Jennifer Scales and the Messenger of Light (19 page)

Skip took a step forward. “She did before. And this time, she’d be with me!”

Elizabeth stepped in herself. She grew taller and more fierce. The spade lifted a little. For a moment, Jennifer was certain she was going to reveal herself to Skip. “And what would you do, young man, if this thing caught my daughter by surprise and got the upper hand? What would you do if it began sucking the life out of her?”

“I’d…I’d stop it!”

Her mother’s expression shifted between admiration and disdain. “You’d die. And so would she.”

His chin lifted. “It’s coming after her anyway. Are you just going to wait and let it come?”

Jennifer watched her mother’s knuckles whiten around the handle of her spade. “Watch it, kid.”

“Watch what? What’re you going to do, fight me?”

Elizabeth bit her lip. “No. I’ll go with you two. So will your father. We stick together.”

Skip held his chin up defiantly for a few moments, and then broke into a smirk. “Great. Come along if you want. I’m going now.”

“Fine.” The spade clattered on the patio stones. “I’ll get my coat!”

“Get mine, too, dear?” Jonathan gave a wry grin as his wife steamed off into the garage. “This is going to be a lot of fun.”

Jennifer gulped. “I can hardly wait.”

“He’s an ass.”

“Mom! Keep your voice down!”

“We should have left him in his father’s dungeon.”

“Mom!”

“Why couldn’t it have worked out with Eddie? Eddie was always polite to his elders.”

“Eddie’s mom almost chopped me to pieces last spring. Remember?”

“Granted. But there’s something to be said for respecting one’s elders.”

“Skip’s nice to Dad. You know why? Because Dad’s nice to him!”

“Your dad’s an idiot. We’ve discussed this.”

Both males were well ahead of them, far (Jennifer hoped) out of earshot. They were rustling quietly through the woods behind the Oak Valley apartment complex. Apartment 212 was the address her parents had found for Rune Whisper. They weren’t sure if he was there or not, nor if they’d catch him coming or going…nor, if Jennifer really thought about it, if he was already aware of their efforts and tracking them instead.

“So what exactly are you going to do if Evangelos attacks?” she asked. “Not be a beaststalker? I mean, Skip will find out, if you’re going to be useful at all.”

“We’ll worry about that if and when it happens.”

Jennifer wrinkled her nose. Many of the leaves under their feet were slowly rotting, helped along by the cold rain that had fallen the day before. “My neck and hands are freezing.”

“That’s because you didn’t bring a scarf or gloves. See honey, here’s how it works: Clothes keep you warm. The more clothes you wear, the warmer you are. When it gets cold, you—”

“All right, all right.”

“You teenagers think you’re invincible against the elements.”

A thought occurred to Jennifer, and she smiled. “Well, maybe I am.”

A moment later, she was a dragon with a thick, electric blue hide. “Ah. Toasty.”

“Your Windbreaker’s going to smell like lizard meat for the next five wash cycles.”

“You’re just jealous. Hey, this is a good idea anyway: I can see things a lot better now. In fact…” She squinted into a window up at the second floor. “I think he’s up there. Third window in from the left.”

She glanced over at Skip and her father. The boy appeared to be looking and pointing through the same window she had just been scanning.

“What?” her mother asked. “How can you tell? What do you see?”

She renewed her scouting. The shape flitting back and forth past the gap in the heavy drapes was definitely tall and gaunt. Jennifer thought she could detect the fringe of white hair on his head.

“There’s too much light reflecting off the glass to be sure. But that looks an awful lot like the guy from the beaststalker trial.”

“Does he look like he’s staying in for the night?”

“No, he’s dressed in that suit. Pretty sure it’s dark green.”

“Maybe that’s all he’s got for clothes.”

They looked at each other as if to say, “Or maybe it’s all he could find for a disguise.”

“What else do we know about Rune?” Jennifer asked.

“According to Mayor Seabright, the police don’t have much of a file on him. On his rental application, he put down ‘government agent’ for occupation. Paid cash deposit. Pays rent in cash, according to the landlord. Hasn’t missed a due date.”

Jennifer paused. “My, the beaststalker police sure have been busy. You suppose they have a file on me, too?”

“Count on it.”

“Hope they have a photo of me on a good hair day. Hang on, I haven’t seen him for a few seconds. I think he went into another room.”

“Or maybe he left altogether?”

Their question was answered less than a minute later, when Rune Whisper came out the ground floor exit that faced the woods. He adjusted his badly fitting suit jacket, scratched the back of his fringe of hair, and took a look around.

“Get down!” Jennifer whispered. She flexed her skin and assumed the shape and texture of a dying birch tree. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Skip and her father already low on the ground.

Rune did not appear to see anything unusual, and soon he was walking briskly away from them, around the building and onto the sidewalk that ran alongside the parkway. Without a word, all four of them slowly broke cover and began to trail him.

“Do you think we have any chance?” Jennifer asked in a low whisper. “To help Evangelos, I mean. Instead of killing him.”

Never taking her eyes off of the green suit in the distance, Elizabeth wrinkled her nose slightly. “I’m a doctor, honey. I always believe there’s hope, for anyone, until the very end.”

“Even Skip?” Jennifer winked at her mother’s annoyed expression.

“Hmmph. Yes, maybe even him.”

Rune Whisper did not go anywhere particularly damning, Jennifer thought sourly while soaking in a bath that evening. The hot water seeped into her skin, but could not remove the cold, clammy sensation that had settled into her bones after several hours of furtive scouting in the cold.

Of course, it had begun to rain again halfway through their hunt. That made it particularly hard to track a man like Rune Whisper, who appeared to be in a constant state of furtiveness.

But what was he hiding? They learned nothing from his first and only stop: the hospital. He disappeared inside, and none of them could risk going in for fear they would miss him leaving. Sure enough, several minutes later Skip saw him slide out an exit not far from the new wing Jonathan had designed, which was still under construction.

From there it had looked like he was setting out for the east end of town, toward Winoka High School—but at an inopportune moment, Skip had a coughing fit brought on by an overly enthusiastic sniff in the rain. Despite the boy’s heroic efforts to squelch the sound, Rune’s head perked up. The Scaleses and Skip tried to flatten themselves in the ditch by the parkway, with Jennifer’s camouflaged wings spread as wide as possible over them all, but they were pretty sure the hunt was over.

After that, Rune couldn’t seem to settle on a destination. With his pursuers trying to allow as much distance as possible, he had slowly worked his way back around to the south and the Oak Valley apartment complex.

From there, Jennifer knew the only place to go was the bathtub.

She let out a long sigh, wiggled her human toes, and closed her eyes, trying not to think of the obvious. Her mind would not oblige. He’s scoping out the hospital. Where Mom works. Looking for ambush spots.

How would a beaststalker like her mother deal with something like Evangelos? She recalled the night Grandpa Crawford had died, and the shriek the thing gave when it seemed to realize what she was. She had wounded it, and survived. Wouldn’t her mother be an even tougher match?

Eyes still closed, she pushed some suds up over her throat, face, and hair. The warm water assured her. Mom will be fine. She’s not afraid. She’ll take care of this thing. Then he won’t be around to come after you. Or Dad.

Lost in thought, she didn’t hear the sound of knocking in the distance. She spent another minute just floating a bit in the water, dreaming of a time when it would be over and they could go back to being a normal family. Or as normal as things could possibly get, given who they were.

How normal could things ever be, here in Winoka—or Pinegrove, since that was its original name? What did normal even mean, anymore? There was so much hurt in the past. So many things no one wanted to forgive. Beaststalkers driving out weredragons, weredragons lashing back, werachnids watching from the shadows—everyone seemed to hate everyone else. Evangelos just seemed like the most ferocious criminal—and victim, if she thought about it.

Don’t think about him that way! He’s not a victim!

With that thought her eyes popped open, and she let out a small gasp. Her father was sitting on the edge of the tub.

Her first impulse was to curl up, freak out, and yell at him to get out. But she saw the look in his gray eyes as he watched her lie there. He was focused only on her face, as if he was looking for something hidden there. There was worry in his own features, and a great deal of uncertainty. He appeared older, and she thought of Grandpa Crawford again. He had already lost his father. What would happen to his wife and daughter?

She gently raised an arm and pushed extra suds over her chest. “What,” she said as calmly as she could manage.

“I knocked,” he said gently. “You didn’t answer, and the door was partway open. Lying there like that, you looked…well, it took a second before I was sure you were all right.”

“I’m okay.” Her voice sounded very small.

He laughed and stood up. “Sorry, ace. Didn’t mean to creep you out. I’ll leave.”

He stepped toward the door, then turned halfway. “It’s just…”

“What?” She slowly rinsed out her hair.

“I’ve been a good father, haven’t I?”

The crack in his voice made her tremble a bit. Since when did he seek her approval?

“Geez, Dad. That’s a dumb question. You’re great.” Feeling awkward, she tried a joke. “I mean, you could stand to ease up on curfew, but…”

He tossed a faint smile for the effort back in her direction, and then stared into the bathroom mirror. “Until a few weeks ago, I hadn’t thought much of Evangelos, I’ll admit. But I never did completely forget him. A parent just can’t forget a child. Even though I never saw him…I’d wake up some nights, when it was quiet and dark, and wonder what he went through—what he felt—before he died.”

The weight of his words hit her hard. He feels guilty, she told herself. He thinks he’s a bad father. And he was asking her if it was true. This was too much responsibility, she told herself. She couldn’t comfort her father. Who could?

But she tried. “Dad. There was nothing you could do. You were in America when it happened. They were in Australia. The Pacific Ocean…it’s huge! By the time you got there, he was even farther away. Not even his mother could find him! How could you?”

He sniffed, swiped a tissue from the bathroom counter, and wiped his nose with it. “Well, turns out I don’t have to, eh? He found me.”

Turning back to the door, he couldn’t hide the fear in his voice.

“And you.”

She felt the same fear for a moment, but then something else rose. Courage, she thought it was. And pride. Neither of them was alone.

“And Mom.”

His tone brightened. “And your mom.”

Sensing his mood change, she chose her words carefully. “Dad, I know you feel bad for Evangelos. And you should. Because if he tries to mess with Mom, he’s going to have a really bad day.”

“So how’d it go with my dad?”

“Hmm?”

Jennifer bent down a bit, trying to insert herself between Skip’s gaze and the floor. “Your visit to the hospital? This morning? It’s Thursday.”

He shrugged. She pressed.

“He just dropped you off here at school? Right over there?” Pointing out the glass doors and into the parking lot, Jennifer felt a twinge of irritation. She had to come to school on time, while Skip got to take a field trip at the hospital’s expansion site, rooting around stacked two-by-fours and foundation elements while her father pointed out various architectural features yet to be built. Sure it was no amusement park, but at least it wasn’t the same old classrooms.

“It was cool,” he allowed, still distant. “Never thought there was much use for trigonometry, but whaddya know: There are people out there who really have to use stuff like sine and cosine. Poor saps.”

“But did you see anything?” She waved her arms in exasperation, causing Susan, who was at her side, to giggle. “Did Rune Whisper come back?”

He breathed out and seemed to relax. “Naw. Didn’t see him. Just a couple of the construction workers your dad’s gotten to know. One of ‘em—Angie or somethin’—”

“Angus?” she suggested, remembering the man from the beaststalker trial with the Scottish accent and the shrouded wife. “Angus Cheron?”

“Yeah. He’s new in town, right? Your dad made sure I met him. I guess he’s trying to introduce the guy around. Though I don’t see how meeting me would help.”

Skip was probably right, Jennifer thought. After the embarrassment of the Cherons during the beaststalker trial, her dad would take extra steps to make sure they didn’t feel unwelcome.

“Your mom also showed up, just before lunch. Wow, she doesn’t care for me one bit.”

“She thinks you’re an ass,” Jennifer offered helpfully.

His nose wrinkled. “Great.”

“She’s right,” Susan pitched in, barely avoiding Skip’s elbow. “Oooh, everyone shut up now, Gerry’s coming.”

“Gerry? But I thought you didn’t like—”

Now she got the elbow in the ribs. “Hey, Gerry! Jennifer and I didn’t see you in geometry class today.”

The boy with the angelic face floated down the hall and came to a full stop in front of them. He looked slightly worried and glanced nervously at Jennifer and Skip.

He wants us to go away, Jennifer thought. Fat chance.

“H-hey, Susan.” His high-pitched voice came out in fits and starts. “I w-wanted to talk to y-you. I h-haven’t seen you much since the d-dance.”