A Werewolf's Moon (The Council) (5 page)

“She has a point.” Flora said. “I’
m surprised we went unnoticed.”

Zane added, “This goes with my theory.”

Dmitri frowned, “Theory?”

“Yeah, that this whole Resistance trying to take over thing wasn’t the big
show.
They went out too easy.”

“Wait, I remember her. Christy was at the party by the lake.” Flora smacked her hand on the table at the realization. “That was the night we felt a presence in the woods.”

Normally I wasn’t the sort of person to jump to conclusions, but the more I heard, the more I suspected a newly turned human was out on her own, probably scared to death. Not that it was my problem. It was Dmitri’s.

“I guess this falls under your jurisdiction pal.” I grinned at him.

“Why me?” he didn’t seem to be thinking all too hard on the subject. It wasn’t that I didn’t feel bad for the girl, I did. But if I went after every newly turned human I wouldn’t have a life.

“If she was turned by a werewolf, she wouldn’t know until the next full moon. That’s about two days away.” I rubbed my chin, glancing around when I heard someone gulp. It had been
Pepper
. “You have to be born a witch. So that’s out. The only immediate transformation is from human to vampire.”

“Pass out, wake up a whole new…
er
, person.” Zane laughed.

Dmitri got quiet then, “I hate to even consider she was changed against her will like the man you brought in. Probably even by the same vampire.”

“Meaning this is your business now.”
Giving me more time to focus on
Pepper
.

“If this girl was turned wrongly,” Dmitri said, “I’ll see that she is taken care of. The being that broke our laws will be dealt with.”

Flora shifted in her seat. “Are you going to kill him?”

Dmitri shrugged. “It depends on what he is guilty of.”

“Well this is just super,”
Pepper
sighed, slouching in her seat.

“You and Quinn are best buddies now?” Dmitri asked.

This was one of the instances where I’d hoped that by ignoring my problem, it would go away.

Zane winked at
Pepper
. “Most girls settle for the school jock, but I say, why stop there when you can have a werewolf? I bet he comes with his own chew toy too.”

I went back in the room. “We’re just friends.”

“That’s what they all say,” Zane wagged his eyebrows. “
Pepper
, I never really took the time to congratulate you for becoming a member of the butt sniffers club.”

I reached over and smacked the back of his head. “Shut up,”

“Ouch, you better be nice, or I’ll give you a tail.” He snapped.

“You wish,” I glanced at
Henry
. “Well?”

“Well, what?” he frowned.

“This is your turf. How do you want to handle the vampire?”

“Dmitri will begin his search for Christy. I’ll put a few men on patrol to keep an eye on the town.”

Sounded like a good plan to me. “I’ll crash here, if you don’t mind.”

“Not at all,”

I hung with
Henry
and Dmitri in the office, while
Pepper
and Venna went off to do something girly. Fine with me, I’d rather busy myself and keep my mind off
Pepper
by going over a few important Council matters. Most of them weren’t too dire, but a few needed our immediate attention.

Capeside had been turned upside down, without the human’s realizing it. Up until a few nights ago, the woods had been crawling with our men. And just when we’d sent them away, we called a few of them back.

I was thinking that if things got any crazier in this place, we’d have
to
bomb it and start over.

We got carried away talking, and it wasn’t till Venna came into the office looking for
Henry
that we realized it w
as around three in the morning.

I didn’t sleep well, tossed and turned all night, and then I was up early for a run. I didn’t go out of my way to find
Pepper
either, she was gone early to
keep an eye
the bookstore for her Aunt, who decided to help at Minnie’s Diner.

After lunch I grabbed an old Dodgers cap out of
Henry
’s garage and pulled it low over my face. No one paid me any attention when I walked into town. I wandered the streets with my nose to the wind, hoping to catch a whiff of a magical being that didn’t belong. But I got nothing. No vampire, just the smell of a certain bookstore and the girl inside.

I spent most of my day trying to keep some distance between me and
Pepper
, but I found myself standing outside at sunset, watching her through the window.

I just couldn’t make myself stay away longer, and decided to go in.

Chapter
5

Pepper

Crap and double crap, I hung up my phone cursing the airlines. I’d been on hold for thirty minutes before I got a live person. All I wanted was a flight from Virginia to Georgia. Was that too much to ask for? I’d tried buying the ticket on my phone, but the signal was too weak and the page wouldn’t load. The bookstore computer was a dinosaur, but I figured if I was going to get that ticket for tomorrow, I’d have to boot it up, or wait till I got home.

I jabbed at the computer keys. At this rate, I wouldn’t be able to get a seat. The man on the phone said he only had two spots left on the morning flight, and then, lucky me, the call had dropped. My mother would skin me alive if I wasn’t primly seated at her dining room table for dinner.

The bell over the door tinkled and I glanced up. “Hey, what are you doing here?”

Quinn came into the shop wearing a baseball cap. It didn’t look half bad on him, but it did draw more attention to his scar. His wild hair was crammed up under it, not hanging in his face “Nothing, just seeing how you were doing.”

“Oh, I’m fine. Thanks.” I nodded, and went back to the evil computer. My aunt needed to invest in a new one with a flat screen. I’m pretty sure they didn’t make them like this anymore. The fan whirred so loud it sounded
like it was about to take off.

“What are you doing?” he came up around the counter behind me. “Is that windows
ninety-eight?”

“Don’t hate on the computer, you’ll piss off my aunt.” I smacked the glass screen, wondering if it would work faster with a little nudge. It flickered. “I hate this thing. I just want to buy a plane ticket. That’s all.”

“
You going
somewhere?” Quinn chuckled.

“Yeah, Atlanta.”

He stopped laughing.

“I’m sure you heard that I escaped from my mom the night Venna and I were taken to the mill. A few days ago my mom emailed my dad.” I rolled my eyes. “She’s saying I have to be on a plane tomorrow for Georgia.”

“
Pepper
, this is serious. You can’t postpone it for a while?”

“No, she will make our lives hell.” I gave up on the computer, hitting the power button and shutting it down the wrong way, thinking I’d just have to wait till I got home, and hope there was one seat left.

“If you can’t put her off, then I have to go with you.” His eyes shimmered with the gold that mesmerized me. Today had been hard. It was the first day I hadn’t seen him. I was used to having him hovering around me like a big bad thundercloud. It had been quiet without him, and almost, lonely. It had surprised the hell out of me to see him walk through the door like a normal person, wearing a baseball cap no less.

No, you can’t.” I panicked. Quinn couldn’t go anywhere near my mom. It would be the worst experience of my life. What if she didn’t like him?

Whoa
, whether my mom liked him or not wasn’t my problem.

“We don’t have a choice.” His voice grew hard, and I knew this wasn’t going to end in my favor. Damn princes. They thought they could tell anyone what to do.

“Don’t you have plans,
a schedule?”

He grinned. “Nope, I cleared this week to be with you.”

I threw my hands up in frustration and spun around on the stool to look up at him. “You don’t understand. You have no idea what kind of person my mom is.”

“Then why don’t you explain?”

“Okay…I’m an artist. But because I express myself by dressing differently my mom thinks I party and sleep around. I don’t dress slutty. So I wear miniskirts and halter-tops, so what? I also love a comfy t-shirt and jeans. And I’m not doing this for attention or to shock people. I happen to like changing the stripe of color in my hair to match outfits. And I don’t sleep around! Do I look that easy?”

He chuckled. “Did it help to get that out?”

“Yeah, thanks.”

“She’ll be too distracted by me to notice how you dress.” My eyes nearly popped out of my head when he patted my
hand. It was oddly comforting.

“You’re right.” I felt a smile creep across my face. It may not be so bad after all.

He smirked, “I’ll be right back.”

I had no idea where he went, but ten minutes later he phased back into the bookstore and handed me two plane tickets. He’d booked
us
a flight to Georgia
and
took the liberty of seating me in first class with him. I told him it wasn’t necessary, but he insisted. Apparently the werewolf liked elbowroom. With his broad shoulders and layers of muscle, being smashed in coach with me wouldn’t be comfortable. And since he wasn’t going to let me out of his sight, pr
otesting did little good.

Lucky me to have a werewolf for a watchdog.

“But, how did you get them so fast?” I stared down at the envelopes in my hand, confused.

“I’m the prince,” he said, as if it explained everything.

“The people at the airlines don’t know that.”

“No, but the lady I got them from is a witch, and she handles a lot of the traveling arrangements for my parents.” Now he was smirking. Darn him. “So I guess that leaves one thing.”

“Yeah, what’s that?” I grumbled.

He let out a deep breath and shook his head.
“Your change.
God I hope this works.”

The urge to reach out and run my fingers along his scar pulsed through my fingertips. Here was a guy, a teenage boy,
technically
—I mean you really can’t call a nineteen year old a boy—who could scare someone by breathing. He should be like a bull in a china shop, no fluidity or grace. But he wasn’t. He was gentle.

I grabbed my purse and slid the tickets in it. “What will I look like when I turn into a four legged furry?”

His laugh rumbled through the room, making me shiver. “I’m sorry, I should have told you. We don’t actually turn into wolves.”

“Really?”
I wanted to melt off the stool into a puddle of relieved goo.

“You’ll have amazing hearing, sight, and smell. You’ll be faster and stronger. Once you’re strong enough you can phase like I do.”

“Pop in and out of thin air?” this excited me. I bounced and smiled. “I could sneak up on you!”

“You can try.” He smiled too. “Your eyes will glow with any emotion you have. All werewolves’ eyes do, and you’ll have healing capabilities.”

“How come you changed me if you can heal?”

“The wound may heal, but the blood that came out of it needs to be washed off.”

“Oh.” I rested my elbows on my knees. “Why is it so important that you be with me?”

“When the moon is full your change will be complete. The hours leading up to it will be very…uncomfortable.”

I bit my lip.
“How bad?”

“Your body will fight the change like it’s the flu. You’ll have a very high fever, chills. ” His eyes glowed dimly. “Doctors can’t do anything to help you.”

“H-how long with that last?”
My voice shook, I was really scared. I hated being sick, and I wasn’t the best patient to begin with.

“A few hours, it will start around sunset and continue until the moon has risen fully.”

“What if my body wins the fight?”

“It can’t bec
ause it is not really a virus.”

“Okay, so after the moon rises and I’m done being sick…”

“You’ll feel like you, only better, stronger.”

“Bionic
Pepper
?”
I joked, striving to find a bright side.

“Sure.”

He was being really open, and answering my questions without laughing at me, so I kept up the interrogation. “You said something earlier, about my not being alone.”

He reared back. “It’s not important.”

“You made it sound important.” I argued, glancing up though my lashes. When I did this, I usually was able to get whatever I wanted out of a guy. I used my persuasive powers sparingly, usually, but with Quinn I had to pull out the big guns more often. And it didn’t really work that well.