Chapter Seven
Amelia
I didn’t get up for school the following day. Nobody asked why. They were all too busy making plans to hunt and track enemy werewolves. For the first time in ages I was free. Nobody was forced to babysit me, and I wasn’t told to stay indoors. I should have felt relieved, but mostly, I felt forgotten.
The day before, Nathan had asked me to find out what was happening with Perdita’s dad, but nobody I texted knew anything. No news was scary. When I thought about Perdita, and how awful she must have been feeling, my guilt multiplied.
I kept remembering the way my mouth had watered at her father’s blood, which pretty much devastated me. I couldn’t tell a soul about it because I was afraid they wouldn’t understand. Nobody in my family had ever mentioned anything like that happening to them before they turned, so I couldn’t even blame my desire for blood on the whole werewolf thing. After all, there wasn’t any real reason it would happen to me. Only the men in my family were meant to turn into werewolves.
I moved downstairs to get better reception on my phone when I overheard my grandfather whispering to Jeremy while Byron and Nathan waited outside.
“Don’t let him near her,” he said.
“Don’t you think—”
“I mean it, Jeremy. This isn’t the time. I want her lured in again, but next time with her companions by her side. That won’t be possible if he chases her away.”
Remembering how Opa had acted the last time he caught me listening, I slipped upstairs quietly, needing some space to think.
After a couple of minutes, I heard the front door slam, and I watched out the window as the trio ran off.
Nathan was right about Opa. He couldn’t be trusted any more. My dreams were pretty much a lesson about not trusting the men in charge, and now why I shouldn’t trust them was all coming to life for me. My head pounded again, but I knew I had to confront Opa. If he was willing to use Perdita and her dad as bait, then what would he do with me?
Plucking up the courage, I went back downstairs and walked straight into Opa’s office without knocking. Opa looked confused, but he didn’t kick me out.
“Why are you doing this?” I asked.
His eyes narrowed. “I’m doing what has to be done.”
“And does that include using me as bait?”
“What are you talking about?”
“If you think the werewolves are after me, are you going to use me to lure them in?”
A flicker of regret crossed his face, and that broke me completely. All of my suspicions were coming true. He didn’t even deny he wanted to use me as bait.
“At least I know,” I squeaked before running back upstairs again. I pulled out the spirit board, desperate to connect with someone, anyone, but no spirit answered. Frustrated, I kicked it away from me and leaned against the foot of my bed. I had nowhere to turn and no one I could trust. The walls might as well have closed in on me; I felt so confined in my room, wishing I could be outside looking up at Kali’s stars. I wandered around the house, trying to find a spot I could breathe, but even the garden felt as though it were a cage.
When Nathan returned, he appeared more stressed than when he left.
“Anything?” I asked when he joined me in the living room.
“No news. You hear anything?”
“Nobody knows anything yet.”
He looked so broken, so desperate, that my heart panged for him, and I knew I couldn’t tell him what I had overheard. The knowledge would shatter everything he believed in, if even I confirmed the worst about Opa. I had to let him have some hope.
“You could go to the hospital,” he said, but it sounded as though he were on autopilot.
“She won’t want me there.” I wished he understood, but I could never tell him how I had reacted when her dad was hurt. He would never forgive me. He would never understand.
“We’ll talk to Joey tomorrow.” He sounded defeated, but he stared hard at me. “You look exhausted.”
“I haven’t slept much lately.”
“Those dreams again?”
I was embarrassed that he knew the dreams were affecting me so badly, but they had begun to overshadow my real world problems.
“They’re intense,” I admitted. “I wake up feeling like I’m a different person. It’s kind of freaking me out.”
Worry tightened his face. “Maybe you should talk to Byron.”
I felt badly for worrying him, so I tried to brush it off. “Maybe it’s not anything supernatural. I feel like I’m coming down with the flu again, too.”
Stress filled his voice as he asked me about the last dream, but I couldn’t even begin to explain it to him. I ventured to tell him something that had been bugging me, though. The dreams had seemed so real and were always about the same people. They brought out such a fierce reaction in me.
“Do you think maybe it’s like a memory or something?” I asked
He paid attention then. “How could it be a memory?”
I hesitated, but I had to get it off my chest. “Like… a past life or something. Mémère believed in reincarnation. She said we all get a second chance at life.”
I knew I made a mistake as soon as I heard his reply which was tinged with laughter. “You think you were a gypsy in a past life? Think maybe you’re the one who cursed us?”
That bothered me, and I ignored him for a while. Nobody ever gave me the benefit of the doubt. They all insisted on casting scorn and doubt on everything I believed. How dare they?
Byron and Jeremy returned, bringing news that a number of werewolves had been hanging around the hospital, and I feared for Perdita more than anyone else.
Opa waded into the middle of the conversation which made everything a million times worse. Nathan stormed off and left me to listen to the ensuing argument.
“You have to take back that command,” Byron said, referring to Opa banning Nathan from seeing Perdita.
“It’s necessary.”
“How the hell could that be necessary? You heard what we said a minute ago, didn’t you? Werewolves are stalking Perdita’s family because of us. Our responsibility is to protect them.”
“Is it?” Opa sounded so offhand and uncaring that I cringed in my seat, and wished something mystical would whisk me away from the awful atmosphere. Jeremy stood next to Opa, glaring at his own father, which was terrible to watch.
“There’s only room for one alpha,” Jeremy told Byron. “Maybe we should give him our trust.”
“None of this makes sense,” Byron insisted.
“You will do as I say. No more arguing tonight,” Opa said in that tone of voice again, the one that sent cold shivers down my spine.
Byron spluttered, but no words came out. With his cheeks flushing red to purple and fury burning in his eyes, he strode from the room. Jeremy had the audacity to laugh at him. I couldn’t stand another second of it.
“Maybe you’re the one who needs a lesson in respect,” I snapped at him before running up to my room to hide away.
My family was falling apart.