Accidental Ashes: or that time I found out I was a demon, and all my friends were vampires and werewolves (Xoe Meyers Young Adult Fantasy/Horror Series)

by Sara C. Roethle

  I had already lost sight of the man as well as Jason, so I was basically running blind. The trees in the area were so dense that I couldn’t see more than twenty feet ahead of me. Knowing that there was no way that I’d catch up to Jason, especially with all the roots and vegetation I was tripping on, I veered left towards the trail. Hopefully the un-obscured path would allow me to catch up.

  After several more minutes of stumbling through the dense forest, I reached the narrow trail leading back down the mountain. I hurled myself forward, despite the burning sensation building in my lungs. I continued sprinting down the trail for what seemed like a good ten minutes, but was probably only about three, until I finally had to stop and catch my breath. I hunched over with my hands on my knees and tried to suck in enough air. I couldn’t hear anything over the pounding of my heart.

  I crouched down into a squat to wait. It had been stupid of me to take a chance and veer from the direction Jason had taken. Now he could be anywhere, left to fight our nameless watcher on his own. I stood up and decided to cut through the woods to my right, then make my way back to where I had left my backpack. The going was much slower when avoiding trees, so if I was lucky and they hadn’t passed me, I might run into them on my way up.

  I stumbled along through the vegetation, feeling increasingly unsure

  of my choice to go back. It would probably have made more sense to go home and call the police, but if our watcher was something supernatural, it was better to not get them involved.

  There is an unspoken rule for supernatural beings. It’s mainly governed over by the werewolves since they’re the most organized. It states that supernatural matters are to be handled within the supernatural community. There are the occasional slip-ups that often result in sensational news stories, but for the most part, we keep things quiet.

  My legs still burned from all of the running and my pace began to lag as I navigated my way through the trees. All I could see was quiet, moist vegetation and damp earth where the sun couldn’t penetrate the trees. I noticed that my hiking boot was untied. I crouched down in the damp soil on one knee to tie it. I began to reach for the laces, then paused as the sound of hurried footsteps thudded towards me. I turned just in time to see our nameless watcher, who was looking back over his shoulder as he ran.

  I tried to stand and move out of the way, but my reaction was too slow, and he barreled right into me. We both went flying downhill in a tangled mass. We rolled a few times, each of us trying to pin the other. I couldn’t for the life of me remember how to burn him. I’d only burned someone once before, and that had been an accident. The one I lit on fire hadn’t exactly been accidental, but I still had no idea how I’d done it.

  I had lost my pepper spray somewhere during our fall and cursed my bad luck. I struggled in the mud and leaves against him, realizing in horror that he was gaining the upper hand. His greater weight continued to his advantage as he finally managed to pin my arms to the ground while he straddled me to hold my body down. He was obviously something other than human, or else I would have been able to put up more of a fight.

  I got my first good look at his face as I struggled to free myself. He had slightly wavy hair that was almost black. If fell in front of his eyes, that at the moment, looked dark gray as he got a more secure grip on my wrists. A strong nose that was almost too prominent complemented his light olive skin, thin, but not too thin mouth, and angular jaw line.

  He glared at me angrily. “Stop struggling,” he spoke with a slight accent that I couldn’t place. “I’m not here to hurt you.”

  I assessed the situation, then I went limp and smiled, because I remembered something that he had apparently forgotten. The man gave me a confused look, surprised that I had given up so easily, then Jason came flying out of nowhere and knocked the man off me. I got kneed in the gut as they tumbled away. Jason and the man began to fight for the upper hand, kicking up mud and leaves much in the same way that I had just experienced. Meanwhile, I stayed curled up on the ground trying to get a full breath in.

  Finally I was able to stand, and I immediately turned my attention to the ongoing struggle. “Freeze!” I shouted.

  Both men turned to regard me with identical expressions: angry, and a little confused, since they had apparently forgotten me. Jason had our watcher in an only partially effective headlock. Both of them were covered in mud and dry leaves and I realized that I was too.

  I quickly brushed myself off then looked the man in his dark gray eyes. “What do you want?”

  He tried again to break Jason’s hold on his neck, then gave up with a sigh and regarded me. “I was only supposed to follow you. I didn’t expect you to chase me.”

  I crossed my arms and gave him an impatient expression. “And why were you following me?”

  “Your dad asked me to,” he answered angrily.

  I should have known. He just couldn’t leave well enough alone. I turned my attention to Jason. “Let him go?”

  Jason did as I asked. The man stood and brushed off his jeans and green military surplus jacket. Jason stood up next, obviously favoring his right leg. I felt a pang of worry at the thought that he might be injured, then mentally corrected myself. Jason wouldn’t think twice about a sprained ankle, he was a vampire after all.

  Jason gave the man a vengeful look and asked, “What are you?”

  The man ignored Jason and shuffled towards me, holding out his hand. “My name’s Chase.”

  I ignored his offered hand. “He didn’t ask who you are. He asked what you are.”

  The man, Chase, smiled pleasantly at me. “It’s none of his business what I am.”

  I sighed. I was tired of this. “So my dad sent you to keep an eye on me because of the abductions?”

  Chase nodded, but didn’t elaborate any further.

  I was tired. My legs hurt. I had plenty of new bumps and bruises, and on top of it all, my clothes were completely ruined. I was so over this. I picked up my pepper spray that I had spotted during our odd conversation, marched up to Jason and grabbed his hand, then started off in the direction of the trail. Chase caught up to walk on my other side, at least as well as he could in between avoiding trees. I ignored him.

  Life had finally gotten back to normal, as normal as it could get given my situation. Now in the course of a day, I had become a werewolf pack leader, and I suddenly had a dad again, a dad that was interfering way too much for my liking.

  We reached the trail and I looked longingly in the direction of my home. I guess this was what I got for avoiding my new pack leader responsibilities. I decided to abandon my backpack and hope that it would still be there tomorrow. I just wanted to go home.

  No one spoke the entire way to my house. We cut across my yard to my backdoor and I grimaced, only then realizing that I had left my keys in my backpack. I crouched to get the key from underneath one of our many lawn gnomes. Now that Chase knew where it was I would have to hide it somewhere else. Or maybe I would just keep it on me. I looked at the man standing patiently on my left. He was around 6’, a little shorter than Jason. He had his hands in his pockets and was rocking back and forth on his heels like a little kid. Yeah, there was no way I was putting the key back in my yard.

  Without saying a word, I unlocked the door, let Jason go in ahead of me, then shut it as soon as I had walked in, leaving Chase outside. He hadn’t seemed surprised.

  The house was dark and quiet, letting me know that my mom still wasn’t home. I went to the little dark wood table that stands in my living room beside the entrance to the kitchen to check the answering machine. The little red light was flashing so I pushed the play button. As Lucy’s voice filtered out, Jason brushed by me into the kitchen, letting his hand trail across my back as he walked.

  Lucy’s voice said that her and Max were meeting Lela and Nick at Irvine’s pizza parlor tonight to fill out paperwork, and to call her back and let her know if I could come. I pushed the button to erase Lucy’s message as Jason came back out of the kitc
hen.

  I looked a question at his angry, furrowed brow.

  Jason glanced in the direction of my kitchen window, then back to me. “He is sitting on your porch swing. He is humming.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “Humming?”

  Jason nodded. “It sounds like Beethoven’s 5th.”

  Jason walked towards my couch and I followed, thinking that Beethoven’s 5th was an odd thing to hum. Jason and I both slumped onto the couch. I felt like I had run a marathon. I leaned my head back against the couch cushion.

  Jason spoke without looking at me. “He smells like you.”

  “So Chase is a demon?” I asked.

  “At least half,” he replied. “Maybe more. He has less of a human smell than you do.”

  I nodded, not wanting to discuss Chase any further. “I left my keys in the backpack”

  Jason glanced at me, then leaned his head back against the cushion. “I will go get it.” He stood to leave.

  I stopped him with a raised hand. “Lucy wants to meet at Irvine’s tonight.”

  Jason nodded without looking at me. He seemed as exhausted as I was. “I will retrieve the backpack, then I will go with you.”

  I nodded as Jason turned to go. I didn’t want to go to Irvine’s. I didn’t want to fill out the paperwork that would make me a pack leader. I didn’t want to go outside and deal with Chase.

  If there’s one thing I’ve learned, you can’t always get what you want.

  Chapter Seven

  While Jason was gone, I changed out of my dirty clothes. It was lucky that I had chosen to wear dark colors. Maybe the mud stains wouldn’t show after all. I dressed in dark wash jeans and a deep purple turtleneck and went back downstairs to call Lucy.

  The phone rang only once before a sharp voice answered, “Hello?”

  “This is Xoe,” I responded. “Is Lucy home?”

  Silence on the other end of the line. After a minute Lucy picked up.

  I sighed loudly to show her my exasperation. “What time?”

  “In thirty minutes. You need a ride? Lela’s picking me and Allison up.”

  “Jason’s taking me, so I’ll meet you there.”

  “Thanks again Xoe, I mean it.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” I said sarcastically, then hung up the phone.

  As soon as the phone clicked in the cradle it dawned on me that Allison had no reason to be there. It was likely that she’d try and include herself in the whole werewolf pack thing. She hates being left out. I guess I’d find out in thirty minutes.

  Jason came clambering in through the backdoor a moment later. It still astounded me how fast he could be. Supposedly I should have been able to move that fast too, but the supernatural speed thing was beyond me. I listened as he rummaged through the backpack to find my keys. He came into the living room and tossed them to me. “Ready to go?” he asked. “I still need to stop by my apartment and change.”

  I smiled despite my foul mood. Jason always made me smile, even when he was being sullen and pouty. What might have been annoying from someone else, I found endearing coming from Jason. Xoe, big bad half-demon, going soft. “We’re supposed to meet them in thirty minutes.”

  He walked up and put his arm around my shoulders. “Let us go and face your little fiend . . . I mean friend.”

  I held up a finger. “Correction, let us go and ignore my little friend.”

  Jason smiled and walked me to the front door. We both went outside, locking the door behind us, then headed straight for Jason’s charcoal gray sports car. Chase watched us from his seat on my porch swing, then got up and jogged after us. “Where are you going?” he called.

  I continued ignoring him as I waited for Jason to walk to the driver’s side and unlock the doors.

  Chase caught up to stand beside me. “If you won’t tell me, I’m going to have to call your dad.”

  I still couldn’t place his accent, Greek maybe? “Seriously?” I asked.

  He nodded, and grinned from ear to ear when he realized that he had me. Man he was annoying.

  I sighed and gestured to the backseat. “Get in.”

  Jason gave me a startled expression over the roof of his car.

  I shrugged. “I’d rather deal with him than my dad.”

  Jason still looked skeptical as he unlocked the doors and got in. I slid into the front passenger’s seat and buckled my seatbelt, then turned with a squeak of leather to look back at Chase as Jason pulled out of my driveway. “So what, he just told you to stick with me and make sure I don’t get abducted?”

  Chase nodded. He was still in his muddy jeans and green jacket, which he had unzipped to reveal a black t-shirt.

  “And how is it that you know my dad?” I asked when he didn’t elaborate further.

  He glanced at Jason, then back to me. “We can discuss that later.”

  I took my turn glancing at Jason, who was pretending to ignore our conversation, then turned my eyes back to Chase. “You know I’ll just tell him later.” I said.

  Chase crinkled his nose in irritation. “That is your choice, but the fact remains that it is none of his business.” He was silent for a moment, and I started to turn around to face forward. “So where are we going?” he added casually.

  I stopped my turn long enough to smile sweetly at him and mimic, “That is simply none of your business.”

  I finished turning forward, still smiling. I watched out of the corner of my eye as a small smile crept across Jason’s face to match my own.

  A few minutes later, we pulled into the parking lot of Jason’s apartment complex and parked in one of the many vacant spaces. It was one of the nicer apartment complexes in Shelby (which isn’t saying much, since it’s one of only three). He could afford it with the money he had made tracking down and aiding in the “disposal” of Dan. I knew he’d have to take another job sometime soon. The money couldn’t last forever, especially now that I’d found out he only got half of what I did, but I tried not to think about it.

  Jason turned off the ignition and glanced at me, obviously not wanting to leave me alone in the car with Chase. I gave him a subtle nod, letting him know that I could handle things, and he reluctantly exited the car and went up the concrete stairs to his apartment.

  Without the car heater I began to shiver despite my turtleneck. Normally Jason would have left the car running for me, but I couldn’t blame him for being preoccupied. I looked out at the dreary cold streets to a couple walking in heavy winter coats. Okay, so maybe I could blame him just a little.

  Chase stuck his head up beside my shoulder. “You want my jacket?” he asked. “It’s a little dirty . . . ”

  I shook my head and answered quickly, “I’m fine.” Why, oh why didn’t I bring a jacket?

  “You sure?” Chase prompted.

  I nodded, not wanting to take his jacket on sheer principle.

  “Suit yourself,” Chase replied as he leaned back into his seat and began humming. This time it sounded like Depeche Mode’s Enjoy the Silence.

  Jason finally came trotting back down the stairs to rescue me, dressed in jeans and a navy sweater. He slid back into the driver’s seat and quickly started the car to blast the heat. He looked at me with an embarrassed smile. “Sorry,” he apologized.

  “No worries,” I grumbled as we pulled out to head to Irvine’s.

  Irvine’s is one of the many mediocre pizza parlors in town. There are a few quality ones, but we always went to Irvine’s, don’t ask me why. After we parked, we walked straight into the brightly lit pizza parlor to get out of the cold.

  Irvine’s is decorated to look like a retro diner complete with jukebox and red vinyl booths and stools. Lucy and the others were nowhere to be seen, so we slid into one of the large corner booths to wait. Jason slid in to sit on one side of me as Chase went around to the other end of the booth to slide in on my other side. I sat awkwardly with my hands in my lap and longed for the night to be over.

  We ordered two extra-large pizzas and a few pitche
rs of soda as we waited. Finally Lela came striding through the door looking long and lean in all black with a stack of papers hugged to her chest. Lucy, Max, and Allison strode in shortly after her, all smartly dressed in heavy winter coats. Lela spotted us instantly and came clacking up in her high-heeled black boots. She slid in beside Chase, never questioning his presence. Lucy and Max slid in after her.

  Allison paused in front of the table and gave Chase a less than friendly look. “Who are you?”

  Chase gave her a stoic expression and stared back.

  “This is Chase,” I answered tiredly.

  Allison slid in next to Jason, flipping her long honey-blonde hair irritably, and grumbling something about a “rude, pretentious, slimeball,” or something of that nature.

  I was surprised at Allison’s attitude. She usually took any opportunity she could to meet a new cute boy. I had a feeling it had something to do with her feeling left out lately. She was the only human left in the group, and now there was another presumably non-human guy taking up more of her friend time. And who said I wasn’t perceptive?

  “Where’s Nick?” I asked.

  “Who cares?” Allison grumbled.

  “He said he’d meet us here,” Lela answered over her.

  The waitress came out of the kitchen with a pizza gripped in each of her hands. She set them on our table and promised to be right back with plates. Tension eased inside of me as the smell of cheese and mushrooms wafted up from the pizzas.

  Lela waited long enough for the waitress to bring our plates, then got right down to business. She handed Lucy and Max their forms and I let out a sigh of relief when I saw that they were only a few pages thick. Then she handed me my forms. I gaped at the stack of papers in my hands. It was a friggin’ book! I turned to Lela with my jaw agape. “Seriously?” I asked incredulously.

  She had the courtesy to look abashed. “Sorry Xoe, the only information the coalition really cares about is that of the pack leader.”

  I sighed and set the packet down on the table and took the offered pen from Lela. I grabbed my first slice of pizza with my left hand and began filling out my basic information with my right. Chase seemed to be taking things in stride, so I assumed my dad had filled him in on everything. He sat perfectly at ease as he devoured his first slice of pizza and ignored everyone. Jason was sitting closer to me than was necessary, and I was beginning to feel more than a little overwhelmed.