“I could ask you the same question. My name in Lincoln. Lincoln Anderson.”
“Liv O’Dell. What just happened here, Mr. Anderson?”
“Lincoln, please. You broke my curse.”
Again, with the curses.
“What curse? And I don’t think it was me.”
“It was most definitely you. I felt your Power. What are you, Liv O’Dell?”
“Well, that’s a bit of a rude question,” I huff at this point, only now noticing he is completely naked. Closing my eyes and touching his arm, I think of clothes and thankfully, when I open my eyes again, he is fully clothed in a black t-shirt and jeans.
“Huh. Neat trick,” he says, looking down at himself. “You didn’t like what you saw?” he says with a slight twinkle in his eyes.
Blushing a tiny bit, as I did indeed like what I saw, I ignore the remark and ask him again, “What curse?”
“Your friend in the castle there cursed me to roam these forests on an altered schedule.”
“He is not my friend, I can assure you of that. What do you mean ‘roam on an altered schedule?’”
He grins at my English accent, his being, strangely, American.
“Instead of being human and turning into a Wolf at the full moon, I am a Wolf and turn human for three nights of the month, bound to these forests.”
My mouth drops open. “A Werewolf?” I ask hesitantly.
He nods. “You are a Vampire. A Powerful one. And a Shifter? But I can’t tell what kind,” he says.
“I am both.”
He shrugs off my vagueness, asking instead, “What year is it?”
Huh, the second time I have been asked that tonight.
“2012.”
He looks alarmed and then sad. “Fifty-seven years. I’ve been here fifty-seven years.”
“What? Unable to leave even in human form?” I ask.
“No, I have been confined here by his Witches, unable to leave, and no one ever comes. Except the other wolves.”
“Not Witches,” I say as if that makes a difference to him. “Romani. Powerful, magick.”
“But you are more so as you broke the curse. Tell me, how did you do it?”
“I really don’t know. I was talking to you and thought how nice it would be if you understood me and could talk back and then there you were.”
“Lizzie!” I suddenly hear Devon calling me. “Lizzie!” He tracks me down within seconds and I stand up, helping Lincoln up as well.
“There you are!” Devon says as he sees me. His eyes shift to Lincoln and to our clasped hands. I pull away and he shifts his eyes back to mine. “You need to come back inside, right away.”
“Cole?” I ask in panic.
“No, he is fine. It’s Constantine. You need to come.”
“What happened?”