by Mari Mancusi
It’s strange to hear him sound so vulnerable. The big, tough football player. The meanest guy in school. I guess being trapped in a cave on the side of a mountain in the middle-of-nowhere England for a month can do that to a guy. Maybe at the very least he’s learned some life lessons and will be a kinder, gentler Mike Stevens when/if we get out of this mess.
“Okay, I’ll tell you, but you probably won’t believe me,”
I say. “You’re here because you’ve been bitten by a Lycan— that’s like a werewolf to you and me.”
“No shit, Sherlock. We’ve seen the dude.”
“Not him. The cheerleaders. Back home in Oakridge.”
The boys are silent for a second. Then Mike says, “Come on, Rayne. We’re serious. Don’t give us some fairy tale.”
“I am serious. Remember the girls came to England for cheering competition this past summer?”
“How could I forget,” Trevor groans. “I had to go with-out sex for seven days and seven nights when my baby Shantel went away.”
Mike snorts. “Oh whatever. You totally hooked up with Candi that night at—”
“Shut the hell up, man,” Trevor hisses. “This chick knows Shantel.”
“Uh, uh. There’s no way she hangs with Shantel.”
“They’re both on the cheerleading team!”
“What? No freaking way, man. Not Rayne McDonald. She’d never be a cheerleader.”
“Dude, she is. I swear it.”
I clear my throat. “Uh, boys? Can we try to focus here? You know, trapped in a cave, by an evil, fuzzy werewolf trying to make us part of his sick little pack? You can debate my cheering status and the likelihood of me telling Shantel about this Candi chick once we get out of here.”
“Sorry,” they mutter in sync.
“But I didn’t cheat on Shantel,” adds Trevor. “Candi totally jumped me at this party, even after I said—”
“Uh, we were focusing, remember?” I sigh. “So now what we have to do is—”
But I can’t finish my sentence because the big bad wolf is back.
Orpheus storms up the hillside and grabs me by the throat, pulling me to my feet. I cough as he crushes my larynx, making it nearly impossible to breathe.
“You told the Order,” he growls. “You told them about my American pack. My she-wolves across the sea.” He drops me and I fall back to the ground, slamming my butt against the stone.
“Yes, I did,” I say, trying to sound braver than I feel. “And the Order is currently mixing up an antidote for all of them. Your pack of wolf bitches will soon transform back into a squad of human—well, some may still refer to them as bitches. And as for you—”
I stagger sideways as Orpheus cuffs me upside the head.
“How dare you interfere!” he says, slumping down to all fours. “You’ve ruined everything!”
“For you, maybe. How about them? Do you think they like sprouting fur and fangs every time there’s a full moon? I mean, do you have any idea how much laser hair removal and cosmetic dentistry costs these days?”
Orpheus sighs. He blinks a few times, then slides back into human form. It really is a fascinating transformation and I find myself watching closely, briefly wishing I had a video camera to record it and throw it up on YouTube for all to see.
“All I wanted was a pack to call my own,” he mumbles, head in his hands. “The Order was so dismissive of me. I never fit in there. I wanted to create a new line of Lycans who would be, would be … my friends.”
I stare at him. Is he crying?
Suddenly I feel a pang of empathy for the guy. I know more than anyone what it’s like not to fit in. For everyone to think you’re a crazy freak and not want to be your friend. But still…
“You can’t force people to become your friends by infecting them with a virus,” I reason. “People have to want to be your friends.”
“No one ever wanted to be my friend.”
I can’t believe I’m feeling pity for the guy who’s kidnapped me and tied me up. “Look, I understand what you’re going through. I’m an outcast of sorts as well. I don’t fit in with anyone at school. And none of the vampires like me either. But you know what? I’m going to have to be okay with that. And not be so angry and hateful all the time. Take my old best friend, Mandy.”
“She was friends with Mandy?” I hear Mike whisper to Trevor. I’d forgotten for a moment we had an audience.
“See, dude, I told you she was a cheerleader.”
“Funny thing about Mandy,” I say, ignoring the peanut gallery, “I thought for years that she had ditched me to become one of the popular kids. That she didn’t think I was cool enough to hang out with her. But I found out this week that it may have been me who ditched her. Because I was afraid she was leaving me behind, I started rebelling in the other direction. Scorning everything she wanted to become because I was afraid I couldn’t become it myself.”
“I was always the weakest,” Orpheus confesses. “I couldn’t run as fast. I couldn’t catch any game. None of the female wolves liked me. So I decided to leave and start my own pack. Show them that I didn’t need anyone.”
“One thing I’ve learned, Orpheus, is that we can’t be afraid to need people in life. I know it makes us seem helpless and weak, but sometimes, admitting you need help can be strong in and of itself.” Wow, that sounded pretty good. Especially since I made it up on the fly. Maybe instead of seeing a shrink, I should become one.
Orpheus rises to his feet. “You seem like a smart girl, Rayne,” he says, sounding apologetic. “I’m really sorry I’m going to have to kill you.”
Kill me? Fear shoots through my heart. “Why would you have to kill me?” I cry.
“I have to kill all of you.” He shrugs. “The Order knows what I did, thanks to you. Soon they’ll find my den and they’ll use you as evidence against me. I’ll be hanged for my crimes against the pack. And I can’t let that happen. So I’ll have to kill you and eat the evidence.”
Okay, being killed is bad enough. But being eaten as well?
He shape-shifts again, back to wolf form. He slowly approaches me, step by step, paw after paw. Desperate, I flip myself over and attempt to wiggle away like a worm—the most stupid escape attempt known to mankind. My heart pounds in my chest. My body grows numb. Oh my God, I can’t believe I’m going to actually die. Die and be eaten by a werewolf. And Jareth will never know what happened to me.
Jareth, please help me! I cry one more time.
A moment later, the wolf is on me, grabbing my leg in his mouth and yanking me backward. Teeth dig into my flesh, piercing my skin as I’m pulled back into the cave. I scream and kick at his face, but he’s too strong.
This is it. I’m going to die. But not right away. I’m a vampire and immortal. So I’ll be alive for all of it. Every last bite. Until he clamps down on my neck, sharp fangs ripping through sinew, severing my head from my—
Suddenly, out of nowhere, a bat sweeps into view with a high-pitched screech. I look up. It’s big, it’s black, and heading right toward Orpheus’s face. He drops my leg, letting out a bellow of surprise as it attacks, beating its rubbery wings against the wolf’s eyes, his nose, his mouth.
I watch, amazed. Could it be? It’s impossible. Jareth doesn’t have any powers. And the other vampires would never rescue a slayer. Still, I can’t imagine this is just some random bat. Somehow or other I’ve been rescued. The undead cavalry has arrived.
A moment later the bat poofs into a cloud of smoke and suddenly Jareth himself appears on the hillside. I burst into tears, I’m so happy to see him. Big, bad, beautiful Jareth. My true love. My hero. He’s dressed all in black, looking gorgeous and powerful. And best of all, he’s got a gun in his hand, aimed straight at the wolf. (How he transported that gun while in bat form, I’ll never know.)
“No one messes with my Raynie,” he states, just before squeezing the trigger.
The gun goes off. The wolf yelps once, then collapses onto the cave floor. It convulse
s a few times, its chest rising and falling, then goes completely limp.
I stare at the wolf, then up at Jareth, tears of joy now streaming down my face.
He reaches me in an instant, throwing his arms around me and pulling me close. “Oh, Rayne,” he murmurs. “I was afraid I’d get here too late.”
I bury my face in his shoulder, sobbing and laughing all at the same time. Jareth. My wonderful Jareth. The vamp who saved my life. My blood mate. Forever and always.
“Jareth,” I cry. “I’m so glad you came. I was afraid you couldn’t hear me.”
“Of course I could hear you,” Jareth says, leaning down to untie my hands and feet. “I heard you the first time you cried out. It just took me some time to track you down.” He rips a piece of his shirt and ties it around my leg to stop the bleeding. Then he helps me to my feet.
I kick Orpheus with my toe, to make sure he’s really dead and it’s not going to be one of those horror movie scenes where the corpse always rises one more time. But he’s total dog meat.
“Silver bullet,” Jareth explains. “Just like in the movies.”
“I’m so sorry about yesterday,” I say, covering his face with kisses. “Well, the last month actually. I’ve been so stupid. So selfish. You’ve been wonderful. Everything I could want in a blood mate. And I took it all for granted. I guess I just… panicked. I mean, I felt trapped in a way. Like, I couldn’t believe I’d be with someone forever. But then, when I realized I’d lost you, I knew I couldn’t face forever without you by my side.”
He smiles and kisses me back. “I’m sorry, too, Rayne,” he says. “I should have been more sensitive to your feelings. You were a new vamp, just learning the ropes of unlife. As your blood mate, I was the one who was supposed to teach you, be there for you. And yet I was so caught up with the idea of being able to walk out in the sun, I neglected my duties. I became angry and impatient when you floundered on your own, knowing deep inside it was all my fault you weren’t adjusting properly. I should have been there for you and I’m sorry I wasn’t. I hope you can forgive me.”
“Of course I do,” I say. “As long as you forgive me for being such a bitch. Vampire transformation, new hormones or no, there’s no excuse for how bratty I’ve been. Especially to you, who I love more than anyone, ever.” I press my face against his chest, feeding on his warmth. Suddenly something occurs to me. I look up at him. “Jareth? The way you morphed into a bat… do you … do you somehow have your powers back?”
Jareth blushes. “Uh,” he says. “About that.”
“You do!” I exclaim. “How did you get your powers back? And when?”
He shrugs. “I’ve actually had them back for a few months now. Remember when I opened the locker-room door you couldn’t and tried to brush it off like it was no big deal? One day I woke up and realized I’d returned to my former self. Well, I can still go out in the sun, but I’m okay otherwise. I can do everything I used to. I’m not sure why or how, but there it is.”
“But that’s so great! Why didn’t you tell me?”
He hangs his head. “I felt bad. You were all ‘we’re powerless vamps together’ and I didn’t want to disappoint you. I kept hoping you’d develop some powers, too, but maybe because you already had the blood virus when I bit you … I don’t know.”
“Jareth, I can’t believe you were afraid to tell me! I’m so happy you got your powers back. That’s awesome. Maybe you can go be Magnus’s general again.”
“I’m so glad you’re not annoyed, my love.”
“No way. I’m thrilled for you. I love you, Jareth. Forever and always. Let’s never fight again.”
He laughs. “How about we just say let’s always make up if we do?” he suggests. “Seems a bit more reasonable a promise to make.”
“Hey, Rayne! When you’re done with the mushy crap can you get back here and untie us?”
“Yeah. We want to get the hell out of here, too, you know.”
Oh yeah. Lost in makeupville, I almost forgotten about Mike and Trevor.
“The missing football players,” I explain to Jareth. “They’re here. In the cave.”
“Excellent,” Jareth says, moving to the back of the cave. “It’s looking like we might have our happy ending after all.”
I smile to myself and hug my arms across my chest. Happily ever after. I like the sound of that.
But first we have some cheerleader wolves to vaccinate.
23
We untie Mike and Trevor, who are obviously still a bit shell-shocked, and head back to Appleby. We bring the boys to Lupine and he checks them over for signs of lycan-thropy. Sure enough, they’ve got traces of the virus in their systems. So Lupine sends them into a full-moon simulator shack at the edge of town and once the moon’s pull shape-shifts them to their feral forms, they’re sprayed with the antidote and are humanized once again.
The wolves drug them and have a courier escort them back to America before they wake up. The boys won’t know what happened to them, they tell us, and so it’s better that they don’t regain consciousness until they’re safe in their hometowns. Sure, people will ask them where they’ve been all this time—after all, their disappearances have garnered a lot of media attention. But in the end, all that really matters is they’re back and not dead.
Unfortunately for me, the cheerleaders are already in America and there’s no way to ship them all over to England to put them in the full-moon simulator and administer the antidote on site. But I have an idea of how we might get them to go all hairy and so I take the vials of antidote they made for us, thank the wolves, and Jareth and I head back to America. We spend most of the plane ride in each other’s arms and let’s just say I’m now a member of a certain exclusive club one can only join when one finds herself mile high.
Mom is overjoyed when I walk in the front door. Says she was worried to death about me and begs me never to run away again.
“I’m sorry about David,” she says, sitting me down at the kitchen table and handing me a big bowl of some kind of unidentified food stuff. Even starved me isn’t about to take a bite of that. “It was selfish of me to have him move in before you two were ready. This is a new experience for all of us and I have to be more considerate of you and your feelings. After all, this is your house, too. And the last thing I want is for you to feel uncomfortable in your own home. I should have talked to you two before making my decision. Especially before kicking you out of your own room. I don’t know what I was thinking. We’re a family. A democracy.” She swallows hard. “If you want me to stop seeing David, I will. You girls are the most important thing in my life and if you’re not ready for me to date, I won’t date.”
I think for a moment. In a way it would be great to have Mom back to ourselves. To get rid of the stranger invading our space. But I take one look at her face and realize I could never do that to her. She loves him. Like I love Jareth. And yet she’s willing to sacrifice everything she wants to make us happy. But that’s not fair. She’s Mom, not some tortured saint. She deserves to have her own happiness. And even if David is kind of a dork, he’s her dork. And I’m suddenly okay with that.
“Oh, Mom,” I say, trying to sound all business. “David’s not that bad, I guess. Could be a lot worse. And he can cook. We need someone in this house with some culinary expertise.”
Mom’s face lights up like Christmas morning. “So you … you don’t mind if he stays?”
I shrug nonchalantly. “Yeah, might as well. I’m getting pretty used to sharing a room with Sunny and we wouldn’t want the extra bedroom to go to waste.”
Mom reaches over and pulls me into a hug. “Oh, Rayne,” she whispers in my ear. “Thank you, sweetie. You’re the best daughter a mother could ever hope to have.”
“Not really,” I say, hugging her back. She smells like cinnamon. Like Mom. I’m so glad to be home. “But I’m working on it.”
+++
I return to school Monday morning and sneer at all my teachers who give me attitud
e for missing my classes without a sick pass from the office. I may be working toward a kinder, gentler Rayne, but teachers are so exempt from that status. Unless they want to bribe me with good grades, that is, though sadly I’ve never gotten any of them to take me up on my oh-so-generous offer.
Cait finds me in the hallway and throws her arms around me in a hug. I step back, surprised. This is not the reaction I was thinking she’d have when we met again. After all, the last time I saw her she was telling me to leave her the eff alone. Here’s hoping she isn’t carrying any concealed weapons to stab me in the back with.
“Oh, Rayne,” she cries. “I’ve been looking all over for you. I have to thank you!”
“Thank me?” What did I do to deserve thanking? Last I heard, I’d ruined her life.
“For being honest with me. About my, well, you know.” She blushes as she steals a glance down at her arms. “I realized you were right. I couldn’t go on hurting myself like that. And to tell you the truth, it wasn’t really working anymore anyway. It started out making me feel better, but after a while I just felt so guilty and ashamed I ended up feeling worse. And I was so afraid all the time—worried that someone would catch me doing it.”
“So did you… ?”
“I went to the school counselor. And she told me she could talk to my mom for me. And she promised me she’d be able to do it in a way that my mom wouldn’t get mad. At first I didn’t believe her, but somehow she did. My mom was really worried, of course, but she never yelled at me once. It turns out she’s been suffering from an eating disorder most of her life. She’s in recovery now, but she still totally gets where I’m coming from. Over the weekend we found this great therapist who’s going to start teaching me what she calls coping mechanisms so I don’t feel like hurting myself again. I’m sure it’s not going to be easy, but it’s worth it.”
“That’s great, Cait. I’m so happy for you!” I exclaim. “And um, what about the cheerleading thing?” I add, almost afraid to ask and spoil her good mood.
Cait shrugs. “My mom decided it was a good idea for me to drop out. You know, until I get back on my feet. Which surprised me. I mean, it was always her dream for me to become a cheerleader. I never thought she’d let me quit. But she told me my health is way more important to her than a pair of pom-poms.” Cait smiles sheepishly. “She’s actually pretty cool, now that we’re talking again.”