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The air reeked of death.
He opened the door wider. No humans lived. The wolves had abandoned
the ballroom in favor of living prey.
     
    Bernard extended a hand to Charlotte. "Come,
we must get to safety."
     
    Charlotte saw the ballroom and cowered in the
doorway. "Bernard ... oh, Bernard!"
     
    He looped an arm through hers and guided her
out of the powder room. "Don't look, darling. We'll take horses
from the stables and ride to Marshal Sterling's up the road. He'll
know what to do--"
     
    A werewolf reared up from behind the buffet
table. It licked its chocolate-smeared jaws and snarled. Bernard
and Charlotte froze, Charlotte with a small scream.
     
    The wolf leaped over the table and ran toward
them on all fours, ears pinned back and teeth bared. Bernard flung
Charlotte behind him and raised his fists in a pathetic defense
against the monster.
     
    The werewolf caught his left arm in its jaws
and bit down. Its teeth pierced through his coat sleeve and deep
into his flesh. It worried his arm and jerked Bernard sideways. He
landed heavily on one knee and held up his other arm to shield his
throat. But the wolf sprang upon Charlotte and bit her arm, too.
She screamed--a long, horrible sound worse than any of the shrieks
of that night.
     
    But the wolf released her and paced around
them in a circle, tongue hanging out like a pleased dog. Was it
laughing at them? Its eyes flicked between them with human cunning.
Bernard watched it and horror struck him like lightning. It knew it
had cursed them.
     
    The wolf bounded to the buffet table, where
it resumed working its way through an entire roast ham.
     
    "Why did it leave us alone?" whispered
Charlotte.
     
    Bernard scowled at his bleeding arm. "It
inflicted its curse on us."
     
    Charlotte gaped at the bite wound. "We're ...
going to turn into one of them?"
     
    Yes, there was no avoiding the
transformation. But the elixir coursed in their veins, working
against the mind-altering state of the curse. Despite the pain and
what was coming next, a tiny flame of hope burned in Bernard's
heart. "Let's return to our rooms. Can you stand?"
     
    He helped Charlotte to her feet, and pulled
up one layer of her crimson dress to wrap around her wound. She
colored at the impropriety of this, but said nothing. There was no
one left to see.
     
    The pair made their way out of the
slaughterhouse that had been the ballroom. The entrance hall was
strewn with the servants' bodies. Charlotte moaned and covered her
eyes with her good hand. Bernard shot her a glance. Was she
sickened at the sight of more death? Or genuinely sorry for people
she had known?
     
    They turned from the sight and climbed the
stairs to their personal rooms. Bernard made for his own room out
of habit.
     
    As he opened his door (in relief, as his
rooms were untouched by wolves), Charlotte whimpered. Bernard
smiled in self-conscious embarrassment. "I know you've never been
in here, but it's all right," he started to say.
     
    But Charlotte gazed at her hands. Fur
sprouted from her smooth skin, and her perfect nails lengthened
into hooked claws.
     
    Fresh horror struck him like a cartload of
bricks. He pulled her into the room and closed the door. Beneath
his clothing, pain lanced through his bones. Would the elixir
preserve his mind, or would he become a monster inside and out?
Would they attack each other once they transformed?
     
    Charlotte groaned and slumped forward,
pulling at her dress. "Bernard," she gasped, "I can't breathe!"
     
    A spasm of pain locked his jaw, and he
nodded. As she pulled her arms out of her dress, he glimpsed her
corset, laced tight as a noose around her torso. She shot him a
pleading look. Her eyes had already turned yellow.
     
    Bernard forced his trembling body to step
behind her and raised a hand to the laces. But his fingers had
thickened and gone rigid with muscle, and his fingernails had
become claws. He'd be as likely to stab his wife as free her. But
the curse was forcing her to