“If this is how he’s going to treat you, then maybe he’s not worth it.”
“How can you say that? He’s your friend!”
“And so are you, and right now we need each other more than we need him.” He finally let go of my hand. “I’m sorry. That came out wrong,” he said, more subdued.
A strange look came over his face all of a sudden and he wrapped his hands around his head. “I have to go,” he said.
“But we’re just getting started!”
He shook his head, wincing and seeming to shrink in on himself. “We’ve done enough for today. It’s getting late.”
“Don’t go. Not yet. I’ll . . . I’ll get it right this time. I promise.”
My eyes stung with tears. Not only was my boyfriend mad at me, now Caleb was refusing to help me. Just when I thought we were getting along and making progress.
“It’s getting dark. I’ve got to get home. I’ll, I’ll . . .”
Caleb’s eyes went suddenly blank and he sank to the ground, convulsing like a fish out of water.
“Caleb!” I knelt by his side and reached out to him. But I drew my hand back suddenly, afraid of somehow hurting him more than helping.
“Omigod. Caleb. Don’t do this. Not now. Someone help us!” I yelled. “Adrian!” But there was no one around to hear.
After what felt like the longest minute of my life, Caleb at last stopped convulsing. He lay on the ground, blinking as he tried regaining focus.
“What happened?”
“You had a seizure,” I said, on the verge of tears. “It looked pretty bad.”
He sat up slowly, grimacing. “But not quite as bad as the one I had yesterday.”
“You had one yesterday?” I said, shocked.
“In the school bathroom. I felt it coming on and was lucky to get away in time.”
I stared at him in disbelief. “You should have gone to the hospital!”
He stood, a little wobbly at first, and brushed off my concern. “I’m fine.”
“You’re not fine! Here, let me help.” I tried taking his arm but he shrugged away.
“I need to be alone.”
“But—”
“Just leave me alone!”
Caleb loped away, disappearing at once into the shadows of the forest. He had left me alone, feeling scared and confused above all else. I dug my cell from my pocket and held it up, checking for reception. One bar, and hopefully that was enough.
“What’s up?” Priscilla said when she answered.
“Can you come over to my house? I need to talk to you.”
“Are you crying?”
I sniffed. “No. Can you come over or not?”
“Sure. My dad’s home. I’ll tell him we’re working on a project.”
“But we’re not.”
Priscilla snorted. “God, you’re such an amateur liar. He doesn’t have to know that.”
“Fine. Tell him we’ll feed you.”
“Will do. See you soon.”
Ending the call, I sank to my knees, my tears coming fast and hard. I felt sick about Adrian, yes, but I was very worried about Caleb. Why had I let him go off by himself? What if something happened to him and he had another seizure while driving home? I would never forgive myself if he got into an accident.
Nothing could be accomplished by crying, however, so I dried my eyes and started for home. The days were growing shorter, and it was already getting dark. We were in the in-between, that hazy, insubstantial moment when it’s no longer day, but not yet night. I picked up my pace, not wanting to get caught in the woods after dark.
There was a rustling in the dense brush to my right, and my heart shot in my throat as I skidded to a halt. Months had passed since Victor attacked us in these woods, but the memory was fresh in my mind.
I sucked in my breath and called out tentatively, “Adrian?”
Perhaps he was spying on me, maybe even trying to catch me doing something with Caleb, despite the number of times I had told him nothing was going on between us.
“Adrian is that you?” I called out again, bolder that time.
A lone form emerged from the shadows and I felt my legs quiver and start to buckle. A scream lodged in my throat, but all I could do was stand frozen in place and stare at the great black wolf looming in front of me.
My mouth went suddenly dry and I licked my lips to wet them. Putting out a hand in front of me, I took a slow step back, my eyes locked on the wolf’s the entire time.
“Stay,” I said stupidly, as though it were a dog trained to obey commands. “Don’t come any closer.”
The wolf lowered its nose, its lips pulling back to reveal a hungry jaw of massive teeth. It took another step toward me and I screamed.
Adrenaline flooded my veins. Turning to run, I crashed through the trees, only dimly aware that I’d got turned around and was now running in the opposite direction of home. I could hear the wolf’s heavy footfalls and panting close behind, and I screamed again as I imagined, only too well, the wild animal lunging and tearing out my throat.
Where did it come from? I’d been surprised by wild turkey before, and there were more deer than you could even keep track of. Sometimes at night I heard the hoot of an owl or yippy cries of a coyote pack traveling through. There’d even been a few bear sightings over the years. But a wolf?
A wolf . . .
I intentionally slowed down, and so did the animal. Risking a glance over my shoulder, I was surprised to see the wolf running alongside me, rather than after me. It wasn’t chasing me at all, but instead keeping up. I stopped suddenly, and so did he.
The wolf whined and took another step closer as it considered me. My hands shook at my sides. “Shoo!” I said, my voice shaking and lacking any sort of conviction. I had a feeling about something, but what if I was wrong?
The wolf continued to inch closer, its hairy belly nearly scraping the ground. I squeezed my eyes shut tight in fearful anticipation of sharp teeth. “Just please go away. Please!”
Something cold and wet touched my hand. I jumped back, my eyes flying open, but the wolf lay down at my feet and turned its eyes to me. As my heart began to beat a more normal rhythm, I saw there was something very human-like about those eyes.
I took a deep breath as I fought back the overwhelming urge to either scream some more or pass out.
“Who are you?”
The wolf whined again and rose on its haunches. Licking my lips, I cautiously held out my right hand and tried not to yank it back as the animal stretched forward and sniffed.
“Who are you?” I said to it again. “Because I know you’re not really a wolf.” And then something occurred to me. “You’re the one who was watching me at school today, aren’t you?”
The wolf tilted its head and howled, making the fine hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.
“I’ll take that as a yes.” I swallowed hard. “Okay then. So who are you?” I said, more to myself this time than the wolf.
The wolf continued to stare at me, shifting on its paws.
“I suppose you can’t really answer that, can you?” I gave him a narrow look. “You’re not going to hurt me, are you?”
The wolf whined and sauntered around my body, nudging my side with its head.
I hesitated, but I had to know. “Are you . . . are you my dad?” The wolf stared at me, making no motion whatsoever. “You aren’t, are you? But do you know who he is?”
The wolf whined and dipped its black, furry head. Stars danced in front of my eyes and I sank to my knees. To think that this wolf, that was somehow also a man, knew who I was and knew who my father was . . . To know that there was this tangible connection to my father, standing right in front of me . . .
But before I could ask more questions, the wolf turned and shot off into the shadows, disappearing into a world that was unknown to me.
SEVENTEEN
I stumbled from the woods, too stunned to walk a straight line. My legs felt like jelly, and I trip
ped and rolled my ankle repeatedly.
“Shoes!” Meg shouted as I barreled through the back door.
I looked down, realizing that I’d made it halfway across the kitchen floor shedding clods of dirt from the bottoms of my sneakers. I slipped them off where I stood and kicked in the approximate direction of the mat.
“Sarah!” Meg gritted her teeth. She shoved the broom and dust pan into my hand as she sighed at the mess. “And I just mopped today.”
“Sorry.”
“Who wants mushrooms?” David said, poking his head around the corner, the phone cradled against his ear.
I looked up from what I was doing, preoccupied by thoughts of Caleb and the wolf. “Huh?”
“We’re having pizza for dinner,” Meg said, still tight-lipped.
“Oh. Cheese for me,” I said.
“Well I’m getting mushrooms,” David said. “You all can pick them off.”
I finished sweeping up the mess and hung the broom and dust pan in the pantry. “Priscilla’s coming over. We’re going to do homework.”
“That’s fine,” Meg said, giving salad preparation the better part of her attention.
“I’ll, um. I’ll just be in my room. Send her back when she gets here.”
Meg finally looked up. “Have you been crying?”
I gave her what I hoped was a convincing smile. “No. It’s been a long day, I guess. I’m just tired.”
In my bedroom I flopped on my bed, clutching my pillow. I desperately needed to tell someone about the wolf, but who? Not Charley, despite the fact she was Head of Council. I didn’t think the wolf was a threat, but Charley would no doubt have a different opinion on the matter. Knowing her, she would get the rest of the tribe involved and they’d hunt the poor creature down as retribution for what my father had done seventeen years ago.
I sat up, clutching the pillow. It wasn’t a wolf they’d be hunting down, but a man. The man I had seen at school, flesh and blood. But who was he? Would he show himself to me in human form again? And, if so, could he lead me to my father?
Priscilla came barging in a few moments later, scaring me so much that I yelped in surprise. She tossed her bag on the floor with a solid thump, although we had no intention of studying.
“Why do you look like you’ve been to hell and back?”
When I first called her, I had intended to vent about Adrian and how he was being a jerk, and then swear her to secrecy about Caleb’s seizure. But none of that seemed to matter now.
“I saw a wolf in the woods,” I blurted out. “On my way back from the creek. Right after I called you. It was chasing me.”
Priscilla’s eyes widened as she plopped down on the bed. “Chasing you? Are you sure it was a wolf? I’ve seen a coyote but never a wolf. Maybe you only thought it was a wolf. It was probably just someone’s mangy dog that got loose.”
I shook my head. “I know what I saw. I touched it.”
“You touched it? You could have been killed. It could have ripped off your arm! Or worse, given you rabies.”
I leveled my gaze at her. “Remember when you first found out about how I was . . . special? Remember the stories I told you about how the seven tribes came to be?”
Priscilla squinted as if trying to recall the precise details. “Something about the sun and the moon and . . .” she waved her hand, at a loss for words. “Good versus evil and all that.”
“Two earthly children, Kamut and Kai, were born of the Sun and Moon. And from them are descended the seven tribes. I am from the Katori tribe, the first descendant of Kai.”
“Katori is your Goddess, right? Or something like that.”
“Or something like that,” I echoed. It was as good an explanation as any.
Having grown up of no particular faith or conviction, I had hardly gotten used to the idea that there was some Higher Being guiding the events of my life. But I was Spirit Keeper of our tribe. I could do things that defied logic or explanation, not to mention every practical law of science. If that wasn’t the result of some enigmatic power, I didn’t know what was.
“Anyway, the other tribes are descended from this really awful guy named Kamut. He was more than just a man, though, and did such terrible things that the Sun and Moon cursed every one of his male descendants to walk the night as wolves.”
Priscilla was staring with rapt attention, and yet I knew she hadn’t made the leap and grasped what I was trying to tell her. I widened my eyes and enunciated my next words.
“I saw a wolf in the woods.”
She finally understood. Her eyes widened, and she snatched the pillow from my lap and whacked me across the head with it, nearly knocking me off the bed.
“No way! Do you honestly believe there are men out there,” she said, throwing her arm to the window, “who become wolves and vice versa?”
I had asked Meg that same question when she first told me the story of our tribes, so I couldn’t fault Priscilla’s skepticism now. “I know it seems implausible, but you have to—”
“Implausible? Try impossible.”
“And this should be impossible, too.”
I sucked in a deep breath and blew as hard as I could, intending to create a miniature whirlwind in my bedroom, but all I managed was to ruffle Priscilla’s hair.
Her forehead creased as she wiped a droplet of imaginary spit from the corner of her eye. “My point exactly.”
“I’m still working on that,” I said, chewing my bottom lip. “But you’ve seen what I can do with your own eyes!”
“I know.”
“Then why is it so hard for you to believe that the man I saw at school today was the wolf in the woods?”
She held up a hand. “Hang on a minute. You never told me there was a man at school today.”
“Remember that Shyla and I stayed after to run the mile for Coach Wally?” Priscilla nodded. “He was there,” I said. “In the parking lot watching me. He had a motorcycle.”
Priscilla’s face blossomed in a broad grin. “A motorcycle, huh? Was he cute?”
This time I was the one who snatched the pillow and whacked Priscilla across the head with it.
“It was a perfectly acceptable question,” she said, laughing.
“He was from one of the other tribes,” I said. “I’m sure of it.”
“And how can you be so sure?”
I bit my lip again. She would never believe that it was because the wolf and I had had a conversation, one-sided though it was. “I’m just sure of it.”
I didn’t wait around to see if Adrian would pick me up for school the next morning. A small part of me hoped he would drive by as I was walking and insist that I get in the car—just so I could refuse him—but I had bigger things on my mind than holding grudges.
Making a beeline for the locker room and changing clothes in a hurry, I rushed outside to scan the parking lot before any of my classmates could join me. But there was no sign of the man on the motorcycle. I waited until the rest of the class came out and then reluctantly joined them when Coach blew his whistle.
Jasmine sidled next to me. I took a small step to the right, purposely turning my back on her. She didn’t get the hint.
“Guess who called last night,” she said under her breath as Coach started in with his daily dose of monotony.
“I’m not in the mood, Jasmine,” I said a little too loudly. Coach turned a threatening eye in our direction.
“Adrian,” she hissed, with obvious relish.
Even though I’d anticipated this, it still took me by surprise. I was glad I had my back turned to her. There was no way I could have hidden the anger on my face. I took a deep breath and straightened my shoulders before finally turning to face her.
“So?”
“So he asked me out. On a date.”
“You’re such a liar,” Shyla said beside me. “It’s called wishful thinking.”
“He did,” Katie butted in. “I was at her house when he called. I heard the entire conversation.” She en
ded with a brilliant flash of white teeth.
I clenched my fists at my sides. Not only were my two nemeses best friends forever, but my boyfriend had apparently gone over to the dark side.
“Adrian is free to call whomever he wants.”
Jasmine snorted at my attempt to be diplomatic. “Whomever,” she mocked. “It’s no wonder your boyfriend is calling me up. You’re so uptight. I bet you haven’t even—”
Before I could even think about what I was doing, I launched myself at Jasmine. Her eyes widened in surprise as she threw her hands up, startled. We rolled on the grass, each of us scrabbling and grunting and shoving each other. Her fingers clawed my left cheek and I screamed. I lashed out at her and connected with something hard.
I was dimly aware of Coach Wally’s incessant whistle-blowing and Shyla’s prying hands as she tried to yank me off Jasmine’s chest, but there was a red-hot fury burning in my fingertips. I raised my hands and—
“Sarah!”
Shyla yanked hard on the back of my shirt, choking me and pulling me off balance. Jasmine scrambled to her feet and backed away several paces. She was breathing heavily. We both were.
“Redbird! Moon! Hunt! Cunningham! To my office!” Coach barked. “The rest of you start running laps. Now!” His face was crimson and puffed up like a blowfish. I’d never seen him so angry.
“What did I do?” Katie complained. “I’m just an innocent bystander.”
Jasmine wiped a trickle of blood trailing from her nose and turned on her heel without a word. I, on the other hand, was so mad I was shaking and on the verge of tears.
“Do you realize what you almost did?” Shyla hissed in my ear. She grabbed my elbow and jerked me along next to her. “You almost hurt her. Like, really hurt her.”
I looked down at my feet, my eyes welling with tears. “So what? She deserved it.”
“No one deserves to be physically assaulted, Sarah.” The tone of her voice was biting. “Jasmine likes to get under your skin. You know that. So why do you let her?”
Tears spilled down my cheeks. I thought Shyla would have understood, but apparently she didn’t. I wiped the tears away, but they were falling too quickly now to even try to hide them. I shrugged helplessly, unable to speak.
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