Hi, Happy Halloween.
Since it has been so long let me do a recap: Phil has finally after all this time found his one true love but she is in a delicate situation. Phil's grandmother does not want him telling Leah who he really is so he has to find a way to help her overcome her depression without revealing who and what he truly is. In order to do so he is trying to maneuver her into spending more time with him. He has just asked for her to be his hiking partner for the next few months in order to get her to hang out with him.
10 - Toil and Trouble
"Ok sure," the two words were thrown casually over her shoulder as she exited the truck. There was such reluctance in her words that it took me a bit of time to realize she had agreed to my proposal.
My body quickly was flooded by a sense of elation, and for a moment I reveled in my victory. She had said yes to me!
Not certain that I could contain the facade of indifference for long I quickly said my goodbyes. "Great, I will pick you up on Thursday at seven in the morning. Be ready for a bit of hiking. Good night." Not wanting to give her any time to change her mind I reached over and quickly closed the door behind her. It was only when she turned away from me that I allowed myself a small subdued smile.
I was prepared to enjoy the sight of my princess walking across the yard, those too long legs of her taking much bigger steps than was appropriate for a skirt, but of course fate would have it that I was not allowed to appreciate the view for more than a few seconds before some loud thoughts interrupted.
What can she be thinking saying yes to him? Did she just agree to a date or something? No, no, I will talk to her and this time I will make her listen. I had become far too familiar with the owner of those thoughts, and I was not happy about it. Even with my better than human night vision it still took me some time to locate the boy skulking in the shadows next to the porch. Did this boy have nothing better to do than aggravate my girl? He was going to have to be dealt with quickly. Aodh almost instantly started to flood my mind with possible ways to kill the boy. Not now, later we will find a way to dispose of him. Sometimes if I put enough force behind the thought Aodh would leave it be, and at other times it would continue to send me visions of potential plans. Luck would have it that Aodh actually understood and let me have my eyesight back. I knew the reprieve would not last long as Aodh seemed to dislike this boy more than I did.
Did this boy not have other duties? I had spent considerable time and effort in order to take Leah's mind off of her problems, and now with a few poorly chosen words he was going to undermine all of my hard work. When he had threatened me it had been almost amusing but now he was endangering my girl's mental well being, and that was going to cost him dearly. I just had to figure out how to make him pay without getting caught. Under normal circumstances it would have been a simple matter to kill the boy and dispose of his body - he would simply disappear. The problem was that my hands were tied, doubly tied by both my grandmother and my mate. Bee did not want me to reveal my true nature to the wolves and vampires of this region, or at least not yet. As for my mate, there was a very strong possibility that she still had feelings for this obnoxious boy so tearing him apart might not be the best way to endear myself to her.
A fall off of a tall cliff could be easily arranged, or even better an unfortunate meeting with a group of blood drinkers. That could be easily explained as an "accident" so Bee would not be able to complain so long as the deed could not be tied back to me or the family. I had pulled off such things in the past without being caught by the humans. Accidents happen all the time and this sis especially true in regards to troublesome little creatures who did not mind their own business. Leah would never need to know and it might give her the opportunity to finally move on from him. The unfamiliar feeling of guilt rose up within me. In the two millennia of my existence I had encountered many situations that should me feel guilty but outside of encounters of my family the feeling had never arisen. Usually I just felt guilty about not feeling guilty. I never felt guilty for lying to outsiders, or even when things went farther and I had to kill them, but now I was feeling guilty about even considering lying to Leah about getting rid of her ex-lover. This binding thing was making me feel like a teenager again, and I had thought those times were behind me.
A quick glance her way confirmed that she was not looking at me or at the wolf around the corner, so she must not have detected his presence yet. There was something different in the way she moved her long legs tonight, a little extra confidence in her stride, and I had no problem taking credit for having put it there. It had taken a great deal of plotting and not to mention cooking to get Leah to forget about her problems for a few hours. So what if most of the time she had been asleep? It had been a peaceful slumber that had gone undisturbed until those asinine beasts had interrupted. I pushed down my anger and instead concentrated on the view of my girl walking up the porch.
There was not much time to feel pride at making her feel more confident because very quickly another emotion took over. Lust took over as all other thoughts were instantly jettisoned. My brain took note of the swaying of her lean hips as she headed up the steps and something primitive stirred within me, an instinct that I thought had been controlled long ago by the iron chains of reason, but now it rose again simply from watching my girl move across a porch. My mind had no problems recalling in perfect detail what that ass looked like under the clothes, but wanted to know more. Her cinnamon colored skin looked supple and soft, but would it feel as silky as it looked? What would it taste like? Would it taste wild scent of the woods that seemed to follow her no matter where she went or would it be something more spicy to reflect her personality? What kind of sounds would she make if I sucked on that spot? Would she be quiet and shy about her needs, or would she be loud and demanding? Gods I really hoped she would be demanding? Arousal blocked out the existence of every other being in the universe and suddenly the need to claim her as mine became more essential than my next breath. Reaching over I quickly pulled the handle of the door as I prepared to pounce on my unsuspecting she-wolf. The need to answer all of my questing was driving me. As she opened the door to her home I saw a small glimpse of her mother sleeping in a chair and that as enough for a sliver of reason to enter my brain again.
What the fuck am I thinking? She did not need me to fuck her brain out right now. She needed me to be a friend.I became aware of the fact that while I may wish it we were not the only two beings that existed in the universe. I was millennia old and not a teenage boy who could not control his own needs. With a less than graceful movement I threw the truck into drive and gunned the engine. Making my escape before I could do anything truly foolish like drag her back into my truck and take her with me. I sped towards the cabin and tried my best to ignore the images that Aodh was sending my way. I used all of my mental power to push the images of what Leah would look like when she was caressed - I did not need to know that with the right touch any part of her body could be turned into an erogenous zone. Unfortunately my spirit was determined to make me claim Lean - even at the cost of my sanity. It was an understandable need considering we had been looking for her for nearly two millennia. So you can just wait a few more months while she heals from her losses.
I shoved even harder at the pictures Aodh was sending me and this time I finally succeeded in ignoring them. I would pay for ignoring the visions soon enough, I could feel the tingling behind my eyes indicating the beginnings of a headache, but I ignored all that because I needed to get back to the cabin. I pulled on centuries of experience at controlling my emotions and forced myself to slow down and assess the situation. The two idiot wolves that had followed Leah and I to the beach continued their pursuit as I drove away from the reservation. I needed to get out of their sight before I lost control and revealed the fact that I was not human.
I was going to maintain control no matter what. I was a rational being so I would not let instinct rule me, and most importantly I would not let Aodh dictate my actions. I was a guardian, the need for secrecy was the highest priority, and allowing lust to take over at this point could reveal my secrets. I would be calm, in control, and most assuredly I would make sure that I did nothing to scare her away. The lust had hit me almost out of nowhere, but now that I was aware of it I would do my utmost to keep it leashed when she was around.
Hopefully she had interpreted my swift exit as indifference and not the cowardly act that it actually was. It was shameful the way I had abandoned Leah to the not so tender mercy of that boy. All of the work I had spend this evening trying to make her forget would be wasted as soon as she noticed his presence. Maybe you should go back and check on her. That little voice in the back of my mind whispered seductively but I was stronger than that. I pulled the steel bands of control around my emotions and tightened them until I had strangled not only the feeling of lust but all other emotions.
Conceding that victory was mine, Aodh showed me the vision of Leah dealing with Sam. Her temporary confidence would make it so that she could hold her own against that Sam - at least for tonight. I would have to come up with a more permanent solution to the Sam problem. Soon.
Out of the periphery of my sight I could see the two wolves that shadowed me as I drove along the road. Knowing the importance of always acting human I pushed down all thoughts of Leah's ex. Thinking about him now would only lead to anger and that would risk Aodh getting control of my powers. When that happened it was much harder to keep up the appearance of being a normal human. People tended to get suspicious when those who pissed me off suddenly burst into flames - even the most unobservant individuals would pick up on that. That had not happened since I was really young and I was not going to embarrass myself by letting it happen now. My brother Myles would never let me live it down if he found out about it, and in my family it was next to impossible to keep such a secret.
I needed a quiet place away from prying eyes in order to plan my kill so for now my only task was to act human. I pulled my mask more fully in place and went all out in my role. Turning onto the highway I increased changed the CD and sang along to some little known german metal band my cousin Blossom had introduced me to. She was really into this band, and they were really into her as well. That would not last long because her spirit would not allow Blossom to remain with them long, but for a while she would be able to enjoy their music and their bodies.
Even after pulling up to the cabin I put the truck in park and sang along to the rest of the song - in german of course. Let the little morons report that back to their leader. Grabbing the half empty picnic baskets and blankets I slowly made my way up the steps, scratched my ass, adjusted the boys, and dug around for my keys.
"Oh goddammit," I curse after "accidentally" dropping the keys. The floodlight that had automatically come on when I parked the truck did not reach the front door and someone like Phil Nelson would not have anticipated staying out this late so the porch light was not on. I bent down and pretended to search for the keys on the ground as if I had the poor night vision of a human. I could hear the wolves fidgeting in the underbrush, and shook my head at their ineptitude. They really needed to learn how to stalk a person without being seen, but I should not expect much considering how young they all were. Having followed my princess around for several days I had come to the conclusion that while some of them had above human skills they would never reach their full potential under the guidance of Sam. In this little world he was king and very few people were willing to call him out when he made a mistake. He saw his pack as numbers, and unfortunately for them he lacked the imagination to see their individual strengths. In his tiny fiefdom everything was black and white, and his lack of ability to see the shades of gray in the world meant that he would never survive outside of the reservation. It was a good thing he now had an excuse as to why he would never leave.
Continuing my "search" for the keys while softly cursing under my breath I was not speaking too loudly that I could not hear the sounds of the wolves slowly backing away from the house. They had lost interest in less than two minutes.
Amateurs. I picked up the keys and twirled them around a finger before opening my already unlocked door. Aurora, our AI system, was the only key you needed to unlock the door, and if she did not recognize you there was no way you were getting in the door.
Their swift retreat was perplexing because I had anticipated having to behave normal for at least another ten minutes - but perhaps they were merely supposed to follow me to see where I lived. As young and undisciplined as the wolves were I had been somewhat surprised that a confrontation had not occurred on the beach after I threw that rock, but perhaps Sam had given alpha orders to only watch. Sam certainly did not seem to hesitate at throwing those orders around. If he lived long enough, one day he might realize that while in the short term it was easiest to give those orders when it came to the long haul it was better to people to think for themselves.
Speaking of thinking, I was having a hard time pinning down the thoughts of the wolves. At the beach they were a little easier to read because it was just the two of them in wolf form but now others had shifted to wolves and I was having a much harder time trying to untangle their thoughts. The wolf pack mind was interesting to behold as the thoughts of the the individual wolves weaved together into a rat's nest of thoughts and images. Another day might have had me following them through the forest and uncoiling the mental mess but the emotions churning underneath my tight grip threatened to resurface and I did not want to be around anyone when that happened. I needed to find a nonlethal way to dispose of Sam.
Killing him did not bother me in the least, my genetic modifications made it so that hurting outsiders did not bother me, but I was bothered by the knowledge that I would have to lie to Leah about it. Generally speaking I did not consider the feelings of outsiders unless I was going to use their emotions to manipulate them, but with Leah it was different. Did I really want to add another secret to the pile of secrets I was already keeping from her? Leah did not strike me as a type of girl who would appreciate lies. Discomfort at lying to an outsider was uncharted territory for me, and I was not at all happy with the emotion. There was also the huge risk of one day being caught out in the lie - one day I wanted Leah to join the family and then it would be much harder to keep the fact that I murdered her ex-boyfriend a secret. She still cared about the little shit so killing him might not be the best way to gain her trust. Again I was back to having to find a way to get him away from Leah without killing him.
-.-.-.-.
"Impressive, I have not used a spell that primitive in… I can't even count the years," Phila was in a goo d mood tonight. "I am surprised you still remember how to do that."
I had finished my own version of patrol about an hour ago, and having been satisfied with the knowledge that nothing would disturb my sleeping girl I had headed back to the place of our date to think some more. The cabin was not large enough to contain my thoughts at the moment. I was trying to figure out what about this place appealed to Leah the most. Was it the rugged beauty of the place or was there some other quality that had made her pick this place? Or maybe I was reading too much into her choice and actually she did not really care and had just picked a random beach. This is how Phila found me, sitting on a rock and staring at the clouds overhead.
"It might be crude but if you put enough power behind it.." I cast her a sideways glance. The spell I had cast earlier had left behind some residual traces but the power had dissipated to a point where it was now impossible to identify the specific spell. I found far too much pleasure in the knowledge that not knowing what I had cast would drive the very curious Phila crazy.
"What was that exactly? I cannot be sure what you actually tried to accomplish," she was staring up at me but I refused to mee her eyes because I was afraid she would see my half smile.
"All that matters is that I am pretty certain it worked." Under normal circumstances I would have spent far more time stroking the flames of her curiosity but I was still too tense. More than an hour of undisturbed plotting had yielded nothing and I had yet to come up with any sort of plan for Sam. I rolled my shoulders trying o relieve the tension and looked around. The wolves should not be patrolling this place but it would have been humiliating if we were caught.
"Well someone is being very cranky tonight." She leaned towards me and tried to push me off the rock.
Having anticipated the move I simply shifted my weight to counter her move. "I don't know why you always try to do that." I was psychic and could see the future. Aodh would show me a small vision of her move even before she had decided to try.
She gave me a nonchalant shrug, clearly not bothered by the fact that her attempt to push me off the rock failed, before giving me a smile. "One of these days I will catch you off guard."
"After two thousand years?" What was the old quote attributed to Einstein? The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Yeah Phila was insane in some respects but I would not have anyone else watching my back. Her insanity had saved my hide countless times.
"You are really bothered by something." She gave me another experimental push before she hopped off the rock and started walking down to the water. "Want to talk about it?"
With a large sigh I leaned back on the rock I had been sitting on and stared up at the sky.
There was not even a hint of the stars that had shone earlier, and instead a set of menacing clouds marched across the sky in order to block out all the stars. It looked like we might be soon getting a true autumn storm. For now these threatening piles of clouds were producing little more than a wet drizzle.
"Well I am freezing so I am going to head back to the apartment," Phila had come closer once more. "Are you going to be all right?"
"Yeah," I could feel her eyes on me but I was not looking away from the sky. "I just have to remember that I am not a child so violence should nto be the first solution to a problem."
"Well, call me if you need me to help dispose of a body." She said with complete honesty. Over the centuries I had called her many a time for just that reason. I could feel the gathering of her power as she peppered for a jump and a fw minutes later with a simple goodnight she was gone. I went back to my ineffective brainstorming. I don't know how long I lay there on the rock coming up with and rejecting several plans for ridding Leah of Sam's company before I noticed that the rain was getting worse. The storm was finally moving inland.
The wolves that rain around in these woods might have been immune to the elements but I was not so lucky. The rain had found its way through my thick coat and had quickly soaked through my shirt. It was an uncomfortable feeling but with years of practice such discomforts could be easily ignored. I should have gone back to the cabin, where it was warm and dry, but I could not calm down enough to actually go there. So rather than heading for a place that had hot showers and even hotter drinks I stood up and face the coming storm.
If the large flashed of light that was flaring up between the clouds was any indication the gray mass above me had the capacity to become a violent, nasty storm. I wanted the storm to hit, I was desperate for the fury and sound of the pouring rain, thunder, and lightening. In some ways it would me something physical to fight and roar at. The trees around me began to rustle as the wind picked up and I loosened my grip on Aodh. My spirit loved the pure chaos of these storms and it was generally harmless to let Aodh add some strength to the tempest.
Walking closer to the shoreline I gave my body a mental push so I could safely jump to the top of one of the giant rocks that jutted out of the water. While landing I managed to crush several birds' nests under my boots I did not worry about it too much as these nests had been abandoned long ago and would remain vacant until the coming spring. Inside of me Aodh was pulling and tugging on my power, plucking the individual lines of my powers like a harpist playing an instrument. In my case the results was not sweet music but the increase of the wind that pushed and pulled with all its might in an attempt to throw me off my perch. As the storm moved more inland Aodh became bored with playing with the wind and settled for making swirling patterns in the sand on the beach.
My phone beeped at me with Aurora's tone. I pulled i out of my pocked and lifted it to my ear to listen to what she wanted to report. Her voice was of course emotionless as she went through the details. "A wolf is approaching the cabin from the west. He is approximately fourteen hundred meters away and moving at twenty meters per minute." Surrounding the cabin going out over a kilometer was a mesh of security equipment that would alert me if anyone came near the property. Most of our houses tended to have over the top security that went out beyond the property line. Some might call it paranoia but in order to keep our secrets safe we needed to know of any impending visitors. Between Aurora and Aodh I was not going to have any surprise visitors in the cabin.
"Can you detect which wolf it is? Are one of the two returning from earlier? Is he alone?" For a moment I let myself hope that Leah was heading towards the cabin, and I had to remind myself that she would have no reason to be heading that easy in the middle of a thunderstorm. She also does not know where it is, dumbass. I had to remind myself that I had yet to take her there.
"If the fur color is an indication this one is different from the two who left the vicinity of the cabin at 22:47 yesterday. However based on previous data I can say with 97.5% certainty that the wolf currently is one name Sam."
My lips formed into an evil smile before my mind even began to consider the opportunities this visit opened up. That brat was going to the cabin? All alone? "What is his trajectory Aurora?" Speaking to her out loud was not necessary but it made things easier than having to type out the instructions on the small screen of my phone.
"Assuming he will continue to follow his current path I am 76.8% certain that he is not going to come all the way to the cabin. 63.7% of scenarios have him turning back before he reaches the 500 meter mark."
"That is too bad," it made things much easier if he came to me. Unfortunately I was no at all ready for a visit from him, but if this was just a test of the lay of the land it would mean he was planning to come back another day. It was a good thing no one was around to see my smile of anticipation - it would have scared the most reckless of his pack mates. "What are the odds of him coming back tomorrow?"
"My estimates would be poor because I cannot properly account for the human element." If I did not know better I would have guessed there was censure in her voice.
My lips curled in amusement. "If we could predict human behavior almost all of the problems of the world would be solved." It would also make the job of a guardian much easier, probably unnecessary, but that was not going to happen anytime soon. "Give me a wide estimate and just add the margin of error."
"I will run the scenarios but they will take at least 91.6 minutes depend on the results they could take up to 425.1 minutes."
"Send me the results as soon as you have them via text." I really needed to come up with a plan for Sam. Several hours of brooding had resulted in nothing, so maybe I would need a different tactic.
Looking behind me at the beac I noticed that the swirls Aodh had been making in the sand were starting to resemble Leah - a very naked Leah. With a harsh slash of my hands I smoothed out the sand and clamped down on Aodh. Playtime was over.
Perhaps it was because Aodh was frustrated at me for pulling its leash or maybe it was just tired after playing for so long, but it was giving me no visions regarding how close Sam planned to approach. I was going to assume this meant there would be no early morning visit from my least favorite dog, but just in case I started the calculations to make the jump to the cabin.
The quick escalation of the situation was troublesome. In just a few days time Sam had gone from ordering Leah to stay away from me to sending goons to track me, and now it was a personal visit to the cabin. Why was he so interested in me? Or was he more interested in Leah? Sam had already threatened Leah three times in my vicinity - twice on the day when I gave her a ride and now last night after I had taken her home. Why was he hounding her so much? Did he not realize what he was doing to her? The constant presence of Sam was wreaking havoc on my mate's already crushed self-confidence. Was he determined to be tat cruel? Or was it a simple matter of the boy not knowing how to deal with things and like a child was using brute force to try to maintain control of the situation? Sam thought of himself as the chief protector of the area, and so he seemed to believe that gave him the right to run roughshod over everyone around him. Shaking my head at his stupidity I moved through the mirage and found myself in the attic of the cabin. All of our houses had a spot like this, a place without windows tha trade it easy to pop in and out without anyone outside noticing.
I took a few steps towards the two giant locked wardrobes. In the first one I place all the noise canceling clothes. These clothes used technology not yet available on this planet so we kept them hidden from human eyes. Obviously when we wore them we were invisible so it was not an issue then. The wardrobe next to the one with the clothes was a bit larger and contained an arsenal. Swords, knives, garrotes that were sharp enough to cut through even the impenetrable skin of a blood drinker. Next to them were the explosives and the guns. Generally speaking I did not much care for guns because I much preferred getting in there and taking things out with my own two hands, but occasionally it was fun to sit with a long range rifles and take down targets that way. It was always amusing to see how many you could kill before they noticed and the panic began.
Nope, killing Sam with a sniper rifle would not be a good plan. I so needed to find another way. What I needed was more information and I knew just who to call about it, but first I needed to dry off and get in some warmer clothes.
A/N:
Hi, how is everyone? Long time no see? I bet you are wondering why I am updating this story. To make a long story short, I had this chapter written for a long time but it needed some editing, the past month I have been miserably sick while trying to pretend I am not (apparently no one told me that this mom gig did not come with sick day benefits) and working on my other stuff was way too exhausting so I went back to play with two of my favorite characters. So in between attending Saturday soccer games with an 101F fever (the ibuprofen wore off), getting laundry done, and putting three meals a day together I managed to play a little with this chapter.
I am trying to write how Phil finally dealt with Sam. In Leah's version she thinks that it was due to the fact that he finally listened to her that night she agreed to go be tour guide to Phil but she could not be more wrong. So this is the beginning of what truly stopped Sam from butting in and how Phil finally managed to get him. I have the next two parts to this event written down in pieces but I still have to tie it all together.
Hope you enjoy, and thanks for all the encouragement.