Emerald Eyes (4 page)

She smiled and thanked him, not really knowing what or if there was anything else to say. Then, with a courteous wave of his hand, he swiftly turned and quickened his pace from that of what had been a leisurely walk in escorting her home to that of a very brisk stride, and he disappeared into the woods beside her cottage, heading in the direction of what she supposed was his home. “That was definitely interesting,” she whispered to herself, not wishing him to hear. She let herself in then and decided to get ready for her dinner date with Chuck at seven-thirty.

Two

Chuck not only took her to a wonderful dinner at Olive Garden, he also talked her into going dancing at a nearby nightclub that had just opened up under new management. It was simply named Alex’s. Although Chuck was modest about it, he turned out to be an excellent dancer; later confessed that his mother had once taught for Arthur Murray Studios. He’d grown up with his own private tutor.

Madison lightly laughed and said it wasn’t quite fair, but she did have a wonderful time. Of course, he’d taken her to where they had county western music, and he’d talked her into line dancing; something she’d always shied away from. She was quickly beginning to appreciate just how interesting and attractive he really was; thought his rather fair-skin, complimented by his sandy-blond hair, most becoming. She didn’t even mind his shadow of a beard and trim mustache. Accented his masculinity. His gray eyes were kind and all sparkly when he spoke. Adding to it all, she had the distinct feeling he more than liked her. Still, there was something reserved in his manner. Something he was keeping from her, but she felt it was much too soon in their friendship to dare probe.

They stayed until right before closing and he drove her home, and then escorted her to the front door and waited until she turned the lights on. Smiling sweetly up at him, she halfway expected a goodnight kiss, and he did, on her forehead. While she stood there looking a bit startled, he said he really hoped they could do it again soon. She replied that she would like that very much.

He waited until she walked inside, shut and locked her door, and then stepped off the porch and went to his truck.

She watched out the window as his taillights disappeared behind the trees. It had been fun. But a kiss on the forehead? Did he consider her too young? View her as a sisterly type?

She hoped not, as she realized that she really did like him. She didn’t know when she’d had so much fun.

Madison went to bed thinking she would fall asleep with visions of Chuck dancing around in her head; and she did, for a while. Then, with no warning whatsoever, she was looking into emerald eyes of such depths they stole her breath away. A darkly handsome face became clearer to her – the face of Devin Knight. He spoke her name softly and beheld her with gentleness. Confused, she stared at him, not knowing what to say or what to think. Why had his face traded places with Chuck’s? Was her subconscious playing tricks on her? Or had Devin Knight made a deeper impression on her than she had realized? She couldn’t have been with him very long; fifteen minutes at the max, and that was stretching it. She’d spent the entire evening with Chuck, and it wasn’t the first time she’d been around him. So why was Devin Knight’s face so vivid in her mind?

A tapping at her window caused her to open her eyes. The raven was back. “What the crap? Why are you so interested in me, bird? It’s like you’re obsessed with me or something.” She flipped back her covers and quickly went to the bathroom to pee and also take a couple of Ibuprofen, hoping it would help her fall asleep. It aggravated her to no end that her wonderful mood she’d been in after her date with Chuck, had been interrupted by such weirdness. She just wanted to fall asleep now, and hoped she would do it quickly.

The bird was still in her window when she climbed back in bed. “I’m gonna ignore you, bird,” she said quite loudly and covered her head. There was another tapping and then silence. She peeked out from under her covers. At last, the bird was gone. “Thank you!” she said with sarcasm and then closed her eyes.

Madison thought surely Chuck would phone her or something the next day, but he didn’t. She spent the entire day halfway expecting her cell phone to ring, keeping it in her pocket, just in case. She scrubbed and cleaned the entire bathroom and put down a clean powder blue rug in front of the tub that she found in the hall closet.

She found some towels and a washcloth to match and put them out. Her Aunt Mattie had left plenty of linens and things for the house; some were new, still packaged. Madison wouldn’t have to buy anything along that line for a while, unless she just wanted to make changes, and right then, she had no desire to. She wanted to keep what she could of her beloved aunt; had no qualms about using her things. She knew Aunt Mattie would want her to.

After she cleaned the bathroom, she straightened up her aunt’s room; washed and dried the bedding there and put it back on the bed, and swept and mopped the wood floor. By that time, she was tired. She glanced at her watch. It was half past three. “Shit!” she sputtered. “He’s not going to call me!” Then a little voice in her head told her that maybe he was just really busy today, and he’d probably phone or drop by later.

He didn’t.

“Hell with it!” She decided when she didn’t hear from him that she was just going to have to learn to deal with being alone; something she had thought would be easy, as she had always relished time alone before. Only, she’d never been truly alone. Her mother had been around, even if it wasn’t at home, she would be home eventually. When she had stayed here with Aunt Mattie she definitely wasn’t alone. Fact was she’d never known what truly being alone was before. It sucked!

What had been one of her primary reasons for coming here besides thinking she wanted to be alone? She’d come here to paint! “Yes!” She would probably have to drive into Seattle and buy supplies, although there should be some things in the shed out back. Aunt Mattie had been an artist too. She slipped into her sweater and took a walk to the back of the lot where the old shed still sat on the left corner. She slipped her keys out of her pocket – never went anywhere without them, as she had locked herself out once when she was a teen and wasn’t able to get in the house for hours – and found the shed key. The old padlock was rusty, but after some jiggling, it turned. She slipped the lock out and opened the door. Sure enough, a tripod and some unused canvasses waited for her, and they didn’t look too weathered.

Sitting in the floor by the tripod, was a tackle box full of oil paints. She snapped up the clasp and was delighted to see that many of the tubes were over half full. Of course, getting the caps off would be a task in itself. When having sat that long, she was sure it would require pliers to unscrew them – as the caps were more than likely glued on from dried paint – and hopefully she could loosen them without tearing up the tubes in doing so.

She scanned her surroundings and noticed a can of turpentine sitting on a shelf. “Awesome! Maybe I won’t have to go into Seattle after all.”

By the time Madison got all her equipment hauled up to the back porch, caps loosened on the tubes and tripod sat up where she intended to keep it for now, it was getting dark. Glancing at her watch, she realized that it had taken her several hours. “Guess I should eat something,” she mumbled to herself. “Too late to paint outside today.”

She could start a painting inside the house, but she wanted to paint the surrounding scenery, and that she would have to do outside. Of course, on rainy days, she would have to be satisfied painting on the back or front porch, and even inside when it was cold. There would be plenty of winter days to do that. But right now, there was some summer left, though it didn’t much feel like it to her, being used to the Texas heat. Still, it was the best one could get in Washington. If the sun was shining, it was a good day.

She would have to get out her little camera she’d bought just before leaving and go for long walks and take lots of pictures to have something to paint during those cold winter days. Her work done for the day, she went inside to eat.

Chuck really wanted to call Madison, and he’d thought about it all morning, had trouble focusing on his work because of it. He didn’t just like her – He really liked her! Too much for her own good. He kept telling himself that he was too old for her, but he knew that was just an excuse. He’d known a lot of couples that did just fine with similar differences in age and some even greater.

Still, there was no way he could bring himself to tell her about his secret – the dark secret that had kept him single. For one, she would never believe him unless he showed her. If he showed her, he would probably end up killing her.

Indian Joe, his granddaughter and a few members of the tribe were the only ones who knew. Chuck hadn’t told anyone. The old Indian had picked up on it the first time Chuck entered the store a few years back, looking for a job. He’d had Chuck follow him to his office to fill out a form, and while Chuck was doing so, Joe commented quite unexpectedly, “You have a secret, don’t you?”

Surprised, Chuck snapped his head up. “What?”

The old Indian held Chuck’s gaze. “I can smell you. I’ve smelled your kind before. A long, long time ago a wolf attacked one of the young men on our reservation. A month later, he turned. Unfortunately, he killed several members of our tribe before my grandfather killed him with a silver bullet.”

Chuck stared at the old Indian in disbelief. No one had ever read him like that before. He took the paper and laid it on the old Indian’s desk and went to walk out.

“I did not say I wouldn’t hire you,” Joe informed him.

Chuck swirled around, brow furrowed, confused. “You mean you’d still consider hiring me?”

Joe stood. “You are a good man. It is clear in your eyes. This curse you have on you is not your fault.”

Chuck thought about it. He’d been attacked by a wolf when he was sixteen. He’d had to leave home after killing a neighbor the following full moon. For all his family knew, he was dead. He’d had to walk away from his mother and father and younger sister to protect them. That was when he’d left Dallas and had never returned. He had gradually migrated north until he, eventually, ended up here in Washington.

“You’re right. It wasn’t my fault.” He was suddenly very emotional; eyes welled with tears. He hadn’t let himself feel anything for a very long time. Out of the blue, this old Indian knew.

“I can help you,” Joe continued.

Chuck sat back down. “You can?” He strangled back tears.

“I cannot cure you…But I know places where you can run free when you turn, and not worry about killing any humans.”

This was the best news Chuck had heard in years. “…That would be,” he stopped to clear his throat, “really awesome!”

Indian Joe handed the paper back to him then. “Finish filling this out. I am going to hire you anyway. You look like you could use a friend. Also, I am not getting any younger. I want to take time to hunt with my old friends and play with my grandchildren before I die. I am considering selling the store. If you work out here, which I believe you will, I might be willing to sell it to you.”

Chuck’s jaw dropped. “Where would I get the money to—?”

“Do not concern yourself with that for now. If all works out for you here, then we can work something out.”

Chuck smiled thankfully and happily proceeded in filling out the paper. The rest was history. He’d managed to build up enough credit to get a loan on the store, and Joe had turned it over to him. But he still came in and helped Chuck often.

Now Chuck had gone and done a foolish thing – Gotten carried away and let his desire to know the pretty young Madison get in the way of his common sense. There was nothing he wanted more than to marry and have a family.

Only that was out of the question. He was a werewolf, a killer. Killer’s had no business marrying and having families. Then there were the blackouts. Something fairly recent. Time lapses. He hadn’t even told Joe about them, hoping it was a temporary thing and decided to wait in mentioning them. For it seemed that so far, they hadn’t lasted but a few minutes at a time. As far as he knew, nothing had come of them other than a loss of memory of what he was doing during those times.

Indian Joe had come in to work for the evening at Chuck’s request, as Chuck wanted to go home early. At home, soon as he showered and ate a couple of TV dinners, he took out a cold beer and ended up sitting on the front porch.

Shep came out with him, resting on his haunches right beside him. He gave his dog a hug and a pat. Shep was the only thing he could allow himself to love. Then there was his friendship with Indian Joe, and on the three nights of the full moon, Shep stayed with Joe at his place on the reservation.

Chuck figured he had everything worked out as well as it could ever be for him. It was good as it was going to get. Only now he wanted to kick himself for letting his guard down and encouraging Madison. He hadn’t planned it. It had been a whim on the spur of the moment. One he shouldn’t have allowed himself to take. Now, he would have to pretend he wasn’t interested if she came around. He really detested the fact that he would have to do that. It wasn’t going to be easy. For his heart wanted to get to know her better, wanted to something fierce.

“Dammit!” he hissed and chugged down his beer. “Look at that,” he said to his dog as he held out the empty brown bottle. “Guess I’d better bring out the six-pack.” He stood and so did Shep. He opened the door and went back in and got the six-pack and brought it out to the porch where he and the dog sat down again. Normally, a six-pack lasted him a couple of nights. But this one was going to be finished off before the night was done. “Dammit!” he breathed again. “Why in hell did I do it? Gawd! I can’t be seeing her. I just can’t!”

Madison watched television until a little after nine and switched it off. Standing, she stretched and then went to the front door, opened it and stepped out on the porch where the boards squeaked under her weight. It was dusk now and would be totally dark in just a matter of minutes. No signs of Chuck. What’s more, she had a gut-feeling that she wasn’t going to hear from him either. “Why?” she asked herself. “I thought we had a great time last night. Guess it wasn’t as much fun for him as it was for me.” She moved up to the railing and peered out at the sky. The moon’s crescent was a little broader than the evening before. Definitely waxing.