by Morse, Jayme
Colby shrugged. “Okay, whatever. Let’s do this thing.”
“Let’s phase so we can cut through the woods and hopefully go unnoticed. And so we can get there quicker,” Samara commanded.
Once they were all out the front door, they cut through the backyard and changed into their wolf forms. They ran past the pine trees that lined the edge of the property. Samara and Luke led them all to the Masterson’s house.
When they got there, they found that all of the lights in the house were turned off.
Told you guys no one would be home, Josh commented, wagging his tail happily in the air.
Just because there’s none on in the house doesn’t mean no one’s home, Steve replied. They could be reading in the dark for all we know.
Reading in the dark? Chris laughed inside his head. Who reads in the dark?
I do! Steve shot him a glare. It brings me back to my childhood, reading my comic books in the dark with a flashlight while my parents were sleeping.
I didn’t know you could read, Chris replied.
Steve let out a low growl.
Okay, guys, Samara said. We don’t have time to talk about reading in the dark right now. Our mission is to get in the house, find what we need, and leave. It shouldn’t be a problem since no one’s home, but we’re all going to need to phase back to human forms to do this. Should we break a window?
No, we can’t go breaking any windows. We have a home security system, so the alarm will go off if we do that, Josh explained. We keep a spare key under one of the flower pots in the backyard, come on.
Once they were in the backyard, Josh swiftly changed back into his human form and brushed off his knees. He lifted a flower pot, which was empty aside from the dry-looking dirt inside, and pulled out the gold key that was tucked underneath.
Samara willed herself to change back to her human form, and once the smoke disappeared, she watched as Josh swung the door to the house open. “Are you coming?” he asked, loudly.
Pressing her finger to her lips to tell him to keep it down, Samara stepped into the house behind them. Her pack members, who had all changed back to their human form, followed after them.
“Don’t turn on any lights,” Colby commanded. “We don’t want to draw attention to the fact that somebody’s in the house.”
“Smart thinking,” Samara replied, happy that Colby had pointed it out before she’d turned on any lights.
“It’s really stinky in here,” Emma commented, sniffing the air loudly. “It reminds me of my great-grandmother’s old moth ball filled clothes closet. Why does it smell so bad?”
Samara stifled a giggle. “I guess you’re starting to develop your sense of smell already. That’s what the Vyka members smell like.”
“They reek.” Emma held her nose with a disgusted look on her face. “Good thing I kissed Jason before I could smell him!”
Colby let out a low growl, and Samara shot him a glare.
“Hmm, this is strange,” Josh said loudly as they entered a large room that Samara assumed was the living room. “All of the furniture is missing.” He went into another room. When he came back, he said, “All of it. It’s all gone.”
“What does that mean?” Chris asked.
“It means my family doesn’t live here anymore,” Josh replied. “They’re gone.”
*
An hour later, they all slumped down on the couches and onto the floor back at the house. “So, how are we going to find the crimson candles now?” Colby asked.
“We’re just going to have to figure out where Jason and his parents could be living,” Samara muttered. For the first time since they’d found out the blue sapphire was her grandfather’s legendary talisman, she wished they had it. Knowing that the Vyka were the ones who currently had it made her angry, and she knew that if Grandpa Joe were alive, he wouldn’t have been too happy about it, either. He would have been disappointed that she had let someone else get the talisman . . . someone else who, clearly, didn’t deserve it.
“I have an idea on how we can find out where Jason lives,” Luke said, hesitantly. “It’s a longshot, but I think it could work.”
“What is it?” Samara asked, turning to her mate, who had been surprisingly quiet since they’d returned from the house where the Masterson’s used to live.
“Why don’t we follow them? I mean, if we see any of the Vyka at school, all we need to do is follow them around. Eventually, they’ll lead us to wherever Jason is, and we can figure out where he lives from there.”
“That’s not a bad idea,” Samara replied, considering how well it would work out in her head. They would have to be able to follow one of the Vyka members without them actually knowing. Even though wolfsbane would hide their scent, it would still be a risk.
“There’s one problem with that,” Colby pointed out. “We have winter break this week, and we don’t go back to school until after New Year’s. We’ll be waiting for almost another two weeks before we see any of them.” He let out a loud sigh.
“Oh, yeah. Christmas.” In the midst of all of the other craziness in their lives, Samara had completely forgotten about Christmas. She still had to get Luke a Christmas present, and she had no idea what she wanted to get him. She hadn’t even thought about what to get him yet. All she knew was that she wanted it to be something really special, since it was their first Christmas together.
“Maybe you could call Seth, Sam,” Emma suggested. “Maybe if you could convince him to meet you somewhere in private, he’d tell you where Jason is. If you make it secret and everything so Jason doesn’t ever find out.”
Samara shook her head. “I wish I could do that, but it won’t work. Seth hates me. I can tell from the way he looks at me now. There’s got to be another way.”
A long, awkward silence filled the room. Finally, Colby sighed. “I guess we all need some time to think about this and come up with a plan.”
“Yeah, we do,” Samara agreed. “If anyone comes up with anything, let me know, okay? I’m going to head home.”
“And I’m going to drive her,” Luke said, rising to his feet. “Goodnight, everyone.”
“Goodnight, Love Birds.” Emma smirked. “Oh, and Luke, I want to see Samara’s Christmas present before you give it to her.”
Samara turned to Emma. “You know what he got me?”
Emma nodded and smiled. “Yes, and I can honestly say that you’re going to love it.”
“And you haven’t told me what it is yet?” Samara questioned.
Emma shook her head, a wide smile crossing her face. “Nope, and I’m not going to. You’ll just have to wait until Christmas to see what it is. Which we’re celebrating here, by the way.”
“We are?” Samara asked with raised eyebrows. This was news to her.
“Yeah, Linda insisted on doing Christmas dinner here,” Emma explained. “I guess she’s sad that she won’t be able to do Christmas with her family like she normally does. I’m supposed to let you know that your parents are invited if they want to come.”
“Okay, I’ll let them know. Bye!” Samara called over her shoulder, as she and Luke went out the front door. Once they were inside his car, she turned to him. “I can’t believe you told Emma what you got me for Christmas. You know it’s not going to be a secret anymore soon, right? She has a big mouth.”
Luke grinned. “Actually, she’s known what I got you for a few weeks now, and she hasn’t said a word to you yet. I’m pretty sure my secret’s safe with her.”
“We’ll see.” Samara smiled, reaching for his hand. She interlocked her fingers with his. “So, date night tomorrow, huh?”
“No.” Luke glanced over at her, a smile tugging at his lips. “Date all day tomorrow.”
Chapter 19
The next night, Samara and Luke were walking around Sawyer’s Village, one of the town squares where boutiques set up Christmas lights and decorations. They were sipping on cups of hot cocoa with whipped cream and miniature marshmallows, as they approache
d an ornament stand.
“Let’s pick out a Christmas ornament,” Luke said, glancing over at her. “It could be something we do every year . . . buy a new Christmas ornament together.”
“We’ll eventually have more than we know what to do with.” Samara stood on her tiptoes and gave him a kiss on the lips. “But I love that idea.”
She turned back to the ornament table; there were a wide array of silver, gold, red, and green Christmas balls decorated with glitter and stripes. There was also a huge pile of Disney Christmas ornaments—one of Mickey and Minnie Mouse ice skating side by side, one of Tigger bouncing alongside Winnie the Pooh with a honey pot, and one of Cinderella’s pumpkin carriage.
One of the ornaments caught her eye. It had two penguins holding hands, both of them sporting holiday themed scarves. It said: ‘I’m snow in love with you.”
“This one,” Samara said, picking the ornament up and showing it to Luke. “It’s perfect.”
Luke smiled when he saw the ornament. “Yeah, it’s cool.” He handed the ornament to the woman who was running the stand. “I’d like to buy this.”
“Oh, this is a nice ornament. Very cute for a couple’s Christmas ornament,” the woman said with a smile, examining it. Pushing her glasses up, she glanced over at Luke. “You do know that we have one just like this that’s customizable? We can airbrush both of your names on the ornament. You’ll need to wait while we paint it.”
Luke glanced over at Samara, who nodded. “Yeah, we’ll take the customizable one.”
“Okay, it should take about ten minutes,” the woman said, handing the ornament over to the guy who was going to paint the ornament.
“So, what should we do in the meantime?” Samara asked Luke.
“I’d like to get my mom a holiday sweater,” Luke replied. “She loves them. Come on, you can help me pick one out for her.”
“Okay,” Samara replied reluctantly. The truth was, she wanted to tell Luke that she didn’t want to help him pick out anything for his mom until he was honest with Marnie about their relationship. Samara wasn’t sure why it bothered her so much that his mom thought she was still a human, but it did. His mom deserved to know the truth . . . and Samara hated having to lie over something so silly.
Luke held up two sweaters. One of them had white reindeer and snowflakes printed on the red knit material. The other was green with a snowman and a snowwoman on the bottom. “Which one?”
Samara shrugged. “I like the snowman one better, but I don’t know your mom well enough to know which one she’d prefer.”
“Okay, the snowman one it is, then.”
As Luke paid for the sweater, Samara noticed someone out of the corner of her eye; he was staring in their direction. It was Rocco, his eyes penetrating into the side of her head.
He turned to a girl who Samara didn’t recognize and whispered into her ear. The girl laughed loudly and glanced over at Samara and Luke.
Do you see them? Luke questioned, turning to look at her.
Samara nodded. Yeah, I wonder what they’re talking about.
As much as she wanted to be okay about seeing the Alpha of another pack while they were out, the truth was that it unnerved her. Rocco had threatened to kill her if she didn’t agree to join his pack, and she knew that he still desperately wanted her to be a part of it because his pack was weak. Even though she knew that it wasn’t that big of a deal because, unlike Jason, she’d never heard of Rocco using black magic before.
Once we have the ornament, let’s get out of here, Samara told Luke through mind-speak, nervously shifting in her UGG boots.
We don’t have to worry about them right now, actually, Luke replied.
Glancing over her shoulder, Samara found that Rocco and the girl were already gone.
*
A few hours later, Samara and Luke sat in the movie theater. They’d chosen to see a Christmas comedy, so the theater was pack with people. Luckily, they’d managed to get seats in the back of the theater.
“I’m having a hard time coming up with something to get Colby for Christmas,” Samara commented, as they settled down into their seats. She turned to Luke. “Do you have any ideas?”
“I don’t know. He’s pretty easy to please. You could make him something, and he’d be happy.”
Samara leaned back into her seat and glanced over at Luke. “You know that ring that he bought Emma? I finally saw her wearing it.”
“I noticed that too.”
The theater began dimming the lights for the movie to start when a girl with pale blonde hair took a seat a few rows in front of them.
Samara elbowed Luke. Is that Emma?
I don’t think so. She said she was going to stay home and read, remember?
I thought so, too, but that looks like her. And she’s wearing the same coat, Samara replied. At that moment, she noticed another person come into the aisle. He was carrying a tray filled with popcorn, soda, and hot dogs, and was trying to inch his way past the people who were sitting at the end of the row.
At first, Samara was about to say that maybe it wasn’t her, since this girl seemed to be dating someone, and Emma wasn’t, when the guy took off his baseball cap, revealing his short, curly blonde hair.
“But Colby, I wanted Sour Gummy Worms,” a familiar voice whined loudly over the sound of the previews that were already beginning on the screen.
Samara watched as Colby got out of his seat and exited the theater. Minutes later, he came back with a box of what Samara could only assume were Sour Gummy Worms from the concession stand.
He sat back down and handed the candy to Emma. Samaras nearly choked on her Junior Mints when she saw Emma lean over and give him a peck on the lips.
*
That night, Luke and Samara slept over at Colby’s house. Samara’s parents still weren’t home, and it made her feel safer to be with the entire pack. While the guys were playing XBOX 360 in the entertainment room, Samara glanced through Cosmopolitan, as Emma tried out a new hairstyle on her hair. They had both blocked their mates out of their minds so they could have one-on-one girl time.
“You have such thick hair,” Emma commented. “I’m so jealous of you.”
“Why? You have pretty hair! I always wanted to dye my hair blonde like yours when we were younger, but it wouldn’t look right with my skin tone,” Samara replied.
Emma shrugged. “Do you think it’s weird that me and Colby sort of look like each other?”
“You think you look alike?” Samara asked, raising her eyebrows at her reflection in the mirror.
“Well, I’ve just been thinking a lot lately about when Linda mentioned that we’ll probably have blonde puppies one day,” Emma explained, spritzing hair spray on Samara’s hair. “He has really blonde hair and blue eyes, just like mine. And we’re both really fair skinned with freckles. I don’t know, I just think it’s weird. I always wanted to be like Barbie and Ken, you know? Have someone who’s tall, dark, and handsome, so he could have different features than me.”
Samara shrugged. “Sometimes, things just happen the way they do. There’s no way to explain them.”
“I wonder why fate wanted me and Colby to be together,” Emma admitted. Glancing at Samara, she asked, “Is Luke your type?”
Samara hesitated. “I-I don’t know. I never really thought about what my type would be like.” For some reason, Declan’s brown eyes and dark brown hair flashed through her mind. “I guess Luke is my type. I did like him before we found out we were mates.”
“I used to think Luke was my type,” Emma replied, twisting a piece of Samara’s chocolate brown hair around the curling iron. “But I think guys like Luke are too muscular for me now. I’m starting to really like really skinny guys. Isn’t that weird?”
“It’s definitely a change for you,” Samara replied, mentally noting that it made sense; Colby had a certain skinny awkwardness about him that didn’t usually fall into Emma’s type. Casually, she said, “So, Luke and I saw you on your date wit
h Colby tonight. How did it go?”
Samara hadn’t mentioned yet that she’d seen Emma and Colby—and the kiss that they’d shared—at the movie theater that night. Emma and Colby had snuck out of the theater before the movie was over, so Samara and Luke hadn’t gotten the chance to confront them. Samara had been waiting to see if Emma would open up to her about the date (or the kiss) herself, but they had been hanging out for over an hour, and her best friend still hadn’t said anything about it yet.
Emma’s forehead wrinkled, and red splotches blossomed on her cheeks. “I-I didn’t go out with Colby tonight. I ate dinner with Linda, and he went out with Chris and Steve for a while. We weren’t together, though.” She didn’t meet Samara’s eyes as she said the words.
“Emma, come on. You can stop lying to me,” Samara replied exasperatedly. “We saw you! Luke and I both saw you. You can say you weren’t there all you want, but we saw you.”
“I wasn’t there,” Emma replied sharply, glancing up at her. “Now drop it.” She went back to doing Samara’s hair, leaving her to wonder why her best friend couldn’t just admit the truth about the secret relationship she was apparently having with Colby to her.
Chapter 20
The next night, when she was lying at home in her own bed, the sound of rocks clinking against her window in the middle of the night startled her. She cracked her eyes open, her heart beating fast as a wave of panic washed over her body.
Her first thoughts were of the Vyka; she wondered if they were in her backyard, trying to get through her window. They had probably come back to look for whatever it was they came for the first time, and this time, they were going to find it: she was at home this time.
Sam? Is everything okay? Luke’s voice filled her mind, just as another rock hit against the window.
I’m not sure. I let you know once I figure it out for myself, Samara replied through mind-speak. Her parents immediately filled her mind. What if the Vyka got to them before she could reach them? It would be just like Jason to try to hurt her by hurting someone who she loved.