The Transformed Box Set: Books 1, 2, 3, 3.5

by Stacy Claflin

  "Let us worry about that."

  "Are you trying to tell us that you two will keep each other warm?" My mom looked like she was ready to explode.

  "No! That's not what I said at all. I only said to let us worry about being cold."

  "You two will catch your death out there," my dad said.

  I laughed. "Trust me, that's not going to happen. You can still see us if we're studying in the back yard. What's the problem with that?"

  They looked at each other. My mom looked thoroughly exasperated.

  My dad said, "I suppose we can give that a try. But, and this is a very big but, if you slip up at all and don't follow the rules of being grounded, then that's the first thing to go. Got it?"

  I smiled. "Got it."

  "We'll let you know about Tanner after we talk to his mom."

  I frowned, walked up to my room and closed the door. Moving to the castle was looking more and more appealing every day. However, I wasn't looking forward to dealing with Cliff's mother on any kind of a regular basis. It was becoming more and more complicated being a vampire princess raised by humans.

  My phone buzzed. It was Amanda texting me about Mark's skateboard competition the next day. I had completely forgotten about Cliff and me agreeing to go. How was I going to go while I was grounded? I knew that it was really important to Amanda, so I had to find a way.

  I would try asking my parents first, and if that didn't work, I'd just go. Sure, Cliff and I wouldn't be able to study outside, but at least I shouldn't be sent to a shrink. I walked downstairs and found them still sitting in the living room. "Before I was grounded, I told Amanda that I would go somewhere with her tomorrow. It's really important to her and you know that she's been going through a lot lately. I can't let her down."

  "Are you asking our permission to go?"

  "Yes, Mom."

  "Well, this is definitely a good start," my dad said. "This is the kind of thing that we want to see."

  "You know, I am seventeen. I should be able to make plans without having to check with you first all the time. That's how it is for people my age these days."

  "We know that," my dad said. "But, you've taken it to the extreme by not calling when you're going to be late or even when you're not going to be here all night. We need to get back to the basics."

  "So, can I go tomorrow or not? I need to be able to tell Amanda either way."

  "What time will you be leaving and returning?"

  "I don't know yet."

  "If you let us know, then I think that you can go. Do you agree, Janet?"

  "Yes. It will be a good way to test the waters."

  "We're not saying that you'll be un-grounded after this, but it will be a start in showing us how responsible you can be."

  "Okay, thanks." I went back to my room and texted back and forth with Amanda until we had all of the details in order. Then I texted Cliff about it and let him know about my grounding, too.

  I lied down on my bed and closed my eyes. I couldn't believe everything that I had been through recently. The whole werewolf thing felt like a bad dream. It didn't even feel real.

  I started to drift off to sleep.

  ***

  I opened my eyes and found myself lying on my bed in the castle. I sat up and looked around in disbelief. Was this a dream or was I really there? It looked so real, but I couldn't be sure. I looked down at myself and I was in my current body and I had the same clothes on I'd been wearing all day. It definitely wasn't one of those dreams that took place when I was two or three.

  I got up and walked slowly around the enormous room. There was so much to look at, and every little detail brought back memories and warm feelings. It was as if everything had been left exactly the way it had been when I was kidnapped so long ago. As if they'd been waiting for my return.

  Wanting to find out if this was real, I pinched myself and it hurt. I supposed that could happen in a dream, too. I walked to the closet and opened the door. I couldn't believe the size of the closet; it was as big as my room at home. I walked in and took in the sight of all the clothes, the massive shoe rack that took up a whole wall, a full-length mirror, a sitting couch, and even a fireplace! I had to be dreaming, because I didn't remember this at all.

  I walked over to the clothes which were tiny. They must have been the ones that I had worn when I was living in the castle as a child. The rest of the closet was filled with clothes that would fit me now. Had Brooke made an entire closet full of clothes for me in addition to all the ones back at home?

  When I finished looking through all the clothes, which felt very real, I went back to the bedroom. I was surprised to find my vampire parents waiting for me. For just a moment, I was taken aback by how young they looked. I hoped that I would get used to it.

  I didn't want to waste any time thinking about that so I ran to them and jumped into their arms simultaneously. "Please tell me that this isn't a dream!"

  My father laughed. "It's not a dream, princess. We need to talk to you in private. This was the only way that we could do it."

  My dead heart sank. "I can't stay here? I have to go back?"

  "For just a little bit longer," my mother said, kissing my cheek. "We won't be able to wait until the summer to bring you back with us. We've wanted to bring you back sooner and now we must, we're so very happy about it."

  I stood there smiling like a fool.

  "We can't wait to have you by our side," my father said. "There have been a lot of developments in Europe, and we need you with us so we can deal with the issues."

  "What's going on?"

  "We can't tell you yet. What we need you to do is to learn as much about the Fyrsturae as you can. Everything else about our culture is of lesser importance at this point. Do you understand?"

  I nodded. "This sounds serious."

  "It is. We really need you to make that a priority."

  "I promise."

  "We must return to Europe and we need to get you back to your human family before you get into even more trouble."

  "What? How did you know?"

  They both hugged me. "Everything will make sense soon enough. Just focus on learning as much as you can about the Fyrsturae."

  "When will I join you?"

  My father looked at me with tears gleaming in his eyes. "Not soon enough. I wish that we could bring you with us right now. Learn as much as you can from Clifford and Clara. Whatever you do, don't tell anyone about our meeting here."

  "Nobody?"

  My mother shook her head, a single tear running down her face. "Keep this to yourself, our love. We will be reunited soon and these years apart will quickly be forgotten."

  "We must go," my father said. "We'll come for you as soon as we can." Once again they wrapped their arms around me. My father placed two fingers over my eyes, closing them softly.

  ***

  I opened my eyes and I was lying on my bed at home, Natalie was staring at me as if she'd just seen a ghost.

  "What just…? How did you…?"

  "What's going on, Natalie?"

  "How did you do that?"

  "What did I do?"

  "Don't play dumb with me! I've known for a while that something is off with you. It started with mind reading, which I half convinced myself was in my head. There have been other things, too. Like when you scared Braydon in that field. I was stoned, so I thought maybe my mind had exaggerated that. But this can't be denied!"

  "Can you please just tell me what you saw?"

  She rolled her eyes. "Fine. But you better tell me what's really going on. I came in here and you were lying on your bed. I was going to ask you a question to see if you were awake, and then you just disappeared. You disappeared right before my eyes! I felt the bed to make sure that I wasn't losing my mind. Sure enough, you were gone. I pinched myself to see if I had lost my senses and I hadn't. I was trying to decide what to do and you reappeared. What is going on, Alexis?"

  I had to think fast. How much should I tell her? Probably a
s little as possible would be the safest. I didn't want to put her in any kind of danger.

  "Don't try to hide it from me. Whatever it is, I can handle it. I'm sure it will be weird; I'm expecting that."

  I took a deep breath to buy myself a few extra moments. I said a silent prayer that she wouldn't freak out. Then the thought came to me that if I needed to, I could always use mind control to make her forget. "Why don't you sit down?"

  She glared at me, but then sat on my chair. "Spill it, sister."

  "Do you have an open mind?"

  "I already told you that I'm expecting something weird."

  "Like what?"

  She shrugged her shoulders. "I doubt I would be surprised. Do you and Clara come from a family of witches?"

  "No, that's not it."

  "What is it? Stop stalling!"

  "I guess you deserve to know the truth. I've been keeping it from you to protect you. I was nearly killed when I was abducted. Actually, I was killed."

  "You were killed? Then how are you here now? I know you're not a ghost!"

  "I know this is going to be hard to accept. It wasn't easy for me either when I found out."

  "Found out what? Things have been weird since before you were abducted. You haven't told me anything yet!"

  "The fact that I was killed and yet I'm still here is nothing?"

  "It's something, but it's not enough. You need to tell me more. What does it mean?"

  I looked into her eyes. I wanted to be ready in case I needed to use mind control. "I'm a vampire."

  She stared at me. She didn't say anything and I couldn't read her mind. I suddenly became scared and desperate to know what she was thinking. "Say something!"

  "You—you're a…. You're a vampire?" she stammered.

  "I know it sounds crazy. Let me explain—"

  "No, it actually makes sense," she said softly, her eyes wide. "When did it happen? Things started getting strange around my birthday. I think that was the first time that you read my mind. Were you a…were you one then?"

  "It's kind of complicated, but I was transitioning into one then. I was kind of both vampire and human at that point. Once I died, I completed the transition and became a full vampire."

  "When did you get bit? How did it happen?"

  "I wasn't bitten. I was born into a vampire family and kidnapped when I was young. It was vampires, not the mafia like you thought, that used mind control on our parents to make them think that I was their natural daughter. Since I was so young, I eventually just forgot about my original family. Then when I started to transition, things started to come back to me."

  "You were born as a vampire? Wow, truth really is stranger than fiction. Does that mean that Clara is one, too? You said that you guys are cousins."

  "Yeah, she's one too."

  "I can't believe it. My sister's a vampire and so is our exchange student. We've got two vampires living in our house. Wait! We're not in any danger, are we? You guys aren't going to try to drink our blood or kill us, are you?"

  "No, you're not in any danger. We're not going to touch you. In fact you're probably safer because we're protecting you. That's actually why I didn't tell you about this sooner. I knew that the vampires who kidnapped me as a child were looking for me and I wanted you all to be safe."

  "This is so unreal! It's just crazy."

  "I thought you said that you believed me."

  "I do. It just feels crazy. Wait a minute. Do you kill people?" Her eyes were huge, begging me to say no.

  I sighed. "I can't say that I haven't. But it's never anyone innocent; it's always people who do bad things. Very bad things."

  She seemed to accept my answer. "So, is anyone else that we know a vampire?"

  "I don't really feel like it's my place to go telling everyone who's a vampire."

  "You already told me that Clara's one."

  "Right, because she's my family. It's pretty obvious."

  Clara was suddenly in my room. "I'm the only one you're going to rat out, huh?"

  "She's not going to tell anyone."

  Clara glared at Natalie. "We're definitely protecting your family, but that can change. You need to keep this a secret. We have ways of finding things out. We're also very powerful, much more powerful than humans."

  "You don't have to tell me about it," Natalie said. "I've seen what my sister is capable of, at least some of it. Aside from that, do you really think that anyone would believe me? I'd end up in the loony bin if I started talking about knowing vampires. I believe you guys because of what I've seen. But, trust me. I'm not talking to anyone."

  "Natalie, we're not trying to threaten you," I said.

  "But we will if we have to," Clara said.

  "Like I said, you don't have to worry about me. I'm not telling anyone. I can't believe you two are vampires! Do you actually like drinking people's blood?"

  "Of course," Clara said. "There's nothing tastier."

  Natalie made a face. "Why don't you sleep during the day? Or in coffins? Why can you see your reflections? How can you enter houses without being invited in? What about—?"

  Clara looked at me with a smile. "You told her, you get to answer her questions."

  I looked at Natalie. "Those are human myths. Although I suppose the vampires who can't go into the sun probably do sleep during the day. I did when I lost my sun blessing—that was horrible, by the way. The sun nearly killed me!"

  Natalie just stared at me, shaking her head. "This is so much to take in."

  I laughed. "Try finding out that's what you're turning into. That's a lot to take in."

  She stood up from the chair. "I've got things I have to do. I'll have more questions for you later."

  "And I'll have answers," I said with a smile.

  After she closed the door, Clara glared at me. "I can't believe you told her."

  "I pretty much had to. She saw something that I couldn't just explain away."

  "What did she see?"

  I remembered my father saying not to tell anyone about the conversation. "She saw me going through the wall," I lied. "I always knew that it would be a matter of time before I had to tell her, anyway. It's not a big deal; we can always make her forget if we have to."

  "Yeah, you're right. She's always noticing little things that are off. We'll have to keep an extra close eye on her to make sure that she keeps her word. If our secret gets into the wrong hands it can get ugly—fast."

  "That's what I've heard. I think she'll keep her word."

  "I've experienced it myself. Remember what happened with the Williams?"

  I frowned. "Your true love never told anyone that you were a vampire, right?"

  "No, he didn't. But, his less than intelligent 'twin' descendant nearly had me burned at the stake after I told him."

  I laughed. "Sorry, it's not funny that he tried to have you burned at the stake. It's funny that he mixed up witches and vampires."

  She nodded. "I can't believe that I thought I could replace William with someone who looked exactly like him. I was so stupid to fall in love with a human in the first place."

  "Hey!"

  She raised an eyebrow. "You were still transitioning when you fell in love with a human. I have no excuse. It was idiotic of me to think that he'd want to become a vampire to be with me forever. I'd never experienced a pain like I did when he broke up with me. Then I found out what real pain was when I watched him get married and have kids. I don't think he ever forgot about me, what we had together was what your friends call epic. But he was laid to rest and I've been tortured with his loss for two hundred years. That's why I was desperate enough to give his descendant a shot." She wiped at her eyes and looked away.

  "I can't imagine what I'd do if Cliff…couldn't be with me."

  She stared at me. "Do we need to feed? You're eyes are starting to look red already."

  "Maybe. I gave Tanner a lot of my blood."

  "We'd better plan on going tonight. It won't be long before the humans notice you
r change in eye color."

  "Then I'd have to feed on them and that would be even harder to explain," I said with smile.

  She laughed. "Go to bed early, I'll be waking you up early again."

  I groaned. "Why do you like waking me up early?"

  "I'm older and I don't need as much sleep as you do."

  FIFTEEN

  The next morning, Cliff and I drove to the skateboard competition together in his car. Amanda had gone with Mark earlier because he had to register early and practice before it started. She wanted to spend every spare second with him. I looked over at Cliff and knew exactly how she felt.

  "Do you know much about skateboarding?" he asked me.

  I laughed. "I'm not the skater type. Skaters almost have their own culture, and they have a reputation for causing a lot of trouble. I'm sure that like any other stereotype, there's some element of truth to it, but certainly not every skater is like that. A few troublemakers give the whole group a bad name. It's the same thing that we deal with, because of the common vampires who go around terrorizing people."

  "You've put a lot of thought into this. What else are skateboarders known for?"

  I explained how most people see skaters making graffiti, leaving garbage all over the place and causing other kinds of trouble. "Some of them do act like that, though. It's not just an image. One time, Natalie and I were walking through a park that has a skate area and the skaters chased us off because they thought we were too close to 'their' area."

  "Mark seems to be a nice guy. I can't picture him acting like that."

  "I agree. Also, Amanda told me that he and his friends try to do nice things for people in order to crack holes in the stereotypes."

  "I wish him luck. Humans are very much stuck in their ways."

  "Yeah they are. They find it so much easier to believe what someone has told them instead of taking the time to see if it's true or not."

  He put his hand on mine for a moment. "I know you've had a hard time with the humans and their rumors. I'm sorry I wasn't there for you."

  "I don't really care anymore. My time here is temporary; soon enough we'll be sitting on the throne together. That's what matters. Not what happens with the humans."