I tried to call the number back, but there was no answer the first or second time. I couldn’t do much with just my phone, so I headed home to try and get online using Moon Shadow. Maybe I could trace the number and narrow down an area from where the call came. If it was just a prank or someone trying to lure me, it would be one thing, but my gut told me that wasn’t the case. With Francium still missing and her body gone, it could have been her.But how? Did that mean she wasn’t dead? Did that mean she had been revived somehow? But how? And why? My stomach lurched at the thought. I had to cross that bridge when I got to it, not right now. I tried to call the number again, but there was no answer. Quickly, I snuck back into the condo and stripped out of my clothes, and changed into some loungewear. Before I could get to my laptop, the doorbell rang.It was too early for anyone from school to be here, and what would they want with me right now anyway? More than that, the security team wo
He said nothing as he headed to the door. The door closed softly behind him, and while I knew I had won that argument, it didn’t feel like a victory.I stood and went to the balcony. I watched him get into the jeep. He didn’t even stop to look up. The jeep sped off and away. I tilted my head and went to grab my laptop to pick up my work on tracing Claire’s call. The scent of pastries faded into the background as I set my jaw and tried to find where the call could have come from.It was at least an hour later before my stomach demanded more food, and my mood felt so low that I made myself a cup of hot chocolate with extra whipped cream. I spent hours trying everything I could to find out what I could from the call, but there was nothing. Whatever phone she used was a temporary one. Wherever she’d made, the call had no ambient noise I could use to identify it. It was as silent as the grave.My gut told me that she was with Francium, but that meant nothing as the investigation by the Int
“No,” the woman said evenly. “She’s been turned.” The guards came in after the Blue Moon team had left, but I sat, wrapped in a robe, in the living room, trying to think through all the information that they’d told me. Claire was alive. She was with Francium. She was now a vampire. Claire was a vampire. She was our enemy, but was it possible that she was still Claire? We could kill her, but would that be the right thing to do? It wasn’t her fault. Or was it? No one knew how vampires turned people. We didn’t even know that a werewolf could be turned into a vampire! It was all so confusing. I didn’t know what to do next. I wanted to call Candido, but I held back. Telling him anything might blow my cover as Pandora, and the leader trusted me with this mission because of my judgment. They searched the whole place before coming back to me and asking me what had happened. I didn’t know if it was my silent that made the whole situation seem more serious than it was or if it was just pro
I fumbled through my backpack for a pen and paper before offering it to him. As he wrote, I noticed the Moon Shadow crest on his watch. My heart sped up. He was an operative. Was he also the mole? Maybe he wasn’t. I’d need to try and contact him as Pandora just to see who he was. Now that I had a direct connection to the Moon Shadow leaders, I might be able to get his operative record. “Tell him to hang in there, yeah?” He asked. “Sometimes… the Moon Goddess has plans for all of us and we can’t always see the full path.” I nodded. His words seemed oddly devout. I thought of the red cloth that was found at the scene of the attack. As I left, I checked my phone and saw another message from Candido. Will you come to lunch with me? I want to see you. I winced at the request, looking down at the paper before reconsidering it. I would need to eat before I headed there. If I did eat with Candido it would be free, and I’d be able to shake my escort team a little easier. Besides, if I didn
The book was bigger than I thought and covered more subjects than I thought it would. I hoped that the book and the book on vampires didn’t contradict. If they did, which was right? I reached the section about the packs and the lines of the packs and got to the New Moon Pack. I could have never imagined that this was all more complicated than I first thought. New Moon descendants seemed to be closer to vampires than werewolves. It seemed like they were some other kind of vampire or some other kind of werewolf, but their mates were mirrors of them. I wasn’t a literature person, but as I thought of Francium and Claire’s relationship, it made a lot of sense. They could probably talk for hours about boring literature and anything else that interested them. They were popular and beautiful just in general. Did that mean Claire was capable of murder? I didn’t know. Was it the reason that she was now a vampire? Had she really been turned, or was it something else? What did being turned e
“Where shall we take you, Miss Hedy?” The leader asked me, opening the door to the jeep. “New Moon,” I said as I climbed into the jeep. “It’s a bit of a remote place, so you might not be able to drive me all the way there.” They looked wary, but they revved up the car and drove me toward the border. I didn’t look out the window until we reached the forest. The forest closed in around us as we entered it and drove away from the capital. The sun was beautiful, glinting off the snow. It made me think of the first time I’d had a snowball fight. It had been me and Candido outside. He’d tried so hard not to indulge me, but he was laughing by the end of it just like I was. Just as I thought, my phone rang, and it was Candido. I decided to answer it. “Hello?” “Hedy, where are you going? Why are you leaving the capital?” “To visit someone,” I said. “He lives in New Moon. We’ve been talking about getting together—” “Hedy,” he growled. “Are you… Is he your mate?” I smirked. “Why does th
The woman looked just like Francium down to the cut of her jaw, but she held herself with a different sort of poise than he did. She was dressed in a simple shirt and pants, but her jacket had a hood pulled up over her head. Where had she come from? How had she gotten behind me when she had been in front of me. The unease that had been building since I’d arrived in this town only got worse, but I couldn’t say exactly why. Where had all the people gone? Why did I feel like someone was just behind me, ready to pounce? I turned my head quickly, trying to catch sight of the person, but there was no one there. I still felt it, though as I turned back to the woman. Her eyes focused on me. She seemed completely unafraid though my heart was hammering. The entire town seemed empty, and that just couldn’t be right. Where had all those people gone? “I’m looking for Francium,” I said. “My name is Hedy.” Her eyes brightened, and she approached me, taking my hand and squeezing it. “Hedy? I’ve h
The thought terrified me. How much time did I have before they showed up? Maybe I didn’t have nearly as much time as I needed to figure out where Francium was and where Claire was. Francia didn’t seem nefarious, but how much of that was a stall tactic. I would have never thought Francium was capable of killing anyone, let alone Claire, but I’d heard it, and I was here trying to track him down to find her. I still wasn’t entirely sure what that vampire wanted from me or wanted to do with me. Did he want to turn me the way Francium had turned Claire, or did he just want to kill me. Maybe it was related to my mother. I had no idea and I wasn’t ready to find out today. I was still recuperating to some degree. I almost regretted this ploy to make Candido jealous. It seemed like it was turning back on me quickly. I pushed that thought away. How could I know that Francium’s mom was probably in league with the vampires that were out to destroy everything that werewolves had built. I had