Sweet Blood of Mine (16 page)

None of it could be helped now. I had to figure out a better way to take Nathan and his fools on their own turf.

Unfortunately, my brains didn't appear to have been upgraded along with my libido and muscles.

"Where is Elyssa?" I asked.

Then I saw her enter the lunchroom on the far side.

Her shoulders slumped and the dark rings under her eyes looked more pronounced than ever. Her face brightened when our eyes locked. My stomach fluttered and everything seemed right with the world al of a sudden. She set her lunch on the table.

"You two feeling any better?" she asked Ash and Nyte.

They nodded.

"I'm so righteously angry," Ash said.

Despite my new abilities, I felt powerless in the face of such bulying. "We've got to put a stop to this crap."

"How?" Ash asked, interest sparking in his eyes.

"I'l come up with something. I have to."

* * * * *

"Is something wrong?" I whispered, glancing back down the hal for any sign of our warden, Ms. Foreman.

She looked thoughtful for a moment before apparently reaching the conclusion she didn't want to tel me something. Oddly, I could barely detect her feelings as I did other girls, and the usual emotional runoff that accompanied most females wasn't there. It was like she guarded her emotions with the Great Wal of China. I could have dropped the leash keeping my beast at bay and possibly sensed more but I didn't want to violate her. I cared too much for her to do that. Even worse, I might lose control and bad things could happen. If she was The One, I didn't want to ruin anything.

"I'm just tired," she said.

Today we were prying the gum from underneath lunchroom tables. The table Nathan and gang usualy sat at had mounds of the stuff glommed underneath. Thankfuly we had on rubber gloves. I didn't want to touch anything that had been chewed by someone else's mouth, especialy Nathan's. Elyssa didn't seem to mind.

"Doesn't this gross you out?" I asked.

She shrugged. "I've done worse."

"Your parents make you shovel horse poo or something?"

She giggled. "No." She threw a chunk of fossilized She giggled. "No." She threw a chunk of fossilized gum at me. I swatted it out of the air with a laugh.

"Ahem." Ms. Foreman stood at the door to the cafeteria, just five feet away. The piece of gum hung in her hair.

It was al I could do not to burst into hysterical laughter or scream in a fit of pure panic.

"Wel, children, I can see this job is much too easy for you," she said with a mirthless giggle. "Folow me."

Dread formed a bubbling cauldron of acid in my stomach as she took us back into the kitchen and gave us large pairs of coverals. They stank of rancid grease and industrial detergents.

"Put these on," she commanded.

"What are these for?" I asked.

"Now is not the time for questions, young man.

Both of you. Put these on." She smiled as a torturer might smile as he puled out someone's toenails.

Elyssa slipped into hers without a word. I folowed suit. Heck, if a girl wasn't complaining, I guess I wouldn't either.

That didn't last long.

Five minutes later we stood before the school cafeteria grease traps. These weren't smal grease traps.

They were industrial-sized ones, big as kitchen sinks, and they belonged to a government-run institution of lower learning. The mutated organisms they cooked in this kitchen probably created hazardous waste that could kil on contact. I couldn't believe she could make us do this.

Wasn't this against child labor laws? The vacuum station which usualy handled the grease was broken. It meant we had to scoop whatever was in those things out by hand and put it into thick plastic bags for disposal.

Ms. Foreman had obviously used this as punishment before. She had the janitor show us how to pop the lids off the traps while she made a quick exit.

"You kids must've realy ticked her off," said the wrinkled old man with a chuckle. "I wouldn't wish this on my ex-wife."

"It can't be that bad," Elyssa said, holding what looked like a metal ice scoop to muck out the grease, and a flat-bladed scraper.

He wheezed out a laugh. "Oh it's bad. I just hope you got strong stomachs and a weak sense of smel."

I almost insta-barfed when he popped the lid off the first trap. The fumes and odor drifting from it smeled like rotting carcasses slathered in dog vomit and feces. It looked even worse, like black pools of liquefied bodies with bits of corn and other random garbage floating on top.

Elyssa wrinkled her nose, took a couple of deep breaths, then got on her knees and started scooping. The janitor left us, his laughter echoing down the halway as he went.

"What in God's name do your parents make you do at home?" I asked. "How can you stand the stench?"

"You'l get used to it," she said.

"They don't make you shovel horse poo. They make you shovel horse carcasses."

Ms. Foreman apparently knew about the odor and never showed her totalitarian face while we worked, sweated, and, in my case, gagged. If you've heard the expression "I wouldn't touch that with a ten-foot pole" then add another thousand feet and you'l know how I felt just looking at the tub of putrescence. Somehow I managed to choke down the constant urge to vomit and started scooping. By the time we finished, it was almost eleven.

Neither of us had particularly enjoyed the exercise, but I stil felt closer to Elyssa, as if by sharing such a horrific task it had bonded us even tighter.

I tried to convince Elyssa to save a bit of the rancid grease so we might decorate Ms. Foreman's office with it.

Elyssa gave me a look which would stop a charging bul dead in its tracks, so I took that as a "no".

dead in its tracks, so I took that as a "no".

Ms. Foreman smiled in a kind, yet purely evil way as we came to tel her we were done. She checked her watch. "Goodness gracious, children. It certainly took you long enough." She giggled gleefuly, reminding me of a wicked witch. "If the janitor gives his blessing, perhaps I can find something less demanding for you two tomorrow,"

she said. "You may go now."

We trudged out to the parking lot. I felt for Stacey's presence but didn't sense it. I did
not
feel comfortable knowing that creepy chick could be lurking nearby.

"Wel this has been an interesting week," I said. "In a way, I'm going to kind of miss it once tomorrow is over."

Elyssa stopped and glared at me. "You're insane, aren't you?"

"Maybe a little." That brought a tiny smile to her lips. "Seriously, though. What's wrong with you today?"

"I already told you that," she said. "I didn't get enough sleep."

"Why not? Watching too much late night TV?"

"Is it realy that important to you?"

"Yes, because you're important to me."

She sighed. "We're not going down this road again are we?"

"What road?"

"The one where you do stupid crap because you want to protect me or get al touchy-feely."

"If caring about what happens to someone is touchy-feely, then I'm sorry. I'm not a real man. I'm just an idiot who believes in common decency."

"Save your feelings for someone who needs them, Justin. In case you hadn't noticed, I was doing quite fine until you started showing concern. Just look where that got us."

"You ungrateful—" I shut my mouth before anything realy nasty slipped out.

"You want gratitude?" She belted out a laugh heaped with scorn. "So that's what this is about. You do it to feel good about yourself." She gave a knowing nod.

"Wel find someone else who can show you the gratitude you so desire."

I stood there, fists clenched and blood pressure rising. Then I walked over to her. Grabbed her around her slender waist. Puled her to me and planted a kiss on her soft lips. She tensed. I braced for a possible knee to the groin. Instead, she kissed me back, echoing my passion. I puled her tighter against me.

She smeled like spring flowers, leather, and a little bit like the grease traps. It was an odd, but unexpectedly nice combination. Her body burned hot against mine. The caged animalistic part of me clawed at the flimsy barrier I'd erected to keep it at bay. I couldn't hold it off much longer.

I broke off the kiss before the dark side of my lust tore down the wal. I stared into Elyssa's large tremulous eyes.

Her raven locks framed the creamy fair skin of her face. I had never realized just how beautiful she was until that moment. I brushed a stray lock from her face and tucked it behind her ear. My heart pounded, so filed with desire and yearning, I had to take a deep breath.

She looked so vulnerable and scared that I wanted to kiss her again. But I couldn't. It was al I could do to hold my demonic sexual urge back from groping her essence. When "demonic" becomes a common adjective you use to describe yourself, you know you have a problem.

"Why'd you have to go and do that?" she asked softly, tracing her finger along my chest.

"Because I realy like you."

"Why do you like me?"

I groped for an answer but the only thing that came to mind was, "I just do."

to mind was, "I just do."

"You just do? Aren't you supposed to tel me how beautiful my eyes are, and how firm my butt is?"

I laughed. "Wel, both are true."

"Have you been looking at my butt? How do you know it's not al saggy without my skinny jeans to hold it in place?"

"Only one way to know," I said and gave her a playful slap on the rear. "Gee, do you work out?"

She gave me a playful push and giggled in a girlish way I hadn't heard since cleaning the trophy cases. It felt good to snap her out of the bad mood cleaning the grease traps had inspired.

She took my hand and idly traced the palm with her fingernail. "Justin, we need to take this slow. I have an…

unusual home life and I'm afraid you might not want to be with me anymore once you get to know me." A single tear glistened at the corner of one eye.

I took her hand and kissed the smooth skin of her wrist just beneath the palm. I put her hand to my cheek and closed my eyes. It felt good. It felt like…home. "I don't think a crazy family wil drive me away, Elyssa. This feels right."

Her lips brushed mine. "I hope so."

I puled her in for one last lingering kiss before she got in her car and drove away.

I thought back to Katie and the hope and certainty I'd felt about her. About the horrendous disaster that had become. A knot of fear crept into my throat. I hoped I wasn't about to repeat the past.

The insistent beep of my alarm clock awoke me extra early the next morning so I could get to the school gymnasium in time. On the way out, the house phone rang.

Nobody ever caled that line but telemarketers and I almost ignored it until I saw the caler ID. I snatched the handset off the cradle.

"Yes?" I said, trying to muster a deep voice.

"This is Wilis. I couldn't get you on your cel so I caled the backup number you gave me."

"Mhmm."

"I've decided not to pursue this any further. Ever since that Conroy felow showed up at our offices and warned us off the investigation, weird shit has been going down. Thousands of rats swarmed our offices two days ago. Yesterday every car in the parking lot turned upside down—on their freaking roofs. Oh, and that's not even the best part. Today, my wife's stupid little Chihuahua came up to me at breakfast and told me—in English—I had one more day before realy bad things started happening."

"He talked to you?" I gasped, trying to keep my voice pitched low despite the crazy stuff this dude was teling me.

"My secretary told me she was outta here if I don't do something. Frankly, I'm this close to checking out myself. I don't care if you believe me or not. I'm done. I'l refund half your fee. And by the way, I think they have someone tracking you because a young guy with a long wooden staff came around here asking about you. You'd better watch your back."

The line went dead. I stared at the phone for a moment. Dad had mentioned the Conroys before. Who were they? Why was he trying to find them? And how could a dog talk? Before my transformation, I'd never have believed such a crazy story. Now I wasn't so sure.

I glanced at the time and hurried out the door so I could get to school.

Elyssa had saved me a seat on the bleachers next to her. I pecked her on the cheek and took her hand in mine.
Carpe diem!
I thought, because I wasn't sure how to say "Seize the hand" in Latin. I was determined not to make a waste of this relationship by being timid.

Ash and Nyte showed up. Neither looked the least bit surprised at the sight of me and Elyssa holding hands.

Ash glared up the bleachers at Nathan and his dimwitted toadies as they harassed a group of bespectacled nerds reading a Kings and Castles rule book. "I wish I was bigger and stronger. I'd punch those goons until their noses broke."

I knew the feeling. Unfortunately, raw power hadn't helped me one bit in my quest to overcome the bulies.