Chapter 25

Roxanne

I finally went back to school after such a long time away. As I stepped onto the college grounds, I felt much better than I had been before I got there. The last incident with Derek left me with such a terrible feeling that I was grateful to be finally away from him. At least, for now.

Even now, I still found it surprising that he didn't do anything to me after I'd stood up to him the way I did. Was he really changing his attitude toward me? I found that very hard to swallow. But as it stood, that was what he seemed to be doing.

He had even taken extra steps, not only by buying that massive farm for me, but he'd also brought out those guys in a bid to satisfy my needs. Even though he later became defensive after I confronted him, I knew he only said all that he said because of his own ego. Derek couldn't stand me rejecting him, even though that wasn't what my intentions were. All I wanted was an explicit definition of the relationship between us.

I couldn't deal with the instability and uncertainty that came with him anymore. If he wasn't going to be direct with me when it came to his intentions, then I'd rather we stuck to the contract arrangement alone. Things were less complicated with that.

I thought about this as I walked back to my dormitory. It became all too stressful to think about Derek and his cloudy intentions. So, I pushed the thoughts away and concentrated on what really mattered at the moment. Those vampires had really come to kill Derek, and if Derek hadn't been strong and skillful enough to handle them, he would have really ended up dead by now. There was nothing to suggest that the same wouldn't have followed for me.

The realization made my heart skip a beat. The huge fight I witnessed against the vampires had been on my mind since that night, but after giving much thought to it after that night, I decided not to ask Derek. I feared that with the number of vampires that came to the villa that night, there was something huge going on between the wolves and the vampires, and I didn't want to be caught in between it. For my own sake, it was best to be as ignorant about the situation as possible.

I had this on my mind as I walked into the dorm apartment.

"Roxanne!" Rose shouted as soon as walked in.

"Rose," I said softly and we shared a hug. She held on longer than I expected but it was a welcome gesture. More than anyone, I had missed my best friend, and she obviously missed me too.

"How have you been?" I asked.

"Good, good. You really left me here alone. It was so lonely in here without you."

"I'm sorry, Rose. I had to leave. It was important that I went with that man that day." I told her. I knew once I said that, Rose would choose not to inquire further into the matter.

She nodded. "Don't worry, I won't tell Lucas that you left with another man." She teased.

Lucas! I had forgotten him totally. I wondered what conclusion he must have reached with my lengthy absence from school without making any contact with him.

"I saw that you took an official leave from school and you're not at risk of suspension anymore," Rose noted, much to my surprise. I didn't quite understand what she was talking about.

"What's that?" I asked.

"The dean sent someone here to investigate why you haven't been attending classes. You were at risk of being suspended. But someone put a call through and processed an official leave for you and everything went away." Rose explained.

I immediately picked up that it was probably why Derek had put a call through to school the other night when I eavesdropped on his conversation. I didn't want to look more clueless about the situation than I already looked, so I quickly replied to Rose,

"Oh! yeah. I had to do that and clarify things with the dean. I thought you were referring to something else."

If Rose thought something was off, she didn't show it. So I was good.

I couldn't sleep that night. I couldn't help but think about innocent humans like Rose who didn't know anything about the worlds of werewolves and vampires. If a war broke out as I suspected, it was definitely going to involve human casualties at some point. That meant people would end up dead, just like Noah Yates. I was very uncomfortable with that knowledge.

I felt really helpless, particularly because I had seen the way the vampires fought against Derek that night. Both werewolves and vampires were very strong and fast creatures, there was no way ordinary humans like my best friend, Rose could stand a chance against them if there was a war.

The only set of humans that was capable of losing a challenge were werewolf hunters, and right now, that wasn't looking good. Most werewolf hunters that still existed had either been incarcerated or were keeping a low profile.

I suddenly remembered my father's friend and companion before he died, Jordan Neville. He was the only werewolf hunter I had access to. In fact, he was the only one I could currently think of apart from my father. I decided I was going to visit him by morning. I was finally able to close my eyes and sleep.

The next morning, I got up very early and left the dorm apartment before Rose was awake. I wanted to be what Jordan Neville was going to see first that day. I still had his address saved in my diary. My father had given it to me, and told me to go to him whenever I needed any form of help.

As the cab drove me to Jordan Neville's address, I really hoped that something positive was going to come out of my meeting with him. I needed to somehow make him understand the urgency of the situation without revealing Derek's identity.

When Jordan Neville opened the door and walked out to meet me, I was surprised by how old he looked. He must be older than my father, I observed. Or maybe it was the hunting business that wore him out. Even though I was certain that I was seeing him for the first time, he was somehow able to recognize me immediately after he set his eyes on me.

"You're Bent's daughter?" He quickly pointed out and invited me to come in.

His hair was almost covered in white in its entirety. As I got closer to him, I realized he was more agile than he looked. He was tall and thin. He seemed to have woken up for a while because he was dressed up in a green t-shirt and faded jeans. He offered me coffee but I declined politely. I was eager to walk straight into business.

"What do you want?" He asked as soon as he took the first sip of his coffee. "I didn't think I would ever see you here after so many years. Your father told me you might come but I had expected that to have come years earlier."

"I have come to you for something different than what my father expected." I began. "I've somehow been able to get my hands on solid information that there was an ongoing war breeding between werewolves and vampires. One or two humans have lost their lives to this so far. I need your help to put an end to it."

The man watched me for a very long moment, then he burst into laughter. It was very loud and throaty, his shoulders vibrated as he laughed. After he finally stopped laughing, he asked, "How did you come across such information?"

I had prepared for this specific question, so I answered with what I had formed before I came here. I told him I witnessed a werewolf attacked by multiple vampires. And when I saw the werewolf transform I decided to hang around and eavesdropped to know what was going on.

"Does that explain why you reek of a werewolf?" he said quickly, pointing toward me.

He was an experienced werewolf hunter, he definitely knew what he was talking about, so I quickly came up with another lie.

"There's more. I was attacked by a werewolf recently. Apparently, some vampires had been tracking the wolf and they attacked him while he tried to kill me. That was how I escaped."

He seemed to buy the story because he nodded and said, "Trouble seems to always find a werewolf hunter."

"However," he continued, "I'm old and retired. All I can do is protect my family. And I advise you to do the same. For someone who can't even protect herself, I think that's enough work for you. So, stop bothering about every other person and concentrate on those that matter to you the most."

"I can't do that," I told him. "So many lives are at stake and I need your help." I pushed.

After a while, he saw that I was adamant on the matter. "I might know someone," he said. "He's called The Ranger, but his real name is Constantine Davidson. He used to be the most powerful werewolf hunter during our time before he left after his wife's death and joined forces with the vamps."

"If there's anyone that could know more about the situation, it's him. But as I said, he's no more with us. He's with the vamps now. So, my advice again, drops the matter and find a way to protect those dear to you."

I left Jordan Neville's house with nothing other than The Ranger's name. I remembered my father once mentioned his nickname to me, and told him about his heroics.

On my way back to school, it was all I could think about. I was divided between looking for him or not. He was with the vampires now, so that made him as dangerous as the war that was breeding quickly. But he was once a werewolf hunter. Maybe that could still mean something to him and he might find a purpose again by protecting the human race against these two deadly creatures. After all, he was human, I told myself.

A call came in and distracted me from my thoughts as I stepped into the dorm apartment. It was Lucas.