“Tea, please.”
As her friend went into the kitchen, Janelle lapsed into silence, lost in thought. She had felt too ill to give the entire vision thing much thought. But now, she went through the event again, mulling the mask and what she saw over in her mind.
What she saw hadn’t been visions. Each event Janelle witnessed were from the past. St. Neuri being formed. The fog sweeping over. Never in her life had she seen events from the past before.
Especially not from a mask. How could something like that even be possible? What had that mask been to trigger such an onslaught?
But maybe it wasn’t the mask. Maybe Janelle only believed it was because she had been looking at it. It could have been Jake, her brain finally catching up and sending her visions…
But no, it had been of the past. The whole thing was so confusing that she closed her eyes, pressing her fingertips against them as if to will her thoughts to stop. There was a shuffling noise and then Cheryl placed a mug on the table as Janelle opened her eyes again.
“Do you think you will still be able to come to my birthday party this weekend?” She asked.
“You want me there?” Janelle replied.
Cheryl rolled her eyes. “I told you I forgive you, silly. There’s a new club that opened last week and I’m going to have it there.”
A club. That would do wonders for her head. But Janelle was still feeling guilty over the whole thing with Jake and Cheryl and didn’t want to say no. She didn’t want her visions to ruin her friendship with Cheryl or end things on a sour note if she decided to move.
“What’s it called?”
“Blue Moon. It’s kind of in a bad part of town but that should make it more exciting, right?”
“That’s just what I am looking for. Excitement.” Janelle replied dryly.
“It’ll be a small group. But it might be my last birthday in St. Neuri so…” She gave a small shrug.
Janelle took a sip of her tea and smiled. “I’ll be there. Wouldn’t miss it.”
Cheryl stood up, smoothing out her skirt. “I should get home. Are you sure you’ll be okay?”
“Yeah, I’m going to eat something and go back to bed.”
“Alright. Uhm, sorry for scolding you. I shouldn’t let Jake Masters bother me so much. I hope I never see the guy again.”
“You and me both.” Janelle replied although she thought of his green eyes.
As Cheryl turned around, Janelle’s head got that odd, surging feeling again and suddenly –
Cheryl put her key in the lock as her phone went off. Opening the door, her keys dropped from her fingers and she bent down to pick them up. As she stood back up, her head smacked into the edge of the table and she groaned in annoyance.
The vision ended then, leaving Janelle briefly thrown, watching Cheryl open her front door.
“Hey,” She said suddenly and her friend looked over her shoulder, “Don’t hurt yourself.”
“I’ll be okay.” Cheryl replied, sounding a little confused.
As the door closed, Janelle sighed. As far as visions went, her friend accidentally bumping her head was easy to deal with. She would take it.
It took her almost a day to fully recover from whatever had unfolded in Jake’s house. Even after her health improved, Janelle still found herself dwelling on what occurred and what it meant. She was bothered by the fact that she saw the past, that Jake’s house or maybe even Jake himself, had brought something out in her.
The billionaire went from something piquing her interest to someone Janelle couldn’t stop thinking about. She found herself looking for information about him online, attempting to dig up something that would cause the pieces to fall into place.
But all Janelle found were whatever he made public – which wasn’t much. Jake’s father ran the tech company after inheriting it from his father, something Janelle already knew, and that he died a few years ago due to cancer. Jake’s mother suffered from dementia at an early age and lived in a home in Switzerland, getting the best care possible.
After that, it was a string of small news items whenever Jake would cause enough trouble to catch the attention of the police. Drunken fights appeared to be his specialty. Over the years, the newspaper items seemed to slow to only once or twice a year. Then Jake moved to St. Neuri where they stopped completely.
There was nothing to indicate that there was something special about Jake to have Janelle obsessing like this. But Janelle knew what happened at his mansion and couldn’t let this go.
Before she knew it, the weekend was upon her and it was time for Cheryl’s birthday party. As she drove to Blue Moon, Janelle was aware that this could be a bad idea. Normally, she would never attend a club. It required a ton of mental strength to block out the visions from a crowd of mostly drunk people. One slip up and the onslaught of visions would be overwhelming, giving her a migraine for days.
But Janelle wanted to risk it because she didn’t want to upset Cheryl. She didn’t want to let her visions come between them more than they already had.
Although she had her reservations, she pulled into the parking lot of Blue Moon. Having never heard of such a place, she searched for it online last night but found very little information about it. The web page merely stated the hours and that they served a full bar. It was extremely bare bones and Janelle questioned coming here.
But Cheryl seemed dead set on it, wanting her adventure, and Janelle wasn’t about to start lecturing her like a parent.
She turned off the car and peered through the window at the establishment. Even though it was new, there was a lived-in quality to the building that made it clear the businesses that came before it hadn’t exactly been well off. The sign was a bright neon blue, although the L in Blue was flickering. A crowd milled outside, lined with motorcycles.
Had Cheryl really decided a biker bar was the best place to celebrate her birthday? Talk about a crowd Janelle did not want to deal with. She steeled herself, taking a deep breath, and got out of the car. It was freezing tonight and she pulled her jacket tightly around her, shivering. Goosebumps broke out across her skin.
Cheryl and the group of her friends were near the entrance. She could make out Cheryl’s bright clothing standing out amongst all the biker gear. She waved her over and Janelle forced a smile on her face as she walked up.
“Wow, this is…different.” She remarked over the commotion that poured out of the open door.
“Isn’t it great? Totally different for what we usually get in St. Neuri.” Cheryl exclaimed, bouncing on the balls of her feet.
“Yeah, it really is.” Janelle said as they headed towards the bouncer.
The bouncer was extremely large and looked as though he could snap any of them in half. He glowered at Cheryl, who was wearing a sash that said BIRTHDAY GIRL in bright pink. Janelle felt a round of serious misgivings beginning. This place looked as though it had regulars and they were not invited.
But he moved aside to let them in. Cheryl and her three friends, none of who Janelle could remember the names of, stepped into Blue Moon. It was dark, run down, with that awful neon blue light everywhere, casting strange hues over the people inside and forming deep shadows in the corners. The music was deafening, loud rock music that seemed to wiggle into Janelle’s ears and bounce around inside her brain.
It was packed but no one was dancing. They seemed to mill around, drinking, and forming a crush at the stage, bouncing up and down in time with the music. Everyone here seemed to be triple the size of Janelle, and there was an energy crackling in the air that screamed dangerous.
But by the look on Cheryl’s face, this seemed to be exactly what she wanted. She yelled something that was lost to the music and then motioned for them to go to the bar. Janelle followed them through the crowd, smashed in between massive men and scowling women, and realized she was sweating. How could it be so hot in here? Sure, there were lots of people but the heat felt abnormally high.
Shrugging off her jacket, Janelle
stopped near the bar along with Cheryl. She couldn’t hear a word her friend was saying but nodded along anyway. They managed to force their way through the crowd to where the bartender stared at them. He had a long scar down his forehead to his nose as if someone tried to cleanly cut his head in half.
Cheryl yelled their orders. Someone jostled Janelle hard and she slammed into one of Cheryl’s friends, groaning in annoyance. Her focus wavered, and her mental shielding shattered for a brief moment as she tried not to topple over. Keeping herself upright, Janelle looked over her shoulder to glare at the man who smacked into her.
It was then the realization hit her, hard and fast.
There were no visions. There was nothing at all. Her protective layer that she spent carefully covering herself in and constantly worked to keep up, to the point she didn’t even notice she was doing it anymore, was down, but it was as if a radio signal had been shut off.
It wasn’t completely empty, not like when she felt Jake. But with this many people, she should be overwhelmed by visions, almost pinned down by them. Instead, she could only sense a handful of people in the entire room. The rest was a blanket of silence as if cords were yanked from their sockets.
She stood there, rooted in the spot, shocked and unable to understand just what was going on here. How could this be possible? To go from one single person that she couldn’t read to now an entire bar full of them?
Janelle took a step back, almost tripping against the nearest bar stool. Cheryl handed her a beer, oblivious to whatever inner turmoil she was feeling. Numbly, she took it, trying to get a handle on herself.
There had to be some sort of logical explanation. Maybe she was losing her power. That could be it. Something was shifting in the people around her, making it difficult to read them.
But it still didn’t explain the vision in Jake’s house. Or why it was just this group of people in Blue Moon. There were gaps in her theory that made it impossible to be relieved about such a thing.
As if conjuring him up, Janelle suddenly saw Jake on the outskirts of the bar. He was with a small group of people, chugging back a beer. Her eyes narrowed. The fact he was here while all of this was going on…he seemed to be always around when strange things happened with her visions.
She excused herself to Cheryl, who blinked in surprise, and began to make her way towards Jake. He didn’t see her yet and was seemingly engrossed in the conversation he was having with his friends. It was strange to see him hanging out with people, a smile on his face, changing his features completely. The neon light kept half his face in shadow as if the back of the club was beckoning to him.
The crowd of people made Janelle’s movement slow but she didn’t falter, determined to get to Jake. After what felt like ages, and ducking under a man who almost knocked her head off as he went to slap his friend on the back, she managed to get in front of him.
When he saw her, his demeanor changed instantly. Jake went rigid, eyes narrowing, and held onto his beer. Instantly, the shutters were back around him, making it impossible to figure out just what he could be thinking.
“I need to talk to you.” She asked, yelling over the music.
Jake’s friends were jostling him, gesturing to her and saying things she couldn’t hear but assumed were crude.
“Jake!” Janelle shouted, and something in her face must have made it clear she wasn’t going anywhere, because he relented, moving away from the group.
It was impossible to find a quiet spot to talk here so she pulled him into the back, where the lights were dimmer and the music wasn’t quite so loud. Against the back wall, she pushed up on her toes to speak directly into his ear.
“I want to know what is going on here!” She yelled.
Confusion lined his face, looking down at her. “What?”
“Enough! You know something is different with you and with this place! I want to know what it is! I can’t – I can’t feel any of them! Including you! So, what is it? Some sort of drug? Something else?”
Jake recoiled, stepping away from Janelle so quickly that he almost toppled into the couple making out behind him. There was a flash of something on his face – fear? No, that was impossible and wouldn’t make sense. It was probably annoyance. That would fit him better.
“Are you crazy?” He hissed and even though his voice wasn’t that loud, Janelle could still hear it perfectly. “Why are you even here?”
“Cheryl’s birthday.”
“Well, maybe you should be celebrating with your friend instead of cornering a man she loathes and trying to talk gibberish to him.” He snapped.
She balked at this, knowing that Jake had a point but refusing to give in to him. “Tell me why I can’t sense you. Any of you. It makes no sense.” She mumbled the last bit mostly to herself but it was clear Jake still heard.
“You make no sense. You sound crazy. No wonder you work at a dead end job at some paper alone. No one wants to hang out with the woman who rambles about not sensing people and almost passes out in a stranger’s home.”
“Fuck you.” Janelle said without thinking, anger and embarrassment shooting through her.
She spun on her heels and stormed off – well, as much as one could storm off in a crowded biker bar. Janelle knew Jake wouldn’t follow her but she was so furious; at herself and him. Jake, constantly rude, pointing out things about herself she was insecure about, like coming off strange in front of people. Furious at herself, for how her life was like this, how she saw visions and it drove her life in directions she didn’t want at all.
Not for the first time in Janelle’s life, she wished she was normal, wondered what it would be like to have a life that made sense. She pushed towards Cheryl’s crowd but was so lost in thought that she didn’t notice the man in front of her.
Janelle crashed into him and his beer slipped from his fingers, spilling all over her shoes and splashing onto the man’s rather sad looking jean jacket. She yelped in surprise, instantly apologizing, looking up.
Only to see four incredibly large frowning men looking down at her. Janelle swallowed as they seemed to circle around her, blocking her from sight in the rest of the club.
“You gonna pay for my jacket, girl? And my beer?” The man she ran into asked her, making her flinch.
Okay, this was bad. But it wasn’t as if they would do anything to her in the middle of the club, surely? It was difficult to see through them; they had formed some sort of blockade.
“I’m sorry.” She said quickly. “Yes, of course, I will pay for your beer.” She bit her tongue to stop herself from pointing out that no one could really notice the stain on the jean jacket.
“You think that’s enough?” A man growled in her ear from behind. “I don’t think so.”
Janelle’s mouth went dry. She couldn’t sense these men and they alarmed her now as they closed in more. She protested, feeling as if they were going to swallow her up.
Suddenly, one of the men went flying backwards, pulled by his shirt, hitting the ground. A gasp went up around the crowd and people backed away, giving them space. Janelle stared in surprise as Jake stepped into view.
“Back off, Tate.” He glowered, staring at the man with the jean jacket.
“She owes me.” Tate sneered.
“For what? Ruining that piece of fabric you call a jacket?” Jake looked different now, almost frightful.
An energy bristled between the group of men. There was lots of attention now – including Cheryl, who looked shocked at what was unfolding. Janelle wanted to run over to Cheryl but knew Tate would probably just pull her back in place.
“She doesn’t even belong here,” Tate gestured at her, “Why are you protecting someone who was stupid enough to come on our turf?”
“She’s just a clumsy oaf.” Jake replied, still managing to irk Janelle. “Not worth the time.”
The men were losing interest in her and she could feel it. Now that Jake arrived, they were looking at him, studying him, looking as if they wanted t
o gobble him up. Janelle felt afraid – but for him now.
“Yeah, Jake, you think you can speak for what goes on here? That you can sit around on your mountain, come down here once a month and believe you are one of us?” Tate’s fists were clenched, ready to strike.
No one seemed prone to stop them. Instead, they all seemed to be watching intently, waiting for the fight to unfold. Coming here was a mistake. Whatever these people believed, how they acted, wasn’t for someone like Janelle.
With their interest gone, she could take Cheryl, her friends, and leave. But Jake was outnumbered and she wasn’t going to just leave him here to get his ass kicked.
“You ain’t shit and your money doesn’t mean shit here.” Tate said as his fist twitched.
Janelle darted forward, attempting to push Tate to the side. It was like running into the wall. He didn’t budge but she was able to slink past him. She toppled into Jake instead and grabbed him by his shirt, pulling him away. He gasped in surprise and the crowd parted for them. The front door was open, allowing them to spill out into the front of Blue Moon.
Jake broke free of her grip on his shirt, whirling on her. “What the hell are you doing?!”
“What? Jake, they were going to beat you up!”
He looked incredulous as though he questioned why he even protected her in the first place. He moved to go back inside and the fear of Tate and his goons doing something to him suddenly propelled Janelle forward and she grabbed his wrist – skin to skin touching for the first time.
Chapter Five
As her fingers curled around Jake’s wrist, Janelle suddenly felt as if she was being sucked forward, into Jake himself. Her stomach clenched, her heart began to beat rapidly and her skin broke out in a cold sweat.
A full moon on a young boy, covering him in the glow as he began to shift into something else –
Just outside the meeting hall, a thumping in Jake’s chest, looking down, seeing claws forming, having to hide it –
Packing up his place in the city, knowing that he could no longer remain here with the way his body would suddenly change, could bring danger to those around him, better to leave and protect everyone –
The Billionaire Werewolf (Werewolves of St. Neuri Book 3) Page 4
