Chapter 6
How's that for a first day of school.
After witnessing that alpha bite Erica, I had hurried out of the hospital giving Scott a somewhat bogus excuse of not feeling well and almost running down a newly arrived Stiles in the process.
The ride home was a total blur.
My heart didn't stop trying to jump out of my throat until I finally slammed the heavy French doors to my new home shut and locked the door. It was only then that my brain finally caught up with what I saw in the hospital.
Werewolves. Freakin' werewolves.
Only I would have the type of luck where out of the choices I had to settle down, I picked a town with a werewolf infestation. And everybody knows that where there a werewolves, hunters are not far behind.
Only you, Caroline.
As a way to try and slow down my thoughts I headed to the kitchen to get some blood. I walked to the microwave and opened the small door next to it that blended in with the other cabinets, but is actually a mini fridge where I store blood. I- by that I mean Klaus- had it built in before I moved in. I grab a cold blood bag out of the now open fridge and placed it in the microwave to heat it up.
While waiting for the blood to heat up I jumped onto the counter in the middle of the humongous kitchen and just sat there. My thoughts were muddled and it was really hard to decide which to grasp onto first. There is an Alpha making werewolves and Erica is one of them as of about thirty minutes ago. That is if the bite doesn't kill her first.
Shit
The microwave beeped and pulled me out of my thoughts.
I jumped off the counter and walked the two steps to open the microwave and get my warm blood. I didn't bother to open the cap and just bit into the bag, not caring about the blood dripping down my chin and onto my dress. I moaned slightly at the taste of the warm blood on my tongue and the silky feel of it going down my throat. Too soon the bag emptied and I tossed it into the trash can. I barely resisted the urge to drink another one.
I grabbed my purse off the counter and used my vampire speed to get to my room faster. I dropped myself onto my cloud bed and let out a huge sigh before rummaging through my purse until I found my phone.
After dialing the number I waited impatiently as it rang.
"Second time in one day. Do I now have reason to believe you have a bit of a crush, dear Caroline?" The accented voice rolled through the phones receiver.
"You wish." I scoffed, sitting up so I could take my boots off.
"That I do." Klaus answered and I could practically hear the smirk on his face.
"Don't let Cami hear you say that." I teased "Anyway, I didn't call to banter with you. Do you know about the Alpha in Beacon Hills?" I questioned
"Of course I know. Do you actually believe I would allow you move to a foreign town without doing my homework on it?"
"And you didn't think it important to inform of this?" I screeched into the phone
"I knew you would find out eventually." Was his annoyingly calm answer
"That is so not the point. I never would've moved here if I knew. And not to mention he's making new wolves. I'm probably going to have to stay locked in my house every full moon from now on."
"Go to the music room."
"Why?" I scrunched my nose
"Caroline, listen for once." Came his irritated voice
I didn't answer him. Just jumped off the bed, left my room and headed down the hall to the music room.
"What now?" I questioned skeptically
"Now do you see the square shaped device on the wall behind the piano?"
"Yes."
"Walk over to it and press the middle button." He instructed
I didn't question him this time and just headed for the square button behind the piano following his instructions. What happened next had my jaw dropping and my eyes falling out of their sockets.
A weird noise occurred. Kinda like the sound your fridge makes when you open it before the wall behind the lounge chairs split in half and what seems to be heavy metal steel door appeared. In the middle of the steel door is a triangle shaped clear electronic thing flashing red.
"Klaus, what the hell?" the shock was clear in my voice
His laughter filled my ears before he gave me an explanation
"It's a safe room. No one- not even me- can access it unless you allow them." Klaus stated
As he spoke, my curiosity forced me to head towards the split wall and I couldn't help the shock that ran through me as I registered what I was seeing
"How am I supposed to get into this safe room?"
"As I said, only you can access it. I only know its location. Goodbye, love." He hung up
"Damn it." I hissed at the phone before clutching it tightly in my hand
Deciding to just go with the flow and stop trying to question everything-something I rarely do-, I put my finger on the clear flashing part. I barely noticed the slight sting in my finger as an electronic female voice filled the room saying "data received", to busy gawking.
I yelped as the gigantic steel door hissed before it opened on its own, and a somewhat dark room presented itself to me.
I blinked twice to make sure I wasn't seeing things. But no. A huge hole was still present in my wall, in my music room.
Slowly, but surely I edged towards the square shaped cut out, frowning in slight disappointment when all I found as I looked in is some unstable looking stairs and a single flickering light bulb that shines a bit of light in the otherwise dark room. My curiosity finally got the best of me and I placed my left foot on the stairs, freezing when it creaked loudly under my weight. After waiting a couple seconds I put my right foot on the same step before biting the bullet and taking slow measured steps down the stairs until I reached the bottom. My heart raced when the door at the top of the stairs closed. God, I feel like I'm in a scary movie and Jason will pop up out of nowhere ready to cut me to pieces.
A long hallway awaited and not wasting anytime psyching myself out, I started walking. About 30 steps later another looming steel door stood in front of me. A key pad with what seemed to be a finger print scanner was placed on top of the door knob and this time I didn't waste any time before placing my index finger on it. Immediately a green light scanned my finger and something pricked my finger making it sting a bit. This time I felt it. After a couple seconds a female electronic voice filled the narrow space, again
"Please enter the pin number, Ms. Forbes" making me jump
"Uh, I don't know the pin." Now I'm talking to weird computer voices.
"I am aware of that Ms. Forbes. You are supposed to make your own. May I recommend something easy to remember?" The voice answered. I swear I could hear a bit of sarcasm in its tone.
Honestly if I was a regular person, I would be freaked out by the fact that some electronic voice is talking to me. Or at least questioning why there is a secret room in my new house. But after the shit I've seen, this is the least surprising.
So I punched in a number that would be easy for me to remember but someone else wouldn't be able to guess. 5-5-3-1
"Data received."
Then the clicking sound that takes place when a door is being unlocked happened and I wasted no time pushing open the heavy steel door.
"Welcome to the safe room, Ms. Forbes."
"Okay who the hell are you?" I exclaimed, my voice echoing in the spacious room
"My name is ALICE and I am the super-computer system in this house. Ask me information on anything you may need. Supernatural or otherwise." The voice, ALICE, answered
"What do you mean?" I questioned, leaning against the cold stone wall, my eyes scanning the room
"Exactly what I said. I have the ability to answer any question you may have. Supernatural or otherwise. "ALICE responded sounding tired of the questions already. If computers can sound tired.
"You mean to tell me that Aunt Sophia knew about the supernatural?" The shock was evident in my voice. Then again I shouldn't really be surprised seeing as my father was raised to hunt vampires, it's only logical that his sister would be aware of us too.
"You are a slow one. Yes Caroline, your Aunt was aware of the supernatural. Fancy asking any other questions that you already know the answer to?"
I raised an eyebrow before muttering "smart ass" under my breath
"I heard that"
I rolled my eyes at the too smart for her own good computer, before taking a good look around the room.
A 'safe room' is exactly what this place is. Anything you could need in case of an emergency was in the wide space. The room has no windows but the lighting makes it seem as if the sun itself was shining into the room. On the wall opposite of me are floor to ceiling grey furniture similar to the one in the master bathroom, only this one had two huge doors instead of drawers and cabinets. On the right wall is a queen sized bed with black and grey comforters, with a grey beside table next to it and a black lamp place in the middle. Against the wall that I was leaning on is a huge stainless steel refrigerator and I could smell the food in there. I made a mental note to bring some blood bags down here. Let's not forget the huge flat screen that hung on the wall. A couple of comfy armchairs and beanbag chairs were scattered around the room.
I forced my feet work and headed towards the huge piece that resembles the one in the master bath and took up the majority of the room. I grabbed the handles in both door and pulled them open, my jaw hitting the floor for the umpteenth time today as my eyes registered what was placed inside.
All types of guns, crossbows and arrows, knives, daggers, swords and pretty much every weapon known to man was arranged neatly in my Aunts' furniture as I continued to explore all the extra compartments. Multiple white boxes had bullets in them; regular, silver and even wood. I could give weapons to a small militia and still have some left.
"ALICE, what's all this?" I question, shock evident in my voice
"Where there are werewolves, Hunters are present. Your Aunt wanted to be prepared in case anything was to happen."
Werewolves and Hunters. Not unexpected.
I gingerly ran my fingers over the weapons for a while before walking over to a chair and dropping down into it.
"Did she come down here often?"
"Every full moon and sometimes just to get away." ALICE responded
I stayed silent as I looked around the room, imagining a slim woman with pixie features and light brown hair walking around the room, talking to ALICE, writing or maybe reading a book. I shifted around in the chair before tucking my legs under me and tilting my head back, just looking at the ceiling and thinking about my day.
It wasn't long before I dozed off.
Aching gums and a sore neck woke me from my cat nap. It feels like I feel asleep just a couple minutes ago.
"Welcome back to the land of the living, Caroline." Said the monotone sarcastic voice of ALICE
"Thanks." I grunted before untangling myself from the uncomfortable position I was currently in.
My mind was blank for a minute before the day's event rushed through my mind and I couldn't help but groan.
"ALICE can you find some information on the Alpha in Beacon Hills?" I question as I got off the chair and stretched my stiff limbs.
"Which one?" The smug voice of ALICE said. How a computer is able to be smug I will never know.
"There's more than one? Of course there's more than one!" I exclaimed, running my fingers through my hair and tugging at it.
"The one you saw today was Derek Hale. He is 24 and his family was murdered by Hunters when he was in his senior year of high school. A couple months ago, he became an Alpha by killing his uncle-" I cut ALICE off
"Wait...he killed his uncle?" Can't really judge.
"Well yes. The Uncle, Peter Hale- was going around killing people and that was the only way to stop him." I nodded my head at that piece of information "Also Peter murdered Derek's sister Laura. Now as I was saying before you rudely cut me off, he has bitten one other Beacon Hill student by the name of Isaac Lahey and Isaac is wanted by the police for his father's murder." ALICE finished
"Ho-ly shit!" I exclaimed, remembering Scott and Stiles speaking about someone named Isaac and something about turning. Were they involved in this somehow? "Anything else I need to know?" I sighed as I sink back into the chair behind me.
"Yes. There is a giant lizard, also known as a Kanima running around killing by the order of its master."
"Ha-ha" I droned before rising from the chair once more and heading towards the door. But then thought of something and turned back around, heading towards the weapons furniture and opening it up. I grabbed one of the guns that seemed to be the same type as the one my mom is assigned as a sheriff, and then grabbed a box of silver bullets before heading back towards the door.
"Bye ALICE." I sang, happy to be away from the annoyingly sarcastic computer program
"You are aware that I am installed all throughout the house, correct?"
"What? How come I've only talked to you today?" I hissed in surprise
"Because you were not yet aware of this room." She? answered in a duh tone
I groaned before opening the heavy door and heading out with sound of ALICES' weird electronic laughter trailing after me. That computer is going to be a nuisance.
I headed back up the stairs then-embarrassingly enough- squeaked in surprise when the door opened on its own. I stepped out of the square hole in my wall, watching in amazement as the door and wall closed up all on its own. God, my life is too damn weird.
My feet carried me out of the music room and as my mind sorted through the day I've had, they also carried me to my room where I placed the gun and bullets on the bedside table. I peeled off my clothes and dropped them on the floor, not in the mood to walk them to the dirty clothes hamper in my clothes closet. I grabbed the towel that was on my bed from this morning before heading to the bathroom to take the long, relaxing bath that I desperately I needed.
Inside the bathroom, I turned on the faucet that was over the claw foot tub and when it reached the right level I poured lavender scented bath gel then lowered myself into the tub.
That damn computer might be crazy smart and could be very important at some point in my stay in this town but it is a total bitch. If computers can be bitches.
Apparently one of its talents is the ability to hack my phone and disable my alarm clock, because the next morning instead of waking up at six on the dot with Pocketful of Sunshine blaring, 'We r who we r' by Ke$ha
"Tonight we're going har har-har ha-ha-hard Just like the world is our our-our our-our-ours we're tearin' it apart part-part pa-pa-part you know we're superstars, we are who we are! We're dancing like we're dum dum-dum dum-dum-dumb Our bodies go num num-num num-num-numb We'll be forever youn youn-youn youn-youn-young You know we're superstars, we are who we are!"
Had me literally falling out of bed and onto my face.
"Owww" I moaned, rubbing my now sore, throbbing nose.
"That is not my fucking ringtone."
"Well, you seemed to be sleeping late, so I thought I would use a more...energetic song to wake you." A monotone, yet sarcastic electronic voice filled the large room.
In a flash, I was on my feet. Crouched, fangs out I searched for the voice, before the events of yesterday hit me like a speeding 18 wheeler.
Alphas, werewolves and weird smart computers named ALICE that can speak. So much for a normal and calm life.
"What did you do, ALICE?"
"Assuming things, Ms. Forbes? By the by, you might want to hurry seeing as school began two hours ago."
My eyes drifted to the round clock hanging on the beige wall and my mouth dropped as my eyes registered the time - 9:30.
Holy fuck.
It wasn't long before I had taken the quickest shower of my life, dressed, grabbed my emergency make up kit that had a comb and brush it (thankfully) than I was out of the house and speeding towards school. The two red lights on the way there is the only reason I was able to brush my hair and throw it into a quick messy bun and put on lip gloss and mascara. There is nothing harder than putting mascara on while driving and in a hurry. I do not recommend it.
When I got into the school building, any hope I had of sneaking into Mr. Harris' classroom was crushed as I spotted who I knew to be the principal from the picture on the schools website. Mr. Argent. My maroon All-Stars clad feet slid silently across the tile hallway as I headed in the direction of my class, my face screwed as I imagined being questioned by this dude as to why I'm late. I can't exactly tell him that my smart but evil computer system hacked my phone and turned off my alarm. Unless I want to end up in a strait jacket that is.
"Young lady, shouldn't you be in class?" Said the falsely kind voice of principal Argent.
Obviously, I thought rolling my eyes internally
"I overslept, Mr. Argent. It won't happen again." I say with an overly sweet and bubbly smile on my lips
"I'm sure it won't. But you also need to go to the main office to sign in and get a slip that permits you to go to class, Ms. Forbes." He stated the giant smile on his face a total contrast to his cold, emotionless eyes.
"Of course, Mr. Argent." I say the ridiculous smile still on my face as I pretended to not be slightly freaked out by the old mans' unnerving gaze.
A full minute later of awkward silence later, I sent a tight-lipped smile his way before turning on my heel and heading in the direction of the main office.
"Tardy on your second day of school is not a good look, Ms. Forbes." Said the monotone voice of Mr. Harris, who had his back facing the class, as I tried to quietly sneak in.
"Sorry, overslept." I say placing the pink tardy slip on his desk and taking my seat behind Scott and Stiles.
Speaking of the two, the minute I dropped my bag onto my desk, they both turned around with raised eyebrows, clearly asking 'What happened?'
I barely finished mouthing "later" to them before Mr. Harris was snapping at us to pay attention.
Lunch was a…tense affair. Well, for me at least.
I hadn't eaten since lunch the day before, not counting the single bag of blood I had upon my arrival home. With all the excitement with finding a secret room in my new house and learning about the resident wolves and hunters, the last thing on my mind was food after that. Plus this morning I didn't have time to eat a human breakfast or a vampiric one. There's also the fact that I wouldn't serve the worst criminals in the world the "food" being served in the cafeteria today, which I should've expected from what Stiles told me yesterday. Then, a freshman in the table a ways to ours got a paper cut. I'm telling you, the smell of this kids' blood wafting into my nose was so freaking tempting, I could practically feel the veins snaking under my eyes. I also had the pleasure of formally meeting this Lydia chick that everybody has been comparing me to, and honestly I could see why people are comparing us. I am very well aware that I can seem stuck up to most people when they first meet me. And I used to be that girl. Lydia is exactly who I was before I became a vampire. Shallow and selfish, with a dash of rude and snooty.
Scott stared longingly at Allison across the cafeteria, while Stiles and I argued about which was better Dragon Ball Z or Dragon Ball Z Kai after I calmed down from my almost accident that they thankfully didn't notice. I say Dragon Ball Z Kai and he was not shy about expressing how wrong he thought I was.
"Honestly, it's not even a contest. Ev-"I stopped halfway through my sentence when I noticed that Stiles attention was definitely not on me any longer. My body twisted around curious as to what had deterred Stiles attention and my jaw dropped along with the rest of the cafeteria.
I swear there will come a time where I won't be able to close my mouth from all the unhinging it has been doing lately.
It seems Erica didn't want to wait long before debuting the new her. The click-clacking of her crazy high cheetah print stilettos were the only sound in the now immensely silent cafeteria, as she walked- no strutted- through the light brown double doors of the canteen. The outfit on her is the exact opposite of the conservative clothes she had on yesterday. A leather mini showed off her amazingly long and fit legs, a simple white tank top covered her torso, and a leather jacket completed the bad ass, yet sexy look she was obviously going for. She stood next to the freshman who had cut his finger earlier and with a smirk on her face, she grabbed his apple and took a bite from it, before winking at him and strutting back out of the cafeteria. I couldn't help but notice the chunky, silver wolf ring on her middle finger.
"What...the holy hell...is that?" Said a voice that I recognized as Lydia
I jerked my head up back to look at the slack mouth boys, before answering the queen bee
"That was Erica." The words were barely out of my mouth before the boys scrambled to grab their belongings and chase after the newly transformed Erica. And since I didn't fancy sitting in awkward silence with Lydia, I had no choice but to collect my bag and chase after them.
We busted out of the main doors of the school just in time for Erica to flash us a toothy grin then climb into the passenger seat of a shiny, sleek black Camaro. My jaw dropped – again. It had nothing to do with the car and everything to do with its driver.
Yesterday, when I first caught a glimpse of who I am assuming is Derek Hale, I was so occupied with freaking the hell out about him growing facial hair at the speed of light, having fangs and blood red eyes, that I didn't really pay attention to his level of attractiveness. And damn is he attractive.
The giddy, I-won-and-you-lost grin that he flashed Scott and Stiles was enough to make me heat up in the most delicious way and my legs snap tighter unconsciously. His grin melted off though when he seemed to finally take notice of me standing next to Scott, and I could literally feel his intense stare burning through me behind his black aviators, before he sped away, tires screeching dramatically.
"In the words of Lydia 'what…the holy hell… is that?'"