Moonlight Rising

by Linski, Megan

  I opened my mouth to say more, but I quickly snapped it shut. If I tried to say something to her about avoiding Camden, it would only drive her closer to him.

  “You okay?” Concern entered Briana’s voice.

  “What? Yeah. I’m fine. Here.” I shoved my container in her direction. “It’s all I had at home.”

  She peeked into the container. “Ooh, rice crispy treats. Thanks for bringing something. My dad already has the grill going. Did you want a brat or a hamburger? Or both?”

  I followed Briana to the kitchen. “A brat is fine, thanks.”

  “Dad! Katie wants a brat,” she shouted through the open French doors that led to the back patio.

  “Okay,” he shouted back.

  A light knock came from the front door a moment before it creaked open. “Hello?” Lisa’s voice traveled down the hall.

  “In here,” Briana called back.

  My friends and I gathered food and then headed to the patio to join Austin and a few of his friends. I was relieved to find that Camden hadn’t made it yet.

  Fifteen minutes later, I was laughing so hard at one of Austin’s jokes that I nearly choked on my soda. It was at that moment that Camden decided to make an appearance. I coughed a few more times and then went silent.

  Austin hopped up from his chair. “Hey, man.”

  “Hey.” Camden came around the side of the house. He spoke quietly like he was tired. “Am I late?”

  “Nah, there’s plenty of food left,” Austin told him.

  “Hey, Camden,” Briana called, waving him over. “We saved you a seat.”

  I quickly shoved the rest of my food in my mouth and then stood. “I’m going for seconds,” I announced, even though no one seemed to notice. I was actually pretty full, but I didn’t want to end up sitting right next to him.

  I slipped inside and tossed my paper plate in the garbage. Sighing, I reached for one of the rice crispy bars and pulled it apart before popping a chunk in my mouth.

  “Hey,” a deep voice came from the doorway.

  I whirled around in surprise.

  Camden furrowed his brow. “You okay?”

  I shoved another piece of rice crispy in my mouth. “Yeah. I’m fine. You?”

  “Yeah, just a headache. I get them all the time.” He shrugged like it was no big deal.

  I leaned against the counter uncomfortably but kept my eyes on the rice crispy bar I was peeling apart. The marshmallow goo left a string between the pieces. I glanced up just in time to catch Camden staring.

  “What?” I asked curiously.

  He blinked a few times before answering. “Nothing. You just…remind me of someone.”

  I nodded slowly but took the opportunity in the silence to slip out the door. When I looked back for just a split second, I could have sworn I saw that dark aura around him again. I was already moving so fast that I didn’t stop to confirm. Instead, I headed down to the fire pit near the lake shore. The fire wasn’t even going yet, and everyone else was still up by the house eating, but I didn’t see the harm in escaping.

  “Heads up!” someone called from down the beach.

  I glanced up just in time to see a volleyball headed straight toward my head. I did the only thing I could do. I smacked it out of the way. The ball soared in a new direction, bouncing off the end of the dock and landing in the water. It slowly floated farther and farther from the dock.

  “Really, Katie?” A sophomore named Drake rushed up to me with a disappointed look on his face.

  He lived next door to Briana and almost always held some sort of party at his place on the weekends. This weekend, it was beach volleyball. I always figured it was his way of trying to show Briana up. The other sophomores around the net groaned and stared out at the water as the ball distanced itself from shore.

  “What are we going to do now?” Drake complained, crossing his short arms.

  “You could jump in after it,” I suggested with a shrug.

  “To hell with that. You go get it. You’re the one who hit it in the lake anyway.”

  I continued on my way to the fire pit and sat. There was usually no reasoning with this kid. “No way. You’re the one who hit it at my head.”

  “It’s not like I meant it.” Drake stood next to me, but even with me sitting down, he was only a few inches taller.

  “I didn’t mean it, either,” I defended.

  He turned to yell at his friends, who hadn’t stopped groaning. “Hang on!” His attention focused back on me. “Are you going to go get our ball or not?”

  I glanced down at his shorts and bare feet. “I’m not jumping in the lake. I’m fully clothed. You’re only wearing shorts, and you can go inside and change if you don’t want to be wet.”

  Drake let out a puff of air like I was being unfair. And, okay, maybe I was, but it didn’t matter what I did. Nothing would please him.

  “What’s going on?” Camden’s voice came from behind me.

  I twisted to find him followed by Briana and Lisa, who both looked at me with concern. We all knew that if Drake made an appearance, it was bad news.

  “Katie threw my ball into the lake and won’t go get it,” Drake complained like he was tattling to his parents.

  “I didn’t mean to,” I repeated.

  Camden glanced between Drake and me like he couldn’t believe we were actually fighting about this. “Okay. There’s a simple solution.”

  “And what’s that?” Drake challenged.

  Camden was already slipping off his shoes and socks. When his shirt came off, Briana drew in an auditory breath. Camden didn’t say anything as he hurried to the end of the dock and jumped in the water. I stared wide-eyed after him. A second later, his head poked up over the surface, and he swam to retrieve the ball. Water pooled on the dock when he climbed out of the lake. He shook the water from his hair and tossed the ball in Drake’s direction. Drake fumbled and just barely caught it before running back to his friends without so much as a thank you.

  “Oh my god.” Briana rushed toward Camden. “You must be freezing. Let’s get you inside and dry you off.”

  I remained speechless, still not quite believing that he bailed me out of that one. On his way past me, Camden grabbed his t-shirt and shoes. He caught my eye as he stood, and I couldn’t help but mouth a thank you to him.

  Maybe Camden wasn’t quite as bad as I thought he was.

  Chapter Five

  That night, I arrived home so late that Dad was already in bed. I considered myself lucky because then I could look through my spell book without worry of being caught. I pulled the ancient thing out from under my bed and clicked on the bedside lamp before crawling under the sheets. I opened the front cover carefully and gently turned the delicate page to the table of contents. Mom had told me the spell book was my grandma’s, but I suspected it was much older than that. I didn’t think my mom ever knew where Grandma got it, but with how fragile the pages seemed, I could only guess it had more than three owners.

  When I couldn’t find what I was looking for in the table of contents, I flipped each page one by one, wondering if maybe I’d missed something. I hoped I’d find something that could help me identify evil. That way, I’d know for sure if Camden was dangerous or not. Not having an aura didn’t make him evil, did it? I wanted to find out for sure, but there was no such spell in the book.

  The following week brought no answers. Briana’s obsession with Camden seemed to tone down after he hadn’t shown interest in her at our fire on Friday night. Camden and I rarely crossed paths except in the classes we shared and one day at lunch when it was raining and he’d stayed on campus. I hardly thought about him.

  I hadn’t considered he would notice until he showed up at my locker on Friday after school. My heart nearly jumped out of my chest.

  “Is this going to become a regular thing?” I asked, half joking.

  Camden ignored the question. “Are you avoiding me?”

  I gave a nervous giggle that came out soundin
g fake. “What? No. Of course not. Why would you think that?” You don’t know anything about me, I thought to myself. How would you know what it looks like for me to avoid you?

  “Really? Because even Briana says you act weird around me.”

  Camden was so close that I felt the urge to take a step back. When I did, the cool of my locker sent a chill down my spine.

  “Me? She’s the one who gets all weird.”

  He raised his eyebrows in amusement. “Why would she get weird around me?”

  “Um, because she likes you,” I said like it was obvious. I mean, the guy had to know.

  “Clearly,” he said, a bit too confidently if you asked me. He paused for only a beat before asking, “Does that mean you like me, too?”

  I ducked my head and hurried down the hall before he could spot the blush rising to my cheeks. “I was not implying that.”

  “Then what is it? Did I do something to offend you?”

  I stopped in my tracks, and Camden nearly ran into me. I actually had to put a bit of thought into the question. In truth, he hadn’t done anything. He was a sweet guy. It was just…

  “No, you didn’t. I’m just not good with strangers.” I hated that that was becoming my go-to excuse. It wasn’t even particularly true.

  Camden held the door open for me when we reached it. I stepped out of the building into warm air.

  “Well, then,” he said, “I guess we’re just going to have to get to know each other.”

  I nodded like I agreed, but when I glanced up at him, I noticed he was waiting for more. “What? You mean, like, right now?”

  “You’re not busy, are you?”

  “Well, I—I…” I stammered. I didn’t have an excuse.

  “Come on.” Camden headed toward the parking lot, expecting me to follow. I didn’t know what else to do.

  “I can’t,” I told him, hurrying up to reach him. With his long legs, I nearly had to run to catch up. “I, um, have to make dinner for my dad.”

  “It can wait, can’t it?” Camden stopped next to a blue sedan much nicer than my car. “It’s okay, Katie.”

  I glanced between his car and my gray junker in the next row. “What about my car?”

  “I can drop you back off here to get it.”

  I bit my lip nervously.

  “Or you can drive it home now and put some dinner in the oven. Then we can hang out for a while. I’ll follow you.”

  I swallowed hard. Maybe I should get to know him, I thought. Perhaps it would shed light on the mystery surrounding him.

  Camden took my silence as a yes. “Great. I’ll see you in a few.” Then he ducked into his vehicle and turned the ignition switch.

  I headed over to my car, still wondering what had just happened. Feeling like I had no other choice, I started the engine and led him to my house anyway.

  Chapter Six

  “I should be home by five,” I told Camden as I climbed into his passenger seat. “You know, to check on the food.” I’d left a roast in the crock pot for my dad. It wouldn’t be done for hours, but Camden didn’t need to know that.

  He nodded and pulled out of the driveway. “That doesn’t give us much time to get to know each other, does it?”

  I shifted nervously in my seat and stared out the window. “Why do you want to get to know me anyway?” I wanted to shove the words back in my mouth as soon as I spoke. At least I didn’t let my other thoughts slip about why my protection spell was no longer working on him. Had it worn off?

  Camden shrugged. “You’re an interesting person.”

  How would you know? You don’t even know me, I thought. “What gave you that idea?”

  He sighed and shifted his hands on the steering wheel. “I can’t figure you out.”

  My brows shot up. He couldn’t figure me out? Had I stepped into some strange alternate reality?

  “There’s not much to me,” I admitted.

  He glanced my way for a second before fixing his eyes back on the road. “You’re different from other girls.”

  “You mean I’m not like Briana?” I asked before I could stop myself.

  He paused for a moment. “Yeah, I guess.”

  Silence hung in the air, and I took the moment to consider what he meant. Was he saying he wanted to get to know me because he couldn’t figure out why I didn’t have a crush on him like all the other girls in school did? If only they knew what I knew about him…

  “Once when I was in third grade, I fell off the monkey bars and broke my wrist,” Camden announced.

  I kept my gaze on the road and spoke slowly. “Okay.”

  He nudged me with his elbow. “It’s part of us trying to get to know each other. Now you tell me something.”

  “Oh, um, like what?” This time, I looked at him, but as soon as his eyes met mine, I averted my gaze.

  “Anything.”

  “Okay,” I started reluctantly, “but only if I get to ask you a question. And you have to answer honestly.”

  I caught him nod out of the corner of my eye.

  “Okay. I’m allergic to bees,” I told him. In the brief silence that followed, I contemplated what I might ask him. I couldn’t exactly come out and ask why he didn’t have an aura. Instead, another question escaped my lips. “What brought you to Aurora High?”

  He sucked in a long breath through his teeth like it was a difficult question to answer. “We’re here,” he said instead, pulling into a gravel parking lot.

  “We’re going hiking?” I asked stupidly.

  “Is there anything else to do in this town?” The question was rhetorical.

  “You didn’t answer my question,” I accused, stepping out of the vehicle.

  Camden started toward the trailhead but remained quiet. For a moment, I thought he wasn’t going to answer. Finally, he spoke. “It’s a long story. The short version? There was a death in my family. It was…a lot to handle. So I moved in with my grandparents as a way to sort of start over.”

  I nearly tripped over a root in the path as I stared up at Camden’s sad eyes. I didn’t know what it was about his story, but the way he told it made him seem more—for lack of a better word—human. Honestly, I’d thought there wasn’t much to the guy, but here I found out we had something in common.

  “What about you?” he asked, pulling my attention back to the trail. “Briana said you didn’t grow up around here.”

  I pushed my hair out of my face and carefully watched my step. “No, I was new here freshman year.” Even though he’d just opened up to me, I couldn’t bring myself to tell him about my mom’s death. I couldn’t tell him about how Dad lost his job from missing too much work afterward and how we couldn’t afford our house anymore. I settled with, “My dad got a job at the paper mill.”

  Camden and I continued down the path, but I couldn’t get his confession out of my head. There was a death in my family. All I wanted to say was mine too, but I choked on the words.

  Still, I felt like I had to say something to fill the silence. I spit out the first thing I could think of. “So, how do you like living with your grandparents?”

  He shrugged and gazed down at the path. “I like living with them, but sometimes I wonder if maybe they’d be better off without me around.”

  Tension immediately entered the air. Camden wouldn’t look at me, as if he realized he’d said too much. My heart sank as I thought about how those words sounded so much like my mother’s.

  Stop it, Katie, I told myself. Not everyone you meet is like your mom. Camden just cares about his grandparents’ feelings.

  His tone shifted. “So, tell me. What’s your favorite color?”

  “Purple,” I answered automatically. “Why?”

  “I told you. It’s all part of us getting to know each other.”

  “What’s yours then?”

  The answer couldn’t come soon enough. I’d found that most people were drawn to the color of their auras. Sure, their auras changed with their mood, but most people’s auras
balanced to a specific color for their personality. Since Camden didn’t have an aura, I couldn’t guess what his favorite color might be.

  He shrugged. “I’m not sure. Blue, maybe?”

  “You’re not sure?” I asked with raised eyebrows.

  “There are too many choices.”

  “Fair point.”

  The more I talked to Camden, the more I relaxed. Despite his lack of aura, he didn’t seem that bad. He even seemed nice. And then, for just a brief moment, the reality of how we were alone in the woods struck me. Could he be playing me and trying to get me alone for some reason? To kill me for my blood because he’s a vampire. Honestly, I didn’t get that feeling from him. Besides, if something bad did happen, I had a few incantations up my sleeve that would allow me to defend myself. Mom had made sure those were some of the first ones I’d learned.

  Then again, if he was so nice, why didn’t he have an aura? I continued down the path with him, hoping he’d reveal the answer soon.

  The more we walked, the higher in elevation we climbed. The terrain around here didn’t exactly have much variety, but eventually, the trail led to an open area that overlooked our small town. A small bench offered us a place to sit. I tried my best to keep to the edge of my seat so I wouldn’t touch him, but I could still sense the heat of his body next to me.

  “What’s one thing you don’t like that everyone else does?” Camden asked, continuing the series of questions meant to help us get to know each other.

  I crinkled my nose. “That’s a hard one. I guess…I don’t like shoes?”

  “Shoes?” Camden draped an elbow over the back of the bench and turned to me with an amused expression.

  “Yeah. Like, most girls love shoes, and to me, all I need are my tennies.” I lifted my legs and twisted my ankles to show him the shoes. They weren’t exactly pretty.

  “Okay,” he said like he understood.

  “And you?” I asked.

  “Um…video games.”

  “What is wrong with you?” I feigned shock.

  He shrugged. “There are just better things to do with my time.”