Claimed by the Beast Bundle

by Dawn Michelle

  “He’s infected,” Crystal said.

  “Infected?”

  “My blood,” she explained. “In his car—somehow he got it in him.”

  “In him? Whoa!”

  Crystal nodded. The Beast was gone and she was free. Except now it looked like she had a new beast to deal with.

  Chapter 5

  Crystal looked at her phone and frowned. Beth was calling her. She glanced around and answered. “Hey, look, there’s no way I’m going to risk running into him at lunch.”

  “What are you doing?” Beth hissed. “You can’t just skip eating.”

  “Like I can’t afford to miss a meal!” Crystal snapped.

  “Crys, stop it. And no, you can’t. You said you were exhausted. You’ve lost what, fifty, sixty pounds since this started? You need to eat!”

  “I’m done changing,” Crystal said. Or at least she thought she was done changing. Other than changing into something that ran around on four legs. She still didn’t know how to do that.

  “So eat something to get a little strength back. If you have to deal with him later, you’ll—shit, I have to go.”

  “Chad?”

  “Not yet.”

  “Stephanie?”

  Beth didn’t have to answer; she heard Stephanie in the background. “Hey Beth! Wow, love your eyes!”

  Her eyes? Crystal frowned and tried to remember what was different about them.

  “Hey! Um, thanks,” Beth said in a voice muffled by her palm held over the phone. Her voice cleared up as she put the phone back to her face. “Okay, if you can’t get away I’ll hook up with you later.”

  “Um, right,” Crystal said. She shook her head and was about to lower her phone when she heard Beth explaining the call.

  “You know Crys—she’s caught up on her grades. I told her senior year’s almost over. But she’s checking on some extra credit with a few teachers. Crazy bitch missed a point on a test or something.”

  Crystal gasped and stared at the phone. Who was the crazy bitch? And why was having good grades a bad thing? She lifted the phone back to her ear to see what else she could hear.

  “She’s smart. Smarter than me,” Stephanie responded. “If she can use her smarts to get out of here, good for her! Doesn’t seem fair though, her brains and a rocking body?”

  Beth laughed. “She’s been working hard on it, that’s for sure.”

  “She looks good in that dress today. So much better than that dark frumpy Goth shit she used to wear.”

  Crystal rolled her eyes but couldn’t resist glancing down at her dress. It was a little baggy in her midsection but all in all, it was a nice fit. After what Ember had forced her to wear yesterday, she began to see that she could wear tighter clothes and it wasn’t a scary thing.

  “I wanted to thank you for yesterday,” Beth said after a few moments. “Your dad’s not what I expected. He’s got his head on straight.”

  “My dad?” Stephanie laughed. She lowered her voice and said, “I thought you meant, you know, the other stuff.”

  Crystal could hear the blush in Beth’s voice. “That was good too.”

  Stephanie giggled in the background.

  What the hell? Crystal frowned. Had Beth and Stephanie—

  “Anyhow,” Beth continued, “we knew your folks were holy rollers but you aren’t like them. They’re not scary Bible-beating holy, though—they just really believe it.”

  “Yeah, they’re cool about it. They can be a pain sometimes, but usually it’s not too bad. Definitely old-school religion though, if you know what I mean.”

  Crystal stared at her phone again. Did they really do it? She shivered and shook her head. Beth said she wasn’t a lesbian. But, if they were talking in code like that—and if Stephanie had told both of them she wanted to mess around sometime…

  She couldn’t believe it. She hit the End Call button and dropped it in her purse; she didn’t want to hear any more. She had too much other shit to deal with. Crazy Chad who was turning into something deadly was bad enough. Having a dyke of a best friend who had the hots for her was too much. Especially if she was already screwing Stephanie.

  She let out a growl of frustration and started to reach for her phone again. She had to call Hank and tell him. Or maybe Ember? Hell, if it was as bad as she feared, maybe she should talk to Adrian or Gunter?

  Crystal stopped and sniffed the air. She smelled him. Why wasn’t he at lunch? She turned and looked, listening closer and hearing the air in the ducts and the distant sound of students laughing. She sniffed the air to get a better idea. His scent was stronger on her left, towards the main lobby and the parking lot. That meant she had to go the other way, towards the lunchroom and the main offices.

  She could escape out the front of the school if she had to, but she was too tired to run very far. She could try to change but then she’d have to kick off her sandals and take off her dress. And even then she might fail. Not might—probably would. She had no idea how to do it. So far she’d shifted her hands into claws and that was it, and she had no idea how she’d done it.

  “Crap,” she muttered before turning from her locker and hurrying down the hallway. Her sandals scuffed the floor, making too much noise. She paused to take them off and held onto them so she could hurry down the hallway in only her bare feet.

  She rounded the corner and saw some students walking through the hall. It was lunchtime; there was nothing wrong with that. She smiled and hurried to get closer to them. They turned again at the next intersection, heading towards the lunchroom. Being there would help—strength in numbers and all that—but then she’d have to face Beth and Stephanie and pretend that she didn’t know they were screwing each other. Her face twisted up like she’d bitten a lemon at the image of the two of them naked and rolling around on a bed.

  Crystal turned and headed past the main office towards the guidance counselor’s office. She stepped into the office and paused to glance over her shoulder before letting the door shut behind her. Chad was nowhere in sight. She slipped her shoes back on and turned to see the secretary looking at her with confused wrinkles on her brow.

  “Shoes are making my feet sore,” Crystal lied.

  The secretary smiled and glanced at them. “New?”

  “Yes.”

  “What can I help you with, dear?”

  Crystal hesitated. She didn’t need any help. At least not any from Mrs. Dowden. Then again, if she turned and left she ran the risk of running into Chad again. She’d managed to keep him at bay this morning but that had been hours ago. Now he might be feeling different. Especially if he’d done as she’d told him to and hadn’t jerked off.

  She grimaced and stepped closer to Mrs. Dowden. “I wanted to talk to a counselor about my future.”

  “Your future?”

  “Yes, you know, whether I should go to college or not?”

  “Oh, okay. What’s your name, dear? I’ll see if Mrs. Vedder is available.”

  “Crystal Davis.”

  Mrs. Dowden’s eyes widened and her jaw dropped. “Crystal? Oh my goodness! You’ve lost a lot of weight.”

  Crystal smiled. “Good food and exercise.”

  “I’ll say! Good for you! I’m so proud of you. Tell me, how did you do it?”

  Crystal’s smile widened. She’d found a great way to waste some time until her next class started. That didn’t help her with what was going to happen after school, but she still had three classes left. There was plenty of time to worry.

  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?