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

by Bethany Helwig

  “Was going crazy really necessary back there?” he says.

  I run both hands over my head. “Sorry,” I mutter. “I didn’t mean to.”

  “I know how upsetting this is but dial it back.”

  Jefferson doesn’t know the half of it. I almost spill what Witty told me right then and there but think better of it. What would be the point of telling Jefferson the bad news? It’s not like there’s anything either of us can do about it and we need our heads in the game.

  “So, what did you find out about Lycaon?” he asks.

  “That it’s classified and an automatic alert went to Draco when we tried to search the database for the name.”

  “What is it with that dragon?” Jefferson mutters. “Okay, so obviously Lycaon is a major player, and if a dragon has been searching for him then he’s even more dangerous than we thought. We need to find him.”

  “Jefferson, if Lycaon really is at the school . . . Hawk’s there.” I pull out my phone and send my brother a quick text to see how he’s doing. When he doesn’t respond immediately I start to freak out.

  “He’s a smart kid,” Jefferson says. “I’m sure he won’t let anyone get the jump on him.”

  “You weren’t that confident before.”

  He shifts in his seat and gives me the impression he’s uncomfortable. “School will be out soon enough anyway. We just need to be patient and get the records we need.”

  “And how are we going to do that? You said yourself we can’t go grab them from the school.”

  “You know, they have these funny little things called yearbooks we can look at. The library keeps copies.” He tosses me a snide smirk.

  I fight the impulse to roll my eyes. I’ve been doing that too much lately. “Who knew libraries had such cool things? Dead drops for magical blood, yearbooks of werewolves . . . don’t tell me there’s a secret bunker underneath, too.”

  “Don’t be stupid,” Jefferson says gruffly and gives me a sideways look. “That’s beneath the movie theater in town, not the library.”

  Mention of a movie theater, of all things, makes the reality of everything hit me the hardest. Going to the theater in Underground had been my one place of normal. Sure, I went to watch movies with a faun and a giant, surrounded by elves, centaurs, and a slew of other fantastic creatures, but for me it felt normal. I was a normal girl with a normal brother watching movies with friends, training to be their protector. Now, if they even let me and Hawk stay in Underground, that’ll be all we do. There won’t be any grand adventure waiting for us anymore. We’ll be useless.

  “Maybe we can catch a movie some time,” he says.

  I lean to the side window. “Yeah. Maybe.”

  Hawk texts me back letting me know he’s fine by the time we reach the library for the second time today. There’s that at least. We enter the building and Jefferson nods to the sharp-eyed librarian. He apparently knows exactly where he’s going and heads for the furthest shelves. The lighting is dimmer back here and a haze of dust floats around us.

  “Sheesh, when’s the last time someone came back here?” I say and wave a hand to expel the dust cloud in front of my face.

  There are great leather bound volumes, thin booklets, ones about taxes, others about government, but tucked away in the corner is a section on local history. Jefferson combs through it and pulls a narrow, worn yearbook from the shelf. He flips it around so I can see the cover: Moose Lake High School Year of 1996.

  “I told you,” he says. “And the newest ones . . .”

  He and I pull out the previous two years. The most current one won’t come out until the end of the school year so we move to one of the computer terminals and look up the school’s website. While I bring up pictures of the staff, Jefferson dumps the other yearbooks on the desk and spreads them out. I scroll through the website and he flips through the pages one by one. I’m okay with faces and names but no one is jumping out at me as someone I’ve seen at the school recently. We double-check the staff and teacher pages first. I’m expecting to see Principal Tippy but he’s not here. He’s about as old as a dinosaur but he must have transferred from somewhere else. But there is one face on the page I recognize, one face I’m likely to loath for all eternity.

  I tap my finger on his face. “Him. It’s got to be him. Mr. Webster.”

  Chapter 23

  Jefferson doesn’t want to be too hasty in pointing the finger at Mr. Webster even though I’m all for it. So, instead we spend the next several hours comparing photos from the yearbooks to make sure none of the students look too similar incase our werewolf is immortal. Between the two of us, our search comes up empty and only one suspect remains.

  While the librarian is busy shelving books, Jefferson and I smuggle out the 1996 yearbook. We don’t want anyone to know that we’ve taken it, and that we’re on to the black wolf’s identity. A part of me had wished it would be Mr. Webster—that sly, judgmental, little weasel—and now the evidence is beginning to point to him. He’s the only staff member present in 1996 and now. True, the black wolf could have skipped picture day, but he’s the best lead we’ve got.

  Despite how much I don’t like the backup team, we have to tell them what we’ve found. By the time we return to the barn, the black SUV is back and so is the truck. Oh, good. I let out a sigh of relief. Hawk’s here. Cheesy as it sounds, I miss my other ginger half. We park in the barn and I hear a group of people upstairs. The tenor doesn’t exactly sound cheerful.

  At the top of the stairs I find Hawk with his back to me being interrogated by all three of the agents. He’s tapping his foot, rubbing his arms, and running his hands through his disarrayed hair. That’s definitely not a good sign.

  “Are you sure you didn’t notice anything odd about him?” Agent Moore demands.

  “Yes,” Hawk snaps. “I’ve already told you, the only thing noticeable about him is he’s a lousy teacher and a jerk. That’s it.”

  Agent Moore spots Jefferson and me sneaking up the stairs. His eyes narrow. “I thought I told you two to stay here.”

  I move forward to stand by my brother and give him support against whatever the agents are accusing him of. Hawk’s eyes are fierce and there’s something off about him. I lean in closer to make sure and I can just barely make out a ring of yellow around his green eyes. It’s easy enough to miss at a distance but I know Hawk too well not to notice. I don’t want to point it out to the agents in the room so I lean back and squint at them all, trying to make it less obvious I was squinting at my brother’s eyes.

  “We were out following up on a lead,” I say to keep them focused on me and not on Hawk. What happened to him today? I want to ask but I can’t. I have to wait until we don’t have IMS agents breathing down our necks. I hold my hand down and out hoping he’ll give me a low five to let me know he’s okay but he doesn’t even seem to notice. He’s only got dagger-eyes for the agents in front of us.

  “That doesn’t matter,” Agent Moore says and crosses his arms over his chest. I lift my chin to show I don’t care what he thinks and I’ll stand my ground. “We got a lead of our own. One of the werewolves I talked to said he saw the black wolf and knows his identity.”

  “Wait, what?” Hawk and I say in unison.

  Jefferson steps forward as confused as we are. “Someone talked to you? Who?”

  “A boy named Jason.” Agent Moore gives him a disgusted look. “And if you had been doing your job properly, maybe you would have talked to him sooner.”

  “Jason?” I ask. “But that’s the boy who—”

  Jefferson backs into me and misses crunching the toes in my right foot by centimeters. Oh, right. I forgot I’m not supposed to mention being bitten or the cure or anything.

  Unfortunately, I have Agent Moore’s attention now and he’s staring at me waiting for an answer. You could have heard crickets in the silence.

  “The boy who I met at school,” I finish but Agent Moore isn’t buying it.

  “Who did he say it was?” J
efferson asks before it can get anymore awkward.

  “A teacher at the school. Mr. Webster.”

  I run my tongue over my teeth and hold back some snappy responses. I’m irritated. Jefferson and I figured out it was Mr. Webster first on our own without their help. I still can’t believe he got someone to talk, though. The whole town has been under a self-imposed gag order concerning the black wolf. How in the blazes did he get Jason to spill his guts?

  “So, now what?” I ask and toss my hands up. “Do we go interrogate him? Lock him up?”

  “We have a plan in place already.” He acknowledges the two agents behind him with a nod. Clearly, Hawk, Jefferson, and I are not included in the we. “We’re going to setup surveillance on Mr. Webster and make sure we’ve got our man before moving in. We don’t want to spook him or he might run.”

  “Okay,” Jefferson says, the calmest out of our merry band. Hawk is still twitching and I’m a powder keg ready to explode. “How can we help?”

  “You can help by staying out of the way,” Agent Moore says. “We’ll take it from here. Now, if you don’t mind . . .”

  He turns his back on us and the agents huddle around the table to make their plans. Hawk is the first to leave, storming down the stairs. I’m quick to follow and Jefferson is on my heels. We escape from the hostility of the barn and regroup at the old grill-table thing on Jefferson’s duct tape gun range. Hawk has both hands in his hair and is more agitated than I’ve seen him in a long time—well, apart from the night before when he freaked out on Ben.

  “Hawk?”

  He paces about and ignores me, so I grab his forearms to wrestle his hands down and hold him still when he tries to pull away from me. The yellow in his eyes is taunting me.

  “Hey, snap out it,” I growl. “You aren’t helping anything. Calm down.”

  “I am calm!” he practically shouts in my face.

  “Yeah, wow, that was super convincing. How about you try that again, psycho.”

  He’s not acting like himself at all and I know why. He’s been at the school all day long in the presence of the black wolf, Lycaon, the alpha to all werewolves. He’s acting more like Ben had been—a loose cannon. But Hawk never got this bad during the other days we went to school together. This is new. This is—oh, I’m such an idiot. Maybe the black wolf isn’t the only one whose powers work in proximity. Hawk has always had me around, all his life, including the other days we’ve gone to high school, and all the times between.

  All the time except today and that one night when he was off in the woods by himself while I stayed in the truck. I’m the cure. Hawk never had special powers of his own to be able to live as a normal human without the serum. He had me.

  “I’ve got you, brother,” I say quietly. “I’ve got you.”

  He’s tense as a bowstring. I managed to calm down that jock, Matt, and stopped him from attacking me in the woods. How? How did I do it? How have I kept Hawk’s animal side sedate all this time? I stare my brother down. I’ve always wanted him to be okay, and I wanted Matt to remember who he was when he went after me.

  I want Hawk to remember who he is, to remember I’m his family and that I’ll never give up on him. My face gets warm just thinking how badly I want him to be my brother again.

  The yellow rings in his eyes start to fade away. His breathing evens out and he gazes at my hands like they hold the answers to the universe. I loosen my grip and let go. His arms are a bit red from my tight grip but he flexes his forearms and lets out a genuine, pure Hawk laugh.

  “What did you do?” he asks, his smile reaching his eyes.

  “It worked?” I say breathlessly. I jump up and down unable to contain myself and throw up my arms. “It worked!”

  Hawk grabs me by the shoulders and shakes me, continuing to laugh. We’re both little kids again but I don’t care. I’ve finally figured it out. I literally worked my magic and was able to save my brother. I never would have known it if Hawk hadn’t gone off by himself today. It’s a miracle that . . .

  My laughter dies and I face Jefferson. “You knew, didn’t you?”

  His eyes are so small they’re nearly lost beneath his eyebrows. “Let’s say I had a sneaking suspicion. I know Hawk hasn’t been taking the serum.”

  Oops. Wasn’t expecting that by a long shot. Hawk and I share a worried look, and I even take a step back, one hand grabbing at Hawk’s sleeve, ready to run into the woods with him, to protect him if I have to. I know what happens to those werewolves that refuse the serum. They’re locked up and the key is thrown away. The same thing might happen to some of the werewolves here in Moose Lake after all that’s happened. Jefferson has slowly proven himself to me but I’m not taking any chances when it comes to my brother.

  “I also know,” Jefferson continues, “that he’s in control of himself despite that. Well, apart from the few occasions when he wasn’t around you.”

  I’m struggling with the implications in my head. “But how? How did you know? When did you figure all of this out?”

  “Last night,” he says and shrugs, as if uncovering our most guarded secret is the same as talking about the weather. “When we discovered your blood is the cure, I realized Hawk never has the redness or scars on his arms from taking the injections, and he doesn’t monitor the days like most werewolves. I assume you’ve been without the serum for some time now?”

  Hawk shrugs and keeps his eyes on his feet. “Never really started I guess.”

  “Well, isn’t that something.” He points between the pair of us. “And you two never thought that might be something worth looking into?”

  “We did all the usual checks,” I say defensively. I keep a grip on my brother’s sleeve ready to run, still unsure if Jefferson is going to turn on us. “They checked Hawk’s blood and nothing ever came up. I always thought it was him, you know? I never thought I could be the one that—well . . .” I don’t want to say controlled my brother because I don’t think he’d like that. It’s the whole reason he never liked the serum in the first place.

  “Kept him human?” Jefferson shakes his head and combs his fingers through his shaggy hair. “You two better stick together like glue until this is all over. We aren’t going to be any use if Hawk gets brainwashed like the rest. I think you two should go back to school tomorrow and—”

  “Wait a second,” I interrupt. I can’t help myself. I need to know. “You aren’t going to rat us out?”

  “Why? What would be the point? So the IMS can slap some penalties and cuffs on your brother for not taking a serum that would have been pointless anyway given your unique situation? I think we’re past that point.”

  Hawk’s mouth drops open. “Really? You aren’t going to bust our chops?”

  Jefferson shrugs again. “Like I said, what’s the point? I mean, if you didn’t have your magic sister you would have been taking the serum otherwise, right?”

  There’s no need to point out Hawk went off the serum and attacked me that one time before my gifts kicked in. Hawk never would have taken the serum regardless.

  “Of course,” Hawk answers. I don’t say anything because I’m afraid I’ll give that secret away.

  “Anyway, as I was saying, you two should go back to school tomorrow.” Jefferson glances up at the barn where the agents are gathered and clueless about what’s going on. “Phoenix, see if you can do the same thing you just did with Hawk. Calm the other werewolves and it may draw the black wolf out. He won’t like someone being able to disrupt the spell he’s putting over the town.”

  “Got it.” I give him a thumbs up before tucking my hands into my jacket pockets. I’m feeling jittery and can’t help but smile. “Secret missions, defying orders—it’s kind of exciting isn’t it?”

  Jefferson gives me a dark look. “We aren’t defying orders. You two are enrolled and it would be suspicious if you stopped showing up. Plus, the IMS should be using all available resources. You two have more convenient access to keep an eye on Mr. Webster than they do.”<
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  Hawk rubs his hands together and bumps my shoulder with his. “Looks like our team has finally assembled.” He becomes intensely serious. “We should have a name.”

  “We do,” Jefferson says. “It’s called the Moose Lake Field Office.”

  “No, that’s boring and it’s just the location anyway.” His face screws up in thought. “How about Team Awesome?”

  Jefferson groans and turns away to the cabin. Hawk chases after him and I jog along in his wake, happy to see Hawk back to his normal crazy self.

  “How about a mash up?” Hawk continues. “Team Magic-old-wolf, because Phoenix is magic, you’re a geezer, and I’m a werewolf. Or Old-magic-wolf.”

  Jefferson doesn’t even turn around when he responds, “How about team shut up?”

  “That’s not very catchy,” Hawk scoffs.

  I rush up and grab his shoulder. “Team Rebel. Rebel Team. Team Rebellious.”

  “No.”

  “Hey, it’s got school spirit!”

  We continue to argue over team names, more to poke fun at Jefferson than anything, but it’s levity that I need. I’ve still got that bomb to drop about all of us getting the boot, but for the time being I’m keeping it to myself.

  The next morning, after the three stooges have left in the black SUV to start surveillance, “Team Thunderstruck” rolls out in the old truck to the high school. We had bugged Jefferson all last night until he agreed on a team name as long as he picked it—so he picked his favorite AC/DC song. After saying the name about a thousand times, we agreed and even abbreviated it to T2. Jefferson’s had a stony expression ever since.

  The black SUV is already parked in the lot. Jefferson drives past it to stop behind the line of buses in front of the doors.

  “Everyone know the plan?” he asks.

  “Calm werewolves. Drive out Mr. Webster. Don’t die,” I list off.

  “Yes. Don’t die.” He leans over Hawk to point a finger in my face. “Glad you added that last bit.”