Bizarre Life of Sydney Sedrick (23 page)

With that, he turned and headed down the front stairs. I wanted to call him back, to tell him to stay, but he seemed distracted. I assumed he was probably thinking about what I’d told him about the rogues. He usually said flirty things whenever he left. I willed him to say something, anything, but he didn’t. The night remained quiet, except for the sound of his footsteps crunching on the icy snow as he headed back to his car, then drove off.

Did the information about the rogues upset him so much, or was there something else preoccupying his thoughts? Like something to do with Lisa? The sound of her name, even if it was only in my head, made me cringe.

Blake wasn’t my boyfriend, and he wasn’t going to be. There was nothing for me to feel jealous about. It shouldn’t bother me so much if they had a past, or not. I’d have to deal with Blake having a girlfriend sooner or later. I didn’t plan on applying for the position any time soon. It wouldn’t matter. I wouldn’t be a fan of anyone he dated, especially a prissy wolf like Lisa.

The rest of the day was filled with normal stuff. All my laundry got done, and I cleaned my room to the best of my abilities. Aunt Judith worked out in the greenhouse, tending her precious plants. Brianna and Michael were out shopping. Brianna must not be feeling too good after drinking herself silly last night. Hopefully she was putting up a good front.

The phone rang. My mom. We hadn’t talked much since I moved up to Kenosha. I didn’t really want to talk to her. Sitting there with the phone in my hand, I stared at the blinking light as her number flashed across the screen. I didn’t know what to do as the same number I’ve known almost my entire life stared back at me. Normally, I’d be happy to have Mom or Dad call me since it’s been so long since we talked. My life was different now, and there was so much going on that didn’t involve them. We didn’t really have anything to say to each other. There was a different part of me, a big part, they would never understand, or know of. They couldn’t help me with the responsibilities of being the Selected, and I didn’t want to expose them to any of the dangers that came along with the job. We were more strangers now than family, and the geographical difference wasn’t the only thing separating us.

I pressed the answer button and put the phone to my ear.

“Sydney, honey, I’ve been trying to call you, but you’re never at home. You’re always working at the store. Judith told me you’ve taken quite the liking to Morning Sun?”

My mother had been drinking. She was never good at hiding the slur from her speech. Brianna told me during her last visit with us that my mom was drinking more often. Sometimes, she even hid it from my father, fearing he would grow concerned, and make comments about it. My mom was a recovering alcoholic, and now she was drinking again.

“Hi, Mom, yeah the store is great, I...” There was so much that needed to be said, but I still had too much anger toward her. Why didn’t you ever tell me about Grandma Maria? Why didn’t you ever tell me about being the next in line as the Selected? Didn’t you ever think to say, hey, watch out for vampires and werewolves because they’ll be trying to kill you?

Why would my own mother send me to the wolves, literally, without warning me at all? Yeah, she really pissed me off. It wasn’t Aunt Judith’s fault, and it wasn’t her decision to make not to tell me about my fate. I harbored no bad feelings toward her.

My own mother was the one who had chosen to keep me in the dark. She had decided to keep me ignorant my entire life, instead of preparing me for what was to come. She should have been training me every single day on how to deal with vampires, werewolves, and the Others. I still didn’t know what the heck ‘Others’ meant. Blake didn’t explain what an Other was, and he seemed in a hurry to leave when he dropped me off, so there hadn’t been time for him to tell me anything about them.

“Honey, I’m real sorry you had to find out about everything like you did. I just didn’t know what to do, and we thought it might be best for you to have as much of a normal life as possible before your grandma passed away,” she said, then added quietly, “Making you the Selected.”

She didn’t bother trying to hide the disgust in her gravelly voice. Her tone of voice implied that she thought being the Selected was repulsive. My mother was as easy to read as Brianna.

No, it was definitely not the time to discuss her not telling me, not forewarning me of my destiny. I decided to ask about my father, instead. Aunt Judith said he knew there was something different about me, but he didn’t know what.

Mom told me Grandma made an amulet for him that he promised never to take off because it meant so much to her that he wore it. I couldn’t recall, throughout my entire childhood, a time when he didn’t have that on. The amulet was charmed with a memory-altering rune. Any conversations to do with the words vampire, werewolves, and Selected were phased out of his memory. How sickeningly convenient for my mother.

Someday, I might have to take the amulet off. Someday, I might just tell him everything. Aunt Judith said it was done for his protection. The less he knew about everything, the safer it was for him, and also for Brianna. The fact Aunt Judith felt it was best was the only reason that made me hesitate in blowing the whole truth out from under my mother’s feet. She didn’t lie just to me. My mother lied to my father and sister, too, and that pissed me off even more. But since Aunt Judith believed their ignorance was for the best, that’s how the information would be dealt with, for now.

I refused to talk to my mother about anything that had to do with me being the Selected. She finally got the hint and stopped trying to force the conversation in that direction. When we were done talking about the common aspects of life, the store, Brianna’s schooling, my mother’s work as a realtor, we said our goodbyes. She said she’d call me again, soon.

I thought about why my mother would be drinking so much and realized it may be because she felt bad for what was happening to me. That was her cross to bear, and she would have to come to terms with what she did when she’d chosen to have a daughter, and then not tell her what she was. She’d had a decision to make, and she made it. Well, now she’d have to deal with it. And me.

I went back upstairs to my bedroom and turned my iPod docking station on to my favorite playlist. Lady Gaga’s
Born This Way
rocked through my stereo while I folded and put my laundry away.

Sweat started to bead down my arm when I went to hang my sweater in the closet. Aunt Judith didn’t keep the thermostat set so high that it would make me sweat while doing a simple task of folding laundry. A few seconds later, the room began to close in on me. Turning around, I lunged at the cell phone Blake had given me. Holding the phone in my hand, I tried to calm the shaking of my body enough to call him. By the time he answered, it was difficult to talk. Pain wracked my body in fast, hard waves.

“Rogue!”

I heard Blake swear into the receiver and hang up the phone. Somewhere, out on the property, a rogue wolf was prowling around. Aunt Judith was working in the greenhouse, totally unaware of the danger she was in. My legs gave out. I dropped to the carpet on my knees. A moan of frustration escaped my lips. My will forced my body to crawl past the bed to the door, staying down close to the floor. If I stood up, I would probably lose my balance, or fall. I couldn’t let myself pass out. I had to warn Aunt Judith, and protect her from whatever was out there!

Waves of nausea rolled in my gut and began traveling upward. Delirium started to take its hold on me. The shadows began to move unnaturally, forming into shapes of demons holding pitchforks.

When I made it through the bedroom door at the top of the staircase, all the strength in my body vanished. My muscles gave out, and I slumped to the floor. I lost the battle for consciousness.

A few hours later, light pierced through my eyelids as my brain started to regain awareness. Once again, the feeling that someone was watching me started to burn my skin. My eyelids popped open in a panic. Aunt Judith! They had Aunt Judith!

Aunt Judith and Blake were there, in my room. They both sat on chairs pulled up to my bed, where they had obviously been watching me sleep. They both smiled at me as if everything was okay, and nothing had happened. Aunt Judith stood and went over to my dresser where she had a service tray with tea, and three teacups.

She poured everyone a cup, brought the tray over, and set it on my bed next to my legs.

“Sydney, you gave us quite a scare. Are you all right?” Her hands shook as she gave us our tea, before taking her own. Something was bothering her. Did she know?

I looked at Blake. He gave me a wink on the sly. Relieved, I realized he hadn’t told her about the rogue. He’d kept my aunt safe without causing her alarm. My heart melted. She would have to be told at some point, but that would be done under controlled circumstances. I didn’t want her running for her life from a crazed human animal who wanted to use her against me.

“I’m fine now, Aunt Judith. Thanks for looking over me. Really, I’m better now.” I tried to give her my best smile, but it was probably closer to a frown.

Aunt Judith gently patted my cheek and left my bedroom, smiling. It was clear she approved of Blake, and she wanted to give us alone time. It didn’t seem to bother her that I kept telling her and Brianna I didn’t want Blake’s pursuit. Didn’t my family hear a word I’ve said about how much of a bad idea a relationship between us would be?

It was hard to look at Blake without going to him. The jeans he wore hugged his lusciously muscular legs, and the sleeves of his shirt were like a second skin around his well-toned biceps. I kept telling myself how much I didn’t want him to come into bed with me. To my dismay, my body reacted, betraying the lie I was trying to make myself believe. I did want him, and he wanted me. Bad idea, Sydney. Very bad idea.

“Blake, thank you so much for coming. I didn’t know who else to call.”

He stood from his chair and sat on my bed. Heat spread up my thigh, and my skin began to tingle when he put his hand on my knee and gently massaged my leg over the blanket.

“I’m really glad you called. Don’t you find it interesting that it was me you thought of when you were in danger?”

He winked at me. The brat.

No, it wasn’t very interesting. Who else would I call when a rogue werewolf was around, but another werewolf? He was trying devilishly hard to plant the seed in my brain that I was more interested than I’d admit to. He didn’t need to push my attraction of him in my face. My brain did a whopper of a job doing that all by itself. Okay, so I relied on him to be my savior when I was in danger. I was the Selected, and he was the appointed Selected protector. He was the obvious choice.

Blake told me after my call, he had raced over to the house, and that’s when he spotted Aunt Judith walking back from the greenhouse. When she headed inside, he escorted her through the back door while he scanned the area for rogues.

Together, they found me at the top of the stairs, passed out with vomit under my face and in my hair. Gross. If a girl could pick a situation where she would least want the man that drove her heart to racing by just thinking about him to see her in, that was probably on the top-five list. I was mortified.

Blake had felt the rogue near the property when he arrived, but the wolf stayed on the periphery. He said he was able to sense the wolf’s presence. The taint of his evil intentions caked on top of his animal scent. The rogue left the area while they cleaned me up and put me into bed, which was over an hour ago.

During my recovery, Blake called Morris to update him on the most recent rogue appearance. Morris was concerned the rogues were becoming more aggressive in their advances toward me by prowling around my house. He recommended Blake stay with us, or at the store, to watch over me in case one of the rogues decided to show up, and do whatever it was he planned on doing. From Blake’s tone, he full heartedly agreed.

There would be none of that.

We didn’t need to have a man around to keep us safe. Blake didn’t know about Aunt Judith’s abilities to cast wards on the house. Her wards were able to repel, turning away the wolf and vampire rogues without them knowing why it was happening. They were only aware of a sudden change in focus. They instantaneously felt that whatever they planned on doing wasn’t such a good idea anymore.

As long as we were in the house, we were safe. I’d have to talk to her about moving her precious seedlings into the house proper for the time being. Another alternative would be for her to put wards around the entire property line. It would drive me nuts to be at the store while she was home working outside with her plants, and me not being able to get in touch with her.

“No, that’s really not necessary. We’ll be okay. It was a nice thought, anyways. Seriously, we don’t want anyone staying at the house. That would be crossing a line, as far as I’m concerned.”

Blake gave me a look that said he doubted our abilities to take care of ourselves. “This house is our sanctuary, Blake. No one is going to tarnish that.”