DARK ALLIANCE (Scarlett of the wolves #3)

Chapter 10

Two and a half months later, St Andrews University.

It was October 10th. The dreaded start of the academic year. I could make an immensely long list of all the reasons that could have kept me from going back to college, but the only ones to remember are: First, I was a vampire in a college teeming with human beings and since June I’d never been surrounded by so many people. I thought with shame that it was as if I were a customer of a restaurant with an all-you-can-eat buffet. Scary! Second, Elgin. And that reason alone should speak for itself. Third, Elgin. Fourth, Elgin again. Fifth... Anyway... anyone would understand: I was scared, paralyzed, and horrified at the idea of meeting him. However, Rucker had told me: he will be there. Sooner or later, I would see him.

Unconsciously, I had slowed down. I looked around anxiously to check if he was looking at me from somewhere. Rucker stared at me, curious.

“Are you looking for someone?”

I’m sure my cheeks had turned pink.

“No, no,” I quickly answered.

He picked up the pace, gently resting his hand on the middle of my back.

“We have an appointment in five minutes. Let’s not delay.”

We were to attend the St Andrews student induction week meeting, which would begin the same day. I would stay with Rucker. I still preferred to transform myself into a sticky shadow rather than prowl alone in the halls of the university, at the risk of meeting the wolf...

We entered the main building. Some of the organizers were carrying boxes filled with rolls of blue trash bags. I saw their happy faces and it didn’t interest me.

We arrived in front of the room in which we had the appointment.

“Here we are. Still okay?”

I nodded without enthusiasm. Rucker sighed.

“Child, you know that I will always be here for you...”

“Uh yes… but why are you telling me this now?”

He looked very serious.

“Because it’s true. Come in.”

He opened the door a c***k.

Furtively, I saw that a good forty chairs were set out, almost all occupied, and as many smells which mixed very unpleasantly.

I wasn’t comfortable being here. So as not to see what was going on around me, I decided to casually keep my eyes on the ground. It was only because I heard a seat shatter in the back of the room that I dared to look up.

Has your heart ever stopped? I mean, for real? Not in one of those metaphors you use to romanticize a situation, no, really, paralyzing you physically from head to toe?

It happened to me. The very moment I saw Elgin standing there, holding in his hands what was left of that poor chair. My heart started again after several seconds, invigorated by his scent that I suddenly managed to separate from all the others; musky, bewitching and as sweet as honey.

What did I look like? What were my eyes like? Surely liquefied, like my heart.

The look he gave me was black with anger and didn’t make me feel any better. Rucker grabbed my arm firmly and at the same time kept me from falling when I lost my balance.

“Calm down.”

He waited for a further reaction from Elgin as all eyes were mostly on him. The rest, on us. The smartest had understood that this chair destruction was surely intended for us. They were waiting for the result, a clash, a scandal… but nothing came.

Georgia was next to Elgin. She gave me a furtive, expressionless look, and grabbed another seat. She pulled Elgin by the arm so that he sat down again. Without taking his eyes off me, he complied. Then, only afterwards, Rucker moved, as if he wanted to be sure Elgin didn’t come after me. Did he really believe him capable of hurting me? At the time, I admit that I too had a big doubt.

Feverish, I walked with Rucker to the first row, there were two chairs left. I could feel Elgin’s eyes riveted on me, to the point where my neck was burning and my ears would explode. I would have preferred to be seated elsewhere. No… not to be here at all.

Provocative, Rucker wrapped his arm around my shoulders and hugged me.

The soles of my feet were tingling. If those cracklings under my skin could have meant something in Morse code, it would have been something like: run away, run away quickly!

Since I was under no obligation to focus on what the speaker was saying, I didn’t. I clamped my hands between my thighs and remained stubbornly fixed on my shoes until the end of the meeting. The hall rang in a din of chairs being pushed. As Rucker didn’t move, I did the same. I was going to wait until Elgin’s scent was completely gone before I left quietly. Which wasn’t yet the case.

“You’re going to burst your shoes by looking at them like that!” Rucker scoffed.

“I don’t care.”

He gave a silent laugh.

“Will you be okay?”

“No. Did you know he was going to be here?” I asked reproachfully.

“Yes.”

I looked up at him accusingly.

“You could still have warned me!”

“I did when we walked in here.”

“That’s it!”

“You would have seen him eventually.”

“But you could at least have given me time to prepare to meet him here!”

Rucker frowned.

“You had all the time you needed. Control your emotions, he’s in the room, he’s waiting for you.”

“What?”

Suddenly, I caught fire, completely.

“How do you know that?”

“I’m a man,” he said softly, “it’s predictable...”

I turned my head towards the door, Elgin was standing there. He walked slowly, towering over everything, illuminating everything, perfuming all the space around him.

“Don’t let him make you sad. Take control. And if he hurts you, I’ll kill him!”

After that, he got up and left the room, giving Elgin a big nudge.

As Elgin approached, I kept my eyes tightly closed. So that they wouldn’t buckle and show too much emotion, I rested my hand over them, hiding half of my face. I tried to breathe evenly, but I couldn’t. And what good is it? Elgin was no fool, he knew very well what I was going through.

For the first time in all these months, I hated myself for still being so human, for being so emotional.

A chair creaked on the floor, but not the one immediately beside me.

“Scarlett...”

I had only imagined his voice for weeks and weeks. And now, I heard him, less than a metre from me. My ears buzzed.

Vampires aren’t supposed to have a stomach ache, are they? Well, I had a stomach ache. My stomach kept twisting as if gripped on all sides.

“Scarlett,” he said again, so quietly that any human wouldn’t have heard. “This will be very complicated...”

His voice had trembled imperceptibly. He fell silent.

Slowly, I ran my fingers along my face. My hands fell heavily on my thighs. I bit my lip, wrinkled my eyelids, and slowly opened them.

The hardest part was yet to come: meeting his magnificent emerald eyes.

I took a deep breath and turned my head towards him, trying to stay as dignified as possible.

I almost choked on a sob.

Why did he have to be so handsome and so devastating? Why did he still have to affect me so much? I would have liked to scream.

As I looked up at him, his eyes turned black. He closed his eyelids and when he opened them again, his irises had returned to their normal appearance. He looked shocked and lost.

“You are… you are so… so…”

The words died on his lips.

“I’m not your enemy, Scarlett,” he said to himself. “I could never act like you weren’t here; like you didn’t exist. Damn! I see you in front of me and I can’t bring myself to do what I planned. I can’t do it!”

“And what did you plan?” I asked in a tiny voice.

“Run away from you.”

I was about to open my mouth, but he held up his hand for me to let him continue.

“We can never be together again; I hope you understand.”

I looked down; I didn’t want him to see how what he was saying was destroying me.

“But I don’t want to be a stranger to you. We had meant so much to each other.”

“Had?” I whispered, devastated.

“I don’t want to be the werewolf who hates you. Don’t be the dark angel who hates me,” he answered.

I shook my head silently.

Hating Elgin was a program that my brain-computer didn’t have and I almost blamed myself.

“Four months… it’s too long and it’s too short. I didn’t have time to prepare. I… forgive me. I don’t want to hurt you, but I might hurt you despite myself. I don’t know how to behave. Do you understand what I mean? It’ll never be the same between us. We’ll never be together again...”

“I understand,” I assured him abruptly. “No need to add more.”

And I held his gaze proudly. He didn’t waver.

“You’ll never have any problem with the pack, I promise.”

My eyes narrowed and my gaze turned black with anger.

“Don’t promise! Never again!”

He finally lowered his eyes.

“You’re right. I have no right to do so.”

“No, you have no right!”

He ran a hand over his hair, which had grown a lot, and slowly stood up from his chair.

“Will we remain friends?”

A nervous laugh almost crossed my mouth. I shrugged in response.

“This year again, it’s planned that I organize a few outings with your class, we’ll perhaps meet again at that time if you are in my group...”

I didn’t answer or nod my head.

He gave a slight smile, which I couldn’t respond to, then walked away towards the exit. Just before stepping out the door, he turned around.

“Did you keep your human scent or is it the fruit of my imagination?”

With great courage, but little determination, I stood up slowly and walked towards him with light steps. He stepped back into the hallway as if he might be contaminated if I got too close to him. Furtively, I caught sight of Rucker, who hadn’t missed a bit of our conversation. Drawing strength from the compassionate look he gave me, I moved closer to Elgin. Our eyes entangled for several long seconds; I was less than four inches from him.

“There are a lot of things I kept, Elgin. But you’ve become way too stupid to see.”

Then I turned on my heels in Rucker’s direction.

As soon as we reached the end of the hall, I turned violently to the left down the stairs, hitting the handrail violently with my hip.

How could I have imagined deep down that seeing me again would make him change his mind? How could morality claim that love was stronger than anything? Nonsense! I was in pain and I was angry. God, he had sounded convincing when he told me that nothing would ever be the same between us. Oh yes, convincing, because certainly, everything had changed!

“Will you be okay?” asked Rucker timidly.

“If you ask me that question again, I’ll tear your tongue out, is that understood? What’s on the agenda now?”

“Scarlett...”

I stopped suddenly to turn to him.

“Listen to me carefully, Rucker. No need to waste your time constantly asking me how I’m doing. I love him to death and he… he doesn’t want me. So no, it’ll never be okay with me again, you might as well get used to it. And that’s much worse than being what I am! A goddamn vampire!”

I stormed down to the first floor, carrying with me anger to spare.

When I arrived in the clock courtyard, I came face to face with some members of the Circle. When I saw all those pairs of eyes staring at me, I lifted mine to the sky and shrug my shoulders wearily.

Rucker joined me a minute or two later, flushed with fury.

“Are you going to tell me what’s going on?” I said.

“Are you asking me?”

“Yes.”

“Sutherland is getting on my nerves. I can’t stand him messing you up. I want to...”

I smile despite myself.

“Why did you let him talk to me, then? You knew very well what he was going to tell me.”

As he continued to walk, he looked down at me.

“Because you were dying to.”

Well then!

He raised a surprised eyebrow.

“Isn’t that true, perhaps?”

I shrug my shoulders.

“It doesn’t matter. You should have stopped him.”

“Really?” he asked sceptically.

“Yes, really! Let’s change the subject?”

I stopped and turned, nearly bumping into Rucker’s massive chest. He towered over me with his full height.

After a few long seconds, seeing that I wasn’t calming down, he gently ran his hand behind my neck and pressed me against him. The contact immediately calmed me.

He tenderly kissed my hair.

“Shall we talk about this later?” he whispered.

“No, I don’t think that’s useful. I guess I’ll get used to it eventually.”

“That would surprise me…,” he whispered sadly.

At the end of the day, I was convinced that I could go straight home but Rucker had other ideas.

“Tonight, you’ll go dancing.”

“Dancing? You fell on your head, right? And who will take care of Corwin and Morel?”

He burst into an honest laugh.

“My brothers are seven hundred years old; they should be able to manage by themselves for two or three hours. Tonight, you’re going to accompany a senile old man with head trauma to the ball.”

“To the ball? Did you say, ball?”

He clicked his tongue.

“Yeah, alright… to a student party, if you prefer.”

My surprised expression made him smile.

“You know how to dance at least, child?”

“I don’t like it…”

“Well, you’ll learn to love! Let’s go!”

Lucky for me, I didn’t have to wear one of those extravagant, frilly outfits you’d find at every American party like this. I dressed in a simple black strapless dress, but reasonably low-cut, a matching jacket and a pair of heeled pumps.

Rucker appreciated the effort… He whistled when he saw me arrive.

“It’s too much?”

“Oh no!” he hastened to say with a predatory look. “It’s just that if you put someone else in that dress, it wouldn’t have the same effect.”

“Flattering! You’re handsome too.”

He had put on black pleated pants and a thin, long-sleeved sweater of the same colour. With his blond hair, he looked gorgeous.

“The vampires are out!” he amused himself.

We got in the car and headed to the university.

The atmosphere was already in full swing.

We approached a bar set up especially for the party.

“Do we have to?” I grumbled, realizing that he was going to order.

“To do like everyone else!”

That’s what I feared…

He bought two sodas and slipped a glass into my hands.

“Come on, we’ll find the others.”

A few members of the Circle were huddled together in a corner, intentionally out of the way. I didn’t recognize anyone. Well, except one, maybe… That said, last year, I was far from having met them all. And tonight, they weren’t all here.

“Pitt isn’t here?” I asked before reaching them.

“No.”

His dry, cold tone surprised me. I frowned, deciding to speak about it later if I remembered.

Rucker made the introductions. There were six. The first name almost made me scream with laughter, but I managed to hold back. His name was Merlin. Merlin! I wanted to ask him what time he was from, but I was afraid of offending him. The others had more classic first names: Paul, Jeremy, Jeff, Rudy and Grigore. Who came from Transylvania. I missed a second giggle but held myself back when I saw the tense look he had had since I had arrived. He avoided my gaze as if he was afraid that I would strike him down.

These lovely boys were all very handsome (especially Dracula, despite his pale complexion), but not very talkative, at least with me, because they were rather talkative with Rucker.

Discreetly, I asked Rucker if the famous Grigore was at Minah’s funeral, he was the one I seemed to recognize. He informed me that all were present. Unless they had changed their faces in the meantime, I felt like I was on the verge of Alzheimer’s! It must be said that at Minah’s funeral, I wasn’t well enough to look at everyone. I barely remembered the one who attacked me when I arrived. And he wasn’t here.

As they chatted, I turned to observe what was going on around me. My gaze fell on a student with whom I had shared several lessons last year. She waved to me to tell me to approach. Rucker gently held me back by the arm.

“You’re not leaving, are you? I don’t want to play watchdog, but… if you feel bad, you come right back, okay?”

“Yes, Dad!” I retorted before joining the student whose first name I didn’t even know.

“Hi!” she said with a pleasant smile. “You were in my class last year, weren’t you?”

“Uh, yes… that’s right.”

“Holy cow, you’ve changed!”

“It seems…”

“My name is Jessica, I come from Belgium.”

“Me, it’s Scarlett, I’m French.”

“That’s your boyfriend?” she inquired, lifting her chin to Rucker.

“No, my best friend.”

“He keeps looking at you like he’s afraid you’ll run away.”

I was embarrassed.

“He’s very protective.”

“Hmm… I see. And him, do you know him?”

“Who’s that?”

“The guy behind you, opposite your best friend. He looks like he’s going to eat you.”

I tried to turn my head on the sly and scanned the back of the room. Elgin was staring at me insistently. He was surrounded by people I didn’t know. My heart made a frenzied jig.

I turned away as soon as our eyes met.

“So, you know him?”

“Yes…” I stammered, trembling, knowing that Elgin wasn’t taking my eyes off me.

With all these multitudes of smells around I was unable to feel his presence. Everything was messy, and even now that I knew he was here, I couldn’t.

But what was he doing here? I could have sworn that this kind of party wasn’t his thing. What was he thinking? Did he see me as a monster? Did he think I was pretty? Was he changing his mind? Was he going to come to me? Is he…

Jessica laughed stupidly and pulled me out of my endless questions.

“I think I’ll fit into your circle of friends. I have the impression you only know handsome guys.”

I gave her a frozen smile.

“Ah… he’s coming.”

“What?” I cried, paralyzed. “Elgin?”

“That I don’t know. It’s the tall blond.”

I turned to see Rucker arrive, pissed off. I glanced at Elgin, he was gone. If Jessica hadn’t shown me he was here, I might have believed he had been just in my imagination.

“Is everything okay?” Rucker asked.

“Really,” I joked nervously, “that’s all you have to say! Let me introduce Jessica who was in my class last year. Jessica, this is Rucker.”

“Nice to meet you,” he said without looking at her too much.

She fluttered her eyelashes, visibly dazzled.

“We’re leaving?”

We had barely arrived, but, yes, I agreed. I had had my share of emotions for the evening.

“Nice to have chatted with you,” I say politely to Jessica. “See you soon maybe?”

“Oh yes, with pleasure.”

As I walked away with Rucker, I couldn’t help but give him a friendly nudge in the ribs.

“What?” he was annoyed.

“What? Are you still angry with Elgin?”

“I wasn’t,” he said, gritting his teeth.

“Yes, you were, and you still are.”

He grabbed my elbow and quickened his pace.

“I don’t think he’s going to leave you alone,” he fumed.

“Don’t talk nonsense. You heard what he said earlier.”

“These dogs never know what they’re talking about!”

“Dogs? Really?” I snapped, annoyed.

“Scarlett! Don’t start annoying me too!”

Rucker escorted me to the exit. He invited me into his car, turned the ignition on and headed out on the road, his mood black as hell.

“Are you going to sulk for a long time?” I asked after fifteen minutes of silence.

“I’m not sulking. I...”

He was silent when we arrived in the courtyard of the house. A small red car was parked there.

“Who is it? I asked.

“No idea,” he said, parking.

All the lights on the first floor were on. We pushed open the front door and...

“Scarlett! Rucker! I was passing by; I saw light so… here I am!”