The Transformed Box Set: Books 1, 2, 3, 3.5

by Stacy Claflin

  I smiled at her. "I think this is how Steve would want us to remember him."

  "You're right. I know you are. If he were here, he'd be laughing with us—and making fun of us."

  "He sure would." I could almost see him sitting across from us laughing. I let a tear slip down my cheek as we laughed and shared more funny stories. I felt like I'd lost a brother, too.

  We must have eventually fallen asleep, because my buzzing phone next to me woke up. Brooke was asleep on the other side of the couch.

  I looked at my phone. It was my mom, wondering where I was. It was dinnertime already. I texted her that I was at Brooke's house. She wanted me to come home for dinner, and I told her that Brooke was missing Steve and that her parents were out of town. I asked if I could stay the night with her.

  To my surprise, she said yes. They had barely wanted me out of their sight since I had returned. They would have had a heart attack if they knew that I went out in the middle of the night almost every night.

  I got up, covered Brooke with a blanket, grabbed my backpack and got to work on my project. I was supposed to set up an advertising campaign for the anti-bullying club. I was busy sketching potential logos when Brooke woke up.

  "How long have I been asleep?"

  "I don't know. I fell asleep too. My phone woke me up a little while ago. My mom said that I could stay here with you tonight. Unless you'd rather go there to get away from here."

  She stretched. "No, staying here is fine. Are you hungry? We can order pizza."

  "Yeah, let's do that. Order whatever kind you want."

  When she was on the phone ordering the pizza, my phone buzzed again. It was Tanner. I pushed ignore. Then I texted him because I didn't want to be too rude, even though I was still mad at him. I told him that I was with Brooke tonight and not to wait for me. I told him that I'd see the others another night.

  "Have you gone through Steve's stuff?" I asked Brooke.

  She shook her head. "His room is completely untouched. My parents closed his door and I don't think that any of us have gone in there since."

  "Are you guys going to have a service for him?"

  "Vampires don't have funerals. We just mourn and move on. If a vampire is believed to be human, the humans will usually have a memorial. But we don't throw them ourselves."

  "Steve went to school with you. Haven't people noticed that he's gone?"

  "The story is that he's traveling with my parents. The less attention that's drawn to him, the better. If people thought that he was dead and we had a funeral for him, it might alert any vampires in the area that we're here."

  "How could that happen?"

  "Word travels fast. You never know who will hear what or who they will tell."

  "That really sucks that you can't even have a memorial."

  She shrugged her shoulders. "It's just the vampire way. You'll get used to it."

  "I don't know about that. It seems hard to believe, but I guess you're right. What do you think of going through his room? Maybe that would help you; it might help both of us. I know he's not my brother, but I feel the loss too and I need to do something. Some way to remember him, if there isn't going to be a service."

  "I'd like that, but I'm not up for it tonight. How about this weekend?"

  The doorbell rang. It was probably the pizza. "Sure, let's just try to enjoy ourselves right now."

  ELEVEN

  I was looking my GPS, trying to find out what Mr. Foley was doing with his Wilderness Club. I had considered following him directly, but I didn't want to make it obvious, so I waited until he'd left the school before I entered the address. Then I waited another ten minutes, eating a snack.

  Before I forgot to, I texted my parents. I told them that I was going to be busy studying and that I would be late getting home. I said that I would be with a group from school and not to worry about me. It was sort of true. I would be following a group from school and I planned on studying what they were doing.

  It wasn't easy, but I'd managed to avoid any of the vampires all day, because I didn't want to accidentally let it slip that I was going to follow a group of weird-smelling people. I wanted to do this on my own; I was sure that they would all try to talk me out of it. Something was up with Mr. Foley and his group, and I was determined to find out what it was.

  When I finally got close to the destination, I saw that it was a parking lot. I parked in a different lot. I took out my old backpack, which I had packed with some things that I thought I might need in the woods. It didn't weigh much, so I could easily travel with it.

  I moved quickly to the other parking lot and saw Mr. Foley with a group of kids. Remaining hidden, I listened to their conversation. He was giving them directions to their meeting spot. Perfect timing! I paid close attention in case I managed to lose them, though with their scents and heartbeats, I doubted that was very likely, especially since they didn't know that I was going to follow them.

  After they set off into the woods, I waited a few minutes before beginning to follow them. Mr. Foley had somehow known that I had been watching him at the party the other night, so I wasn't going to take any chances this time. This would have been a lot more difficult to explain since I had gotten the address from his desk. I easily followed the directions he'd given to his students, and I moved without a sound. I had to pace myself because I was so fast that I could have come too close to them. They were entirely too easy to follow. The kids kept talking and joking. Most of them weren't paying any attention to their surroundings.

  When they reached the meeting spot, I hung back and watched as they set up camp in a clearing. It seemed like a nice place; it had a stream nearby and it was definitely out of the way. It was also deep in the woods. Aside from me following them, they were probably safe from anyone else finding them. I didn't know why they were so worried about keeping all of this a secret, but it looked like they found the right spot. I didn't even hear any large animals nearby.

  There was so little action that I began to get sleepy. I had been very curious, but now it was beginning to look like all they were doing was camping. Why they had chosen a Thursday I couldn't figure out, but aside from that fact, I was getting a bit bored.

  I tried to remain interested as I watched them walk around their camp. Some of them started to play music, but that didn't last long, because others wanted to get some rest before it got dark.

  "Turn that off! Some of us are trying to sleep here!" Inna yelled.

  "Do you really think that a few hours of sleep are going to help?" Wes demanded.

  "Yeah, actually I do. Shut it off!" Inna shouted.

  "You guys are so boring," Wes complained. "We should set up two camps: one for the fun people and one for the boring ones."

  "Okay, enough of that," Mr. Foley said. "Getting some rest is not a bad idea, especially for those of us who are going to school in the morning. As for the noise, I think it's best to keep it down anyway, in the off chance that anyone is actually nearby. We chose this spot because it's even more remote than the last place. The idea is to be left alone tonight. Got it?"

  Wes turned off his music without another word. What had happened before on other camping trips that had them so freaked out? If they were so worried about being found by someone or something, why bother with camping trips until all of that was resolved? I wondered if that was why they were out on a Thursday. I would have thought that they would want a weekend night for their camping trip.

  I made myself comfortable, because it looked like it would be a while before anything happened. Most of them crawled into their tents to get some sleep. I hoped what was coming would be exciting. They really seemed to want to be well rested for it. Some of the more eager ones wanted to build a fire, but Mr. Foley wouldn't have anything to do with it.

  "We can talk about it next time, Wes. This time, we're still scoping out this area. We don't know all that's out here. It appears to be safe, but we don't want to draw any attention to ourselves."

  "Wo
uldn't it be better to find out what's out there now, before it gets dark?"

  "You seriously think that would be better? Really, Wes? If we are going to draw any attention to ourselves, we want it to be at night. Not now. Just go take a nap before you make me cranky."

  I had to hold back a giggle. I didn't want to give away my location.

  Wes stormed off and everything was quiet for a while. Mr. Foley kept walking around the site, looking around the perimeter. He seemed to expect something to jump out at him at any minute.

  I wanted to get up and walk around because I was getting sleepy myself, but I stayed put. No one suspected that I was watching.

  When it began to get dark, people started to come out of their tents and I could feel the tension in the air. Something big was about to happen, and I was the only one who didn't know what it was.

  They started to pace and began snapping at each other.

  "Would you guys relax?" Mr. Foley demanded. "We'll all be better off if we take it easy. Everything will be fine. Nobody's followed us, and tonight will go off without a hitch. If any of you have any questions or worries, just speak up. I know that this is the first time for a couple of you."

  Everyone was silent.

  He sighed. "If nobody wants to talk to me in front of everyone, we can talk privately. We'll all meet back here at sun up."

  Some of them began pacing again. Others sat and talked quietly. A few others hung back by themselves, watching everyone else. They were definitely anticipating something important and my senses were on high alert. I had to be prepared for anything.

  One of the girls screamed. I looked around but couldn't see what had scared her. I took a closer look at her and saw that she looked as though she was in pain. She wrapped her arms around herself and let out another scream.

  Then, a boy fell to the ground and started thrashing around. He looked like he was in pain too, but he wouldn't allow himself to scream. A few of the older boys started jogging around the camp. They looked like they were preparing for something, but they didn't appear to be in any kind of discomfort.

  The quiet ones had backed up until they were at the edge of the clearing. Mr. Foley started pacing. Two more kids broke out into screams, and I heard cracking and popping noises. To my complete shock, I watched as one of the girls sprouted thick gray hair all over her body. Her face began transforming and a tail popped out of the top of her pants before her clothes ripped off.

  Werewolves.

  My senses were on overdrive. What had I gotten myself into? A werewolf bite could kill me! I thought back to my discussions with the others about werewolves, but I couldn't recall them having said anything other than that they could kill vampires. I didn't know anything about fighting them off, or if there was even a cure for their bites.

  I watched as they started turning into wolves one by one. Some immediately ran into the woods in varying directions while others were more cautious. A few let out loud growls.

  I had to decide quickly whether I was going to stay hidden or run for safety. I knew their secret now; it made sense why none of the kids wanted me in the room when they had had their meeting the other day. I was the enemy.

  My questions had now been answered, so I thought that it would be best to just leave even though I did have new questions. I could find those answers later. I didn't want to be in the woods all night with a pack of werewolves, maybe even more than one pack. I had no interest in sticking around to find out if there were others.

  They continued to morph and run off into the woods. I'd have to be extremely careful, because they were literally everywhere. I didn't know if they would be able to tell that I was vampire or not, but I was going to fight them with everything that I had if it came to that.

  Then I remembered that werewolves were supposed to be able to be killed with silver. I didn't know if that was true or not, but if I had any silver on me, I was going to use it. I thought about everything that I had on me and in my backpack. The only things were my earrings, and I doubted that they could do much damage. Surely it would take more than a little stud earring to kill an entire werewolf.

  I would use my speed and all of my other powers. I would even bite them. A vampire bite couldn't be good for a werewolf, even if it wouldn't kill them. Or would it? If I could drain one of them of their blood, that wolf wouldn't have a chance at survival. But, there had to be more than one way to kill those things if I had to.

  I waited until the camp was empty and the werewolf stink had diminished. I listened for their heartbeats and could hear a few in the distance. Did I risk it and run, or wait until I couldn't hear any of them?

  Judging that they were all a good distance away, I decided to take my chances. I tightened the backpack around me and stepped out of the bushes. I looked around and saw nothing. More importantly, I didn't hear anything.

  I burst into a run in the direction from where I'd come. Grateful for the ability to run soundlessly, I raced on as fast as I could.

  After only about a minute, I had made it quite a distance, but I sensed that something was watching me. I stopped to get a sense of the situation. I didn't smell anything and I didn't hear the heartbeat of anything larger than a squirrel.

  Suddenly, the hairs on my arms and neck stood up and my skin began to crawl. Had one of my friends followed me out here? It was obvious that I was sensing a vampire. I hoped that it wasn't whoever was responsible for the mysterious and creepy messages. Unfortunately, sensing a vampire always felt the same, whether it was a friend or predator.

  "Show yourself," I commanded.

  Nothing, not even a slight movement.

  I sighed. "Show yourself!"

  Still nothing. I wasn't going to wait around and let a vampire attack me when I had the werewolves to worry about.

  "I don't have time for this." I started running again, my senses remained peaked. I didn't think that anything was following me.

  I made it a few miles before I smelled werewolves again. It was a pretty strong smell, so I guessed that there were at least three or four of them nearby, but I hoped they weren't able to sense me.

  I took a few steps, heard an extremely loud SNAP and felt a searing pain in my right ankle. I looked down in horror to see a bear trap clamped around my leg. Blood was gushing everywhere. What on earth was a bear trap doing all the way out here?

  The smell of blood would alert not only whatever vampire had been spying on me, but also any nearby wild animal and probably the werewolves too. I had to act fast.

  Ignoring the horrendous pain, I bent down and pulled the teeth of the trap apart slightly. It was crazy strong and the teeth cut into my fingers as I tried to pull it apart. I knew that I had the strength to open it, but the pain of my ankle was too distracting. I broke out into a cold sweat as I tried again. I got it about half way open, then my fingers slipped and it crushed my ankle once more. I bit back a scream.

  I could sense both a vampire and some werewolves closing in on me. I remembered that bear traps have a button to release the trap; I had seen it in a movie once. I felt around and found a lever on the underside of the contraption. I pushed it and my foot was released.

  I watched the skin heal almost immediately, but the bone still hurt. I looked at my hands, which had also healed. I had no choice but to run and hope that my bone would heal quickly.

  I started to run but fell to the ground and rolled several feet. I grabbed my ankle and focused on healing the bone. I thought that I could feel it beginning to get a little better when I saw a pair of glowing, amber eyes about ten feet away from me.

  I heard a growl and saw a row of white teeth shining in the moonlight.

  There was no time to think or to give into the pain. I jumped up and started running. I couldn't run nearly as fast as normal because my ankle still felt like fire. Every time that my foot touched the ground, I flinched in agony and the werewolves got that much closer.

  They began barking and growling as they gained on me. I ran to the nearest tre
e and climbed as high as I could. My ankle was throbbing and I was near tears. Why had I gone out on my own? Why hadn't I at least told someone where I was going or what I was doing?

  I looked down at the four wolves that were now on their hind legs barking and growling at me. They scratched at the tree but at least they couldn't climb up to where I was. That wouldn't stop the vampire that had been watching me, though. Would he come after me or retreat in fear of the werewolves?

  One of the wolves had climbed its way onto the back of another and was clawing even higher up the tree. A movement from the ground caught my attention. I saw the silhouette of a man running towards the tree. He jumped gracefully into it, over the wolves.

  A vampire was after me.

  I looked at my swollen ankle and hoped that it would cooperate. I stood up on the branch that I was on and jumped to another tree. I was able to land on my good foot and grab onto the branches around me.

  I looked back and the vampire was standing where I had been moments ago. I couldn't see his face, as it was covered by the leaves on the tree. The wolves had already moved and were clawing at the new tree.

  I jumped to another tree and then yet another. The vampire was just a little way behind me and the wolves were following closely on the ground. My ankle still hurt, but I felt as though it was improving. I was severely hampered by remaining in the trees, however. I was sure that I could outrun the wolves on the ground if my ankle were normal. I thought that I should be able to outrun the vampire too, since I was supposed to become the most powerful vampire in the world. But again, my ankle was proving to be a real problem.

  I had no time to stop and evaluate everything. I didn't know how long I would able to jump from tree to tree and it didn't look like any of my predators were slowing down in the slightest. I wanted to stop and give some attention to my ankle, but I had to keep going as long as that vampire was on my tail.

  Looking behind me and then down as I leapt through the trees, I tried to decide who I would fight first. One vampire or four werewolves? I had already killed plenty of vampires, but not a single werewolf. The choice was obvious. If none of them backed off, I would fight the vampire before I became too tired.