LITMIR.BIZ

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looks. Something triggered it. You have to think back to what you were thinking about when you turned. Then when you remember what it was, from here on out work on controlling it. Honey, I’m sorry. I thought you knew. This is where I said it was hard to know where to start.” She sounded breathless.

      “Hell yeah, it’s hard to know where to start. This is messed up on so many levels. I’m standing in the back yard, it’s not even completely dark yet, and I just switched from a human to a huge cat!” I finally exploded. I could handle a lot, but I couldn’t handle this. “And you have got to be kidding me. I was thinking about Allie. You mean to tell me that every time I think about her, this is going to happen? And you want me to pretend that nothing is wrong? Can someone just kill me now and get it over with?”

      “Okay, enough. You are overdramatizing this, and the longer you stay mad, the longer you are going to be an animal,” Mama said. “Now shut up and count to twenty. But get out of sight before you do it. Go into the maze, and for god’s sake don’t get shot.”

      “Not funny. You wanna call me overly dramatic! You’re not the one whose body just turned into another species.” I wobbled as I controlled the long legs of the cat. It was hard considering they bent differently than those of a human. Every powerful stride almost sent me onto my side.

      I counted to twenty. My skin and bones regrouped and adjusted back into the form in which I was most definitely more comfortable.

      “Shelby Edwards. You have a lot of explaining to do.” I stalked toward the opening to the Rose Maze.

      Around the first bend, I met my mother or best friend or psycho staff member or whoever she was.

      Her face was paler in the moonlight. “I’m so sorry.”

      “I need to sleep. We’ll talk tomorrow.” I started past her, but stopped. “Unless there’s more you need to warn me of before I go to sleep.”

      “I think that’s about it. And again, I’m sorry I didn’t forewarn you.” Shelby’s shoulders were limp.

      I stomped back into the house and up the stairs. My bedroom door slammed with a deafening boom.

      “I take it you don’t remember the curse?” Mama’s soft thoughts found their way to me after a few minutes. After I’d yanked the covers back over me, jerked my pillow over my head and tossed at least ten times.

      “Just stop. I can’t handle any more of this crap tonight. I’m going to fall asleep and try to pretend that my life doesn’t suck on an extremely ludicrous level.”

      I was numb. I didn’t want to know. I didn’t want to talk. I didn’t want to think. I didn’t want this life. And here she was talking about some curse that just by the sound of her voice was a lot worse than the prince guy that got turned into a frog and had to be kissed by a princess to be turned back.

      I would probably wish I was a frog when she finished telling me.

      Could this get any worse?

      * * * *

      In the library, I flipped through the story of my first life in a journal I had supposedly written in 1879. Mama had given it to me and told me to come talk to her when I was finished.

      “Okay, I’ve had enough. What’s going on?” Allie sneaked up behind me.

      I jumped. Fear that I would give away my feelings for Allie, that I was hopelessly in love with her, wasn’t my only concern. I had to worry that a glance at her might change me into an animal right before her eyes and not of the erotic kind.

      I had been sitting on the brown leather sofa with my elbow on the armrest and my cheek in my hand looking at the gangly legs that made up my lap.

      The book lay there open.

      To divert her attention from the book, I slapped it shut as if I were annoyed with her interruption. “What are you talking about?”

      Did she have to smell like honeysuckle and look like a ray of sunshine all the time?

      I wanted to jerk her over into my lap and— Stop, Cole, I told myself. Remember what Mom said.

      “I know something’s wrong. You won’t even speak to me. What did I do?” Her voice pleaded with me and her hazel eyes shined with curiosity. Her soft green shirt clung to her new shape nicely.

      Why did I have to notice?

      Why couldn’t she have been born a guy?

      “Seriously. It’s so boring around here without someone to talk to.” She plopped down on the seat across from me and crossed her arms.

      I guess the fact that I had never gone more than two days without tossing at least one insult in her direction must have really gotten under her skin.

      Animalistic urges turning me into another species wasn’t her fault. I was angry that my mother hadn’t warned me of the changes to come, but I wasn’t mad that Allie was part of them. I didn’t want her to think I was. I would lighten up with her. What could it hurt?

      “You really want to know?” I decided on an ingenious way to talk to her about what was bothering me without actually telling her.

      “Sure.” She sat up and dropped her folded arms. She scooted to the edge of her chair.

      “Okay. It’s a girl.” Any second she would break into a teasing singsong.

      “Really?” Her brow perked then she narrowed her eyes.

      “Yeah.” I sank further into the old leather sofa.

      Allie twisted a straw-colored curl around her finger as she regarded me. She was so pretty, a brat, but pretty. Allie took her hazel gaze from mine and stared at the curl. “Do I know her?”

      Guilt for telling a partial lie curdled in my stomach, but now that I’d started, I had to see where the conversation would take us.

      “Maybe.” I shifted in my seat.

      Allie dropped the curl and gave me an even stare. “Is she pretty?”

      “She’s very pretty.”

      An incensed glare followed. “Prettier than me?”

      “No one is prettier than you.” Heat prickled my kneecaps and elbows. Then it dawned on me. I had to calm myself. I couldn’t believe her presence had this effect on me.

      “Hmmm, Cole Jensen and mysterious. I like it.” Her white teeth gleamed as she smiled.

      “You like it?” I asked too quickly. I wanted her to like me. I wanted that so much, but I didn’t know how we could move from the two kids that terrorized each other to what I wanted us to be.

      “You’re always so boring with your nose all stuck in books most of the waking day.” Allie sounded like a friend for the first time ever. “You need some excitement. But I’m not sure that I like you having a crush.”

      My hopes lifted even more at that statement.

      “I mean I don’t want you to get hurt.” Allie straightened her capri pants.

      “You say things to hurt me every day. Why would you care if someone else hurt me?” Hmm. So she did care. At least a little.

      “I do say a lot of mean things but like I said. Only I can.” She lifted her chin and tossed her hair over her shoulder. “Hey, by the way, don’t be mad if I do a little digging to find out who she is.” Allie stood and started to leave me for the first time without a mean thing to say.

      I was almost amazed.

      “And that shirt—” She pointed to the dark purple shirt that I had thrown on this morning and pinched her gorgeous face into a wince. “It makes you look like an eggplant. It’s nauseating.”

      Allie waited for my reaction, but I couldn’t find a good comeback in

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