Sometimes By Moonlight (13 page)

He smiled broadly, his teeth white and sparkling. “If we had time, I’d hold you in my arms all night. You know that.”

My insides warmed again. “Yeah.”

“I have to tell you a few things,” he said. “Number one, there’s someone on the inside. My father’s people set it up. For security reasons they won’t tell me who it is, but someone is definitely watching over you.”

“Watching over me?” I suddenly thought of Marie-Rose—had I misjudged her?

Austin nodded. “And about this place—”

“They invited me special,” I said, and then I filled him in on what I’d learned from Honeybun that afternoon.

“That makes sense. This Duke Steinfelder—”

“He’s a bad dude,” I said. “I read all about him. That’s what I wanted to tell you. That’s why I risked sending you the e-mail.”

Austin nodded. “I’ve been looking into it too, and so has my dad. He’s long suspected that descendants of Steinfelder’s group, The Seven Horsemen, might try to take root here, where their hatred began.”

“But why do they hate werewolves?”

His eyes darkened. “To them we’re aberrations. Mutants. They hate anything different, especially what they don’t understand.”

“So that’s what you meant about the forces that seek to destroy our kind,” I said, repeating what he’d told me the other day. “The Seven Horsemen.”

“Precisely. And about that,” he said with a deep pause. “About your being
our
kind…”

“It’s not true? I’m not going to go furry?” I clapped my hands together.

“We don’t know that yet.”

“Well, maybe the serum can stop the change if I take it now. Did you bring some with you? I mean, I’m having some symptoms,” I said, my face heating as I told him all about the midnight meat run.

Austin’s eyes were downcast as he said, “Love, I have some bad news.”

“Uh-oh.”

“Our chemist says you can’t take the serum until you’ve had the change completely one time. You can’t do it until it’s confirmed you’re Lycan. There are tests we can run back at the castle, but it’s too risky to let you take any serum now. If we’re wrong and you’re not—”

“I just told you I was eating raw steaks in my sleep!”

Austin reached out his hands, grasping on to my shoulders. “You’ll die if we’re wrong. The serum will kill you.”

“Oh.” I blinked at him in the near dark. “Well, that sucks.”

“Yes. I can’t let that happen. I’m not going to risk losing you.”

“So what do we do now?” I said.

“We wait until we see an opening, and then we spring you from this place.”

“Wait? You just expect me to hang around school like everything’s hunky-dory and then turn into a wolf and maybe attack people?”

Austin looked like I’d punched him in the face. “Is that what you
still
think of me—of us? That we attack?”

“No, I mean, well, I don’t know. How do we know what my wolf will do?” I reached out for him but he’d taken a step back. My heart constricted in my chest. The last thing I wanted to do was to put Austin down, but I really was concerned about the attack factor. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean—”

Austin’s jaw was set in a firm line. “I’m aware of all the messages you’ve heard about wolves, about werewolves, but they’re not true. I thought I convinced you last summer. I thought you understood. We’re a very evolved species.”

I felt tears welling in the corners of my eyes. “I’m not trying to hurt your feelings. I’m just trying to understand what I’m about to become. I’m scared.”

“I’ve never known you to be scared of anything,” Austin said, his voice a low whisper. “You’re one of the bravest people I know. Come here.” He looped his arms around me again and pulled me to his chest. “I never meant for any of this to happen. You have to know I wouldn’t wish becoming what I am on my worst enemy. You know how much I hate this. I’ve always loathed what I am.”

“It’s not your fault,” I said, still feeling like crying. “You didn’t mean to do it. Your wolf part didn’t, I mean.”

I let him hug me, and I pressed my lips against his neck, feeling the rush of his blood, hearing his heartbeat.

“Shelby,” Austin said, in a low voice. “I may not have meant to do it, but it happened. And when you turn for the first time our bond will grow even stronger. Do you understand what I’m telling you? You’re my… mate. We will be together forever.”

“Really?” Tears rushed to my eyes. “But, wait—you said you didn’t mean to do it—”

“I’m not saying that I wouldn’t have done it later, if you’d asked me,” he said. “I just didn’t see how you ever could want something so terrible. And now, you have no choice, love.”

“Together forever,” I repeated. Because of the bite, I was going to belong to Austin, whether I wanted to or not. But the truth was, I did want to belong. I wanted us to be family for each other, the family I would no longer have once this all came out. Beverly Hills and Lycanthropes just didn’t go together. And now that Dad would have a new kid, there was even less of a chance he would want a wolf girl like me around, anyway.

Austin looked me in the eyes again. “I know this is hard,” he said. “All I ask is that you stay strong. I promise it won’t be much longer until you’re out of here for good.”

“But what am I supposed to do in the meantime? Sit here and wait for you to rescue me? Couldn’t we both jump the fence tonight?”

Austin sighed. “Well, first of all, there’s the matter of your parents—you can’t simply run away and cause an international incident. There’d be a massive Shelby hunt, which would only make things worse. Secondly, we need to figure out a way no one will know you’re with us.”

“Right,” I said bitterly, “we can’t have the trail lead to you. We just let old Shelby rot here until she goes furry. And save the Bridges dynasty.”

Austin’s eyes flashed a warning. “Don’t take this lightly, Shelby. Taking out either one of us here at Steinfelder would be easy compared to snapping you up in the middle of Beverly Hills or picking one of my family off in the London streets. I never thought I’d be thankful for the paparazzi, but without them, we are much easier targets.”

“Targets? We’re actually targets?”

He nodded grimly. “You remember the so-called hunting accident my mother had when I was a boy? A few weeks after it happened, my father got a postcard in the mail, a plain white card with a medieval shield of arms on one side—the insignia of the Seven Horsemen. They had something to do with Mum’s death. Dad could never prove it, but he’s always been sure.”

A chill rippled through me. “So they could be watching us right now, waiting for a moment to kill you. What are you even doing here?” I hit him on the shoulder.

“I’m bloody well here for you,” Austin said, rubbing where I smacked him.

“Well, you won’t be if you get shot!”

He reached up to touch my cheek. “Don’t worry about me. I’m a fast runner.”

“So am I. I’m going with you tonight.”

“No. You’ll stay. I’ll find a way to get you out. Summon your patience.”

“If you haven’t noticed, I’m not very patient.”

“Please try to be this once,” he said, slowly moving his lips toward mine.

In his kiss, I sensed his real fear for me. When he pulled away, I wrapped my arms around him, not wanting him to go.  He untangled himself from me and planted a kiss on my forehead before turning away. As he closed the door of the carriage house, he glanced back at me one last time, eyes glittering.

He didn’t say I love you, but I felt it in that look just the same. I was his and he was going to protect me. It was going to be hard to be patient with all the worry swirling around in my heart and head. I just wanted us to be together, away from this awful place.

I waited until Austin’s footsteps faded, and then I pushed open the carriage house door. His boot tracks led toward the front of the school, but snow was falling again and would cover them before long. I retraced my steps to the kitchen. Once I had my snow clothes off and stowed in the girls’ bathroom again, I tiptoed down the hallway to my room. As I got under the covers, Marie-Rose moaned in her sleep but didn’t wake up.

I shut my eyes and tried not to think about all that had happened. About all the danger we were in, about how this school, this whole thing, had been a big setup. I focused on Austin, on the fact that we’d be together soon.

And my eyelids were softly closing when I heard the first gunshot.

***

In nightgowns and pajamas, every girl at Steinfelder crowded into the living room and tried to peer out into the darkness. Several of the girls came from families with private security forces and knew all too well the sound of high-powered rifles. There had definitely been shots fired.

As gossip buzzed around the room, I sat away from the group, in an armchair, shivering under a blanket. I couldn’t get warm. I was too worried about Austin. The shots had to have been directed at him. I tucked the blanket tighter around my legs, willing my shaking to stop. I just knew that he was out there in the frigid night, bleeding or worse. And I was probably the next target.

Madame LaCroix, wearing a bathrobe that looked like a Chinese tapestry, set down the walkie-talkie in her hands and clapped to get our attention. “All right, girls. Back to bed! I’ve had a report from Hans at the guardhouse that all is well. You are all safe. I repeat, you are all safe. Now, let’s go.” She made a shooing motion, as if that would wrench the girls from their posts near the windows.

“But what happened?” asked Patricia, frowning at her. “I mean, aren’t you going to tell us what the shots were about?”

“Hans saw an intruder,” Madame said. “Whoever it was is long gone.”

“And did he hit the intruder?” I couldn’t help but ask.

“There was blood at the scene,” Madame said with a curt nod. “The local police will be out here to investigate tomorrow morning. We will learn more in the daylight and relay to you students the need-to-know facts. The important thing is that you are all safe and sound. No need to request calls home. No need to write worried letters. Everything is fine.”

But I knew it wasn’t. All I could think about was Austin. I got up from the chair, the blanket still wrapped around me. Our tired-looking teachers prodded us up the stairs. I paused at my doorway, but Mrs. Lemmon put a hand on my shoulder and guided me inside.  She gave me a last look before she turned out the light and closed the door.

The barest hint of moonlight filtered through the window. I glanced up at what was left of that big full moon that had led me to Austin a few weeks ago, and I couldn’t stem my tears any longer.