The Legacy of Kilkenny (39 page)

Why can’t I have a great big wooden stake in my hand?
 
Dammit
.
 
I wanted to strangle him so he could never speak again.
 
“I sure as hell did NOT summon you.
 
Go away vermin!”
 

“Oh, don’t call me names, it hurts my feelings.” He frowned at me.
 
“Did I tell you that your little friend, what is her name?
 
Oh that looker from Dallas,
Shazba
?”
 
He asked.

“Her name is Shaynie.
 
What do you want with her?”
 
I demanded.

“I think she wants to be friends with Allie, I saw she was texting her.
 
She made plans to go shopping together, just the two of them.
 
I guess you’re not doing a good enough job.
 
Too bad, because I love seeing you.”

Oh I’m not going to like having a female around at all.

“Love?
 
Are you okay?”
 
He reached forward with his cold hand stroking my jaw.

“Don’t touch me.”
 
I said through gritted teeth.

“Oh I think you like me touching you.
 
I think you’re just dying to know what it would be like to be with me.
 
I think you fantasize about me pulling you in close like this.”
 
He pulled me forward to him; his hold on me was tight.
 
“I think you fantasize us doing this.”
 
He drew me in and kissed me on the lips, my body having no control, my mouth opened and responded to his.
 
He had me dipped backwards my arms just dangling behind me.
 
But why?
 
He can’t compel me, so how was it that I was kissing him.
 
It didn’t feel like I had any control.
 
He pulled away from me.
 
“I knew you’d like that.
 
Good night Love, sleep tight.”
 
He disappeared.

I stood there on the stage with my hand to my mouth, touching my lips that pulsated with the blood rush from his strong kiss. My body responded to his kiss, how?
 
Why?
 
I’d never one time thought about him in
that
way.
 
What kind of monster am I?
 
How could I do that to Oakley?
 
To my dad?
 
How could I do that to Allie?
 
Not that I think anyone should be with a vampire, but I’d never hurt her.
 
I need therapy.
 
I can’t handle this.
 
And Shaynie?
 
What the hell?
 
First things first, I was going to deal with her.
 

ABEL

 
“Hey mom, hey dad.
 
I tried calling you but I ended up in voicemail.
 
I left a message though.”
 
I ramble out trying to beat them to the question phase.

“I got the message.”
 
Dad said to me.
 
“Ta Ta’s huh?
 
That is an interesting place to take a date.”

“Geez! WE ARE NOT DATING.
 
I don’t know why I can’t get you both to understand that.”
 
My parents are driving me out of my mind.
 
“As a matter of fact, I gave the waitress my phone number.”

“Abel!
 
You don’t do that when you’re out with a girl.”
 
Mom said.

“Are you not listening to me?
 
I’m not dating Pru, she and I are
just friends.
 
I’ve got a report to do, goodnight.”
 
I kiss them both and run up the stairs to my room.

I stop by Allie’s room, where Bryon is staying when she is at school.
  
I tap on the door “Hey man, just thought I’d stop and say good-night.
 
So, good-night.”

He closes his journal that he is writing in.
 
“Yeah, good-night to you too.
 
You were pretty good today.
 
I think this will all work out.”
 
He clicks the remote to the ceiling fan from low to high.
 

“Thanks.
 
I’ll see you in the morning.”
 
I close the door behind me.

“See you.”

Trying to get my mind focused I decide to do some push-ups.
 
I hear my phone beep with a text.

“Hi Abel, I was wondering if you were up? :)
 
Chrissy”

Oh snap.
 
Someone that isn’t a vamp or
were
is texting me.
 
Me!
 
A girl from Ta Ta’s!

“Yup I’m up. :) Abel”
 
I try not to sound too
lame
.
 

“Can I call you?”

“Yes.”
 

I had the phone on low but my new supersonic hearing made it sound much louder.
 
My touch screen decided to take the night off.
 
I miss the call.
 
I call her right back telling her that my phone is special needs and I’m sorry.
 

After talking with her, I put the phone on the charger.
 
I think the phone people lie when they say the battery will last even when on a call.
 
I’m down to one bar after just an hour on it. I lay in the bed thinking about how Chrissy told me about losing her parents last year and she is responsible for so much.
 
I could hear the pain in her voice when she described them to me and I couldn’t help but think that is how my family will feel when I die.
 
I roll over onto my stomach, trying to get comfortable.
 
I can’t believe she agreed to go out with me, Monday feels like a lifetime away.

The dogs in the neighborhood start barking, that can only mean one thing…. Werewolf.
 
Sure enough Parker is in my yard.
 
I wave and he nods his head at me.
 
At least I’m protected, right?
 
More like smothered.
 
It is apparent to me that I’ll have a pack of wolves on my date if they know I’m going out with someone they don’t know.
 
I decide what they don’t know won’t hurt them.
 
I close my eyes and sleep finds me.

Pru and I ride out to Stillwater with the hopes of convincing Allie to take the money and the part in the movie.
 
“Of all the things I’ve done since I met you, I think this is the craziest.
 
I can’t imagine her agreeing to this, but I guess anything is possible.”
 
I notice the sky is filling up with Cumulonimbus clouds.
 
“I hope we make it home before the weather gets bad.
 
I can smell it, can you?”
 
I’d wondered if other people smelled tornados or if it was just me.

“Actually, I can.
 
It does have an eerie feel out today.
 
I think we will probably get home about seven or eight.
 
I doubt she will want to go to dinner so we’ll just hang out and pump up the trip to Reno, get her excited about it.
 
I have a contract from that movie to give her.”

“Really?
 
Wow, that is
kinda
cool.
 
I thought you were just making up the movie deal.”
 
I wondered if as an Alpha if I’d have so many cool contacts around me.

“My phone just beeped, can you check my messages?”
 
Pru asks.

I hate rummaging around in girls’ purses; it is like no man’s land.
 
Thankfully she has a side pocket she keeps her phone in.
 
“It’s just Allie, she said she’d meet us at Eskimo Joes in 20 minutes.
 
Maybe she
is
eating better.”
 

We watch as Allie pulls up in
Arien’s
car.
 
She struts into the restaurant wearing designer aviators and I know she has on some fancy designer outfit, especially when I hear Pru gasp.
 

Pru starts out the conversation telling her about this friend of the family that saw some pictures of Allie and wants her for a movie they are working on.
 
She tells her the three thousand dollars is an advance but the producer will pay her a total of ten thousand dollars for her to play a bartender in the movie.
 
She seems impressed although she checks her watch for maybe the fourth time in the last five minutes.
 
I notice she is a little reserved but still eccentric.
 

“Hey sis, are you okay?
 
You seem a little….. I don’t know, sad I guess.”
 

“No, it’s nothing.
 
I just haven’t been sleeping well at night.
 
I mean, I can sleep in the daytime without any problem, but night…not so much.”
 
She has her paper napkin in her hand tearing it into tiny pieces, balling them up and shooting them with her finger across the room.
 
“Don’t say anything to mom
or
dad, I don’t need them to worry about me.
 
My grades are fine, actually I’m able to finish my assignments without any problems.
 
It’s like college work comes super easy for me… like I got smarter or something.”
 
She reaches in her purse pulling out lip gloss to smear all over her lips.

“What do you do all night if you’re not sleeping?”
 
Pru asks while clinking the ice in her drink with her straw.

“Well…. Uh…. I
 
just hang out with Arien, we play Scrabble, or shop online, he is really generous to me and we do stuff.”
 
She grins at Pru, giving her the silent girl code look.

“
Ewww
, I don’t want to hear that!”
 
I say.

“Well, it isn’t like that is all we do Abe, for God’s sake I’m old enough to mess around with my boyfriend if I want.
 
We go visit friends of his; there is usually a party at his uncle’s house so we spend several nights a week hanging out with him.
 
There are a lot of interesting things that happen at his parties but it is usually pretty hazy to me.
 
I
remember
going to the party, and I don’t drink or anything but everything is very blurred to my memory.”
 
Allie said.

“That sounds weird Allie, what kind of things happen?”
 
Pru asks.
 
The waitress comes over and refreshes our drinks.
 
Someone just put money in the jukebox playing a Katy Perry song.

“Well, people make out and disappear to rooms together.
 
I don’t really know what they do in there, but Arien assures me that they aren’t having sex.
 
He says they are sharing a specialized vitamin treatment.
 
Whatever.
 
It doesn’t really make sense to me.
 
We never talk about it after the parties, sometimes I wonder if he remembers or not because he always tells me I must have been dreaming.
 
I know I’m not, but it is a little foggy.
 
Before either one of you accuse Arien of giving me a
roofie
, he never would so don’t go there with me.”
 
She tears the final piece of her napkin and shoots it across the room at the bartender.

“Are you still planning on going away for the weekend to visit his family?”
 
Pru asks the question of the night.
 

She and I both wait anxiously for the answer.
 
I keep hearing the couple at the table next to us, the more beers they have, the louder they get.
 
I’d counted the waitress bringing them new beers at least five times, and that is when I was keeping count.
 
The husband sounds like a used car salesman, loud and boisterous, the wife dumb as a doorknob. I try tuning them out, to no avail.

Allie jumps up from our table and walks over to the couple.
 
She slams her hand on the table loud enough that I wonder if the table has broken in half.
 
“If you don’t mind, would you talk a little QUIETER.
 
Not really up for discussion either.
 
You see, I’m having dinner with my brother” She points to me and I half heartedly waved to them, “And my friend” She points to Pru, who I can hear her thoughts and she is praying we don’t end up in a bar fight.
 
“I’m sure you both understand.
 
I’m feeling so generous today that I’ll even pay for your dinner if you’ll keep your
yappers
down low.
 
Get it?
 
Got it?
 
Good.”