Author’s note: There are a lot of point-of-view switches between Jian and Aline in this chapter. Thank you for understanding!__________________-Jian-(in San Francisco, at Talu’s house)Talu’s warning pounds in my head. I've been wallowing in self-pity for two weeks. He's right. I'm not proving myself much of a man here. And he is now allowing me to show myself worthy of Aline. I sigh and stare pointedly at the sheaf of papers he removed from the manila envelope. "So, what did the leech find out?"My gaze shifts warily between the papers and Talu. "First, let me tell you what Mei’s ex- told me." And so he tells me how the bloodsucker was hunting in the woods during a stopover to Europe at the same time the terrible twins paid Mei a visit. That was also the same night Talu was with Aline on a jet plane bound for Syracuse.####-Aline- (in Syracuse at her place)We're still on the porch and I'm mulling over Felicia's suggestion.“So, why not both?”Her words bounce aroun
Readers Note: This chapter hops between Aline and Jian's point of view to explain the mythology. Thank you for understanding. -Aline- "So she cursed him - us- forever," Felicia says, her voice suddenly quiet. "She left him impotent among humans and shifters, unable to father children, one of the primary duties and the greatest of all blessings given to the clan's leader. But to make matters worse, he was to walk the earth attracted to the most deceitful and conniving of all human women for eternity." My brows knit as I process this information. Impotence, doesn't that mean…? Felicia lifts her index finger and then allows it to droop. Wide-eyed, I lift a hand to cover my open mouth. Poor Stefan, indeed! "How long?" "Too long, really," she says with a sigh, a wry smile on her face. "It's been so long we've lost count. At least through the Middle Ages. As you might imagine, it frustrated him through the first hundred." My eyes must be the size of dinner
-Jian- I sit on a log watching Stefan’s blond head as he carefully dusts off something that looks like a wooden box. He sets it aside with patience I do not possess. He does not open it, but moves instead, to pick up another artifact and clean it. It's unnerving to watch how exacting his movements are, almost loving, even reverent. "Jian, did you know your name means 'to see?'" Stefan's tone is casual and conversational. I look at him as he bows over whatever he holds in his hand. "What? Did you find that in one of my ancestor's artifacts that you pulled out of the ground?" Stefan lets out an appreciative little laugh at the annoyance in my voice. His eyes still focus downward as he carefully removes dirt from a crevice in yet another wooden box. "No. I looked it up on the internet." I stare at him open-mouthed. "You're cyber-stalking me?" "What?! No!" His gaze whips up to meet mine. Then he smiles and he's even more good-looking than before. The si
-Aline-{Valentine's Day Eve} I've decided I'm a moron, believing that a singular thought would make him, the spitting image of Chris Hemsworth, magically appear in my room, or, at the very least, at my front door. I'm a blithering idiot. But not as big an idiot as Jian, though, so that’s some consolation. Ugh! I slap my palm to my forehead and shake my head. Hell, I don't even know if Stefan's in the same time zone, never mind whether he's next door with Felicia right now! I finish my internal self-condescension and finally shower, change, and put my hair up. I'm pleased to discover my mane is now long enough to put up again. Clean, and no longer feeling maudlin, I pad barefoot into the living room. I think about making tea. I squinch my face. I hate tea. Since Lance’s wedding, though, I've been drinking tea. Drowning myself in it, really. Someone at school told me that it would be soothing. It is. Soothing, I mean. But it tastes like flowers. And right n
-Aline- Under the cover of the trees that mark the perimeter of Golden Gate Park's Polo Fields, I watch the pack converge over Talu’s broken body. I’m too far away and I can't make out her face, but I know among them is Mei, the girl who has a thing for that vampire who says he’s not out to suck people’s blood. I grimace with disgust, knowing Talu believes she’s his soulmate. I despise the word soulmate and hope I never find mine. The sound of Mei’s weeping carries on the night wind, touching my sensitive ear. It is the sound of ultimate heartbreak and I wonder at that. My own shattered heart unwittingly reaches out to the girl as she climbs into the truck to hold an unconscious Talu. I wonder absently why Mei isn’t following our mortal enemies to their hideaway near the cliffs overlooking the ocean, leaving us to lick our wounds. God, Talu must be in terrible shape if Mei isn’t following her vampire lover home. She should be with him and his merry band of bloodsuckers gloating abou
-Aline-Jian cuts the engine when we pull into my driveway in San Francisco’s Lake District. My yard abuts the Presidio, a national park with forests and miles of trails, devoid of humans in the dead of night and the early morning. I recently discovered this fun fact when I turned into a werewolf, with a sudden desire to hunt and the relentless urge to sprint from one end of the city to the other.As with most nights, there are no lights on at home. My mom must be out playing mahjong with my aunties again. I am disappointed, even resentful, that she rarely thinks to wait for me like normal mothers would if their teenage girls were out past curfew. She could have at least left a light on. I pull off the borrowed helmet, frowning as I shake my head to loosen my hair since it feels plastered to my head. Like silk, it falls against the back of my neck. I reach up to push a lock over my ear.Jian holds out his hand. I assume he's asking me for the helm
-Aline-I avoided taking my werewolf form for almost two and a half weeks because I don't want the guys to read my mind. Fortunately, the next full moon that will compel the pack back to the polo fields won’t happen for another week. Also, I’m learning to manage my anger so I don’t unexpectedly shift. I just haven’t figured out how to shield my thoughts from the pack when I am in wolf form. I desperately want my moment of weakness with Jian to stay a secret. He's probably unintentionally revealed it to everyone by now, though. The thought of that rankles. I'm hoping the guys won't believe I had a breakdown. Instead, I hope they discard Jian's thoughts to the pile of his other wannabe hero fantasies where I star as the damsel-in-distress.As if, I snort to myself.I'm lying on my back, on my queen-sized bed. My thumb repeatedly slides against the smartphone’s screen as I absorb the good news that Will, my brother, just deliv
-Jian- I relish the reverberating slam of the door behind me. The doorframe shakes but is still in one piece. Though I'm thoroughly annoyed that it didn't splinter, I am thankful I don't have to explain my extraordinary strength to my already suspicious mother. After I shut the car door without saying goodbye to Aline, I felt the weight of her gaze on my back as I climbed the steps into my house and out of her sight. I'm selfish enough to admit that I wanted her to stop me, just like she did the other night when she allowed me to witness her vulnerability. It pleases me more than it should that she picked me out of the entire pack to comfort her when she was so exposed. It couldn't have been easy for her. That's the thing of it. She’d asked me to stay once before. Why didn't she do the same t