Vie for a Lie

“Why are we here again?” Henry groans, turning his head to look at me.

He never wanted to come here. When I said we’d be leaving England, he’d been excited – he always hated the cold, dismal weather the country was known for. Once he learned we would be moving to Washington, which was just as bad – if not worse – he’d been fairly upset. He would get over it eventually; we had already lived in England for seventy years anyway.

“Stop complaining. It’ll just be liked nothing changed…except culture and accents, I suppose.” I replied, keeping my hands on the steering wheel.

We bought a car to get around easier. It still had the new car smell, which I personally hated. The first thing I bought after that had been a lavender scented air freshener, which, unfortunately, didn’t get rid of the suffocating smell as easily as I had wanted.

Henry had convinced me to buy a luxury car – a Mercedes Benz Cabriolet, actually. I had wanted something less flamboyant and more practical, but it was the least I could do for making him move so far away from home.

“Arianne!” Henry exclaimed, gaining my attention.

“What?”

“You missed the house, love.”

Oops.

Quickly, I turned the car around and headed back towards the house. At first, I was skeptical about buying a house off the town’s main road. However, it turned out that we actually had a private drive that led into the wood, where our house was. Really, the biggest downfall was the time it took to get to the end of the drive to reach the mailbox. It’d be annoying, but bearable. Besides, the house definitely made up for it. It was more or less brand-new and absolutely gorgeous.

After parking the car in the garage and locking it up, Henry and I headed into our new home. The exterior was pretty unique. The bottom half was made of large grey stones, and the top half had horizontal planks of orange-tinted wood. Grey concrete covered the main part of the driveway and surrounded half of the house. There was custom landscaping in the back that did look rather odd, but I didn’t mind. The rest of the house certainly made up for it. Inside, the theme was pretty much the same – grey stone and wood. It had a fairly rustic feel, which I loved, while still being modern. The house had cost a fortune, but after years of saving for something like this, I had just enough money to buy it.

Henry went inside before me and instantly marveled at the view out the living room window. It looked out over a valley covered in trees – beautiful. While he was distracted, I grabbed my bags and started up the stairs.

“I call the master suite!” I shouted down at him, running up the stairs. I heard him curse before following up to see what I just claimed.

The room was fairly plain, with cream-colored walls and carpet. Two off-white chairs were pushed up against a wall, next to a bookcase. A king-size bed was placed on the other side of the room, facing the window that had the same amazing view as the living room. Next to that window was a fireplace, and on top of that, a television. I hadn’t noticed it at first, but there were also two doors that led to different balconies. I assumed one of them would connect with Henry’s room.

Henry left the room grumbling, leaving me alone. I sat on the bed and smiled to myself, happy with how the move was going so far. If things continued like this, I would never want to leave. However, I still had a lot to do.

- - - - - - - - -

It had been two days since we moved in. Henry and I had spent those days stocking up the house on food – despite being only two people, we ate more food than a family of four. We had also gone shopping for clothes and other necessities, as we had not brought much with us. The rest of the time was spent adjusting to the eight-hour time difference. It was hard to get anything done when I wanted to go to bed before four in the afternoon.

“We should go meet him.” I told Henry one afternoon while we sat in the living room.

“Meet who?”

I groaned. “Don’t make this hard on me, Henry. I told you about him on the plane – Sam Uley, the leader of the pack who lives in La Push.”

He only smirked. “Yeah, yeah, I know. Might as well head out now, yeah?”

Twenty minutes later, we pulled up to his house. It was awkward being on the reservation with a flashy car; people stared. Henry seemed to love that.

I didn’t know if that would be more awkward than talking to Sam and explaining why I was here, though.

Henry followed me to the door. I knocked on the door and waited patiently, hoping he was home. It was a woman who answered.

“Hello,” She said with a smile, though her voice sounded uncertain.

“Hi,” I replied warmly. “I’m Arianne, and this is Henry. We’d like to speak with Sam, if that’s possible.”

The woman still looked uncertain. I had to wonder if something had happened recently to make her so on edge. We’re not bad people, I thought, willing her to think the same.

After a short moment she nodded, and let us in. “Sam! You have visitors!”

He walked into the room and narrowed his eyes. “Who are you?”

Well, that was right to the point. I introduced ourselves again, before adding what was really important.

“We’re shape-shifters, like you. We just moved in a couple miles away.”

Sam looked rather unsettled about this. “Why…?”

“Well, I have orders to keep an eye on the vampires who live around here.”

“Who would tell you to do that? They’re more or less harmless. Annoying, but harmless.”

I sighed. “It’s rather complicated. They’re—people like me. They’ve always been wary of those vampires in particular and wanted someone to make sure they aren’t changing their ways. Henry and I, we came here to make things easier for everyone. You’re alright with us around, yeah?”

Sam was silent for a moment. Thinking, I suppose. What would I do, if another pack – even if just two people – moved into an area that was basically next door to them? I probably wouldn’t be too happy about it myself. However, I needed – I wanted him to not mind us being around. I caught his gaze and smiled reassuringly. We wouldn’t cause trouble for them.

“Alright, yeah, just don’t cause problems. You’re welcome around here.”

I grinned. “Awesome.”

After that, we migrated to their living room, where we were joined once more by the woman. I learned her name was Emily, and that she and Sam were married. We all started talking, though it was mostly Sam asking about where we were from and how many other packs we’d met. He must not have met many, if any at all. Not that it was unexpected – Sam’s pack was very isolated. There were also a lot less shape-shifters alive than a century ago. Damn vampires.

Emily ended up inviting us to dinner, which Henry gladly accepted. Over dinner, Sam invited us to a bonfire he was holding with his pack. It would be a good time to meet everyone else, he told us. We agreed; Henry was happy he would be able to meet other shifters.

We left shortly after dinner, as it was getting late. Once we were in the car, Henry chattered on about how he was excited for the bonfire. It was definitely something neither of us had experienced before.

I was just happy that everything was going along easier than planned.