Moon Struck: When Were & Howl Book 1 Read online

  Chapter 11

  Ali arrived around four o-clock. Her shift at the warehouse ended a half-hour before. Rob had given me a chew toy from a drawer to keep me busy during the morning. It worked surprisingly well, maybe because his scent was all over it.

  One look at me and Ali laughed. Offensive, but I couldn’t exactly bite her. “You can’t blame me for this one. Where’s the amulet?”

  Uh-oh. The expression on Rob’s face as he looked from Ali to me made me want to cringe. “Amulet?”

  Rob had heard a few stories. Sometimes when we went out, Ali would pick me up after work and inevitably run into Rob who was closing up the office and of course she let a few misadventures slip. Not the worst, thank God, but enough.

  Ali tossed her coat on a chair and sat down with a sigh. “Sorry, I’ve been on my feet all day.”

  Rob wasn’t to be put off. “What’s this about an amulet?” He sounded angry.

  Ali looked up at Rob, wearing the most innocent expression I think I’ve ever seen. “Her change was inspired by an amulet. I got it from this friend of a friend. Said it was shifting magic and you could be anything you wanted.”

  Rob’s face seemed to freeze in an angry scowl as he stared at me and then turned on Ali. “Do you have any idea where an amulet like this comes from?”

  Ali pretended ignorance. “Well, I would assume a magician or wizard or someone with power.”

  Rob paced the room his hands waving in the air as if he were making a speech, which I guess he was. “A close friend of my dads, someone I look up to, lost his ability to change because of some wizard stealing his power, probably in the creation of an amulet like this. And you two…I don’t even believe this. It’s traitorous. Jen, how could you?”

  I felt so small then. So very much like the mouse whose skin belonged to me.

  Ali came to the rescue. “Hey, don’t yell at her like that. She didn’t know.”

  “She already can shift. Why would she try to use someone else’s ability?” Please don’t tell him. Please, please, please, please, please. My heart raced as I waited for her answer.

  “First of all, we didn’t know it belonged to someone else.” (This was a lie, but Ali being a troublemaker by nature, tended to lie very well provided an actual explanation wasn't needed.) She continued, “Furthermore, Jen had nothing to do with the amulet. She was just holding it for me for a few days. We had no idea what it would do, only that it gave off a weird energy.” (Another lie. Ali’s grace under pressure is a thing to behold. She usually gives it away with too much imagination. This time, her lying was fantastic.)

  Rob’s accusing tone cut me to the middle of my heart.

  “You put on an amulet with no idea what it would do? Where is it now?”

  With my head down and with a slight growl that accidentally slipped, I walked to the letters still spread across the floor. My initial plan was to make Ali do all the talking, but this was something only I could answer. Grateful that speaking was out, I put my nose on the letters—disappeared. But now I have a collar.

  Ali stood up in a burst of frenetic pacing as she circled the room. A small fanciful part of me wanted to chase and nip at her heels. Rob was still sitting on his desk, having pushed the phone off to the side. He was so tall the tips of his feet touched the floor.

  “There has to be something we can do.”

  “We’ll go to Dirk tonight. Maybe he knows how his power was taken. What will you do if we can’t find a way for you to change back?” Rob was still angry. I could tell.

  I sighed, the kind of sigh only a large furry animal could make and sat down on the letter D. It didn’t mean anything. I just happened to be standing over that letter at the time.

  “We could tell your parents you fled to Hawaii and everybody else that I adopted a new pet.” Ali joked.

  Rob lost some of his tension and joined in. “Or that you married a vampire and moved to Greenland.”

  He'd hurt my feelings, though, and I was in no mood to laugh. Let the growling commence. I even showed teeth and snapped. And best of all, Rob flinched.