by Abby Tyson
Chapter Thirteen
"Me what?"
Even though there was more answer than question in Marley's words, a drop of doubt colored the crystal certainty Savi had felt moments before. "I was six. My mom's boyfriend's kids had drawn all over my toy dog. I ran out onto the playground, and you were nice to me. You told me he was stronger, and that I could be stronger inside too."
As she spoke, a smile sparked across Marley's face. In the bright sunlight, in his navy blue t-shirt and jean shorts, he looked different than he had last night. Or rather, he looked the same, but she was seeing him differently. Instead of Marley being a mysterious stranger, linked inextricably to the fear and pain of the night before, he was the one who had given her hope, and a creed to live by, all those years ago.
"I didn't think I'd ever see you again," he said, with an intensity in his eyes that hadn't been there last night.
A match struck inside Savi. The warmth of it spread faster than she ever dreamt possible. The fierceness of her desire was staggering and terrifying. Was this what her mother had felt for her father?
I'm stronger than that.
Even as she thought it, a small voice taunted her, saying, We both know you're not.
Savi ripped her eyes away from his and took a step back, trying to preserve the walls that were going up in flames within her.
"Have you lived here the whole time?" she asked, glancing back at him and then quickly returning her attention to the playground.
Marley followed her gaze. "Yeah. I've never lived anywhere else."
"That must have been nice."
"Living here for nineteen years?" Marley gestured to the drab concrete buildings. "I wouldn't call that nice. Necessary, yes; uninspiring, yes; but not nice."
Indignation dampened the fire inside her, and Savi embraced it. "Being in the same school, not having to try and make new friends every few months, never coming home to discover all your stuff packed because you can't afford the rent anymore? I'd take an uninspiring home over none at all."
Marley's expression sobered. Savi met his searching eyes and held them, hardening her stare to fight the heat rising to her cheeks.
"Home," he whispered, caught up in his own thoughts. A soft smile graced his lips, and his eyes refocused on her. "When angels talk in Heaven above, I'm sure they have no words more sweet than home --" He stopped, but he didn't sound finished. A tinge of red kissed his cheeks before he added, "Robert William Service."
The resentment that Savi had been fueling to smother her desire vanished as soon as she realized Marley was quoting poetry. "Is that all of it?" she asked. "Do you know the whole poem?"
Marley shrugged. "That's the most relevant part. Do you like poetry?"
"Like it?" Savi struggled to find the right words, her mind preoccupied by the fact that Marley not only liked poetry, but memorized it like she did. All she could come up with was a fervent, "Yes."
In an attempt to rid him of his grin, which was causing her stomach to flutter in a way that was pleasant and irritating at the same time, Savi asked, "So the room I woke up in was you and Ren's? With the poetry and the painting?"
"Technically it's still Ren's room too, but he never sleeps there. He's got a place in the woods. I wrote down some of the poetry up there, but most of it's from my dad. The painting was just me, though."
"Your dad might be nuts," she said, "but he has good taste in poetry. I recognized about half of it, and what I didn't know made me wish I could spend all day reading." Detecting disappointment in his eyes, she added, "The painting was beautiful too," then cringed inwardly at both the pitiful compliment and her concern for his happiness.
He smiled, but a hint of disappointment remained. "Thanks. And my dad's not actually crazy."
Savi ran her fingers over her still sore lips. "Could have fooled me." Thinking back on her encounter with Marley's father, she was reminded of something he said that had struck her -- a glimpse of the real man beneath the insanity. "He called you Marlais."
Marley opened his mouth to reply, but Savi spoke first. "After Dylan Marlais Thomas?"
His eyes brightened with surprise and delight. "I've never met anyone who knew that."
The flames inside Savi sparked and flared wildly. She couldn't think of anything except how she wished that he had seen her last year when she was running, and skinnier.
"He's one of my dad's favorites," he said. "Mine too."
"He's one of everybody's favorites." It came out almost dismissively, so she added, "Me included."
There was that smile again.
Savi needed some relief from the exhausting battle raging inside her. Although she was certain the answer would drag her back into thinking about last night, she asked, "So what's the deal with your dad? Why did he think I'm a..." She dropped her voice to a whisper, although no one was around. "...werewolf?"
"I'm so sorry about that. I was hoping to catch him before he saw you. He's in a lot of pain and really weak. He gets pretty confused around this time."
"I wouldn't call throwing George across the apartment weak."
A mother and her two young children came out of one of the buildings, and walked towards the playground. Savi thought Marley was going to take her back to the apartment, but instead he stepped closer to her until the faint scents of cedar and paint that clung to him were all that remained between them. She breathed him in without realizing it. Her fingers twitched with an alarming impulse to trace his smooth cheek.
Looking down into her eyes, he spoke in a low voice. "My dad -- Warren, is his name -- was bitten by the silver wolf when he was in college."
Having him so close made it difficult for Savi to concentrate on his words rather than his mouth. She silently chided herself and watched the two kids run into the playground as she listened.
"On the full moon and the two days surrounding it," Marley continued, "werewolves have superhuman strength and senses. But the transformation is excrutiating, and it never gets easier. The changes have been weakening my dad for years. Ren and I have been searching for that wolf since we were nine years old."
"Wait, so your dad..." Savi couldn't bring herself to say it.
"Is a werewolf," Marley whispered, studying her reaction.
Savi took a small step back and gently laid her hand on the bandage on her arm. "He became one when he was bitten?"
"Yeah."
"I was bitten, but I didn't change. Do you know why?"
Marley shook his head. "I've never heard of that happening before."
Watching the children play, Savi wondered what it would take to hide such a huge secret from the world. "I'm glad I didn't change. I can't imagine living like that."
"Like what?"
Still lost in thought, she missed the edge in Marley's voice. "As an animal. Being an animal. Does he keep his human awareness, or is he wild?"
"He's a wolf completely, wild, with no memories of his human side."
Her thoughts turned to Hettie. "I don't know which would be worse: being human but trapped in a wolf's body, or waking up in a strange place without any memories from the night before. Even if it is only a few nights a month, it must be impossible to live a normal life, have a job, go to school, have a family."
Finally looking at Marley, Savi saw his pained expression and realized how offensive she was being. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean your dad specifically. He's obviously figured out the family thing. It's just that this is all so strange to me. I mean, werewolves? It's just so creepy to think that they're real."
Marley's intensely probing eyes told her she wasn't making things any better. She tried to laugh it off.
"I'm not saying your dad's creepy, it's just -- if werewolves are real, what else is? Vampires? Magic? Aliens? Unicorns?"
There was a pain in his eyes that Savi wished she could wipe away. The desire to touch him, to comfort him, was so overwhelming that she took another step away, which only made his face harden further.
She was about to speak when
Marley said, "Let's just go back and eat. You're free to go home after if you want."
Savi tried to think of something that would bring back his warmth, but a voice in her head told her she had imagined it in the first place, and that he really did just want her to leave.
As he started walking back to the apartment building, Savi felt a tug, as if a string between them had gone taut. Rattled by the physicality of the sensation, she told herself that she was just frazzled from the night before. Leaving here was a good idea. Once she got home she'd be back to her normal self.
Following him, Savi thought of Hettie again, and how she was so irrational when it came to Colby.
"Hettie!" she cried. She jogged to catch up with Marley and stood in front of him. Marley stopped, but didn't look at her.
"We have to call the police. My best friend and --" she couldn't bring herself to say boyfriend, "a guy from my high school are still at the barn."
"We can't call the cops," he said, trying to walk around her.
Savi blocked his path. "Why?"
He kept his voice low, but the vulnerability that had been there when quoting poetry was gone, replaced with heavy scorn. "It's the last night of the full moon cycle. What do you think is going to happen if we involve the police? They're going to end up with a whole lot of werewolves on their hands, and I already told you that werewolves are wild animals when they're a wolf -- no trace of humanity left. And they're way more aggressive than regular wolves. Do you want people to get killed? Or even worse, altered?"
Savi's surprise at his anger gave way to her own. "Of course not --"
"Do you want everyone to find out that werewolves exist?" he asked, cutting her off. "If you're any indication, the world wouldn't react very well."
She started to respond, but stopped when someone walked by. Marley took advantage of her distraction to slip past. She caught up with him, but the man who had interrupted their argument was walking too close in front of them to risk discussing it further. She fumed silently until they had made it back to his apartment building and were waiting for the elevator.
Keeping an eye out for passersby, she whispered, "I'm not leaving Hettie there with those monsters."
Marley scoffed. "You mean the werewolves?"
"Okay, Monty," Savi said, rolling her eyes.
The elevator door opened and they both stepped in. When the doors closed, Savi rounded on Marley. "I already apologized for what I said about your dad. But this isn't about me, it's about Hettie. She's there because of me. She's trapped in that barn with those monsters who kidnapped her and held a gun to her head because of me. I tried to help her last night, to stop them, but I couldn't." Savi pushed down the tears that threatened to fall. "There are so many people there. If the police can't help, then how am I supposed to save her?"
Marley watched the numbers tick by as they reached the fifth floor. As the doors opened, he said, "Ren and I are going back there tonight to get the silver wolf. We can try to get your friends too."
Following him into the hallway, Savi asked, "Why do you need the silver wolf?"
"My dad met a woman once who had been a werewolf, but wasn't anymore. She said she'd been bitten during the full moon cycle by the same werewolf that turned her, except when they were both human. We're trying to get the silver wolf to do the same."
"I can go with you."
A few doors down, George stepped into the hallway. When he saw Savi, he rushed toward them, supporting himself on the wall.
"Savi!" he called, drawing her in for a tight hug.
"Hi, George," she said, patting him lightly on the back. Marley kept walking and disappeared into the apartment.
Savi pulled away, but George kept a hand on her shoulder. "I came back for breakfast," she said. "Then I'm going home."
His smile faltered, but he quickly recovered and said, "Your eggs are done, but cold." With George using her as a crutch, they walked back to the apartment. The living room and kitchen were empty, other than a hodgepodge of unmatched furniture. She walked George to the kitchen, where he sat down at a small wrought iron table that would have looked more at home on someone's patio.
Putting her plate of eggs in the microwave and watching them spin, she said, "Even though I'd rather not think about it, there are some things I want to ask you about last night."
"I figured."
"How did we get out of there? Last I remember Top was aiming a gun at me. Then I woke up here." The microwave beeped and she sat in a wicker chair across from George.
"Marley shot him with a tranquilizer dart," he said. "He and Ren took turns helping me walk and carrying you. We had a couple close calls with the Alters, but eventually we made it to my car, which we took to their truck, then I followed them here." George reached across the table and put a hand on hers. "When you didn't wake up during all that I was worried. I think you fainted from shock, but you did have a slight fever. I was up with you until it broke, around midnight."
Savi slowly pulled her hand out from under his. "You know about the Alters?"
"I've spent a lot of time in those woods," he said, staring at his empty hand. "I've seen what they do."
"Then you know..." Even though he said he knew, it seemed impossible that someone so close to her could be aware of the existence of werewolves. "You know what they do to people?"
He leaned back, glancing up to meet her gaze but not holding it. "Change people into werewolves? Yes, I know about that."
Her mind flooded with questions. How long had he known? Had he told anyone? Had he ever tried to stop them? But one question kept rising to the surface, demanding to be asked. And for some reason, Savi was certain she wouldn't like the answer. She was surprised to see a similar fear in George's eyes.
"Why were you there, George?"
He looked around the still empty living room and hallway. Then he pulled his wallet from his back pocket and took out a thick piece of folded paper, saying, "I was following through on a promise I made five years ago."
Savi stared at him, waiting for more.
He unfolded the paper, and Savi could tell that it was a photograph, but it was still facing away from her. The corners of George's lips twitched, but any hint of a smile was buried beneath his sorrow. He handed the picture to Savi.
She recognized it instantly as a duplicate of the one she had in her keepsake box. Except this picture wasn't exactly the same. It was the same front porch, her father wore the same Led Zeppelin t-shirt, but in this picture, his eyes were open, his smile was wide and goofy. And it wasn't her mother sitting next to him -- it was, unmistakably, George.
Staring at her with watery eyes, he said, "I made that promise to my best friend, your father, Montgomery Drake."
Chapter Fourteen
"That's you," was all Savi could say, unable to look away from her father's dark brown eyes. Her eyes.
"That's me," George said.
In a cavern deep inside Savi, a tiny box, hidden beneath a fuzzy blanket of dust, cracked open. "You know my father?"
George's body caved in on itself. His voice broke as he said, "I knew your father."
Everything stopped. All thoughts of Hettie, Marley, and last night fell away until the only thing Savi was aware of was the sound of her own heartbeat. She became weightless, floating over the table, staring down at the statues of herself and George. When she spoke, it was as if her body were a lifeless marionette, controlled by her spirit above.
"Knew?"
"He died five years ago, a few months before his thirty-second birthday."
Savi slammed back into her body. All of the pain she'd been ignoring -- her sore neck, her aching back, her raw lips -- everything flared up with a vengeance, bringing on a sudden wave of nausea that threatened to empty her stomach of what little breakfast she'd eaten. She put her head down to keep from passing out.
"I'm so sorry to tell you like this," said George. Savi scarcely heard him, focused as she was on fighting the black trying to envelop her. "You have
no idea how many times I've wanted to tell you the truth. You look so much like him, especially your smile. There were times I couldn't bear to look at you."
Although George's words were intended to calm Savi, the more he spoke, the angrier she became. The anger was a shimmering lifeline, hauling her upward through the darkness and pain, and finally above it, giving her enough energy to raise her head. George must have caught a glimmer of her ire, because he straightened in his chair, his expression of pleading concern shifting into an anxious wince.
"Why didn't you ever tell me? We've worked together for over a year." A realization struck her. "You started after me. You didn't start working at the coffee shop because I was there, did you?"
He hushed her, raising one of his hands and eyeing the hallway. "Calm down, we don't want everyone to hear, and we definitely don't want to wake their father again. Eat your breakfast and let me explain."
Savi got up and stood against the wall.
"I met Monty --" he began.
"Don't," she interrupted. "Don't say his name."
George frowned. "Yeah, I've noticed how you use his name." He paused before continuing. "I met Monty --"
Savi fumed, but said nothing.
"-- when we were kids. We lived in the same neighborhood, went to the same school, and we became close friends. We both loved the outdoors and went camping a lot with each other's families. After we graduated high school, we decided to spend the summer camping at October Mountain. I know you and Hettie spent a lot of time at the park, but we practically lived there."
The thought that George knew so much about her -- more than she knew about herself, really -- when she knew so little about him, fed Savi's nausea.
"One day toward the end of the summer we were hiking, and we crossed paths with three pretty blondes, who turned out to be sisters."
Her eyes widened. "My mom?"
George smiled. "Monty was handsome, charming, funny -- he always had an easy time with the girls, something that never came naturally to me. Chloe's sisters started flirting with us, but she wasn't interested at all, which of course made Monty nuts for her. He did everything he could to get her attention. Her sisters told us where they lived, and Monty would visit every day. Sometimes I went with him. Flowers, poems, songs, you name it. Her parents loved us, and made Chloe go out on a date with him."