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

by Stacy Claflin

"Sure do." She straightened her shoulders, stood taller, and flipped her hair behind her shoulder, jerking her head to the side. She raised her eyebrows. "Let's get this show on the road."

  We walked side by side toward the guys. The one holding the Frisbee stopped and stared at us. He motioned for his friends to look in our direction. They both turned and they all watched as we walked toward them.

  "What brings you two out here in this cold?" asked the one with the Frisbee.

  "I was freezing before," Hailey said. "But it looks pretty hot here in the park."

  One of the guys ruffled his hair. "Yeah. We're so smokin' hot we wear shorts in the snow."

  The third guy shoved him. "They can see we're wearing shorts. Man, you're such an idiot sometimes."

  "Don't worry about him," I said. "He's cute."

  "Oh, yeah?" The one I had called cute walked over to me. "I can be even cuter if you want."

  I looked him directly in the eyes, waiting to see his pupils shrink. "If that's the case, stand right there until I tell you to move."

  "I'll stand here until you tell me to move."

  "Good." I turned to the other two. Hailey was flirting with the guy still holding the Frisbee. I smiled at the one remaining. "Want to play a game?"

  "What kind of a game?"

  I raised an eyebrow. "The kind where you let me sink my teeth into your neck."

  He looked startled, and I prepared myself for a chase. But then he winked at me. "That sounds awesome. Let's sit over there," he said, pointing to a covered picnic area just a little bit away. "You know, for privacy."

  I shrugged and started walking. "If you're worried about that."

  "I don't worry about anything. I just thought you might be."

  "Whatever. So you like games like that?"

  "With a gorgeous girl like yourself? I'm up for anything."

  When we reached the covered area, I asked, "Do you want to sit or stand?" My mouth watered again, knowing that more blood was finally coming.

  "It's your game. You tell me."

  "Let's play a game of chase first."

  He smiled. "You do like some strange things."

  "Stranger than you'd think." I opened my mouth, showing my fangs.

  His eyes widened, while the sweet smell of fear reached my nose, dancing its way to my taste buds. "What…what's going on?"

  "Run!" I ran at him, and he stumbled, nearly falling. He ran around the benches under the cover and I slowed, giving him the chance to get ahead. The delicious scent of his terror made me want to pounce on him, but I had just enough self-control to wait, knowing that the longer I did, the sweeter my dessert would be.

  I chased him around the tables a few more times, until I couldn't wait any longer. With one smooth move, I leaped for him and landed next to him, grabbing his shoulders and pulling him close.

  He looked at me, eyes dilated as far as they could go and heart pounding fast and loud.

  "This won't hurt. I promise." I had such a strong venom build-up that I knew he wouldn't feel anything. I sank my teeth into skin and felt the warm, sweet blood fill my mouth. He tried to get away, but I had too tight of a grip. I was just starting to feel full when the flow slowed. I sealed up the wound. "That wasn't so bad now, was it?"

  "I…I…what the hell was that?"

  "Nothing that you're going to remember." I stared into his eyes, waiting for the pupils to shrink. "You never saw either my friend or me. Never."

  "I never saw you two."

  "Now stay here until you see us leave."

  He sat down at the nearest bench. I ran to where Hailey was with the other two guys. As I approached, the one she had been flirting with ran off.

  "What do we do with this guy?" she asked, pointing to the one I had told to stay there.

  "We can share him. You take one side, and I take the other."

  "Just as long as you can stop yourself."

  I indicated toward the guy I'd just left. "Look at him. He's fine. Besides, I'm nearly full."

  She nodded. "I've never drank this much blood in one night."

  "The good thing with a feast like this is that we'll be set for about a week."

  "Really? That sounds great. It has always been kinda hard to get away each night to feed."

  "Feeding at regular intervals does have its advantages, but so does this. Want to top it off with that guy? Let him go home. He looks cold."

  "Actually, I'm pretty full."

  I shrugged. "More for me." I walked to the guy. "You can go after I've drank your blood."

  His heart rate sped up, but he didn't say anything. I bit into his neck, savoring the taste once again. It had been entirely too long since I'd fed, I nearly forgot how enjoyable it was. It was no wonder that I had been languishing without it. And no wonder I barely had any control over myself. I hadn't felt like that in a long time.

  I sealed up his wound. "Go home and get warmed up."

  He looked back and forth between us.

  "Oh," I said, staring into his eyes again. "You never saw either one of us."

  His pupils shrank again. "I never saw you guys." He ran off.

  Hailey rubbed her stomach. "I hope I can run after this."

  "You'll still be able to run fast enough that no one will see you. Don't worry about that. Even when we're weak, we're still strong compared to humans—and we're far from weak when full of blood. Tomorrow you'll be surprised at how much you're able to get done."

  "Let's see how fast I can run." She ran off, nearly disappearing from sight.

  Eighteen

  The next day, I got everything done with extra energy. Not only from the blood, but also because I couldn't wait to see Tobias again. After the full moon was over, I would be able to see him again. I burned through my homework after school, even finishing a project that was due after the New Year.

  I did everything I could to keep my mind off Tobias, because it made me think about how much I wanted to see him. Distracting myself with studying was the perfect solution.

  On Thursday, I woke up before my alarm and jumped out of bed. I looked at my phone, hoping that he had texted me after returning home, but he was probably too tired. I thought about sending him a text, telling how I couldn't wait to see him, but decided against it. I wanted to show him how happy I was to see him.

  When I got to school, I forced myself to walk at a normal speed to his classroom. More than anything, I wanted to run—at full speed. No one would see me, so it was tempting. But if someone saw me disappear or reappear, seemingly out of thin air, it would be too much effort to explain or use mind control. All I wanted was to see him.

  I hadn't seen him since Saturday night, and it felt like two lifetimes. When I reached his room, I opened the door, not sure if he would be there yet. I knew the teachers often had meetings before school.

  But when I walked in and saw him sitting at his desk, everything was suddenly right in the world again. He looked up at me with a mixture of happiness and surprise. Mostly surprise.

  "Alexis, what are you doing here?"

  I looked around and noticed a dozen kids sitting at desks, writing on paper. "Oh, I, uh, didn't know you were busy. I'll just talk to you during my TA period."

  He smiled. "That sounds good. Thanks for coming to check on the assignments. You go above and beyond your duties as a TA."

  "Thanks," I said, backing up.

  Tobias looked over at the students, none of whom were paying any attention to us, and then he turned to me and winked. I nodded, and then left the room. I was disappointed, but not enough to let it get me down. I would still see him in a few hours, and hopefully alone. Unless he had another pack meeting. But he wouldn't do that. Not when we had gone so long without seeing each other.

  Even though I had waited so long to spend time with him, the three hours that I waited for my TA hour dragged on so that they felt longer than the days of waiting. I couldn't focus on any of my classes, and a couple of times a teacher called on me and I didn't even hear th
em until I heard my classmates giggling.

  When the third hour bell finally rang, I was the first one out of the class. Nothing, and no one, was going to get in my way. I darted in between and around people, getting some dirty looks and comments. Not that I cared. Every step I took brought me closer to Tobias. I threw his door open with such force that for a moment I thought I might have ripped it off the hinges. I hadn't, but it was close.

  He looked up at me, smiling. "Easy there, tigress. Don't break my door."

  Not even noticing the new nickname, I looked around the room to make sure that it was just the two of us, dropped my bag, and closed the door, locking it. I grabbed a poster from the wall and tacked it over the window in the door, using the same thumb tacks that held it to the wall.

  I turned around, and our gazes locked. For what could have been a moment or an eternity, we stared into each other's eyes from across the room. The possibilities of what we could do ran through my mind as I took in his beautiful features. Even his werewolf scent was calling out to me, as against nature as that was.

  Tobias made the smallest movement with his arm, and I ran around his immense desk, and threw myself into his embrace. The impact caused his wheeled chair to roll across the carpet, stopping against the wall next to the window. With the backdrop of snow falling, we looked at each other for a moment more before he wrapped his arms around me and we both threw ourselves at each other, covering each other with quick kisses.

  It felt as though time had slowed down, and the room was spinning around us. I ran all my fingers through his extra soft hair as my lips caressed his. He squeezed me tighter, pulling me so close that I could feel his muscular torso. He ran his hands along my back, starting at the top of my shoulders and making his way down to my waist, giving me the chills.

  Suddenly, he stood, causing me to stand up as well. I grabbed his waist and shoved him against the wall. He pulled away. "Wait."

  "What? What's wrong?" I asked, gasping for breath, and looking in his eyes for answers.

  "We shouldn't—not here, not now."

  "Do you want to go off campus and meet somewhere?"

  "There's nothing I would love more," he said, sounding as breathless as I felt. "But we really need to control ourselves here at school."

  "I locked the door."

  His eyes suddenly widened, and then he doubled over. I grabbed his shoulders, afraid that he would fall over.

  "Are you okay? What's going on?"

  "I think this was too soon." He sounded more like he was grunting than talking.

  Leading him to sit in his chair, I asked, "Too soon for what?"

  "After the full moon. I thought that after I had changed completely under the moon, I'd be okay to see you again. But I—oh!" He grasped his stomach. "I think we'd better wait another day or two until we see each other."

  "Am I causing you pain?"

  He looked up at me. "You bring me nothing except happiness. My body is betraying me. I'm afraid that I will turn and hurt you. I could never live with myself if—oh!" He doubled over again.

  "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have—"

  "You've done nothing wrong. Nothing. But you should take the papers back to the library to grade them. I got you another coffee if you'd like it."

  I looked at him, my eyes filling with tears. "I'm—"

  "Don't be." He shook his head. "I should have known to be more careful. I'll call you tonight."

  Tears spilled onto my cheeks, and I nodded, afraid to speak. I caressed his cheek with my hand, before turning around. I took the papers, and then put them in my bag, which was near the door where I had thrown it.

  I looked back before opening the door. He was clutching his stomach, his face contorted in pain. I tried to stifle a sob that threatened to escape my throat, and then I ran out of the room as fast as I could. I blinked back the tears that wanted to flow.

  Why did this have to be so difficult? Why did everything have to be so difficult? Nothing had been remotely easy since I'd become a vampire. I would have thought that it would be easier with all of the superpowers. Not to mention being the Sonnast. I was supposed to rule over all of vampires. Yet no one would ever guess that by looking at my life, by anything that had happened to me.

  Halfway to the library, I realized that I had forgotten to grab a hall pass. There was no way I was going back for one, and I didn't want to risk running into the hallway pass Nazi teacher again, so I ducked into a study room, hoping to be left alone there.

  As I was setting the papers up, I noticed that I was in the exact room where I had accidentally walked in on Tanner after discovering that I was transforming into a vampire. Hadn't that been the time that he told me that he knew what I was?

  Tears rolled down my face, and this time I didn't stop them. Did I hurt everyone that I came into contact with, or was it just those that I loved romantically? Because of me, Tanner was dead. Cliff probably hated me, and he could have been dead too for all I knew, if Alrekur had ever figured out that I loved Cliff. Now Tobias was back in his class, doubled over in pain—because of me. Because I loved him.

  Being the Sonnast wasn't a blessing, it was a curse. I laid my head on the desk and let myself sob. The bell rang, surprising me. I sat up, forcing myself to stop crying. Looking at the untouched stack of papers, I sighed. Hopefully he didn't need those corrected today. Remembering that the lunch hour was starting, I decided to grade them. I wasn't hungry anyway.

  When I had finished, I picked up the stack and went back to the classroom. Just as I was about to put the papers in their bin, I saw the coffee cup sitting in it. I picked it up and replaced the homework assignments.

  Sighing, I took a sip. With it being cold, and probably also because of all the blood I'd drank with Hailey, I could taste the difference between that bagged blood and the fresh stuff. I realized that the times before, I must have really been starved for blood when I had drunk from what he'd given me. I had always hated the bagged blood. The plastic gave it a horrible taste that I'd never been able to live with before.

  I left the room and walked down to the office, throwing the cup into a random garbage can along the way. I told the secretary that I was going home because I was sick. That wasn't too far from the truth. I was sick of hurting everyone I ever loved. I was sick of myself.

  After she had called my mom for permission to let me leave early, I went to my car blinking back tears the whole way. By the time I sat down, my lips were wobbling. I tried to keep from crying, but as soon as I had the car started, the tears let loose again. They fell as I drove home. As I watched the windshield wipers wipe away the snowflakes, I imagined them wiping the tears from my face.

  When I got home, I wanted to go to my room before running into my mom, but she was waiting for me. I had wiped my tears away before coming inside, but my eyes were red and puffy.

  "You look awful." She frowned. "You'd better get upstairs and rest. Do you want me to make you some soup?"

  I shook my head. "I just need to rest."

  She felt my forehead and cheeks. "You're freezing!"

  As always. But since we weren't a touchy-feely family, no one ever noticed. "It's snowing outside. What do you expect?"

  "Get upstairs and warm up under your covers. I'll turn the heat up too. Take a hot shower if you need to."

  I nodded, and went upstairs. I put on some comfortable clothes and then climbed into bed and spent the afternoon feeling sorry for myself. My bed was my constant companion when I was depressed. I didn't want to fall into another hibernation, staying in bed for weeks on end, but I had no desire to get up again anytime soon.

  What if the moon had nothing to do with what was happening with Tobias? What if it was just me? Maybe our relationship was such an abomination against nature that the pain I was causing him was just the natural effect of us being together. If that were the case, then we'd never be able to be together again.

  Just after I had refused to join my family for dinner, he called my cell phon
e.

  "Hi," I said, trying not to sound as miserable as I felt.

  "Are you all right? I heard that you left school sick."

  "I just wasn't feeling well. I'm sure I'm a lot better than you. How are you doing now?"

  "I'm feeling better. Tomorrow when you come to class, let's just act normal. You can sit in one of the student desks and correct papers while I stay at my desk. Then hopefully we can at least be in the same room together. If that works, then maybe I can take you to my condo and make you dinner."

  "That sounds—wait. Condo? But you…did I imagine? I mean, the other night, we—"

  "I keep a condo closer to school. It's where I stay when I want to get away and be by myself. I never feel alone in the mansion. Did you notice how many people I have staffed there?"

  "Yeah."

  "Also, I use the condo's address for all of the paperwork at the school. If they had my other address, that might raise questions. Like you mentioned, why would someone living in this neighborhood teach at a public school?"

  "That makes sense."

  "I'm sorry about what happened today, Alexis. I really enjoyed the short time that we did get to spend together. I love the feel of—oh! Ugh, ow!"

  A knot formed in my throat as new tears threatened to spill from my eyes. "I'd better let you go."

  "It's not your—"

  Tears streaming down my face, I ended the call. Why did I cause constant pain for those I loved? I threw the phone across my room and crawled into bed, pulling the covers all the way over me in an attempt to muffle my sobs.

  Nineteen

  "What are you doing still in bed?"

  I rolled over and glared at my mom. "I'm staying home sick today. I feel horrible."

  "Still?" She walked to the bed and felt my forehead. "You're still cold, even though you've been wrapped up in those covers all night. I don't get it. Maybe we should take you to the doctor."

  I shook my head. "I'm just feeling a little under the weather. Let me rest and I'll be fine. If you take me to the doctor, the stress will just make me sicker."

  She crinkled her forehead. "We'll see how you're doing by lunch. If you're not any better, then we go to the doctor."