Forbidden

Chapter 23

Chapter 23

My eyes feel like they're going to bug out and my lips part to scream. The face behind the mask is Rollin!

Rollin, the werewolf that had attacked me the night of the dance and fought Kieran!

"You didn't think you wouldn't be seeing me again, now did you Heather?" He asks in a playful voice.

The fact that he even knows my names makes me want to throw up. What was he doing here? And why did he drag me out deep into the woods? Was he going to kill me?

I look at the red splotches on his black cape and feel my dinner coming up as I realize it's probably not fake blood.

"Aw, what's wrong love?" He strokes a black gloved hand on my cheek. "Cat got your tongue?" He grins and I jerk my head back from his touch.

"What do you want?" I ask, my voice breaking as I speak.

He shrugs. "Do I need a reason to drag you off the trail and into the woods with me?"

He waits for an answer and I find my face getting red with anger. "You can't be serious!" I shout at him.

He laughs. "No, you're right. There is a reason I brought you out here. I just want to talk though, so relax."

Yeah, like I could possibly relax with a murderer standing only inches away from me.

"What could you possibly want to talk about?" I snap at him. I'm tempted to make a break for it and run but I know he'd stop me in an instant.

"Let's talk about your boyfriend," he says. When I frown he sighs and rolls his eyes. "For crying out loud I'm talking about Kieran! Gees I thought you knew you were going out!"

I cross my arms over my chest. "I don't know what you're talking about," I lie. I don't want him to know that me and Kieran are a thing. I feel like if I lie it will keep him from hurting him.

Rollin laughs and shakes his head at me. "Your pulse just jumped."

My eyes widen and my heart beats faster. I had forgotten he had heightened senses. He would know when I'm lying.

He sighs, "Look I just want to ask you a few questions."

"Fine," I say in a hard voice. "Ask away."

He smiles at me. "Much better. Now let's see, what had I wanted to ask? Oh yes, we were talking about Kieran. Speaking of the little devil where in the world is your cuddly boy toy?"

My cheeks redden at the way he talks about Kieran. I shrug and try to keep my heart from beating faster as I say, "I don't know."

He tilts his head to the side. "Hmm," he says. "You sure about that?"

I nod and swallow hard. He steps closer to me and I force myself not to move.

"Because if you're lying, which I think you are, then this isn't going to be a very good night for you. Now I'm going to ask again. Where. Is. Kieran?"

I shake my head on the verge of tears. "Why do you want to know?"

He gives a little laugh. "I'm the only one asking questions here beautiful. Where is he?"

"I told you I don't know," I say feeling my body tremble when he gets even closer to me.

He grabs both my arms with his hands and forces me to look him in his black eyes. I hate the fact that he's so handsome. Except for his cruel eyes he really is attractive. "Where is he!" he yells.

I cringe back. "I. Don't. Know!"

He growls and pushes me backward but releases his grip on me. "Fine. You don't know where he is. But you do know why he left, don't you?" It isn't even a question.

I sigh. "Yes."

His eyes widen with interest. "Why did he go?" he asks quickly.

I know he won't stop until I tell him the right answer. Besides, it's not like telling him the truth is going to hurt Kieran. I have no idea where he is and I know Rollin won't either. "He said he wanted to get used to the way things are now and how everything works."

Rollin laughs again. "Oh Kieran, so predictable. Of course that's what he's doing. I was just surprised he left you all alone to defend yourself against the big bad werewolves here in town."

Reality drops down on me making my knees tremble. The werewolves are still here. Perhaps all of them. They've just been laying low all these days but now they're going to start making their presence known and Kieran isn't here to help me. And I had no idea when he'd be back. If he even comes back, I can't help but think he won't.

"Why do you want to know all of this?" I ask suddenly finding my voice.

"What, you want me to tell you my diabolical plan? Ha, you'd like that wouldn't you?" He pauses and looks me in the eyes, making me shift my gaze to the ground. "What the heck, why not? Alright I'll tell you." He pauses for effect this time and continues, "I'm going to kill the pack leader."

I take in a sharp breath. Why would he kill the pack leader?

"And I'm looking for your boyfriend because I know he knows where to find him. That's probably where he is right now I'm sure. Probably getting help from him. So when he gets back I need you to tell him I'm looking for him." He turns around and starts walking away, then turns back around. "Oh and if he doesn't tell me, people will die." he laughs and walks away.

He disappears into the night leaving me alone and trembling, my heart beating faster than it ever should.

I walk numbly back to the trail and don't even cringe as workers pop out and try to scare me. I catch Nathan out of the corner of my eye a distance down the path from me.

"Heather!" he hollers. He starts running to catch up with me. "Sorry about that," he says when he reaches me. "My friends are idiots." he laughs but stops when he sees the look on my face. "What's wrong?" he asks. "I'm sorry I left you but I didn't know they would keep me that long. You don't have to be scared they're just workers."

I shake my head, a tear trickling down my cheek. "Can we just go?" I ask quietly.

He looks at me curiously but nods. "Yeah, we'll go."

We finish walking the trail and go to the parking lot to his car.

He starts the car without a word and drives me to my house. When we pull up to the driveway he turns to me. "Heather what's wrong?" he asks.

I shake my head. "Nothing's wrong," I say refusing to look at him. I'm still shaking from my encounter with Rollin. "Okay," I say. "I guess I just got a little scared on the trail while you were gone."

He sighs. "Heather I know you weren't scared of the workers. Something else happened back at the school and I can tell it's bothering you. So what happened?"

"Nothing happened," I say sighing.

"Heather you can tell me anything." He refuses to let up.

I sigh and finally give in. "Okay you're right, something did happen back at the trail. I just...I can't tell you about it. I know I can trust you but I just can't say." I shrug and hope he understands.

He takes a deep breath in. "If you're sure you don't want to talk about it, that's fine. But later if you change your mind you can come to me no matter what."

"Thanks," I say with a small smile. "I really did have fun tonight though...before it happened."

He laughs a little. "Well good, I'm glad you had fun."

"I did," I say smiling at him. "Thanks for taking me."

"No problem. So I guess I'll see you around then?" He asks.

I nod. "See you around."