A strong pulsing driving sensation had me thinking that whatever was on the other side of that door, I would be able to eat, and it would fill the hunger inside me.
“Bianca?” Mae’s voice came through the door.
I tried to talk. To tell her to run, because I could feel the driving hunger inside me going toward her... Wanting to rip and tear and shred and feed.
It came out a howl.
But she didn’t run. She opened the door.
The wrong direction! You’re going the wrong way! I wanted to scream the words at her.
I couldn’t stop the impulses driving through my body and my brain. I lowered down on my front haunches, growling and snarling at her and trying to hold back the beast within me to stop from attacking her.
Turn around!
But she didn’t do it.
“Bianca,” she said, squatting down a little bit and holding out her hand peacefully. “It’s me, Mae.”
For goodness sake’s, I know who she was. I needed her to run, to leave.
I was like a coiled spring, every muscle in me taut and ready to go. There was no stopping it. My body released like a slingshot, flying me through the air and directly at my best friend’s face. Teeth, claws, everything out.
I moved as if in super slow motion. Her hands rose in the air. purple and green light boiled around each one of them until they rose up together above her, putting a shield between me and her. I slammed right into it, electric magic coursing through my body and catching me in a seizure. I was shaking as I fell to the ground, then the world went black.
Chapter 8
“Wake up.” A gentle voice nudged me as my shoulder was prodded.
“Oh, my aching head,” I said, squinting one eye open at Mae who peered at me with concern. It felt like the world was on the verge of reeling again. I grabbed the blankets. I was on my bed.
“What happened last night?” I muttered, rolling onto my back, feeling like a ton of bricks was sitting on my chest.
“You had kind of a thing,” Mae said cautiously.
I tilted my head to the side and looked at her. “How much of it was real?”
“How much do you remember?” she countered.
My head pounded as the memories flooded in. Mae and I had met. We had stopped for tea with Trina and then gone to the Waldorf.
“I kissed Matheus,” I muttered, putting my hand on my face. “And I made him take my number.”
“Is that all you remember?” Mae asked curiously.
I swallowed hard, thinking about the wolf I’d seen in the mirror. I would never forget that, but it sounded so crazy to say and maybe I’d been hallucinating.
“Do you know they used to serve absinthe at the Waldorf in this town?” I asked.
“I think you were the one who told me that,” Mae said. “You also told me there hasn’t been absinthe in this town for years.”
“Trina gave me something last night. I’m sure of it.”
“What do you recall?” Mae asked.
I closed my eyes and tilted my head back.
The hair. The claws. The mirror. They all flashed in front of my eyes.
