Crimson Sunrise

  He smiled sadly and turned for the van. The front door opened and Derek stepped outside with Sarah. He kissed her quickly, jumped from the porch, and jogged over to the others.

  “Thanks for staying, Sarah.” I was grateful she had stayed and hoped she didn’t resent me for having to remain behind.

  “Anything for you, Emma,” she said, her calming voice settling inside my ears.

  She reached over, clasped my hand inside hers, and we watched everyone pile inside the vans. We stood together as they pulled away, fading from sight, leaving nothing but the white dust from dry gravel lingering in the air.

  Chapter 5—Character Traits

  Two days passed, and Sarah and I couldn’t take sitting around any longer. There were no leads on Sammie, and staring at the walls was slowly driving us to the brink of insanity. All of the Monopoly, Scrabble, and Lifetime movies in the world couldn’t pass the time quickly enough.

  Even with Chris and Bev against it, we decided to contact John for a meeting with his stick-wielding grandmother. It seemed like a good time to take the trip. We could make it back before the pack returned and distract ourselves in the process.

  Haven hadn’t been lying. John knew exactly who I was when I called and immediately provided detailed directions to the cabin where his grandmother lived. He also let me know she was anxiously expecting our arrival, having heard about it from the “ghosts” that visited her.

  Unsure if that was a good thing or a bad thing, I only hoped she wasn’t planning on venturing into the woods to collect the most prime branches available to use on us when we made it there. I didn’t relish the thought of being beaten with a walking stick.

  John eased that concern soon after, warning me his grandmother wasn’t as stout as she had once been, having recently celebrated her hundredth birthday. I guess life slows down once you commemorate a century of living.

  The trip also meant we had to travel out of state. John’s grandmother lived in The Smoky Mountains in North Carolina. It seemed club-wielding granny met Haven during the brief period of time she cared for John while his mother acclimated to life without her husband after he died. His grandmother had returned to her home years ago. Now she was too old to travel.

  We packed several days worth of clothing, and when we were set, I waited for Caleb to call to spill the beans on our little sabbatical. I didn’t want to upset him further, and I hoped he would understand our need for distraction—especially now. His voice calmed me better than anything else could, that husky southern timbre seeping past my ear and into my chest.

  “I would prefer you stay home,” he spoke quietly. The background full of people talking and multiple loud noises nearly drowned him out.

  “I know.”

  I purposely avoided the questions I wanted to ask him—like where he was. I pushed aside any momentary jealousy. I trusted him, no matter where he went.

  “Just wait until we get back.” His voice changed, as if he’d pushed the phone against his lips, and I knew he was walking. The noises seemed to lessen and fade into the background. “I’ll be home as soon as I can.”

  “You can’t be with me all the time, Caleb.”

  “No, but I should be.”

  The noises grew quiet and eventually went silent, meaning he must have stepped outside.

  “Sarah is with me, we’ll be fine. It’s only a trip to see a one-hundred year old woman. What’s she going to do? Gum us to death?”

  I heard his chuckle through the phone and wished I could see his face. I closed my eyes, picturing his smile and glorious shifting blue eyes.

  “She just might.” He cleared his throat, laughter still in his voice.

  “If I can’t handle a batty old woman, I deserve to be gummed. Besides, I have to see the woman that managed to freak out Haven of all people.”

  I heard the sound of a door being opened followed by laughter on the other end of the line. Caleb waited until the sounds were gone before he spoke again.

  “If you go, I want you to promise it’s directly there and back home. You have a god-awful knack of getting yourself into trouble. I’m beginning to think that anything terrible within a fifty-mile radius homes in on you.”

  “I promise.”

  “Does that mean you’ve decided to go?” he asked, keeping his voice carefully neutral. I knew the tone. He expected me to stay put.

  “We really need the distraction.” I couldn’t give him the sad face, but I hoped my voice would convey the huge need to get away.

  “You’re making the face, aren’t you?”

  “Yes, is it working?” I asked, holding my breath.

  “Apparently it works, even if it’s across digital phone lines.” He cursed under his breath. “All right, you win. But I want you to keep your phone with you. If you don’t answer when I call, I’m coming home. Do you understand?”

  “Oh God.” I feigned annoyance, even if he couldn’t see it. “You’re terrible.”

  “I’m not terrible, I’m in love,” he growled. “Remember that.”

  “I love you too,” I rasped into the phone.

  “How are Mom and Dad?” His voice became serious, any traces of humor vanishing.

  “Your mom is still frazzled, but your dad is doing better, although he’s not speaking much.” I took an unsteady breath. “What about you? Have you found anything?”

  “Rosco and Sam decided it would be best if the packs spread out to cover more ground. Miami is a big city. It will take some time. But I’ll be home soon. I swear, Emma. I’ll be coming home to you.”

  “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine. Right now I’m worried about Sammie.”

  His voice was deep, angry but not with me. “We’ll find her, and when we do there will be hell to pay.”

  ****

  We left the following morning and Sarah insisted we take her car. It was strange driving in something so fast, sporty, and expensive. She told me it was a 67’ Chevy Camaro, the first thing she ever purchased entirely on her own. The outside was painted cherry red and shone as bright as a freshly picked tomato. The best part was the black leather interior that soaked up the heat from the sun and kept the inside toasty warm.

  I settled into my seat, staring out the window as Sarah tackled driving. One perk of taking her car was that I wouldn’t have to drive. Interstates always freaked me out. If we were bound to attract trouble as Caleb believed, I did not want to do it at eighty miles per hour on the freeway. We exited Tennessee and hit Interstate 40. From this point it was a straight shot. We’d arrive in North Carolina after lunch.

  “What’s the matter?” Sarah asked, eyes darting from the road to glance in my direction.

  “I’m just thinking about Sammie. I can’t talk about it with Caleb. He’s stressed enough.”

  “It’s not them, Emma. I understand why you think it is. But if you really think about it, it doesn’t make any sense.”

  It was easy for her to say that it wasn’t the vampires we’d pissed off. She didn’t go to the ascension and see exactly what they were capable of.

  “None of this makes sense. Sammie’s just a k—” I stopped before I uttered the word. It wasn’t fair, was it? Referring to Sammie as a kid when just a week before I’d demanded she be given the same treatment as an adult?

  “She is just a kid,” Sarah clarified. “It’s okay to say it. We all get why you expect everyone to treat her in the same way we do you, but Sammie wasn’t raised under similar circumstances. She’s been living with her parents, sheltered and protected all these years. The time you spent maturing, she spent hanging out with friends and going to the mall.”

  I sighed and stared out the thick glass window, gazing at the clouds overhead. The sky was clear, a vivid baby blue. The winter season kept the air thin and cold.

  “We were going to take her with us at Christmas. She was really excited about that.” I hoped Sammie still made that trip with us and prayed that somehow I would wake up and all of this would be a bad dream.
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  A sound came from the floorboard and I sat up, frowning. The noise was muffled but oddly recognizable.

  “That’s Derek, can you please hand me the phone? It’s inside my purse.”

  I leaned forward, reaching for her tapestry style purse near my feet. I was going to ask how she knew it was Derek. Then I heard the ringtone. I rolled my eyes. It appeared everyone got to enjoy I’m Too Sexy when Derek decided to call.

  I passed the phone over and Sarah thanked me, flicked it open, and flipped her thick, inky hair over her shoulder. She put the cell to her ear, and a beautiful smile spread across her face.

  “Hi.”

  I tuned her out as much as possible and tried to give her privacy inside the car. They were a living, breathing, billboard for the power of opposites attracting. Where Sarah was calm and cool, Derek was edgy and heated. I would never have put them together in a million years. But somehow, they found a way to make it work, and they genuinely cared for each other...

  It felt as if a vise tightened around my heart.

  Watching them together was painful sometimes, especially since Derek’s wolf wouldn’t get over its ego trip and bond with her.

  Only one name had the power to whip me out of the self-imposed state of deafness. When I heard it, I quickly glanced over, listening in.

  “Tell Caleb I will protect her with my life. No, I’m not being dramatic. Don’t worry about me. The fresh air and change of scenery is good for everyone.”

  I returned to blocking out her voice, studying an eighteen-wheeler that drifted beside us instead. Innocent little chickens huddled inside, feathers flying and contorting in the speedy wind, being driven to their deaths. Their next life would consist of filling the stomachs of hungry people at the local fast food joint.

  Poor birdies.

  I waited until Sarah closed the phone to ask, “Is everything okay?”

  “Everything’s fine,” she assured me, flashing her dazzling smile.

  “Does Derek program that song into everyone’s cell?”

  “He’s incorrigible, I know.” She laughed, returning the phone to me so I could slip it inside her bag. I settled back in my seat, sliding my head on the headrest until I got comfortable.

  “Was Caleb with him?” I asked, managing to keep the worry from my voice.

  “They’re all together. Our pack is covering the east side while Rosco’s group works the west.” She gave an encouraging smile. “They’ll be fine.

  I changed the subject. “So what do you think we’re going to find when we get to grandma’s house?”

  “Don’t worry.” Sarah narrowed her eyes, flashing her teeth and attempting to appear threatening. “I’ll smell it if a wolf has taken over her house and is waiting inside to eat you.”

  “That’s a damned shame.” I rolled my eyes. “All it took was one little conversation to Derek-ize you.”

  “I could say the same for you,” she scoffed, a delicate flush reddening her cheeks. “Since you’ve come home, you’ve taken on a healthy portion of Caleb’s seriousness.”

  I held up my hand, palm facing her direction. “I plead the fifth.”

  “That’s what I thought.” She nodded smugly.

  Chapter 6—Glimpse The Future

  John’s directions were spot on. We not only arrived in North Carolina directly, we also drove straight into Cherokee County where his grandmother lived. The drive to her farm reminded me of the first time I was taken to meet Caleb’s family, with one tiny exception—all of the beautiful mountains. We found ourselves surrounded on all sides, the breathtaking vistas visible even as we drove through the small town on the way to her home.

  It was as wilderness as wilderness can get. The road to her place wasn’t a road at all, just two long lines where the grass had been decimated by tires over the years. The trees were lovely, their branches either bare or filled with a vast assortment of reds, oranges, yellows, and browns.

  Sarah complained about each pothole her spiffy Camaro encountered, claiming the shocks would have to be replaced by the time we made it to our destination. I couldn’t say I blamed her. I wouldn’t have liked it either, even though my trusty Honda Civic was on its last wheel.

  A tiny creek appeared on our left, just as John had said it would. Sarah heard the sound of the rushing water before it came into view. She scented the air and told me the house was directly up ahead. We drove past the stream created from water trickling along the back of the mountain and followed the dirt road onto the back of the property.

  “This reminds me of Little House on the Prairie,” Sarah grumbled, driving slowly toward the old looking cabin nestled closely to trees at the back of a large mountain.

  “Or The Waltons,” I offered in agreement.

  We pulled to the front, near a porch with wooden slats that were worn but sturdy. The cabin was worn too. Nothing like the newer versions we had seen that were rented out to couples looking for a romantic getaway. This was the real thing, no false pretenses here. A tiny hut of some kind was built along the side using the same material. This place had been around for decades.

  Or centuries...

  Sarah killed the motor and removed her keys. Afterward she took a deep, fortifying breath. She exhaled slowly as she slapped her hands against her legs, rubbed her fingers briskly across her jeans, and turned to me.

  “This is what we came for. Are you ready?”

  “I’m not exactly sure what I should be ready for. But yeah, I guess so.”

  We climbed out of the car, leaving our things behind. I led the way with Sarah riding my heels. We climbed up the stairs and started across the porch when the door opened.

  Grandma looked as old—and Native American—as she was. Lines and extra skin molded her darkly tanned face, folding over on her forehead, under her eyes, and along her chin. Her white hair was braided neatly down her back, and her eyes were ominous black onyx marbles, perfectly clear and cognizant. Those peepers locked on me first, intense and focused, studying me. Then she looked away, staring at Sarah.

  “You”—she lifted trembling fingers at Sarah—“are wa-ya, wolf.”

  “You”—she motioned to me—“are na-s-gi, something else.”

  I glanced at Sarah and gave her a “what the hell is that all about” look. Sarah returned my gesture with a cocked eyebrow and a matching shrug.

  The old woman started speaking softly, almost a chant, in a language I didn’t understand. She closed her eyes, chin braced on her chest, a frail hand with large knuckles clutching a pouch affixed to her neck. Sarah and I moved closer to each other, freaked out by this harmless little old lady, which was rather pitiful all things considered.

  Granny stopped as suddenly as she had started, released the bag, and returned those obsidian eyes to my face. She gazed at me with what appeared to be appreciation and understanding.

  “Yi-ne-hi.” She nodded, speaking in tightly clipped English. “You are the race of mother earth. A-tsi-yi-hi a-tsi-ye-hi.”

  “I’m afraid I don’t speak Cherokee.”

  “I say—you are wife to wolf.”

  “I’m not married.”

  Sarah and I stood uncomfortably while the delusional old lady looked us over again, her intense gaze traveling back and forth between us. I started to think it was a really bad idea coming here after all. The whole experience had a Twilight Zone kind of feel.

  Abruptly, the old woman turned around and walked back inside, leaving the door wide open. I put my cheek on my shoulder, balancing my weight on my right leg, and watched her putter to the center of the cabin. She teetered around and scowled at us. Lifting her hand, she flapped her wrist back and forth in an awkward wave. Indecipherable words flew from her mouth, and I didn’t need to understand Cherokee to know she was losing her patience with us.

  “What do you think she wants,” I spoke through my teeth and smiled at the crazy old woman while nodding my head and pretending I had some indication of what the hell she was saying.

  Sarah sna
gged my elbow. “I don’t know, and I don’t want to know. Let’s leave. She’s not playing with a full deck. She just boarded the Looney Tunes expressway.”

  “Come, come!” scary old woman screamed from inside the house and motioned with her hand.

  “I don’t know, Emma.” Sarah glared at me, shaking her head in a blatant “no” motion.

  “Oh, for Pete’s sake!” I rolled my eyes and yanked my elbow from her fingers. “She’s just a little old lady, and look at us! We’re wimping out like hard core sissies out here!”

  I shook my head, stomped across the porch, and walked into the cabin. I didn’t wait to see if Sarah followed. Werewolves might be intimidated by the mentally challenged, but not me. Grandma motioned for us to take a seat across from her, pointing at a worn and very faded leather couch.

  I sat and Sarah plopped down beside me, mumbling under her breath that I owed her big time. I could feel her tension. The energy rising from her skin caused my own to prickle. The hair at the crown of my head started to tingle and lift.

  “Chasing Eagle say you come.” Grandma slid into the rocker, eased back into the cushion affixed to the back, and relaxed. “But he did not say to me that you have not chosen.”

  “I don’t understand.” I sat up, balancing my elbows on my knees.

  “You have not chosen, and the kiss of another marks you.” She pointed at my arm and I self-consciously pulled my wrist closer to my body—the same wrist Decimus had bitten during the ascension.

  Grandma sat up, resting her feet on the scratched and dented hardwood floor. “You must choose, one or the other. The path together will bring only pain.”

  “I have chosen. I just haven’t...” I glanced at Sarah. “I haven’t been changed yet.”

  Caleb might have his fears, but it was my decision. I had planned on giving him time to come around, but my mind had already been made up. I didn’t possess the wolf nature that bound him so tightly to me, but I wanted to. I wanted to be connected to all of them. They were my family now.

  “Your fate has been chosen but not by you.”