The Truth About Kadenburg (8 page)

Arnold stared at the younger male in disbelief. What
gave him the right to make that comment? Who did Lorcan think he was to judge
Arnold for the way he’d raised Presley? He couldn’t help the scoff that left
his lips as he cocked his head to the side, his eyes staying on Lorcan’s.

“You know, Lorcan,” he started. “I’m well aware that
the way I’ve brought up Presley is less than conventional. But I want you to keep
in mind that I’m trying to prevent history from repeating itself. I don’t
want
her to be mixed up in the ways of our kind. She’s never even had the
urge to shift and as far as I’m concerned, she’ll never have a reason to feel
the urge.”

“How do you know?” Lorcan argued as he shifted his
weight from one foot to the other, crossing his arms over his chest. “How do
you know she’s never had that urge? How can you be so sure that she’s not felt
the shudder, Arnold? Maybe it’s confused her before; that overwhelming need to
break free from the restraints of human flesh. Maybe she’s been suffering in
silence over the lack of feeling whole. Conventional or not, keeping her in
the dark about being one of us is wrong. She deserves to know.”

“
You’re
wrong,” Arnold stated as his eyes
narrowed on the boy. “You’re only saying that because Presley’s never
expressed interest in you. It kills you that you have to honor the laws of
Urseth and wait for her to recognize you as more than just a friend,” Arnold
rolled his green hues before he reached for the gear shift.

“Wait,” Lorcan’s hand suddenly clasped over his as the
younger male stretched his arm through the window. “You’re right. It does
kill me because I’ve never wanted anyone as much as I want her,” he confessed.

Arnold’s gaze hardened as he stared at Lorcan’s hand
resting over his and he flexed his jawline. “I’m going to count to three and
if you ain’t moved your hand by then, you’re losing some fingers.”

“Listen to me,” Lorcan demanded through clenched
teeth. “I know you don’t want her to end up like her mother. I get it. But
you see what shape she’s in already, Arnold. A
human
did that to her.
I would
never
hurt her.”

Arnold was quiet for a moment as he allowed Lorcan’s
words to simmer in his mind. He honestly didn’t have time for this. It had
always been intended that two of the offspring from the next generation of
Kadenburg Ursithropes would continue the lineage, but only
if
the female
was willing. That arrangement had been made
before
everything happened.

It had been voiced by both Richard Bamey and Pierce
Carroll that if Caroline bore a daughter, she would be encouraged to pursue
Liam or Lorcan. It didn’t quite work out that way. After Pierce’s death,
Caroline refused to rear her daughter in the ways of the Ursithropes and she
ignored her fiancé’s wishes of continuing the bloodline. A part of Arnold felt
like he was betraying her if he carried through without her blessing.

“A guy said that to me once about my sister,” Arnold
responded as he glanced at Lorcan while gripping the boy’s hand and pulling it
away from his own. “He lied.”

Lorcan barely had a chance to step away from the truck
before Arnold put it into gear and sped off.

Eight

P
resley hugged her arms around herself as her
bare feet trekked along the worn down dirt path. It was a shortcut she
remembered from her childhood that eventually led to the abandoned hospital she
was born in. The medical facility was the only thing Kadenburg had managed to
upgrade since its founding over two hundred years ago.

Presley was born in that hospital, from what Uncle
Arnold said. She was one of the last babies to be delivered before they
transferred to the other side of town. She wasn’t even sure why she was going
towards that place, of all the places she could go right now. The only thing
she was sure of was that she needed to get as far away from Lorcan Bamey’s
house as she could.

I can’t believe I broke into his home,
she
thought as she moved her fingers through her golden curls. Her hair was
ridiculously curly when she didn’t straighten it.
Well, considering you
were in
someone else’s
house, I doubt a hair straightener would’ve been
available.

She chewed her lower lip as she stepped over beer
bottles and garbage that people had carelessly tossed aside. Probably
tourists. No one had any respect for nature anymore. The ground was
surprisingly warm for it to be the early winter months. She glanced down at
the oversized t-shirt she had snatched from Lorcan’s room and she temporarily
felt guilty for having done so.

Only a moron would strip out of her clothes in a
stranger’s house,
she chided mentally as she rolled her eyes.
And eat
their food, and take a shower, and sleep in their bed…

The list could go on and on of
stupid decisions she made after drinking alcohol, but she really needed to be
concerned about the hallucinations.

No wolf is that big,
she determined as she
lifted her gaze to the large, hollow structure that once strived with doctors,
nurses, and ailing patients. The windows were busted out and graffiti
decorated the beige stones. She stopped for a moment to admire the hauntingly
beautiful scenery as her thoughts continued floating around in her mind.
And
bears are not that monstrous.

It was just a nightmare. That’s the only explanation
she could come up with. She’d had too much to drink and left her car in the
parking lot at Jimbo’s. The alcohol had messed with the wiring of her brain and
clouded her judgment of respecting another person’s property. She’d somehow
managed to wander into the Bamey house and the rest was history.

Drinking is very, very bad,
she nodded as she
approached the large, vacant building. It was rumored that the old hospital
was plagued by asbestos now, and no one had gone inside in the last ten years
or so. She didn’t plan to go inside, but she knew no one would bother her if
she came here.

You’re so busted,
she thought as she seated
herself on the concrete bench nearby, which surprisingly, was still in decent
shape.

I am such an idiot,
she sighed as she glanced up
towards the early morning sky. She loved watching the sun rise. It was one of
her happier memories from living in Kadenburg. She had only been gone for
three years but it seemed like a life time. Everything here was the same, but
it felt different, too. She couldn’t explain why.

As the warmth of the sun kissed her freckled cheeks,
Presley’s eyes closed. Despite the faint hangover she was experiencing, she’d
never felt more alive-or free-then she did in that single moment. The cool
morning air ran its fingers through her golden locks as she tilted her head
back and exhaled in a calm manner.

Perhaps it was only a dream within a dream, but she
recalled seeing Lorcan’s face. She could remember the way his eyes bore into
her own as his hot breath fanned against her lips. Did she dream of kissing
him? She couldn’t remember if a kiss had been involved. She had always heard that
dreaming about kissing someone meant that you were about to enter a
relationship.

I’m so done with relationships,
she opened her
eyes to gaze around the old hospital grounds again.
Why would I dream of
Lorcan anyway?

It was a silly question to be
asking herself. She’d known Lorcan since she was ‘knee-high to a grasshopper’,
as Old Man Peters would say. She’d played with him and Liam in the creek at
the end of Manor Lane during hot summers, and they would all stop in at Nana
Hettie’s after school for hot chocolate when fall arrived. Heck, her and
Lorcan played
Doctor
together one time when she was in the 3
^rd
grade, but Uncle Arnold had put a quick stop to that.

Lorcan really was a handsome guy; Liam, too. They
were different from the other boys in town. They were kind, well-mannered, and
possibly the most head-strong guys she’d ever had the privilege of knowing.
Why
wouldn’t
she dream of Lorcan on occasion? If she were to be completely
honest with herself, there was one point in time when she had a small crush on
him. It was during the spring of 2001 and she was just settling into the
changes puberty had brought. She felt awkward with her new body and she was
way too embarrassed to ask Uncle Arnold for any sort of advice. He was a man,
what would
he
know about
girl things?

She was a late bloomer and all of her girl classmates
had gone through those changes in the 6
^th
grade. Not wanting to be
left out or made fun of, Presley had gone along with their bragging and
pretended like she’d gotten her gift from Mother Nature, too. It was the
stupidest thing she’d ever done, among that high list of stupid things, and
when the time finally came for her, she didn’t want to admit she was a fraud.

It happened right before school ended for the day and
Presley was horrified to discover the bright red spot on her brand new white
shorts. She waited until the rest of her classmates left the room before she
grabbed for her backpack and wrapped the straps around her waist. She was paranoid
of someone seeing the stain. She was afraid of being laughed at.

She made a quick pit stop to the bathroom to get a
closer look at what was happening to her, and she didn’t have the quarter
required to get what she needed to prevent it from getting worse.

She walked slowly down the hallway that led to the bus
pick-up because she was fearful that her movements would do more damage than
good. She didn’t know any better. This hadn’t happened to her before! By the
time she got to the bus circle, her bus was gone.

“Oh no. Oh no!” She squeaked as she put a hand over
her mouth. She could feel the tears stinging her eyes as she looked to the
left and then to the right. The last bus was pulling out onto the road and she
was there by herself. She was alone. Everyone had already gone home! She
covered her face with both hands as the tears began to fall and her shoulders
shook with grief. She’d never missed the bus before. Uncle Arnold was going
to kill her.

“Presley?”

She turned on her heels, temporarily
forgetting her bigger-than-the-world problem as she met Lorcan’s concerned
expression. He had gotten taller over the summer. His arm were bigger. She
could see the muscles flexing as he tugged at the straps of his backpack that
rested on his shoulders.

“Are you okay?” He asked as he tilted his
head to the side.

“N-no,” she stammered as she wiped at her eyes.
She was embarrassed that he was there to witness her tears. “I m-missed the
bus.”

“Yeah, I did, too,” he nodded as he moved
closer to her.

She instinctively turned to face him fully,
not wanting him to see anything. She gripped the straps of her backpack that
were tied around her waist. “Why did you miss the bus?” She asked timidly.

“Cause you weren’t on it,” he replied with
a small smile. “I came back to look for you.”

“Y-you did?” She sniffled softly as she
blinked, clearing her vision enough to peer at him. “Why?”

Lorcan shrugged his shoulders before
lifting a hand to push his long, shaggy hair away from his eyes. “I didn’t
want you to walk home alone.”

The walk home was quiet and a little
awkward. Presley hoped he didn’t notice the way she was walking funny. She
was too preoccupied with other things to even realize his gaze was on her
nearly the entire time. Once they got to her house, Lorcan stopped and turned
to face her.

“Are you sure you’re okay, Presley?” He
asked in that deep voice he’d gotten a few summers back.

“No,” she admitted in a meek voice. “I mean..I
will be, I’m sure. I just, today hasn’t been a good day for me.”

“I kinda noticed that,” he nodded with a
lopsided grin. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

Presley’s eyes grew as wide as saucers as
she shook her head. “N-no. I mean..thank you for offering but I..” What was she
supposed to say? She couldn’t tell a
boy
about her problem! It was
strictly a woman thing, but Presley didn’t have a woman to talk to.

“Presley,” Lorcan interrupted gently. “Is
it something that maybe my mom can help you with?”

Oh God, did he
know
? Had the stain
gotten worse? She didn’t dare try to confirm that as she stared at him like a
deer caught in headlights. She was so terrified that she couldn’t even move.

Lorcan smiled again as he shook his head.
“Hey, it’s okay. You don’t have anything to be embarrassed about. Guys go
through changes, too.”

So he
did
know. How embarrassing!
Presley’s face turned three shades of red as she lowered her head in shame.

“Why don’t you come with me to my house?”
Lorcan asked. “I’m sure my mom can help you with whatever you need. Would
that be okay?”

Presley’s eyes closed tightly for a moment
as she swallowed down her pride and accepted the fact she needed a woman’s
guidance. This was strike three against her mother for leaving her and putting
her in a situation like this, but she finally nodded as she lifted her eyes to
his again. “Thank you.”

Lorcan had never told anybody
about that incident as far as Presley knew. Only he and his mother were aware
that she’d started her period while at school, and to this day she had no idea
how Lorcan knew in the first place. The stain hadn’t been as bad as she’d made
out to be in her mind.

Mrs. Bamey had helped her clean up and gave her the
necessities she needed before sitting her down for a discussion about something
she described as “The Estrus Cycle”. Presley still thought it was a weird way
to refer to a woman’s period, and it was definitely a different version of the
talk Uncle Arnold had with her.

Maybe that was why Presley had gotten a crush on him.
Lorcan had helped her during a confusing time and he didn’t embarrass her about
it. Plus, how could she not have developed a crush on him after he missed the
bus to make sure she was okay? He was her own personal Superman in a way.

Of course, Presley had been too shy to pursue that
crush and it eventually faded with time. Lorcan was an extremely popular guy
and he was in high school already. Why would a high schooler want to date a
middle schooler anyway? It wasn’t how it worked.

He would’ve liked me,
she thought to herself as
she toyed with the hem of the oversized shirt she was now wearing.
I was an
idiot.

But the fact remained that
after what had happened with Tim, she didn’t know if she’d ever be able to date
again. She’d been so confident he was the one for her.
The ‘one’ wouldn’t
break up with you over something like that,
she gently reminded herself.
The
‘one’ would stick by you no matter what.

She suddenly became restless as
she stood from the bench and glanced towards the third story of the hospital.
She knew that she was born on the third floor. Uncle Arnold told her countless
times of how he took the stairs because the elevator was too slow. He’d been
so excited about her birth and he couldn’t wait a second longer. The thought
of his excitement still made her smile from time to time.

He loved her when her mother didn’t, and that was
sometimes a hard pill to swallow. How did a person’s mother not love them? It
was a question that had many answers, but Presley wasn’t sure which answer fit
best for her. She couldn’t even think of the possibility of having a child she
wouldn’t want.

I wanted it,
she thought as she took a step towards
the hospital before immediately freezing. The hairs on the back of her neck stood
upon tingling skin as a chill ran down her spine. A pulse of panic surged
through her chest as she turned her head to gaze over her shoulder. It was an
incredibly strong sense of someone’s eyes being on her, and she didn’t like
it. She wasn’t alone.

“Who’s there?” She called out as she gripped the loose
fabric resting against her side. She suddenly felt vulnerable. Only an idiot
would run away without grabbing her clothes first, but how was she supposed to
do that when Mrs. Bamey had snatched them up to do laundry? And besides-it
wasn’t
her
fault she left in such a hurry. Uncle Arnold had shown up
and she knew he was angry with her. It was a fight she didn’t want to have.