Charity Moon (8 page)

“Actually, no I don’t,” he responded in a cold tone without meeting my gaze.

“Too bad.” I grabbed his shirt and pulled him to his feet. I continued pulling him until he jerked away and followed me on his own. When we got around the building, I turned to address him. “So, Mr. Hero, why are you ignoring me?”

“I just don’t think we should get together,” he said, looking down and smoothing his shirt. “We don’t make a very good match.”

“Oh, is that right?” I studied his expression but couldn’t figure it out. Was he serious?

“Yeah, that’s right.”

“Or maybe it’s just because I’m getting too close to learning your secret.” That got his attention, and his eyes blazed. It actually looked as if they briefly shifted color, but that would’ve been impossible.

“What do you mean, secret?” he said through clenched teeth.

“You know exactly what I mean. You’re hiding something, and I’m going to find out what it is, so why don’t you just trust me with it? I’ve had to trust you with mine. Do you think I want anyone to find out what my stepdad’s been trying to do to me for the past three years? Can I trust you to keep that a secret?”

“Of course you can.”

“Then you can trust me too.”

He turned and began to pace back and forth, as if trying to decide what to say, before turning to me again. “I don’t have any secrets. The truth is—I don’t really like you anymore. I thought I did, but once you gave in and kissed me, it wasn’t fun anymore. I’ve just lost interest that’s all. I’m sorry.” He shrugged apologetically, his blank face betraying no emotion.

In that moment, I knew his integrity was being sacrificed. I sensed lying wasn’t something he was comfortable with, and lucky for me he sucked at it. That’s fine. If this was a road he was determined to go down then I was more than willing to follow and see where it ended.

I laughed. “You must think I’m a stupid, foolish girl. I was there when we kissed. It was intense and you know it. There are some things you can’t fake. But if you want to play this game, then I’ll play along. Besides, you’re not the only one I can get information from.”

“What do you mean by that?” His eyes knitted together in agitation.

“Well, the last time I checked Wesley was still very interested in me. It seems he enjoyed kissing me more than you did.”

That got a rise out of him, and he charged over to me and forced me up against the brick building, putting both hands on either side of me. Yes, his eyes shifted again, a flicker of yellow. “Stay away from Wesley! He’s not a good person!”

“And you are?”

“I’m not good for
you
. As a matter of fact, stay away from all of us. And keep Ashley away from Josh.” He was breathing heavily in my face, his gaze so intense as he stared down at me, and for a brief moment it seemed as though he was fighting the urge to kiss me again, his eyes focused solely on my lips. He moved closer. I parted my lips—waiting. He squeezed his eyes shut, his expression turning undeniably pained. It was as if he were in a tug-of-war with himself. And then he was gone.

I stood there alone, my mind reeling with questions. What was up with the eyes? And why was he pulling away? Just when I started letting my defenses down, he started building his up. What secret could he have that’s so important to protect? Well, I became determined, more than ever, to find out.

After school, we all headed for Happy’s with everyone crammed into the Civic for the twenty-minute drive. We were seated snuggly into our favorite booth, with ice cream in hand, when the bell to the entrance door rang, causing us all to look over. Levi and his friends walked in. He spotted me instantly and froze.

“Come on,” Josh said, tugging him by the arm to a booth across the room.

Ashley laughed, “Charity, you have ice cream on your nose.” She reached over and wiped it off with her napkin.

I glanced at Levi. He was looking at me, but quickly turned his head.

Great.

“Excuse me guys,” I said, practically crawling over Toby and Stacy to get out of our tight booth.
Why had I insisted on being on the inside anyway?

“Hey, where you goin’?” Toby asked.

“I need some air. I’ll be outside.”

Once outside, I took a seat at one of the small tables and continued to take licks from my ice cream, determined not to let anything ruin it for me.

I heard a honk, looking up just in time to see a red Corvette speeding by. It made a U-turn and came back, parking in the spot in front of me. “Wesley, hey,” I said, squinting against the sun.

“Hey, beautiful. Care if I join you?”

“Please do.”

He grabbed a chair, spun it around, and straddled it, pushing his sunglasses to the top of his head to get a better look at me.

I glanced through the window and noted Levi staring at us, his face red with anger.

I smiled.

Wesley reached over, taking my hand, the one holding my cone, and brought it to his lips, taking a huge bite.
Okay, don’t hit him, Charity.
I peered in the window again, spotting Levi standing in alarm, and made myself laugh, pretending I was enjoying Wesley’s company.

Wesley followed my gaze and recognized Levi at once. “I should probably get going. Don’t want to fight here. Maybe we can continue this Friday night. How ‘bout it?”

I made myself look over at him. “Huh? How ‘bout what?”

He laughed. “A date—Friday night?”

“Oh—sure. That’d be fine.”

“Good. I’ll pick you up at seven.” He pulled down his black shades, got in his car, and sped away. I glanced down at my ice cream, it suddenly losing its appeal, and took a big, angry bite.

Levi continued his game of ignoring me for the rest of the week. I caught him staring at me a few times, but he would quickly look away or give me a mean glare, which I eagerly returned.

My date with Wesley turned out to be a total disappointment. I think he knew I wasn’t interested in him. He saw right through my attempts to get information from him and didn’t seem any more cooperative in giving me dirt on Levi than Levi himself had been, so I formed a new plan.

Ashley’s always up for a good adventure, so it took little persuading on my part to convince her that a spy mission was necessary. We decided to follow Levi the following Friday, after school. We switched cars with Stacy for the weekend in order to follow inconspicuously. If he recognized us the gig was up. When he pulled out of the parking lot, we followed him from a distance as he drove through town and headed up deeper into the mountains. I lost track of the miles when, without warning, his car pulled off the road and disappeared into the forest. We stopped on the opposite side of the road, got out, and snuck quietly through the trees. Before long, we came to an opening in the forest and spotted other cars parked there. Levi and all of his friends, as well as others we didn’t recognize, were having some sort of meeting. Levi seemed to be the one heading it up. He was in the middle of a speech, and we had to strain hard to hear what he was saying.

“Wesley’s up to something. We’re going to meet with them tonight and settle this matter once and for all. It could turn nasty, so be prepared. There’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to live in harmony with each other. All of this rivalry has to stop. No humans need to be put in danger anymore, Charity least of all. She’s in danger because of me, and I’m putting an end to it tonight. We’re meeting at dark in neutral territory, at the old mill. I don’t need to remind you to be discreet. I’ll see you all tonight.”

Ashley and I stared at each other and then quickly, but quietly, made our way back to the car and left before the others spotted us.

“What do you make of that?” Ashley asked breathlessly once we were back in the safety of the car.

“If we’re gonna find out what’s going on we’ve got to be at that meeting tonight.”

“I don’t know, Charity. It sounds dangerous. Did you hear him mention your name? He said you were in danger. I think we should just drop this.”

“We can’t. If I’m in danger I’d like to know why, besides we’re too close to finding out what’s going on. We have to find out where this neutral territory is.” 

“Well, they mentioned the old mill. It’s in a clearing deeper in the forest, in between the east and west boundary. What? Don’t look at me like that. My brother and his friends got busted for trespassing there once.”

“We have to figure out how long it will take us to get there and how to get there without being spotted.”

We went back to my house, got on the Internet, and pulled up a map.

“Okay, if we park our car on this little pull off here, we can put a white cloth out of the window so it looks like we’ve broken down. Then we can hike through the trees here. It should take us roughly an hour, traveling at a normal pace, to get to the clearing. Chances are, the guys will come in this other way here,” Ashley said, pointing at the map. “They’ll take this small dirt road that leads straight to the old mill. If we stick to this plan we shouldn’t encounter anyone.”

“Ashley, if they discover us, they’re gonna be very ticked off.”

“That’s an understatement. Oh, we need to call our moms and tell them we’re spending the night at Stacy’s. That way they won’t worry about where we are.”

“Ash, are you suggesting we lie to our parents?”

“Are you suggesting we tell them the truth?”

“Umm—okay I see your point. We’ll need our jackets. It’ll turn cold in the forest once the sun goes down, oh and binoculars. We definitely need those. Let’s grab a bite to eat and head out. It’s important that we make it there before they do. I don’t want to miss anything.”

Ashley and I couldn’t have planned it more perfectly. We made it to the clearing before it turned dark and beat the others there. We picked a good spot in the forest where we could watch without being seen; lying down, hidden behind some brush at the far side of the clearing, opposite the old mill.

“We’re going to have to be very quiet from here on out,” I whispered.

She mouthed okay and made the hand signal in the air.

One by one, cars began to arrive. As dark drew near, their headlights lit up the clearing. Although some men emerged from their cars, most of the others stepped out from within the forest causing Ashley and I to look at each other in confusion.

The two gangs walked out into the center of the clearing and formed lines facing each other, leaving about twenty feet between them. Levi and Wesley emerged from amongst the others and walked into the center to face each other. Ashley took the binoculars from me and pressed them against her eyes, making adjustments for clarity. Levi and Wesley were talking too low, making hearing impossible, but they pulled their shirts off over their heads and snatched off their shoes as they began circling each other—not good. Whatever they were saying it wasn’t helping. We heard rumbling and what sounded like growls coming from the spectators surrounding them. Ashley and I looked at each other, wide-eyed.

I jumped as Wesley yelled, “Soon I will have her, Levi! I
will
make her my own!” That didn’t sound good. Was he talking about me?

With my human eyes it looked as if the two men were changing, growing somehow. The binoculars began shaking in Ashley’s hand as she reached out to touch me. I snatched the binoculars from her and peered anxiously through them, trying to steady them in my hands. My heart leaped at what I saw. Levi and Wesley were morphing into something else, something my mind tried desperately to reject. Violently shaking their heads from side to side, their faces began to grow—they became covered with hair—claws shot out from their toes and fingertips, and fangs proceeded from their mouths. Ashley and I looked on in horror, as the two men became………werewolves!!!!

Ashley gasped causing me to drop the binoculars to cover her mouth. All the rumbling stopped as the group of men turned their heads, in unison, in our direction. Fight or flight? Fight or flight? My mind repeated.

“Ashley, run!” We both jumped up and bolted back in the direction of the car. We could hear rumblings of activity behind us.

“Get them out of the buffer zone and to the west boundary! Now!” I heard a desperate voice call from behind. It sounded like Levi but only muffled somehow. Growling and fighting broke out all around us, but still we ran. I had just rounded a tree when someone grabbed me from behind, releasing me, as someone slammed hard into him. I was knocked down as they fought around me. It was as if both sides were trying to get to us at once.