A Wolf's Oath (28 page)
I need to get the things for Dylan and Wyatt’s cake, I don’t
need anyone with me to do that and that way he can get a little
extra much needed sleep.
She turned to
leave, closing the door silently behind her.
I wonder if my body remembers how to drive,
she mused as she headed for the shower.
I’ll soon see I suppose.
It didn’t take long for her to shower, dress and leave
Sebastian a note in the living room telling him where she had gone
and she was soon ready to leave the house. Grabbing Sebastian's
wallet and car keys from the living room table, she wrapped herself
up in several warm layers of outdoor clothing and headed out to the
car. It was easy enough to enter the car and turn it on but as she
stared at the various bits of machinery that were meant to make it
move she began to have doubts about her capacity to actually
drive.
What the hell, I’ve come this far
so I might as well give it a shot. But what if it goes horribly
wrong?
her mind questioned, second guessing
her resolve to go through with this.
I thought you wanted to be of use to Sebastian.
The unknown voice within her mind snapped,
If you want to continue being a useless damsel in
distress then just let me know now so I can find a nice corner of
your mind to hibernate in until you come back to your senses and
start being the Erica I know. What’s the worst that could happen?
You crash? There’s nothing to crash into around here. You’ll know
soon enough if you’re capable of doing this.
You’re right. I don’t want to continue being so
helpless,
Erica conceded.
Then what are you waiting for? You have a plan, get on with
it!
Right.
Closing her eyes, Erica tried
to force her body to relax and hoped that as was the case in the
kitchen, her body simply remembered what needed to be done.
Let’s get on with this.
Her hands reached out instinctively for the wheel while her
feet rested uneasily on the pedals that would put the car into
motion. Her grip on the wheel tightened before she pushed her foot
down hard on the accelerator. The car sped forward instantly and
Erica squeaked in surprise almost instantly, putting her other foot
down on the brake, bringing the car to a halt.
I can do this.
She reassured herself
once again pushing on the acceleration, the car again rushed
forward and again she pressed the brake. The start, stop method of
transport continued for several moments during which Erica became
convinced that she had never even learned to drive.
It shouldn’t be so hard to do something that I’ve
learnt before. I seem to be able to do everything else just fine,
why is it so hard to do this?
She
growled.
Her anger apparently served as the catalyst for improvement
as she exerted just the right amount of pressure on the accelerator
and eased the car into a manageable speed. She resisted the urge to
cheer, fearing that any movement that took her limbs away from
their current positions would be to take steps back in her driving
ability. The drive to the town was longer than it had been when
Sebastian had driven her, but given how at ease he seemed in the
driver’s seat, that was understandable. She parked just outside the
town’s small store and jumped from the car in triumph.
I managed to drive here all by myself. And I didn’t even end
up in an accident. Now that would have been bad, from one accident
to another. I don’t think that I’m actually capable of forgetting
any more than I actually have but judging from my run of luck I’d
end up forgetting how to speak or something.
Chuckling lightly, she entered the store and headed
immediately for the shelves that spanned the length of the store at
the back. If memory served her right those shelves held general
household goods and she hoped they would hold the ingredients for a
recipe-less cake. Her eyes scanned the shelves, immediately locking
onto the flour held on the top shelf.
Flour good.
She smiled, checking off
items on her mental checklist. Next to the flour lay large bags of
sugar and that item was ticked off. The eggs were lower down and
she reached for them gathering them into her arms before realising
that she had forgotten something in her haste to find the
ingredients for the cake. Making her way back to the door, she
grabbed a basket and placed the eggs inside before returning to the
back of the store.
Placing the basket on the floor, she stretched up and reached
for the bag of flour that lay on the top shelf. A frown formed on
her face when her fingers struggled to reach it. Standing on the
tips of her toes, she reached up once more and tried to bring the
flour and sugar down to her level and again she failed. Growling in
frustration, she began to jump wildly, trying desperately to reach
the ingredients she needed for the cake.
If Sebastian were here, he’d be able to reach them,
her mind reminded her.
Shut up! I’m perfectly capable of doing this
myself.
“
Do you need some help?” a voice asked from behind
her.
She turned to face the new comer, smiling widely at him. He
was taller than she and would easily be able to reach he higher
shelf. Upon seeing her face, the stranger frowned, his eyes
wandering over her frame as though she were a unique species of
something under a microscope. The longer he looked at her the
deeper his frown became but Erica ignored the increased frostiness
in his behaviour, intent on making her first trip out alone a
fruitful one.
“
Yes I do actually. I can’t seem to reach the flour and sugar.
I don’t understand why anyone would put them up so high. Would you
mind getting me a large bag of each please?”
“
Sure.” The stranger moved forward and she instinctively took a
step back. The exposed skin of his neck revealed a very interesting
tattoo and she couldn’t resist the urge to ask him about it.
Something about the bullet etched into his skin called to the lost
memories buried deep within her mind.
“
That’s a very interesting tattoo,” she remarked
casually.
He handed her the large bags of flour and sugar before his
hand lightly touched the skin of his neck. “Thanks.”
“
I feel as though I’ve seen it somewhere before.” She stepped
forward, her eyes locked on his skin as she tried to remember where
exactly she had seen that mark before. She could feel her head
beginning to ache with the coming of a headache from the effort she
was exerting. “I’m sorry. That was rude of me.”
“
It’s no problem really.”
“
I’ll let you get back to your shopping. Thanks for helping me
out.” She placed the flour and sugar in the basket, smiling widely
at the stranger before continuing to move through the store picking
up the items she thought she might need to make a cake. The rest of
her shopping list was thankfully located on shelves lower to the
ground and so she didn’t need to ask for the help of the kind
stranger. Her shopping complete, she made her way to the checkout.
The same woman who had served her and Sebastian the last time she
had come to town was watching her approach and smiling at
her.
“
Hello Erica.”
“
Hello Victoria. Hang on a second. I didn’t tell you my name.
How did you know it?”
“
It’s a very small town and we don’t get many new people moving
in. Everybody knows everybody here.”
So that means this town is filled with busy bodies and
gossips? Great,
Erica thought as she placed
the items she had bought on the conveyor belt.
“
Are you planning on making a cake?” Victoria
questioned.
“
Huh?” The older lady smiled, waving a hand over the items that
Erica was planning on buying. “Oh yes, I am. My younger brother and
sister are coming to visit and they told me that they want me to
make them a cake, so here I am.”
“
So how many siblings do you have then Erica?”
“
Two.”
As far as I’m aware.
“
Are they much younger than you then?”
“
A fair bit,” she hedged, becoming distinctly uncomfortable
with the woman’s questions.
“
How old are they?”
I don’t know.
“Five.”
I think. Well they look about five,
she shrugged.
“
They’re both five?”
“
Yes.” Erica said through gritted teeth.
How long does it take to check out some flour?
her mind muttered angrily. The more questions
Victoria asked, the more frustrated Erica became at her inability
to remember her life.
“
Twins?”
“
Yes.”
“
Oh children are adorable at that age and twins…your parents
must be run ragged.”
“
Excuse me? What’s that supposed to mean?”
“
Nothing dear. It’s just that your parents must be getting on
in years if they have a daughter of your age and then to have two
young kids to look after, it must be hard on them.”
“
My parents are dead.”
“
Oh dear, I’m terribly sorry. How did they die?”
I have no fucking clue!
“Look
Victoria, Sebastian and I came here so that I wouldn’t have to deal
with the pressure of other people expecting me to remember
something. And to be quite honest your questions aren’t helpful in
the slightest. I don’t remember anything and I don’t like being
reminded of that fact. I know this is a small town and your
questions might not bother everyone else, but they bother me. So
why don’t you just finish checking out my sugar so I can be on my
way?”
“
I didn’t know you felt so strongly about my asking
questions.”
“
Well I do.”
Victoria moved much faster and Erica's items were soon all
scanned and paid for. Erica picked up the bag that contained her
purchases and left without saying another word to the older
lady.
“
What was all that about?” The tall stranger that had helped
Erica earlier asked Victoria as he handed her the few items he had
picked up from the store.
“
The poor child has amnesia and apparently she didn’t think my
questions were helpful.”
“
Amnesia?” he asked, perplexed.
“
Yes, she can’t remember anything.”
“
Nothing?”
“
Apparently she had an accident and all her memories prior to
it have gone.”
I knew I recognised her from somewhere,
the man thought.
She’s the one in
those pictures Vincent is distributing. I wonder just what he’ll
say when he finds out she has amnesia and I wonder just how severe
it is? She didn’t recognise the tattoo. Does that mean she doesn’t
remember the monster she is? I’ve got to let Vincent know about
this.
“
Stupid woman and her stupid questions. Just who does she think
she is?” Erica muttered under her breath as she pulled in to the
driveway of her home. “You’d think that she was a member of the
Spanish inquisition or something. But no, she’s just plain nosy. I
now officially hate nosy people. I don’t know if I hated them
before I lost my memories or not and I don’t care.” Jumping out of
the car she reached over to the passenger seat and grabbed her
shopping before slamming the door loudly behind her. Waking up the
path she continued to rant about the inquisitiveness of strangers,
one in particular until she reached the front door. Opening it and
walking into the living room, she found Sebastian sitting on the
sofa, a small piece of wood in one hand and a knife in the other.
The wood shrank in size as he hacked away at it with the knife and
judging from the wood chips that covered the floor beneath his
feet, the wood had once been significantly larger than it
was.
His eyes were unfocused as he cut the wood with unseeing
eyes. His behaviour was beginning to alarm her. He’d made no move
to acknowledge her presence. As he continued to whittle away at the
wood, the sharp edge of his blade crept ever closer to his skin,
but he didn’t seem to notice or even care that he was centimetres
away from hurting himself. Dropping her bag onto the living room
table, she called to him hoping that her distraction didn’t end up
hurting him.
“
Sebastian, what are you doing?”
He stood, turning to face her. “Erica, are you
ok?”
“
I’m fine, you on the other hand…what the hell did you think
you were doing? You could have seriously hurt yourself. You weren’t
even looking at that knife and there’s almost no wood left, you
could have seriously hurt yourself.”
He looked away, unsure of how to answer her question. The
instinct gnawed at him, demanding he tell her the truth, she was
his mate and didn’t deserve to be lied to but in her current state,
the truth could have been dangerous to her health. How could he
explain to her that he had woken to the lingering fragrance of her
unique smell and panicked when he found that she wasn’t in the room
with him? When he had instinctively sniffed the air upon waking he
had been delighted to find Erica's scent so close. Her proximity
meant that she must have had another nightmare. Though he didn’t
like the idea of her suffering from haunting dreams in the night,
he did enjoy the feel of her body pressed closely against his own
when she came to join him in his bed. However, when he had woken
today her body hadn’t been beside him and a quick scan of his
surroundings told him that she wasn’t in the room either. He had
immediately sprung from the bed and begun to search the house and
when he could find no trace of her, his thoughts had become
increasingly murky as his wolf filled his mind with the need to
find her and bring her back to him. The note she had left for him
to find had been the only reason he hadn’t run from the house to
find her. He could understand her desire to be self-sufficient but
he couldn’t shake the feeling that something bad would happen to
her if she left his sight. In an attempt to calm himself he had
decided to do a little wood sculpting, the activity had always
calmed him in the past and he hoped it would do so now. Judging
from the concerned look on Erica's face, it hadn’t
worked.