Chapter 26

Lucas

It was a nice evening to hang out. The breeze was good, not too warm and definitely not too cold. I wished I was seeing Roxanne with neutral intentions. But there was more to our meeting today than she knew, hopefully. I called her and scheduled a meeting for the evening.

I made it look as if it was only a get-together date to catch up after she'd been away from school for so long. She'd agreed to it quickly. We both knew the date was long overdue. She just left after the last time and didn't even bother to reach out since then.

I wondered where she had been all this while. I hoped it wasn't what I suspected. I really did. But I had to admit, she had been acting suspicious lately. Especially the timing of her lengthy absence from school.

I walked into the restaurant we had agreed to meet three minutes earlier than the agreed time but Roxanne was already seated by one of the tables. The place was a little bit more crowded than I expected. But that was understandable, the evening was too nice to be wasted. Many couples and friends alike would decide to come out and enjoy the nice weather.

She spotted me as soon as I headed towards the table, waving to catch my attention as though she hadn't already. Seeing her look elegant in a short pink gown made me realize how much I missed seeing her over the past couple of weeks. She had that radiant smile on her face as I got closer to her. Just like Kimberly, Roxanne was so beautiful.

For a moment, I was about to lose concentration on why I had scheduled this meeting. I quickly reminded myself that there was more at stake and I needed to remain focused on the task at hand.

"Hi," she greeted me.

"Hi, how're you? Seems like ages since we last saw each other, doesn't it?

"I'm good. Yes, it does seem like a long time ago."

I knew I needed to catch her off guard, and what better way than to cut straight to the chase, I thought. So I said,

"I'd started to conclude that you'd gone away with another boy. So tell me, Roxanne, is there a secret boyfriend somewhere that you've gone to spend time with?"

Just as I expected, the question met her without any form of preparedness. Never could she have thought that I was going to throw that kind of question at her so quickly into the date.

I had always been so gentle and soft towards her but things had to be done differently this evening, because I needed answers. I had found out from Felix, a vampire that was like my right hand about a huge fight against a powerful werewolf. He had killed all the vampires involved except Felix who was able to get away. After connecting the dots, I found out that the powerful werewolf was the second son of the wolf clan that I was looking into. It was Derek Hemming.

Felix had been badly injured from the battle against Derek Hemming. If it hadn't been for his injury, I wouldn't have learned about the event. Felix and some other enthusiastic vampires had gathered themselves together and tracked down Derek Hemming. After I had pressed him consistently for answers, he finally opened up and told me they had planned to take Derek Hemming out because of what the other werewolves did to the vampires at the club.

According to him, Derek Hemming seemed like the easiest target after they had done their own findings. That was because he was isolated from other werewolves who seemed to always move together in packs. So, Felix and his crew had agreed that Derek Hemming was important enough for a notable target and at the same time easy enough to eliminate.

If only they knew how wrong they were. Apparently, Derek Hemming took out all of them single-handedly. Without any help, he killed all the vampires that attacked him at his house, except Felix who got away with very bad injuries. There were so many implications from that battle. One, the vampire clan lost a lot of promising and relatively young warriors. If only they had run it by me before they proceeded with the attack.

Secondly, Felix reported something strange to me. While they attacked Derek Hemming at his private apartment, they saw a young woman with him. Felix explained that the young woman was why they were able to hurt Derek Hemming to a certain degree because they had distracted him with the idea that they were going to attack and kill her. Felix noted that she wasn't a werewolf because if she was, she would have transformed and helped Derek.

Felix was certain she was human, and Derek was ready to do anything to save her. In fact, Felix observed that just when one of them was about to finally get a hold of the girl after Derek Hemming had protected her all through the fight, Derek Hemming seemed to become even more powerful and resisted with so much strength than he had ever witnessed before in a battle.

When I asked Felix to describe the young woman, he'd been so quick to oblige because he believed he got a decent view of her. The attributes he described matched Roxanne's so acutely that my mind immediately went to her as he did. Considering the suspicious circumstances surrounding her recent movement, I was forced to consider the possibility that she might be the one, much to my dislike.

I had informed Felix to step back and allow me to handle the rest of the spill out just as he and the other dead vampires should have done earlier. I held the wolf's hair I found in my hand and decided to do what was necessary to unveil everything pertaining to the matter. I was now keeping tabs on Derek Hemming more than ever before.

But before anything else, I needed to confirm that Roxanne was or wasn't the young woman that Felix had claimed to see. I knew things were going to get really messy if she was the one, but it was something I had to do and that was what led to my question.

Roxanne denied. She quickly tried to hide her earlier reaction with a smile. "No. Why would you even say that?" she said.

"One couldn't be too sure," I said. Then I pressed further, "Why have you been away from school for so long?"

She paused and examined me with suspicion. I kept a straight face and smiled through her examination like it was nothing.

"I was on an unofficial internship. It was just a small opportunity and I felt like it would help my résumé. It's why I have been away for a while."

I smiled and nodded.

"What's up with the sudden questions, Lucas? This feels like an interrogation session," she said.

"I'm sorry. That wasn't my intention, I just wanted to know what's going on with you."

"Okay, there you have it. Is that all?" she asked.

I could sense her restlessness. I wasn't sure what it was but Roxanne was certainly trying to hide something. As much as I didn't want it to be true, I was starting to think there was a chance she was the one Felix told me about.

"Yes," I answered, "Just one more thing, can I know the company you got the internship offer from? Maybe I could look into it for opportunities of my own."

Roxanne became instantly furious. She rose up to her feet and left the restaurant angrily. As I watched her leave with hurried steps, I feared the worse.