She Came From the Shadows (James and Tera: book 2)

4

Charles made some steady moves after coming back from the forest in human form. Tera had already been in human form for about 10 minutes now, but she was still a little off. Whenever werewolves change from human to wolf or the other way around, they get a little aggressive and defensive and takes a little while to gain their posture. With Charles and Tera though, I was safe.

"Man, I didn't think they would come all this way." Charles told me, and then for some reason looking at his arms and flexing. "Damn I look good."

Tera rolled her eyes. "Who were they?" She was wearing her dress again, except without the bra and I'm pretty sure no underwear either. I'm guessing she was trying to be as comfortable as she could be. Charles, however, didn't seem to care about being naked.

"Friends." He told us. "They just have a very particular way of greeting."

"'Friends'?" I repeated. "I was drawn to one and they were strong enough to manhandle Tera, and you call them friends?

Charles shrugged. "Welcome to the supernatural world, kid. You just met a vampire."

My heart sank, and my mind went blank. "...what?" I muttered.

Charles rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah. What he did was what we call a 'wheedling stare'. When you get caught in their gaze, it's kind of hard to get out."

I shook my head and leaned back against my car. "... a vampire." I whispered to myself. Why were there vampires? Why werewolves? Why anything like that? Was the whole world living in the light while these creatures lived in the shadows?

"Dad, leave it at that. He's scared enough." Tera told him.

I immediately shot back straight up. "I'm not scared! Just surprised." I instinctively responded.

Tera shook her head. "James even if I wasn't a werewolf, I could tell you're lying." Damnit, I forgot she knows basically everything about me at this point.

Charles raised an eyebrow. "Well, the vampires made quite a great first impression, huh?" He snickered, but then his expression changed from the funny smile to the let-me-ask-you-something smile. "Now, what are you two doing out here in the middle of the forest when you said you would be at prom?"

Aw man, please not now. "Well, you see, what happened was that..." I couldn't come up with an excuse. I was dumbfounded. I looked to Tera, but her eyes were guiltily wandering. It was the first time I had seen her so lost for words.

Charles shook his head. "You know how dangerous it would be." He told us, his expression changed to Dad Mode. "You're both mature, yes, and I doubt I would have to worry about a pregnant teenage daughter, but I'd rather have a pregnancy scare than a murder scene."

Tera looked up at him. "Dad I would never-"

"You don't know whether you would or wouldn't, Tera." He interrupted her. "You're young, no matter how mature you are. Your wolf hasn't been tamed as you think she has. She's still young, and when just about every living thing is in their prime they tend to be wild."

We both looked down. Charles wasn't angry, not one bit. He seemed disappointed, though. Not just at Tera, but at me. Her for attempting and me going along with it. In my defense, I was clueless. Clueless or not, at this point, I was wishing those vampires would come back.

Charles let out a deep exhale. "Go home, both of you. We'll talk more about this later."

"But what about you?" I asked. Charles was naked and alone in the woods, no vehicle in sight, and I was worried about him, especially with some vampires probably lurking around.