There was a half-pot of coffee waiting for me in the kitchen. I gratefully filled a cup and took a sip. It tasted burned, letting me know it had been made hours ago. I sat at the pale wood dining room table and sipped my burned coffee, not really sure whether or not I should be worried. She had taken her car, so it was hopefully safe to say that no one had taken her. Then it dawned on me. Duh, she had gone to work. I was so preoccupied with worry about how she would act today, that I completely forgot that she’d be at work.
Laughing over my stupidity, I got up and made some toast with butter and orange marmalade, then sat back down to wait for Jason. After a few minutes, I heard the crunch of tires on the gravel of my driveway, and got up to let Jason in. I smiled as I opened the door to see him standing there in faded jeans, a green flannel shirt, and hiking boots. He could clean up quite nicely when the need arose, but outdoor casual was his normal mode of dress. I gave him a quick kiss hello, then led him back to the dining room table so I could finish my toast.
“You want anything to eat?” I asked as we sat down.
He shook his head. “I ate at my apartment, thanks.”
I briefly wondered what he had eaten. I knew that he had to drink animal blood occasionally to survive, but I had never thoroughly discussed it with him. I was fine with not having the details on that unsettling tidbit.
“Where is your mom?” He asked.
“Work,” I answered casually, as if I had known all along.
He opened his mouth in an o of realization. Apparently he had forgotten too. He quickly schooled his expression and cleared his throat to hide his lack of foresight. “What is on our agenda today?”
“Well,” I began between bites of toast. “I’m assuming Lela will be back sometime today with the paperwork I need to fill out. She seemed pretty anxious to get the ball rolling. I’m sure my dad and/or his proxy will show up at some point too.”
Jason raised his eyebrows in question. “Proxy?”
I nodded, then spoke around another bite of toast. “Yeah, he said he’d be sending someone to watch over me.” I wiggled my fingers in mock spookiness.
Jason gave me his crooked half-smile. “Sounds ominous.”
I nodded while I took a sip of bitter coffee. “Tell me about it.”
He sunk down into his chair. “So all we have to do is wait?”
“Or,” I smiled mischievously. “We could go hiking, and ignore all of the impending doom.”
Jason put out his hand for me to shake. “You have got yourself a deal.”
I shook his hand then stood to take my plate and empty coffee mug to the kitchen sink. I left a note for my mom by the phone, just in case she came home for lunch. Then I went to sit by the backdoor to swap my sneakers for my worn in, dark brown hiking boots. As I was lacing up my boots I could hear Jason rummaging through my kitchen for some snacks to bring with and I smiled. Avoiding responsibility is so much more fun when you have someone to conspire with. Hopefully we could make it an all day hike.
Jason walked toward me as I stood up from tying my shoes, his hands and arms full of snacks and several bottles of water. I took my dark green hiking backpack off the hook on the wall and held it open for him to dump everything into. The backpack was already equipped with first aid equipment and pepper spray, so we were ready to go. I guess if an enemy was willing to take on a vampire and a half-demon, they probably wouldn’t hesitate at the sight of pepper spray, but it still made me feel safe. Ridiculous, but true.
Jason took the backpack from me and swung it over his shoulder as we walked out the backdoor. I locked the door behind us, then made Jason stand still so I could put my keys into the backpack.
We started up the trail that begins shortly after my backyard ends, and I instantly felt better. Like magic, the woods took custody of the weight of all of my predicaments. Sadly, they would still be waiting for me when I got back.
Jason turned to me as we walked up the path. “Which trail do you want to take?”
Shelby is full of hiking trails, three of which stem right from my backyard, though you could access them from other paths. “Waterfalls?” I asked.
Jason nodded merrily and took the trail that led off to the left. It was my favorite trail. It led up to a series of waterfalls. Not like, big rainforest type of waterfalls, more the type you find along a babbling brook. The waterfalls are near the stone remnants of several old, dirt-floor houses. They basically just form partial walls now, the roofs long-since disintegrated.
We walked in a comfortable silence, birdsong and the distant running water the only sounds to accompany our footsteps. As we walked farther uphill, the trail became more narrow and the trees more dense. The trail up to the waterfalls isn’t used very often, don’t ask me why. I guess people just didn’t know about it.
It took us about an hour to reach the first of the old houses. It was a mile or so below the waterfalls and the other less dilapidated structures. Jason went and sat on one crumbled wall that was little more than a few stones stacked on top of each other, and gestured for me to sit beside him. As I sat he swung the backpack down from his shoulder to dig out the water bottles. He turned to me with a fake smile plastered on his face and I immediately knew that something was wrong. His eyes scanned our surroundings as he faced me.
“Don’t look now,” he said almost inaudibly, “but someone’s watching us.”
I, of course, immediately turned my head in search of our anonymous watcher. I caught movement from the corner of my eye as someone ducked behind a bush about thirty feet away from where we were sitting. Jason gave my knee a squeeze, then slowly rose to investigate.
I tried to pretend that nothing was happening, and started rummaging through the backpack until my fingers wrapped around my pepper spray. Once again, yes, I am a half-demon and shouldn’t need pepper spray, but my powers aren’t exactly reliable, so pepper spray it was.
I watched Jason out of the corner of my eye as he walked slowly to where I had seen the movement. He walked casually amongst the trees with his hands clasped behind his back. Just a harmless human strolling through the woods. Ri-ight.
The scuffle sounded again to my right. It was getting closer to me. Jason turned his head at the sound and changed his course to move toward it. I stood and began to approach the area where the scuffle had sounded, with the intention of trapping who or whatever it was between Jason and me.
My heart pounded in my ears as we both drew closer to the cluster of bushes where we thought the sound had come from. I stopped a few feet away from the first bush and waited for Jason to catch up. He looked irritated that I had involved myself in the situation. A bit over-protective at times, was my Jason.
Suddenly, a man leapt from where he had been crouching several feet to the right of where I had been looking. I caught a glimpse of a green jacket and dark hair before he turned on his heel to run away through the woods.
Jason whooshed by me in a blur of motion, hot on the man’s heels. I blinked slowly, shocked at how fast it had all happened, then set off in the direction Jason had gone, pepper spray gripped tightly in one sweaty palm.
I had already lost sight of the man as well as Jason, so I was basically running blind. The trees in the area were so dense that I couldn’t see more than twenty feet ahead of me. Knowing that there was no way that I’d catch up to Jason, especially with all the roots and vegetation I was tripping on, I veered left toward the trail. Hopefully the un-obscured path would allow me to catch up.
After several more minutes of stumbling through the dense forest, I reached the narrow trail leading back down the mountain. I hurled myself forward, despite the burning sensation building in my lungs. I continued sprinting down the trail for what seemed like a good ten minutes, but was probably only about three, until I finally had to stop and catch my breath. I hunched over with my hands on my knees and tried to suck in enough air. I couldn’t hear anything over the pounding of my heart.
I crouched down into a squat to wait. It had
been stupid of me to take a chance and veer from the direction Jason had taken. Now he could be anywhere, left to fight our nameless watcher on his own. I stood up and decided to cut through the woods to my right, then make my way back to where I had left my backpack. The going was much slower when avoiding trees, so if I was lucky and they hadn’t passed me, I might run into them on my way up.
I stumbled along through the vegetation, feeling increasingly unsure of my choice to go back. It would probably have made more sense to go home and call the police, but if our watcher was something supernatural, it was better to not get them involved.
There is an unspoken rule for supernatural beings. It’s mainly governed over by the werewolves since they’re the most organized. It states that supernatural matters are to be handled within the supernatural community. There are the occasional slip-ups that often result in sensational news stories, but for the most part, we keep things quiet.
My legs still burned from all of the running and my pace began to lag as I navigated my way through the trees. All I could see was quiet, moist vegetation and damp earth where the sun couldn’t penetrate the trees. I noticed that my hiking boot was untied. I crouched down in the damp soil on one knee to tie it. I began to reach for the laces, then paused as the sound of hurried footsteps thudded toward me. I turned just in time to see our nameless watcher, who was looking back over his shoulder as he ran.
I tried to stand and move out of the way, but my reaction was too slow, and he barreled right into me. We both went flying downhill in a tangled mass. We rolled a few times, each of us trying to pin the other. I couldn’t for the life of me remember how to burn him. I’d only burned someone once before, and that had been an accident. The one I lit on fire hadn’t exactly been accidental, but I still had no idea how I’d done it.
I had lost my pepper spray somewhere during our fall and cursed my bad luck. I struggled in the mud and leaves against our watcher, realizing in horror that he was gaining the upper hand. His greater weight continued to his advantage as he finally managed to pin my arms to the ground while he straddled me to hold my body down. He was obviously something other than human, or else I would have been able to put up more of a fight.
I got my first good look at his face as I struggled to free myself. He had slightly wavy hair that was almost black. It fell in front of his eyes, that at the moment, looked dark gray as he got a more secure grip on my wrists. A strong nose that was almost too prominent complemented his light olive skin, thin, but not too thin mouth, and angular jaw line.
He glared at me angrily. “Stop struggling,” he spoke with a slight accent that I couldn’t place. “I’m not here to hurt you.”
I assessed the situation, then I went limp and smiled, because I remembered something that he had apparently forgotten. The man gave me a confused look, surprised that I had given up so easily, then Jason came flying out of nowhere and knocked the man off me. I got kneed in the gut as they tumbled away. Jason and the man began to fight for the upper hand, kicking up mud and leaves much in the same way that I had just experienced. Meanwhile, I stayed curled up on the ground trying to get a full breath in.
Finally I was able to stand, and I immediately turned my attention to the ongoing struggle. “Freeze!” I shouted.
Both men turned to regard me with identical expressions: angry, and a little confused, since they had apparently forgotten me. Jason had our watcher in an only partially effective headlock. Both of them were covered in mud and dry leaves. I glanced down and realized that I was too.
I quickly brushed myself off then looked the man in his dark gray eyes. “What do you want?”
He tried again to break Jason’s hold on his neck, then gave up with a sigh and regarded me. “I was only supposed to follow you. I didn’t expect you to chase me.”
I crossed my arms and gave him an impatient expression. “And why were you following me?”
“Your dad asked me to,” he answered angrily.
I should have known. He just couldn’t leave well enough alone. I turned my attention to Jason. “Let him go?”
Jason did as I asked. The man stood and brushed off his jeans and green military surplus jacket. Jason stood up next, obviously favoring his right leg. I felt a pang of worry at the thought that he might be injured, then mentally corrected myself. Jason wouldn’t think twice about a sprained ankle, he was a vampire after all.
Jason gave the man a vengeful look and asked, “What are you?”
The man ignored Jason and shuffled toward me, holding out his hand. “My name’s Chase.”
I ignored his offered hand. “He didn’t ask who you are. He asked what you are.”
The man, Chase, smiled pleasantly at me. “It’s none of his business what I am.”
I sighed. I was tired of this. “So my dad sent you to keep an eye on me because of the abductions?”
Chase nodded, but didn’t elaborate any further.
I was tired. My legs hurt. I had plenty of new bumps and bruises, and on top of it all, my clothes were completely ruined. I was so over this. I picked up my pepper spray that I had spotted during our odd conversation, marched up to Jason and grabbed his hand, then started off in the direction of the trail. Chase caught up to walk on my other side, at least as well as he could in between avoiding trees. I ignored him.
Life had finally gotten back to normal, as normal as it could get given my situation. Now in the course of a day, I had become a werewolf pack leader, and I suddenly had a dad again, a dad that was interfering way too much for my liking.
We reached the trail and I looked longingly in the direction of my home. I guess this was what I got for avoiding my new pack leader responsibilities. I decided to abandon my backpack and hope that it would still be there tomorrow. I just wanted to go home.
No one spoke the entire way to my house. We cut across my yard to my backdoor and I frowned, only then realizing that I had left my keys in my backpack. I crouched to get the key from underneath one of our many lawn gnomes. Now that Chase knew where it was I would have to hide it somewhere else. Or maybe I would just keep it on me. I looked at the man standing patiently on my left. He was around 6’, a little shorter than Jason. He had his hands in his pockets and was rocking back and forth on his heels like a little kid. Yeah, there was no way I was putting the key back in my yard.
Without saying a word, I unlocked the door, let Jason go in ahead of me, then shut it as soon as I had walked in, leaving Chase outside. He hadn’t seemed surprised.
The house was dark and quiet, letting me know that my mom still wasn’t home. I went to the little dark wood table that stands in my living room beside the entrance to the kitchen to check the answering machine. The little red light was flashing so I pushed the play button. As Lucy’s voice filtered out, Jason brushed by me into the kitchen, letting his hand trail across my back as he walked.
Lucy’s voice said that she and Max were meeting Lela and Nick at Irvine’s pizza parlor tonight to fill out paperwork, and to call her back and let her know if I could come. I pushed the button to erase Lucy’s message as Jason came back out of the kitchen.
I looked a question at his angry, furrowed brow.
Jason glanced in the direction of my kitchen window, then back to me. “He’s sitting on your porch swing. He’s humming.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Humming?”
Jason nodded. “It sounds like Beethoven’s 5th.”
Jason walked toward my couch and I followed, thinking that Beethoven’s 5th was an odd thing to hum. Jason and I both slumped down onto the cushy seat. I felt like I had run a marathon. I leaned my head back against the couch cushion and glanced up at the ceiling.
Jason spoke without looking at me. “He smells like you.”
“So Chase is a demon?” I asked, not moving my head.
“At least half,” he replied. “Maybe more. He has less of a human smell than you do.”
I leaned forward and nodded, not wanting to discuss Chase any further. “I
left my keys in the backpack”
Jason glanced at me, then leaned his head back against the cushion. “I will go get it.” He leaned forward again then stood to leave.
I stopped him with a raised hand. “Lucy wants to meet at Irvine’s tonight.”
Jason nodded without looking at me. He seemed as exhausted as I was. “I will retrieve the backpack, then I’ll go with you.”
I nodded as Jason turned to go. I didn’t want to go to Irvine’s. I didn’t want to fill out the paperwork that would make me a pack leader. I didn’t want to go outside and deal with Chase.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned, you can’t always get what you want.
Chapter Seven
While Jason was gone, I changed out of my dirty clothes. It was lucky that I had chosen to wear dark colors. Maybe the mud stains wouldn’t show after all. I dressed in dark wash jeans and a deep purple turtleneck, then went back downstairs to call Lucy.
The phone rang only once before a sharp voice answered, “Hello?”
“This is Xoe,” I responded. “Is Lucy home?”
Silence on the other end of the line. After a minute Lucy picked up.
I sighed loudly to show her my exasperation. “What time?”
“In thirty minutes. You need a ride? Lela’s picking me and Allison up.”
“Jason’s taking me, so I’ll meet you there.”
“Thanks again Xoe, I mean it.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I said sarcastically, then hung up the phone.
As soon as the phone clicked in the cradle it dawned on me that Allison had no reason to be there. It was likely that she’d try to include herself in the whole werewolf pack thing. She hates being left out. I guess I’d find out in thirty minutes.
Jason came clambering in through the backdoor a moment later. It still astounded me how fast he could be. Supposedly I should have been able to move that fast too, but the supernatural speed thing was beyond me. I listened as he rummaged through the backpack to find my keys. He came into the living room and tossed them to me.
The Xoe Meyers Trilogy (Xoe Meyers Young Adult Fantasy/Horror Series) Page 21