“Hands off,” I growl.
His nostrils flare. “You’ve almost compromised this entire mission. Did you really think provoking our suspect was a good idea? We heard your little fight with Mr. Webster.”
“I’m doing what needs to be done to close this case,” I respond in an undertone. The hallway is almost clear but there are a few stragglers. “With the way all the wolves are behaving around here, you need to act sooner rather than later.”
His hand tightens painfully on my arm. “That wasn’t your decision to make.”
“Hey, I’m willing to work with you guys if you’d allow us to.”
“You’re just a couple of punks and a has-been in over your heads.”
I pull my arm out of his grip. “Well, these punks and has-been aren’t going to sit on the sidelines and watch.”
He towers over me and uses that height to try and make me feel small. “And the lower on the ladder you are, the less anyone’s going to care. Get out of here.”
I automatically shift into a stance where I can throw a punch or hold my ground. Then I stop. Any other day I might have followed through, and gotten myself arrested in the process, but I see Hawk over the agent’s shoulder in the distance. He shakes his head. I back down and move past Agent Moore for the doors. Hawk meets me there and we walk out together. He passes me another chocolate bar but I shove it into my pocket. I’m too angry to eat.
“What was that all about?” Hawk asks.
“Nothing. Just a turd being himself.”
Jefferson pulls up as the buses wheel out and we hop in. “So? How’d it go?”
“Fantastic.” I pull the door shut. “We’ve got a problem.”
“Yeah, I know.” Jefferson puts the truck into gear and we head out. Instead of going the usual way he takes some side streets. “I got Agent Smith to talk to me. They managed to overhear a few things today, like the fact that Mr. Webster is supervising a dance tonight.”
“Crap, that would be it.” I hold a hand to my forehead. “Jason—the jerk that bit me—invited Ashley to the dance.”
“Who’s Ashley?”
“A friend.”
Hawk pats my arm to get my attention. “I heard a lot of the werewolves inviting people to that dance.”
“Could be a coincidence,” Jefferson says. “It’s a dance. Kids go to those. Doesn’t have to be sinister.”
“No, but every werewolf was asking everyone to go. That can’t be good.”
I thump my head back against the seat. “So that’s what Matt was talking about. He tried asking me out to the dance.”
“What?” Hawk looks me up and down. “Seriously? You got asked out?”
“Yeah, shut it.”
“What did you say?”
“I said no! He’s a jerk and a lunatic and he—” I forgot I haven’t mentioned the detention incident and wasn’t planning on it. “Well, he sort of attacked me.”
“What? Why didn’t you say anything?” Hawk exclaims.
I hold up a hand. “Relax! It’s fine. He didn’t really hurt me, but I think Mr. Webster made him do it. It was pretty out of nowhere and Webster was walking away down the hallway when I checked. On a side note, do we have any ibuprofen?”
Hawk throws up his hands and refuses to look at me anymore. Jefferson stops outside the Java Jitters coffee shop and offers to buy us caffeine.
“We’re all going to need it,” he says. “The other team will be keeping surveillance on Mr. Webster up to and at the dance but we’ll need to be there too. A large group of werewolves and students all together in an enclosed space? Gives me a bad feeling.”
We order our drinks and Jefferson stops at the local drug store to get me some pain meds. Once we’re jacked up on coffee and my arm isn’t hurting so bad, we swing by the barn to pick up the tranquilizer guns. The next several hours we spend sitting in the truck on a wooded trail behind the school out of sight. The light wanes and streetlamps flicker on around the school, flooding it with orange light. Jefferson has a walkie talkie sitting on the dash and we get updates every so often from the other IMS team. Apparently Mr. Webster decided to spend his time leading up to the dance in his office grading paperwork and then setting up decorations in the gym.
“It’s a costume dance,” I whisper in the relative quiet. The only sound is the rustling of the wrappers of our junk food.
“Seriously?” Hawk whispers back. “We’re so missing out. Who would you dress up as?”
“I don’t know. You could show up as a wolf and people would compliment you on how awesome your costume is. I’m sure that Love Moon fan club would fawn over you.”
“You could be a troll. You wouldn’t need to dress up.”
I punch him in the arm and he groans. We start a hitting match until Jefferson hisses at us to break it up. To distract myself, I focus on loading and unloading my tranquilizer gun. There’s way too much time to think so I’m considering what jobs I might be doing after this is done. I’m still scared we might get the boot out of Underground too. Director Knox said before that we were special cases so we could stay, but is it possible we could screw up so bad that we couldn’t even be trusted there, our home?
“You look grouchy,” Hawk whispers.
“It’s my default setting,” I mutter and pop the magazine out of my gun again, push the darts in and out, pop the magazine back in, and pull on the slide.
The walkie talkie crackles, saving me from having to explain anything. “They’re opening the doors for the dance.” It’s Agent Moore. “A couple of kids are already here. Mr. Webster’s still popping popcorn at the concession stand. Agent Smith, you might want to get a better angle on your lenses to see the dance floor.”
“This is so stupid,” I say. Thankfully the mute button is on at our end so they can’t hear me. “They need people in there and not watching on the outside. If something goes wrong and they lock the doors, how are we supposed to help anyone trapped inside?”
From our vantage point I see more students park in front of the school and head in wearing all sorts of costumes. I even spot a boy dressed as the Pale Knight. Ashley will be among the crowd soon—the only person out of the whole school that’s been nice to me walking into a possible trap. Right then an old beater pulls up and she steps out of the passenger side wearing a short skirted outfit, has pointed ears sticking out of her hair, and holds a staff. Jason doesn’t appear to have dressed up at all.
“That’s Ashley and Jason,” I say, my hand already on the handle. “I can’t leave her alone in there. This is a trap. It’s got to be. Jefferson.”
He looks long and hard at me. There’s some serious internal debate going on behind those beady eyes. We’ve got orders to keep away and “let the professionals handle it,” but Jefferson knows better. He knows we’ve all got a stake in this. We won’t slip up when it really counts.
He rolls his lips then digs into his pocket and hands over some loose cash. “Better put on your glass slippers. You’re going to the ball.”
Chapter 26
Hawk and I join the throng of students entering the gymnasium where the dance is taking place. We pass carved pumpkins and walk under fake spider webs and paper skeletons hanging from the ceiling. Near the doors they’ve set up a little stand where our English teacher is handing out tickets. I pass over the cash Jefferson gave me and we’re allowed in.
It’s dark inside except for strobe lights from a raised DJ’s stand at the back and a disco ball flashing overhead to illuminate the fake fog being continuously pumped onto the dance floor. The music is already blaring to some techno tune and the students have carved out a niche in the middle of the floor to hop around shaking their hips.
“Don’t tell me you didn’t miss this,” Hawk shouts in my face to be heard.
I grin. Yeah, I did miss this. Our performance against the elves in their dance competition gave us some serious street cred in Underground. They hosted it in the water sprites’ cavern. The fire sprites even showed up to light
the place in a dazzling display of their own and the water sprites created a mist to give the whole place a magical gleam. Then the elves toted in their seriously impressive sound system and we all duked it out. The setting here is reminiscent but nowhere close to the spectacle of that day.
Tucked in the far corner with the only normal lights on is a concession stand. Mr. Webster stands at a glass-paneled popcorn machine adding oil and kernels to a pot. I nudge Hawk and nod in Webster’s direction. At least we know where he is and can keep an eye on him. I scan the crowd next and spot Ashley off to the side with Jason. Her arms are crossed and she’s pouting.
I make my way over and wave to get her attention. Her face lights up when she spots me and she jumps up and down in place.
“You made it!” she shouts. “I didn’t think you’d come!”
“Me? Miss out on a dance? I don’t think so.” My eyes move to Jason. He’s a statue and hasn’t moved an inch except to stare at me out of the corner of his eye. Creepy. Hawk tenses and almost goes after the guy that bit me but I grab his arm to hold him back. We can’t even arrest Jason without revealing I’d been bitten, which is a big no-no according to Jefferson. I’m frustrated too but we have bigger things to worry about.
“Awww, you didn’t dress up,” Ashley says disappointed.
“Can’t you tell? I came as a student.”
“Ha, good one.” She thumbs her nose at me and then tries to tug Jason onto the dance floor but he doesn’t budge.
Now that he’s really creeping me out, I put a hand on his shoulder and let that protective instinct do its work. I don’t want him hurting Ashley or anyone else. His tense muscles thaw out enough so he turns his head to look at me.
“Go on,” I shout over the music. “Take the lady for a dance.”
His eyes find Ashley and he takes her hand to guide her into the middle of the hip-shaking group. Ashley starts some disco moves so I carry on with Hawk to walk the perimeter of the dance floor. The more the crowd swells, the more people I spot standing robot-like as Jason had. They’re on the edges like sentinels to the dancing teens still unaffected by the werewolf disease. More and more the whole situation feels like a trap. Is the black wolf trying to infect all the remaining teenagers at the same time? Why change his strategy now? Picking them off one by one seemed to have been working fine.
To blend in better, Hawk and I move a little ways into the dancing crowd and do an easy side step back and forth to the beat. Time moves on but nothing happens. The werewolves keep standing guard in a ring with some scattered throughout the dancing crowd. My English and biology teachers and Captain Krush walk around to chaperone and occasionally break apart teens grinding together. Students rush back and forth to the concession stand for drinks and soon there’s a litter of pop bottles lining the walls and a few students sitting down to catch their breath or talk before joining in again.
Hawk and I separate to keep our eyes on a wider area. I jive my way to the side to check on the concession stand. Mr. Webster isn’t there anymore. I stop even pretending to dance and break out of the dancers to find where he’s gone. “Monster Mash” starts to play and I’m bumped into from behind. Jason doesn’t pay me any attention as he stalks past to the exit. He’s not the only one. Two others join him to hang out near the doors—blocking them more like. I jog around to check the other exits only to discover more werewolves are moving for those too.
I whip out my phone and text Jefferson. Wolves locking down exits. Need assist.
Hawk finds me a few seconds later, his eyes on the werewolves playing guard dog at the doors. “Webster?” he asks.
I shake my head.
My phone buzzes with a text from Jefferson. We’re moving in. Give us a distraction. No fights.
I hold my phone out so Hawk can read it. “You thinking what I’m thinking?”
“Way ahead of you,” he says.
He rushes around the dancers to the DJ’s booth while I push my way to the center of the dancing crowd. I wait there while “Monster Mash” continues for thirty seconds until it’s cut off. The students around me groan their displeasure at the silence but then Hawk jumps on a mike next to the DJ.
“We’ve got a special show for you tonight!” he shouts, his voice booming through the gym. “Clear the center because we’re going to blow your minds!”
He jumps off the stage in true Hawk fashion—over the top and flashy—to exclamations and gasps as people move out of the way. He stops fifteen feet away from me and the remaining crowd shrugs back to give us room. The music starts on a strong drumbeat and little else. I can’t stop the smile from spreading on my face. Adrenaline hits me in a shockwave. The pain in my arm dulls enough so I might be able to pull this off.
Hawk and I start sliding in opposite directions to the beat, twisting around and back again, slowly coming in closer as techno chirps add to the beat. Even though I haven’t done this routine in a while, I still know it by heart. This is how we beat the elves and now it’s going to be our ticket to help save the werewolves.
The beat picks up and the techno pulses in loud bursts. We slide together and start doing our synchronized pop and lock moves. The students cheer us on once we prove we’re actually good at this and aren’t just trying to dance. The music hits harder so we enter our trickier hip hop moves. Hawk and I play off each other, grabbing hands and leaning back sharp only to pull ourselves back up. I roll over his back at the same time he pops up so I catch big air and roll out into a breakdance spin when I land.
The crowd is going crazy and all eyes are on us. Hawk and I spread out in opposite directions, rolling in tight spins on the floor then jumping up to catch the beat. We race at each other and jump to twist past within inches, over and under in acrobatic flips. My arm’s burning hot and sure to be bleeding again but I manage to pull off each stunt. There’s a kind of interlude during the middle of the song where it settles into the bare beat. Hawk and I run around the edge of the circle we’ve created, raise our arms, and beckon to the crowd with the beat. They eat it up and cheer even louder.
Dimly through the music I hear something crack and see a commotion near the door. Hawk and I get more enthusiastic about whipping the crowd into a tizzy before the techno jumps back in with the beat and we meet in the center for a mix of hip hop and kung fu moves. We stage a sort of mock battle in the center before we both fake punch each other out and spin away on our knees—which hurts like mad on this linoleum floor. The beat surges into its hardest hitting bangs and we do our grandest, most energetic leaps and flips off each other, then the beat slowly eases until it’s all that’s left. Our moves slow to our original gliding around each other in opposite directions and the song ends. We wave our hands to bring the crowd in and we’re practically mobbed.
I’m on a high and jumping up and down. Over everyone’s heads I spot Jefferson at the doorway. He’s tucking something into the back of his waistband and gives me an O.K. sign with his hand. Danger momentarily averted, I let myself be congratulated by the mob and the DJ hops on the mic to say how explosive that was and everything is right with the world.
Then Mr. Webster’s voice thunders through the gym. “NOW’S THE TIME!”
A second later I hear snarls. Then the screaming starts.
Panic sets in three seconds after everyone stops to comprehend that someone is screaming bloody murder. In an instant, the students start to stampede in every direction. Hawk and I, being in the very center, are shoved and hit and I’m nearly run over. Hawk stumbles forward and falls to the ground so I wrap my good arm around his waist and haul him to his feet. We stay put as the crowd disperses around us and look for the source of the mayhem.
It’s not hard to spot. Five wolves are rounding up students at the north end. Agent Moore appears out of nowhere with his tranquilizer gun in hand and starts firing, causing even more panic.
“THIS WAY!” Jefferson bellows. “GET TO THE PARKING LOT!”
He waves students over to the doorway he’s opened
and everyone rushes out in a flood. They scatter in every direction, some out to the woods which might be an even worse place to go. Hawk and I rush to help Jefferson keep the students from falling into more danger.
“Smith and I’ve got this!” Jefferson shouts at us. “Just stop those wolves!”
He tosses a spare gun and I catch it. I lock and load before sprinting back through the mob of students trying to escape, and nearly trip over someone spread out on the ground. Hawk slides to a stop behind me to help our English teacher to her feet.
“I’ve got her!” he says. “Go, go!”
I keep on and the second I’m clear of the crowd I raise my gun and fire at the closest wolf. The dart hits it in the neck and it staggers to the side before falling over. A girl the wolf was about to bite lays in the fetal position on the ground. I try to help her up but she screams and ignores me. Another wolf charges us from the side. I drop to one knee to stabilize my body and fire off two shots. The wolf trips over its own feet and skids to a stop, tongue lolling out.
I forcefully grab the prone girl’s arm and haul her to her feet so she won’t get trampled at least. As she stands there balling her eyes out, I jog on with my gun still raised to help out Agent Moore and the other Agent Smith trying to put down a group of wolves that have students trapped. I smell blood, then see blood on the floor illuminated by the strobe lights. I pop off one shot, then another, then another, and wolves start to drop. But there’s no black wolf, no sign of Mr. Webster.
The other two agents are quick to tranquilize the rest and hustle between the furry bodies to pull out injured students. I move forward to help when there’s another scream.
“Phoenix!”
I whip around and spot Ashley being dragged out the east exit by a great black wolf, her arm in its jaws.
“Ashley!”
I sprint across the linoleum, gun in hand, as sweat runs down my forehead. I slam into the door and it flies off its hinges. The hallway is empty in either direction and it’s quiet apart from the muffled screams coming from the gym. It’s hard to see but there’s a dark trail of droplets on the floor that lead south. I keep my gun level and follow the path at a jog. It ends outside the double doors to the kitchen. Pressing my shoulder to the first door I ease it open softly and keep my gun trained ahead of me.
The Curse of Moose Lake (International Monster Slayers Book 1) Page 28