Chapter One
"Adrian Cole, public enemy number one."
"What?" came the laughing reply. "Is that what they're calling me now? Whatever happened to Demon from Hell, or Skank, or my favorite, The Wicked Bitch of the West? Since when did I get hyped up to felon?"
"Over the summer. That's right you've only been back from Ireland for a week. How was it?"
"Heaven," the girl - young woman really - sighed happily. "Aunt Cat was the best. We had so much fun. I always learn loads from her. How were things here? Any problems?"
"A few newbies thought they could rule the town just because you were overseas. Wolves put 'em down right enough."
"That's my boys. Did Aurora and Shiara help?"
"Aurora was gonna, but something came up. I think one of her dogs went into labor or something."
"That's my older sis, the animals always come first," the girl replied without a trace of bitterness. "How 'bout Shorty?" she asked, referring to Shiara. "Did she join the hunt?"
Her male companion grinned. "Join she did. And she enjoyed it too. I think we're wearing off on her." The young woman grinned back wolfishly in reply.
Adrian Cole was in the roomy confines of her brother's garage, working with her best friend, Chris Hunter, on a '64 Harley Davidson one of her brother's newer customers had brought in.
Adrian was a slender girl of 17 years, whose attractive looks and sharp attitude had gotten her into quite her fair share - and beyond - of trouble more than once. Not that she couldn't handle it. Being the youngest child in a family that consisted of her two older brothers and older sister, Adrian had picked up quite a few tricks over the years.
Not to mention that she would sometimes hang out at Rusty's, a local biker bar. And when you were at Rusty's you either knew how to fight, or you had plenty of back up. Or you just didn't piss anyone off. But the third option was quite difficult to pull off, seeing as half the people in the joint were drunk and anything got them riled; and the other half, being hard-core, stereo-typical bikers, also got riled about anything and everything you did.
Experience was quite the motivator. You did something wrong, you got decked for it. So next time, you either learn how to duck, or you do something else to stop the hit from coming.
Chris was Adrian's best friend. Had been since the two of them helped each other out of a pretty nasty alley fight, one night during the infamous Gang Wars. He had been twelve, she eleven, and the two of them had beat ten full-grown men to a bloody pulp. From then on, the two were practically inseparable.
But unless a person knew of this particular event - and most did not - they were hard pressed to stick the two together. In public, they were constantly at each other's throats, bickering and being complete adversaries, even to the closest watcher. But it was just for show. In private, the two still bickered, but it was more friendly banter than anything else. They both had issues with showing outsiders what they were really like, so they kept their friendship a secret.
And if you just saw them walking side by side you'd think they were practically twins. Adrian had long, dark brown hair that was almost black. She kept it braided mostly, but you could still see the brilliant streaks of red and blue that she applied to reveal some of her wild nature. Her dark tan was from long hours of riding her motorcycle in tank tops, and no helmet, showing killer biceps and her usual cold and calculating look she used on the general public.
Adrian was quite attractive, if you could get past the constant scowl, the fact she would at times laugh at the sight of blood - especially when she was the cause of it - and the smart-ass tongue she regularly sharpened on her fellow high school peers (even the teachers at times). Most could not. Her slender, muscular form and ever-changing eye color outlined her rather un-classical beauty. But, of course, if you tried to tell her she was easy on the eyes.well, no one would advise it if you wanted to keep your kneecaps where they were anatomically supposed to be.
Chris, on the other hand, had reddish-brown hair that he was born with, and wore it short and spiked. His dark skin, like everything else about him, was completely natural, and his sharp green eyes were filled past the brim with knowledge and wit - almost, some commented, enough to beat the infamous Adrian in an intellectual battle. Almost. Chris's body was also slender and muscular, but in a masculine way and he wasn't quite as unforgiving and ruthless as she.
The two were both obsessed with motorcycles and the fighting arts. They had the best fight skills in their DC suburb. Chris had been throwing knives since he was seven and Adrian's very own style of street fighting left her unsurpassed in combat. They taught each other the tricks of their trades and soon Adrian was throwing like she'd been born to the knife, and Chris could beat her one in three bouts of hand-to-hand.
The two belonged to a motorcycle gang called the Wolves. It consisted of them, plus Adrian's siblings - Brian, Aurora, and Will - and Chris's friend, Kevin. A girl from Adrian, Chris, and Kevin's high school, named Shiara, had recently been accepted when she began dating Adrian's nineteen year-old brother, Will. While Shiara was still new to motorcycles and fighting, she was sharp and kept her wits about her.
These seven made up the Wolves' core. There were several others who rode with them, but most never stuck for long. Friendships and alliances would shift; your brother or girlfriend could become your enemy in an instant. So, many rode when they felt like it, others would drift in and out of the Wolves' good graces.
But that was Chris and Adrian's nightlife. During the day they were two teenagers who worked in Brian's - Adrian's oldest brother - garage, and would be starting their senior year in high school once summer was over. When the sun was up, no one could tell that the seven young men and women who frequented the auto shop were an elite fighting force that kept their town's nocturnal crime close to the zero mark.
None of the younger member's high school classmates or teachers knew they were in the presence of the young woman who ruled the night, her second in command, and two of her closest people. None of the garage's customers knew their vehicles were being worked on by men and women who knew at least twenty-five ways to get someone to let go of them, and keep them from ever doing it again.
Brian, the oldest of the pack at 23, owned the auto repair shop/garage and was the best in the business. His business was family - and friend - owned and operated. Aurora, Adrian, Kevin, Chris, and Shiara all helped in the garage whenever they could, while Will and Brian were the two that held a permanent job there.
During the summer, everyone but Aurora - because she had her own job - practically lived in the garage. Well, Adrian and her family lived in the apartment above the garage, but that wasn't the point. The others - Kevin, Chris and Shiara - all shared an apartment across town, but during the summer, they all ate and slept at the garage almost every night. It was just one big party, intermixed with random bouts of auto repair, since that was a major passion of theirs.
The gang's academic aspirations weren't all that noticeable, but they did exist. Brian hadn't gone to college, he'd learned everything he knew from his high school auto mechanics teacher who'd taken a real interest in him. Aurora had gone to college on a full scholarship and graduated with a Master's in Animal Medicine. She now owned and ran the unorthodox animal hospital up the road from the garage.
Will had wanted to be an astronomer, but since he hadn't gotten a scholarship anywhere, and he and his family couldn't pay for a full college education at the time, Will had stayed to work in Brian's garage. He'd been pretty miserable until his 'lady love,' Shiara, had come along.
Shiara had run away from the abusive boyfriend she had been living with. Both her parents were dead and she had no other family. Will had found her in an alley one cold, rainy night he'd been out on patrol. He'd taken her half-starved, shivering, beaten body onto the front of his motorcycle and sped back to the garage, which, along with being a place of occupation and a home, it tripled as Wolf headquarters. After convincing Adrian to hide the extremely shy and scared young woman in her room until Shiara felt comfortable with other people, Will slowly got past Shiara's many shields and walls around her heart, to be accepted in her life and trusted. With plenty of help from his little sister, who was now Shiara's best friend. Petite, redheaded Shiara had come into her own in the Wolves' company and was now an important asset to their crew.
Will and Shiara were in love and dating, but it was an extremely cautious relationship. Both were wary and careful, but both were also extremely devoted to the other. They had inspired quite a change in each other and the Wolves were all the better for it.
"Where is your dear brother?" Chris teased. "I need to ask him something." Adrian rolled her eyes expressively and shrugged.
"How'm I supposed to know? Which are you after?"
"Brian. It's about, ah.school."
"Oh yeah? What's up?" Adrian asked, completely oblivious to Chris's awkward answer.
"Umm.I was wondering if he'd mind me coming out during my free period," Chris replied, trying for nonchalant. He didn't get it.
"Probably not, seeing as all of us will be," Adrian replied slowly. She searched her friend's face for a moment and tried to figure out why he asked such an obvious question. Not finding anything, she gave up.
"Okay, Hunter, that was a stupid question and you know it. What's up?"
"Nothing, I just want to talk to Brian when he gets back, okay? Tell him to call me, I'm takin' off." And with that, Chris walked over to his motorcycle parked by the garage door, climbed on and motored off.
Adrian rolled her eyes at her friend's touchiness. He'd been incredibly iffy ever since she'd gotten back from visiting her dead father's sister, Cat, in Ireland.
Both Adrian's parents were dead. Killed, her siblings had said, by some unknown enemy. Her father, Andrew O'Riley, had met her mother, Catherine Cole in Catherine's homeland of Greece. Andrew was a young Irish man traveling the world, and Catherine was a sharp-witted young woman who could hardly wait to leave Greece. They'd fallen in love, married, and moved to the States.
Andrew and Catherine had their four children, and suddenly, not long after Adrian's birth, their life was tragically disrupted. One day Brian woke up to find his mother and father gone, leaving him, a six year-old boy, in chare of three other children, one of them his newborn sister.
None of the children knew how they were lucky enough to end up where they were now. Nor did any of them believe that their parents had abandoned them.
Aunt Cat was a major highlight in Adrian's life, seeing as she was the only surviving relative the foursome had, as none of their grandparents were alive - Catherine's parents dying soon after her birth, Andrew's subject to a horrible accident - and both Andrew and Catherine were single children. She would invite each of them out to Ireland one at a time throughout the year, making sure that when Will or Brian came out, it was at a time when the others could cover for him at the shop.
Cat gave them each a couple of weeks to relax and get back up to full strength, plus she got a chance to check up on her favorite - only - bunch of nieces and nephews.
Adrian sighed, wishing she could go back to Ireland for another week. Then she shook her head at her own selfishness and turned back to the '64 Harley. Brian would be back soon and he didn't want to lose a new customer just because Adrian was off daydreaming instead of working, like she should've been.
Minutes later, Shiara tumbled down the ladder from the household loft and breezed past Adrian, headed for Brian's office.
"Shorty, what's up?" Adrian had nicknamed the elfin sixteen year-old girl after she had learned not to take offense at the many jokes that flew around her.
"Trouble in the underground, Alpha," Shiara replied, using Adrian's battle name. "Rookies broke into a jewelry store not five minutes ago." She had just named the Wolves' biggest pains in the ass.
"But it's not even sundown yet!"
"Tell them that!" Adrian swore fluently and dropped her tools, running after Shiara to the back of Brian's office. On the floor was a large army footlocker closed tight with a padlock. Adrian grimaced at it and turned to Shiara.
"Do you remember the combination?"
"You've got to be kidding me! You forgot it?" At Adrian's nod, she rolled her eyes and began fiddling with the numbers. In a matter of seconds, the lock popped open and Shiara smiled triumphantly. Her skill with busting locks was improving with leaps and bounds. "Oh yeah, I'm good." The two threw the lid open and began pulling out the locker's contents: black leather jackets and black boots, both etched with Wolf insignia. It was the Wolves' night gear and now, they had a job to do.
The Wolves were the "quiet little subarb's" vigilantes. The cops had no idea of the number of crimes averted by the fighters. They just thought the bunch of tough, fierce young men and women were a motorcycle gang, which they were. But they were also much more.
Wolves ruled the night, and Adrian ruled the Wolves. If anyone knew what was good for them, they didn't mess with either of the two. But apparently they didn't, so Adrian and the gang were always busy.
Now the biggest rule of nightlife was that nothing went down until after the sun was gone. No robberies, no muggings, and no turf wars. And although the lowlifes who committed these crimes were the worst you could get, they were all bound by night law to follow the Sundown rule.
But the Rookies were always breaking the rules, so apparently they saw the Sundown rule as one more boundary to cross. And it was too far.
"Where's Beta?" Shiara asked, referring to Chris. Adrian shook her head as she shrugged into the black leather jacket and stomped on her black motorcycle boots.
"He took off. Call him in with the rest." Shiara nodded and after grabbing Will's gear along with her own, she went back upstairs to the com- system they used to call in the Wolves for work.
Seconds later an eerie howling sounded in Adrian's ear. It was coming from her cuff earring and was used to call in Wolves for the hunt. All Wolves had the cuff and wore it at all times.
Not long after, the core of Wolves and four others rode out of the garage on their motorcycles, heading for the Rookies' hideout.
Now the Rookies knew the Wolves would be out after them, because Rookies pulled a job every night, and Wolves hunted them, every night. But the Rookies were rookies, literally. They tripped alarms, let people see them and left such obvious clues that the lowliest mugger would be ashamed.
But that didn't mean they made it easy for the Wolves to track them down. The Rookies had a frustrating way of disappearing after they committed their obvious crimes. When one of the drifting Wolves had come in with Rookies hideout information, Adrian had pounced on it.
Now the Wolves were going to test that info.
Five minutes later, Adrian and the rest killed their engines three blocks away from the abandoned convenience store where their prey was rumored to be hiding in.
Adrian and Chris gave hand signals to the rest and they spread out. There were three sentries and they were each taken out, one by one.
As Chris lowered the last unconscious form to the ground, Adrian signaled him to draw his knives as she pulled a throwing knife from the sheath at her back and a smaller dagger from her boot. Chris thrust his arms out in a familiar gesture and felt his own daggers slide into his grasp.
With a nod, Adrian kicked open the door that stood before them, and without thinking, flung her dagger at the first movement she saw, pinning a man by the sleeve to the wall. Chris nailed a second and third opponent with his knives and floored the fourth person in the room with a solid roundhouse kick to the side of the head.
"Alrighty boys," Adrian drawled. "Party's over. Hand her" - Adrian pointed to Shiara who had entered with Will a moment after Chris and Adrian - "the goods and cooperate with us nicely, and we might go a bit easy on you." Chris put two fingers to his lips and gave a piercing whistle that brought the other seven Wolves.
"Beau, Julie, go back to the bikes and bring the cuffs here. Sam, round all of 'em up and find somewhere we can link 'em up to until the cops get here. AJ, unpin our prisoners and help everyone else guard 'em." And the Wolves hurried to follow their Alpha's orders.
Minutes later, all seven Rookies were chained to the counter holding the long emptied cash register. Shiara wrote the cops a note saying where the stolen loot would be left and pinned the note to the door, out of reach and eyesight of their captives. Adrian had smacked them around a bit to determine it there were any more cells of their gang that the Wolves might have to deal with in the future. When she was satisfied with their answers, she knocked them all unconscious and walked out the door with Chris on her heels.
"You alright?"
"Fine, why?"
"Usually you don't knock people out for no reason."
"So I've got a lot of tension, sue me," she snapped.
"Hey if you've got issues with me, we better get 'em out now."
"Believe me Hunter, if it were you, you'd know about it. Now leave me alone." She stalked over to her bike, straddled it and rode off.
"Where's she goin'?" Will asked.
"I'll follow her," Shiara called.
"No, let me. I've got a bone to pick with her. Better now than later," Chris muttered, and took off after Adrian.
"Man, those two have issues," Brian grumbled.
"So why don't we let them deal with them, huh? And go find someone's ass to beat on," Aurora suggested, knowing that the two would be back to normal again after a yelling match, as it usually was.
"Finally, someone sayin' something sensible!" Sam cried.
The others rolled their eyes, but they all took to their motorcycles for patrols.
Meanwhile Chris had caught up with Adrian at the parking lot of Rusty's. And it wasn't pretty.
"I thought I told you to leave me alone! God, don't you know how to listen anymore?"
"Yeah, I do. And what I'm hearin' is you've got issues with me that you're gonna go try to drink away."
"Hunter, I don't drink. Dammit, you should know that by now at least!"
"Well then why the hell are you here? You know Rusty can keep the bar free from trouble on his own. You also know he hates it when you come just to brawl."
"So? The man owns a bar! He should get used to brawls! If he's so sick of me, why doesn't he kick me out?"
"Would you listen to him? Besides, he knows you're the ruler of the night and it don't do good to get on your bad side, which I seem to be inhibiting. Are you gonna tell me why or do I have to figure it out on my own?"
"Fuck it Chris! I already told you I got no issues with you!"
"Then why the bitch?"
"Does PMS mean nothing to you?"
"Don't gimme that bullshit. PMS don't affect you one bit. And you know it."
"Look man, I don't know! I don't know what the fuckin' hell it is!"
"Bullshit. What d'you mean you don't know?"
"I don't know! All I know is that I'm a seventeen-year-old woman with two brothers, one sister, one aunt and no parents. I like motorcycles and knives and I can kick everyone's ass in this goddamn county. Probably the whole friggin' state. I'm gonna be a senior in high school when it starts in three weeks and I rule over a motorcycle gang of vigilantes. That's all I know." Chris just stared at Adrian for the longest time. Then.
"That's it?"
"What's it?"
"That's what you're mad about?"
"No! Of course that's not what I'm mad about! God! Didn't you hear me? I don't know why I'm mad, okay? I frickin' don't know!"
"So what the hell are you gonna do about it?"
"I'm gonna go in there and kick some biker ass."
"No."
"What?"
"You're not."
"Why?"
"Because you're not mad at them."
"So? Let a few of those lowlifes try to feel me up, and I'll get mad. And besides, it'll sure as hell make me feel better."
"No it won't."
"What d'you mean, no it won't? Of course it will!"
"No, it won't, because afterwards you'll have accomplished nothing but to wear yourself out and then you'll need your strength on the way home and you won't have it, so you'll become even madder at yourself."
"Wait. Madder? I'm not mad at myself in the first place."
"I think you are."
"Well I'm not."
"Well it's certainly not anyone else or you would've told me."
"You think too highly of yourself."
"No, it's the truth. I know from experience."
"You really think too highly of yourself."
"Whatever. So c'mon, out with it."
"Out with what?"
"Don't play dumb with me, Adrian. Figure out what the hell you've been doing to piss yourself off and tell me."
"Just like that? Chris it ain't gonna happen."
"Well then figure it out at home, 'cause if you don't tell me now, the garage is exactly where you're going."
"And if I don't want to? Who's gonna stop me?"
Chris sighed. "I'd really hoped I didn't have to do this." And a hand appeared out of the darkness behind Adrian and knocked her out with a sharp rap to the temple. Chris reached out and caught her as she fell to the ground.
"I'd really hoped it wouldn't come to this either," Brian replied. It had been him that knocked his little sister out. He and Chris, knowing full well that she'd only talk to Chris and that he couldn't keep her from beating up half the bar by himself, had devised an easy way to get her home while Chris was catching up to Adrian, over the comms.
"Alright, thanks Brian. I'll get her back to the garage. Can you find someone to bring her bike?"
"Yeah no problem."
Chris hefted Adrian's light form onto his motorcycle, climbed on behind her and started his engine. Making sure she wasn't going to fall off, Chris hightailed it back to the garage.
After parking his bike, he carried Adrian up to her room in the loft and lay her down on her bed. He then walked quietly out, shut the door, went to the fridge for a pop and lay down on the couch. He fell asleep, but not for long.
"Chris Hunter, I'm gonna murder you! I'm gonna tie you up, run a chain from you to my bike and drag you all over town! With your mouth right by the exhaust pipe! Where the hell are you?" Her door didn't so much open as fly off its hinges when she kicked it. Then she spotted him.
"You!" she hissed. "You little bastard! I'm gonna throw your ass in such a sling.God! What the hell is wrong with you? What were you thinking? You double-crossing, no-good, can't-do-it-himself-so-he's-gotta-get-someone- else-to-do-his-dirty-work bastard!"
"You done yet?"
"Yeah, I think so."
"Good. I did it because there was no other way to get you away from the bar. And you and I both know there's no way I can knock you out by myself. Well, not without seriously causing myself bodily harm at your hands." Adrian snorted in agreement, and stared at him for awhile. Then.
"Okay, fine. You went to all this trouble to get me here, now what?"
"You either tell me what the hell put a bug the size of Washington State up your ass or you figure it out on your own. But until you got it under control, you ain't leavin' the garage. That's the deal." Adrian mentally went over all the ways she could escape, then nodded.
"Deal." Girl could lie under the highest technology of lie detectors. She had a good deal of practice. But lying to Chris was another thing in its entirety. Usually it wasn't this easy.
"So you gonna do this one solo, or am I your boy?"
"Hunter, you're always my boy. But right now I got some things to work out on my own. Is my bike in the garage? I think I heard something wrong with the tailpipe."
"Yeah, I heard someone bring it in." Adrian nodded and strode over to the trapdoor that led down to the garage, pulled it open and slid down the ladder.
Seconds later, Chris heard voices, then shouts and an engine starting. Damn! he thought and slid down the ladder, landing in time to see Adrian's motorcycle round the corner heading north. That's the first time she's gotten one by me in a long time. I'm gettin' slow.
* * * * *
God! I can't believe him! What the hell was he thinking, knocking me out, dragging me home, and then having the balls to tell me I was shut in until I worked out my so-called problems! Bastard!
Adrian was in a bad mood, to put it lightly. And at the moment she was high-tailing it out of town as fast as she could. She knew Chris would have half the pack looking for her, and right now she wanted to be alone. There were things she wanted to think about, things she had to figure out.
As she slowed for a stop sign, a bird flew in front of her face, causing her to swerve and momentarily lose control of the bike. Quickly braking, Adrian took a second to steady herself. Then, loudly cursing the bird, she gunned her engine again and sped off.
The bird alighted in a tree and watched her disappear into the nearing dusk. Shaking his head, the sparrow muttered to himself, "Yep, that's her alright. Diana mentioned she had a temper."
* * * * *
Adrian pulled to a halt at the edge of a tall cliff over looking the Atlantic. Living in the DC suburbs had its advantages, the few there were. It meant she was only a short ride away from the coastline. She would go there to relax and think about whatever the hell happened to be bugging her at that moment in time.
But this time was different. This time she really wasn't sure what was pissing her off. There was just this feeling she had, like she didn't know who she was. Like, it was right on the edge of her knowledge, but something was holding her back.
Now she still felt like she didn't know who she was, but the boundaries were gone. She realized it hadn't been just the boundaries holding her back. Adrian knew there was something that she was doing to keep herself away from the knowledge.
She sighed and sat on the edge of the cliff, hanging her feet over the edge. Adrian wasn't afraid of heights, which was a good thing, considering she was a good sixty feet up. And above sharp rocks and merciless waves no less. But she felt no fear. It was reckless of her she knew. She should fear falling and breaking her body into hundreds of pieces and being swept far out to sea, to have her lifeless corpse found by someone she'd never known.
But she didn't.
Maybe I'm mentally ill. Everyone would think so, especially if they knew that I don't care if I die. That if handed the option, I might even welcome death. Adrian mentally shook herself.
What the hell is wrong with you?! Why are you being such a whiny little bitch? You have the greatest family and friends in the world and your job rocks - both the legal one during the day and the not-so-legal one at night - you're almost done with high school and.
And what? the gloomy, depressed side of her mind asked. You've got all that. Wow, big deal. You aren't happy. You're turning to stone. In spite of all that, you're becoming numb. A numb, callous, walking being of stone and ice. There will be no passion left in you, no fire. No family, no friends, no companions. Just a semblance of a human left over from the disaster she was put through.
No! I won't be like that! I'm fine. Of course I'm happy, how could I not be? I've got.I've got.
Nothing.
No!
Yes! There is nothing you have that matters, nothing you can do will help anyone, only hurt them! Accept it!
No!
Accept it!
I refuse!
Do it!
I will not!
Then you have chosen your doom.
What the hell would you know about it?!
You will fall and no one will save you.
Never.
Damn you! Why won't you understand that I'm trying to help you?
Liar. You just want me to hurt myself.
Well, don't you want to?
.Yes.
So you can feel?
Yes.
What's stopping you?
Huh?
Jump. And all your problems will end.
But I'll be dead.
Yes, that's the point.
Good. Right. Here we go.
And Adrian, as if in a trance, stood up and stepped off the cliff.
"No!"
"Adrian!" And Adrian felt strong hands grab her waist and pull her back. She tripped and they both fell over, Adrian on her chest on top of her companion's chest. She looked up and saw it was Chris.
"Chris, why're you.what're you doing here? What's going on?"
"Wha- you don't.Adrian, you were about to step off the cliff!"
"Bullshit!" But by the look in Chris's eyes, she knew he wasn't making it up. And then the dream came rushing back.
"Oh God!" she whispered, a fearful look in her eyes.
"What is it?"
"It was - you see I didn't.okay Chris just listen to me. The last thing I did was come out here to think. I fell asleep and had this dream. I was right here and it was so real. I was arguing with myself about my life and somehow got to the point where it was me against this really depressed and sick me and the sick me was telling dream-me that I was worthless and crap. Then I said that the sick me was just trying to get dream-me to hurt myself, and she said don't you want to? And I.I said yes. And then she told me to jump, that it'd solve all my problems. And I - I did! Oh God!" She buried her face in her arms and tried to hide her tears of shame, fear and rage from Chris.
"Oh man," he sighed. And wrapped his arms around Adrian's shaking body and held her close to him. "I've never been so scared in my entire life. I rode up, 'cause I saw your bike and you didn't seem to hear me. You were standing there, looking at the ocean. I called your name, but you didn't respond. Then you picked up your foot and just looked ready to go over. I yelled and ran over and grabbed you. And here we are."
"That dream.I was watching it happen. I could hear the voices inside dream- Adrian's head and, one of them changed, the sick one changed. At first it was her - well, my voice. But then it turned into.well I don't know how to describe it, but it wasn't my voice anymore. The other voice stayed her voice. But that one, the sick one.I tried to warn her, tell her it was wrong, but I was... Something was keeping my mouth shut and holding me back. Keeping me from helping her. Whatever it was, it was dark. And I don't mean the good kind of dark, the kind we like. It was pure evil."
Adrian heard Chris's sharp intake of breath and looked up at him.
"What is it?"
"Huh? Oh, I'm just still trying to, you know, let my brain catch up with all of this."
"Oh. Okay. Sure." And she pulled away, stood up and sat back down at the cliff's edge.
"Adrian."
"What?" she spat out.
"Hey!"
"Well what'm I supposed to do? You won't tell me what you're thinking and you're lying to me!"
"Look who's talking."
"Hey, I told you the truth!"
"Not all of it." Adrian sucked in air to yell back, and then blew it back out. He knew her too damn well.
"I really don't know what it is. Or - I'm not sure. It's like.there's this, this thing that's holding me back."
"Back.from what?"
"I DON"T KNOW! IF I KNEW - "
"CHILL!"
"FINE!"
"GOOD!"
"Jeez!" Chris closed his eyes and ran his hand through his spikes.
"Why do we always do this?"
"Huh? Do what exactly? Bitch at each other?"
"Yes! We do it constantly! Why? Are we really that different?"
"What's it got to do with our differences?"
"Isn't that why we're always at each other's throats? Because we never agree on anything?"
"No, because you see that would be easy to resolve. But this.this is something different. Us, we just like to fight too much. For us, I think it's easier to fight then try to figure things out. We're not exactly people persons."
"You got that right. So what're we gonna do about it?"
"Ummm, I was hoping you'd know."
"Well of course I'm not gonna know! Since when do I get saddled with this?"
Adrian was about to reply angrily, when she stopped and looked at her best friend sadly. "You see, there we go again. We can't even stop for a moment."
Chris's glare softened as he listened to her words. He searched both his heart and his mind for what they could do, but only one answer came to him. And it was the worst option he could ever have imagined. But it was his only choice.
"Well.there is one thing we could do." I can't believe I'm saying this. "We could always." Somebody, anybody help me, please! ".stay away from each other." And as he finished, he saw the look of extreme pain appear on Adrian's face and he winced at the pain he knew he was causing her. How is it that I can pass all my school exams with flying colors, but when it comes to thinking up this resolution, my mind turns out the worst resolution imaginable? How can it be that the only way to save my friendship with her is to force myself away?
"Well, I suppose, we could.give it a try." Adrian wrenched the words out of her throat, one by one. They were the most painful words she had spoken all night and they were killing him, she could see. But they were nothing compared to his suggestion. How could he think that the solution to their problem was avoiding each other? They had been attached at the hip ever since the fight in the alley, and now he was hacking at that bond with a knife. A knife with a serrated edge, each tooth biting deeper into her heart.
Pull yourself together, babe. If he can dish it, so can you. If he can cut you up, you can cut him just as bad. And she heard herself say, "Hey, maybe it'll work. We spend so much time together, maybe that's the problem. Well, I'm game. Let's try it." It was like her tongue had a vengeful mind of it's own and was wagging away without her heart's consent. Oh God! Anyone who's up there.can't you hear me? Help me, please! I'm dying here!
She agreed. I can't believe it. She actually agreed. Not only that, she actually thinks it might work, that spending all our time together was the problem in the first place. If someone shot me now, pulled my heart from my chest and cut me to millions of pieces.I wouldn't feel it. It would be nothing to the pain she has caused me this day. My treacherous tongue is responding to her barbs. It says that I'm game if she is. It's saying that she's right, it might have been our problem the whole way through. Oh how did it get this far? How did we go from the closest of people to the bitterest of them all?
"Well then," Adrian replied in a slightly strained voice. "It's settled. We'll stay away from each other at all times unless it has to do with Wolf business. No friendly conversation, no notes, no contact whatsoever unless it's purely professional. And once two weeks are up, we'll see how well it worked. Deal?" Gods above help me now! Please let him say no, please let him say that we can find another way!
"Deal." Adrian's eyes closed in absolute pain. I now know what hell is like.
Chris's voice shook as he accepted the proposal. I will never suffer more than I do at this moment.
With that, Adrian stood up and turned around. She forced a smile on her face and made herself look him in the eye. "Should I go, or d'you want to?"
Chris also made himself stand and look her in the eye. "No, I'll go. You were here first."
"Alright," she murmured. "Well, I'll see you in two weeks?" she replied, more as a statement then a question, in a falsely cheerful voice.
"Two weeks." She reached out her hand and after a moment, he shook it. Then he abruptly turned before she'd see the tears forming in his eyes, and strode to his motorcycle. He got on and shoved his helmet on over his spikes. Gunning the engine, he turned back to see Adrian facing the sea, back towards him.
Adrian had turned her back so Chris could not see her own burning tears of pain. She heard his motor roar to life and then listened to him ride off. As he neared the bottom of the cliff, she turned to watch him.
As Chris slowed at the bottom of the cliff, he turned his head to see her silhouette against the night sky. As his first tear fell, he called out in a whisper to her, with his thoughts, Goodbye my love.
In her head, Adrian swore she heard the words, Goodbye, my love. But she dismissed it as wishful thinking and sighed. How will we ever get through this?
* * * * *
Adrian stayed out at the cliff until well after sunset. She wanted to make sure she wouldn't run into Chris as she went home. It would be too much of a temptation to talk to him, and while she would be able to keep herself from losing control, the pain of keeping herself away would be too great.
But soon it became very late and she was beginning to realize that she needed to get home. She would've been called in with her cuff if there were problems, but still.she felt better if she was within enough distance to be able to help.
So, groaning from the stiffness in her legs at being cross-legged for several hours and swiping at her eyes that she knew were probably red and completely bloodshot, Adrian rose and climbed onto her bike.
The ride back seemed to be over in a second. Thankfully Chris wasn't in the garage when she pulled in. She hurriedly parked and ran up the ladder to escape being seen by anyone. She didn't want to talk about the night's events. Right now, she just wanted to sleep.
* * * * *
"Adrian Cole, public enemy number one."
"What?" came the laughing reply. "Is that what they're calling me now? Whatever happened to Demon from Hell, or Skank, or my favorite, The Wicked Bitch of the West? Since when did I get hyped up to felon?"
"Over the summer. That's right you've only been back from Ireland for a week. How was it?"
"Heaven," the girl - young woman really - sighed happily. "Aunt Cat was the best. We had so much fun. I always learn loads from her. How were things here? Any problems?"
"A few newbies thought they could rule the town just because you were overseas. Wolves put 'em down right enough."
"That's my boys. Did Aurora and Shiara help?"
"Aurora was gonna, but something came up. I think one of her dogs went into labor or something."
"That's my older sis, the animals always come first," the girl replied without a trace of bitterness. "How 'bout Shorty?" she asked, referring to Shiara. "Did she join the hunt?"
Her male companion grinned. "Join she did. And she enjoyed it too. I think we're wearing off on her." The young woman grinned back wolfishly in reply.
Adrian Cole was in the roomy confines of her brother's garage, working with her best friend, Chris Hunter, on a '64 Harley Davidson one of her brother's newer customers had brought in.
Adrian was a slender girl of 17 years, whose attractive looks and sharp attitude had gotten her into quite her fair share - and beyond - of trouble more than once. Not that she couldn't handle it. Being the youngest child in a family that consisted of her two older brothers and older sister, Adrian had picked up quite a few tricks over the years.
Not to mention that she would sometimes hang out at Rusty's, a local biker bar. And when you were at Rusty's you either knew how to fight, or you had plenty of back up. Or you just didn't piss anyone off. But the third option was quite difficult to pull off, seeing as half the people in the joint were drunk and anything got them riled; and the other half, being hard-core, stereo-typical bikers, also got riled about anything and everything you did.
Experience was quite the motivator. You did something wrong, you got decked for it. So next time, you either learn how to duck, or you do something else to stop the hit from coming.
Chris was Adrian's best friend. Had been since the two of them helped each other out of a pretty nasty alley fight, one night during the infamous Gang Wars. He had been twelve, she eleven, and the two of them had beat ten full-grown men to a bloody pulp. From then on, the two were practically inseparable.
But unless a person knew of this particular event - and most did not - they were hard pressed to stick the two together. In public, they were constantly at each other's throats, bickering and being complete adversaries, even to the closest watcher. But it was just for show. In private, the two still bickered, but it was more friendly banter than anything else. They both had issues with showing outsiders what they were really like, so they kept their friendship a secret.
And if you just saw them walking side by side you'd think they were practically twins. Adrian had long, dark brown hair that was almost black. She kept it braided mostly, but you could still see the brilliant streaks of red and blue that she applied to reveal some of her wild nature. Her dark tan was from long hours of riding her motorcycle in tank tops, and no helmet, showing killer biceps and her usual cold and calculating look she used on the general public.
Adrian was quite attractive, if you could get past the constant scowl, the fact she would at times laugh at the sight of blood - especially when she was the cause of it - and the smart-ass tongue she regularly sharpened on her fellow high school peers (even the teachers at times). Most could not. Her slender, muscular form and ever-changing eye color outlined her rather un-classical beauty. But, of course, if you tried to tell her she was easy on the eyes.well, no one would advise it if you wanted to keep your kneecaps where they were anatomically supposed to be.
Chris, on the other hand, had reddish-brown hair that he was born with, and wore it short and spiked. His dark skin, like everything else about him, was completely natural, and his sharp green eyes were filled past the brim with knowledge and wit - almost, some commented, enough to beat the infamous Adrian in an intellectual battle. Almost. Chris's body was also slender and muscular, but in a masculine way and he wasn't quite as unforgiving and ruthless as she.
The two were both obsessed with motorcycles and the fighting arts. They had the best fight skills in their DC suburb. Chris had been throwing knives since he was seven and Adrian's very own style of street fighting left her unsurpassed in combat. They taught each other the tricks of their trades and soon Adrian was throwing like she'd been born to the knife, and Chris could beat her one in three bouts of hand-to-hand.
The two belonged to a motorcycle gang called the Wolves. It consisted of them, plus Adrian's siblings - Brian, Aurora, and Will - and Chris's friend, Kevin. A girl from Adrian, Chris, and Kevin's high school, named Shiara, had recently been accepted when she began dating Adrian's nineteen year-old brother, Will. While Shiara was still new to motorcycles and fighting, she was sharp and kept her wits about her.
These seven made up the Wolves' core. There were several others who rode with them, but most never stuck for long. Friendships and alliances would shift; your brother or girlfriend could become your enemy in an instant. So, many rode when they felt like it, others would drift in and out of the Wolves' good graces.
But that was Chris and Adrian's nightlife. During the day they were two teenagers who worked in Brian's - Adrian's oldest brother - garage, and would be starting their senior year in high school once summer was over. When the sun was up, no one could tell that the seven young men and women who frequented the auto shop were an elite fighting force that kept their town's nocturnal crime close to the zero mark.
None of the younger member's high school classmates or teachers knew they were in the presence of the young woman who ruled the night, her second in command, and two of her closest people. None of the garage's customers knew their vehicles were being worked on by men and women who knew at least twenty-five ways to get someone to let go of them, and keep them from ever doing it again.
Brian, the oldest of the pack at 23, owned the auto repair shop/garage and was the best in the business. His business was family - and friend - owned and operated. Aurora, Adrian, Kevin, Chris, and Shiara all helped in the garage whenever they could, while Will and Brian were the two that held a permanent job there.
During the summer, everyone but Aurora - because she had her own job - practically lived in the garage. Well, Adrian and her family lived in the apartment above the garage, but that wasn't the point. The others - Kevin, Chris and Shiara - all shared an apartment across town, but during the summer, they all ate and slept at the garage almost every night. It was just one big party, intermixed with random bouts of auto repair, since that was a major passion of theirs.
The gang's academic aspirations weren't all that noticeable, but they did exist. Brian hadn't gone to college, he'd learned everything he knew from his high school auto mechanics teacher who'd taken a real interest in him. Aurora had gone to college on a full scholarship and graduated with a Master's in Animal Medicine. She now owned and ran the unorthodox animal hospital up the road from the garage.
Will had wanted to be an astronomer, but since he hadn't gotten a scholarship anywhere, and he and his family couldn't pay for a full college education at the time, Will had stayed to work in Brian's garage. He'd been pretty miserable until his 'lady love,' Shiara, had come along.
Shiara had run away from the abusive boyfriend she had been living with. Both her parents were dead and she had no other family. Will had found her in an alley one cold, rainy night he'd been out on patrol. He'd taken her half-starved, shivering, beaten body onto the front of his motorcycle and sped back to the garage, which, along with being a place of occupation and a home, it tripled as Wolf headquarters. After convincing Adrian to hide the extremely shy and scared young woman in her room until Shiara felt comfortable with other people, Will slowly got past Shiara's many shields and walls around her heart, to be accepted in her life and trusted. With plenty of help from his little sister, who was now Shiara's best friend. Petite, redheaded Shiara had come into her own in the Wolves' company and was now an important asset to their crew.
Will and Shiara were in love and dating, but it was an extremely cautious relationship. Both were wary and careful, but both were also extremely devoted to the other. They had inspired quite a change in each other and the Wolves were all the better for it.
"Where is your dear brother?" Chris teased. "I need to ask him something." Adrian rolled her eyes expressively and shrugged.
"How'm I supposed to know? Which are you after?"
"Brian. It's about, ah.school."
"Oh yeah? What's up?" Adrian asked, completely oblivious to Chris's awkward answer.
"Umm.I was wondering if he'd mind me coming out during my free period," Chris replied, trying for nonchalant. He didn't get it.
"Probably not, seeing as all of us will be," Adrian replied slowly. She searched her friend's face for a moment and tried to figure out why he asked such an obvious question. Not finding anything, she gave up.
"Okay, Hunter, that was a stupid question and you know it. What's up?"
"Nothing, I just want to talk to Brian when he gets back, okay? Tell him to call me, I'm takin' off." And with that, Chris walked over to his motorcycle parked by the garage door, climbed on and motored off.
Adrian rolled her eyes at her friend's touchiness. He'd been incredibly iffy ever since she'd gotten back from visiting her dead father's sister, Cat, in Ireland.
Both Adrian's parents were dead. Killed, her siblings had said, by some unknown enemy. Her father, Andrew O'Riley, had met her mother, Catherine Cole in Catherine's homeland of Greece. Andrew was a young Irish man traveling the world, and Catherine was a sharp-witted young woman who could hardly wait to leave Greece. They'd fallen in love, married, and moved to the States.
Andrew and Catherine had their four children, and suddenly, not long after Adrian's birth, their life was tragically disrupted. One day Brian woke up to find his mother and father gone, leaving him, a six year-old boy, in chare of three other children, one of them his newborn sister.
None of the children knew how they were lucky enough to end up where they were now. Nor did any of them believe that their parents had abandoned them.
Aunt Cat was a major highlight in Adrian's life, seeing as she was the only surviving relative the foursome had, as none of their grandparents were alive - Catherine's parents dying soon after her birth, Andrew's subject to a horrible accident - and both Andrew and Catherine were single children. She would invite each of them out to Ireland one at a time throughout the year, making sure that when Will or Brian came out, it was at a time when the others could cover for him at the shop.
Cat gave them each a couple of weeks to relax and get back up to full strength, plus she got a chance to check up on her favorite - only - bunch of nieces and nephews.
Adrian sighed, wishing she could go back to Ireland for another week. Then she shook her head at her own selfishness and turned back to the '64 Harley. Brian would be back soon and he didn't want to lose a new customer just because Adrian was off daydreaming instead of working, like she should've been.
Minutes later, Shiara tumbled down the ladder from the household loft and breezed past Adrian, headed for Brian's office.
"Shorty, what's up?" Adrian had nicknamed the elfin sixteen year-old girl after she had learned not to take offense at the many jokes that flew around her.
"Trouble in the underground, Alpha," Shiara replied, using Adrian's battle name. "Rookies broke into a jewelry store not five minutes ago." She had just named the Wolves' biggest pains in the ass.
"But it's not even sundown yet!"
"Tell them that!" Adrian swore fluently and dropped her tools, running after Shiara to the back of Brian's office. On the floor was a large army footlocker closed tight with a padlock. Adrian grimaced at it and turned to Shiara.
"Do you remember the combination?"
"You've got to be kidding me! You forgot it?" At Adrian's nod, she rolled her eyes and began fiddling with the numbers. In a matter of seconds, the lock popped open and Shiara smiled triumphantly. Her skill with busting locks was improving with leaps and bounds. "Oh yeah, I'm good." The two threw the lid open and began pulling out the locker's contents: black leather jackets and black boots, both etched with Wolf insignia. It was the Wolves' night gear and now, they had a job to do.
The Wolves were the "quiet little subarb's" vigilantes. The cops had no idea of the number of crimes averted by the fighters. They just thought the bunch of tough, fierce young men and women were a motorcycle gang, which they were. But they were also much more.
Wolves ruled the night, and Adrian ruled the Wolves. If anyone knew what was good for them, they didn't mess with either of the two. But apparently they didn't, so Adrian and the gang were always busy.
Now the biggest rule of nightlife was that nothing went down until after the sun was gone. No robberies, no muggings, and no turf wars. And although the lowlifes who committed these crimes were the worst you could get, they were all bound by night law to follow the Sundown rule.
But the Rookies were always breaking the rules, so apparently they saw the Sundown rule as one more boundary to cross. And it was too far.
"Where's Beta?" Shiara asked, referring to Chris. Adrian shook her head as she shrugged into the black leather jacket and stomped on her black motorcycle boots.
"He took off. Call him in with the rest." Shiara nodded and after grabbing Will's gear along with her own, she went back upstairs to the com- system they used to call in the Wolves for work.
Seconds later an eerie howling sounded in Adrian's ear. It was coming from her cuff earring and was used to call in Wolves for the hunt. All Wolves had the cuff and wore it at all times.
Not long after, the core of Wolves and four others rode out of the garage on their motorcycles, heading for the Rookies' hideout.
Now the Rookies knew the Wolves would be out after them, because Rookies pulled a job every night, and Wolves hunted them, every night. But the Rookies were rookies, literally. They tripped alarms, let people see them and left such obvious clues that the lowliest mugger would be ashamed.
But that didn't mean they made it easy for the Wolves to track them down. The Rookies had a frustrating way of disappearing after they committed their obvious crimes. When one of the drifting Wolves had come in with Rookies hideout information, Adrian had pounced on it.
Now the Wolves were going to test that info.
Five minutes later, Adrian and the rest killed their engines three blocks away from the abandoned convenience store where their prey was rumored to be hiding in.
Adrian and Chris gave hand signals to the rest and they spread out. There were three sentries and they were each taken out, one by one.
As Chris lowered the last unconscious form to the ground, Adrian signaled him to draw his knives as she pulled a throwing knife from the sheath at her back and a smaller dagger from her boot. Chris thrust his arms out in a familiar gesture and felt his own daggers slide into his grasp.
With a nod, Adrian kicked open the door that stood before them, and without thinking, flung her dagger at the first movement she saw, pinning a man by the sleeve to the wall. Chris nailed a second and third opponent with his knives and floored the fourth person in the room with a solid roundhouse kick to the side of the head.
"Alrighty boys," Adrian drawled. "Party's over. Hand her" - Adrian pointed to Shiara who had entered with Will a moment after Chris and Adrian - "the goods and cooperate with us nicely, and we might go a bit easy on you." Chris put two fingers to his lips and gave a piercing whistle that brought the other seven Wolves.
"Beau, Julie, go back to the bikes and bring the cuffs here. Sam, round all of 'em up and find somewhere we can link 'em up to until the cops get here. AJ, unpin our prisoners and help everyone else guard 'em." And the Wolves hurried to follow their Alpha's orders.
Minutes later, all seven Rookies were chained to the counter holding the long emptied cash register. Shiara wrote the cops a note saying where the stolen loot would be left and pinned the note to the door, out of reach and eyesight of their captives. Adrian had smacked them around a bit to determine it there were any more cells of their gang that the Wolves might have to deal with in the future. When she was satisfied with their answers, she knocked them all unconscious and walked out the door with Chris on her heels.
"You alright?"
"Fine, why?"
"Usually you don't knock people out for no reason."
"So I've got a lot of tension, sue me," she snapped.
"Hey if you've got issues with me, we better get 'em out now."
"Believe me Hunter, if it were you, you'd know about it. Now leave me alone." She stalked over to her bike, straddled it and rode off.
"Where's she goin'?" Will asked.
"I'll follow her," Shiara called.
"No, let me. I've got a bone to pick with her. Better now than later," Chris muttered, and took off after Adrian.
"Man, those two have issues," Brian grumbled.
"So why don't we let them deal with them, huh? And go find someone's ass to beat on," Aurora suggested, knowing that the two would be back to normal again after a yelling match, as it usually was.
"Finally, someone sayin' something sensible!" Sam cried.
The others rolled their eyes, but they all took to their motorcycles for patrols.
Meanwhile Chris had caught up with Adrian at the parking lot of Rusty's. And it wasn't pretty.
"I thought I told you to leave me alone! God, don't you know how to listen anymore?"
"Yeah, I do. And what I'm hearin' is you've got issues with me that you're gonna go try to drink away."
"Hunter, I don't drink. Dammit, you should know that by now at least!"
"Well then why the hell are you here? You know Rusty can keep the bar free from trouble on his own. You also know he hates it when you come just to brawl."
"So? The man owns a bar! He should get used to brawls! If he's so sick of me, why doesn't he kick me out?"
"Would you listen to him? Besides, he knows you're the ruler of the night and it don't do good to get on your bad side, which I seem to be inhibiting. Are you gonna tell me why or do I have to figure it out on my own?"
"Fuck it Chris! I already told you I got no issues with you!"
"Then why the bitch?"
"Does PMS mean nothing to you?"
"Don't gimme that bullshit. PMS don't affect you one bit. And you know it."
"Look man, I don't know! I don't know what the fuckin' hell it is!"
"Bullshit. What d'you mean you don't know?"
"I don't know! All I know is that I'm a seventeen-year-old woman with two brothers, one sister, one aunt and no parents. I like motorcycles and knives and I can kick everyone's ass in this goddamn county. Probably the whole friggin' state. I'm gonna be a senior in high school when it starts in three weeks and I rule over a motorcycle gang of vigilantes. That's all I know." Chris just stared at Adrian for the longest time. Then.
"That's it?"
"What's it?"
"That's what you're mad about?"
"No! Of course that's not what I'm mad about! God! Didn't you hear me? I don't know why I'm mad, okay? I frickin' don't know!"
"So what the hell are you gonna do about it?"
"I'm gonna go in there and kick some biker ass."
"No."
"What?"
"You're not."
"Why?"
"Because you're not mad at them."
"So? Let a few of those lowlifes try to feel me up, and I'll get mad. And besides, it'll sure as hell make me feel better."
"No it won't."
"What d'you mean, no it won't? Of course it will!"
"No, it won't, because afterwards you'll have accomplished nothing but to wear yourself out and then you'll need your strength on the way home and you won't have it, so you'll become even madder at yourself."
"Wait. Madder? I'm not mad at myself in the first place."
"I think you are."
"Well I'm not."
"Well it's certainly not anyone else or you would've told me."
"You think too highly of yourself."
"No, it's the truth. I know from experience."
"You really think too highly of yourself."
"Whatever. So c'mon, out with it."
"Out with what?"
"Don't play dumb with me, Adrian. Figure out what the hell you've been doing to piss yourself off and tell me."
"Just like that? Chris it ain't gonna happen."
"Well then figure it out at home, 'cause if you don't tell me now, the garage is exactly where you're going."
"And if I don't want to? Who's gonna stop me?"
Chris sighed. "I'd really hoped I didn't have to do this." And a hand appeared out of the darkness behind Adrian and knocked her out with a sharp rap to the temple. Chris reached out and caught her as she fell to the ground.
"I'd really hoped it wouldn't come to this either," Brian replied. It had been him that knocked his little sister out. He and Chris, knowing full well that she'd only talk to Chris and that he couldn't keep her from beating up half the bar by himself, had devised an easy way to get her home while Chris was catching up to Adrian, over the comms.
"Alright, thanks Brian. I'll get her back to the garage. Can you find someone to bring her bike?"
"Yeah no problem."
Chris hefted Adrian's light form onto his motorcycle, climbed on behind her and started his engine. Making sure she wasn't going to fall off, Chris hightailed it back to the garage.
After parking his bike, he carried Adrian up to her room in the loft and lay her down on her bed. He then walked quietly out, shut the door, went to the fridge for a pop and lay down on the couch. He fell asleep, but not for long.
"Chris Hunter, I'm gonna murder you! I'm gonna tie you up, run a chain from you to my bike and drag you all over town! With your mouth right by the exhaust pipe! Where the hell are you?" Her door didn't so much open as fly off its hinges when she kicked it. Then she spotted him.
"You!" she hissed. "You little bastard! I'm gonna throw your ass in such a sling.God! What the hell is wrong with you? What were you thinking? You double-crossing, no-good, can't-do-it-himself-so-he's-gotta-get-someone- else-to-do-his-dirty-work bastard!"
"You done yet?"
"Yeah, I think so."
"Good. I did it because there was no other way to get you away from the bar. And you and I both know there's no way I can knock you out by myself. Well, not without seriously causing myself bodily harm at your hands." Adrian snorted in agreement, and stared at him for awhile. Then.
"Okay, fine. You went to all this trouble to get me here, now what?"
"You either tell me what the hell put a bug the size of Washington State up your ass or you figure it out on your own. But until you got it under control, you ain't leavin' the garage. That's the deal." Adrian mentally went over all the ways she could escape, then nodded.
"Deal." Girl could lie under the highest technology of lie detectors. She had a good deal of practice. But lying to Chris was another thing in its entirety. Usually it wasn't this easy.
"So you gonna do this one solo, or am I your boy?"
"Hunter, you're always my boy. But right now I got some things to work out on my own. Is my bike in the garage? I think I heard something wrong with the tailpipe."
"Yeah, I heard someone bring it in." Adrian nodded and strode over to the trapdoor that led down to the garage, pulled it open and slid down the ladder.
Seconds later, Chris heard voices, then shouts and an engine starting. Damn! he thought and slid down the ladder, landing in time to see Adrian's motorcycle round the corner heading north. That's the first time she's gotten one by me in a long time. I'm gettin' slow.
* * * * *
God! I can't believe him! What the hell was he thinking, knocking me out, dragging me home, and then having the balls to tell me I was shut in until I worked out my so-called problems! Bastard!
Adrian was in a bad mood, to put it lightly. And at the moment she was high-tailing it out of town as fast as she could. She knew Chris would have half the pack looking for her, and right now she wanted to be alone. There were things she wanted to think about, things she had to figure out.
As she slowed for a stop sign, a bird flew in front of her face, causing her to swerve and momentarily lose control of the bike. Quickly braking, Adrian took a second to steady herself. Then, loudly cursing the bird, she gunned her engine again and sped off.
The bird alighted in a tree and watched her disappear into the nearing dusk. Shaking his head, the sparrow muttered to himself, "Yep, that's her alright. Diana mentioned she had a temper."
* * * * *
Adrian pulled to a halt at the edge of a tall cliff over looking the Atlantic. Living in the DC suburbs had its advantages, the few there were. It meant she was only a short ride away from the coastline. She would go there to relax and think about whatever the hell happened to be bugging her at that moment in time.
But this time was different. This time she really wasn't sure what was pissing her off. There was just this feeling she had, like she didn't know who she was. Like, it was right on the edge of her knowledge, but something was holding her back.
Now she still felt like she didn't know who she was, but the boundaries were gone. She realized it hadn't been just the boundaries holding her back. Adrian knew there was something that she was doing to keep herself away from the knowledge.
She sighed and sat on the edge of the cliff, hanging her feet over the edge. Adrian wasn't afraid of heights, which was a good thing, considering she was a good sixty feet up. And above sharp rocks and merciless waves no less. But she felt no fear. It was reckless of her she knew. She should fear falling and breaking her body into hundreds of pieces and being swept far out to sea, to have her lifeless corpse found by someone she'd never known.
But she didn't.
Maybe I'm mentally ill. Everyone would think so, especially if they knew that I don't care if I die. That if handed the option, I might even welcome death. Adrian mentally shook herself.
What the hell is wrong with you?! Why are you being such a whiny little bitch? You have the greatest family and friends in the world and your job rocks - both the legal one during the day and the not-so-legal one at night - you're almost done with high school and.
And what? the gloomy, depressed side of her mind asked. You've got all that. Wow, big deal. You aren't happy. You're turning to stone. In spite of all that, you're becoming numb. A numb, callous, walking being of stone and ice. There will be no passion left in you, no fire. No family, no friends, no companions. Just a semblance of a human left over from the disaster she was put through.
No! I won't be like that! I'm fine. Of course I'm happy, how could I not be? I've got.I've got.
Nothing.
No!
Yes! There is nothing you have that matters, nothing you can do will help anyone, only hurt them! Accept it!
No!
Accept it!
I refuse!
Do it!
I will not!
Then you have chosen your doom.
What the hell would you know about it?!
You will fall and no one will save you.
Never.
Damn you! Why won't you understand that I'm trying to help you?
Liar. You just want me to hurt myself.
Well, don't you want to?
.Yes.
So you can feel?
Yes.
What's stopping you?
Huh?
Jump. And all your problems will end.
But I'll be dead.
Yes, that's the point.
Good. Right. Here we go.
And Adrian, as if in a trance, stood up and stepped off the cliff.
"No!"
"Adrian!" And Adrian felt strong hands grab her waist and pull her back. She tripped and they both fell over, Adrian on her chest on top of her companion's chest. She looked up and saw it was Chris.
"Chris, why're you.what're you doing here? What's going on?"
"Wha- you don't.Adrian, you were about to step off the cliff!"
"Bullshit!" But by the look in Chris's eyes, she knew he wasn't making it up. And then the dream came rushing back.
"Oh God!" she whispered, a fearful look in her eyes.
"What is it?"
"It was - you see I didn't.okay Chris just listen to me. The last thing I did was come out here to think. I fell asleep and had this dream. I was right here and it was so real. I was arguing with myself about my life and somehow got to the point where it was me against this really depressed and sick me and the sick me was telling dream-me that I was worthless and crap. Then I said that the sick me was just trying to get dream-me to hurt myself, and she said don't you want to? And I.I said yes. And then she told me to jump, that it'd solve all my problems. And I - I did! Oh God!" She buried her face in her arms and tried to hide her tears of shame, fear and rage from Chris.
"Oh man," he sighed. And wrapped his arms around Adrian's shaking body and held her close to him. "I've never been so scared in my entire life. I rode up, 'cause I saw your bike and you didn't seem to hear me. You were standing there, looking at the ocean. I called your name, but you didn't respond. Then you picked up your foot and just looked ready to go over. I yelled and ran over and grabbed you. And here we are."
"That dream.I was watching it happen. I could hear the voices inside dream- Adrian's head and, one of them changed, the sick one changed. At first it was her - well, my voice. But then it turned into.well I don't know how to describe it, but it wasn't my voice anymore. The other voice stayed her voice. But that one, the sick one.I tried to warn her, tell her it was wrong, but I was... Something was keeping my mouth shut and holding me back. Keeping me from helping her. Whatever it was, it was dark. And I don't mean the good kind of dark, the kind we like. It was pure evil."
Adrian heard Chris's sharp intake of breath and looked up at him.
"What is it?"
"Huh? Oh, I'm just still trying to, you know, let my brain catch up with all of this."
"Oh. Okay. Sure." And she pulled away, stood up and sat back down at the cliff's edge.
"Adrian."
"What?" she spat out.
"Hey!"
"Well what'm I supposed to do? You won't tell me what you're thinking and you're lying to me!"
"Look who's talking."
"Hey, I told you the truth!"
"Not all of it." Adrian sucked in air to yell back, and then blew it back out. He knew her too damn well.
"I really don't know what it is. Or - I'm not sure. It's like.there's this, this thing that's holding me back."
"Back.from what?"
"I DON"T KNOW! IF I KNEW - "
"CHILL!"
"FINE!"
"GOOD!"
"Jeez!" Chris closed his eyes and ran his hand through his spikes.
"Why do we always do this?"
"Huh? Do what exactly? Bitch at each other?"
"Yes! We do it constantly! Why? Are we really that different?"
"What's it got to do with our differences?"
"Isn't that why we're always at each other's throats? Because we never agree on anything?"
"No, because you see that would be easy to resolve. But this.this is something different. Us, we just like to fight too much. For us, I think it's easier to fight then try to figure things out. We're not exactly people persons."
"You got that right. So what're we gonna do about it?"
"Ummm, I was hoping you'd know."
"Well of course I'm not gonna know! Since when do I get saddled with this?"
Adrian was about to reply angrily, when she stopped and looked at her best friend sadly. "You see, there we go again. We can't even stop for a moment."
Chris's glare softened as he listened to her words. He searched both his heart and his mind for what they could do, but only one answer came to him. And it was the worst option he could ever have imagined. But it was his only choice.
"Well.there is one thing we could do." I can't believe I'm saying this. "We could always." Somebody, anybody help me, please! ".stay away from each other." And as he finished, he saw the look of extreme pain appear on Adrian's face and he winced at the pain he knew he was causing her. How is it that I can pass all my school exams with flying colors, but when it comes to thinking up this resolution, my mind turns out the worst resolution imaginable? How can it be that the only way to save my friendship with her is to force myself away?
"Well, I suppose, we could.give it a try." Adrian wrenched the words out of her throat, one by one. They were the most painful words she had spoken all night and they were killing him, she could see. But they were nothing compared to his suggestion. How could he think that the solution to their problem was avoiding each other? They had been attached at the hip ever since the fight in the alley, and now he was hacking at that bond with a knife. A knife with a serrated edge, each tooth biting deeper into her heart.
Pull yourself together, babe. If he can dish it, so can you. If he can cut you up, you can cut him just as bad. And she heard herself say, "Hey, maybe it'll work. We spend so much time together, maybe that's the problem. Well, I'm game. Let's try it." It was like her tongue had a vengeful mind of it's own and was wagging away without her heart's consent. Oh God! Anyone who's up there.can't you hear me? Help me, please! I'm dying here!
She agreed. I can't believe it. She actually agreed. Not only that, she actually thinks it might work, that spending all our time together was the problem in the first place. If someone shot me now, pulled my heart from my chest and cut me to millions of pieces.I wouldn't feel it. It would be nothing to the pain she has caused me this day. My treacherous tongue is responding to her barbs. It says that I'm game if she is. It's saying that she's right, it might have been our problem the whole way through. Oh how did it get this far? How did we go from the closest of people to the bitterest of them all?
"Well then," Adrian replied in a slightly strained voice. "It's settled. We'll stay away from each other at all times unless it has to do with Wolf business. No friendly conversation, no notes, no contact whatsoever unless it's purely professional. And once two weeks are up, we'll see how well it worked. Deal?" Gods above help me now! Please let him say no, please let him say that we can find another way!
"Deal." Adrian's eyes closed in absolute pain. I now know what hell is like.
Chris's voice shook as he accepted the proposal. I will never suffer more than I do at this moment.
With that, Adrian stood up and turned around. She forced a smile on her face and made herself look him in the eye. "Should I go, or d'you want to?"
Chris also made himself stand and look her in the eye. "No, I'll go. You were here first."
"Alright," she murmured. "Well, I'll see you in two weeks?" she replied, more as a statement then a question, in a falsely cheerful voice.
"Two weeks." She reached out her hand and after a moment, he shook it. Then he abruptly turned before she'd see the tears forming in his eyes, and strode to his motorcycle. He got on and shoved his helmet on over his spikes. Gunning the engine, he turned back to see Adrian facing the sea, back towards him.
Adrian had turned her back so Chris could not see her own burning tears of pain. She heard his motor roar to life and then listened to him ride off. As he neared the bottom of the cliff, she turned to watch him.
As Chris slowed at the bottom of the cliff, he turned his head to see her silhouette against the night sky. As his first tear fell, he called out in a whisper to her, with his thoughts, Goodbye my love.
In her head, Adrian swore she heard the words, Goodbye, my love. But she dismissed it as wishful thinking and sighed. How will we ever get through this?
* * * * *
Adrian stayed out at the cliff until well after sunset. She wanted to make sure she wouldn't run into Chris as she went home. It would be too much of a temptation to talk to him, and while she would be able to keep herself from losing control, the pain of keeping herself away would be too great.
But soon it became very late and she was beginning to realize that she needed to get home. She would've been called in with her cuff if there were problems, but still.she felt better if she was within enough distance to be able to help.
So, groaning from the stiffness in her legs at being cross-legged for several hours and swiping at her eyes that she knew were probably red and completely bloodshot, Adrian rose and climbed onto her bike.
The ride back seemed to be over in a second. Thankfully Chris wasn't in the garage when she pulled in. She hurriedly parked and ran up the ladder to escape being seen by anyone. She didn't want to talk about the night's events. Right now, she just wanted to sleep.
* * * * *