I was actually feeling pretty good around 7 p.m. when I heard the other guys come through the front door. It was weird how quiet the house had been when they were gone and I realized I liked having them around, even with all their loudness. I was excited to see everyone and I figured I could handle facing Jay now without acting weird.
At first I was angry because he kissed me and then acted like he didn’t. Then decided he could lie to me. I’m ashamed to admit I contemplated cursing him more times than I could count. Didn’t he care about my feelings at all? I thought we were friends at the very least. If he wanted me to stay he should’ve been straight up, if he was avoiding me for other reasons…It wasn’t something I wanted to contemplate.
Either way he couldn’t control me or think I’d be cool with lying and that was something he needed to know. I stewed in my anger and self pity for a while until I concluded that we were friends and I wasn’t going to ruin that, let him ruin that, or make this trip awkward for anyone. I could fake it for now. Bottom line, I wanted these people in my life and I would do whatever I needed to make sure they would be there. It’d be fine, I’d be fine. I’d repeat it until it was true.
************
Jay
I walked in feeling exhausted and relieved. The familiar scents of home and even better the smells of dinner being cooked relaxed me at last. Today had been pretty tough; the out-of-the-frickin-no-where assignment had us all on alert and on edge. Luckily, it turned out ok with only a few minor injuries, nothing a few shifts hadn’t fixed.
This was because no sooner had we arrived at the scene and were greeted by the pack, then were we face to face with bloodsuckers. The vampires decided to come investigate too. I was surprised they’d shown up during the day time but I knew they could be fine in the sunlight if they were old enough. They showed up in their tinted limos and sauntered in like they owned the place. As to be expected, neither the pack we were visiting nor my own pack wanted to deal with that.
As official liaison for my own pack, I greeted the vamps somewhat cordially. “Hi, I’m Jay Dellarson of the Central Florida pack, son of the Alpha of the southeastern hemisphere of North America.” It was a long title but it was true and usually gave me access to whatever I wanted. Plus vamps love their formalities.
One vamp stepped forward. He was only about 5’7 but he was ghostly pale with dark features, typical vampire. He spoke with a heavy Pan-European accent and said “I am Paul. My clan has had something…similar happen in our home. We are here to investigate.”
That was…curious. “You guys had a human attack you?”
“That is none of your concern. If you will excuse us we will be quick and out of your fur, excuse me hair.”
A snarl came from some of the werewolves around me. I’m not even sure if they were coming from my own pack or not. I found it interesting that the vampires might be dealing with the same issue and it had to be bad enough that they would come into an enemies’ camp to investigate it. I wasn’t however, fool enough to believe they’d give us any answers if they had them. Things just didn’t work like that.
The first thing we did was go inside the home of the deceased. It was homey. It matched most of the houses in the neighborhood. The neighborhood was set up very similarly to ours and was most importantly open to werewolves only. We’d been told the deceased had been 36, a bachelor and had been a kind man. The owner had chosen comfort over style with thick blankets and fluffy decorative pillows near the couch and a floor rug over the hard wood floors that looked torn and old. It didn’t look like an unpleasant place to live though. I could see someone making a pot of tea in the little kitchenette or watching sports up on the big screen from the green couch, surrounded by blankets and an ugly rug.
The biggest problem was the broken glass of the side window in the living room, next to the bookshelf. I went over to the window and sniffed at the shards. “Definitely human” I’d said aloud. Will came by me and confirmed it with a head nod.
“Was it the same human that you smelled at Doc’s?” Logan asked.
“I don’t think so, unless he’d changed his scent dramatically. This was a different human.”
“But one who wore the same type of clothes.” Mena stated as she walked in with Annabella. “We spoke with the two neighbors who witnessed a dark figure running away from the house. They didn’t get more specific than that though.”
“That’s all right. That’s what Kira and Doc seemed to have seen and both had been there with him.”
“That’s so scary.” Annabella said and inwardly I had to agree.
When we left the victim’s house, we went over to where the family was. They wouldn’t hold the funeral until Wednesday but they were altogether now and preparing for it. It was always the worst part of stuff like this when you had to talk to the people in mourning. Everyone was in such deep pain and despair and it was hard to handle as an outsider. You didn’t want to make anything worse but you also had a job to do, one that could potentially find the victim’s murderer. It was a catch-22 to make them answer questions about the death when it was the last thing they wanted to discuss.
Luckily Annabella had a way with people. I wasn’t sure if it was because of what she’d been through or if it was just who she was. Annabella could look at anyone with almost any problem and somehow you knew she’d understand. She might not have experienced the problem but pain was pain, I guess. The family was devastated by his loss but we were able to get one of his younger sisters away to talk to in private.
Annabella held her hand as I asked her all sorts of questions throughout the interview. “Did your brother have any enemies, had he been acting strange lately, was anything stolen, had he come into some money, broken up with a lover? Etc. Her answer to all of the above was no. He was a good man, devoted to his work as a teacher. On the rare occasions he dated, he was a gentleman. He’d made a decent wage but nothing more substantial than any of his other neighbors. Nothing was stolen. He’d seemed normal yesterday when she’d called to fill him in on their mother’s condition. Apparently she was recovering from a heart attack. This was not the sort of news that would help. I thanked her and Annabella hugged her.
We interviewed a few more neighbors who weren’t too grief-stricken to talk but they all had similar answers. Not too similar that it was suspicious. Not everyone liked him as much as his sister but then again, we’d try to pull away people who weren’t crying all that much so it was to be expected.
Last, we’d visited the body. It was still in their morgue and going in there was the creepiest thing of all. We looked at the body of the kind school teacher and the saw all of knife wounds he had on, surrounded by black and purple welts. These mortal injuries had come from a blade made of silver. There was no doubt in my mind. By then we knew that the similarities were too insurmountable to overlook.
This had been done by someone connected to, if not the same guy, as our attacker. I looked at the body, lying in the open casket and shuttered all over. That could have been me. That could’ve been Doc. That could’ve been Kira. Demi, of all people patted my hand in understanding. As the female alpha she knew what it was like to take the responsibility of others onto her shoulders. It was a kind gesture for her to try and comfort me but I can’t say it made me feel any better. Death was freaking chilling, no matter how much you tried to deny it. I felt nauseous for the rest of the day.
When we felt we’d exhausted every avenue, we thanked the pack and wished them well. On our way out we saw the vamps and some of the local pack with tense postures standing head to head. Will came to my side immediately. I watched the werewolves snarl and snap and the vamps reveal their fangs.
“What should we do?” Logan asked.
“We wait.” A split second later and one of the werewolves shifted and jumped onto a vampire. His clothes had been ripped to shreds and flew around the field. The vampires attacked and wolf after wolf emerged from the group where their human forms once stood. “Shit. Defensive mo
ves only, we’re trying to end this.” I said to my pack.
I stripped and shifted too and my pack followed my lead. If we were going to stop the fight, we needed our best chance against the vamps. We jumped in the middle but it was harder than expected to keep neutral.
The bloodsuckers attacked us too. One vamp had gotten a hold on me but let go when my blood gushed into his mouth. He spit it out and started freaking out. Our blood tasted disgusting to them and I was glad for it. The vampire was heaved over dramatically and I easily pushed him away from the fight. It served him for trying to suck my blood in the first place.
When I got back in I noticed Trent missing and I’d found him on the bottom of a pile of craziness. I’d managed to pull him out and push more wolves back but it wasn’t easy. What felt like ten years later, my pack and I were able to push the wolves back because they were beginning to tire. I went full force Alpha then and got them to heed my directives to back up and chill the hell out. They didn’t know how to react to me calling the shots but I used my Alpha force until they understood.
Eventually my pack and I separated the groups enough for them to calm down. Paul the vampire stepped forward and said “Thank you for your hospitality” with the most bitter, condescending voice I’d ever heard. It was also kind of funny because he’d lisped through his S slightly so it sounded like hoth-pitality. Fangs had some disadvantages. Sucks to suck, as they say.
We’d shifted back and went to leave. The Alpha shook my hand and thanked me but his pack was not as thrilled with our intervention.
Overall, I was impressed with my pack because we were fighting to break it up and we hadn’t initiated the fight. It might have been a first for me. After that we all went for a run. We needed to shift a few times anyway to heal the injuries and it just felt good after such a trying day.
Thinking back on the investigation filled me with pride but it wasn’t something I wanted to repeat, it was dangerous for all of us and worse because we were no closer to finding the one responsible for the attacks.
On the way back, it started pouring rain again. We’d had to run back into the house but it didn’t make a difference, we’d still gotten wet. I shrugged off my sopping jacket and left it by the fire to dry. All I needed now was a shower and I’d even feel marginally normal.
Before I could get to my room I passed by the den and all the adrenaline I had just released began to build back up again at the site of Kira. I knew I messed up this morning but I hadn’t known what else to do. She was right. I shouldn’t have lied but I also didn’t know what I could really do if she had decided she was coming. I’d just wanted to protect her. It was time to make things right.
“Hey,” I said into the den, where she sat completely relaxed in my favorite chair, her hair sprawled around her shoulders, looking like she had just taken a nap. I wanted to join her in the room, be relaxed with her. Reality check, I couldn’t allow myself to take even one step closer because I looked and smelled like the monster from the black lagoon. Not to mention she probably hated my guts right now, so I hovered in the doorway.
I noticed Max sitting on the couch nearest her, I frowned at him. I’m not sure what he saw in my face but it had the desired effect. He shot up lightning fast, muttered something about getting ready for dinner, and left. Smart guy, I mused. I smiled at her, hoping she would smile back.
She did but it looked forced. It didn’t reach her eyes. “Hey, back. How did…everything go?”
“It was ok, we didn’t get much out of today but I’m almost positive the attack was the same as ours. I just think it was a different person. Whoever is doing this must have several humans working for them because all of the characteristics were the same, lots of silver and a black outfit but the smells were different. At the end of it all, we broke up a fight with their pack and the vamps.”
“I didn’t know about the silver but it makes sense, considering.” She blinked. “Wait, vampires? Are you guys ok? Does anyone need me to heal them?”
I thought about it and thought about how awesome it was that she could do that. “No, everyone’s basically ok, nothing that won’t heal by tomorrow anyway. Plus Annabella uses her nursing skills when necessary but I don’t trust it till she’s got a degree. I guess I would just ask them if anyone wants anything. You never know.”
“Right, I’ll do that.” She smiled briefly and I already wanted her to smile again.
“On the up side, when I spoke to my father to report back to him, he mentioned that we’re safe to come back home whenever we want. It’s been quiet there according to my uncle.”
“That’s good news, I guess. Sorry your day sucked.”
“That’s ok. So how was your day? Looks like you had fun.”
She really smiled then and my chest had something weird going on with it when I saw it. “Yeah we did, I talked Max out of research because last night was fun but it left me exhausted, thought a movie day would be better than research.”
I saw my opening, “Last night was fun. We’ll do it again.” Shit, did I just make that a command? Well I sucked at subtlety but whatever, I’d go with it.
She stared, clearly trying to figure me out. I let her look her fill as I attempted to appear open and non-threatening in my face and body posture. I didn’t want to intimidate her. I wanted her to trust me, like me. After what seemed like forever but was probably only five seconds she answered. “Yeah, although I’m not sure that club would let us back in after witnessing Brandon and Trenton’s dance moves.”
I laughed. It was true their dancing was awful and while her response was not exactly what I was going for, it was also, definitely, not a no. “We’ll leave them home next time.” I said and held my breath waiting on her reaction to that when Rosie walked up next to me in the doorway. “James Dellarson, you need to shower if you think you’re getting one crumb of my food tonight. You smell like the bottom of a sewer.”
“Not my fault, I had to break up a vampire fight.”
Rosie sneered. She was right though, vampires smelled awful to us and their stink lingered on my person. “Don’t care.” Rosie admonished. “No one in this house is getting my food, smelling like that. Now get.” She slapped me with her dish rag.
It was the worst possible moment to show up but she was right, I should shower, I was starving and I wasn’t going to get anywhere with Kira while smelling like this. I smiled at them both and went off my to room, hoping there was still some hot water left.
Chapter 24
Jay
If Logan didn’t stop beaming at her I was going to smash his face into the ground as many times as it took to break every pretty, pearly white in his mouth. See if he’s still smiling at her then, I thought.
I should’ve been able to detect every word being spoken at the table as well as every noise for miles but at that moment, my own rage was all I could hear. I knew Trent was talking to me but I ignored it.
Did Max just touch her arm? Since when is that necessary to get someone’s attention? I decided then that I should remove that hand of Max’s altogether. It was for the best. Boy genius could learn to type with one. I couldn’t remember feeling more jealous of anyone in my life as I had of Max when I saw him in the den with Kira. He got to spend the whole day with her alone, laughing and talking and enjoying movies, just the two of them. I watched her look over at Max with a smiling face, wait a second, nod, pass him the rolls, then continue her conversation with Logan.
I closed my eyes and just breathed for a second, I needed to get myself under control. I knew the guys understood that she was off limits. They wanted us to be together. I just needed to her to understand it but I wanted to give her time. Maybe I was moving too slow. I should’ve considered this before but I didn’t realize my reaction would be this strong to seeing her smile at someone that wasn’t me. Freaking werewolf instincts were strong and I never really understood this part of it until now.
Calm down. Calm the hell down and then find a way to make her smile at you
, I thought. Good, now I was putting my mind toward a goal and being rational again, very good.
Trent was practically screaming in my ear now. “DUDE, seriously dude snap out of it.”
I gave him a bored look, “What?” “I said.
I wanted to play Wii later, wanted to see if you were in.”
I stared at him still trying to make sense of it all.
“So” he repeated “are you?”
I finally got the gist of it “Yeah, ok. After dinner” I said it like it was an order, as if I was totally in control all along. How I always had to appear. He gave me a strange look because he knew better but also knew enough to let it go. I could always count on him to have my back. It was hard not to be grateful for the guy.
He went back to devouring the rest of the food on his plate and I followed his example and dug in to my own food. Slowly, I was able to tune in to the conversations going on around me.
***********
Kira
Logan turned to me, eyes shining “So what are you up to tonight, Doolittle?”
I let the new nickname slide as it was better than the last three he’d come up with. “Same thing as everyone else I guess. Why do you guys have plans?”
“Well, I figured Jay-bird would’ve figure out something for you two to do by now.”
“Huh? Why would he do that, Logan? Am I missing something?”
Will snorted, obviously listening and turned to Jay. “Man, you should’ve planned something, you obviously need my help.”
Demi poked Will “I don’t see you taking me out tonight. You’re the last guy he should take advice from.” She said laughing.
I straightened. “He doesn’t have to do anything. There’s nothing going on.” I really wish the kiss hadn’t happened because now everyone thought that it meant more than it did to him. I was embarrassed. I did like Jay, a hell of a lot but he didn’t feel the same way. Did he? He may have wanted to protect me because we were friends but I remembered the look on his face this morning, so cold, so dismissive. Then again something was up with him in the den. I didn’t know what to think anymore. I was confused and my lack of experience was not helping any. Then again what could prepare anyone for a love life while hanging with a wolf pack?
Shifting Shadows (Sparks Collide Trilogy) Page 18