Winterlust (COMPLETE)

Tuesday

Violet

Tuesday morning, Violet awakens before her alarm. She throws off the covers, bounds out of bed and down the hall to the shower. She has enough time to do a hair mask in the shower and shave her legs. When she steps out of the shower, she spends ten whole minutes applying body butter all over her skin. After that she tweezes her eyebrows and flosses in between each tooth methodically.

Shuffling through her closet, she settles on a pair of ripped black jeans and a red oversized sweater. She blow dries her hair and then rummages around her vanity drawer until she finds her straightener.

“What’s all the racket?”, Evelyn pokes her head into the room and asks. “Sorry, mom! Just rushing to get ready for school”, Violet answers, looking at her mothers reflection in the mirror as she applies her makeup. Evelyn shakes her head and goes to the kitchen to put on a pot of coffee.

Violet joins her in the kitchen and is literally bright eyed and bushy tailed, as the saying goes. “Wow, sweetheart! You look nice today!”, Evelyn exclaims as she pours them each a cup of coffee. “Thanks! Oh! You didn’t see my dress for the gala!”, she spins around and sprints to her room. In a flash she’s back, breathless. “See? Isn’t it beautiful!?”, she holds up the dress for Evelyn to see.

“It absolutely is, sweetheart. But what on earth has gotten into you? Where is all this energy coming from?” Thinking quickly, Violet replies, “Well I’m just crazy nervous and excited about the gala and last night I finished my college applications. I’ll mail them out on the way to school.” Oof. Better keep that in check.

Violet and Evelyn talk about the dress and college applications for about ten minutes before Violet stands up to leave for school. She pokes her head into the fridge and takes out a shake and wiggles it at Evelyn. Evelyn nods approvingly. She grabs her mother’s car keys off the hall table and puts on her winter coat. “You’ve got a boot camp class at five and ladies’ beginner self defence at six thirty.”, Evelyn reminds her. “Save some of that energy for class”, she laughs as Violet dashes out the door.

Peter

Peter drives one of the packhouse SUV’s for an hour before he pulls off into a smaller town along the way. There, he rents a motor home for them to travel in the rest of the way. They can’t stay at the motel, and the next one is just too far out of town for Janie to get any real investigating done. They’ll stay at a campground just on the other side of the highway.

Once Peter is convinced that the SUV is securely attached to the back of the motor home, they set back out on the road. The plan is to arrive around three o’clock in the afternoon, as that is when the town high school website says that class is done for the day. Janie dozes in the back on the couch for the rest of the ride. She expects to be doing a lot of her “research” under the cover of night.

Peter reaches his big mitt of a hand out toward the seat beside him where Lindsey is, holding her belly. Her medium length ash blond hair is in a ponytail at the base of her neck, and she has a little smile playing on her lips as they drive. She places her hand in his and looks at him with her big blue eyes twinkling. “What?”, he asks her, looking back and forth between Lindsey and the road. Lindsey glances over her shoulder to see that Janie is indeed asleep. “I hope we get a little private time”, she smirks. “I hope so too”, he winks and squeezes her hand.

Evelyn

Evelyn watches her daughter drive away until she’s out of sight. She walks over to the fridge and counts the shakes that are left. Right on track. Satisfied with the answer, Evelyn gets dressed and steps out into the snow for the 20 minute walk to the motel.

Inside the motel reception area, Evelyn shakes off her boots and joins Muriel by the window again. “Mother, what did you learn?”, Evelyn asks. “Those wolves didn’t get a flat, the tire was slashed , Muriel replies. Evelyn raises an eyebrow, “Did someone s***h the tires, or did they make it up?” “I really don’t know, child. We must be extra vigilant in the coming days. We’ve managed to hide her this long, and if we can hang on just a little longer, she will miss the shift during the Cold Moon and be safe from him forever.”

Evelyn nods and stands as a couple enters the motel from outside. Muriel hands her a brown bottle of liquid and Evelyn jams it into her pocket. “Thank you, Aunt Muriel. I’ll see you next week”, she calls on her way out the door.

Outside, Evelyn pulls the bottle of wolfsbane back out of her pocket. Just a little bit longer, Violet.

Janie

Peter and Janie finish setting up the motor home at the campground, and they move inside to help Lindsey set up the kitchen and bathroom, as well as make the beds. They all chat nervously about nothing and everything to try to ease the tension. Are we really on a reconnaissance mission to bring the Luna home with us? Janie actually can’t wait to get moving and get a look at this girl. She was beginning to worry that Travis might actually mark Vanessa and make her their Luna. What a nightmare that would be.

“Alright, I’m off to school!”, she announces, giggling. “Turn on your phone tracker so I can sync it with my phone and find you.”, Peter instructs her. Once they’re all connected, Janie hops into the SUV and heads for the high school. She takes the long way around so she isn’t spotted driving through town and raising questions.

She pulls into a long line of idling cars waiting to pick up kids and cuts the engine. She pulls a baseball cap down over her shag and puts on a pair of sunglasses before exiting the vehicle. She pretends to look at her phone while she inhales deeply, searching for the scent of a wolf. After a few minutes, the faint smell hits her. Wow, her scent is really weak. Janie pretends to twirl around talking on the phone so she can watch her mark. The girl stops dead in her tracks for a moment and seems to be sniffing the air. Janie turns to the side quickly and watches the girl get into a beat up old 2 door car. Janie says loudly into her phone, “What? I thought today was the day I’m picking you up!”, and she jumps back into the SUV. “We’re on the move”, she texts Peter.

Violet

After class, Violet hurries out into the parking lot so she can get to the gym in time. Just as she is almost at the car she stops and looks around her. She looks down on the ground and then checks the bottoms of her boots. Am I having a seizure? Why is the smell of oranges so strong? She pauses for a moment longer and then jumps into the car and drives off.