The Wolf House: The Complete Series

by Mary Borsellino

  Alexander turns, facing Ash now. “Ashley, you have to be more shrewd. Listen to your own brain, instead of doing the easier thing and following whatever strong personality presents itself for you to attach yourself to. You’re smarter than you give yourself credit for. You’re stronger.

  “We can’t hold our own against Cora if we defeat ourselves. We have to be a pack united, if we’re going to face her. And she seems determined for that to happen.”

  Jenny bites her lip, looking chagrined. “I’m sorry I—”

  Alexander shakes his head. “Don’t be sorry. Be better. I have to go now, but there are others watching. You’ll be safe until morning. Go home, do whatever you like during the day, and make sure you’re home again before dark. I’ll call you in the evening.”

  ~

  Jay’s hair is still damp from a shower when he and Blake meet up with Alex on a street several blocks from the hospital. He looks clean, and new, and hungry. Blake’s clothes are creased and bloodied, and there’s a slight cast of cruelty in his face that Alexander hasn’t seen since before Blake first met Jay.

  “Not your best look,” Alexander says, nodding at the ruined suit. Blake waves a hand.

  “I’ll claim it’s avant garde. A commentary on… something.”

  Jay makes a small scoffing sound, the same smirk he always wears when Blake uses that tone ghosting across his mouth. Alexander is surprised at how glad he feels at seeing that Jay’s smirk has survived the boy’s death.

  “I spoke to Tim,” Blake tells Alexander. “He and Nicole are going to stay with Min until Jenny and Sofie return, and then spend the day in the closets of their apartment. An extra level of precaution against Cora’s tricks.”

  Alexander nods. “Good. Now let Jason hunt, Blake, before he justifiably rips your head off for making him wait so long.”

  “I thought you’d prefer for me to wait for your arrival, as I have done. So you can make sure it’s all done properly,” Blake replies.

  “Well, I’m here now. So let’s get on with it.”

  ~

  The hour’s quite late, and pedestrians are sparse. A young man with curly brown hair and light brown eyes gives Jay a winning smile as he passes where Jay stands at the lip of a laneway. Jay, with the clumsy grace of a newborn predator, strikes fast. Alexander and Blake don’t have to do much more than make sure that Jay drags the man out of sight of the sidewalk and street before tearing into his throat.

  A few heartbeats—thunderous heartbeats that make Alexander’s mouth water, but he holds back; this kill is Jay’s first and should be his alone—later, there are the scuffing, rapid sounds of others approaching.

  “Hunters,” Alexander warns Blake, readying for a fight. Blake just smiles a lazy smile, his attention still mostly on Jay and the victim.

  “Oh, they won’t be any trouble,” he replies.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Alex says flatly, realising what Blake means. “Even our luck’s not that bad.”

  But sure enough, Lily and Will arrive on the scene a few seconds later.

  Alexander watches as the recognition dawns in Will’s expression. Sadness, and a of flicker dark, ugly envy ghosts across his face as he takes in the sight of Jay, now crouched over the prone body of the man, still drinking from the ruined neck.

  Lily assesses in the scene at the same moment Will does, but rather than freeze in shock and surprise—which is what Will’s done, and if the moment were calmer Alexander would tease him for that, because some quick-reflexed predator/hunter he is—Lily snarls.

  “You fucking son of a bitch,” she says to Alexander, stepping forward. “You goddamn piece of goddamn vampire shit.”

  Will puts his hand to Lily’s shoulder in warning, trying to keep her from moving any closer to them.

  At the sound of a new voice, Jay raises his head, mouth slick and red. He growls low in his throat at the insults, but he doesn’t look angry. He looks sad, and a little lost, and so young.

  Jay’s always going to look like that, now, like a small-boned sixteen-year-old boy.

  Blake’s the one who frowns, annoyed. “Don’t talk about what you don’t know, Lillian.”

  “What is there to know?” Lily spits, trying to shrug off Will’s hand. Will knows better than to let her go, which raises Alexander’s opinion of him slightly. “Whatever bullshit justifications he got you to believe, Jay, they’re the same thing in the end. He killed you, and you let him kill you.”

  Jay’s words are quiet and cold. “There wasn’t a choice…”

  “There’s always a choice,” Lily snaps.

  “Save it,” Jay replies, biting the words out. He stands up, leaving the man’s body on the ground. Usually, Alexander would make sure that a new vampire had knowledge of how to disguise or dispose of a kill, but this time he doesn’t care. Let the hunters take care of it, since they’re so determined to be the final word on everything.

  Jay begins to walk away, down the laneway, away from the carnage. Blake follows.

  Lily wilts, shoulders slumping unhappily, a look of devastation on her face. Alexander blows her and Will a parting kiss, and catches up with the others.

  ~

  When it’s close to sunrise, they head for the townhouse. Jay’s killed three people, now, and displayed practical and innovative skill in cleaning up the mess afterward. Alexander is impressed. Blake looks as starry-eyed and proud as a cheerleader whose quarterback crush has just won the big game.

  Jay’s gaze seems to roam from subject to subject, too fascinated to rest too long on one: the wide empty space of the road, the occasional hiss of a passing car against its wet surface, the reflection of them in store windows.

  They’re passing one such shop, a menswear boutique with ties and cuff-links and carefully presented shirts on display in the window, when Jay pauses. He stares down, apparently captivated by a silk tie of grey and olive green.

  “Would you like it?” Blake asks, stepping to stand beside Jay. Alexander watches them from a few paces away. “I can have the owner come in and open for us, if you like. Or we can just break in and simply steal it.”

  “No, no,” Jay replies distractedly, still staring at the tie. “I was just thinking. It’s not important.” Finally, he breaks his gaze and looks up at Blake. “What’s next? Not tonight, I don’t mean… I mean from now on? What happens now?”

  Blake smiles, holding his palms out at his sides and giving an exaggerated shrug. “Who knows? As a philosopher once said, now that you’re dead, what are you going to do with your life?”

  Jay raises an eyebrow. “That wasn’t a philosopher, that was Christian Slater in Heathers.”

  “Details, details. We’ll find something interesting to do, never fear. There’s usually some sort of party or event underway for us to ruin, if we look hard enough.”

  MICHELLE

  Sofie crumples like a wounded bird as soon as she sees Jenny at the hospital. Michelle expected that the two would be thorny with one another when they met up again, but any earlier disagreement over Rose’s fate is forgotten as Sofie clings to the only comfort she’s got left.

  Michelle wants to see Tommy, wants to cling to him like Sofie clings to Jenny. Wants to let Tommy cling to her in the same way. But he’s in with Rose, so Michelle just sends him a text.

  Loveyou.

  They’re not supposed to have their phones on in the hospital, but she’s not surprised when she gets one back a few seconds later.

  Loveyou 2.

  She’s so tired she feels like she’s dying, and doesn’t object at all when Jenny demands that she stays at their place for the day. Ash can spot the vampires that are watching them—they win the award for ‘world’s creepiest security detail’, that’s for sure—and goes to speak to them, arranging for them to split off into two groups so that Ash can go back to the townhouse with some of them, and the others can follow Jenny and Sofie and Michelle back to Jenny and Sofie’s apartment.

  They make their final trip f
or the night in the town car—it seems surreal to Michelle that she’s spent about half of the worst night of her life riding around in the back of a fucking car—and collect Min, Nicole and Tim from the downstairs neighbours.

  Michelle can only imagine what they must look like, to this ordinary couple whose lives have briefly intersected with a nightmare. The thought makes her giggle. She’s so exhausted that even blinking hurts.

  Nicole and Min have obviously become firm friends already, at least. The little girl’s clearly decided that Nicole is one of the very few people in the world who isn’t a total idiot.

  “Only other people I’ve seen her give that much respect to are Sofie and Alex,” Jenny tells Michelle. “She likes me and Tim okay, too, but I think she sort of pities us. She doesn’t think we have much of a clue about how the world works.”

  She’s quiet for a second, her face suddenly sad and serious again. “And Jay. She likes Jay.”

  ~

  Eventually, the sun comes up. Michelle has never been so grateful to see it before. Tim and Nicole retire to two of the apartment’s numerous and roomy closets, to sleep away the daylight.

  Michelle doesn’t want to. She wants to be awake for every moment of it, to revel in the light, to feel it on her skin. She feels like a plant, thirsting for that brightness, soaking it up and growing from it. But she can barely keep her eyes open anymore.

  At a plausible hour, Sofie calls their school on Michelle’s behalf and leaves a message on the administrative voicemail. She sounds like a perfect professional, a doctor’s assistant informing the school that Michelle will be out of all classes that day for personal medical reasons, and that documentation can be provided as required.

  “If you offer it upfront, hardly anyone ever asks for it,” she explains to Michelle when the call’s done. Michelle remembers that Sofie and Jay’s foster father was an expert forger; he clearly taught his children well.

  Somebody will have to tell him about Jay.

  In Jenny’s bedroom the air smells of lavender and rosemary, from the oil she uses in her dreadlocks. The gleaming silk-satin of the pillow cases is shades of ocean green, peacock blue, cantaloupe orange. There’s a threadbare rabbit toy carefully tucked into the top of the comforter.

  “Min has nightmares,” Jenny explains.

  There’s a daybed underneath the window, with a pillow and blanket strewn haphazardly atop it. Michelle doesn’t need to ask; it’s clear that Min isn’t the only member of the household troubled by nightmares. For today, though, Sofie’s usual prickly dislike of being too close to anyone for long seems to be overridden, and she climbs into Jenny’s double bed along with Jenny and Min.

  Michelle curls up on the daybed, turning her face to the window. She knows none of them will be kept awake by the light, not today. She closes her eyes, and sleeps until the afternoon.

  ~

  When they start to wake up again, coming back to the world with the ordinary groans and grumbles of tiredness, they sit and eat nachos and watch Adventure Time with Min, and Michelle calls Tommy.

  “Hi you. How’s Rose?” she asks when he answers.

  “Okay. We’re home now. Mom and Dad are being really attentive. It’s making Rosie so crabby,” Tommy says. To anyone else his voice would sound flat, but Michelle can hear the smile.

  “You should come over,” he goes on. “Since Rosie’s pretty much stuck on the sofa, we’re gonna watch a bunch of movies and stuff.”

  “Sounds good. I’ll come by later,” Michelle agrees. “See you then.”

  She takes her time leaving, though. There’s a calm here, in the little nest the girls have made. Even if Michelle knows there are monsters in the closets.

  Min builds a tall, teetering tower out of Lego bricks of all colours, while Jenny braids Sofie’s hair for her and offers architectural advice.

  But Michelle wants to see Tommy. It won’t fix the loneliness gaping wide in her – nothing will, now that Jay’s dead – but it’ll be something. She wants to hold his hand, smell his gross teenage-boy smell, hear his laugh when he’s right there close to her.

  It’s still daylight when she gets to their house. Rose is on the sofa, pillowed and blanketed, with the remote control in her hand.

  “My mom’s making burgers if you want one,” Tommy tells Michelle as she squeezes in beside him on one of the armchairs.

  “I feel so shitty that they had to come back from their work thing,” Rose says. Her voice is a little hoarse and weak, her skin still bloodless-pale, but the bites have healed to little more than bruises already. Bad bruises, sure, but that’s all.

  “Of course we came back, silly girl,” Rose and Tommy’s mom says, bringing in two plates with a burger on each and handing them to her kids. “Hi Michelle. There’s more patties done if you want one. I’ll get the sodas, hang on.”

  “Soda?” Rose wrinkles her nose. “Don’t we have any coffee?”

  “You’re not having more coffee. You’re supposed to be resting,” her mom answers. “So rest!”

  Rose pokes her tongue out at her mom’s back. Michelle giggles.

  There’s a bunch of Rose’s favourite DVDs all piled up next to the TV: The Pit and the Pendulum, La vie en rose, The Princess Bride, Dawn of the Dead, the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie. There’s a couple of seasons of the Muppet show, too, but Michelle doesn’t think she’ll ever be able to watch the Muppets again. Just one more thing that’s not hers anymore.

  “I’ve been talking on email with Gretchen and Bette – Dad let me use his laptop before he left for the office,” Rose says as her mom returns with cans of soda for the three of them. “They’re both being total psychos, of course. Freaking out. I’ve told ‘em to come around when they’re able to this evening. Oh, Christ, Mom, this burger is fucking awesome.”

  “Don’t give the credit to me, I barely had to do anything with you wanting it that rare,” her mom smirks. “It’ll be nice to see Bette around again. Now you kids sit down and be quiet. Resting, remember?”

  Rose waits until her mom’s out of earshot before speaking again. “I came out to them,” she tells Michelle. “My parents. Since there really have been kids hurt recently with gay bashings, Ash decided that it’d be a good cover story for my injuries.

  “I’m so tired of hiding from them. Trying to protect them from stuff. When you’re a kid, your parents are the ones who keep you safe from the shit you’re scared of, you know? And now it’s the other way around, and I’m so tired of lying.

  “So I figured that if I had to tell them another lie, hide another thing from them for their sakes, then I’d make them deal with one of my truths for a change as well. Force them to face a part of me. So I told them that I’m queer.

  “My dad cried. I felt so guilty about that. He said he was crying because of how much harder my life was going to be. He was crying for me, not because of me. But I still felt like I’d disappointed him. Even though it wasn’t something I did on purpose.”

  “Hey,” Tommy says, looking up from a message he’s typing on his phone. “What time are Bette and Gretchen coming? Because Lily wants to come say hi.”

  “Mom’ll kill her. Lily’s the least restful person in the fuckin’ world,” Rose says with a grin. “Tell her to come round right after nightfall. Bette and Gretchen aren’t coming until a bit later than that.”

  ~

  “Ten years trapped at sea and then one day on the shore,” Lily muses, watching the movie onscreen, perched on the arm at the end of Rose’s sofa. “It sounds like such a shitty life balance. But being in a band was a bit like that. And the trade-off really was worthwhile in the end. All of it, all the hard work and the arguments and the disappointments… for the price of all that, you got your one moment on the stage. You can put up with a decade of being dead if you know there’s a day of being alive waiting for you at the end of it.”

  “Ugh, can we not sully the movie by invoking the sequels, please.” Rose makes a revolted face. “I get that you’re be
ing metaphorical and whatever with the comparison – making it all about how much it sucks to be you, as usual, as if nobody else on the fucking planet has ever had a bad day of their own – but I’d like to demand a cease and desist. There are some movies that must be spoken about in singular only: The Matrix, the original Star Wars trilogy, Pirates of the Caribbean, and pretty much all Disney movies ever.”

  “You can’t count the Star Wars trilogy as a single movie,” Tommy objects. “I’m not saying I don’t agree with you! Don’t give me that look. I’m just saying that you can’t count it as a single movie when it wasn’t envisaged as a trilogy until later. Empire and Jedi still count as sequels same as the Matrix ones and the Pirates ones, any considerations of quality aside.”

  “I like the first Star Wars movies. The prequels, I mean,” Michelle says. Everyone stares at her. “What? I do. Oh, don’t look at me like I’m the inhuman monster here. They’re fun.”

  “The third one’s okay,” Lily admits grudgingly.

  “Whatever. Your pop culture barometer is stuck in 1989,” Michelle shoots back, directing her attention to the pirates onscreen.

  ~

  Lily leaves after the movie. She’d seemed surprised when Rose told her what’d happened with Cora and Jay. Michelle hopes Lily isn’t planning to go off and do anything like track Cora down on her own. That would be exactly what the whole situation needs, one more spanner in the works.

  One half-hour of The Princess Bride later, Gretchen and Bette show up. They look as tired as Michelle feels, and they’re both wearing normal teenage-girl clothes, and for the first time Michelle understands how much they love Rose and how worried they are about her. Maybe vampire love isn’t the same as human love, and maybe it scares the shit out of Michelle, but that doesn’t make it any less real.

  “Here, I brought you a get-well present,” Gretchen says, handing over a large flat rectangular shape wrapped in red tissue paper. It’s a framed photograph, the blacks and whites of the image silvery and dreamlike. A nude woman, moving as the shutter captures her, creating multiple sets of arms around her head and shoulders like a graceful vision of the Goddess Kali.