by Apryl Baker
“I got her.” Jessie hooks my arm and gently extracts me from Matt. She’s the only person besides Eli I’ve talked to about my concerns regarding Matt, mainly because she’s a shifter and can tell me more about it than Eli. She confirmed everything he told me and explained the mate bond more fully to me. Jessie knows how much I like Matt, but she understands my need to protect myself as well.
Matt just as easily retrieves me. “I got her.”
Jessie frowns.
“My girlfriend, Jess.”
I don’t correct him, but he knows I’ve never called him my boyfriend. I think he wonders about it, but he doesn’t push. It’s not a convo I want to have either.
“Maybe I should have her.” Eli steps up, and Matt waves him away.
“You got Spanish, man. Mrs. Gardner hates it when her students are late. You’ll end up in detention, and Coach’ll have a fit.”
He’s not wrong. Coach Bear can be evil with his punishments. I’ve seen it firsthand, having spent my summer watching the football training camp.
“Go on to class. Jess and I are in the same class, and Matt can escort us both.” Better to play mediator than to have a panther and a wolf growling at each other with an Angel in the middle of it all.
“See? Problem solved.” Matt grins and pulls me closer. “Now, git before you’re late.” He doesn’t give Eli time to respond but steers me toward my second period calculus class. Still not sure why I decided to take calculus. I’m not bad at math, but I don’t enjoy it either.
It doesn’t take us long to reach the class, and Matt drops a quick kiss on my lips as he rushes to try to make it to his own class on time. He’s incredibly sweet, and a part of me wants to just relax and let him in, but the part of me that’s learned to protect myself after eighteen years of moving from place to place screams a hard “no.”
The next three classes go by in a blur, and it’s all I can do to concentrate on them instead of my memories from being run over and killed by a car. I had no idea I’d have such a strong reaction. Nightmares are one thing, but to react physically isn’t something I’m prepared for. Eli texted me several times, but he and I have very different schedules. He can’t just come and check on me. Thank God for Jessie. She’s in most of my classes and has been there to snap me out of my inner funk when necessary.
And even through my own turmoil, I’ve texted my sister several times to make sure she’s okay. So far, so good. She even sounds a little normal, at least in text. And yes, that’s a thing. Don’t try to tell me it’s not. I can tell by the words she uses if she’s angry, upset, sad, happy, and any other emotion you can think of. People have a certain way of talking, and that transfers over to the words they use in text. Anyone who says otherwise can bite me.
“I didn’t think you could eat bread.” Jessie frowns when I take my lunch out of my bag. We found a place to sit outside under a tree. It’s eighty today, and I can’t wait for the cooler temperatures of fall to finally get here.
“This is whole grain bread. It’s the only kind of bread I can eat without fear.”
“Does it taste good?” Matt falls down next to me, sniffing like the true cat he is.
“Nasty is what that crap is.” Eli sits next to him.
I keep scanning the place looking for Cecily. She’s supposed to join us, and I need to lay eyes on her to make sure she’s okay.
“It’s fine.” I take a bite, and it tastes all right to me.
“That’s because it’s all you’ve ever eaten.” He dismisses my opinion and hefts his own large sub sandwich from the cafeteria. “Now, this is a sandwich.” The thing is massive, with more meat than bread or veggies.
I was shocked to learn at how good the cafeteria is. Eli informed me it’s because of the football team. The school has won the state championship game more times in the last ten years than it’s lost, and they keep their boys well fed with lots of protein and vegetables.
“What does that taste like?” Matt points to my modest sandwich of ham and cheese.
I pull a piece off and hand it to him. He sniffs it before popping it into his mouth.
It’s comical, and we all burst out laughing at the horrified look on his face right before he starts gagging. He does swallow it, which is more than Eli did. He spit it out like it was foul.
“That’s nasty.”
“You tasted her bread?” Cecily asks as she and Jordan come over. She looks tired, and she’s pulling at the hem of her t-shirt, one of her tell-tale signs that she’s stressed.
“How? How do you girls eat that?”
“I don’t.” She sits and pulls a yogurt out of her lunch bag along with a banana. She needs to eat more than that. “The rest of us eat regular bread.”
“And you’ve never been tempted to try theirs?” Matt asks curiously right before he stuffs his face.
“Sure, but the one time I decided to eat what I wanted, it ended with me in the hospital for a week, so I stick to what I’m supposed to have.”
“Diabetes kinda sucks, huh?” Matt looks at my sandwich and back to his, a sympathetic look overtaking his expression.
“I don’t regret what I’ve never had, and I stay healthy because I’ve learned to be that way growing up with diabetes. There are drawbacks, sure, but I’m used to it, so for me, this is normal. You guys have your normal, and I have mine. Don’t feel sorry for me, because I don’t.”
“Did y’all hear about Shane Roberts?” One of the football players I don’t know rolls up, bouncing on his feet.
Eli gets a little tense, and I know it has to do with the boy who approached us this morning.
“No, what happened to Shane?” Jessie leans against the tree, having finished her own food. The girl eats as much as the boys, I’ve noticed. Has to be because she’s a shifter.
“You don’t know?” he asks, incredulous.
“Ethan’s my uncle, yes, but that doesn’t mean I know everything that goes on in town.” There’s no mistaking the sarcasm that rolls off her tongue. Her uncle is the county sheriff, but that doesn’t mean she has a hotline to all the town comings and goings.
“Shane was found dead in the woods this morning. Rumor is he was drained of blood.”
The locals around us go completely quiet, and those of us not from here frown.
“Drained of blood?” Cecily asks, her teeth worrying her bottom lip. “Like, vampire drained, or he exsanguinated from a wound kind of drained?”
“She means did he lose all his blood from a wound, like he bled out?” I clarify for the poor guy, who’s all kinds of confused. Not everyone uses big words like Cecily does.
“Probably from a wound.” Matt and Jessie both glare at the boy.
“Uh, yeah…probably that,” he agrees, but I get the feeling that’s not what he thinks. Actually, most everyone is glaring at him, and it’s weird. It’s like they want him to shut up or something. I’d think the truth would be more important, but I get the feeling that’s not the case here. What the heck is going on?
Eli shakes his head slightly at me, and I understand that he doesn’t want me to ask what’s on the tip of my tongue. Does he know why they all want the guy to be quiet? He must, or he wouldn’t shush me.
“So, Cecily, how did your morning go?” Jessie breaks the uncomfortable silence, steering us all away from the previous conversation when football boy heads away from our group.
“It was better than I thought it would be.” She looks down when she says it, and I know something’s wrong, but I’m not going to confront here about it now. I’ll do it on our way to Gramps’ after school. I don’t want to add to her stress right now.
“Anyone bothers you, you let me know.” Matt cracks his knuckles. He’s been concerned about Cecily, too, because I’ve confided to him how much her behavior’s changed over the last few weeks.
“Everyone’s been nice,” she murmurs without looking up. She concentrates on her yogurt instead.
I catch Jordan’s eye, and he looks frustrated. She
probably swore him to secrecy, but that won’t fly with me. He’s going to spill. I’m relentless when it comes to my sister’s safety and happiness.
“I was talking to Coach Randall, and she says the softball team could use some more players this year.” Jessie nudges Cecily. “Ella says you have a wicked curveball. Our pitcher last year was pretty much useless. It might be something to think about in the spring. Well, they actually start practicing in February, I think, to get ready for spring.”
We never really got involved with sports at our other schools. What was the point when we might be there a month, six months, a year? We never knew, being the children of an Army soldier. But Dad’s assignment here is for several years, and it gives us the opportunity to get involved in sports if we want to. Me, not so much. I’m too short, but Cecily has the height and the talent.
“She’s just as good at basketball too,” Eli tells the group. He knows this because she smoked him in a game over the summer.
She looks up, and there’s a spark of interest in her eyes. Cecily loves sports. We’ve always had a basketball hoop in our yard. She plays daily, and Dad plays with her when he’s home. He played basketball in high school, and Cecily inherited her skills from him. I’m more like Mom—not an athletic bone in my body.
“Oh, for sure. We lost several players when they graduated last year. Coach Collins will be the person to talk to if you’re interested. I think tryouts are in a week or two.”
“So soon?” Cecily wads up her trash and puts it back in her lunch bag.
“Sports are serious business here.” Matt yawns. “Training starts early for all the teams. Anyone who wants a sports scholarship usually gets one because of the drive and dedication the athletes and coaches have.”
“Where can I find the coaches?” Cecily finally starts to sound like herself. She’s excited.
“In the sports building beside the gym. The offices are on the second floor, the first floor being more of a trophy hall of fame and a visitors center for parents and the town to go look at our achievements.”
“Are they there after school?”
“Sure are, but you got to catch them quick. The coaches who have teams that aren’t actively playing are only there for about half an hour or so in case their players need them.”
“Thanks.”
I’m so relieved something has caught her attention, something that might help to rebuild her self-confidence. Her ex destroyed that when he took her captive. I still don’t have all the facts, and I’m not sure I ever will. Her therapist is the only person who’ll ever know everything. The guy took a plea deal, so she won’t even get her day in court to stand up and say you did this to me. It’s just one more thing he robbed her of.
The first warning bell blares, and we all groan. We only get half an hour for lunch, and then it’s right back to classes.
“Come on, Shortcake, I’ll walk you to class.” Eli pulls me up before Matt can say a word and hurries me out of his reach. I’m not sure why he’s in such a hurry, and he’s not going in the right direction either.
“Hey…”
“Shh,” he whispers as we turn the corner. “You’ll get to class on time.” He pulls me into a back door I didn’t know was here, and we head toward a set of stairs. “Do you have what you need for next period?”
I nod. I put my morning books away before we came outside for lunch.
“Good, then we don’t need to hurry.” He stops and drags me under the stairs. “Don’t ask anyone about Shane.”
“Why?”
“You noticed how everyone got all quiet when Abe started telling us about it?”
“Yeah, it was weird.”
“I’ll explain everything at Gramps’, but for now, just don’t ask questions. Promise me, Ella Grace.”
“I promise.”
“Okay.” He leads us back out from under the stairs, and then we take them to the second floor where my AP English class meets. Why I decided to take so many AP courses is beyond me. I feel overwhelmed at the amount of homework I have already. God knows what the rest of the day holds.
“I’ll see you at Gramps’.” He plants a kiss on my forehead and hurries to his own class down the hall.
What is going on?
Knowing I’ll get no answers until later, I find a seat in class and settle in.
Chapter Four
Ella
“So, how did everything go?” I put the car in gear and back out of the parking lot. Eli had moved my car to the back lot so I didn’t have to go out the front entrance. I’m afraid going outside to the car will set off an even worse reaction than I had this morning.
“Why are we parked back here?” Cecily asks me again. She’d asked earlier when we walked to the car, and I’d pretty much ignored her. She’s not about to let me shrink away from a question any more than I would her.
“Because I had a little bit of a reaction earlier when we got here.”
“What?” Her blue eyes go from confused to concerned in a heartbeat.
“I had a panic attack. Eli got me through it, and the vice principal arranged for me to park back here so I wouldn’t have to come through the front.”
“A panic attack…why would you…ohhhh!” Her hand reaches out and squeezes my arm. “Memories?”
I nod. “We’ll talk about it later, though, okay? I don’t want a repeat while I’m driving.”
“We will talk about it, Ella. You made me talk about what happened to me, and you’ve been there for some of my panic attacks. Goose, gander, and all that.”
I smile softly. She sounds like Mom when she uses that voice. “How about we stop at the Coffee Shoppe and order food for everyone before going to Gramps’?”
“I’m starving.”
“I figured, since you only ate a yogurt and half a banana for lunch.”
“Yeah, well, I was afraid my nerves would get the best of me and I’d puke all over the classroom. So, I went light.”
Reasonable. “And now you’re starving.”
“It feels like my belly is trying to crawl out of my throat at everything that smells yummy. And trust me, my teachers have food at their desks. Mr. Campbell was sitting there snacking on cookies!”
“Cookies?”
“And he didn’t offer to share. I think we all wanted to rush his desk and take them.”
We pull into the parking lot of the diner, and I’m lucky to find an open spot. Usually, you have to drive around several times waiting for a space to open up after school lets out because most everyone not on a bus heads straight here. Point of fact, most of the customers right now are high schoolers with a smattering of adults mixed in.
“What are you in the mood for?”
“A double bacon cheeseburger and fries with a strawberry milkshake.” Her eyes go all glassy thinking about it. “What about you?”
“Club sandwich, I think. Maybe I’ll indulge in fries. I just need to watch my carb intake the rest of the day.” Yes, I can have carbs, just not a lot of them. Same with sugar. Some sugar is okay, but I have to be extremely careful of the intake. Like fruit. It has natural sugars, and I can have some fruit, but not a lot.
When I was little, I thought it was unfair that everyone else, including my family, got to eat things I didn’t, but as I grew up, I realized it wasn’t fair of me to try to deprive them because of my limitations. It’s not their fault I’m diabetic, and they shouldn’t be punished for my disability.
“Whatcha getting Gramps?”
“Turkey club with steamed veggies.” An evil little grin comes out. Gramps eats too much grease. It’s not healthy for a man his age, and I’ve taken it upon myself to make sure he starts eating right. I even called around town and informed all the fast food places he’s not allowed to order anything unhealthy. They learned real quick how cranky I can get when they let him have junk. Most of them abide by my healthy stipulations because they don’t want to deal with my mouth in their establishment.
“You know he’s going
to see my burger and complain.” Cecily gets out of the car, and I lock the door behind us.
“Oh, I know, especially since we’re getting Eli the burger, too.”
“You live for these confrontations with Gramps, don’t you?”
“It keeps him on his toes.” I open the door and walk in.
The entire place goes quiet.
It’s so odd, I stop walking and stare at all the people in the diner. They’re looking at us, but then quickly look away. What the heck?
Cecily frowns and tugs me toward the ordering line at the counter. Small spurts of conversations slowly start to resume, but they’re muted and not at all as animated as what we walked into.
“Hey, ladies, what can I get you?” Beth Anne, one of the waitresses, gives us a smile, but it doesn’t quite reach her eyes.
We quickly put in our order and move to the side to wait. Neither of us speaks the entire time we stand there, highly aware of all the attention that’s squarely on us, but that’s trying not to be on us.
“Did Dad take someone else?” Cecily bursts out once we’re back in the car and on our way to Gramps’.
“I don’t know. People didn’t act like that when the schoolteacher disappeared.”
“Yeah, but if this is the second disappearance, that amps up the hatred, doesn’t it?”
I cut my eyes to her to warn her to be careful of what she says. This car is probably bugged, and she knows that. They could be listening to us right now. They know we know he’s here to take people, but not that we know why. We have to be extremely cautious in what we say. We don’t need to put ourselves in any more danger than we already are.
“Maybe.” That’s all I’m willing to say in the car. We’ll be free to talk at Gramps’. He has a ward up around his house so that no outside electronics will be able to listen in. No one except people he trusts gets inside his house, and being the paranoid old man he is, he still sweeps his house daily for bugs.
It doesn’t take long to reach the McGreggor compound, as I’ve taken to calling it. Gramps calls it Rose Hill because of the hill of roses behind his house. It seems more like a compound to me because of all the security he has installed there, both physical and metaphysical. All his wards keep people from hacking into his security system, thankfully.