I like to think of attractive men like paintings in an art gallery. I love to look. It’s one of my favorite things to do. There are all different kinds of art and I have learned over the years to appreciate them in all their many forms. I may learn to appreciate the beauty of a particular piece, even if it doesn’t exactly match anything of mine. It wouldn’t go well in my house, but it looks nice just the same. There is a big difference in admiring a painting and taking it home to hang in your living room.
“What do you think?” he asked.
I was too embarrassed to admit I’d been staring at his legs and hadn’t heard a word he’d just said. Fortunately he repeated the question, so I didn’t have to.
“I was just wondering if Kat would still be willing to help Mary out when she finishes school. What do you think?”
His sister Mary would be completing her degree in interior design sometime next year and Elijah was hoping she could come to work with Kat.
“I think so. Kat has talked off and on before about opening a café either in her shop, or next door. Having someone else around would free her up to do that.”
“That would be perfect. Then I could make sure local punks don’t try to date my sister,” he said, laughing. I knew Elijah was teasing. He obviously cared for his sister, but I knew enough about him to know he wouldn’t really try to run her life.
Our day at the beach was surprisingly fun. We swam, we snorkeled, and neither one of us got a sunburn. There was another storm brewing in the gulf, so it was pleasantly overcast with a nice breeze. The ocean had both fascinated and intimated me ever since I was a child. I stood there knee deep in the water and let the coming tide wash over me while Elijah gathered sea shells. As the clean salt air filled my lungs I made a conscious effort to release my worries.
There were people out there with real problems and issues that made my mixed up love life pale in comparison. When it came down to it, I was blessed, with nothing to complain about.
Maybe Mathias and all his advice had been good for something after all. How many times had he told me that everything was going to be all right? Besides, the man could see the future. Even if tomorrow might completely suck, at some point things had to improve. I looked toward Elijah happily chasing the waves looking for shells and decided that moment was already an improvement. Mathias was right. Whatever would be would be, and I could either learn to accept it or go crazy. Given those choices, acceptance sounded pretty good to me. I believe everyone’s destiny was decided long before we were born. However, the path we use to get there is up to us. The choices we make along the way determines which version of our self arrives at the destination.
Keeping with that train of thought, I realized then that a part of me belonged with Elijah. The cheerleader who never got to go to the prom, the girl who was in drama and theatre, she belonged there, not me. Elijah would have been the perfect guy for a different version of myself. But the me that stood before him that day had seen too much and evolved quite drastically from cheerleading captain.
He belonged with the part of me that still believed in love at first sight, not the part that knew what it felt like to be manipulated. The version of me that Elijah knew had dropped out of high school. I had to get a GED after my attack so I could travel to Terra for training and evaluation as soon as possible.
Of course my father kept the circumstances of my injury very hush-hush, but it didn’t matter. The point is I had to leave a part of myself behind. And that part would have liked Elijah very much. The fact that he was still attracted to me, in spite of what I had become was a great tragedy.
Somehow I knew if Elijah kept hanging around me, I would break his heart. Not intentionally of course, but it would happen nonetheless. I did not want to be the one responsible for taking the sparkle from his eyes. But I liked Elijah and didn’t have the heart to tell him otherwise, because it would be a lie.
He walked toward me with his hands full of shells. His smile lit up his blue eyes and I almost giggled. Good looking guys are like shells on the beach, you can’t keep them all, but every now and then you see one you’re willing to take a dive for. So what if everyone in town thought I was sleeping with Elijah? There were worse things to be accused of. I was willing to take a dive to keep seeing that smile, even if being near me might lead to its eventual demise.
It wasn’t as if I had a great reputation in the first place. Since I didn’t have much of anything to do with the people in town, I was naturally the topic of a lot of gossip. People are always eager to run their mouths about things they don’t understand. Why that is, I’ll never know.
*****
Once we both changed in a little booth on the beach we decided it was time get something to eat. We went to a Brazilian restaurant that had a wonderful sugar rum drink with lime slices. I couldn’t remember the name of the drink, but after I’d had several, the live music began to sound better and better.
Elijah, being the responsible soul that he is, didn’t drink because he would be driving home.
“I have to confess something,” I spoke over the music.
“What’s that?”
“I’ve never really liked cops.”
“Really? How come? Do you have a problem with authority figures?”
“Not really. I like men in uniform, so I suppose in theory that means I like cops. I guess I’ve just met too many assholes who consequently were police officers.”
“Pigs you mean?”
I laughed. “Yeah, pigs. Don’t get me wrong, I like bacon.”
“But?”
“But too much of anything will eventually give you indigestion.”
To his credit, Elijah had a great sense of humor. He actually laughed at my insulting joke.
“Do you really think that’s funny, or are you just faking it in the hopes of seeing me naked?”
“If you’re going to be a cop in a small town, you might as well have a sense of humor. But yes, I am holding out some hope of seeing you naked,” he teased.
“Is that so? You often find women who mock you attractive?”
“Always,” he said with a grin.
“I think I’ve had too much to drink.”
“On the contrary, I think you haven’t had enough. I know how fast you metabolize alcohol. I’m hoping that if they keep them coming fast enough I might be able to take advantage of you.”
I laughed and to my horror snorted before responding, “Honey, no one’s ever taken advantage of me, unless I let them think they did. You get me?”
Elijah shook his head, but his smile never wavered.
“No, I don’t get you. But that’s part of the appeal.”
“You should be careful which fruit you find yourself a-peeling.”
He laughed. “Wow. That has got to be the worst line I’ve ever heard. Now, I think you’ve had too much to drink.”
“Nah, I can be just this stupid sober, I swear.”
“Why don’t you eat something else? It might absorb some of the rum and keep you from getting sick,” he suggested.
“That’s not possible. By the time we get half-way home, I’ll be sober. Besides, why would I want to kill my buzz now? I’m rather enjoying it. It’s not often I find something strong enough to have this effect on me. Maybe it’s just because I’ve never tried this before. I haven’t had time to build up an immunity yet. What’s it called again?”
“Caipriinha. It’s rum made from sugar cane.”
“It’s good,” I said as I fished the lime slices from my empty glass.
“So, when does Alfred come back?” he asked.
“Three weeks.” I held up three fingers while I sucked on the lime.
“You know that looks dirty?” he teased.
“What? You never suck on limes in public before?”
“No, I can’t say that I have.”
After I finished with my gratuitous lime sucking, we got back in the Jeep and headed home. The warm evening breeze felt good against my skin, so I just
laid back and enjoyed it. It was completely dark by the time we got home. Considering it was summer that meant it was at least nine thirty. Elijah walked me to the door and leaned in close. It took me a minute to figure out he was examining my eyes.
“You’re right, your pupils aren’t even dilated anymore.”
“Told you.”
He looked disappointed.
“It’s all right, Eli. You can still kiss me goodnight.”
Without giving him a chance to respond, I leaned in and pressed my lips very gently against his.
“Goodnight, Elijah,” I whispered against his lips.
“Night,” his voice was a little shaky.
I went to bed immediately after Elijah left, and fell asleep before my mind could come up with anything for me to worry about.
*****
I felt surprisingly good the next morning. After breakfast, I decided it had been too long since I’d just cut loose and danced. There’s nothing like being home alone and dancing around your house like an idiot. Besides, I had the perfect CD for the occasion. I am of the opinion that Michael Jackson is one of the most incredible dancers the world has ever known. He did for dancing what the wheel did for driving.
When I was cheerleading captain in high school one of my favorite things to do for a pep rally was to recreate the dance routines from some of his videos. I even have a few of the costumes still in my closet. I put on a black sleeveless bodysuit and cranked up the music. The only prop I took from the closet was my black gangster hat. I know every dance from every video that Michael Jackson ever made and over the years, I’ve gotten to be pretty good. He made what I liked to call “feel good” music. And that was the effect it had on me. It felt good to just dance and not give a damn what anybody thought about how I looked or who I was sleeping with.
I was a lot more upset about all that crap than I let on to Elijah and I needed to release some nervous tension. I straightened up a bit while I danced through some rooms, and in others I just cut loose. By the time I’d worked up a really good sweat about an hour and a half later, I heard a knock at the front door. Since I was moon walking across the foyer anyway, I opened the door fairly quickly. There I found a very frazzled looking Richard.
Richard and I met about six years ago when I rescued him from one of his drunken werewolf colleagues in a local bar. Dr. David Kane was a newly turned werewolf at the time, and hadn’t known that losing his temper would bring on the change. Fortunately for Richard, Kane had flung a chair and knocked him unconscious before he finished his transformation. Richard walked away with a broken nose, and David went to anger management counseling.
Richard is around five-foot-nine, with gentle gray blue eyes and prematurely gray hair. At the moment he looked like one of those mad scientists from a cheesy old movie, with his nearly white hair sticking out at odd angles. Only his face gave away the fact that he was much younger than he at first appeared.
If ever I had seen anything bad enough to get Dr. Richard Stacey upset, it wasn’t a good thing. Like I said before, he was one of the most easy going people I knew. But looking at him that afternoon, it was no great mystery that he was bothered by something.
“Come in. Are you all right?”
He smirked and pointed at the hat I’d forgotten I was wearing. “You done The Thriller yet?”
“Oh.” I removed the hat. “Yeah that was about an hour ago.”
“So, who pissed you off this time?” he asked.
“What do you mean? Do I look angry?”
“No, but every time you break out Michael’s greatest hits, someone has really chapped your ass.”
“If you must know, there is a perfectly rational explanation for that,” I retorted.
“Do tell?”
“When I am faced with a situation I can’t see an easy way out of or something that is out of my control, I revert back to a better time and place. This music helps to take me back to a time when werewolves were something I’d only heard about, when I still saw some good in the world, and when people knew how to keep their fucking mouths shut.” I smiled sweetly.
“At last we come to the point,” he said. “I knew you were angry.”
“Forget that, it’s petty. What’s wrong with you?”
“Before I get started, do you really want to know the answer to that question?”
“No. I was just pretending like I cared.”
He looked shocked.
“I’m kidding. Of course I want to know, why else would I ask? Come on in.” I took a good look at him and added, “I’ll fix you a drink.”
Richard followed me into the kitchen and sat down with a heavy sigh while I took a bottle of chilled rum from the fridge. I looked at Richard again and took in the circles under his eyes and the fine tremor in his hands.
“You want this straight?”
He seemed to consider it for a moment, but Richard was not a hard liquor kind of guy.
“Better put some cola with it.”
I handed over the drink and took a seat opposite Richard while he launched into what proved to be one of the most unusual stories I’d heard in a while.
“Remember me telling you several weeks ago how weird things were getting at work?”
I nodded.
“Well, they’ve gotten worse. First of all, Mallory is one crazy ass bitch,” he said vehemently.
Richard wasn’t a saint, but for him to use that kind of language showed just how upset he really was. In regards to Mallory, it was understandable. Mallory was about six feet tall with a strong chin, manly voice, plain-Jane greasy hair, and built like a linebacker. Unfortunately, her personality wasn’t any more appealing than the rest of her.
“What’s going on?”
“Your guess is as good as mine.”
“Why don’t you start from the beginning? When did this, whatever it is, all start?”
“Well, it started a few months ago, at least that’s when I noticed it. Mallory has always been really unpleasant. Well, you’ve met her.”
“Yeah,” I said with a smirk. “And that’s putting it mildly.”
“So anyway, she gets worse, right? Then the next thing I know I start catching the brunt of her frustration.”
That pissed me off. I thought of Richard as an older brother and was very protective of him.
“Why, what did she do?”
“Well, I can’t directly prove she’s done anything except be nastier than usual, and unfortunately that’s not a crime. But, rumors have been flying about me lately and I’m so sick of it I could throw up.”
“Rumors?”
He leaned forward and I could see small veins becoming visible across his left temple. “They’re saying I’m fucking my students!” he hissed.
“What?! That’s outrageous!”
“Tell me about it. You haven’t even heard the worst of it yet. Apparently, the last time we took a field trip we were all having an orgy on a nude beach!”
I choked on my ice water.
“Oh, wait! It gets better,” he said nastily.
“You remember Lisa, right?”
Lisa was a friend of Richard’s. She was a former student who was now teaching biology at my old high school. Some of the instructors where Richard worked had done everything within their power to keep Lisa from completing her teaching degree. Lisa was an attractive African American female and it was the most blatant case of racism I’d ever seen. Of course that was all brilliantly covered up by the people in charge, but people like Richard knew the truth. People who knew the truth had a way of disappearing. Like another professor who was forced into an early retirement when he tried to make the issue public.
Mallory Monroe was one of the people who did her best to keep a diploma from ever reaching Lisa Johnson. Lisa had already been through two schools where the professors involved tried their best to ruin her reputation among the other teachers before she even began work. This was prior to finding her way to the quiet little school where she was current
ly teaching.
“Sure, I remember Lisa,” I answered.
“Well, I have it from a very reliable source, Mallory is spreading that I’m having an affair with Lisa!” His voice kept rising in pitch.
I didn’t know what to say, so I just started at him open mouthed.
“Yeah, that’s right,” he continued. “I’m doing all my students and my former students too.”
“Richard, I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. Just being able to get this all off my chest is a big help,” he said this just before taking a massive gulp of his cola and rum.
“You might want something stronger than that.” He pointed at my water.
“Why?”
“Because now they’re saying I’m sleeping with you too.”
“What?!”
I could hear my heart pounding in my ears as my pulse raced with the injustice of it all.
“IT’S NOT ENOUGH THAT THESE SIMPLE MINDED BASTARDS AROUND HERE ARE SAYING I’M SCREWING EVERYONE THAT I SPEAK TOO?! NOW SOME JACKASS HAS TO START SOMETHING LIKE THIS?!” I roared.
I began to pace beside the kitchen table. If there was anything I hated more than ignorant people, it was ignorant people who didn’t know how to shut their mouths. I had never liked Mallory Monroe. Indeed, I didn’t like anyone Richard worked with, from the moron in charge, to the slutty secretary who was banging the entire faculty except Richard.
My blood pressure’s upward climb halted for a second when I looked back at Richard. He had gone a deathly shade of pale and his eyes were wide.
“What’s wrong? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“It’s your, um ... your eyes. It’s y-your eyes,” he stammered.
In the six years I had known Richard Stacey it never occurred to me that he hadn’t seen me change. Although my transformation was only partial, it was still frightening to someone who was not used to seeing anything along those lines.
Lilith Mercury, Werewolf Hunter Series (Boxed Set, Books 1-3) Page 36
