“What has she done to you?” I whispered, finally growing the courage to step forward and touch his face. There was nothing that he could do to me on this plane.
“Nothing.” He smiled again, and I saw the two points of his canines.
I had been right; he was changing. He hadn’t changed completely yet, but the process had begun. I wished at times that the movies were right, that it was possible for me to click my heels together three times and wish to go home.
“Wesley, open your mouth, please,” I asked him as he eyed me.
“Why?” he asked, pushing me away.
“Oh, God,” I said, throwing my hands to my face. “Are you even my Wesley anymore?”
I felt my chest lurch. Then the plane started spinning around me. The last thing I heard before returning to Earth was him screaming my name.
****
“Dawn?” My mother’s voice was shrill, and I became aware that she was shaking me violently.
I opened my eyes and looked up at her. The moment the light from the back porch hit me, the pain that I did not feel when I fell suddenly came rushing back at me.
“Ow!” I groaned, putting my hands to my face.
“Oh, thank the Lord,” she said, holding me tight. “We have got to get you stronger so he can’t summon you.” She looked worried.
“How did you know?” I asked, trying to sit up. My face was killing me.
“He’s the only one that has been doing it. Before it was Miranda, but now that she has him, she has no need to find you. John probably wants to, but she knows that he would only scare you. Just thank goodness he cannot summon you to their location.” She helped me up and glanced at my father, who was standing a few paces away, apparently lost in thought.
“How is a mortal boy summoning her in the first place?” he asked, looking at my mother.
“He’s not mortal anymore,” I said, brushing off my knees.
“What?” my mother demanded, grabbing my shoulders, and ignoring the yelp of pain that escaped my lips.
“Yeah,” I told them both. “I don’t know how far into the change he is, but he’s not my Wesley anymore.”
Now not only was Aaron turning into some creature whose nature I couldn’t predict, but Wesley was too. I had to make sure to keep Adam in my sight at all times.
“That’s not good,” my mother remarked.
“It doesn’t matter,” I said. “Tomorrow we get Krista back. Won’t she amplify our powers?” I asked as they led me back inside the house.
“You know you wandered too far away from the back porch,” my father admonished me, ignoring my question. “If you had stayed there, you’d have been okay.”
“What are you talking about, Dad?” I asked, annoyed.
“The protection only goes as far as the back porch. The fields beyond only have little confusion spells in them. He can’t summon you if you’re inside the house.”
I glared at him. “That would have been nice to know before I went outside at eleven in the evening.” I took some ice from the freezer and put it against my eye.
“To answer your question, yes, Krista will amplify your powers,” my mother interrupted, giving my father a dirty look. “What did he want?”
“What did who want?”
“Wesley. What did he want?” my mother repeated.
“I’m not sure. However, he said he knew about Aaron and that he was being held at an undisclosed location.” I shrugged. “I think he was asking me where Aaron was. When I couldn’t tell him, he asked me the same question.”
“You didn’t tell him, right?” my father demanded, stepping toward me.
“No, I said I was at home. Which he knew was a lie, he said it took me longer to get there.” I shrugged again. “In other words, we know nothing, and they know nothing. Except I know that he is turning, changing into something.”
I assumed a vampire, judging by his teeth, but then again maybe he had gotten both genes. John hadn’t been as lucky, but maybe Wesley was stronger than John.
“From now on, after dark, you keep your butt inside the house where he can’t summon you,” my mother ordered, hands on her hips. “Lord knows what will happen when his strength increases. He may summon you straight to Miranda.”
“Okay! I know!” I exclaimed, throwing my free hand up in the air. “You do remember he is the reason we started this whole quest,” I reminded them.
“Yes, he is,” my father replied. “At the same time, he is with the enemy.”
“He doesn’t have Stockholm Syndrome!” I yelled at them.
I couldn’t help but wonder if they were right, however. What if there had been a change in him that had caused him to flip sides already?
I took a deep breath… “Anyway, he summoned me and asked where Aaron was. When I couldn’t tell him, he demanded to know my location. End of story.” I stormed past them and up to my room.
Once in my room, I threw myself on the black comforter and stared at the ceiling. Well, at least I understood now why I was resting at night: I was unsummonable while in this house. In a way that was a relief, but in others, I felt like I had missed a big part of what happened to Wesley. The fear that he had changed for the worst consumed me.
I knew I shouldn’t be obsessing about him. I had a big day coming up, with the whole raising-of-the-dead thing. It was pointless thinking about him. He was like the rest of them now. And what was the point of this war if not to save the souls of mankind from them? Oh yeah, angels and demons and stuff.
Just go to sleep, Dawn! Don’t worry about the fact that your nose could be broken. Just go to sleep.
I forced my mind off Wesley and Aaron and tried not to think of Adam asleep in the room next to me. I closed my eyes and emptied my mind entirely
