Pallo looked to Caleb and, as if on cue, Caleb spoke. "I"ve already told Pallo that I"d follow you home."
"Why do I need an escort?" They were leaving something out, I could tell. They looked at each other and then me. Fabulous, coconspirators!
Pallo spoke. "I do not wish to alarm you. However, the attack on your life was intentional. I...." He looked to Caleb. "We feel it would be in your best interest to have someone with you until we know more details."
"Listen, I don"t know what the h.e.l.l"s going on around here. My life was fine until I came here, until I met you, and I don"t need anyone to be concerned with my best interests."
Caleb stepped closer. He looked at my outfit and started to smile, almost laughing. "It looks like you can take care of yourself."
"Very funny."
"Gwyneth, I know you aren"t going to like hearing the fact that you have to trust us, but it"s the truth, and you really don"t have much choice," Caleb said.
He didn"t look at all intimidating. Pallo, on the other hand, looked very powerful with his hair pulled back tightly from his face, and his gray shirt showing off his muscles. The two of them couldn"t have been more polar opposites, yet I felt like they knew something I didn"t. I felt like they shared a bond that was deeper than anything I could possibly fathom. Besides, if they wanted me dead, I would be already. Right?
"Uncle, you win. Are you ready?" I asked Caleb, anxious to get home.
"Yes."
Pallo took my hand in his. "I am sorry that I could not personally take you. The sun has already risen. I"m sure you understand." He kissed my hand gently. The back of my legs started to buckle.
"Sure, I understand." I pulled my hand free and walked towards the door. I turned back long enough to thank Pallo, but he was gone. I looked at Caleb. He didn"t seem surprised or even impressed for that matter.
"Does he do that often?"
"Yeah," he said.
We left Pallo"s and headed for the parking lot. It wasn"t hard to find my car. It was one of only a handful sitting there. Caleb headed off to get his while I walked to mine. It was only around nine in the morning, but already it was sticky and humid. The spandex dress was making me sweat in places I didn"t even know I had.
I opened my creaky car door and climbed in, reaching under the seat to fish my purse out and get my keys. That"s when I noticed the car smelled funnier than normal. It smelled different. I turned to look in the back seat and my hand slid through something slimy. I jerked it back.
"What the h.e.l.l?" I said aloud, as if anyone was going to answer. Nothing looked out of place. It was the same old dilapidated piece of junk I left parked there the other night. My nostrils started to curl from the odd smell. I knew that scent. It was the smell of a dog, a wet dog to be exact. I didn"t own a dog, nor had I ever owned one. I looked back to the slimly pile of goop on the pa.s.senger seat headrest. It had to be dog s...o...b..r, but how?
I jumped when something tapped on my window. It was Caleb. He was standing next to my car. I cranked the window down with half a mind to yell at him for scaring the c.r.a.p out me.
"Hey," he said, "I just wanted to let you know I"m all set." He pointed back at a new red Ford Explorer with its door standing open.
"Thanks," I said, putting the key in the ignition. The smell of dog was so overpowering, I shook my head to try to get rid of it.
"What"s the matter?" Caleb asked, leaning into my window.
"Do you smell that?"
"Smell what?" He bent his head in and his hand touched my steering wheel. His eyes closed tightly, and his head tipped to the side. I went to turn the key and he grabbed my shoulder hard. It was the one with the almost healed troll bit. I winced and started to shout at him, but he cut me off.
"Get out! Get out now!" he screamed, yanking my door open and pulling me away from the car.
He pulled me towards the red Explorer, and practically shoving me in. He climbed in behind me, throwing the car into gear and making a huge loop that left us sitting about a hundred feet from the side of my car.
"What the h.e.l.l was that all about?" I asked, trying to rub the dull ache from my shoulder.
Caleb lifted his hand. I thought he was going to hit me. I flinched, expecting to be nailed. What I felt was his energy--his power brushed past me in the direction of my car. I heard the engine trying to click over. He was starting it. He was starting my car! I was shocked. I was about to ask him why he was starting my car when he hit the accelerator, propelling me back against the seat--sending even more pain through my shoulder. I heard a huge boom and turned. The whole area seemed to shake, vibrate, as my ears rang, and my heart leapt to my throat. My car or what was left of it was engulfed in a huge ball of fire. I turned back to Caleb slowly, my eyes wide.
"How did you know?"
"When I touched the wheel I saw it."
"You had a vision of someone doing this?" I asked.
"No," he said, clutching the steering wheel tightly. "I didn"t have a vision of what had happened. I had a vision of what was to come."
I gulped. Did he mean he saw me getting blown to bits when he touched the wheel? I looked at him. His eyes were wide and looking at me, but past me. I knew then that he had, and I didn"t want any more details. I"d been on the receiving end of those visions before and I knew how vivid they were. I shook slightly, suddenly very uneasy.
He touched my knee. "Let"s get you out of here, okay?"
"What about my car?"
"What about it? It"s not really drivable, now is it?"
"Shouldn"t we call the police or something?" I asked, looking back at the inferno.
He patted my knee. "Some things are better left unsaid. Pallo will see to it that it"s taken care of. He"s good at cleaning up messes." There was a hint of sarcasm in his voice at the end.
I knew from the way his house looked that Pallo had money, but I never expected he had that much clout. Part of me didn"t want to know what kind of people I had managed to get myself mixed up with. They were shaping up to be the supernatural Mafia.
My week had started out pretty run of the mill. Now look at it. I had led an ordinary existence right up until I met Pallo. I went to work every day, did my job, and went home. Every now and then I had the occasional change of routine. I would take a cla.s.s in self-defense, painting, or cooking. I didn"t waver off the path of normal too often. I liked my little routines. I was a creature of habit, and I liked knowing what was going to happen next--it was safe. This was not.
"Can you take me home, please?" I asked, staring out the front window.
"Gwyneth...."
"Gwen," I corrected him.
"Gwen, I don"t think that"s such a good idea. They found you here, they know where you live. Do you have anywhere else to go?"
I thought about my options--there were Ken and Sharon. Not too many options, huh! I really didn"t want to barge in on Ken porking the redhead again, and Sharon was headed out of town. Besides, she was staying with family until her apartment was done being painted. No help there.
I started to say that I had nowhere to go but my apartment when I thought about my parents, Paul and Sarah. They had both pa.s.sed away in the last year and a half. I lost my mom to a stroke and my dad to a broken heart. It had been hard. Ken had helped me get through it. He had been my rock, the strong, steady being I needed to hold myself together. I had cried the night he proposed to me, not because I was so happy, even though I was, but because my dad would not be there to walk me down the aisle.
After they pa.s.sed, Ken tried to convince me to sell their houses. They had a main house and a vacation home. Saying that made them seem so much grander than they really were, but that"s okay, they deserved it. The main house was where we lived the majority of the year. The vacation home was more of a country farm house. It sat on about two hundred acres of land--the majority of it wooded. The closest neighbors were at least fifteen minutes away in either direction. It sat about a mile off of the road. A huge river ran through the center of the property.
Ken had managed to talk me into selling the main house, but I hadn"t been able to bring myself to sell the other.
When I made my decision to move away from home and head to college, I thought I would run as far and fast as I could to get away from the small town I grew up in. All I wanted to do now was run back to it. I wanted to leave the hustle and the bustle of the big city behind.
"Caleb, I hate to ask you to do this. You can say no if you want." I paused. He looked at me.
"Gwen, I"ll do anything you want me to."
"Could you take me to my family"s country home? It"s about a half hour away from here."
He smiled at me. His green eyes lit up. "The way you were acting, I thought you were going to ask me to take you to Mexico or something." That made me laugh.
Chapter 9.
We turned onto the tiny, one lane road that the house sat off of. I hadn"t been there in a year, but nothing had changed. Weeds and tall gra.s.s still bordered the road. We pa.s.sed two drives on the road before I had Caleb turn right into the driveway. My mom had wanted my dad to pave the driveway, but he didn"t see any point in spending money trying to pave a mile"s worth of driveway. We only used the place for about three weeks a year.
Gravel crunched under the tires of Caleb"s SUV. Pine trees lined the drive for the first half of the lane, extending high into the air, blocking most of the sunlight. They opened to a large gra.s.sy area. I could still remember the smell of freshly cut gra.s.s and the sound of the riding lawnmower buzzing. I missed Paul and Sarah. They were the only family I had ever known. It never once mattered to them that I was adopted, or that I had extra gifts. They loved me for me.
The gra.s.s was in desperate need of cutting. I had hired a local boy to take care of it for the summer. It was obvious he was ripping me off. The corner of the house poked out at us from behind another large pine tree. I smiled when I saw the huge white wraparound porch.
Caleb parked the car around the end of the circular driveway. He opened his door as I sat there, looking at the front of the house. It was still as breathtaking as it had always been to me. It wasn"t so much that it was extravagant--it wasn"t--it was how simple, yet perfect it was. All white with hunter green shutters and front door. It was perfect.
"Are you okay?" Caleb asked.
The sound of his voice brought me back. I opened my door and got out. He followed suit. I stepped onto the small stone walkway. Gra.s.s had started to grow up through the cracks. It looked like it belonged there. I liked it. I led Caleb up the four wooden steps and onto the front portion of the porch.
"I don"t suppose you have a spare key roaming around that dress, do you? I mean, it doesn"t look like you could be hiding much in that," he said, smirking.
"It was the best choice, trust me."
"Yeah, I"ve seen some of Pallo"s women. I don"t doubt that for a minute."
The thought of Pallo having other women made my chest feel tight. He wasn"t mine, and I had been the one to agree on being just friends. What he did was none of my business, so why did it still bother me?
I walked to the left of the front door. I bent down and moved the welcome mat. My fingers slid along the smooth stained boards. I felt the loose one and pulled it up. It was still there. My dad had made a little cubbyhole there for a spare key. He used to say, "You never know when you could be stuck on the outside looking in, best to be prepared." He had no idea how true his words had been.
I pulled the key out and straightened, then pulled open the screen and unlocked the front door. The smell of stale air hit me hard as the door swung open. I stepped in, Caleb following closely at my heels.
I put the key down on the table next to the door. It was dark inside with the curtains pulled shut to block the daylight. I flipped the light switch, and the light above the stairs turned on. I was happy I had decided to leave the electric on. Actually, it was more like I had forgotten to get them shut off. Ken had told me to call the utility companies and handle it. I forgot. Right then and there, I was pretty happy I was absent-minded.
I looked around. Nothing had changed. I hadn"t realized that I expected it to. The floors were still hardwood. The walls were still cream textured wallpaper everywhere, and the place sill felt like home.
I gave Caleb the condensed version of the grand tour, pointing to each room as we went past it, then I headed upstairs to get changed. I walked down the hall to my room. I had spent most of my summers here when I was in college.
I turned in and was overwhelmed with the feeling of being home. My queen-sized bed was sitting in the center of the room. A yellow and white quilt covered it. My mother had made the quilt to match the yellow walls of the room. I had insisted that my bedroom be yellow. She had tried to talk me into pink and even white, but I wouldn"t budge. I loved being surrounded by the warmth of the yellow. I had a large, old maple-colored dresser near my closet door. I had gotten into the bad habit of buying clothes and leaving them there. I loved to shop thrift stores and bargain shops, so it only made sense to go ahead and pick a few extra items up and leave them, a just-in-case kind of thing. This was just in case.
I opened the drawer and found an old pair of cut-off jean shorts, a blue tank top, and a white, long sleeve, cotton b.u.t.ton-down top. I had always kept undergarments here, so I wasn"t worried about that. However, my underwear fashion had matured over the years, and I hadn"t worn a pair of white cotton briefs in a while. Oh well, anything was better than the red string that had been giving me a wedgie since we left Necro World.
I put everything on, tying the white shirt at the bottom instead of tucking it in. I cuffed the sleeves until they were just under my elbows and went to the closet. I threw the door open and saw a few pairs of shoes I"d left behind. Brown work boots, white Reeboks, and a pair of slip-on black loafers. I s.n.a.t.c.hed the boots up, grabbed a pair of white socks, and put them on. When I looked at myself in the mirror over my dresser, I smiled. I looked like I was going hiking.
I searched through my top dresser drawer and found a hair band and brush. I worked the brush through my hair and then braided it.
I trotted back downstairs and headed into the kitchen. Caleb was standing over the stove, cooking something. He looked so at home in my family"s kitchen, I was speechless.
"Hey!" he said, turning and noticing me. "You look more comfortable."
"What are you doing?"
He smiled. "I was hungry, so I figured you would be too."
I walked over to the white counter next to him. I saw a box of pancake mix and syrup sitting out. I was impressed he had rummaged around that old kitchen and come up with enough stuff to make a meal. G.o.d bless instant pancake mix and hot guys.
"I wouldn"t have guessed that you were a cook," I said, taking in the smell of the warm pancakes.
"Yeah, it"s kind of hard to live four hundred years and not pick up a thing or two."
"You are full of surprises, aren"t you?" I said, going to the cupboard and getting out two plates.
He flipped the pancakes over. "What is that supposed to mean?"
I set the plates down on the old white table and turned to get gla.s.ses and silverware. "Nothing, it just means that you"re not what I pictured a four hundred year old faerie to be." He turned as I said this and gave me a puzzled look. "I would have thought you would be a little more proper, a little more refined." That"s not what I wanted to say. What I wanted to say was, hey, you"re so normal and gorgeous!
"Ouch!" he said, pretending to stab his gut. "I"m hurt. Really, I am. You want to know why I"m not like Pallo, Mr. Suave, right."
That thought hadn"t entered my mind, but okay. "Yeah."
He turned and lifted the pan, bringing it over our plates. He slid the pancakes down onto them. "I don"t have to live my life in dark places. I don"t have people falling over themselves to impress me." He put the pan in the sink and turned and sat. "I don"t have people falling at my feet, answering my every need. I had it once, and it wasn"t all it was cracked up to be."
"Once?"
"It"s not important. Anyway, I lead a pretty normal life--work, home, extracurricular activities...."
I ignored that last remark. "Okay, so where do you work?"
He smiled. "I hunt down supernatural creatures for my clients. I guess you could say I am a bounty hunter for the things people don"t want to talk about."
"Do you hunt vampires?" I was shocked.
"Only if they"re wanted by the law--guy"s got to have his standards, right?" We laughed and started eating.
"I have a favor to ask before you go. Could you run me into town long enough to get some groceries?"
"That"s not a problem. Besides, I"m not going anywhere."
"What?"
"I called Pallo as soon as we got here. He was worried sick about you. The car is being taken care of as we speak, but he was very clear on not leaving you alone here."
I was dumbfounded ... and more than a little ticked. "I don"t need a baby-sitter. What is he paying you? I get the feeling that you"re on retainer with him. Am I the new pet project for the old elf?"
Caleb looked like I"d just slapped him. His voice lowered. "Listen, I"m not going to take any s.h.i.t from you. I don"t think you can take care of yourself, and NO, Pallo"s not paying me to do this. Don"t think he didn"t try, though."