Bizarre Life of Sydney Sedrick (26 page)
Read Bizarre Life of Sydney Sedrick Online
Authors: Mandi Casey
If you find yourself in the same situation, be aware, you may indeed be the Selected the vampires and werewolves have sought through the ages. They each want to gain advantage over the other. It would not be beneficial to either species to be above the other. Both deserve to exist, but neither should be able to dominate, or exterminate, the other. As time goes on with the complexities of each side, and the deeper you delve into the world of the vampires, the more cautious and wary you need to become. Kieran is a good coven leader, and Morris is a good pack master. Unfortunately, in all of history, there has not been anything to help them co-exist more peacefully.
The leaders of each are not the ones who order direct attacks on one another, but they each must react when their lesser members happen upon each other, battle, and are killed. When there is a death, each side retaliates, no matter which side started it. In a sense, they are all animals, and they attack with animal quick reflexes and indiscretion.
From the many long nights I have spent with Kieran, I got the idea the Elders also believe the Selected is capable of bridging the gap between the species. The Selected may be the one capable of bringing the two together, finally allowing them to live alongside of each other in the same city, our city. Kieran did not come right out and say such a thing was in the scrolls. He is forbidden from sharing specific passages with anyone, including the Selected. However, he did imply that the Elders are the root of the conflict between the wolves and the vampires.
They do not desire for the vampires to associate with the wolves. Elders view their kind as superior to all other beings. They will not allow for that portion of the prophecy to come to fruition, and they will do anything, use all of their resources, to prevent a peaceful co-existence. Granddaughter, stay away from the Elders, and their close servants, at all costs. That includes the Judges, the demon bodyguards they use to dole out justice when vampire coven leaders do not heed their words as they see fit. Kieran is a close follower, never doubt that, or let your guard down around him or his coven, but he is probably one of the only vampires honest and honorable enough to call friend one day.
The Elders mean well for the vampires, but their intense followers are closer to an occult with their obsession of them. Their followers take the interpretations of the scrolls to the extreme, and that makes them a very scary, very powerful, group.
The Elders use the scrolls to dictate their biddings as they see necessary for the survival of the vampires. The Elders use their positions as keepers of the scrolls to control the entire vampire population. From the time the vampire bite triggered my powers, the Elders’ decrees appear more aggressive toward the wolves. There is increased suspicion regarding the Elders’ motives when the vampire covens are told to battle the wolves for various reasons that are not clearly justified.
I am not sure if the Elders have an ulterior motive to not wanting the vampires and the wolves to co-exist. Kieran may not be a part of their bigger plan, but he follows their word as law. Discussing such an idea with him did not go overly well, and he very nearly accused me of treason against all vampires. One day, if tangible evidence is brought to him, he would listen. But it would have to be irrefutable.
The door chimes sounded, and nausea immediately set in my gut. The room temperature instantly rose to a hard boil. Sweat dripped down my back as the gorgeous blond woman Blake knew sauntered into my store.
Lisa.
Pain tore across my gut as Lisa sauntered into the store. I was stunned into silent agony. Blake was wrong when he’d told me there was nothing to worry about her. Blake had probably said that to make me feel better, even though we
weren’t
in a relationship. Still, she had me worried. The tension in the room was palpable. There was a reason my Selected senses were kicking into high gear with her nearness.
Lisa was naturally beautiful. She could have been in makeup or healthcare product commercials. Realistically, she could have been a runway model in Europe for expensive brand names, the ones that weren’t sold at the local malls. Yeah, she was that kind of pretty, and she knew it. Unfortunately, she had the attitude to match.
My chest tightened. I coughed and tried to catch my breath. A glob of spit flung from my mouth as pain tightened its fist in my gut. I stood as still and upright as possible. I didn’t want her to know about the pain she caused me.
She smiled a wide, toothy, predator’s grin, and said, “Hello, Cindy, wasn’t it?”
She didn’t look surprised to see me. She looked like she already knew Morning Sun was my store.
How did she know?
I smiled back at her, keeping my professional face on while trying not to vomit from nausea and pain.
“It’s Sydney. What a surprise to see you here, in a store like mine. Was there something specific you’re looking for?” I wanted to tell her exactly what I thought of her visit, but I’d let her start the catfight.
Sarcasm dripped from my words. Keeping my composure was a challenge. If she knew how strongly her presence affected me, and made me vulnerable, I would probably be in deep trouble. As it stood, defending myself against her in my current state would be impossible. The nausea intensified when I thought how vulnerable I was. Before I could get a grip, my insides lurched. Luckily, nothing came up.
She twirled around in a circle. Her blond hair bounced on her shoulders, like a hair salon commercial. Gag.
“Oh, I’m sorry. Blake was talking through clenched teeth when he said your name, sounded an awful lot like Cindy to me. No one would try to deny that it’s hard for a girl to think around such a fine manly specimen as Blake? It is no matter to me, really.” Throwing her hand up in the air, her insults flowed, as natural as the air she breathed.
I wasn’t going to acknowledge that statement. Yes, Blake was a fine manly specimen. No, she wasn’t going to get me to participate in girl talk.
“Lisa, right? Any who. Did you want something specific, or are you here just to get on my nerves? Oops, did that just come out of my mouth?” I narrowed my eyes. The longer she stood in front of me, the more my head ached.
Bile was beginning to rise up my throat, again. Something in her non-human genetic makeup was making me sick. It wasn’t the same as being in a room with a rogue werewolf, but it wasn’t so different, either. The little fine hairs on my neck rose.
“Oh Sydney, you are a cute, funny, little girl!” She put her well-manicured hand, with overly long fingernails, in my opinion, on the counter, and began to tap her fingers one by one on its surface. “Blake really knows how to pick them, you know?”
She stepped away from the counter and put her back to me. Something in the store held her attention for a moment, and then she slowly turned and looked me straight in the eyes with the shiniest metallic irises I’ve ever seen. They weren’t anything like Blake’s, or the other wolves I’ve met. There was no hint of gold or bronze staring back at me.
“Let’s not play coy, Sydney. It’s unmistakable who you are, and what you are. I’m here as a messenger from my people, and I’m not talking about the wolves. As long as you stay away from the vampires, you and your precious Aunt will keep your lives. If you continue associating with them, we will be forced to retaliate.” She spoke as if she had practiced her speech in the mirror before she came. Her words well chosen, and to the point.
No woman, no matter what mix of species she was made up of, was going to tell me who to socialize with, and who not to. It was getting pretty tiresome that everyone thought they had a right in telling me what to do.
“Listen, Lisa.” Pain shot through my head as I took a few steps around the counter to stand directly in front of her. We were so close she could have struck me. I raised my finger, and for the life of me I’ll never figure out why my brain told my hand to jab my finger in her face. “You don’t scare me, and you threatening me and my family just makes me angry. So back off!”
A shrill laugh crackled through the air, and electricity hummed through the store. Somehow, she was electrifying the environment around us. Every hair on my body stood on end. I looked around. The lamp by the reading couch flickered. The ceiling fan began to whirl faster than it was ever meant to, and sparks were coming out of the unused outlets by the register.
Her fury reflected in her eyes. A lightning storm was playing out between her eyelids, right on her eyeballs. If Lisa wasn’t such a snooty bitch, I might have thought that was a pretty cool trick.
“Sydney, you do not want to mess with me, or any one of my people. Ask your boyfriend, if you don’t believe me. If something happens to your aunt, you can’t say that you weren’t warned. By the way, if it were my decision, the line of the Selected would be put out of its misery once and for all. Someday, it may just be my decision. So it might benefit you to stay on my good side.”
With that said, she whipped around, and sauntered out of my store.
The second the door closed, with her on the other side of it, the nausea and pain started to subside. The bile lodged in my throat started to recede, and the little drummers playing in my head started to play their beat softer, until they finally stopped playing all together.
Good side? She considered me to be on her good side? What did she do to people on her bad side? Even though I didn’t like her, I didn’t want to piss her off. My bag of problems was already pretty full at the moment.
I called Blake on my cell phone before I lost the nerve. I didn’t want to think too hard about what she said. He would be able to confirm if there was bite to her threats, or if she was all talk. She may pose a serious enough issue that it would be safer not to talk to the vampires. If Aunt Judith was hurt because of my decisions, there would be no living with myself.
Blake picked up on the first ring.
“Sydney? What’s wrong?” His voice was sharp.
“Nothing’s wrong. Can’t a girl call just to say hey?”
He let out a big breath, laughed, and said, “Yeah, you can do that, but it would be really nice if that were true. So what’s up?”
I hesitated.
“Come on, Sydney. You called me for a reason.”
“Okay, Lisa came to the store today for a little visit, and I was hoping you could explain a few things about what she’d said.” I didn’t want to tell him she scared me, but he was the only one who knew anything about her.
“What?” His fear struck clear through my spine, and my stomach dropped. “What do you mean? Lisa came by your store? What did she want? Is she gone?” His response wasn’t exactly the calm and reassuring one I was hoping for.
“Well, she came by to tell me she didn’t want me anywhere near the vampires, and she said ‘or else.’ What’s in it for her?”
Through the phone, I heard a car engine followed by a squeal of tires on pavement.
“I’ll be right there,” he growled, then hung up.
Almost twelve minutes to the second, Blake stormed in through the front door and started pacing back and forth in front of the bookshelves I was currently stocking. Without saying a word, he stomped over and grabbed me into a big bear hug. Then he started looking at my arms and legs and around my neckline.
I slapped his hands away to try and stop his overly eager inspection of my being.
“What are you doing?”
“Sydney, are you all right?” He stepped forward, making me step back.
I put my hands up. “I’m fine! Stop inspecting me, geez.”
I walked behind the counter, and sat on the barstool. I didn’t care if he figured it out that I was using furniture to put some distance between us. It was hard enough dealing with him when he wasn’t touching me. When his warm hands grazed my skin, when he looked me over, my body sizzled everywhere. There was no controlling certain parts of me from singing out to him, begging him to touch them, too.
“Blake, what has gotten into you?”
He walked over to the front of the counter and put his hands on the top. It was hard not to notice the well-defined muscles flexing in his forearms, and the thought of his arms around me in a nice, big safe hug kept flittering in my mind. Images of his naked chest against mine started to form just before he snapped me out of my trance.
“Nothing, you just need to be careful. Lisa is no one to mess with. Did she hurt you?”
“No, she didn’t hurt me. You didn’t answer my question. Why is she so interested in the vampires?”
Blake shrugged his shoulders. He had no idea what she was up to. He repeated over and over to stay far away from her. “Sydney, you’re picking up her demon essence. Lisa is a lightening demon, or at least half of one. Demons are very dangerous. They even make vampires look like fuzzy puppies in comparison. Lisa’s other family has no regard to anyone but themselves. She’s a cold killer. Don’t doubt her.”
“So what’s her issue with me talking to the vampires?”
“I have no idea, but we need to find out.”
“Maybe Kieran will know something. I’ll have to talk to him about her. Blake, she seemed serious. The silver in her eyes made her come across like a crazed lunatic.”
“I’m sorry, Sydney. I’ve seen what she’s capable of. A few years ago she was at the den when vampires attacked. I got to see her in action. She can call lightning to her, and she used it during the fight.”
“What? What did she do with the lightening?” The more time I spent in Kenosha, the more I wanted out of it, and that bizarre life I was living. But I couldn’t. I wouldn’t leave Aunt Judith to take care of this all by herself.
“Lisa used the lightening and created projectable electrical bolts. She speared the vampires with them. Trust me, it wasn’t pretty, and vampires don’t heal from the burns the bolts make.”
“I don’t get it. Vampires are like super fast. How’d she hurt them?” I was awed. Vampires were supposed to be ultimate fighters.
“She’s not only able to call lightening through her, she can also call it from the sky and direct her attacks from above, scorching her targets, no matter how fast they are.”
“What am I going to do?” I was at a total loss. Were my Selected abilities ever going to be strong enough to go against a being with that much power?
“Sydney, if she comes here again, you need to lock yourself in the storeroom and call me right away. I’ll have a talk with her, but just in case she decides to show up again, you need to tell me about it immediately.”
“Do you mind staying with me for a while?” I didn’t feel like being alone. The vision of Lisa’s eyes kept flashing in my head.
Blake stayed with me until closing time. Surprisingly, he was enjoyable to work side by side with.