Read Strange and Lovely (Part 1) for Free Online Page B

Declan, fully human again. He looked away from my gaze.
    “I need to tell you something.”
    ***
    “Y ou’re a werewolf ?” I repeated for the fourth time. Declan nodded. “What....why....how come you never tell me?”
    “Would you have believed me?” he asked. “I can see how that conversation would go. Hey, Rory, by the way, I can change into a wolf whenever I want or when I feel extreme emotions....Hey, Rory, why are you putting me into an insane asylum? ”
    I rubbed my face. I looked out the window. The sun had gone back down within twenty minutes after it came up. “What about the thing with the rain and the sun? Is that you too?”
    He shook his head. “That’s never happened before. There is a myth...”
    “The daughter of the stars,” I finished. He nodded, raising his eyebrow. “My professor told me about it.”
    His eyebrow raised even higher. “Your professor? Normal humans don’t know anything us about us. They can’t know. If they knew they’d want to hunt us down and experiment on us. ”
    “Saying he’s normal is a bit of a stretch...”
    “Unless...” Declan pondered deeply.
    “What do you mean?” I asked. “Are you saying he’s some kind of werewolf too?”
    “No...” Declan said. He gave me a sheepish look. “There’s not only werewolves. I’ve heard that there’s pixies, fairies, ghosts, demons, vampires, mermaids...though, my brother could be lying about some of those. I met a pixie once. She was a bitch.”
    “And...nobody knows about them?” I asked. “I mean, nobody normal knows about them?”
    “No,” he said. “We have a council that makes sure everything is kept secret. My brother is worried about these beheadings though. He thinks it has to be a supernatural creature. He suspects its vampires. By beheading them, nobody can see the bite marks.”
    “Is there a lot of supernatural creatures?” I asked. “Or are they all here in New York City?”
    “Well...” he said. “I told you my brother and I came here because our uncle was retiring and we were taking over the bar. It’s actually because there were rumors that a large source of power had moved here. A lot of people move to the city in the fall, so I never made the connection, but...it must be you. You’re the power source.”
    I shook my head. “That’s impossible.”
    “Didn’t you just see me turn into a hairy mongrel?” he teased. I put my head in my hands.
    “I just wanted to go to college not be a part of some trumped up prophecy,” I groaned. He bowed his head.
    “I’m sorry,” he said. “I wouldn’t wish this supernatural life on anybody. And I’m sorry I let my feral side take over. I understand if you’re afraid and you don’t want me showing up around here anymore.”
    I leaned against his arm and kissed his cheek.
    “What because you sprouted a little hair and finally reached puberty? I need you now more than ever,” I said. He nodded.
    “My brother says a war is coming,” he said. “Everyone is going to want you because of what you can do.”
    “Make it stop raining?” I asked. He smiled.
    “You can make the sun never appear again,” he said. “That’s what the vampires want. They experience excruciating pain in the sun, and die if they’re in sunlight for too long. Without the sun, they could go wherever and whenever they wanted. The moon has a gravitational force that changes the tides. The mermaids want high tides all of the time.”
    “And what do werewolves want?” I asked. He shrugged.
    “We like the full moon. It seems to give us more energy and make us more powerful, but it’s not as big of a deal for us as other creatures,” he said. “What we want is to keep you away from the other creatures because if they get you, they will have an unstoppable amount of power.”
    “I don’t even know how I made it stop raining or made the sun come up,” I said.
    “It seems to be connected to strong emotions too,” he said. “But I don’t know. There has