??A Howl In The Night??
?She’s Mine?
?From Novel r0m@n�
?Chapter 22?
***
I waltz into a dirty yard, stained with beer cans and cigarettes, with disgust. A hvge house looms before me, music pounding furiously from within. People bubble around the entrance, many lounging on the several chairs outside. There is much movement inside the house, several girls in bikinis and others in dresses like mine. There must be a pool around there, for so many people to be in swimsuits.
Suddenly I feel overdressed.
I stumble to the doorway, edging into the crowd slowly. People immediately ru-b up against me as I am swallowed by the crowd, many of the whispers starting. I stand out like a so-re thumb, and I momentarily regret letting Lauren dress me up like a Barbie doll. I should have insisted on jeans and a t©p, instead of settling for this…
Suddenly I spy Xavier’s head of blue hair, talking to a random girl in the crowd. She is wearing a light swimsuit cover-up and has brown hair. He leads her away, spiking my interest and even jealousy. What is he doing with her?
I back into a corner, my gaze focusing on the two figures navigating throu-gh the crowd. I recognize the girl to be one of “Sidney’s”, and my breath catches in my throat.
Suddenly, Ian appears, and the girl is immediately whisked away by the enchanting man as Xavier quic-kly returns to the floor. He smiles at another one of Sidney’s girls, initiating the conversation once again. After a few more minutes, Xavier leads the girl to the exact same sp©t, where Ian appears again with a sly smile across his face. The first girl reappears in the crowd, grinning broadly.
What is going on?!
It is like Xavier is running an operation, snagging a girl that belongs to Sidney and taking them to Ian. He is moving rather quic-kly, being such a sweet talker that he can get a girl to follow him to the moon in seconds.
“Who are you?” a harsh, abr@sive voice asks. I look up into the face of Sidney, her face in a grimace. She is wearing outrageously thick makeup, and a dress that defies all my expectations as far as provocativeness goes. Her heels are much larger than mine, her whole form intimid@t!ng. My expression morphs into morbid fear, and I race away from her like lightning.
I clatter outside, swinging off my heels. I gr-ab them in my hands as Sidney appears before me, curiously surveying me. A crowd forms around us, many curious to see what she was asking about. Sidney probably regrets calling attention to us, for now people will compare us.
“Who are you?” she asks again, peering into my eyes. I should have gotten contacts.
Suddenly she reaches forward and rips the wig from my head. “Mona!” she screeches, “I didn’t expect to see YOU here.” She smiles laughingly, “I thought you would get that you aren’t welcome.”
I catch the wig as she lets it drop, holding it close to my che-st. “I just wanted to… visit,” I squeak, ba-rely above a whisper.
Sidney looks at me with a sm-irk, “well, you got here at just the perfect time! We can finish what we started from this morning…” She takes a step forward, “we can see if another cut will heal just as quic-kly as the first one.”
The pool behind me comes closer and closer as I back up, and soon my feet are on the edge. There is no place to run. No place to hide.
“Leave my girlfriend alone,” a smooth, commanding voice erupts, and a muscled arm links to mine. Sidney’s eyes grow wi-de, and she smiles weakly.
“Girlfriend? So it is official?” she says rather bitterly, “congratulations.”
I look up into Xavier’s face to find he is glaring at Sidney. His beautiful blue hair is sparkling along with his green eyes, and his arm feels so warm. However, what shocks me so much are his words. Girlfriend? I am his girlfriend?
Ian troops up on my other side. “Yeah, Sidney,” he says menacingly, “st©p being mean. I don’t think we can be together anymore, especially with you acting so jealous like this.”
Sidney g@sps along with her many followers, and we can see why. Ian is one of Sidney’s strengths. Some of her popularity points. Ian is the quarterback on the football team, and that guy is usually reserved for the best looking or most popular girl in the school.
It is at this time that Sidney must realize that her throne has been usurped.
We start walking towards the front of the house, when the snake spits out some last minute venom. “I wish you had died when I pushed you the other day,” she hisses as we pas-s her, each word like a lash against my skin. I haven’t ever had someone hate me this much before, and I have to admit, it hurts.
Xavier suddenly turns, fire alight in his eyes. He is like a bull, re-ady to run someone over while he stares at Sidney. With sudden f0rç£, he crosses over to her, and shoves her in the cold water. She squeals, splashing un-derneath the surface.
Without another word, both of the guys esc-rt me out of the house and into the car. People stare at us on the way out as if we are aliens, as if they don’t know us.
Well, this is an interesting development.
Xavier unloads me into the backseat as if I am cattle, the other two gr-abbing the front. As the engine roars to life, we bathe in silence, and I feel, for some reason, as if I am about to get scolded.
“Mona,” he sighs finally, ma-king me jump when he says my name, “why did you come?”
There is a pause as I dig for an answer that doesn’t sound like admitting I was jealous. “I just wanted to… meet you there?” I meagerly reply, my answer not even sounding true to myself.
Xavier laughs, a noise that makes my heart flutter. “That’s a lie,” he grins, “I saw you following me all the way to Ian’s house.”
“I was that easy to sp©t?” Terror strikes my heart. I thought I did pretty good, considering the nearly barren scenery.
“Well, I’ve had a lot of practice,” he looks to the mirror and our eyes meet. Right now, they are soft, full of laughter and sweetness. “You really shouldn’t have come,” he emits resignedly; “it isn’t like the p@rty was much fun for you anyway.”
Ian twists in his seat to look at me. “Where did you get that h0t dress?” he asks, “it looks like something my sister would wear.” His eyes rake over me appreciatively, a sm-irk gracing hisl-ips. I begin to feel uncomfortable.
“Yeah,” Xavier threw in, “I don’t remember you having anything like that at home.” His eyes narrow. Something tells me he doesn’t like me wearing a dress like this.
“I, uh…” I tried to st©p, but Xavier’s eyes urged me on, “borrowed it.” I stare at the dress, how it seems perfect even after I traveled throu-gh that cra-p. The stilettos are still in my hand, along with the furry mess called a wig. He stares at the wig as if it is a monster.
“Well, whatever the reason, you didn’t have to follow us. We were trying to wipe the evidence of your cut healing so quic-kly. That’s all,” Xavier quic-kly diverts the subject, and I breathe a sigh of relief.
“Really?” I reply. That does seem to make s-en-se. I feel like a stupid idiot now. “So what about Ian?”
“I hypnotized them,” Ian says proudly, “into believing they had never seen it.”
“And we were about to get to Sidney,” Xavier snapped, “Until YOU just had to make a scene!”
“That was Sidney!” I huff, “leave me alone.”
“Anyways, the point is to trust me. When I leave you behind, it is usually for a reason,” Xavier finally scolds, and I shudder a little un-der his calm criticism.
Ian wi-nks at us. “Leave her behind? You guys stay at the same house?”
We both ignore him.
“Well, you could tell me the reason,” I say softly, “instead of keeping me in the dark.”
“Oh, I will, from now on,” he grins, “to st©p you from following me.” I suddenly get the feeling that Xavier won’t let off of this t©pic for a very, very long time.
We st©p at Ian’s house, and he practically jumps out. “Thank you, Ian!” I call, and he gives me a little wave as he clim-bs up the steps to the doorway. Right before we roll out of the driveway, I see Lauren run out and pounce on her brother, smiling broadly. I look at them enviously. What I would give for a normal family…
Zooming home in silence, we gaze at the beautiful flowers as they fade into towering trees. “Xavier?” I finally say, as we are buried in the forest.
Xavier looks back at me. “Yes?” he says, gazing into my soul.
“Do you… un-derstand forever? How do we know if we are immortal?” I try to phrase these questions correctly, these questions without a true answer.
“I have never un-derstood forever, although I may be able to grasp it a little bit better than you might,” he stares at the road, his hair ruffling in the air, “I have been a werewolf for a while now, and watching your friends shrivel up and die while you stay perfectly the same is rather disturbing. It gives you the feeling that you are not even real, not even a human. Time and time again I check the obituary to see that one of my parent’s friends is dead, living to be even eighty years old. I always think to myself, I know them. I used to talk with them. My parents were the worst. They made me cry the most. You know why, Mona?”
“Because you loved them the most?”
“Because they were my only links to reality. Back ten years ago, I could point at a regular human and say ‘You are my mom. You are my dad.’ However, I can’t do that anymore. Nob©dy knows me. I am invisible, yet visible to the human eye. I have no connection with them. All I have is my pack, and my mate,” he glances at me, smiling weakly.
“I alre-ady have no connections to reality,” I stare at the floor, facing the undeniable truth, “I am dead to many alre-ady. Maybe I should have died along with my parents so I wouldn’t have to be so alone.”
We reach the mansion, and the car st©ps. Slowly, the car door opens, and a strong, masculine hand gr-abs my own. He whirls me into a soothing embr@ce. “You won’t be alone anymore,” he whispers into my hair, “we will be together.”
We stay like this, suspended in time, each feeling comfort in the other’s pres£nce. All the while, my heart is about to bur-st out of my che-st, escalating in speed as the seconds go by. A blus-h blossoms upon my cheeks as I realize he can probably feel my heart as it beats… all for him.
Embarras-sed, I back away, looking anywhere but at him. When I finally glance at his green eyes, I can see the glint of a smile in them. He knows… and he is laughing at me.
I punch him in the arm, unable to control my mortification. He laughs and gr-abs my hand, holding it in a deathly grip from which I cannot escape. I can feel myself turning into a tomato.
“To answer your other question,” Xavier says softly, “we don’t know for sure if we are immortal. In fact, we know we will perish someday, due to the prophecy. However, many of us are over a thousand years old, so that sort of makes it confusing. What should we call ourselves if not immortal?”
I am not even listening, absorbe-d completely in the heat of the moment. My heart of ice is melting because of his burning t©uçh, sparking fire beneath my skin.
“Xavier!” Yi calls, suddenly appearing in the doorway, “come quic-k!” His handsome eyes are wi-de, and the door is wi-de open for us both.
Xavier’s eyes grow wi-de also, and he lets go of me as if I was nothing. “Give me a second,” he apologizes, “I’ll be right back.”
He disappears in the house, leaving only us outside. I walk in after him, Yi shooting me a smile. “Sorry that I interrupted your… um… pri-vate time,” he sm-irks as I pas-s him into the house. I turn and shoot the worst scowl I can conjure at him. Yi can be so annoying.
The hvge door comes to a st©p as I start walking throu-gh the hallways, following their smell to where they are located. “Mona, st©p!” Yi calls after me, “stay here with me! You aren’t supposed to-”
I abruptly st©p listening to him, getting closer and closer to whatever the werewolves are trying to hide.
As I approach Ray’s room, I begin to hear more voices. “I guess we knew it would come sooner or later,” Jake says.
“What are we going to do?” Wes asks, adopting a frightened tone that is much unlike him.
“We will probably have to evacuate,” Xavier says firmly, “we nee-d to protect her.”
“Aren’t you surprised that they finally figured out how to email?” Ray laughs, “up until last year they always s£nt letters.”
I creep in throu-gh the open doorway, seeing immediately that they all are crowded around a computer. As quiet as a cat, I sl!pright behind them, peering on the screen. Internet Explorer is on, and the site is Google’s Gmail. A certain email is displa-yed, and they are all scanning it vigorously.
“What is this?” I ask calmly, causing almost all of them to jump.
It re-ads;
Dear Pack Number 101,
It has come to our attention that you have converted a human to a werewolf without our approval. This is the third offense within Pack Number 101 in 50 years, and although the last two have been pardoned, this last offense is simply inexcusable. You are called to a hearing on Wednesday of this week at Headquarters to determine the pack’s fate. The new convert will be promptly exterminated. Have a good day.
Sincerely,
The Council
All of them turn to look at me, a sad expression on their faces. Except for Xavier, of course, instead with eyes of fury.
This cannot be good.
T B C