Autumn

by Sierra Dean

  “I know I’m handsome,” he replied, preening. “My mom tells me so all the time.”

  “You are.”

  “So are you saying you like me, Lou?”

  “Are you admitting you were jealous?”

  “Maybe a little.”

  “Then maybe a little right back at you.” She was proud of herself for remaining quick-witted and flirty when inside all she wanted to do was jump up and down and tell him how much she liked him. She wanted him to scoop her up in a big hug so she could see if he smelled as good as he seemed to across their stools in chemistry.

  She wanted… She wanted… She wanted.

  But his flirty expression vanished. “Come for a walk with me.”

  Oh. “Okay.”

  What did it mean? What was this Texas-code for? She was sure he didn’t just want to walk, but she didn’t know what he was expecting to get out of this little jaunt. A stolen kiss? Something…else?

  She liked him, but she hoped he wasn’t going to make her regret that. Cooper didn’t seem like the kind of guy to push. He’d been a perfect gentleman with her whenever they were alone. But in the back of her mind was that nagging warning everyone had offered her.

  He’s bad news.

  Did they all know something they weren’t telling her? Was there a secret in Cooper’s past that made everyone warn her off him? A sudden thrill of fear shuddered through her, and though she continued to follow him, she wondered if she wasn’t a lamb being led to the slaughter.

  He walked into the trees, leading her farther and farther from the party until the revelry was nothing more than white noise in the background and they couldn’t see the light of the fire. In the darkness, alone with him and out of earshot, she wondered if she hadn’t made a terrible mistake.

  She was little, after all. Almost a foot shorter than him. And he played football.

  Stop being so stupid, she scolded herself. This isn’t some random boy who can’t be trusted. This is Cooper. Cooper is safe. Cooper is Cooper.

  And with that the fear fled, scattered like grease from a drop of soap.

  Her body relaxed, and she reached out her hand to touch his back, fearful she’d lose him in the darkness.

  He stopped walking and pivoted to face her. She hadn’t withdrawn her hand, so now she was braced against his chest, looking up at him. His heart throbbed under her palm wildly, like he was as nervous as she was.

  He’s going to kiss you, her brain suggested.

  Lou closed her eyes, waiting for it, which was kind of silly since it was so dark she could have kept her eyes open and the result would have been the same.

  Cooper stepped closer, his hand on her shoulder, near her neck, fingers catching in her hair. He was practically pressed against her, Lou’s hand sandwiched between them, and their hearts beat in the same frenzied rhythm. The air was cool around them, but in the Cooper-and-Lou bubble it was as hot as midafternoon in July.

  Her pulse kicked, thrumming in her ears to further drown out any noise from the party. They were on their own little island out here, removed from the world. Out here they could escape the opinions of everyone else, and nothing mattered except remembering to breathe and hoping this moment could last forever.

  “Lou…” he whispered, his face close enough that the words felt warm across her lips. He ran his hands down her bare arms, making a path of goose bumps follow, a response that had nothing to do with being cold.

  “Hi,” she replied.

  “Hi.”

  Cooper rested his forehead against hers, and she leaned into him, dropping her hand so there was nothing between them. She smiled, finding the smell of him to be better than she’d ever imagined. It was laundry detergent, fresh grass, and sunlight. He smelled like all the good parts of their town, and she basked in it, looping her arms around his waist so she could breathe even deeper.

  He pushed her hair back off her shoulders and ran his thumbs down each side of her neck, teasing the fine hairs.

  Just when she thought he might toy with her forever but never actually kiss her, his lips grazed hers. She jolted, like being shocked by static, but the kiss was perfect. His mouth was hot and tasted like peppermint gum, and when he pulled her tight against him, she felt sure she would kiss him like this forever and not care if they turned to dust in the woods, as long as she died feeling this good.

  When he broke away, she let out an airy oh, and he pressed a kiss to the tip of her nose.

  “I had to do that,” he said.

  “I’m glad you did,” she replied, amazed her mouth was able to form full words.

  “I wanted to do it at least once. In case I didn’t get the chance again.”

  “What do you…?” Her voice trailed off when she looked over his shoulder, all words frozen on her lips when she saw the glint of eyes low to the ground.

  It materialized out of the shadows like it was made from the night, and when Cooper turned, he didn’t seem surprised to see the coyote standing there.

  “Lou. I want you to meet my brother.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  He gave her a million mental bonus points for not screaming and running back to the party.

  Her hand fisted in his T-shirt, and she stepped in the opposite direction of the coyote, but she didn’t run. She did stare up at him like he’d spoken in a foreign language, but he could work around that. He knew confessing wouldn’t be easy, so he’d take what he could get.

  “Do you want to sit down?” He eased her towards a fallen tree. She let him guide her, but her attention was locked on Jer. Her whole body trembled. “He’s not going to hurt you.”

  “How can you be so sure?”

  “Because I know.”

  She sat on the tree, holding tightly to his arm as if he might run off and leave her alone.

  Jer padded into the small clearing and eyed them both like he wanted to bolt.

  “Don’t get shy now,” Cooper scolded him. “I know you’ve been watching her.”

  Jer huffed, a snorting sound somewhere between a sneeze and a growl. Cooper couldn’t be positive, but he thought the animal rolled its eyes. Instead of bolting, Jer sat back on his haunches and yawned, his pink tongue lolling. At least he was playing up the harmless aspect Cooper was trying to pitch to Lou.

  “Cooper?” She clutched at him, her hand still on the sleeve of his shirt.

  “Yeah?”

  “What do you mean, your brother?”

  Ah, she’d finally processed that part. He sat beside her, and Jer got bored of watching them so he lay down and put his head on crossed paws. He looked like a pet dog. Cooper was grateful to him for going light on the menace. He knew full well a coyote—however small—could still be terrifying when it bared its teeth.

  This would be much easier to explain if Lou wasn’t scared out of her mind.

  “You know how I told you my brother Jeremy split?”

  “Yeah?”

  Cooper pointed to the coyote’s prone form. “He didn’t so much run away, as he…changed.”

  “Are you saying your brother is a werewolf?” Lou stared at him, openly incredulous. He couldn’t blame her for being doubtful, especially if she was thinking of this as a weird horror-movie creature feature.

  “No. He’s a coyote. He doesn’t change back. He’ll never be human again. This is how he is from now on.”

  Cooper wondered how much Jer understood of what they were saying. What part of the animal was still his brother? How much humanity stuck around? Would there come a point his brother vanished entirely, and all that remained was animal instinct?

  He didn’t want to imagine a time he had to be afraid of what his brother had become.

  “I don’t understand.”

  How could she? He’d barely been able to grasp the truth of it, and he’d had over a year to process things. Maybe it was because he’d seen Jer go through it and knew what was in store for him, but he had come to a certain weird peace with the whole thing. You can’t fight inevitabilit
y. It was like trying to challenge gravity.

  The world kept right on spinning, whether you wanted it to or not.

  Cooper took Lou’s hand into his lap and gave her a squeeze, hoping to offer her a bit of comfort before he dropped his next bomb.

  “There’s something wrong with the men in my family. Just the men. When a male in the Reynolds family turns eighteen, something happens to him, and he ends up like…that.”

  “Is that what happened to your dad?”

  Cooper shook his head, though he could understand her confusion, given the vanishing act his dad had pulled. “No, my dad was a Charles, not a Reynolds.”

  “You have your mom’s last name?”

  “Yeah, it’s a weird thing in the Reynolds family. For generations the women have kept their names. My mom was actually a pretty rare case since she got married at all. Apparently Reynolds women aren’t considered very eligible as wives.”

  The hatred towards his family wasn’t new to this generation. Years and years of residents had hated them. Though his mother’s negative reaction to Lou’s family was a new twist.

  “So…I’m sorry, Cooper, I really have no idea what’s happening.”

  “I wish I could explain it better. My mom didn’t believe it either, she thought it was all a family urban legend when her mom told her she shouldn’t get married. Warned her never to have kids. She said the family was cursed, but my mom thought her uncles had just split. She didn’t have a brother, but my grandma knew the score. She must have seen it happen to her own brothers. To her nephews. I don’t know.”

  Lou’s hand was cold in his, but she didn’t let go. Finally she stopped staring at Jer and looked at him instead.

  “So when this happened…”

  “My grandma was still alive when Jer turned. I think if she hadn’t been, my mom would have gone crazy. I mean, who wouldn’t when there oldest son wakes up one morning on four legs, covered in fur?”

  “Is it a disease?”

  He could see her trying to mentally Google any kind of illness that resulted in a human being turning into a coyote. Good luck with that. They’d done their research. There was no logical answer to Jer’s condition. The only explanation had to be supernatural, but that kind of answer was even harder to accept.

  His brother had turned into an animal.

  How do you find any logic in that?

  “It’s not a disease. It’s something else. Something we don’t understand.”

  “What did you grandma say?”

  “She told my mom it was a curse.”

  “A curse?” Her voice rose to a much higher pitch, and he wasn’t sure if it was because of fear or because she was now convinced he was insane. A few minutes earlier they’d been sharing a perfect, beautiful moment, and now he was just hoping she wouldn’t run for the hills and tell everyone he was a maniac who believed in magic.

  “I’m going to tell you what my grandmother told us, and I don’t want you to accept it as gospel, because I honestly don’t know the truth. There aren’t any other Reynolds left for me to ask, and my grandma is dead now. All I know is this is real.” He pointed to Jer again. “That is my brother, and the only answer anyone had for what happened to him is what I’m about to tell you, okay?”

  “You know how crazy this sounds?” she asked before he could begin.

  “About as crazy as it was to hear the first time. But probably not as crazy as waking up one morning expecting to see your brother and finding a wild animal instead.” He didn’t mean to sound cold, but she had to understand the reality he’d been living for over a year.

  It was hard to believe, yes. But it was true.

  “What was your grandmother’s theory?”

  “She told us that years ago…like hundreds of years ago, when settlers were first finding their way to Texas, there was a small settlement here. Apparently even back then the people in my family gravitated towards careers in law, because my, like…great, great, great, great to the power of whatever grandfather was the sheriff. And back then it was probably a much harder job than it is now, because people were constantly committing crimes and killing each other.

  “Anyway, a little boy was killed. According to my grandmother it was no accident, it was murder without a doubt, but no one could figure out who killed him. His mother was devastated. She blamed my uber-great-grandfather, claiming it was his responsibility to keep her son safe, and now it was his responsibility to bring the child’s killer to justice. I guess my ancestor had a wife who was a bit feisty…kind of like the Reynolds women are now. She told this boy’s mother if she’d taken better care of her son, he wouldn’t have been killed.”

  “Oh…” Lou said. To Cooper it looked as if she was playing the scene out in her mind as he told the story. But something on her face perplexed him. She seemed to…recognize what he was talking about, as if she’d heard the tale before.

  Cooper went on, trying not to read too much into it. “The dead boy’s mom was a local healer—she had a bit of reputation as a witch, I guess—and according to my grandma that reputation was well deserved. She lashed out at my ancestor’s wife and said that until a Reynolds brought the guilty party to justice, they would be cursed to lose their sons the same as she had. Cursed to never see them reach adulthood.”

  “Their eighteenth birthday…”

  “Yeah.”

  Lou looked lost in thought, her focus now far away.

  “I know it sounds pretty crazy, but—”

  “I need to show you something,” she said. “It’s not crazy. Well, I mean, it is crazy. But I think your grandmother knew something. I think she was right.”

  Cooper hadn’t been expecting her to accept the tale so readily, if at all. He wasn’t even sure he believed it himself, in spite of having no other options available to him.

  “You do.” Then he asked, “Why?”

  She gnawed on her lips, clearly debating whether or not she wanted to say what was on her mind.

  “Lou, I just told you my biggest secret.”

  “I’ve been having dreams. Really weird, vivid dreams since I got here. And…I thought they were just dreams until you told me that story.”

  “What kind of dreams?”

  “I…I dreamed I was that woman. The witch. I saw her. Heard her make that curse. I felt her pain when she lost her son. I saw it all, exactly as you described it. And more.”

  “More?”

  “It wasn’t just the time she cursed. In my dreams she says, If you behave as dogs, you will lay with dogs, and your sons will lay with you, but you’ll never see them reach adulthood. They tried to tell her coyotes killed her son, but she knew it was a man. She was so broken…”

  Cooper stared at her, shocked by the empathy she felt towards a woman who might very well be fictional. But if this woman was real, she was the reason he only had ten months left to live among the civilized world.

  “You dreamed her?”

  “And I don’t think I was the only one.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  She sighed and looked him right in the eyes. “I think my father saw it too. And I think it’s why he left Poisonfoot.”

  Chapter Twenty

  It was Lou’s turn to guide Cooper through the darkness.

  To avoid any unnecessary drama, she sent Marnie a quick text saying she wasn’t feeling well and she was going to walk home. She promised to text again when she arrived safely. Lou was pretty sure Marnie would be secretly grateful she’d left, giving Marnie a chance to monopolize Archer.

  She was welcome to him. Lou had bigger things on her mind now than worrying about which football player she wanted to date. It turned out the boy she liked was going to become a coyote by next summer, if she believed what he was saying. Trouble was, Lou did believe. She believed every weird, impossible word of it.

  When he’d started telling her the story of the curse, it had been like someone taking a page out of her diary and reading it back to her. Everything he desc
ribed was exactly as she’d dreamt it, only his version was like a charcoal sketch, and she’d seen the Technicolor movie.

  She didn’t know how to explain those dreams to Cooper, how every moment had felt like something she’d experienced firsthand. But hearing him tell her his grandma’s theories, she knew there was truth in the story, no matter how crazy it seemed.

  Curses?

  A month ago Lou would have sworn up and down there was no such thing as a curse, unless dropping an f-bomb counted. But now she wasn’t so sure. Things like magic and the supernatural had once seemed like premises for good TV shows and little else.

  If she wasn’t living in a world of madness herself, she would think Cooper was off-the-wall crazy.

  But she’d been seeing ghosts, hadn’t she?

  And she’d been having visceral dreams about memories that weren’t hers.

  How farfetched was it to believe Cooper might be living under a curse?

  As they moved through the woods in the direction of Granny Elle’s house, she couldn’t help but notice the coyote—or should she start thinking of him as Jeremy?—was leading the way like he’d memorized it. Of course, she’d seen him in her yard, staring up at the house. And Granny Elle had cursed at him, You shouldn’t be here.

  Her grandmother knew something.

  There was more to this story than either of their families was letting on.

  They spent a good twenty minutes stumbling blindly through the dark with a coyote and Lou’s questionable sense of direction as their guides. When Lou finally saw the dim lights coming from Granny Elle’s porch, she let out a sigh of relief.

  It was one thing to think you were going the right way, quite another to actually get there.

  When they reached the edge of the tree line, Lou hesitated. She looked at Jeremy, and for the first time since Cooper had confessed the truth, she addressed the coyote directly. “Look, you can’t come in. I know it sucks, but you have to stay here. I think Granny Elle has a shotgun.”

  Jeremy sat down, still obscured by the trees, and yawned. She didn’t know how he managed to make the gesture sarcastic, but she got that distinct sense from him. A coyote was giving her attitude.