Exposure: Bloodlust Series Book 1

by L. L. Ash

  Wow, excuses that actually...excused his behavior.

  “Well, how about we start this day over again? I’d love you to walk me home, if you aren’t in a hurry.”

  Finally his lips turned up and graced me with a grin.

  “I’d like that,” he agreed and put out his elbow for me.

  I took it and we began to walk.

  Not too many words were exchanged this time. We just basked in each other’s company with a sentence here and there about the weather or the wildlife.

  “And wolves. I didn’t know you had wolves out here,” I added nonchalantly but Clarence’s head whipped around.

  “Wolves? Have you seen them?”

  “No, but I hear them through my window almost every night. It’s eery.”

  He quickened his pace.

  “There aren’t typically wolves in these woods. If you see one, promise me you’ll run to the nearest people.”

  The severity that he took the idea of wolves in the woods was alarming.

  “Yeah… I promise. But shouldn’t I climb a tree or something? Dogs can’t climb trees.”

  He stopped abruptly and placed his hands on my shoulders.

  “Do not climb a tree. You run as fast as your feet can carry you to the nearest civilization. They don’t like multiple people together in one place.”

  His eyes deepened and it almost looked like the blue in them swirled.

  “Ok, I promise.”

  He breathed a sigh of relief, looked around us before clamping his hand around my upper arm and quickly moving us toward my house.

  “And please don’t walk alone anywhere, especially during the night. That’s when they hunt. I’ll take it up with the sheriff. Don’t worry about them, ok?”

  “Well, since you just scared the hell out of me about them, I won’t be going anywhere on my own, promise.”

  He gave me a weak, apologetic smile.

  “I didn’t mean to frighten you. But it is a serious thing. Just take care.”

  “Cross my heart.”

  He gave me a real smile now and leaned forward. My breath caught and my lips parted a breath in anticipation before his cheek brushed mine and he feathered a kiss near my ear.

  “I’ll see you tomorrow,” he whispered in my ear then pulled away and smiled at me, heading back down the driveway without a look back.

  My heart stuttered and my head swam for a moment until he disappeared down the gravel drive.

  That was, by far, the best kiss I’d ever received and his lips barely even touched my cheek.

  So. Incredibly. Toast.

  Clarence sent me smiles throughout lunch and Genie glowered every time we made googly eyes at each other.

  “So, I guess he’s taking you to the fest this weekend?”

  “Oh, I don’t know. He hasn’t asked.”

  “So you’d go if HE asked, but not your beautiful girl-friend, huh?”

  I laughed.

  “When you learn to kiss like that, I’ll go on a date with you.”

  Her eyes twinkled.

  “You guys kissed?”

  “Well, sort of. He kissed my cheek. But I’m telling you… it was like someone poured gasoline into my veins and lit it on fire. It was the best kiss of my life and he didn’t even touch my lips.”

  “Wow, I can’t wait to hear about a REAL kiss,” she sighed dreamily. “Why can’t I find a guy like that around here? I’ve known these guys my whole life and they’re almost all in the friend-zone. You can’t really date someone you remember playing with in diapers.”

  “Yeah I guess. Maybe that’s my advantage.”

  “You think?” she growled playfully.

  We laughed again.

  “I don’t know. Maybe he’ll ask me and we can go on our first real actual date...”

  I looked over my shoulder at Clarence and saw him leaning on one hand, book open but he was staring at his pad of paper, pen tapping lightly on the table as he thought.

  “You’re one lucky girl. And as it seems, nobody gives a single rat’s ass about you hanging out around him. So incredibly lucky.”

  “I’m just awesome that way.”

  I looked at her straight faced for a minute before the two of us burst into laughter and went back to our lunches.

  As I was getting on the bus I looked around for Clarence but saw him nowhere. Getting on the bus I took a seat, feeling slightly depressed for not having my fix of Clarence, but Genie kept my mind on humorous things and the ride home went quickly. When we were stepping off, my breath caught in my throat as a dark blue plaid shirt came into view, honey gold hair, wet and plastered to a handsome but sever face, softened only by his smile as our eyes caught.

  “Catch you later, girl,” Genie said as she jogged to catch up with another friend, giving me and Clarence time together.

  “Aren’t you freezing?” I asked Clarence with a laugh, seeing that his shirt was soaked through with the rain, steadily growing from light to heavy as it drenched the woods and beach.

  “No, I like the cold,” he grinned at me, taking my hand.

  His hand was icy in mine and I wondered how he wasn’t an ice cube by now.

  “What are you doing here?” I stammered as rain drenched through the hood of my sweater.

  “I wanted to see you… Walk you home the rest of the way. I apologize, My brother needed me at home this afternoon and I had to leave school early.”

  “I was wondering where you were in English Lit.”

  “Family calls,” he said with a smile. “Will you let me join you on your walk home?”

  “Sure. Let’s get moving. I’m freezing and the rain is just coming down harder and harder.”

  He squeezed my hand and together we shuffled to my house quickly.

  “I’ve been meaning to ask you, Addie… There’s a festival this weekend and I would be honored if you’d let me escort you.”

  “You mean like a date?” my heart stopped, then started on overdrive in anticipation.

  “Yes, a date. That’s what I meant.”

  I couldn’t help the grin on my face as we stood in front of my long driveway.

  “I’d love that, Clarence.”

  “May I call at 6, and we can get dinner and then be off to the festival?”

  “Y-yeah! Yeah 6 is good. I like dinner.”

  Oh God… Shoot me.

  He grinned but refrained from laughing, though I could tell it was hard for him.

  “I’ll see you on Saturday then. I won’t be at classes tomorrow.”

  “Oh, ok. Saturday.”

  He lifted my hand, still clasped in an icy embrace with his, then pressed his lips to the back of it.

  “Goodnight, Addie.”

  “Night,” I managed as he let go of my hand and headed back down the road where we’d come from.

  Man, he’d waited there in the cold and rain just to walk me a couple minutes home. Just to ask me to the festival.

  Being Thursday, I realized that our first real date was only 2 days away. 48 hours. I needed to find something to wear…

  “He asked me!” I shrieked at lunch the next day. “He really asked me!”

  “You’re so freaking lucky, Girl! I’m so jealous of you right now!”

  Genie looked almost as excited about my date as I was.

  “Don’t worry, I’ll tell you all about it.”

  “Well, where’s Mr. Hottie Pants today?”

  “He said he wouldn’t be here today, that’s why he was waiting for me yesterday at the bus stop.”

  “Wow, I swear that boy has some sort of romantic in him. It was like watching the Notebook, him all soaked with rain. You just needed that epic kiss.”

  “I’m planning on getting it Saturday night.”

  “I expect all the deets.”

  “Don’t worry, I don’t expect it to get too juicy. As intense as our chemistry is, Clarence still keeps his distance and hands to himself. He’s a decent guy that way, and I appreciate that about him.”<
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  “That’s all nice and good, but every girl, deep down, wants a man who will turn into an animal, just for them. Every girl wants to be the one who can turn a gentleman into a beast. In bed, at least.”

  I rolled my eyes.

  “I think you’re getting too far ahead of yourself, dear friend.”

  There was a pause as Genie daydreamed about her beast in bed, and I wondered if I could be that girl for Clarence. Hell, a guy like him, who could make a girl practically come with a kiss on the cheek, was likely an expert in bed. The idea intimidated me. Was I pegging him right? I hoped so. I hoped he was the gentleman I imagined him to be...

  “Have you heard the wolves outside?” I asked Genie eventually, turning her thoughts toward a cleaner, although still not family-friendly, topic.

  “Wolves? There aren’t any wolves out here.”

  “Haven’t you heard them? Seriously, they howl like, every night. And you only live a couple blocks away.”

  “Haven’t heard a one. Sure you’re not hearing other things? I know you’re not used to wildlife, but how can you get a wolf howl mixed up with something else? We do get bobcats and other wild cats out here occasionally. But they usually only attack small animals like family dogs and cats.”

  How could she not have heard it? Between the howling and the scratching of what I assumed were squirrels at my window at night, I struggled to sleep at all.

  “Maybe it’s something else,” I conceded, but I wasn’t convinced.

  “Whatever. You want to come over tonight? Another weekend date for the 'rents and we’re getting pizza again.”

  “Sure, I’ll just need to tell my dad,” I agreed and picked up my phone, shooting out a short text to Dad, telling him I would spend the evening with Genie.

  After school let out I followed Genie home where we found her little brother playing video games on the TV, a big bowl of ice cream next to him.

  “Pre-game snack,” he told his sister when she pointed at it, then to him and back again.

  “More pizza for me,” Genie flipped her hand around before finding her parents in the back rooms.

  I sat next to Bryan and watched him fight in a pretend war with cartoonish characters.

  “You hanging out tonight?” Bryan asked eventually.

  “Yeah, Genie invited me to stay like last time.”

  “Cool! You’re fun. Way better than her other friends.”

  “Oh yeah? Well cool. I think I’m better too, but I’m biased.”

  He laughed.

  “Mom and Dad are leaving in about half an hour,” Genie said as she joined us on the couch. “We’ll order the pizza at 4:30 then eat ourselves into a coma before watching Blade.”

  Bryan whooped and I rolled my eyes. Vampire movie? Give me a break!

  Walking home this time around was far more miserable than last time. Rain was again pouring and I could see the distant flashes of lightning while thunder rolled through the ground underneath my feet. I was about halfway home when I regretted not taking Genie’s parents up on the offer of a ride home.

  I huddled into my hoodie, hood drawn close over my head and arms tucked tightly into my pockets as I walked. The cloud coverage from the storm made the road darker than normal since the moon was hidden, but I could still make out plenty from the light of the houses lining the street. It wasn’t til I made it a few yards to my house that the trees beside me started shaking, branches breaking.

  I paused. Likely small woodland creatures trying to find shelter in the storm.

  More branches, bushes rustling, and it wasn’t the wind. As I reached the gravel drive a blood curdling howl erupted from the woods just to my right side. I screamed, the sound swallowed up in the howl as I caught a glimpse of two greenish eyes reflecting a flash of lightning not three feet away in the tree coverage.

  Clarence’s words came back to me.

  I ran.

  Hauling ass up the driveway, I slipped up the rotting steps before fumbling with my keys in the lock. The house was dark, but it felt good to have the door closed behind my back after hearing the deep, husky sound of labored breathing and those disturbing, canine eyes staring at me in the dark.

  I took a moment to catch my breath after locking every door and window downstairs, then I hurried upstairs where I closed my own door, placing a rickety chair under the handle, as if that would help keep a giant wolf out. It made me feel better, however, so I just kept it there and sat on my bed. No more howling met me as I sat there, and I wondered, just maybe the wolf had moved on. Certainly there wasn’t much to eat out here for a lone wolf, let alone a pack of them.

  Oh God… a pack of wolves? That thought was even more disturbing than a lone wolf.

  I slipped out of my soaking clothes and sank under my blanket, shivering in the cold until the sheets warmed and my ears grew used to the sound of the storm and rain outside.

  I slept fitfully, waking many times as a particularly close bolt hit the earth that sent a loud rolling thunder through my bedroom, but I fell asleep again and again, until the scratching returned.

  Scratch-scratch

  Scratch-scratch

  One eye popped open, and then the other as my curtains fluttered.

  Scratch-scratch

  Scratch-scratch

  The curtains fluttered again, and then the window crashed open, wind and rain blowing into my room. I shrieked and jumped out of bed, hurrying to shut the window as a sudden THUD hit the roof, just outside the frame. A large shadow crossed the window and my entire body drained of blood. A pained howl escaped whatever it was at my window, and then more thuds and whatever it was fell to the ground, off the roof.

  I flew to the window, swinging the panes closed as I looked for the offending creature. In the brief glimpses of lightning, I saw a bulk of fur in our yard, then the driveway. Another howl and a man-like figure separated from the fur.

  Darkness.

  FLASH.

  The figure in black was wrestling with the furry thing. The WOLF.

  Snarls and snaps of a powerful jaw could be heard through the darkness as they wrestled. Grunts that sounded awful man-like, and a groan. Shit, the man was losing the fight! The sound of grating against the gravel in the drive echoed back to me, and then…

  FLASH.

  The man was on top of the motionless wolf, looking dead himself. Both lay still for the next three flashes, then, they were gone.

  Chapter Five

  Once dawn came I charged out of my room. Dad was still asleep but I hadn’t gotten a wink since the episode outside my window. The storm had passed shortly before dawn and in the gray appearance of morning I looked out to the yard and driveway but saw nothing. No man lying dead in the yard, no wolf. Nothing.

  Closer inspection in the early light of day left me just as baffled. There remained no evidence of a struggle except for a large circle of disturbed gravel. It looked like someone had dance in it, kicked it up. But between the rain and the mud, no blood or fur remained as proof.

  Either something really, REALLY strange happened last night, or I was going bat-shit crazy in this tiny town.

  I told Dad what happened and he looked at me evenly, even went outside with me as I showed him the disturbed gravel, but his only response was I shouldn’t have been watching horror movies late at night if I had nightmares.

  Maybe that’s all it was, but I remember it being real, and the fear from those hours, lying in the dark after that, staring at the window as if something would bust through it… It was all so fresh in my memory.

  Eventually I managed to get it all out of my head. Real or imaginary, I had a real date approaching with the hottest guy in school, and the most interesting guy I’d ever known. I looked forward to where our chemistry would take us after a few hours together.

  Dad wasn’t entirely thrilled when I told him I had a date, but he was silent on the matter. Only his eyes and expression betrayed his displeasure. Against his better opinion, I spent hours that day getting ready and ch
oosing the right outfit. I wanted something comfortable, but stylish. Adaptable, but warm and dry should it rain again. Eventually I decided on my favorite pair of black skinny jeans, a silver, shiny tank top that Mom had gotten me for my last birthday, and my only, beautiful, perfect leather biker jacket that I’d begged for for MONTHS before Mom had caved in and let me get. It took almost a year of my savings, but it had been absolutely worth it.

  The bottom of the jacket hit me just at the smallest part of my waist, leaving a strip of that silver top showing, and it all flowed into my clingy jeans, not hiding one inch of my ‘womanly curves’. Accessorized with my favorite silver band on my finger and a pair of shiny chain earrings, I slipped a black, lengthy necklace over my straight black hair and checked myself out.

  I hadn’t spent so much time getting ready to go out since leaving Tucson, but here I was, dressed to impress for my first date with Clarence.

  I called Mom to say hello while waiting for 6 o’clock to roll around, but she’d been so sick Aunt Cindy had exchanged the news of my date, answering me with Mom’s words, ‘kiss him!’

  Meanwhile as I waited, mainly because I’d gotten ready far too early, I picked at the black liner around my eyes and made sure my eyeshadow wasn’t smudging or mascara running until the doorbell rang. Dad’s voice immediately drifted up the stairs and I choked in embarrassment. Hopefully he didn’t say anything stupid…

  Hopping down the stairs in the most undignified way, I caught Clarence’s words to Dad.

  “I do apologize for not approaching you first. I know Addie is your only girl and I’m sure you want a say in her comings and goings.”

  “I think I lost my right to my say of her comings and goings a long time ago. But I want to keep her safe, and I want to know she’s in good hands and reliable company.”

  “I assure you, she couldn’t be in safer hands than mine.”

  Before Dad could answer I swung the door open the rest of the way and wedged myself between them.

  “Hey Clarence!” I said a little too cheerily. “I’ll see you later Dad.”

  I hugged Dad awkwardly then slipped my arm in Clarence’s before basically dragging him down the steps. The door closed and Clarence stopped moving.