Free Sometimes By Moonlight by Heather Davis Page B

something painful in your lives that make you girls the way you are.”
     
    I just shrugged. Maybe Lemmon had a point, but I didn’t want to talk to her about anything painful in my life. That wasn’t exactly my style.
     
    Mrs. Lemmon put her hands on my arms and looked deep into my eyes. “I just want you to know you’re not alone, dear.” With that, she turned and left me to the quiet of the kitchen.
     
    I was astounded by what had just happened. I had no idea that inside Lemmon’s crusty exterior there was a heart. Still reeling from our interaction, I got a glass of water to wash out the awful taste in my mouth. I had been eating raw meat. Holy crap.
     
    I had interrupted Austin doing that same thing at Camp Crescent last summer. The scene must have looked horrific to Lemmon, what with me gobbling down the steaks, blood running down my face. I glanced down at my hands again, grateful that at least, unlike Austin, I hadn’t been fully transformed into a wolf during my feast. I’d just been hungry. So hungry I’d dreamed of cake while I chowed down on raw meat. This was bad. Really bad.
     
    Wait—raw steaks? The staff got steaks ? The injustice of Steinfelder’s menu apparently reached far beyond baked goods. Sighing, I put my glass in the sink. As I turned to leave, I saw Marie-Rose standing by the door.
     
    “What are you doing down here?” she whispered.
     
    “Getting water,” I said, passing by her and out the kitchen door.
     
    She followed me up the stairs, reaching out for me on the landing. “Shelby, wait!”
     
    “No, I don’t want to wait. And why are you always hanging around, anyway?”
     
    Marie-Rose’s face fell. “I’m just—”
     
    “You’re concerned. I get that. Okay, I’m going up to bed.”
     
    I walked down the hall toward our room and collapsed into bed, feeling pretty low. But as I adjusted my pillow, I found something underneath it that made my heart rise in my chest. A packet of gummy worms. A sign from Austin that took me back to the night at camp he’d brought me gummy bears the nurse had given him. On the bottom of the plastic packaging, there was a number eleven, written in black marker. 
     
    I stuffed the candy back under the pillow as Marie-Rose wandered in. Ignoring her sheepish look, I went to the window. Out at the end of the white-covered field, I saw a fast-moving shadow that had to be Austin’s. As I watched, he disappeared behind the guardhouse kennel. I felt a tiny swell of hope, knowing he’d meet me the next night at eleven in the old carriage house.
     
    I wanted him to hug me and tell me everything was going to be all right. I wanted him to tell me he’d figured out a plan. And I prayed he’d have some serum on him that would keep me from going totally Lycan before the next full moon.

 
    Chapter Eight
     
     
     
    Saturday is supposed to be relaxing—a day you can sleep in, eat a lazy breakfast, see your friends, and go to the mall, but, of course, that wasn’t the case at Steinfelder. Every Saturday started the same as any other day, with soggy muesli cereal eaten at long, wooden tables precisely at seven a.m. Even though it was the last meal before most of the girls left for winter vacation, that morning’s breakfast wasn’t any different than the normal slop. Truthfully, I hadn’t expected they’d get a fancy send-off, but I was hungry again. Really hungry. I would have (almost) killed for a pancake.
     
    “You look awful,” Marie-Rose said, lifting a spoonful of cereal to her mouth.
     
    “Thanks.” I refrained from saying she’d look awful, too, if she’d sleep-eaten raw meat and had to deal with a roommate who was a constant shadow.
     
    “I just mean that you need more rest,” Marie-Rose added, as if that made her comment any less annoying.
     
    “Uh, okay.” I nearly sighed in relief as Patricia from our history class took a seat across from us. I slid Patricia the book I’d borrowed. “Thanks, it was