take a side, Tori," he says, but stops laughing as he realizes that Tori really isn't in the mood. He gives her an apologetic smile, and she shrugs in response.
"I just don't think it's right to do that to a friend," Jade says, surprising herself by speaking up again. She puts particular emphasis on the word friend, wondering if Beck will pick up on her meaning. By his narrowed eyes, she thinks he does.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you: Jade West." Beck gestures at her dramatically, his eyes twinkling with humor – or possibly with something darker. "Here to give hypocritical announcements and sarcastic speeches."
Jade swats him on the arm, and he laughs. It's almost like old times, but somehow everything still feels different. "I'm serious," she says, suddenly not caring what her friends think. "Friendship should mean something. That's all I'm saying."
In response, Cat actually applauds, while Robbie and Andre share a confused look. Jade knows that this isn't her usual style, but she's unreasonably annoyed by the possibility of Beck and Tori dating. Although, she has to admit that it's better than the alternative – that both of them are hunters. She can handle one hunter, but if two of her friends were in on it… well, that's another story.
Once again Jade drifts out of the conversation, but this time she keeps listening to it. She's focusing on Beck and Tori, trying to pick up on anything between them. It would be so much easier if she were in her wolf form, instead of relying on stupid visual and verbal clues. As a wolf she would just be able to sense it, pinpointing the feelings between them even if they didn't realize it themselves. But as a human she's got no chance.
As they keep talking and Jade finally gives up on her lunch, she thinks about last night's Change. It had been the worst one yet – and not just in this cycle. Ever. It had been more painful, and she'd been more violent, and she can tell that she'd scared Cat. She'd never felt so out of control, even on her first Change. She'd scared herself too, but she doesn't know what to do about it. Her one and only werewolf friend is long gone, and with two potential hunters in the group she can't even consider confiding in any of her human friends. She only has Cat, and she can't burden her with all of this.
But she does need to ask her something.
As the lunch bell rings the group splinters, going off to their separate classes. Jade, the last to rise from the table, notices that Beck tries to walk with Tori, but she deliberately walks in between Robbie and Andre, as if for protection. Jade wonders what's going on between them.
"Are you coming?" Cat asks, and Jade shifts her attention to her red-haired friend.
"What? Oh. Yeah." Jade gets to her feet, grabbing her bag and tossing her uneaten plate of spaghetti into the bin. They walk side by side into the building, but Jade pulls Cat aside as soon as they're inside. She doesn't want anyone to overhear this. They come to a stop in front of Cat's locker, while the rest of the group has already gone to class.
"I'm going to ask you something," Jade warns quietly, "and I don't want you to take it the wrong way."
Cat's eyes widen, but she shakes her head to indicate that no, she won't take it the wrong way.
"Have you told anyone about me being a werewolf?" This time she doesn't think to scan the area before saying the word, and as soon as she's spoken she glances around uneasily. But there's no one within earshot. Well, human earshot anyway. "Like Beck, or Tori, or anyone."
This time when Cat's eyes widen, it's not with surprise. It's with complete and utter shock. "No!" she exclaims. "No. Jade, I would never, ever do that."
Jade had expected no less, but it's still comforting to hear it said aloud. "Good," she says, a new thought forming in her mind, "good."
After a moment Cat says, "So you still think Tori's a hunter, too?"
"Maybe," Jade says. "Probably. Beck definitely is, though."
Cat frowns. "What are you going to do?"
Now armed with a fully-formed thought, Jade smiles. "The less you know, the better," she says, starting to move away. "See you in class," she calls over her shoulder, ignoring Cat's confused questions and protests.
Glancing from side to side as she walks across the hall, Jade makes her way to Beck's locker. She needs information, and she needs it now. And this is the quickest way to get it. She reaches the locker, stops, looks around again. She's alone. Everyone else is in class, and she's now officially late. But this is the only time she'll be able to do this.
With her heart thumping a painful rhythm, Jade enters the combination on Beck's locker, something he'd told her long ago and probably forgotten she knew. The locker swings open and Jade surveys the contents for a moment. Most of it seems to be normal school stuff – textbooks, notebooks, a pencil case. She notices that he still has a picture of them on the door, one taken just after they'd first started dating for the first time. They're both standing on the beach, toes just in the water, arms looped around each other. Jade allows herself a moment of nostalgia before she refocuses on her mission.
It doesn't take long to search through the books and find what she's looking for. A letter. It's addressed to Beck from the Alliance of Hunters, dated two days ago.
Request granted, it reads. Target confirmed. Take any action necessary and report back ASAP.
And there, tucked away in the envelope, is a picture of the target, and, just to make it clear, her name is scribbled across the back of the photo. Jade West. Hurriedly Jade tucks the picture and letter back in the envelope, and only then does her hand brush up against something… leafy. She doesn't have time to process, because pain shoots through her and she lets the envelope fall to the ground.
"Wolfsbane," she growls, hating herself for being so stupid. Of course a letter from the Alliance would be protected by wolfsbane. She shoves the envelope back in Beck's locker, closes the door, and gets away as fast as she can.
And for the rest of the day, the letter keeps replaying in her mind, over and over. And one part sticks out and makes her feel, for lack of a better word, terrified.
Take any action necessary.
X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X
So, there you go. Please review, I'd love to hear your thoughts. And I'll see you all next - Actually, since the response last time was good and it's been so long since I updated, have a snippet from next chapter.
"I don't want to do this." Tori looks at the neatly typed instructions, complete with the Alliance insignia at the bottom. Beck had received them earlier that morning – exactly a week after Tori had found out about her ancestral werewolf hunting lineage – and had been quick to deliver them to Tori, who has spent the entire day trying to talk him out of it. "I'm not going to do that to her."
See you guys there!
(P.S. Any ideas on what Tori's so reluctant to do?)