Bad Storm (7 page)

I couldn’t help
but blush, completely floored by the look of reverence and awe in his eyes. It
was unabashed, and I was reminded about how it was only recently that we could
openly look at each other in such lustful, admiring ways.

“Well, as much as
I’d like to stand here and stare at you all night—”

“Hey!” Sierra
snapped from behind me protectively.

“What, I mean it!”
Trent laughed. “Part of the surprise is going to get cold…”

I looked at him
quizzically and then just shrugged. “Alright, well, let’s get going then.” He
outstretched his hand and I took it, my heart skipping a beat at his warm
touch.

“Bye you two love
birds!” Sierra cooed. I turned my head around and scowled at her. She just
smirked back and gave a little wave of her hand.

When we got to the
parking lot, Trent opened the car door for me and everything. I could tell he
was slightly nervous, which was super cute. He wasn’t naturally chivalrous. It
wasn’t that he was rude or anything. He was just used to having female friends
his whole life, and was more than aware that we could take care of ourselves.

Still, I couldn’t
help but be moved by the small, polite gestures.

“So, still not
going to tell me where we’re going?” I teased as he started the ignition.

“Then it wouldn’t
be a surprise,” he said, turning up the volume on the radio just a tad too
loud.

“Oh okay, I get
it,” I smirked, sitting back into my seat. He didn’t want to give anything
away, and I couldn’t blame him. If I had planned a surprise for him it would be
hard not to spill the beans—Trent was almost as bad a liar as I was,
especially when he was excited about something.

I was looking out
the window, grateful that the weather had lightened up and that the evening was
free of rain so far, when I heard the familiar strum of guitars on the radio. I
reached my hand to change it, instinctively for some reason, wanting to protect
Trent from Fun Aim’s success. But he caught my hand, preventing me from
changing the radio dial just as Aamir’s familiar, melodic voice broke through
the speakers.

His face hardening
as he looked straight out the windshield.

“I heard them
earlier today on the radio,” I admitted, dropping my hand down to my lap in
defeat. “I guess I didn’t realize how successful they were.”

“Me neither,” he
grumbled. I could see the annoyance on his face, and I felt it grow in the
space between us.

“Well, just for
the record, I think Bad Moon is a hundred times better.”

He turned towards
me for a second, and I saw a flicker of a smile.

“Yeah, we are,
aren’t we?” He turned his eyes back to the road, looking a little smug.

“Actually, I’ve
been meaning to tell you some fantastic news. But I figured it’d be best to see
you in person to tell you,” I said, feeling giddy.

“Oh yeah? What’s
that?” Trent sounded suspicious.

“Well I talked to
the manager at The Nightshift, he’s Dan’s brother, and while it’s not a huge
venue or anything, he said they’d love to have you guys play. One of their acts
dropped for an upcoming show.”

“Really?” I could
see Trent’s face light up. “When is it?”

“Brandon’s
birthday.” I couldn’t help but feel a little satisfied with myself. “Better
than a surprise party, wouldn’t you say?” Just the thought of Brandon’s face
would be priceless. He could anticipate a party, but he definitely wouldn’t be
able to predict this.

“I’ve heard him
practicing in his room these last few days, I think it’s perfect. He’d love it,
hell, we’ll all love it,” Trent said, a buoyancy coming through his voice.
“God, you’re so fucking awesome,” he shook his head, as if in disbelief.

“Hey, I’m still
your manager. No one ever fired me, remember?”

“Yeah, I remember.
We got the best, smartest, prettiest manger in the world.”

“Shut up,” I said,
but I couldn’t help but smile. Trent slowed the car as we approached the beach,
turning onto the street that ran parallel to the ocean.

“I won’t.” He shot
me a quick glance. “You really are fantastic.”

I was blushing so
hard at the compliment that I could do little more than clear my throat and
change the subject. “So, the beach, huh?” I said, turning my head to look out
the window. We were on the less populated area of the beach, the quietest part
of the city’s beach that wasn’t privately owned.

 
People usually didn’t come here because
it was by a buggy lagoon and it was pretty rocky, and not a great place for swimming
in general. But Trent knew I loved it because it was quiet and earthy. It made
me think of what the shoreline must have looked like before people
commercialized it, what it must look like in more remote areas of the world.

“I figured you’d
like it, since you haven’t come down here since last summer.”

“Really?” I said,
slightly shocked. We had grown up here, in this sandy beach town. While it’s
true I wasn’t taken by sand in my bathing suit or sunburns, I didn’t avoid the
little piece of paradise. It was home, and I loved it.

“Yeah, Sierra kept
trying to get you to come out here but you were busy with your senior thesis
and graduation stuff, you know.” Trent turned the car into one of the more
forgotten lots. It was one where you didn’t have to pay, but people didn’t like
to park in if they could avoid it because it was the lot to a run-down sea food
shop.

It was kind of
weird because tourists were everywhere, and while this area wasn’t the hottest
part of the beach, you would expect that even this corner would have prime real
estate. But people claimed that shack was haunted, and that anyone who tried to
start a business there was doomed.

Most people, like
myself, didn’t buy the ghost stories. It seemed pretty logical to assume that
most people didn’t want to own a business that sat on a wooden pier that needed
a good deal of repairs.
 

“I don’t know why
you always insist on parking here,” I teased, jumping out of the car and
stretching my arms over my head.

“It’s quiet,” he
shrugged. “And hey, you were supposed to let me open the door for you.”

“Oh, sorry!” I
laughed as he came over to meet me around the back of his old pick-up.
 
I wrapped my arms around his neck and he
slipped his arms around my waist, pulling my body towards his. The cool night
air whipped around us, fresh with salt and losing its humidity as the evening
wore on. The sinking the sun lowered in the sky.

He kissed me
gingerly and slowly, stealing me away, stopping time. “It’s like I’ll never get
used to that feeling,” he murmured as he pulled his lips away from mine.

“Don’t get used to
it. It’s more fun when you don’t,” I teased. He chuckled and we headed down a
wooden set of stairs that lowered over the lagoon and onto the beach. Luckily,
the rainy weather from the day before seemed to keep the bugs at bay.

The waves lapped
onto the shore and the evening gulls circled above head, calling out to one
another. I could only see a man and his son forty yards or so to our right,
throwing a Frisbee around. Otherwise there wasn’t a soul to be seen.

“This is great. I
might not be dressed for the occasion though,” I teased, turning my head up
towards Trent’s. He smiled down at me.

“You dressed
beautifully for a beautiful night. You’re perfect as far as I’m concerned.” He
kissed the top of my head. “Now you stay out here, I’m going to go get the rest
of the surprise.”

“I hope the rest
of the surprise includes lawn chairs!” I called out after him as he ran up the
stairs we had just descended.

I looked out into
the ocean and took a deep breath of the calming, sea air. It was good to be
home, the one place where I truly felt myself. The rest of South Florida may be
more exciting, but it wasn’t like here. We didn’t have as many clubs as Miami
or Fort Lauderdale, but we had buskers who looked like Jimmy Buffet, and thanks
to all the college students, a great variety of cheap, fast cuisine everywhere
you turned.

A small breeze
picked up, lifting my hair off my shoulders and pulling it away towards my left
shoulder.

“Hey! Pretty
lady!” I turned around and smiled as Trent ran up to me, barefoot and with a
giant box of pizza in his arms, a beach blanket folded up on top of it.

“What do you got
there?” I teased. He tossed the blanket towards me, and
 
I caught it, spreading it out in the
direction of the wind. I sat and Trent plopped down next to me, closer than he
would have when we were just friends, and
 
set the box in front of us. It was Rizzo’s, my absolute favorite pizza.
They made pizza so big that each slice was easily bigger than your head.

“This is insane!”
I laughed, looking at the box that could easily be the height of a small child.

“It’s your
favorite,” he said, opening up the box. A strong waft of cheese and herbs hit
my nostrils, causing my mouth to water. “Cheese and more cheese.”

“Boy, do you know
me,” I reached over for a slice, and Trent pulled some napkins out from under
the box.

“I also know how
you like to rub napkins on your food.”

I took the napkins
and stuck my tongue out at him playfully. He loved to chide me about what he
considered to be my strange eating habits. I blotted out the slice and took a
deep bite into heaven, and couldn’t help but sigh. Trent was on the same page
as me, shoving a piece in his face faster than I could blink.

It was awesome,
enjoying the best pizza in the world together as they waves crashed onto the
shore. The sun began to set, the big orange globe dimming in the sky and
falling into the ocean. It was one of the benefits of living on the east coast.

“When was the last
time you saw this happen?” Trent moved in closer to me once we had finished
stuffing our faces.

“I don’t know. I
guess last summer,” I shook my head in disbelief. It was something I did all
the time when I was a kid, at least once a week with my brother and my mom.
Sometimes my dad would even come if he wasn’t too busy. There was something
magical about it, even though I had seen it thousands of times over.

It was depressing
to think that I had gotten so involved with graduating and school that I had
forgotten one of the simple joys in life.

 
“Can you experience my memories? Just
because...I recognized Lark, somehow. I was just wondering if I tapped into
Brandon’s memories somehow, ” I realized that I still didn’t understand how I
recognized her in the cemetery, or what my draw to her was.

He pulled his arm
around my shoulders. He smelled clean and like aftershave. “No, not unless it’s
related to danger. Generally, an enemy is cataloged in our collective memory,
so that we can protect one another, but you wouldn’t be able to see Brandon’s
memories with Lark. That goes for everyone in the pack. It’s a general defense
mechanism.”

“If you don’t mind
me asking…how do packs work? Like…I don’t know. Obviously you were all turned
separately. Sorry if I’m getting too nosey.”

“It’s alright.”
Trent paused for a moment, looking out into the sinking sun, and I wondered if
it really was alright. “You need to know. Pack’s don’t just happen, you’re
right. They kind of form over time. You see, shifters sense other shifters, and
when you meet one of your own, you just know. If I met another werewolf right
now, for example, I would just know.”

“So…werewolves
have instincts that regular people don’t,” I asked slowly. The sun darkened and
widened, like a giant, sinking blood orange in the sky.

“Sort of, yeah.”
he said. “I mean we do, but another way of thinking about it is we’re in touch
with our instincts. It can be hard for me to remember sometimes, because I’ve
been this way for so long, but…before I remember having gut feelings and
reactions. I just couldn’t explain or trust them. Now I do. I immediately tap
into them and let them direct me. So when I met Brandon, he was the first
person I met and just
knew
was like
me.”

“When did you meet
Brandon?” I had a sneaking suspicion it was well before I was introduced to
him. I gasped and suddenly saw an image of a young, skinny Brandon, baby-faced
and with a set of green braces.

“High school,” he
admitted. “He didn’t live very close to us, actually lived in Broward County,
but I ran into him at a show. We kept in contact. When we went to Florida
University, he introduced me to Mac, who was housing two werewolf sisters in
one of his rental properties.”

“Allison and
Lola,” I said quietly.

“Exactly,” Trent
nodded. “Mac’s late wife, Kathy, she owned the properties. She wasn’t like us,
but she knew about it. Passed from cancer. I never met her, but I know she’s
the reason he keeps going. She wanted him to start a pack in one of his
properties, to specifically protect younger werewolves like ourselves. She
taught speech pathology at Florida University, so she had a soft-spot for
students.”