“We are?”
Stacy sighed and shook her head. “Remind me to knock some sense into that man when we get back. You should know much more than this.”
I grinned. “With pleasure.”
22
We finished with the interior scrubbing without being seen, but there was a problem with outside. We couldn’t scrub the pine needle and dirt-strewn path up to the villa. All we could do was kick more dirt over it and cover most of the scent. I glanced at Stacy. “What now?” I asked her.
She shook her head. “Now we hope that whoever attacked him will decide he isn’t worth a second beating.” We returned to the room to find Luke had cleaned Alistair’s wounds and wrapped him in bandages. “How long will he need to mend?” Stacy wondered.
“A day or two. The cuts are deep,” Luke replied.
“Is that it?” I gasped. I thought for sure we’d be playing wrap-the-mummy with him for a month.
Stacy frowned, stalked over to where Luke sat in a chair beside Alistair’s bed, and knocked him on the head. Luke cringed and whipped his head around to glare at her. “What’s that for?” he asked her.
She gestured to me. “You haven’t taught her a damn thing about werewolves, have you?”
“I taught her the basics of our society.” Luke received another rap on the head for that. “Why is that bad?” he growled.
“Because that’s an overwhelming-”
“-and boring,” I added.
“-subject to start a new werewolf on,” she argued. “The basics of our abilities, strengths, weaknesses, and history would have been a better start. Have you even told her about yourself and your family?”
“I’m afraid our enemies haven’t given us time to sit down together for a long chat,” he shot back.
Stacy grabbed a chair and shoved it beside Luke. Then she stomped over to me, grabbed my shoulders and guided me into the set chair. “The voting doesn’t start until eight tomorrow morning, and right now it’s only nine in the morning. I’ll try to find who attacked Alistair, but because we couldn’t clean the blood outside the villa you two will have to stay here and sit watch over Alistair.” Luke opened his mouth to object, but one evil eye from her and his voice choked. I dreamed of having that sort of power over him. “Not a word of argument. Tell her what she needs to know. I’ll check on you three later tonight to see how things are going.”
Before either of us could argue Stacy strode out of the room and shut the door behind herself. I glanced to Luke at my side and snickered when I saw the dumbfounded, steam-rolled look on his face. “She really knows how to get what she wants,” I commented.
Luke frowned and ran a hand through his hair. “Yes. She’s had centuries of practice.”
I took a page from the Book of Stacy and took charge of the conversation. “So what do you need to tell me?”
He sighed and leaned back in his chair. “What do you know?”
I shrugged. “We’re werewolves, and we have a really complicated government.”
Luke cringed. “This may take all day.”
“We’ve got time.”
“Quite a bit, and to be honest I’m not sure where to start.”
I furrowed my brow and glanced down at my hands in my lap. I lifted a hand and stared at the finely sharpened nails. Being a werewolf had its perks, and I had an idea. “Why don’t you teach me how to change?” I suggested.
“In this small space? That wouldn’t be a good idea,” he advised.
“You have any better idea, teacher? Besides, if I don’t know how to transform and defend myself I’m probably going to end up worse off than Alistair,” I argued.
Luke sighed, but nodded his head. “All right. Stand up.” He guided me over to the center of the room and we faced each other with three feet between us. Luke held up his hand and showed off his smooth, long fingers. “We’ll start with the arm. It’s the least damaging to clothing and the most effective tool against enemies.”
I smirked. “I don’t know. A good kick in the crotch with a clawed foot is pretty effective, too.”
Luke managed a smile. “True, but what if the attacker is female?”
“Then it’s still pretty effective. We girls are sensitive down there, too, ya know.”
His eyes twinkled with mischief. “I have some personal experience with down there, but we’ll focus on transforming without sexual arousal.”
“Yeah, I don’t really expect our enemies to get me horny.”
“I would hope not.”
“So how do I change my hand, teacher?”
“Through concentration.” His fingers and nails lengthened, and hair sprouted from his palm. “It’s a matter of focusing on the Beast inside of you and changing the part of the body that you need. Changing the whole body is much easier because there is no specific area to train your thoughts, but you may not be able to control the instinct of the Beast so we’ll stick with the hand.”
“All right, so I just imagine my hand all furry and clawed?” I guessed.
He shook his head. “Not entirely. That helps, but you also have to imagine using the claw. Slashing it through the air is a good image to focus on along with gutting an enemy and-”
“-and that’s kind of sick,” I gagged.
Luke grinned. “Well, I suppose you don’t have much personal experience with such imagery, so we’ll stick with slashing the air rather than an enemy.”
“The air molecules will be my enemy.”
He chuckled. “And they won’t stand a chance, but don’t forget to focus on the physical aspect.” He held up his half-transformed limb, more paw than hand now, and turned it around and around. “See the texture of the hair and the sharp fingernails? How the light shines on each thread and muscle?”
“This reminds me of a beauty care commercial.”
“Focus, Becky,” he scolded.
“All right, all right.” I sighed, raised my arm like Luke’s, and my eyes zeroed in on my hand. It was a nice, normal hand. Well-manicured since my werewolf change and very smooth. Now I needed to make it all soft, fuzzy, and vicious. I squinted my eyes and imagined the nice, soft fur waving in the breeze and the claws slicing through to cut in half a dangerous leaf blowing in the wind. My mind inevitably wandered to how soft the fur would feel against my cheeks, and how I’d giggle and-
-and something was not quite right. I felt something poof out of my cheeks and all over the rest of my face. I reached up and my fingers sank into a carpet of fluffy fur. I’d imagined my cheeks against fur, and fur had sprouted from my cheeks. Luke barked out a laugh that echoed around the room. I scowled at him through my furry face. “That’s not funny,” I growled.
“But you’re not seeing it from my view,” he protested.
“You won’t be seeing anything through two black eyes if you don’t tell me how to reverse this,” I threatened.
“Not without a picture,” he insisted. He stepped over to the door adjoining our room, but I jumped and blocked his path.
“Oh hell no. You are so not doing anything but telling me how to undo it,” I persisted.
Luke wiped the tears from his eyes and shrugged. “Very well. Imagine yourself as though you were looking into a mirror.”
“All I’m seeing right now is a carpet looking back at me,” I grumbled.
“Your human self,” he emphasized. I sighed and closed my eyes. My image floated through my mind. Nice, normal, human me smiling back and probably laughing at my stupid furry face. I felt the fur shrink back into my skin and in a moment the itchiness was gone.
“Am I back to normal?” I asked him.
“All done,” Luke assured me. I opened my eyes and reached up to feel nothing but smooth skin. He chuckled. “When we have children I’ll be sure to relate to them this story.”
“Do and they’ll suddenly be in a one-parent household,” I warned him.
He smiled and stepped back to the center of the room. “Should we try the hand again?” he offered.
“All right, but this better work,” I mumbled.
“The problem wasn’t the transformation, but your thoughts,” he pointed out. “You need to focus on that single part of the body and not on any other part.”
I sighed and nodded. “I’ll try.” I raised my hand and glared at the fingers. Stupid fingers not getting hairy. All I wanted was for them to look nice and long and pointy. Then I could hack and slash through forests, and slice tomatoes without needing a knife. To my surprise and glee my fingers stretched and short stalks of hair slipped out from my skin. My face lit up and I had to contain myself from bouncing up and down. “It’s working! It’s working!” I cried out.
Luke smiled and put his hands on my shoulders. “Easy there, Becky. You’re not done yet. Let’s try to get the hand finished, and then back to its human counterpart.”
I nodded and glared at my hand, willing it to change. The fingers lengthened and the nails became as hard as-well, nails. The fur grew taller and shimmered in the light. I pushed through with the transformation until I felt like I hit a brick wall. Everything just stopped. “I can’t do anything else,” I told Luke.