The Tiny Curse: Werewolf High Book 2(19)

"This will give you access to our basic facilities," Tennyson said  through gritted teeth. "If you abuse it, it will be taken away and you  will be dealt with."

"I highly doubt that," Astor said, smirking up at him. "Is that the only thing you have for me?"

"Yes." Tennyson Wilde turned and walked away.

"That was a dumbass move," I told him.

He didn't disagree.

By the end of the day, it was clear exactly how dumbass it was.

It was thankfully a day without polo practice, so we went straight back  to the house after class, only to find Astor sprawled on the sofa, his  filthy shoes up on the cushions and playing a game on his phone with the  sound at full volume.

"Funny, isn't it," Astor said over the music of his game, "how a bunch  of stuff around here seems to be fixed up for a tiny person."

Tennyson ignored him and sat down at the table, pulling a book toward  himself and flicking it open. I couldn't see to read it from his pocket  and I didn't dare climb up onto the table with Astor there. I stayed  hunched in Tennyson's pocket, being as silent as possible.

"Have you noticed it yet?" Astor asked. "How she's getting smaller. I  wanted her to vanish completely but the boss said this would be better.  Funnier, you know?"

"Your boss sounds very astute. Are they hiring? I have been looking for a  menial position for real world experience before I take over the  company and being an evil minion is as good as anything."

I bit down on a laugh. Wow, who knew old T-son could bring the lolz.

"I know what you're trying to do. I'm not stupid. You think I'll give my  boss up to you? You think I'll give you information? I'm not an idiot.  Now shut up and go get me a drink."         

     



 

I felt the growl more than heard it. Tennyson's growl was deeper than  the others, darker, somehow. It made me wonder again what he would look  like in his wolf form, how fearsome he'd be. I couldn't tell what he  looked like from inside his pocket, but it was clearly enough to shut up  Astor's stupid mouth, at least for a while.

Tennyson read in silence, the only noise in the room from Astor's game. I  wondered were Sam and Nikolai were but then I remembered it was  Thursday and Nikolai had C&C club. I was a bit disappointed he  hadn't taken me with him, they always had the best snacks.

Sam probably had some sort of activity too, after all they were  compulsory. I wondered what he was doing. Basketball, maybe? He'd always  been good at sports. It kind of made me jealous in a way, that he could  go and do normal things, normally, with normal people. With me all he  could do was turn vicious and hate himself. If I was a stranger, if we  just met now, we could be friends. We could be more than friends. It  would just be something that happened without all the BS. Though, if we  were just to meet now, would we even have anything to talk about?

I sighed. That line of thinking was pointless. Things were what they were.

Eventually, Nikolai and Sam wandered in. Neither of them acknowledged Astor, just sat down at the table.

"Calculus quiz tomorrow?" Sam asked quietly.

Astor snorted. "Don't pretend like you guys don't buy your grades just  on my account. Just do whatever you'd be doing if I weren't here. Chase  your tails or whatever, sniff your butts."

"Why are you even here?" asked Nikolai. "You can't lie around playing on your phone in your own house?"

"Would that annoy you into handing over the girl? I don't think so."

If it'd been me, I'd have gone to my room and left him there to his  annoying self, but I supposed they didn't want him snooping around  unsupervised.

Eventually, he switched off his phone and got up to go to dinner.

"Same time tomorrow then?" he said as he left. "Tell your sister hi from  me. Hope her pretty face isn't too messed up from the acid bath I gave  her. Even though she's half-dog I know I'd let her chew on my bone, if  you get what I'm saying."

The three of them lunged for him at once, but he was out the door.

We needed to break this spell, get the footage from the pool and get this whole mess finished once and for all.





Chapter 13


If any of us had hoped that Astor would lose enthusiasm for his  douchebag campaign, we were in for disappointment. Instead, he seemed to  gather momentum with every frustrated sigh, roll of the eyes, clenched  fist. It was like he fed off other people's annoyance. He spent more and  more time at the house, and each visit was more invasive than the last.

"We need to get that footage," I told the others. "If we can get the  footage, he has no hold over us. He doesn't even know for sure that I'm  here, for all he knows I've been living like a queen with the rats, so  as long as you play dumb he's got nothing."

Nikolai rolled his eyes. "And how do you propose we get the footage? We  don't even know how many cameras he had or how he was filming it."

"Our security team have a real time feed of all security footage through  the school and intercept it to protect our privacy, then relay the safe  footage back on a 30 second delay," Tennyson Wilde said. "If they have  the original footage from the pool, we can see where he placed the  cameras."

"And you think he's going to just hand them over?"

"We'll find them," Tennyson Wilde said. Rather than his usual confidence, he sounded distracted. Althea was still away sick.

The days seemed to pass too quickly. I had missed a lot of classes, I  was starting to fall behind and even the casual teachers were noticing  my absence. If I didn't get biggened soon, I'd lose my scholarship.  Well, according to Astor, if I didn't get biggened soon, I'd get so tiny  I vanished forever, but losing my scholarship seemed a more real-world  sort of awful.

As the full moon approached, Astor's evil glee only seemed to grow.

"He's planning something," I told the others. "We need to stop him  before the full moon. Nothing that makes Astor smile like that can be a  good thing."

Nobody disagreed.

"I thought you guys were supposed to be super powerful badasses. I  thought you could just make people disappear. Why don't you make Astor  disappear, just rub him out? It's okay, I won't judge."

"We're not in the habit of casually murdering people," said Tennyson Wilde.

He sounded all offended but I'd heard the stories.

"Who says it needs to be casual," I said. "Look, I'd do it myself but  I'm only two inches tall and shrinking, and plus you have a whole army  of hired goons."         

     



 

"We're not in the habit of asking other people to murder on our behalf  either," Tennyson Wilde told me. "Is this how commoner's deal with their  problems? If you go around murdering each other all the time, why are  there so many of you?"

"He shrunk me to the size of a teacup," I said. "I'm allowed to want him dead. Don't invalidate my feelings."

"You are a strange tiny person," he said, but I could tell he was worried about the full moon too.

Nobody was more obviously freaking out than Sam. Astor obviously had a  problem with him. It had been Sam who had attacked him, after all, and  Astor never missed an opportunity to annoy Sam. You'd think even someone  as stupid as Astor would know better than to pick a fight with a  volatile werewolf, but he seemed to be hoping for it. The closer the  full moon got, the more Astor tried to irritate Sam. Sam tried his best  to ignore it but it was easy to tell he was losing his control. The  night before the full moon, Astor didn't leave the house at all.  Tennyson told the others to go sleep but he stayed up to keep an eye on  Astor. Even with Tennyson keeping watch, every time he dropped his  guard, Astor would sneak away and do something to wake Sam up - set off  an alarm, smash some glasses against the wall of Sam's room, and every  time, all Astor did was laugh. Oh man I wished I was big enough to smack  him upside the head. Even if it didn't knock some sense into him, it  would be very satisfying.

The last time he did it, Tennyson had nodded off over a pile of books  and Astor pulled the fire alarm, sending sprays of water down all over  us. From far away, I could hear the angry roars of Sam and Nikolai as  they were woken up, but Tennyson was cold as steel as he stood up from  the table. Astor was still laughing as Tennyson grabbed him but stopped  when Tennyson slammed him hard up against the wall.

"I have been more than patient with you," Tennyson said. "And I have  been more than generous with our resources and facilities. It is time  for you to stop."

Astor was turning red in the face but that didn't stop his smug smile.  "Give me what I want and I'll leave you alone," he wheezed.

"You want the girl?" Tennyson asked, tightening his grip on Astor's  neck. "Do you really think if I knew where she was, I would protect her  and risk exposing my entire werewolf pack? Do you imagine for one second  that some random commoner means more to me than my family and my  heritage?"