I wish I was changing clothes to go to that party, she thought, and threw her brush down.
Red dappled the sky, fireflies flickered outside her window-little wantons looking for a night of love-and the voices of the dusk grew loud. The fine hairs on Vivian’s back rose, eager for the change.
Wait a while, she told herself, wait till it’s fully dark.
But it was hard to wait for the night at full moon.
There was muffled laughter in the yard below. What now? A chorus of ragged voices split the air, drowning out the insect song. “Ahwooo! Ahwooo!”
She stuck her head out the window. “Quit that howling out there.”
The howling dissolved into more laughter.
“Come out and run with us, Vivian,” Willem called. “Please, please.”
“No way,” Vivian called back. She climbed out onto the roof and looked down. Finn appeared disgusted as Willem wrung his hands theatrically. Ulf was fidgeting as usual, hopping from one foot to the other as if he wanted to pee. Gregory grinned glitteringly bright; his teeth were already pointed. “Come on, Viv. We’re gonna have a great time.”
Rafe beckoned with a claw. “The moon feels good on your back, Viv.”
Vivian could feel the wolf inside uncurling, but she laughed derisively. “It’s not the moon you picture on my back. Go visit your head-banger sluts and see what they think of you with your fur on. They probably won’t notice the difference.”
Gregory’s pointy grin got wider at that suggestion and Ulf giggled.
Great Moon, she thought.
Willem looked up with huge, disappointed eyes. “Aw, Viv. You never come anymore. The rabbits are getting sassy. One poked its tongue out at me last night.”
She softened slightly. She and Willem used to have the best times rabbit hunting. “Another time, okay, Willi? But not full moon.”
Rafe put his arm around Gregory’s shoulders. “Come on then. That bitch is too stuck up to hang with us anymore. She prefers meat-boys. Didn’t your mother tell you not to play with your food?” he yelled up at her.
Willem shot her an apologetic glance, and Gregory blew her a kiss. Finn nudged Ulf in the rear with a boot, making him squeak. When they reached the gloom of the woods she saw Rafe toss his shirt in the air and saw Finn tip forward to stand on paws.
She sat on the porch roof, allowing them plenty of time to leave. They usually ran toward the city to find mischief in the urban debris; she would run upstream through local parks and quiet neighborhoods.
A pleasant hum coursed through her. The night began to look different-the hairs on a leaf stood huge like a forest, the edges of the trees were crisp. She lay back to enjoy the stars.
Did we come from there? she wondered.
Are we an alien race that was marooned? Perhaps our transmuting power was a survival trick, and now we’ve forgotten that human wasn’t our first form.
Perhaps belief in the Moon Goddess was only an echo of an ancient truth.
The shingles beneath her were rough and pleasing to her sensitive skin. She already felt the beginning creak of bones reforming, the pop of sinews changing. She forced down the cramp in her gut; she would have to leave soon. She couldn’t change on a rooftop lit by moonlight. What would the neighbors think?
As if on cue, she smelled the odor of a human. Someone taking an evening stroll, perhaps?
There was scrabbling down where the drainpipe emptied. Rat? She rose to a crouch. No, someone was climbing the pipe. She heard a muffled grunt of effort and the tiny ching of metal against metal.
Burglar? The lights were off, the truck was gone, it was Saturday night. Possible.
Vivian crept to the edge of the roof, keeping low. Her eyes narrowed, her claws grew, and her smile was thin and vicious. Burglar Bill would take some stripes home.
She lifted her hand to strike as a head rose over the eaves.
“You!” She snatched her hand back.
“Vivian, you scared the piss outta me.”
Aiden pulled himself over the gutter and onto the roof.
“Surprise!” Aiden said.
Vivian swallowed a growl.
No shit.
“What are you doing here?” she managed to choke out as she sat back on her haunches. She trembled with the strain of holding back the change.
“I thought you’d be happy to see me,” Aiden said.
“You startled me,” she muttered, sorry about the hurt in his eyes.
His velvet smile forgave her. “I thought if you couldn’t get to the party, I’d bring the party to you.” He crawled to her side and shrugged off his backpack. She almost pulled away but the richness of his smell held her close against her will. “I wasn’t expecting to find you on the roof,” he said. “I was gonna knock on your window.” He unbuckled the backpack and pulled out a bottle of wine.
Dear Moon, he’s sweet, Vivian thought in anguish. A swift pang hit her gut, and she bit the inside of her cheek, hoping the pain would keep her sane.
Not sweet like that, she screamed silently, staring with panicked eyes at his round firm thighs.
After the wine came two glasses wrapped in a bandanna, then a chunk of cheese, a plastic knife, and some paper napkins left over from Christmas.
“Classy, huh?” Aiden’s eyes glittered with delight.
She licked her lips nervously. “Lovely. You brought dinner,” she heard herself say. She wanted to bolt for the woods.
You fool, she thought.
You shouldn’t have come.
She glanced at the moon. It was still behind the trees, its light mercifully broken by foliage so that she and Aiden were covered by mottled shadow. Could he see any change in her? Aiden was cutting slices of cheese onto the bandanna, babbling away. He didn’t seem to notice anything wrong.
She experienced a dizzying surge of pain and pleasure and her face twitched. Her hands flew to her ears and felt them push past her fingers. She hastily pulled her hair around her face.
How do I make him go? she thought as her joints began to pop.
“Here you go.” He held a slice of cheese to her mouth and it was all she could do not to take his fingers off. The cheese was sharp and ripe and clung to her tongue. She sluiced it down with the glass of wine he offered.
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