Chameleon (Supernaturals) by Kelly Oram

back right away. Then my body turned to fire and I attacked him with force. I wasn’t sure if it was because of the craving, or if it was the intensity of the moment, or if maybe it was something that had always been there, tucked away just below the surface.
    I’d always loved Russ. I’d wondered every now and then if we’d ever be more than friends but I’d never felt the need. I would have been content had we never crossed that line. Now, as I finally got a taste of what romance with Russ could be like, I wondered how I’d ever lived without it. Letting him go and ending this kiss was going to kill me. It was so perfect that I wondered, on the off chance I didn’t come back any time soon, if I’d look back on this moment and be grateful or if it would haunt me.
    “I love you,” Russ whispered when we finally broke apart.
    “I love you too. Always. I promise.”
    “No, Dani, I mean I love you.”
    I knew that’s what he meant the first time, but my eyes still widened and my stomach twisted in on itself. He wanted me to say it too, and I meant to, but when I opened my mouth what came out was, “I’ll call you when I get there.”

Duncan had the decency to ask for a blanket before shuffling me out the door since I was still wearing nothing but Russ’s t-shirt. Russ came back with a small quilt off his bed. It was one we’d made together in home-ec the previous semester. He’d hated every minute of that class, but we’d done a good job on the quilt and Russ was secretly proud of it even if he’d never admit it.
    We fought about who got to keep the quilt and finally came up with a joint custody plan, but I knew how much he liked it so I never came to claim it when it was my turn. I knew he was giving it to me now as a piece of him to take with me. I pulled the blanket around me and didn’t plan on ever letting it out of my fingers.
    After that I was stuffed into the back of a limo. I’d never ridden in a limo, but I wasn’t exactly in the mood to ogle. I was the first one in the car and Duncan followed behind me. He started to sit by me but took one look at the scowl on my face and sat across the car from me instead. As it turns out I should have let him sit next to me, because Robert and Constance didn’t seem to care that I wanted to be left alone. The jerks sat down on either side of me.
    “You don’t need to worry,” Constance said. “We’ll get everything sorted out. You’ll be able to see your family again soon enough.”
    If she was waiting for me to show some gratitude or relief, she was delusional.
    When I ignored her, Robert cleared his throat. “I think you’re going to like the consulate, Danielle. You’ve been raised in a world you don’t belong to for so long. I think you’ll find it a relief to be around your own kind.”
    I hated Robert. Mr. Know-It-All seemed all smiles now that he’d successfully taken me away from my home. Did he really think I’d be happier with a bunch of stupid strangers who’d more or less kidnapped me than my own parents who raised me and loved me? And Russ and Alex who loved me too, and knew me better than anyone in the whole world? How dare he say I didn’t belong there? It was my home!
    Ignoring him too, I got up and moved across the limo to sit next to Duncan. Duncan gave me a sideways glance, but didn’t say anything. He leaned back and closed his eyes as if he planned on sleeping the whole drive.
    Robert looked really annoyed that I’d insulted him, but he seemed determined to act friendly. “It’s an honor to be invited to the consulate,” he told me. “Not many people get the opportunity to meet the Supreme High Councilor, and he is very excited to get to know you. Truly you are a very special girl.”
     Just as I was thinking I’d throw myself out the door of the speeding car if I had to listen to him go on like that all the way to New York, I felt the tiniest nudge. I looked down and Duncan had slipped an MP3 player onto the seat