could do anything they wanted with me. There was no escape now.
My vision faltered. Now two women stood over me, two sticks pointed at me. Two moons wavered behind them. I didn't know if it was fear or the head injury that caused everything to slide apart and together again. I squeezed my eyes shut.
But I couldn't close my ears, couldn't block out the gnarl. My eyes popped open with terror. The feral sound came from the man. His eyes rolled back, showing only whites. His hands clenched into fists. His muscles strained, the veins protruding like ropes along the bulges. His body shook violently. The edges of his shape became a blur.
'I can't hold it!' he growled.
'Then don't,' the woman said. 'Don't fight it. It's time!'
A ripping sound tore through the night as the man lurched forward, his skin shredding. A gelatinous liquid spurt out of him like an exploding jar of jelly. His pants tore into ribbons as his body lengthened and grew. The shape of his limbs transformed. His face elongated, his nose and mouth becoming a… Holy crap! A snout?! I gasped, a scream stuck in my throat. By the time his front… legs …hit the ground, fur covered his body. He was no longer man. He was wolf. A freakin' wolf?!
The wolf moved closer, a low growl in its throat. Its stench of decaying corpses and rotting leaves overwhelmed my sensitive nose, gagging me and forcing me to breathe through my mouth.
Pop! Another woman appeared. Her pale skin glowed and her white hair shimmered in the moonlight.
'I smell blood,' she said, her voice a flutter of wind chimes. 'Mmm…delicious blood.'
The scrapes on my hands had already healed, but not the cut on my head. It must have been deep enough for normal people to need stitches. For me, it could take ten minutes to heal. So my blood was still fresh.
I could only smell the wolf's rancid odor as it hovered over me.
'Back off, mutt ,' the white-blonde snarled as she stepped closer. 'This is too important for the likes of you!'
'How dare you!' Stick-woman gasped. 'We had her first!'
'Alexis is mine. Always mine !'
What the hell is happening?! W hat do they want with me ? Whoever they were, they wanted to do more than just scare me. I could hear it in the way the blonde said I was hers . She wanted me to hurt…or worse. Cold fear slid down my spine and hot tears burned my eyes.
Pop! A man materialized in the darkness and strode toward me. My heart jumped into my throat. Not more! The wolf growled. Both women hissed. Goose bumps crawled along my skin.
The man stepped in front of me, placing himself between me and the others.
Good! Very good! Safe! My sense slightly calmed me.
'You're alone?' the blonde asked. 'Ha! You haven't a chance.'
The wolf lunged at my protector. He raised his hands and thrust them out toward the beast. It flew back as if blasted by something unseen. I heard a thud and a whimper as it hit the pavement. I blinked several times, disbelieving what I just saw.
The women hissed again. The first one raised her stick, pointing it at my protector. The blonde took a step toward me.
Pop! Another person appeared, between the two women and my human shield. The women responded immediately. Their teeth gleamed in the moonlight as their lips spread into grins.
No way could my protector stand up against this second man. The new one was taller, wider in the shoulders, thicker in the torso and arms than my protector, who was now out-numbered and out-muscled. The second man took a single step toward us. I didn't dare look up at him, afraid of what I might see. But I felt his eyes rake over me. My trembling turned to quakes.
Evil? Good! (evil?) No, very good!
Again, my sense screamed loudly, and, again, it surprised me. It never questioned itself, never sounded so confused. It settled on good as he turned to face the women and their expressions darkened.
I swatted down a leap of hope. The attackers still out-numbered my protectors.
The wolf, now back on all fours, stalked toward us. The fur on the back of its neck rose. Hunger shone in its eyes as its lips curled back in a snarl. Its pace quickened, my heart galloping with it. It lunged once more. I tried to scream. My constricted throat only allowed a whimper.
Then the wolf flew backwards again and fell to the ground a second time. The bigger man's hand hung in the air, palm straight out facing the wolf, as if he'd hit it, but I never saw the contact.
Both women eyed me with obvious greed. Then their eyes shifted back to my brawny protector and confusion and even fear flickered across their faces. He turned his hand toward them. Their eyes widened, looking as terrified as I felt.
They disappeared with two pops .
'I got Alexis! Take care of that one!' The lankier man easily lifted me into his arms and sprinted toward my house. The beast's stench continued to fill my head, a persistent odor that wouldn't leave even as distance separated us.
A wolfish howl behind us diminished into a human cry of pain. I shuddered in the arms of the stranger.
'Alexis, honey.' Mom's voice, soft and distant, pulled me out of unconsciousness. 'Honey, it's time to get up.'
'Huh?' I mumbled, disoriented, my eyelids fluttering as I came completely awake.
'We need to go.'
I squinted at her against the brightness of daylight. She knelt on the floor next to me, where I was wrapped in a blanket, a pillow under my head. How did I get here? The last thing I remembered was the stranger running with me in his arms. Renewed fear gripped me and I sat up with a gasp. Pain shot from the base of my skull to the backs of my eyelids. I pressed my fingers to my temples. Was it real? I examined my hands. No scrapes. I touched my head. No bump or cut. It meant little, though. They would have been healed by now anyway.
'What happened last night?' I asked, my voice husky.
'Hmm?'
I started to tell her about my night. Her brows pressed together as I told her about the boys with the knife.
'I can't believe how mean kids can be,' she interrupted. 'You should have let me move you after the burn.'
I shook my head, just once. It hurt too much to move it more than that. She misinterpreted it, though, thinking I still protested her offer to move to avoid my humiliation. I hadn't wanted to leave so close to graduation. But that happened months ago. It didn't matter anymore.
'I know,' she said. 'We're moving now and you can have a fresh start.'
'No, that's not it. There was this couple in the street, too. And the man…he changed into a…a werewolf . And the woman—I think she was a witch .'
Mom's eyebrows arched. 'Honey, do you realize what you're saying?'
I did. And it sounded ludicrous. In fact, in the morning light, I knew it was more than ludicrous—it was absolutely impossible. But it had felt so real….
Confused, I studied her inhumanly beautiful face. She always said we had similar features—chestnut hair, almond-shaped, mahogany eyes, smooth, light-olive skin—her words, not mine. It described her in an understated way and was overkill for me. I resembled her, but she looked like an angel and I looked like her very human daughter.
She also looked, impossibly, twenty-six years old. Mom didn't age. By the time I was fifteen, we had to tell people we were sisters because she looked too young to be my mother. I called her Sophia in public, but Mom in private.
'You have the wildest dreams,' she said with a small smile. She nodded and patted my arm.
'But—' I pulled my arm from her, knowing what she was doing.
'It was a dream, Alexis. We don't have time to discuss it,' she said, an edge to her voice now.
Right. A dream. That makes more sense . Something deep inside, past the throbbing in my head, denied that theory, but there was really no other explanation. Witches and werewolves…people appearing and
