Page 27 of The Boy With The Sharp Teeth
"Istill can't believe how big you've gotten. What grade are you in now? Kamal isa junior, but for some reason, I thought you were older than him,"
"Yeah,I am seventeen. I'm a senior now," Elijah said proudly.
"See,I thought I had that right," she said, doing her best to return his warm,contagious smile. The sharp, throbbing pain at her temple hit just as she wasreaching into her purse for her keys.
Thekeyring fell from her shaking hand to the ground with a jingling clang.
"Areyou ok?!" Elijah's hand of support was immediately against her back as hebent down to quickly retrieve the keys.
Embarrassed,she nodded earnestly at the boy. "I'm fine," she reassured him,though the look of worry didn't budge from his keen eyes. "Really, don'tworry. It's just a migraine. I just picked up my medicine, so after a fewhours, hopefully, I should be good."
Stillnot believing her, Elijah reluctantly put the keys into her awaiting hand."Let me drive you to your house, I can just walk back," he offered.
Lord,he was so sweet. How did Lana raise such a sweet boy? "No, no, really, Iam fine," she repeated while unlocking her door. Sliding into her seat,she turned to look at him through the still open driver's door. "Ipromise. It was good seeing you, and thank you again."
Havingno choice but to accept her words, he backed away and allowed her to shut herdoor. Feeling guilty at his dismayed face, she waved at him as she backed outbefore driving away.
Afew minutes later, she was back in her house, letting out a tired sigh ofrelief. The headache was growing worse with each passing second. Hanging herpurse and coat on the foyer's coat rack, she glanced at the pile of work on thedining room table as she made her way upstairs. Maybe if she got out of herclothes and took a quick shower, she would feel more comfortable and bearthrough the migraine enough to at least send out a few emails.
Puttingaway her boots and stripping out of her clothes, Sana was padding through thebedroom dressed only in her underwear when she heard the first pelting drops ofrain against her window. Reaching for the curtain, she let out a small noise ofsurprise, the rain was coming down in sheets now. Hurrying to the bathroom, shetook a quick shower before any thunder or lightning began.
Dressedin a long flannel shirt and mismatching night pants, Sana eventually made it toher dining room table. The throbbing pain in her temple thankfully seemed tohit a plateau. Grabbing her phone from her purse, she was surprised to see afew missed calls from Kevin. Sitting down at the dining room table, she turnedon her laptop and dialed him back.
Theother line picked up on the first ring. On video call, she was immediatelygreeted by Kevin's worried face.
"Sana,"the relief in his voice was evident. "Are you ok? Elijah told me youweren't feeling well?"
Blinkingin confusion, Sana ran a nervous hand through her damp hair. "Yes, ofcourse. I told him I was fine. My head just hurts, that's all."
Slumpingback against his seat, he gave her a tired smile. "Well, Elijah told me hewas worried for you, and all I could think of was Zach's reaction if somethingwere to happen to you while he was gone."
Thatperked her up. "Gone?" she questioned, hoping it came off asinnocently as she tried to portray it.
Earlier,she refused to admit to herself that she noticed during her trip to and fromher house Zach's missing truck on both occasions. And she certainly didn'tacknowledge the pang of curiosity as to his whereabouts. But now, with theblatant admission that he was "gone," she couldn't ignore iteven if she tried.
"Yeah,he has gone off to Antor Falls to visit some more of our cousins. There is awhole different branch of Waatese that live there."
Notonce during all of her visits had she ever had the opportunity to visit AntorFalls. Her parents and grandparents always shrugged their shoulders at themention of the town, claiming it was just a bigger version of Tarki and thatthere was never any real reason to make the long trip there. Now that she wasthe city engineer for all three cities, she kind of assumed and maybe evenhoped she would get a reason to visit it, but the mayor for Antor, unlikeGaulding's mayor, was more than efficient when it came to virtualcorrespondence. If she sent an email requesting some information, Sana quicklylearned that Thomas Janssen would reply back within minutes with everything sheneeded.
"Isee," she nodded. "Well, not to worry, please tell Elijah I am fine,and I made it home safe and sound. Let's just hope no one's power goes outduring this storm," she added.
Sayingtheir goodbyes, she sat down her phone and rubbed her temple. It was gettingworse. Checking the time on her computer, she could only pray the pill she tookwould start working soon. Picking up the top sheet of paper from the stack nextto her, she began reading through the applicants for the field engineerposition. Sadly, there were only a few applicants that were actually qualifiedfor the job, which would not have been bad at all if she had not let Gaulding'smayor Gabriel have an input on the job listing. The wording of the post made itseem that their cities were much bigger than they actually were, even going sofar as to call them "Little Portland" in the woods. Afterreplying back to each qualified candidate with blatant transparency of thethree cities and yearly salary, she would be surprised if she got so much as a"thank you for your time" reply tomorrow.
Alarge clap of thunder from outside made her squint as the throbbing in her headturned brutal. Turning off the lights as she walked, she felt her way to thekitchen in the dark. Even the light from the fridge seemed blaring as shegrabbed the bottle of pink Moscato from the top shelf. Pouring herself agenerous glass, Sana shuffled to her living room, guided only by the hazy lightfiltering through the windows. Her medication always made her sleepy, sometimesshe wondered if it even did anything for the migraine itself or was it justsimply a giant sleeping pill.You can't focus on the pain if you're asleep,she often mocked. Laying down on the couch with a flop, she cast a begrudgingeye to the remote that was out of reach—fine, who needs it anyways?After attempting and failing to surf on her phone, which was still too brightfor her eyes, Sana simply laid down and basked in the soothing darkness of theroom as the storm wreaked havoc around her.
~*~
Apiercing howl cut through the air making its way past the barrier of her sleepand into her consciousness. Was her wolf outside in the storm? Worry tried torouse her from the gray area between sleep and wakefulness she teetered in, butnothing could quite pull her from the hands of exhaustion. It was a wolf. Hewould be fine, she tried to reason with herself as she felt her mind lose its graspon reality just as another howl bellowed closer to the window.
~*~
Thecreak to the floorboard startled her just enough to crack open her eyes. Stillpartly asleep, she watched the familiar figure step into the shaft of featherymoonlight. Naked and bathed in the subtle nocturnal gray light, there was oddlyno fear as the man approached her. Instinctively, her body settled into his ashis hands and arms slid beneath her, lifting her off the couch. Pressing hercheek to the warm damp skin, Sana drowsily let her heavy lids shut as shespoke.
"Youweren't supposed to be here. This was supposed to be my fresh start," sheadmitted in a murmur.
"Whyis that?" The achingly familiar voice felt like far-off thunder againsther ear as he carried her up the stairs.
Swayingback and forth with each step, Sana let her body relax more and more into thewide, firm chest beneath her. His skin was like hot silk, it was soft anddeliciously hard all at once.
