The Shepherd

  “That doesn’t make sense. I like Nadia. We’re friends. And I would never hurt you. I think I’m in love with you.” Her eyes bored into my soul with her admission, a look of expectation.

  My life was coming apart at the seams, and then Anita chose this moment to tell me how she felt. But I was glad she did. I needed to hear it. “I think I love you too.”

  As soon as the words were out she kissed me. My confession opened the way for a passionate assault. I kissed her back, and my hands were up her shirt a moment later. I loved the feel of her lush warmth in my hands. Her kisses became hot and frenzied, little moans and groans escaped her mouth as I cupped her in my hands. I needed more. More Anita.

  Kissing her was like temporary insanity.

  I devoured her mouth, a free-for-all of tongues and crushed lips. She had her hands all over my chest and back, stroking every inch of my torso, pulling my shirt off.

  I was rock hard. From zero to boner in ten seconds flat.

  I loved the feel of her hands on me while I explored her soft, golden brown curves. I kept pushing into her, trying to merge my body with hers. I pushed her against the bed, and her shirt came off too.

  I had never seen Anita’s body. She refused to wear a swimsuit or anything revealing.

  “You’re so beautiful, how could you hide this from me?”

  I drank in her beauty, intoxicated on Anita. She was all lush, tanned curves, shiny and smooth in the moonlight streaming through her bedroom window. Surprisingly, she wasn’t fat, not the way she seemed in those baggy t-shirts she wore. Anita was thick, curvy, and gorgeous in nothing but black cotton panties. I could stare at her for hours, she was so lovely.

  And she loved me as much as I loved her. She wanted me, needed me, loved me.

  Something changed when she realized I was looking at her. She became embarrassed and tried to cover herself. But there was too much beauty to hide with only two hands.

  “Anita, let me see you. I need you, all of you.” I pushed her down onto the bed, and she let go of her breasts to catch herself as she fell. I crawled up and grabbed her hands, to pull them over her head.

  Oh god her breasts got even bigger. This girl had been hiding a beautiful woman underneath those t-shirts.

  “I’m so fat, it’s gross!” She turned her head aside, unable to look me in the eyes as I appreciated her body.

  I whispered in her ear. “So what if you’re not an anorexic Victoria’s Secret model. I don’t care. I love you. I love your body. I want to see every inch of it.”

  She faced me, searching my eyes for the lie.

  I stared right back with a monster grin. How could I have missed this wonderful woman who had been there all along?

  I lay on her, released her hands, and started kissing her all over. I trickled light kisses across her breasts and down her stomach. She buried her fingers in my hair and moaned.

  I made her squirm. Oh god, it’s so wonderful to make a woman squirm. It’s like being high, high on Anita.

  I drove her wild with my hands and lips, trailing soft caresses all up and down her body.

  When I slipped my fingers into the side straps of her panties she stared at me intensely, both of us waiting for someone to cross that bridge. There I stopped, my mouth at her stomach, fingers poised to remove her underwear.

  She had me so damn hard it was painful.

  Hot, breathing heavily, ready to go like never before, we both waited. Finally Anita decided, she lifted her hips up off the bed and whispered, “Don’t stop now.”

  In seconds her panties were gone and she helped pull off my pants. I wanted to make love to her more than I ever wanted anything else in the world. I could imagine spending the rest of my life with Anita, like this, night after glorious night.

  As we looked in each other’s eyes, both knowing we were about to cross a line, forever changing our lives, a brief flash of headlights crossed the bedroom. The passing light revealed a hoodie clad girl standing in the shadows of the juniper bushes outside the bedroom window. She stared directly at us.

  “Holy Shit!”

  Anita saw her too and squealed, “Oh my god! She’s out there!”

  Oh shit!” I suddenly felt like a kid with his hand caught in the cookie jar as I lay atop Anita.

  Then it clicked. “I forgot about Justin! I have to warn Justin!”

  Anita pulled her sheets up to cover us as she snapped, “Do you really think he’ll listen? He’s never even met Nadia!” She was hot, frustrated, annoyed that our moment had been ruined by that little shit of a vampire stalker.

  “I’m sorry, Anita. I gotta go.” I knew she was upset, but I had to go. It was the right thing to do, despite the fact that all I really wanted was to feel her legs wrapped around me, exploring all she had to offer. “I gotta try. You know what she did to Tommy and Rachelle. I need to talk to Justin.”

  She kissed me, that same look in her eyes, the look I wanted to see every second of every minute. Adoration. How had I ever missed this woman who looked at me with so much love and affection?

  “Be careful and remember that I love you. And we are going to finish this tomorrow?” She hugged me tighter and wrapped her golden legs around me, and I knew exactly what she wanted to finish.

  “I love you too.” God, I wanted her so bad. Then I looked back out the window, at the shadows of the Juniper, and I knew I had to go. So I kissed Anita goodbye.

  Justin better damn well appreciate my sacrifices.

  I dressed in record time and slipped out the window. Of course, the monster brat was gone. I checked around the outside of the house, but she’d disappeared. I drove off at 2:30 a.m. headed for Justin’s. Absolutely zero traffic in downtown Moses Lake at that hour on a Wednesday night. I made it there in five minutes.

  Justin’s house was dead silent. I feared the worst, that my fun with Anita may have cost Justin’s life. I couldn’t go through that again.

  Justin’s bedroom was on the second floor of their two story home, no way to climb to his window. I sent out a prayer to the powers that be that Justin would still have his cell phone turned on as I dialed his number. It rang six times then kicked over to voicemail. I hung up and redialed. Justin answered on the fourth ring.

  “Yeah! What the hell? Do you know what time it is, asshole?” He sounded half asleep, and pissed off.

  “Hey, Justin, it’s Mike. I need to talk to you about Tommy and Rachelle. I’m outside right now, come out and talk to me.”

  “Dude! Have you lost your friggin’ mind? Tommy’s dead and Rachelle looks like burnt toast, what do you want from me?” Justin always had such a way with words.

  “I’m givin’ it to you straight. I know who did it. I know who put the acid in Rachelle’s lotion, and I know some things you need to know. We gotta talk right now!”

  “I’ll give you five minutes. If you’re messing with me, I’m gonna break your board into little pieces and shove it in your gas tank!” Justin dropped the call.

  He came out the front door in shorts and a T-shirt, his hair standing on end from sleeping on it. “Talk fast.”

  “Okay, we were friends for like two years. You know me. You know I’m not a liar. So I’m asking you to trust what I’m about to say is for real.”

  “Yeah, yeah, whatever! Just say it already!”

  I described Nadia’s attacks on Tommy and Rachelle and her threats against both him and Anita. I could see the disbelief in his face, but I kept talking anyway. “I don’t know what she’ll do, but I’m hoping I can talk some sense into her. Maybe she’ll mellow out when she sees you and I don’t really have any problems. Now that Tommy’s gone and Rachelle’s … out of the picture, I’m thinking she’ll back off.”

  “Dude … that is the lamest shit I have ever heard in my life! I cannot believe you woke me up for this.”

  “Justin, you gotta listen. I’m serious as a heart attack. This girl does not play games. She is deadly dangerous and unpredictable. I don’t know if I can talk her down.”
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  “You want me to believe some fourteen year old vampire girl did all that, and now she’s out to get me? You really gotta stop reading Twilight.” The asshole laughed at me. “Did you forget to take your meds? Are you high on crack?” Justin studied me closely, looking for signs of intoxication.

  I shook my head. There was no getting through to him, and he wouldn’t take me seriously. Then I noticed a girl in a hoodie sweatshirt walking down the sidewalk across the street. As she flowed under the streetlight, Justin saw what I was looking at. She looked up at us for a couple seconds, catching my eye.

  Nadia.

  Her look communicated a clear warning. I was pushing my luck. A sick fear settled in my gut. By warning Justin, had I made him a target?

  I snatched Justin by the collar of his t-shirt and pulled him close, whispering while I pointed at Nadia, “There she is! That’s her right there. She knows that you know, oh shit …”

  Justin yanked himself out of my grip and pushed me away. “You know what I know? This is bullshit! You’re bullshit! I think you put the acid in Rachelle’s lotion and made up this lunatic crap to cover your own ass. If I find out you had anything to do with Tommy’s accident, I’m calling the cops and having you put away for good. And I’m gonna find out the truth Mikey, so I’ll ask you this one time, what really happened? Who did it? Was it you?”

  I shook my head. “I told you everything. I even pointed her out to you.” I pointed in Nadia’s direction, but she wasn’t there anymore. Stunned, I looked up and down the street to see where she’d gone, but she had pulled the disappearing act again. I turned back to my former best friend who stared at me like I was batshit crazy.

  “I’m trying to help you, Justin. She’s dangerous.”

  “You’re gonna stick with that line of shit? I will find out the truth, and I know you had something to do with it, or you wouldn’t be here right now. Get the hell off my property and don’t ever call me again.” His face filled with cold hatred.

  He slammed the door in my face.

  Then I realized something. I tried to talk to Rachelle about my vision of Tommy, which led to the fight. It was the fight that led to Nadia’s retaliation against both Tommy and Rachelle. I had caused the very thing I tried so hard to stop, and now it was happening all over again with Justin.

  * * * *

  Chapter 18

  Thursday, October 28th

  I slept through the early hours of the morning in my bed, alone. Nadia hadn’t shown her face since stalking me all the way to Justin’s house.

  I didn’t know what to do, and could hardly sleep for shit.

  When I did sleep in brief fits, I dreamed of things I’d rather not see again. I had nightmares of Nadia tearing into Mikhail, blood and screams and generally unpleasant stuff. By morning I was dead tired. I could’ve crashed for another five hours easy.

  I dragged my butt out of bed at 7:00 a.m. I couldn’t justify skipping any more school. Toast and a steaming cup of hot chocolate with a scoop of instant coffee gave me a much-needed wakeup kick to start the day.

  I found Anita in the library right before school started. We hugged and kissed, holding on for a couple minutes. It felt so right to be with her, smelling her kiwi-strawberry scented hair. I could almost forget the realms of weirdness that had overtaken my life when she kissed me.

  She ruined the temporary spell with a direct question. “What happened with Justin?”

  “He didn’t believe a word I said. If anything, I convinced him I’m crazy. He probably thinks I’m the one who did it. Guess who just happened to be walking by while I was standing on the porch with Justin?”

  “No way! She was there too?”

  “Unh hunh, and she didn’t look too happy.”

  “Oh my god! What do you think she’s gonna do?”

  “I don’t know. I can try to talk to her, beyond that I really don’t know. Do you believe me?” Her eyes slipped down and away. She still wasn’t sure.

  “I think so. It’s kinda hard to swallow. But I don’t think you’re a liar. I’m just not sure what to think. But you know I love you?”

  I couldn’t help but smile when she said the words. “You proved that to me last night.” She blushed and kissed me again. We separated with plans for lunch.

  I looked for Justin, but he didn’t seem to be in school. Then I heard today was Tommy Schroeder’s funeral service. The entire wrestling team had taken the day off school, Justin included.

  I kept thinking, mulling over the shocking revelations of last night. I had a slew of conflicting thoughts and feelings when it came to Nadia. I couldn’t really decide what to do about her.

  Was there anything I could do?

  The one thing I didn’t feel was fear – respect, definitely – but I didn’t fear Nadia. She swore she’d never harm me. But what did she want? Her intentions didn’t seem benevolent. I’d seen firsthand how much of a predator she could be.

  What could I do to stop her from hurting Justin or Anita? There were no solutions. And honestly, I had no real love for Justin. I didn’t wish him any harm, but I didn’t really care much either. Anita was another story. She was off-limits, untouchable. I needed to face Nadia, find a way to convince her to leave them alone, or at least Anita.

  I worked myself up for a showdown with Nadia. I had it all planned out, how I’d stand my ground and demand she back off.

  My plans were changed when I was called to the principal’s office a few minutes before school ended. Two of Moses Lake’s finest, MLPD officers in uniform, stood next to Principal Stanton. Dread filled my guts, turning my stomach in flip flops and my legs to gelatin. I sat down, sweating hard as visions of Justin’s mutilated body swam through my mind. Mixed in with my fears about Justin were snatches of imagery of Tommy’s broken body tumbling across the pit floor as he came to rest in a heap of dead flesh. I tried to keep a level head as my heart pounded into my throat and my armpits saturated with cold sweat.

  “Here, have a seat. And let me see your cell.”

  “What for?”

  “Well you’re not supposed to have it at school for one thing, but I’m going to let the officers take a look at it.” He handed it to one of the police officers. “I’m releasing you into the custody of the MLPD for questioning. If you would like, you can use my phone to call your father quickly before you go.”

  Who would I call besides Anita? Who would answer a phone and do anything for me? No one. Dad was at work and there was no one else to call.

  I shook my head in hopelessness and left silently with the officers.

  I copped all kinds of weird stares as I walked out to the parking lot with the MLPD. Fucking great.

  I rode with them to the downtown police station, in the back of the squad car, feeling like a criminal all the while. An accomplice to murder, an accessory, party to a crime, but I wasn’t cuffed, not yet. In the police station they took me to a spartan cinder block room where I was seated at a cold metal table and told to wait a few minutes, the detective will be in shortly.

  Sitting and waiting for who knows what, my imagination raced through a guessing game of possibilities. I thought of all the people close to me who might be potential targets for Nadia. Justin and Anita, obviously, but what if there were others? What of Taylor? Nadia had gone after him once before. Then there was Cleo and Rafe, and all the other skaters at the park. And what about the wrestling team? Nadia had made a direct threat towards Tommy’s wrestler buddies who were involved in the fight. And what about my father, was it possible Nadia might consider Richard a threat in some way? The possibilities spiraled out in a spider web of all the people who had contact or connection with me over the past few weeks. There I was at the center of the web, with Nadia, the black widow, catching any and all who might pose a threat to me.

  “Hello, I’m Detective Dominic Cassiano.” He shook hands with me, and sat across the table in the only other chair. Salt and pepper hair trimmed short, and a neat goatee, he looked all business. A man who w
ould not put up with any lies from a punk skater. Like a scene out of some gritty CSI episode, I wondered if he was gonna offer me a cigarette.

  He stared at me, trying to strip my secrets with his searching gaze. “So Mike, do you know why you’re here?”

  “They said you had some questions.” I distrusted this guy immediately. I had been involved with police a couple times as a skater in the wrong place at the wrong time, and I didn’t really trust police anyway.

  “Um hmmm, and what do you suppose I might want to ask you about?” The asshole was fishing, looking for me to start running my mouth.

  “I don’t know.” I didn’t take the bait.

  There were so many aspects of my insane life in the last week that would be inexplicable to a police officer, to anyone. I simply couldn’t afford to talk about much of anything. There were no safe subjects to discuss.

  “Really? And what would you say if I told you we talked to your friend Justin Shelby? He came to us a few hours ago, after the funeral of your friend Thomas Schroeder.”

  Aha! That was it. Justin had gone snitch. I felt relieved to know where this was coming from. “Justin is not my friend, and neither was Tommy.”

  “Hmmm, Justin said you were pretty good friends.”

  “Yeah, that was a few months ago. We don’t hang out anymore.”

  “Okay. And what do you think Justin had to say?” Cassiano made a note on his pad of paper as he spoke. I didn’t answer except to shrug my shoulders.

  “Oh come on. We know what you did to Rachelle Werner.” Cassiano dropped that bomb and then waited a moment for it to sink in before he continued. “If you admit to the truth, accept your guilt, we can probably get the prosecutor to recommend a lenient sentence. You’ve no prior criminal history beyond a couple municipal skating tickets, so maybe we can get you set up with some counseling sessions, community service, and we’ll have to see how Rachelle’s parents feel about her unpaid medical bills.” With this calm sneak attack, Cassiano leaned forward to look eye to eye with me.