TWELVE

LATER THAT DAY, Mary Ann read the bottom of Aden’s note for the millionth time.

Mary Ann’s arm fell to her side, the paper crinkling between her fingers. Her mind whirled with questions. Four other people swirled inside Aden’s head, their voices constant, always distracting him. Except when he was with her. Somehow, she quieted them.

Did she believe all of that? She didn’t want to, and honestly hadn’t the first thousand times she’d read his letter. Then her doubts had begun to give way to curiosity. The curiosity had given way to uncertainty, and the uncertainty had finally given way to acceptance.

A week ago, she hadn’t known werewolves and vampires existed. Now, there was no refuting it. Why couldn’t there be a boy with people trapped inside him, as well? People who could time travel and wake the dead. Predict the future and possess other bodies—the last of which she’d seen firsthand.

How was she able to stop them? Why her? She was nothing special.

She nibbled on her bottom lip, no answers sliding into place, and peered up at her bedroom ceiling. It was smooth and white, a blank canvas just waiting to be colored on. I can reason this out, she mused, pepping herself up.

Okay, so. Aden thought the best way to free the souls was to find them bodies. She thought, drastic as it was and impossible as it seemed, that should be a last resort. Until they reached that point, it made sense to figure out exactly who the people inhabiting his head were. Or maybe who they’d been. He’d mentioned that while they didn’t recall any life but the one they shared with Aden, they did have moments of déjà vu and recognition. That had to mean something.

Maybe they were ghosts and Aden had unintentionally drawn them. With that thought, she found herself eyeing her room for any sign of a spectral being, hands clutching her comforter, breath emerging shallow and heavy. Werewolves and vampires were real, so why not ghosts, too? Were there any around her? People she’d known, perhaps? People who had once lived here?

Her mother?

Mary Ann’s heartbeat skidded out of control, and tears of hope burned her eyes. She blinked them back. Her mother could be here, watching her, she thought, dazed. Protecting her. Her greatest desire was to see her mom again, to hold her, hug her and tell her goodbye. The car accident had taken her so suddenly, there’d been no chance to prepare.

“I love you, Mom,” she whispered.

There was no response.

Concentrate, Gray. You have a job to do. She cleared her throat and quashed her disappointment. Where was I? Oh, yeah. If the souls trapped inside Aden’s head were actually ghosts, wouldn’t they remember their lives fully?

Good point. Either their memories had been wiped when they entered his body or they were something else. Angels? Demons? Were there such things? Probably. But they probably weren’t the souls trapped inside Aden. Again, they would have remembered their own identities. But again, their memories could have been wiped.

Ugh. This was getting her nowhere. Could the four be talking to him like Wolf talked to her? Perhaps they weren’t truly inside his head but were tethered to him and simply projecting their voices.

She immediately discarded that idea, as well. Aden heard them—if they weren’t actually inside him, wouldn’t he see them, as well?

Mary Ann tapped her chin. First thing she needed to do, as she’d initially thought, was figure out who the four were so that she could figure out what they’d been. Aden said they’d been together since his birth.

“Which means I need to go back to the beginning,” she said, her voice cutting through the silence of her room. To do that, she needed to gather some information. She made a mental list:

Find out who his parents were. Or rather, are.

Find out where he was born.

Find out who was around him the first few days of his life.

The beginning of what?

At the sound of the masculine voice inside her head, she jackknifed to a sitting position, hand fluttering over her once again racing heart. Wolf loomed in her bedroom doorway, huge and black and beautiful. His fur gleamed in the sunlight, and those pale green eyes regarded her almost gently. His ears were perked, pointing like an elf’s. Clothing hung from his mouth.

“How’d you get in?” she asked.

I walked.

“Funny.”

His lips seemed to twitch around the material. Last time I was here, I left one of the lower windows open, so I would be able to climb through whenever I wanted.

“I should have known.” She eyed the clothes. Jeans, a T-shirt. “Are those for me?”

No. For me. When I switch forms.

Had she heard him right? “You’re going to…”

Show you my human form, yes.

Excitement spread through her veins, encompassing her entire body in seconds and making her shake. “Really? Why now?”

Ignoring her, he paced to her bathroom. The door closed with a swish. Mary Ann set Aden’s note on her nightstand and stood. Then she sat back down. Her knees were a little weak. What would Wolf look like? Was he someone she knew? Every time she tried to picture him, all she could see was a hard, muscled body. His face always remained in the shadows.

The phone rang, startling her, and she jumped.

Mary Ann glanced at caller ID, and her trembling intensified. Penny. She crossed her arms over her middle, anchoring her hands under her armpits so that she couldn’t reach for the receiver.

Another ring.

As she sat there, Mary Ann was surprised to feel hurt, pure and undiluted, rather than anger. She loved Penny, she did. And Wolf and Aden were right. Making mistakes and then hiding them was human nature. But she couldn’t act as if nothing had happened, nor could she trust Penny not to do it again. With someone else. Someone Mary Ann actually adored. For some reason Wolf popped into her mind.

At the fourth ring, her machine picked up.

“I know you’re there, Mar. Talk to me. Please. There’s so much I want to tell you.” A pause. Penny sighed. “Fine. We’ll do this over the phone. I wanted to tell you what had happened. I did. Remember at the café, when I mentioned that Tucker would stray? I was trying to work up the courage to tell you but I stopped myself. I was too afraid of this. Of losing you. I didn’t mean for it to happen.” There was another pause, crackling static. “We’d both been drinking and neither one of us was thinking clearly. In my mind, I justified it because I knew you didn’t love him. I told myself I would only be hurting you if I told you, that unburdening myself would be selfish. I was wrong. I see that now. Mary Ann…please.”

Beep.

Silence.

Mary Ann’s jaw started trembling, right along with her body.

The phone began ringing again, and she glanced at the caller ID, expecting to see Penny’s number. Would she answer this time? What would she say? She saw Tucker’s number instead, and her teeth ground together in irritation. Was something in the air? A call Mary Ann vibe?

Him, she didn’t love. Him, she wanted nothing to do with. She wasn’t even tempted to pick up the phone.

His message was shorter than Penny’s.

“I’m sorry, Mary Ann. If you would just talk to me, I could explain, make you understand. We could be friends, like you said. Just…call me or I swear to God…” The words ended in a growl.

Click. Silence.

She shook her head. They were over, done in every way, and talking wouldn’t change that.

“Are you ready?”

Wolf’s voice. His real voice. Deep and rough…unsure. Was he as nervous as she was?

“I’m ready,” she called, her voice now trembling, too.

The bathroom door creaked open. There was a shuffle of footsteps, and then a boy was leaning against the wall across from her, staring over at her.

First thought to run through her head: she’d never met him before. The second: oh my God. He wasn’t exactly beautiful, his features were too sharp, but that only added to his appeal. He looked wicked and ruthless and capable of anything.

He had black hair, as silky and shiny as his fur had been, and his eyes were still green. That, however, was where the similarities with the wolf ended. He was taller than she had guessed, stacked with muscle and sinew, and had wide shoulders and long legs. His skin was a tantalizing golden brown. He wore a plain white T-shirt and faded jeans that hung low on his waist. No shoes or socks.

Her stomach had yet to stop flip-flopping. She’d lain in bed with this magnificent creature. She’d held him in her arms and petted him. She, who spent her spare time reading, who studied no matter how much she hated it and wouldn’t know fun if it slapped her across the face. She, whose most defining feature was a fifteen-year plan—a fifteen-year plan she no longer even thought about.

Funny. She’d once thought abandoning her life’s plan would be a reason to mourn. Right now, she only wanted to celebrate.

Until doubts took hold.

Had she bored Wolf to death? He ran wild in the woods. He could shift between animal and human. She was plain ole Mary Ann.

What are you doing? Blank your thoughts. He could read auras. Did he know what she was feeling right now? How she was drooling over him? Oh, great. Gonna be sick.

“Well?” he said. “Do you have nothing to say? You’re bright pink, green and gold. Excited, nervous and nauseous.”

Her cheeks heated. Her skin was probably the same colors as her aura.

“So what are you thinking?”

“You can’t figure it out?” No way did she want to say it aloud.

“Mary Ann,” he said, exasperated.

She’d take that as a no. “I’m thinking you are…normal.” Not true, not true, oh, not true.

He popped his jaw. “Normal.” His harsh tone suggested that was a very bad thing.

Not knowing what else to do, she nodded.

Silence stretched between them. Neither moved.

Say something. Anything. “Aden thinks I’m some sort of superability neutralizer. If that’s true, why didn’t I stop you from changing from wolf to human? Or maybe a better question is why didn’t you change back into a human when you first approached me? Of course, both of those questions hinge on the fact that I’m a neutralizer, which I might not be.” Dear God. She was babbling. Stop! “You know, you could stop glaring at me. That might help.”

He scrubbed a hand down his face and laughed without humor. “All this time I agonized over the decision to show myself to you, my true self, afraid of your reaction, and this is what I get,” he said, and laughed again. “You act as if I didn’t do it. As for your ability to neutralize, maybe you can, maybe you can’t. Shape-shifting isn’t supernatural or magic or whatever you’re thinking. It’s a part of who I am, how I survive. You can’t stop humans from breathing, can you?”

“No.”

He nodded as if he’d just proven his case. “My name is Riley, by the way. Not that you asked.”

“My name is Mary Ann,” she responded automatically, then blushed again. “Sorry. You knew that.” God, this was awkward. Part of her wished he’d go back to wolf form. That, she knew. That, she was comfortable with. That, she didn’t want to drool on—and then subsequently kill herself in embarrassment for said drooling problem. Maybe it was best to change the subject. “So why were you so nervous about showing me your true self?”

“I knew your expectations were high. I wanted to meet—or exceed—them.” He didn’t wait for her reply but crossed his arms over his chest, pulling the material of his shirt tight against his biceps. “Anyway, you never answered my question. When I first walked in, you were talking about starting at the beginning. The beginning of what?”

Nope. She wasn’t gonna go there. “Sorry, but I can’t answer you now, either.”

He straightened, looking slightly offended. “Why?”

“It involves Aden, and you want to kill him.”

“Yeah,” he said, not denying it, “but I’m not going to. My friends like him.”

“Friends?”

“You. And my charge, Victoria. Vampire princess and all-around pain in my—well, just a pain.”

Victoria. The vampire princess Aden had talked about with longing? The vampire princess who had put stars in Aden’s eyes? Must be. Friends, Wol—Riley had called them. “Aden told me a little about her.”

Riley nodded stiffly. “You shouldn’t know about her. No one should. My job is to keep her safe and the more people who know about her, the more unsafe she is and the angrier her father will be with me.”

“Aden and I will keep your secrets, believe me. To talk about them is to paint targets on our backs.”

“No one will make you a target,” he said, and there was so much fury in his tone she was momentarily speechless. He strode to her, sat beside her. Their shoulders brushed, and she shivered.

There was a beat of silence, of utter tension.

She wasn’t sure what she wanted him to do just then; she was only sure she wanted him to do something. Anything but move away from her.

“I just meant,” she said softly, “that they’ll think we’re crazy and gossip about us.” Another thing to drool over: his protective nature. But did that protective nature mean that he and Victoria were more than bodyguard and princess? More than friends? Her hands tightened into fists. Was she…jealous? No. Surely not. “I thought vampires and werewolves were enemies. I mean, Aden said the vampire told him to stay away from you.”

“She’s such a riot, that one.”

“So you’re not enemies?” And why did she suddenly want them to be? What was wrong with her? Were the two dating? Her teeth ground together.

“No. Vlad, the first of the vampires, gave the same blood he had drunk, the blood that changed him, to his beloved pets. They, too, began to change. Soon they were able to take human form, though they retained their animal instincts. In those early days, they were vicious, ferocious, and would try and eat everyone they encountered. Those people who were attacked, the ones that survived, began to change, as well, though they retained their human instincts. Those are my people. Vlad helped them, nursed them. In return, my people pledged to protect his.”

All that history was fascinating. Scary, but fascinating. And yet that wasn’t what her mind focused on. “So why’d you decide to reveal yourself to me now?”

“Because,” was all he said, eyes narrowing.

“Why?” she insisted. So that he could finally touch her with his hands? A girl could dream. Her eyes widened. Where were these thoughts coming from?

“Because. Now, I believe you were going to tell me what you were talking about earlier.”

Frus-trat-ing. But she should be used to his lack of response. Clearly Riley felt entitled to all the info she possessed, but didn’t think it was necessary to return the favor.

He’d said he wouldn’t hurt Aden, but would he help her help him? She could use all the help she could get, and she did trust him. Sighing, she told him some of what Aden was going through. “I think we need to find out, if at all possible, exactly who the people inside him are. The best place to start is with Aden’s parents. From there, we can find out where he was born and who was around him. Only problem is, I don’t know who his parents are.”

“Call and ask him.” He nudged her with his shoulder.

For a moment, she remained unmoving. He’d purposely touched her. And his skin, even through their clothing, had been hot. Wonderfully hot. “I can’t. He lives at a ranch for kids who’ve been in trouble with the law and stuff. A phone call from a girl could maybe get him kicked out since he’s not supposed to think about dating, but about improving his future.”

“You told me you weren’t dating him.” Riley said it quietly, but the words were no less intense.

“I’m not. I was just explaining what the man in charge of his care might think.” Why did Riley care if she was dating Aden? For the same reason she cared if he was dating Victoria? Don’t think about that now. She pondered her options with Aden and almost clapped when an idea took root. “You could visit him without causing any problems. You could ask him about his parents for me.”

Riley was shaking his head before she finished her sentence. “Hell, no.”

“Please. You can run to him and run back to me in no time. I’ve seen how fast you are. Please,” she repeated. “Helping Aden will be beneficial to me, as well, you know. The more we learn about his abilities, the more we could learn about mine.”

He scowled. “Stop batting those lashes at me. I’m immune to feminine wiles.”

She was batting her lashes? And she had wiles? She wanted to grin. “I could find out tomorrow at school, I guess. I probably won’t get any sleep tonight, my mind will be so active. And of course, lack of sleep will affect my English test, which is sure to bring down my perfect grade. But I’m sure I’ll get over it. Eventually.”

For a long while, there was only silence.

“I am such a moron.” Riley scowled at her and stood, striding to the bathroom to remove his clothes. “You’ll owe me for this,” he called.

So she really did have wiles. This time, she wanted to laugh.

 

ADEN HAD THE PAPERS he’d printed off at school, research about Vlad the Impaler, hidden in his geometry book as he lounged on his bed. This was his first peaceful moment since returning home. He’d had homework to complete and chores to do. During said chores, Ozzie had threatened him again—this time with decapitation—if Aden ratted about how he was buying his drugs.

The boy had sounded desperate, and Aden figured it was only a matter of time before Ozzie tried to get rid of him. Not by killing him, of course. Ozzie wasn’t a murderer. At least, he didn’t think so. But a liar? Yeah. Perhaps Ozzie would hide drugs in Aden’s room and send Dan looking for them. Perhaps he’d just claim he’d seen Aden do something vile.

He’d have to stay on guard.

As for now, this moment, he was determined to relax. With a sigh, he buried his nose in the book. But relaxing, he soon realized, was nothing more than a dream. The more he read, the more he realized Victoria was right to fear what her father would do to him if he proved less than useful. A knife in the heart, perhaps, for that was how he would die. Or would the vampire king simply torture him, as was his habit?

Vlad Tepes, Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia, Vlad the Impaler, Dracula, had been known—when he’d been human—for his cruel punishments. He’d loved impaling his enemies and leaving them out in the open to die slowly and painfully. Allegedly, he’d done this to over forty thousand men and women.

Not like Aden could really say anything. He cut the heads off corpses. Still.

Some people believed the warrior had been killed in battle against the Ottoman Empire; some believed he’d been assassinated. Bram Stoker had been the first to immortalize him as a vampire, and Aden had to wonder why. Had the two actually crossed paths?

A scratching at the window had him bolting upright. He glanced at the clock. 9:00 p.m. Could it be Victoria? She’d never come to him so early, but her father could have decided it was time to eliminate him. Had she come to warn him?

What has you so afraid? Eve asked.

“An overactive imagination,” he said, forcing himself to calm.

A paw met the glass and the scratching began again. Frowning, he stood and padded over. A stray animal?

When he saw Mary Ann’s wolf, he jolted backward.

More scratching.

So. The wolf had finally come for him. The night would only be better if Vlad decided to join the party. Aden grabbed his daggers from the insides of the boots he’d pushed against his bed.

Since Aden had broken the lock, the wolf was able to pry the window open with his paws. Aden remained in place, armed, ready. This wasn’t how Elijah had predicted his death, so perhaps he’d just be mauled. That didn’t lessen his determination to defend himself however necessary.

Rather than leap at him, though, the wolf remained outside and peered into the bedroom. A tense moment passed in silence. Then: Do you know your parents’ names?

The voice drifted through his head, but that wasn’t what held him immobile with shock and disbelief. His parents? Really? “Look, I’m sorry about your leg. I went back to bandage you up but you were already gone. I didn’t want to hurt you that day but you gave me no choice. You were going to kill me. I had to do something. Just like I’ll do something tonight if you attack.”

You and I will settle that soon, but not now. Now I need to know if you know your parents’ names.

Confusion beat against the shock and disbelief. What was going on here? “No. I don’t. They were just Mom and Dad, and I was three last time I saw them.” He could have asked one of his caseworkers for their names, but hadn’t allowed himself to do so. They hadn’t cared about him, so he wouldn’t care about them. “Now, if you want a fight, you won’t walk away unscathed.”

Could you be any more uncooperative? I’m trying to help you here.

“Yeah. Right.”

With a growl, the wolf twisted around and raced off.

 

MARY ANN WAS AT HER DESK running a Google search on the best way to track down a birth certificate when Riley reappeared.

He doesn’t know.

She rubbed her temples. “I was afraid of that. Did he know where he was born, at least?”

Riley had been stalking toward his discarded clothes, but stopped. I didn’t ask him.

“Oh. Well, I’ll ask him tomorrow, I guess. If he doesn’t know that either, it’ll be okay. We’re going to order his birth certificate. It’ll give us his parents’ address, as well as the hospital he was born at. I just need his driver’s license. Do you think he has one? If he does, I can get that tomorrow, too. If he doesn’t…I don’t know what I’ll do.” She pushed out a frustrated breath. “Waiting is going to be hard. I wonder if I’ll sleep, after all.”

Riley ran his tongue over his teeth and jumped back through the window.

 

THE SCRATCHING STARTED UP again.

Aden stormed over, ready this time. He had a dagger hidden at his side. “Decide you want a piece of me, after all?”

Do you know the name of the hospital where you were born?

This became more confusing by the moment. “No. Why do you care?”

Do you have a driver’s license? The wolf sounded irritated and out of breath.

“Yes. But I’m not allowed to drive. It’s only for identification.” He’d gotten it a few days before coming to the ranch. He’d been one question away from failing the written test, the souls “helping” him with his answers, but had aced the driving itself. Everyone had loved the illusion of freedom and had been quiet, lost in the moment.

Aden, the wolf snapped. Concentrate. I need you to give me your license.

“Why?”

Mary Ann wants to order a copy of your birth certificate. Since you don’t know who your parents are, I’m guessing you don’t have one handy.

Wait. Mary Ann wanted his birth certificate? That had to mean she believed him. That had to mean she was going to help him. He wanted to laugh—even though he’d told her to stay away from the beast, not recruit it to his cause. “No, I don’t. But I’m not giving you the license until I hear from her. I don’t trust you.”

Well, you’d better start, because she’s trying to help you and your friends and won’t be able to sleep until she has that license. I don’t like the thought of her tossing and turning.

She’d told the wolf about the souls; she’d confided his darkest secrets to his enemy. Aden waited for a sense of betrayal to overtake him, but it never did. She was trying to help him. Nothing else mattered.

“What does the name of the hospital I was born at matter? What do my parents matter?”

You’ll have to ask her.

“I will.” Aden crossed the room to his desk and dug through the top drawer for the requested item. “Here.” He held it out and the wolf clasped it between his teeth. “I don’t want her tossing and turning either. If you hurt her—”

She has nothing to fear from me, human. I wish I could say the same about you.

 

HERE YOU GO. Riley dropped the license in her lap.

Mary Ann bent down and hugged him. “Thank you.”

My pleasure, he said, purring against her hair.

Now that she’d seen his human form, the action made her want things she shouldn’t. Things she didn’t want to name, not to Riley and certainly not to herself. But she couldn’t help but wonder if Riley wanted those unmentionable things, as well.

Why else would he hang out with her so much? Unless…

She pulled back, a smile frozen on her face. Did she make him feel calm, as she did with Aden and apparently Tucker? Was it part of his job, something that helped him protect Victoria?

That was not what she wanted.

The fake smile fell away. She faced her computer to hide her now-pinched expression. “All I have to do is send a note with my request, a copy of a photo ID and ten dollars, then boom, his birth certificate is mine. Can you believe that? I’m going to order mine, too, since apparently my dad lost it.”

From the corner of her eye, she saw Riley back away from her, shake his head. I have to go. The clothes I’ll leave behind. Hide them from your dad.

“He’d freak out if he found them, that’s for sure. He’d only just gotten used to the idea of me dating Tucker. If he knew a boy was actually sneaking inside my bedroom…” She shuddered. “I’d be placed on total lockdown.”

Your dad’s reaction to Tucker’s appearance would not have come close to mine. But like I said, hide the clothes. I’ll need them next time I’m over.

Next time. He was coming back; she would see him again. Maybe by then she’d have her new, silly feelings for him under control. “I will.”

Oh, don’t worry that the underwear is missing. I don’t wear any. See you tomorrow, Mary Ann.