"Love it!" Hailey said. "I would've thrown them away, but now I'm saving them."
"What should we do first?" Emma asked, looking around at all the slides, pools, and hot tubs.
"Let's try the wave pool. I heard it gets pretty strong," Hailey said.
We made our way to the wave pool, where we could see people trying to remain standing amongst some strong waves.
"This will be fun," Hailey said. "We should see which one of us will be the last one standing!"
"I don't wanna mess up my hair or makeup," Emma whined.
"Didn't you bring makeup and hair products?" I asked.
"Yeah, but…."
"But nothing," Hailey said. "Let's go!"
"Hey girls!"
We turned around and saw Mr. Foley, who I needed to start thinking of as Toby or Tobias. He was wearing only brown swim shorts.
"Hi, Tobias," Hailey said with a wink. "You look hot in a suit."
He gave me a look that clearly said he wished I hadn't told them his actual name. "Mind if I borrow Alexis for a little bit?"
"Sure," Hailey said. "Have fun…but not too much!"
Emma and Amanda giggled.
"See you in a bit," I said with a little wave.
Mr. Foley and I walked toward a hot tub and climbed in. He turned the bubbles on and pulled me so close that I was sitting right next to him, our bare legs touching.
"So what should I call you now?" I asked.
"Let's just stick with Toby, even though your friends seem to enjoy calling me Tobias," he said with a smile. "Is that what you call me when you talk to them?"
"I don't think so."
He tilted his head to the side. "You don't think so?"
My eyes widened. "I…I guess I don't really pay attention. I just say what comes out."
He stared into my eyes. "What's going on?"
Did I dare tell him? It would be nice to have another supernatural to talk to about what was going on, but I had to be certain that I could trust him. I couldn't rely on what everyone was telling me because they might all have had their minds controlled. It did seem unlikely that it would be so for a whole high school full of people, but I wasn't going to take any chances. I had no idea what Alrekur or my parents were capable of, especially since my parents had lied to everyone about who they really were. Was it possible that they were even more powerful than vampires, since they were the creatures that had made vampires?
Mr. Foley, Tobias, gave my shoulders a squeeze. "You can talk to me."
"I guess I'm just overwhelmed about graduating and everything. It's a big day, you know."
He gave me a quick kiss. "I'm not used to seeing you like this. You seem so vulnerable today. Usually, you're so confident and strong. You've really come into your role as the Sonnast, even though you're here without any of your own kind. The royalty and the other Fyrsturae, I mean."
"I am having kind of a hard time with that today," I said. Which of course led to the natural question: why would he want to date a vampire? I knew that he wanted a pact of peace between our species. Was this part of that plan or had it happened on its own somehow?
He gave me a knowing smile. "It's all going to work out."
"How?" I asked, hoping that he would fill in a few blanks.
"I can't see into the future, but I know that it will."
Could he have been any less helpful? I sighed loudly. "What's going to happen next?"
"We'll enjoy our summer and then we'll leave this one-horse town and have a blast at college."
He was going to college with me?
A dark look came over his face. "You can't remember anything, can you?"
My unbeating heart sunk. He must have known me too well. "I wouldn't say that I don't remember anything."
"What do you remember?"
I tried to read his emotions. He looked angry, but I didn't know if it was at me or not. I had to tread carefully. "Are you mad at me?" I asked, without meaning to.
His face softened. "No, I'm not mad at you. How could I be mad at you for your loss of memory? I'm angry that your mind was messed with in the first place. Nobody has ever been able to use mind control on a royal vampire before, and it's made things so difficult on you. All of these memory lapses. I don't know if it's your mind's way of rebelling—that wouldn't surprise me, Miss Independent—or if someone keeps coming in and messing with it to keep you weak. They know how powerful you are."
My vulnerability was growing and I felt raw and exposed. "Why would they do that to me?" I asked, not even sure who they were, although I had my bets on Alrekur or my parents.
"The Fyrsturae have always been controlling. They're the ones who have always had so many problems with the werewolves. That's why we've been quiet for centuries, with all of them dead. Then you were born and there's been unrest all over the world. With the resurrection of each Fyrsturae, it's been getting stronger. I want peace between our two species, if we can achieve it, but there's going to be a huge war regardless. The last time that happened, the majority of both of our kinds were wiped out."
"Is that why the Fyrsturae all died?" I asked.
"We killed a lot of royals, not to mention countless common vampires, but I don't think we ever killed one of the Fyrsturae."
"When was the war?"
"Nearly a thousand years ago."
"What happened over the last year and a half? Since Alrekur came back to life?"
"You can't remember anything for the last year and a half?" he asked, showing a mixture of shock and anger.
"Just tell me so that I can figure out if what I remember is right or not." I didn't want to let him know how serious my memory lapse really was.
"You went on your foreign exchange trip rather suddenly. Only a select few knew anything about it and had attended your going away party. Your friend Tanner flipped out. He was convinced that we had killed you. I barely had time to fix that situation before he disappeared. Everything stayed quiet on the vampire front until you showed up again right before school started this year. Does any of this sound familiar?" he asked.
I nodded. It matched what Amanda had told me.
"When you came back, you asked if you could be my TA again because you wanted another light load. I could tell that you'd been through a lot and I tried to be your friend. From the little that I'd gotten to know you before you went to Europe, I thought that we'd be able to work out an alliance together for our species. Our friendship grew faster than I'd expected, most likely because you were here without all of your vampire friends. I was the only one that you felt that you could talk to. I tried to stop our friendship from turning romantic. It was wrong on so many levels. Not only was I your teacher, but our species have always been fierce enemies."
I nodded for him to continue.
"You tried to fight it, too. You felt that you were being untrue to Cliff, but eventually neither of us could deny how we felt about each other. You told me that Cliff had the ability to see what you were up to, and if he didn't care enough to stop us, then neither did you. We've been falling deeper and deeper in love, and it's been killing us to keep it a secret. How much do you remember?"
I looked at my hands. "I don't remember coming back here. In my mind, yesterday I was at the castle."
"How much do you remember from the castle?" he asked eagerly. "When you first came back, you couldn't recall a huge chunk of the time you'd spent there. Do you remember now?"
I shook my head. "All that I remember is my parents announcing that Alrekur was back and that they had plans to bring back the other eight as well."
"I really want to know what it is that they want you to forget so badly. I believe that when you get too close to discovering what that is, you're made to forget."
"Really?"
"There's something that you keep getting close to, because your memory gets messed with each time you get close to it."
"Close to what? If you've been around me each time this happens, you should remember."
&n
bsp; "That's what we need to figure out. I don't know what it is. You never actually remember anything from before you came back right before school started."
"I don't want this to happen again," I said. "Waking up to find out that I've missed a year and a half of my life sucks in a way that I can't describe. Not only that, but everything is different. Not just different, but the complete opposite of the way that it was."
"I'm sorry that it happened, and on your graduation day at that. If I had known, I wouldn't have announced our relationship to the world."
I shrugged my shoulders. "You didn't know. Besides, it was just one more thing to add to the strangest day of my life."
FOUR
When the busses dropped us off, the teachers had to wake everyone up. Hardly anyone had gotten any sleep at the hotel, so we'd all slept on the ride home. I stretched and walked off the bus groggily. I hoped that when I got home and went to bed, that I would wake up later to find that everything was back to normal.
My dad was already awake when I got home. "Did you have fun?" he asked, giving me a hug.
"Yeah, we went to a hotel that was more like a resort. But, I'm guessing that all the parents already knew that."
He smiled. "Yes, we knew. Were you able to recall any lost memories?"
I frowned. "My friends filled me in on some of what I'd missed. Maybe after a good sleep it'll all come back to me."
"Then you'd better get to bed, darling. Just get some sleep and don't worry about anything else."
Easy for him to say. "Thanks Dad," I said and walked up to my room.
I knew that I was going to have to get some blood soon. My shock from everything appeared to have kept the hunger at bay while I was at the party, but that wouldn't last much longer.
I thought about the night of the homecoming dance and how I'd had dreams of the castle all night. "Please, dreams, don't fail me now."
I snuggled into bed, pulling the covers up close to my face. I closed my eyes and started to drift off to sleep, hoping to wake up and find that this had only been a nightmare.
I woke up disappointed, back in my room in my human house. What had happened over the last year and a half? Had Cliff and I made up? Had the rest of the Fyrsturae been found? Who had sent me here, and why had I been so unconcerned with Cliff that I'd decided to date the werewolf leader? Was it possibly a front?
I only wanted to find Cliff and get back to him. I scrolled through my phone, looking for his number, knowing it wasn't there. I wanted to kick myself for not taking two minutes to memorize everyone's numbers.
Did I still have anything of Cliff's? I could try to teleport myself to wherever he was if I had something. I had my doubts about it working since I couldn't even go through a wall now, something I used to do all the time. I climbed out of bed and started rummaging through my room, desperate to find anything of his, or even something that he had given me.
It was as if someone had cleaned all the vampire remnants out of my room because I couldn't find anything that had belonged to him or that he'd given me. I felt like crying, but I knew that it wouldn't accomplish anything. I could easily crawl back into bed and stay there for weeks again. But I'd already decided that I wasn't going to do that anymore.
I grabbed some clothes and headed for the shower. I knew that it was pretty late in the day, but I didn't care. I smelled like chlorine. As I got into the shower, I noticed the mark on my stomach again, and I really wanted to know what had happened. My vampire body could heal from anything, and quickly. I'd stepped in a bear trap that had left my ankle and foot a gory mess, yet I didn't have any marks from that. Why did I have this quarter-inch mark and why hadn't it disappeared? I couldn't let go of the feeling that it meant something significant. But what?
When I had finished getting ready, I grabbed my laptop and looked through it again for any clues that I might have missed before. There weren't even any email addresses or anything for any of my vampires. I slid under my bed, hoping that I'd saved my old phone or laptop, but I couldn't find them either. Were they at the castle?
Giving up, I went downstairs and found my family eating dinner. I must have slept even longer than I'd thought. The summer light had tricked me into thinking that it was earlier. I was used to the winter hours, where it was dark before five.
"Did you have fun last night?" Natalie asked. "Tell me everything!"
"We danced and swam the night away. It was so much fun!"
"Speaking of which," my mom said. "We heard a rumor. Is there something that we should know?"
Had word already gotten back to them about the dance and the kiss with Mr. Foley? I shrugged and said, "You all know more about my life than I do. Why don't you tell me?"
"Are you sure that you aren't faking this memory loss?" my mom accused.
I sighed in relief. "At least this sounds familiar: you not trusting me. I was getting tired of everything being the opposite of what I knew." It really was a relief to have her accusing me again. I desperately needed familiarity, even if it was negative.
She glared at me and I felt even better still.
"Is there something you'd like to tell us about someone you're seeing?" asked my dad. I could see in his eyes that he wanted me to deny what he had undoubtedly heard.
My dead stomach dropped to my knees. "Look. That was as big of a shock to me yesterday as I'm sure it was to you. The last thing I remember, I was still with Cliff. Happily. I still love him in fact."
"That teacher took advantage of you!" my dad exploded. "He deserves to go to jail! If I don't kill him with my bare hands first."
"You can't do that! I know there's no way that he would've taken advantage of me. I don't remember what happened, but I know that it had to have happened naturally. He probably tried to stop it. I'm sure of it actually. Besides, you don't want to risk going to jail yourself, Dad. It's not worth it. Look at me. I'm perfectly fine—and I'm an adult who's going to college soon."
Natalie's eyes were as big as oranges. "What did I miss?"
"Apparently I've been secretly dating Mr. Foley," I told her.
"What?" Natalie exclaimed. "You've been dating a teacher? I can't believe that you didn't even tell me!" She looked at me, her big doe eyes full of tears. "I thought we were close."
"I'm sure I was keeping it quiet because he could have gotten into a lot of trouble."
"Oh cut the act, Natalie," my mom snapped. "I can tell that you already knew."
"What's with you, Mom?" she asked. "I totally didn't know! I can't believe she's been dating Mr. Foley. I know he's young and hot and everything, but still, he's a teacher."
"I need to have a talk with him," my dad said, clenching his fists so tight that they were turning white. "We need to decide whether or not to press charges."
"What? No! Let me deal with it. I'm an adult, and he's not my teacher. He never was, I was just a TA. We probably didn't even start dating until I was eighteen—an adult! He never did anything to hurt me. I know it."
"How would you know," my dad demanded, "if you can't remember anything?"
"I can tell by the way that he looked at me last night. There was nothing except tenderness and concern. As soon as he figured out that I couldn't remember anything, he backed off and stopped acting like my boyfriend. He wanted to make sure, first and foremost, that I was okay with everything. Aside from that, like Natalie said, he's really young."
Natalie nodded. "She's right. I heard that he graduated high school super early, like when he was sixteen. He's really smart like Alexis. Maybe even smarter. Alexis didn't graduate early."
I shot her a dirty look.
She stuck her tongue out at me. "I heard that he might not even be old enough to drink, Dad."
"I still need to talk to him, man to man," my dad said. "He was an authority figure and he shouldn't have dated you, regardless of his age. It was his responsibility to put a stop to whatever happened!" If my dad had been a vampire, his eyes would've been red. He was more furious than I'd ever seen him
before.
"I'm not a student there anymore. Nobody can prove that anything happened before last night. I sure can't."
"No, they can't prove anything," my mom said. "But the fact that you two were suddenly a couple after graduation raises a strong suspicion, you have to admit that."
"They can question me all they want. I can't remember a thing." The thought that what she was proposing was very convenient struck me at that moment. Could Mr. Foley have had something to do with my memory loss? If I had no memories, then he couldn't get into trouble. It was actually quite opportune for him. Who could I trust?
"Why don't you seem very upset over this, Janet?" my dad demanded, now glaring at her.
"If she says that Mr. Foley didn't harm her, then I'm sure he didn't."
"What aren't you telling me?" he asked, narrowing his eyes at her. I was uncomfortable with his sudden anger at her. I'd never seen him angry with her before, ever. He was always such an adoring, doting husband.
"Jack," my mom said, "love isn't always cut and dry. It doesn't know age or professional restrictions. Neither of them could help how they felt about each other. That's just the way love works."
"What aren't you telling me?" he yelled, pounding his fist into his other hand.
"I'm saying that we should respect our daughter," she said.
"That teacher took advantage of her! It was his responsibility, regardless of anyone's feelings, to put a stop to it!"
"Let's let her handle it," my mom said, putting her hand on his. "She's eighteen and has now graduated. The past can't be changed and we should just enjoy our last few months with her here."
My dad hit the table with his fist, causing the three of us to jump. "He's a predator, Janet! Teachers don't date students. He could do it again—and then it would be on us for not doing anything about it."
"He's not even going to be teaching next year," I said.
They both looked at me, confused.
"He's going to school with me. He's getting his Master's degree while I work on my Bachelor's."
"Is he going to go back to teaching after that?" my dad demanded. "Because if he does, he'll still be a risk to other girls."
The Transformed Box Set: Books 1, 2, 3, 3.5 Page 70