The Curse of Moose Lake (International Monster Slayers Book 1)

by Bethany Helwig

  “How about I bring you coffee after I drop him off at the doc’s?”

  I grab the edge of the truck to keep him from walking around me to the cab. “Wait, Doctor Rosewell?”

  “The one and only.”

  “You can’t do that.” I quickly explain what Witty told me over the phone but Jefferson shakes his head.

  “That’s just it, Phoenix. Doctor Rosewell’s clean as a whistle and has been my friend for a long time. She’s not tainting the werewolf serum.”

  I follow him as he slips around me. “But how can you know that for sure?”

  “Because she’s human for one and wouldn’t fall under some kind of instinctual calling like the werewolves. Two, I’ve already had some of it tested and it passed muster. Third, do you even know how the serum is made?”

  Science isn’t really my strong suite. “Well . . . no, but—”

  “Each vial of that serum starts in a lab, then is processed directly by a dragon. It’s their magic that gives werewolves their minds back. Magic can’t be tainted.” He gets into the cab and shuts the door but keeps speaking to me through the open window. “It’s not even a real cure. It’s just one kind of magic fighting another kind of magic inside the werewolves and keeping the disease at bay long enough for them to keep their heads.”

  “So what does that mean?”

  “It means there is something in this town that is making the disease in the werewolves stronger than the serum.” He turns the ignition and the truck roars to life. “Get back to school before you get into any more trouble. Better run.”

  I stand back so he can drive away. Then I start to run. By the time I reach the school I’m sweaty, out of breath, and my shoes are covered in dirt. The bell rings and I race to my locker. The second Hawk finds me he looks alarmed. I wave him off and say breathlessly, “I’ll explain later.”

  I’m fidgety through biology but at least it’s easy to pass notes to Hawk since the table we sit at is connected and we’re supposed to be doing a lab assignment together. We talk in whispers but the things I don’t dare even to whisper I write down for him to read while I pretend to look through the microscope in front of me.

  “You’ve got to get your wolf friends talking,” I say urgently under my breath. “Someone’s got to know who bit Matt.”

  “He might know when he comes round,” Hawk whispers.

  “No, he’ll remember a wolf. So unless the person transformed right in front of him, it’s doubtful he’ll have any clue who it was.”

  We fall silent and keep our eyes keen on the other werewolf in class. It’s the preppy one, Adam Glass, and he’s absentmindedly chewing on the end of a pencil. Not just chewing, but actively gnawing and the thing is starting to fall to splinters in his hand. He’s about as twitchy as the werewolf in my first class.

  Biology passes and we head to our fourth period class. The teacher is explaining a rather difficult physics equation but I’m concentrating on the girl two seats in front of me biting her fingernails. She’s scratched off her bright red nail polish and flecks of it are stuck on her teeth. Her nails are in nasty shape and will no doubt begin to bleed very soon. No surprise, it’s another werewolf going off their rocker. So far the only werewolf that hasn’t been acting strange is Hawk. He’s moving a bit slower than usual and rubs at his eyes but I’m doing the same thing. Neither of us exactly had what you would call a good night’s sleep.

  At lunch I’m forced to grab my food then head out to serve my detention in Captain Krush’s classroom. On my way out I notice the werewolf table is concentrating solely on their food and not speaking a peep. I give Hawk a single wave then walk down the hallway carrying my tray. The door at the end of the hall swings open and Jefferson enters the school bearing a cup of coffee. I meet him halfway and he sets the cup in the open space on my tray.

  “You actually brought me coffee?” I say. “I thought you were joking.”

  His eyes scan both ends of the hallway and he leans in. “Matt’s been injected and is sitting at a remote farm with the doc. He’s still not quite with it but from what I got out of him, a group of wolves came for him. He was heading out to some party and they surrounded him by his car. Then one bit him.”

  “That sounds coordinated.”

  “That’s not all. The one that bit him? It was a black wolf.”

  I swallow involuntarily. “When did this all happen?”

  “Last night. His parents are out of town so there wasn’t anyone to report him missing when he fled into the woods.”

  I soak it in. The wolves really know what they’re doing. “That’s clever.”

  “I need to get back there so I can fill Matt in on his new life. You keep safe.”

  “Yeah.”

  He jogs out of the building and it takes me a moment to realize I’m supposed to be somewhere too. I reach Captain Krush’s classroom and knock on the door. Krushnic is sitting at his desk going through some papers and gestures for me to come in without even looking up. The room is empty except for the two of us so I pick a seat right at the front and plop down. Despite the steaming temperature of the coffee, I chug it down. It has a nice kick but I’m getting to the point where I don’t know if I’ll be able to keep my eyes open if I stay in one place for too long.

  “You don’t look so good.” Captain Krush sets aside his papers and cocks his head, studying me. “You okay?”

  I drag both hands down my face. “Yeah, I’m getting there.”

  He stands and walks to the podium at the front of the classroom to lean against it. “Not quite fast enough though, eh?”

  “Guess not.” I start to eat but the food is basically tasteless after the scalding coffee and my mouth doesn’t really want to chew right now.

  “Yeah, that seems to be going around.”

  “What do you mean?”

  He scratches the back of his head and ruffles his dark hair. “I’ve noticed several students having a hard day. Kind of distracted or a bit ill. Some of the staff too.”

  “Really? Like who?”

  He cocks his head again and gives a crooked smile. “I shouldn’t talk about the other teachers and their personal problems. Let’s just say more than one person has been having difficulty the last couple of nights.”

  I’m about to pester him when he throws up a hand and faces the doorway.

  “Aha! Here’s our late comer,” he says.

  Ben walks in carrying his own tray of food. There are dark shadows under his eyes and his feet are dragging like he’s gotten the same amount of sleep I have, which is basically none at all.

  “Take a seat.” Captain Krush ushers him to a chair next to me then glances at his wristwatch. “Well, this is detention so I forbid you from having fun. That being said, I’m hungrier than a hippo so I’m going to run to Submart but I’ll be back before the hour’s over. Don’t move you two or you’ll get me into trouble.”

  He winks and hurries out the door.

  I’m left dumbfounded. “Did he just . . .?”

  “Yup,” Ben says and starts devouring everything on his tray.

  “Wow. I wish detention was this slack at my old school.”

  Ben gives a single dry laugh around the food in his mouth. “You were a problem child? I thought you’re supposed to be, you know, an agent of the law?”

  I glower at him and pick unenthusiastically at my own food. “Yeah, well, you’re in here same as me. What did you do?”

  That brings him up short. He sets down his fork and his face pales. He avoids my gaze altogether. “I just, uh, got into a little trouble.”

  Considering how all the werewolves have been acting lately, I have a sense it wasn’t as minor as Ben is implying. He might also be hedging because I am with the IMS and he wouldn’t want to get into more trouble.

  “You can tell me, Ben. Come on. What’d you do? Blow up a toilet? Key a car? Slap Mr. Webster? Please tell me you slapped Mr. Webster. I’d be your best friend for life.”

  He doesn’t laugh b
ut gives a heavy sigh. He starts rubbing his hands together absently and cracks his knuckles. “No, I sort of started a fight with one of the boys in first period. It was over something stupid.”

  “How stupid?”

  “He took my pencil and wouldn’t give it back. I’ve been so on edge that I blew up and slugged him good.” He continues to knead his hands and taps one foot rapidly on the floor.

  “Yeah, you look pretty twitchy.” I pat him on the shoulder. “It sounds like all of the—all of the people like you have been having problems lately. You just need to take your mind off it.”

  He rolls his eyes. “Easier said than done. You don’t know what it’s like. You’re not like me.”

  “No, but I’ve been with my brother every single day since he was infected. Trust me. Sometimes you just need someone to talk to and take your mind off things.”

  He eyes me doubtfully. His gray irises are still rimmed with a yellow tint. Hawk had been there once—the one and only time when he acted out. His green eyes had been tainted and he transformed and attacked me. That was the first time I felt the power in me. My strength blossomed out of nowhere and I was able to hold him back. I talked him down until he finally relaxed and was able to shift back. He’s been in control since that moment on. Well, up until he took off that one night when we got to Moose Lake.

  Ben’s the same now and if nothing’s done he’ll lash out like Hawk had. It’s my chance to do some good. I shift in my seat so I’m facing him.

  “Okay, here’s how it’s going to go,” I say and lean forward with my elbows resting on my thighs. “I’m going to ask you a series of questions and you’re going to answer as honestly as you can.”

  “What is this? A therapy session?” He shakes his head and finishes what’s left on his tray.

  “Sure, why not, if therapy sessions involve loads of awesome.”

  He actually laughs this time. “What?” He shifts around so his arm is slung across the back of his chair and he’s facing me.

  “Okay, here we go.” I clasp my hands together in front of me. “Here’s the first question. You ready?”

  The smile slowly spreading on his face puts a little color in his cheeks. “I’m ready.”

  “Who would you bet on in a fight? Unicorns or giants?”

  “You’re joking.”

  “No, I’m completely serious. I used to do this with my brother all the time.” I slap his knee. “Come on. Don’t be scared.”

  He narrows his eyes and purses his lips as he thinks. “Unicorns.”

  “Really? Unicorns? I thought giants smashing things into splinters would be more your thing.”

  “You kidding? It’s a horse with a sword on its head that can impale its enemies.”

  I hold up my hands. “I concede. Good choice.”

  “Next question.” He leans forward eagerly and has stopped tapping his foot but he’s still wringing his hands.

  “Who would you rather play poker against? A vampire or a berserker?”

  When he laughs this time he throws his head back. “Who comes up with these kinds of questions?”

  “Crazy awesome people like me.” I tap my chest twice with my fist. “Come on. Vampire or berserker? Who do you think you could beat in a card game? Or do you just suck at card games?”

  “Hey!” He points in my face. “I will have you know I once won a pretty epic poker tournament me and my friends held.”

  I prop my chin in my hands. “Oh, do tell.”

  “Okay, so let me set the scene. I had won three rounds and made it into the finale. You wouldn’t believe the hand I got. It seemed rubbish at first but then . . .” Ben rattles on for a good five minutes and I interject with the appropriate reactions to each twist in the plot. He stops wringing his hands and talks animatedly. The color is back in his face and he looks loads better than when he had first walked into the room.

  “So you beat your friends,” I say. “But you still haven’t told me if you’d rather play a vampire or a berserker! Stop stalling, Ben.”

  “I don’t even know what a berserker is!” He throws up his hands.

  Hmm, I guess I tend to forget how little everyone else knows of monsters. They’re just stories to people like Ben. Even if he is a werewolf, he doesn’t know about the rest of the universe.

  “It’s a rage monster,” I say and puff out my arms to convey the size of one blown up into full red-rage mode. I keep poking taunts at him to keep him talking. He laughs and I laugh and I’m pretty sure he’s completely forgotten he’s sitting in detention because the disease inside him made him act out. That taint is gone and if I look closely, I can almost see the yellow in his eyes thinning.

  “Stop, stop!” he says after a long heated debate and is rocking in his chair because he’s laughing so hard. “I can’t argue this with you! Bloodsucker or rage machine, what difference does it make if they can play poker?”

  “Oh, they’re both cheaters,” I say and lightly punch him in the shoulder. “Only, if you beat a berserker it’s likely to tear your arms out of your sockets.”

  His laughter slowly dies but his smile remains. “You’re not bad, Phoenix.”

  “Oh, good.” I wipe the back of my hand across my forehead. “Thanks for clearing that up. I was really worried.”

  It’s his turn to punch me in the shoulder. “I’m serious.”

  The door to the classroom opens and Captain Krush comes in with a half-eaten sub in his hand. He points it at the pair of us.

  “Hey, I said no fun,” he says around a mouthful and goes to his desk. “What were you two laughing about anyway? I could hear you cackling all the way down the hall.”

  “Hey, Captain,” Ben says. “What kind of monster do you think you could beat in a poker game?”

  “Intriguing proposition. Let me think.” He chews thoughtful and doesn’t even bother to ask why on earth we’re talking about monsters and poker in the first place. Once he swallows he says, “A sea serpent like in the story about Hercules.”

  “Oh, come on!” I say and slap a hand on my desktop, shaking my empty lunch tray. “A sea serpent? How is a sea serpent supposed to play poker?”

  “Exactly,” Captain Krush says and winks. “It can’t because it doesn’t have any hands.” He glances at his wristwatch. “Any way, no time to debate the point. Detention’s almost over. Now, I hope I’ve stressed enough how very wrong you two were during this detention and urge you not to get into any more fights.”

  At the mention of fights, Ben starts to wring his hands again, undoing all the good that happened over the last forty minutes.

  “Yeah, you’ve gotten a reputation now,” Ben says to me.

  I point to myself. “Me? What?”

  “I’ve even heard it,” Captain Krush says from his desk. “Kicking butt, taking names—the girl with the legendary bird name. Oh, and that last part I just added. No one else has said that bit. Apparently no one knows what a phoenix is anymore. It’s just a city nowadays.”

  Ben waves him off and starts tapping his foot again. “Nah, all the people that play Mystic Universe do.” He turns to me and whispers rather loudly. “They think your name is pretty cool.”

  The bell rings and we both stand reluctantly. Ben sighs and I can clearly make out the bags under his eyes. We walk back to the cafeteria together to deposit our trays. He’s looking downcast again and twitches a bit. What is going on around here? Once at our lockers, I grasp his arm before he can move away.

  “Hey, if you ever need a friend,” I say, “you know where to find me. Any time.”

  He nods and pulls away to head in the opposite direction. “Yeah. Sure.”

  Like a switch has been flipped, Ben is back to being a haunted, unstable werewolf. And I’ve failed again.

  Chapter 17

  The rest of the school day passes in a hazy blur. I’m super tired and can’t concentrate. When Captain Krush calls on me in my last class of the day I can barely even pronounce Lycaon for our mythology discussion.
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  “Lycaon?” he repeats back to me. I nod and he goes into a whirlwind as usual. Apparently he knows the story in and out. I don’t really need to participate at all and I fall into a stupor in the back of the room while he waves his arms around, asking questions of students up front. They talk about the myths of werewolves for a while, some other Greek legend involving the mother of monsters, and a mention of Love Moon garners a few laughs.

  When the bell finally rings, I’m a sloth getting up from my chair.

  “You aren’t driving yourself home are you?” Captain Krush calls to me.

  “No,” I slur back and he gives me a thumbs up.

  I find Hawk and we walk into the parking lot. Jefferson’s truck is nowhere to be found. I try to call him but it goes to voicemail.

  Hawk shrugs. “We could hop the bus?”

  “No.” School is enough of a nightmare but the bus is a whole different animal.

  “Then what? Walk?”

  I throw up my hands and take a seat on the curb, then put my head on my arms curled over my knees. “Just let me sleep right here.”

  A car rumbles close by and from the sound of it, stops directly in front of us. Hawk nudges me with the toe of his shoe. “Hey, it’s the deputy.”

  I jerk my head up and sure enough Deputy Graham is leaning towards us from the driver’s seat of a regular gray sedan, not his squad car.

  “Deputy?” Hawk says and bends down to see him through the passenger side window.

  “Jefferson asked me to come pick you two up. There’s a situation.” He pushes the door open. Hawk and I both reach for it at the same time and get stuck in the doorframe together. Hawk holds out his palm and plants his other hand in a fist on top of it. I growl under my breath and play a game of rock, paper, scissors for the front seat. Hawk beats my rock with paper and slides into the front, sticking his tongue out. I shove the side of his head before getting into the back. Deputy Graham shakes his head and puts the sedan into gear.

  “So, what’s going on?” Hawk asks from the front. I put a foot on the back of his seat and push.