“That sounds good.” I felt a little self-conscious with all the people so close to us. “Do they do takeout?”
Austin laughed. “This is not America. Nor is it a chips shop in London.”
“Yeah, I guess not.”
“America?” The van driver turned to me suddenly. “You are American visiting Muldania? I study English.”
“Oh, very nice.”
“My name is Ivan.” He stuck a hand out toward me.
“I’m Austin.” My werewolf boyfriend grabbed the guy’s hand and shook it for me. “Nice to meet you. This is my girlfriend, Chelsea.”
“Ah! Nice to meet you,” he said, releasing Austin’s hand and turning back to me.
I raised my eyebrows at Austin, but I supposed his lying about my name was for security reasons. Chelsea, though? I was not a convincing Chelsea. To me, Chelsea was the name of a preppy girl who competed on the equestrian circuit, not a girl like me who could barely tame her hair into a ponytail.
“Hi, Ivan,” I said, shaking his hand. “Do you live here?”
Ivan set his napkin in his lap. “Yes. My family runs the Inn of Muldrazny.”
Austin gave me a look that I supposed was a warning, but I continued to talk. “Oh, nice.”
“Yes. My family once owned the Castle Muldrazny, but business was bad and we had to sell the castle to foreigners.”
“To Austin’s dad,” I said. “The Englishman who bought the castle is Austin’s father.”
“Ah, so that is why I remember your name,” Ivan said, with a nod toward my boyfriend.
“I assume so.” There was a chill in Austin’s voice.
“We were forced to relocate into town, into a much smaller villa. It has only six rooms.”
“Oh. Well, the castle is looking very nice these days,” I said, like a dope.
Ivan looked down at his menu, a frown on his face.
A waiter appeared and took our order and Ivan’s and then came back with mugs of something warm.
“Spiced tea,” Austin explained. “National drink of Muldania.”
“Actually, plum liquor is our national drink,” Ivan said. “This is merely a local favorite.”
Austin glowered. “Cheers, mate. Thank you for that information.”
“I know much about Muldania,” Ivan said, turning to me. “There is a small museum in our lobby and my family has lived in Muldrazny for six hundred years. You should come visit if you are interested in learning the truth about our country.”
“My ancestors come from here as well,” Austin countered. “That’s why we’ve purchased the castle. We’ve returned and we don’t intend to leave. Ever.”
There was something simmering in the air between these two guys. Something not good at all. In addition, my stomach was starting to gurgle loudly – as if I hadn’t eaten in days. I clapped a hand over my middle, trying to hush it, but I don’t think anyone noticed, especially not Ivan or Austin, who were still glaring at each other.
“I need food,” I whispered across the table to Austin.
He glanced away from Ivan in time to see the panic on my face. And... something else. “Close your mouth.”
“What? Are you telling me to shut up?”
“No. Close your mouth.”
Annoyed, I sat back in my chair, my arms crossed. Not getting why Austin was being so rude, I chewed the inside of my lip in frustration and immediately tasted blood. I ran my tongue over my teeth and felt the sharp prick of their points. Their points? Holy crap, my teeth were suddenly as sharp as pencils on the first day of school!
“Stay here,” Austin growled at me. He held a hand against his hurt shoulder as he walked away from the table.
“Your boyfriend, he is different from you,” Ivan said, turning to me.
“Uh-huh,” I said with a barely opened mouth. “British.”
“Sorry? What?”
“British,” I mumbled again. “Londoner.”
Ivan raised his eyebrows but nodded at me.
Austin appeared at the table a minute later. “Go get in the car I’ll be there in a moment.”
“What about the food?” I whispered, getting up from my seat and grabbing my jacket. Suddenly the steak was way more important than new clothes.
“I’ve made arrangements with the owner. He’s making a takeaway box.”
“To go. Nice.” I smiled widely.
Suddenly the room went quiet. Forks and spoons ceased dragging across stoneware bowls. There was no clink of glasses. Conversations ground to a halt. Everyone was staring at me – and my apparently giant, sharp teeth.
I shut my mouth quickly and turned. All the crowd could see after that was my retreating, rhinestoned butt as I exited the front door.
***
A little while later, we powered up the hill toward the castle. Austin wasn’t smiling at all behind the wheel of the SUV. His dark eyes were trained on the icy road ahead of us. It was obvious he was irked by my inability to keep a low profile at the restaurant, but maybe he was also disgusted by the appearance of my wolf teeth. To fill the silence and my growling stomach, I chewed on another piece of steak from the to-go bag.
At the top of the hill, Austin clicked the remote and then, after a lot of clanking and moaning from the iron gate, we motored into the driveway. Instead of a peaceful, snowy front yard, we found ourselves confronted with the house staff and the entire band, including some shivering, sleep-deprived vampires in robes and sunglasses. Everyone looked very annoyed, but Fuzz displayed a look of relief.
“Oh, crapola,” I whispered.
With Maxine the dog yapping at his heels, Fuzz crunched over to the vehicle as we parked and threw open the driver’s side door. “Thank heavens you’re all right.”
Boris flanked him. “You took car without authorization,” the vampire complained.
“We didn’t know where you were,” Fuzz said, helping Austin out onto the snow.
“We went into Muldrazny and we’re perfectly fine.” Austin cheeks flushed red. “We took precautions. Shelby needed food and clothing.”
“You two can’t be out traipsing around town!” Monty said. “This girl must be hidden. Can you imagine the news reports, the panic in the town if she changed in front of them?”
I felt my cheeks warm. “Actually, I just–”
“She hasn’t changed yet,” Austin said, interrupting my near-admission of the teeth incident. “I’m entirely capable of keeping her safe,” he added, moving so that he towered over the little tour manager.
Monty turned white and looked about ready to pee his pants. In a werewolf vs. tour manager stand-off obviously the werewolf is going to win. That’s kind of a duh.
“Wait – what is that? Boris yelled dashing toward the front of the SUV. He grabbed something from the grill of the car.
“Do they have annoying flyer guys in Muldania, too?” I asked. “Wait – if that’s for Chinese takeout, can you save it for me? I could really go for some Moo Goo Gai Pan.”
Boris unfolded the flyer in his hands and held it up. It was a a printout of the coat of arms of the Seven Horsemen, with a knight rearing on a steed in attack. “Do you believe the danger now?”
“You were seen!” Fuzz growled. He glanced up at the castle walls, as if there were snipers perched there, ready to take us all out. “Everyone inside.”
Some of them still grumbling, the band and staff drifted toward the front door. Monty remained on the snowy lawn at Fuzz’s side. So did Maxine, though she busied herself sniffing at some patches of grass poking up from the snow.
“Just a sec, okay?” I plodded back to the SUV. Guiltily, I pulled shopping bags from the backseat and then retrieved my nearly forgotten takeout from the passenger side. I think I started to drool again.
“Ah, pursuit of perfectly roasted meat,” Fuzz said, sniffing at my paper bag. “I completely understand your hunger, darling, but going into town without security was foolish. We must keep you safe.”
“You’re not lis
tening to me. I can protect her all on my own,” Austin said.
“Son.” Fuzz’s voice resonated low and calm. “Your intentions are quite honorable, but you must understand you can’t be the bodyguard you want to be right now. Not with your shoulder.”
“Exactly my point.” Monty puffed his chest out a little. “You can’t protect Shelby out in public. We don’t need either of you in the papers or hurt. The New Year’s Eve concert is a little over a week away. It’s the biggest event of your father’s career.”
“His career, of course. How silly of me.”
Fuzz slipped an arm around Austin’s shoulder, and we all started walking with him to the castle. “You know that I’m more concerned about you and Shelby than the concert,” he said.
“Right,” Austin said, slipping out from his father’s arm.
“Listen to me!” Fuzz’s shout seemed to reverberate in all the castle stones. Maxine paused, leg lifted on fresh snow, and watched her master. “You must listen to me for once.”
Austin turned, facing his father. “I’m listening.”
“It’s not about the bloody concert, or the press or anything like that. Worldwide chatter about the Seven Horsemen has increased ten-fold in the last month. They are more than a note on a car, more than an operative placed in an academy to watch your girlfriend or a sniper at a gate who gets off a lucky shot. The Horsemen can’t stand that we’re back in Muldania. Here, in the home of our forefathers, our ancient packs. They want to kill us.”
“Then why are we here?” Austin’s eyes were dark, his face red with fury. “Why would you bring us to the middle of the bloody danger? Why, after all we’ve lost, would you put us in harm’s way?”
“This is where it all began,” Fuzz said, his voice steady and strong. “If ever we are to regain our pack’s strength we have to reclaim the land we’ve bled for, the land we were driven from in ancient times. You of all people should know this rockstar gig has always been about being too visible to assassinate, not about just making music.”
Austin remained silent.
“Here in Muldania we can develop a stronghold and a pack that will wipe out any hunter that dares attack.” Fuzz’s smile was stressed. “I don’t want you to live in fear for the rest of your life. I want you – and Shelby – to be strong and free. Is that so wrong?”
Austin’s expression softened and he let his father wrap his arms around him. He’d complained, back when I’d first met him, that his father didn’t care and wasn’t paying attention, but the display in front of me proved that was false.
“Can we go inside now?” Austin said, breaking from his father’s embrace.
“Certainly,” Fuzz said. “Come along, Maxine!” He clapped and the little dog came running, dragging an ice-covered stick bigger than her head.
“Allow me, Superstar.” Monty took the shopping bags from my hands and the two of us followed father and son into the castle their ancestors had built centuries before.
I was filled with a mixture of love for Austin and fear that what Fuzz had said about the threat was real. It wasn’t fake, or a fantasy, just like my becoming a wolf wasn’t either of those. People wanted to kill Austin and his family, which meant people wanted to kill me.
The thoughts were sinking in as I wandered down the thickly carpeted hall to the kitchen to eat the rest of my tempting snack.
Before I could make it there, Dr. Lyndon called to me from the stairwell. “Shelby, I need to see you now.”
“Okay. Can you see me in the kitchen?” I held up the bag of food to explain.
She nodded. “Yes, of course you’d be enormously hungry,” she said following me down the hallway. “With the strange way your cells are behaving.”
I’d already stuffed another chunk of meat into my mouth. “Strange?” I said, mid-chew.
“Come on,” she said, beckoning Fuzz and Austin to the kitchen. “We all better have a talk.”
Chapter Four
I LOST my appetite with ten small words: “This serum is having no effect on your blood sample.”
“What?” Austin and Fuzz said in unison.
The doctor took a seat next to me at the dining room table. “In the tests I ran today, the serum had zero effect on the Lycan genes replicating in Shelby’s cells. Normally, we see an instant effect – the cells immediately shut down DNA replication and return to normal until the next provocation, such as lunar stimulus, rage, danger. Of course, taken regularly, as with Austin’s chosen regimen, the serum can prevent provocation entirely.”
“But it won’t work on me?” My voice sounded hollow.
“Right. There appears to be a mutation. It’s a different strain from Austin’s that I’m seeing in you. It’s unstable and highly mutated.”
“I’m a mutant?” I stood up from the table, wrapping my arms around myself.
“Not like that,” Dr. Lyndon said. “Your strain is more chemically resistant than the rest of the pack. Its weakness is driving its need to survive. It wants to feed. It wants to come to the moonlight so it can stay alive in your body.”
“That’s creepy,” I said, lamely.
Fuzz patted me on the back. “There, there. You’re our little mutant, my girl. Chin up.”
“Yes, Fuzz is right. There’s no need for doom and gloom here.” The doctor flashed me a small smile that didn’t seem very confident. “I’ll continue to do tests and work on developing a more potent serum.”
“And in the meantime?”
“You’ll change at the next full moon. And then, of course, at every subsequent full moon until we create a new serum. Currently, there is no cure, no treatment for your strain.”
Austin gave me a deep, long look, full of remorse.
“It’s all right, my girl!” Fuzz walked over and wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “You get to be one of us until we develop a new drug for you. You’ll love it!”
“It won’t be forever,” Austin whispered.
Dr. Lyndon smiled tensely. “I don’t know how long it will be before I have something that would work. It could be months or even years.”
Suddenly it hit me – I was going to be a werewolf indefinitely.
“Oh dear, don’t cry.” Fuzz gave me a reassuring squeeze.
“But – I mean, how do you hide this? How will I ever go home? I mean, granted my stepmom is a pain in the butt, but I do want to see my new little sister or brother when they’re born next year. How can I be a werewolf in Beverly Hills? Wait, wait –how do I go off to college? How do I ever live a normal life?”
Austin took my hand in his. “You won’t be living a normal life. You’ll be living a life like mine.”
“Well, like mine, actually,” Fuzz chimed in. He moved to the window, gazing out at the snowy landscape. “I don’t usually take the serum. I only use it if I know I can’t get privacy for my wolf. I enjoy the change. I spend time in the woods, hunting, running, soaking in nature. It can be quite lovely.”
Hunting and running didn’t sound that great to me, especially considering how crazy I’d felt the time I’d abandoned my cross-country skiing group to chase a rabbit into the woods back at boarding school. I wanted to be plain old Shelby Locke, with a normal life and a normal, even-though-it-was-sometimes-awful home.
“Dr. Lyndon, I really want to be normal. You’ve got to help me.”
“Why on earth would you want to be normal?” Fuzz asked, a broad smile spreading across his face. “Who would choose normal over extraordinary?”
“She means not cursed,” Austin said in a sharp tone.
Fuzz took a seat at the table, avoiding Austin’s glare. Maxine jumped up on his lap and licked his chin.
“Enough with the curse talk. I’ll start work on a new serum right away,” Dr. Lyndon said, getting up from the table.
“I’m coming down to the lab with you.” Austin kissed me on the cheek, then whispered he’d see me later on.
It was just Fuzz and me at the table now. I’d lost my appetite, but I look
ed longingly at the paper sack, knowing that I should eat something, if only to keep my wolf at bay.
“You’re welcome to stay here at Muldrazny Castle as long as you like, my dear. You’re a member of our family now,” Fuzz said, setting his tea cup on its saucer. “As far as finishing high school, we’ll sign you up for an on-line completion course, plenty of those around. After that, we can create an internship with the band for university credit. I’m sure we could use some help working on the website. Austin says you’re quite a skilled communicator, great in composition class.”
“But what about my family?”
Fuzz patted Maxine on the head. “I’ve always found that people I love eventually come around to the idea that the man they see before them, the man they care about, is still the same man, even if he is a werewolf. I imagine, in time, your father would understand. He’d adapt. But once he knew, of course, we’d have to ensure his safety.”
“What? You think I might attack my own father?”
“Heavens, no! We’ve seen the Seven Horsemen use ordinaries to get to the pack. Look at what they tried with you at Steinfelder. They wanted you to be at that school – they probably sent your parents the brochure and guaranteed your acceptance. They positioned you there on purpose in order to get to Austin. We don’t know what they might do to your father in order to draw you out once you’re a full wolf.”
“If they suspect you’re all wolves, why don’t they run to the press with the story? Why don’t they expose you?”
Fuzz set his tea cup daintily in its saucer. “My dear, they’re not about exposing. They are about exterminating. They’re probably biding their time, plotting out some kind of mission now. Perhaps, they’ll storm the castle, like they did in the old days. Of course, we’ll be ready for them this time.”
I shivered. “What kind of people are these? I mean, they don’t even sound human.”
“A very good point – and they call us animals,” Fuzz said with a bitter laugh. “Why don’t you collect your snack and retire to your chamber. Austin will be up to check on you in a little while, once he’s had a chance to calm down. He can’t help blaming himself for your trouble. As much as I love my son, I hold no fantasies about his disdain for our life. He’d cure his own lycanthropy if he could. He’s never wanted to be like me.”
Always in Shadow: A Novella (Never Cry Werewolf) Page 4
