Familiar Faces
A fleeting expression of something flashed across Aegis's face- surprise?- but it was gone, and he was unreadable once more. He had always been unreadable.?.. and extremely good looking, which apparently hadn't changed in the slightest. Broad shouldered, tall as sin, muscular, and apparently a mechanic.
My past was apparently keen on punching me in the face, and I suddenly felt very lacking. I was a mess.
“The one and only,” he grunted. “Good to see you, Sylvia.”
“The prodigal daughter returns!” Someone else said, a car door slamming.
I looked past Aegis, and it was everything I had both feared and secretly hoped for, all rolled into one immediate package.
“Ivy?!” I said, hardly daring to believe it.
My one-time best friend and the world's most incredibly chipper and lively soul on God's green earth, Ivy Daniels, was jogging toward me, a massive grin on her face. Dark, thick curls framed her dark complexion, and her brown eyes were bright with excitement. She was taller, a little wider than I remembered, but still practically vibrating with excitement. She jogged over and grabbed me by the shoulders, crushing me.
“Sylvia!” She squealed. “You’re back! We’ve had folks watching the road for days, now!”
I was stunned. “You- what?”
“It’s all over town, girl! Everyone knew you’d come back, eventually! Granted, some of us thought it would be a lot sooner, but hey, you're still back!”
I glanced past her toward Aegis, who was watching us steadily, the hint of a smile on his face. The fact that I could recognize that at all was embarrassing. I could feel a heated flush creeping on my cheeks. To say I used to crush on him was... an understatement. I wasn’t so awkward anymore- at least, I hoped I wasn’t- but that was the only me he’d ever known. The girl who secretly (but probably not as secretly as it should have been) mooned after him and daydreamed about what it would have been like to be his chosen mate...
Talk about mortifying.
“People were looking for us?” Dylan asked, confused. “Why?”
Ivy immediately looked past me, and I could see a tide of emotions flood her expression. “Oh, wow,” she said, her voice suddenly soft as she took the kids in. “Wow. I can see Marie in them.” She looked at Lucy, and smiled slightly. “She’s all you.”
“They’re my babies,” I said awkwardly. I looked over to see Aegis looking at Lucy, a curious look on his face. What does he think of me? I wondered. “How did everyone know we were coming home?” I asked, nervous.
“The news,” Ivy said, looking at me and raising an eyebrow. “We’re not that removed from the world, Sylvie.” She turned back to the kids, grinning. “Oh, the stories I have to tell you guys.”
“Are you mommy’s friend?” Lucy piped up, immediately stepping forward. Her green eyes were bright. “Mommy hasn’t had friends in ages.”
I blanched. Oh, God, strike me now, I moaned internally. “Ivy was my best friend,” I said, hoping to skip straight past that little tidbit. “We grew up together; the two of us were practically sisters.” I didn't mention the mortifying crush I used to harbor for Aegis, for obvious reasons. "That over there," I said, "is Aegis Black. He was a... friend from school."
Ivy gave me a smile, but I could see that there was a world of questioning hurt. I could just hear her voice: Why did you run away? Why didn’t you tell anyone? Why didn't you tell me?
“Anyway,” I said, looking away, because I was a coward and I didn’t want to face that right now. “I get the feeling you guys already know, but the silent and stoic suit over there is Agent Rudy Rodriguez, of the FBIDWC."
Rudy, who had been leaning against the moving van just ahead, smiled, but didn't get too close. "Good to see you both again."
"Thanks for watching out for her, Rodriguez," Ivy said, all business suddenly. She winked at me, though. "You have high connections, girl."
"Rudy was the one who... um." I shook my head, trying to figure out how to phrase Marie's death.
"Right," Aegis said, shifting. "Yeah. Eleven years ago."
I looked at him in appreciation. "Yeah. Then."
"Ah." Ivy nodded to Rudy again, and there was a little less stiffness. "I see. That makes a lot of sense."
"And these goofs," I said, turning to the kids, who were all beginning to fidget in boredom, "are my kids. That's Dylan, and that's Collin, the twins."
Dylan grinned eagerly, but Collin took one glance at Aegis's piercing look and pulled his hood tighter around his face. He tried shrinking against the car.
"This is Lucy," I said quickly, pulling their attention away from the twins.
"I'm five years old," Lucy said promptly, sticking her chin out. "I don't care if you're a werewolf or not, but you better be nice to her. Everyone's been real mean to her for ages."
I blanched again. "Lu, no one's been mean to me."
"Yuh-huh. Those camera people all kept shouting awful stuff about you and Collin. I didn't like them."
"No one's a fan of reporters around here," Aegis said, his voice low. "You can count on that. We'll keep your mom safe."
Lucy beamed. "Then we can be friends."
I sighed, rubbing my face in embarrassment. "Look, I’m, uh... I’m sorry to call you guys out. We were so close, but the car...”
Both Aegis and Ivy looked over at the car, seemingly for the first time, and they both stared at it in mounting horror.
“You’re still driving this?” Aegis asked bluntly.
“This car should’ve been retired when you got it,” Ivy added. “That was ten years ago.”
“Oi,” I said, offended and somewhat surprised Aegis knew it at all. “I’ll have you know, it’s never let me down until now!”
“Except for that one time when it got broken outside my school,” Lucy said matter-of-factly. “You got stuck there for, like, a whole buncha hours.”
“And that one time the engine gave out and covered the whole parking lot in smoke,” Dylan put in.
“Yeah, all right, we get the picture,” I said, waving them off. “Seriously, if you remembered your homework with that kind of memory, your grades would be phenomenal."
The kids all snickered.
“I’m not just here for old time’s sakes,” Ivy put in, grinning. “Believe it or not, you’re looking at the Werewolf Hollow Chief of Police.”
I stared at her, totally taken aback. “What? Since when?” Now that I looked more closely, her black outfit wasn't for nothing; there was a police badge pinned there, covered slightly by her curls, and "Werewolf Hollow Police" was emblazoned on a patch.
Ivy beamed. “Three years going, now.”
“Shut up.”
“Yeah. Seriously.”
“You always said you wanted to become a teacher,” I said, staring at her. “How do you go from teaching to policing?”
Ivy shrugged, and I suddenly got the impression that there was a very good reason there... one I should’ve been around for. “Stuff happens,” she said, giving me a tight smile, and my heart sank.
I knew my leaving Werewolf Hollow was going to have consequences, I thought, but I never expected such a chasm to open up between us...
“I’m going to get this old thing loaded up,” Aegis said, looking at my car in a mixture of disgust and disbelief. “How it’s still running is beyond me. It’s more rust than car, at this point.”
“Faith, miracles, and pixie dust,” I said. Something Rudy had said struck me, suddenly. “Hang on- you’re an Alpha?”
“Oh, yeah.” Aegis stood up and scratched his chin, which was covered in stubble, because of course it was. “Been a few years now, I think.”
“A lot’s changed,” Ivy said softly.
“I bet...” I looked at the kids, who were starting to look bored with the adult talk. “You guys good?”
“I’d like to not be standing on a highway, anymore,” Collin said quietly. He was staring at his shoes, avoiding Aegis’s gaze.
“I’ve got you,” Ivy said quickly. “Come on, kids. Pile on in; you’re traveling in style. Aegis will get your car to the shop, and he’ll do his best to, uh... get it working.”
Aegis snorted, but said nothing.
“I’ll get you home,” Ivy said, and there was a lot of weight on that word that made the hairs on my arms stand on end.
"We get to ride in a cop car?!" Dylan crowed, and even Collin looked up, eyes widening.
"I wanna sit in the back!" Lucy shrieked, and she took off at a dead sprint, pushing past us.
"I'll get the bags out of the back," I said wryly.
"I'll help you," Rudy said, appearing from out of the shadows. I gave him a look; I knew full well that he had definitely hung back on purpose. Somehow, I wondered if he'd known who he was calling.
"All three of you can ride in the back!" Ivy called, laughing as she followed behind them. "I'll even take out the handcuffs, if you want!"
"COOL!" Dylan and Collin shouted simultaneously.
"They're sold," I scoffed.
We got most of the bags- apart from the kids' entertainment items- into the back of the moving van, while Aegis set up the winch. By the time I slid into the passenger seat of Ivy's cruiser, which I now saw read SHERIFF along the side, the kids were belted in and giggling like mad over a pair of cuffs.
"Are you allowed to give them that?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Eh, small town cops," Ivy said, waving a hand at me. "Whose going to tell on the Sheriff?"
"Good point," I said. "Thanks for... you know. Coming to get us."
Ivy gave me a look- like she wanted to reach out, but also like there was a million miles between us. I certainly felt it.
"Of course," she said finally. "You needed help- and when I tell you folks around here have already forgiven you for disappearing, I mean it."
I looked at her in surprise. "What do you mean?"
"'Leave my family the hell alone'," Ivy quoted, and I blanched. She giggled. "You've got a lot of people out here who really liked seeing a mom stick up for her kids in that kind of a situation. You've got no shortage of folks willing to welcome you back home with open arms."
I swallowed. "I see."
Ivy gave me a smile, a real one, this time. "Come on. There's enough time for all of that later. Let's go home."