Hell Flower

||8||

Liz and I faced each other on the couch with the small table between us. "How did you learn to control your wolf, Liz?" I asked. "When you were first joined together?"

Liz let out a heavy sigh, drumming her nails on the table lightly. I remembered my mom always tapping on our granite counter like that when she was thinking, or when I annoyed her with questions. I'd been curious about everything as a kid, and I drove both my parents crazy with endless strings of questions.

"The first step is learning to communicate with your wolf," Liz began. "Learning who she is, what she wants, and how she thinks. It's the what we do anytime we enter a new body and have to join together with its current soul. You need to understand each other."

"Okay," I nodded. "So how do I do that? How do I communicate with her?"

"Here's the problem," Liz continued, "when we were joined with our wolves, the connection was already there. There was already a streamway set up between our souls—a channel allowing us to hear each other's thoughts and feel each other's consciousness. It was just a matter of coming to terms with our differences and learning to work together and understand each other rather than fight."

"But I don't have that," I filled in the next part for her when she paused.

"Exactly," Liz said. "You've said you don't even recall what happens during the shifts, right?"

My gaze turned to the window, and I watched the trees and occasional cars rushing by. I thought back to last night—the first time the shift was complete.

Flashes of screaming. Cold snow beneath my feet. Running . . . and the feeling of terror.

"I don't know." I turned my eyes back to Liz. "I guess I do have some memories of it, but it's like scenes from a nightmare. I only have a few flashes and the sensation of what I felt." Terror.

Liz scrunched up her face. "Okay."

"Do you think since I remember bits and pieces, maybe that means I could make a connection with her?" My leg twitched, and my knee bounced against the bottom of the table. "Maybe a streamline is there, but I just have to open it. Like it's blocked or something."

"Maybe," Liz drew the word out. "I think the first thing we should try to do is figure out what your wolf wants. Why the shifts have been happening. If you can understand that, it might help you to form a connection with her."

"Aren't they tied to the full moon?" I thought back to my conversations with Alex earlier that day. "That's why they've been happening once a month for the past year."

"They can be." Liz looked out the window for a moment before turning back to me. "But then the question becomes why have they only just started this year . . . and why did you shift last night and this morning? It's only the 30th today. The full moon isn't until the 31st. Halloween."

I opened my mouth and then closed it again. She was right. The moon almost made sense, but there was still a piece missing. I put my hands on the table facedown and shrugged.

"Allison." Liz reached across the table and took my hands in hers, squeezing lightly. "Why do you think you shifted last night? What was happening?"

I bit down on my lower lip and stared at my hands.

"Not right now, Blake. I said just a drink."

He cocked his head to the side. "Are you sure?" He moved in closer, running his fingers through my hair again. His cold hand grazed my cheek, his thumb running over the corner of my lips. A shudder rushed down my spine. It felt like a snake crawling over me.