They still bent and flexed like fingers, and the bottom half of each finger retained its pinkish human flesh—but the tips were grey, and, as I watched, a small patch of reddish colored fur appeared on the back of my hand and started to spread up my arm. At the same time, my nails turned black and began to grow and bend, until they’d shaped into five wickedly curved claws.
This all happened within a matter of seconds.
It took me less than the span of another second to decide what to do next: I flexed my new fingers, while trying not to think about how freakish they looked, and with one quick motion I struck.
The feeling of claws—of my claws— sinking into the flesh of Sera’s arm was unsettling, but strangely satisfying at the same time. I heard Sera gasp in pain, and I jerked my hand back.
She shoved me away.
My face hit the ground. I scrambled several feet away before I dared to push up onto my hands and knees and look back.
Sera was clutching her arm, but the hand covering her wound wasn’t stopping all the blood flowing from it. Thin ribbons of red streamed out from underneath her hand and dripped to the ground.
I climbed to my feet, returning the glare she was giving me—even though all I really wanted to do was turn and run as far away from there as possible. I’d been reckless enough for one day, maybe.
I really needed to quit while I was still ahead—and still alive.
My eyes darted around, seeking the best escape route, before flickering back to Sera’s arm and the damage I’d done to it. An unnerving feeling came over me, and I glanced down at my hand.
It was completely human again.
Well crap.
“Okay, now you’re starting to piss me off,” Sera growled, walking toward me. Blood continued to seep from her arm, but with every step she took she seemed more and more indifferent to it.
I threw a frantic look back down at my hands. They were still human— blunt, harmless nails and all.
And no matter how hard I willed it to happen, they stayed that way.
Crap, crap, crap.
In the distance, I could hear snarling and snapping, but I didn’t dare look away again to see how Kael was faring against Markus—not even when a sharp yelp of pain echoed across the yard a second later, followed by silence.
“I wonder if you can repeat that little trick?” Sera said, stopping a few feet in front of me. “Might make this fight a little more fun for me. And more fair.” As she spoke, she lifted her own hands out in front of her face, and they began to change.
Her fingers grew longer, and just like my hands had started to sprout patches of reddish brown, Sera’s began to disappear under a blanket of thick black fur. And then, just as quickly, there were claws. Black as her fur, curved, and deadly.
“Not that I’m really concerned with fairness—after all, you threw the first punch,” she added with a shrug.
The fur that had started on her hands was making its way up her arms now, and her limbs lengthened and her muscles expanded and contracted with such ferocity that they looked like they might break through the skin.
Within seconds, she towered over me.
“And it was a cheap shot,” she said with an evil grin that exposed her freshly grown fangs.
She fell forward and, now on four legs, her eyes were on the same level as mine again.
I took an involuntary step backward as a dark cloud enveloped her, same as it had on the side of the road yesterday.
I glanced over my shoulder, searching again for an escape route—though I didn’t know why. I might have been fast, but she had four legs now, and I still only had two.
Her transformation was nearly complete.
She was stepping out of that cloud a moment later. Crouching, Preparing to spring—
Until all of a sudden she started to shrink away from me.
An instant later, a blur of silver flew past my body and collided with hers.
For a second Sera lay still in the grass, a strange, awkwardly twisted creature— mostly wolf, but in places still human.
She climbed back to her feet, tossing her head angrily. It only took seconds for her fur to fade back into human skin and clothes. In another instant, she was standing up straight, back to her human size. Her eyes—which were now focused on the wolf that stood between us— still held a menacing look, but her smile was eerily placid.
“Really, Kael? Again? Is that any way to treat an old friend?” For a brief moment, her face reflected the hurt in her voice, but it was difficult to tell whether that hurt was genuine or not.
Kael stood up on his hind legs, and by the time he had straightened to his full height he was human again.
Markus stumbled back into sight. My eyes only lingered on him for a few seconds, but it was long enough to see that almost the entire right side of his face was now a dark shade of red. He was holding his shoulder and glaring at Kael.
Sera glanced over at Markus as he approached, and her expression instantly became murderous.
“You…” she started, turning back to Kael. But she didn’t seem to be able to finish her sentence. She tore her eyes away and focused on the ground, her fists clenching.
An edgy silence lingered for several moments.
“Things are different,” Kael finally said. His voice was quiet. He looked straight ahead as he spoke. I was confused by his words, but the finality of his tone told me he probably wasn’t going to elaborate, even if I asked him to.
“What the hell is he talking about?” Markus growled at Sera.
But Sera ignored him, her eyes fixed on Kael.
“There are two of us, and one of him,” Markus said. “As far as I’m concerned, he’s a traitor. So can we just—”
“We’re leaving,” Sera interrupted. She’d already turned and started to walk away.
“What?” Markus said. “You can’t be serious. The girl is practically alone; it’s more than we could’ve ever hoped for! If we go back empty-handed, with these odds—”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Sera said, slowing to a stop but keeping her back to Markus. “We’re clearly outnumbered.”
Markus hesitated for a second, but then a look of understanding crossed his face. “And you’d tell Him that? You would lie to The Creator?”
Sera said nothing to this accusation, she just resumed her steady walk.
Markus followed reluctantly.
As I watched them disappear into the distance, a hand closed over my wrist.
Kael yanked me around to face him. My eyes narrowed, the fire that had fueled my attack against Sera still far from extinguished. Kael’s mouth twitched, and he looked at me uncertainly for a minute before slowly relaxing his fingers. He threw my arm away in the same instant that I jerked it away from him, painfully jarring my shoulder in the process.
“You—” he began, shaking his head, “have got to be one of the most reckless people I’ve ever met. Do you have some kind of death wish, punching her in the face like that?”
“She provoked me.”
“That’s beside the point. You’re lucky Markus is such an inexperienced fighter, or else you would have been facing Sera alone. This is getting old, fast. You need to learn to think before you do things like that, or you’re going to end up getting both of us killed.”
“I never asked you to die for me,” I snapped, blood pounding in my ears. “Go ahead— stop saving me! Hell, you could’ve let Sera kill me just then. I wouldn’t have cared.”
“Shut-up,” Kael said after a brief, stunned pause. “Don’t say things like that.” Most of the hostility had faded from his voice, but I wasn’t done just yet.
“And what was all that about, anyway? What did you mean—things are different? What is the deal between Sera and you?”
“There isn’t anything between Sera and me,” he said, some of the anger in his voice resurfacing.
“Yeah, right. And what else are you going to tell me? That you know the way to world peace? That
politicians don’t lie? That you’re also a vampire, and an elf, and you can breathe fire?”
“I’m serious. There’s nothing there—as much as she’d like that.” He sighed. “And that doesn’t matter right now, anyway. Don’t you think you have more important things to worry about?”
His words caused my thoughts to do an abrupt about-face.
Lora.
My mouth had already been open, ready to keep arguing, but now it just hung there, unsure of what to say.
I glanced back over my shoulder, at the place I’d called home for the past ten years.
From where I stood, it looked just like it always had. The shattered back-porch door was out of sight. It was a nice day, so the blinds were pulled up in the windows along the side of the house, letting sunlight flood into our living room. The lawn needed cutting, which meant it was probably Lora’s turn to do it; she hated mowing the lawn, and it was always the last thing she did on her list of weekly chores.
I wondered how long it was going to be before it got cut again.
Roses, hydrangeas, and some yellow flower I didn’t know the name of were blooming in the fenced garden running alongside the house. I’d helped my mom plant that garden when I was younger and, up until the last few years, I’d helped her keep it up.
But things had changed. She’d gotten busy, and so had I. I had school, and a car, and friends to worry about. I didn’t have time for gardening anymore.
Even without my help, the garden stayed beautiful. I’d always been amazed at my mom’s ability to keep it looking so good, in between her demanding shifts at the hospital and everything else she had to do. But over these past few weeks, weeds had started to claim the territory, and several of the rose bushes in the back of the garden were withering. Still, nobody driving by would notice.
From the distance, everything looked normal at the Layton household.
But I was sure of it now: Things were never going to be normal again.
“They may come back,” Kael said, his voice bordering on gentle again. “We shouldn’t stay here.”
I nodded.
I didn’t need telling twice.
I’d never wanted to get away from a place as badly as I did right then.
* * *
Kael didn’t say much of anything to me on the way back, which was just fine with me. I didn’t want to talk. When I was this close to throwing up, opening my mouth for any reason seemed like a really bad idea.
I ran as fast as I possibly could, so my mind had to be focused on where I was going to avoid running into things. That was the only thing that kept me going. I knew if I stopped and let myself think about everything that had happened, I would have broken down.
We ran into Will when we were about half-way back to the house. Apparently, he’d been busy elsewhere—intercepting two other werewolves who’d been on their way to aid Sera and Markus. There was a bloodstain covering the right side of his shirt, the bottom of which was in tatters.
I tried not to look at it.
He winced a little with every step. But despite his obvious pain, Will’s good nature prevailed; the rest of the way back to the house he spent recounting the story of his heroic battle, complete with play-by-play details of near misses and his eventual death-defying victory.
We reached the house in record time. As we approached the front porch, I saw Vanessa standing at the top of the steps, talking to some guy I didn’t recognize. Will walked straight on and disappeared into the house, but seeing Vanessa made me hesitate. I really didn’t want to talk to anybody right now. And Vanessa would want details.
“We can go around to the side door,” Kael said, placing a hand on my back and steering me off to the right. I was about to breathe a sigh of relief when I heard Vanessa’s voice.
“Alex!” I barely had time to look up before she was there, pulling me into a full embrace. I spent the next few seconds gasping for air as she crushed me against her. When she finally pulled away, I saw she was close to tears. “Where have you been?” she asked. “I’ve been so worried about you!”
“I’m fine,” I said numbly. I tried to shove past her, but her hands gripped my shoulders and held me in place.
“Alex? You don’t look fine.”
I tried my best to focus on blocking my thoughts from her. I must have been successful, too, because Vanessa continued to watch me with a confused look on her face. She eventually turned to Kael, her lips forming a worried frown.
“What happened?” she asked.
I held my breath, hoping he wouldn’t say.
I really, really didn’t want to have this conversation right now.
“We can talk about it later,” Kael said pointedly.
My heart fluttered a bit at his words, at the way he was protecting me again, just in a different way. The fluttering didn’t settle quickly, either.
Because despite his grumpiness about it all, he had come to my rescue— repeatedly—since we’d met. And when he’d placed his hand against me a minute ago, it had made me feel safer than I had in days. Weeks, maybe. I wanted that safe, guiding touch to come back. I wanted it more than I wanted anything else just then, I realized, which was…strange.
He’s a jerk, I reminded myself. I shouldn’t have wanted him touching me. He shouldn’t have made me feel safe.
Clearly I was just confused after everything that had happened.
Vanessa slowly relaxed the pressure she was putting on my shoulders, but she didn’t move from the path in front of me. “We already have a lot of other things to talk about,” she said.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Eli wanted to talk to you, too, as soon as possible. He thinks he’s come to some conclusions about things regarding your shifting—or lack thereof, rather.”
“Really?”
She nodded. “He was on his way to see Emily, if you want to go talk to him.”
“How is Emily?” I felt a stab of guilt for not having asked about her earlier.
“She’s going to be okay,” Vanessa said, her voice trembling a little. “She’s resting now.”
“Good.”
“Do you want to go talk to Eli?” Kael asked.
I hesitated. Honestly? What I wanted more than anything was to go crawl in a corner somewhere, curl up, and maybe cry myself to sleep. And then I wanted to sleep for days—or weeks, or years—however long it took to make this all go away.
But that wasn’t going to bring Lora back.
I needed to hear what Eli had to say. I needed information, I needed to know what was going on with me, and who or what I was up against.
So I nodded.
I turned to follow Vanessa inside—and ended up practically colliding with the guy she had been talking to earlier.
“I’m sorry.” The apology sounded a bit amused, but I also got the impression that “amused” was just the natural look of his eyes and his smile. It was different than the good-natured sort of amusement Will’s eyes usually held, though; it was darker, like he was laughing inwardly at some sort of inside joke that no one else was aware of. A joke at my expense, maybe. “I didn’t mean to startle you,” he said.
“It’s fine,” I said as I continued to look him over.
He was muscular and tall—at least a foot taller than me. Tattoos of some sort of tribal design disappeared underneath both sleeves of the white t-shirt he was wearing. Another ran up the side of his neck. Rough sideburns and stubble on his chin framed his face, and his hair, the same shade of light brown as his facial hair, was pulled back into a low ponytail. His eyes, which were such a dark blue they might as well have been black, met mine curiously.
I jerked my gaze away, embarrassed for staring as long as I had.
“Alex, this is Shane Madoc,” Vanessa said. “He’s the alpha of the Laurel Cove pack.”
Alpha?
That meant he was a big deal, right?
I thought about asking, but I didn’t really want to draw attention to my cluelessness. I�
�m pretty sure an Alpha was the same thing as a leader, anyway; the only reason I kind of doubted it was because this guy—though he looked older than me—didn’t really look old enough to be in charge of anything.
“Laurel Cove?”
“Emily’s pack. He came to check on her.”
I nodded in acknowledgment, but I didn’t push for any more details. I wasn’t exactly in a meeting people sort of mood at the moment; I just wanted to hurry up and see Eli.
Shane either couldn’t tell this, or he didn’t care, because he seemed plenty enthusiastic about meeting me; before I could protest he grabbed my hand and squeezed it tightly.
“Pleasure to meet you, Alex,” he said. His voice had a soft lilt to it, and a more genuine smile brightened his face as he spoke. He suddenly seemed a lot more refined than his rough appearance had prepared me for.
“Um, you too.”
I was beginning to wonder if he was ever going to let go when, thankfully, Kael walked over and rescued me again.
“We shouldn’t keep Eli waiting,” he said, giving me a knowing look and pulling me away.
“I see you’re still hanging around,” Shane said, cheerfully, to our retreating backs.
Kael stopped and let go of my hand. I could tell he was fighting the urge to turn around. “I see you’re as observant and full of useless commentary as ever, Madoc.”
“Nice to see you, too,” Shane said.
“I wish I could say the same about you,” Kael said.
I could sense the tension escalating, so I cleared my throat purposely.
“I’ll go with you to see Eli,” Shane said, sauntering his way up to us. “I want to check on Emily.”
We walked in awkward silence into the house. Vanessa led the way, and Kael trailed behind us, while Shane insisted on walking beside me.
“So, I’m sorry about Emily,” I said as we made our way towards the room she was staying in.
“Not your fault,” Shane said, waving a dismissive hand.
“No—it is. She got hurt protecting my family.”
Or trying to, anyway.
“Emily’s tough,” he assured me. “She’s been in worse scrapes than this.”
I couldn’t help but doubt that. He was probably just trying to reassure me—or maybe he hadn’t actually seen Emily yet.
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