Mia walked down the street, looking for someone to grab. For the first time in a month, she finally felt relaxed at night. And even though she wanted to think Zev had finally managed to get Rudi to leave her alone – or that the mistletoe had convinced her – she knew that neither of those was the reason she finally felt so at ease. The reason was much simpler; tonight was the full moon. That meant that even if Rudi did choose to ignore Zev, she still wouldn't be able to follow Mia tonight. Mia almost laughed at the thought. Now that she knew werewolves were in this town, she never would have thought she'd feel safer on a full moon.

It only took about half an hour for Mia to find someone. As she approached, she felt a kind of giddiness; she'd forgotten how easy this was when she wasn't being stalked herself. She smiled sweetly, came up with the perfect lie, and expertly put the man at ease. It was just like it used to be before Rudi started paying too much attention to her. It was just like it should be.

She laid the man down on the sidewalk behind a row of parked cars and leaned in. She felt so good, so relieved. This was the first night in way too long where she'd been able to do this without worrying. Even when she had that mistletoe with her, she'd always been a little nervous that Rudi might still try to follow her – at least from a distance. And even though that hadn't seemed to be the case, it had still always been in the back of her mind. But not tonight. Tonight, she didn't even bother wearing that stuff in her hair; Rudi wouldn't be out, so there wasn't anything to worry about. And knowing that her hair wouldn't have that smell in it for once would probably make Zev happy.

She took her time, almost enjoying the feeling – definitely enjoying it more than she had since the start of the year. When she was finally done, Mia stood up, wiping her mouth on her sleeve. And now that she was finished, she felt great. She turned around, ready to head back to the bus stop. But out of the corner of her eye, she saw someone lurking in the shadows. She stared closely for a minute and saw Rudi standing there, a strange grin on her face.

Mia stared at her for a second, trying not to panic. This was exactly what she was afraid would happen. How could she have been so careless? Mia knew there was only one thing she could do now – she was going to have to explain. If she could make Rudi think she didn't really see what she'd seen – or maybe just explain why it wasn't really so bad – maybe she could make this whole thing go away.

She leapt up, hurrying towards Rudi. But Rudi didn't wait around for her. As soon as Mia was up and moving, Rudi started making her way back down the street in the opposite direction. Normally, Mia was pretty sure she would have been able to catch up to someone running away without too many problems. But Rudi was faster than any human, and she'd already had a head start. Mia just hoped her desperation would make her fast enough to actually catch up with Rudi.

Rudi turned a corner up ahead, and Mia followed. She wasn't sure if it was just wishful thinking, but she was pretty sure she was gaining on her. They ran for several blocks before turning another corner, then another. And the longer Mia ran, the more sure she was that she really could catch up to Rudi. She was almost within reach when Rudi made a sudden left into a narrow alleyway between two buildings. Mia rushed in, not even caring if it could be a trap. But when she got there, Rudi was nowhere to be found. Mia didn't know how it happened, but she'd lost her – and probably her only chance to find out just how bad this was going to be.

▼△▼△▼△▼

Mia didn't get any sleep that night. She kept replaying the whole thing in her mind over and over, going through any possible mistakes she could have made. She would have said she was too careful to have made any, but that obviously wasn't true. How could she have been caught like that? And on a full moon? She was sure that was the one night she was safe. Could she have been mistaken about what night the full moon was? She grabbed her little calendar out of her desk, flipping quickly through to this month. The calendar said the full moon was supposed to be tonight. Well, obviously the stupid thing was wrong.

She must have texted Zev ten times that night, each message more desperate than the last. Part of her knew there was no way he'd be texting her back tonight; he'd be out with everyone else in his neighborhood. But if she was wrong about when the full moon was, maybe she was wrong about any of them being out tonight. Besides, she really didn't know what she else was supposed to do.

Mia spent the whole night trying to think. If Rudi really had seen her, she was in serious trouble. How was she supposed to fix this? She tried to tell herself that Rudi really hadn't seen her – that somehow she'd appeared too late. But Mia knew that wasn't true; nobody looked like that unless they knew something – and probably already had a very good idea about what to do with the information.

By the time the sun was starting to come up, Mia had just about worked herself into a panic. She was about three minutes from packing her bags and running away; if Rudi really did know something, it was the only way Mia could think to keep herself safe. The thought of people around here treating her like they did in her hometown was more than her stomach could take. She'd live by herself in the middle of nowhere before she put herself through that again. But before she ran away for good, she had to find out what exactly Rudi knew.

Of course, it was only Sunday, meaning Mia couldn't just wait and ask Rudi at school. Not that she'd want to do that anyway – if Rudi decided to make a scene, having a crowd around to witness it would be just about the worst thing that could happen. And there was no way Mia could wait until Monday for something like this anyway. No, she was going to find out right now.

Mia knew exactly where Rudi lived – right next to Zev. And of course she knew the fastest way to get there; she could be there in fifteen minutes if she timed the buses right. Mia was waiting outside Rudi's house just as the sun finally finished making its way over the horizon.

Mia saw Rudi walking casually up towards her house with a group of girls like nothing was wrong. But Mia wasn't fooled for an instant. As soon as Rudi left her friends, Mia stalked over to her, meeting up with her at the edge of the driveway.

"Where were you last night?" Mia asked. She tried not to sound hysterical, but the look on Rudi's face said she wasn't succeeding very well.

"What do you mean?" Rudi asked calmly. Mia wouldn't have even known anything was wrong if she hadn't seen Rudi just a few hours ago.

"Don't lie to me – I know where you were." Mia snapped. This was way too important for Mia to be wasting time playing games. "I saw you."

"You did?" Suddenly, Rudi looked a little nervous. That was all the proof Mia needed to know she was right all along. Why else would Rudi be worried about Mia seeing her?

"Why were you there? Why can't you just leave me alone?" Mia asked, her voice rising shrilly.

"Wait – what?" Rudi blinked. "What are you talking about?"

"I saw you last night. Downtown." Mia told her. She was too upset to bother figuring out why Rudi would pretend to be confused.

"No, you didn't." Rudi managed to go from relieved to cocky in a split second.

"Yes I did!" Mia practically screamed.

She was vaguely aware that there was a small group of people staring at her from across the street, but she didn't care. Let anybody in this neighborhood know what Rudi had been doing – maybe that would make her finally stop. And right now, Mia's top priority was finding out what Rudi was doing there last night; she had to know what she saw and what she was planning on doing about it.

"Hey – what's going on?" Zev asked, hurrying up from across the street. He sounded worried – maybe even a little annoyed. Looked like Mia's attempted questioning was going to have to be speeded up a bit; once he got over here, there was no way he'd let her finish.

"So what were you doing then?" she asked, turning back to Rudi.

"None of your business." Rudi snapped.

"It definitely is my business." Mia told her. "Especially since you can't seem to leave me alone."

"Mia – what are you doing?" Zev asked, coming up between her and Rudi. He looked kind of concerned. He leaned over and whispered to her, "You can't be here right now."

"But, she's stalking me." Mia told him, eyes never leaving Rudi. "I want to know why."

She knew she really shouldn't have just wandered into his neighborhood on the day after what might possibly have been a full moon after all, but that didn't change the fact that she was here now. And now that she was, she figured she was finally going to get some answers for once.

"I haven't followed you in weeks!" Rudi yelled.

"In weeks?" Mia sneered. She knew for a fact that wasn't true.

"Like six days then." Rudi said haughtily.

Out of the corner of her eye, Mia saw Zev straighten. Looked like Rudi really had been sneaking out after he'd talked to her after all.

"And last night?" Mia asked.

"I wasn't anywhere near downtown last night." Rudi said. Then grinning wickedly, she glanced at Zev. "Just ask your boyfriend."

"Last night?" he asked slowly. The annoyance he'd had just a minute ago was gone, replaced by a kind of weird expression that Mia couldn't quite read. Then turning to her he said, "She couldn't have been downtown last night."

"But she was."

Mia tried not to stare at him wide-eyed, but it was kind of hard. Why didn't he believe her? How was she supposed to make this stop if not even her boyfriend thought she was telling the truth? Zev studied her carefully for a minute, not saying anything.

"When was the last time you slept?" he asked finally. Apparently, she hadn't done quite as good a job at looking calm and put-together as she'd been hoping. And if he was actually asking her about her sleeping habits, she must really look bad.

"Or ate." Rudi added, not missing the opportunity. "You look pretty pale."

Mia's eyes flashed. She whirled around to face Rudi, completely forgetting about Zev. She lunged at Rudi, not even worrying about the consequences. All she cared about was making sure that the stalking and the taunting stopped. And at the moment, she had a great idea how to do that.

Zev must have seen the look on her face because he grabbed her before she could actually reach Rudi. He pinned her arms to her sides, and Mia suddenly found herself standing on her toes. Rudi took a step back, and for once, she looked scared.

"Ok – time to go." Zev told Mia.

"What's going on?" a voice Mia didn't recognize asked. It was a man, she knew that – a man who was used to having people listen to him.

Mia turned around as best she could, trying to see who it was. She really wished Zev would let her go, but she figured that wouldn't be happening any time soon. She was pretty sure she could just overpower him, but something in the back of her mind told her that wouldn't be a good idea, especially not here.

Still holding Mia tightly, Zev took a step back to make room for him. As he did, Mia saw Luke was standing right there, just behind the man. Great. So now Luke would see her having a meltdown in front of Zev's house too. And Mia was almost positive Luke wouldn't believe her about seeing Rudi any more than Zev did. So now two of her friends would think she was crazy.

"Is there a problem here?" the man asked again. Actually, he sounded like a cop to Mia.

"No, sir." Zev said.

Mia just watched him silently. Yeah, with the way he was acting, Mia was sure that whoever he was talking to was definitely a cop. Mia tried not to be worried, but it probably wasn't a good sign to have the police involved in this. Maybe if she could just explain it in a way that didn't sound crazy, she could get out of this mess.

Mia started to say something but stopped herself; something wasn't quite right. Quickly, she ran her tongue along her teeth. Fangs. She must have done that when she was still thinking it'd be a good idea to attack Rudi. Well, she was definitely going to have to fix that. She wondered vaguely if Rudi had noticed – was that why she'd looked so scared? Mia glanced quickly at Rudi. The expression on her face was hard to read, so Mia decided to ignore it for the moment; she had enough to worry about right now anyway. After making sure she really didn't have fangs showing any more, Mia craned her neck, looking back up at Zev.

"She's stalking me." Mia said quietly to him.

Now that she was calming down, she figured it'd be best to talk to him; maybe he could put a positive spin on this that she couldn't quite think of. Besides, she was still a little too scared to really come up with a believable excuse anyway. All she could concentrate on was the fact that no one believed her. And if that was really the case, how could she ever get Rudi to stop?

Maybe it was Mia's imagination, but she thought she saw the man stand up straighter, along with Zev and Luke.

"I know." Zev whispered to her.

"Is that true?" the man asked.

"Yes, sir." Zev said. Luke nodded along behind him, looking grim.

"Zev, Luke, why don't you take your friend inside?" the man said. "Rudi, come with me."

As they walked away, Mia heard the man tell Rudi, "This is the reason you don't hound people."