“How do I know?” she threw at him. “You won’t show yourself. You could be anyone.”
There was a heavy pause. I can’t show you. He sounded as tortured as Aden had looked while making his confession that day in the forest. Were I to shift now, I would be naked.
“Oh.” Wolf, naked in human form. She’d never wanted to see Tucker that way, but Wolf…Would he be tall and muscled? Lean? Handsome?
Did it matter? What would she do with a naked boy in her bed? A naked boy who fascinated her? A naked boy who had helped ease her torment over what had happened, she realized, the ache now only a dull throb in her chest. Time to change the subject or he just might satisfy your curiosity.
“Why haven’t you spoken to me like this all week?”
The more I talk to you, the more I want to do so. And I think about you enough as it is.
“Oh,” she said again, a thrill of excitement blazing through her. Wolf actually thought about her. Yes, but what were his thoughts? she wondered, excitement draining.
“Mary Ann,” her dad suddenly called. The front door shut with a click that reverberated through the house. “I’m home.”
A gasp of surprise left her. What was he doing home so early?
“Mary Ann?”
“Uh, hi, Dad,” she called, cringing at the way her voice trembled. Much as he hated animals, he would probably call the pound at the first sight of Wolf.
“Hide,” she whispered, squirming out from under him. Frantic, she jolted upright. The mattress bounced her to her feet. She raced out of her bedroom to the staircase banister, where she peered down. Her dad had his head buried in a stack of mail.
“Why aren’t you at work?” Great. Now she sounded breathless.
“My last patient of the day called and canceled. I was thinking we could go out for dinner.”
“No! No,” she repeated more calmly. “I’m, uh, studying.” Please just retire to your office. Oh, please, please, please.
His gaze lifted, latched onto her, and he frowned. “You study too much, honey, and I don’t want you looking back on these teenage years, wishing you’d had more excitement. We’ve talked about this. So go get dressed in something fancy and we’ll go to the city.” He tossed the envelopes on the cherrywood wall table beside him and headed for the stairs. “I’ll shower and we can be out the door and stuffing our faces within the hour. Maybe we can even catch a movie.”
Of all the days to want to spend with her. She couldn’t get out of it, not without hurting his feelings. “Okay, sure.” No, no, no! “Yeah, that’ll be fun.”
His frown intensified and he paused, hand resting on the rail. “Are you all right? You seem jumpy.”
“I’m fine. Just eager to go get ready.” Without another word, she rushed back into her bedroom and shut the door, pressing against it and trying to breathe. “You have to—”
Wolf was nowhere to be seen.
“Wolf?”
No response.
Frowning herself, she raced through the room, searching for him. He wasn’t in the closet or the bathroom and was too big to be under the bed. The window was open—it had been shut before—the drapes wisping in the breeze. She hurried to it and peered out. And there he was, sitting in her lawn and staring up at her.
He nodded briefly when he saw her, then turned and headed back toward the woods.
TEN
ADEN SAT at his makeshift desk and stared down at his homework, an English paper about why William Shakespeare’s plays were still relevant in modern society, wondering why he’d fought so hard to attend public school. He wasn’t spending any extra time with Mary Ann, he was no closer to finding a way to get the souls out of his mind and into bodies of their own, and he was more confused than ever about Shannon and the wolf, whether they were one and the same or separate entities entirely.
Since that afternoon in the forest, when Aden had bitten the werewolf’s leg, Shannon had been avoiding him, even glared and snarled at him despite their first-day-of-school truce—proof he had to be the angry shape-shifter. But Shannon hadn’t once walked with a limp—proof he couldn’t possibly be the shape-shifter.
Quite simply, Aden was confused and miserable. His teachers weren’t exactly fond of him, but he hadn’t made any new friends and the only one he had was currently avoiding him. There was no time to talk at school and she raced away from him and into the forest the moment the last bell rang.
He knew why, too. She feared him. She feared what he was, what he could do. How could she not? He was a freak.
He shouldn’t have trusted her.
Perhaps following Mary Ann that day in the cemetery had been a mistake. Elijah had warned him.
You should ignore her, Caleb said, sensing the direction of his thoughts. Treat her like crap. That’s what really gets a girl’s attention.
Don’t listen to him. He was a lecher in another life, I just know it. Disgust practically dripped from Eve’s voice. Girls respect boys who treat them well.
“Still think you know her?” He dropped his head in his upraised palms, Shakespeare forgotten.
I’m sure of it. I have a few ideas percolating about when we might have seen her, but I’m not yet ready to talk about them.
Aden caught the hidden meaning to her words and moaned. Eve was planning to take him back, to travel into a younger version of himself—today’s mind in yesterday’s body—so that he could revisit the past with this new knowledge. The only reason she hadn’t already done so, he suspected, was that she hadn’t decided on a specific day. That’s what was “percolating,” he was sure.
“Eve,” he began, then stopped himself. Stubborn as she was, she might take him back in time tonight if he irritated her enough.
She hadn’t forced him to time travel in years, and they were all grateful. He’d just have to solve Eve’s mystery for her. Before she resorted to using her “gift.”
“Lights out,” Dan suddenly called.
Grunts and groans filled the hallways, followed by the shuffle of feet. Sighing, Aden pushed to a stand and switched off his lamp. Darkness flooded his bedroom. He didn’t kick off his shoes but lay in bed just as he was. He was tired yet restless. As always. Part of him expected Dan to peek inside the room and check on him, and he waited several hours, the covers drawn to his chin to hide his clothing. Those hours dragged by, alone and uninterrupted.
Silver lining: his companions fell asleep from boredom.
Finally, when he was confident the others in the bunkhouse were sleeping, he moved to his window and climbed outside. The nights were getting cooler, fall well on its way. Sophia and the other dogs slept inside with Dan and Meg, so he didn’t have to worry about their barking waking the entire ranch.
As he’d done every night for the past week, he maneuvered through the forest toward the clearing Victoria had led him into. Lack of sleep was making him cranky, but he’d rather have the chance of seeing her again than the promise of slumber. Where was she? Why hadn’t she returned to him?
Despite the fact that she drank blood—and would drink his—and despite the fact that she could turn humans into blood-slaves, whatever those were, he wanted to see her again. Needed to see her.
Gradually he became aware of a murmur of voices—and for once they weren’t coming from inside his mind. The closer he came to the clearing, the louder they became. Excitement hit—had he finally found her?
He positioned himself behind a thick stump and listened. One speaker was male, one was female; their actual words, however, were too muffled to decipher. But he soon realized that the female wasn’t Victoria. This one’s voice was too high.
Excitement gave way to disappointment. He would have left them to their business, whoever they were and whatever they were doing, if he hadn’t known a vampire female liked to traverse the area. They could be vampire hunters, for all he knew, planning to kill her.
He didn’t know if people like that truly existed, but he wasn’t taking any chances. He slinked out of the shadows and edged closer.
One of them might have said, “Kill.” Perhaps, “Pill.” The other might have replied, “I could.” Perhaps, “I’m good.” Either way, they weren’t out there planting roses.
Just a little closer…A twig snapped under his boot. He froze. Waited, not even daring to breathe. The voices tapered to quiet.
What should he do? He couldn’t leave until they did, just in case Victoria showed up. And he couldn’t—
Someone tackled him from behind, sending him face-first into a bed of brittle leaves. The impact startled him, but he was able to roll to his back, then roll again, pinning his attacker under him. He punched the brute in the stomach.
There was a grunt of pain, a whoosh of air. Aden jumped to his feet, intending to grab his daggers, but as he peered down, he saw who had rammed him and froze. “Ozzie?”
“Stone?” Ozzie stood, spit out a mouthful of dirt. “You’re following me now? What, are you trying to get me booted from the ranch? Well, good luck with that, ’cause I won’t go quietly.” Without any other warning, he kicked Aden between the legs.
Utter pain radiated through him, hunching him over, making his skin feel like fire and his blood like ice. He wanted to vomit. Dear…God…
As he gasped and sweated and combated the nausea, rage boiled inside him. Low blow. Low freaking blow. When he was able to breathe again, Ozzie was going to be sorry.
“Let’s see how well you can tattle on me without any teeth.” Ozzie pounded his fist into Aden’s eye. Bad aim? Then his lip. Okay, not so bad.
His head spun. His rage intensified, spilled over, filled him up and gave him wings. With a growl, he launched forward and grabbed the boy around the waist, propelling them both to the ground. Crack. Ozzie’s skull connected with a large rock, stunning him.
Aden propped himself on his knees and just started swinging. Boom, one fist slammed into a cheekbone. “That’s for my first T-shirt.” Boom, his other fist connected with an eye socket. “That’s for the others.” Boom, he connected with Ozzie’s chin. Blood sprayed. He didn’t care, was lost to the rage, determined to inflict as much pain as possible. “That’s for my nuts!”
