sure
that they were here too."
"Are
you trying to get me killed?"
Rachel
continued the conversation without missing a beat, almost like she
didn't even hear my question.
"Are
you ready to go get Geoffrey?"
"Yes,
but I've already told you that, and you didn't seem to believe me
then. I'm not sure what else I'm supposed to do to convince you that
I'm ready to do whatever it takes to save Ben."
"It's
not me you have to convince, Jas, not really. It's you. Once you're
really ready to do whatever it takes then you'll find him."
My
beast was pushing against my control and my vocal cords started to
thicken as she tried to force a change in response to Rachel's tone.
"If
you don't stop screwing around, Rach, I swear that I'll…"
"You'll
what, kill me?"
A
tiny part of me wanted to respond in the affirmative, to yell my
answer at her despite the danger it would represent, despite the fact
that a werewolf was doubtlessly prowling through the testing lab even
now.
"I
don't know. Maybe. Ben doesn't have much time left. If something
doesn't change soon he's not going to make it, and if you let him die
when you could have stopped it from happening I'm not sure I'll be
able to control my beast the next time we meet."
Rachel
sighed. "Your beast understands what's at stake, Jasmin. You
need to be willing to abandon everything else to save him or this
isn't going to work out. Every time you and Ben start to get close
one of you backs off because you're scared of what might happen,
because you're not fully committed to the idea of the two of you.
Somebody has to break the cycle, and it's going to have to be you."
It
was like someone had draped a black cloth around my insides.
Everything was suddenly dark and dying inside my core. Rachel had no
right to be lecturing me about relationships. She was wasting my time
after having led me into a trap. I was spending precious seconds
talking to her that would have been better spent coming up with a
plan on how to get out and back to Ben. Some of the emotions that
defined me, Jasmin, as a separate entity from my beast shriveled up.
"I
don't know why you care about Ben and me getting back together, Rach,
but you just pushed me too far. If I get out of here then I want an
address for Geoffrey without any more of this screwing around. If you
cross me again I'm going to hunt you down and I'm going to kill you,
but I won't do that until after I've killed your mom and Donovan and
anyone else who means anything to you."
"I
don't care about you and Ben, Jasmin. At least not like I used to. I
still care, but I have a lot more to care about now than I did back
in the day. I need you to reach your potential though, or things are
going to go very badly."
"For
Alec?"
"For
everyone."
There
was another pause and then Rachel seemed to remember that I was only
heartbeats away from a fight that I couldn't win.
"Stuff
your phone back in your ha'bit, but leave me on speaker."
I
slipped my phone back into the little pocket that had been designed
for it. Rachel resumed talking as soon as it was in place.
"Okay,
now shift into hybrid form and start climbing up the wall."
"That's
the dumbest idea possible, Rachel. The walls are tall, but they
aren't tall enough to keep me out of the reach of a werewolf. I'll be
a sitting duck up there."
"Just
do it. Think of it as part of the price of saving Ben."
I
forced out an affirmative response and shifted in a hot flare of
power. Climbing the wall was harder than I expected it to be. My
claws sank through the wall panels and the soft backing behind them,
but they just tore through all of that like so much tissue paper.
There was no way that anything that fragile was going to support my
weight.
I
struggled to find something with more substance inside of the wall. I
tore off a huge chunk of the wall covering, but the metal studs
underneath weren't much better. I needed a bearing wall, not one of
the fragile walls that were used to partition off interior sections
of
that they were here too."
"Are
you trying to get me killed?"
Rachel
continued the conversation without missing a beat, almost like she
didn't even hear my question.
"Are
you ready to go get Geoffrey?"
"Yes,
but I've already told you that, and you didn't seem to believe me
then. I'm not sure what else I'm supposed to do to convince you that
I'm ready to do whatever it takes to save Ben."
"It's
not me you have to convince, Jas, not really. It's you. Once you're
really ready to do whatever it takes then you'll find him."
My
beast was pushing against my control and my vocal cords started to
thicken as she tried to force a change in response to Rachel's tone.
"If
you don't stop screwing around, Rach, I swear that I'll…"
"You'll
what, kill me?"
A
tiny part of me wanted to respond in the affirmative, to yell my
answer at her despite the danger it would represent, despite the fact
that a werewolf was doubtlessly prowling through the testing lab even
now.
"I
don't know. Maybe. Ben doesn't have much time left. If something
doesn't change soon he's not going to make it, and if you let him die
when you could have stopped it from happening I'm not sure I'll be
able to control my beast the next time we meet."
Rachel
sighed. "Your beast understands what's at stake, Jasmin. You
need to be willing to abandon everything else to save him or this
isn't going to work out. Every time you and Ben start to get close
one of you backs off because you're scared of what might happen,
because you're not fully committed to the idea of the two of you.
Somebody has to break the cycle, and it's going to have to be you."
It
was like someone had draped a black cloth around my insides.
Everything was suddenly dark and dying inside my core. Rachel had no
right to be lecturing me about relationships. She was wasting my time
after having led me into a trap. I was spending precious seconds
talking to her that would have been better spent coming up with a
plan on how to get out and back to Ben. Some of the emotions that
defined me, Jasmin, as a separate entity from my beast shriveled up.
"I
don't know why you care about Ben and me getting back together, Rach,
but you just pushed me too far. If I get out of here then I want an
address for Geoffrey without any more of this screwing around. If you
cross me again I'm going to hunt you down and I'm going to kill you,
but I won't do that until after I've killed your mom and Donovan and
anyone else who means anything to you."
"I
don't care about you and Ben, Jasmin. At least not like I used to. I
still care, but I have a lot more to care about now than I did back
in the day. I need you to reach your potential though, or things are
going to go very badly."
"For
Alec?"
"For
everyone."
There
was another pause and then Rachel seemed to remember that I was only
heartbeats away from a fight that I couldn't win.
"Stuff
your phone back in your ha'bit, but leave me on speaker."
I
slipped my phone back into the little pocket that had been designed
for it. Rachel resumed talking as soon as it was in place.
"Okay,
now shift into hybrid form and start climbing up the wall."
"That's
the dumbest idea possible, Rachel. The walls are tall, but they
aren't tall enough to keep me out of the reach of a werewolf. I'll be
a sitting duck up there."
"Just
do it. Think of it as part of the price of saving Ben."
I
forced out an affirmative response and shifted in a hot flare of
power. Climbing the wall was harder than I expected it to be. My
claws sank through the wall panels and the soft backing behind them,
but they just tore through all of that like so much tissue paper.
There was no way that anything that fragile was going to support my
weight.
I
struggled to find something with more substance inside of the wall. I
tore off a huge chunk of the wall covering, but the metal studs
underneath weren't much better. I needed a bearing wall, not one of
the fragile walls that were used to partition off interior sections
of
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