A few hours later, we were on our way to Denver. The flight was uneventful—all right, it was
boring
. As usual, the airport teemed with people. As if she were afraid I’d escape, Bella glued herself to my side while we shoved our way through the swarm of travelers. At the first rental desk, she made arrangements for a car.
Her entire body shivered by the time we got to the courtesy van, which would take us to pick up the car.
“You shouldn’t have packed your coat.” I gave her a sweet smile.
She practically snarled as she climbed inside. “And wrestle it the entire time we were on that plane?”
“At least you wouldn’t be cold now.” I shook my hair back from my face—a gesture she hates—and shrugged.
The fact that I wasn’t cold simply because I was in heat infuriated her. It was as if she could forgive the fact that often, I didn’t have human skin, teeth and senses but instead had a pelt and fangs, but couldn’t forgive the fact that the animal hormones raging through my system kept me well warmed.
And I couldn’t help reminding her of it.
When we’d gone through the line and filled out the papers, I was ready to move. Too much sitting always made me hyper. “I’ll drive,” I said, holding out my hand for the keys.
Bella gave me a hard look. “I’ll drive. No telling where you’d take us, given the chance.”
We waited near a glass wall as a young man brought our vehicle. A new Hummer H3, pure white. “Did you get white for camouflage? So we can hide in the snow?”
“I leased the Hummer because I wanted to be sure we’d have four-wheel drive and wouldn’t get stuck in the snow. The rental company chose the color.”
She set the course on the Global Positioning System and pulled out of the lot. Thank God for GPS, because normally Bella can’t find her way around the Metroplex, much less through a different state filled with mountains. And snow.
Once we were on the highway, through Denver and heading west, we picked up some speed. The road signs flashed past faster and faster. Hit with a deep yearning to feel the fresh wind on my face, I rolled down the window.
The temperature had cooled considerably since we’d exited the plane. My ears numbed almost immediately, but who cared? I had air in my face and flowing through my hair. Exhilarating freedom filled me, spiking my spirits. I was almost as free as if I were flying.
“No.” Bella’s gruff bark plummeted me back to earth.
Jerking around, I glared at her. “Why—”
Before I could finish my question, she’d rolled up my window and turned on the child locks.
I couldn’t believe my sister. Usually very malleable, since she’d realized I was under the effect of a Blood Moon
and
in heat, she’d turned into a real dictator.
It was difficult to blame her for being so worried since I’d never before gone through both afflictions at the same time. All I’d experienced was one malady at a time, and that was bad enough!
Reaching in my bag, I pulled out my planner, which showed the lunar phases. I hadn’t read it wrong. We were coming to the time when the moon’s influence over me would be strongest—the phase of an eclipse.
Being filled with Blood Moon energy was tantamount to putting too much helium in a balloon. The pressure grew more and more as we drove that day, making me want to jet into the sky, zoom along the ground, ricochet around a room, anything to expend some of it. My laugh grew loud, my ideas outlandish and my words something like a machine gun set on rapid fire.
By the time we arrived at Snowstorm, I could barely sit still. While Bella checked us in, I strolled—if you can call speed walking on well-packed snow a stroll—around the grounds. We’d been there before, back when I was a teen, but the spa had changed immensely. From the looks of things, mainly the rich and famous spent time there these days.
A heated pool and Jacuzzi steamed outside, and there was another, warmer, glass enclosed pool nearby. A gigantic greenhouse, built in the shape of a Victorian mansion and filled with plants, sat at the edge of the property. New buildings had sprouted everywhere, but they all looked as though they’d been there since about the time the mountains were born. Nothing new, garish or shiny about them.
At the back of the lodge where we’d be staying were the ski slopes. We could literally walk out the backdoor, put on skis and whiz off for the day.
Getting back when we were finished was almost that easy. A chairlift to the top of the mountain, and from there it was simple to ski back to the lodge. Or if a skier was too tired or inexperienced to take the more difficult slopes from the top, a shuttle could bring them.
I waited in the car when Bella got back patting my foot in annoyance by the time she started it. “Did they have our reservation?”
“Yes.” When I shifted into blasting-words-mode, why did she speak in slo-mo?
“Full living room? Two bedrooms? Shower or tub?” Rat-a-tat tat.
“Full living room, big screen TV, shower and Jacuzzi tub. But I asked for a one bedroom, two queens.” I could have climbed Mount Everest in the time it took her to finish.
“One? One bedroom?” I screeched. “That’s ridiculous! Why would you ask for one bedroom? You knew I’d want time alone.”
Not only were her words slow, so was her smile and the light that shifted to brighten her eyes. “Of course I knew you’d want privacy, and that’s exactly why I got one bedroom. To protect you from…that.”
Anger exploded in my chest, leaving a prickle of something on my skin. Sweat or bristle, I wasn’t sure. “Who do you think you are? My keeper? My trainer? Did you bring a leash and a muzzle, too?”
Somewhere in a detached part of my mind, I noticed the sun drifting toward the western horizon, turning the snow a delicate shade of apricot while the sky darkened from blue to purple. In just minutes, the apricot would become a dramatic shade of peach, then flame to burnt orange while the sky would shift to indigo.
That’s about the time my private chorus began to hum. Inaudible to anyone but me, it sounded as if the Mormon Tabernacle Choir gathered around me, singing a chord. In a moment, a single member of the bass section would slide into discord. In the balance of the music, it wasn’t much, but it would be enough to raise my hackles.
Literally.
Bella put the car in park.
“Let’s get unloaded. Fast.” I shoved open the door and rushed to the back to grab our bags. Not bothering to wait for her, I snatched the suitcases, slammed the door with a hipshot and headed for the entrance.
Bella hurried to catch up. “Let me take something.”
“Just get the doors.” I marched on, trying to expend a bit of my scorching energy.
Bella scurried ahead, barely getting the door open before I swung through.
I gave the lobby a swift glance. Opulence everywhere—crystal chandeliers, golden oak floors, plush furniture, fireplaces and lots of brass. “Which floor?”
“This one. Room 111.”
I gave a growl of acceptance, low and deep. One, one, one. The only one. I was alone. Oh, there’d been others. My maternal grandmother, for instance. And probably her grandmother. But for now, I was the only. Lost in a world of snow.
And growing very, very hungry.
By the time we were in the room, the fur was shoving its way through my skin. Knowing how horrified Bella became during my transformations, I excused myself as if I were going to the bathroom, which was off the bedroom. As I walked into the room, I saw my salvation. A door to the outside world.
Hoping Bella wouldn’t enter anytime soon, I luxuriated in my change. Strength turned my muscles to steel. No longer did the energy surging through me hurt as if I were an overfilled beach ball. Now it belonged inside me. It made me powerful.
Before I had no choice but to drop to all fours, I opened that door then let the effect of the rising moon take me.
Exhilarated, I raised my face in adulation. With a long howl for Bella, I bounded into the night.
****
Darkness encompassed me. As if the night were made of rich satin, I savored that absence of light…until something started making a horrific noise. Very heavy and slightly off balance, my head was as hard to lift as if someone had filled it with quicksilver.
The noise came again, someone hammering in the next room. I opened one eye. Through a red haze, I realized I wasn’t at home. After a moment I remembered where I was. And why.
I glanced at the other bed in the room. Empty. And Bella, the good little nun, had even made it. When the knocking grew louder, I yanked back the sheet and lunged to my feet. Just in time I saw my nakedness. Ripping the sheet from the mattress, I tucked it around me, stormed out of the bedroom to the living room, ready to give Bella a piece of my mind for not keeping things quiet.
No Bella. And with the kitchen adjacent, I could easily see it was empty, too. Even the coffee pot was empty.
Again, someone knocked. I gritted my teeth to keep from screaming and jerked the door open.
There in the hallway stood a woman, about fifty years old, judging by her hair color, with very red eyes and a soggy tissue. “I’m sorry to bother you, but I’m looking for my Bijou.”
“Your what?” I briefly wondered if this was a joke, but another glance at the woman, shaped like an Easter egg with legs, and I knew she was deadly serious.
“My Bijou. She’s a Maltese.” I must have looked blank, because she kept explaining. “A dog, about this tall, all white. My husband says she looks like a dust mop without a handle.”
As she talked, her voice tightened, rising so high, I thought
she
was going to howl. Tears filled her eyes then poured down her cheeks. “I can’t find her anywhere.”
Unnecessarily, I looked at my feet and behind me. “No Bijous in here.”
The woman nodded then sucked a tear-filled breath. “No, I know. But your sister said you were out late last night, and I thought maybe you’d seen her then.”
A heavy weight settled in my stomach. I tried to remember, but drew a blank. Had I seen the pooch? I could only hope I hadn’t, because what a wolf could do to a squeaky lap dog wasn’t pretty.
I swallowed hard as I shook my head. “N-not that I remember. But you might check outside, behind the spa. Maybe she slipped on a steep slope and couldn’t get back.”
Her face brightened. “Good idea. I looked out front, but didn’t think about the slopes, since I don’t use them.”
With a quick pat on my bare shoulder, she rushed away. I shut the door and headed for the shower. When I was finished and wrapped in two towels, one for my hair and one for my body, I wandered back to the bedroom to dig through my suitcase for something to wear.
I was certain Bella had unpacked the night before—as usual—but I hated unpacking and repacking after just a few days. When I’d found the jeans and sweater I wanted, I slipped into my underwear then put on my clothes. Facing the mirror, I quickly wove my hair into a French braid.
Bella walked into the condo with a man, wearing a tool belt, following her. She gave me a long glance. After a moment, she pointed at the door to the outside. “Right there is where I want the deadbolt. And I’ll take the key.”
Without even glancing at me, the man nodded, handed her the key and went to work. I wondered what she’d said to keep him from at least looking my way then remembered where we were. At a spa, filled with women year around, most of whom were rich and famous, he’d probably had to learn how to focus and stay on task no matter what.
Sitting on Bella’s perfect bed, I pulled on my shoes. Just to be sisterly, I messed up the quilt a little when I stood.
The workman swung the door open to do something to the outside. Bella folded her arms to ward off the icy air coming in, but I stepped closer. I couldn’t get enough of the frigid temperatures.
Picking up an electric tool, the man turned it on and shoved it against the door to cut a perfectly round hole. The warm smell of sawdust filled the air as the high whine of the tool hurt my ears. Thankfully, it didn’t last long. Turning it off, he laid it aside and had just reached for the lock when a scream pierced the solitude.
The workman startled, looking around to see if Bella or I had shrieked. But the screech had come from outside. I dodged past him and out the door.
Only a few feet away, the Easter egg woman knelt in the snow. And in front of her was a puddle of frozen blood where it had melted into the snow. Just the right size to be from a little dog.
A mountain of guilt filled me, making my body so heavy, my muscles couldn’t carry me. With an evil glance, Bella rushed past. But what could I do? Tell the woman I’d probably done that to her Bijou? Apologize for something I didn’t remember?
Bella helped the woman to her feet and back into the lodge. I trailed along, wishing I knew what to say. Helplessness rode me. I wished I could break something, get angry, do anything to ward off this underlying weakness.
As they passed me, I heard the woman sob, “If only she’d had puppies, I’d have something to remember her by.”
Careful not to bang into the workman, Bella glanced back at me when she took the woman into the building. “Come inside. We have a class.”
Who cares?
I wanted to roar, but thought better of it. “What kind of class?”
She stared at me for a moment before answering. “They can’t start our spa treatments until tomorrow, so I booked us for knitting classes today.”