by Cox, Suzanne
“Forgive my grandmother. She’s upset and doesn’t always know what she’s saying.”
I started eating then paused. “So you guys cast spells to keep werewolves away.”
“Sort of. We can weave spells that force them to turn back to their human form.” She glanced at Louise who nodded before she continued. “The werewolves with the virus can only pass it in their wolf form. They have strength and powers in human form, but the virus only appears in them when they change. When they come to an area we have been able to place the spell on, then they change back to human form.”
“So why not just put a spell on the whole world, then they couldn’t be werewolf and could never pass the virus.”
She laughed. “It’s not so simple. The spell doesn’t last for long and there are forces in the universe that defy our spell, areas that the spell doesn’t work, like the cemetery. We are constantly perfecting the spell, changing it so it works better, renewing where needs be.”
I continued eating and decided not to ask anymore questions, simply because the more I asked the more there was to know. The voodoo women and the Lycernian pack appeared to be working together. I wasn’t sure if that was information I should have, even if Louise had given the okay. What if she was right? If I knew too much someone might want me dead.
“Oh, I brought the painting for you, Alexis.”
I’d been so intent on not listening, I jumped at the sound of my name.
“What painting?” Louise asked.
“The one in the store?” I interjected, momentarily ignoring Louise’s question. Raina nodded and I to Louise.
“When I went to New Orleans with Channing, I saw this painting of a black wolf in a shop. Raina was there.”
“It’s my store,” Raina added.
“Right. She had this painting in her store that was so amazing and at the time I was having those wolf nightmares, which turned out to not be nightmares after all.” I stopped to catch my breath. “Anyway the painting seemed so alive. But I’m not even sure if I have enough money to pay for it.”
Raina shook her head. “It’s a gift. I don’t want you to pay for it. I believe it should be yours.”
I glanced at my aunt, who was frowning. “Is it okay if I have it?”
“It sounds like a very expensive gift.”
Raina and Louise stared at each other and Louise’s frown deepened. “She should have the painting, Louise, to take home with her as a memento of her summer here.”
Louise nodded slowly. “Fine then, as a memento.”
“We’ll put it in your car when you get through eating,” she said to me. “Now enjoy your meal.”
When Raina left, I glanced at Louise. “If you really don’t want me to have the painting, I’ll tell her later that I can’t take it home with me.”
“It’s fine. I wasn’t so sure you’d want to remember this summer.”
“Like I could forget it, painting or not.”
“I guess it has been kind of monumental for you.”
I nodded. “Monumental.”
If she only knew how much more was about to be added to my summer when I tried to help find the new strain of virus. Louise might have another word for it, like horrifying, or maybe even deadly.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
The sun had started a slow descent behind the trees on the edge of the lake. There was still just enough light to do what I needed to do. I shifted in my chair and glanced at Channing and the other girls. The three of them were leaning over a magazine discussing the latest drama of a Hollywood starlet.
“So are we going to get started now or what?”
The girls sat up and looked at me.
“Are you ready now?” Channing asked, dropping the magazine to the ground.
“Even though my aunt lets me stay out after dark now, she still makes me come home early. I have to be home by ten unless there’s something special happening.”
“Your rules are really boring,” Jana said as she stood.
I shrugged. “Nothing I can do about it. I’ll be going home soon and won’t be able to do this with you guys much more.”
“She’s right. Let’s get going.”
We all followed Channing to the boathouse and went inside. My mouth felt dry and I could hardly make the words come out.
“You know I’ve been reading about different ways of changing forms. It was in a book at my aunt’s house. There were some interesting things in it.”
“You’ve been around Brynna too much with all the book info.”
Channing elbowed Jana. “Leave her alone. She may know something good. I didn’t know any type of book existed.”
It didn’t, but I did my best to believe I’d actually read such a book rather than having made this whole thing up. I needed to be convincing.
“Yeah, it’s really old. Anyway, there’s this one thing young werewolves do that’s really cool. They stand in a circle and hold hands and then change at the same time. It’s supposed to open your mind and make you more powerful when you change.”
“The blending of the group’s powers.” Channing said, nodding.
“That’s right.” I breathed deeply, deciding the story did have a mystical ring of truth to it. I’d decided to add the part about increasing your powers at the last minute, and now, even to me, it seemed plausible.
I took a step toward Channing.
“Are you going to take your clothes off so they won’t get torn?” Jana asked as she peeled out of her own t-shirt.
“No, I wore this old stuff so it wouldn’t matter.”
“I don’t care about this stuff I’m wearing either.” Celina tossed a bag with more clothes onto the pile the other girls had brought in the boathouse earlier. “We’ll all come back here to change, right, just in case we get separated?”
“Right, but let’s not get separated, okay?” Jana said.
I watched the two girls. “Why would we separate?”
Channing waved her hand dismissively. “You know, we meet others, split up and go with another group.”
“Oh.” I didn’t admit that I knew nothing of the kind. With my aunt we’d always stayed together. Anyway, I couldn’t worry about what might happen once we had changed. I had to concentrate on looking at Channing’s inner wrist.
Stepping forward, I grabbed the tall blonde’s hand leaving Jana to take a place beside me. Celina joined the circle between Jana and Channing, directly across from me. A surge of adrenaline shot through me before I’d even focused on my becoming. My vision blurred, eyes closing reflexively. Breathe, eyes open, I reminded myself, trying to focus so I could watch Channing morph into her wolf self. With one more breath, the power surging inside of me ebbed and I tilted my hand exposing the other girl’s pulsating wrist. On my right Jana groaned, then growled, now in her full wolf form. She spun and left the boathouse racing into the night.
In my left hand Channing’s hand was twisting, growing and suddenly there it was, on the wrist. I stared, not believing what I was seeing. But Channing’s hand fell away and became a forefoot with golden fur. My chest tightened. I couldn’t breath. A growl gurgled in my throat. Power and energy radiated in every cell of my body. I dropped to the floor giving my silky black coat a shake.
Night had settled fully onto the lake and its backwaters when I stopped for a drink. From where I was, I could see the lights of Myles house through the tree branches. A body moved in front of a window and a spicy smell reached my nose. My stomach rumbled. I realized I’d eaten nothing all afternoon. The sound of Beowulf’s bark reached me. I turned my head to look again. The little dog stood on the porch sounding much more like a one-hundred-pound Doberman than the twelve-pound min pin he was.
A tree branch crackled in the forest. I knew Channing and the other girls were back. They were waiting on me, ready to go. I wasn’t sure how I could tell, but it was true. It was like their thoughts came into my mind, not in detail, but the general idea of what they were thinking. I paused in mid ste
p. What if my thoughts appeared in their head? Any ideas of what I was doing, of the plan we had, I immediately wiped from my mind. But of course, to do so I did think of them, for a moment. Channing was in the lead out front and hadn’t changed her gait. Hopefully, she hadn’t seen anything. Louise had told me some werewolves could read the thoughts of others. I had no idea if Channing was one or not. If so, I might have given away the whole plan. That is if we still had a plan since Channing wasn’t carrying the mutated virus. I’d clearly seen the mark on her wrist for the plain virus. Ahead of me, she shook her golden coat and quickly changed direction.
We headed away from the lake for several minutes. Just when I was beginning to wonder what they were doing, a familiar smell came to my nose. The woods ended abruptly and I found myself standing next to the other three in a well manicured yard. Ten feet away was the object of this journey. Channing gave a low growl and took a step forward the boy. Jared, my favorite little camper, stood, dropping the toy he was playing with and waited, unafraid. Run, I wanted to scream. Immediately, his eyes turned to me and he smiled. Run, I screamed at him in my mind. The smile left his face, but he didn’t move. The three wolves next to me advanced two more steps, beginning to spread apart. I growled fiercely and they paused. I knew I only had a few seconds before they attacked. I might be about to end any chance we had of getting more information about Channing, but I knew with every part of my being I would not let this happen.
With one leap, I landed between Jared and the girls who would attack him. I dropped my head low with a menacing growl. My muscles twitched and I felt a power surge within me. Behind me, Jared must have stepped forward because I felt his hand on my hip, holding tightly to my thick black coat. Channing advanced a step, teeth bared, and I met her nose to nose. Then the blonde wolf leapt trying to go over me and get to the boy. I caught her forefoot and tossed her to the ground with such force the earth seemed to shake beneath me. Shakily, Channing got her four feet under her and the three stood together facing me.
From the house behind me, there was a howl and then a yelping growl as two wolves leapt off the porch. They tore across the yard sending chunks of grass flying as they came. The slightly smaller one grabbed the boy by the collar of his shirt and dragged him toward the house. The much larger one stood beside me growling. Channing and her two friends held their ground for a few seconds then slowly began to back away, their teeth still showing, dripping saliva. When they disappeared into the woods I could hear them begin to run. A low growl rumbled from the wolf next to me. Before I knew what was happening, I was on my back with teeth closing over my throat. Words like “stupid girl” and “never come back with your killer friends” flashed through my brain. Then the weight lifted and the male wolf loped toward the house.
I entered the woods uncertain what would happen when I caught Channing and the others, not sure if I should even try and catch them. They were crossing the yard of the huge lake house when I came out of the woods. Channing had already morphed to her human form and was entering the boat house. Celina, still in wolf form, turned and raced toward me, hitting me at full speed. We tumbled on the ground, then I realized that Celina was changing, losing her wolf form. She raised her hand to strike me and I knew I should dodge the blow, but I couldn’t. The hand smacked me across the nose. I was frozen there, the double symbols of the plain virus and the mutated one flashing before my eyes. Channing wasn’t carrying the mutated virus. It was Celina.
I had little time to dwell on the fact as Celina launched another barrage of blows against my head. I spun away and concentrated on changing back to human form. I stumbled, fell to the ground, convulsed, and lay there as Celina advanced on me. Neither one of us was clothed, but at the moment I couldn’t worry about that. I rolled across the grass to escape a well-aimed kick, managing to knock Celina to the ground. Leaping to my feet, I braced for the attack Celina had crouched to make. Channing suddenly appeared between us. Clothes hit me in the face.
“You two get dressed. You look ridiculous rolling around out here. My parents have company. What if someone comes out and sees you?”
I managed to get my clothes on before I had to face the three girls.
“What was that all about?” Celina advanced a step toward me.
“That’s what I’d like to know. What were you going to do, kill that little boy like you did the guy in the cemetery?”
“What if we did?” Jana looked at me and appeared truly confused. “We’re werewolves and so are you. Didn’t you want to kill him, to taste the blood? Just what kind of werewolf are you?”
Deep in my chest anger burned and it rumbled through my throat. “Not that kind.”
I walked toward the ATV I’d ridden over, wishing Louise had let me come in the car.
“Where are you going?” Channing shouted. “We’re not finished here.”
Facing them again, I planted my feet firmly. “Oh, yes, we are.”
I turned and straddled the four-wheeler, started the engine and roared away while they stood watching.
***
The hinges on the black, iron gate squealed as I pushed it open. Dew dripped from the fleur de lis designs at the top. A piece of chipped paint stuck to my hands and I wiped it on the butt of my cutoff blue jean shorts. I could see Myles seated on the bench under the huge live oak tree.
“Why did we have to meet here?” I asked with a shiver, even though the night was sticky and hot.
“We couldn’t meet at either one of our houses in case one of our parents woke up and overheard us.”
“Louise isn’t my parent.” I said, dropping to the bench beside him.
“Don’t be dense, Alexis, you know what I mean.”
“So, why isn’t Brynna here?”
“She’s coming. It’s harder for her to get away without Bailey knowing.”
The gate squealed and Brynna walked across to join us. Myles got up and sat on the ground offering Brynna his seat on the bench. She frowned as though she’d really rather not sit next to me, but must have decided it was better than the damp ground and took his place.
“Were you able to find out anything?” she asked.
“It’s not Channing.”
“What?” Myles leaned forward. “I was so sure.”
“I saw the symbol plainly. She has the virus, but not the mutated one. It’s Celina who has the symbol for the mutated virus.”
“You’re kidding.” Myles shook his head. “I would have thought Channing had it because she was such a leader of them. I guess I just assumed she was stronger.”
“What do you mean?”
“What he means is that the mutated virus werewolf is stronger, faster, and often more aggressive than the other virally infected weres. They’re not as strong as the genetic werewolves but definitely stronger than the others with the regular virus.”
“We’ll still be able to go ahead with our plan to collect the blood won’t we? I mean, is she too strong for that?”
“No, we can do it,” Myles said.
Brynna didn’t answer as quickly as Myles. “You don’t think we should let our parents know about this, Myles?”
“It will be so much easier for us to approach her. Besides, what else do we do all this training for?”
“If we’re going to do this,” Brynna said, crossing her arms in front of her, “she has to stay in human form. I’m not practiced at finding a vein and drawing blood from someone in wolf form.”
I tilted my head. “You can draw blood from someone, with a needle, like in the doctor’s office?”
“Yeah.” Brynna shrugged.
“How did you learn that?”
“In the lab of my anatomy class.”
I stared at her. “Huh, we never learned anything like that in my science classes.”
“That’s why we have our own school. We have to learn special skills.” Brynna turned to Myles. “So can you keep her in human form?”
He frowned. “I’m not sure, probably, if she’s not too
strong.”
“Do you mean there’s a way you can hold her that won’t allow her to change?”
Brynna snorted. “Not physically, dummy. He has to hold on to her mind.”
I turned to Myles. “You can do that?”
“Some, I’m training.”
The whole werewolf world seemed to continually have its little secrets. I wondered how much more there was to know.
Brynna repositioned herself on the hard bench. “Okay, so how do we make this happen?”
Myles didn’t answer and Brynna eyed the two of us. “Do you mean you’ve made me sneak out here in the middle of the night and neither of you even remotely has a plan?”
I frowned and stared at the glowing stars in the sky. “I could meet with her. When I left them earlier they were mad at me, especially Celina.”
“Really, why?”
I glanced at Brynna. “It doesn’t matter.”
I had no desire to relive what had happened that night. I wanted to forget about it, forget this whole werewolf mess and go home to Chicago to my old life. “I’ll tell her to meet me at the pier of the day camp tomorrow. Any special time?”
“I’ve got to go with my Dad to New Orleans tomorrow, but we’ll be back by five o’clock. Let’s say seven. That will give me time to get home and get away again.”
I nodded. “Seven then, I’ll call Celina tomorrow. If I can’t get her to meet, I’ll let you guys know. Do you think she’ll come alone or bring the other two?”
Myles and Brynna looked at each other. Finally, Brynna spoke. “If she doesn’t come alone, I don’t know if we can do this.”
“We can do it.” Myles got to his feet. “I’ve got to get home. I’ll see you two tomorrow.” He disappeared into the night toward another gate in the cemetery.
I got up and Brynna followed me. “You don’t have to do this, you know.”