“Let me out!” I pounded again on the door and then gave up.
As I turned, I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. My curly brown hair had a dirty, slept-on look and my hoodie and jeans were rumpled. I’d never been much of a fashionista, but I winced at sight. If I was locked in, I may as well clean up.
I peeled off the dirty clothes and turned on the shower. It was one of those expensive showerheads that dump water down right from over you, which always makes me feel like a baby elephant or something, but man, it felt good. All the grit and worry seemed to slide from me and down the drain. Freshly scrubbed, I stepped out into the steamy air and wrapped one of the thick towels around me. Then, rubbing my hair with another towel, I walked over to the dresser and looked at the clothes inside.
I was nearly blinded by bling. The first drawer was an explosion of spangly shirts, bedazzled skinny jeans and pencil skirts. The second held glittery jewelry and belts. Everything was a size too small for me. This had to be Eva’s stuff, or else she’d gone shopping and guessed wrong about my measurements. Before I wondered too long, there was the knock on the door and the sound of a key in the lock.
“Just a minute,” I called, but the door swung open and Eva stood on the threshold.
“Forgive the intrusion,” she said, stepping inside and closing the door behind her. To be honest, I was surprised to see her. She’d been so frosty at dinner.
“Um, hi.”
Ignoring the fact that I was standing there awkwardly dressed in a towel, Eva walked over to the bureau, bangles chiming. I took a seat on the bed and continued drying my hair while Eva dug around. Up close, she was even prettier and sparklier than her photos. I knew she was a cousin of Austin’s, but I couldn’t help feeling guarded with her. Her friendliness seemed a little fake.
“When I heard you were coming, I put all my extra clothes here for you. They send me so much stuff, I could never wear it all.”
“Who sends you stuff?”
“Designers who want me to wear their clothes,” she said with a shrug. “It’s what happens.” She didn’t finish the sentence, but I knew she meant when you’re famous.
“Are there any pajamas in there?”
She opened the bottom drawer and pulled out a tee and some yoga pants decorated with rhinestone words. “Maybe these?”
I went into the bathroom and slipped the stuff on. It didn’t look too bad, though I didn’t think I was going to get used to my butt labeled a Superstar.
“Very nice,” Eva said when I came back out.
“Thank you. I, um, appreciate this. It’s good to have clean clothes on.”
She smiled a big, toothy smile and got up from the bed, bracelets jangling. “I’ll leave you alone to rest now.”
“Yeah, but...” I glanced down at the keys in her hand. “There’s no reason to lock me in, you know.”
“True... you do have some time until the full moon,” she said. “The vampires are always paranoid. You will see.”
There was a pause while both of us sort of stared at each other, sizing each other up. “So, where do people hang out around here?”
Eva seemed like she wasn’t sure why I’d be asking. “I’m afraid no one really hangs out around here,” she said, finally. “The band’s in the recording studio tonight. Who knows what Boris and his friends are up to...”
“Okay, well, I guess I could watch TV. You think there’s any popcorn around?” I asked, patting my growling stomach.
Eva hesitated like she’s realized that maybe she should try to be nice and offer to watch TV with me, but then she said, “I’ll ask Cook to prepare snacks for you. She is a vampire, but her food is delicious, as you experienced tonight.” Eva opened the door. “Oh, hi. I didn’t hear you there.”
“I’ve a habit of sneaking up,” Austin said.
At the sound of his voice, I jumped to my feet. I was so happy to see him standing there. Without a goodbye, Eva moved off down the hallway.
“How was dinner, love?”
“It was fine,” I said, closing the door. “Did you rest?”
Austin sat down on the bed and reached for my hand. “Yes, a little. I’m feeling better already.”
I studied his dark hair, the way it hung down his face over his olive skin. The warm light from the fireplace made his amber eyes seem to glow. He did look better. In fact, he looked pretty close to the way he did the first day I saw him. Strong, healthy, radiating a kind of magnetic energy.
“How’s your shoulder?” I said, reaching my other hand toward him.
He flinched at my touch and pulled back. “I was glad to see Eva here with you. We all want to keep you safe.”
“Safe. You keep saying that.”
A dark look overtook Austin’s eyes. “This town, Muldrazny – it’s not exactly filled with friends. I never thought returning here was a good idea, but Father does as he chooses. Still, you’re safe in the castle with us.”
“But what happens when I go back to my dad’s house in Beverly Hills? I mean, can I hire some werewolf bodyguards or something?”
Austin let out a long sigh. “I didn’t want to tell you this, but you can’t return to Beverly Hills. At least not soon, anyway. Not until we’ve got your condition under control.”
“What?” A rush of tears filled my eyes. “I mean, I’m fine with missing Christmas with my horrible stepmother, but I do want to see my dad. He’s my only family. And my friends and everyone. I can’t not go back there.”
“Dr. Lyndon will start the testing tomorrow. I promise you, it’s going to work out. You’ll be able to control this awful affliction, and no one will ever know you were infected. Then we can see about getting you home to your parents.”
I nodded and Austin left the room, his eyes downcast. I didn’t like seeing him that way and it scared me. This affliction, as he called it, could be controlled, but still, I didn’t see how I was going to live furry if he couldn’t accept me that way.
I was sure he’d always look at me and see the unfortunate mistake that had changed my life.
Chapter Three
THE SNACKS Eva promised never materialized, so I finally went to sleep. After the months on a hard mattress at Steinfelder, my body felt cradled in the fancy plush bed of the castle’s guest room. If I hadn’t remembered where I was when I woke in the morning, I could have sworn I was at a luxury hotel.
As I descended for breakfast the next morning, I paused at the landing of the stairs, looking out the large picture window toward the sun rising over the Muldanian Mountains. Maybe Boris was heading down to his basement crypt for a rest, though it didn’t seem like the whole sunlight-burning-vampires-up thing was true for him. He’d driven the car in the dawning twilight yesterday, after all.
“Someone set you free, Superstar?” a voice said behind me.
I turned from the window to find Monty standing behind me. He was dressed in decidedly non-rock star apparel: a tweed suit that seemed a size too large, and bright white running shoes that seemed to glow against the blood red carpet under our feet.
“Sorry?”
Monty smirked beneath his mustache. “Your bum, my dear, indicates you’re a superstar,” he pointed, but at least he had the good sense not to touch me, because I would have punched him.
“Oh, the yoga pants,” I said, sighing. “I borrowed them from Eva.”
“Well, that makes sense. You do seem like an average girl.”
I frowned at him. “Um... thank you?”
“Sorry dear – it’s only that since I heard Austin speaking of you, I imagined a more glamorous Beverly Hills type.”
“I’m an heiress to a biochemistry fortune, not the daughter of movie stars,” I said, gritting my teeth. “My father invented an important drug used by cosmetic surgeons.”
“Well, an heiress is something, at least.” He nodded at me, as if he’d redeemed himself for being totally rude. “The son of a rock star should be seen with someone important, you know. Not that you need to be se
en at all right now.”
I sniffed at him, catching the scent of something rank beneath his cologne. Fear? I remembered he was one of the only ordinaries in the house, so I guess that was the source of his apprehension. Maybe he thought at any second someone in the band was going to drain him or take a bite out of his leg. Smiling with as much pretend fang as I could muster, I moved down the staircase toward the smell of breakfast.
I took a plate and joined some of the other house guests in line at the island, where a tall lady in dark glasses and a chef’s hat doled out scoops of fluffy looking eggs, perfect little sausages, mountains of potatoes, and stacks of bacon. There was not a fruit, well, except for a plate of broiled tomatoes, in sight. After the giant meal I’d had the night before, I really felt like just having a piece of toast.
“Caveman diet, huh?” I asked the chef.
“Sorry?” she said, tilting her head and smiling at me with a sharp-toothed grin. Yes, another vampire. That made four. Boris, Pino the drummer, Michaela the back-up singer, and now Chef.
“I meant all this meat and stuff,” I explained, uncomfortable under her gaze. “It’s like that funny caveman diet people go on.”
She shrugged. “I am feeding hungry wolves, after all.”
“True.” I grabbed a glass of juice and one piece of bacon and shuffled off to the dining room table with the others before I said anything else lame.
“Where is girl?” Boris suddenly swept into the room, his clompy boots hardly making a sound because of his whole vampire hyper-speed thing.
“The girl is eating her breakfast,” I replied.
Boris heaved a sigh of relief. “The door was open,” he said, clutching his chest. “I worry something terrible happens. Who let you out?”
“I did,” Eva said, crossing the dining room with a full plate. “Really, she’s harmless. No need for lock and key.”
Boris scowled at her and then leaned into whisper to me, “Do not trust anyone but me.” His breath was sour, maybe with the remnants of his morning plasma cocktail. “I am bodyguard and I keep you safe.”
“That’s nice but I–”
“No.” Boris put a hand on my shoulder. “Is not joke. Newborn pups are easy to kill. You need this strength near you, watching.”
“Uh... okay,” I said. “Thanks.”
Boris moved back while nodding at me, a little smile on his pale face. It was kind of sweet in a way, having someone that wanted to watch over me, but really, was I in that much danger inside the castle?
“Morning, all.”
Austin stood in the doorway. His skin had that sun-kissed color again. His dark hair brushed across his face, barely covering his amber eyes. He motioned for me to join him.
“Hi,” I said, wiping my bacon-greased face with the sleeve of my borrowed hoodie.
“Hi, love,” Austin said. “Did you sleep all right?” He lifted a hand to my chin and kissed me lightly on the lips. I nearly swooned. He reached out an arm to steady me as he pulled away.
But then, suddenly, I crumpled over to one side, feeling a different kind of pain. Something was wrong. Something was terribly wrong with me.
***
When my eyelids fluttered open, I saw the stone walls of my chamber, the flat screen TV playing some action movie, and Austin watching me from a chair next to my bed.
“How’re you feeling?” he asked.
I put a hand to my side and though it felt sore, there weren’t any shooting pains like earlier. “What happened?”
“You fainted. It’s nothing more than your stomach, love,” Austin said. “You can’t just have a glass of juice and a piece of bacon for a meal. You need to feed.”
“That’s all?”
“Hunger weakens us and can drive us mad,” he said. “It’s one of the things the serum can control once administered. You’re starved.”
“Can I get more of those mini-mart sausages? Can the cook make those?”
He smiled. “You’ve been asleep for four hours. Cook’s off duty presently. All the vamps take a nap during the day.”
“I wish I had more gummies,” I said, bemoaning the fact that I’d eaten the whole bag watching TV last night.
“Gummies are not proper wolf food,” he said. “We need to get you a nice meaty steak.”
“Could we go into town for food?” I bounced out of bed before I drooled all over myself.
“It’s probably not the best idea,” Austin said.
“Please? We could restock my gummy worm supply and maybe find some normal clothes for me?” I threw open the drawers to show him all the sparkly stuff inside. “These outfits won’t help me blend in Muldania at all.”
He laughed. “All my life I’ve been trying to blend and haven’t succeeded yet.”
“You could never blend.”
“The wolf in me lends a certain magnetism, I’ll admit.”
I looked in the mirror, studying my messy, wavy hair and pale skin. Would the wolf genes transform me into a more beautiful version of myself? I never wanted to be a plastic perfect version of myself, the kind of girl Honeybun had probably wished I was, but it wouldn’t be a bad thing to be a girl that people noticed. The kind of beautiful that drew people in though they didn’t know why. The type of beautiful both Austin and Eva were.
As I assessed my magnetic potential, my gaze landed on the mirror’s reflection of my bare feet. While it was true that I hadn’t had a pedicure in a while, my nails looked completely out of control. “Holy crapola,” I muttered, reaching down to touch the sharp edges. I hadn’t remembered them being so long or coarse. Was this the beginning of real transformation, of my body preparing to turn from human to Lycan? I covered one foot with the other, hoping Austin wouldn’t notice.
He slid his hands around my waist, studying our reflection in the mirror. “You are beautiful,” he said, kissing the top of my head. “You don’t need werewolf magnetism or rhinestones on your bum or anywhere.”
I hit him on the arm. “Dude, don’t make fun of my rhinestoned butt! I need to get some normal clothes. Also, I really do need something to eat. I’m feeling faint again.”
Austin gave me a look of uncertainty. “Perhaps we could get you some food in town if we make it quick. We’d have to go now while my father’s tied up in the studio recording and Boris is napping.”
“Yes!” I threw my arms around him. “I can’t be stuck in this castle waiting around for blood tests all day anyway. We’ll get some food, we’ll get some decent clothes. Let’s hit Muldrazny!”
“Love, it’s strictly a get-in-get-food-get-out mission. Put on something warm.”
“Wait, I have to wear Eva’s stuff in public? Her parka has neon fur trim.”
Austin lifted my chin and gazed into my eyes. “I’ll strike a bargain with you. If it seems safe, we’ll see what’s available in the clothes shops in town.”
He kissed me, and in that moment, he seemed like his old self – confident and wearing that half-smile that I loved so much. Maybe this little visit to town was going to perk both of us up and help us forget our troubles.
***
A few minutes later, we were in the black SUV carefully descending the steep, curving road into Muldrazny. Sun glinted off the snow-covered bushes and trees. I had a warm feeling, like we were on some kind of ski holiday instead of hiding out, waiting for my painful transformation.
At the bottom of the hill, a quaint collection of small stone and brick buildings came into view. The writing on the buildings was Muldanian so I had no idea what the shops were called, but the wares displayed in the windows held clues. One storefront display was comprised of lengths of sausages hanging from dowels, another had enormous wheels of cheese. Finally, at the end of the street, I spotted a shop window filled with brightly colored dresses on mannequins. I wasn’t a dress kind of girl, but a dress was definitely better than stretchy pants with sparkling words on the butt.
“There’s a shop there,” I said, pointing.
“Right. I�
��ll run in and get you a few things. But you have to stay here. I don’t want you having an attack in the dressing room.”
“Who would I attack?”
Austin shook his head, looking offended. “Not who. You! You might pass out again. Really, after all this time, you’re still thinking about wolves attacking people? I’m disappointed.”
“I just wanted to clarify,” I said in a small voice.
He got out of the car and motioned for me to lock the doors as he hurried into the shop. To pass the time, I watched the cars pass on the street. An old lady walked by, rolling a cart full of groceries. A man exited the butcher’s shop with some links of sausage poking out of the top of his shopping bag. My nostrils flared. I glanced at the door locks, about to pop them and hurry out to follow those links down the street, but I heard knocking.
“Open,” Austin asked. I let him in and he stuffed the bag of clothes in the back.
“No sparkles, right?”
“Trousers and a couple sweaters,” he said, climbing into the driver’s seat.
“Yay!”
He drove us down the street and parked near a brick building with a wooden sign out front. There was a coat of arms on the sign, but nothing I recognized.
Austin helped me down from the SUV and onto the snowy sidewalk. “This place I’m taking you has good meat,” he said. “The owner’s a friend of my father.”
We moved toward the sidewalk as a white van pulled up next to us. A young dude got out and followed us down the sidewalk. He seemed familiar, and I realized he was the driver Boris had almost run down the day before at the mini-mart. I really hoped road rage was a purely American problem.
We went into the restaurant, which Austin translated as the Muldrazny Old Time Pub. He said a few words to the burly owner, who showed us to two empty spots at a long communal table packed with villagers. The van driver took the last place at the table, which happened to be right next to me.
Austin gave the owner a look, but the owner shrugged, as if to say, What can I do, there are no other tables. “I’ll order us a steak and vegetables.”
Always in Shadow: A Novella (Never Cry Werewolf) Page 3
