Blood Moon (Moons of the Wolf Series Book 1) (15 page)

“What’s wrong?”  Kedar asked, reaching out and wiping her tears away, “Do you not like it?”

“No!”  She exclaimed through her tears, “No, I love it…  It’s wonderful.  Thank you so much…”  She wiped her eyes with her sleeves, trying to stop herself from crying more.

Kedar smiled at her, “I made it myself…”  He said proudly.

Samantha threw her arms around him and buried her face in his neck, “Thank you thank you so much…  So, so much…”

Kedar hugged her back as he kissed her head, “You’re very welcome…”  He squeezed her tight and kissed her head again.

“Sorry I didn’t get you anything,” She mumbled into his neck.

He pulled away from her and cupped her chin with his hand, “Like I said earlier, you can be my present…”  He leaned in to kiss her, but he stopped and moved her sweater away from her neck instead, “You have a rash…”

“I do?”  Samantha asked, puzzled and looking down at herself.

Kedar moved her sweater more then he saw the chain to her cross.  He ripped it off of her, the chain breaking easily, “Who gave this to you?”  He growled.

“Charlotte did, as a sort of peace offering from Zach…”

“That bastard…”  Kedar took his pocket knife from his pocket and cut into the gold of the necklace, revealing a silver interior.  He turned it over in his hands to find that the gold plating on the back had begun to chip away; presumably from rubbing against the locket Samantha wore.

Samantha stared at the necklace, angry, “That lying sack of shit!”  She snapped, standing up quickly.  She was dizzy out of nowhere and she sat down, holding her head.

Kedar threw the necklace aside and sat beside Samantha, touching her face with his cool hands carefully, “How are you feeling?”

“I’ve been foggy all day, honestly…”

Kedar pressed his lips to her forehead, checking her temperature.  She was admittedly warmer than she should have been.  He sat back and caressed her cheek, “Stay here, I’ll be right back.”

Samantha didn’t say a word.  She sat back and waited patiently for Kedar to return, closing her eyes as she leaned back.  She could hear him rummaging through things; pots hitting each other, cabinet doors opening and closing.  She leaned forward and opened her eyes.  Kedar walked by the kitchen door with a book in one hand and a small glass jar in the other.  Samantha leaned back and closed her eyes again, wondering what he was doing.  Shortly after Kedar came back into the room and shook her shoulder gently.  She opened her eyes and saw that he still had the glass jar, but now it had an off white, almost green cream inside.  He placed it on the coffee table and helped her pull her sweater off.

The rash was much worse that what she had thought; she was almost baffled by its size.  Kedar didn’t say anything.  He simply rubbed the homemade salve onto the irritated area with gentle hands.  When he was done and the rash was covered in an even coat of the salve he pressed his lips to her cheek lightly, letting his lips linger for a moment longer than necessary.  He wiped his hands on his already grease stained pants and stood.

“You should probably rest, I don’t know if the rash was only topical or if the silver got into your blood stream.  I won’t know until that sits on the rash for a little and if not I’ll have to make you wolfs bane tea, it’ll counter act the reaction to the silver, but you’ll probably get sick shortly after drinking it.”

Samantha simply nodded unsure of what to say.

“If you need to go anywhere I can drive you and then bring you back here later to get your car.  Or you can just stay here for the night if you’re not feeling up to much,” Kedar offered.

Samantha shook her head.  She knew Riley would be pissed if Kedar dropped her off at his house, and honestly she didn’t want to go see him.  She was tired and agreed with Kedar, she should probably just rest until they knew how much damage the silver had done.

“I’ll just stay here, I don’t have to go anywhere.  But please don’t make me drink any of that awful tea.  Please.”

Kedar laughed and got back onto the couch with her, wrapping his arms around her, “Do you need anything from your house?”

Samantha shook her head, “No, I’ve got everything I need right here.”

Kedar smirked and pressed his lips to hers, “Perfect…” He crooned, kissing her again.

Samantha smiled and curled up against Kedar.  She didn’t care how livid Riley was going to be when she never showed to his house.  She would rather spend her evening curled up with Kedar watching television than arguing with Riley.

***

In the morning Samantha rolled over and buried her face in Kedar’s chest, wrapping her arms around him tightly.  He wrapped one arm around her, holding her against him, pressing kisses into her hair.  She sighed in contentment and cuddled closer, very happy to be laying there in his arms.

“Good morning, beautiful,” He whispered, kissing her head another half dozen times.

“Good morning,” She replied in a sleepy voice.

They laid there for a few long moments in silence.  Samantha rolled over and Kedar pulled her close to him so that her back was against his chest.  He kissed her shoulder gently and slowly, keeping her close all the while.  Samantha felt herself drifting back to sleep, comfortable and happy.

“How did you sleep?”  Kedar’s voice roused Samantha from her light sleep.  He nuzzled the back of her neck, kissing her again.

“Great, what about you?”  She asked as she intertwined their fingers.  He smiled into the back of her neck.

“Wonderful, absolutely wonderful…”  There was a long silence and then Kedar sighed, “We should get up, do you need a ride to school?”

“I don’t want to go, can’t I just stay here?”  Samantha protested as she rolled over to face him again.

He slowly ran his fingers through her hair, “You have to go to school.  Your education is very important.”  Kedar said firmly.

“But Kit…”  Samantha continued to protest, scrunching up her face.

Kedar kissed her on the nose, “But Kit nothing, you’re going to school.  It’s extremely important, alright?”

Samantha sighed, “Fine, I guess.”

Kedar laughed, moving on top of her and tickling her sides, causing her to squeal.

***

After Kedar and Samantha showered and got dressed they stopped by her house to get clean clothes.

Thankfully Melody was still at the hospital.  Kedar then drove Samantha to school, taking his time to get there.  There was still fifteen minutes until first period.  Standing in front of the school were Alex and Olivia, but Samantha had spotted Riley’s truck in the lot.  Samantha turned to Kedar to say good bye and she smiled as he tucked her hair behind her ear.

“Do you want me to pick you up from school?”  He asked softly.

“Actually, I’m going to be having Alex set up a meeting for at my house, so just go there around three, I’ll catch a ride with Alex or Jaden,” Responded Samantha as she leaned her face into Kedar’s palm.

Kedar nodded, “Of course, that sounds great.”

“I’ll see you later then,” She said.  She unbuckled her seat belt and went to get out of the truck.

“Sam, don’t go yet…”  Kedar said abruptly.

Samantha turned around but before she could ask Kedar what he wanted he cupped her chin and was kissing her slowly.  She practically melted in her seat and she put her hand on his chest.  The continued to kiss passionately, Kedar moving his hand to the back of her head tangling his fingers in her hair.  She pulled away first, turning a light shade of pink.  She took a deep breath and bit her lip.

“I’ll see you later…”  Kedar smirked.

Samantha smiled, but she could feel Alex’s eyes burrowing straight through the back of her head and she could only imagine the look she must have been getting.  She hoped out of Kedar’s truck and turned back to him, smiling again.  He handed her bag to her, their hand’s touching for a moment.

“Have a great day, Kit.”

“I’ll try…  Sam?  I’m really happy that you’re a part of my life…”  His voice was barely a whisper and she could see the sincerity in his eyes.  She had to ask herself when the last time Riley had said that to her was, and honestly, she couldn’t remember.  Nonetheless, she smiled wide at him, butterflies fluttering inside of her stomach.

“Me too…”  She closed the truck door and Kedar waved to her before driving off.  She watched him for a moment and then she turned, trotting up the steps to Alex.

“What the fuck was that?”  Alex snapped.

“It was none of your damn business.”  Samantha scoffed and decided it would be best to just go straight to her locker instead of stopping to argue.

Alex, however, wasn’t going to let that happen.  She grabbed Samantha’s arm and turned her around quickly, “You’ve got to be kidding me.  I just watched you swab spit with some random guy that you met in the woods that you’ve got piggy backing on our pack meetings because he’s all knowledgeable about vampires and you’re going to tell me that it’s none of my business?”

“Yeah, basically.  It isn’t your concern who I ‘swab spit’ with.”  Samantha yanked her arm away from Alex, “And he isn’t just some random guy, the whole pack has known him for months.”

“I don’t give a damn, you’re with my
brother
Samantha,” Alex fumed.

“Fuck off, Alexandria.”  Samantha turned and continued to storm away.

“Don’t walk away from me, damn it!”  Alex followed her the rest of the way up the steps where the rest of their friends, with the exception of Riley, were waiting.

“Instead of concerning yourself with my personal life maybe you should worry about the fact that the necklace I got from Charlotte’s little pet was silver,” Samantha pulled down the collar of her shirt to expose the rash that was still marring her skin.

“Are you serious?”  Olivia snapped, turning to Charlotte.  Jaden mumbled some unintelligible curse word under his breath and turned to Charlotte as well.

Alex looked conflicted as to what she wanted to address first, “Damn it…”  She snarled under her breath.  She sighed and shook her head, “I’ll call my father about that at lunch, but you have ten seconds to give me a good reason not to tell Riley about what just happened.”

“Easy, get your nose out of my personal life.  Worry about yourself, not me.”  Samantha growled.  Charlotte, Jaden and Olivia turned to Samantha, obviously confused by the exchange.

Just then Riley walked up behind Alex, looking confused, “What’s going on?”  He asked.  He looked from Alex to Samantha who were in a silent standoff.  Samantha could see the anger in his eyes as she looked up at him, and she highly doubted that Alex was going to keep her mouth shut.

“Well, first, Runt was with Kit last night.  Explains why she blew you off,” Alex sneered.

“I’m not very surprised…”  Was Riley’s mumbled response.

“Second, she claims the necklace that was a gift from Zach was silver.  Which I will be addressing.”  Alex continued.

“Good, now I’ve got better shit to do than to stand around and listen to your judgmental crap, Alex.”  With that Samantha stormed into the school, praying that Riley wasn’t going to follow her.

“So you blew me off for Kedar.”  Riley said from behind her once she reached her locker.

“I had other things to worry about once I realized my necklace was gold plated silver.”  Samantha sighed and opened her locker.

“Yeah, like his dick, right?”  Riley snarled.

“Will you just knock it off?”  Samantha whipped around, “Seriously, this isn’t the time to talk about this.”

“Talk about what?  You blew me off last night to be with him.  Clearly there isn’t anything to talk about, it’s me or him and the way you’ve been acting lately I’d say you’re choosing him.”

“I said knock it off!  You’re sister’s setting up a damn meeting with your father, so we’ll be at the same place anyway.  You wanted to talk about ‘us’ last night, what’s changed?”

“Fine.  You know what?  Just fine.  We can talk tonight and you can lie and you can grovel but that isn’t going to change a damn thing.  You still have to pick.”

“You’re screwing Heather for God’s sake!  Why should I listen to your bullshit when you’re sticking it to her?  If I have to choose so do you!”

“Like hell I am!  I’ve never slept with Heather!”

“Bullshit!”

“No, it’s not!  Because unlike some people I won’t screw around on the person that I claim that I love.”

Samantha just stared at him for a moment, unsure of what to say.  Then she looked down at her feet, “You don’t act like you love me…”

“Because I’m sick and tired of trying to show you when you clearly don’t give a damn.”  He stormed away, leaving Samantha standing there in shock.

She sighed and ran her fingers through her hair.  The first bell rang and she headed towards her first class.  Halfway there Jaden walked up to her.  They walked for a few feet in silence before saying anything to her.

“You want to get out of here?”  He suggested.

Samantha looked up at him, “What?”

“I’ll get you back here before lunch period so you only miss half of a day.”  Jaden looked down at her, smiling.

Samantha looked around then she nodded slowly, “Yeah… Let’s go.”  She knew that both her aunt and Kedar would be furious with her if they knew that she was skipping school, but at that moment she couldn’t have cared any less.