Full Moon (7 page)

Does Michael have them too?
I
blinked, trying focus on the task ahead. This was serious. I really
didn’t want to be some monster’s dinner.

In the middle
of the living room, Michael stopped. Grace and Sarah relaxed on the
couch and a man sat at the desk Sarah had occupied yesterday. My
heart stuttered.

Caleb
.

He was older than I thought he’d be. Maybe late fifties or
sixties.
The tightness in his face and
posture made him appear ready to pounce.
Or overreact?
The kind of guy who
shot first and asked questions later.

Where everyone
looked tanned, Caleb was pale like me but even more so. Almost
pasty white against the dark, expensive clothes he wore. He had the
same intense blue eyes as the others, but with years of knowledge
behind them, like he’d been through the wars. He was handsome, in a
strange way, with strong facial lines. He sat almost regal.

When he
glanced at me, his eyes darted from my feet to my head to my feet
again, a harrumph escaping his lips.

I wanted to
disappear.

“’
Tis a pleasure to meet you.” He spoke with an English accent
– very proper – and polite. However, his words sounded
automatic—years of being taught what to say.

“
Hello, Mr....” I paused. I didn’t know their last name and it
seemed wrong to call him Caleb without permission.

“
Knightly.”

“
Hell-Hello.” Should I curtsey or kneel?

He leaned back
in his chair, fingers clasped tightly together, resting on top of
the desk. “It seems you had an altercation last night with a
grollic.”

Wow. Straight to the point.
“Michael’s been trying to explain.” I played with a loose
strand of hair which had escaped my ponytail. “He seems to think
there’s a…a grollic after me.”

He tutted.
“Possibly, but not confirmed. That’s the first sighting of one in a
very long time. We assumed they’d become extinct in this area. It
seems they may have just burrowed underground.” He twirled a large
ring on his right hand. “Do you have the slightest inclination why
one would fancy you, of all people?”

I shrugged,
suddenly conscious of the book lying in Michael’s car. I shook my
head. It made no sense the two were related. “I just moved into
town. I haven’t done anything since I got here. Met Michael and
Grace, got a job…normal stuff. Last night, I stepped into the trees
on an off-chance. It wasn’t something planned.”

“
Maybe you caught it off guard. Maybe it was curious about the
noise from the kids,” Sarah said.

Good point.
Maybe I was in the wrong
place at the wrong time.

“
Perhaps…” Caleb rubbed his chin, his eyebrows drawn close
together. He stood. He was a lot taller than I originally thought,
at least half a foot taller than Michael. “We must remain aware of
our surroundings and be cognisant of any possible threats. Grace
and Michael will keep an eye on you, and we shall see if this
grollic has any other intentions. Perhaps it was
hungry.”

The way Caleb
looked at me—or through me—I felt like some carnivore’s dinner,
nothing more. I gasped and took a step back. He strode by me,
without a second glance, to his office, the antique door closing
with a cold click from the brass doorknob made me jerk.

“
It’s just some freak of nature, some kind of wild animal.
Caleb talks as if the thing can think and plan an attack. Animals
can’t do that.” I spoke to no one in particular.
Who’re you trying to convince? Them or
yourself?

Michael
slipped an arm around my shoulders. “Nothing happened last night
and nothing’s going to happen to you. I promise.”

“
It was definitely a one-off.” I loved it that I believed him.
He made me feel…safe.

Thank goodness
school started without a hitch. No monsters came knocking at my
door. I did joke with Grace, with me practically sleeping at her
place all the time, a grollic could’ve come but bolted when it got
to my neighborhood.

It sucked but
I barely saw Michael. Caleb apparently had him travelling for
work.

Simon made it
his priority to introduce me to everyone at school. While the
weather stayed warm, a group of us sat in the courtyard every lunch
break.

One Friday,
near the end of October, the guys, being their usual rowdy selves,
started a game.

“
Rouge,” Simon said. “Are you going to come with me to the
Halloween Masquerade?”

Before I could
think of an excuse not to go, Damon dragged Simon to a desk chair
he’d set in the middle of the courtyard.

“
Help me set this up. Then let’s jump over it.” Damon pointed
at us gals sitting together. “You ladies keep score.” All the guys
scrambled over to join them, each one easily clearing the chair.
Soon two, then three chairs were lined up. When a few guys knocked
out, Damon dragged a picnic table to replace the chairs. He scraped
his foot in the grass to make a line ten feet away. He declared
they had to stand behind the muddy line. The remaining three
cleared the table sideways. They turned the table long. After Damon
and Simon barely cleared it, they pulled two together.

I leaned
toward Grace. “Maybe they should fill their pants with rolls of
toilet paper.”

“
What’s that Red?” Damon paused in his work and grinned at his
nickname for me. “Chumming up to your little pal?” He glared at
Grace. “It’s obvious Red’s you’re new little Barbie doll. Poor
new-gal didn’t stand a chance once you sunk your claws in
her.”

How old was
this guy, nine? “I have a brain, thank-you. I’m a Barbie. Maybe
you’re just jealous she wouldn’t let you be her Ken?”

He stepped
forward and leaned down, his face inches from mine, hot breath
hitting my cheeks. “What’d you just say?”

My courage
flew out the window. I dropped my gaze. His eyes were red, nostrils
flared, lips curled in a nasty smile. I locked on his neck where a
birthmark, which also looked angry, peeked out from the edge of his
polo shirt near the buttons.

Simon pulled
Damon back. “Leave her alone. You’re scaring the poor girl.”

I gasped for
air, not realizing I’d held it. With a shaky hand, I covered my
mouth, not sure what else to do.

Damon blinked
and jerked his arm out of Simon’s grip. “Whatever. Sorry, Red.”

“
You’re such a jerk, Damon.” Grace grabbed my arm and led me
inside by the elbow. “You okay?”

Leaning
against the cool, cement bricked wall, I tried to calm my nerves.
“Bit insecure, isn’t he?”

Grace laughed.
“I usually just try to ignore him.”

“
How do you ignore someone so big?”

“
And ugly?”

I grinned,
feeling better. “You so missed your chance when you turned him
down.”

“
I guess he never got over it.” She pretended to clutch her
heart. “It started the first week I was here, but he was just so
big—”

“
An’ ugly.”

“
An’ smelly. It turned me off.”

“
I don’t blame you.”

The bell rang.
I had chemistry and she had art on the other side of school.

“
See you after classes. Try not to pick anymore fights.” She
laughed and disappeared down the hall.

Afternoon
classes flew by. At the end of the day, I made my way out to the
parking lot to Grace’s car. My heart skipped a beat when a dark
blue Mustang sat parked beside the Smartcar.

Michael stood
waiting between the two cars, leaning against his door.

“
Hi.” I hadn’t seen him for two weeks and he looked awesome. I
made tight fists, warning my fingers not to reach up to his blond
hair begging to be tamed. His blue eyes piercing with their
intensity, his lips and slight stubble – all of it made my blood
rush.

He nodded a
hello, but his face remained serious. “Grace told me what happened.
I thought I might have a word with this Damon boy.”

Boy?
Damon was like a year younger
than him. I waved my hand. “It’s nothing. Damon probably took too
many steroids and had some reaction.”
Bummer. I had been hoping for:
I
missed you.

Michael’s head
shot up and his body tensed. I turned around to where he
looked.

Damon pushed
through the school front doors, strutting across the grass with
Simon in tow. They headed to the other side of the parking lot. He
kept glancing our way with an irritating, cocky smile, but he
continued to his car. He gassed the engine and sped out of the
parking lot.

“
Michael!” Grace’s singsong voice made both of us turn. “What
a surprise.” Her cheeks and most of her face burned slightly
red.

“
Really? You contacted –” Michael stopped
mid-sentence.

Something
passed between the two of them, but I couldn’t figure out what. It
might take a bit of patience, but I intended to find out. Why would
Grace call Michael and tell him about lunch? It was no big deal.
Then it dawned on me. “It seems your old flame’s still holding a
bit of a nasty grudge.”

Grace
shrugged. “You win some and, in his case, you lose again. The guy’s
a meat-head.”

“
Maybe it was good I wasn’t here.” Michael turned and smiled
at me. “Well, if my knight-in-shiny-armor services aren’t needed;
is there anything else I can help you with?”

“
Well…” I said. “There is this Halloween Masquerade. We are
actually required to go for drama class. I could really use a
date.”

Chapter
7

Of all the
Halloween themes, we got stuck with famous couples. Grace convinced
Simon to go with her and she took charge of all our outfits. She
bought a Spartacus costume for Michael and a Roman slave one for
me. I’d come to trust her and she made me laugh with her charity
shop and eBay shopping.

The night of
the dance I sat in her bathroom on a stool, letting her curl my
hair and pin it up. “Doesn’t Spartacus’s wife get murdered?”

She dropped
the curling iron.

I swore she
caught the hot part in her bare hand but didn’t even flinch.

Setting the
curling iron on the counter, she grabbed a few bobby pins. “Aren’t
all famous couples tragic?”

Her hand was
obviously not burned. I pointed at her in the mirror. She was
dressed as Fashion Fairy Tale Barbie. “I don’t think Barbie and Ken
have a tragic ending.”

“
Touché. But if Damon see’s the outfits, he might change
that.” She giggled at my shocked looked in the mirror. “I’m just
kidding. He’s the one who gave me the idea.” She pinned the last
bobby pin in my hair. “Stand.”

We stared at
my reflection. The faded grey-blue slave’s dress had tattered
sleeves and hem but I was willing to bet, no slave ever wore a
dress this formfitting. Grace had tied a black scarf around my
waist for a belt. She’d bought the gorgeous pair of strappy sandals
from a second-hand shop.

She traced her
fingers along her collar bone. “Something’s missing.” Snapping her
fingers, she disappeared out of the room.

I stared down at my red polished toe nails and leaned against
the doorframe. Grace had found a gladiator costume on eBay in
Michael’s size. The thought of his body in a fighter’s outfit
created a tingling in my lower abdomen. I was willing to bet
Spartacus had nothing on Michael. Hopefully I didn’t embarrass
myself with staring, or even worse if I’d start
salivating
.

“
Wear this.” Grace held something shiny in her hand. “It’s not
a choker, but we can link the clasp on a shorter part of the chain
and make it look like one.

The necklace,
beautiful and obviously antique, was made of sterling and shone
like Grace had just polished it. “I can’t wear that.”

“
I know Roman slaves wore copper, but this is so perfect.
It’s--”

“
Too expensive.” My fingers had a will of their own and
reached for the silver. The chain was cool, but the aged Celtic
pendant had a unique feel. Heavy but…different. I couldn’t tell if
it was hot or cold. I held it up to the light. The pendant turned
out to actually be some sort of vial with a ruby inside. “Is this
some kind of family heirloom?”
I’m not
wearing this -- my luck it belonged to Caleb’s mother.

“
Just try it on.” Grace took it from my hand and clipped the
chilly metal around my neck. Against my skin, the pendant gave me
goose bumps but warmed instantly.
How in
the world did it do that?

“
Don’t you look adorable, little sis,” Michael said
sarcastically from the hall doorway. “Apparently your idea of
tragedy is quite different than the rest of the worlds.”

Grace’s
bouffant hairdo blocked my view of Michael’s face. A round shield
covered his body, except for his bare legs and sandaled feet.

“
Hardy-har-har.” Grace faked a girly laugh. “My shopping
helped you though. You’re quite dashing.”

“
Half naked in October? Don’t you th—” He froze as I stepped
beside Grace.

Grace grinned,
a wacky, I-got-you-good smile totally meant for her brother. “Come
on, don’t look so serious. It’s Halloween! Let her be your slave
for a night.”

Hot. Very hot.
Muscles and flesh and
metal everywhere. No wonder the Romans loved their gladiators. He
could have been a god. However, the scowl on his face stopped me
from sharing my thoughts.