Gemma put a k-cup in the machine and waited for it to be ready to brew. She looked at me and smiled. At least I wasn’t the only one that felt awkward. I could practically feel it radiating off of her. I wondered if she felt it from me too.
When the Keurig was ready to brew, she pressed the button and waited for the coffee to fill the mug.
“How was the plane ride?” she asked.
Janice answered when it became obvious I wasn’t going to. “Wonderful. No turbulence. It was a smooth ride.”
I wouldn’t know any different.
Once the coffee finished, Gemma carefully handed it to Janice. “Would you like any cream or sugar?”
“Just cream, thank you.”
Gemma got the cream from the fridge and handed it to Janice. She looked at me. “How about you? Are you hungry? Thirsty?”
I shrugged. “I could go for a coffee.”
She tilted her head. “You drink coffee?”
I laughed. Did I drink coffee? Hell yeah I drank coffee. I couldn’t survive a day without it. “Oh, yeah. I’m a bit of a caffeine addict.”
She smiled at that. “Me too.”
Gemma got to work on preparing another cup of coffee while Janice drank hers.
“What do you do?” Janice asked.
Thanks Janice. One question down, a bazillion to go.
“I’m a doctor. I work in the emergency room.”
Wow. That was pretty impressive.
“That must be exciting.”
“It can be. It definitely keeps me on my toes.”
“I bet.”
She must have been a good person then. Bad people didn’t become doctors. At least, I don’t think they did.
After Janice and Gemma talked some more and we finished our coffee, she got ready to go.
This was it. She was officially not my social worker anymore. I was no longer a ward of the state.
Janice turned to me. “I should be going. I have a plane to catch. I’m happy that things worked out for you. It’s always nice when there’s a happy ending.”
Relatively happy. My mother was still dead.
“Me too.”
“Take care of yourself Hope.”
I always did.
Janice said goodbye to Gemma before leaving me alone with her.
We stood there looking at each other. Neither of us knew what to say or what to do. Talk about awkward.
“I should show you your room,” Gemma said. She said it like she was unsure of herself.
“Yeah, that’s cool.”
“Okay, then. Follow me.”
I grabbed my bag and climbed the stairs with Gemma. Once we got to the second floor she led me down the hall and turned into the last room on the right. “This is it.”
The room was huge and immaculate. The walls were a light purple color. It was… nice. Actually it was better than nice. It was beautiful.
I still couldn’t believe I lived here now.
“I’d like to take you shopping if you’re up to it. I’m sure you need some new clothes for school. I already enrolled you at the high school. Your first day is tomorrow. If you’re up to it.”
I’d rather be at school than sitting here and looking at the walls. And the sooner I went to school, the faster I could get on track with the other students.
“Yeah, tomorrow is good.”
“And then after shopping maybe we can stop at the diner for dinner. If you’re…”
“Up to it?” I smiled at her, raising an eyebrow.
She laughed lightly. “I’m sorry Hope. I’m just a little out of my element here. I haven’t had family in a long time. A really long time. I really want you to be happy here Hope.”
“Thanks. And I haven’t either.”
“I guess we just have to give it time.”
I nodded in agreement.
More awkward silence.
“I can give you time to wash up or change before we go.”
“That’s okay. I’m ready now. But you don’t have to buy me new clothes. I have some.”
“I want to.”
It was going to be weird having someone buy me clothes and actually want to.
This new life was going to take a while to get used to.
Chapter 4: Hope
After shopping we walked back to the car and dropped off the bags before walking towards the diner.
Gemma spent way too much money on me. She bought me things I didn’t even need.
I was pretty simple when it came to clothes. V-necks and jeans were usually my thing. Sometimes I’d throw a zip up hoodie into the mix. Gemma bought me ten different hoodies. Ten! Who needed ten hoodies?
I tried to stop her from going overboard, but she claimed she wanted to. She said she had a lot of birthdays to make up for and that she never got to spoil her niece.
It was so weird being called someone’s niece. Even before Mom died, I didn’t have family. It was me and Mom. It was just the two of us, and it was perfect.
That felt like a different lifetime now. I hated it, but sometimes I found myself forgetting things about my mom. Her voice, especially. I didn’t have any videos of her. Just a few photos of her. That’s all I had left to remember my life with Mom.
But now, maybe I could find out more about her. Gemma grew up with my mother. She must have had some cool stories to tell.
When we got to the diner, the hostess sat us right away. There weren’t too many people there. Mostly older couples that ate dinner really early.
In the corner of the restaurant I did see a group of girls that looked to be about my age. I felt them staring at me as we followed the hostess to the table.
I chanced a look at them and made eye contact with one of them. She was giving me the worst bitch stare I’d ever seen.
If looks could kill, this girl would have killed me on the spot.
This was the girl I did my best to avoid in all of the high schools I went to. Apparently I just stumbled upon the town mean girls. I was planning on steering clear of that. I didn’t need any more drama in my life.
For once in my life I was going to be in a stable home where I could focus on myself. I wasn’t going to let some girls drag me down.
Besides, I’d dealt with worse than mean girls in my life.
The hostess left us with menus and we sat in silence as we looked through the menus. She seemed to know what she wanted right away because she closed her menu and sat quietly waiting for me.
“I think I’ll just get a burger.”
She looked at me in scrutiny. “Is that what you really want?”
“Yes.”
“And not just because it’s one of the cheapest things on the menu?”
Guilty. Wow. She was really good. Better than a lot of the shrinks I’d been forced to see in the system.
“Nope. Not at all.”
She laughed. “Oh man. You are a terrible liar.”
“I am not.”
“You so are.”
“Fine. I’ll keep looking.”
I looked back down at the menu, but I could feel that she was still looking at me.
“You get that from your mom you know. She was always a bad liar.”
I didn’t know what to say. She was telling me about Mom. This was exactly what I wanted. But wanting to hear about Mom and actually hearing about Mom were completely different things.
“She was?”
“Oh yeah. Awful. One time she went to this college party with some friends of hers. She completely got away with it, until our parents asked her how the sleepover went. They wouldn’t have suspected a thing.”
I smiled at the thought of Mom as a teenager.
“Hope, I’m really sorry about your mom. She was a wonderful person.”
“Yeah. Yeah she was.”
Mom was the most beautiful person in this world. Not only on the outside, but especially on the inside. She had this smile that could light up the room. And she was so caring and just loved life and people. She wa
s everything I strived to become.
Our waitress came over with some water and asked if we were ready to order.
I let Gemma go first so I could take the extra few seconds to look through the menu. I decided on the salmon. It sounded good. I tried salmon one time before. One of my foster parents was pescatarian so all they ever ate was fish.
I closed the menu and looked up. I looked at the girls in the corner of the room. They were talking to each other now.
I felt like someone was staring at me. I looked around and my eyes met the bluest eyes I had ever seen before in my life. Or maybe they were gray. I wasn’t really sure. All I was sure of was that he was beautiful. Hands down the sexiest guy I’d ever set my eyes on in person.
I smiled at the guy, expecting him to smile back.
He didn’t. He glared at me before looking away and heading toward the exit.
Ouch.
That wasn’t at all embarrassing.
That was kind of weird. I thought small town people were supposed to be friendly.
“And what can I get for you?”
I cleared my throat and tried to regain my focus to tell the waitress my order.
That guy really threw me off. There was something about him that I found intriguing. Aside from the fact that he seemed to have an attitude problem.
I should probably steer clear of him too. The last thing I needed to do was pursue a guy that was completely wrong for me. It didn’t take a genius to realize that guy was so not into me.
Chapter 5: Christian
I got out of the diner as fast as I could manage. That girl. There was something about her. Something other than how breathtaking she was.
I think it was her eyes. They looked so… sad.
I knew that look all too well. I saw it everyday in my own reflection.
It wasn’t hard for me to recognize sorrow. I’d experienced enough of it in my own life to recognize it in another human being.
I wondered who the girl was. I didn’t stick around long enough to find out. She was sitting with Dr. Sinclair. She had to be new to town. I would have remembered seeing her in the last six months that I had been in Salem Point.
Who she was didn’t matter. I wasn’t going to go there. Not again.
I had been down this road before one too many times. I had a tendency to fall for the victims. I had a bit of a savior complex.
Someone was following me into the woods. It only took one guess who. I didn’t need to be a vampire to be able to sense who it was.
“Looking for bunnies?”
I smiled. “I prefer deer, you know that.” I turned around to face Elizabeth, my sister.
She had her arms folded across her chest and a playful smile on her face. Her blue eyes twinkled with glee.
“That’s disgusting.”
I shrugged. “You have your preferences, I have mine.”
I continued walking into the woods. She kept following me.
“What do you want Elizabeth?”
“I saw you.”
“You saw me what?”
“Eyeing the new girl.”
I tensed at the mention of the girl. Dammit. I hadn’t realized she was around to see my reaction to the girl. I hated what a sneak she was.
“Who?”
“Don’t play dumb with me Christian.”
I continued walking. She stomped after me. I could hear the anger in her voice. She was concerned.
“Elizabeth, would you please. I’m starving. Getting ‘hangry’ as the people like to say these days.”
“I want to stay here and graduate for once in my life. Don’t mess that up for me by trying to save another damsel in distress.”
I rolled my eyes. More because it was the truth. Savior complex. Both my siblings knew it.
“I wasn’t going to.”
“Christian I mean it. I won’t have you…”
I turned around and glared down at my sister. “I said, I wasn’t going to.” I could feel my eyes changing. They did that when I got angry. They got dark. It also happened when I was about to feed.
She glared up at me, but knew not to push me. “I’m just worried.”
I sighed, willing my eyes to turn back to their usual blue color. “I know. And I understand.”
“I don’t want this girl to ruin what we have here.”
“Did you see me speak to the girl?”
“No, but looking at her was enough.”
She was being ridiculous. Sometimes I forgot just how young Elizabeth truly was. I owed my sister the opportunity to have a normal graduation. A normal teenage life. I took enough from her already.
“I promise, we will stay here in Salem Point until you graduate in two years.”
She smiled. “I know how you hate to break promises.”
“Exactly. Now, I’ll see you at home. I prefer to hunt alone.”
“Awful. I don’t know how you do this animal diet. Those poor beautiful creatures.”
She ran off into the wind before I could utter a response. I shook my head. She had more empathy for the animals than people.
I guess people weren’t always so great. They destroyed a lot of the beautiful things in this world. But they were still human beings and I refused to allow myself to feed on them.
Not all of them were bad.
Some were beautiful.
Like the girl. The girl I wasn’t going to have anything to do with.
Chapter 6: Hope
After my aunt went to sleep, I stepped out of the house for a jog. Hopefully it’d be cool with her. Most of my foster parents didn’t give a damn if I left the house. So long as I came back at some point so they wouldn’t risk losing their fostering license.
It was different here though. I probably should have asked Gemma, but it’s not like I was going far or I’d be long.
I was used to taking care of myself. Having someone else take care of me wasn’t something that was going to come easy for me.
I just jogged to the end of the block and back towards the house. I didn’t know my way around here yet and didn’t want to risk getting lost this late.
There was literally no one around so I’d have no one to ask for directions.
Gemma said she’d get me a phone tomorrow. She was putting me on her plan. A family plan.
I was never on a family plan before.
This was all happening so fast. That’s why I needed to jog. I needed to feel the pavement underneath my feet. It was the only way I could get through this without breaking down in tears.
I missed Mom. I was so grateful for Gemma taking me in, but I was sad. Mom should be here with me and Gemma.
I was close to the house when I suddenly bumped right into a man at least six inches taller than me.
I jumped back and let out a low scream.
He smiled, his piercing blue eyes looking at me quizzically. “Hello.”
I put my hand on my chest and took deep breaths. “You scared me.”
“Sorry.”
I was taken back. Based on his tone, he didn’t seem very sorry. He seemed to find my fear entertaining.
He smiled again. Only it wasn’t an inviting smile. It was eerie. He was totally wigging me out.
I tilted my head at the man. I didn’t know how to take him. He was a stranger and he was out here standing in the dark. My instincts were screaming at me to get away from the man.
“I should be getting home.” I walked around him.
He was following me.
Great. I shouldn’t have gone jogging. I am so fucked right now.
“I haven’t seen you around before.”
“I just moved to town.”
I don’t know why I was responding to the man. I think I was just trying to buy myself time. The house was just up ahead.
“Ahh, new girl huh?”
“Yup.”
“It’s very nice to meet you…” He paused with a question mark at the end of his sentence.
“Hope.”
&n
bsp; “Hope. Beautiful name. I’m Wyatt.”
“Good for you Wyatt.”
“You’re very pretty Hope.”
Yup. Definitely should have stayed home.
I thought small towns were supposed to be safe. It was just my luck. My first night here and I was already running into trouble. I was a lightning rod for this kind of stuff.
“I’m not psycho or anything. Promise.”
I glanced back at him. He smiled. “Would you tell me the truth if you were?”
He laughed. “Good point. You’re smart too Hope. I like that.”
If I was smart I wouldn’t be out here trying to talk my way out of getting murdered. Hello. I watched ID before. This was so fucking stupid of me. I should have at least carried some mace with me or something.
The man grabbed my arm, but not violently. He looked into my eyes. “You want to kiss me right now.”
What a pompous dick. I didn’t even know the guy.
I looked back at him in bewilderment. I was baffled when he started moving towards me. I pushed him away. “What the hell!”
He looked so shocked. The look on his face was almost comical.
I glared at him. “Stay the hell away from me you fucking creep.”
I ran off towards the house, only looking over my shoulder to make sure he wasn’t following me.
There were some interesting people in Salem Point. The girl earlier had a serious attitude problem. So did the guy. And this guy was something else. He was so surprised that I didn’t want to kiss him.
Day one and I was already hating it here.
Chapter 7: Wyatt
What the hell just happened?
I did not see that one coming. I was so used to my compulsion always working that it was utterly shocking to find that it didn’t.
That girl couldn’t be compelled.
Either I was dropping the ball, or that girl was a supernatural. Seeing as it was impossible for it to be the former, it had to be the latter.
I didn’t drop the ball. I was a strong vampire. I fed more than necessary to keep my strength up. No one could resist my compulsion. Which could only mean one thing. We had a new supernatural in Salem Point.
The town was full of supernaturals. They lived in secret. So did I. But this girl was new. The rest of them lived in this town their whole lives. Salem Point was known for its supernatural occurrences.
Protecting Hope: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance (Bloodmoon Series Book 1) Page 2
