The Xoe Meyers Trilogy (Xoe Meyers Young Adult Fantasy/Horror Series) (44 page)

Chase looked at me seriously. “He talked about you a lot, before you actually met.”

I gave him a questioning look. “What would he have to talk about? He didn't even know me.”

“He checked in on you,” he replied. “even though you didn't know it.”

“And how do you even know this?” I asked, feeling flustered.

Chase flushed a little at that. “Well, I went along a few times . . . when he checked on you.”

“You what!” I exclaimed, eliciting a few questioning stares from the nearest dancers. I lowered my voice, “You
spied
on me?”

“No,” Chase said calmly. “I
checked
on you, along with your father. Sometimes when he couldn't make it, he'd send me to check on you by myself.”

“Um,” I began nervously, “How long ago did you start
checking
on me.”

The thought of Chase seeing me as a nerdy, gangly preteen gave me shivers. The thought of him knowing I used to wear high-waters everyday, because I could never find jeans long enough for me was even worse.

Chase smiled. “Only in the past two years.”

Oh thank the gods . . . but still, it rankled that Chase had
known
me in a sense for the past two years, when I only first met him around a month ago.

“Well, I just don't like this at all,” I decided out loud.

Chase chuckled. “Don't worry, I won't tell anyone you went through a Shakira faze.”

Well damn.

B
efore I realized it, several songs had passed. We didn’t see any of our would-be escorts in sight, so Chase and I went looking for the rest of our group. We’d only been there maybe 30 minutes, but it was so past time to get back to our rooms. We'd made an appearance, and that was good enough dammit.

We managed to gather up Lucy and Max pretty quickly. Lela and Allison had to be pried from a group of men fawning over them. All that was left was Jason . . . and we couldn’t find him. I went from being pissed that he’d abandoned me, to slightly worried.

After combing the entire gathering area, we started sweeping outwards into the woods. We split into pairs: Lucy with Allison, Chase with Lela, and me with Max. Each pair had one wolf to help scent Jason out.

After only about a minute I got tired of Max having to catch me, so I took off the heels in favor of walking barefoot. There was only a sliver of moon in the sky (a werewolf gathering near the full moon would have been disastrous). I just hoped that I wouldn’t find any snakes or spiders with my bare feet.

Several more minutes of stumbling through the underbrush, and we finally heard voices. Well, Max heard voices, and made a shushing motion at me as we crept forward, then I finally heard them. There were four figures in a clearing ahead of us. One looked like Jason, but in the dark I couldn’t be sure. I looked at Max for verification and he nodded.

I leaned against a nearby tree so I could go on tip-toes and try and get a better look. As my hands pushed against the rough bark, the tree made a loud cracking sound. I cringed and turned my attention back to the clearing.

All four figures had whipped around to stare in the direction of the noise. Without a word spoken, the Jason-looking figure strode in our direction, leaving the other three to stand and stare.

When what was indeed Jason reached us, he grabbed my shoulders and steered me back towards the dance, leaving Max to follow. I stubbed my toe on a tree root as he hurried me along. He caught me before I went down, but I was still pissed.

“What the heck is going on?” I spat, trying to ignore the pain in my toe.

“Why aren’t you wearing shoes?” Jason asked, ignoring my question.

“Oh, I dunno,” I said sarcastically. “It was a little difficult to go wandering through the woods in four-inch heels, in search of my boyfriend who abandoned me all night.”

Jason bit his tongue before he could say something to further piss me off. Max stayed out of it. Very wise of him.

Without another word, Jason gathered me up in his arms and started carrying me purposefully back towards the gathering. I was too confused to fight much, so I just wrapped my arms around his neck and waited. I’d tear him a new one once we were back in our rooms.

We got close to the gathering, and what I hoped would be where I could walk for myself again. No such luck. Jason skirted around the clearing, avoiding any onlookers.

“Max,” Jason ordered. “Get the others.”

Max left us without another word.

I’d had enough. I went through the visualization my dad had taught me. Soon enough I was being dropped to my feet as Jason raised a hand to his burned neck. It was only a mild burn, like a bad sunburn, but the initial shock was enough to get Jason to put me down.

“You need to explain what's going on,” I said calmly with my feet firmly planted on the ground, then added, “Right now.”

Jason stared at me in consternation, his lips in a tight, unrelenting line. “I didn’t know there would be other vampires here,” he replied.

Other vampires? A million thoughts raced through my head. I knew quite a bit about vampires, seeing as I was dating one. Yet, Jason wasn't scary to me, he was just . . . Jason. Other vampires were scary. They were also rare.

Few victims survived the transition to become vampires. Those that did tended to be loners, or stayed with relatively small groups. I had assumed I'd go my whole life without bumping into another one, or at least not so soon.

“What?” I questioned.

“Other vampires,” he affirmed. “Several of the packs hired them. Apparently they’re afraid of you and your father . . . mainly your father. They wanted back up just in case.”

Now I was really confused. How were people supposed to be scared of me when I'd just give them sunburns . . . or set their cars on fire, or maybe burn them to death. Ok, I was moderately scary. Now my dad I understood, he is much more than moderately scary.

“But, he’s not here,” I argued.

“They’re being cautious,” he explained, wiping his palm nervously across his face. Jason had to be pretty worked up for his nervous ticks to show this much. “After Dan, and then Nick . . . werewolves tend to gossip. Stories get embellished.”

“So why hire vampires?” I asked.

“Since vampires don't have much affiliation group-wise, they often tend to work as mercenaries of a sort,” he answered.

I shrugged. “Okay, that still doesn’t explain why you ditched me all night to have a mysterious meeting in a clearing with a gang of vampire mercenaries.”

“I know two of the other vampires that were hired,” he admitted with a shrug. “I needed to make sure that they meant you no harm. Most vampires aren’t like me. They would kill you simply to see what your blood tasted like. Rarely do you find a demon of any magnitude vulnerable. Chase may be in danger of being attacked as well.”

“So basically, more monster-types out for my blood?” I asked.

Supernaturals really did have a weird obsession with blood. Vampires needed it, werewolves reacted to it, bad people tried to steal it for nefarious purposes. Not for the first time I found myself glad that the only blood I needed or wanted was the stuff running through my veins.

Jason nodded. “We shouldn't have come here. We need to be careful.”

I sighed. “Like that’s anything new. I’m almost constantly with a vampire, another demon, and three werewolves. I wouldn’t say I’m exactly vulnerable.”

Jason grabbed my shoulders to emphasize his point. “Some of them are stronger than me. I can't protect you.”

“Oh yeah?” I said, eyebrow raised. “I’m not worried until I find out they’re stronger than
me
.”

I turned around and sauntered away. That’s right ladies and gentlemen, Xoe Meyers can saunter. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it.

I
woke up beside Jason. I was still slightly peeved, but he had apologized once we got back to the room, and I had been in serious need of some snuggling. He really was just looking out for my best interest, even though he was doing it in an overbearing way.

I had done my best not to think about Chase lying silently on his cot. I would have given a large sum of money to know what he was thinking. Then again, maybe it was best that I didn't know. He was my friend and I refused to let things get awkward.

Sensing that I was awake, Jason snuggled me closer. Jason doesn’t sleep, so when we stay the night together, he usually just lies next to me waiting for me to wake. Sounds boring to me, but he doesn’t seem to mind.

I turned over to glance at the clock. 6:30am. Ick. I had a breakfast meeting to go to at 8:00. I was the only one of our group allowed at the meeting. I had to present my proposal to form our pack. Lela had helped me write it, but I was still worried. Public speaking is not my forte.

I gave Jason a smile, then rolled out of bed and stumbled toward the bathroom to take a shower. Chase seemed to be asleep, and Max was just a lump under his blankets. Before I could pass through the doorway, Jason was just suddenly there in front of me. He pulled me in and tried to kiss me.

“Hey man,” I argued in a whisper, pushing against his chest. “Morning breath.”

Jason shrugged. “Don’t care,”

I shrugged in return, and pulled his face down to my level. The kiss started out soft, then intensified, making me forget all about my morning breath. I leaned against Jason's chest to assure that my footing remained stable.

Jason took this as a sign to kiss me further, his hands tightly gripping the sides of my waist. With all of the stress in our lives, we had kind of let our relationship fall to the sidelines. I realized that Jason had been so intent on being my bodyguard, that he had forgotten to be my boyfriend. I'd been so intent on trying to take care of everyone, that I hadn't been paying him much attention either.

We heard a throat clear somewhere beside us. Jason and I both pulled away from the kiss to regard the interruption. Chase was standing in front of us looking grumpy and half-asleep. There was no way Jason hadn't heard him walking up. I glared up at Jason.

“Um,” Chase mumbled. “I need to use the bathroom.”

My face flared with heat that had nothing to do with my demon powers. I tried to flee the bathroom doorway as quickly as possible to hide my blush. Jason laughed as he followed me out into the main room.

Max was awake and perched on his bed, because I totally needed someone else to observe my embarrassment. “Are you overheating again or something?” he questioned.

Jason walked up to hug me from behind. Max glanced at the bathroom where Chase was, then back to us. His mouth formed into an “O” of understanding. I blushed even harder as I hurried to the adjoining room door. I would be showering in the girls’ room today.

All of the girls were still soundly asleep. I would have been soundly asleep too if I had any other choice. I crept past their beds and into the bathroom, shutting the door gently behind me.

I undressed and hopped into the shower. I turned on the water, standing clear so as not to get hit by the initial cold water, but my efforts were in vain. Someone had left the shower nozzle pointing outwards, and since I hadn’t closed the curtain yet, water sprayed all over the bathroom. It completely soaked my pajamas as well as the small towel that was placed on the floor. Gre-eat.

I adjusted the shower head and closed the curtain. I’d clean up the mess later. Finding that someone had left their travel bottles of shampoo and conditioner in there, I helped myself. I hate those little hotel two-in-one shampoo/conditioners, and I wasn’t really in a mood to be polite.

The shampoo smelled strongly of some herb, maybe rosemary. My guess was that the shampoo belonged to Lela. It seemed like her kind of scent. I absorbed myself into the smell, trying to relax a little. I had just promised myself that I wouldn’t let things get awkward with Chase, and here I was, hiding in the shower, feeling embarrassed and awkward. Stupid boys. I was actually kind of glad that I got to go to this morning's meeting by myself.

When I finally stepped out of the shower and dried myself off with one of the white towels that the inn supplied, I realized that I’d forgotten to grab a change of clothes, and my pajamas were thoroughly soaked. Damn.

I wrapped my towel around me as tightly as possible and went out into the bedroom. I sat down by a sleeping Lucy and attempted to shake her awake. She mumbled something unintelligible at me, then rolled over, burrito-ing herself up in her blankets.

I tried Allison next. She actually half woke up. “What d’you want?” she mumbled.

“I left my suitcase in the other room,” I whispered back.

Allison frowned at me as she woke up a bit more. “So go get it loser.”

I stood, showing her that I was just in a towel.

“Stop being a baby,” she grumbled before burying her face back in her pillow. Double damn.

I readjusted my towel and made my way back to the boys' room, hoping they had all gone to breakfast. Sadly, only either Max or Jason had gone. I didn't know which since one of them was in the closed bathroom with the shower running. A freshly showered, and thankfully dressed Chase was sitting on his cot putting his shoes on.

Feeling like I was in a really cheesy romantic comedy, I silently walked over to my suitcase that I’d left between the room’s two beds. I was ignoring Chase so hard, that I didn’t realize he’d gotten up to walk towards the door. I turned around with my clothes clutched against my chest, and almost ran straight into him.

We both stared at each other for a moment. He tugged at the bottom edge of his shirt like it needed to be adjusted. “Um, sorry about earlier-” he began.

“No problem,” I interrupted before he could say something to make me feel even more embarrassed.

I clutched my towel tightly and looked down at the floor, not wanting to discuss it further.

He just stood there, at a loss for words. Dark, slightly wavy hair slicked back with moisture, looking scrumptious. Oh geez.

I brushed past him as quickly as possible and bolted back into the girls’ room. Not awkward at all, and my name is Queen Elizabeth Mary.