Tuesday, thankfully, gave me a reprieve from life-drama until Eliana called me after school.
“Please say I can come over,” she said.
“Sure. You can save me from boredom. I finished Academy stuff before lunch.”
She cheered and promised to “be there in just a few.”
The sound of a car pulling into the driveway only seconds after we’d hung up made me smile as did Eliana’s playful knock on the back door.
“I’m so glad you said yes,” she said when I invited her in. “You’re not going to believe what happened today.”
She launched into her story before I managed to close the door.
“Aubrey went ballistic because Fenris didn’t show up for first session. And since you weren’t there either, Aubrey naturally assumed his absence was due to you, even after Adira told her that Fenris’ father called to excuse him. Rumor is Fenris answered the call of the trees, which means he’s on his mating run. Which made Aubrey even crazier. You should have seen it. Adira barely stopped her from coming over here. So?” she said, looking at me expectantly.
“So, what?”
“Was he here today?”
I rolled my eyes. “No.”
“Aubrey was telling everyone who would listen that she’d tracked his scent here yesterday but that Oanen stopped her from checking the house. She would have come straight here after school today, but Oanen made it very obvious that he was tailing her. So, she went to Mr. and Mrs. Quill to complain about Oanen’s interference in pack matters. That’s why I came here. I couldn’t stand listening to her whiny, desperate voice anymore.”
She barely breathed before continuing.
“What happened yesterday? With you and Fenris?”
I gently steered her toward the kitchen table as I answered.
“Nothing. I told him I wasn’t girlfriend material and, as much as I liked annoying Aubrey, I didn’t want to make his life any more difficult. He seemed okay with it, but said he still wanted to hang out anyway.”
“Hmm. Hang out because he’s desperate to get away from Aubrey? Or because he’s interested and is subtly not taking no for an answer?” Eliana sat in a chair and tapped her chin in thought. “He’s always struck me as a player because he seems to thrive on keeping his little group of women around him. And, every time I see him with his swarm, he always reeks of sexual energy. I think he’s interested. Better watch out for him.”
I grinned at her.
“Yes, ma’am.” I went to open the fridge. “You staying for dinner?”
“Can I?”
“Of course.”
While I started getting out ingredients, she filled in more details around the Aubrey drama.
“After Adira threatened to magic her into a two-week coma, Aubrey started sniffing everyone. Looking for even a hint of a trace of Fenris’ scent. You should have seen her face when she smelled Fenris on Oanen. Get this, he looked at her all calm like and said, ‘I’m a hugger,’ and shrugged. Half the kids in the hall busted up with laughter. That’s just another reason she’s bitching at the Quills right now.”
Hearing that clarified the reason behind yesterday’s spontaneous hug. Oanen had done it to cover up Fenris’ scent. I couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed about that.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if she comes straight here when she’s done ranting at the Quills, though,” Eliana continued. “She said she could smell you on Oanen, too.”
Eliana grew suddenly quiet. When I looked at her, her hands were flat on the table and she was pale and shaking.
I tossed the ingredients for lasagna aside and quickly moved to her.
“What’s wrong? Eliana?”
When she looked up at me, her eyes were black.
“Don’t touch me,” she whispered. “Go upstairs and lock your door.”
“Not a chance. Tell me what’s happening.”
“I had a bad thought. I’m so hungry now.”
I turned to the cupboard where I’d stashed a bag of double chocolate dipped cookies. Before I could grab it, the back door clicked, and I found myself alone in the kitchen. I ran out the door and took a running jump, neatly clearing the hood of the car and blocking Eliana’s escape.
“I’m not letting you leave like this,” I said, studying her still black eyes.
Eliana feinted to the right then left. I kept up, not letting her set more than a finger on the door handle. The sound of an engine and the sudden scream of tires braking on the pavement at the end of the driveway stopped our little dodge game.
A car door slammed
“Bitch!” Aubrey yelled.
The sound of her voice hit me hard. Rage ignited in my blood, and I turned away from Eliana, completely focused on a new objective: piss off Aubrey then punch her in the face.
She was making it easy on me by stomping her way up the driveway. Her blonde hair snaked around her head in a windblown mess from her drive here. It added to the crazed look in her eyes as she snarled at me.
“Heard you finally figured out Fenris isn’t interested in you,” I said. My hands ached with the need to hurt her, and I took a step closer.
Something slammed into my back, knocking me forward. The weight of whatever had hit me stuck tightly and wrapped around my arms and legs as I fell face first toward the ground. The anger that had flooded me vanished, replaced by a disgruntled calm and a mouth full of grass.
I turned my head and spat.
“Time to get off, spider monkey,” I said.
Eliana made a hesitant sound near my ear, and I knew she wasn’t going to let go just yet.
I lifted my head and found Aubrey towering over us, only a step away. Her lips twisted in a vicious, triumphant smile as she took a picture of us on the ground.
“Fenris is smart enough not to want succubus seconds.” She flounced her tangle of hair, turned on her heel, and marched back to her car.
Eliana got off me as soon as she pulled away.
“You gave me permission,” she said. “Any time you were mad, remember?”
I slowly got to my feet, brushing myself off. When I looked at Eliana, her eyes were back to normal.
“Inside, now,” I said, sounding stern.
Her bottom lip protruded slightly, but she listened and began a sulky pace toward the house. I spat out some more dirt and followed. When we were back inside, I poured us both a drink of water and sat at the table with her.
“I’m not mad about the hug. But I am mad about you trying to leave. What happened? I thought we were trying to be the kind of friends that could,” I shrugged uncomfortably, “talk about stuff.”
Eliana sniffled and nodded. “We are. It’s just hard. You know what I am. But you don’t know who I am. I’m Eliana Magdalene Margarete Howland, daughter of a piously religious man. That was who my mom seduced.
“For a year, she kept him under her spell feeding on his passion for her. After she gave birth to me, she left. He raised me, believing my mom some form of demon who tempted him from his path. He was right. The moment she walked through the door again, he fell to his knees and begged her to let him ‘worship at her temple.’”
“Oh, geez. I think I just threw up a little.”
“I know. I was there, and I definitely threw up a little. The point is, what I am and who he raised me to be doesn’t mesh together well. Sometimes, it feels like I’m being ripped in two.” She looked down at her glass, turning it in slow circles.
“And that’s why you’re not feeding. Because you feel guilty?”
“No. Because the way I need to feed feels so wrong.”
She sounded so guilty when she said it that I quickly changed the subject away from her feeding.
“Maybe my mom was like yours because she thought sleeping around was great, too.”
Eliana smiled slightly and looked up from the glass.
“I don’t think so. We can sense our own kind. It’s weird. Like seeing someone on the street and somehow knowing they’re your brother or sister.”
“That would be cool.”
She shook her head. “You’re thinking Brady Bunch, but it’s more like Cinderella.”
“Oh.”
“And I don’t necessarily need to sleep around. Being near people who are making out works, too, but it’s kind of awful. It’s like I am a peeping Tom on their emotions.”
“Okay. But what happened just before you tried to leave? Why’d your eyes go black?”
She went back to looking down at her glass before answering.
“Thoughts pop into my head. Sexual ones. And they make me so hungry. I don’t know why I think them. It’s not who I am.”
“We all think things we might not want to think. It’s nothing to run from.”
“It might be,” she said softly.
“Spit it out. What thought did you have?”
She took a deep breath.
“We were talking about how Oanen smelled like you and Fenris, and the image of the three of you on—”
“Okay, I get the picture. It’s not that big of a deal. I bet loads of people our age have weird sexual thoughts. I mean, look at what Fenris is dealing with, right? It’ll pass. But, you don’t need to run. Not from me. I won’t judge you if your eyes go all black.”
She nodded, flashing me a watery smile.
“Thank you.”
“No problem. Now, let’s make some food and binge eat a package of cookies.”
An insistent dream about a snoring beaver woke me to the sound of a lawnmower running in my front yard. I lifted my head and looked at my clock.
“Seven? He is not sane,” I grumbled, tossing back my covers.
I stomped down the stairs, almost falling, and yanked open the front door. The bright light of the early morning sun blinded me, but it didn’t stop me from speaking.
“Why do you hate me? Is it because I hit you? Because I’m friends with your sister from another mister? Or do you just hate everything that’s good in this world?” I leaned limply against the doorframe, too tired for a righteously indignant stance as I tried to blink him into focus.
Oanen, who’d turned toward me at the first sound of my voice, turned off the mower.
“Too early?” he asked.
“Yes! Eliana didn’t leave until two. Again.”
I blinked him into focus and caught his lips twitching along with the fact that he wasn’t wearing a shirt. The sight of his sun-kissed chest and the steam rolling off of it as he stalked toward the porch perked me up better than a cup of coffee. Where was his shirt? Wasn’t it too cold to be mowing without one? Not that I was complaining. How could stoic, lecturing Oanen look so good? All the sexual-thought talk with Eliana must have messed with my head.
“Did you get in trouble?” I asked, mostly to distract myself from the way the light played on his abs.
He stepped onto the porch and gave me a puzzled look.
“For what?”
“For keeping me from tearing Aubrey a new one at school? For stopping her from coming here and getting her butt kicked?”
He studied me.
“You’re very sure of yourself.”
“Yep. Aren’t you going to be late for school?” I gave the truck parked on the street a meaningful glance. As good as he looked without a shirt, I wanted sleep more.
“Is sass a superpower, too?”
I couldn’t help the smile that curled my lips. I liked his wit.
“Maybe. Can I bribe you with a toaster waffle to come back and finish this after school?”
“Maybe. If you let me keep my things here so I can fly.”
“Deal. Come on in. Don’t forget your shirt.”
I turned and shambled to the kitchen. The freezer surrendered its lone box of organic waffles, the only kind the store in town had offered, with very little struggle.
When I closed the door, Oanen was already sitting at the table. He once again wore his shirt, which clung to his sweaty skin. I wasn’t sure covering wet muscle with a thin shirt was any better than just skipping the shirt.
He leaned forward, bracing his forearms on the nicked wooden surface, as he watched me work my culinary magic with the toaster.
“Want syrup?” I asked.
“Yes, please.”
I got out a plate and a fork and put them in front of him before going back to the fridge.
“You’re not going to eat?” he asked, watching me.
“It’s barely seven, and there’s no one here to stop me from sleeping until noon. I’m not eating breakfast until I’m ready to face the day.” I set the syrup on the table just as the waffles popped.
“Breakfast is in the toaster. See you after lunch, lawn boy,” I said over my shoulder on my way out the door.
“Megan, wait.”
I stopped and groaned, removing the one foot I’d managed to place on the stairs. When I stepped back into the kitchen, he already had two waffles gone and a quarter of another on his fork. Chewing, he held out my phone. The play of his jaw muscles mesmerized me, and it took until he swallowed for me to take the phone from him.
“Text me if Aubrey shows up again, like she did last night. I already put my number in there.”
“Uh, okay.”
I quickly fled upstairs. Not long after I flopped on my mattress, I heard the water run then the door close.
“My life is so weird,” I said to the ceiling. I thought of my estranged mother, wondered if that was why she’d left, and closed my eyes.
I crashed hard. When I woke up again and went downstairs to fix my own waffles, I found Oanen’s dishes washed and in the drainer and his pants neatly folded on a chair. A note lay on top.
I’ll be back for these this afternoon. Try not to kick them in the dirt.
I grinned then frowned. Was he planning on walking inside naked again? My pulse picked up at the thought. Setting his pants down, I ran back upstairs for my phone and a clean set of clothes.
Before getting into the shower, I sent Oanen a quick text.
Your pants are on the back porch.
I tossed them onto the old wood planks then went back inside to get ready for the day. By lunch, I was eating my cereal and feeling pretty all right.
