Dark of the Moon by Rachel Hawthorne

Author:Rachel Hawthorne
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2009-06-28T16:00:00+00:00

NINE

When we got to Tarrant, I gave Kayla directions to my house. I stared at the two-story structure that shouted middle class. My mom had worked hard to buy us that house. I’d always known that I wasn’t destined to be the leader of the pack or to even hook up with the leader. I was okay with that. I was okay with the life my mom had given me. Being the best Dark Guardian I could be was the only thing I’d ever wanted. Well, okay, finding my true mate had ranked right up there near the top, but that I couldn’t control. Honing my skills as a Guardian—I could.

I grabbed my backpack. “Thanks for the ride.”

“We’ll be at the Sly Fox tonight,” Kayla said. “Come by if you get a chance.”

“Yeah, I will. I want to find out what Lucas discovered.”

I got out of the jeep and started up the walk, slowing my steps as I heard Kayla drive away. Mom’s car was in the driveway so I knew she was home. I saw a curtain at the window flutter. I wondered if Mom was expecting me to shift on my way through the door. We’d always gotten along, even though she thought I needed a life beyond what she saw as my obsession with being a Dark Guardian.

“It isn’t everything,” she’d often told me.

My usual response had been, “What planet are you from?”

The door didn’t spring open. Mom didn’t come running out to greet me. Obviously this wasn’t going to be a Hallmark moment.

It wasn’t until I’d closed the door behind me that Mom rushed forward and crushed me in her embrace. “Oh, baby, are you all right?”

I hated when she called me baby. So juvenile. I hadn’t been a baby in a long time. Normally I would have wiggled out of her suffocating embrace, but right at that moment I needed to be held. I was once again fighting back tears. God, these emotions were such a nuisance.

Finally Mom pushed me back, her hands still clutching my shoulders as though she was considering giving me a shake. Her eyes, a green like leaves in spring, stared into mine. Her hair was a reddish brown that I’d always wished she’d passed on to me. I’d never seen a picture of my dad, but she’d told me that I’d taken my dark looks from him.

Mom’s anxious eyes filled with sorrow. “You didn’t shift.”

And my damned eyes filled with tears. “How did you know?” I rasped.

She pulled me close and began to rock me. “Oh, baby, I’m so sorry.”

In her voice I heard guilt. I broke free of her hold, crossed my arms over my chest, and glared at her. At least my curiosity had made the tears stop. “For what? What did you do, Mom?”

“Sit down,” Mom said.

“I don’t need to sit down. Just tell me.”

Mom nodded, but she wouldn’t meet my eyes. “During the summer I turned seventeen, I went to Europe. I met someone…in France. Antonio. I fell in love.

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