Hot Blooded (Wolf Springs Chronicles) - By Nancy Holder Page 0,88
But he did agree that Justin is Lucy’s boyfriend, and he doesn’t need to do any more background checks on my known associates. We’ll do Christmas.” She raised her brows. “And I’ll unwrap thousands of dollars in gymnastics equipment.”
“Sure,” he said, but he still looked completely furious with her. And his hands were trembling badly. In fact, scrutinizing him, Katelyn saw shadows under his skittering, bloodshot eyes; he almost looked like someone on drugs.
“Mr. Sokolov.”
Mr. Hastings was standing in front of the door to the office, his face somber, arms crossed.
“Yeah?” Trick asked, in the exact same surly tone he’d used with Katelyn.
Mr. Hastings didn’t like it, either. “I need to see you in my office.”
Trick headed off toward the principal without even a parting word.
Katelyn turned and set off for her history class, glancing up at the stained glass window of the saint with the wolf. Patron saint of Haunted High. Katelyn’s secrets were making her invisible. Cordelia had had to disappear into the woodwork, too, losing all her friends. The one time Cordelia had held out her hand — to a stranger, to someone aching with homesickness and reeling from the death of her mother — it had backfired on her. And the rest was a terrible nightmare.
I wish I’d never met her, she thought mournfully.
A text came in, and equal parts of relief and dread washed over her when she saw that it was from Justin.
We need to talk. See you after school. Our house.
No part of her wanted to go back to Psycho Land, but she knew she had no choice.
Trick didn’t show at lunch, so she didn’t know what was up with him, either. When the final bell rang, she kept a lookout for him as she hurried to her car. Then her phone rang. Justin.
“Don’t come,” he said, voice tense.
She went cold. “What’s happened?”
“Nothing. Don’t worry.”
“Right,” she said sarcastically. “How is your uncle?”
“He’s not the issue,” he said. Then he hung up.
“Well, thanks for the update,” she said to dead air.
And the reprieve. But it wouldn’t last long.
The full moon was coming.
And Trick, already in his Mustang, was driving away.
The next few days flew by. Trick stayed moody and distracted. And distant. He didn’t tell her why Mr. Hastings had invited him in for a chat, but things had definitely cooled between Trick and the administration. Coach Ambrose told her that the gym equipment would arrive during the winter break and they’d get the team started during second semester. Whatever Trick had done, the goodwill he had bought with the equipment had been used up.
Questions about Trick would have to wait. The moon was waxing, and it would be full on Saturday night. Her aggression levels were rising at an almost uncontrollable rate as she’d been warned they would. After a lot of worrying, she’d finally just told her grandfather that she was going to spend Saturday night at Paulette’s house, that their friendship was progressing nicely, and she crossed her fingers that he wouldn’t find a way to check up on her. She wished she could let Paulette in on her cover, but she was sure the other girl would ask too many pointed questions about where Katelyn was really going.
Friday, she was tense and irritable, as if at any moment she was going to burst apart and a wolf would throw back its head and howl. She was a wreck. This time she knew for sure she was going to change, and she knew it would hurt. A lot. She also knew that she’d wake up with the taste of blood in her mouth.
When the final bell rang, she grabbed her books and hurried to the parking lot. She had just dumped her belongings in the back of the Subaru when she heard a familiar laugh.
“What’s the matter, Sokolov? I told you if you kept driving that way, sooner or later there’d be an accident.”
The hair on the back of her neck lifted. A few spaces away, Trick was standing open-mouthed, staring at his car. All the windows had been shattered, and there were dents in the body.
And on the sidewalk, doubled over with glee: Mike.
The one who had hurt Trick over and over.
The one who made so many lives miserable.
Before she realized what she was going to do, she found herself standing in front of him, practically nose to nose. From the way he blinked in surprise, she realized she must have moved fast, faster than she should have.