Читать книгу Howls of Chaos - Gabrielle Boyd - Страница 8

Hey there, beautiful. Ready for your first day of Chaosville Community College?” asked Carlos.

“Hmm, not really! I want to go to the office with you and play slutty secretary,” I said with a laugh.

“Ha! You’re wild,” said Carlos while making me breakfast.

“Hmm, what’s that baby?” I said, walking toward the breakfast bar and grabbing a chair to sit down in.

“Rare lamb,” said Carlos.

“Oh, yummy,” I said. The two of us sat at the breakfast bar and ate breakfast together like usual. Carlos read the local newspaper, The Chaosville Gossiper, while keeping a gradual conversation with me at the same time.

After eating breakfast, I did my hair and put my makeup on. I felt like dressing up today since it was my first day attending college in a couple of decades.

I began to search through my wardrobe. Finally I came across a pair of dark denim capris and a sexy, tropical-looking shirt that showed a little cleavage. The shirt was fitted and had sequins on the upper part, and it flared out at the bottom. It was a cute summer-but-could-be-autumn top. I rocked a pair of platform sandals along with the rest of the outfit and wore a pair of sunglasses with rhinestones on the sides. My purse matched, as well.

After getting ready, I went back into the kitchen where Carlos was still reading the paper. “Look at you! You’ve got it going on this morning,” said Carlos, who turned away from his paper when I walked in the room.

“Thanks! I thought I might as well dress up since it’s my first day of school,” I said with a big smile.

Carlos then grabbed me around my waist, turned me toward him and kissed me. “Well, you have a good day at school, and try not to get in any trouble,” said Carlos.

“Really, you act like I’m a kid, but I’ll try not to,” I said.

“Make sure you don’t get mad at anyone, and don’t get overly excited either,” he said.

“Yeah,” I said. I grabbed my car keys off the breakfast bar and went out to the garage. I got into my Infiniti, backed out of the garage, and drove off to school. The college was about ten minutes away from our house and traffic wasn’t too bad this morning, but still I took my time getting there.

Chaosville Community College was pretty big for a junior college. It had quite a few buildings of all sizes. College kids were everywhere. Some were walking to their classes, and some were just hanging out.

I’m probably the oldest thing on campus, I thought. I began to walk to my first class, which was American Literature. As soon as I reached the building where the class was to take place, a nice, handsome guy opened the door for me.

“How are you doing this morning?” asked the guy.

“Fine. And you?” I replied.

“I’m ready for class to start. By the way, my name is Mason,” he said with a smile while reaching out to shake my hand.

“Alexsys,” I said, shaking his hand. Good thing I shaved my palms this morning, I thought.

I began to walk to my class. “Hey, wait,” said Mason.

“Look, whatever it is you are trying to sell, I’m not buying it. Plus, I have to get to class,” I said.

“Huh, what are you talking about? I’m not trying to sell anything. I just saw that you had the same textbook in your arms as I do, so I figured you were heading to Mr. Slapson’s class.”

After Mason said that, I quickly remembered that folks down south are a lot friendlier than they are in other places. “Oh, I am so sorry. I didn’t mean to be so rude. I don’t know why I thought you were trying to sell me something,” I said, gazing up at Mason.

Mason is pretty tall, at least six foot two, with a muscular, athletic build. Then I noticed his dreamy blue eyes and his nice, pearly white smile. He has light blonde hair that is almost white, and his bangs were pushed over to the side. The rest of his hair was covered up with a baseball cap. He had a nice tan, as if he had been outside all summer. I knew Mason was an athlete because he wore a pair of shorts and a shirt that said “Chaosville CC baseball,” along with the baseball cap. Plus, I could just sense that he was an athlete.

He seemed to be a down-to-earth, nice, southern gentleman, but could probably be one of those guys who would turn into a complete douche bag once you got to know him. Even though he wasn’t really my type, I was checking him out. Plus, I had Carlos; why would I sabotage what we had? Carlos isn’t too fond of me having guy friends, but still, he does not mind it.

“So, are you a freshman?” asked Mason.

“Yeah, can’t you tell?” I said while walking up the stairs alongside Mason.

“Actually yeah, I sort of thought you were. Are you from here?” he asked.

“Do I look like I’m lost or something?” I said.

“I was just kidding,” said Mason with a slight grin.

I smiled. “I’m from all around, but I just recently moved here from California.”

“So, why did you move all the way from Cali to down here?” asked Mason.

“Well, my boyfriend and I just recently bought a house out by the Oldton’s Cabin,” I replied.

“No way! Are you serious? You’re Carlos’s girlfriend?” asked Mason.

“Yeah. How do you know Carlos?” I asked in a mildly aggressive tone.

“Robby is my dad; the man that sold y’all the house! Plus, Carlos just opened the new law office in town,” said Mason.

“Wow! It’s nice to meet you. I didn’t know you were Mr. Yates’s son,” I said.

“Well you do now. He has a daughter too,” said Mason. “My sister, Mallory, she has this class too. We usually stop by your coffee shop in the mornings. Y’all have one of the best mocha Frappuccino’s in this area.”

“Well thanks. So what are you majoring in?” I asked.

“My sister and I are both majoring in business,” said Mason. The conversation continued until we took our seats in the classroom.

“Mason, thanks for not returning my calls this morning. I thought you were going to come and pick me up before class started,” said a girl’s voice.

Then another said, “Yeah, Mason. Thanks for not returning her calls this morning.”

I looked up and there stood two girls staring at Mason and me. One was tall and skinny, with long, bleached blonde hair that looked like extensions. She also looked like she had laid in a tanning bed for several hours because she looked kind of cooked. Not that it looked bad. She had blue eyes, heart-shaped lips, and a big bust. She also wore a ton of makeup. She reminded me of my friend Drezilla who lives in Las Vegas, except Drezilla is a vampire and is very fair compared to this chick.

The other girl was short, maybe around five feet, and had brown hair with blonde streaks that was pulled up into a ponytail. She had sort of a fair complexion with rosy red cheeks that looked as if they had been pinched. She did not wear as much makeup as the other girl. Her build was skinny, but she had some meat on her bones. Both girls wore denim shorts and tank tops.

“Babe, I returned your calls. You just didn’t answer the phone,” said Mason while hugging the short girl with the ponytail. The bleached blonde sat down in the empty desk in front of me.

“You’re pretty. I like your top,” said the bleached blonde, who was staring at me.

“Thanks,” I replied.

“This is my sister, Mallory,” said Mason, pointing to the bleached blonde in front of me.

“Hey,” said Mallory. I smiled and said hey back.

“And this is my girlfriend Caprilla,” said Mason. Caprilla gave me a smirk.

“Alexsys and her boyfriend just bought the house out by the Oldton’s cabin,” said Mason.

“Really?” said Caprilla, relieved that I had my own man.

“That’s neat. So y’all own the new coffee shop in town?” said Mallory.

“Yeah,” I replied.

The conversation went on until the professor entered the classroom. As soon as the professor entered, he threw down his briefcase and began to introduce himself.

“My name is Mr. Slapson, and this is American Literature,” he said. Then he wrote his name on the whiteboard like most professors do and began to tell the class about himself. Then he went over the course syllabus. He was a short and chunky looking guy and was probably in his forties. He was also going bald, so he parted his hair way over on the side and combed it over. His voice was deep with a noticeably southern accent, and he wore a sweater even though it was ninety degrees outside.

The classroom was snickering because they could not understand why he would have on a sweater in the summertime. Mr. Slapson’s attitude seemed to be arrogant and kind of repulsive.

After introducing himself and going over the syllabus, Mr. Slapson made everyone get up and begin introducing themselves to the class. Each person had to stand up and tell who they were, where they were from, what their major was, and what they liked and disliked. This went on until it got to the last row which was mine and Mallory’s.

Mallory stood up and introduced herself. While she was bragging about being a member of the dance team, a couple of guys in the back of the class were whispering about how big her boobs were and whether or not they were real.

Some of the girls on the far left side of the class also began to talk about how Mallory thought she was this and that just because she had money and her family has always owned several businesses in Chaosville. Then they began to whisper about how Mallory’s dad liked to chase younger women since his divorce.

Now when they said that her family has always owned a lot of stuff in Chaosville, I would have to agree. Even back in the eighteenth century, the Yates family was one of the families who practically owned most of the town and ran the county along with the Wealthies and the Foxes. Even when it was just Fort Chaosville, they played a major part in developing and making it into a town.

I’ve never been one who is big on talking about people, worrying about who is better than whom, or who has this and who has that. Even when I was human, I didn’t care about that kind of stuff, and I would just ignore it, but now I can’t help but listen because I have wolf instincts that cause me to have a keen sense of hearing and smell. That is, if I key them in.

Due to my superhuman abilities, I heard just about all the conversations taking place in the classroom and in the surrounding classes.

Finally I was asked to introduce myself. As soon as I stood up, all eyes were on me. I then heard some members of the class whispering, “Wow, she is pretty,” “She must have money; look how she is dressed,” and “I heard she is married to a lawyer.” It kept on and on. They didn’t know I could hear them.

I blocked it out and said, “Hello, my name is Alexsys Four Rivers.”

Right after I said my last name, a couple students toward the back of the class busted out laughing. “Who are you supposed to be, Pocahontas?” said one girl. A few members of the class began to laugh.

“No,” I said staring right at the girl and giving her a not-so-nice look, but catching myself before I smarted back off to her.

I continued to introduce myself. “My boyfriend and I moved here from California a few weeks ago, and I am a nursing major.”

“Does your boyfriend go to school here too?” asked Mr. Slapson.

“No, he’s the new lawyer in town. Plus, we opened up the new coffee shop downtown,” I said. I quickly sat down, and the next person stood up and introduced himself.

After everyone finished introducing themselves, Mr. Slapson dismissed the class. Everyone jumped up and rushed out of the room.

I had two more classes that day, and Mallory was in both of them. Mallory’s personality was the total opposite of how she looked. You would expect her to be stuck-up and snobby since she was so pretty. She was actually very nice and seemed quite outgoing. Plus, she was kind of a nerd. She told me that she was even valedictorian in high school.

To me, Mallory was just a beauty and she smelled good. If I were still primitive like when I was first turned werewolf, I probably would have eaten her up. Any other werewolf would have eaten her for lunch as well.

After finishing with all of our classes, Mallory asked me if I wanted to go and get some lunch. “Sure,” I said. Instead of eating in the cafeteria, we decided to go out for fast food. Mallory drove a brand-new blue Mustang.

“Nice ride,” I said.

“Thanks! My dad got this for me when I graduated,” said Mallory when we walked over toward her vehicle. Along the way we chatted about all types of stuff. We seemed to have a lot in common. Mallory’s voice was so sweet and southern; it reminded me of a little hick-town girl, especially when she said certain words such as “like,” “right,” “fight,” “gonna,” and “that.”

After lunch we exchanged numbers. She took me back to my car, and I drove over to visit Carlos at the office. I walked into his office and went to the back room where he was working.

“Well hey, sweetness. How were your classes?” asked Carlos as soon as I walked into the room.

“They were cool. I met a lot of humans and made a couple friends,” I replied. “By the way, how did you become so popular in such a short period of time?” I asked.

“Ha. Since I became the sexiest businessman, lawyer, and undercover werewolf in this area,” said Carlos with a cocky smile on his face.

“I just got tired of people all up in my space talking about how sexy you are and crap,” I said.

“Well I am, aren’t I? Don’t you think I’m sexy?” said Carlos in a sexy voice, while looking out his office window.

“Yeah, whatever. So, were you busy today? Did you get a bunch of clients?” I asked while putting on some lip gloss and sitting on top of Carlos’s desk.

“Yeah, I had quite a few,” he said.

“Were they mostly women?” I asked.

Carlos looked at me then and sternly replied, “Actually, yes.”

“Well, why didn’t you invite them over like you used to? You know, lure them over, please them, then eat them,” I said very seriously. Then I began to laugh.

Carlos turned around and yelled “What the! What’s wrong with you today? You came from school actin’ like a —” He stopped.

“Like a what? I’m not a female dog; I’m a wolf,” I said, laughing at Carlos because I knew exactly what he was about to say.

“Same thing,” said Carlos, who was sort of upset now.

For some reason, it is just so hilarious to me to make Carlos mad. He has such a quick temper, though not as bad as mine or most werewolves. Carlos tends to get mad over little things. There were times when people would cross him or upset him, and he would just eat them. I would sometimes do the same, but that’s only if they pushed my buttons too far. It used to be that I could not help it, especially when I first turned; we have these weird impulses that rush through our veins that cause us to do bad things sometimes. Plus, all you want is blood and fresh meat.

I remember the times when we lived in large- and medium-sized packs. We left the big pack back in the early 1930s, mainly because they wanted to hunt, attack, and feed on humans by choice. Others wanted to try and prevent the old habits of harming humans unless they just accidentally got in our way. After that, the pack split into good and bad leadership amongst the werewolf society.

Leaders in the werewolf society are certain alpha males that run each of our packs. It’s rare to find a pack that is all female, but there are still some that exist. They usually have to be careful or are forced to have a male join their pack if revealed. There are some werewolves who live alone, and just like regular wolves, they will find a mate and start a clan of their own.

Carlos was once one of the top alpha males in our society. Even since he retired from being leader over the fourth pack, he is still well known, respected, and well liked among the werewolf society. He still helps and uses his law skills when he is needed. The new leader that took Carlos’s position in the fourth pack is a werewolf named Zorrin. He is one of the most hostile alpha males in our society. Carlos and Zorrin knew each other when they were mortal. Not only did they know each other, they were good friends.

Zorrin was a member of the fourth pack when Carlos was the leader, but when they divided, he chose to go with the primitive ones who did not want to change their ways to eating deer and cattle. Now Carlos and Zorrin don’t really get along, yet they tolerate each other. Besides the pack splitting, there are other reasons why they aren’t quite on the same page.

The main reason is because of a female werewolf named Taquah, whom I cannot stand. Carlos and Taquah have a son together. Taquah was a member of the pack for a while. When we left the fourth pack, she and a few other werewolves came with us. She got pregnant by Carlos and just left a couple years ago. Now she is married to Zorrin.

Carlos’s son is named Rafael. We call him Rafy for short. Rafy is five years old, and he lives in California with Taquah and Zorrin. He looks just like Carlos, except much younger. He acts just like him too. Carlos and Taquah share joint custody of Rafy. I was surprised when the judge did not grant Carlos and me full custody of Rafy, especially because Carlos is a big-shot lawyer.

Since Taquah has been married to Zorrin, we haven’t seen Rafy. Taquah says everything is fine, but I don’t think it is. From what we’ve heard, we are pretty sure that Zorrin does not mistreat Rafy; he’s just doing this to upset Carlos and me.

Anyway, I told Carlos about the people I had met in town that day including Mr. Yates’s kids and about Mallory and me going out for lunch.

“Yeah, she’s a nice girl,” Carlos said. “I can’t believe you jumped in the car with her that quickly; you must have sensed her.”

“Yeah, she and I were on the same page, except that she’s a human. I did not suspect anything. She was harmless,” I said.

“Mr. Yates must have told her about you,” said Carlos.

“I guess so,” I said.

I left the office a few minutes later, headed back to the house, and did a little straightening up. I put some old paintings of Carlos and me on the living room wall and dusted them off since they had been in storage for ages. One was an antique oil painting of Carlos and me when we lived in Paris during the late eighteen hundreds. I remember having this painting done, I thought. Carlos was wearing one of his finest tuxedos, and I had on a beautiful Victorian gown that was blue with some white accents. My hair was pinned up with curls, and Carlos had a mustache. After having that picture painted of us, we went wine tasting and then hunting. That was back when we were primitive.

I finally snapped out of my gaze and began digging through some more boxes. I hid most of the stuff in the basement because it was mostly pictures and old books on werewolves, vampires, and other immortals. I didn’t want anyone to come over and think we were weird, with that stuff in the middle of the floor.

After straightening up some, I began to cook dinner and watch television. When I turned on the television, the local news was on. The news anchor was talking about how a man had been torn to pieces and killed after being attacked by an unknown wild animal. They also showed several people standing a few feet away from the crime scene.

I stood there in shock because Carlos and I had just moved here. Plus, we hadn’t been doing any hunting lately. I continued to watch the news and cook the leftover rare lamb into a stir fry. While I was cooking, the front door opened and then slammed. I heard Carlos yell, “Alexsys, turn on the news quickly!”

“It’s on! What’s going on?” I yelled. Carlos threw his briefcase down and started checking the caller ID.

“Has anyone called here or come by?” asked Carlos.

“No. I thought you weren’t getting off until five, and then you were going to the shop,” I said. Carlos did not say anything. He looked out the windows, and then shut the curtains. “What’s going on?” I asked again.

Carlos grabbed me by my shoulders and said, “There is another werewolf in this area. I don’t know who, but I got off early and on my way back, I passed the scene where the attack must have taken place,” said Carlos, who was kind of hysterical.

“Well, did you get out?” I asked.

“No, but I let my windows down to try and pick up on the scent,” replied Carlos.

“Well, who was it?” I asked.

“Couldn’t exactly catch it,” said Carlos pacing back in forth, somewhat frustrated.

“Well calm down; we’ll figure it out,” I said, but before I could finish my sentence, the doorbell rang. Carlos jumped then slowly walked over to the door. I followed him closely.

“Who is it?” asked Carlos.

A voice said, “Sheriff Collinbelle.” Carlos and I looked at each other and then smiled. Carlos opened the door.

“Well, hi there, Sheriff,” said Carlos.

“How are you doing son? And please, call me Wesley,” said the Sheriff, while shaking Carlos’s hand.

“Come on in, and please, take a seat. We were just about to have some dessert. Can we get you something?” said Carlos.

“Well all right, I guess I can come in for a minute,” he said.

“By the way, this is my fiancée Alexsys,” said Carlos, introducing me to the Sheriff.

“Well, hello, Alexsys. It’s nice to finally meet you. Aren’t you beautiful! I can see now why Carlos is always talking about his girl,” he said, shaking my hand and making his way into the living room.

I grinned and said, “Well thank you, Sheriff.”

He and Carlos both took a seat while I went and turned off the stove. I then went back into the living room with them. Sheriff Collinbelle was a short, muscular man in his late thirties. He really didn’t look like he would be a sheriff; he looked more like a bodybuilder or a wrestler. He was nice looking and clean-cut, like most military men. He had pretty, baby blue eyes and a dimple in each cheek when he smiled. I sensed he was a pretty outgoing person as well.

“Sweetie, will you go and whip up that dessert?” asked Carlos. I looked at him curiously because we were eating rare lamb stir fry. Then he gave me a look and nodded his head toward the kitchen. So I headed toward the kitchen and prepared a snack. The two men sat down in the living room and began to talk.

“So what brings you out this way?” asked Carlos.

“Well, actually there has been an attack, and we believe it’s some kind of wild animal. There have been a couple of other animal attacks in the surrounding counties as well. So, I’m just warning people out this way and in the rest of the county to stay alert and be careful,” replied the sheriff.

“Well, I appreciate you giving us a heads up on that,” said Carlos.

“No problem! Oh and I wanted to invite you and your fiancée to the fish fry that the Chaosville Fire Department is hosting for the city. It’s a pretty big event here in town. There’s going to be a band and a lot of dancing and food,” said Sheriff Collinbelle.

He and Carlos continued their conversation, and I brought out one of my favorite homemade desserts.

“So, what kind of animal do you think is on the loose?” I asked, butting into the conversation.

“My deputies and I think it’s a bear. Then again, it could possibly be a mountain lion. Those are the only two animals that could have done that much damage. Coyotes are also scary animals, but they rarely attack unless they are in a pack,” he replied, indulging in the ice cream sundae pie.

We chitchatted for a while until the sheriff finished his dessert and left.

Carlos and I stayed up late that night talking about what had happened. It was around one thirty in the morning when we decided to go to bed. We turned out all the lights while walking to our bedroom.

We had reached our bedroom door when all of a sudden we heard a loud crash! It sounded like something had been thrown through the living room window and the glass had been shattered.

“What was that?” I yelled.

“Sounds like someone is trying to break in,” said Carlos.

Carlos grabbed a bat and quietly ran down the hall into the living room. I followed him. As soon as he entered the living room, Carlos dropped the bat, and it fell on the floor. Why did he drop the bat? I thought.

When I made it to where Carlos was standing, I noticed he was staring at something. Then I saw pieces of glass on the floor. I was right, someone had thrown something and the glass was shattered. But what? I thought. I gazed over at Carlos who seemed to be staring at something right in front of him. The way he was standing, it was like he was in shock. I followed his gaze. When I realized what he was staring at, I could not help but stare too. I couldn’t believe what I saw.