Free The Dominion Key by Lee Bacon

black soot. Well,
almost
everyone. Sophie and Miranda were as spotless as when they’d walked in.
    “That was fun!” Sophie chirped.
    “Yeah!” Miranda gushed. “I can’t wait to see what Dr. Fleming gives us tomorrow!”
    “Teacher’s pet,” Milton muttered.
    Our next class was PE. After trading our ties and khakis for T-shirts and gym shorts, Milton and I met up with Sophie and Miranda in the center of the basketball court. Lots of other seventh graders were milling around waiting for class to begin—including the tough-looking group we’d seen the day before in the cafeteria. The biggest (and hairiest) was the guy Cassie had called Winston.
    As I approached, he shot me an unfriendly smile, offering another glimpse of his sharp fangs.
    The PE teacher was Coach Stillwell, a middle-aged guy with a massive mustache and a tiny pair of shorts. “Today’s activity,” he said, “is dodgeball.”
    Winston’s deadly grin widened. “This is gonna be fun.”
    Tugging at his undersized shorts, Coach Stillwell selected Winston as one team captain. And for some reason, he singled me out as the other.
    For his team Winston chose his posse from the cafeteria. Which basically included anyone who looked eager for the chance to knock someone’s head off with a rubber ball.
    My picks were Sophie, Milton, Miranda, Cassie, and a bunch of the kids who’d shared our table at dinner.
    “The rules are simple.” Coach Stillwell shuffled across the court, placing rubber balls on the centerline. “You get hit, you’re out. Throw a ball that your opponentcatches before the first bounce, you’re out. First team to eliminate the other side wins. Have fun, and try not to get killed.”
    Stepping to the sideline, Stillwell blew the whistle. The game began.

I’d played dodgeball a few times before, but never like
this
.
    Winston and the rest of his team rushed forward like an attacking army. I was still standing there like an idiot when the first ball was launched in my direction. It was radiating an eerie green glow, as if someone had just dipped it in a pool of radioactive sludge. I would’ve started the game off with a faceful of toxic rubber if I hadn’t hit the deck just in time.
    Rising to my hands and knees, I caught a glimpse of a red-eyed girl on Winston’s team. She was holding a ball in front of her chest. When she removed her hands, the ball remained in place, drifting between her palms, surrounded by waves of red light. It was a disturbing sight, and it only grew worse when she trained her red eyes on me. The energy field crackled and sparked. And even though the girl’shands never moved, the ball shot forward like it had been fired out of a cannon.
    I rolled sideways, feeling a rush of wind sweep past as the ball missed me by less than an inch.
    “You can run!” Winston screamed from across the court. “But you can’t hide!”
    Glancing around, I realized that several of my teammates had already been eliminated. And more were dropping like flies. A scrawny kid was pegged in the back as he tried to escape to the bleachers. Veronica hung from the ceiling rafters—at least until a fastball from Winston brought her back to earth.
    By the time Sophie got her hands on a ball, her skin was glowing like a fluorescent bulb. She lunged and threw the ball. It ripped through the air and slammed into Red Eyes with the force of an eighteen-wheeler, knocking her into the bleachers.
    “Lucky shot,” Winston snarled. As he reached for a ball, hair sprouted from his arms and neck. His fingernails grew into ultrasharp claws. His bulging biceps ripped the sleeves of his T-shirt. His eyes had turned into yellow canine slits, and slobber dripped down his long fangs.
    He was becoming a … wolf.
    One look at him made me miss the bullies back in Sheepsdale. This guy wasn’t even the same
species
as Joey and Brick.
    Releasing a piercing howl, Winston reared back and launched the ball at Cassie. One second she was standing there