The New Neighbor (part 1)
Title: The New Neighbor (part 1)
Fandom: original
Rating: PG
Genre: urban fantasy
Spoiler Warnings: none
Word Count: 6,569 (only because LJ won’t let me post over 12K at once, stupid LJ)
Marla showed up on my doorstep Friday night with smudged lipstick and sex hair.
I peered around her at the headlights disappearing into the darkness. “Why do you look like you just had sex in my driveway?”
She bumped my hip with hers as she pushed her way into my apartment. “Hey now, what kind of friend would that make me? It was in the alley behind a club.”
She glanced around before turning to me with a frown. Her eyes roamed up and down my body, taking in my sweatpants and tank top. “You look like shit.”
“You look like a whore.” I threw back at her.
She smiled. “At least I had fun.” She moved over to the couch, leaning down to pick up the book I’d been reading before dropping it onto the cushion again. “Reading on a Friday night? You’re wasting away in here.”
Crossing my arms I walked over to the couch, collapsing into the soft fabric. I curled into the corner, pulling my knees up to my chest. “I happen to enjoy reading. Maybe it’s a lot more fun for me than a crowded club. You know I don’t like large crowds.”
Marla’s perfectly manicured eyebrow cocked up. “How about orgasms? Do you like those? Because I bet your book can’t give you an experience anything like what I just had.”
“What are you doing here?” I asked tiredly. Marla was my friend and I loved her. But if she only came to my place to rub my face in her conquest I was going to strangle her. I’d had a long day at work and my patience with her exuberance was wearing thin.
She shrugged. “I couldn’t very well let him see where I live.”
I sat up straighter, glancing at my door in alarm. “What!”
She rolled her eyes. “Relax. It’s not like he’s an axe murderer. You know they always fall in love with me. I just don’t want to deal with that. Besides, I told him this wasn’t my house so it’s not like he’s going to come here looking for me.”
I fell back against the arm of the couch but I didn’t stop frowning at her. “How long are you staying?”
She picked up my book again, studying the cover. “Why? Is this a juicy book? Hey, he’s a hottie. What’s this about?”
She flipped the paperback around and started reading the summary. Heat spread through my cheeks as Marla’s eyebrows shot up. She whistled. “Maybe I was wrong. Mind if I borrow this when you’re done?”
I yanked it from her hand. “It’s been a long day. It’s getting late. If you don’t mind, I think I’m going to go to bed now.”
“Fine.” She gestured toward her sparkly dress. “Got anything I can sleep in? Or am I going au naturel?”
Her eyebrows wiggled suggestively as she leered playfully at me. She’d do it too. Even without the slight buzz she had going my friend was the type to bare it all.
“I’ll get you a T-shirt.”
Before I walked out in search of sleepwear and bedding I leaned forward and picked up another book she’d missed on the coffee table, tossing it toward her. “Here’s the first in the series.”
She caught it with a fumble and a bright smile. “Thanks. You won’t regret this.”
I shook my head as I headed down the hall. She said the strangest things sometimes.
~~O~~
Marla slept until mid morning. It probably would have been later but I couldn’t make myself walk around on eggshells in my own house any longer.
She stumbled into my laundry room, glaring murderously at me. “That is the most obnoxious buzzer I have ever heard.”
“Hmm.” I acknowledged. “And I bet you can’t even hear it from your house.”
She stared at me for a long moment, then spoke. “You’re going to feel like such a bitch later.”
Straightening, I balanced the full laundry basket on my hip and turned to face her. “Is that supposed to make sense to me?”
Suddenly she smiled. “No. Hey, do you mind giving me a ride to the city? I left my car at work.”
Her outfit from the night before flashed through my mind. Marla worked as an executive assistant in a law office. “You left work dressed like that?”
She shrugged. “And?”
Sighing I jostled the basket in my hands. “Let me take care of this. Go ahead and find something to eat.”
I put away my clean clothes quickly, listening to Marla slamming my cabinets and fridge. By the time I met her in the kitchen she was back in her sparkly dress and was finishing a breakfast bar. The T-shirt she had slept in was draped across the back of a chair loosely, like it had landed there instead of being intentionally placed there. Knowing Marla she’d changed in the room full of open windows.
Grabbing a breakfast bar for myself I led us both outside. Movement startled me from the corner of my eye. The house next door had been vacant for months. The owners were trying to sell but had made the mistake of putting too much money into the upgrades. Refusing to take a hit on their investment, they were asking too much for the house. No one would buy it.
So why was there a moving van in the driveway?
Marla sashayed through my line of vision. “Oh, a hot new neighbor. Maybe I won’t need to try to drag you out anymore on Saturday nights.”
Grinning I unlocked the doors of my sedan with a click on my key fob. “My luck it’s a little old lady with an annoying dog that yaps all night.”
“You’ve got to stop being such a pessimist,” Marla reprimanded as she slid into the car. Taking in her surroundings she sneered. “And buy a new car. You can’t put a positive spin on life in a junker like this.”
I couldn’t help but laugh as I pulled my door closed behind me and it groaned pitifully. Was the car trying to argue her point? “Teachers aren’t paid enough to buy extravagant vehicles.”
“It doesn’t have to be a Lexus. Something made before your students were born would be acceptable.”
Huh. She did have a point.
The car sputtered a bit as I started it up. Marla eyed the gauges speculatively, like they would give her some kind of count down if the car were about to explode. “Maybe I should walk…”
“It’s a twenty mile walk!”
“Or call a cab, or the guy from last night. I think I have his number in here somewhere.” She started digging through her purse as backed out of my driveway. “Mark? Matt? Maybe Dave?”
Glancing over I saw five strips of paper on her lap, all with phone numbers and names scribbled in different hand writing. Shaking my head I reached for the radio dial. “Relax. She’ll run just fine.”
~~O~~
By the time I got back home it was early afternoon and pouring rain, which was great because I had a trunk full of groceries to unload and no garage to park in. Also, I hadn’t thought to grab a jacket when I left with Marla so I was going to be sopping by the time I finished getting everything into the house. And I had opted for the paper bags. This would be an exciting game of how many would make it inside before they soaked through and burst.
Of course, I wasn’t smart enough to unlock the house first, so while I was standing there wrestling with the keys the very first bag tore open, dropping cans of green beans on my toes. I hopped around on my porch like a crazy person for a few seconds muttering curse words under my breath before gathering the cans from where they had rolled to the furthest edges.
I managed one successful trip before another bag scattered on me. It was while I was gathering my shampoo and body soap that a pair of sneakers appeared in my vision. Wiping water droplets and rain plastered hair from my face, I peered up into the face of a male model. He had to be. At least in his former life. Before the weathering and that scar on his cheek.
And yeah, I was staring a little too much. “Hi.”
He kneeled down and started grabbing items out of the puddles. “Let me help you.”
I dropped my head quickly in an effort to hide the blush. He was way too good looking. “You don’t have to do that. But thank you.”
“It’s what neighbors are for right?”
I was too tongue-tied to speak intelligently. So I led him through my living room to my kitchen to drop the wet items off. I expected him to go back over to his yard and into his house then as we walked back outside. But he tromped over to my car, filled his arms with bags and jogged back toward my house. Deciding that he was the best neighbor ever, I grabbed two bags and made a run for the house.
It was ridiculous but I was disappointed when I realized that my trunk was empty. We weren’t even talking to each other, but I had enjoyed the simple experience of unloading groceries with the man. I needed a man in my life in a serious way if I was getting sentimental over unloading groceries with a complete stranger.
I led him to my door one last time with a smile. “Well, thank you again. I really appreciate the help…”
“Evan. Evan Walker. Just moved in next door, and I promise I don’t have a yappy dog.”
I felt my smile shift just the slightest as I heard his name. My cheeks also reddened as I realized that he had overheard at least some of the conversation between Marla and me earlier. But most of my mind was taken up with something else. It was the strangest coincidence. He had the same name as the main character from the series I was reading. “I’m Trinity Keenan.”
“Well, if you need any more help, just let me know,” and with that Evan walked out into the rain.
~~O~~
“Dammit you should not be answering your phone,” Marla complained. “You should be getting it on with Mr. Sexy next door. Have you even met him yet?”
I eyed the book on my coffee table. Just as soon as I finished grading papers I was going to get back to that. Only now I would have the image of a rain soaked man in mind every time the main character appeared on the page.
“As a matter of fact, I did. He’s a nice guy.”
“Nice?” She sounded disappointed. “He’s not supposed to be nice. He’s supposed to be yummy. At least tell me you were showing cleavage when you met him.”
“Um, no. It was this afternoon, coming back from grocery shopping.”
“What! In that walk for a cure T-shirt that’s two sizes too big for you? Trini, this is why you’re still single. You’re not even trying.”
“It was raining if that helps. So the thing was plastered to me.”
She sighed. “I suppose that’s better than nothing. Your tits are your best asset. And your ass did look good in those yoga pants. Did he get a good look at your ass?”
“I don’t know. I don’t have the skills that you seem to possess. I don’t know when guys are checking me out.” I glanced over at the book again. “It’s funny. He has the same name as the main character in that book I loaned you. You left that here by the way.”
“Oh, it’s not a coincidence. It’s him.” She stated in an off-hand way.
I laughed. “Right. He’s a shape-shifting police detective from a supernatural romance novel. Cause those guys leap right off the pages all the time.”
“Why are you laughing? You weren’t doing anything about your love life so I had to take drastic measures.” Her tone was suddenly defensive.
I sat up straighter, shifting the stack of grade-school papers off my lap. Worry tightened my stomach. Was my friend losing her mind? “What are you talking about, Marla? He can’t be a fictional character. He’s living in a house next door to me. Fictional characters can’t buy houses in the real world.”
She huffed. “Are you forgetting something here? I’m a witch.”
I looked around my room, at a loss for words. Was I the one going crazy? I’d been the one to interact with the man who was supposedly from the book. Maybe this was all in my head. Maybe I wasn’t really on the phone with Marla. Perhaps I had never woken up at all and this was all a dream.
“Excuse me?”
“I told you in the tenth grade! You didn’t seem very surprised back then.” Her tone was growing more and more defensive.
“You were in your goth stage! I didn’t think you thought you were an actual witch! That’s crazy!”
“Well it’s not so crazy now, is it? Not with Evan living next door, hmm?”
“I need booze.” I shoved off the couch in search of alcohol.
My best friend was a freaking witch? A real life witch? Witches didn’t exist. All the things I read about in my books were fairy tales, fantasy to help me escape from real life. They weren’t allowed to chase me into reality.
“Do you hate me now?” She asked in a meek tone. Marla never spoke in a meek tone.
I stumbled to a halt, my hand landing on a bottle of wine. “What? No! I’m just…um…shocked. So. A witch. Since when?”
“Since I came screaming into this world. All the women in my family are witches.”
I thought about that for a second. About her scary Aunt Martha. “That makes so much sense.”
Wine really wasn’t going to cut it. Vodka. Yes, this was a vodka revelation.
“I only brought him over for you because I think you need a little fun in your life.”
I frowned as I watched the clear liquid pouring into my glass. “So, did he exist in some other plane of existence? Was he happily living his life and then out of nowhere you tore him away from it all and plopped him down here?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. It was more of a gentle nudge. And of course he existed. I can’t create life, at least not without a few drinks and the help of some sperm. He was living his life and then he decided that he wasn’t happy with where he was living and he decided to move. I provided some help with the timeline and of course getting him here, which he is not at all aware of, and here he is. And he has no idea about the books by the way. So you’ll want to keep that between us. And maybe stop leaving them out.”
Her explanation made me vaguely uneasy. But his character was unhappy in New York in every book that I had read so far. He was constantly battling with the idea of tendering his resignation to move to a smaller town. Living in such a large city was hard on his shifter side. It was difficult to hide his dual nature, and even harder to find time to let his wilder side run free.
I considered all of this as I emptied my glass. Then I poured another before storing the bottle back in the freezer. “I suppose he’s not the worst neighbor to have.”
“And it’s not like you’ll have to deal with him forever.” She assured.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I questioned her as I made my way back toward the couch.
“Oh, I put a time limit on the spell, it’s traditional you know. I started it just after Midnight as the first of October began. So he’s here until Midnight on Halloween. Barring anything unusual.”
I snorted. “Midnight? That’s a bit predictable don’t you think?”
“Hey, it’s an age old tradition.”
“Age old my ass. You stole that from Cinderella!” Her explanation worked its way through the gears in my head again and I caught something I hadn’t the first time around. “What exactly did you mean by barring anything unusual? Do you mean something could happen to make him stay here? To trap him here forever?”
“Oh, sure. But not in a bad way, it would mean he’d want to stay. I put a true love clause in. You know, like if the two of you fall madly in love and don’t want to be separated.”
“You’ve watched too many Disney movies.”
~~O~~
I shifted from foot to foot, trying to work up the nerve to hit the doorbell. There was a shapeshifter in that house. And he was there just for me. The idea was ludicrous. It made me want to bury my head under my comforter in shame. I was so lame my friend had to hunt up fictional characters because real men obviously weren’t interested.
But he was also a nice guy who had helped me bring in my groceries in the pouring rain. Any other neighbor who had done that would receive a freshly baked apple pie. So, there I stood on his front porch, fresh pie cooling in my hands.
Just do it already.
I reached forward and slammed my finger against the button before I could chicken out again. Immediately the front door whipped open to reveal the man himself, grinning down at me. His hazel eyes were twinkling with mischief as he took in my startled reaction.
“I was wondering how much longer you’d stand there before you decided to cut and run. Kinda surprised you decided to ring the bell.”
His eyes darted down to the pie and his nostrils flared out. Right. He could smell it. Those enhanced senses of his.
I held the pie out. “I wanted to thank you for helping me out yesterday. And welcome you to the neighborhood of course. So I made you an apple pie.”
His stood there for the longest time studying that pie. Did he think I had poisoned it? It was a thank you pie. Just take it already so I could go die of embarrassment in my own home.
Eventually those hazel eyes moved up to my face, scrutinizing me carefully. What? Did he seriously think I was a threat? That I would put something in the pie? If he was going to be like that then I would just take the pie and eat it myself.
About the time I made that decision his lips twitched into a small grin and his eyes twinkled. “That sounds nice. Come on in.”
“Oh! I didn’t mean for…the pie is for you. I wasn’t trying to invite myself over.”
He stepped to the side, taking the pie from me. “I insist. I helped you with your groceries, now you need to help me with the pie.”
I stepped into the house slowly. I didn’t know what the house of a shapeshifter might look like. My eyes darted around the entryway and the living area warily. Well. That was anti-climatic. It looked like a bachelor’s house. A leather sofa and matching recliner were centered around the large flat screen TV. Well-used craftsman style furniture filled up the rest of the space.
“The kitchen is through here. The house is a mirror image of yours,” Evan commented as he led me toward his kitchen.
I had to admit, the view on the way to the kitchen was rather nice.
I tore my eyes away from his backside and looked around. Didn’t want to get caught leering at him after all. “You’ve gotten a lot unpacked.”
He sent a grin at me over his shoulder. “I move fast.”
My stomach clenched as a shiver went up my spine. He couldn’t have meant that as suggestively as my mind took it, but man it had sounded good.
He held a simple wooden chair out for me. “Have a seat. What can I get you to drink? I only have beer and water at the moment. Haven’t had a chance to hit the grocery store.”
“Water’s fine.” Mercy me, a gentleman. I’d only read about them. Hah.
He’d been one of the ones I’d read about.
I took the chance to look around his kitchen as he dished up the pie. The previous resident had decked it out with the highest quality tile and granite. It didn’t seem to match his down to earth persona. But then, he probably would have taken whatever was available closest to me, thanks to Marla’s manipulation. Guilt gnawed at me.
The plate of pie descending in front of my nose distracted me. The pie really did smell good. And the hand holding the plate looked kind of delicious as well.
Okay, that just was not like me. I was not the type to drool over a guy. I had class. I had self control.
I had a friend who liked to meddle and could apparently throw around some pretty hefty magic.
Marla would be getting a call from me. Just as soon as I finished this pie.
We both picked up our forks but I moved slowly as I cut the pie crust with the metal tines. I wanted to watch his reaction. It was always gratifying to see that first bite, to see the eyes light up and the lips twitch. My grandmother had been a baker and she had passed her recipes on to me.
He didn’t bring his fork to his mouth at first though. He was moving slowly too, he even glanced up at me, meeting my eyes. “So, this seems like a nice place to live, a decent small town.”
I nodded, lecturing myself internally. I could not give away the fact that I knew he was from New York, a version of it anyway. He would think I was some kind of freak for knowing that before he told me. I certainly couldn’t let on that I knew about the fur and fangs he could sprout on a whim.
“It’s a good, safe place to live. We have a good police department.” Crap. Was that too pointed? Was I too obvious there?
He grunted. “That’s good to know.”
Finally he let me off the hook and raised his fork. Watching him through my eyelashes I saw his reaction the moment the flavor burst on his tongue. I would have been able to hold in my grin of pride if he hadn’t groaned. That sound threw me over the edge though. So I shoved my own fork-full into my mouth to cover it.
“Holy hell, Woman. You’ve gotta be making a fortune off these things.”
Laughing, I shook my head. “I’m a second grade teacher.”
He brought his fork down on his slice, dividing out a larger chunk to scoop up. “You’ve missed your calling. You need to quit your job and open a bakery. I’ll finance it. No. Wait. You can quit and just bake for me. All day long. I don’t even care that I’ll get fat.”
Grinning I shoved my fork into my slice for another bite. “I enjoy baking but teaching kids is my passion.”
He sent me a warm smile. “That’s really nice.”
I could feel my cheeks heating up, so I diverted my attention down to my plate. “So, where did you move from?”
He told me about New York and how he didn’t like the bustle. He supposedly researched small towns and liked the low crime rate and population of mine. So he’d sold his loft, quit his job, and moved. I knew it hadn’t been exactly like that, but I had to keep my tongue in check. Especially since he believed what he was saying, so what was the point in arguing the truth?
“And what line of work are you in?” The question made me feel deceptive. It was almost too much to listen to him explain about being a cop and his plan to interview with the police department the next day. Could he not see my guilty conscious?
Marla had basically kidnapped him and I was now her accomplice. This was so wrong. No matter how fantastic he was. And he was fantastic. I could already tell that I would really like the guy if I let myself spend anymore time with him. So, I would just have to cut myself off. What Marla had done to him was wrong, even if he wasn’t as real as me before he was pulled over, I couldn’t just use him for my own purposes and then let him fade away in a month’s time.
The idea made me feel dirty.
“You okay?” He asked with a concerned tone.
I glanced up to realize that we had both finished our pie while I was thinking so hard. And now Evan was watching me closely. I had to get out, without arousing his suspicions. “I’m sorry. I was being rude. My mind drifted to the stack of papers I have to grade by tomorrow morning. That’s awful of me.”
He stood, moving behind me to pull out my chair. Another pang to my heart. Why did he have to be such a gentleman? “I shouldn’t have kept you so long. Thank you for the pie. It was amazing. If you’ll give me a second I’m sure I can find something to transfer the rest of the pie over to.”
Waving his words away I started moving toward the door. I had to get away from him before he charmed me beyond redemption. “No. You keep it until you’re done with it. I’ve got more.”
“Let me see you out then.”
He walked just a step behind and to the side of me the whole way. I could swear I even felt the warmth of a hand just centimeters from the small of my back. He paused as he started to pull the door open for me.
“Thank you again for the pie. Let me know if there is ever anything I can do for you.”
~~O~~
I was mindlessly grading math papers, scanning paper after paper, marking them up with my red pen when I felt it. Someone was watching me. The hair on the back of my neck rose. I looked around the room, feeling foolish. I knew no one was in the house with me. I knew I was alone. But I couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was there, someone’s eyes were on me.
A small sound, the cracking of a twig, snapped my attention to the window a few feet from the couch. I caught a blur of movement from the corner of my eye, a flash of skin and hair, and then the person was gone.
For a second I was frozen on the couch, immobilized with the terror and shock. Then my brain kicked in. I jumped off the couch, diving for the door. It should be locked. I hardly ever forgot to lock the door behind me. It was something my father had drilled into me when I moved out on my own. But every so often I forgot. I had to make sure that the door was locked and the deadbolt was thrown.
My hands trembled as they slid over the locking mechanisms. Relief poured through me. The door handle had been locked and the deadbolt had been thrown the whole time. Then I remembered the back door, which I had walked through earlier to weed the garden. Had I locked it? My hands had been full and muddy to boot. I searched my memory frantically as I ran toward the kitchen. Had I reached over to lock the back door?
I collapsed against the wooden door, slamming the deadbolt into place. It had been unlocked. Shit.
Shit.
My eyes darted around the room. Nothing was out of place. There were no sounds to alert me to the presence of an intruder. Had the curtain been still or fluttering when I ran into the room? Had the door been recently opened and closed, or had it been still since I had walked through an hour earlier?
My eyes landed on the pantry door. It was open the slightest bit. Someone could be in there. Waiting for me to let my guard down. He could attack me as soon as I stepped close to that door. The knife block was just a foot away from me, but I would have to step that twelve inches closer to the pantry to get to it. Moving slowly and never taking my eyes off of the pantry door, I made my way to the wooden block that held all of my large knives.
The doorbell pealed and I shrieked as if a man in a hockey mask had just jumped out from the pantry, bloody knife raised high. Clutching onto my chest I moved toward the front door, skirting around the pantry as quickly as I could. Maybe the visitor hadn’t heard my terror-laced scream?
A fist pounded on the door. “Are you okay in there?”
Great. Now Evan was going to be a witness to my little panic attack.
No. Wait. His timing really was great. He was a police detective. Okay, maybe not a real one, but he played one in the novels. And he didn’t know that life wasn’t real, right? So he should know what he was doing. Plus, he had those great supernatural abilities to work with.
I reached for the handle, but paused. What if I only thought I recognized the voice? What if it wasn’t him? Raising up the slightest bit on my toes, I peered anxiously through the peephole. Then I stood back quickly and yanked the door open to reveal Evan standing on my porch, a tense, worried expression on his face, one hand raised to pound on my door again, and my pie plate held in the other.
He took a miniscule step forward as soon as the door opened. “I heard you scream. Are you okay? What’s wrong?”
His eyes darted around me, probably looking for the assailant.
“Someone was here,” I blurted. Might still be in my house.
He shoved past me. I could feel the change in him. His whole body was tense as he surveyed my living room. If I hadn’t been looking for it, I would have missed it, but he was sniffing the room out too. Trying to catch an intruder’s scent.
“He was outside.” I shook my head, “I assume it was a he anyway. I didn’t get a good look.”
Evan swiveled to face me. “Where?”
I pointed toward the large window only a foot or two from the front door, and the couch I regularly sat on. “He was standing out there, watching me grade papers.”
His eyes darkened with rage. Swallowing I stepped back out of his way as he stormed toward the door, pulling out a cell phone. Evan was kind of intense when he was in cop mode. Scary even.
The pie plate rattled as he tossed it thoughtlessly onto the entry table on his way out the door. I stood there for a moment, my feet cemented to the floor. I didn’t want to walk out into the night. I didn’t want to find any evidence of the intruder. As bad as it would be if the whole thing turned out to be in my head, I didn’t want it to be real.
“I’m assuming you don’t wear a men’s size twelve?” Evan asked tensely.
I moved slowly toward the front door. A man had been standing outside my window. My heart pounded in my chest as nausea twisted my stomach. I leaned against the doorframe for support and peaked around to see him squatting down examining the dirt by my window.
His eyes rose up to meet mine. “I’ll call this in, but there isn’t much we can do.”
Pushing myself off the doorframe, I advanced on him, anger burning away some of my fear. “What do you mean? So this guy can look at me all he wants and the cops won’t do anything about it? What the hell am I supposed to do about that? Buy thicker curtains?”
Evan rose smoothly. “Hell no, we aren’t letting him get away with this. I’ll figure something out. Let’s get you inside.”
He led me inside and sat me on the couch. He did a quick run through of the house, leaving me to sit and worry all alone before he came back to declare the house stalker free. Then he started asking me questions. Did I know of anyone who would watch me? Had I broken up with anyone recently? Had anyone at work been paying any special attention to me? A parent of one of my teachers perhaps?
I didn’t have any answers for him though. He was the only unusual thing happening in my life, but I couldn’t very well tell him that. No Sir, other than the shape shifting romance novel character staring into my face, I hadn’t noticed anything unordinary in my life recently.
The night turned out to be a long one. The police department had to take pictures and dust for prints. Hopefully the guy was some kind of serial stalker and they would have him in their database. That would be the easy way though. So I was sure they wouldn’t get any concrete evidence against him. I didn’t usher everyone out of my yard until late into the night. There was no way I was going to make it to work the next day.
I jumped when Evan popped up next to me, holding out a thin strip of white paper. Dark scribbles marred the surface. “Here’s my number. Call me if anything happens. Anything at all. I don’t care what it is.”
Taking the paper I smiled gratefully at him. He had stayed by my side the whole night, guiding me through the process of dealing with the sudden police presence. But then he would know all about police procedures. In fact, his first day with the department would be in less than a week.
I shoved aside the sting of guilt. He wouldn’t be with them for long of course. I wondered briefly how that would play out. Would he up and quit? Give them an excuse and move on? Or would he just disappear? Would anyone remember him or would the spell erase all memories of him? That seemed like a lot of work. It would make more sense for him to move out like he had moved in.
I sure hoped he wasn’t on the schedule midnight Halloween night. That would look bad for the local police department. Local cop walks away from his job, his new house and the town without any word. Of course, he would disappear from the planet too so it would look like foul play. The department would probably waste plenty of time and money investigating his disappearance.
My stomach churned as acid ate its way up my throat. How could we do this to everyone? Marla and I needed to come clean. We needed to tell him what had been done to him and let him know that he really didn’t have that much time in the town, that there wasn’t any point in setting up his life. He should focus on enjoying his short time.
Man, I was such a hypocrite.
A warm hand squeezed my shoulder. “Hey, it’ll be okay. I’m right next door. I promise I won’t let anything happen to you.”
My smile felt brittle. How did he not see through me? He was supposed to be a detective. He was supposed to be able to read people. “Thank you. I…it’s been a long, hard day. I think I’m going to try to call it a night. Thanks again for everything.”
He walked me to my door. He even stood there on my porch, his shadow standing sentinel until I had turned the deadbolt. Only then did I hear his workman’s boots clomping down the stairs.
~~O~~
There was a single red rose pinned under my driver’s side windshield wiper. The leaves fluttered in the light breeze. It wasn’t store bought, there were too many leaves and thorns. The pedals were too wilted, too imperfect. And I recognized it. I had seen it as I walked out of my house just that morning. It had been the only rose on the bush next to my living room window.
The same window someone had been staring through six nights earlier.
Chill bumps erupted across my body. My lungs started to pump air in and out of my body faster than they should. Black dots appeared in my vision as I scanned the nearly empty parking lot. I shouldn’t have stayed so late. Now I was alone in the nearly deserted school. There was no telling how long ago that rose had been placed, if the man was still close.
He could be watching me.
I turned and speed walked back to the glass doors. It took at least thirty seconds, thirty seconds that felt like half an hour, to isolate the correct key on my key ring and slip it into the lock. It felt like my heart was going to explode as I struggled with the keys. Why did I have so many damn keys? I only needed one for my house, my car, the school exterior and my classroom. But I had something like one hundred and fifty damn keys to dig through.
I just knew he would grab me while my back was turned. I couldn’t resist turning to look behind myself once I finally had the key in the lock. Then I was pulling the door open, rushing inside to safety. I yanked it closed behind me, making sure it was latched securely. It would lock on its own, once the door was closed. I had to make sure that happened.
I backed away from the glass, aware that anyone on the outside would be able to see me standing there. Reaching into my purse I pulled out my cell phone. I needed to call the cops. My finger paused though over the last one of nine-one-one.
What would the police do? There was a rose on my car. A rose. How was that threatening? I didn’t even have proof that it was from my rose bush. They would take one look at it and laugh it off. Say I had an admirer and to be thankful.
I erased the number and then dug in my purse again. I had tossed the thin strip of paper into the dark recesses of my purse that night. It had to be in there somewhere. I sure hadn’t cleaned out the black hole that was my purse.
There! A corner of white paper. I pulled it out, revealing the wadded up strip with Evan’s number. Dialing quickly, I darted nervous glances out the glass doors.
Fandom: original
Rating: PG
Genre: urban fantasy
Spoiler Warnings: none
Word Count: 6,569 (only because LJ won’t let me post over 12K at once, stupid LJ)
Marla showed up on my doorstep Friday night with smudged lipstick and sex hair.
I peered around her at the headlights disappearing into the darkness. “Why do you look like you just had sex in my driveway?”
She bumped my hip with hers as she pushed her way into my apartment. “Hey now, what kind of friend would that make me? It was in the alley behind a club.”
She glanced around before turning to me with a frown. Her eyes roamed up and down my body, taking in my sweatpants and tank top. “You look like shit.”
“You look like a whore.” I threw back at her.
She smiled. “At least I had fun.” She moved over to the couch, leaning down to pick up the book I’d been reading before dropping it onto the cushion again. “Reading on a Friday night? You’re wasting away in here.”
Crossing my arms I walked over to the couch, collapsing into the soft fabric. I curled into the corner, pulling my knees up to my chest. “I happen to enjoy reading. Maybe it’s a lot more fun for me than a crowded club. You know I don’t like large crowds.”
Marla’s perfectly manicured eyebrow cocked up. “How about orgasms? Do you like those? Because I bet your book can’t give you an experience anything like what I just had.”
“What are you doing here?” I asked tiredly. Marla was my friend and I loved her. But if she only came to my place to rub my face in her conquest I was going to strangle her. I’d had a long day at work and my patience with her exuberance was wearing thin.
She shrugged. “I couldn’t very well let him see where I live.”
I sat up straighter, glancing at my door in alarm. “What!”
She rolled her eyes. “Relax. It’s not like he’s an axe murderer. You know they always fall in love with me. I just don’t want to deal with that. Besides, I told him this wasn’t my house so it’s not like he’s going to come here looking for me.”
I fell back against the arm of the couch but I didn’t stop frowning at her. “How long are you staying?”
She picked up my book again, studying the cover. “Why? Is this a juicy book? Hey, he’s a hottie. What’s this about?”
She flipped the paperback around and started reading the summary. Heat spread through my cheeks as Marla’s eyebrows shot up. She whistled. “Maybe I was wrong. Mind if I borrow this when you’re done?”
I yanked it from her hand. “It’s been a long day. It’s getting late. If you don’t mind, I think I’m going to go to bed now.”
“Fine.” She gestured toward her sparkly dress. “Got anything I can sleep in? Or am I going au naturel?”
Her eyebrows wiggled suggestively as she leered playfully at me. She’d do it too. Even without the slight buzz she had going my friend was the type to bare it all.
“I’ll get you a T-shirt.”
Before I walked out in search of sleepwear and bedding I leaned forward and picked up another book she’d missed on the coffee table, tossing it toward her. “Here’s the first in the series.”
She caught it with a fumble and a bright smile. “Thanks. You won’t regret this.”
I shook my head as I headed down the hall. She said the strangest things sometimes.
~~O~~
Marla slept until mid morning. It probably would have been later but I couldn’t make myself walk around on eggshells in my own house any longer.
She stumbled into my laundry room, glaring murderously at me. “That is the most obnoxious buzzer I have ever heard.”
“Hmm.” I acknowledged. “And I bet you can’t even hear it from your house.”
She stared at me for a long moment, then spoke. “You’re going to feel like such a bitch later.”
Straightening, I balanced the full laundry basket on my hip and turned to face her. “Is that supposed to make sense to me?”
Suddenly she smiled. “No. Hey, do you mind giving me a ride to the city? I left my car at work.”
Her outfit from the night before flashed through my mind. Marla worked as an executive assistant in a law office. “You left work dressed like that?”
She shrugged. “And?”
Sighing I jostled the basket in my hands. “Let me take care of this. Go ahead and find something to eat.”
I put away my clean clothes quickly, listening to Marla slamming my cabinets and fridge. By the time I met her in the kitchen she was back in her sparkly dress and was finishing a breakfast bar. The T-shirt she had slept in was draped across the back of a chair loosely, like it had landed there instead of being intentionally placed there. Knowing Marla she’d changed in the room full of open windows.
Grabbing a breakfast bar for myself I led us both outside. Movement startled me from the corner of my eye. The house next door had been vacant for months. The owners were trying to sell but had made the mistake of putting too much money into the upgrades. Refusing to take a hit on their investment, they were asking too much for the house. No one would buy it.
So why was there a moving van in the driveway?
Marla sashayed through my line of vision. “Oh, a hot new neighbor. Maybe I won’t need to try to drag you out anymore on Saturday nights.”
Grinning I unlocked the doors of my sedan with a click on my key fob. “My luck it’s a little old lady with an annoying dog that yaps all night.”
“You’ve got to stop being such a pessimist,” Marla reprimanded as she slid into the car. Taking in her surroundings she sneered. “And buy a new car. You can’t put a positive spin on life in a junker like this.”
I couldn’t help but laugh as I pulled my door closed behind me and it groaned pitifully. Was the car trying to argue her point? “Teachers aren’t paid enough to buy extravagant vehicles.”
“It doesn’t have to be a Lexus. Something made before your students were born would be acceptable.”
Huh. She did have a point.
The car sputtered a bit as I started it up. Marla eyed the gauges speculatively, like they would give her some kind of count down if the car were about to explode. “Maybe I should walk…”
“It’s a twenty mile walk!”
“Or call a cab, or the guy from last night. I think I have his number in here somewhere.” She started digging through her purse as backed out of my driveway. “Mark? Matt? Maybe Dave?”
Glancing over I saw five strips of paper on her lap, all with phone numbers and names scribbled in different hand writing. Shaking my head I reached for the radio dial. “Relax. She’ll run just fine.”
~~O~~
By the time I got back home it was early afternoon and pouring rain, which was great because I had a trunk full of groceries to unload and no garage to park in. Also, I hadn’t thought to grab a jacket when I left with Marla so I was going to be sopping by the time I finished getting everything into the house. And I had opted for the paper bags. This would be an exciting game of how many would make it inside before they soaked through and burst.
Of course, I wasn’t smart enough to unlock the house first, so while I was standing there wrestling with the keys the very first bag tore open, dropping cans of green beans on my toes. I hopped around on my porch like a crazy person for a few seconds muttering curse words under my breath before gathering the cans from where they had rolled to the furthest edges.
I managed one successful trip before another bag scattered on me. It was while I was gathering my shampoo and body soap that a pair of sneakers appeared in my vision. Wiping water droplets and rain plastered hair from my face, I peered up into the face of a male model. He had to be. At least in his former life. Before the weathering and that scar on his cheek.
And yeah, I was staring a little too much. “Hi.”
He kneeled down and started grabbing items out of the puddles. “Let me help you.”
I dropped my head quickly in an effort to hide the blush. He was way too good looking. “You don’t have to do that. But thank you.”
“It’s what neighbors are for right?”
I was too tongue-tied to speak intelligently. So I led him through my living room to my kitchen to drop the wet items off. I expected him to go back over to his yard and into his house then as we walked back outside. But he tromped over to my car, filled his arms with bags and jogged back toward my house. Deciding that he was the best neighbor ever, I grabbed two bags and made a run for the house.
It was ridiculous but I was disappointed when I realized that my trunk was empty. We weren’t even talking to each other, but I had enjoyed the simple experience of unloading groceries with the man. I needed a man in my life in a serious way if I was getting sentimental over unloading groceries with a complete stranger.
I led him to my door one last time with a smile. “Well, thank you again. I really appreciate the help…”
“Evan. Evan Walker. Just moved in next door, and I promise I don’t have a yappy dog.”
I felt my smile shift just the slightest as I heard his name. My cheeks also reddened as I realized that he had overheard at least some of the conversation between Marla and me earlier. But most of my mind was taken up with something else. It was the strangest coincidence. He had the same name as the main character from the series I was reading. “I’m Trinity Keenan.”
“Well, if you need any more help, just let me know,” and with that Evan walked out into the rain.
~~O~~
“Dammit you should not be answering your phone,” Marla complained. “You should be getting it on with Mr. Sexy next door. Have you even met him yet?”
I eyed the book on my coffee table. Just as soon as I finished grading papers I was going to get back to that. Only now I would have the image of a rain soaked man in mind every time the main character appeared on the page.
“As a matter of fact, I did. He’s a nice guy.”
“Nice?” She sounded disappointed. “He’s not supposed to be nice. He’s supposed to be yummy. At least tell me you were showing cleavage when you met him.”
“Um, no. It was this afternoon, coming back from grocery shopping.”
“What! In that walk for a cure T-shirt that’s two sizes too big for you? Trini, this is why you’re still single. You’re not even trying.”
“It was raining if that helps. So the thing was plastered to me.”
She sighed. “I suppose that’s better than nothing. Your tits are your best asset. And your ass did look good in those yoga pants. Did he get a good look at your ass?”
“I don’t know. I don’t have the skills that you seem to possess. I don’t know when guys are checking me out.” I glanced over at the book again. “It’s funny. He has the same name as the main character in that book I loaned you. You left that here by the way.”
“Oh, it’s not a coincidence. It’s him.” She stated in an off-hand way.
I laughed. “Right. He’s a shape-shifting police detective from a supernatural romance novel. Cause those guys leap right off the pages all the time.”
“Why are you laughing? You weren’t doing anything about your love life so I had to take drastic measures.” Her tone was suddenly defensive.
I sat up straighter, shifting the stack of grade-school papers off my lap. Worry tightened my stomach. Was my friend losing her mind? “What are you talking about, Marla? He can’t be a fictional character. He’s living in a house next door to me. Fictional characters can’t buy houses in the real world.”
She huffed. “Are you forgetting something here? I’m a witch.”
I looked around my room, at a loss for words. Was I the one going crazy? I’d been the one to interact with the man who was supposedly from the book. Maybe this was all in my head. Maybe I wasn’t really on the phone with Marla. Perhaps I had never woken up at all and this was all a dream.
“Excuse me?”
“I told you in the tenth grade! You didn’t seem very surprised back then.” Her tone was growing more and more defensive.
“You were in your goth stage! I didn’t think you thought you were an actual witch! That’s crazy!”
“Well it’s not so crazy now, is it? Not with Evan living next door, hmm?”
“I need booze.” I shoved off the couch in search of alcohol.
My best friend was a freaking witch? A real life witch? Witches didn’t exist. All the things I read about in my books were fairy tales, fantasy to help me escape from real life. They weren’t allowed to chase me into reality.
“Do you hate me now?” She asked in a meek tone. Marla never spoke in a meek tone.
I stumbled to a halt, my hand landing on a bottle of wine. “What? No! I’m just…um…shocked. So. A witch. Since when?”
“Since I came screaming into this world. All the women in my family are witches.”
I thought about that for a second. About her scary Aunt Martha. “That makes so much sense.”
Wine really wasn’t going to cut it. Vodka. Yes, this was a vodka revelation.
“I only brought him over for you because I think you need a little fun in your life.”
I frowned as I watched the clear liquid pouring into my glass. “So, did he exist in some other plane of existence? Was he happily living his life and then out of nowhere you tore him away from it all and plopped him down here?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. It was more of a gentle nudge. And of course he existed. I can’t create life, at least not without a few drinks and the help of some sperm. He was living his life and then he decided that he wasn’t happy with where he was living and he decided to move. I provided some help with the timeline and of course getting him here, which he is not at all aware of, and here he is. And he has no idea about the books by the way. So you’ll want to keep that between us. And maybe stop leaving them out.”
Her explanation made me vaguely uneasy. But his character was unhappy in New York in every book that I had read so far. He was constantly battling with the idea of tendering his resignation to move to a smaller town. Living in such a large city was hard on his shifter side. It was difficult to hide his dual nature, and even harder to find time to let his wilder side run free.
I considered all of this as I emptied my glass. Then I poured another before storing the bottle back in the freezer. “I suppose he’s not the worst neighbor to have.”
“And it’s not like you’ll have to deal with him forever.” She assured.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I questioned her as I made my way back toward the couch.
“Oh, I put a time limit on the spell, it’s traditional you know. I started it just after Midnight as the first of October began. So he’s here until Midnight on Halloween. Barring anything unusual.”
I snorted. “Midnight? That’s a bit predictable don’t you think?”
“Hey, it’s an age old tradition.”
“Age old my ass. You stole that from Cinderella!” Her explanation worked its way through the gears in my head again and I caught something I hadn’t the first time around. “What exactly did you mean by barring anything unusual? Do you mean something could happen to make him stay here? To trap him here forever?”
“Oh, sure. But not in a bad way, it would mean he’d want to stay. I put a true love clause in. You know, like if the two of you fall madly in love and don’t want to be separated.”
“You’ve watched too many Disney movies.”
~~O~~
I shifted from foot to foot, trying to work up the nerve to hit the doorbell. There was a shapeshifter in that house. And he was there just for me. The idea was ludicrous. It made me want to bury my head under my comforter in shame. I was so lame my friend had to hunt up fictional characters because real men obviously weren’t interested.
But he was also a nice guy who had helped me bring in my groceries in the pouring rain. Any other neighbor who had done that would receive a freshly baked apple pie. So, there I stood on his front porch, fresh pie cooling in my hands.
Just do it already.
I reached forward and slammed my finger against the button before I could chicken out again. Immediately the front door whipped open to reveal the man himself, grinning down at me. His hazel eyes were twinkling with mischief as he took in my startled reaction.
“I was wondering how much longer you’d stand there before you decided to cut and run. Kinda surprised you decided to ring the bell.”
His eyes darted down to the pie and his nostrils flared out. Right. He could smell it. Those enhanced senses of his.
I held the pie out. “I wanted to thank you for helping me out yesterday. And welcome you to the neighborhood of course. So I made you an apple pie.”
His stood there for the longest time studying that pie. Did he think I had poisoned it? It was a thank you pie. Just take it already so I could go die of embarrassment in my own home.
Eventually those hazel eyes moved up to my face, scrutinizing me carefully. What? Did he seriously think I was a threat? That I would put something in the pie? If he was going to be like that then I would just take the pie and eat it myself.
About the time I made that decision his lips twitched into a small grin and his eyes twinkled. “That sounds nice. Come on in.”
“Oh! I didn’t mean for…the pie is for you. I wasn’t trying to invite myself over.”
He stepped to the side, taking the pie from me. “I insist. I helped you with your groceries, now you need to help me with the pie.”
I stepped into the house slowly. I didn’t know what the house of a shapeshifter might look like. My eyes darted around the entryway and the living area warily. Well. That was anti-climatic. It looked like a bachelor’s house. A leather sofa and matching recliner were centered around the large flat screen TV. Well-used craftsman style furniture filled up the rest of the space.
“The kitchen is through here. The house is a mirror image of yours,” Evan commented as he led me toward his kitchen.
I had to admit, the view on the way to the kitchen was rather nice.
I tore my eyes away from his backside and looked around. Didn’t want to get caught leering at him after all. “You’ve gotten a lot unpacked.”
He sent a grin at me over his shoulder. “I move fast.”
My stomach clenched as a shiver went up my spine. He couldn’t have meant that as suggestively as my mind took it, but man it had sounded good.
He held a simple wooden chair out for me. “Have a seat. What can I get you to drink? I only have beer and water at the moment. Haven’t had a chance to hit the grocery store.”
“Water’s fine.” Mercy me, a gentleman. I’d only read about them. Hah.
He’d been one of the ones I’d read about.
I took the chance to look around his kitchen as he dished up the pie. The previous resident had decked it out with the highest quality tile and granite. It didn’t seem to match his down to earth persona. But then, he probably would have taken whatever was available closest to me, thanks to Marla’s manipulation. Guilt gnawed at me.
The plate of pie descending in front of my nose distracted me. The pie really did smell good. And the hand holding the plate looked kind of delicious as well.
Okay, that just was not like me. I was not the type to drool over a guy. I had class. I had self control.
I had a friend who liked to meddle and could apparently throw around some pretty hefty magic.
Marla would be getting a call from me. Just as soon as I finished this pie.
We both picked up our forks but I moved slowly as I cut the pie crust with the metal tines. I wanted to watch his reaction. It was always gratifying to see that first bite, to see the eyes light up and the lips twitch. My grandmother had been a baker and she had passed her recipes on to me.
He didn’t bring his fork to his mouth at first though. He was moving slowly too, he even glanced up at me, meeting my eyes. “So, this seems like a nice place to live, a decent small town.”
I nodded, lecturing myself internally. I could not give away the fact that I knew he was from New York, a version of it anyway. He would think I was some kind of freak for knowing that before he told me. I certainly couldn’t let on that I knew about the fur and fangs he could sprout on a whim.
“It’s a good, safe place to live. We have a good police department.” Crap. Was that too pointed? Was I too obvious there?
He grunted. “That’s good to know.”
Finally he let me off the hook and raised his fork. Watching him through my eyelashes I saw his reaction the moment the flavor burst on his tongue. I would have been able to hold in my grin of pride if he hadn’t groaned. That sound threw me over the edge though. So I shoved my own fork-full into my mouth to cover it.
“Holy hell, Woman. You’ve gotta be making a fortune off these things.”
Laughing, I shook my head. “I’m a second grade teacher.”
He brought his fork down on his slice, dividing out a larger chunk to scoop up. “You’ve missed your calling. You need to quit your job and open a bakery. I’ll finance it. No. Wait. You can quit and just bake for me. All day long. I don’t even care that I’ll get fat.”
Grinning I shoved my fork into my slice for another bite. “I enjoy baking but teaching kids is my passion.”
He sent me a warm smile. “That’s really nice.”
I could feel my cheeks heating up, so I diverted my attention down to my plate. “So, where did you move from?”
He told me about New York and how he didn’t like the bustle. He supposedly researched small towns and liked the low crime rate and population of mine. So he’d sold his loft, quit his job, and moved. I knew it hadn’t been exactly like that, but I had to keep my tongue in check. Especially since he believed what he was saying, so what was the point in arguing the truth?
“And what line of work are you in?” The question made me feel deceptive. It was almost too much to listen to him explain about being a cop and his plan to interview with the police department the next day. Could he not see my guilty conscious?
Marla had basically kidnapped him and I was now her accomplice. This was so wrong. No matter how fantastic he was. And he was fantastic. I could already tell that I would really like the guy if I let myself spend anymore time with him. So, I would just have to cut myself off. What Marla had done to him was wrong, even if he wasn’t as real as me before he was pulled over, I couldn’t just use him for my own purposes and then let him fade away in a month’s time.
The idea made me feel dirty.
“You okay?” He asked with a concerned tone.
I glanced up to realize that we had both finished our pie while I was thinking so hard. And now Evan was watching me closely. I had to get out, without arousing his suspicions. “I’m sorry. I was being rude. My mind drifted to the stack of papers I have to grade by tomorrow morning. That’s awful of me.”
He stood, moving behind me to pull out my chair. Another pang to my heart. Why did he have to be such a gentleman? “I shouldn’t have kept you so long. Thank you for the pie. It was amazing. If you’ll give me a second I’m sure I can find something to transfer the rest of the pie over to.”
Waving his words away I started moving toward the door. I had to get away from him before he charmed me beyond redemption. “No. You keep it until you’re done with it. I’ve got more.”
“Let me see you out then.”
He walked just a step behind and to the side of me the whole way. I could swear I even felt the warmth of a hand just centimeters from the small of my back. He paused as he started to pull the door open for me.
“Thank you again for the pie. Let me know if there is ever anything I can do for you.”
~~O~~
I was mindlessly grading math papers, scanning paper after paper, marking them up with my red pen when I felt it. Someone was watching me. The hair on the back of my neck rose. I looked around the room, feeling foolish. I knew no one was in the house with me. I knew I was alone. But I couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was there, someone’s eyes were on me.
A small sound, the cracking of a twig, snapped my attention to the window a few feet from the couch. I caught a blur of movement from the corner of my eye, a flash of skin and hair, and then the person was gone.
For a second I was frozen on the couch, immobilized with the terror and shock. Then my brain kicked in. I jumped off the couch, diving for the door. It should be locked. I hardly ever forgot to lock the door behind me. It was something my father had drilled into me when I moved out on my own. But every so often I forgot. I had to make sure that the door was locked and the deadbolt was thrown.
My hands trembled as they slid over the locking mechanisms. Relief poured through me. The door handle had been locked and the deadbolt had been thrown the whole time. Then I remembered the back door, which I had walked through earlier to weed the garden. Had I locked it? My hands had been full and muddy to boot. I searched my memory frantically as I ran toward the kitchen. Had I reached over to lock the back door?
I collapsed against the wooden door, slamming the deadbolt into place. It had been unlocked. Shit.
Shit.
My eyes darted around the room. Nothing was out of place. There were no sounds to alert me to the presence of an intruder. Had the curtain been still or fluttering when I ran into the room? Had the door been recently opened and closed, or had it been still since I had walked through an hour earlier?
My eyes landed on the pantry door. It was open the slightest bit. Someone could be in there. Waiting for me to let my guard down. He could attack me as soon as I stepped close to that door. The knife block was just a foot away from me, but I would have to step that twelve inches closer to the pantry to get to it. Moving slowly and never taking my eyes off of the pantry door, I made my way to the wooden block that held all of my large knives.
The doorbell pealed and I shrieked as if a man in a hockey mask had just jumped out from the pantry, bloody knife raised high. Clutching onto my chest I moved toward the front door, skirting around the pantry as quickly as I could. Maybe the visitor hadn’t heard my terror-laced scream?
A fist pounded on the door. “Are you okay in there?”
Great. Now Evan was going to be a witness to my little panic attack.
No. Wait. His timing really was great. He was a police detective. Okay, maybe not a real one, but he played one in the novels. And he didn’t know that life wasn’t real, right? So he should know what he was doing. Plus, he had those great supernatural abilities to work with.
I reached for the handle, but paused. What if I only thought I recognized the voice? What if it wasn’t him? Raising up the slightest bit on my toes, I peered anxiously through the peephole. Then I stood back quickly and yanked the door open to reveal Evan standing on my porch, a tense, worried expression on his face, one hand raised to pound on my door again, and my pie plate held in the other.
He took a miniscule step forward as soon as the door opened. “I heard you scream. Are you okay? What’s wrong?”
His eyes darted around me, probably looking for the assailant.
“Someone was here,” I blurted. Might still be in my house.
He shoved past me. I could feel the change in him. His whole body was tense as he surveyed my living room. If I hadn’t been looking for it, I would have missed it, but he was sniffing the room out too. Trying to catch an intruder’s scent.
“He was outside.” I shook my head, “I assume it was a he anyway. I didn’t get a good look.”
Evan swiveled to face me. “Where?”
I pointed toward the large window only a foot or two from the front door, and the couch I regularly sat on. “He was standing out there, watching me grade papers.”
His eyes darkened with rage. Swallowing I stepped back out of his way as he stormed toward the door, pulling out a cell phone. Evan was kind of intense when he was in cop mode. Scary even.
The pie plate rattled as he tossed it thoughtlessly onto the entry table on his way out the door. I stood there for a moment, my feet cemented to the floor. I didn’t want to walk out into the night. I didn’t want to find any evidence of the intruder. As bad as it would be if the whole thing turned out to be in my head, I didn’t want it to be real.
“I’m assuming you don’t wear a men’s size twelve?” Evan asked tensely.
I moved slowly toward the front door. A man had been standing outside my window. My heart pounded in my chest as nausea twisted my stomach. I leaned against the doorframe for support and peaked around to see him squatting down examining the dirt by my window.
His eyes rose up to meet mine. “I’ll call this in, but there isn’t much we can do.”
Pushing myself off the doorframe, I advanced on him, anger burning away some of my fear. “What do you mean? So this guy can look at me all he wants and the cops won’t do anything about it? What the hell am I supposed to do about that? Buy thicker curtains?”
Evan rose smoothly. “Hell no, we aren’t letting him get away with this. I’ll figure something out. Let’s get you inside.”
He led me inside and sat me on the couch. He did a quick run through of the house, leaving me to sit and worry all alone before he came back to declare the house stalker free. Then he started asking me questions. Did I know of anyone who would watch me? Had I broken up with anyone recently? Had anyone at work been paying any special attention to me? A parent of one of my teachers perhaps?
I didn’t have any answers for him though. He was the only unusual thing happening in my life, but I couldn’t very well tell him that. No Sir, other than the shape shifting romance novel character staring into my face, I hadn’t noticed anything unordinary in my life recently.
The night turned out to be a long one. The police department had to take pictures and dust for prints. Hopefully the guy was some kind of serial stalker and they would have him in their database. That would be the easy way though. So I was sure they wouldn’t get any concrete evidence against him. I didn’t usher everyone out of my yard until late into the night. There was no way I was going to make it to work the next day.
I jumped when Evan popped up next to me, holding out a thin strip of white paper. Dark scribbles marred the surface. “Here’s my number. Call me if anything happens. Anything at all. I don’t care what it is.”
Taking the paper I smiled gratefully at him. He had stayed by my side the whole night, guiding me through the process of dealing with the sudden police presence. But then he would know all about police procedures. In fact, his first day with the department would be in less than a week.
I shoved aside the sting of guilt. He wouldn’t be with them for long of course. I wondered briefly how that would play out. Would he up and quit? Give them an excuse and move on? Or would he just disappear? Would anyone remember him or would the spell erase all memories of him? That seemed like a lot of work. It would make more sense for him to move out like he had moved in.
I sure hoped he wasn’t on the schedule midnight Halloween night. That would look bad for the local police department. Local cop walks away from his job, his new house and the town without any word. Of course, he would disappear from the planet too so it would look like foul play. The department would probably waste plenty of time and money investigating his disappearance.
My stomach churned as acid ate its way up my throat. How could we do this to everyone? Marla and I needed to come clean. We needed to tell him what had been done to him and let him know that he really didn’t have that much time in the town, that there wasn’t any point in setting up his life. He should focus on enjoying his short time.
Man, I was such a hypocrite.
A warm hand squeezed my shoulder. “Hey, it’ll be okay. I’m right next door. I promise I won’t let anything happen to you.”
My smile felt brittle. How did he not see through me? He was supposed to be a detective. He was supposed to be able to read people. “Thank you. I…it’s been a long, hard day. I think I’m going to try to call it a night. Thanks again for everything.”
He walked me to my door. He even stood there on my porch, his shadow standing sentinel until I had turned the deadbolt. Only then did I hear his workman’s boots clomping down the stairs.
~~O~~
There was a single red rose pinned under my driver’s side windshield wiper. The leaves fluttered in the light breeze. It wasn’t store bought, there were too many leaves and thorns. The pedals were too wilted, too imperfect. And I recognized it. I had seen it as I walked out of my house just that morning. It had been the only rose on the bush next to my living room window.
The same window someone had been staring through six nights earlier.
Chill bumps erupted across my body. My lungs started to pump air in and out of my body faster than they should. Black dots appeared in my vision as I scanned the nearly empty parking lot. I shouldn’t have stayed so late. Now I was alone in the nearly deserted school. There was no telling how long ago that rose had been placed, if the man was still close.
He could be watching me.
I turned and speed walked back to the glass doors. It took at least thirty seconds, thirty seconds that felt like half an hour, to isolate the correct key on my key ring and slip it into the lock. It felt like my heart was going to explode as I struggled with the keys. Why did I have so many damn keys? I only needed one for my house, my car, the school exterior and my classroom. But I had something like one hundred and fifty damn keys to dig through.
I just knew he would grab me while my back was turned. I couldn’t resist turning to look behind myself once I finally had the key in the lock. Then I was pulling the door open, rushing inside to safety. I yanked it closed behind me, making sure it was latched securely. It would lock on its own, once the door was closed. I had to make sure that happened.
I backed away from the glass, aware that anyone on the outside would be able to see me standing there. Reaching into my purse I pulled out my cell phone. I needed to call the cops. My finger paused though over the last one of nine-one-one.
What would the police do? There was a rose on my car. A rose. How was that threatening? I didn’t even have proof that it was from my rose bush. They would take one look at it and laugh it off. Say I had an admirer and to be thankful.
I erased the number and then dug in my purse again. I had tossed the thin strip of paper into the dark recesses of my purse that night. It had to be in there somewhere. I sure hadn’t cleaned out the black hole that was my purse.
There! A corner of white paper. I pulled it out, revealing the wadded up strip with Evan’s number. Dialing quickly, I darted nervous glances out the glass doors.