His fingers caressed the back of my hair and he sighed. "Liam?" I asked.
"Mm," he said. I felt his cheek on my head and then his fingers fell as his nose replaced them, brushing up through my hair. "Charlotte," he said with low groan.
I shivered, knowing the animal part of him. I could feel it, so close to the surface, and despite all logic, I found it exciting.
I wanted the wolf.
My back arched against him, and my fingers tangled in his messy strands. Lips brushed across my jaw line, and I reciprocated, tasting his salty skin.
"Charlotte," he said, again. Taking my cheeks in his hand, he crushed his lips to mine.
Heat exploded up my backbone and down every limb of my body. I had never felt so alive. Everything started to tingle and then something inside me began to scratch and claw to surface. It scared me, yet I couldn't stop the sensation of this 'otherness' climbing the walls of my skin. The tips of my fingers itched and burned, and I grabbed onto Liam's back, digging them into his shirt.
His chest rumbled against mine and he pushed my lips apart. I felt a dropping sensation as something inside me began to pull away, allowing a part of me, hidden and subconscious, to emerge. Everything burned. I felt dizzy, and then a flush of light pressed through my line of vision.
The forest and picnic tables sprang to life. Each knot and vein of the trees stood out, defined, and vivid to the last detail. With almost microscopic precision I could discern the innate textures of a hummingbird as it flew overhead.
Trembling with this new awareness, I glanced down at Liam's shoulder as he continued to kiss my jaw. Quivering movements wrestled under his skin and then his ears shifted, rising further up his hairline. Adrenaline pulsing, I wanted more.
I gasped for air, meeting Liam's gaze, and then his body froze.
Panic from our first kiss hit me. He dropped his arms from my body and moved back. The hint of tears began to sting. I wouldn't cry.
"What?" I asked. What did I do? "Liam?"
"Your eyes," he whispered.
"What about them?" I rubbed them hard, blinking, in hopes any signs of my upset wouldn't show.
"Don't," Liam said. Taking my wrists in his hands, he pulled them down from my face. He cocked his head to the side, staring. It made me nervous.
"Liam," I said. "Please stop looking at me like that."
"It's true," he whispered.
"What's true?"
"I mean, I knew it was true, but to see it." He shook his head with a smile. "I don't know how you did it, Charlotte. You're incredible."
"How I did what?" I realized I grabbed a wad of grass in my hand and I let it go. "You're not making any sense."
"Shh," he whispered, placing two fingers on my lips. My body relaxed, even the sharpened vision went normal. "It's nothing," Liam said with a smile. He dropped his hand, and replaced it with a kiss.
Chapter 14
"Did you get the album?" I asked.
I had just gotten home from school when Ty showed up at my door. In her enthusiasm, she almost knocked me down, pushing her way inside.
"Upstairs," she said, pointing.
Her face, dark and serious, made me wonder exactly what she had seen in the photos. I had a bad feeling.
"What is it?" I asked.
Greeted by her extended finger, I resolved to head to my room. It couldn't be that terrible. Ty did have a tendency to over react.
As I reached for my door handle, I stopped short. The back of my neck crawled with tiny fingers of goose bumps, and I smelt pine. Not in the familiar way, but as something else.
"Charlotte, what's wrong?" Ty went to move ahead of me, and I put my hand out, blocking her.
"Wait," I said, leaning my ear against the white paneling.
"What are you doing? What's going on?"
"Shh." I said, but I couldn't hear anything on the other side. The crawling feeling still teased the surface of my skin, but I pushed the door open.
The gasp I heard came from Ty first. The covers had been ripped off my mattress and the dresser drawers had been pulled loose. Clothes and personal items covered the floor. My closet door hung half off its hinge. Boxes, old games, and books, spewed, half toppled from the shelves.
"Charlotte," Ty said, pointing.
My gaze followed to an open window. A fresh streak of claw marks ran about a good half inch deep across the windowsill. I trembled.
"My room," I said, barely able to breathe. Everything began to spin.
Ty's hand gently fell on my shoulder, but I flinched, and she withdrew. "You don't think Liam did this?" she asked.
"No," I said, my response immediate. "He didn't do this."
"What if he figured out that we were in his house and came looking for the album? It makes sense."
"He didn't do this," I said, my voice cracking. Tears threatened me. "Liam would never do something like this."
I moved past her, grabbing a wad of tussled clothes, and slammed them into an open drawer. I went for another wad and then kicked it shut. Ty stared at me like she had something to say. "What?"
"Nothing."
"Good."
My actions embarrassed me and I turned away, one hand on the dresser. My lip trembled. I forced my breathing to slow. "Why would somebody do this?"
"I don't know, Charlotte, but look at the window. It was a werewolf. It had to be. How many werewolves do we know?"
"I know. Trust me, I know," I said. I slunk down to the floor and held my knees. "All I know is it wasn't Liam. Even if he knew we took the album, he wouldn't do this. He'd talk to me. I just know it."
Ty's didn't seem convinced and a bite of anger flushed through me. It hurt. Glancing at the windowsill, the image of Liam's claws extending at the gunman penetrated my mind. No. I shook it away. "It had to have been that guy we ran into. He must have followed us here, yesterday, when we left."
Now, for some reason, she appeared stung. "Did you speak with Liam after he went home that night?" Ty asked.
"What are you saying? That he came here today just because I wasn't keeping tabs on him? I'm sorry, I'm not like that."
"Did you?" she asked.
My gut twisted. "No. I haven't talked to him since our date."
She shrugged and fiddled with the remaining edge of the comforter hanging from my bed. "It's just a little strange is all," she said.
"What do you mean?"
"It's just, don't you think he might have called or mentioned something about you breaking into his house? We left the front door open."
"Maybe he didn't know it was us," I said, as I shoved more clothes into another drawer. "Anyone could have waltzed in there."
"He's a werewolf. He would have been able to smell you. Besides, who breaks into someone's house and steals only a photo album of wolf attack? I think he knows."
I slammed the dresser shut. "What are you doing, Ty?" I asked. "Seriously, you're supposed to be my friend." Blinking, I glanced away.
"I'm sorry," she said. "It's just...never mind."
"No, it's just what?" I asked, turning back.
Ty dropped the comforter and kneaded her hands. "Look," she said. "You're in love with him." I opened my mouth to protest, but she held up her hand. "I'm just worried that your feelings may be slightly blinding you to some things. That's all. I mean, how well can you possibly know Liam? You just found out he was a werewolf the other day. A werewolf! He's older than my grandfather, Charlotte. Who knows who he really is? That's all I'm saying. I just think you should be careful."
The verbal darts that passed through my chest left me internally bruised. How could she say that? Did she care about my feelings at all? She knew how I felt about him. A slight part of me acknowledged that she worried because she did care, but I didn't want to hear it.
"How can you say that?" I asked.
"Charlotte..."
"Liam didn't do this," I yelled. "It was that other guy. He's a werewolf too. He has to be. You saw the way he was looking at me."
Ty looked down at her hands, her body stiff and still. "Maybe you're right," she said, her tone unconvincing.
"You don't know him like I do."
Ty sighed and grabbed the old photo album, setting it on her lap. "No, I don't," she said. Her index finger did a small circle over the hem of the cover. "But you don't know what I know either."
"What do you mean?" I asked. The way she said that made me cold.
She opened the thick cover and began leafing through the brittle pages. Stopping at one, she shifted the book around so I could see. "Come look," she said.
I hesitated. "What? Am I a werewolf now?" I asked, my throat tight.
Ty shook her head. "This isn't about that. This is something else I found."
"What is it?" I wanted her to just tell me so I didn't have to peek.
"Please," she said, sliding the album closer. "Just take it."
Moving from my position by the dresser, I got up, and sat down next to her. With a deep breath, I let my focus fall to the page. Surprised, no picture had been attached. An old discolored document had been inserted into the plastic sleeve, the seal on the top labeling it a death certificate.
"I'm confused," I said.
"Read it."
The words before me cut off my gravitational axis. "I don't understand," I said. Dropping the book, I clutched the mattress. "This is a joke, right? Please tell me you're joking."
"I don't think you know Liam as well as you think," Ty said. "In fact, I don't think that's even his real name, considering he's alive."
I needed air.
"No, no. Liam did not die back in 1912. He wasn't attacked, he was born a wolf. He told me. This has to be a mistake."
"I know that's what he told you," Ty said. "Charlotte, it isn't true."
Tears escaped and I furiously shook my head. "He wouldn't lie to me."
Ty took the album, sitting it back on her lap. "I'm sorry, Charlotte." She flipped the page over to reveal an old black and white police shot dated August 28, 1912. A photo of a seventeen-year old boy, with a striking likeness to Liam, stared back at me. A toe tag had been fastened to his bare boot, most of his neck and shoulder shredded and torn. No hoax could pull that off. The person was dead.
"I think I'm going to be sick," I said.
Ty reached out, to grab on to me, but I sank down off the edge of the bed to the floor. "Why would he pretend to be someone else?"
"I don't know."
She slipped down beside me and gave me a hug. "I'm so sorry. I don't know what's going on in his head. I wish I did."
I felt hollow, empty. Everything I thought I knew about Liam had been obliterated. If the person on that slab, bearing his name and resemblance hadn't been him, why did he steal the guy's identity? Why keep all the photos and documents on this at all? His reaction to seeing me glance at the book struck me cold.
"What if Liam killed him?" I said.
"Now Charlotte, we don't know that," Ty said. "I wasn't implying that. I just didn't want you so blinded. You don't know him as much as you think. That's all. You need to be careful."
"Why would he be keeping photos of a mauled victim whose identity he took? This was a werewolf attack!" I covered my face with my hands.
"Quiet," Ty whispered. "Your dad's downstairs."
"I know. Sorry."
"Trust me. I know it's very suspicious, but you're right. It could have been someone else that broke in here too."
I lifted my head from my hands. "What are you talking about? I thought you were adamant that it was Liam. You're confusing me."
"Well, I was just thinking. What if others realized you had the album and had become curious about you? Anyone could have followed you here."
"Ty, you're not making any sense. Who would care I knew about that death besides Liam?"
Ty chewed her lower lip and my stomach sank when she pulled the book back down in her lap. "There's another little thing to the story that I haven't told you."
Great.
Ty thumbed through several pages until she landed on a familiar one. The picture I had seen in Liam's study filled the sheet. Taking it in fully for the first time, I saw three gnarled and torn bodies with blacked out faces. The bite marks seemed to be the focus of the image, and on each person, the location differed. The first had one on the shoulder, the second, this man's leg, and the third appeared to be a hip shot. The unnerving similarity, they all looked like mine.
"I'm not a werewolf, Ty."
"I know," she said. "But according to these, you should be."
This had to be some kind of cruel joke. I wanted to curl up in a ball.
"Maybe they don't understand it either, Charlotte. This might be the real reason why Liam said you were in danger if other werewolves knew about you."
My head hurt.
"So now you think Liam was trying to protect me?"
"I don't know. That's what scares me. We don't know what's going on here. All I know is that since we now have this album, we, or more specifically, you, could be in a lot of danger. We know things we shouldn't. Liam's identity, for example, is destroyed. I can easily see why he'd want to break in here to find the album. But like I said, it could have been anyone that had caught an interest in you considering your scar."
"It might have been that guy from the house. He could have easily followed us."
"Exactly," she said, shifting her gaze away from me. Her fingers fumbled with her charm and then she snapped the album closed. "I don't think you should trust anyone. In fact, maybe we should call the cops. I mean, look at your room."
The cell in my pocket felt like led. "No," I said, shaking my head. "If it wasn't Liam, I don't want any attention drawn to him. You're not even supposed to know about him. Besides, if word of anything trouble related regarding Liam gets to my dad, I'll never see him again."
"But if it was him? Charlotte, this is your life we're talking about."
"I know, I know," I said with a groan. "I can't think right now. Just, no cops, at least until I figure some things out."