Chapter 15
Toby
I was pulled from my writing by the distant howl of… I didn’t even know. It didn’t sound like a dog or a wolf. It was kind of eerie, but in a cool way. I moved my laptop to the side and stood up, stretching. I think my back cracked in about eight places. Writing sitting on the couch probably wasn’t the best spot, but I felt more comfy there than at my desk.
Not that I’d only been writing. There were promos to make, a website to update, a newsletter to send out… and email to check. Although I hadn’t done that. I was letting Amy take care of the email for now, and I had sent her Dex’s email address so she could just forward any emails to him. So far, there hadn’t been anything. I wasn’t sure whether to be nervous or thankful about that. Maybe the guy had just given up?
I wandered over to the window in my living room, looking out into the night. Dex’s front light was on, but I didn’t see any movement in his window. I’m sure he was catching up with his brothers.
I had been a little jealous when I’d first seen them, I had to admit. They were fucking hot. They were both built similar to Dex, and I was definitely not the definition of a perfect body. Dex didn’t seem to have any complaints, and I hadn’t felt self- conscious when I was with him, but being faced with two such sexy friends right after our moment had been a little awkward.
The weird pause before Jude had said friends had totally made me wonder if they were more than friends. I had no idea what Dex’s dating life was like. Or hook-up life. But he hadn’t seemed to want to let me go, and I admit I was still a little giddy that he’d called me his boyfriend. I wouldn’t have labeled us that yet—we hadn’t even gone on a date—but I wasn’t going to complain. I mean, we were neighbors and chatted all the time, and I knew if I asked for a date, Dex would totally give me one. He was so sweet.
And apparently he had grown up in some kind of foster care situation. I didn’t want to push and ask too many questions, but I thought his quirky ways (not that I was one to talk) totally made more sense now. He’d obviously found a family of similar “brothers,” joined the military or something like that because it gave him structure (even if he tortured people or whatever), and now was settling down for a quiet life in the country. Only maybe the government still occasionally called on him to take care of things, which was why he was out at all hours of the night.
Yeah, I was backstorying again—perils of being a writer.
I moved away from the window, obviously not able to get a glimpse of Dex or his sexy as fuck brothers, and decided to give Josh a call.
He picked up on the first ring, and he sounded… tired when he answered. I was worried about him.
“Hey! What’s cooking?” I asked.
“Hopefully not you, because we all know how that turns out,” he joked.
At least he could still joke around. “Hardy har, Josh. Seriously, you sound tired. All ok?”
Josh gave a grunt. “Yeah. I’ve got some shit going on, but I’m ok. I’m sorting it out.”
“You need any help? You know Sebbie and I are always here for you,” I responded.
His voice softened. “I know. And I’ll fill you guys in. It’s just… a lot right now. I’d rather talk about something else. So distract me, literary genius. Is the little old lady in the other house really a witch? Or a harpy? Something good, I’m sure,” he joked.
“Patricia?” I asked, playing along. I thought about it for a second and hummed. “Nah, she’s totally a vampire. I don’t think she’s aged at all since I moved in.”
“But she’s old! Aren’t vampires all young and sexy?” Josh joked.
“Nah, they’re the best versions of themselves at whatever age they were turned. And she’s in great shape for an older lady. She’s probably selling her house because we’ll all start to notice soon that she doesn’t age,” I answered, playing around.
“She’s selling? Really? Does she have a buyer?” Josh asked.
I thought about filling him in on the stalker situation, but Josh seemed to need light and fun right now, and I didn’t want to worry him with that shit. “She does, apparently. Although I don’t know who,” I answered.
It occurred to me then that Dex seemed like he did know, and his brothers had walked past his house initially, over towards Patricia’s house. Huh. I wondered if his family was buying the house next door? That would be pretty cool, I guess.
“Dex has two hot as fuck sort of brothers,” I said. The train of thought totally made sense in my head, and Josh was used to my conversational leaps, because he just went along with it.
“Oh yeah? Are they serial killers, too?” he joked.
“Nah,” I answered, heading out toward the back porch. It looked like a nice night, and I could use a little fresh air. I opened the back door and stood on the back step overlooking the forest as I chatted with Josh. “The one is way too sweet to be a serial killer. He’s all curly-haired golden boy. I bet he’s got some crazy magical power like teleportation or something. Maybe a super powerful warlock who everyone underestimates.”
Josh chuckled. “And I bet he’s cute.”
“Absolutely,” I answered.
“Of course,” Josh agreed lightly.
“The other brother is dark and mysterious, and he kept looking up at the trees. I’m going with shifter for him. Or thunderbird, maybe. Oh, maybe a dragon. Yeah, I’ll definitely go with dragon. He’s also sexy as hell,” I laughed.
I heard a low rumble off in the woods as I added, “But Dex is way sexier, of course.”
I heard a chuff from the woods, and I wondered what the heck was out there. We didn’t usually have wolves or bears out here, but I guess we could. I backed up toward my door a little bit, suddenly feeling nervous.
“I think there’s an animal in my yard,” I whispered to Josh.
“Well, yeah Toby, I’m sure there is. You live backed up to protected forest land. I’m sure there’s a lot of animals in your yard,” Josh said, and he totally had his you’re letting your imagination run away with you voice on.
“I mean, I think there’s a big animal in my yard,” I whispered.
“Well, go inside,” he said.
“Pfft. Like I’d do something so reasonable,” I answered. I heard a door slam in the background at Josh’s and a strident voice call out. Sounded like his dickhead boyfriend was there, and I hadn’t even gotten a chance to fill Josh in on my new boyfriend status or my sexual escapades.
Josh gave a sigh. “I gotta go, Toby. I’ll fill you in later this week, ok?”
“Sure. You sure you’re ok?” I asked.
“I will be,” he answered cryptically, and with that, we said our goodbyes and hung up.
Was it wrong that I hoped they were breaking up? Because I totally did. His boyfriend was an asshole. With that thought, I reached for the door and opened it, but rather than go inside, I reached in and shut off the back porch light. Aside from attracting bugs, it didn’t make looking into the woods easy. I really did have the feeling that something big was out there.
I felt like I was being watched, but I wasn’t particularly worried—Dex was next door, and if I screamed he’d hear me. Plus, I was a half a step from my back door, and I figured I could get inside before anything could get me. It wasn’t like there were cheetahs roaming around these parts. Coyotes, bears, or wolves? Maybe, and it would be pretty cool to spot one. It was probably just a buck, though. We got deer around here all the time.
As my eyes adjusted to the light, I thought I saw something glowing faintly off in the trees. I rubbed my eyes and took a step forward. The glow looked… red? And blue? The red could be from a reflection of light on animal eyes, I guess. I mean red eye was a thing in pictures for a reason, wasn’t it? Although it seemed like animal eyes usually glowed yellow. But the blue was weird. I took another step forward and down the first step of my back porch.
That was… what the fuck was that? It was pitch black and blended in really well, except I swore there were licks of red and blue dancing along its fur. I got a sense of something really large. It was easily bear sized, only it wasn’t shaped like a bear. It seemed to be laying down and shaped more like a wolf, only wolves did not get that big. I could make out eyes staring straight at me.
“Holy fuck, you’re huge,” I whispered. “What are you?”
It shifted the tiniest bit, but it stayed laying down, watching me. I swear its eyes were focused right on me. And they were definitely glowing. The thing looked like it was straight out of one of my books. I was almost afraid to blink in case it disappeared when I did.
I took another step down, which was probably stupid, and the creature—whatever it was—cocked its head, but it stayed laying down.
“You’re beautiful,” I murmured. “I think I’m hallucinating,” I added after that.
The beast’s mouth opened, and it started to rise, and that’s when I realized that I was off my steps and not terribly close to my back door. I had a total oh shit moment and stumbled backwards, running into my steps in the process and falling hard on my ass.
It only took a second, and I should have been scared out of my mind that the thing was going to come at me, but when I looked up, it was gone.
Well fuck. I rubbed my eyes and stood up, scanning the woods, but they were empty. I eventually went in my back door, wondering what the hell had just happened. Had I imagined it? I mean, yeah, I had a vivid imagination, but I didn’t usually hallucinate things. I was a lucid dreamer, but I was wide awake. Maybe I was just way more tired than I thought I was, and I had been really stressed out.
I walked into the kitchen, leaning against my kitchen island. It felt sort of weird against my back though, and I turned around to look at it. There were two dents in the countertop. I didn’t know what the hell the counter was made of, but I knew it wasn’t flimsy. How the hell had it gotten dents in it?
“Toby, you’re losing it. Imagining shit and everything,” I muttered to myself.
At that moment, though, I heard an eerie howl off in the night once again.
I should’ve felt nervous, I knew that logically, but suddenly I was just really tired, and I felt… protected. Maybe it was crazy, but if there were wild animals in the woods, it would make it that much harder for anyone to sneak up on me.
I’d have to let Dex know tomorrow, though.
The last thing I wanted was Sexy Neighbor to get eaten by the local werewolf (unless he was the local werewolf, in which case—lucky me).
With that thought, and probably more calm than I should have felt considering something weird was outside, I headed up to bed. I had a feeling I’d have some pretty good dreams, and I looked forward to falling asleep imagining a sexy werewolf and an unassuming human finding a love match. You never knew when new book ideas would pop up.
As I drifted off to sleep, I thought about those eyes again. Something niggled at me, but I was too sleepy to get a grasp on it, and I drifted off with them glowing in my mind.
I woke to the sound of cawing.
Like, a lot of cawing. I hopped out of bed and ran to the window. The trees were filled with black birds. I was guessing crows, although some looked too large to be crows. Probably ravens—Sebbie liked feeding the birds and he had ravens that hung around by his property, so I knew they were way bigger.
I didn’t know what the hell they were cawing about, but I saw Corbin step off the front porch. A few flew down and one even landed on the guy’s shoulder.
Like that was perfectly normal and not weird as fuck.
Jude and Dex followed him outside, and at that point I made out the shape of a van coming up the long drive. I expected it to veer off toward Paricia’s property, although it didn’t quite look like a moving van. Only it didn’t—it kept coming until it was in my driveway.
Shit. I hadn’t ordered something, had I? I didn’t think I had a delivery coming, but maybe I’d forgotten something? I figured no one would steal it with those three outside, so I went and hopped into the shower before I went down to see what I’d forgotten. No point heading out there all disheveled. After all, I had a boyfriend to impress now. I grinned to myself at the thought.
If luck was with me, maybe I’d find Sexy Neighbor and his sexy brothers lounging on their porch when I picked up my package.
A guy could always hope, and as unlucky as stalker dude had been, I felt like my luck was definitely changing with the new boyfriend development.