Shifting Shadows (Sparks Collide Trilogy) (14 page)

We were both breathing heavily. I took
one last look at my former best friend. “I came here to make things right, to
be… real but I’m not delusional enough to believe things are going to be
perfect. You don’t want to effing talk to me? Fine but you should know that
we’re never going to get over this if you don’t. So that’s it.” With that I
walked out and headed for the stairs and my room.

“Screw you, Jay.” He called out and it
was followed by a slam of his door.

I kept walking. I was angry and all the
memories of that day when he left me behind were screaming at me in surround
sound but I also noticed something strange. The heaviness in my chest was gone
and it wasn’t the usual numbness that took its place, it was lightness. That
night I had the best sleep I’d had in years and I didn’t have to be knocked unconscious
first. Imagine that.

This week had been uneventful but that
was a good thing. No shadowy creatures out to kill me. No need to use magic.
The fact that I wanted to use it, missed using it was a different story
altogether.

It was Friday afternoon once again and
I was packing up to leave when Doc came into the waiting room.

“Kira, you headed out?”

“Yes and actually I was wondering if I
could take some of the files home to study?”

“I don’t see why not although you need
to make sure you also have some fun this weekend.” His face was stoic but his
gray eyes were laughing.

“I promise to have fun this weekend. In
fact Mena, Annabella and I are going to see a movie tonight.” I picked up the
files and placed them in my bag.

“Ah, very good. I will need the files
back early Monday morning so you’ll have to come in a little earlier than usual
or if you want to drop them off before then, you have a key.

I got up and around the other side of
the front desk. “No problem. Thanks again, Doc. Hope you have a great weekend.”

“Thank you, I too promise to have fun.”

I smiled “Good.” I left and thought
about how much I loved my job and how my employer was more than the half of the
reason why. It was a great feeling. I went straight to the bank to deposit my
paycheck and get ready for a promised, fun Friday night.

It was Friday and I was feeling
amazing. Will and I hadn’t spoken much besides the occasional grunts when we
ran into each other in the kitchen but things felt different, at least to me.
There was no longer an animosity there.

Trent and I had golfed all day, he
slaughtered me as usual but his dad did own the golf course so he had more
practice.
Logan
had one of his newer clients in to
thank him today because his campaign had been massively successful. This meant
mega bank and notoriety for them both so we were heading out to celebrate.

Even better, my father wasn’t back from
his business trip yet. All was right with the world. Or at least as right as it
could be in my world. “So, what do you guys want to do?”
Logan
asked from the back seat of
Trent
’s car.

“It’s your celebration, man. What do
you want to do?” I said.

Trent
added “Yeah, dude, just tell me where
to go?”

“I honestly don’t care where we go
right now but what do you think about taking a long weekend and going to Jay’s
beach house?”
Trent
looked over to me expectantly and I
answered.

“Yes, I’m so down for that. I’ll text
everyone in a little and get it together.”

Trent
nodded, “Cool so what do we want to do
now?”

“Let’s call Kira, maybe she’ll bring us
to a Chuck E. Cheese’s.” I said jokingly. That girl could probably manage to
make even that fun.

Trent and Logan laughed “Actually, she,
Mena, and Annabella are doing the chick flick thing tonight.”

I frowned, the bright excitement I’d
been feeling dimming slightly. “Well then let’s go to Ember” I said. “Find
Logan
a respectable werewolf wife.”

“What about you, Mr. Alpha?”
Logan
said “or have you lost your game?” He
raised an eyebrow.

“I’m looking for something a little
less respectable, actually. You know, like
Trent
’s type.”

Logan
laughed “Oh shit, you are so dead.”

Trent
smiled “That’s fine, let’s just hope
some of them feel sympathy for that ugly mug of yours.”

Ha. I thought of when Kira told me I
‘wasn’t hideous’ and smiled. “I think we’ll just have to see.”

We got into Ember and the reception we
received wasn’t exactly warm. I had fought more than one of the guys in here
and I was getting all kinds of fun death glares. Now that I thought about it,
this could be how it is every time I show up here but I’m usually so wasted
that I must not notice. I shrugged it off “Wow, what’s it like to have so many
people hate you, Logan?”

He snorted loudly, “It happens when
you’re the best looking guy in the room, you get used to it.”

“Then it must be completely unfamiliar
to you.”
Trent
quipped with the usual goofy smile on
his face.

We hit the bar and eyed the dance
floor. One girl saw me watching and she put extra effort into her moves. Her
top was low cut and her skirt was riding up with every motion. Her dance
partner had no clue the show was for me.

When the song ended she sauntered over
to me, her hips swaying. “Hi, I’m Sara, and you are?” She leaned over and put
her arm out.

“Jay” I said shaking her hand.

“So Jay, do you want to dance?”

“Sure”. I turned to Logan and Trent and
put one finger in the air, indicating my score in our game. They were still at
zero and we’d been here almost five minutes. It was such a shame.

Logan
mimicked clapping and
Trent
rolled his eyes.

Sara was just as aggressive dancing
with me as she had been dancing for me. Her blonde hair shone under the
spotlights as she moved to the music. She had it going on and she knew how to
show it off, just my type.

A few songs later, we were hot and
sweaty but I wasn’t excited about it. Lethargy had kicked in a little bit ago
and I sucked at keeping it at bay. I turned to see
Trent
in a dark corner making out with some
chick. Werewolf night vision helped me to see she had great, long legs. He must
have seen me looking because he put up three fingers behind her back and I
laughed. I didn’t see
Logan
anywhere so I decided to use it as an
out. “Hey, I’m going-”

She latched her mouth onto mine and I
went with it. We made out for a while on the dance floor but I felt as bored as
ever. I knew she could tell I wasn’t into it because she kept trying to amp up
the excitement. Biting at me and running her hands all over me. “Whoa” I said
pushing her back. “It’s been fun but I got to find one of my boys. I’ll see you
around.”

She pouted and any other guy would’ve
found it sexy but I didn’t. I headed to the bar and got a beer.

A few minutes later
Logan
found me. “Hey, I think
Trent
’s killing us both but that one chick
you were with was hot.”

“I guess it just his day for winning.
He clobbered me at golf today too. At least I got one chick. What’s your
number?”

“It’s a slow night” he mumbled. I
wondered how long he thought he could keep this up. I may be more self-involved
than most but I wasn’t blind. I know he felt something for Annabella. Whether
he’d acted on it already or whether she even had a clue, I wasn’t sure. All I
knew was that he stared at her a lot when he got drunk.

“True.” I said. We sat there and drank
until someone tapped me on the shoulder.

“Hi, remember me?” It was a pretty girl
and she did look kind of familiar but I couldn’t place her. I gave her a slow
smile

“No, should I?”

Her face went from inquiring to livid.
“You should, you beat up my boyfriend last week and we’re not too happy about
that.”

Ah, yes that’s where I knew her from.
“Then maybe he shouldn’t have challenged me.”

“Well, maybe you shouldn’t have hit on
me.”

“Call it what you want, babe but it
takes two to tango and you shouldn’t have tried to tango if you already had a
partner. It makes things so awkward. I mean there are so many questions, who
would get to hold the rose in their mouth?”

She stomped her heal into the floor.
“Enough games, you going to have a rematch with my guy or not?”

I looked at
Logan
and mouthed “Chick’s crazy” I looked
to her “Not and trust me this is a favor to him, I beat him last time and I was
wasted then.”

“Whatever, but trust
me,
you’ll
be sorry.” She flipped her hair and walked away.

Logan
spoke “Well that was nice and cryptic.
Are you going to survive?”

“I’ll do my best” I said. “Let’s find
Trent
and get out of here, death threats
kill my buzz.”

“That’d be a great song title.”
Logan
said.

We found
Trent
and pulled him off the leggy girl. “
Trent
, it’s time to get home before your
parents realize we snuck out.” I said.

“What?” he asked confusedly.

“Plus the bouncer found out we were
sixteen and he does not look happy.”
Logan
added.

 
The girl froze, “You’re sixteen? What the
hell. You little perv, you’re going to pay for this.”

Trent
sputtered, “What? No.”

Logan
looked at her all doe eyed innocence
and said “Sorry Ma’am, we have to get home now because it’s past our curfew.”

Trent
stood open mouthed in shock but his
eyes were shooting murderous rays. So many death glares, so little time.

Legs looked back and forth between him
and us and started shrieking. “Who let the freaking infants in this club?” She
threw her hands in the air and stomped off, still screaming like a banshee.
Then again, maybe she was a banshee. It was hard to tell with women.

Trent
bust out laughing as we walked to the
exit. “Dudes, that was so not…Ok, it was hilarious. I’m pissed you did that
though.” This was a lie because
Trent
was hardly ever angry and he
appreciated a good prank.

“Yeah, pissed you didn’t think of it,
first.”
Logan
said.

He shook his head and his goofy smile
returned, “True.”

We got outside the club and headed to
the parking lot. “Where to next? We’ve got more celebrating to do and it’s
still really early.”
Logan
asked.

“I don’t know. This place is usually
the after party joint. Hmm…How about we hit a house party?”
Trent
suggested.

“Yeah, sounds good.”
Logan
said.

I looked around. “I think I’m going to
head home, I got shit to do before we head out to the beach house tomorrow.

“Want me to drive you home?”
Trent
asked.

“Nah, I want to shift and run. I’ll
catch you guys later. Oh, and congrats again on the campaign.” I said the last
part to
Logan
.

“Thanks. Bye.” They got in the car and
drove off and I headed into the woods to shift.  

Once I got far enough, I slipped out of
my shoes and socks. When I started pulling off my shirt, I heard crunching
noises. Another werewolf was here. Shit, make that several werewolves. It was
the
Michigan
kid and what looked like all of the
males in his pack.

Without thinking I pressed the first
phone number on my speed dial that wasn’t my own voicemail. The phone got
knocked out of my hand by the big man himself as he came at me from the side
and pinned me to the ground. The phone landed on the ground a few yards away from
me and I hoped it was still ringing and that someone would pick up.

Michigan
’s breath reeked of liquor as he got in
my face. “Too bad your pack mates left. Guess you’re going to get your ass
kicked all alone.”

“Even if they were here, it wouldn’t
have been a fair fight with all your goons here.” I spat, trying to get air.

“Don’t worry it’ll be just you and me
and this time we’re shifting first.”

I managed to shove him over slightly,
so he wasn’t crushing my chest. “Still not a fair fight but I’ll try to go easy
on you.”