by Rachel Hera
Blake paused for a moment before laughing loudly. A few heads turned our way as students slid into their classrooms. “Jason told me you said that, but I didn’t believe him until now.”
“Yeah, well… whatever. Anyway. I’m leaving, so I guess I’ll see you tomorrow –mostly because I’m feeling like I don’t have a choice,” I pulled out my cellphone. “I just hope my mom got off work early today.”
“I can give you a lift,” he offered.
“It’s fine,” I told him.
“Let me drive you home,” he persisted.
“And what do you want in return?” I asked sceptically.
“Your company is just fine with me,” he shrugged.
I frowned, trying to read his facial expression. I was never good at it. I made a mental note that I still had to call Harry, but nodded. “Fine. Thank you.”
“You are most welcome,” he grinned.
“You might be taller and more muscular than me, Blake, but I will kick your ass if you step out of line.”
He just chuckled. “Believe me. I don’t doubt that you would.”
Chapter 11: Blake
“So, what do you really want?” she asked as she undid her seatbelt.
“Nothing,” I answered, debating whether I should turn off the ignition or let it run. She had her guard up again. The way it went up and down, the uncertainty that she took the world in with… I didn’t understand it. Since I was a child, the world had always seemed black and white.
“Well, I don’t want to be indebted to you,” Evelyn rubbed the back of her head again as she spoke. I really was worried that she had a concussion, but she still refused to admit that it was a possibility.
“Then… go on a date with me,” I suggested. My heart rate jumped up another notch –a fluctuation that I’d grown used to around her. What was this feeling? Was I nervous? Before her, I had never felt anxious a day in my life –that came with the world being black and white. “Just one. You can show me all your favourite places around town.”
“How about I buy you a cookie tomorrow at the cafeteria,” she proposed instead.
“That works for me, too,” I chuckled. Well, at least it was more time spent with her, regardless.
“Bye, Blake. Thanks for the ride home,” she hopped out of my truck, closing the door behind her. She unhitched the gate, scolding the dog when he leapt at her, but bending down immediately to scratch the back of his neck. She locked the gate behind her again, though I doubted the dog would run far even if he did get out. He looked content and loved in his surroundings.
When she got inside, I put the truck in reverse and pulled out of the driveway. I had to go and pick up Jason from school, since he didn’t have a fourth block spare like Evelyn and I. But I wanted Dante to check something out, too. I debated it for a moment in my head, whether it could wait or if it should be pursued immediately, and while I didn’t feel like Evelyn was in danger, it was better to be safe than sorry. So I got Dante on the phone.
“What’s going on?” he greeted.
“Did you find anything out about the foxes?” I asked.
He sighed, like most did when talking to me. I didn’t care much for idle conversation; unless, of course, it was with Evelyn. Though, that was mostly due to the fact that I could listen to her talk all day. “Nothing definite. And nothing that really feels like the Fox Clan should have any reason to be involved. At least, not from what Jason and you have gathered on the supernaturals that are here in town, anyway.”
“Can you look into something for me?” I asked.
“A lead?” he asked.
“Well, just something Evelyn said today,” I responded. “She said she felt like she was a target of Cole’s and Marissa’s harassment –though not in so many words.”
“Isn’t she just a human though?” Dante questioned. “The last time the foxes went after a human was when one of them found out their secret. Does it seem like she knows, well, anything?”
“Not really,” I admitted.
“Although she seemed timid at the ice cream place, from what Jason’s told me, she seems like a pretty bold person. Maybe she just didn’t take any crap from the two of them. She certainly isn’t taking any from you –and she’s supposed to be your mate.”
“Whatever,” I muttered. It was true that things were falling short of any expectations I’d had. I thought she’d fall for me as instantaneously as I had for her. It was disappointing that I had to play this out –but it was starting to look a little brighter. Already she seemed to be a little more open to my company.
“I’ll look into if you want –” he began, but I cut him off.
“No. It’s fine. You’re right, it’s probably nothing.”
“Are you sure?” he asked.
“I haven’t witnessed anything myself,” except for those few moments in the ice cream parlour. But even that wasn’t concrete enough, really. “I’ll wait it out and see if it’s worth investigating.”
“If you say so,” he said. “You picking anything up to eat on your way home?”
“I’ll grab some groceries with Jason,” I said, then promptly hung up.
Jason had math right now. Evelyn lived twenty minutes from the school, so driving her there and back had taken only half of a class period. Maybe I’d go shopping before I picked him up. Or maybe it was time to go and chat with the vampire from the ice cream parlour.
When I reached the town, I made the decision to go to the parlour. I had nothing better to do for forty minutes anyway. Perhaps the two of us could be civil.
I parked the truck outside the parlour, immediately seeing him through the windows. He saw me, too, and I saw his face fall a little. I guess civility wasn’t going to happen.
I didn’t want to stay long, so I got out of the truck, not lingering for a moment as I walked up and opened the front door.
“I heard you gave Evelyn a ride home,” was the first thing out of his mouth.
“She wasn’t feeling well,” I responded curtly, crossing my arms over my chest. I looked him over, trying to guess his age, but feeling like I was nowhere close. Evelyn had said his name was Harry –and his nametag confirmed it.
“So she just told me moments ago,” he said. “So, what brings you here? I gather that’s not the extent of your visit. Though, how kind it would be to come in and tell me that my employee was not going to make it in.”
“I just wanted to ask a few questions about the supernaturals in town,” I got straight to the point. “It’s a small town, so I figured you knew most, if not all, of them. Particularly, the foxes.”
“They stop by often enough. Some supernaturals like to have a vampire on their side,” Harry said.
“Are you sided with the foxes?” I asked.
“Not in the least. But they tried to pay me off once. I’ve had over a hundred years to make money –why else would I be enjoying my time leisurely by running a place like this?”
“Do you know what they want, then?” I eased up a little, knowing that he wasn’t aligned with them.
“I don’t know,” he said slowly. “All I know is that they go out of their way to make Evelyn have a bad day. It’s why I’ve never liked their kind. You never know what their intentions are. Even if you think you do.”
“Let me rephrase that –what do you imagine they’re here for?”
“It could be anything, I guess. I may know the supernaturals here, but I don’t know their origins or lineage. They might be trying to locate an item in this general area –it doesn’t even have to be in town.”
“Their visit to us makes it feel implied that whatever they’re here for is in town,” I told him.
“Foxes are, essentially, spies. I doubt every tale they spin. But I believe every tale they spin, just the same –there’s a little truth in every lie.”
“I didn’t come here for riddles,” I spoke dryly.
“You didn’t come here for ice cream, either, but I feel like you’ll buy some before you le
ave,” he pointed out. “A werewolf’s infamous stomach.”
“Ice cream’s best served by Evelyn.”
“Too bad she’s taken,” Harry said.
I narrowed my eyes at him, “What are you saying?”
“A friend of mine knew her in her last life. He’s in town, courting her,” Harry grinned a little –a smile that said there was no chance for me. “He’s here to claim his soul mate once more.”
“She’s my mate.” There were no ifs, ands or buts about it. And she, although visibly denying it, felt it, too. She had to –that’s how this worked, according to Carlos. “Tell your friend not to get too attached. He already lost her once. I’d hate for him to lose her again.”
“To a werewolf, of all things, hm?” he snorted.
“If you have nothing more about the supernaturals, I’ll be on my way,” I told him.
He rubbed his forehead. “Talk to the necromancer. Um… Kristy. Evelyn’s friend. She has a ghost companion. Maybe it’s seen something. Or maybe it could see something.”
“Ghost trumps fox,” I said slowly.
“In some cases, yes,” he said. “Just… keep in mind that they don’t focus on small details, but rather the big picture. You’re never a step ahead of them.”
“Don’t underestimate my Pack,” I warned.
“I’m not underestimating the Pack. Your Alpha doesn’t need a warning, young pup, but you and your pals do. I hope you know what you’re doing when you’re dabbling in their affairs, because they won’t forget. What goes around will surely find its way back.”
“I’m not too concerned.”
“If you say so,” he shrugged.
I doubted he had anything else to say about them, or anything that could help figure out what the foxes were up to. I headed for the door. “I’ll see you around.”
“You’re welcome,” he said sarcastically. I just nodded my thanks at him as I left.
There wasn’t too much time left in class, so I headed back to the school to wait for Jason. I would talk to Carlos before asking anything of Kristy. I wasn’t about to involve outsiders unless he felt they needed to be involved.
I waited outside in the truck, parked at the curb in front of the school behind the buses that waited for their haul of kids to take home. I shot Jason a text so he didn’t waste time trying to find me. Fifteen minutes later, Jason climbed into the front seat.
“For someone who drove their mate home, you sure look grumpy,” he said. Jason didn’t bother with the seatbelt as I pulled onto the road –though it wasn’t like I was wearing mine either. With healing capabilities like ours, it wasn’t a major concern; however, I had worn it while driving Evelyn home. “What happened?”
“Evelyn’s great –that ice cream sucking vampire, on the other hand…” I let my voice trail off, wondering who the other vampire –Evelyn’s supposed ‘soul mate’ from another life –was. “In any case, he didn’t know anything either.”
“Hmm,” was his only reply. Jason wasn’t one to pry, unlike Kaya. It was a blessing, really, that she wasn’t around.
“I told Dante that we’d pick up groceries on the way home,” I told him.
“That’s fine. So how was Evelyn doing when you dropped her off?” he asked.
“She seemed fine,” I replied. “How’d you –?”
“Maddie was at Kristy’s locker, telling her and Chantelle what she’d heard from another girl named Jenna. She was pushed down the stairs? Do you think it was the foxes?”
“I don’t know,” I frowned. Evelyn had said she’d slipped down the stairs –nothing about being pushed. “I don’t like this.”
“What?” Jason asked.
“Not knowing what’s going on in this town. We need to get to the bottom of it,” I murmured, turning into the parking lot.
“Are you thinking Evelyn’s a part of it?” Jason asked.
“Are you?” I countered.
“It’s just weird, because this school is pretty tight knit –everyone knows her. And I’ve seen her walk down the hallway and greet almost everybody. And she’s on good terms with Philip, even if she isn’t with Marissa and Cole.”
“What if Philip’s playing an angle?” I asked. “What if he’s purposefully getting close to Evelyn?”
“What would he be trying to achieve?” he waited for me to park the truck before getting out.
I wasn’t far behind, “That would depend on Evelyn, I guess.”
“But she’s human,” Jason pointed out as we headed into the grocery store.
“That’s the thing that doesn’t make sense,” I shook my head.
“I think you’re overthinking it,” Jason said. He grabbed a cart, pushing it towards the produce section. “Evelyn’s your mate –not the missing piece of a puzzle.”
“And she can’t be both?” I threw fruit and veggies into the cart, knowing that no matter what we got, it would find its way into our stomachs over the next few days. Carlos was a wiz with homemade dishes.
“She could be –that doesn’t mean she is.”
“You’re saying I’m too close to this?”
“I’m saying that she’s already an incredible girl. It doesn’t mean she has incredible secrets, too. The foxes are probably just a coincidence. You’re just protective because they’re getting too close to her,” he shrugged. “I wouldn’t worry about it. Or, if you are, get Dante to do a background check on her. But that might come around to bite you in the ass one day.”
“You think?” I asked, grabbing some bread as we bypassed the bakery. I figured we could do with some bagels and buns, too. Maybe we could have a barbeque this week, while the weather was still nice.
“Somehow or another, it’ll come back around to her. Things like that always do,” he shrugged.
I didn’t say anything. He had a point, I’d give him that.
“Anyway, Evelyn looks like she packs a decent right hook. I bet if one of the foxes attacked her, she’d give him a good wallop.”
I just chuckled. She was definitely a fighter. “Evelyn aside –how’s Hayden?”
Hayden was Jason’s pregnant girlfriend from back home. It’d been an accidental pregnancy, despite the use of condoms and birth control. Six months later, and he was preparing himself to come to a final decision: to fake the happy family –like Michael had with Kaya –or to just take the baby and disappear completely out of her life, like his own father had done with him.
“She’s getting bigger,” Jason said slowly. He picked up some ground chicken and chicken breasts. I picked up a couple of steaks. Jason nodded, approving as he went on. “The pregnancy was going well the last time I checked. She hates that I moved away.”
And it was because he moved away that I felt that he was going to just take the baby and leave her. Jason was a simple person, really. He preferred being independent most of the time, and having a girlfriend in itself had been strange for him, though I think it was mostly due to Kaya’s constant teasing.
“I bet,” was all I said. Despite bringing up the conversation, I didn’t know where to lead it. I usually didn’t care much for the Pack’s individual personal lives. But they had all taken a shining to mine. I felt obligated to ask, really.
“I’ll go grab milk and eggs, if you want to go and pick out cereals and such,” Jason told me.
“Sure,” I responded, happy for the moment of peace.
I took the cart with me, pushing it down the aisle ahead of me. Flavours of cereal mattered little, like most of the food we bought. When you needed it in such high quantities, you sort of just went for the cheapest ones on the shelf –though Carlos told me that I didn’t have to do things that way since business was doing great. Old habits die hard, I guess. The Pack hadn’t always been this well off, and it had only really changed over the past four years. Slowly, at that.
“Blake?”
I ignored whoever it was as I grabbed a few boxes of the no-name brand corn flake cereal. By the faint scent in the air I could guess who it
was.
“I just had a question about why you’re investigating the foxes.”
I glanced over to see the half-demon that Evelyn didn’t know she had as a friend. Maegan. She was dressed in the green uniform the other employees wore, so I figured it was okay to assume she worked here.
“Is that the question?” I asked, glancing down the aisle to see Jason coming back with the milk and eggs he’d promised minutes ago.
“What?”
“Was that the question? Why are we investigating the foxes?”
“Well, yeah, I guess,” she answered, rubbing her arm uncomfortably.
“I don’t feel like ‘why’ is important. Did you have any new information?”
“No –none of the girls know, either,” she glanced at Jason as he put the items in the cart. “Is that why you’re here? To investigate the foxes? Did they do something against the Pack?”
“If you don’t mind, I’d like to finish my shopping,” I told her.
“They didn’t do anything, no,” Jason shot me a glance. I just sighed. “We just found their behaviour suspicious.”
“I’ll keep an ear open to new information then, I guess,” she spoke quietly. “Well… see you guys at school tomorrow.”
We watched her walk away.
“You need to change your attitude,” Jason looked at me as he grabbed the cart.
“I have changed my attitude,” I muttered. How much more did I need to change for everybody?
“Evelyn’s not going to like it if you’re rude to her friends,” he said.
“They’re her friends, not mine.”
Chapter 12: Evelyn
The weekend couldn’t have come fast enough. Shayne kept messaging me about our plans, and after not seeing him for two weeks, I was getting nervous just thinking about our date. Maddie had been planning on ‘running into us’ Friday night, but this weekend she was babysitting her baby cousin as her aunt and uncle went on a small weekend getaway. They’d had this planned for forever, and Maddie had forgotten she’d agreed until they reminded her Wednesday night.
