Claimed by the Beast Bundle (26 page)

Chapter 6

“Figure out what ur going 2 do yet?”

Crystal frowned at the text message from Beth. She hadn’t figured it out yet. She didn’t want Beth getting involved either. Not just because she wasn’t sure if she trusted her anymore; she didn’t want her getting hurt.

What she should do was call Guntar and let him know what was going on. She’d almost done it, but every time she stopped and felt stupid. Why should her problems be theirs? They’d helped her time and again without getting anything back. Sure, Hank liked her and she liked him, but this was her problem.

She’d teamed up with the wolf to beat the beast before—she could do it again. It should be easy, the wolf and her were one now. She’d felt the wolf join with her. Or she joined with the wolf. Whatever, they were one. She just didn’t know what that meant, exactly.

“Yes,” Crystal typed into her phone.

Beth didn’t waste any time. “Cool. What’s the plan?”

“You work tonight.” Crystal typed. “Go 2 work. I’ve got this.”

“Let me help!”

Crystal shook her head. “I’ll b fine.”

There was a long pause before Beth responded. “K. B Careful. Love u!”

Crystal stared at the message for several seconds. Her heart was beating faster in her chest and she felt her skin itching on her back and chest as she warmed and began to itch. “Love u 2,” she typed and sent before shoving the phone back in her purse.

She needed a car. Something to get away from school fast before Chad found her and followed her. Or a motorcycle, she thought with a ghost of a smile. Her smile faded when she remembered falling off Ember’s bike and smashing herself up. Maybe a motorcycle was a bad idea.

The bell chimed, announcing the end of class. Crystal stared as the other students jumped up and filed towards the door. She jerked her head and lurched to her feet. She was in a hurry too. Where and what she needed to do she still didn’t know.

She made it to the hallway and looked around at the stream of people moving up and down the hall. It overwhelmed her senses: all the sights, sounds, and smells of teenagers. She shook the thought away. She was a teenager too. It was probably a good thing she hadn’t been able to smell as well as she could before now: she would have never given the boys in her class a chance!

Crystal turned and hurried towards the end of the hallway. There was a door that led out there. During school hours it was unlocked. She could get out and try to make it somewhere safe. Cross country instead of taking the roads. He’d have less chance of finding her. Unless he tracked her.

Crystal stopped. He’d said she smelled different that morning. That meant if he realized it, he could probably follow her scent. She could do it. Or at least she thought she could. She sniffed, pulling in all the scents around her. She had to fight to keep from gagging. It overloaded her and made her head swim.

Crystal blinked the tears out of her eyes and turned to look around. She felt surrounded. At any moment, Chad could appear and hurt her. She was weak now. Her body ached and she was having trouble staying focused. She breathed through her mouth, panting for a few breaths, and then tried to breathe through her nose again.

She began picking out different scents in the air. Lavender and watermelon here, cherry there, something spicy and fresh on her other side. She continued sniffing, turning her head back and forth to make sense of the scents. She grinned at the thought and then wiped the smile off her face. She didn’t need anybody thinking she was crazy. Especially if she really was!

A final sniff caused her to turn and stare at a boy walking the other way. Walter was his name; she remembered people picking on him. She understood why: it didn’t smell like he wiped very well. “Gross,” she muttered before turning away and heading towards the door.

Crystal slowed as she neared it. Here she had people around her. Once she was outside, there was nothing. If she could get away, great. If not? She swallowed. That was a big if! She frowned and dug into her purse and pulled out her phone. She swiped through her contacts and found Stephanie, and then started to type a text message to her. She sent it and waited. She kept waiting while her phone showed it was trying to send. Finally it responded with a failed result.

“What the hell?” she muttered. She stared at it and frowned. Had she changed her number? Was her phone off? Stephanie never turned her phone off. She’d told her as much back when she was pretending to be Crystal’s friend.

Crystal snapped her fingers. She’d blocked her number! She swiped through the settings and found her blocked numbers. By the time she found Stephanie, unblocked her, and asked her for a ride, the halls were beginning to empty around her.

Stephanie’s response came a few seconds later. “OMG! Crys! Thk u 4 unblocking me! Of cors. Meet me at my car.”

Crystal frowned. “Can u pick me up out front? In a hurry. I’ll explain.”

“K.”

Crystal stared at the message and nodded. As an afterthought, she added, “Don’t tell anyone.”

“Y?”

Crystal groaned. She could understand why Stephanie was curious, but she didn’t have time to explain. Especially over a text message! “Later. Need 2 hurry.”

“This better b good! OMW.”

Crystal let out a breath and glanced around. The hallway wasn’t empty yet but it would be in a few minutes. She bit her lip and took a final sniff to make sure she didn’t smell Chad anywhere nearby. She turned to the door and pushed through it, pausing only to look both ways before heading to her right and walking down the paved sidewalk as fast as she could.

Her sandals scuffed the pavement and kicked rocks as she went. They had a low heel on them that cramped the arch of her foot the faster she tried to walk. “This is stupid,” she growled and stopped to yank her sandals off. She tried to put them in her purse and had resigned herself to letting them stick out. She glanced down at her toes and wiggled them. She’d painted her toenails yellow to match her sundress. It was cute this morning; now it made her stand out.

She took a breath and stepped off the pavement into the grass. It tickled her feet and slipped between her toes, cooling them. It felt awesome. She stopped a moment and wiggled her toes again, luxuriating in the feeling. The thought passed through her mind to rip off her stuffy clothes and roll around on the ground. She pushed it away and hurried around the school towards the front.

Crystal waited at the corner of the building. She peered around it, watching the cars pull in and out of the circle drive. She hid until she saw Stephanie’s pink Camaro pull out of the student parking lot and turn towards the front drive. Crystal tucked her purse under her arm and broke out in a jog.

Her legs ached at the sudden demand. She stumbled and caught herself, and then pushed herself harder. The soreness faded as she pulled her breath into her lungs and felt the instinctive need to lower her center of gravity. She leaned forward and ran faster, her toes curling to dig into the grass. Stephanie turned off her blinking turn signal and drove past the drive, and then she pulled over on the far side of the road that ran in front of the school.

Crystal glanced back and forth, judging traffic, and then she ran harder and slipped between a gap in the traffic that left a car screeching its brakes. Horns honked but she ignored them and leapt from the paved road up and over the hood of Stephanie’s sports car. She put her hand down to give herself a boost and landed on the shoulder of the road, skidding through the grass and flipping over to use her hands and feet to stop herself.

Crystal looked up and saw a wide-eyed girl staring at her from the back seat. Jennifer, another cheerleader, was looking at her with her jaw hanging open. Crystal stood up and straightened. She glanced down at herself and rushed to push her dress down. The wind had blown it up when she’d gone aerial over Steph’s car.

She grabbed the door handle and yanked it open before throwing herself in. She was breathing hard but fought to keep from panting. It felt good. She felt good. She turned and saw both Stephanie and Jen staring at her.

“Go,” Crystal barked.

Jennifer found her voice. “You just—”

“Drive,” Crystal demanded.

Stephanie turned her head back to the road and then looked at Crystal again. “But—”

Crystal stared past her and saw Chad step around the side of the school. The same corner she’d come from. He was tracking her. “Shit.”

Stephanie started to turn back but Crystal grabbed her arm. “Please, let’s go. I’ll explain on the way.”

Stephanie turned back to her and then nodded. She put the car in gear and waited for a car to pass before she pulled onto the road. Crystal let out a sigh and relaxed back into her seat.

After several tense seconds passed, Jen finally broke the silence. “What the fuck was that?”

Chapter 7

Crystal turned to look at the girl in the back seat and then twisted back around. She buckled her seatbelt and stretched her neck. The soreness was coming back, relentlessly slipping in like water spilled over the edge of a bathtub left on too long. She groaned and let her head rest against the headrest of the seat. “I’m so tired,” she mumbled.

“Crys? What’s going on?” Stephanie asked. “And where am I going?”

Crystal closed her eyes and sighed. “Take Jennifer home.”

“What? No way! Was that Chad? What’s going on? He’s been acting weird for days now. Ever since you—Holy shit! Is he after you?”

“You have no idea,” Crystal muttered. She forced her aching body to twist so she could look at her. “This is private and kind of personal, okay? I don’t want to be a bitch about it, but if I am, oh well.”

Jennifer stared back at her. “I think I liked you more when you were a geek.”

Crystal smirked. She’d always thought Jen was shallow and stupid. Now she knew it. Stephanie might be shallow, but at least she wasn’t stupid. “Some days I feel the same way,” Crystal said, confusing the girl even more.

“Jen, it’s cool. I’ll call you later,” Stephanie said.

Jennifer turned her gaze on the back of Stephanie’s head. She glared at her and said, “Really? Meth wants your attention so the hell with your old friends?”

Stephanie spared her a hard glance in the mirror. “Don’t call her that. And stop being so bitchy. Crystal needs help.”

“Fine.”

Crystal stared at Stephanie and had to remember to keep her mouth closed. Stephanie had just stuck up for her. She turned her head away and stared out the front window. Was it the love spell Clover said she’d somehow put on the cheerleader, or was it something else? Was there really a decent person under all the bullshit and high school politics the blond lived by?

Crystal rode in a silent car that was filled with tension. She felt Jennifer’s glare burning into the back of her head. Stephanie was excited and nervous. She kept glancing around and her breathing had picked up. Steph’s hands fidgeted on the steering wheel, too. Crystal sniffed carefully, not wanting to draw attention, and picked through the flavors in the air.

Distinguishing Jennifer from Stephanie was easy. Jen had a salty taste beneath the hair products, deodorant, and residue of detergent she used to wash her clothes. Crystal’s eyes widened at the thought. She sniffed and thought of it as a taste? She nodded and caught herself doing it. Crystal bit her lip and glanced at Stephanie. For all her excitement, she hadn’t noticed.

Stephanie smelled different. Better. She had a lot of the same processed stink about her, from her over-processed hair to the cocoa butter lotion she used to keep her skin hydrated. Beneath all the glam, she had a natural smell to her. Crystal licked her lips and found that helped her. She could add a new dimension to the scent. Stephanie tasted like a fresh stalk of wheat plucked before it was ripe so it was still sweet and sugary.

“You okay?” Stephanie asked when Crystal gasped.

Crystal jerked her head to her and nodded. “Yeah, sorry. Just thinking.”

The blond pressed her lips together. Crystal saw the questions on her face but Stephanie kept them to herself. Jen harrumphed in the back seat, more pissed off than ever. Crystal turned to stare out the passenger window and waited while Stephanie drove.

Several tense minutes later, Stephanie pulled into Jen’s driveway. She lived in a nice two-story house that made Crystal’s home look like a garage. It was nothing next to Stephanie’s or Chad’s, but it reminded Crystal of one more reason why Jennifer had always been one of the cool kids and she’d been an outcast.

“Are you going to let me out?” Jennifer snapped.

“Oh, sorry,” Crystal muttered. She clenched her jaw to keep from moaning and opened the heavy door of the sports car. She ducked and rolled out, moving smoothly even though her legs sent fiery sparks into her hips and back. She stepped back, still barefoot, and watched Jennifer climb out of the back of the car and straighten.

Jennifer glared at her a moment and then her eyes dropped all the way to Crystal’s feet. She smirked and turned away. “Call me when you’re done with her,” she tossed over her shoulder as she walked up her driveway.

Crystal looked down, wondering about Jennifer’s smirk. Everything looked fine until she saw her feet. They weren’t as dirty as she expected, but that wasn’t what blew her mind. Her toenails, coated with a soft yellow finish only half an hour ago, were now almost completely bare. Only a few flecks of paint remained on them.

Crystal shook her head and turned back to the car. She dropped and fell as much as sat down into it. She grunted and reached for the door.

“You okay?” Stephanie asked.

“Yeah,” she mumbled, still rattled by her discovery. “I’m kind of tall for this car—hard to get in and out.”

“Oh, sorry,” Stephanie said. “When I wear my tall heels I have that problem too.”

“I bet.”

They sat in the driveway for a few seconds before Stephanie cleared her throat and asked, “So, um, what’s going on?”

Crystal turned to her and studied her face. “Do you trust me?”

Stephanie’s breath caught. She licked her lips to erase the trace of a smile. She nodded. “Yes!” she hissed.

“Why?”

Stephanie’s eyes had begun to soften and her eyelids lower. They shot open at the question. “I don’t know. You’ve always been nice and helpful to me. And, um, the other day you did something to me—”

“I what?”

Stephanie nodded in spite of the color that flooded her cheeks. “The parking lot? You opened my eyes.”

“I’m not gay.”

Stephanie leaned back and her brow furrowed for a fraction of a second. “Oh, that’s right, you’ve got a boyfriend. What was his name? Frank?”

“Hank.”

Stephanie nodded. “So, um, do you go both ways then?”

“What?”

The blond shrugged. “You and Beth. Oh God, Beth! Um, look, I didn’t—”

“I’m not a lesbian and I’m not bisexual,” Crystal said as clearly as she could. “Hank is it for me.”

“Oh, but—”

“Did Beth say something?”

Stephanie bit her lip before saying, “I guess not. I mean, she kind of let me think a few things and then she, um—”

Crystal groaned. “You slept with her, didn’t you?”

Stephanie stared at her with wide eyes. Her chin trembled and she nodded.

Crystal returned the cheerleader’s stare and wondered where the confident prom queen had gone. She looked like she was going to cry. “Sorry, that’s none of my business,” Crystal said even though she felt something burning inside her. She’d known already, but hearing it finally confirmed it.

“She came on to me,” Stephanie blurted out. “I didn’t, um—I mean I was curious. More than curious, after what you and I did. But that wasn’t why we spent Sunday together. Well, it was, but it wasn’t how it started. I ran into her at church and she just kind of worked her way in and got my parents to invite her to come and hang out with me. Then back at my place she—”

Crystal held up her hand. “TMI. I said you guys can do whatever you want—it’s not my business.”

“But—”

“No buts.”

Stephanie’s eyes shimmered until she blinked and looked away. She nodded. “All right.”

“Still trust me?”

Stephanie jerked her head back to look at her. “Yes. I do. Completely.”

Crystal nodded. “Good. I need a ride somewhere.”

Stephanie turned and put her car in reverse to back out of the driveway. “Where to?”

“Ever been to the swamp?”