The Better To Kiss You With

by Michelle Osgood

  As the light turned green, she punched the gas. She and Jamie had been planning to go to the Moon Revel around seven, as Deanna had wanted to spend time with some of her coworkers before the Hunt started at ten. The moderator team was invited to the event, of course, but they weren’t responsible for any of the organization, which meant they could just mingle and have fun. They’d planned to have a couple drinks and play a few of the dorky werewolf-themed games together. It was already nearing eight and, now that she couldn’t get a hold of Jamie, Deanna abandoned her plans to go back to the apartment first. She’d have to head straight for the woods and the amphitheater.

  Gnawing on her bottom lip, Deanna broke her own rule and drove just a little too fast. She had no idea when crywolf planned to reveal himself, but something told her that his flair for the dramatic meant it would be when the most people were gathered in the same spot, so it would probably be right before the participants in the Hunt were announced. That meant that she had just barely two hours to get there, and the hike into the woods would take almost that long.

  When she finally pulled into the parking lot, there wasn’t a single free spot left. Deanna glanced at the dashboard clock. She could try to find somewhere to park on the street, but—

  Okay, seriously? she asked herself. A murderous werewolf was loose among hundreds of unsuspecting people and she was worried about boxing someone in? With a quick shake of her head and a stern word to herself about getting her priorities in order, Deanna pulled in behind an expensive-looking sports car. A person who’d paid that much for their vehicle wouldn’t risk damaging it by backing into Nathan’s car. If she not only stole his car but also got it rear-ended, she didn’t think he’d forgive her anytime soon.

  She jumped out and went around the back to let out Arthur. Deanna clipped on his leash before she went to the trunk and popped it open. She didn’t know what she was looking for exactly, and she knew she was too focused on simply getting to the Moon Revel rather than what she would do once she got there, but it was all she had to work with at the moment.

  Nathan had a spare tire, a first aid kit, an extra blanket and a sports bag tucked into the small space. Deanna unzipped the bag, laughing happily when she realized it was his baseball equipment. An aluminum bat wasn’t exactly a silver bullet, but she figured it would make a decent weapon, better than the hockey stick she would have found in a winter month.

  Deanna tossed the first aid kit into the duffel bag and zipped the whole thing up, slung it over her shoulder and gathered Arthur’s leash tight into her hand. She squared her shoulders, took a deep breath and followed the path into the woods.

  Chapter Fifteen |

  The Moon Revel would have already kicked off by now, and the dirt and gravel of the path into the woods had been tramped by hundreds of pairs of feet. Deanna knew she probably wouldn’t be one of the last to arrive—there were always stragglers—but knowing that only half an hour earlier the path had been streaming with people, all loud and laughing and heading in the same direction, but was now still and silent, made the skin prickle on the back of her neck.

  The farther she moved down the path, the more she became aware of the oppressive feel of the trees pressed close to the sides of the path. She’d always found their large branches, and the almost tunnel-like path through them, to be comforting; but tonight the branches, heavy-laden with leaves, only blocked the light of the setting sun. Although it wasn’t late enough for the sun to have set, the heavy foliage cast the woods into an early dusk, and Deanna wished not for the first time that evening that she’d thought to charge her goddamn phone before she’d left her house. Without her phone and its flashlight app she had nothing to light the trail, and though it was still light enough to see where she was going, she knew it wouldn’t stay that way much longer.

  And, as soon as she’d started carrying her phone she’d stopped wearing a watch, so she had no idea how much time she had left to get to the Moon Revel.

  The thought spiked her anxiety. She had no idea where Jamie was, where crywolf was, or what plan, if any, Jamie had been able to put in place. God, how could she have been so selfish as to abandon her girlfriend to deal with this on her own? It would be as if Jamie had thrown up her hands and insisted that Deanna do something about all the world’s bigots because they were humans and therefore Deanna’s species, and so her responsibility.

  Deanna wasn’t sure if she’d ever be able to get Jamie to forgive her, and knew she couldn’t blame Jamie if she decided not to bother. The idea that she might have destroyed any chance of a future with the other woman made Deanna’s throat tighten, and she ruthlessly dug her nails into the palm of her hand to stop another onslaught of tears. She would deal with that problem tomorrow, or whenever they’d resolved this crisis with crywolf. She needed to stay calm and focused and do whatever she could to stop crywolf from hurting anyone else.

  Tamping down her anxiety, Deanna picked up her pace. She’d let Arthur off his leash, after he’d shown that he would stick close to her side and not dart off into the woods as he customarily tried to do when they took this route. He padded silently on the path beside her, his ears perked and gaze straight ahead as if he knew they were here with a purpose, and it wasn’t to chase squirrels.

  She had wanted to leave Arthur in the car, where he’d be safe from whatever happened at the Revel. Unless, of course, crywolf hadn’t beat Deanna to the amphitheater, in which case he might recognize Arthur in the parking lot. He already knew what the dog looked like, and he’d proven that he wasn’t above much when it came to scaring Deanna. The last thing she was going to do was leave Arthur trapped and defenseless. And she felt good having him at her side as they continued deeper into the forest.

  The farther in they got, the more overgrown the trail became. Because of all the people who’d passed through before them, it wasn’t as harrowing as it usually was. Any debris had been moved out of the way hours ago, but the path had begun to narrow until there was only just room for her and Arthur to walk side by side.

  Deanna hefted the bag more securely onto her shoulder and wished that Nathan had left behind a water bottle. When they’d first started into the woods, she’d had to fight the urge to run, but she’d never be able to keep up the pace until she got there—and if she arrived exhausted and rubber-legged then she’d be of no help to anyone. So they moved at a brisk walk. They’d taken the walk all the way to the amphitheater before, and at their usual meandering pace—with plenty of time for chasing squirrels—it took them a couple hours. Deanna was counting on it taking less tonight.

  Rounding another corner, Deanna felt her heart leap into her throat at the snap of a branch somewhere ahead of them. Arthur woofed quietly and his ears flattened, and they both moved forward with a little more caution, only able to relax when they rounded another curve and saw that they’d caught up to a couple heading toward the Revel. Deanna gave a strained smile and a wave as she hurried past them. The woman waved back at her happily.

  Even though she knew neither of them had been crywolf—the woman obviously was not, and the man was Asian—Deanna wasn’t comfortable until she was far enough down the trail that she could no longer hear them. Despite the chilling silence of the woods around her, Deanna knew that once she reached the mass of people, the thought that crywolf could be part of any group, sidling in all innocuous and human-looking, would be awful.

  Though the air had cooled after sunset under the heavy canopy of trees, Deanna could feel sweat slide down her back and knew she’d long since chewed off her lipstick. Her panicked flight from the city seemed to have happened years—not just hours—ago, and the day’s emotional extremes were wearing on her.

  She’d managed to keep herself so focused on moving forward that she hadn’t allowed herself any time to figure out what she was actually going to do once she reached the Revel, but as the woods grew darker Deanna began to catch the sound of music and people as it filtered thr
ough the trees. Shaking off the weariness that had started to settle over her, she gave in to her overriding sense of urgency. She clipped Arthur’s leash back on to keep him close to her in the crowd of people and started forward at a jog.

  When she was finally clear of the trees, Deanna blinked as the bright lights of the stage and the garden lights set up around the amphitheater to highlight the stairs destroyed her night vision. The stands were full of laughing, chattering people, and the large half-circle at the bottom was packed full. She shielded her eyes as she tried pick out any familiar faces. Not having any luck, she picked her way toward one of the stairways dug into the hill and made her way down.

  The amphitheater was huge, easily able to fit the hundreds of people who’d shown up. With the DJ blaring music from the speakers that had been installed around the space, the lights from hundreds of camera flashes, and the odd neon costume piece, Deanna felt both blinded and deafened after the silence of the woods.

  How would she find Jamie? How would she find crywolf? And, now that she was here, what would she do if she did find him? There were families here—people with their kids, people with their friends, people with their lovers—what could Deanna do to keep them safe?

  “Deanna, hey!”

  Deanna jolted. Her heart leapt into her throat until she recognized one of her coworkers as he made his way toward her.

  “Hi, Ravi,” she said with a forced smile.

  “We thought we’d see you earlier,” Ravi chided good-naturedly. “You almost missed the kickoff!”

  “I had, um, car trouble,” Deanna improvised, still scanning the crowd around them.

  “Sucks. But here, let me get you a wristband. You’re with the Hollow Cave Pack, right?”

  Deanna focused on Ravi. “I don’t need a wristband,” she began, but he had already pulled one from his bag.

  “Of course you do! You’ve gotta represent, Dee. Besides, if your pack is one of the two biggest, you won’t be able to participate in the Hunt without one.”

  Since it would be quicker not to argue, Deanna held out her wrist and let Ravi fasten the orange wristband to it. He wished her luck, then was flagged down by some newly arriving players, waving their phones and eager to prove their pack allegiance.

  At the bottom of the amphitheater, Deanna pushed through the crowd, eyes peeled for any familiar face. Many players took the Moon Revel as a cosplay opportunity. While that was usually one of Deanna’s favorite aspects, and she could never get over how amazingly creative some people were, it meant now that any one of the revelers in wolf masks could be crywolf. He could be the man over there with the wolf ears and the Zorro mask, or the one with the plastic white wolf mask covering his entire face. He could be standing in the cluster of people waiting to get their face airbrushed with likenesses of their avatars. And she would never recognize him.

  “Damn it, Jamie,” she muttered under her breath, spinning in place to try to find a face she knew wouldn’t be hidden under a mask or a layer of paint. “Where are you?”

  “Dee! Hey, Dee!”

  Deanna jerked around; her mouth went dry as she saw Nathan waving at her from the other side of the stage. Furious, she pushed through the crowd until she and Arthur met him.

  “What are you doing here?” she hissed. Nathan rarely played Wolf’s Run, and he hadn’t ever come to an event. She hadn’t warned him to stay away because she’d had no reason to think he’d come.

  Nathan either didn’t notice her anger or chose to ignore it. “I’m on a date,” he announced cheerfully, nodding behind him where an attractive black couple stood with their arms slung around one another. The man grinned when Deanna looked over, and she did her best not to scowl at him. “Better question though is, what are you doing here?” he asked. “You take my car without so much as a by your leave, just a crappy text message about needing some time at your parents’, so I assume you had another fight with your gorgeous girl.” He rolled his eyes. “But then she shows up here without you, and now you’re here.” He shook his head. “Women.”

  “You saw Jamie?” Deanna grabbed Nathan’s arm. Her fingers dug into his skin until he yelped and tried to pull free. “Where? When?”

  “Yikes, calm down.” Nathan shot her a concerned glance. His amusement fell away at the desperation on her face. “What’s wrong?”

  “You have to go, okay? It’s not safe to be here.”

  “Deanna.” Now it was Nathan’s turn to grab her, and he was just as gentle as she had been. “What’s going on?”

  “I don’t have time to explain—just tell me where Jamie is and get you and your dates out, okay?”

  “Not okay,” he said simply. “But stay here, I’ll be right back.”

  “Nathan, no, wait—” Deanna began, but he was already striding away from her toward the couple. Deanna made a sharp noise of frustration and slapped a hand against the stage hard enough that her palm stung. She couldn’t be worrying about Nathan and Jamie as well as everyone else at the Revel!

  Nathan was saying something to the couple, and the woman reached out, giving Nathan’s arm a quick squeeze. Both of them looked disappointed, but nodded and turned back toward one of the amphitheater’s stairways. Nathan watched them go, then made his way to Deanna.

  “Tell me what’s happening—and hey, why do you have my baseball bag?”

  “Tell me where you saw Jamie.”

  “Not until you tell me what’s going on. I’m not kidding, Dee. Does this have anything to do with that guy?”

  Deanna stared at him, fear and fury warring within her.

  “I’m not leaving.” Nathan crossed his arms over his chest and matched her scowl. “So you might as well just suck it up and let me in on whatever’s got you so worked up.”

  Arthur sat still between them, alert to the movement of the crowd. Deanna wanted nothing more than to press his leash into Nathan’s hand and send them home, but knew with a resigned sigh that neither of them would go.

  “It’s… complicated. And it’s going to sound crazy, or like a joke,” Deanna began, recalling with the slightest flash of amusement that she sounded just as Jamie had when she was trying to tell Deanna. “But crywolf is what he says he is. He’s a werewolf.” She swallowed and waited for Nathan to react. Unlike Jamie, Deanna had nothing to prove that she wasn’t making this up.

  Nathan stared at her and then nodded. “All right. This is serious, then.”

  “I…” Deanna blinked, flabbergasted. “You believe me? Just like that?”

  “How long have we been friends?” Nathan raised an eyebrow. “If you believe it, and you say this is urgent, then I’ve got to trust you’ve got a good reason. You could be playing an elaborate prank on me, but I’m pretty sure that after the Prank War of ’08 we got that out of our systems. Besides, Jamie doesn’t look like someone who condones that sort of thing, and since she was here all worried, and now you’re here all worried, I’m just going to go with it.” He shrugged. “So what do we need to do?”

  “Okay.” Deanna reasoned that the only reason he was being so cool was that he hadn’t actually seen anyone turn into a werewolf. The abstract idea was probably easier to comprehend than the bone-shifting, fur-growing reality. Speaking of which. “Where did you see Jamie?”

  “Over there.” Nathan pointed to the other side of the amphitheater, to the first raised section. “But it was a while ago. She asked if I knew where you were.” He frowned. “Does she know about crywolf?”

  “Um.” Deanna bit her lip as she scanned the crowd, hoping desperately for a glimpse of Jamie. “She’s one as well, actually.”

  “No shit,” Nathan said faintly. “Does that mean she’s like, an animal in the sack?” He laughed at his own joke. Deanna ignored him.

  “How long ago did you see her?”

  “An hour, maybe?” Nathan held up his hands uselessly. “Why don’t you just ca
ll her?”

  “My phone died.” Deanna tried not to snap that if it was that easy, she would have done it already.

  “Oh, well, use mine.” Nathan pulled his phone out of his pocket. Deanna pressed her lips together and tried not to let out the scream of frustration that was building in the back of her throat.

  “This is 2016, Nathan, do you really think I know her number off the top of my head?”

  “Fair point,” he agreed, shoving his phone back into his pants. “Okay, we find her the old-fashioned way.” Crouching down, he went eye-level with Arthur. “Find Jamie, boy, find her!”

  Arthur gave Nathan’s face an enthusiastic lick, making Nathan grimace and Deanna choke back a laugh that was only slightly hysterical.

  A flash of lights came from the stage behind her, and Deanna jumped as the speaker above them roared to life. Across the theater, the crowd surged forward toward the stage and Deanna took an instinctive step back.

  “Welcome to the Moon Revel. Awoooooo!” Onstage, the local DJ and avid Wolf’s Run player they’d hired to emcee the event threw back his head in a mock howl. As one, the crowd tipped back their heads and let loose an echo that reverberated through the night.

  Deanna had thought that being pressed so close to the stage would have them at a disadvantage, but she could see all the faces turned toward the stage and lit by the lights that shone out over the crowd. Gripping Arthur’s leash tight in one hand and Nathan’s hand tight in the other, she swept her gaze over the faces in front of her, looking desperately for the familiar fall of dark hair over a face with a wide and agile mouth, or for a pair of haunting orange eyes.

  “Thank you all for coming here tonight,” the DJ continued to boom. “Wolf’s Run is so happy to have you, and I know I’m so happy to have Wolf’s Run!” The crowd broke into applause. The cheering and wolf whistles were deafening as people still in the stands stamped their feet. “We’ve got a lot planned for this full moon, and I know there’s a very important announcement coming later, but first! Let’s get to the good stuff.” The cheering continued, and if Deanna wasn’t so worried about crywolf she would have been delighted to see the hundreds of happy faces of people who’d gathered just because they liked a fun little role-playing game so much. Nearby, a man had hoisted his daughter to his shoulder so she could see the stage, and the glitter in her face paint sparkled as she grinned. Deanna went cold, knowing that crywolf was in the crowd right now and that if he had his way, that little girl wouldn’t be grinning for long.