Seduction (The Journal of the Wolves of Spruce Hollow) (10 page)

He laughed then, a real laugh too, like I’d amused him in some small way and it pissed me off to no end. Why was everyone always so damned amused by me? I really wasn’t that funny.

“Leave me alone, Jude, I’m not in the mood for this crap, the bus station was closed and I’m just trying to get back into town,” I said as I turned my back on him and started walking again.
 

“By going through the woods? It seems like maybe you have a different agenda in mind, Aspen. It’s almost like you’re hiding from something or maybe
someone
, perhaps?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Jude, and I would appreciate it if you would just leave me the hell alone,” I said as I turned back around and continued making my way through the forest.

“You know, Aspen, I could smell you as soon as I walked into the house today. Your scent was so strong. It was even stronger as I sat across from you at the dining room table. I felt like I was swimming in it. You smell like the forest after it rains. Has anyone ever told you that? Ironic, isn’t it? You couldn’t have been better named, Aspen Greystone,” he said darkly, his voice filling up the space between us.
 

I froze as realization dawned on me.
 

He could
smell
me, just like Roan could.
Oh god, no.
I knew what that meant. I slowly turned around and took a quick, cursory glance behind me to judge the distance between us and Jude shot me a predatory smile. It was all bared lips and snarling teeth.
 

Gasping, I turned and bolted, my heart pounding in my chest like a drum. I took off like a scared rabbit, my movements frantic and crashing as I ran through the forest. My mind was scrambling.
Should I double back towards the sound of the cars?
 

Running for all I was worth, I screamed for help the entire way. But no one heard me, I was too far into the woods. The trees and the large distance between my current location and the highway swallowed up my screams.
 

I could still hear the cars driving by in the distance but I knew that I wasn’t going to make it. Jude was right behind me, laughing as he chased after me.
 

“I might have to keep you around for a while, little Aspen, you’re turning out to be much more fun than I’d thought you’d be,” he said as he caught up to me and cupped his hand over my mouth to stifle my screams.
 

I fought against him with everything I had, trying to use the self defense that Roan had taught me when I was younger, but it was useless against a Were. He was freakishly strong and held onto me with an iron grip.
 

“You’re like a wet cat, all pissed off and hissing,” he laughed, “I have something I want to show you, Aspen. I have your ticket out of this shithole of a town,” he said as he drug me down to the ground with him.

It was like fire.
 

Being bitten and feeling sharp Were teeth sinking into your skin felt like fire.
 

Chapter 12

~Aspen~

I lay on the cold ground looking up into the dark. The stars were beautiful, twinkling pinpricks of light in the sky. Jude was wiping off his mouth and watching me intently as he leaned against a pine tree.

He had bitten me on the right side of my neck and I was bleeding profusely, I could feel my blood soaking down into the shoulder and sleeve of my shirt.
 

“Jesus, I didn’t want to hurt you Aspen but you wouldn’t stop struggling,” he said. His voice sounded really far away, like I was listening to him from a distance.
 

“Am I going to die? I said, half whispering, half gurgling
 

“Do you want to die?” he shot back at me.
 

I tried to shake my head but it seemed like more effort than I could muster at the moment.“No” I whispered softly as my life force spurted from my severed carotid artery with every thump of my heartbeat.
 

“You know, you’re the most interesting thing I’ve encountered in a long time. Such a dichotomy of good and evil resides within you, Aspen. I could see the thoughts swirling through your head tonight. It’s a little gift I was born with. There was some really dark, fucked up stuff in that pretty little head of yours,” he said as he came and stood over me. “You know, it’s too bad you couldn’t have allowed yourself to let go and develop feelings for me. I could have made you happy, Aspen. You know, I thought that if I gave you enough time, then things might have been different between us. But no, it’s him. Isn’t it?
Roan
. It’s always been him. You love Roan.
You hate Roan
. You want to run away from Roan. Well, my dear Aspen, I’ve just given you a way out of your little dilemna,” he laughed. He sounded completely unhinged and not like the smooth talking Jude that I’d known for five years.
 

I closed my eyes as I listened to his words drone on but I couldn’t respond, I was dying. I could feel my life force slipping through my fingers. I tried to hold on to it but I was so weak. It was like trying to grasp on to water.
 

Thoughts of my mom, Valerie, and my biological parents swirled through my head. Would I be reunited with them? I even thought of Roan in my final dying moments. I’d never gotten the chance to tell him how I really felt about him. Tears leaked out of my eyes and ran down my face. I couldn’t even lift my hand to wipe them.
 

My last thought was one of regret. I didn’t want to die, I was only twenty-one years old. I hadn’t even lived yet.
 

But it was too late.

I was already dead.

Chapter 13

~Aspen~

I opened my eyes and squinted. It was bright and the light hurt my eyes. But at least my neck wasn’t hurting any more.

This must be heaven.
 

It made perfect sense because in heaven you were supposed to be free from mortal afflictions and I’d always assumed that pain must be one of them.
 

I turned my head away from the bright light above me, looked around and discovered that I was still lying on the ground in the woods where Jude had attacked me. He was nowhere in sight. But of course he wouldn’t be here. People like him didn’t deserve to come to a place like this.
 

As I’d lain bleeding to death on the ground, he’d asked me if I’d wanted to die and I’d whispered “no”.
Hadn’t he heard me??
Why had he even bothered to ask if he wasn’t going to save me?
 

God, what a jerk. It was bad enough that he had attacked me in the woods, but he’d obviously not bothered to work his Were mojo to save me. I mean, c’mon, he was a supernatural being. I’m sure there must have been something he could have done?
 

I made a mental note to look him up and haunt him as I fought to get myself up into a sitting position. It had taken a lot of physical effort.
 

I was all alone. It was just me and the lonely trees.
Where the heck was everyone and why was I still in the woods?
 

Was heaven in the woods where I was killed? What kind of cosmic joke was that? Shouldn’t I be greeted by angels or my parents or something? Isn’t that what’s supposed to happen when you get here; you get reunited with your loved ones?
 

Huh, figures.
 

Shitty life, shitty afterlife.
 

Seems to me that there should be singing in heaven too, you know like celestial voices raised in song while the beautiful notes of a harp caressed your ears. But for some reason it was loud as hell here with loud roaring sounds bombarding my ears.
 

I felt disoriented and confused. Was I dead? Because if so, it sounded like there were cars in the afterlife. I could hear their engines off in the distance.

Wow, I hoped it wasn’t going to be like this for eternity because so far it hadn’t been very peaceful or relaxing at all here in heaven. If so, I’d definitely need a set of earplugs.

My body felt weakened by the extreme blood loss I’d suffered but I still managed to crawl onto my hands and knees and push myself up to standing.
 

As I grabbed onto a tree for support, the world suddenly spun out of control and the sensation made my stomach churn horribly.
 

“What is wrong with me? Isn’t heaven supposed to be wonderful?” I thought to myself as I bent over and promptly threw up onto the ground. How the hell can I throw up in heaven? Seems to me that there should be a strict “
No barfing”
rule in heaven. Somebody should really put in a complaint about that.
 

Wiping my mouth on my sleeve, I straightened up and started walking through the forest. Well, stumbled through the forest, was more like it. I was weak and kept falling into trees and tripping over roots until I could finally see the highway. I knew that if I followed this road, it would eventually lead me back to Sorcha’s house.
 

At least I had my bearings now and knew where I was.
 

As I staggered along, a thought kept pounding in my head, “
If I have to exist in this cursed version of heaven, then I want to go home to my own house, not Sorcha’s
”.
 

Which was a funny thought to have because when I was alive, I couldn’t wait to get away from my mother’s house. But now, in death, it seemed like the only thing I had left of who I used to be and I wanted to hold on to that last shred of humanity.

It seemed like an awful lot of work to get back to my mother’s house because it was several miles away from where I stood, but I supposed it wasn’t like I had anywhere else to be right now.

I had an eternity to get back home.

The bright light, high in the sky, indicated that it was probably around ten in the morning. Jude had attacked in the evening just as the had sun started to go down.
Had it taken that many hours for me to die and be transported here?
Or maybe there was no such thing as “night” in heaven? I hoped not, what a miserable existence it would be to be stuck in complete light every minute of every hour for all time without end.

My throat felt parched and on fire as I stumbled along the edge of the highway.
 

“Hey, god, I’m a little thirsty here in heaven. Could I have a drink of water or something?” I said as I raised my face to the sky. I stopped and hoped that water would somehow magically appear.
 

But nothing happened.
 

God, this place was completely dreadful.
I felt sick to my stomach, it was too bright out and I was much too far away from the one place I wanted to be.
 

Home.
 

There certainly weren’t many items in Pro side of the “Pros/Cons for Heaven” category, that’s for sure. As a matter of fact, I was really starting to dislike it here in here in heaven.
 

I reached my hand up and felt my neck for the hundredth time as I walked along the side of the highway. But, miraculously, it felt completely intact. The skin wasn’t ripped open and my artery wasn’t gushing blood anymore, like it had been last night.
 

I was still covered in my own blood however, that hadn’t gone away. Thick, half dried blood coated my entire right side, from the back of my head right down to the tip of my sleeve. It was everywhere. I even had blood smeared on half of my face, both hands and the back of my shirt. Jude must have really savaged me because I had no idea that one person could have so much blood in them.
 

My blood felt sticky and coagulated against my skin. It was disgusting and felt pretty awful. I needed a shower so freaking badly.
I wonder if they even had showers in heaven?
They didn’t have apparently didn’t have any water to drink, so who knew. I was starting to think that this place was sketchy. It wasn’t at all what I expected heaven to be like.

My skin felt horribly itchy, like ants were crawling all over me. I was irritated beyond belief and fed up with this damn place.
 

I scratched my nails up and down my arms and neck but it did nothing to help alleviate the itching in the least. All it did was help spread the semi coagulated blood around.
 

Then the shivering started.
 

First, I was cold, then hot, then cold then hot. It was a slow, tortuous circle that never seemed to end as I stumbled along the side of the highway. If this was what it meant to die and go to heaven, the religions of the world needed to do a serious rewrite. Because this was certainly not my idea of paradise.
 

A vehicle was quickly approaching.

As my footsteps faltered yet again, I could hear it coming from behind me in the distance.
I wonder if they could help me get to my mother’s house?
 

The vehicle was going fast. Damn, they were going to whip right past me. I turned around, and weakly waved my arms, signaling for help, when the vehicle screeched to a stop in front of me and two doors violently flew open.