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We pulled out the driveway onto the main road spitting gravel, with Grace not even bothering to slow down; the fuzzy pink dice on her rear-view mirror swinging like crazy.
She zipped across town. I had no clue where we were going, so I stared out the window and watched the scenery whiz by.
“What’s up?” She pulled around a van to pass it and quickly back into the lane. “Why’re you chewing your finger nails like I’m taking you to prison instead of the office? It’s no big deal.”
I hid my hands under my legs to stop the nervous habit. “Sorry. Why does Caleb want to see us? Why couldn’t it just wait until we got home from school or he got home from work? What does he do, by the way? I thought he basically worked from home.”
Grace smiled and shot me a sympathetic glance. “He wants to see me. You’re part of this family now. He’s beginning to see that, so why not have you see the office building he owns?”
“He owns an entire building?” Seriously, why did this guy do?
“It’s a medical building. I’m surprised Michael or I haven’t mentioned it before. You know how a few years back there was this huge breakthrough in the news about no longer needing blood donors?” She didn’t wait for me to response. “That was all Caleb. The man is beyond brilliant. He’s the scientist who figured out how to clone plasma and blood.”
I laughed. I didn’t mean to, but come on, I joked about them being modern day vampires and they were the creators of synthetic blood? It was kind of ironic.
We were at Caleb’s office in about ten minutes. Built completely of dark glass, the office building had a very modern look to it. I couldn’t quite tell if it was five or six stories tall, as the glass architecture had a very unique design and it was hard to tell where one floor might end and a new one begin.
Grace parked in the restricted parking area, a few spots from Caleb’s car. She leaned over me and reached into the glove compartment to pull out a parking tab to hang by the pink dice.
“We’ll have to go through the front doors since you don’t have a pass to wear inside. Next time, we can get one made up. We don’t have time to do that today.” She shook her head and muttered, “Let alone shop. We’ll be lucky to even get to school.”
I nodded, too anxious to say anything. I wanted the butterflies in my stomach to settle down before we were inside Caleb’s office.
We walked around the parking area, to the front walk, and into the building. I stopped and stared. No medical building I had ever been in looked like this. Breath-taking. The main lobby had marble everywhere – on the floor, the pillars, the front desk and a gorgeous waterfall. The cascade of water was made up of a huge slab of agate that stood over eight feet tall and the pond at the bottom had koi and goldfish swimming around in it. The dark windows and incredibly high ceiling reminded me of an ancient, reverent cave. Soft music echoed softly from hidden speakers, filling the space with relaxing tones. The view almost made you not notice the cameras or security guards standing in several places strategically located throughout.
Grace led me to a room that required a security code to entire. She flashed her badge at a guard who obviously recognized her and didn’t need to see it. He nodded and then looked at me with open curiosity. I wondered if he was one of them, or human like me. He looked pretty indestructible. The sunglasses didn’t give me a chance to see his eyes.
We headed to the elevators. Inside, Grace hit the fourth floor, the top floor, and then put a small key into the hole above the numbers and turned it to the right. She left the key in until after the doors opened and we were about to step out. Caleb’s office was obviously not open to the public –like a hidden penthouse.
The minute we stepped off the elevator it felt like we were stepping into Caleb’s office inside their house. It had the same style, lighting, atmosphere, all of it. You couldn’t tell if it was early evening or morning. The high ceiling lobby and glass explained why it was difficult to tell from the outside of the building how many floors there were. The windows were double layered here and his office was hidden from plain sight.
The floor circulated around the lobby. You could look down at the people and waterfall but they wouldn’t see you. Facing the elevator doors was a large reception desk where a lady in her forties sat. I assumed she was in her forties until I saw the pendant around her neck, and realized she could be forty or three hundred and forty. Grace was a step or so behind me. It had taken her a bit longer to get the key out of the elevator. The reception woman’s eyes narrowed and turned a lighter shade of blue at me. Then she noticed Grace and her eyes turned back to a slightly less vibrant blue color.
“Grace! How lovely to see you!” Her voice floated across the marble floor.
Odd. I’d have thought it would echo against the stone.
“Nice to see you as well Margarette. This is Michael’s Rouge.” It was funny to always be introduced as Michael’s but it obviously was a marker that I was considered safe – or off limits. Who knew which one they meant?
“Hello, Rouge.” She was very polite and smiled briefly; her face revealing nothing.
“Hello, Margarette.”
“Caleb’s waiting for you, Grace. He made no mention that she would be here as well.” She nodded her head in my direction.
Grace tsked. She moved closer beside me and met Margarette’s glare with one of her own, her tone turning sharp. “He knows Rouge’s with me. He’ll be wanting to talk to her more than me.” Without saying another word Grace took my hand and walked around the glass center to the other side of the building.
The sound of her heels “click-clacking” down the corridor filled the space and our pace didn’t give me a chance to ask what she meant by the comment. I thought she had said in the car that he wanted to see her, not me. My heart fluttered in frustration against my rib cage. I hated not understanding what was really going on.
She barged through his office without bothering to knock. A guard stepped forward but she held him back with a simple palm raised, warning him not to come towards us.
The office was almost as big as the cottage I lived in, and had volumes of books along the walls, along with computer terminals set up at each corner. TV monitors were set up along one wall and you could see everything going on from the floors below. Caleb sat at his desk, which was an exact replica of the desk at the house. He also had the same red leather ottoman chairs in front of the desk that he had at the house. The replication of atmospheres was almost eerie.
“Good morning ladies.” Caleb stood up from his desk as we walked in. He still had the manor of a fifteenth or sixteenth century gentleman. I always felt like I was in the presence of royalty when he was in the room.
“It’s nearly lunch and we’re running late for school, Caleb.” Grace crossed her arms over her chest. “You failed to mention to Margarette that Rouge would be coming in. She seemed slightly irritated.”
“Margarette would have been annoyed if I told her Rouge was coming to see me also. Either way, I will be hearing about it after you two have gone.” He let a very small smile brush his lips but it did not reach his eyes.
Grace marched into the room. “Why did you want me to come here? We were hoping to get some shopping in before we needed to be at the school for the graduation rehearsal. That’s out of the question now.”
Caleb ignored Grace’s remark, and looked beyond her, at me. “Michael mentioned you’re planning on leaving the day after graduation.”
“Hi—I’ve...” I cleared my throat and tried again. “I am.”
“You are?” Grace spun around and stared at me in surprise. “Why didn’t you say anything to me?”
I stared at her, then Caleb and then back to my best friend. “I...I... Sorry.” I hadn’t meant to keep it from her. It wasn’t a secret. Their family knew I was going eventually. Why wait? “Last night Michael and I figured it would be perfect timing.” I shrugged, hating to have this conversation with Grace in front of Caleb. “I just hadn’t had a chance to tell you.”
Grace’s face softened.
Caleb harrumphed, obviously annoyed at their female gibberish. “There are only a few days before you leave. I wanted to ask,” he paused, searching for the words or maybe trying to find a way to a make his request sound polite, “I need the Grollic... I was wondering if you would let me borrow the Grollic Book to do some testing on the pages? I don’t believe it’s possible, but I’d like to see if we are able determine the age of the journal. Maybe test if there are any epithelial tissue we might be able to use to trace some DNA. I promise to have the book returned to you before you leave—”
“Okay.”
“—As Michael also said that you plan to finally begin studying it again.”
Michael using those exact words were highly unlikely. He had not pushed me in any way to pick the wolf book up. I knew Caleb had wanted me to start studying the book right after the incident in January but I hadn’t been able to look at it. Just thinking about it brought bile into the back of my throat. I could feel my heart rate quicken with the anxiety pressing against my chest. I swallowed and took a deep breath, trying to calm the panic I felt whenever I thought about the book. “Caleb, do what you want with it.”
“I’ll be extremely careful with it and will have it back to you before you leave. I’m anxious to know if there is more you can read.” He began to pace. “How you haven’t been curious or tempted to read it is beyond me.” He held his hand up to Grace as she opened her mouth to stop him. “No need, Grace. Michael has warned me every day to leave Rouge alone, which I have. However, if she’s lost the ability to control the Grollics because of this, it will be a most definite loss.” He pressed his lips and shook his head.
He did have a point. I guess I wouldn’t know until I came across another werewolf. The thought didn’t stop me from being annoyed at Caleb’s badgering. “I’m sorry I haven’t touched it in months... I just didn’t have the interest to look at it. Those wolves—sorry, beasts don’t deserve a minute of my time.” I had no intention of admitting to anyone I was absolutely terrified of the book. That book might show something that was a part of me, which I didn’t want to learn. Now, however, it was my idea to find out who my biological parents were so it was time to start dealing with the Wolf Book.
“That’s where you’re mistaken. You may have the ability to defeat them. You should have been on top of this.” He sighed. “I’ll ask Michael to go and get it while you are at rehearsal. He would not touch it without your permission.”
I had the gut feeling Caleb had planned to take it, and Michael being Michael, had refused to get the book without asking me. He knew I was having a difficult time and refused to push me in any way.
“Whatever. Should I call him and let him know it’s alright?” I was pretty sure that Michael would not bring it in unless he knew for sure that I personally said yes to Caleb.
“Very good idea.”
Grace had been quiet for the past few moments now spoke. “Fine, it’s all settled. Red will phone Michael on our way out. If that’s all...” She looked expectantly at Caleb.
“Where’s Michael?” I asked. Grace grabbed my hand to pull me back out of the office. “I thought he said he needed to see you.” I spread my feet and refused to budge. “If he’s here, I can just tell him in person.”
Caleb looked up sharply. “He’s not. You will have to call him.”
Why did I have the feeling he was hiding something? I watched Caleb, trying to read his impenetrable express.
Grace finally dragged me out of the room, past Margarette and straight to the elevator. She didn’t say a word until we were almost on the ground floor. “He can be such a pain sometimes! Bloody calling us to the office so he can borrow your book! Damn science labs! We could be shopping right now!”
Whoa! Freeze frame a moment. “Science labs?”
Grace waved her hand absently. “There are labs below ground at the office here. Very high tech labs – all that equipment and testing stuff. I don’t get how Michael likes it. He used to be obsessed with it. It’s all so boring! They test and experiment everything here –figuring out ways to kill Grollics, like equipment to catch them or tools to take them down, and now – but obviously not new – ways to figure out the age of mysterious journals.”
“How do they test the werewolf stuff?” I was suddenly more curious to go into the basement than head to school for grad practice.
She raised a single eyebrow at me and gave me a look. “Catch a werewolf and use the Grollic as a guinea pig. You know, catch with newly made bullets or poisons. Bring him in here and take the poison or bullets out to see which ones were most effective.”
“What do you do with the stuff once you take it out?”
“If the Grollic is not dead yet, we put them back in. And other science-y stuff like that.”
I stared at her in disbelief. They used werewolves like lab rats? Or science projects... It seemed so inhumane. I couldn’t imagine Michael to be a part of the dissection process. I couldn’t picture it. Yet Grace had just said he used to be obsessed with it.
“Don’t look so surprised, Rouge. Those mongrels do the same to us. Those idiots just don’t know how to keep us alive long enough to do anything productive, to learn anything.”
“I just never thought...” I didn’t know how to finish the sentence.
“This is an ugly war that you have barely had a chance to scratch the surface of. You have no clue how deep this hatred goes. Caleb believes that whoever wrote that journal of yours hated Grollics. He’s extremely interested in what you might learn from it, or if your gift will be of any service to us.”
Shaken, I stared at Grace, oblivious to the elevator door opening and then closing again. Grace held her finger over the button with the two arrows to reopen the door but didn’t press it. I was shocked – not because Caleb had plans to use me, but because Grace knew so much. Only once had we talked about how Grollics and her kind had originated. She had never talked about the war between them and the werewolves; she spent her days worrying about clothes or typical high school things, oblivious to her secret life. Or so it seemed. She hadn’t missed anything; she just didn’t discuss the darker side of her existence, and that realization shook me. I wasn’t sure how to respond to her at first. I stood there, mouth gaping like a fish, trying to find words to use to respond. In the end, I opted for the most neutral response I could muster.
“I hardly know anything about the war, or your past, or Grollics. I plan on learning as much as I can on this trip out east.”
She opened the elevator door and we left the building in silence. We reached her car and Grace unlocked the doors. Once inside, she turned back to her Tinkerbelle-self, chatting about what we had to do at graduation and the party afterwards. It was always an effort, trying to keep up with her chatter. As a supernatural she could move at the speed of light, and her mouth had no problem keeping up with that speed as well.
I pulled my phone out of my bag and pressed Michael’s number.
As it continued to ring, longer than normal, I imagined him standing in a suit over some half dead Grollic, picking up his phone while aiming some kind of scientific gun right between the Grollic’s eyes. My tall, blonde, tanned boyfriend all in crazy superhero costume, his bright blue eyes flashing with anger and righteousness.
“Rouge!” His masculine voice softened as he spoke my name. “Sorry it took me so long to answer. I’m at the bank and the teller wouldn’t let me answer the phone.” He chuckled. “She was all no-no-no and pointed to the sign below the counter that has a line across a cell phone.”
The double-oh-seven image disappeared from my head. “Grace and I were just at Caleb’s office.”
A loud breath pushed through the phone. “Caleb make you come?”
“No.” I wasn’t about to tattle on anyone. “It’s all fine. Caleb can have the wolf book.” Grace’s eye shot over to me as she drove. “I mean the Grollic journal.”
“Are you sure? If you don’t feel comfortable with letting him handle it, I can tell him.” His voice sounded wonderful. I could feel his concern for me – both from the phone and from the feelings emitted from his Sioghra pendant around my neck. “That journal belongs to you.”
I didn’t understand why all of them put emphasis on the journal being mine. I hadn’t written the darn thing. “I don’t mind. He said he’ll have it back to us before we leave.” I said the words and pretended to think I was indifferent but deep down I coveted the journal like a secret diary no deserved to see but me. Strange how I didn’t want to admit that to anyone, even myself.
“I’ll make sure of it, and also make sure nothing happens to it.”
