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

by Stacy Claflin

  When the bell finally rang, I packed up and ran out, with a quick goodbye. At my locker, Amanda assaulted me with fast talking that I was too upset to decipher.

  "Can you slow down? I'm not sure I caught any of that." I slammed my locker shut.

  She took a deep breath. "I'm going to New York tonight with my dad and almost-stepmom. My mom's even letting me miss a couple of days of school. Can you believe it?"

  "That's hard to believe. What made her agree?"

  "I don't know, but I'm not questioning it—I'm going to New York during the school week!"

  "That'll be fun. Are you guys doing wedding stuff?"

  "Yeah they want me to get fitted for the dresses. I'm going to wear two dresses, can you believe that? Two! And they're both gorgeous. One's for the ceremony and the other's for the reception." She went on and on about the wedding plans and New York as we walked to the cafeteria. I kept engaged enough to keep her from noticing that I was upset. It wasn't too difficult, as she probably wouldn't have noticed anything out of the ordinary because she was so excited.

  Right before the bell rang, she looked at me. "Are you okay? I just noticed you're quieter than normal."

  "I'm just not feeling well. I'm sure I'll be fine."

  "Maybe it's just the weather. It's been so cold, I keep thinking that it's going to snow."

  "That could be it," I said.

  The bell rang and we went our separate ways. I was barely able to pay attention during the rest of my classes. I had to have my phone on silent or it would be confiscated, but I kept checking it, only to discover that there were no new texts or missed calls.

  I managed to get to my car without anyone talking to me, and then I drove to the public library where I could sit quietly, undisturbed. I found a chair near the back that was empty and made myself comfortable. I checked my phone again. It was as lonely as I was. I decided to risk being needy, so I sent him one more text that said I was thinking of him. I told myself it would be the last one I sent until I heard back from him, but I knew that I was probably lying to myself.

  I decided to actually work on my homework rather than allowing myself to obsess over all the what-if's that had been plaguing me since I walked into his classroom. I couldn't let myself fall behind in my studies. I had to leave free time for when, not if, I would be able to see him again. The worst thing I could do to myself was to not be able to see him because I had some project due that I hadn't even started.

  Something lit up in my bag from the corner of my eye, and I reached into it, desperate to see if it was my phone. I found my phone and saw the little green light on, indicating that I had indeed missed something. I punched in the code and saw that I had a new text. I opened it, and saw that it was from him: I'm sorry. Can you talk now? Call me.

  I threw everything else into my bag, and ran to my car, still holding onto the phone. I locked the doors as I sat down and I called him. As it rang, I thought about what I was going to say. The last thing I wanted was to scare him by knowing how upset and obsessive I had been all afternoon.

  "Alexis, I'm so sorry," he said, as soon as he picked up.

  "What's going on?" I asked, as slowly and as calmly as I could. "Is everything all right?"

  "I hope I didn't worry you."

  "Well, I was concerned, but I assumed that you had a good reason for not being at school."

  He sighed. "Thank you for being so understanding. The full moon is in a couple of days, and this morning as I was getting ready for school, I…how do I say this? I started having some early signs of changing. Nothing like this has happened in a long time. Not since I was in the early stages of becoming a werewolf. It happens a lot with the young ones, but not with those of us who have fully matured. That's why the kids in my pack need my leadership."

  "What changed?"

  "That's what I was trying to figure out. It kept happening at random times while I was getting ready—and then I figured out what was setting me off."

  "Oh?" I asked, trying not to sound as desperate for information as I felt.

  "It was happening every time I thought of you."

  "Me? I'm doing this?"

  "No, no. It's not your fault. I've never been in love before, but I've heard that it can affect how we change around the time of the full moon. If you were a werewolf, it wouldn't be a problem, because we'd both change forms together and take our relationship even higher, roaming around in our wolf forms. But you being a vampire complicates things."

  "Because you have no control over yourself as a wolf?"

  "Sort of. We can train ourselves. In fact, we all have to with the shifting of the packs. But you're right that a lot of times, especially with new wolves, there's no self-control in that form. Sometimes we lose our humanity altogether during the full moon. I can't risk being near you because I would never forgive myself if anything happened to you."

  I sighed, disappointment running through me. "So I can't see you until after the full moon? You said it's two days away?"

  "Right. If just thinking about you causes change, I don't want to find out what actually seeing you would do."

  "I understand. I don't want to cause you to go into wolf form early. Are you okay talking to me?"

  "So far, but I'm also fighting some changes right now."

  Tears sprang to my eyes. "I should let you go. I don't want to do anything to hurt you. Thank you for calling, so I at least know what's going on. I'll see you on Thursday."

  "I'm sorry. I can tell I've upset you, but thank you again for being understanding. I promise to make it up to you."

  I smiled through my tears. "That sounds good. But I don't want you to miss any more classes because of me. If I promise to stay away from your class, will you come back?"

  "Here's what I'll do. I'll leave the classroom before your TA period starts, and then you can grab the papers and take them to the library. I'll leave a hall pass for you. Then I'll disappear again a few minutes before the period is over and you can return the papers. Does that sound—ohh!—good?"

  "Won't you have to think about me to get that set up?"

  "Well, it's not only thinking about you that is setting me off. It's thinking about how much I love and miss you. When I start to think about how beautiful you are, and how soft—oh!"

  "Are you okay?"

  "I will be. I just need to not think about you romantically."

  "That sucks, but it's so sweet—and so sad. I'm sorry."

  "You're not to blame. There's nothing you could—ow!"

  "I better let you go. Yeah, we'll try your idea. I'm sorry that I'm causing you pain."

  "It's not your fault, Alexis. Hopefully I'll outgrow this. I know everyone else who falls in love does, but I've never heard of anyone falling for a vampire, so I'm in new territory. Ow!"

  "I'm going to let you go now."

  "Alexis?"

  "Yes?"

  "I love you."

  My breathing stopped and I nearly dropped the phone. "I love you, too."

  Sixteen

  The next morning when I woke up, I could feel a chill in the air despite the heat being on. I looked out the window and saw everything covered in a layer of snow. That explained the cold. The snow always seemed to change everything. I could tell that everything was quieter outside, giving a feeling of peace.

  I sat for a few minutes, watching the flakes fall and then stick to whatever they touched. I always loved the first snow of the season. There was a certain excitement about it. Every other snow of the year, I could do without. But the first one was always fun.

  Excited, I flipped my laptop open to see if there was any news about school closures. Sometimes they would have a late start on the first day of snow. But we weren't close enough to Seattle, where they closed everything the second snow starts falling, regardless of whether or not it sticks.

  I saw that our district was starting an hour late. I ran downstairs, and Natalie was with our mom on the couch.

  "Did you hear? We're an hour la
te. They might even extend it to two!"

  "That would be cool. I love the first snow of the year."

  "I know, right?"

  "Should we turn it to one of the Seattle stations?" my mom asked.

  Natalie giggled. "Yeah, let's. Their snow coverage is always hilarious."

  I sat down between them as Natalie found a station. Sure enough, the news reporter was talking about the snow fall, while standing on a road with no snow sticking. "I'm here on the corner of 2nd and Pine, and if you're just joining us, we have some snow sticking. Zoom to the weed down there."

  The camera zoomed to a small weed by the reporter's boot, it had a little bit of snow, barely visible. The camera went back to the reporter, who stopped several passers-by to ask them about the snow they'd seen that morning. They shared about the snow falling, but not sticking, in the various parts of the city they'd come from.

  "That's so exciting," the reporter said, grinning from ear to ear. "I just got word that Margo is up in Everett, where they have an actual dusting of snow covering the road. Back to you, Bob."

  My mom, Natalie, and I giggled.

  "They're going to go like that all day," Natalie said.

  "Not all day," I said. "But all morning, for sure."

  "True," Natalie said, nodding. "Unless they get any real snow."

  "Shhh," our mom said. "I want to hear this."

  Natalie and I giggled again, turning our attention to the TV. Some guy in the news studio was talking about schools starting late, and pointed to the ticker at the bottom of the screen. I noticed that most every school was starting three hours late. "Look, all those schools are starting later than us, and we have a blizzard compared to them."

  "They always do that," Natalie complained. "It's not fair."

  We continued to watch as they went to different newscasters in different surrounding towns, showing various levels of snow. One even had a ruler and showed us a full 1/8 of an inch. In that suburb, all the schools were closed for the day.

  As funny as it was to watch, it eventually got boring, so I went and got myself ready. As I walked up the stairs, I could hear Natalie whining about not having the day off. I knew that it would take a lot more than we had for us to miss an entire day in Delphic Cove.

  In my room, I checked my phone to see if Tobias had called. I was disappointed, but not surprised, when I saw nothing from him, not even a text. I wasn't going to contact him because I didn't want to cause him pain, not knowing what he was going through. "At least the full moon is tomorrow. Then I can see him after that," I told myself, trying to focus on the positive.

  Just as I was setting the phone in my bag, it played the song indicating I had a text. I snatched it back up, looking at it with desperation, only to see that it was Amanda. She was at the airport, waiting for her plane, which had been delayed a little. We texted back and forth before I had to get ready.

  When I got downstairs, my mom said, "Be careful out there. I don't think you've driven your car in the snow yet."

  "I'll be fine, Mom. I handled that beater like a pro. Besides, I looked outside and it looks like it's just slushy. The cars that I saw on our road were driving just fine."

  We said goodbye, and then I went outside and saw just how slushy it was when my feet sank into the snow. It was still falling lightly, but there wasn't much more accumulation on the ground than when I woke up.

  At school, everyone was excited. A lot of kids were on the grass, scooping up what snow they could and either throwing it at each other or making tiny snowmen. Inside, all the conversations around me were about the weather or the late start. Even I was a little excited about the slightly shortened class length to accommodate starting late.

  The morning went by quickly, mostly because the classes weren't as long and it was hard to feel sorry for myself when everyone around me was happy.

  When I got to Mr. Foley's classroom, I had been expecting to see the substitute. All the excitement with the snow had made me forget about him being back at school—only avoiding me. The room was empty, but when I saw a coffee cup on my pile of papers, I couldn't help smiling. I felt like I would melt into a puddle right there.

  Before I grabbed everything, I drew a heart on a blank sticky note. I left the room, drinking the heavily laced coffee as quickly as I could, knowing I'd be in trouble if I had it in the library. I tossed the cup in a garbage can as soon as I finished it. I couldn't help feeling even more excited, knowing that he'd left that for me, and the blood helped my mood, too.

  I corrected the pile of tests quickly and then moved to my own studies. I headed back to the class just before the period ended so that I could drop off the tests while he was gone. I noticed that the sticky note I'd drawn on was missing the heart. Just as I was about to put the tests back, I saw another paper with a different heart drawn on it. I grabbed it before leaving the stack of papers. I hugged the paper close and then put it in my bag, before going to my locker.

  I expected to see Amanda headed my way, but I knew she was probably in New York by then, or at least close. I sighed, lost in my thoughts. Tobias was so sweet to still get me the coffee—and lace it—even when we couldn't see each other. The heart he had drawn nearly made me giddy. I was in no mood for the cafeteria, so I went outside to be alone, but unfortunately a lot of other people had gone there too.

  Sitting down on a bench, I watched students throwing snowballs and a few were even attempting an igloo. A few inches had come down while we were in class, so everyone had a lot more snow to work with than they had before.

  I noticed Hailey walking in my direction. I expected her to walk past me, possibly making a snide comment. She stopped in front of me. "Do you mind if I sit?" She looked nervous.

  I looked her up and down. Why didn't I see any animosity? That wasn't like her—she hated me. All of the excitement that I had been feeling about Tobias left.

  I smelled for danger, but found none, so I motioned for her to sit. I didn't want to cause a scene.

  "So, about Tanner…."

  "I don't want to talk about him," I snapped. How dare she bring him up to me? The time he had been furious at me, he went to her, knowing how much we despise each other, and they kissed in front of me.

  "He told me everything," she whispered.

  She had to be playing me. There was no way he would tell her about us being vampires. Would he? I narrowed my eyes, hoping to intimidate her. "What do you mean by everything?"

  She sighed, obviously still nervous. "He turned me, Alexis. Right before he disappeared."

  I froze. That couldn't be true. Why would he turn her into a vampire? What good could possibly come from that? "He told you about me?" I asked, using my most intimidating voice. I couldn't believe that Tanner would have not only turned her, but told her about me too. If he wasn't already dead, he would have to worry.

  She nodded. "Kayla's been helping me out since he's been gone. But their house just burned down—they think it was werewolves—so they're leaving town. I don't know if you want to…that is, if you…."

  I looked at her, surprised at her insecurity. It was at that moment that I noticed she lacked a heartbeat. She had to be telling the truth.

  She made doe eyes at me, making me think of Natalie. "I didn't want to ask you. You have every right to hate me. I've been nothing but horrible to you our whole lives. But if you'd give me a chance, I promise you won't regret it."

  "This better not be some kind of trick. I don't know if he told you that I'm a special type of vampire. I have extra powers that the others don't." I cracked my knuckles for added effect, and she jumped.

  "I know. Believe me. I know. But I was hoping that we could try to be friends, or at least allies. It's better to hunt with someone else and we're both alone in—"

  "Why is it so important to go hunting with someone?" I asked, narrowing my eyes again.

  She looked around and whispered, "The werewolves."

  "What about them?"

  "They're growing in numbers. T
hey're everywhere now. I know that your lover boy has his group of good ones, but there are a ton more dangerous ones. We're pretty safe in town, surrounded by people and near the good were—"

  "Wait a minute. My lover boy? How do you know about…? Well, you tell me who he is, since you know so much."

  "I've been watching you closely. You guys are tough to track, so you're hiding your relationship well. Nobody else suspects anything. Believe me, I'm in everyone's business and now that I can read minds, I would totally know if anyone else knew."

  I glared at her. How could she know? I had just started seeing Tobias. "If I agree to be friends and hunt with you, do you swear that you won't harm me?"

  Her eyes widened and then she nodded yes. "Totally."

  "So long as you agree not to turn on me, I see no reason we can't try to be friends. It's not like I have any other vampires in the area. But seriously, don't try anything. If this turns out to be some kind of trick, you will regret it, Hailey."

  "It's not a trick. Think about it. Have I done anything to you since you got back?"

  "Not that I can remember, but I have been having memory lapses."

  "All the more reason to have a vampire on your side."

  "Yeah, that's pretty convenient. Why approach me now?"

  "Like I said, Kayla and her boyfriend just moved away. She's been helping me up until then. I've tried this on my own for about a week, and well, it's not going so well."

  "Wait a minute. How did he turn you? With venom?"

  "Yeah. He said there were two ways to turn me, but he didn't know how to use his blood."

  "So you're a common vampire."

  She nodded.

  "How are you sitting here in the daylight? I know none of them know where to go for the sun blessing. What gives?"

  Hailey held up her hand. She was wearing a ring.

  I stared at it a moment, realizing that it was the same ring that I'd had blessed for Tanner. "How did you get it?"

  She sighed. "He gave it to me. I didn't take it, if that's what you're wondering. He was going to let me borrow it, and then he forgot he had it off, and went out into the sun. Then he discovered that he didn't even need it."