Clan of Redemption (27 page)

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I dreamt about my Mother again, it
was almost the same dream, her at the beach trying to tell me
something. I woke up feeling better than I had before I went to
sleep. When I woke up, Logan was gone; he must be with the others
downstairs.

I woke up, took a shower, which
was mostly cold water, I guess that’s about right for a cabin in
the middle of the woods. It felt good to get cleaned up and change
my clothes. I put the shirt that Sydney had given me back on, I
really liked the shirt, and of course the jacket, especially since
it belonged to my mother. I could even faintly smell her essence on
the jacket. It was hard to imagine my Mother in this jacket even
though she dressed more like a soccer mom. I guess she had a
different style when she was younger, but it made me think about
her more.

I slowly made it downstairs and
could smell something good cooking; I miss my dads’ cooking. The
smell made me feel at home, something I was starting to miss. Was
my Dad ok by himself, was he cooking when it was only for him?
After Mom died we both relied a lot on each other, and I didn’t
realize that until this moment.

“
Jayden, you look deep in thought
are you ok?” Sully asked me.

“
Yeah, I’m ok, just thinking about
my Dad. Which reminds me, I need to call him, and I bet he’s really
worried about me,” I said as I sat down at the kitchen table and
started to dish up some French toast.

“
You’re out of luck kid, I already
tried to call my aunt and there’s no signal out here, so you’ll
have to wait until we get into town before you call your Dad. Man
I’m so glad I didn’t grow up in a small town, this would drive me
crazy.” Sully stuffed the last of her breakfast in her
mouth.

“
Thanks for breakfast Thornton;
it’s very nice for you to take care of us this way,” I
said.

“
Jayden, I owe you so much, I will
be at your beck and call for many moons. You’ve given me back my
life, and I might even be able to get my love back.” He said as he
looked down with sadness in his eyes.

“
You had a love,” Sully
giggled.

I smacked her on the arm. “Sully,
that’s enough. What happen to your love Thornton, if it’s too
personal I understand,” I asked glaring at Sully. I love Sully
she’s my best bud, but sometimes I swear I wanted to disown her,
she had the heart the size of a pea.

“
Her name is Sami! We were
supposed to be married until your grandmother changed me. I was
shunned from the clan and it’s forbidden to tell any outsider what
we are. She wanted to come to me, but I couldn’t let her see me
like this. If Catherine found out, I was afraid she’d hurt Sami. I
thought about running away with her, but, I didn’t want her to have
to live with me in that form all the time. She's so beautiful and
has such a big heart; she’s a teacher at the local elementary
school," Thornton told us while holding back a lump in his
throat.

“
You left without saying goodbye,
are you kidding me, what are you an idiot,” Sully said.

“
She wouldn’t have let me leave
without her, so I had to,” Thornton said with regret in his
voice.

“
You don’t have to justify
anything to us that was your decision to make. I’m sure she’ll
understand, when you explain it to her.” I said.

“
If I get a chance to see her
before the ceremony, I might get a chance to explain, but if I
don’t I’ll have to wait,” Thornton said as he cleared the table. I
was the last to eat; I guess I slept in a little longer than
everyone else did.

“
What ceremony is that?” I
asked.

“
So, are you ready to go, Jayden,
it’s almost time to meet up with your Grandfather,” Logan
said.

“
Yeah, I’m ready, so what’s the
plan? Sully is coming too?” I asked.

“
Please, I have to have some
social interaction, if I stay here another minute, I might turn
into a beast and run away,” Sully said while looking at
Thornton.

“
No offense, Thornton, I didn’t
mean anything towards you,” She said with a smile.

Always goading the
animals.

“
I’m not sure that’s a good idea,
Sully, Jayden's Grandfather has some things to talk to her about,
and I’m sure he’d like some privacy.” Logan said.

“
You aren’t the boss of me, mutt,
so don’t think you can tell me when and where I can go,” Sully
said.

Logan started to growl.

“
Ok, let’s just all take it easy.
How about we drop Sully off when we're in town and she can meet us
back at the car, does that sound ok?” I asked.

“
That’s fine,” Logan said as he
left the kitchen.

“
Sully, does that sound ok to you,
then you can look around town a little and not feel so locked up.
Will you do me a favor though, please take it easy on Logan, he’s
just trying to do his job, and it’s hard when you’re constantly
undermining him,” I said as I touched her arm with
affection.

“
Yeah, I’ll try, but it’s hard
when he looks like your neighborhood dog,” Sully said as she
grinned a little.

“
Is there anything I can do for
you Jayden?” Thornton asked.

“
No, but thank you for everything
already,” I said as I walked out into the living room.

Logan was sitting staring out the
window, I can imagine he’s worried about me, but I’m worried about
him. When does he get to be his human self again.

“
Logan, is there something on your
mind, I really need to know. You’ve been quite ever since we left
Sydney’s?” I asked him as I squatted down to be next to his
face.

“
I’m just having a hard time in
this form, I want to be able to be there for you like I always have
been, but I can’t do much like this.” Logan said.

“
To have you be alive I will take
you in any form I can get,” I said as I realized there wasn’t
anything I could say that would make him feel better. Maybe I could
change him back? I changed Thornton, I could change
Logan.

"Jayden, forget it. While I'm your
protector I have to be in this form. It's the deal I made and I'm
changing that. Let it go," he said and walked away from
me.

Sully, Logan and I all piled into
the car and took off towards Long Beach to meet up with
Grandfather. I'm excited to see him again, but I’m hoping our get
together is a little less interrupted.

We parked the car in a lot behind
the bookstore. Maybe I could look around a little, maybe pick up a
book or two. I didn’t realize how popular this little town is. The
streets with swarming with people bouncing in and out of the
stores.

“
I’ll meet you guys back here in
about an hour. I’m going to see if there is anything fun to do in
this…well I wouldn’t even call it a town.” Sully said as she
started to walk away.

“
Sully, wait.” I ran up to Sully
and gave her a big hug.

“
You’re squeezing me really hard,
I think you can let go now.” Sully said as she pulled
away.

“
I just want you to know how glad
I am that you are here, I know being this isolated is really hard
for you, but it means a lot to me.” I said as I pulled away from
her. "And you're taking all this weirdness really well. I'm kinda
waiting for you to blow," I winced.

“
Ok, kid, I get it, I’m glad that
you’re glad. I don't know why all this shape shifter, magic stuff
isn't affecting me, but I'm glad that it's not,” Sully said as she
looked a little embarrassed.

“
Sully, please try to keep out of
trouble, I don’t think I could handle it if anything happened to
you,” I said as she turned and started to walk away.

“
If I get into trouble, I’m
letting you know ahead of time that it wasn’t my fault, they
deserved it,” she said over her shoulder with a smile.

That smile, man I'm going to be in
trouble.

I stood there for a minute
watching Sully, I had a feeling this wasn’t a good idea
anymore.

“
Jayden, let’s go,” Logan barked
out at me.

“
Logan, maybe you should go with
her. I don’t like being separated. I’m not getting a good feeling,”
I said as I watched her round the corner and she was no longer in
view.

“
I can’t leave you Jayden, she’ll
be fine. I risk putting you in harm's way and I won’t do that,” he
said.

“
Logan, what if something happens
to her, could you live with yourself?” I asked him as we started to
walk to the book store.

“
Sully is a very strong girl; I
can’t imagine anyone getting the take on her. Besides, she wouldn’t
want me to follow her around,” Logan said.

We walked through the parking lot
and around the side of the many buildings that all seem to be
attached. The town is small but has lots of personality, with its
kite shops, shops that have great trinkets, and of course the go
carts. It reminds me of home, which makes me feel at ease. I wonder
if that’s why Mom chose to live in a small town, because it
reminded her of home.

I walked into the bookstore
feeling a little anxious, with the anticipation of what my
grandfather was going to say to me. I want to get to know him, but
I feel something’s missing with my Mother not being here. He was
sitting in a corner of the bookstore with his legs crossed at the
ankles, sipping on a drink, like he didn't have a care in the
world. He reminded me of my Dad when he would get enthralled in a
book sitting in his overstuffed chair.

I stood there for a second not
sure what to do, I wanted to run up to him and give him a big hug,
but he is a stranger to me. I thought he looked sort of regal with
his salt and pepper hair, it made me think of him as a person I
couldn’t talk to; someone out of my league.

“
Jayden, what are you waiting for,
he can read thoughts if you let your guard down, but wouldn’t you
rather tell him how your feeling instead of him invading your
mind.” Logan said as he looked up at me.

“
Would he really do that?” I asked
wondering how someone could want to take away the excitement of
wondering what they were going to say.

“
Your Grandfather is not that sort
of shape shifter, but if you stand here long enough, it might make
him curious.” Logan said as he nudged me with his nose to start
walking.

I walked over to the table as fast
as I could; it almost felt like a first date might. Not that I
would know what that felt like, Logan was the only boy that I ever
hung out with and I wouldn’t say that we ever really went on a
date.

“
Hi Jayden dear, how are you?” He
asked me with that soft warm smile. He gestured with his hand for
me to sit across from him.

“
I’m ok….actually I’m a little
nervous, I wished that I wasn’t, but I feel like were strangers and
I’m not sure what to say to you,” I said as I looked down at my
hands in my lap.

“
You shouldn’t feel nervous, I
know that I wasn’t around you growing up, but try to think of me as
a long lost friend. He said as he reached his hand out to
me.

I took his hand and I instantly
felt better, I could feel his love for me spewing through him and
into me.

“
You’re staring at me!” I said
with embarrassment.

“
You look just like your Mother,”
he said.

“
Maybe a little bit?” I felt my
cheeks start to burn.

“
I took the liberty of ordering
you a mocha, I wasn’t sure if you even drank coffee or not,” he
said as his face seemed to get serious.

“
Thanks, this is fine,” I
said.

“
I knew that you would come one
day, I just wasn’t prepared for it to be so soon.”

“
You’ve been waiting for me? If
that’s true, then why didn’t you try to find me, so that we could
of known each other sooner?” I said, realizing that my feelings
were hurt that I hadn’t known my grandparents.

“
You’re mother was basically
thrown out of our society for not wanting to follow the laws, and
in doing so, I was never able to contact you.”

“
What about after she died, how
come you didn’t come find me then?” I said as it sounded like I was
a kid throwing a fit.

“
It’s complicated, but for your
safety, I didn’t want to risk it. Not until you turned 18 were you
allowed to be acknowledged,” he said as he sipped on his
coffee.

“
So now that I am 18 and I’ve been
acknowledged, now what?” I asked.

“
Well you have to decide if this
is what you want. Your Mother didn’t want this and you have the
same right that she had to decide for yourself.” he
said.

I could tell that he was almost
pushing me towards running away, was it this bad to be part of
these people. They all seemed very nice, everyone except my
Grandmother, she seemed a little up tight.

“
I came here because I want to
know the truth.” I said as I realized that I hadn’t decided, but
what really do I have to decide. Why can't I be family and not live
here?

“
Jayden, that was a great way to
avoid my question, but this is serious, you really need to decide
if you want this life. There are rules that you will have to follow
and some of them you might not like.” he said as he seemed to look
at me with question in his eyes.