Bizarre Life of Sydney Sedrick (9 page)

“All right. It was ever so nice to meet you, ma’am.” He shot me a knowing grin as he tipped his head to Aunt Judith, then left.

As soon as I was sure he was out of earshot, I faced my aunt. “Aunt Judith, what is going on? Just yesterday you said you didn’t like or trust the werewolves, and now it seems you don’t mind me, pretty much against my will, having to go to a dinner I’ve been so-called invited to go to?”

“Sydney, nothing is going on. Your friend Blake seems like a very nice man. He doesn’t give off the same vibes Michael does. And there is a difference. Sweetheart, you have to associate with these people because you are the Selected. Brianna doesn’t, and as far as I’m concerned, your sister should stay as far away from them as possible.”

“So you don’t think we should, uh, date or anything like that, right?”

Aunt Judith smiled like a schoolgirl daydreaming about the boy she’d like to date. “Well, he does seem to be a very enchanting young man, and when is the last time you’ve been on a date?”

I held my hand up in front of me. “What? No. We are not even going to talk about me having anything but a necessary business relationship with Blake. That’s what this dinner is, a business dinner, and that’s all.”

Her eyes said she didn’t believe me but was not arguing the point because she was calmly waiting for me to catch up with reality. Well, reality was pretty much sucking right now.

“Aunt Judith, did Grandma have anything like weapons? How did she take care of herself? I mean, being the Selected, I’m sure she was attacked. How’d she keep the werewolves and vampires from taking her daughters?”

“Sydney, your grandmother wasn’t the only one with abilities.” I could have sworn my very humble aunt was talking about herself.

“What do you mean? Do you know how she protected her family?”

“Sydney, my friend and I have dabbled a bit with the local Wiccan community. I’ll be able to provide some protection for the house, dear. Don’t you worry.”

“Like what kind of protection?” I was seriously intrigued. And why haven’t I heard of any of this until now? It was like I’ve been living with a blindfold over my eyes my entire life.

“Wards, dear. I can place wards on the house so the vampires can’t come in unless they are specifically invited.” Aunt Judith was grinning from ear-to-ear.

“How do you know they’ll work? Have you tried them before?”

“Don’t worry, I’m sure they’ll work just fine. Now you go on ahead with that handsome boy and have a good time, Sydney.”

I didn’t know whether to scream or hug her.

“Good night, Aunt Judith. Hopefully this won’t take long.”

For a mangy animal, Blake did have good taste in cars. His Audi was parked next to my Jetta, and as he said he would, he’d turned on the heat just for me, evidenced by the car’s exhaust puffing a series of clouds out into the cold air. Blake stood outside the passenger door leaning against the car. His muscles bulged out of his T-shirt while his arms crossed against his chest.

He smiled when he saw me, and said, “All ready?”

“I’m ready. Let’s get this over with, shall we?”

He laughed again. Apparently he thought he heard something funny.

“Yes, this dinner is going to be way more enjoyable for me than you.” He leaned over and opened the car door for me, another gentlemanly act. Once I was comfortably situated in the plush bucket seat, he closed the door behind me.

The silence felt heavy by the time he finished backing out of the long driveway. “Blake, what is your take in all of this?”

He looked at me quizzically.

“What do you really want out of life living as a werewolf?”

One of his eyebrows lifted in a contemplative gesture. “Oh, so now you want to get personal? I’ll answer your questions if you answer mine, deal?”

“That’s fair, so?”

“I want what every ordinary man wants out of life. Live for a very long time, which given my people’s abilities that will most likely come true if the Goddess of the Moon allows. I want a family, children of my own, and to keep my family and the pack safe from those that would harm them, including the vampires. As far as being a werewolf, it’s all I’ve ever known. There’s nothing about being a werewolf that makes me not want to be one.”

“So you don’t mind having to change into an animal every month and chase after other animals?”

“Sydney, not all wolves are hunters. Some of us stay near the den and protect the women and children, and some of us go out and hunt. It is no different from what humans do. We just happen to wear our fur coats when we do it instead of a blazing-orange, overstuffed jacket.”

That made me smile, until he noticed. Letting him think he was growing on me didn’t go along with my cool demeanor plan, but that’s exactly what he was doing. The sooner he realized he was growing on me, the more difficult he would make things for me. He was probably just as aware of the physical attraction between us.

He navigated the car over the deep snow through town and kept going toward the city limits. Blake headed to the vast open lands that surrounded the city proper of Kenosha.

“So, now it’s my turn for a question. Are you dating anyone?”

I looked at him in surprise. My heart began to pound in my chest, making it hard to think of what to say.

“I’m between boyfriends, if that’s what you mean.”

He chuckled. “I suppose that answers my question well enough. How many boyfriends have you had?”

“That’s two questions, so now it’s my turn. What does Morris really want with me?”

“Sydney, your topics of small talk are a little disappointing. Morris wants you to be on his side, the wolves’ side, as the Selected. He doesn’t want the vampires to have sway over you. He doesn’t want you to help them find our dens because they want us all dead. Since we value our lives, we all hope the same, actually. Now, for my question, how many human lovers have you had?”

“What kind of a question is that? And why would you specify human?”

“I answered your question. You owe me an answer to this one, Sydney.”

“I find this highly personal, and I don’t like how you’re using this against me, but fine, I’ll answer you.” She paused. “I’ve had seventeen human lovers.”

He must have found my response extremely humorous because he laughed so hard, he struggled to breathe. When he was finally able to catch his breath, he said, “Oh my, that is a lot of lovers for someone your age, and that’s a complete and utter lie. There’s no way you have had seventeen lovers in your life, so tell me the truth.”

I acted offended and pouted, trying not to laugh myself. “How can you sit there and tell me I’m lying? You don’t think I’m pretty enough to attract that many men, is that it? Thanks a lot.”

“Don’t try and twist my words against me. You are not the type of woman to go around sleeping with every man who pays you the slightest bit of attention, and that’s what you would have had to do if you really had been with all of those men. Sydney, you are a very attractive, very feminine woman, and that was the opposite of an insult when questioning your truthfulness. So tell me the real answer.”

“Two, and I’m not sure if the first one even counts. Are you happy?”

When he learned how many men I’ve not been intimate with, he grew serious for a moment. “Yes, that actually makes me happier than it should.”

He stayed quiet, in deep contemplation mode when it was my turn to ask a question. We were just entering the center of the city, so we had at least twenty more minutes just to get to the outskirts, and then only Blake knew how much longer we had to drive to get to Morris’ house.

“Okay, it’s my turn. How long do werewolves live?”

“Werewolves usually live long lives. A wolf’s lifespan depends a lot on their choices they make, how they live. So roughly they range anywhere from eighty to two hundred and fifty years.”

“Wow, that’s a long time. It’s surprising to have never run into one before now.”

“Well, wolves tend to stay to themselves, socialize among their own kind. Hanging out with humans can be very dangerous. Once a human knows about our true nature, they tend to want to tell the world about us, which obviously would be very bad. So, what would you say if a werewolf asked you out on a date for tomorrow night, after you get off of work?”

“Blake, we can’t go on a date. We can’t have that kind of relationship between us. There’s just too much going on right now to even think about it.”

The hottest man I’ve ever seen just asked me out on a date! He did feel the same strong pulling attraction between us, and that made him all the more dangerous. The temptation of getting to know him better, to have him to lean on through all of this would be great. It wasn’t clear who to trust. The feelings between us were mutual, but what was he willing to say or do to get me to comply with whatever it was his uncle really wanted?

All he said was, “We’ll see.” His jaw set a little tighter, and the air in the car became a little warmer in direct response to his not getting what he wanted.

“So, anyways, my next question for you is, did Morris send that werewolf to attack me the other night?”

Blake’s expression would have been the same if he had been slapped across the face. With disgust in his voice, Blake said, “I can’t believe you would think Morris would send someone out to attack you. No, let me clarify for you, he did not. For your information, Morris has a hunting party out right now looking for the one who bit you.”

“Blake, I’m really sorry, I thought...”

“You thought what, exactly? Did you think werewolves normally go around hunting and biting people on the city streets? Let me give you a piece of reality, Sydney. We may turn into an animal when the moon is full, but we do not go around biting humans like the parasites that gave your grandmother that necklace you’re wearing. We do not go around terrorizing innocent people, taking their life’s blood from them, making them addicted lunatics.”

Yikes, I must have hit a nerve. I put up my hand and said, “Let me finish. You have to admit, the timing of the attack and your immediate appearance seemed to be more than coincidence. Seriously, if you were in my situation, you can’t possibly tell me you wouldn’t have had at least thought there was some kind of connection?”

We were stopped at the last red light leading to the main highway out of the city. He turned and stared at me. I was pretty sure I saw disappointment in his eyes from me rejecting his offer of a date, and now I’ve insulted his entire pack and the way they lived.

His knuckles were white from gripping the steering wheel. “Sydney, it’s not as hard to understand your situation as you think. After the other night, it was clear you haven’t been raised to know our world and have just recently been introduced into your role as the Selected. But take a word of advice from someone who truly means you no harm, it’s dangerous to make assumptions of any kind, about anyone, before you get all the facts. So don’t go around accusing anyone of anything before you know for absolute certainty they are the ones who committed the act you think they did.”

It was my turn to feel like I’d been slapped in the face. But maybe, just maybe, Blake was right. What if someone had accused me, or worse, Brianna or Aunt Judith of something they hadn’t done? Wouldn’t I have been as offended?

About ten miles outside of the city Blake broke the uneasy silence. “Sydney, you’re going through a very hard time in your life, but know that we wouldn’t do anything to hurt you or your people unless it was absolutely necessary. There are easier ways to trigger the gene of the Selected. You didn’t need to be attacked and bitten for that to be accomplished. All it would have taken was a passionate kiss with a wolf. The higher the wolf in the pecking order of the pack, the quicker your abilities would develop. We still don’t know who the wolf was that attacked you, but believe me, we are trying to find out and punish the one who did.”

“Blake, if you are Morris’ son, why aren’t you in on the hunting party?”

“Once I met you, I asked my father to be assigned as the one to protect you, to bring you into the fold of the pack. So the hunting party is being led by another wolf while my energies are focused on you.”

“What will happen to the man who attacked me?”

“He will be punished. If he is from our pack, he will be executed. Morris didn’t give the order to attack a human, and certainly not the Selected. The wolf that attacked you knew who you are, or rather, what you are. So by biting you, he knew what he was doing and that there would be repercussions.” He paused. “He chose his fate when he put his teeth on you.”