“Vampires?” Rachel swallowed. How far her knowledge drifted into the world of make-believe, felt so strong on her mind now. She could feel herself sort of slip away and into it. It seemed all too amazing to hear. If she didn’t know about Jimmy, she would have thought that everything was just crazy. “Why can’t they move about during the day?”
Sasha chuckled some under her breath. Hearing that term always did that to her. “Some are like that, yes. Walking about during the day can cause the sun to burn them. Not like in the movies, but more like getting a bad sunburn more than anything else.” She knew so little about the rest of the walkers that she really didn’t want to answer anything more. She looked to Jimmy and seeing him with is head still down, she changed her mind. She would try to answer everything for him. “They have an allergy or something like it with sunlight. Some are worse with it than others.”
Rachel nodded. What she heard made sense. It felt weird how one makes sense with such things sometimes, with nothing about it making sense at all. “Like it is with you, the moonwalkers and silver?”
Sasha nodded. Her eyes grew large as she took in what she just heard. This human knew a lot more than she would have ever thought was possible before. There also seemed to be something else there about her as well. She could now feel that. She didn’t know what that was, but she just took it as some sort of a truth.
Jimmy brought up his head, and stared between the two of them.
Sasha noticed the look. She could see that he started accepting what he heard, so she continued on, “There are also day walkers. They are similar to the nightwalkers, except they’re not fully formed into true walkers. They can still move about during the day, but are more human than walker.” She looked from Jimmy and back to Rachel. “We are all different. I’m afraid that’s all I know about things when it comes to the night and day walkers.” She turned back to Jimmy. There was so much more that they were going to ask her that she didn‘t know if she could ever truly answer all of them. Knowing that, a thought came up into her mind just as easily. She knew of only one person that could answer those questions. “There are also those that call themselves the wanderers. They are humans that carry special gifts. I want to bring you to one of them. He can answer things that I never could.”
Jimmy finally found the strength to look to Sasha. “You want to bring me to whom?”
Sasha passed him a smile. He came back to her, and she loved the sight. “He’s a wanderer that has helped many of us moonwalkers before. He has a very special gift. He can help you find peace with Kalima.”
Rachel saw the look on his face. She could see him thinking. He took in everything Sasha said. He also began to accept it. She didn’t like seeing it. She had to know for sure if what they discussed before was still relevant to him. “Jimmy? You still want me to find the cure right?”
That brought Sasha’s eyes back to hers with a sharp jerk. “Cure? What cure?” She couldn’t believe what she just heard. She had to clarify it just to be sure that she heard it right.
“A cure.” Rachel stood up, keeping the back of her legs to the front of the sofa. “Jimmy wanted me to help him stop his change. I’m a scientist. I can help both of you.”
Sasha’s eyes exploded over her face. She nodded. She knew she heard it right. How dare this human say what she was? “We’re not some illness that you can make us better from. We’re alive. We live.”
Jimmy came back to where they were. He felt happy that he was. He could hear the anger growing in Sasha’s voice. It made him uncomfortable to hear it. “She’s just trying to help.” He knew that anger went to Rachel. He also understood it, but now wasn’t the time for it. Besides, it wasn’t her fault for saying what she did. “I wanted her help.”
Sasha shot her eyes back to him. “How could you?”
Jimmy bowed his head some, but lifted it strongly back to her. “I don’t know if I want this. I’m not sure if I can.”
Sasha’s arms raced back over her chest. She couldn‘t believe what he said. How anyone like them wanted to kill themselves like that, went racing through her mind. Kalima would never allow him to do it. He couldn‘t do it. He wouldn‘t do it. “Why am I helping you then?” She turned from the sofa and walked to where Jimmy stood, still under the archway. “How can you harm the one that gave your life?”
Jimmy blinked hard. He had no idea of what to say, so he just shook his head and shrugged his shoulders with doubt heavy in his heart and mind.
Sasha huffed seeing it. Any thought of liking him, the new one that Kalima had chosen, fell away from her with strength. Plainly, she didn’t even want to try anymore. “Fine.” She turned from him and passed him quickly.
He turned around with her passing him, took her left arm with his, and held her steady. He tried to anyway, but she still managed to break the grip. He could see tears forming in both of her eyes. “Sasha?”
“You’re not what I thought you were.” The tears formed, and one single drop rolled out of her right eye and streaked down her cheek. “You’re not what I hoped you were.”
Jimmy couldn’t say anything else. He blinked again, not being able to move.
Sasha turned and made it to the front door quickly. She opened it and found Brandon coming back up the steps, so she pushed her way past him, jumped to the sidewalk, and headed out back to her friends.
Brandon watched her leave. When she did, he turned and walked inside and found both Rachel and Jimmy standing there in silence. He held the bags of food to his side and stared at them with intent. He could only think of one thing to say. “Who’s hungry?” He smiled. Whatever he missed, he felt glad that he did. Jimmy must have chosen Rachel. It made sense. That was still a good thing as far as he was concerned about it. Sasha was more of his cup of his tea, anyway. It gave him more of the chance that he looked for. Seeing it, it made his night.
16
Gary pulled his car up along the side of the street, keeping to the intersection. From there, he knew that they wouldn’t see him, but he could still see them.
He watched as Rachel parked out front, along the street. He watched her get out of the car. The freak’s friend soon joined her on the sidewalk, and he watched them go to the front door of a house, just at the center of a row of houses, and look around. He watched as Rachel was about to knock, but then stopped and just opened the door. He watched as she and the freak’s friend went inside.
Seeing it all, he worried some. What is this place? Is he here? How long he had to wait to find out, he wasn’t sure. Before he did anything, he knew that he had to be sure first. He couldn’t match the wolf’s strength if the freak let him out. Besides that, he couldn’t risk Rachel getting in the way. If the freak did happen to be in there, and he did turn, she could possibly get hurt. He couldn’t do that to her. So no, he had to wait until he knew for sure that he could get the freak alone. It seemed like his only option, so he had to be patient. He had to wait for the right time for him to come to him.
After a few moments, how long he wasn’t sure, he saw a young woman with red hair coming down the street. He watched her move up the sidewalk and stop at the steps that went up to the same house that Rachel and the freak’s friend had just gone into. He watched her, seeing something very different about her. She acted different. She was different. It felt like the way she moved. It felt like the way she carried herself. She’s a wolf too. I’ll be goddamn there’s more here. How many are there? He felt it. The answer fit everything about her.
He watched her move inside the front door and watched her disappear inside the house. Now, he knew that he had to wait. If the freak was in there, he knew that two of them would nearly be impossible to take together. He would have to wait, now more than ever.
After several long moments, he watched the freak’s friend come back outside the house. He was alone. He watched him walk out to the street and climb inside the driver’s side of Rachel’s car. He watched him start the car and pull off, heading down the street towards him. He w
atched him drive by him and watched him take the corner. He continued watching him pull the corner through the rearview mirror until he left.
He turned back to the house. He continued to wait. He continued to watch.
After several more moments, even closer to an hour, he heard the car behind him again, and when he looked, he watched the freak’s friend return with Rachel’s car. He watched him pull back to the front of the house along the curb. He watched him take out several bags of what looked like fast food and retake the steps with them in his hands.
The front door opened, and he watched the young redhead reemerge from the house. He watched her pass the freak’s friend on the steps and watched as she made her way down the sidewalk, heading in the opposite direction.
To him, she looked angry. She looked like she was in a hurry.
Seeing her, he now felt sure of what she was. It looked striking seeing her. She looked almost like Collins did. He only knew one thing. There were more of them. He had to follow her. He had to be sure of their numbers. Besides, Rachel wasn’t leaving. She had to be still there because the freak was there as well. Knowing that, he knew where he was. That gave him some amount of comfort. He now knew where to find him again when he needed to. However, the redhead seemed like something else entirely. This might be his only chance to see how far all of this went. If he could do that, he would be able to take all of them out with one swift action. That sat better with his sense of eagerness. He couldn’t let her get away, until he knew for sure.
He started his car, and pulled out away from the curb. He crept along the street, keeping behind her and out of sight.
She went for a while until she walked into an old rundown part of town. He watched her walk up to an old abandoned building, not far from the river. He watched her walk up to a bright colored red door at the far end of the building, watched her open the door, and walk inside.
Soon, several others, two men and two women came down the sidewalk, and likewise, made it to the red door. He watched them walk inside and watched as the door closed behind them.
Seeing all of them, his stomach clenched. My God, there’s so many of them. It’s like a fucking pack! Now knowing what he knew, the anger in him only grew stronger. His rage for what they were grew with it. He had to stop them. He had to get rid of as many as he could. He had to figure out how to get them alone. He had to find out how to take them all out. He could never do it all at once; he knew that, so no, he had to take all of them one at a time. He would have to wait for the right time to do it.
17
“Where in the fuck have you been?” Samuel shouted across the room, watching Sasha come inside and join them. He had been searching for her all day. How dare she leave him? How dare she disobey him by going out alone like this? She knew better than that. They had to stick together. They had to remain within the group. Not doing so only made matters worse for all of them. He hated what she did.
Sasha stepped to the center of the room, but kept her head down low. The anger of her confrontation with Jimmy still felt fresh on her mind. She hoped that it would be gone with her long walk back to her friends, but it wasn’t. In fact, she felt even worse. She couldn’t get what he said out of her head. Why is he doing this? I liked him. He felt different. How wrong I was? How right Samuel was for not wanting to deal with him. Hearing Samuel made that rage grow even stronger. “I was out,” she puffed.
Samuel’s eyes widened. “You were with him, weren’t you?” He walked to her, showing the disappointment that he felt in his voice. Her keeping her head down with him, and not looking at him directly, only added to the feeling. It told him that he was right. She went to him, and she betrayed him by doing it. Now that he knew she did, he couldn’t believe how mad he felt because of it.
Sasha kept her eyes and head down. She couldn’t look at him.
Seeing her unwillingness to face him only made everything feel worse. “Look at me when I ask you something!” he screamed that anger out. His voice echoed throughout the room.
Harold, the newest of their group, and one of the youngest other than Sasha, stepped forward to the two of them. “Samuel? Don’t talk to her like that.” He felt bad for her. He felt uncomfortable because of it. He knew Sasha well enough to know that she just felt curious about him. She felt inquisitive—hell they all were. If she went to see Kalima, she only did what they all felt like doing. Things were not her fault. Nothing was, for any of them. Kalima came back, and that meant that there was more going on there than any of them ever knew about, and that made everything else feel worse.
Samuel turned his blazing eyes to his right and to Harry. “What did you say?” he snarled.
Sasha brought her eyes up. “Samuel?” She reached out to him with a soft touch to his arm. “I had to make sure that it was him.” She wasn’t sure if she should tell them about what she now knew. She wasn’t sure if they could handle it. Jimmy wanted to destroy Kalima. He wanted to end his life. She was sure that it would only devastate all of them—hell, it did with her. Wolves were what they were. Without them, one couldn’t survive. Killing the wolf inside you was like killing yourself. It felt like suicide. It made everything feel horrific beyond words.
He shot his head back to hers.
Harold backed off, feeling Samuel’s rage. He feared him. The alpha male couldn’t be challenged. He wasn’t strong enough to do it.
“I asked you to stay away from him.” Samuel huffed heavily to the room. Again, his breaths echoed around him, bouncing off the walls almost sounding like he had breathed out the wind itself.
Sasha shrugged. “I had to be sure. I had to be sure that it was him.”
Samuel dropped his eyes. Disappointment raced through his heavy heart and soul.
Marie, like Samuel, was one of the oldest of the group, and she stepped forwards. She wasn’t going to come into the fight that started before her, but after hearing Sasha’s answers to where she was, the curiosity came up and overrode all of her other concerns. Quite frankly, she felt just as curious. Hell with her feelings for him, maybe even more than the others did. “Is it really him? Is it really Kalima?”
Samuel turned his anger towards Marie, standing just behind Sasha. “What difference is it, if it was him?” he shot back to her. He felt like he was starting to lose a good amount of his control. He didn’t like the feeling. It only made him angrier.
“It is a huge difference, Samuel.” Marie turned her eyes to both of them in turn. She couldn’t believe what she heard from him. Kalima was important to all of them. He was special beyond words. Why would they care, now that they knew that he came back?
Sasha looked to Marie and turned back to Samuel. “It was him. He has his memories. He has his essence.”
Samuel came back to her. “It does not matter!” His voice became low and almost sounded unforgiving. He could feel that his fight to keep himself controlled was being lost with every word that he heard.
“It does matter.” Sasha stepped one-step closer to Samuel. Somehow, she did seem to care that she still felt afraid of him, but it now, it felt more important to have her questions answered. She didn’t seem to be concerned by anything else. “It matters that you lied to us. Why did you lie and tell us that you killed him?”
Samuel turned around, huffing his disgust into the room. “It doesn’t matter.”
Harold swallowed his fear. “Sasha’s right. Why did you do that? Why would you tell us something that you obviously knew was a lie?” Like Sasha, his questions seemed stronger than his fear. He had to know more of what happened. If Samuel had lied to them, and by all accounts, he did, then he had to know those answers as well.
Marie joined Sasha by her side. “Yes. You had no right keeping him from us. You had no right to lie to us.”
Samuel walked towards the far wall, to the door that went out to the hallway and to all of their private rooms, and there, he stopped just in front of the door. “I did what I had to do. None of you understands any of this. None of you wi
ll.”
“Why?” Markey another of the group spoke up; walked and joined Sasha and Marie in the center of the room.
Samuel spun back around and looked straight at all of them that were now gathering with Sasha. Seeing them forming around her, he knew that he lost the fight. “How dare you question me? I am the Alpha here. I am the leader of this pack.”
Marie looked around to the group. She looked up to the far wall and to the others that had yet joined with them in the center of the room. She could see their eyes questioning. She could see their young looking faces burning with what they already heard and what they still seemingly tried to understand. “Kalima is special. He is a part of this pack. That makes him a part of us.”
Thomas, the larger of all of them, six foot tall and with the build of a bodybuilder, stepped up towards Samuel. He felt for his leader. He felt for his friend. The others were challenging him, and he didn’t know why that was happening. If his friend had ever needed his support, now was the time. “Samuel is right. He is our leader. He is the Alpha.” He sighed strongly. “What does it matter what happened? Kalima left us, remember that Marie.” He looked straight to her. “You above all of us should hate him for that.”
Marie puffed out with a wince. “Tommy, you’re ridiculous. Kalima would have never left us without a good reason.”
Thomas’ eyes flared. “Am I?” He stepped in front of Samuel. He pointed at him with the wave of his very large right arm. “He has led us with strength. He has kept this pack together when it would have fallen apart. So what if Kalima has returned. It doesn’t matter.” He turned, looking back to Samuel, seeing his leader wincing some only made what he felt for him grow stronger. “He left us, isn’t that obvious? He left us alone. What more do you need to know, other than that?” He turned back to the group. “Samuel deserves our loyalty. He deserves our respect.”
A Werewolf's Saga Books 1, 2, & 3 (A Werewolf's Saga Boxed Sets) Page 39
