Broken Nightmare

Chapter 18

  "Absolutely not!" A loud shout from Stephan echoed through the solid wood door separating me from the downstairs family room.

Hyene has been in there for ten minutes, trying to get permission for me to do the tutoring center after school. Apparently, it wasn't as simple as just asking.

"She just wants to stay after school for two hours max. She will be around a bunch of people, has her cell phone on her, and we can have someone pick her up once she's done."

"It's too risky! You know what's out there. She can be attacked or kidnapped while she's there, and her training will slow down. I just can't risk that."

"So you'd rather risk her leaving?"

My ears perked up at Hyene's reasoning. The room felt silent and I couldn't tell if they were just whispering or if Stephan was actually contemplating what she said.

"If you don't give her this kind of freedom and reason to stay, she won't. She'd leave once she gets the first opportunity. You know why she is so important, and above all, we can't risk putting her in a cage. All that is going to do is scare her away, and this is one way we can show her that she is important to us and we are willing to put her own wants and desires above our own greedy plans for her. She has asked us of this one thing. If we can't give it to her, how can we give her a reason to stay and expect her to accept us as her own?"

The room fell silent and I took that as a sign that Stephan thinking about what Hyene was saying. Why would I leave? I know I have to stay until I can control my own ability. But then again, I knew Hyene was just using that as a bargaining chip. Without me, they really had no leverage to keep Claire here.

"Okay, fine. You win. Under one circumstance. She takes this wherever she goes and sends text messages to you every half hour or so. I will have Nathan pick her up at five o'clock sharp, and she better be ready by then. Got it?"

Hyene let out a breath loud enough for me to be able to hear on the opposite side of the door. "Thank you. I'll go let her know."

I jerked my ear away from the door and sprinted to the bottom of the stairs, not slowing to race up the stairs, instead taking every step two at a time. Rushing down the hall, I burst into my room and sat on my bed, snagging my backpack in the meantime. I ruffled around through papers to find my book and opened it in a second, waiting for Hyene to walk in.

A light tapping came from my door. "Elana? Can I talk to you?"

"Yeah, come in," I replied, hoping I didn't sound as out of breath as I was.

Hyene crept in and perched on the edge of my bed. "So, I spoke with Stephan, and he agreed to let you go into the tutoring center after school. But, you can only do Monday through Thursday, send me a text every half hour, be done by five, and you carry this with you." Hyene stretched her hand towards me and dropped a pocket knife in my palm. It was small enough to fit in the front pocket of my jeans. I flipped the blade and saw a silver, sharpened tip pop out.

"Trust me, if it was even slightly okay to have a gun, Stephan would have you take that instead. Good thing it'll get you expelled."

"Can't I get expelled having this with me?"

Hyene shrugged. "Probably, but this is easier to hide."

I smiled at her carefree attitude she said it with. "Thank you, Hyene. I'm sure it wasn't easy for you to talk him into this, and it means a lot."

"Yeah, it wasn't easy, but neither is hiding from a shape shifter." My head snapped up and caught her eye. She leaned in closer. "Just so you know, you can't eavesdrop on a conversation between Supernaturals and expect not to get caught," she whispered.