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

by Stacy Claflin

  He sat back and ran his hands through the length of my hair. "Do you want to go for a walk? I don't think I can sit here next to you any longer. You're too intoxicating."

  I nodded, unable to speak. We walked around the neighborhood hand in hand, talking about how much we were going to miss each other. Before I knew it, it was time to go back home and pretend like I was just getting up. We walked back to his house and clung to each other on his porch.

  Tears ran down my face. "Don't go."

  "You know that I don't want to. I only want to be with you, but I have to go with my parents. And you need to get back home so that you don't get into more trouble."

  "It doesn't matter if I get into more trouble if you won't be here."

  He brushed my cheeks with his hand. "I'll think of you constantly."

  "Me too," I sniffed.

  Tears gleamed in his eyes. "Goodbye, my sweet. We'll see each other again soon."

  I nodded. He wiped the tears from my face, kissed my forehead and walked inside. I stayed on his porch and stared at the closed door for a few minutes before finally walking away.

  When I got to my room, Clara came in and glared at me.

  "What's the matter?" I sighed.

  "Your dad was looking for you before he left and you weren't back yet. I told him that you had to go to school early, so you better sneak back out…and leave your car."

  "Leave my car here?"

  "It was here when I said you were already at school. I said that you got a ride with someone else."

  "They're going to be mad at me for not telling them about that."

  "Bingo. Try not to get yourself into trouble at school today. No fainting. I don't feel like bailing you out today."

  "That shouldn't be a problem. I'm not planning on doing anything stupid today. I'm probably just going to mope around."

  "Mope around? Why?"

  "Cliff's going to the castle for who knows how long."

  Her eyes widened. "Are you going to be okay?"

  "Sure, no problem," I said flatly. I grabbed my bag and headed for the wall.

  "Text me if you need me."

  "I'll be fine." I went through the wall and ran to school. I went to the library and skimmed over some notes for a test until it was nearly time for school to start. I walked to my locker and stopped when I saw Tanner and Hailey standing right in front of it.

  Tanner glared at me, pulled Hailey close and kissed her. He looked up, smirked at me and then went back to kissing her. I turned around, ran down the stairs and out of the building. I kept running until I got home.

  When I got home, my mom was in the kitchen. "Alexis! Why aren't you at school?"

  "I've had enough school for one day."

  "Sit down, dear. Let's talk."

  "You're not going to make me go back?"

  "Maybe later, but I can tell that you need to talk."

  I sat down and sighed. I really didn't feel like talking to her about any of my problems. But, maybe it would be a good way to ease her into agreeing with me being a foreign exchange student.

  "What happened?"

  "Tanner doesn't like me anymore. He's hanging out with Emma and Hailey just to hurt me. He even kissed Hailey right in front of me and gave me a rude look. He just wants to hurt me as much as possible."

  "I thought you and Emma were friends."

  "Mo-om, we haven't been friends in a long time."

  "Sorry, dear. It's so hard to keep up with all of the girl drama. Why don't you stay home today and study, and I'll talk to Karin when I meet her for lunch today."

  "No! Don't talk to her. That'll just make things worse."

  "She should know. She wouldn't want him treating you like that."

  "Just let us work it out."

  She sighed. "It was a bad idea to send him to spy on you. I'm sorry we did that. I don't want to see you upset. You deserve to be happy, Alexis."

  That was my opportunity. "Actually, what do you think of my being a foreign exchange student? I've always wanted to go to Europe."

  "Are you kidding me? You just came back home from being abducted and now you want my blessing to send you halfway across the world? Don't ask about such ridiculous things."

  "I want to go to Europe. This would be a great time of year to go."

  "You want to go now? Right before the holidays? Now you're talking crazy. You're going to stay with our family for the holidays."

  This called for drastic measures. I looked into her eyes. "I'm going to Europe as a foreign exchange student. You're going to let me go happily."

  "Now you're trying to order me around, Alexis? Have you gone off your rocker? Forget about staying home today, get into your car and get back to school. I'm not excusing you at all."

  My mouth dropped open. What had happened? Why didn't the mind control work on her? Maybe it was because I didn't believe I could use it on my parents. Or because I was so upset about Tanner and now Cliff was leaving? Or because she'd already been mind controlled by other vampires years ago?

  "Go, before I decide to make your grounding a lot more painful."

  I stood up, grabbed my bag, and went out the door, slamming it behind me. When I got to school, I was at least able to get to my locker without incident. I ran into Amanda on my way to my class.

  "What are you doing?" she asked. "You look upset."

  "I just had a fight with my mom. Look, I might go on a little…vacation. I don't want you to worry about me, okay? I'm going to be just fine."

  Her eyes widened. "Are you running away?"

  "No, I have an opportunity to be a foreign exchange student. I'm going to have fun, so don't worry about me. Oh, and if Tanner notices that I'm missing, can you give him a message for me?"

  She stared at me.

  "Tell him that I was eaten by wolves."

  "You want me to tell Tanner that you were eaten by wolves?"

  "Yeah. Will you do that for me? And make it believable."

  "Uh, sure…okay. Whatever you say."

  ***

  That night, I stayed up waiting for Clara to come back from her date. I was doing my best to keep my mind off of Cliff being gone and Tanner hating me. I was really excited for her and hoped that this guy would be even better than the original William. Thinking about that kept my spirits up.

  When she got home, I nearly pounced on her. "How did it go? Was he really nice? Tell me everything!"

  She sat down and smiled. "It was incredible," she said, sighing. "He was fascinating, such a gentleman, and we had the best time! We even set up a date for tomorrow night."

  "I wish Cliff was here so that we could go on a double date," I said, trying not to feel sorry for myself.

  "When he gets back, that'll have to be the first thing we do. I think you guys would really like him."

  "Does he remind you of your William, or is he completely different? Aside from their looks, I mean."

  "He's similar, but different. He actually has many of the qualities that I loved about my William. But there's a sweetness to him that my William lacked."

  "You might have to come up with something else to call your William, because this one might become the new 'my William.'"

  "I don't want to jump the gun…."

  "This sounds so promising! So, did you…?"

  "No. Can you believe it? It's been such a long time since I haven't, that's how special he is. He gave me a quick kiss when he dropped me off. I really think that this is the start of something special!"

  I gave her a hug. "I'm so happy for you!" I was glad to know that she would be focused on her new William while I was away. "Clara, I have such a good feeling about him. If I'm not able to express myself to you, just know that I am so excited for you and I think you should give this all you have."

  She gave me a confused look. "Okay, thanks."

  I wasn't sure if this was what my mother and father had meant by tying up loose ends, but it was the best that I could do. My human parents would probably end up believing t
hat I had been abducted again, but I didn't know what else to do about them. The mind control didn't work on them. I didn't want them to go through that again, but I wasn't going to turn down a chance to spend time with my birth parents in Europe.

  NINETEEN

  All of my dreams were filled with the loneliness of Cliff being gone, the hatred that Tanner held toward me, and the longing for my parents to come and get me. I woke up feeling like I hadn't slept at all.

  While I was feeling sorry for myself, the thought popped into my head that when my parents came to get me, I wouldn't be able to hunt or have fresh blood anymore. At least not for a long time. They upheld the castle rules, so there was no way they would allow me to hunt. I'd be forced to drink from the dreadful bags.

  I ran into Clara's room and shook her awake. She rolled over. "What's going on? Is there a fire?"

  "No, I need to feed. Let's go now."

  "What's the rush? Are you experiencing extreme thirst?" She stared into my eyes, looking for redness that I was sure wasn't there.

  "I just need to get as much blood as I can."

  "You've been acting weird since last night. But, I'm up for a hunt. You went with me early the other night so I guess it's my turn to humor you."

  "Thank you. I need to get out and hunt tonight."

  "Is it because of everything going on with Tanner and then Cliff getting called back to the castle?"

  "Something like that."

  "Didn't you go snacking with Tanner the other night?"

  My mind flashed to his telling me that he was done with me. I shook my head. "That's when we had our fight and he decided that he was done with me. Then the next day he showed me that he meant it. There's no going back after what he did to me. Not after what we've been through. You should have seen the look he gave me when he was kissing Hailey. Pure hatred."

  "You never know, he could be lashing out because he cares too much. Love is much stronger than hate. People do stupid things when they're hurt."

  "I don't care, he burned that bridge. Let's go hunting. I feel like going after more people, and I want to go somewhere dangerous. I want a real challenge." My mouth watered at the thought.

  A big grin spread across her face. "I love the way you think. Do you have someplace special in mind?"

  "No, I was hoping that you'd know of someplace full of people at this hour."

  "On a Tuesday night, no less. Most bars and clubs will be closed or closing down by now."

  "Maybe we could find a large group of campers in the woods."

  She shook her head. "It's supposed to snow before the weekend, it would be hard to find campers. I think that we would do best to either find a club that's closing for the night or head to a college where there might be a frat party or some dorms."

  "Okay. Let's go find a frat party."

  "Sounds good. Let's get dressed up so that we'll attract attention. The more attention that we get, the more of a challenge it'll be—since you want a challenge."

  "I'll meet you out front in ten minutes," I said.

  I ran to my room and found a little dress that Brooke made me but I'd never worn. I pulled my hair up into a messy pony tail. I thought it looked bad, but people said that it was a hot look on me. I picked my most blingy jewelry and my darkest makeup. I looked pretty good for having thrown it all together in a few minutes.

  When I got to the front yard, Clara was also wearing a tiny dress with a lot of bling too.

  "Lookin' good!" she said.

  "You too, very hot! We're going to steal the show."

  "For sure. I know a town not too far away that has several colleges. Follow me." She started running and less than ten minutes later, we were standing in front of a large, stone building that we knew must have been a frat house. Most of the windows were lit up and loud music was playing. "Let's go inside!"

  "Let's go," I agreed.

  We walked up the steps and Clara opened the door. I followed her inside and was surprised to see that the place was packed full of people. Everyone took note of us immediately and checked us out.

  "Hey, aren't you that girl that was missing?" someone asked.

  Clara looked at me. Crap! I didn't think about you being recognized!

  "I get that all the time," I said loudly. "No, I'm not her. It's so annoying." I flipped my ponytail and rolled my eyes.

  "You totally look just like her," the guy said.

  "It's a curse." I breathed a sigh of relief as everyone went back to what they had been doing. I wouldn't have guessed that drunken college students would recognize me.

  Clara picked a group of guys and walked up to them and I picked another group. I listened to her conversation across the room and copied what she said.

  I was so upset about everything that I didn't care about finding someone who was menace to society. I saw a guy who reminded me of Tanner and I walked right up to him and started talking to him. I pretended like I wanted to find a room alone with him to make out. He looked in several rooms but they were all occupied.

  "We could always go outside; it's a nice night," I said.

  "Nice? It's freezing."

  I smiled as I listened to his warm blood pumping through his veins. "We'll have to heat it up, then."

  He grinned. "I'm up for that."

  We went outside and I led him to the back of the building. Nobody else was there and he turned around to say something. I could feel my fangs grow and my eyes flash to red. His eyebrows rose while his eyes became huge. I watched the blood drain from his face. The smell of his fear surrounded me and I took in the scent.

  "Wh...what's wrong with your eyes?"

  "You don't think my eyes are pretty?" I asked, pouting.

  "I-I…of course they are. They're just…red."

  I batted my eyelashes. "Why don't you like my eyes?"

  His heart went even faster and the aroma of his fear was exhilarating.

  "You needn't be afraid of me," I whispered, looking deep into his terrified eyes. "What's your name?"

  "Anthony," he said. His pupils shrunk and the scent of his fear dissipated. Was I controlling his mind?

  "My eyes are pretty, don't you think, Anthony?" I purred, on a high from my desire for his blood.

  "Your eyes are gorgeous and the red makes them even better," he breathed.

  "I knew you liked them," I murmured. "They're red because I want your blood. I have to have it. I need to drink it all."

  He moved his head to the side, exposing his neck. The main vein in his neck was pulsating and seemed to be calling me by name. I watched it and took in the scent.

  "Are you going to drink my blood?" he asked.

  I leaned in and bit down, enjoying the alcohol-tainted blood that flowed into my mouth. I drank it down and noticed the flow slow down. That was the point I'd always stopped when I fed off Tanner when he was a human. I felt a stab of guilt and didn't want to kill Anthony. I pulled back and licked his wounds, they healed right away.

  He looked at me with clouded eyes. "That was fantastic."

  "It sure was," I said. "Look into my red eyes."

  Smiling, he complied.

  "You won't remember any of this," I told him. "The only thing you'll remember is getting warmed up outside with a pretty girl who's name you didn't catch." For some reason, I snapped my fingers.

  He blinked his eyes. "Let's get back inside. It was awesome to warm it up out here with you, but it's getting cold now."

  I smiled. "Sure, no problem." I followed him inside, proud of myself for getting blood from a willing participant without killing anyone. Not only that, but the mind control had worked beautifully.

  Once inside, Anthony disappeared and after making sure that I didn't have any blood on me I joined a group of guys. Two seemed particularly interested in me. I thought of what a thrill it would be to take on both of them at the same time. Could I convince both of them let me feed off of them? My fangs grew again, at the thought of the challenge.

  Getting the two guys alon
e, I told them that it would be nice to get some fresh air. They followed me like puppies outside and I said that I wanted to check out the shed. When we got there I felt my eyes turn red again and I said, "I can't wait to sink my teeth into you two."

  They laughed. I showed them my extended teeth and they started shouting profanities.

  Their rapid heartbeats and fear made my mouth water.

  I stared into the eyes of the blonde. "It will feel good to let me drink your blood."

  His eyes dilated. "Yes, drink my blood. I want to feel your teeth sink into me."

  "Trevor, have you lost your mind?" the other guy exclaimed.

  "No way, dude. I want her to feast upon me, Max. Don't you?"

  "Are you insane?"

  Looking into Max's eyes, I said, "It will feel better than anything you've ever felt. Let me feast on your blood, Max."

  Max's eyes dilated. "Drink my blood first."

  Trevor stood in front of him. "No, drink my blood first."

  A movement in a window caught my eye. I looked up and saw Clara looking at me. She smirked. You really shouldn't play with your food.

  You're hilarious. I turned my attention back to Trevor and Max.

  "Dude, I wanted her to drink my blood first," Trevor said. "You said I'd lost my mind."

  "I only said that so that she'd drink from me first," Max said.

  "Liar!" Trevor shoved Max.

  "Loser!" Max shouted and shoved Trevor back.

  "Jerk!" Trevor pulled his arm back and punched Max in the face.

  "Now you've done it!" Max yelled.

  "Boys!" I exclaimed, eying the blood from his nose.

  Both of them turned to look at me. They must have been under my spell to stop. "You don't need to fight. I will drink from both of you. It doesn't matter who's first."

  They turned and glared at each other. Before any more punches could be delivered, I bit into Max's neck and savored the warm blood flowing into my mouth. When I felt the flow slow down, I sealed the wound and smiled.

  I turned to Trevor. "Are you sure that you still want me to drink your blood?"

  Eyes wide, he nodded his head yes. I leaned in and bit down. I heard the front door of the frat house open.