The Xoe Meyers Trilogy (Xoe Meyers Young Adult Fantasy/Horror Series) (39 page)

Abel hadn’t actually done anything wrong as far as me and mine were concerned, but I couldn’t help blaming him for this debacle anyway. He's the leader of the Western sector of the Werewolf Coalition, and this whole mess had begun because the lot of them hadn't put down a very crazy werewolf.

Said crazy werewolf had scratched my best friend, turning her into a werewolf, and the downward spiral went on from there. So yeah, Abel didn't
really
do anything wrong, but he didn't do anything right either, and a girl’s gotta have an outlet for her anger.

Abel came to stand in front of us. Jason stepped back to give me room. Abel came eye to eye with Jason’s tall frame. I was left to stare at the silver buttons on his rather tight fitting black vest. There was no shirt underneath.

Lela stood directly behind me. Her attempt at hiding would have been more effective if she weren’t an inch or two taller than me. A fleeting thought brushed through my mind that Lucy and Max must feel like they’re hanging out with a bunch of giants all the time.

Abel spoke, interrupting my thoughts. “So glad that you are here Alexondra. I’ve promised your father that I will do my best to return you to him in your current state.”

The double meaning wasn't lost on me. My current state wasn't the best, considering what a mess my life was. Still, I took Abel at his word. My dad’s a demon. Breaking a promise to him would probably be bad. I still didn’t feel any safer though.

“It’s Xoe,” I grumbled in response. “And let’s hope you’re good at keeping your promises.”

He smiled. “I assure you I am. I trust your flight went well.”

“Sure,” I replied tartly. “Don't you have other guests to greet?”

Ok normally I'm not
that
rude, but I was in defense mode. I was in a new place that I didn't want to be in, and I was soon to be surrounded by new people I didn't want to be surrounded by. My go-to defense was grumpy. Anyone that got in my way would be showered by a torrential downpour of grumpy.

Abel chuckled. “This should be interesting.”

With that cryptic observation, Abel turned away and moseyed towards the lanyard supply table. His black jeans fit as tightly as his vest. Men should simply not wear pants that tight. His black boots blended into his jeans so that at a distance you couldn't tell where one started and where the other ended.

“You’re staring,” Chase whispered in my ear.

Crap, it probably seemed like I'd been staring at Abel’s butt. I guess I had. Not in admiration mind you. I made a mental note to always keep my eyes on the ground when I’m lost in thought, and headed towards the inn door, trying to hide my blush.

Chase chuckled and walked ahead to hold the door for me. He gave me a little salute as I walked through the doorway. Had I mentioned that this was going to be a long trip? Well, what I meant was that this was going to be a very, very, very, long trip.

By the time we pushed through the crowd in the lobby and got to our rooms it was already 5:00pm. We had two rooms, one with two beds and a cot, and the other with just two beds. Lucy and Allison were going to share a bed in the smaller room. My options were to share with Lela in the girls’ room, or share with Jason in the boys’ room. I ended up in the boys’ room.

After examining the rustic room, complete with Terracotta pots and paintings of desert scenes with horses, I sprawled across the Southwestern themed comforter of Jason’s and my rather small bed. Chase sat down on the cot with a sour expression on his face. He had lost to Max at rock, paper, scissors. The two of them didn't want to sleep in the same bed. Yet another example of boys being silly.

Chase bounced back and forth a bit on his cot, distaste showing plainly in his dark gray eyes.  His near-black hair was starting to look a little shaggy, as opposed to that elegantly tousled look that some boys manage. He didn’t really seem to care either way.

I twined my fingers through the ends of my own shaggy hair in thought. I still hadn’t managed to find the time to get it cut. My demon lessons with my dad took up way more of my time than I liked. I was actually looking forward to a little vacation from him.

Going from not knowing my dad, to seeing him multiple times a week was overwhelming to say the least. I'd blamed him at first for not being in my life, but then I'd been enlightened of the fact that my mom had done her best to keep me away from him. I'd gotten over the hurt . . . mostly. He was definitely trying to make up for it now, in a really annoying way.

It wasn’t all bad though. The lessons had definitely paid off. I was now able to manifest a small flame in my palm and could burn things on command, rather than on accident. It was peanuts compared to what my dad could do, but I’m just happy to finally have a measure of control. I don’t randomly explode appliances anymore, but I for some reason can’t do it voluntarily now either.

I looked down at the ring my dad had given me for Christmas, a family heirloom apparently. We didn’t know what it did, if anything, but I’ve caught occasional flashes of light from the deep red stone. Sometimes even the silver vines that make up the band seemed to move, but whenever I tried to show anyone they stopped. The ring gave me the serious heebie-jeebies to tell the truth, but my dad insisted that I wear it. I'd given up on asking why.

Whenever my sense of teenage rebellion would flare up I'd take it off, but I always put it back on after a few hours. It would be seriously stupid if something bad happened, just because I didn't want to wear a ring. Of course, wouldn't it be even more stupid if something bad happened because I wore a ring out of fear of something bad happening? Don't answer that. For now, I'd wear the ring.

A quick knock on the adjoining door preceded Allison’s entrance. I was still cranky with her for weaseling her way along on our trip. I was responsible for enough people already. I didn't need to be watching out for her too.

Allison's long, honey blonde hair was tied back in a tight ponytail, leaving her face completely unframed. It was a new look for her, and made her pale brown eyes look big and innocent. The smile she gave me was definitely not innocent. She was enjoying the fact that she had pulled one over on us. Bitter much?

She sat beside me in her designer jeans and charcoal v-neck sweater, snapping the strap of my black spaghetti strap shirt on her way down.

“Aren’t you freezing?” she asked, eyebrow raised.

“I’m always hot these days,” I groaned in reply. “I feel like a human space heater.”

Allison placed a hand against the side of my neck. Her palm felt cold and dry.

“You don't feel
that
warm. I mean yeah, you kind of feel like a human heating pad, but not uncomfortably so,” she stated in a skeptical manner.

I glared at her. “Yes, I'm pleasantly warm to someone who's cold, but try feeling like you're standing in the sun twenty-four seven.”

“Hey I've been wondering,” Max piped in loudly from his perch on his bed, “we already know that you can't get burned by fires or hot surfaces, but can you get sunburned?”

The fact that I couldn't get burned by hot surfaces was a fairly recent discovery. The novelty had somewhat worn off. At first I'd amused myself by taking hot pans out of the oven without gloves and putting my hand in the fireplace, but it seemed to upset my mom, so I stopped. Well I stopped doing it while she was looking.

I hadn't yet considered the idea of the sun not being able to burn me. “I haven’t managed it yet,” I replied sullenly. “Considering the fact that before my powers came into action I would burn in about ten minutes, I'd say I probably don't need sunblock anymore.”

I was feeling less and less human every day. Maybe I'd still wear the sunblock just to make myself feel better.

Max opened his mouth to say something else, but before he could, Allison stood abruptly and marched back into her room. She shut the door firmly behind her, as if she couldn't stomach another word from him.

I turned to give Max a suspicious look. “What did you do to make her mad?”

Max shrugged in reply. “I turned her down.”

“Like for a date?” Chase interjected skeptically.

Max is 5’4” with sandy blond hair, pale green eyes, and freckles. I will forever think of him as a little elf. Allison on the other hand is 5’9”, blonde, and curvy.

“Not for a date,” Max said with more than a hint of venom, “though we have been on a few of
those
. She asked me to make her a wolf. I told her she was being an idiot and she got offended.”

“What!” I exclaimed, jumping up from the bed. Oh, this was
so
not happening. I'd worked very hard to keep my last human friend out of the freak-show. 

Max shrugged, as if it weren’t a big deal. “She’s tired of being the only human, but she doesn't understand what she's asking. I tried to explain it to her, but she wouldn't listen.”

Oh, she was
tired
of being the only human, so why not just become a werewolf? I'd tell her why not. Maybe she wouldn't listen to Max, but I'd
make
her listen to me.

I turned from Max and marched straight into the girls’ room without a knock. Allison was
lucky
to be the only human. I found her standing by the window talking to Jason. I brushed past him and shoved Allison down onto the nearest bed.

I jumped on top of her and pinned her down, my demon-fueled strength quickly putting an end to her struggles. I'm as strong as a werewolf when I'm angry, unfortunately I only have human strength when I'm not.

Werewolves have their strength all of the time. Being a werewolf changes the entire composition of someone's body. It's a magic of a sort, but more chemical. My strength was fueled by pure magic alone, and since I don't have much control of my magic, I don't have much control of my strength.

“Why are you here?” I demanded.

She looked to Jason for help, but he just raised his hands in surrender and backed away. I’ve always said he is a very smart man.

Allison turned her attention back to me with a defiant look in her eyes. I vaguely noticed that our entire party had filtered into the room, and everyone was huddled as far back from us as possible. Everyone, except for Chase that was. He’s the only one I can’t burn, something about a demon aura. Not that I hadn't tried a time or two. He can be rather infuriating when he wants to be. I could still set the room around Chase on fire, but I’d try to restrain myself.

I should have been exercising more caution around Allison. As the only human, if I burned her, she'd heal human slow. Everyone else in the room could take a beating . . . erm, burning. Allison couldn't. That thought alone helped me calm my anger a bit.

I focused all of my attention back on the human in question. “Why?” I demanded again.

“I don’t want to be human anymore,” she mumbled quickly. “Max and Jason both refused to help me.”

I whipped my gaze up to regard Jason. “You knew?” I asked, shocked.

“I’ve been trying to talk her out of it,” he replied, voice steady.

His aura of calm was given away by the fact that he couldn’t seem to stop running his hands through his dark brown hair. It was his most obvious nervous tell. You'd think after all of the years he'd been alive he would have grown out of it, but old habits die hard.

I regarded the rest of the room, Allison nearly forgotten underneath me. “Who else knew?”

After a moment of silence, Lela raised her hand, but refused to lift her gaze from the floor. So she had asked everyone in our group except Chase, Lucy, and me . . . the only ones she knew couldn’t, or wouldn’t help her.

Being a demon is hereditary. It can't be passed on like lycanthropy. It's more difficult to make someone a vampire, they often die in the process, but it can be done. The fact that she'd asked Jason to turn her meant that she was desperate. Desperate and stupid.

I slowly crawled off of the bed and marched out into the hallway, instead of back into the other room. I shut the door behind me to signify that no one should follow me, then made my way downstairs and back outside. I'd been losing my temper like this a lot lately. Everyone knew to let me cool off. People ended up with blisters otherwise.

The lawn was still crowded with werewolves. I
so
did not want to see werewolves. I might set one of them on fire. Instead of walking through them, I made a quick left and headed straight out into the woods, not really knowing where I was going. I needed time to think.

After a good ten minutes of walking mindlessly, I finally began to take in my surroundings. The trees in this area were completely alien compared to those in Shelby. Everything in Moab was drier, and . . . spikier.

I had noticed that the river near the hotel supported towering cottonwood trees, but once you ventured away from the moisture it all became short, spine-covered mesquites and other unforgiving plant life.

The mountains in the near distance were populated with the same oaks I had noticed on our drive. Maybe I’d still see pines later tonight at the werewolf “meet and greet,” which would take place in said mountains. Why on earth would Allison want to be part of this?

I mean, I know on the outside having powers and extra strength and speed seems cool . . . okay it’s definitely kind of cool, but the drawbacks aren’t worth it. Since I'd found out I was a demon, I had been kidnapped and beaten. I’d been lied to and used. I’d hurt people. I'd
killed
people. My life was in constant disarray. My mom is afraid to even ask about my life anymore.

There will always be people wanting to use me, or hurt me. Whoever first said that power corrupts was right, though they probably didn’t mean it in the sense that I’m using it. Power corrupts your life when you have it and other people want it.

Allison knew everything that Lucy and I had gone through since our lives were changed by paranormal means. She'd been there to see it all. Heck, she'd even gotten beaten and kidnapped herself, just for being near us. Voluntarily becoming a part of that world was just plain stupid. I couldn’t let her do it. If she was too stupid to protect herself from our fate, then I'd do it for her. She wasn't becoming a werewolf. I’d have to see to that tonight.