Sapphire: A Paranormal Romance (49 page)
Read Sapphire: A Paranormal Romance Online
Authors: Bryan W. Alaspa
Fifteen minutes later Amelia
emerged with a single suitcase. Veronica made a number of comments about how
she could never survive with just one suitcase, even for a weekend, and that
she would have taken much longer. Stephen responded by rolling his eyes
several times when he thought Jeremy wasn’t looking. They made their way
downstairs and packed up the car.
"You want me to drive?"
Stephen asked. "I bet I can get us there in under four hours."
"Forgive me, but I want to get
there alive rather than quickly," Jeremy said.
"I second that," Veronica
said.
Amelia laughed as she climbed into
the passenger seat and fixed her seat belt. Jeremy took the driver's seat and
Stephen and Veronica managed to squeeze into the back seat. Jeremy glanced in
the mirror and saw his friend’s hands barely touch for a fraction of a second.
Both of them reacted as though they had been burned. They proceeded to fold
their hands in their laps and stare out of their respective windows, facing
away from each other.
Jeremy started the car and found a
station on the radio he could live with. He had a feeling that there was going
to be little in the way of conversation. He wondered if there were any car
games he could think of before the silence drove them all crazy. With luck, he
figured, Stephen and Veronica would fall asleep. He glanced over at Amelia and
saw concern on her face, a quick wrinkling of her forehead, and then she winked
at him.
Jeremy glanced in his rear view
mirror and pulled into the traffic. They were on the highway in a short amount
of time, and not long after that the Chicago skyline was gone and wilderness
beckoned.
Demon stood over
the man’s remains and licked blood from his muzzle. Further under the porch,
Delilah lay licking her chops as well. Between her paws was a bone she’d
wrenched from the meat. Blood spattered her face and muzzle, too.
Demon sniffed around the corpse and
decided there was nothing more of interest. He moved out into the yard, into
the sunlight, and looked around at the chopped grass. It displeased him. He
missed the hiding potential of the long grass now it was gone.
He moved over to the vehicle the
dead man had arrived in. Noises still came from inside, but Demon sniffed
around the vehicle and then urinated on it to make sure everyone would know it
was his. He had defeated the owner and, by rights, it now belonged to him.
He made his way toward the open
driver-side door. Voices came from there. He bared his teeth and growled.
There were no scents in there to indicate more humans, so the voices were
confusing. Demon tilted his head to the side just as a roar came from the
radio. He bared his teeth again and growled. Once again there were no scents
to indicate that there were people inside the vehicle.
He did not understand the vehicle
or the sounds. He walked away from the truck over to the small shed behind the
house. He urinated on the corner of the shed again as he had repeatedly done
over the past few weeks. He felt the need to mark his territory again, since
this intrusion had happened despite the fact he had clearly marked the area
already.
Demon’s nose twitched as he took
the scent of the air again. He could smell humans all around, but they seemed
a long way off. He listened and could hear nothing that indicated humans close
to his domain or heading towards him. He could hear small animals moving in
the forest and could smell the trails they left behind as they scurried through
the underbrush. Nothing smelled or sounded like a threat.
Demon leaned his head back and
howled. Once again he announced that this place, and the territory surrounding
it, was his to defend. He had already eliminated one threat and he sent out
the howl as a warning that he would do so for as long as he had to. He
listened a little longer and heard only the breeze and some birds taking flight
by the lake. This territory was his and he wanted to make sure that everyone
and everything around knew it. This place belonged to him and his mate. Demon
and Delilah would defend it to the death.
***
Crossing from
Illinois into Wisconsin was always an interesting adventure, Jeremy thought to
himself as the car flew past the border. Right across the border from
Illinois, on the way to Milwaukee, is Kenosha. In between Kenosha and
Milwaukee is Racine. Between those two is a strange collection of cheese
shops, stores filled with knick-knacks and souvenirs, and adult bookstores.
"We should stop at this cheese
place," Stephen said. "Nothing says Wisconsin quite like a place
devoted entirely to cheese."
"We don't have time,"
Jeremy said. "I want to get there before it’s too dark."
"Don't punish all of us just
because you're lactose intolerant," Stephen said with a laugh.
"I'm not punishing
anyone," Jeremy replied. "I just have a schedule to keep."
"You and your schedules,"
Stephen said. "It's because you don't have a TiVO that you insist on
keeping to schedules."
"Don't start with me on that
again," Jeremy said.
"Yes, please," Veronica
replied. "The last thing I need is to listen to you two argue about
technology."
"Well, the guy has a cell
phone and a television, but the television isn't a flat screen. He has a
computer but no TFT monitor. He has a modern car but he doesn't have a GPS.
Finally, he doesn't have a TiVO, and I have no idea how anyone can live without
that."
"They're all nice things to
have, I admit," Jeremy said. "However, I still think they’re
luxuries and not necessities. When you have the disposable income to buy them,
then fine, but otherwise a person can make do just fine without them."
"Plebeian." Stephen
sighed. "I bet with a GPS you could find a way to get off the road, make
it to the cheese place and then find a much quicker alternative route."
"What, a GPS bends time and
space?" Jeremy said. "If that's the case, then I really should
invest in one."
“Well, it comes pretty close to
doing just that,” Stephen said.
Veronica and Amelia laughed.
Stephen did his eye-rolling gag again and then gazed longingly out the window
at the passing cheese shop. There was one cheese place after another for
several hundred yards and then they passed by on the left and disappeared in
the distance.
"Do you have a cell
phone?" Stephen asked.
"Oh no, here we go
again," Veronica sighed.
"Yes," Jeremy said.
"And you have a
television?" Stephen asked.
"Yes, but not one with a
satellite dish, as you will likely point out."
"Okay, but you have a computer
with a high-speed internet connection, right?"
"Yes, you know I do. You
helped set up the computer and the wireless connection," Jeremy said.
"I think if you stop and think
about it you'll feel like a GPS and TiVO are just as necessary in today's
society as those things," Stephen finished with a look of triumph.
"And I still say that those
things are all nice to have but hardly necessities to exist," Jeremy
said. "I think that to fully exist you need to have a cell phone and you
need to have an internet connection. You can still sit in front of your
television when your shows are on and watch them and it's no big deal. In this
day and age, there are other places and other ways to watch shows if you miss
them. Also, there are things like online maps and routes that you can use if
you need directions. I just don't see how they really compare. Maybe someday,
but not right now."
"Can we please shut up about
this before you start arguing if baseball or hockey is better?" Amelia
said. "Maybe we can listen to some music."
"No country," Jeremy and
Stephen said in unison.
Amelia jumped back. "Sheesh,
fine. I'll find something else. We have to be able to pick up some of the
Milwaukee stations by now."
Amelia flipped through the bands
until she found one with rock and roll playing. She gave Jeremy a look and
then reached out and squeezed his hand, before settling back against her seat.
Jeremy smiled back at her and glanced in his rear view mirror. Veronica and
Stephen were still not looking at each other or touching. Stephen was looking
out one window, unhappy and aggravated, and Veronica was looking out the other
window with a look of sorrow and frustration glued to her face.
"You guys gonna be okay back
there?" Jeremy asked.
Stephen blinked and looked up at
Jeremy. "Fine. Just a little tired, maybe."
"We have a long ride ahead of
us yet," Jeremy said. "Feel free to take a nap or something."
Stephen smiled back at Jeremy in
the mirror. Jeremy nodded. He couldn't see Veronica’s face since it was
facing the window, but he felt a certain lightening of the tension in the air.
He saw Stephen rest his head against the seat back and close his eyes.
Jeremy turned his attention back to
the road. The sun was starting to make its way back down toward the horizon
outside his window. Ahead of him the road stretched on, filled with cars going
and coming. On either side of the road there was nothing but fields. Ahead of
them all, somewhere miles ahead, was the cottage. Jeremy couldn't wait to get
there.
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***AN SG Young
Adult RELEASE***
Part of the SALGAD
PUBLISHING GROUP
SAPPHIRE copyright
2013 by Bryan W. Alsapa
Cover Art Copyright
2013 Stephen Bryant
Editing provided by
Ashley Davis
www.ashleydaviseditor.com/testimonials/
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reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or
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by any information storage and retrieval system, without the consent of the
publisher, except where permitted by law.
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