Free Red Moon Rising by Peter Moore Page B

school.”
    He nods. I wonder if he’s secretly happy that it’s not a vamp girl. “Must be smart.”
    â€œShe’s very smart. Nice. Funny. Good-looking.”
    â€œSounds like the whole package.” My dad was always cool that way. That’s probably one of the reasons he and my mom split up. That, and her parents, who more or less disowned her when she married him, then ten years later offered her a big house and a ton of money if she would leave him. I guess she and my father were already fighting a lot, so they decided to call it quits. We moved into the big house in the Hills. And that was that.
    Anyway, I don’t believe my father was interested in Mom just because she was beautiful and a vampyre and it was sort of moving up socially for him. He never cared about any of that. From what he’s told me, she was a lot of fun back then, and there weren’t any species issues between them. Not for him, anyhow.
    â€œOkay, so it’s not girl trouble,” he says. “Let’s hear it.”
    â€œI was just wondering.” Keep that voice steady and casual. “And you don’t have to answer if you don’t want, but how old were you when you had your first Change?”
    â€œThe first full one? I guess eleven, almost twelve. On schedule. Why?”
    I don’t say anything for a couple of seconds. “What was it like?”
    â€œYou came to ask me what primitis is like? When you can find out all the details you want from a book or the Internet? Come on, now. What’s this really about?”
    I haven’t said it out loud to anybody yet. “I think something’s happening to me.”
    He takes a Coke and pours some into one of the glasses, then sits back and watches the foam dissolve. “You had treatments. Almost all of them.”
    â€œI know.”
    â€œSo why would you think it has anything to do with the Change?”
    â€œBecause. I know it sounds impossible, but what’s happening sure seems to me like primitis-Lycan -whatever.”
    â€œ Primitis Lycan–metamorphosis . No. You’re howling up the wrong tree. It’s got to be something else.”
    I don’t say anything. He drinks.
    But the subject is open now, so I can’t let it stop there. “They had to stop the treatments, though. Because I got sick.”
    â€œYeah, but you were almost done. Except for your hair and skin tone, you’re practically all vamp. You have the blue eyes, you got the smarts, and you have the Thirst. Oh, sorry. I don’t know what the politically correct expression is now. What makes you think you’re having a primitis ?”
    â€œOne thing is that SynHeme is making me kind of sick. I sometimes feel like puking when I drink it.”
    â€œThat’s how I always felt when I tried it.”
    â€œBut you’re not a vampyre. That’s normal for you. I still have the Thirst, so it shouldn’t make me sick.”
    He shakes his head. “I don’t know what would cause that, but having a stomach ache doesn’t mean you’re going to Change.”
    â€œI’ve been getting headaches,” I tell him. “I have aches in my muscles and bones. And joints.”
    â€œBig deal. Flu.” I give him a look. “Oh. Right. Okay, so it’s not a flu. But it could be a thousand other things.”
    â€œMy teeth haven’t needed to be filed down for over eight months. Yesterday the dentist said that my wulf teeth never shrank. He said it was probably because the genetic treatments weren’t complete.”
    He shakes his head and brushes his hair back with his fingers. There’s one small ridge on his temple. Other than that, his facial plates are perfectly aligned. “Okay, so the teeth business is strange. And the dentist could be right about the reason.”
    â€œI’m stronger than I used to be.”
    â€œWell, sure. You’re getting older and