I felt a rush of relief that Johnathan was in there with Seth. I knew he would use caution; I wasn’t so sure Seth knew what caution was.
“What was the teacher like?”
“Grumpy, like all shop teachers, but he seemed okay. He didn’t set off any warning signals. He didn’t throw any wrenches at my head—I figure that’s a good sign.” He said that like it’d been a common occurrence in the past. I just shook my head; it really wasn’t surprising to me, although, I would’ve thought that Alec would have had more wrenches thrown at his head than Seth. It wasn’t a bad idea, really. I wonder where I can get a wrench or two.
I settled in to take notes like the teacher had instructed—just not notes on the movie. I wrote notes on the things I’d seen and learned that day. I drew a picture of the monster Ashley had described to me. I was definitely no police sketch artist, so it wasn’t great, but it helped me to remember what she’d said about it. I figured the drawing could be passed off as just mindless doodling if the teacher happened to confiscate my notebook.
The DVD player and TV managed to evade our unintentional magical-force-of-destruction-of-all-things-technical until about ten minutes before the end of class. That was when the DVD player got stuck on a screen and then the TV sparked from behind and shut off. It took about thirty uncomfortable seconds for the teacher to even realize it. He stood and looked at his watch, then flipped the lights back on—the two banks of lights above Seth and I flickered. The teacher shrugged his shoulders.
“Class dismissed,” he said in a monotone voice. “Quiz tomorrow.”
The hallways were deserted except for us and our Geography classmates. Seth and I decided to wait by Johnathan and Alec’s lockers. The chance was slim that anyone in this School of Doom would notice anything weird about us hanging out with the other new kids.
Johnathan didn’t say anything about us waiting there for them. He must have gathered the same feelings as us about the abject indifference of most of the student body. As soon as Alec joined us, Seth excitedly explained about the football team and his hopeful place on it. I saw the excitement spread to the faces of the other two boys, too. I rolled my eyes.
“I’m going to practice, too,” Alec chimed in. “I’m an awesome running back; they’re gonna beg me to play after I show ’em my mad skills.”
“How about you, Johnathan? Didn’t you used to play on the line?” Seth asked.
“Yeah, I did,” he said. The sparkle left his eyes abruptly and a troubled expression crossed his beautiful face. “I think I’ll pass, though. You guys can get in with the jocks. I’ll work some other angle.”
I frowned. I knew he wanted to join them. What held him back? What was he worried about? I decided to call him on it. “John, I know you want to play. Why don’t you just join them? I can work the fan angle. It’ll be—”
“Paige! I don’t want to, okay? Just drop it!”
He slammed his locker shut and walked away. My mouth dropped open. He’d never talked to me like that before. Tears stung the backs of my eyelids, but I refused to let them fall. I stood, face hot, and watched his retreating figure. Seth and Alec were just as stunned.
Seth was the first to compose himself. “Come on, sis. You can come watch me and Alec tear it up on the field.” He couldn’t hide the fact he was worried about Johnathan, too.
I shook myself out of my shock and forced a smile. “You guys go ahead. Have fun. I’m going to go home and see how Halli’s day went.”
“Okay,” Seth said uncertainly. “See ya’ in a couple hours.”
“See ya’.” I headed for the exit.
The lone walk home was a dreary one. Johnathan was nowhere in sight. I figured he’d decided to pull another disappearing act like he had the night he’d faced the Devil-hound. I spent the entire lonely walk home trying to decide what had caused him to act like that. He’d been excited about the prospect of playing football. That had been evident in his sparkling eyes and dimpled smile. What made him change from that to the sad and angry boy that had forgotten to use my undercover name and had yelled at me so vehemently? His mood swings were giving me whiplash lately. Ever since he went all wolf on us that night. That had to be it. He’d been steady as a rock up until then. Now, he was all over the place.
I shuddered as I recalled his uncontained rage inside the circle. He would’ve killed us all if I hadn’t trapped him there. Maybe some of that rage still coursed through his body, even when the wolf was latent. Waiting for a full moon so it could make its next appearance.
I had to find a way to cure Johnathan before the next full moon. I had to.
Even though I knew the chances of him being home when I got there were slim, I was still disappointed when Halli confirmed that he wasn’t.
“Where are the boys?” she asked. “Did you walk home by yourself?”
“Well, Alec and Seth have decided to infiltrate the football team, so they’re at practice. I don’t know where Johnathan is. He took off before I did.”
I told her about his outburst. She wasn’t as shocked as the rest of us had been. I thought maybe it was because she hadn’t been there to see it. I tried to emphasize how un-Johnathan-like he’d acted.
“Halli, he yelled at me. Yelled. At me. Over nothing. It was … not right, definitely not right.”
She shook her head. “That doesn’t sound like our Johnathan at all. But, I found out some things today at the library that might explain it. One book said the blood of the wolf mixes with the human blood and is always circulating, even in between changings. Granted, it was just an educated guess on the author’s part, but it makes sense. It said the wolf blood has high levels of pheromones and hormones and stuff and causes the human host to be quick to anger and more aggressive. It also said it gets worse with every changing and eventually, he guessed, would drive the person mad—especially someone who had been a ‘kind and gentle spirit’ before being changed.”
I was speechless. This was not good news. “What was this book? What makes this guy such an expert about lycanthropes?” I spat out.
My anger didn’t faze Halli—not a lot did faze her.
“It was an excerpt from a book written in the 1700s in England,” she explained. “The author claims he was a werewolf—he was bitten when he was a young teen. He became a scientist and spent his life studying himself and others. He said he was afraid of his own aggression, afraid he would hurt the people he loved even when he was in human form. Because of the wolf blood and anger issues. I bet Johnathan feels the same thing. I think he’s probably afraid of the way he’s been reacting lately and he knows football would be a very bad idea for him. The wolf blood increases the human’s strength and senses, too. If this guy was right, that means Johnathan could hurt someone very easily without even realizing what he was doing. That would devastate him with someone he doesn’t know, and kill him with someone he loves.”
I wanted the answer to be something else. I did not want to buy into what this supposed were-scientist thought. I felt Johnathan pulling away from me, and I was terrified to think it was going to get worse. The words of Madame LaForte kept invading my thoughts. Death will bring peace to his tormented soul. I picked up a chair and threw it with a grunt of rage. I slammed my fist into the table hard enough to bruise it. I will not let this destroy him!
Halli sat, quiet, while I calmed myself down. After a few minutes I sat, utterly defeated for the moment. I lowered my head into my non-injured hand. For a fleeting second an optimistic thought popped into my head.
“Hey, Hal,” I said. “Did this science-werewolf say anything about a possible cure?”
She frowned and shook her head. “The book said he searched his whole life and couldn’t figure one out. But, I don’t think that should discourage you. He was looking only for a scientific or medical answer. He didn’t venture into anything magical or even seem to know about the Fae … or Demons,” she added quietly.
Had I mentioned to her my ideas about summoning a Faerie or Demo
n to help figure this out? I didn’t think I had. I didn’t want her, or anyone, to know about that possible plan. Because I knew it was foolish and dangerous. And I didn’t want anyone to try to stop me from doing it anyway.
I chose to leave it alone. No talk about summoning. “You have a point there, Hal. This transformation can’t be explained in human terms. Its basis is evil.” And evil is where I will have to go to rid Johnathan of it.
“I’ll continue my search tomorrow, but I’m afraid the answer isn’t going to be in the public library. I’ve been thinking about going to that bookstore on Pike Street. Circle of Books, or something like that. We’ve walked past it a hundred times; it’s the one with the pentagrams in the window. What do you think?”
“It can’t hurt to try,” I answered.
I was exhausted and my hand hurt. I went to my corner to lie down. I couldn’t wait much longer to find an answer. If Halli struck out tomorrow at the bookstore, I had to start preparations to summon some help, soon, before the next full moon. I was having a hard time with the idea. What I was considering was something we’d spent months fighting against.
It scared me to realize I was leaning very heavily towards summoning a Demon instead of a Faerie, too. They were both very dangerous beings, but Demons were pure evil whereas Faeries had more of a mischievous evil. I wasn’t sure exactly what dangers lurked with the plan I was hatching.
But I was sure I’d do whatever it took to save Johnathan. No matter what the cost to my soul.
hankfully, Johnathan didn’t pull another all-nighter. He showed up shortly before the football heroes. Halli and I were preparing dinner in the kitchen/bar area when he came moping down the stairs. I was too happy to see him safe and sound to be mad about the yelling incident, but I pretended to be mad anyway. He had to pay at least a little bit for his behavior, didn’t he?
He shuffled to the bar and sat down across from where I stood. He looked me briefly in the eyes and then looked down at the bar before speaking.
“Paige,” he began. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have yelled at you. I don’t know what’s wrong with me lately. I get mad so easily. I feel like I’m on the verge of losing my mind most of the time.”
I didn’t say anything. I felt bad for him, of course. But he needed to suffer just a little bit longer.
He looked up at me again. The sadness in his eyes almost made me cave in, but I looked away, to the lettuce I was chopping. I knew I was acting a little bit like a brat, but I couldn’t stop myself. He had yelled at me. And then he’d taken off. Again.
“Paige, please don’t be mad. I didn’t mean it. I’m so sorry.” His hands twitched like he wanted to reach out and touch me. That did it.
I put the knife down and reached over and laid my hand on his. He hesitated and almost pulled away from my touch—ouch, that hurt right in the center of my chest. I gripped a little harder and said, “I forgive you. Just don’t let it happen again, butthead.” He released the breath he’d been holding and gave my hand a squeeze. He even smiled a little before he looked closer at it and frowned.
“What did you do to your hand, Paige?” he asked accusingly.
“Well, I … a … I hit the table.” I couldn’t think of a good story to tell him, so I just stuck with the truth, as embarrassing as it was.
He turned my hand to better view the damage. There was a bruise forming on the pinky side and the tender flesh there had started to swell a little. “Hmm,” he said beneath his breath, “I guess I’m not the only one with anger issues.” He surprised me then by lifting my hand to his mouth and gently kissing the injured side. His lips were so soft. My heart leapt to my throat and stayed there, pounding out an erratic rhythm.
His head whipped up. In his eyes I saw confusion and a little bit of fear. Had he felt the change in the beat of my heart? I remembered what Halli read about a werewolf’s senses becoming stronger. My face flushed red. I didn’t want him to know the effect his touch had on me, but I was reluctant to end the physical contact.
Johnathan’s pupils dilated until they completely filled his irises. He inhaled sharply, his nostrils flaring, and jerked his hands away from mine.
“Can I help you two with anything?” he asked, his voice strained.
“No, I think we’ve just about got everything done,” Halli said.
Johnathan sat and watched as we finished up. Alec and Seth’s timing was perfect—they came bounding down the stairs just as we were dishing up the tacos we’d just made. They were completely wired. You would’ve thought two and a half hours of football practice and a lengthy walk home would have relaxed them a little. It didn’t. They sat on either side of Johnathan and talked nonstop while they inhaled about five tacos each. It was pretty disgusting. Bits of half-chewed food flew everywhere.
“You shoulda’ seen the two runs I made. It was awesome! They couldn’t get me down,” Alec spouted.
“They couldn’t, but I did,” Seth interjected. “I laid you flat on your butt!”
“Just once. The first run no one even came close. I have speed and skills you can’t even touch, my friend. Speed and skills.”
Seth rolled his eyes. “I would’ve had you then, too, if you hadn’t been on the other side of the field.”
I let them go on like this for another ten minutes before asking, “So … did either of you do any investigative work? As I recall, that was your excuse for doing this.”
They looked at each other a little sheepishly. “Well,” Alec began, “not really. You have to give us a chance to get to know some of the guys first, Paige.”
“Yeah, we’ll get on it tomorrow. There’s a home game on Friday, and Coach said we can play even though we’ll only have been to two practices! You guys have to come watch … so you can work the crowd angle, of course.”
Halli and I smiled at each other. Johnathan tried to hide his unhappiness with a weak smile. He clapped Seth on the shoulder and said, “Of course we’re gonna be there … and not just to ‘work the crowd angle’.”
“Okay, enough about football,” I said. “Let’s talk about what we learned today at the school. Who wants to start?”
I did want to talk about our observations on our first day, but I mostly wanted to steer the conversation away from football. It was causing too much distress for Johnathan.
“It seems as though you had the most interesting day,” Seth said, “so you go first. Tell these guys what happened.”
I filled them in. I told them about Mrs. C’s fun-filled-classroom-of-horrors; about what the girl, Ashley, told me in the nurse’s office; and—I saved the best for last—I told them all about the illustrious Mr. Jorgenson and our stimulating conversation. Johnathan was not very happy about the fact that I fried the evil-principal’s computer, though. I just shrugged when he asked me what I was thinking.
“Paige! If he’s as dripping with evil as you said, he probably knows all about magic and its effect on technology. You need to be sure to stay far away from him. Keep a low profile and stay out of trouble! Okay?” Johnathan fumed. His eyes flickered with a yellow hue.
I cringed.
“Okay, John. I’ll try … but I have a feeling he’s not going to leave me alone,” I said quietly. I shouldn’t have said that. Johnathan’s eyes grew even more yellow and he clenched his fists on the bar. I could have sworn he almost growled. I had no idea what to say or do to calm him down. Halli came to the rescue.
“Alec, your turn. Tell us how your day went,” she said, all cool and calm. As everyone turned their attention to Alec, I chanced a peak at Johnathan. He was taking deep breaths with his eyes closed, and his fists slowly unclenched. When he opened his eyes again, they were back to his normal dark chocolate color, except for the specks of yellow that had appeared a couple of weeks ago.
“My day was boring compared to Paige’s,” Alec said dejectedly. “The only thing that even came close to being exciting—besides football practice—was when a boy in my French class fell asleep and woke up screaming.
He didn’t even act embarrassed, he just stared into space and cried for the rest of class. The teacher completely ignored him. Acted like nothing unusual had happened. It was weird.”
Seth and Johnathan didn’t have much to add. Johnathan had been able to become a little friendly with a boy in his geometry class. And, of course, the cheerleaders at lunch. Grrr.
The hour was late and we all had to be up early in the morning. I hated the early-morning thing already, and for that one reason more than any other, I wanted to figure things out. Soon.
The next day at school passed without much excitement. I was able to avoid Mr. Jorgenson and was pretty excited to find Johnathan waiting for me at my locker after school so we could walk home together. He kept a frustrating distance between us, though. I was afraid he wouldn’t try to hold my hand again until after I found a way to cure the lycanthropy tainting his mind and body. His near loss of control at the racing of my heart the night before had obviously scared both of us. I, however, was still willing to take a chance—even if it meant death by gorgeous-werewolf-boy for me. I sidestepped closer to him and shrugged my shoulder into his arm. What I really wanted to do was grab his hand, but I was too chicken—not because of fear of how he might react, but because … well, just because. Being in love was a new experience for me, and the idea of making a romantic gesture made my palms sweat and my heart race.
He smiled down at me. That made my heart skip a few beats. I decided to try something a little bolder. His smile was worth it. I put my arm through his, like a Victorian lady might do when walking with a gentleman friend who was courting her. That did it. His muscles tightened. His bicep squeezed my hand next to his ribcage. I heard his sharp intake of breath and before I knew what was happening he swung his body in front of mine, grabbed my upper arms with his hands, and spun me into a small alleyway between two buildings. He pushed me against the brick wall of one of those buildings.
Five: Out of the Dark Page 11