CHAPTER TEN - CLASSMATES

Emrys' furry body disappeared into the darkness. Nate stood at the window, dithering, his eyes straining to see anything in the blanket of blackness that covered his back yard and the woods beyond. What was out there that freaked Emrys out so much? Could it be witch hunters? Maybe even rival witches? Were there such things? He didn't know enough. Emrys hadn't gotten a chance to tell him all the important things. There was hardly time to even get to the basics. Emrys could be in danger out there. He could need backup. But here Nate was standing like an idiot in the window, pining for his man to come back to him safe. He was a witch, goddamnit. And maybe his only power was to get people wet, but he was going to use it.

"Fuck this. I'm not waiting here like a damsel in distress," Nate hissed. He pulled on a pair of sneakers and hoisted himself out the window and onto the flat roof of the porch below.

The shingles sagged alarmingly under his weight as the rotting boards strained to hold him up. He quickly tiptoed to the side, lowered himself down and shimmied off the edge. His dropped only four feet and landed unsteadily in a clump of rose bushes. Immediately he managed to scrape his right forearm against a particularly thorny stalk. Hissing at the pain. He staunched the beads of blood his shirt.

Rose bush: 1. Nate: 0. Lovely. I can do better than this.

Arm still smarting, he stepped out of the bushes and into his back yard. The yard's velvety blackness was starting to recede as his night vision kicked in. His old swing set swum into view with the broken swing and the warped slide. There was a pool of water beneath the monkey bars where the sand was packed down from his and Daniel's constant pounding landings. They still used the rickety set even though it was made for little kids. It seemed odd to think of those innocent, earlier times now when he was following after a shape shifting witch against potentially people who wanted to kill them.

Let’s just hope it’s not the Devil out here.

The skin between Nate’s shoulder blades twitched. The grass was wet from the rain and dew as well. His shoes were soaked as he took only a few steps into the yard. Everything looked normal. He glanced back at the house. He could see the blue glow of the television from his grandmother's study in the back of the house. She was probably snuggled in front of the TV with a bowl of popcorn in her lap, struggling not to fall asleep quite yet before the end of her program. It was all so comfortable and normal, but Nate's position outside of that normality reminded him of how many things had changed in just a few hours. Normal wasn't for him. He was surprised by how okay he was with that.

He turned back to the swing set and trees beyond. He thought of whispering Emrys' name, but didn't want to attract attention of whatever had tripped the wards, whatever those were. He crept forward until he was past the swing set and just at the edge of the forested area. Despite Winter Haven being a city, deep woods threaded their way throughout it, creating a lush sprawling metropolis. Only the downtown was thick with gleaming towers of industry, but the wealthy liked their privacy and the ancient woods allowed them to have it. Nate's home was tucked at the very edge of Winter Haven, but right in the midst of one of the forests. He’d always loved the isolation until now. Now he wished he lived in the bright lights of the big city.

The hooting of an owl had him jumping two feet straight up into the air.

“Jesus,” he whispered, trying to calm his rapidly beating heart.

He froze as he thought he heard the crack of a branch over to his right and about twenty yards into the woods.

“Emrys?” Nate whispered hoarsely. “Emrys?”

More cracks and snuffles as if something were roaming through the underbrush. He tried to find the power inside of him that had allowed him to control the storm, but at that moment he felt all too normal and weak.

Why the hell didn’t I bring something to defend myself?

He thought of going back into the house to grab his baseball bat or a knife and then venturing out into the woods. He turned to do just that when he heard a wolf’s rapid bark. His heart pounded in his chest and he held his breath waiting for another sound. It didn't take long. There was a startled wolfish yelp.

“EMRYS!”

Nate was running into the woods towards the pitiful sound before he consciously made a decision to do so. His mind was offering up wild conjectures of what could make Emrys yelp like that. Had someone hurt him? After hearing what Emrys' parents had done to him, even though the other man was older and bigger, Nate felt a deep desire to protect him. He wouldn’t let Emrys be injured again!

“EMRYS! I’M COMING!”

Underbrush whipped along Nate's calves. He felt his sweatpants catch and tear, but he kept moving. Water from the pounding rain from earlier trickled down from the leaves above and soaked his hair and dripped into his eyes making everything a dark blur. He skidded to a stop as he caught sight of movement to his right. He thought he heard growling from that direction as well. There was a clearing up ahead. The moon passed out from behind some clouds and lit it up like daylight. Nate saw the glint of Emrys’ fur. With is heart in his throat, he barreled into the clearing. Then a girl's voice rose up.

"Turner! Do something! Don't just stand there gawking at it!" she yelled.

"It's a wolf! What the heck am I supposed to do, Abbie? Give it wolf snacks?" Turner answered.

"There are no wolves in Winter Haven!" Abbie argued back.

"Tell him that then!" Turner shouted, pointing at Emrys with a shaking hand.

Abbie was a girl of about fourteen. She was pressed up against a large tree. He brown hair hung in long, limp tresses on either side of a round face. She had on a gray dress that was synched in the middle by a fanny pack, high white socks and black shoes. Beside her was the boy, Turner, who appeared a couple of years older. He had a shock of brown hair that fell messily over his forehead. He looked to be mostly skin and bones, but Nate had to give him credit for courage. He placed himself steadfastly between Emrys and the girl. Neither looked dangerous. They looked to be related.

Emrys was magnificent in his wolf form. His head was low to the ground and his haunches were raised as he stared at the two intruders with glowing topaz eyes. His lips were drawn back from his sharp, white fangs. When Turner moved to shield Abbie more, Emrys let out a low growl that kept the boy frozen in place. Turner looked ready to pee himself. Nate had to put a stop to this.

They aren’t the Devil. They certainly aren’t witch hunters. They look like rich kids who got themselves lost in the big bad woods.

"Emrys!" Nate chastised, which had every one turning and gawking at him.

“Who are – are you?” Turner asked.

“I – I think it’s him, Turner,” Abbie said. She peered at him from narrowed hazel eyes.

Nate wasn’t sure what she was talking about, but Emrys’ continued growling, which might have sounded big and bad to someone who didn’t know him, seemed to Nate to be more for effect.

"I think the -- ah -- intruders are sufficiently cowed now,” Nate said to him. “You can stop -- uhm baring your teeth and stuff."

The wolf's eyes slid over to him. Nate could almost read the irritation in him. The look said: what the hell are you doing here when I told you to wait in the house? Nate shrugged. He had to come. Emrys would just have to get over it.

Now I get to act like Emrys is a pet. Excellent. He is so going to kill me later for this. But it has to be done if we’re going to fool these two.

Nate couldn't help but grin. He sidled up to Emrys and petted him behind the ears. The growling stopped though Emrys gave him a narrow-eyed look. He wasn’t appeased and he wasn’t sure what Nate had up his sleeve though Nate was quite certain that Emrys knew he wasn’t going to like it.

"Is that your -- your wolf?" Turner asked, stuttering slightly over the words.

Mine. Are you mine, Emrys? Pretty presumptuous of me to say yes, but I think I will.

"He's -- a -- uhm, yeah, he's mine," Nate said with a glance down at Emrys.

Emrys whapped Nate's leg with his tail. Nate scritched him harder behind the ears, which seemed to assuage Emrys' irritation or perhaps it was a secret spot to soothe the savage beast. Nate bit his lip to stop from giggling inappropriately.

"And you talk to your wolf like that and he listens?" Abbie asked pointedly. She stepped around her brother. Her serious, rather ugly face was focused on Emrys as if she wanted to see what was beneath the fur.

Nate frowned. He did not like how that girl looked at Emrys. It was as if she knew he wasn't what he seemed. Maybe he had been too quick to think that these two weren't dangerous. Plus, he realized that she had caught on right away that he wasn't talking to Emrys like he was a pet. "Yeah. He's intelligent."

"More intelligent than the average wolf?" she asked with a cock of one of her thin eyebrows.

"More intelligent period," Nate answered. "Now I think it's time I asked you two the questions. Namely, who the hell are you and what are you doing on my property?"

“And you named him … Emrys? As in Emrys Frost?” Abbie continued on, ignoring his question.

Emrys cocked his head to the side and regarded her with much too much intelligence for any wolf.

Nate grimaced. Any lie that came to him sounded lame, but he had to say something, “I named him Emrys. It just sort of stuck--”

“Give it up,” Abbie said, crossing her arms over her thin chest. “I’ve read about how shape shifting runs in the Frost family. And Emrys has returned to town. Ergo, the wolf is Emrys Frost.”

“I – I – that’s ridiculous!” Nate stammered. How did she know that? Was she a witch hunter? A very small witch hunter? “How can – can a person be a wolf? I mean really!”

“The same way that I can look like your grandmother,” Abbie said with a twist of a smile and suddenly instead of a little girl standing before him, his grandmother stood there. The same smile. The same thick white hair. Then Abbie was standing there again.

“What – how – how did you do that?” Nate breathed.

“People see, hear and feel what I want them to,” she explained.

“And believe me, she can be convincing,” Turner said, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly as if he had been on the receiving end of her powers more than once.

“You’re – you’re …” Nate broke off. There was only one thing she could be.

“A witch. Like he is. And like you are,” she said simply as she pointed to Emrys then let that finger drift right over to Nate.

But whatever Nate was going to say next was thwarted when Emrys himself responded. He shifted from animal to man before their eyes. Nate’s mouth dropped open as he watched Emrys’ body elongate. Muscles stretched and strained. Emrys shifted from four-legged to two and rose up. The fur retreated leaving his beautiful, scarred skin exposed. The fangs were gone and then the snout flattened out. Soon Emrys was standing before them, naked in the moonlight. The darkness though seemed to cast a blur on his scars.

“Emrys Frost,” Abbie whispered. There was a note of satisfaction in her tone.

“Abigail Blackwell and this must be your older brother, Turner,” Emrys said.

“You all know one another?” Nate asked.

“Only be reputation. The Blackwells are another of the Founding Families. These will be two of your classmates at Dunhaven,” Emrys explained.

“I’m not going to Dunhaven. We’ve discussed this and--”

"You're Nate Whitney, aren't you?" Turner interrupted, his tone seemed almost awe-struck.

Nate blinked and shifted uncomfortably. Suddenly, he had gone from nobody to known by strangers everywhere even in the middle of the woods. He hadn't had this kind of notoriety in years since the murders. The skin on the back of his neck prickled as he admitted, "Ah, yeah.”

“You’re the one we were coming to see,” Abbie said. She clasped her small hands in front of her.

Nate noted at that moment that for a fourteen-year-old, she seemed very well spoken. Her eyes glittered with intelligence in her plain, round face.

"Why didn’t you come to the front door like normal people? You scared the living crap out of us,” Nate huffed.

“You should be asking why they came here at all,” Emrys pointed out.

“Yeah, okay, what he said. Why are you looking for me?” Nate asked.

“Beyond the obvious that you’re one of us,” Abbie said and Nate felt strangely good to be included in that statement, as if it meant something positive. He’d never been a part of anything. Always an outsider. “We’re here because there’s something … wrong with our father.”

“What do you mean wrong?” Emrys asked, his forehead furrowing.

At that moment, Nate remembered his grandmother’s story about how his father had a visitor that wasn’t on the approved list, a woman who was able to talk her way past security to see a murderer. “You went to see my dad today, didn’t you?”

It wasn’t really a question. It was a statement.

“I told Abbie we should come to you first, but she always likes to have as much information as possible before she approaches someone,” Turner said with an uncomfortable shift of his feet. “So she went to your father first and then she was going to come to you.”

“Clever girl. You like to know everything so nothing can go to chance,” Emrys chuckled.

Abbie narrowed her eyes at him. “Knowledge is power.”

“The Blackwells have always thought that … to their detriment,” he said.

“And the Frosts have always trusted their instincts and desires in spite of facts to their detriment.” Abbie drew her shoulders back, her spine ramrod stiff.

Emrys pursed his lips in response.

Nate could almost feel a fight brewing between them, which would be something Emrys would do: fight with a fourteen-year-old future student. Nate was more interested in knowing how Abbie had gotten in to see his father in the first place. “My grandmother said it was a young woman – not your age, but like twenties – who came asking my dad stuff about her husband.”

Abbie’s gaze shifted from Emrys to Nate and her posture softened. “I appropriated my stepmother’s appearance.”

“Stepmother? Are your parents divorced--”

“Our real mother died giving birth to me,” Abbie interrupted. Her hands flexed at her sides. “My mother would have known what to do when Father started acting odd. My stepmother doesn’t care enough – she probably doesn’t even notice that Father isn’t … isn’t himself. The old adage applies to her, I’m afraid.”

“Adage?” Nate asked.

“Beauty is fleeting, but dumb is forever,” she answered with a tilt of her head. “I knew they wouldn’t let a girl my age see your father and I hadn’t seen your grandmother enough times to make playing her believable. Especially since they know her at the hospital. But I’ve had plenty of exposure to Tiffany to be spot on. Besides I’ve found that her appearance tends to make certain men … stupid.”

“Ah,” Nate said. He looked at the plain and frumpy Abbie. Her looks wouldn’t stop traffic and he somehow doubted as he took in her bone structure that growing up would help much. But she held herself with a great deal of pride.

“Your stepmother is only a few years older than you, isn’t she, Turner?” Emrys asked.

Turner’s cheeks inexplicably reddened. “Yeah, just a few. She’s not from around here though. So it’s not like he married a – a friend of ours or something.”

“Not of your social circle then?” Emrys’ voice lilted. Even standing stark naked, he still managed to appear cool and unconcerned. Some would characterize it as arrogant.

“She’s a former pole dancer,” Abbie cut in sharply. “She’s probably got more silicone in her than real human flesh any more. She’s plastic and ridiculous. Her education stopped somewhere in the seventh grade.”

“My, my, not your favorite person, I see,” Emrys said.

“It’s an insult to my mother’s memory that he would pick someone so lacking in the most important of ways,” Abbie hissed.

“I’m sure your father would disagree. Pole dancers can have their charms,” Emrys prodded.

“Emrys, cut it out,” Nate said and elbowed the other man.

“You don’t need to protect me. His behavior is expected. He’s a Frost after all.” Abbie’s chin jutted out proudly.

“The Blackwell superiority just … shines right through her, doesn’t it?” Emrys pointed out.

“She’s a kid,” Nate said quietly.

“Does she seem like a defenseless child to you? Listen to how she cut poor Tiffany’s character to ribbons. I’m sure there is something redeeming in the young woman,” Emrys teased.

“And you’re being a jerk,” Nate said. “A jerk to a kid even if she acts like she’s forty, she’s not. Stow it.”

“The Frosts excel at being jerks, Nate,” Abbie said archly. “They can’t help themselves. It’s bred into them.”

“And no more of that from you either,” Nate snapped. He felt like he was stopping two children from squabbling. A wave of exhaustion went through him. Suddenly, he didn’t want to continue this conversation. He just wanted to go to bed and sleep until his head stopped aching. “This isn’t the time or the place to talk. It’s dark, wet and – and Emrys is naked. We can meet up and speak in the morning.”

“Don’t use my lack of clothes as an excuse. I’m quite comfortable in the outdoors,” Emrys responded with a quirked smile. “Unless you’re the possessive type that doesn’t like other people to see me naked.”

Turner cleared his throat and looked at the ground. Abbie’s brow furrowed as she tried to figure out what Emrys meant. Nate knew that his cheeks were nuclear red.

“You’ll find out exactly the type I am if you keep up with this,” Nate growled. “I’ll make you sleep on the floor. On the rug.”

Emrys’ eyes lit with laughter. “I can’t wait to see you try.”

Nate shook his head. “You’re incorrigible.”

“I had heard of the Frosts’ lack of boundaries, but isn’t Nate your student?” Abbie’s tone was somewhat scandalized mixed with distaste.

“He’s not my teacher. I’m not his student. We’re not classmates,” Nate said sharply. He really didn’t need a fourteen-year-old questioning his relationship with Emrys. “Which means I have absolutely no reason to hang out in the woods talking to all you crazy people. I’m going back to into the house.” He turned on his heel and began striding away. He tossed over his shoulder, “Coming, Emrys?”

“How can I refuse such an invitation? Dear Abbie has reminded me of a specific fantasy about a stern teacher and a naughty student that I’d like to try,” Emrys remarked with a laugh.

“Wait! Don’t you want to know why I went to see your father?” Abbie asked.

Nate froze in his tracks. “You can tell me in the morning. It can wait.”

“It can’t. It really, really can’t,” she said. Her voice was almost plaintive.

“A not so fair maiden in distress,” Emrys murmured in his ear.

Nate slowly turned back to her. “What is it? Make it quick.”

“My father is possessed by the same demon that possessed your mother. I need to find a way to exorcise it before it kills him and us,” Abbie rattled off. “Was that quick enough for you?”

Want to read all 100+ chapters of The Pact for 99 cents?  Sign up for a Membership HERE, select Trial Membership and enter coupon code: PACT10