Marked (The Pack)

by Cox, Suzanne

  I dug through cabinets, still uncertain where Louise kept everything.

  “Don’t mind Brynna. She’s a pain.”

  Surprised, I realized the mini Brynna had followed me inside.

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Duh, because it’s true.” The younger girl sat in a chair at the table.

  “You’re her sister. Aren’t you two supposed to be on the same side, you know, take up for each other.”

  Bailey rolled her eyes, which was so Brynna-ish. “I can tell you’re an only child. She treats me like she does you.”

  I folded my arms in front of me and leaned against the counter. “How’s that?”

  Two reddish brown brows furrowed together. “Like you’re an idiot.”

  Bailey was looking at me as though she might have to agree with her sister on this one. I sighed, turning to continue my search.

  “She just doesn’t like me.”

  The little redhead snickered. “Yeah, that too.”

  Finally finding the right cabinet, I scrounged up two more onions and made a step for the door when from nowhere a red blur came barreling at me. It barked and flew through the air, hitting me mid thigh. The thing was maybe a foot tall, but it still knocked me back a step and proceeded to lick my bare leg.

  Ignoring Bailey, who squealed with laughter, and for the first time sounded like a nine year old, I scurried onto the deck with the dog right behind me.

  “Aunt Louise, that voodoo woman has hexed a Doberman Pincher and shrunk it to the size of an extra big rat.”

  Myles and his dad had arrived without me seeing them and he laughed at me, shaking his head. He picked up the dog.

  “He’s not a shrunken Doberman, goofy. He’s a Miniature Pinscher.”

  “That’s a completely different breed of dog,” Brynna called from the table.

  The adults were busy in their own conversation so the Sanfords didn’t hear their daughter being a rude guest.

  “Read that in a book, did you?” I inched closer to the table where she sat.

  “That’s right. But it did have pictures. Would you like to borrow it?”

  Bailey, who’d come back to sit next to her sister, grinned and shrugged.

  “Alexis, go make another pitcher of tea.”

  I groaned at Aunt Louise’s request and took off to the kitchen. At least there I didn’t have to put up with Brynna.

  “I’ll help.” Myles followed behind me.

  As I found the tea bags, Myles filled the big glass measuring cup with water.

  “So, you all do this every Friday, huh?”

  He took the bags and dropped them in the water. “Most Friday’s, why?”

  I punched the time in on the microwave to boil the water, and he put the measuring glass in. I dumped sugar in the bottom of a tea pitcher sitting on the counter.

  “Don’t you want to go to Channing’s party next Friday?”

  Myles took the pitcher and ran a little water in it to start dissolving the sugar. “Yeah, I wouldn’t mind it.”

  “If all three of us want to go maybe they would eat by themselves and let us go to the party. Do you think Brynna wants to go?”

  He snorted. “No way.”

  I bumped the cabinets with my foot. “Can we talk her into it?”

  “That’ll be a hard sell.”

  “But you’ll try?”

  His eyes widened. “Why me?”

  “Because she hates me.”

  “She doesn’t hate you.” Myles rocked the tea pitcher from side to side as if the sugar hadn’t already liquefied.

  “Yes she does.”

  “No, I don’t. I don’t know you, so how could I hate you?”

  I spun around to see Brynna had come in through the kitchen door. “You don’t like me, not much difference.”

  “And you don’t like me, so we’re even.”

  I shrugged. “Like you said, I don’t know you well enough to like or dislike you.” Okay, so I’d lied on that one.

  Myles stepped between us on the way to the microwave to collect the now boiled tea. “Enough already. We want to go to Channing’s party next Friday, but it will be easier for us to get out of eating with the family if all three of us go.”

  Brynna frowned at him. “You want to go, or she wants to?”

  Myles passed the tea off to me. “We both want to. So what do you think? It might be a good idea if you and I were there.”

  Brynna studied him for a few seconds while I stirred the tea and watched the two of them. Why was it a good idea for them to be there? I began to get a sinking feeling. Surely they weren’t going to call the cops or parents at the first sign of alcohol or some other substance.

  Finally Brynna nodded. “You’re right. I’ll go, but not to help the queen in training over there.”

  I whirled around, leaving the tea behind and ended up two inches from Brynna’s nose. “What is that supposed to mean?”

  “That you’re on your way to being one of Channing’s little followers and you haven’t been here two weeks.”

  “I’m no one’s follower. I hang out with them because they know how to have fun. Sorry, but I’m not interested in spending my summer reading books and collecting herbs.” I felt a dark ugly sound gurgling deep inside me and it grated in my voice when I spoke. “Got it?”

  Brynna held her ground, nose to nose with me. Then suddenly she took a step backward and smiled, clapping her hands together in quiet applause. “You know, you just might be right.”

  My skin had become damp. I hadn’t realized I was that angry.

  Myles held up the tea and started for the door. “We all done here?”

  Brynna and I squinted at each other, then we both nodded.

  ***

  We all sat around the picnic table and began to eat. The table was covered with newspapers and the shrimp, along with corn and potatoes, were piled in the middle. Soon the conversations were going faster than I could keep up with. Even Brynna decided to be nice in front of her parents and asked me questions about Chicago.

  “Wait a minute. All of you teach at the same school during the year?” I put down the shrimp I was holding and turned to my aunt. “But I thought you traveled around all the time to different schools.”

  Everyone else at table stopped talking. I wasn’t trying to make a scene. I didn’t understand how Louise managed to move from one teaching job to another, different states, different towns, maybe even more than one in a year. Now she expected me to believe that three other teachers could move with her and they could all find jobs in the same school every time. Was it that easy to get a teaching job? Even at my large school in the city new faces didn’t come and go that often.

  “It’s not regular public school.” Brynna said.

  I twisted toward Brynna and waited for her to explain, as did everyone else. She’d probably gotten the explanation from a book, with no pictures, of course.

  “We have a mobile school. It’s like home schooling. We have this huge group of people that want to travel and take their kids, so we go together and no one misses school and certain parents are the teachers.”

  “Oh.” Home schooling. Okay, I’d heard of that. “So you guys make money doing that?” I asked.

  “Every family pays to go, like a private school. And that’s how the teachers get paid.” Brynna said.

  “So what’s with the summer camp?” That sure wasn’t any home school thing.

  “Extra money,” Myles chimed in. “They don’t pay that much in the teaching jobs so we all do the camp for extra money.”

  “It helps us buy stuff like those jet skis and four wheelers.” Brynna finished for him.

  The adults agreed with the explanation and I rolled it around in my mind a bit. That could be cool I guess, traveling to different places. Maybe Aunt Louise and her friends weren’t so weird after all. I glanced around the table as their conversations resumed. Nah, they were weird, but not in a bad way.

  It was nearly midnight w
hen I finished brushing my teeth. I stepped from the bathroom as Louise opened the door to the computer room.

  “I was going to work on the computer a bit before I go to bed.”

  I checked my watch. “Now?”

  “It is a little late, huh?”

  “It’s not especially late.” I continued on toward my room.

  “So do you want to get on the computer and check your e-mail before I get started?”

  “No, maybe tomorrow.”

  I padded to my room and pulled back the covers. It wouldn’t do any good to check my e-mail. I’d been here six days and not one of my so called friends in Chicago had tried to make contact with me. I had even given them my aunt’s phone number, and I knew they weren’t holding off because they were worried over the cost of a long distance call. They spent that kind of money on snacks after school. I had been upset that I’d be spending the summer without them, but they hadn’t even noticed I was gone.

  I heard a dog bark and sat up. Maybe Myles’ ferocious pooch Beowulf had gotten loose and come back to visit. I heard it again. Nope, Beowulf couldn’t possibly have a voice that deep, even if he did think he was a big dog. I kicked the covers off and stepped to the window. The moon hung low and full above the tree tops. At the edge of the woods near the path to the lake I saw movement, definitely not Myles’ dog. I couldn’t tell what kind it was, but it was big. It moved away from the trees and started across the yard. The dog’s coat flashed golden in the moonlight as it trotted closer. It didn’t stop until it was within fifteen feet of the house, where it sat down and stared directly up at me. The animal was huge. Its back would probably have come to my waist if I stood next to it. I could see a fancy collar around its neck. It was blue and silver with odd shaped stones. I noticed more movement at the edge of the woods and three more large dogs appeared. It was too dark to see their color or breed, but I didn’t like the idea of an entire herd of dogs in the yard.

  I rushed to the computer room and tapped on the door once before shoving it open. Louise spun around in the roller chair.

  “Whew, you scared me. What’s the matter?”

  “There are giant dogs in the yard, like a whole herd. One of them is right here at the house.”

  “Pack.”

  “What?”

  “A pack. Dogs in a group are referred to as a pack, not a herd. Herds are horses or cows.”

  She got up to follow me. “Whatever, pack, herd, they look like those wolf hybrid dogs. I saw one when I went to Channing’s the other day. As a matter fact, one jumped on our car over by the cemetery the very first day we got here. Mom wanted to pull over and look at the headstones from the car and this huge wolf dog ran across the cemetery, jumped the fence and pounded the car.”

  Louise paused staring at me. “And you just remembered it?”

  “I thought of it a few times, but it didn’t seem important. You have to admit, I have had a few things on my mind the last few days.”

  Louise didn’t answer as we entered my room. Below the window the yard was empty.

  “Aww, it’s gone. Wait, there they are.” I pointed toward the path where the shadowy figures disappeared into the woods.

  “Should we try to call someone?”

  Louise shook her head. “I’ll ask around tomorrow or either call animal control in case it was a pack of wild dogs.”

  “The one that was up close was a pet. It had on a nice collar.”

  Louise frowned then walked around the room. She went to the chair beside the closet and slid it across the room in front of the window.

  “In case you decide to sleepwalk tonight, it’ll be harder for you to get the window open and let my air conditioning out.”

  I leaned past the chair to peer through the window again. “It’s probably a good idea. I’d hate to know I dreamed that

  I climbed through the window and actually tried it.” I paused. “It’s a nasty drop.”

  Louise grinned. “Very nasty. Now get some sleep.”

  I didn’t move away from the window. “Could those be the animals that killed the woman?”

  She stopped halfway through the door and looked back at me. “I don’t know. What do you think?”

  My heart accelerated and when I spoke the words would barely come out. “I…I don’t know.”

  “Don’t worry about it.” She left, closing the door behind her.

  With one last glance out the window, I secured the lock and crawled into bed. It was finally Saturday. I’d survived my first week and the rest of the summer stretched before me like an eternity. When I closed my eyes, I could see Eric’s face frowning at me. Why did he seem friendly yet agitated at the same time? Then I thought of Channing. I guess it made sense that the prettiest girl would think the most handsome guy belonged to her. One thing I didn’t want this summer was a lot of trouble. However, in the very pit of my stomach, I got the feeling it might be unavoidable.

  Chapter Nine

  “So who was the guy at the house this morning?”

  “Just one of the parents from the home schooling group we work with.”

  I watched the trees pass in a blur as Louise drove along. “My mom never mentioned any home school thing.”

  “She probably didn’t think of it.” Louise turned the car onto a small tree lined drive.

  “And we’re going to the Brantons’ house now?”

  “Right, I need to see Myles’ dad, and he asked me to bring you over.”

  “Why?”

  “I don’t know. You’ll have to see when we get there.”

  I hated waiting.

  “So, did you call anyone about those dogs?”

  “Yep. I notified animal control this morning before you got up. They’ll go see if they belong to the people on the lake.”

  “They won’t kill them, will they?”

  She glanced at me. “No, why?”

  “Just wondering. They didn’t look rabid or anything. I’d hate for them to be killed for nothing.”

  “You didn’t have a nightmare last night?”

  “Nope, no nightmare, no sleepwalking. Too tired I guess. Did the animal control people think those dogs had anything to do with the woman that was killed?”

  Louise became very still. “Why do you ask?”

  I shrugged. “Seems a little odd that the woman got attacked and we’re seeing all these dogs.”

  Dark, gold flecked eyes locked onto me. “Is there something you know about all this that you need to be telling me, Alexis?”

  For a moment I was stunned. Did she think I had information about a woman’s death? Really? How could I know anything? I closed my eyes briefly, and images flashed on the back of my eyelids. I jerked them open. I hadn’t been out of the house that night. I couldn’t have.

  “What could I know?” My voice shook but I hoped she didn’t notice.

  “Nothing I guess.” Then Louise changed the subject. “I’m having paint and scaffolding delivered today.”

  “You’re having what delivered?”

  “Paint.”

  “I know what paint is, but when you say scaffolding do you mean all those pipe things that they put up on the side of a building that’s being worked on?”

  “That’s exactly what I mean.”

  “What are you going to do with that?”

  “WE are going to paint the outside of the house with it. That’s why I had the people come and wash the house down the other day when we were at camp.”

  I frowned, not sure that I liked the sound of this at all. “Why can’t they paint the house too?”

  “It’s expensive, besides, you should learn a new skill while you’re here.”

  “I’ve been to decorative painting classes and I can do craft painting.”

  “House painting and craft painting are very different.”

  “I’ll bet they are. That house is huge.”

  Louise kept her eyes on the road, not even bothering to glance at me. “We’ll work on it bit by bit. What else are
you going to do this summer?”

  I didn’t respond. What else was there to say? She was exactly right. I might as well paint a house because what else was I going to do all summer?

  ***

  Myles dad met us in front of the cedar lake house. It was a very nice house, but nothing spectacular like Channing’s or Brynna’s.

  “Come on, Alexis.” He started off toward the lake and led us inside a huge boathouse.

  Two boats were suspended above the water by belts hanging from the ceiling. No less than five jet skis were on individual motorized platforms so they could be slid into the water or lifted out with ease. He took me to a royal blue and white ski that I loved immediately.

  “For the summer this can be your jet ski. You can come get it anytime you want. I’ll show you where the keys to the boathouse and the lifts are kept.”

  “That’s so great. Thank you, Mr. Branton.”

  ”It’s no problem. They’re sitting here and need to be used.”

  I was already wondering if there was a trail on this side of the lake that would lead me to their house. My own jet ski, well, practically my own.

  Myles trotted through the door. Eric followed behind him.

  Below my feet, the decking seemed to tilt. I hoped no one else could notice how Eric’s presence in the room affected me. The slightly increased beat of my heart, the jittery feeling in my stomach, all seemed to occur when he was around. I couldn’t seem to control it.

  “Hey, let’s go riding.” Myles immediately began lowering one of the lifts.

  “That would be good.” Aunt Louise said. “I need to talk to your dad.”

  Myles looked at me. “You can ride in that if you want, but if you’d rather get a swimsuit we can go kind of slow over to your side of the lake and you can run up the trail to your house.”