R.E.D. Tiger Ch. 02

"Well let's get you fixed on up then."she said while leading me over to her chair and sitting me down. "We're going to start with a wash and then we'll get you cleaned up ok."she told me.

Sitting in her chair with her fingers running through my hair I couldn't help but relax and let the stress of really the last year or so fall away. Having her breast bouncing in front of my face didn't really hurt either. I'd always thought growing up that she hung her breast in my face on purpose but now I realized with their size they couldn't help but be in my face.

"Ooh Gina, I didn't know you had such a sexy boyfriend."said one of the other hairdressers. I blushed a little as Gina glared at her co-worker before replying.

"Yeah right Kim as if." she snorted,"besides what would Alan want with an old lady anyway." I felt that this was a good a time as any to chime in.

"Hey don't put this on me." I started,"For two years I followed you around like a lovesick puppy and you didn't want anything to do with me. Besides I MIGHT like older women for all you know."

"Well if he likes older women then send him over this way when you're finished with his hair and I'll show him a thing or two." Marge said.

"The HELL you will." Gina shot back a little possessively and then leaned over me to make eye contact before telling me,"You really shouldn't encourage her like that."

"Who said I was joking. Gina you're still someone who I would love to date. Your funny, kind, smart and incredibly–"

"Old"interrupted Marge.

"beautiful."I finished looking into Gina eyes. This time she blushed.

After that we moved on to lighter topics and caught up on what the other had been doing since we last talked. When Gina was finished with my hair it was around one thirty. She had cut my hair just a little shorter and styled it in a way that she said made me look "sophisticated" and "mature". I opted to got and pick up lunch for everyone so they could continue working. After picking up everyone's lunch I had to leave because it was already two o'clock.

I jetted back over to the tailor and made sure that everything fitted right for my old suits and tried on the new ones I had bought. I was tempted to change into one of the more casual suits but I knew that Rose would be disappointed if I did. After leaving the tailor it was right at four thirty giving me just enough time to make it to pick up Rose.

I called Rose and she told me to pick her up around the same place I dropped her off at this morning. I got there a little early so I decided to hop out of the car and wait by her door to help her with her bags and stuff when she arrived.

I was standing there waiting when I saw Rose walking up with two other girls. She had her hands over her face like she was embarrassed and was talking to the other two in a whisper, I could barely make out what she was saying but it sounded like she said,"I'm serious you two no jokes!!"

"Hey how you doing Rose?." I said when she reached the car. I went around back to throw her books and stuff in the trunk along with the suits I had just brought.

"I'm doing fine. These two are my friends Aki and Jan and there just "dying" to meet you or so they say."she said while pointing to the two girls with her. Jan was what I would describe as cute. Long strawberry blonde hair, not too tall, medium sized tits, she had a real girl next door type thing going on. Aki on the other hand was stunning. Short dark brown hair, gray eyes, kissable lips and a figure that would make most porn stars jealous. The amazing thing was that even though her name was Aki she wasn't oriental from what I could tell, she looked a little foreign but I couldn't quite place it but she looked kind of European maybe Italian of French or something like that.

"How did you get the name Aki?"I asked her. She told me that her grandfather on her mother's side had served in the British royal navy in world war two and her grandfather on her father's side also served for the U.S. army. Both of them fell in love with the japanese culture. In her family they have a tradition where the grandparents get to name the first boy and first girl. So she got the name Aki and her older brother the name Kai.

"Alright well it was nice meeting you girls. Rose are you ready?"I asked. She told me she was so I opened her door for her and then went to get in on my side as well. Before we drove off Aki leaned into the car and said,

"It was nice finally meeting your boyfriend Rose. We were all starting to think you were a lesbian or something. Although some of the other girls might not be so happy that you're not batting for the other team." Aki laughed and back away from the car and she and Jan waved as we drove off. I saw Rose blush, but noticed she didn't bother to tell her friends that I wasn't her boyfriend or deny that she was a lesbian, two things I found very interesting.

We headed into the store and I took half the list while Rose took the other. She said it was because she was really tired and wanted to get home quick to take a shower but I think she was just embarrassed about what happened earlier with her friends. After gathering all the things we made it home and Rose went to take a shower while I went to put on some normal clothes. Rose still hadn't made any eye contact with me yet so I decided to just let her take a shower and hopefully things would be normal when she got out.

After Rose took a shower we decided on what to eat for dinner. We decided that I would grill some chicken breast while Rose made a salad. I went outback to the grill and started it up. While I preferred an old fashioned charcoal grill Rose was afraid of the open flames so she had brought a propane grill while I was gone. I think my old charcoal grill was around here somewhere but I knew we didn't have any charcoals laying around.

After I finished cooking the chicken Rose brought out the salad and some lemonade and we sat in the backyard looking at the stars and talking. Close to nine o'clock Rose said she was going to bed. I reminded her that most likely I would be coming home late tomorrow after the funeral and I'd probably hit a bar and crash at a hotel.

After I finished my last cup of lemonade I went inside and washed the dishes before heading up to take my own shower. When I got there I decided to instead take a nice long bath so I filled up the tub and got in for a soak.

Finished with my bath I went to my room to stretch out and watch the news. The forecast looked all clear for tomorrow which was good because nothings worse then a rainy funeral. Before I knew it my eyes started getting heavy and I dosed off to sleep.

____

The next morning I woke up to the sound of my alarm clock. I was under a cover so I assumed Rose must have thrown one over me sometime last night or this morning. I reached over to turn off the alarm clock and then sat at the end of the bed trying to shake off some of the lethargy felt.

I was awoke for a full five minutes before I realized that I felt different. My vision was clearer and I felt much stronger, I even knew things that I didn't last night when I went to sleep. It dawned on me that what I felt was the last vestiges of the power coming in to me which meant that Felix was now truly dead.

The realization that Felix was dead finally hit me. I think until then it never really seemed real to me because I knew he was still alive but now that I had the rest of his energy I guess it was just to much to take. I sat at the edge of my bed silently weeping over the loss of my friend and mentor. I was looking absentmindedly off into space when I felt a tap on my shoulder. Coming back unto focus I was startled to see Felix standing right there.

"Felix? What's going on? I thought you were dead."I asked him.

"Relax my friend. I am dead. Before I died I created this message with the last of my strength in order to talk to you one last time. You won't be able to talk back I'm afraid so I'd appreciate it if you'd just listen."

"Now I have a lot to talk to you about but we don't have much time so I'm gonna hit the main parts and leave the rest up to you to find out. First off I've talked to Samuel and he basically repeated to me what he told you. I don't know how you're taking all of that but I want to reassure you no matter if you were originally human or not I still believe that you are the proper host so don't start doubting yourself."

"I'd hoped that you and Samuel could become friends but alas that doesn't seem to be possible at the moment. You've got that bastard as scared as I've ever seen. On the bright side the way your bank account usually worked was that you'd have to get approval from Samuel to spend large sums of money but with him scared of you he's removed that clause so feel free to spend as much as you want. Take a vacation, move into a bigger house, buy an island, basically do whatever the hell you want."

"The next thing is that I know for a fact that you'll see Molina today at my funeral. I really wanted to send her a message like this one but as far as she knew I was just plain old grandpa. I couldn't take the thought of her hating me for lying to her this whole time. So please when you see her will you please tell her I loved her very much. Also watch out for Tracy's pack. I've been hearing around that they plan on approaching her sometime in the next couple of months and they'll no doubt be at my funeral. Trying to persuade her by pretending to be her moral support. So be on the lookout for them."

"And last but not least I want you to not mope around about me dying. I lived a very long life and I have little regrets about dying. I ready to join all my friends and family on the other side. Don't be sad for me, get on with your life. I tell you what, I know you'll probably want to go out to a bar tonight and drown your sorrows in alcohol but here's what I want you to do. Go out and drink all the alcohol you want, find a nice young woman; there's plenty of them around this city, and have you some fun tonight. Just don't forget to toast once for me Okay? That's really all the time I have but a little advice try to learn more about your parent's. Even if what Samuel said is untrue it still would be good to know a little more about where you come from. So for now goodbye and I'll see you when you get to this side but hopefully that's not for another couple of hundred years from now."

With that the vision faded away. Pulling myself together I looked over at the clock and proceeded to get up and get ready for my friend's final farewell. To tell the truth I did feel much better after seeing Felix's final wishes, it was kinda therapeutic to come to grips with his death face to face. I felt like I was ready to attend his funeral now and who knows I might even take him up on his advice for later on tonight as well.

After showering and eating I got dressed in my black suit and headed down to the funeral home. I got there around an hour before the funeral was scheduled to start and saw many people there. It made me smile to know that Felix was so loved in the community, who knows maybe our paths would have crossed much sooner if I hadn't always been away in the military.

I scanned the crowd for Molina, Tracy and John hoping to go and introduce myself. I knew from a picture of them that Felix kept in his wallet what they looked like. I saw Tracy and John standing up towards the front talking with some guest and made my way closer to them.

Then I saw Molina out the side of my eye. She was standing in a back corner with a couple of other people who looked like they didn't belong here. Molina was wearing a black mourning dress while her counterparts were in jeans and t-shirts. They obviously weren't here to pay there respects and just seemed to stand and talk to Molina the whole time. I stretched out my senses and sure enough the whole group was composed of werewolves.

I felt compelled to step in and try to keep Molina away from the pack of vultures. I made my way over to talk to her but stopped a little far off to observe her for a second. Tracy was a native american and John of course had Felix's italian blood so Molina was a interesting shade of brown. Kind of like she had a perpetual tan. She had really dark hair, close to black but I could tell it was in actuality brown. She was very lean kind of elven really.

The group around her consisted of two girls and one guy. The girls seemed to defer to the guy but I doubted that he was a pack alpha. If he was there would be way more then three of them here and he would be way bigger and stronger. No this fellah was probably just a grunt or something sent to "comfort" Molina and subtly put pressure on Tracy at the same time.

My observation complete I approached Molina and the group and started talking to her while offering her my hand.

"Hello Molina." I said,"My name is Alan Thorton and I was a friend of your grandfathers. It's nice to finally meet you, Felix mentioned you a lot."

At first Molina seemed kind of surprised but then she smiled and returned my handshake.

"Hello Mr. Thorton it's good to meet you too. Although I'm sorry to say that I don't think my grandfather had ever mentioned you."

"I would think not. I only met him about three months ago, but we became very close friend rather quickly. Felix, he took me under his wing so to speak and was a wonderful mentor to me. In fact I was with him when he first started to fall ill. He told me days before he died to pass on a message to you but I'm reluctant to repeat it in front of such..."then I looked at the group," questionable company."

Apparently the girls had had enough of being ignored and looked to the male of the group to say something or put me in my place. The male started by straightening his back and puffing out his chest in attempt to cow me into submission. I however had about twenty pounds and three or so inches on him so suffice to say I was less then impressed. Seeing that this wasn't working I guess he decided to switch to a verbal assault.

"Listen you bastard, Molina don't want nothing to do with you so just go about your business before someone get's hurt...and by someone I mean you" he threatened. I just stood there looking at him not showing an ounce of fear. He looked bewildered that I wasn't moving or scurrying along to attend to recently remembered pressing business. I couldn't help but crack a smile at the dumb look on his face and that seem to set him off because he was about to say something else before Molina cut him off. I think she was worried for me because she tried to usher me away while saying to the group.

"It's OK Rodrigo, I'll just hear what he has to say and then i'll be right back. You, Vera, and Venus wait here okay." Rodrigo reached out to pull her back but I intercepted his hand and slapped it away before I said,

"Don't worry we can talk later, besides it looks like the funeral's about to start so we should probably get to our seats." Molina looked up and saw her mom waving for her and went to join them. I also had a reserved seat up front but on the opposite side of Molina an her family.

The funeral started and it was a pretty good service. The best part was when people would get up to tell stories about times when Felix helped them out, or how they met Felix, or just things they liked about him period. Although I had made my peace with Felix earlier I couldn't help but shed a few tears as I saw all the people who loved him speak.

I looked over at Molina a couple of times and I could tell she was fighting back tears. Out of the three of Felix's family members she seemed to be the only one seriously grieving. Tracy looked nervous and kept looking back towards the three werewolves Rodrigo, Vera and Venus who were sitting in the back row. John on the other hand kept looking down at his watch impatiently and I looked visibly annoyed every time a new person stood up. I guess Felix was right and John was just an ass.

After the ceremony was finished the pallbearers took the coffin out to the cemetery and the progression followed. Once we got to the plot of land that would be Felix's grave the last rites were given and the attendees started to leave. I was standing in the back by a couple of trees when Molina came up to me.

"Ok we don't have much time so what was it you needed to tell me?"she asked.

"Well like I said earlier I was with Felix when his health first started to deteriorate. When he realized he wasn't going to make it he begged me to tell you how much he loved you. Every time Felix talked about you I could tell that you meant a lot to him. He also told me that there would be some...unsavory characters hanging around you and he wanted me to do my best to make sure you didn't fall in with the wrong crowd."

"But regardless of what Felix said it's not my place to tell you who you can and can't hang out with but I know, and I believe you know as well that your grandfather would not like you hanging out with the likes of Rodrigo, Vera, and Venus."

At this point Molina had turned away from me and was staring at the spot where Felix's coffin had been earlier. I could hear her voice cracking when she responded.

"I...I.. kn..know that my grandpa..wouldn't want.. m..m..m..me to hang out with them. But it's been really hard without him here you know. He always s..ss..s..seemed to know just what to say to make me feel better." It seemed that she couldn't hold back any longer and she started to full on cry. On instinct I pulled her close and she wrapped her arm around me as she cried into my chest. After a while she kind of settled down and her crying slowed to the occasional sob. The whole time I had been trying to hold back tears of my own and almost succeeded but one tear managed to make it way down my cheek. Molina saw the tear and reached to my face and wiped it away. For a while we just stood there looking into each other's eyes before she broke eye contact.

Then we heard Tracy call to Molina saying that they were preparing to leave. Apparently John had somewhere to be but I couldn't fathom what could be so important. Molina rolled her eyes, told her mom she was coming then turned back to me.

"Well Mr. Thorton it was good to meet you."she said as she started to walk away. I could tell she wanted to say more but was reluctant so I made the next move.

"Call me Alan," I told her as I handed her my card "and please if you ever need somebody to talk to don't hesitate to call." She whispered an okay before she left to go join her mother and father. I took a deep breathe and prepared myself for what was coming next. The whole time Molina and I were talking I could feel the werewolf group staring at us and now that she was gone Rodrigo was making his way toward me.

I turned to face him right when he had got behind me. He jumped back a little because he thought he had snuck up on me.

"Listen to me Rodrigo." I told him,"There are few things in this world that I take seriously but when a man who I've come to respect and admire ask's me in his final moments for nothing other then to watch over his granddaughter I take that VERY seriously. Then when I meet said granddaughter she's surrounded with a bunch of low lives who didn't even bother to properly dress for that man's funeral."

"Felix warned me about you guys, told me you all were up to something but he didn't know what. And do you know what I told him when he ask me to watch over Molina? I told him of course I would with no hesitation. Between you and me Rodrigo I will stop at nothing to see that that promise is kept and if a couple of her "friends" have to die for the rest to get the message then I have no problem with that."

"Now if you'll excuse me, there's a bar over on Kanawha Blvd that has a beer with my name on it." Then I walked away without giving him a chance to respond. I could hear the other two making their way over to Rodrigo to ask what happened.