After another two days, Gabriel crossed over the state line between New York and Vermont. The pull was so strong now, it was making him dizzy. He passed the small city of Rutberg and followed the old highway until he arrived in an unlikely small town called Pete’s Peak. He drove slowly from one end to the other, but there wasn't much to see. There was a gas station attached to a mini mart, a garage with a tow truck that looked like "Mater" from Cars, and a snack bar with picnic tables arranged outside. To the south of the village there was a public High School that served several of the surrounding communities, and beyond the school, a slate quarry. To the north of town, the only thing resembling accommodation was a dilapidated collection of little cabins surrounding an old farmhouse and a faded sign that read "Cora’s Cottages". A "vacancy" shingle hung precariously by one hook underneath.
Gabriel parked his truck on the gravel drive beside the sign and headed toward the farmhouse. The word “office” had been painted by hand in uneven letters next to the front door. He knocked on the door and heard a raspy female voice call "come in!" from the depths of the house. He let himself inside. The foyer of the old house had been renovated into a sort of reception and office, with a counter blocking the passage and a couple of worn chairs facing the desk. A guest register was on the counter, and a few keys hung in a box on the wall. A quick glance at the register revealed that the last guest had signed out months ago. After a moment a blue-haired lady in a bright pink muumuu shuffled in and stood behind the desk. She pulled out a pair of glasses and shoved them on her face, peering at him suspiciously. "Can I help you, Sir?" The scent of cigarette smoke wafted around her. He nodded. "Yes, please. I would like to rent one of your cabins." He flashed her his most handsome and alluring smile and rolled his words with a sweet southern drawl. He was good with women of all ages, or at least he thought so. The elderly woman on the other side of the desk seemed less than impressed by his bad-boy good looks and southern charm. "Say what? Are you lost?" "No Ma'am." An idea popped into his head, "I'm applying for a teaching job at the high school." "Oh, you don't say? I thought maybe you were one of those goons running drugs out of the city." She poked her gnarled hand over the desk. "I'm Cora Haskings. Nice to meet you." "Gabriel Shepherd." He shook her hand and was surprised at the strength. "Well, most of the cabins are in bad shape. We don't get many customers out this way anymore, not since the new highway went in ten or twelve years ago. But I got a couple I've tried to keep up. How long do you want it for?" "Can we do it week by week until I'm settled?" "Fine by me. Cash only. Pay in advance." He nodded and pulled out his wallet. He had enough cash on hand to cover the week, but he would need to visit an ATM soon. "Where is the nearest ATM?" He asked.She cackled and coughed. "There ain't no ATMs here. You gotta go back to Rutberg. That’s about 45 minutes east, back on the highway."
"Okay." "There's a little kitchenette in the cabin. If you want food, you might want to get that in the city too. Nothing here but the snack bar and the gas station. And I don't cook!" She took down a set of keys, "Number seven." Gabriel took the keys and found his way around the farmhouse to the line of small cottages that circled the house in a half-moon. Cabin number seven was a little sad. The little porch sagged, there and there was moss growing on the roof. Inside it smelled a bit musty and the air was stale from being closed up too long. The shag carpet was straight out of the 1970s, along with the ugly faux wood paneling on the walls. The bathroom was done in unsightly avocado, but it appeared to be clean. A kitchenette was in the corner, with a little fridge, a two-burner stove, and a microwave. It was humble but functional. Gabriel had certainly stayed in worse places. He had no idea how long he would be here... but his idea of getting a job at the high school was brilliant. It gave him an excuse to stay in the tiny village without looking like a creeper, and if his mate was still a student... well, she would be right under his nose. He nodded to himself, confirming his own plans. He opened all three of the small windows to let in some fresh air, before going back to pull his truck around in front of his new, temporary home. He unpacked his few belongings, shoving his clothes into the battered dresser, and arranging his toiletries in the cramped bathroom. When everything was in order, he sat down at the small table beside the big window and took out his laptop and his cell phone. There was work to be done if he was going to pose as a school teacher. He needed a resume, he needed a work history and references, he needed a fake degree and certification. Lucky for him, Gabriel had a lot of friends who owed him favors. A few emails, and a few phone calls, and he would have everything he needed in place before he contacted the principal of the school.Gabriel glanced up and caught his reflection in the tarnished mirror over the dresser. He ran a hand over the rough stubble on his jaw. He would have to clean up, buy a nice shirt, and maybe a tie. Did high school teachers still wear ties? He straightened his shoulders and gave his mirror image his best stern-teacher glare. “Hello, class,” he said, in practice. “I am your new teacher, Mr. Shepherd.”
He turned his head and used his finger to smooth out the crow's feet at the corner of his eye. He squinted at himself and wondered what he would looked like in the eyes of an eighteen-year-old girl.
Dawn came early to the little clearing on the side of the mountain where the dilapidated trailer sat at an odd angle in the large yard. Honoraria woke without an alarm, and tiptoed from her room, past the small bathroom to the kitchen. Only a kitchen counter divided the cooking area from the small living room. She could see that her uncle was not in his recliner, and that worried her. She glanced nervously toward the bigger bedroom on the far end as she put two slices of bread into the toaster. She had just pushed the lever down when she heard him bellow.“Honor! Where the hell are my keys?”She didn’t answer him. She had not touched his keys. He had probably left them in the truck when he staggered in, drunk as usual last night. She looked between the toaster and the back door, knowing that she should hurry outside before her uncle came out of the bedroom, but she was so hungry. Her dinner had landed on the floor last night when her uncle had pushed her into the table. She
Gabriel drummed his fingers on his desk impatiently. She was in the school. When he'd interviewed with the school board on Friday he'd detected her scent, faint but familiar in the hallways. It had been fairly easy to get the substitute position, as teachers seemed to be in short supply. He had never been a teacher, but he had a glowing (but fake) resume to impress the school board. His employment was conditional on passing background checks, but he wasn't worried about that. His background was squeaky clean, and there were no official records of the work that he really did for a living. A few phone calls and a few favors called in, and he had plenty of references to verify his imaginary career as a high school English teacher.By the time Gabriel entered the classroom for his first class behind the principal, the classroom had been awash in the sweet scent of lilacs and violets. The floral scent was absolutely intoxicating, and he wanted to immediately abandon this pretext of
My God, I've found her. The words reverberated around in Gabriel’s head. For a moment the rest of the classroom full of angsty teenagers disappeared, and it was just the two of them. She stared up at him like a wild animal caught in a hunter's trap, her big brown eyes wide and confused. For a moment her hair fell away, and he finally, FINALLY saw her face. She was breathtakingly beautiful, with high cheekbones, and brown eyes that tipped down a bit at the corners, making her look a little sad. Her honey-colored skin was marred by an ugly bruise across her cheek. The sight of that bruise made rage rise instantly in his throat. Whoever hurt her was going to die. She pulled away first, breaking eye contact and going back to hiding behind the curtain of her hair. Gabriel had to remind himself that he was in a classroom full of gawking kids, and he had to keep playing the teacher. Go slow, his mother’s voice reminded him in his head. It took all of his self-control to walk away,
Honerera held her ribs and grimaced. Tanner had kicked her last night, and she wasn't sure if they were broken or merely bruised. It hurt to take a deep breath, and it was unbearable to carry her backpack on her right shoulder. She moved slowly and gingerly through the school on the way to her locker. She had taken some ibuprofen, but it barely touched the pain. She was late and was still putting her books away when Aaron came with his entourage. He slammed her locker shut and caught her hand in the metal door. She glared at the floor as she pried her crushed fingers loose. "Hey fatty, get out of my way. You're blocking my locker." He pushed her aside roughly. "Stupid trailer trash bitch." Seeing that teasing Honerera was the theme of the day, and the girl hadn't run off as quickly as usual, Mark joined in the game. "Yeah, I heard her mom was a crack whore. Sold her off to her uncle for a fix and ran away." Honerera had heard all these insults before, the story th
Gabriel wasn’t about to let a bully go unpunished. Especially when that bully had laid a finger on his mate. Like a predator stalking his prey, Gabriel followed Aaron Mortem’s every move. He watched the football practice from the shadows of the bleachers. The kid was flexing his supernatural DNA as the high school quarterback, but as a wolf, he wasn’t impressive. Gabriel doubted the kid even had the strength to fully shift. He waited patiently for the team to filter out of the locker room, and then silently and stealthily followed him to his car. The kid drove a proper redneck truck, complete with a lift-kit and oversized tires. Gabriel watched stealthily as the kid pulled out of the student parking lot, and then he pulled out behind him in his own black pick-up.Instead of driving straight home, Aaron Mortem veered off the paved road and started bouncing at break-neck speed along a rough dirt road, kicking up a cloud of dust behind him. Gabriel followed behind him and shook
For a while now, Honorera had suspected that someone was watching her in her dreams. And now she felt like someone was watching her during her waking hours. She couldn’t exactly explain it, she just had that eerie feeling that eyes were following her, and it was starting to irritate her. She scrubbed the dishes with more force than necessary, trying to expel some of her agitation. She hadn't slept well in weeks, because every time she drifted off, she was having some version of the same dream. A sweet, feminine voice was calling her to come into the forest. "You'll find it there..." the voice promised. Find what? Honorera prowled the forest in her dream, looking for she-didn't-know what. Sometimes she forgot that she was looking for anything. Then she got that disturbing feeling that she was being watched. She scanned the trees, but she couldn't see into the darkness. She didn't know whether to be curious or afraid. Was someone else looking for something mysterious in the
Honorera felt awkward sitting in her English class once she realized that the man in her dreams was none other than Mr. Shepherd. It was weirdly intimate, as though she had seen him naked. She sat in the back of the classroom and kept staring at him, memorizing his features, and sometimes even absently doodling his likeness in her notebooks. Worse still, he seemed to feel her stare and often turned to meet her eyes. There was a strange feeling, a searing heat in her chest whenever their gazes locked, and she struggled to tear her eyes away from his mesmerizing silver-gray orbs. Mr. Shepherd liked to pace through the classroom as he taught the class and when he came near her desk, her heart started to pound as if she had just sprinted across the football field. Sometimes he smiled at her, and she imagined that it was a special smile meant just for her. She almost believed it was a knowing smile, that seemed to suggest that he knew exactly what she was feeling.It was impossible
Honorera didn’t have a driver’s license. Even if she had had it, she didn’t have a vehicle to drive, so she walked all the way from her home on the mountain to the convenience store in Pete’s Peak. She wished she could go into Rutberg, to a real grocery store but if she asked for a ride to town, Tanner would know she'd gotten money somewhere. And if he knew she had cash, he would take it from her, citing all the expenses he had incurred by feeding and sheltering her for the last sixteen years of her life.She had a list prepared of the items she needed for the house. Nothing very extravagant. Dish soap. Laundry detergent. Toilet paper. Food. She had carefully calculated the price of every item to make sure she wouldn't overspend. She felt the eyes of the store clerk following her as she moved up and down the narrow aisles filling up her basket. She brought the items to the cashier and handed him the sturdy, reusable bags. She needed strong bags with handles since she would