Hot Blooded (Wolf Springs Chronicles) - By Nancy Holder Page 0,70

walk there, or better yet, run. Her heart was pounding in her chest and she ducked her head to avoid meeting anyone’s eyes.

But leaving will just make me look guilty. And I’m not. I didn’t hurt anyone and I certainly didn’t appear in her window.

She forced herself to sit down in the waiting room. She put her head between her knees, feeling dizzy. Slowly her thoughts cleared and she pushed back upright in the chair.

She couldn’t hear Beau or his grandmother anymore. Maybe the old lady had calmed down. She picked up an out-of-date People magazine and forced herself to flip through it even though she couldn’t focus on the words. Instead she stared at the pictures. All the pretty people of Hollywood. And all she wanted to do was go back home and have a shot at being one of them, and not a monster.

She heard steps and looked up to see Beau hurrying her way.

“Oh, my God, Kat, I’m so sorry,” he said in a rush. “I don’t know what set her off like that.” He blanched. “I guess the stroke has messed up her mind even more than we thought.”

“Let’s hope it affected her aim, too,” Katelyn said, then winced and shut her eyes. “I’m sorry, Beau. I did not just say that.”

He managed a gallows laugh. She put down the People; they got a couple of sodas out of the machine in the waiting room and then they hit the road.

“Maybe she made it all up,” Beau said. “Maybe she didn’t see anything at her window.” He sounded rattled. He had believed his grandmother. He frowned thoughtfully. “And maybe there haven’t been rashes of deaths every forty to fifty years in Wolf Springs.” He nodded, as if to himself. “We haven’t seen any articles about it, no news accounts, nothing.”

And this was her moment to steer him away from murders and monsters and all kinds of things, pin it all on some random person and ignore the connection with the town’s past. To protect him.

“Yeah,” she said, trying to sound enthusiastic and convinced. “Good point.”

Failing.

“But my grandmother also said that Wolf Springs was a lot more isolated back then. That people didn’t talk about things. They kept to themselves,” he pointed out. “And three people have died.”

“Yeah, but she also said I was the demon she saw. Maybe it’s like some people are saying, that those Inner Wolf guys are frightening the wildlife.”

He frowned. “Maybe one of those guys murdered Becky Jensen. Say she went to meet somebody, and it went wrong, so he moved her body and then the animals got to it?”

“Or he did it himself, to make it look like an animal attack?” she said, shutting her eyes hard against a rush of anxiety. None of this was remotely what she had expected when she’d agreed to visit his grandmother. She’d been hoping for a description, some useful clues. Not to have any fingers pointed her way.

“Sam said her mom heard the doctor talking to Sergeant Lewis. He said he’d never seen anything like what had happened to Becky. That her injuries didn’t add up.”

Because a werewolf caused them? Katelyn pondered.

“Kat,” he said, glancing over at her from behind the wheel, “you know, maybe you should stay out of this. You’re new, and you’ve got to find your way with everybody. You know, make friends and stuff, not lurk around asking questions. The only other new kid I’ve ever known was Sam, and she didn’t last here.”

“Just six years,” she said dryly, morbidly amused by his attempt to protect her. “And she left because her parents are getting divorced.”

He moved his shoulders. “Yeah, okay, but trust me when I say that people at school are sizing you up. In town, too.”

Talking about me, she translated.

He hesitated. “I know you’re planning to move back to L.A. when senior year is over, but a year is a long time.”

No, I’m not moving back, she thought, feeling lost and sad. People were going to wonder about her when she stayed. They would think she wimped out. Or maybe they’d decide she was devoted to her grandfather and didn’t want to leave him.

Or maybe Mr. Fenner would make her marry some guy. She nearly burst into uncontrollable, nervous laughter at the thought. She never, ever in a million years had thought she would have to worry about marriage when she had gotten on that plane in L.A.

If only she could rewind time. She wouldn’t have come there.