For about a year, they hid in a friend's basement, Magdalene watching her dad growing wearier and wearier as the days passed. He would sit in their dark room, his hands shaking, fearing that someone would come to the door, jumping every time the phone rang in the house or someone rang the doorbell. In the end, they didn't even find him in the house, but they got to him on a day he had taken Magdalene to get some ice cream, finally allowing both of them to go out in the daylight. He didn't see them coming until it was too late. Cars drove up, tires screeching, and they held out their small vacuum cleaners at him. Magdalene's father tried once again to run, but this time the men had brought someone with them who was just like him, just as fast as he was and there was no escape. Magdalene watched yet again as they used their vacuum cleaners to suck out the very soul of her father and screamed as his shell fell to the ground.

  "Daaad?"

  "What do we do about the girl?" one of them then asked.

  One of the men approached her with a big hairy spider in his hand and the spider had taken one look at her, then let out a loud hiss.

  "She's a super," he said, "she goes."

  But Magdalene hadn't been as easy a target as her parents. Somehow, she had managed to let herself explode into a ball of fire, then—just by thinking about her old house—she was able to transport herself there in a glimpse of a second, leaving all the men in their black coats behind. But as she did, one of the men, the one who had also been very fast and very much like her father, had reached out his vacuum cleaner and sucked out her eyes. When she found herself inside her old house, she discovered she had also lost her sight.

  Ever since, she had walked the streets, using her abilities to tell people their fortunes and staying on the move, continually fearing that those men in black coats would come for her again, knowing that next time she wouldn't be able to react as quickly since now she couldn't see them.

  Now, as she stood across from the man who had just approached her and she asked him if he wanted to have his fortune told, she heard the sound of a spider, and the very same hiss as she had heard on that day she had lost her sight.

  Magdalene gasped and recoiled.

  Next thing, she heard the man start the vacuum cleaner, and she felt like her entire body was torn to pieces.

  The man then left her soulless body to rot in the gutter, whistling as he swayed along on his long, skinny legs.

  Chapter Three

  "I have someone I want you to meet."

  My mom wasn't looking at me when she said the words. It was Monday morning and she was standing with her back turned to me, cutting kale, while I was working on my computer, doing my schoolwork for the day.

  "Excuse me?" I asked.

  She cleared her throat, then finally turned and faced me. "I have invited him for dinner. With his parents."

  I almost choked. "You're…you're going to set me up with someone?"

  "Set you up…that's such an awful expression, don't you think?" she asked, still holding the knife in her hand. "Sounds almost like I am planning to kill you ha-ha."

  I stared at my mom, paralyzed. To me, everything about what she had just told me was awful.

  "You're kidding, right?" I asked.

  "Why…no, Robyn. I’ve known these people for years. Their son is a very nice young man. A big shot at Harvard. And he’s handsome too."

  "Let me guess. He's going to be a lawyer?" I asked, rolling my eyes.

  "No. For your information, he's going to take over the family business once he is done."

  Nothing could sound more boring to me. I sighed, knowing I didn't have a choice. I was dating someone else, the love of my life, and counted the minutes till I turned eighteen and could be with him as much as I wanted to, but so far, my mom couldn't know about Jayden and me.

  We had been sneaking around, seeing each other whenever we could. In the afternoons, I would usually tell my mom I wanted to go for a run around the lake and she would let me. Then I would meet up with him by our old tree and we would kiss and hang out for half an hour till I had to go back. It wasn't much, but it was at least something. It was far better than nothing.

  "And just what kind of business might that be?" I asked, not interested at all, but trying to please my mom.

  "They own the Pritchard Organization. His dad is a senator now, and his older uncle is running the business till Duncan Pritchard is done with school and is ready to enter the business. It is the plan that he shall take over completely one day. It is expected of him."

  "And what exactly does this Pritchard Organization do?" I asked, still not very interested.

  "You know, real estate development, investing, brokerage, sales and marketing and property management. Stuff like that. They even own castles in Scotland and they're related to the British royal family."

  My mother gleamed as she spoke the words. I could tell she was very excited about me meeting this Duncan fellow. I guessed there wasn't any way out of actually meeting this guy and his family.

  Probably duller than a tax class. There is no way a guy like that will ever be interested in someone like me.

  I shrugged. "All right. When are they coming?"

  My mother almost sparkled. "At six. Wear your blue dress and please do something about that hair of yours. It's like you're not even trying."

  Chapter Four

  Jazmine came home from school to find her house empty as usual. She rushed up the stairs to her room and found a clean shirt to put on since she had spilled on the other one when eating lunch in the cafeteria at school. Adrian had said he might come over once he got home and she wanted to look good. They had been together for two weeks now. She wasn't sure they were actually dating, but they were seeing each other pretty regularly, and, boy, had that changed her life for the better. Adrian was so thrilling to be with and so incredibly hot.

  Jazmine heard a whimper and rushed to the window. Outside in her driveway sat the dog that had followed her home from school. It had been running next to her bike, not wanting to go away even though she yelled at it to go home. Now it was sitting out there, whimpering. Why?

  If you ignore it, it'll go home.

  Jazmine returned to getting ready. She looked at her reflection, annoyed with her hair. Her eyes and nails were glowing a bright green as they had a lot lately, telling her that she was happy. It was Adrian who had told her he believed the green had to mean she was happy. And she had started to keep an eye on it. In class, her nails were usually beige or even gray, and she figured it meant she was very bored, whereas when she watched a scary movie with Adrian the other day, her nails glowed purple and red.

  The dog was still whimpering outside her door and it annoyed her. Jazmine pulled the curtain, so she didn't have to look down at it since it would only make it believe it could persuade her to let it stay. And she couldn't keep it. There was no way her parents would let her keep some random dog that had followed her home. Plus, she had BamBam, and she wouldn't be happy to have a dog in the house suddenly.

  Like she had heard that Jazmine was thinking about her, BamBam entered her room, sliding through the door. Jazmine smiled and took her in her lap. The cat purred and let her pet it for a little while, then jumped down again. It jumped onto the windowsill and slid in between the curtains, then let out a meow.

  "What is it, BamBam?" Jazmine asked and walked up to her and looked down. The darn dog was still sitting there, staring at the door like it expected it to open if only it stared long enough.

  "Is it the dog?" she asked. "Don't worry. I won't let it inside. I promise. You're safe here."

  The cat let out another meow that sounded a little like it was complaining, then ran out of the room. Jazmine stared at it, wondering what went on in that strange cat's head.

  Probably nothing at all, she thought with a grin.

  Jazmine sat on her bed while waiting, then spotted a small beetle crawling up the wall of her room. She grabbed her shoe to kill it, but something about it made her change her mind. Instead, she reached out and let it crawl onto her finger.

  "Hello there, little beetle. How are you today?" she heard herself ask. Then she chuckled.

  Stupid little ugly beetle.

  She let it down on the floor with the intention of stepping on it, when she, for some reason—and she wasn't quite sure why—instead told it to jump.

  "Jump," she whispered, and so it did. The small beetle leaped into the air, then landed on the floor on its back, legs dangling in the air.

  Jazmine laughed, then approached it again and stepped on it, the beetle cracking underneath her sole.

  Then she heard the doorbell ring.

  Chapter Five

  "I’ve finished my work for today."

  I turned my laptop to show my mother my work. She approached it and stared at the screen, then scrolled down to make sure she saw it all, then nodded. "Good work."

  "So…can I take the rest of the day off?" I asked.

  Jayden had sent me a picture on Snapchat of himself at the school, asking me to meet him by the lake at three o'clock.

  My mom stared at me, scrutinizing me.

  "Or you could start tomorrow's work and get ahead," she said. "I was always ahead when I went to school."

  I exhaled. "I want to go for a run. Sitting at the computer all day makes me feel fat and lazy."

  This was clearly something my mother understood. She nodded. "All right then. Let's call it a day. But tomorrow, you stay here working till three o'clock as we planned. You can always do your math problems twice, make sure you really understand them."

  I gave a strained smile. "Of course, Mom."

  She leaned over and pointed to her cheek. I rose to my feet, placed a kiss on her icy skin, then shivered slightly.

  "I can't wait for tonight," she said, grabbing me by the chin. "Finally, you get to be with someone in your own league."

  "I-I'm excited too," I said.

  She smiled, her red lips parting and showing off her pointy white teeth. "Good, child."

  Once she let go of me, I rushed up the stairs, still shivering from the cold I felt from her touch. I found my jogging outfit and glanced out the window toward the park. I wondered about Melanie and how she was doing in Amy's basement. My only contact with the outside world these days was Jayden, and he usually filled me in on the latest developments. I knew that Amy struggled with the loud noises Melanie made at night when trying to get out of the shelter and he had told me that Amy feared that Melanie might get sick down there, from not being able to get out at night. She also worried that her parents might find her and had said that soon they had to find somewhere else for Melanie to hide because she couldn't keep her there forever. They just hadn't quite found another place for her to be. My parents still wanted to kill her, so it was vital that they didn't find out where she was. I had a feeling my mother thought I knew more than I was telling her about this because she would now and then ask me about her…if I knew Melanie Peterson or knew who her friends were. They had searched the mountains for her again and again and never found even a trace of her, and it was getting on my mom's nerves, I could tell.

  I got dressed and ran downstairs. My mother was standing by the window as I came down.

  "What is he doing now?" I heard her mumble.

  I walked up behind her and looked out. Across the street, I spotted Mr. Aran, who had just moved into number three down the street with his two tarantulas.

  "Mr. Aran?" I asked. "What about him?"

  "He's snooping around again. Now he's got his eye on the Smith's house. Look at him standing there on his skinny legs with his round belly sticking out from his coat. He really has a very unhealthy body shape."

  "We can't all look like models, Mom," I said with a chuckle.

  My mom didn't find it funny and gave me a look. "I don't like him, Robyn. The way he’s constantly walking around the neighborhood, snooping outside our houses, with those…nasty spiders."

  "Tarantulas," I said.

  "Yeah…well…"

  "Why do you care that he snoops around Jayden's house? You hate them?" I asked.

  "It's not that he snoops around their house as much as it is the fact that he does it at all," she said. "He’s all over the neighborhood; I see him constantly out there."

  "It's not like we have a lot of secrets for him to find," I said with a shrug. "We don't have anything to hide, do we, Mom?"

  Mom paused and glared at me. Then she returned to watch the odd man who walked up to Jayden's garbage can and opened the lid, then let the tarantula sniff the trash.

  "What on earth is he doing?" I asked and turned away when he picked up an old brown banana peel, then sniffed it. "That's just disgusting. I'm going for a run."

  Chapter Six

  Jayden hurried home on his bike, hoping to be able to grab a bite to eat before he was supposed to meet up with Robyn.

  He threw his bike in the driveway and ran into the kitchen, then pulled out the ingredients for making a sandwich. His mom entered just as he was about to sink his teeth into the soft bread with mayo, ham, pastrami, and salami, his favorite combination.

  "Hi, sweetie."

  She went to the pot and poured herself some coffee. Her hair was wet; she had just showered.

  "Why are you home?" he asked. Usually, she was at the fitness center until five o'clock.

  "I didn't have any afternoon classes," she said and sipped her coffee. "Thought I'd come home and be with my son."

  Jayden swallowed and looked at the clock behind her. He still had fifteen minutes till he was supposed to meet Robyn by the lake.

  "So…what's going on with you?" she asked and sat down next to him. "What's new?"

  Jayden felt awkward. He had been avoiding his parents as much as possible since they told him they were werewolves and that one day he would be too. He had no plans of letting them make him into what they were, no matter how much they wanted him to. But he just hadn't gotten around to telling them that. Not yet. He hated to disappoint them and feared how they would react. Besides, he had two more years before it would happen, so he didn't see any need for him to start the discussion now.

  What else was new? Well, he was seeing Robyn secretly because they hated her family and didn't want him anywhere near her. So, what could he answer?

  He shrugged, mouth filled with meat. "Nothing much, really," he said. "Just the usual."

  She smiled and leaned back, the chair complaining slightly underneath her. Her mug looked small between her big hands. She was very muscular, and her T-shirt was tight—almost strained—across her shoulders. Jayden loved his mother, but he found it hard to talk to her after he realized she wasn't exactly who she had pretended to be all his life. The fact that she had hidden this big secret from him made him angry and a little afraid. What else had she kept from him?

  "The usual, huh?" she slurped her coffee, her eyes still on him as the mug moved. She put it down and swallowed loudly.

  "All right. Guess there really isn't much to talk about," she said and got up from her chair. She walked to the sink and put her mug into it, then paused and looked at him. "You do realize we will need to know where Melanie is at some point, right?"

  Jayden stopped in the middle of a bite, then looked at her. "W-what do you mean?"

  She exhaled. "You let her out. Your dad told me that you were the one who helped her get out."

  Jayden stopped chewing.

  "We’ve searched the mountains for her, and admittedly, I was happy she was gone; we both were, your dad and I since we didn't want her to fall into the hands of certain people." She glanced toward Robyn's house, then back at Jayden. "Listen, Jay. I don't know where you’ve hidden her, but we need to see her, soon. She's one of us, even if she was made into a wolf by accident."

  "You mean she was supposed to have died?" he asked. "Like Natalie Jamieson and Blake Fisher, right?"

  "Usually, people don't survive a meeting with a werewolf, let me tell you that much," his mom said.

  Jayden felt uncertain. Could he trust her? His dad had let him free Melanie, so he felt pretty convinced that he didn't want to hurt her, but he wasn't so sure about his mom. He had heard her convince his father that it was best if they got rid of her. Plus, he was pretty sure that the one to have bitten her—and the two others who died—had to live under his own roof. Was it his brother or maybe one of his parents? He had been wondering about it for quite some time now. No matter who it was, they all had the desire to make sure Melanie didn't reveal who had bitten her or even bring any type of attention toward their house.

  His mom's eyes became distant as she spotted something outside the window.

  "What is he doing?"

  She approached the glass and looked out. Jayden came up behind her and spotted the strange man who had moved in down the street. What was he doing?

  "Is he going through our trash?" Jayden asked.

  He could almost feel his mom's concern as she pulled away from the window like she didn't want the man to see her standing there, watching him.