Chapter 4

Alessia

When I look at him, I realize for the first time he’s not the same puggy short, shy kid I’ve been friends with all these years. For the first time I see we have grown up. He’s a muscular man now. He’s standing confidently against a stone wall. He’s wearing a fitted, short-sleeved shirt that accentuates his broad shoulders and strong arms. His posture is relaxed yet assertive, with a slight tilt of his head, he is looking around the area with a contemplative expression.

Then he looks at me with blue eyes so much like mine it's like looking in a mirror "Now, We are going to be here for a couple days. make yourself at home the bedrooms are at the top of the stairs. When it is time to go a message will come up on the screen of the fridge, from either mom or gramma. They will tell us where to go." I look at the refrigerator there is a white board on the front no screen.

"What screen?" he laughs "Look there are a lot of things I have to fill you in on, that 'white board' is a magically hidden screen it is encrypted so Only mom and gramma know what is being written and only they can send it to other coven members.

Its a whole big thing, let me make some coffee and breakfast and we can talk about it." Just as he finished my stomach growled and we both break out laughing. After breakfast sitting in the cove each on our own couch off in thought in our own little world.

Lyle breaks the comfortable silence pulling me back to the here "Once a week as a kid I donated blood to you." the look on my face must have relayed my shock because he laughs. "You never knew, Mom found out when you were about Eight that it was easier so suppress your Vampire side if you had a few drops of blood in your drinks. We also found that using my blood helped us always find each other, making it easier to keep track of you just in case." he looked down a bit sheepish and I laughed.

"Thats why we could never play hide and seek after that, somehow I always knew where you were." so many things are starting to make sense now. he says "Yeah and do you remember when we got lost in the woods." I laughed harder now. "We weren't lost we went in that hunting blind we found, and Mike swore there were demons dancing on the roof he scared the crap out of me." tears were rolling down my face from the laughter.

"All those storied told by our parents to keep us out of the woods about the virgin forest being haunted." he gasps out through his own laughter. "It didn't help we watched that stupid movie the night before and knew we were close to the pet cemetery." I giggle out,

with that he laughed even harder "Oh my God." "OH and the way you decided to shoot out the door and cuss out what ever horrid thing was making all the noise on the roof I thought you were a goner. But then when your laughter rang out, I had to know." I said holding my stomach.

Lyle starts nodding his head fast and hard. "Those damn squirls were chucking pinecones and nuts at the roof pissed off we invaded their territory. I didn't even know those tiny things could get that mad. I got in so much trouble when we made it back to town." I sobered immediately "So did I, who knew we were in there for six hours whole damn town looking for three little kids.

Looking back even though it's funny from our perspective I can only imagine how horrifying it was from theirs, specially knowing what I know now." Lyle slows his laughter "Do you remember when we broke into that cabin and stole the liquor." Laughter bubbles out of me again

"Liquor? you mean beer and wine. You and Mike were so drunk I didn't know how I was going to get you home safely! I ended up driving mikes four-wheeler out of the woods because you were less fucked up then him. I didn't even feel the effects of the wine it was like I had been drinking water.

When I called to check on you, your mom was so pissed said you had came in and passed out in the dog bed." I laugh harder "But what took the cake was when I called mikes mom and she said that he had sat on the couch puked in his hand then forgot and rubbed it up his face and in his hair." the humor slipped from my voice as I continued,

"She was livid blamed me for the whole thing because I was sober. That was the last summer they lived in town and the last summer we were truly the three amigos." my mood plummeted Lyle wasn't laughing any more either. "It's not your fault ya know. Your wolf might have been suppressed but your metabolism wasn't. That's why you burned through the alcohol so fast and were sober enough to get us home safely"