She answered by latching onto my arm, squeezing it tight. As soon as she made contact, I heard her faint voice in my head. “I won’t let you die,” she said in the same sultry tone I heard during the full moon. And then I saw a flash of what happened after the knife dug into my belly. My knees folded, my body went limp as it knelt before the other woman. I would have been on the ground if she hadn’t been holding me up with the knife. “It’s not going to happen,” Talley’s voice said in my head. “I will not let you die.”
“Talley?”
“Am I squeezing too tight?” The manic grip on my arm loosened slightly.
“You’re whispering in my head.”
“I’m what?”
“Whispering in my head. Like normal Seer communication, except it’s not a full moon.”
Talley pulled back so she could see me. Her eyebrows and lips were all scrunched up. “What am I saying?”
“Basically that you’re not going to let me die, which is ironic since I just had this really awesome dream where some Indian chick stabbed me in the stomach with a knife.” I rubbed a hand over my scars. “You know, my stomach hasn’t ever done anything to anyone. I don’t know why it gets so mistreated.”
Talley pulled herself up and immediately started working her hair over with the fingers on her left hand. “You saw that? How…? Why…?” She squinched her eyes together and shook her head back and forth as if trying to rearrange its content. “Scout, that isn’t possible.”
I pulled myself up into a sitting position, dread a heavy weight in my chest. “We specialize in the impossible around here.” God, sometimes I wished I would wake up and realize this entire past year had been a dream. “So, you’ve seen the whole Scout gets stabbed in a far away field thing, too? That’s got to be good news.”
I leaned over to flip on my retro Mickey Mouse lamp and grab Guido, who had fallen onto the floor. If we were going to start delving into some crazy Shifter/Seer stuff which was most likely was going to end with me getting my guts ripped out again, I wanted to have both my sight and my sock monkey.
“Start from the beginning,” Talley said. “Have you ever had this vision before?”
I started to say no, but then realized it was a lie. It had the mental flavor of something familiar. “Maybe. I’ve been having bad dreams all summer, but haven’t been able to remember them when I wake up. I think maybe I’ve seen the people in the field and the blood before, but not the actual stabbing.” Surely I would remember that part.
“Have you ever seen it while you were awake?”
“No,” I said, dragging out the word. Was this some sort of Is Scout Crazy Test? If so, was I passing?
Talley wrapped a strand of hair around her finger, unwrapped it, and then wrapped it up again. “And when you heard my voice in your head, was there anything else?”
“I saw me falling to my knees, which was weird because I didn’t actually make it to that part in the dream.”
I could almost see a theory formulating in her head.
“Did you feel anything? Like emotions that were strange, not yours?”
“No. Just the panicky, unsettled feeling everyone has after a nightmare.” Something about her question had me concentrating on the dream. There was something there… “I had a panic attack right before the dream started. I was having my normal A… awesomely lame dreams and then, boom! A panic attack hit me out of nowhere.”
Twirl. Untwirl. Twirl. Untwirl.
“Can we try something?”
I hugged Guido a little tighter. “Sure.”
Talley reached out her hand and laid it on my forearm. Then, she closed her eyes. At first there was nothing and then Steve from Blue’s Clues popped into my head. Strange enough, but even stranger given he was wearing a Super-Girl cape and glittery tiara.
“What do you see?”
“Evidence that our favorite children’s TV host didn’t so much overdose as go a little bonkers.”
Talley jerked her hand back, her eyes wide. And then she started to giggle. And it wasn’t the happy, this is funny type of giggling, either. This was more of the prepare my padded room variety. By the time she quit, which was a substantial amount of time later, she had to wipe tears off her cheeks.
“What’s going on?”
“I can project now.” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “I can project,” she said weakly. “Scout, why can I project?”
“Because you’re the most awesomely awesome Seer to have ever Seen?”
She snorted. “Any other brilliant theories?”
“Could it be because you have a mate now? Does that, like, strengthen your abilities or something?” That’s what would have happened if this was one of those trashy paranormal books I like so much.
“Highly doubtful. For one, that’s not a normal side effect of mating. And for another, I’m not mated.”
“But you will be.” I took a tentative step out onto the thin ice that was the whole Scout-as-til-death-do-we-part-matchmaker. “There is no way I can say ‘I’m sorry’ enough times.”
Talley has always been the most generous of my friends, but at that moment she went beyond her normal level of amazing. “You have nothing to be sorry for. It’s not anyone’s fault.”
“Tal, I’ve bound you to Jase. For life.” He was my brother, and I loved him dearly, but the idea of living with him forever was not appealing. “You should be very, very angry with me.”
“I’m not.”
“Maybe you just don’t know how to be mad at someone.” Since I was a pro, I decided it was time to educate her. “First thing you need to do is think really nasty things about me. Tons of them, but be sure to remember the most scathing remarks so you can pass them on to others. And there needs to be glaring. Lots of glaring. And the occasional snide comment thrown my way, just so I don’t get confused as to whether or not you’re actually pissed.”
“Scout, I’m perfectly capable of being angry when the situation warrants it. This one does not.”
How could she not be mad? She should be livid. I mean, it would be one thing if she wanted to marry Jase, but…
Oh. My. God.
“Talley, are you in love with my brother?”
Her head came up so fast I worried she might have whiplash. “What?”
“Is that why you’re not mad? Do you want to be mated to Jase?”
“Scout, did you purposefully mate me to your brother? Did you maliciously manipulate him into making an oath?”
“Of course not.”
“That’s why I’m not mad. You did nothing wrong. The whole thing is…” She took another deep breath. “It’s not ideal. I mean, the childhood dream isn’t going to come true for me. I don’t get to meet some fantabulous guy who is going to look at me like I’m beautiful and thinks my jokes are funny. No awkward first dates and breath-taking first kisses. No two hour phone conversations over nothing just so we can hear each other’s voice. But so what? I don’t get to fall in love. Not everyone does. And, let’s face it, I was already destined to be one of those people. At least this way I’ll spend my life with someone I care about, someone who is a good person and won’t ever do something to purposefully hurt me. A lot of people have it a lot worse.”
“Tal—”
“It’s Jase who got the raw end of the deal.” She pulled up her knees and tucked in her arms, somehow achieving the fetal position while sitting up. “I mean, he’s Jase. He would have ended up with someone beautiful and fabulous, but now he’s stuck with me.”
“That’s not true,” I said, but she didn’t believe me. I know because I didn’t really believe myself. It’s not that I think Talley isn’t beautiful and amazing and every single color in the rainbow of awesome, because I do. Honestly, I think she’s way too good of a person to have me as a best friend. But she doesn’t match the Jase girlfriend profile. She knew it, I knew it, and God knows Jase knew it.
“We’re losing focus.” She cleared her throat as she pulled herself out o
f the Talley ball. “I’ve developed a new super-power. That’s the big deal here, remember?”
“How is you having a vision of me getting killed not the big deal?”
Talley’s face tightened. “It’s not a vision. It’s a nightmare. Everyone has them.”
Of course it was.
“Well then, maybe you’re like Rogue,” I said, allowing her to pretend she couldn’t See the future and everything was peachy keen. “You suck the powers from other Seers.”
“Good theory, but I haven’t been around any Seers other than my mom, and I’m not whipping up a sparkly unitard anytime soon.”
“Have you recently fallen into a vat of radioactive goo?”
“Well, I did make the mistake of opening the bottom drawer of the bathroom cabinet.”
“I told you not to do that! Do you want to grow a third eye in the middle of your head?”
“That depends. Would I get a snazzy new power with said eye? Maybe the ability to See profitable stock investments or who will win the Kentucky Derby?” Eventually we quit speculating on the origins of Talley’s new power and ran some more tests. As long as she was projecting strongly, I would catch a glimmer of whatever it was she was trying to communicate, but never anything as solid as what she got off us.
The next day we expanded our experiments to include Charlie and Angel. Charlie didn’t get anything, and Angel didn’t fair any better in our Let’s Pretend to be Psychics game. Jase, of course, refused to be touched by Talley, despite the fact she was trying to put things in his head instead of taking them out.
With his aversion to touching Talley, I was surprised at how much time Jase started spending with her. They got so used to having to be seen as a couple in public they actually started to act like it at home. Talley would sit on the bed beside him, reading a book as he played video games. They watched a ridiculous amount of BBC together, laughing at jokes neither Charlie nor I realized were supposed to be funny. They even started fixing each other sandwiches without ever asking what the other wanted. It was weird. The two had always been friends - the four of us were pretty much a package deal outside of school - but there was a bond forming there. For a brief moment in time, I thought everything might actually work itself out.
Then, the full moon came.
Chapter 20
I should have known something was coming. There was evidence all over the place, and my instincts were screaming out in warning, yet I ignored them in favor of my imaginary world where everything was okay and normal.
It started the day after my birthday. Luckily, the whole removal of Scout from the Hagan Pack didn’t translate into the removal of Scout from the Hagan family, which meant I was now the owner of a spumoni cake and detailed family tree, thanks to Gramma Hagan, world’s most devoted baker and ancestry buff. Angel and I were sitting around scarfing down the final pieces of the cake while watching Fish Hooks. My sister was convinced I needed to watch it to learn the finer points of friendship, a skill she found me lacking.
“There is someone in the woods,” Angel announced as she angled her spoon towards my plate.
“Nice try, Munchkin, but no. Eat your chocolate and cherry layers and leave my pistachio alone.”
Her lower lip jutted out. “But I don’t have any.”
“Because you ate it already.” The kid was a menace. She had somehow finagled both Talley and Charlie out of their pistachio cake the night before. “Try the cherry. It’s delicious.” I took a big bite of mine and made the appropriate sounds for experiencing culinary excellence.
Angel’s face lit up. “I’ll trade you my cherry layer for your pistachio.”
“No deal.”
“But—”
“Eat it or I’ll take it.” It was getting near the full moon, so my appetite was similar to that of an Olympic swimmer combined with a sumo wrestler.
Angel dug in, pouting with every scrumptious bite. As she ate, her attention returned to the French doors leading to the back yard.
“There is still someone in the woods. Is it deer season?”
“No, and you can stop with the ‘someone is in the woods’ routine. I’ve already eaten my pistachio, so there is no more green cake for you to steal.”
“But there is someone in the woods,” she whined. “Look.”
I followed her pointer finger out to the woods with my eyes. At first I didn’t see anything, and was about to say as much, when a low bush rustled even though there was no wind to speak of.
“Do you see—?”
“Shhh…” I strained to hear something, but even with my super-ears I couldn’t pick up anything from so far away. I got up to move closer to the door. As soon as I did, there was another rustle of bushes, and then what could have been movement in the dense trees.
“You see him, right?” I shot her a look. “You see him, right?” she repeated, this time in a whisper.
“I don’t know,” I said. “It was probably just a deer or raccoon.”
Angel shook her head, eyes wide. “Nope. I saw an arm.”
It’s a testament to just how much I hate Fish Hooks that I decided we needed to investigate. It was another twenty minutes before we made it to the spot where Angel’s man with an arm had been seen since I had to wait for her to put on her “undercover” outfit, which consisted of black leggings, a Team Ninja t-shirt, and her black snow boots.
“See, someone has been here.” She held back a branch with one hand while the other perched on her hip. “The grass is all smoosheded down.”
“Which is exactly what would have happened if a deer took a nap there.” And that was the smell I was getting. Sorta. It was like a deer, but all chemically. And underneath the scent I thought I could detect another scent, but it was hard pick out from the other. Without thinking, I got down on my knees and pressed my nose to the grass.
“Scout, are you smelling the ground?”
“Ummm… Maybe?” My brain scrambled for an explanation a seven year old would believe. “I saw a guy on the National Geographic channel do this once. He said plants absorb the smells of soaps and laundry detergents.”
The lie worked a little too well. Soon Angel was down on the ground beside me, swearing she could smell green soap and the laundry stuff with the scary bear on it. After a bit more forensic work, which included tasting a leaf she assured me was wild mint, Angel declared we were being stalked by Perez Hilton.
I ordered her back to the house and made a note to limit the amount of entertainment news she watched.
I didn’t completely forget the whole someone-may-be-in-the-woods incident, but I didn’t give it too much thought either. It was strange, but what wasn’t these days? And even when I started getting that creepy someone-is-watching-me feeling me every time I went anywhere, I didn’t start worrying. After all, I’m Scout Donovan. With my freakazoid looks and the drama from April, getting stared at in public is a day to day occurrence.
No, it didn’t cross my mind to be concerned until I was halfway through the Change. One thing I hadn’t noticed in my previous two Changes was how much my sense of smell improved as I shifted from Human Scout to Wolf Scout, possibly because I was too busy trying not to die. This time it was obvious. The smell came to me slowly, getting sharper and sharper the further I went in my transition.
Talley, we have a problem, I said as soon as I could form a coherent thought.
“The food is to your left, Scout. Just use your nose.”
We have company.
There was a pregnant pause on the other end of the Shifter/Seer network. “Scout, he’s not here…”
It’s not the same smell as before. Although, I could have sworn that one was there too, but I was desperately trying to ignore it. Shifters. More than one. They’ve been through here recently, and I think they’re still close by.
“Do you recognize anyone?”
No, they’re… My wolf brain searched for the right word. Not family. Predators. Enemies. A breeze blew through the night, carrying the sc
ent of the unwelcome Shifters. They were just west of me, the exact same direction…
Talley, do you have your gun? Charlie and Jase insisted we keep them on us any time we left the house. When I noted our lack of a concealed weapons license, Charlie produced one for each of us two days later. His eyes told me not to ask any questions, so I didn’t. Instead, Talley and I started carrying Vash and Gilbert in our purses at all times. At least, I prayed it was at all times.
“It’s in the car.”
Get it. And stay in the car. Keep the gun out and shoot anyone or anything that gets close enough.
“Scout?”
Are the boys through Changing?
“Jase is close. Scout, what’s wrong?”
I ducked through a clearing in the brush, never slowing my pace. As soon as they Change tell them to make their way back to you. Fast. There was no way I was letting them take her. Ever.
The bad thing about being an animal is you have no concept of time. The good thing is you can run fast and for long periods of time. By the time I made it to Talley she was locked in her car, her handgun sitting in her lap with one hand tapping on the handle.
Jase and Charlie?
“On their way,” she said aloud since she’d opened the door the moment she saw me. “I can feel Jase getting close.”
Sure enough, the first of the coyotes burst through the underbrush not much later. Once Charlie arrived we took turns going out to gather food. I managed to catch a raccoon and devoured most of it before Human Scout realized what was going on.
Jase happily took my leftovers.
After we all ate, and therefore had a bit more level head, we worked up a defense strategy. Talley was stationed at the old iron furnace. It was an ideal place for a Seer to be during a full moon - It was in the middle of nowhere, had a nice little road that led down to it, and even sported a placard explaining it’s very long and boring history, which gave Talley an excuse to be there should park ranger happen by, providing the park ranger wandered by just after dark and not at three in the morning. As for a stronghold against another Pack of Shifters? We could have done better.
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