Forbidden Alliance: A Werewolf's Tale (Forbidden Alliance Trilogy) (38 page)

Whenever you are not looking forward to something, it always sneaks up on you.

Jarvis and I didn’t get home until after midnight, even though the game was over by eight. My usual group of boys that I watch the Seahawks on Sundays with joined me at
the vampire’s lair,
as Yahto
called
it.
Only Steffen, Abigail, Romeo, Sabirella, and eventually Tanis, opted to watch the game with us. Sabirella mainly checked on the loud group of young people in her basement and Tanis pouted the entire time. He hated sports and was only subjecting himself to it because I was one of three girls in a group of fifteen guys, most of which were werewolves who kept growling at him every chance they got, and he was silently staking claim to his property by sitting next to me with a book and MP3 player. Steffen and Abigail were laughing at his expense, surprisingly Romeo and Jarvis hit it off, and after I threaten to cut a few balls off, the rest of the werewolves settled down and enjoyed the game and new company.

I was one of the b
est Seahawks games I’d ever
watched
.

But the night ended much too soon. One minute I was kissing Tanis in the parlor out of sight of Jarvis and the other werewolves, before he walked me to the car, and the next my eyes were snapping open when
my alarm clock
went off at five-thirty
so I could get up and go
shopping with a vampire…er, vampires, pluralized; Romeo
invited himself
.

I
prayed that
Georgiana
wasn’t going to join us. She didn’t like me in th
e slightest
, and started in on me as soon as I walked through the door, but her colorfully rude comments were answered by Sabirella
which resulted in Georgiana disappearing to her room for the night
.

That
was a God sent.

Romeo assured me that it wa
sn’t me per se.
It
was
, but it
wasn’t
.
For whatever reason, the rest of the Ashton clan didn’t like seeing Tanis happy. When I pressed it, Romeo summed it up in two words:
d’Artagnan’s mini-
me.

Enough said.

I wasn’t entirely sure what I was supposed to wear shopping. Honestly, shopping wasn’t my thing in the least, and most likely I’d just
end up in
the arcade playing Soul Calibur, but I had still questioned it a few times that morning.

There was
a knock at the door which was followed by Jarvis.
“Hey, are you up?” he whispered.

“Obviously,” I
said and
rolled my eyes
, then finished tying my shoe
.
“What’s up?”

He slipped into
the
room, silently shutting the door behind him.
“Are you going to be okay going out with them today?
I mean, I know you can handle yourself, which is awesome, but will you be okay?”

“Yeah...
well, I might need some pepper spray or a stun gun to keep Romeo from humping my leg like the horny little dog that he is, b
ut other than that I’ll be fine,” I assured him. “
They’re cool,
as you discovered last night,
and
wasn’t it Mom who is
always bitching that I never have any friends who are girls, and that I never go shopping or do girlie stuff?”

“True, but I don’t thin
k this is what she had in mind,” he pointed out with a chuckle.

“Beggars can’t be choosers,” I reminded him and he laughed.
“If anything happens
,
I’ll run, it’s what I do best.
You’ll be home if I need a ride, right?”

He looke
d away from me and bit his lip.

“Where are you going?” I demanded.

“Out with a friend,” he shot back defensively.

Oh, that isn’t too bad
.

“A
old broad
?” I teased.

“God no, I mean, not ‘god no’ to the
old broad
part,
but ‘god no’ to the…never mind,” he groaned. “
I’m going out with a dude.
Okay, that sounded just as gay.
Either way, call Tanis if something happens, I trust him.”

I nearly fell off of the bed in shock.

W
hat did he just say?

“Oh shut up,” he
complained and knocked into me.
“You could have done a lot worse, and if you hadn’t noticed, he likes you, a lot!
He’d give you the world if you’d only ask for it.
”

“Who are you and what have you done with my brother?” I whispered.

“Shut up.
Tonight is your birthday.”

“Thanks for the recap.”

“Ignoring you,” he
sang
. “W
hy don’t you surprise everyone, more so than just showing up on the
arm of a vampire, and dress up?
” he suggested.

“Did
Mom
put you up to this?” Instantly I was suspicious.

“No,” he groaned.
“You don’t have to go all balls out with makeup and shit, just dress in something slightly nicer than jeans and a tee shirt, that’s all I’m saying.
You’ve never had anyone to impress before, now you do, not that he needs impressing, he’s already crushing on you like a stalker.”

“Whatever,” I mumbled,
but couldn’t help but smile.

My brother was right; I had
a reason to dress up
that night
.

Correction, n
ot a reason, but a someone, and that someone
was
more than worth it.

“A dress?” I whispered.

Jarvis slipped off of the bed a
nd looked at me with wide eyes and
his mouth hanging open.
“Whoa, you seriously have it for this suck head,” he said.

I shrugged
but
nodded.

“Hmm…I don’t like it,” he
mumbled with a mischievous smirk before looking around my room, as if he was looking for something.
“Your favorite colors are still red and black, right?”
he asked, pulling his attention back to me.

“Why?”
I asked suspiciously.

“No reason,” he
said and
batted his lashes at me innocently.

“Black is a shade, however, I like red and black best.
Why, what are you scheming?”

“Nothing,” he gasped as if he
were
insulted.

I glared at him. “Seriously, Jarvis, I’m not in the mood. I’m tired, crabby, am a year old
er
, got my ass handed to me last night b
y my annoying brother
who
felt the need, for whatever reason, to throw my ass in a pool...you seriously have no inside manners,” I scolded.

He smiled wide.

Why do I bother?

“What are you up too?” I groaned and pulled my hair back into a ponytail.

He made a face at me.
“I’m going to pick you up something to roam around town in if you must know, but nothing
that
special because I’m a broke ass college student.
Stop being so damn paranoid!
You act like I don’t know that you’re going to bitch and complain until Christmas about whatever anyone gets you, and then you’ll start all over again
at Christmas about what they got you for Christmas
.
It’s a vicious cycle with you,
S
is.
Can’t you just smile pr
etty and nod like you love it?” he pouted, batting his lashes at me.

I’ll admit, he had a point
.

“Sorry,” I mumbled. “
I don’
t mean to be a difficult bitch, but
I feel like you aren’t telling me something, and that I should be pissed at you already for it.
That’s all.
”

“Whatever do you mean?” he teased and cupped his balls.

That should have told me something right there.

“Y’know, that
little voice in the back of my head
which is
yelling ‘Jarvis is going to get hi
s ass kicked hardcore tonight!’” I said with a shrug and he laughed. “
It’s hard to ignore.
Forgive me?” I
pouted and
batted my lashes at him
as he had done to me and
he laughed
, then
hea
ded
for the door.

“Stay ou
t of trouble and call your suck
head if you have any problems.
Love ya!” he called out as he headed
down the hall.

Weird.
Jarvis is totally up to something, I just don’t know what.
I don’t think he’s conspiring with
Yahto
since he’s
helping to set up the stage and dance floor with the rest of the pa
ck for the festivities tonight. Plus, Yahto is pissed at me about Tanis and the little shoving match they got into which resulted in both of them getting knocked into the pool last night. Damn it! Who could it be? Jarvis
has a lot of friends in the area so it could be any of them, and they
don’t particularly care for me
so they wouldn’t tell me what he’s up to.
Damn, that is going to bug me all day.

I waited on the front porch, munching on a banana and a handful of strawberries,
while I enjoyed
the quiet morning. The birds were singing, dew was co
vering the ground and glisten
ed
in the early morning sunlight, and the moisture rich breeze blowing through the trees
caused
them to sway back and forth
.
The moment was serene.

T
hat is until the unmistakable purr of a
five-hundred horse power, six-thousand
RPM,
eight
-cylinder engine
purred
through the air.
I was
still
shaking my head in resignation when the metallic plum purple Porsche Panamera Turbo pulled up in front of my house.

Sure why not, let’s go shopping in a hundred and sixty thousand dollar car!
Isn’t that what everybody does in Lummi on Fridays when there’s no school?
I’m getting the feeling that this is going to be the longest day of my very short life.

“Dude, you
so
owe me,” Jarvis sang from the passenger seat.

Hopefully,
Abby
was able to get Jay Dee to Seattle before we head over
to the mainland
.
Nothing would be more embarrassing then getting caught trying to buy her birthday present.