Bizarre Life of Sydney Sedrick

by Mandi Casey

  After going into the storeroom, she walked with irritated clicks of her boots toward me carrying paper towel and a wet washcloth.

  “Really, Sydney. If it’s such a problem stopping by to see my own daughter...” she said, snippiness in her voice.

  Bending over to where my feet were still planted, my mom soaked up my precious caramel coffee from the floor. Her vigorous cleaning practically rubbed the varnish off the treated wood.

  I put my hands up in the air, then let them fall in exasperation, slapping them on my thighs.

  “Mom, it was just a surprise to see you. That’s all. And how did you get into my store?”

  Mom looked at me with annoyance and frowned. The lines on her face were deeper than I remembered from the last time I saw her.

  “Sydney, this store is part of the family. You know, in case of emergencies? Judith gave me a key way before you even moved up here. Don’t forget, you aren’t the only one who’s spent quite a bit of time here. Your grandmother had me working here to help out during the summers a long time ago.”

  “Oh. I’m sorry. You just surprised me. I’ve been having a lot of unwanted visitors in the store lately, and it’s making me kind of edgy.”

  Mom narrowed her eyes, stood up holding the sopping wet paper towels, and asked, “What do you mean you’ve had unwanted visitors?”

  I turned around and pulled the string on the OPEN sign. I picked up my pastry bag, which was now soaked at the bottom, walked over to the counter, and stuffed my purse underneath.

  “Mom, you know a lot has been going on. Seriously, you can’t possibly think they would leave me alone after they found out the Selected moved to town. Isn’t that why you insisted on my coming here, to take my rightful place in this crazy world as the Selected?”

  Guilt was written all over her weathered face. In that moment, my mom looked like a stranger. When I was a child, she had always been my role model, someone to look up, a woman who always had it together. My mom was the definition of a successful and independent woman. Now she was just a shell of the person she used to be, and my heart broke at seeing her like she was now.

  “Sydney, you won’t get an apology about the decision I’ve made. We both thought it was best. With the experience she had, knowing her entire life what was going to happen, well, your grandmother was never able to enjoy any kind of a normal life. Neither one of us wanted that for you.”

  “Mom, it doesn’t make sense to me. Why would you have a daughter knowing everything that you know, and not tell me, not train me, prepare me how to protect myself from what’s really out there?”

  She took a seat on the stool in front of the counter, obviously planning on staying a while.

  “Sydney, I don’t know what the right decision would have been. Is that what you want me to say? You had a wonderful childhood, a normal childhood. Did you know your grandmother grew up knowing she was a defenseless young girl with no powers? Her mother brought her into social circles among the wolves and vampires with everyone knowing who and what she was. Your grandmother was a target because her grandmother exposed her identity. From a very early age, your grandmother had to watch her back. She had to be suspicious of everyone she met. You didn’t have that life because we protected you from it.”

  “No one ever told me anything about Grandma’s real life, and now Grandma’s gone. She can’t tell me anything about being the Selected. That’s one of the reasons why your decision was wrong. I’m completely alone in this. There are no other Selecteds to ask what I’m supposed to do. I’ve run into situations where it would have been really helpful to have someone with experience give me words of advice.”

  Mom’s mouth opened, then closed, her lower chin trembling. I gave up. I wasn’t going to get anywhere, so I might as well deal with the fact and try to salvage our relationship.

  Mom stayed the rest of the afternoon, and to my amazement, it was actually nice spending time with her. Surprisingly, she knew quite a bit about the store and what was for sale in it. She said she and Aunt Judith used to practice setting wards around their rooms at the house, without Grandma knowing it. They also used to cast spells to help their friends get the boys they liked to fall in love with them. Mom laughed when she explained that sometimes it worked, and sometimes it went horribly wrong. One girl, Connie Wendt, ended up having her best friend’s boyfriend stalk her for the next five years, until her parents moved her family away from the city. The girl’s parents refused to tell him where.

  Apparently, Grandma used to take my mom and Aunt Judith with her to visit Kieran. Mom couldn’t remember a lot about the werewolves, but she did remember going to parties and being around vampires. She was told from a very young age that someday her first-born daughter, that’s me, would be like her mother, the Selected.

  Just like Blake accepting his role in life as becoming the leader of the Midwestern Werewolf Pack, my mother had accepted her fate as the mother of the next Selected. She never thought about the time when she would have to tell her daughter about the expectations of the position her mother had chosen to put her in by giving birth to her. Mom just assumed her and my grandmother would always be together, raising and protecting me. Unfortunately, as my mom grew up and matured, she started not to have the same visions about her own life that Grandma did. Aunt Judith was meant to take care of the store and grow her plants. Mom was different.

  When she got pregnant with me, she realized having a child with a predetermined future surrounded by paranormal dangerous beings scared her. She realized she wanted more for me. She wanted me to be able to experience life as a normal girl before my Selected DNA kicked in and the vampires and werewolves started demanding my services.

  After that final statement, Mom went down the street from the store and brought back lunch for both of us.

  “My darling daughter, you’ll never completely understand my decisions, including the decision made to leave this town. Hopefully, one day you’ll be able to forgive me, and believe that by moving our family down to Chicago to get us away from everything for a while was done to keep you safe and away from the wolves and vampires. It was always inevitable you would come back here, make a home here, and fulfill the destiny meant only for you.” Her smile was loving, empathetic, and possibly laced with pity and regret.

  “Mom, why didn’t you ever tell Brianna about me, about Grandma? I’m sure you’ve met Michael and know that he’s a wolf?”

  Surprisingly, and almost irritatingly, Mom was more than happy to meet Michael and find out that my little sister was shacking up with a werewolf. Mom had run into vampires and werewolves in the Chicago area, and she knew how dangerous they were. But the big city didn’t have such concentrated populations of the supernatural like Kenosha.

  When she met Brianna’s boyfriend, she was relieved. Even though Brianna wasn’t the Selected, she would always be in danger of having the vampires or werewolves trying to use her against me once my abilities were triggered. Michael, totally infatuated with my sister, was supernaturally strong. Mom felt confident that he would help protect Brianna from harm’s way. She said she figured that if a vampire or werewolf did approach her, they would smell Michael’s scent on her and back off, unless they wanted to find themselves with more trouble than they could handle. Michael’s scent apparently came with the punch of the entire Midwestern Werewolf Pack. That wasn’t a threat to be taken lightly.

  Brianna’s doubts and hurt feelings came under discussion. Mom didn’t get my point about what happened to people who were left in the dark and didn’t know what was going on. At least she pretended not to understand my concern. We talked about telling Brianna this weekend, when Michael and she came to visit. Mom said it was my decision, as the Selected. The vampires may argue against spilling their secrets, but Brianna was my family, my responsibility, and it was my right to tell her.

  As far as my dad knew, his oldest daughter was just an unorganized woman in her mid-twenties that had no direction in life. My mom thought it was bette
r that way. My dad’s ulcer bleeds when he stresses. Dad didn’t do too well when his baby girls were in trouble. When Brianna fractured her leg when she was six years old, he hadn’t slept for three days, too worried that she would need him to help carry her, or need a glass of water.

  Mom didn’t know what her great-grandmother did in regards to telling her husband that she was the Selected and had to deal with vampire and werewolf politics. But Grandma Maria’s husband, my grandfather, had passed away shortly after her abilities were activated, so there was no need for her to tell him.

  I asked my mom what she thought my purpose was in being the Selected. She didn’t have any more of an idea than Aunt Judith. According to Mom, each Selected had an individual purpose of their own. Mom was sure that someday it would be clear to me what mine was. The vampire prophecies didn’t exactly name each Selected in order with goals and objectives each one was supposed to fulfill, before the next one was activated.

  When we were done eating, she left to go back to Chicago. My body released some of the tension coiled within it. My mom’s reasoning why she did what she did made me feel a little less betrayed by her. I understood why she hid my fate from me as long as she could, but I didn’t like it. If put in her shoes, I wouldn’t do the same. However, my anger at her for making me completely unprepared for whatever my life as the Selected had in store for me was less intense.

  I decided telling my sister about her boyfriend, about his family, and the fact that vampires roamed the city streets during the night looking for their next human smoothie, was the right thing to do. Since my mom supported me, I’d ask Aunt Judith to help me out when the time came for full disclosure. Brianna could freak and storm out of the house. Aunt Judith and I would make sure that didn’t happen. Kenosha had dangerous rogues lurking about, and Lisa was on the prowl.

  After work, I had to get ready for Kieran’s party. There was a package the size of a full-length dress sitting on the couch in the living room. A girl could get used to this kind of indulgence. Giddiness consumed me. I carelessly flung my purse onto the rocking chair, freeing my hands to rip away the clear plastic tape from the box.

  A black, floor-length dress was inside the box. This one no more modest than the last. A slit ran up the center in the back. The front had a deep neckline lined with clear crystals. Was it possible they were real diamonds? If so, I’d never seen so many diamonds in the same place. Well, besides gazing in the showcases at the local jewelry store.

  I ran upstairs, took a five-minute shower, and got ready. The dress fit suspiciously well to my frame. Kieran’s assistant had great taste and an amazing eye for sizing. My favorite black, high-heeled boots hugged my feet while I walked out the front door, with matching clutch in hand.

  No feeling of my hair standing on end, no nausea, no abdominal cramping, or excessive sweating. No signs of rogues lurking around the property. All clear. I called Aunt Judith on the way to Kieran’s for two reasons. One, to make sure she was safe, and two, to confirm she was staying at Meredith’s house for the night.

  Aunt Judith said they had already found what they thought may work to deflect Lisa’s attacks if she came to the house to use the power of lightning on us. They hadn’t found a way to apply wards around the store yet. That’s what they were working on while we spoke on the phone. Neither of them believed the electrical nullifiers would work because the store itself wasn’t a personal dwelling like the house, but they would try. Aunt Judith explained when a building was home to someone, the building took upon itself part of the occupant’s soul, part of their essence. That’s what wards, charms, and nullifiers clung to, while providing protection for the residence.

  No one lived at Morning Sun. Making a protection ward for the store would be more complicated to construct, and even more difficult to make it stick.

  Closing my car door and putting the seatbelt on while the car warmed up, I shivered, having only the slim material of the dress covering my skin. Directions to the gathering were written on the back of the note from Kieran. His house, where tonight’s events were being held, wasn’t the same place as the high-rise apartment. The address was on the outskirts of town. I knew the area, but I’d never driven up the long driveway to see the house, which was mostly blocked from local traffic by tall pine trees.

  The drive took twenty minutes to get to the city border, and ten more to find the driveway blocked by a solid wooden gate that began to open as my car pulled up to it. There were video cameras on both sides of the gate. Kieran was clearly into security. My car pulled through the gated path and continued first up a small hill, then down the long sloping driveway to a circle where men in black suits waited to park the partygoers’ cars. There was a space behind a two-seater Audi painted in gunmetal gray, my favorite color on a car.

  I practically jumped out of my skin when a man in a black suit knocked on my car window, motioning for me to unroll it. Kieran had instructed his people that upon my arrival they were to provide me personal service, not make me wait in line like all the other sheep hoping to get his attention and favor. The man held the door open, waiting for me to grab my purse and exit the car.

  Warm flickering candles lit the inside. They were placed at perfect angles, creating shadows of the people in the entrance hall that danced along the walls and ceiling. The scent of warm sugar cookies and vanilla wafted everywhere. Odd, the smell made me think of the werewolves’ pack house. Smelling something so delicious in a mansion filled with vampires who didn’t eat human food seemed very out of place.

  Despite my dress having long sleeves, being surrounded by so many vampires in the same area was like being outside in the fall season in Wisconsin without having the appropriate windbreaker on. The warmth of the werewolves was much more pleasant to be around than the icy chill of the vampires.

  Music filled the air, and vampires were scattered, dancing to the beat. The atmosphere was like a posh nightclub, but with candles instead of strobe lights. The flickering of the flames created similar effects against the walls. Looking around, I saw that Kieran was nowhere in sight.

  Liam sauntered over with a glass of clear liquid in hand.

  “Hey, pretty lady, what’s happening?”

  “Liam, it’s nice to see a friendly face!”

  “I could always go and find Aaron. I’m sure he’d love to hang out with you.” Liam laughed.

  Aaron didn’t particularly care for me, and the feeling was definitely mutual. “No, that’s okay. I think I’d rather sit on a hot poker.”

  I’d rather be in a room full of strange vampires than have to hang out with Aaron. Out of everyone I’ve met so far, he was on top of my suspect list of the vampires that wanted to lock up the Selected.

  Liam laughed again and took a swig from his glass. At my questioning look, he said, “What? You thought vampires can’t drink a decadent glass of wine now and then?”

  “Oh, that’s not what was going through my mind...”

  “Uh huh, yeah. Nice try. Vampires can eat and drink just like humans, but we don’t have to. It doesn’t really do anything for us, so not all vampires bother with it, but there is some seriously delicious food out there. Why would anyone want to give this up?” He held up his glass and gulped down the rest of the wine.

  He motioned her forward. “Come on. My glass is empty, and Kieran said he wanted to see you as soon as you got here. So I’ll take you to him right after we hit the wine fountain.”

  He took my hand in his and guided us through the dancing masses. We headed into another room filled with buffet tables and wine fountains. Liam went over to the fountain that was gently pouring wine through its spouts, sending the burgundy liquid into a rotating circular motion. He effortlessly followed the streams with two glasses and handed me a full one.

  He gestured toward the door. “Shall we?”

  Kieran was standing with a small group of male vampires in yet another room when we walked in. My chest tightened with anxiousness. So far, Kieran had been nothing but kin
d toward me, but it was hard being in the presence of someone so powerful. The fact that he was capable of being ruthless and so merciless to anyone deemed as a threat put me on edge.

  He wasn’t facing the doorway, so I was a bit surprised to see his head pop up as soon as my foot passed the threshold. Was my perfume that strong? Kieran looked over and smiled, his fangs sticking out past his bottom lip.

  Liam leaned close to my ear. “The big boss man has something he needs to speak to you about.”

  Chapter 20

  Kieran finished chatting with his vampire friends and came to stand by me. When he approached, he leaned over and kissed me on the cheek. Oddly, his closeness, and the chill that ran through my spine from having a vampire physically connect with my skin, didn’t make me flinch. From the writings in the journal and what Aunt Judith said, Kieran didn’t seem to be as much of a bad guy to the Selected as some of the other vampires. That didn’t mean he or any of the other vampires could be trusted. Liam didn’t seem to be a super bad guy, either. But in the world of paranormal beings vying for power, you never knew who was going to stab you in the back, or lock you into a cage and drain you dry.

  “Sydney, you look absolutely stunning. Thank you so much for coming.” There was a fleck of warmth in the creases around his eyes when he smiled. His attempt to appear more human around me was kind of nice. “I wish your grandmother was around to see you now. She would be very proud.”

  I went on tiptoes, leaned in close, and spoke in his ear. I didn’t want to let all the other vampires in the room hear me. “I have some things to talk to you about in private. Do you have a minute?”

  “Of course. Sydney, you are the Selected. You will always have my attention when you need it.”