Blood Descendants (St. Clair Vampires Book 1) (2 page)

For the next two hours
I was in the front of the store by myself when Cindy came out from
the back with her purse filled to bursting. She was on her phone
again, or still, walked right past me and out to her car. I didn’t
understand how she could be so bold as to steal right out in front of
everyone, but, in her defense, she was getting away with it. Out of
the corner of my eye, I saw Tabitha walk into the store. I thought it
was funny that she was back after having shopped and left well over
an hour ago. I smiled and continued to help the customer in front of
me.

Tabitha circled the
store until Cindy returned and then she followed her to the back
office. I hurriedly put the customer’s items into a bag and
gave her change so that I could see what was going on. As I rounded
the corner to the office, Tabitha's hand on my arm stopped me. There
was a mischievous twinkle in her eye. She put a perfectly manicured
finger to her lips, straightened her already perfect ponytail and
started towards the back room. Following closely behind her I was
full of anticipation of the imminent blow up. I wasn’t sure who
Tabitha was or where she came from but I liked her style.

We stopped in the open
doorway of the office and watched as my manager, Cindy, told the
person on the phone that the free clothes she was stuffing into her
bag were a “perk of the job”. Tabitha cleared her throat
and Cindy froze, looked in our direction and turned a bright shade of
furious-red.

“
What
the …” Cindy began.

“
Hi.
My name is Tabitha St. Clair and things are going to change around
here”, Tabitha said.

“
No,
they aren’t. Who are you to come in here and tell me what to
do? Get the hell out of my office!” Cindy was furious and not
at all fazed by the fact that she had just been caught stealing.

Tabitha, on the other
hand, looked as if she had just begun to enjoy a game of cat and
mouse. Her lips curved into a smile as she opened her purse and
pulled out a tube of lip gloss. She never broke eye contact as she
applied a thin layer of pale pink gloss. Tabitha’s lips had
changed colors just as Cindy’s face went from furious-red to
her natural olive color and then to a pasty white. When she started
to shake and cry, I became concerned.

“
Once
again”, Tabitha began, “things are going to change around
here. My new friend Cheyenne is not going to get stuck with all of
the work anymore. You are going to have to pull your weight from now
on. And, stop stealing from the store. Do I make myself clear?”

Okay, now I was
confused. I didn’t think corporate would do something so
creative. I mean, Tabitha sounded like she was on official business
but we were the same age. There was no way she had this kind of pull.
But, the store chain was recently purchased by a huge international
corporation so anything was possible. If that was the case, Cindy was
in hot water.

“
Cheyenne,
I’d like to talk to Cindy for a moment.” Tabitha asked
with a smile. Something about that smile almost made me fear for
Cindy’s safety…almost.

I worked the register
and helped customers in the fitting room for the next twenty minutes.
By that time, I was getting curious and started to head to the office
when Cindy and Tabitha emerged. They walked in silence through the
store and out the front door. Standing there with my mouth open and
customers all around me, I wondered what had transpired and how it
was going to affect my job. I needed that job. I was saving up for a
car so that my mom didn’t have to worry about me getting
around. I was going to be so angry if Cindy messed this up for me.

About 15 minutes later,
Cindy walked back in and told me that I could take a break. She
didn’t make eye contact but she also didn’t make any rude
or disrespectful comments. Not needing to be told twice, I grabbed my
purse and walked across the parking lot to Starbucks before she
changed her mind. I ordered a venti-mocha-frappacino with soy, no
whip, and waited for my name to be called.

“
Cheyenne.”

Tabitha was sitting
near the window with her own cold coffee drink. She used her foot to
push the second chair out in invitation for me to sit down and
smiled. I grabbed my drink, straw and a napkin, took a deep breath
and sat. I exhaled and prepared for the news about Cindy and the
store.

“
So,
what is there to do around here for fun?” Tabitha asked me.

“
Fun?”

“
Yes,
Cheyenne, fun. I just moved into town and I need a tour guide. You up
for a day of show and tell?”

“
Well,
I have another 3 hours on my shift, I can go then.”

“
You
can go now. I honestly doubt Cindy will hold it against you,”
Tabitha said with a wink and a smile.

Right then and there I
knew we would be good friends. We were inseparable for the rest of
the summer.

Chapter 1

The first day of
school was always a cluster. Too many freshmen and other new
students, more cars than parking spots and several eager parents
watching their precious little darlings march into their new school.
It was dreadful. I was a senior, and, quite frankly, I was over the
pomp and circumstance of the first day parade. The only thing I was
looking forward to was the LAST day of school so that I could leave
this god-awful desert.

As I pulled my Jeep
into the parking lot I felt the sensation that I was being watched.
It sounded crazy, so I kept it to myself, but I’d had the
feeling all summer long. I looked around and saw nothing out of the
ordinary but nearly plowed into a freshman pedestrian in my
distracted state.

“
Sorry”,
I shouted through the closed window and was rewarded with a middle
finger and the muted verbiage that goes with it. I hated freshman.

I grabbed my purse and
computer bag, jumped out of the Jeep and began walking toward the
school entrance. There were so many familiar faces, but the one I was
looking forward to seeing the most was nowhere to be found. I knew
Tabitha was going to be here at some point. She had just gotten back
from Ghana where she spent the last 2 weeks of summer with her
adoptive mother.

Since Tabitha and I
met, I was drawn to her in a sisterly way, like we were connected on
a deeper level. We were inseparable. She was the smartest and most
witty person I knew. We were the topic of the small town rumor mill
until one weekend when some of her guy friends from New York
arrived…that had been some night, but I digress.

I walked past the gates
and the neon yellow clad security guards into the quad. The senior
area was an ugly boulder in the middle of a desert landscape theme.
It was already hot and everyone was wearing the latest fashion
statements for the season. I would be grateful when skinny jeans were
no longer in style because I had seen far too many not-skinny people
in too-skinny jeans.

I sat on the edge of
the rock nearest the administration building waiting for Tabitha to
show up. I sat there in a daze until I heard the inevitable sound of
awe that always accompanied her wherever she went. She wore a stylish
pair of tight jeans with a simple lilac chemise to keep her cool in
the desert heat. I watched as students and adults alike stopped her
every few feet to ask how her summer went. She graciously responded
to all of them as if she were some sort of political candidate. I
didn’t know how she did it. When she finally freed herself
from the throng of faithful admirers and started making her way
through the crowd, I saw a hooded figure move in the distance. I
tried to make out the face under the hoodie but it was blurry as if
out of focus. I must have been staring hard because, just then,
Tabitha stiffened and glanced over her shoulder. She froze when she
saw the figure, reversed direction and headed toward it. I lost sight
of the both of them in the crowd and was just about to go after her
when the bell rang and the hordes of students started to scatter in
different directions.

I waited for Tabitha
just long enough to know that I was going to be late to homeroom if I
didn’t get going. The hallways were jam packed with primping
socialites, flexing jocks and acne-faced freshmen making a slow
walking obstacle course. When I arrived breathlessly at homeroom, I
saw Tabitha had beaten me to class. She was always doing
that…disappearing and reappearing without a sound and never
out of breath. When I shot her a questioning look, she shook it off
and mouthed ‘I’ll tell you later’ over her
shoulder.

Tabitha had been
mysterious since the day we met. Always looking over her shoulder and
running after imaginary people. At least I thought they were
imaginary because I could never see their faces. And, since I had
been experiencing some of the same things, I was starting to wonder.
At lunch, we made plans to head to my house after school. Tabitha
said that she had something to talk to me about that was too
important to do here. Patience was not one of my virtues, so I was
anxious for the rest of the day.

As seniors we were able
to pick our own schedules, so Tabitha and I had all but one class
together. She loved math and I was a history buff, so, while she was
taking an extra Calculus course, I was in an European AP History
class. During History, I noticed a new student sitting near the far
wall. I knew he was new because everyone else in this class had been
in middle school with me. Small towns make newcomers stick out.

He was tall and lanky,
but not too anorexic looking and his hair was a shocking patch of
white sprouting out of his head. His skin reminded me of a caramel
mochachino, which contrasted his sea green eyes. He wasn’t
handsome in the traditional way, but I could see why some girls would
think he was attractive. He was looking out the window before he
glanced in my direction and caught me staring.

I knew I should have
looked away, but continued to hold his gaze with the same questioning
intensity that he sent at me. An instant curiosity came over me, a
feeling of deja' vu, and I wondered why he seemed familiar to me.
Like I knew him from somewhere. The summer had been dull and boring
and I would have remembered meeting him. Yet, somehow, I was certain
that he knew me.

The bell rang, causing
me to jumped and break my eye contact with the stranger. Shaking off
the residual feeling of déjà vu, I gathered all of my
belongings and headed out of the classroom. Athletic P.E. was my last
class of the day and I was excited to get my competitive year
underway. Running was not only my passion but a way to help me sort
through my issues. For years I had been experiencing intense feelings
towards the Earth and her elements. Even though I had been diagnosed
with Asthma as a toddler, I was always able to get as much air as I
needed. The doctors had been dumbfounded. I had simply been grateful
that I could breathe.

I
met up with Tabitha and a few other girls in the locker room where we
changed, exchanged summer gossip and generally caught up with each
other. Making our way down to the practice track with all of the
other athletes, we walked past a group of coaches who were talking
about their upcoming schedules.

Our coach left the
group and joined us for the rest of the walk. She was an athletic
woman who had run cross country in high school and college. Her
knowledge of the sport and her ability to perform every exercise or
workout that she created for us made it easy to respect her. All of
the boys stumbled over themselves to get her attention, but she never
paid them any mind.

On the field, about
thirty people formed a circle to stretch. I looked around at all of
the people who wouldn’t make it past the first week of
practices and laughed.

“
What’s
so funny?” Tabitha asked.

“
The
cocky freshmen and out of shape upper class-men. We go through this
every year. Coach is gonna have them throwing up within 5 minutes”,
I said.

Every year was the
same. Coach would send home an interest packet with recommended diet
and exercise plans for the summer so that we would be ready to go on
day one. She wasn’t much for patience or excuses, so we all had
to be on the ball. And, like every other year, the newbies and
out-of-shapers fell like dominoes. It was classic. So, with exercise
plans in hand, Tabitha and I had started to run during the summer;
the day after we met. It was amazing just how much faster she was
than me, but I just chalked it up to her having less weight to carry.

After the three mile
workout in the hot desert sun, I was ready for a shower and some
food. The locker room was packed with girls from all of the fall
sports teams so it was work finding an available shower-head to use,
but I was able to get in and out without too much trouble. I didn’t
bother looking for Tabitha because she always finished the workouts
before me and was undoubtedly in her car with the air conditioning
cranked. I passed through the parking lot, waving at classmates as I
went, climbed into my Jeep and headed off campus.

I knew that my mom was
working a double shift and wouldn’t be home until after
midnight, so I drove straight to the house to do my chores. The
streets were filled with kids playing around while walking home from
school, so my music was high but my speed was low. Leaning on the
stop sign at the end of my street was the boy from my History class.
I came to a complete stop to prevent hitting one of the kids crossing
the street and glanced over at him. He returned my gaze and it
unnerved me. He wasn't new to the neighborhood, I realized, not
having seen any moving vans recently. The car behind me honked and I
turned onto my street.