Bizarre Life of Sydney Sedrick (8 page)

The telephone numbers below are to both Morris, the pack leader of the werewolves, and Kieran, the coven leader of the vampires. Those two men are the decision makers for their people, and most of the time, their word is followed to the last letter. But there are those that choose not to always heed their leader’s directives, whether it’s because they have their own political aspirations, they don’t trust you, or they think you shouldn’t be able to walk freely around the city and be able to communicate with their enemies. Vampires and werewolves will be watching you closely to see if they think you are betraying their own kind.

Be careful who you talk to and what is said. Your actions can be used against you, and there are some who will create such situations that put you in danger and in doubt. From experience, I’ve learned there is no one you can truly trust. Family members can and will be used against you if someone so chooses. Watch your loved ones. Be aware if their behavior changes. That is a big clue someone may have tampered with their minds.

I closed the book, tucking it under the countertop where my bag was, and went into the storeroom. The drywall that hid the safe slid easily to the side, and the safe door sprung open after I punched in the combination. The safe stood about four feet tall. On the very top shelf was a black velvet box, the flat rectangular type you see in movies when a man gives a woman a necklace. With the box in my hands and the lid open, a note card attached to the inside caught my attention.

To my granddaughter, wear this necklace, and never ever take it off. You are loved. Be well in all your future endeavors.

The necklace had a beautiful gold-linked chain that held a sparkling pink ruby gemstone the size of a quarter set on a gold-plated backdrop. Hands shaking slightly, I clasped the necklace around my neck, noting how the ruby sat in the center of my chest, and how the gold felt warm as it touched my skin. I would never take it off.

I walked out into the store proper and sat at the counter to make a phone call. Calling the vampire leader, Kieran, before he sent someone out to hunt me down like Morris, seemed like the right thing to do. Before the phone lines could do their magic and connect me to his phone, the chimes above the store’s front door jingled, telling me a customer had arrived. Only, it wasn’t a customer.

It was Blake.

He sauntered in and sat down on the small loveseat next to the fireplace on the side wall of the store. I lost the struggle to keep the distance between us, hung up the phone, and walked to the end of the counter. I had the fire lit, as I normally did in the evenings and would continue to as long as the chilled winter air persisted. The brick building housing the store was old and not well insulated. Frigid air blew in around the frames of the front door and windows. Without the fire, the store was too cold to be in all day long.

The firelight glowed against his tanned skin and emphasized the angles of his jaw and cheekbones. He took on the presence of a predator and a sensuously sexy man at the same time. There had to be a way to distract myself from the sexual pull he had on me. There was no way anything could happen between us. That would be a very bad idea. He was too arrogant, too pushy, and had his own pack-derived agendas that involved me as the Selected, not me as a woman. My heart began to beat faster, not to mention all the other things my body did involuntarily every time he touched my elbow, or his breath caressed my neck. Geez, all it took was for him to be in the same room.

“Hello, Sydney.”

“What do you want?”

“I came by to ask if you would like to join my family for dinner at the packs’ den.”

“Ha! Now seriously, why would you think for even a minute you’d get me to say yes to going anywhere with you? What’s in it for me?”

There was a sparkle of mischief in his expression. He traced my entire body with his gaze. The heated interest in his eyes would scorch me the second my guard was let down. There was an undeniably strong physical attraction between us. For me, it was instant the second he walked into my store yesterday, and again last night at the club. Starting a relationship, especially with a werewolf, was the last thing on my agenda, for say, the next century. There was a lot to learn about these people, about the vampires, and I needed to figure out what my part was in all of this before I started dating one of them.

He laughed. “It’s dinner, and an opportunity for you to meet Morris. There’s nothing in it for anyone. He just wants to talk to you.”

“Is your invitation optional?”

“Of course you have a choice. But if you don’t come to dinner, you’ll have to meet him eventually, and it means a lot that he’s willing to open up his home to you, where his family lives. He is willing to give you a show of faith, to prevent repeating the past. The leader of the pack would like to develop a working, even positive, relationship with you. My suggestion would be that you don’t take the invitation lightly. It’s just as important for you to be civil as it is for him.”

“And what happens if my answer is no?”

Blake shrugged his shoulders and said, “He’ll come and find you.”

“So I’ll take that as a no, it’s not optional.”

I leaned my back against the side of the register counter while we talked. My body wanted to be near him. The heat he’d given off since arriving at the store crept along my skin in a warm, soothing motion, replacing the achiness of my muscles with lust and need. Pushing my body off the wood of the counter, I walked toward him, questioning whether his interest in me was as a person, or as an entity that could help his pack. It made me weary of his intentions. Did he feel the pull between us as well? His smile faded the second he saw the necklace around my neck.

His body clenched with anger, and his fingers that were resting peacefully on the armrest of the sofa now dug deep into the plush cushion. Blake was barely able to conceal his feelings of hatred toward the vampires.

“So, you won’t come and have dinner with me, but you’ll wear a necklace from the leader of those parasites?” His face stretched tight and a crease developed on his forehead.

“For your information, none of the vampires have come and talked to me yet. This necklace was a gift from my grandmother, and you have nothing to be so mad about. You have no right to judge me.”

When he heard the vampires hadn’t directly given me the necklace, some of the tension left his body, but not all of it. His face was still red, but he released his death-grip on the couch. “I’ll pick you up from your house at ten tonight then.”

“How do you know where my house is?”

He rose from the sofa and strode over to me. He moved so close, my heart started beating faster, and my breath became shallow with anticipation and the need for him to kiss me. Being so close to him made me nervous, and my palms grew moist. There was no denying the attraction between us, and my body was defying all my self-preservation instincts. My skin tingled in hopes that he would touch me, caress me, do anything he wanted to me.

Blake leaned in close, and his warm breath blew on my lips. “I’ve always known where the Selected lives.”

I sighed in resignation. It seemed there wasn’t a choice in the matter of going to the wolves’ den. “Fine, pick me up at my house at ten.”

“Till tonight.” Blake never looked back. He pulled the door open, and let it close behind him.

My question was, how did he know the necklace was from the vampires? Grandma Maria wrote that they had given it to her, so she must have worn it, but many family jewels were handed down when people passed away. So how did he know?

The more information I obtained about all the players involved, the better, and the sooner I did, the better for all involved. I took out Grandma’s journal again to find the page where she had written the contact numbers for both Morris and Kieran. It was time to let the vampires know they weren’t going to push me around. They needed to know my family was off limits to them, and they didn’t need to come and find me.

There was a lot to think about. I wasn’t sure the situation of how Michael met Brianna was pure coincidence. My guess was the pack leader sent him to Chicago to get closer to her so the wolves had an opportunity to use her safety and loyalty against me if the need ever arose. Seeing them together, how happy she was at the nightclub with Michael, how happy he seemed to be with her, made me think no matter what his intentions were initially, they seemed to be quite different toward her now.

I’d have to wait and see how, and if, their relationship progressed. What was best for my sister was anyone’s guess. Would she take finding out the truth better from Michael, or should we be the ones to tell her? The best-case scenario would be she never found out any of this and stayed in Chicago, but that wouldn’t happen, and she’d probably find out sooner or later.

My hands began to shake while dialing the number for the head of the vampires.

It was dark out, so the vampires should be up from their nightly slumber, or whatever they called it. After an obnoxious amount of waiting while the phone line rang, a voicemail service picked up. My message was short, my name and where Kieran could call when he wanted to talk to me.

Once that was done, the day’s sales receipts needed to be tallied, which weren’t much. Not many customers had come out shopping in the freezing cold weather.

The next thing on my list was to call Brianna on her cell. Was she also going to be at the werewolf dinner, and if so, what did she plan on wearing?