Bizarre Life of Sydney Sedrick (14 page)

Grandma was right. All of this was quite overwhelming. I felt lucky Aunt Judith was around to talk about things with. It would have been nice to somehow let Grandma know how helpful her journal was becoming. The thought of starting my own journal for the next Selected crossed my mind. Someday my granddaughter may need my words of wisdom. It was possible that may not happen considering crazy monsters seemed to be hunting me at this very moment. Would keeping my granddaughter in the dark, hoping her abilities wouldn’t be triggered until she was old enough to handle it, be a good idea? Would involving her in a scary world from day one of her life so she knew what was coming her way be better than what my mother did? Letting her live totally vulnerable, like my mother had made me, without any idea there were supernatural beings who thought the Selected was the key to changing their world, and that of their enemies, wasn’t my style.

There was no way my granddaughter would be the unknowing target of some rogue vampire or werewolf without being able to protect herself. My mother was going to sit and hear my opinion on the matter when my anger cooled enough to talk to her without screaming. My guess was she already knew it was coming because she hadn’t even called since the attack. Aunt Judith was keeping her updated, but it wasn’t time yet to talk to her about it myself.

I walked into the kitchen after catching my breath.

Brianna draped an arm around our aunt’s shoulders. “Aunt Judith, don’t worry about us. We’re big girls. We can handle the nightlife of Kenosha. Seriously, we are from Chicago, you know. I’m sure it’s way more dangerous down there than it is up here.”

Under her breath, Aunt Judith sadly said, “If you only knew child, if you only knew.”

Brianna’s face lit up when she saw me. “Hey, you ready to shake some booty?”

“I’m ready for anything.”

“Let’s get moving, then.” Brianna jumped out of the kitchen chair and went into the living room. I soon heard the sound of her digging for the keys in her purse to start her car from inside with the remote key start. My car didn’t have that option, but the seat heaters totally made up for it. Heated seats beat any type of automobile accessory available, in my opinion.

I leaned over to Aunt Judith and whispered, “You put the wards on the house you were talking about earlier, right?”

She looked at me with a sparkle of mischief in her eyes and replied, “Yes, we worked up a good one this morning while you were at the store.”

“Good, don’t leave the house alone tonight. We’re still going out, but we have vampires that will be looking after us. Something happened upstairs after my shower, Aunt Judith. Something evil is close by, and if anything happens to you, I don’t know what I’d do, so don’t leave the house alone, okay?”

Fear and understanding dotted across her face. “You can sense them? Sydney, it took years for my mother to be able to sense the presence of the Others, and she never let on how strong she was at it. For you, it has been less than a week!”

“Years? That seems like an awful long time to be waiting for that to happen. Anyways, we’re leaving, so promise me you’ll be careful and you’ll stay in for the night? We have enough to worry about without one of us getting hurt.”

“All right. You be careful and don’t let anything happen to either of you, or your mother will have my hide on a stick before the night is over.”

I smiled and gave her a reassuring hug. “You’re the best aunt anyone could ever hope to have.” I pushed the kitchen door open and waved to her, trying to set her mind at ease. Hopefully she wouldn’t worry too much about us. Brianna was waiting by the front door, her tan leather purse slung over her shoulder, cell phone in hand.

Brianna drove us downtown to the same nightclub we went to with Michael when Blake showed up. While we were parking on the side street down from the club, the vampires arrived, pulling up three cars down in the opposite direction. They waited to get out of their car until we were at the club entrance showing the doorman our identification. Before we crossed the club’s threshold, they were coming down the sidewalk. There were two of them, and neither one was Aaron, which was fine by me. His arrogance and condescending demeanor wasn’t exactly fun to be around, and we didn’t need him to find a reason to spoil the mood of the evening.

Both vampires had on similar black suits and sunglasses like Aaron, but, unlike Aaron, they were also wearing long wool trench coats that hit their heels as they strode down the snow covered sidewalk. The coats were probably to conceal weapons.

Why did they bother concealing their weapons since they were able to control every human’s mind and manipulate their memories they ran into? It wasn’t like they were trying to hide anything from the wolves. I’d have to ask Blake or Aaron that question, to see if it had anything to do with sheer numbers and effort. It would also be interesting to know if all vampires had the ability to control the minds of humans or just specific ones, like Aaron.

The atmosphere of the nightclub on the first floor was just as welcoming as it had been the first night I’d been there. The dark wood paneling was soothing against the soft glow of the candles that were lit on each of the tables strewn around the borders of the room. We headed straight to the bar and ordered drinks. With a beer in my hand, I looked toward the front door of the club. Our secret chaperones were indeed standing there in the shadows with their sunglasses firmly in place, covering their glowing red eyes from any unwanted attention.

Brianna grabbed my arm and led me up the staircase along the far wall. The thump of the music and stomping of the dancers’ feet met us as we topped the landing. The lighting was dark with the exception of the multiple strobe lights flitting across the dance floor making the dancers appear as if they were moving in slow motion.

Bopping along to the music, we danced our way to a recently vacated table on the outer edge of the dance floor. We plopped down on the stools and had just finished downing our first drinks when an old friend of Brie’s came over to our table and screamed, “I can’t believe it! Brianna, what are you doing in our humble little town? Once we heard you were starting medical school, we figured we’d never see you again!”

I recognized Shelly from when we were little and spent the summers with Grandma and Aunt Judith. Shelly was one of the closest neighbors to the house and used to come over to play often since she was gifted with nothing but big brothers in her family. Excusing myself from the table, I told the girls I’d be right back with a fresh round of drinks so they could have time to catch up.

Walking around the dance floor, trying to keep to the shadows to make sure Brianna and Shelly didn’t see my destination, I stalked the dark areas to find my sunglass-wearing escorts.

I tapped the one closest to me on the shoulder. “Excuse me, no, you’re not exactly invisible. Aaron told me you’d be here, so don’t be alarmed that your super sneaky skills aren’t actually all that good. Anyways, before we left my Aunt Judith’s house, did you guys notice there was a wild wolf on the loose, prowling outside on my property?”

They glanced at each other, and the one that appeared to be younger in age, which wasn’t saying much considering vampires didn’t age past the day they were turned, took a step forward and bowed his head.

“Miss Sydney, my name is Liam, and this is Shane. What do you mean there was a wolf by your living quarters?”

His accent, and the way he talked, spoke volumes. He was definitely older than the mere twenty some years old his physical body appeared.

“Yeah, somehow my Selected senses picked up the wolf’s presence from somewhere outside of the house, but they were definitely somewhere on the property. The feeling wasn’t pleasant, like when...”

His eyebrows raised above his glasses, waiting for me to finish with that statement. “Never mind about that. Anyways, this wolf gave off a different kind of sensation, like his essence was covered with a layer of evil I’ve never felt before. Do you know what any of that means?”

Liam said, “I have heard of such a thing. Maria Sky mentioned it many years ago. She said when a rogue wolf or vampire was around, the air changed, that it was almost painful for her to be near them.”

“Yes!” Not really meaning to scream in his ear, but I was so happy. The joy when someone else understood at least a little of what was going on was a wondrous feeling. It made me feel a little less like a circus-sideshow freak when he said my grandmother felt the same thing. “Yes, the presence of the wolf literally brought me to my knees in pain, making me feel really sick!”

They glanced at each other once again, then back toward me. This time it was Shane’s turn to speak, and he did so in a reprimanding tone. “Miss Sydney, you should have told us a wolf was tracking you. He might be waiting right now for your return, or he may have even followed you here. Although it is true, we didn’t sense being followed. We must take you with us to the safety of the coven. Our master, Kieran, will want to know of this turn of events. It is inexplicable that you were able to sense the presence of a foul one from inside of a dwelling, especially since we know your abilities were only recently activated.”

I sighed. Yet again, here were two more people trying to tell me what to do.

“Listen, I’m not going anywhere with either of you. I’m here to have a nice night out with my sister.” Looking over to Brianna and Shelly, seeing they were dancing with all their cares in the world drifting away, giggling and having fun. Turning back to the dynamic duo to give them a piece of my mind, I added, “And we fully intend on doing just that. The only thing that was agreed upon with Aaron was for you guys being here to watch over us, but that’s all that you’re going to get. You can follow us home, or not. It’s up to you. But we’re not leaving until I’m good and ready.” I spun on my heel and stomped off to the bar to get the round of drinks the girls were waiting for. It sure was tempting to overindulge in alcohol sometimes, like at that very moment.

The bartender gave me a small tray with our drinks. It seemed the Knights were behaving themselves and staying out of Brianna’s line of site. After a few more songs, Brianna and Shelly came back to the table. They were slightly out of breath from dancing to the thumping music blasting from the speakers. The girls were clearly ogling the young men on the dance floor who were gesturing for them to come back and join them. They both waved their hands and signaled to their drinks. They needed a breather from the heavy exertion of quickly throwing their bodies back and forth like they’d been doing for the last three entire songs straight.

I looked at Shelly and noticed she didn’t look so well. Her face was ashen, and she was holding her right hand over her stomach.

“You know what girls, I’m going to get sick, so I’m going to go, but you stay here and have a good time,” Shelly slurred and stumbled slowly around the dance floor.

Brie and I shared a knowing glance and laughed. We’d both been in the same situation ourselves, so we trailed after Shelly. Letting her try to get home alone would be a bad idea, not in her condition. Besides the rogue vampires and werewolves lurking somewhere outside, there were also some pretty evil human men waiting for the opportunity to find such an intoxicated, pretty young girl to take advantage of because they’d had too much to drink.

While we waited for Shelly to stop vomiting, Brianna filled me in that Shelly had been drinking long before we got to the bar. Brianna took Shelly’s cell phone from her purse, then dialed Shelly’s older brother and told him to come and pick her up so she wouldn’t have to take a taxi home alone. After about ten minutes of listening to Shelly puke, we were finally able to stagger her to the front door of the club and outside to the cold and refreshing winter air.

We waited outside with Shelly until her brother came to pick her up. Once she was tucked away in the passenger seat of his car, we closed her door and waved goodbye as her brother looked at his sister, who instantly passed out in her seat. Shaking his head, he pulled his car away from the curb and drove off.

By the time we stopped dancing, Brianna finished off three more drinks, so we decided to call it a night to prevent either one of us from becoming too intoxicated ourselves. Having Shelly get sick right in front of us all over the red plush sitting bench in the ladies’ room soured the need for us to seriously tie one on. The store still had to be opened early the next morning anyways, so it was a good time to go home.

Brianna had had a little too much to drink, so she handed the keys over to me. It worked out well the Knights were close at hand when we got home, just in case the wolf was still stalking the property when we got out of the car. Even though Brianna didn’t know they existed at the moment, there was no reason to be unsafe about it. If the vampires needed to strut their stuff and kick some furry butt, then so be it. They would just be following the orders of their master, and there was nothing that would make me want to get in their way.