Ties To The Blood Moon

by Robin P. Waldrop

  Chapter 43

  The minute I saw William waiting at the cutoff I began to have second thoughts. My heart hammered so hard I could hear it inside my ears. When he flashed his headlights and pulled out in front of me, my cue to follow, there was no turning back.

  When I pulled up behind him at the end of the drive, I couldn’t believe the size of the cabin. That was definitely an understatement for what I saw. I thought my aunt’s house was a pretty good size, but I swear his house easily made three of hers.

  William opened his car door and stepped out. The second we made eye contact my heart started aching for him in a way I had never imagined. It grew worse as he walked toward my Jeep. I thought I was having a heart attack and then I realized I had forgotten to breathe. Why was it that with what I knew about him, he could still have that kind of effect on me? Maybe that’s what my mom meant when she had tried to explain what love felt like.

  When I was in eighth grade I had come from a school dance and told my mom I was in love. She sat me down right then and had the sex talk with me. I already knew a lot about it from the girls I hung around, but my mom insisted on explaining it anyway.

  She was really cool about the whole thing too, not like some of my friend’s moms had been. She didn’t even try to tell me sex was bad or anything like that. She told me that sex was for two people who were truly in love and when I really did fall in love I would know. She explained how when your heart aches for him and when you feel like you can’t breathe without him, or you think about his feelings more than you think about your own, that’s true love.

  What she said had really clicked with me, and I guess that’s why I never had sex. I never felt that way about anyone…until I met William.

  He opened my door and I stepped down, but didn’t make eye contact at first. I suddenly felt very self conscious about my outfit, and I tried to pull my jacket closed.

  When William didn’t speak, I looked up. He had a strange look on his face, and his jaw hung open.

  “What?” I asked, searching his eyes. “I look stupid, don’t I?” I flushed with embarrassment.

  “Uh…,” he trailed off, and a huge smile covered his face. “My God, Genevieve…you’re the most beautiful girl I have ever seen,” he said sincerely, his eyes danced over me. He just stood frozen in front of me, like he was completely in awe.

  “Are we going to hang out in the driveway all night or…,” I trailed off, and smiled.

  “Oh, right. Yeah, come on. Let’s go inside,” he said happily, and placed his hand on the small of my back, guiding me to the door. He unlocked the door and pushed it open, leading me inside.

  When he flipped a switch and the foyer light came on, my eyes about popped out of my head.

  “You said you and your dad had a “cabin” on the lake,” I said, doing air quotes for cabin while slowly checking out the room.

  “Technically it is a cabin,” he said trying to act serious. He pointed to one of the outer walls made from stacked logs. “See…it’s made from real logs, so that qualifies it as a cabin.” He cocked his head to one side and shrugged his shoulders while holding out both arms, palm up, trying to smile innocently.

  “You are so full of crap, William Novak. You know this is far from a regular cabin.” I had my hands on my hips, and furrowed my brow, but he knew I was only pretending to be angry.

  The living room was more beautiful than I could have imagined. It was a huge open room with a big overstuffed sectional couch on one side, facing a fireplace made from river-rock. The side facing the lake boasted tinted glass from the floor all the way up to the two story ceiling. On the other side of the room was a large bar area, pool table, some arcade style games, and the biggest flat panel television I had ever seen. There was even a small row of slot machines.

  William showed me the rest of the house which consisted of a gourmet style kitchen with a large breakfast nook, a formal dining room, five upstairs bedrooms and bathrooms, and a master suite on the main floor complete with its own deck and Jacuzzi.

  After the tour, he asked me if I wanted anything to drink, but I declined since I wasn’t sure if vampires ate or drink anything; I mean, besides blood.

  William took my hand and lead me over to the couch. “Why are you here, Genevieve?” He asked sincerely.

  He had to have felt my hand trembling inside his. “I wanted to see you, that’s all,” I said, nervously.

  “Something’s up. I can tell.” He released my hand, and scooted away.

  I started chewing on the inside of my lip. “Why does it have to be anything? Why can’t I just want to be with you?” I asked severely, turning away from him so he wouldn’t see my tears.

  He sensed it or something, because I felt his hand wrap around my waist. He pulled me in close, but I still wouldn’t look at him. “If you tell me nothing is going on, I’ll believe you,” he whispered softly.

  I felt an aching in my chest and my eyes stung. I wanted to hate him, should hate him, but I couldn’t. Even though my heart had been ripped from my chest when I learned of his lies, I couldn’t hate him and I couldn’t lie to him either. It’s not the kind of person I was.

  I didn’t answer. Instead, I just shook my head. He lifted my chin, gently forcing me to face him.

  “Come on, Genevieve, don’t shut me out. Please.”

  I thought about what he said and I quickly became enraged. “Don’t shut you out? Don’t lie to you?” I shouted, jerking away from him. “What about you, William? Huh? Shouldn’t that be like, a two way street?” I jumped up from the couch, and headed for the door. “This was a mistake. I never should have come here!”

  “Genevieve… wait!” His voice echoed through the room.

  At the same time I reached for the doorknob, William’s hand covered mine. He had to have ran, but I never heard a footstep. I guess that was another thing with vampires…their agility.

  “Wait! Please tell me what all of this is about.” His voice sounded desperate, like he really had no idea why I was angry. What if I had been so quick to believe Joseph and it turned out he was the one lying, not William? No. I was sure Joseph had been telling the truth. He cared too much to lie to me, knowing I would eventually find out the truth and would hate him.

  I jerked my hand loose and spun around to face him. “You want to know? I’ll tell you! I know Zane sent you here to keep me from taking the throne. And your little rescue operation in New Mexico…it was all a set up,” I screamed. “I hate you, William Novak!”

  “All right! I’ll tell you everything…if you’ll just stay and hear me out.” He pleaded.

  “Oh! Now you want to tell me the truth. What…like the truth you told me in New Mexico? Or the truth you told me on the plane.

  “I-”

  I held my hand up in front of his face. “It’s too late. You had your chance to be honest with me and you blew it.” I opened the door and started out, but stopped abruptly. “Besides, someone else already told me the truth… the whole truth. Let me give you some truth, William.” A single tear ran down my cheek. “I don’t know if I would believe you.”

  I walked out and slammed the door behind me, then ran all the way to my Jeep. All I could think about was getting the hell out of there. I would figure out a way to rescue my mom and defeat Zane on my own.

  I cranked my Jeep, stomped my foot on the gas pedal, and popped the clutch. I took off way too fast, but I was so hurt and angry I wasn’t thinking clearly. All I wanted to do was get as far away as possible from the source of my pain. I was sobbing and tried wiping away the tears using the back of my hand, but fresh tears replaced the old ones, keeping my vision blurred.

  I caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of my eye, but by then it was too late to react. A lycan quickly leaped from behind some bushes, landing dead center of my hood. Out of sheer reflex, I screamed and swerved.