All Hallows' Moon (21 page)

“Stay with me,” she said. “Here. At the ranch. You don’t need to live with your family if you don’t want to.”

“I can’t do that, Rylie,” he said. “Abel’s sick. He needs me. I don’t think your aunt would be happy to find out I moved in, either.”

“She’s not in town. I’ll make something up when she gets back. Please? I would feel a lot better if you were here. I’m scared on my own.” Her eyes pleaded with him. Seth wanted to say yes. He really did.

“I won’t let anything happen to you. I promise. Nobody will hurt you.”

“Will you spend the night here with me? Just for tonight?”

“What about Tate?” Seth asked.

Rylie leaned back to look at him. “Huh? What about Tate?”

“I thought you guys were dating now,” he said. “You’ve been with him a lot.”

“Dating? Are you serious? He’s like… I don’t know what he’s like. But it’s not like that between us. We’re really good friends. That’s all.”

Seth probably shouldn’t have been so happy to hear that news. “Okay, I’ll stay tonight and tomorrow.”

“Thank you,” she whispered.

Eleanor was waiting for Seth when he came home.

She could practically smell the werewolf on him. It pained her to wait for another attack, but the beast surprised her. Eleanor hadn’t expected it to escape. She didn’t want to chase Rylie down again—it would be much easier to wait until she turned so she could shoot her.

So Eleanor waited. Watching her son trailing after the werewolf like a lovesick puppy was nauseating. And when he came home with a dumb smile, it was all she could do not to slap those stupid thoughts out of his thick head.

As soon as Seth came home, he went into the bedroom to check on his brother. Eleanor hung by the door to watch them.

Abel was sleeping again. It was almost like he had gone into hibernation after the last moon. He didn’t stir from his sleep until Seth lifted the corner of the bandage on his shoulder.

“What do you think, doc?” Abel asked, his voice ragged with sleep.

“Looks like you’re going to survive. That’s too bad. I want your car,” Seth said.

Abel laughed. “You’re a jerk.”

“And you’re ugly.”

“Go run yourself off a bridge,” his brother mumbled, rolling over to go back to sleep.

Seth stood, and his smile faltered when he saw Eleanor watching. It came right back after a moment. He was trying to deceive her with his every motion.

“How was school today?” she asked.

“It was fine.”

He shut Abel’s door and moved around the trailer, digging through the fresh laundry he had cleaned at the Laundromat the day before. He picked out a shirt and pants and stuffed them in his backpack.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m going to camp out in the hills tonight,” Seth said. It would have been more convincing if he’d met her eyes while he was lying. “I’m going to look for places the werewolf might make a den.”

He was going to spend the night with that
thing
. “No, Seth,” Eleanor said. “I don’t think so.”

Uncertainty flicked through his eyes. “Why?”

So he was going to play innocent? Eleanor couldn’t imagine how such an arrogant little jerk could have come from her womb. He was nothing like Jim.

She blocked the door with her body so he couldn’t leave. Seth probably could have overpowered her. He was shorter, but much stronger. The impudence in his expression made her so angry that she could have spit on him.

“You tell me why.”

“Good question, Mom,” Seth said. “You never cared where I went before now.”

“That’s because you weren’t sneaking around with some blond tramp before.”

All the color vanished from his face.

“Mom—”

She grabbed his chin in her hand, digging her fingernails into his jaw. “A werewolf. A
demon
. One of those killed your daddy and mauled your brother, and you’re fooling around with it.” She drew in a long, shaking breath and dropped her hand. There were four perfect crescents in his skin. “This is some… some kind of teenage rebellion. You’ve had a hard time dealing with your destiny, but you’re young. You can’t see the big picture.”

“Let me explain,” he said, holding up his hands. She couldn’t control her anger any longer.

Eleanor slapped him. It rang out in the trailer, and the silence that followed the crack was deep and heavy. Seth’s hand flew to his face.

“I’ll do all the explaining this time, and you’ll keep your nasty little mouth shut,” she hissed through clenched teeth. “Your brother’s ripping himself apart because that thing tore his shoulder open, so I don’t care how you’ve rationalized all this. The only relationship you’re going to have with that werewolf from here on out is at the end of a gun. If you got a problem with that, then—then—” Eleanor’s fists shook. “Well, I don’t give half a damn if you’ve got a problem with it, boy.”

“You can’t make me stay,’ Seth said.

Eleanor drew her pistol from the small of her back, and his eyes went wide. She pressed it into his sternum.

“I can’t?”

“Mom, what are you—?”

“Sit down.”

The gun made him awfully obedient. Seth lowered himself to the floor of the trailer. She grabbed the ropes without dropping her aim. These were the only ones she had left—that werewolf had destroyed the other ones. They might not have been strong enough for a monster, but they would be strong enough for her so-called son.

“Don’t do this,” he said, eyes round. “Mom. Please.”

“I can’t trust you anymore.” She gave a harsh laugh. “Jim would be so disappointed.”

He opened his mouth to speak, but Eleanor didn’t care what he had to say anymore.

She whipped the gun across his face, and he collapsed.

Seventeen

All Hallows

Seth didn’t come back to Rylie’s house that night, and he wasn’t at school when she arrived the next morning. She stood under the tree and watched for the motorcycle until the second bell rang.

Something had happened. Something was wrong.

Even worse, she could feel the moon even though the sun had just risen for the day. The wolf was already stirring inside of her. Her skin prickled as though it was covered in fur, and she had to run her hands down her skin to make sure she was still human.

“Seth,” she whispered. “Where are you?”

The only response was the rustling of dry leaves as they blew past on the sidewalk.

Rylie found her desk in homeroom by instinct instead of eyesight. It was the day the school celebrated Halloween, so most of the kids were wearing costumes. Their faces were covered in leering death masks and cloaks, and every other mouth was fanged. They laughed shrilly and shrieked instead of speaking. The noise drove into her skull like steel spikes.

The teacher didn’t try to make them read. He passed out candy and let everyone sit on their desks talking. Rylie pulled out her cell phone and watched the screen, hoping Seth would call her.

Maybe nothing was wrong. Maybe he’d been sidetracked by something else.

But her phone stayed silent.

Her second class was decorated with paper skeletons and red streamers. They watched a movie about witches while eating popcorn balls, but Rylie refused to take hers. Corn sounded disgusting. She craved something bloody and squirming.

Kathleen and Rylie were scheduled to present their paper in third period.

“Did you write it?” she whispered when Rylie sat next to her. Kathleen was dressed like a fairy with wings made of filmy cloth, but the short skirt made her look like a dumpy stripper.

Rylie tried to focus on her partner’s lips, but she couldn’t make sense of the words. “Write what?”

“Oh no,” Kathleen said. “You didn’t write it. Oh no. We’re so screwed.” She turned into a flurry of motion, opening her binder and throwing around papers. Hysterics made her sweat smell like adrenaline.

Rylie savored the scent.

Panicked prey were the best. They never saw the end coming.

There was another smell, too, beyond the wafting odor of panic, buttered popcorn, and candy corn. Something… bloody.

Rylie stood up, ignoring Ms. Reedy as she repeated her name. She wandered into the hall. It was empty during class, but streamers fluttered in the breeze made by the heater.

Meat. Rylie smelled meat.

She stepped out the doors to the quad and her foot connected with something soft. It was a package wrapped in butcher’s paper. Rylie knelt to untie it, and her mouth watered at the sight of a raw cut of lamb.

There was a note beside it in unfamiliar handwriting:
Your last meal
.

Rylie clutched the paper as she searched the quad with her eyes. Somehow, she knew it was Eleanor’s handwriting. She was watching.

“What is that?”

She spun. Kathleen stood behind her with her nose wrinkled. Her mouth fell open when she saw Rylie’s bloody hands.

Frightened prey. Delicious.

Rylie shut her eyes so she didn’t have to see the pulse throbbing in Kathleen’s throat. “Go away.”

“Ms. Reedy says you need to come back to class.”

“Get out of here. Go!”

Kathleen ran into the classroom. Rylie’s stomach growled.

She ran her fingers over the cut of lamb, digging her fingernails into it. She was so hungry. The human side of her was shrieking with alarm—
Eleanor left it, don’t eat that, it’s a trap!
—but it was a small voice fading into the background.

She shouldn’t eat a piece of meat she found on the ground. It was insane. It was animal.

It was…
irresistible
.

Rylie lifted the meat to her mouth and sank her teeth into it.

She jerked back and dropped the lamb. It made a
splat
against the cement. Rylie spat, trying to clear her mouth of the sour tang that filled her mouth.

Silver. Eleanor injected the meat with silver.

She heard footsteps approaching and realized she would have blood all over her face. She couldn’t let anyone see her. Rylie jumped over the package, forcing herself to walk away from the sweet smell of food, and hurried to the bathroom.

Scrubbing her hands and face, she watched the lamb’s blood circle the drain.

Your last meal
.

It hadn’t been a serious attempt to kill her… yet. It was a message.

Eleanor was coming for her.

The bathroom door opened, and Dean Black entered holding the juicy cut of lamb away from her body like it was a bomb. Rylie checked her reflection to make sure she was clean before straightening.

“What is this?” the dean asked.

Rylie peered over the butcher’s paper like she hadn’t seen the package before. It wasn’t hard to make herself look sickened. Now that she had picked up the taste of silver, she could smell it in the back of her throat.

“Gross. Where did you find that?”

“Don’t play games with me. I saw you putting this outside your classroom. Is it some kind of sick Halloween prank?”

“I didn’t put it there,” Rylie said.

“You need to come to the office with me, Miss Gresham.”

She recoiled. “Why? I told you I didn’t put it there!”

“I’ve heard that a thousand times before. Scoot. We’re going to call your guardian.”

The wolf bristled. Who did this woman think she was, trying to push her around? Nobody could tell Rylie what to do.

She stalked over to the dean and slapped the lamb out of her hands. It splattered all over the floor. The dean shrieked and jumped back, but it was too late. Blood splashed on her pumps.

Dean Block stared at it numbly, and Rylie took the opportunity to push past her toward the door.

The dean caught her arm. “I don’t think so. You’ve gone too far this time. You’re—”