I wanted to hunt after the patrol, so I asked Falmer to stay with me. I didn’t plan on staying out for long – I felt frostbitten, from the tip of my nose to the tips of my toes. My hands had suffered the worst, though; they felt hard, like unmoving icicles beneath the cotton of my gloves. As the dawn broke across the sky I hoped that the first rays of sun would bring heat with their light, but I remained cold even as they burned in streaks of pink and gold, blazing through the darkness.
“You know,” Falmer said, watching me idly as I crept after a white-tailed deer, “I did encounter a legend that told of a vampire who became human again.”
“Oh?” I faltered, and at the crunch of leaves beneath my boot, the deer stuck its tail into the air and ran. I sighed. I didn’t want to go for anything smaller – I was hungry, and I didn’t want to hurt anything I drank from.
My head pounded as I rounded the corridor, the fluorescent lighting too white, too bright, as I broke into a jog. There was someone behind me, inching closer and closer –I turned around. Nothing. The hallway was empty, lined with lockers on either side and devoid of anyone or anything that wasn’t supposed to be there. With that, the creeping sensation disappeared, and I breathed out a heavy sigh of relief.I must have been imagining it. But, imagined stalker or not, I was still late for the assembly. With another, frustrated sigh, I sped off down the hall towards the assembly room.Everyone turned to look at me as I entered. I shot the head teacher an apologetic smile, shutting the door quietly behind me. It creaked, and, for one everlasting, aching moment, I thought it may never stop. But eventually it did, and I slipped silently into a seat at the back of the room.“We’ll w
“Under the bleachers?” I scoffed to myself, though I typed out a message saying that was fine, that I’d meet them there. Kathrena had said she’d be late, so I was in no hurry to rush outside just to wait around in the cold.I was stood at the edge of the cafeteria, leaning against a wall with faded, peeling cornflower paint. I dropped my phone back into my pocket, and was about to leave when I saw the queue for the lunch line shrink.Throughout October the school was selling autumn-themed drinks. They were disgusting, apparently – no match for the coffee shop in town, or so I’d heard – but I imagined that, at the very least, they’d be warm.One of Rowan’s quieter friends, Jade, had been buying them religiously, and they usually smelt pretty nice, too: sweet and spicy, wrapped up with cinnamon and cloves.I ducked through the tables, trying t
“Wait,” I said, pulling back. “That’s – that’s a good thing, surely?”“No,” Kathrena choked, stepping out of the hug too. Her eyes were back on the ground, and her hands twitched anxiously at her sides. “Oh, God, I just – I panicked. I said no to him.”“But why?” Rowan asked, frowning, her red lips pulled into a pout. “He’s cute.”“Look, I – I don’t want to talk about this right now,” Kathrena said, running a shaking hand through her hair, pushing her fringe out of her face only for it to fall down again seconds later, messier than it was before. “We have enough to deal with already.”Skye touched her forearm for a moment, his eyes gentle as they met hers. “Okay. But we’re here for you, whenever you’re ready.”“Tha
“I want to tell you what happened with Ollie,” Kathrena said.We were bundled up in my truck, with the heater on full and blasting dusty air into our faces. We’d had to disperse not long after our gooey moment of friendship earlier, though we’d gone to our final classes of the day via the sign-up sheet for the events committee. It felt as though we were a step closer to taking down the enemy, though I’d found it amusing that the step was joining a school club.To be fair, if I was a demon I’d be terrified of school committees. Especially the ones made up of parents.My last period had passed slowly, every second dragging along. I’d felt like I was marching through tar as I took notes on tectonic plates. But at last the final bell had rung, and I’d sped across the car park, excited to finally finish reading the chapter about vampire and werewolf mate bonds when I got home.
I took a deep breath. My hand trembled as I raised it to knock on Aradia and Ezrand’s office door. I held it there for a moment, my knuckles barely brushing the wood as I hovered, uncertain.Then I steeled myself, and I knocked.“Come in!” Ezrand called out. I tried to picture him before I stepped through the doorway, which would effectively seal my fate: slightly rounded belly, brightly patterned shirt, white-blonde hair mussed from running his hands through it excitedly. I pictured him sipping microwaved blood from his favourite mug, clattering around the kitchen and dancing to anything, all the way from Fleetwood Mac to The Beatles to Mozart.It made me feel slightly better, but only for a second. As soon as I saw his cheerful face and his friendly dark eyes, my heart sank. But not because of Ezrand – because of the lean-faced, purple-eyed woman next to him.Aradia wa
“It’ll be fine,” I murmured, knocking my knee against Skye’s under the table. He didn’t look convinced.We were sat in the coffee shop in town. Skye had agreed to meet the Sunstone Clan after school, but he’d been so nervous that I’d suggested we make a detour. The combination of caffeine and sugar didn’t seem to be doing him any favours, but my warm hand on his thigh was helping, at least.He sighed, pulling his coffee cup closer. “The pack took it really badly, El. I can’t – I can’t deal with that all over again. Not so soon, anyway.”“I know, and I’m so sorry that they treated you like that.” I reached over to squeeze his hand, wrapping my fingers around his, curling them around his cup. “But the Clan were surprisingly understanding. They were open to you, and to us.” I gave a little half-shrug. “I think t
Once we were settled in the living room, surrounded by old, hand-stitched blankets and warm lamps, the interrogation began. Skye clutched at my hand as Aradia and Ezrand asked him questions, trying to decipher if he truly was a good werewolf, or if it was a ploy of the sort that I’d imagined when we’d first met.For his part, Skye’s leg jiggled erratically against the sofa cushions, and he twisted a stray length of his hair around his index finger until the tip went purple. He struggled to meet their eyes, but he held his head up bravely whenever they spoke directly to him.Aradia leant forward in her high-backed armchair, pressing her elbows into the arched wooden armrests and resting her chin on her folded hands. “What is the intention of the Wind Valley pack?”Skye shifted uncomfortably beside me. “To protect the humans in Hawthorn from supernatural threats. Werewolves are drawn to
It was dark by the time we’d finished negotiating.“It’s not safe,” I’d sighed, over and over.“You’ll be safer with me there,” he’d argued – in that gentle, nudging way of his – and eventually I’d relented. I couldn’t resist his sweet face – especially those golden eyes fringed with thick, dash lashes, watching me with nothing but tenderness in their gaze.Hand in hand, we strode out to the woods together. The dusk was soft above us, a blurred purple that twinkled with stars. It seemed that, at long last, the rain had stopped. I was glad of the dry spell – not only did it make the sky prettier, after days of grey mist broken only by the evergreen arms of the pine trees, but it was also warmer. The idea of being soaking wet in the cool autumn air was far more deplorable than the idea of being cold but dry. The mere thought of it mad