Sometimes By Moonlight by Heather Davis

it.”
     
    “Reflex or not, my teeth punctured your skin.”
     
    “I told you I don’t care about the scar. It adds character,” I said with a little laugh.
     
    “Shelby, I’m dead serious. This isn’t funny.”
     
    I didn’t like the edge in Austin voice. “Okay, I’m listening,” I said.
     
    “You’re going to change. You’re becoming like me.” He held my face in his hands. “I’m so sorry, love. It was a terrible accident. I would never wish this on anyone. Especially you.”
     
    “You didn’t, okay? Dude, I’m so not becoming a werewolf.”
     
    “You are. Or at least, you will be. It’s only a matter of time.” Austin froze again, listening to sound of floorboards that I heard, too. “You need to get up the back stairs to your room,” he said, releasing me. “I want you to be very careful.”
     
    “Careful? I told you there’s nothing wrong with me.”
     
    Austin leaned in to give me a last, luscious kiss on the mouth. “You can deny it all you want, but I see it happening before my eyes,” he said. “We’ve got to get you out of here before you change completely.”
     
    I felt my face get hot. “I’m not going to change. And I can’t just bail on this place. Can you imagine what Honeybun and Dad would do if I ran away? They’d freak.”
     
    “I have to go, but when it’s safe to meet, I’ll leave you a true sign, something only you and I know, under your pillow. When you find it, come to the old carriage house that night.” He touched my palm with the cheek of his hand again, and backed away toward the door. “Until then, be on your guard,” he said. “Don’t trust anyone. I know it sounds dramatic, but there really are forces seeking to expose our kind.”
     
    I nearly stamped my foot on the ground. “I’m not your kind. And People Magazine isn’t hanging around Steinfelder, okay?”
     
    Austin gave me a last sad look, blew me a kiss, and eased out the kitchen door.
     
    I crept down the hallway toward the back staircase, fully realizing the need to evacuate. Just as I mounted the first step, I heard the squeak of swinging doors and the click of the kitchen light going on. More stealthily than I thought possible, I bounded up to my room and shut the door.
     
    All the love I’d felt for Austin was swirling around with the scarier feeling that what he’d said was true. I stared into the mirror, trying to summon the silvery eye effect, but it wouldn’t come again. That gave me some comfort. Enough to tuck myself into bed, at least.
     
    But I dreamed of running through thick woods that night. I dreamed of awakening in a wolf’s body on top of a rock cliff, howling at Mother Moon. I dreamed of doing things that were physically impossible for Shelby Locke, human girl. I woke up in a cold sweat, realizing the only thing I could do was to choose not to believe in anything Austin said. If I didn’t believe in it, maybe it would never happen.
     
    With a heavy sense of dread, I forced myself up out of my bed and into the dawn of another day at Steinfelder, not sure of anything anymore, except that moonlight could be more dangerous than I’d ever suspected.

 
    Chapter Six
     
     
     
    “Where were you last night?” Marie-Rose stepped into the bindings of her cross-country skis next to me and lowered her sunglasses.
     
    “What?” I worked the zipper of my jacket and then pulled a knit cap on over my sloppy ponytail.
     
    “I woke up and you weren’t in our room,” she said.
     
    “Oh.” I pushed away from the staging area and started gliding down the trail, toward the rest of our gym class. Several of the girls, who’d skied since they were toddlers, were already disappearing around the first bend. Our teacher, Mrs. Einhorn, waved at the stragglers like us to hurry up. Some kind of former Winter Olympian, the lady had us students outside a lot, when most of us would have preferred to run laps in the gym.
     
    I’d never really skied very much, but