Broken

Chapter 27

Chapter 27

I groaned as Alec circled two of my biology essays and handed them back to me. "You're doing much better, but you're missing a couple of key components here and here."

"Has anyone ever told you you're a brutal taskmaster?"

His smile took away some of the sting over just how careful he was being not to touch me lately. It was like he had a split personality. When he was thinking about it, he was ultra-careful not to do anything to deepen the Ja'tell bond. Other times, usually when he was thinking about something else, he'd unconsciously reach out to me.

I still wasn't sure which option I preferred. Every moment we spent together made me want to touch him that much more, but the idea of being addicted to anyone, even him, was more than a little unsettling.

"Sure, Rachel tells me I'm entirely unreasonable on at least a daily basis."

I stuck my tongue out at him, and started back through the book in search of the missing information. There were so many other ways I'd rather be spending our time together, but he was adamant I not fall further behind in my classes.

I looked up to ask for a hint, and found him staring off into space. "Penny for your thoughts?"

His smile was a half-hearted thing. "Mother is playing again. She just finished up with 'Courtship', so the next one will be 'Welcoming'."

It was amazing how quickly I could forget his supernatural abilities. Most of the time he seemed so normal. If you could consider any gorgeous, well-built boy who happened to be interested in me normal. Every so often though he'd do something that should be impossible.

Alec's smile was slightly apologetic. "Sorry about that. Would you like to listen as well?"

My confusion earned me a chuckle. Alec reached over to the bedside table and picked up a remote that had more buttons on it that most laptops. A split second later piano music flooded the room through the myriad of speakers mounted on the ceiling.

The piece Alec's mother was playing was incredibly beautiful, full of lilting chords of joy that seemed to stumble over each other in a cheerful effort to outdo their predecessors in greeting the audience.

Five minutes later, she started the number over again, playing with variations on the minor notes, and Alec silenced the speakers with another click of his remote.

"It's beautiful. I never realized she was so good, Alec. I mean, it's the most incredible thing I've ever heard."

His smile was a combination of pride and regret. "Mother says it represents my birth. She was always an excellent performer. Donovan says she would've been nationally acclaimed if she'd chosen to pursue a career instead of marrying my father. She didn't begin composing until after he was gone."

In what was for me a rare display of common sense over curiosity, I shelved the rest of my questions and looked for something I could use to help him sidestep the memories.

"Growing up surrounded by this, and neither you or Rachel play an instrument?"

Alec shook his head, "I've never had the finesse to play anything. Rachel took violin lessons for more than a year. I think she wanted to be able to play with mother. That's when she begged me to wire the house for sound. Donovan and I spent two weeks setting up mic's in mom's studio, and then another couple of weeks running sound into every other room of the house. She kept insisting it was so she could monitor mother on the rare occasions when nobody else was home, but I used to hear her trying to play along to 'Courtship'."