Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause Read Free Book Online Page A

sure.
    But on Thursday night when she flung up her bedroom window and looked at the sky, she realized that the moon would be full on Saturday. There was no way she could go to that party with Aiden. The hair prickled roughly on her arms. She climbed hastily onto the porch roof outside her window, leaped to the yard, and the change was upon her almost before she reached the cover of the riverbank weeds.
    The nearer to full moon, the quicker the change, the less control; and the night Earth’s sister loomed round and whole there was no choice—a
loup-garou
must change no matter what.
Saturday,
Vivian thought with dismay as she shuddered to all fours. But then the perfume of the night wiped away her thoughts.
    Before dawn Vivian stretched into her human shape amid the weeds, wiping the river mud in smears across her naked abdomen. She yawned wide, tongue curling. Time for another nap before school.
    The tall grass rustled, but there was no wind. Vivian’s eyes narrowed. Then she sniffed the musky smell of wolf-kind and her hairs lay flat again.
    â€œVivian,” a harsh voice whispered. Rafe crawled from his hidden nest. He waved her underwear at her. “I’ve been waiting for you.”
    â€œGimme those.” She snatched them from him.
    He crouched, watching her dress. “I miss you,” he said.
    Vivian shrugged. “You see me.”
    â€œNot like before.”
    â€œWe grew apart. You know.” They’d been through all that.
    â€œI don’t understand you, Vivian.”
    â€œYou sound like my mother.”
    Rafe stuck his face in hers. “You broke up with me because of the girl I killed to get Axel out of jail,” he said. “But I bet if you got a sniff of human blood you’d get your muzzle wet.”
    She jerked away.
    When the Goddess, the Lady Moon, gave wolf-kind the gift to change, she warned the first
loups-garoux
to pity humans for their soft, immutable flesh, for wolf-kind had once been like them. “Use your eyes,” the Goddess said. “Look at them and praise my name for changing you; kill them and kill yourselves.” But humans were vulnerable and preylike. They triggered the instinct to hunt.
    â€œWe should stay far from humans when we’re changed.”
    â€œThey are ours to hunt,” Rafe said. “Axel knew. He couldn’t hold back any longer. We were losing our balls in West Virginia, Vivian.”
    â€œYou can hold tight to your balls and twist,” said Vivian, dragging her T-shirt over her head.
    How many of the pack yearn to hunt like the Five?
Vivian wondered later as she crawled into bed.
How long do we have until we are destroyed?
    The phone rang while Vivian ate breakfast with Esmé. Rudy answered it. After a short conversation he came into the kitchen. “That was the last agreement. The Ordeal is on.”
    â€œIt can’t be this full moon,” Esmé said.
    Rudy sat down at the table with them. “I know. Orlando says that by law we have to allow a full month in case others want to come from afar.”
    â€œSo it’s July then,” Esmé said. “July thirteenth?”
    â€œSounds right.” Rudy shook his head. “I wish it wasn’t so far away, though.” He finished his coffee and stood up. “Gotta get to work.”
    â€œYeah, me too.” Esmé said. “Wash up for me, babe. Okay?” She left, followed by the sounds of Vivian’s protests.
    â€œI’m grounded,” Vivian told Aiden at lunchtime. The idea that someone could limit her freedom was mortifying, but the excuse was something Aiden could understand.
    â€œGrounded?” He looked at her in amazement. “What did you do to get grounded?”
    â€œStayed out all night with my cousins smoking dope.” She was damned if she’d pretend to be grounded for some tame reason.
    He ran his fingers through his hair as he digested what she’d told him. Silently, she