Page 62 of Wind with a Chance of Wolfsbane

We considered going back to Toledo, but my gut told me the person who left the note better understood what was happening than we did and to trust them. So, we did. At least to start.

When we finally gathered the nerve to return home, several months after we’d started college, we found our family house in a state of disrepair and basically abandoned. Moreover, a trip to our parents’ attorney’s office to speak with the head of the trust they’d set up in our name revealed that prior to her death, Helen had found ways to exploit certain loopholes in our trust. She’d cleaned out our trust funds, leaving us next to nothing.

So, we returned to Grimm Cove and made a plan for what we were going to do next. We had to find ways to make our scholarships, and what little money we did have, stretch as far as possible. We lived on campus during our freshman year. In our second year of school, we found ourselves moving off-campus into what had once been a functioning funeral home but now looked more like something Hollywood might want to use to film a horror movie.

I didn’t mind it, and the price was right—nearly free.

Besides, we’d found a group of women we gelled well with and who had come to mean a great deal to us. So far, we’d been successful in keeping our secrets safe from our roommates, but my gut said we needed to consider letting one or two in on it all. We could use an extra set of eyes once a month, mostly to watch over me and ensure I didn’t eat anyone.

Mina had taken being a night owl to the extreme since the attack. Not to mention she felt the pull to go out each night, watching over the campus, ready and willing to take on anything supernatural that threatened an innocent.

I strongly suspected the attack in Romania triggered latent slayer gifts in her, in addition to giving her some of the traits of a vampire with the pesky demon issue or bloodlust.

Then there was me.

If I wasn’t always mindful of my emotions, I ran the risk of doing a partial shift or worse. And once a month, like clockwork, I found myself at the mercy of the beast that resided in me. I knew she wanted to run free, to get to be a wolf, but that couldn’t be. She was unpredictable without my guidance, and since I often felt like a prisoner, being forced to look through her eyes out at the world, I wasn’t much help.

We needed to figure out something to make our lives easier.

We were both planning to stay on at Grimm Cove College to get master’s degrees, and Mina’s demon-hunting demands were increasing. And since she couldn’t be in two places at once—hunting bad things and babysitting me as I turned into a wolf—the extra help was more than required. Especially since my wolf was an escape artist.

There was no telling the damage I’d do if I got out while in wolf form. I had little to no memory of what happened when I was shifted, which also meant I couldn’t control what I did and didn’t do while shifted.

“Dude, you’re totally zoning out on me,” said my sister. “Guess you really do need some caffeine.”

“Right. This has nothing to do with the coffeepot back at the house being on the fritz ever since you last made a pot,” I stressed. “What did you do to it?”

She bit at her lower lip. “I might have crammed it too full of grounds, and when the basket wouldn’t shut, Imighthave forced it closed. Then, I hit it on the side a few times to get it running properly.”

I stared blankly at her.

“What? I’m going to replace it when I have time,” she said. “I’ve been a little busy with classes, patrolling campus, and hunting for the perfect spot to put you for a few nights during the full moon, all while trying to keep everyone at the house from suspecting anything is up.”

I sighed. “Thank you.”

She offered a tight-lipped smile. “We got this.”

I wasn’t so sure we did, but nodded all the same.

I shook my head a little, sending damp tendrils of dark hair flying in every direction.

Mina lifted her hands to shield her face before giving me a look that said she was less than thrilled with me. “I’d comment on you shaking like that, but—”

“Wet dog humor is beneath you suddenly?” I asked with a grin. “Since when?”

She smiled as well, wiping drops of water from her face. The waterfall we’d needed to walk under to access the mouth of the cave had left us both wet. Thankfully the temperature outside was warm enough to keep it from being too big of an issue. As the night wore on, that would change. But then again, so would I.

Without thinking, my hand went up to the forelock of white that I had in my otherwise dark hair. It had appeared after our night in the cave in Romania, and it had never gone away. Just in case I ever forgot that I shared my body with a wolf, I had a constant reminder, even when the full moon wasn’t nearing. My wolf’s shifted form was snow white. At least, that’s what Mina told me.

Mina reached up and fixed my hair before winking at me.

“Thanks.” I did the same to her. It was a lot like looking in the mirror. When I was done, her damp hair was as tamed as it could be without a brush and a flat iron.

She turned and motioned to the cave. “What do you think?”

“Tell me again how you found this place?” I asked, positive there was an interesting story there since this wasn’t on any map that we had, nor could it be seen with any sort of ease from the other side of the waterfall.

“Well, Imighthave sort of been making out on the rocks off to the side of the falls a few days ago with that one guy from my chemistry class,” she said, lifting a hand to stop me from speaking. “Hey, I know you’re not a huge fan of him. I’m not either, but he’s a great kisser and very yummy to look at.”

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