Chapter 35

AN: This story is getting rather long. I've decided to split it into Books, this being Book One. Book Two will start soon. Also, to clear up any confusion, Reid did not act like an asshole to Kat because he felt like it. He did/said what he did/said in order to protect her. He thought that if she hated him, she'd be in less danger from whatever is wrong with him.

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Kat answered the telephone in her room with trepidation, half expecting to hear Reid's voice on the line. She had rushed to her room after slamming the door on him twenty minutes earlier, briefly telling her father that she was still exhausted from her 'ordeal'. The intervening time had been spent in a numb whirlwind of confusion, grief and rage. The anger took precedent by her very nature, and now Kat's hand clenched white on the receiver as she lifted it to her ear.

"Kat," Caleb said with a funny note of urgency, "have you seen Reid?"

"I don't want anything to do with him," she responded sharply, hearing a new coldness in her voice. "Check Nicky's, why don't you?"

"Wait-" She pushed the disconnect button, gaining no satisfaction from the click that cut off Caleb's words. Sighing, Kat rubbed her eyes. Suddenly, the feigned exhaustion felt a lot more real.

The wolf inside longed to get out, to rip and tear and howl. The human girl wanted to sleep, to close her eyes and drop away. Together, they made the body they shared reach for the small mirror hanging on her wall, slamming it into the corner of the desk. Glass shattered, splintering into thousands of silvery pieces. Blood dripped slowly from a small cut on one hand as Kat fell to her knees among the shards, the tears she'd held in coming in a torrent until everything went dark.

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Caleb held the phone for a long instant after Kat hung up. He had the thought that this was the second time in less than an hour that he'd been hung up on. Slowly, heavily, Caleb sat down.

"I don't want anything to do with him." He heard her words again, a chilly echo. It was as he'd feared. Reid had fled, cutting all ties he found dangerous… namely, Kat. He must have known she would try to follow him, so he had made her hate him. Caleb wondered briefly how he'd done it, then dismissed the question. Turning people against him was something Reid had honed to an art form.

As he sat in his own home, debating who to call and what to do, Caleb found himself growing queasy, an unfamiliar emotion curling around his stomach: he felt almost ridiculously alone. The feeling shocked him, made him sit back and swallow hard. He felt… abandoned. Reid had gone, and he had gone alone. Caleb shook his head, laughing at himself. This was Reid, for God's sake! The defiant, careless, selfish, most unwanted member of their little quartet!

But the feeling did not dissipate. It occurred to Caleb that he'd never actually believed that Reid would leave. The younger boy was like a child in that way: he would storm off, angry and offended, and then return a few hours later and revert to his annoying self. His anger had become a running joke, something not to be taken seriously. When Reid got pissed off, it was something to be humored at the best of times and ignored at the worst. Now, though… Something had changed. Some stitch in the fabric of things had torn with Reid's traumatic ascension, and Caleb could not forget the haunted sound of his friend's voice over the phone.

"…Something's… something's happening to me."

What exactly had gone on in that house? What had Kat found when she went in after Reid, and what had she brought out?

"Someone- something- in my head… Telling me to do stuff…"

And now Reid was gone, having made sure Kat would not hunt him with her lupine nose and preternatural bond. He'd left the Covenant. Left Caleb, and Pogue, and Tyler. For the first time in their lives, Caleb realized hollowly, the Four were not together.

In the darker, more selfish part of his mind, Caleb couldn't help but hate Reid just a little for leaving. For changing, and for being the one to break the bond that had kept the Sons together for eighteen years. He hated Reid for running away, for not explaining, for not waiting. For not obeying him, as usual. Mostly, though, in some corner of his mind that Caleb wouldn't acknowledge, he hated Reid for leaving him. For not trusting him. It had always been that way: Caleb the older, more responsible brother, and Reid the younger, rebellious one who defied Caleb at every turn but, when it counted, listened. Learned. And now he had ignored everything Caleb said, doing the opposite of what he'd advised, leaving the Sons without so much as a goodbye. The sense of abandonment pulsed like a deep-seated ache in Caleb's chest, along with the usual worry, anger and a good helping of betrayal. Shaking his head, Caleb pushed away as many of his emotions as possible. Reid was gone. There was nothing he could do. He still had Kat and the others to protect, and the charges of kidnapping, arson and murder to deal with.

He felt, as he picked up the phone again, like an old, old man.

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On the road, Reid drove fast. He loved to drive fast. He'd always loved it, ever since Caleb taught him how to drive three years ago. Caleb wasn't that much older than him, really. Only a year or so. Still, it had seemed like such a big thing. Driving. Reid remembered barely being able to handle sitting still that long, listening to everything Caleb told him in that measured, patient voice he used when teaching. He remembered the first time Caleb actually took him driving, as he'd gotten his license two months after Reid got his learner's. The feeling of exhilaration, of freedom. They'd left the Garwin estate, Caleb rolling down the windows and laughing as Reid banked a curve, clapping him on the shoulder when he'd pulled to a stop. It had felt so clear then, so obvious: this was what it was supposed to be like. Flying. Reid had always chased the rush, the excitement of that first car ride. Around then was when the rivalry with Caleb had really begun, and they had never gone driving like that again. Reid felt a pang of loss for those old days, when love was something to be toyed with, the other Sons were his family and Caleb was not the enemy. Now, he felt like they were burdens rather than boons, dangerous weights that would pull him down and drown with him. He couldn't tell how much of that was really him, and how much was poison whispered by the magic that filled him, and Reid hated that. He hated not knowing how in control he really was.

Leaving had been bad. Making Kat hate him had been like cutting out a piece of his arm, and the look in her eyes just before she closed the door had been like a bit of shrapnel digging into his heart. At the same time, he felt almost proud of doing it. Like he'd proved something.

That's right. You don't need her. You don't need anybody. You just need this. The magic. The power.

He shook his head, turning on the radio. One way or another, it would all be over soon enough. He didn't know exactly where he was going, but he had a vague idea: California. The coast. He'd find the priestesses, the ones who had indirectly done this to him, and he would make them find a way to stop it. One way or another.

This ends Ask Me No Questions, I'll Tell You No Lies. Look next week for its sequel, End of Days.