Chapter 48: Chapter 48
Heather
"What is it with you? One guy not enough?"
I whirled to face Callista. "Jealous?"
Xander stepped in between us. "Ladies. Ladies. Let’s calm down. There’s enough Xander to go around."
Callista made circles on Xander’ chest with her finger. "You wouldn’t choose her over me? Would you?"
Even if she was a bitch, Callista was gorgeous. Her brown eyes were large, just shy of being too big. With the make-up she wore, you couldn’t look away from them. Her lips were full and red. I wondered if that was natural or lip-plumper.
"Yes. I would pick her over you."
She gripped Xander’ shirt. Shaking him. "What?"
I was as shocked as Callista was. He would pick me over her? It was one thing for Brent to pick me. He was the one who bit me. He kind of had to pick me. But Xander had options, and he wanted me?
Wow. I grinned. Maybe today wouldn’t be so bad after all.
Xander stared down at her. "I’d let go before you embarrass yourself any more than you already have."
She let go of his shirt and glared at me. "This isn’t over between us. You’ll regret—"
"That’s enough. Go." Xander backed his words with so much power that the hair on my arms stood on end. Callista growled as she stormed off.
"You’re more dominant than her?"
"A lot of people are," Xander said. "She just likes to act tough and annoy the crap out of most everyone." His eyes were still glowing.
"What’s with that?" I asked.
"Sorry." He closed them, and took a deep breath. When he opened them again, they were back to normal brown.
"Why do they change?"
"Wolf. Power. Magic. Take your pick."
"Cool." I had no idea what that meant, but from the short answer, it didn’t seem like he was up for chatting about it.
I took a bite of my sandwich to keep myself from asking any more questions.
We started walking from the cafeteria to the class building. I noticed he was limping. "Hey, are you okay? Shouldn’t you be in bed?"
"Nah. I’m fine." He tapped my bandage. "Quite a scare you gave us."
"You’re telling me." I shuddered. "That thing was no Brad Pitt."
He reached toward me but hesitated. "Listen, you’re going to have to face this whole thing before too much longer."
"You mean Callista?"
He nodded. "She wants Brent as her mate. They’re family friends, and their parents have been trying to get them together ever since they were kids. Everyone’s wondering what you’re going to do."
"I honestly don’t know." I took a giant bite to give myself time to think about what I was going to say. "I’m having enough of a time coming to terms with the possibility of going furry. Add in the whole choosing a guy for the rest of my life...that’s a lot of pressure on a girl."
He grabbed my hand. "In the beginning it started with mated pairs. Meaning that the mates were two halves of one soul. It was easier then. You saw each other and you just knew. You were drawn together like magnets. If one died, so did the other. But that’s legend now. People fall in love and if the wolves accept each other, then you’re good to get married. But there’s still no divorce for us. So be sure."
knew exactly how that whole magnet thing felt, but that was crazy. I had my own full soul, thank you very much. "That sounds intense. How can I possibly figure out who I want to spend the next fifty years with?"
He laughed. "It’s a lot longer than that. Try hundreds."
Xander had to be joking with this. The bell rang, and I was happy for it. "I gotta get to class."
"Brent’s my friend, but since you haven’t decided yet..."
I didn’t have time to move. He swooped down, and brushed his lips against mine.
I really want her to like me. She’s so pretty and nice. And so much stronger than she thinks. I hope she doesn’t pick Brent. Please don’t let her pick him. I know I could make her happy. She smells good.
My mind raced by the time he pulled away.
"Just something to think about. You have options."
He walked back down the stairs before I could remember to breathe.
I leaned against the lockers. My visions had changed for sure. Instead of seeing something that had happened to the person, I read their minds. And I heard things I didn’t want to hear.
As much as I might have wanted it, I didn’t feel for Xander what I felt for Brent. And I couldn’t read Brent. Even if Xander was easy and fun and sweet, I craved Brent. Xander’ full-on kiss left me a little breathless, but Brent’s stupid barely-there kiss on my cheek shattered me.
This had just gotten way more complicated.
I banged my head against the lockers a couple of times. Why didn’t I dodge the kiss? Or at the very least, why didn’t I push him away? I’d never felt so guilty in my life.
I wanted to upchuck the sandwich, but forced myself to finish eating it instead.
I wished Brent hadn’t left this morning. It’d be amazing if we could have an actual talk about what he wanted from me.
I needed a distraction.
Callista walked past me with a devilish grin on her face.
I nodded at her. Distraction taken care of. I wasn’t much for skipping class—I was already behind—but from what I’d put together from the little snippets of visions I’d had, that girl nearly got me eaten by vampires.
I grabbed Serena before she went into class. "I need to talk to you."
"Now? Because if it’s about making out with Xander, then maybe it can wait." She waggled her eyebrows at me.
Perfect. My reputation didn’t need anymore help in the negative direction. I’d bet money that’s what put the grin on Callista’s face. "Not about a boy. Something bigger. I need to pick your brain and no, it can’t wait. And no we can’t talk here. Too many ears."
She tucked a chunk of her ginger hair behind her ear. "I know a place."
We went down the stairs to the first floor. We walked through the gym locker room to another set of stairs. The walls were thick concrete. Doors lined the narrow hallway, and flickering fluorescent lights made the space seem even smaller. Serena opened the second door on the left. It was a tiny closet-like room, with a concrete bench built into one wall and that was it.
"Where the hell are we?"
"It’s where we put feral wolves. Sometimes newbies flip out when they wolf-out the first time. So, they get thrown in here until they get their shit together."
Holy crap. I wondered if I’d spent any time in one of these during my missing week. If I did, I didn’t want to remember it. "Whatever." I took a deep breath and laid out all of the visions I’d had from Callista.
At first, I thought I sounded a little crazy. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that Callista and I would never be friends. But when I got to the vision from when we were watching the news to getting pulled out of my window by the vamp, Serena stood from the bench and started pacing.
I didn’t have much but my suspicions and visions, but I knew something was off. "So what do I do?"
"We tell Mr. Langdon. You don’t have any evidence. No proof but your vision of her thinking about vampires taking care of someone, and that’s just...well it’ll be your word against hers. You’re more alpha than her, so you’d win. But it’d start a world of shit you don’t need. Especially not after that kiss you had with Xander."
Why’d she have to remind me of it? This was supposed to be a valid distraction.
She walked to the door. "Come on. He’ll be in his office."
Apparently, Mr. Langdon’s office was on the first floor of the building where the infirmary was. A gray haired lady sat typing away at a desk. "Is he in, Mrs. Kilburn?"
"He is. Go on with you." She didn’t look away from her monitor as she spoke.
Before Serena could knock on his door, Mr. Langdon’s voice came through the door. "Come on in girls."
Mr. Langdon’s office was neat and orderly. Not a paper was out of place. A stack of manila folders was beside his keyboard. He finished typing something, and then nodded at us. "What can I do for you?"
"I have to talk to you, about my visions."
"I see," he said. "I take it you’ve already talked to Serena about all of this."
Serena nodded.
He motioned to the chairs in front of his desk. "Have a seat."
I pulled my hair into a sloppy bun as I gathered my thoughts. I laid everything out just like I had for Serena. When I finished, I took a deep breath. This is where he could throw me out of his office for being crazy. "I think Callista and Mr. Hoel brought the vampires to campus last night."
"That is something." Mr. Langdon leaned back in his chair.
"I know that Callista and Heather have a bit of a beef over a certain guy, but I really don’t think this is about that," Serena said.
He sighed. "I have to agree, but then this is something Rupert has been planning for a while. That Heather got caught up in it is just lucky timing."
I snorted. "Awesome. I get all the luck."
"So what do we do?" Serena said. "You can’t let Callista and her dad get away with this. They’ve exposed our school. Why would he—"
He stood from his chair. "Look, ladies. I appreciate you coming here and telling me this. You’ve confirmed a few of my suspicions. But this is really tricky stuff and I don’t want you getting more involved. What’s going on right now has been brewing for a while. Even if you don’t know why Rupert would do it, I have a very good idea what his motives are and what he’s planning. If you ’see’ anything else, let me know, but don’t go looking for visions." He came around the front of the desk and leaned against it. "Please don’t make me pull pack on you. I don’t want to have to order you to keep quiet about this."
Serena lifted her chin, showing him her neck. Mr. Langdon nodded at her and then looked to me.
That was weird. "I guess I’ll get back to class then," I said.
He sat there, saying nothing as we left.
We walked slowly back to class in silence, but I couldn’t keep quiet for long. "So what do you think—"
"You heard what Mr. L said. We can’t talk about it."
I rolled my eyes. "Come on. You’ll really stop looking for answers."
"Yup. You have to obey your alpha. It’s just the way it is."
Trusting that Mr. Langdon would look into it was one thing, but Callista sicced vampires on me. There was no way I was letting that happen again. Plus, he hadn’t actually ordered us. He’d made a strong request.
