Undead and Unstable (29 page)

“You’re really moving out?”

“Yup.”

“I still can’t believe it.”

“I couldn’t believe all the shrill bitching about a piece of glass. But you bitched.”

“Three-thousand-dollar piece of glass,” I muttered. “And you knocked over Mrs. Hemze’s Christmas tree during your rampage.”

“I went back and fixed it the next day.”

“And Mr. Peterberg’s.”

“Fixed that one, too.”

“And the Katzes’.”

“Crybabies.”

I had mixed feelings about Antonia and Garrett leaving … me, who got off on complaining about the open-door policy for roomies. But I hated to see the two of them head off into the world that had treated them badly, with no one to lean on but themselves. What was kind of cool (but I would flambé my summer sandals before admitting it to Antonia) was that the solitude was the point, for them.

They hadn’t made that much of a mess of the neighborhood … frankly, people who put up their Christmas lawn stuff before Thanksgiving deserved whatever happened. But we found out later they’d been talking about moving out for a while, even before the full moon madness hit … they just weren’t sure how to ask me about leaving.

Ask
me. Like I was their boss or their … their … well. I wasn’t, was the point. They never had to ask. They just had to tell.

So there was that.

But on the other hand, Garrett was weird and Antonia was bitchily blunt. So it was harder to stay sad … assuming I even
was
sad. Like I said, it was hard to know how to feel about this latest development. It had been a weird few days. Even by our standards.

“Can you wipe that sappy expression off your jowls, Betsy?”

My point! Right there in a nutshell. “Antonia, you bitch, I do not have—”

“If you cry, I’m punching you in the forehead.”

“See if I ever bring you back from hell again,” I sulked.

She cupped her elbows in both hands and shook her head; all that dark hair flew around like it was being sucked into a wind tunnel. I never saw the wench so much as glance at a hairbrush, but she never got tangles. Yet another mysterious werewolf power, no doubt.

“At least tell me what you use for a conditioner before you leave,” I begged.

She made an irritated noise that sounded like a cross between a sigh and a snort. “I knew you wouldn’t really get why we’re taking a vacation from our lives.”

“Because if you don’t burn through your Pack vacation time by the end of the fiscal year, you lose all the hours you stockpiled since you were a fuzzy cub who peed on the furniture every ten minutes?”

“Stick to what you know, shoe girl,” she retorted. “I’m saying this again. For the last time, so pay attention, bimbo queen: I died. I went to hell. And then you asked the devil to give me a second chance. And the devil—the
devil
, mind you—was so anxious to stay on your good side that she agreed.”

“Just what I’ve always wanted: my very own personal recapper.”

She ignored me, the ruthless tart. “You secured my freedom and put yourself in jeopardy to do it. Believe me, it pains me to be this nice to you. I haven’t had any coffee yet, and these gaggingly sweet words are sticking in my throat like gristle.”

“Well, I
am
pretty great…” Egads. Garrett would be trapped in a truck with caffeineless Antonia for
how
long? He’d probably go feral all over again.

“So here we are: a fresh start! Something most people don’t ever get, and we
both
got one. Thanks to you. And you didn’t know us very well.” She could never not look amazed when she told this part of the story. It sort of cracked me up. “So what to do with it, right? Because when you think about it, d’you realize how many people die and then get to come back?”

“Uh…” This week? This month? Last year? Twenty years from now? Forty? A hundred?

Antonia nodded. “Right. Dumb question.”

“Not for most people,” Garrett said. He had just finished taping a cardboard box absolutely bulging with skeins of yarn. It was the sixth box. That guy was gonna knit the whole world a hat/scarf combo. I guess everybody needed goals. Garrett’s was to master yarn bombing, whatever the heck that was (I prayed it didn’t involve a yarn shop and an incendiary device). “But we’re not most, so…” He shrugged and started taping another box. We were using the kitchen as a packing station … the high counters, large room (big as a restaurant kitchen at least), and acres of counter space made it ideal. It was also making me really want a blueberry smoothie.

Smoothie cravings aside, I understood Garrett’s disinterest in their destination: he had no idea where they were going, and he didn’t give a tin shit. He was going with Antonia. That was what mattered; it was the
only
thing that had ever mattered. Anything beyond that was whipped cream on the sundae of his life. Or, I dunno, the bobble in the sweater of life.

Aw, jeez, it was too late … they’d already corrupted me with their weird knitting rituals and jargon.

“Uh … the other thing…” To my surprise, Antonia looked almost … embarrassed? No way. This was the girl who on a whim had stripped on our lawn last spring and hosed herself down while waving to the occasional passing school bus.

(Werewolves are weird.)

So scratch embarrassment. But then what…

“I like you a lot, Betsy.”

That was kind of a relief. Honestly, sometimes it was hard to tell with her.

“And after what you did for me and mine, my life is yours. Only right now, I’d like my life to be somewhere else for a while. You get that, right?”

“Miraculously, yes,” I said dryly. “Next time just break out the hand puppets. It’ll be quicker.”

She didn’t so much as quirk her lips in a sarcastic smile. Hung on to the poker face instead. I don’t know why I expected anything else. “But if I stayed, I’d be obligated to keep the Pack abreast of your doings. I live with
you
, I help
you
, and you help me back because we all take care of each other, but at the end of the day I’m still me and you’re still you.
That’s
what I liked best about this place. About our … um, our home.”

I nodded, hoping I had a semi-intelligent look on my face. Luckily Antonia took pity on me (maybe she was coming down with something) and elaborated: “I’m still Pack, and you’re still not. It’s a lifetime of conditioned behavior I’m not up to trying to break right now.”

“But Michael, the leader guy—”

“Pack leader, imbecile, must I carve it on your forearm?”

“He knows you’re alive. Again.”

She nodded as Garrett began trundling box after box of yarn, needles, and patterns to the Come-N’-Go rental truck out front (their disturbing logo: “We’ll Help You Come N’ Go!”). Don’t judge; they were way cheaper than U-Haul, even if their pink and white trucks reminded me of a bottle of Pepto-Bismol. “Yes. And he’s the
only
one, for now. He won’t even tell his wife. I got his word on that, and where Michael’s concerned, that’s always going to be good enough. The others will find out, in time. Maybe.”

“He’s letting you leave us, then?” I was a little surprised Michael hadn’t called her home. Or insisted she stay. But I wasn’t surprised she didn’t want to go. We found her annoying; her Pack was afraid of her. “Just like that?”

“Sure. He knows I want to see a little more of the planet besides New England and Minnesota before I die and go to hell again.”

“Hell
again
?”

She puffed her hair out of her eyes, exasperated at the glacier slowness of my thought process. “Of course, dumb shit. Where else would I end up? Except…” She smiled then, an expression of dazzling warmth, and I was reminded that when I wasn’t controlling the urge to staple her lips shut, she could be pretty great. “Except I want to hit the trail for a couple of years first. D’you know Garrett’s never been tubing? Or fishing? Or free climbing or tie shopping? He’s never made cookies or been to a zoo? He’s never been to a baseball game or ridden a roller coaster. He’s never been to a casino, or on an airplane. Which reminds me…” She hollered for Garrett, but she was still standing in front of me, so my ears nearly fell off. “I got the tickets!”

“Ow.”

“Crybaby.”

“Tickets?”

“To the California Wool and Fiber Festival,” she said in her typical try-to-keep-up-dummy tone.

And what to say to that? A simple farewell to a couple of roommates had once again taken a bizarre turn. I considered various bitchy replies but in the end settled for, “I didn’t know there even was such a thing.”

“That’s because you’re a drooling moron, Betsy.” She flashed her dazzling smile at me, taking every bit of the sting from her words. All her words in the last few minutes, come to think of it. “Now pay attention. I know it’s going to be hard, what with you being unable to learn or adapt to any situation at any time under any circumstance, ever, but watch me.” She pointed to her eyes. Uh … weird. “Listening?”

“Yeah, and staring into your eyes, which, now that I noticed them, seem weirdly far apart. Have you always had the hammerhead shark thing going, or am I only now noticing?”

I thought I’d get a snotty retort, but she nodded. “That’s exactly what I’m talking about. I’ve lived here how long and you’ve only now noticed I’ve got wide-set eyes.”

“Like a shark!”

“Shut up. Pay attention. You’ve
got
to pay attention, Betsy. Only Michael knows I’m alive, but for form’s sake, he’s got to send another Pack member out here. It’ll be ostensibly to form and maintain friendly relations between his awesomely buff Pack members and your sneaky pale leeches. So watch for a new werewolf in the neighborhood. Or her. Because they’ll be showing up soon.”

“That’s why he’s letting you leave,” I said, suddenly getting it. “He can’t send a sub without the Pack finding out you’re alive, so he’s letting you vamoose … you get rewarded for returning from the dead, he gets to send fresh eyes and ears out here to watch us.”

“Yes.”

“Sneaky bastard.”

“Yes. And if he heard you say that—”

“Well, jeez, don’t tell him.”

“—he’d be flattered,” she finished. “I think that’s everything.”

“Really?”
That would be great. I feel like I’ve been listening to her for a month and a half.
“Okay, well, let me go get—”

“Good-bye.”

“No you don’t!” She turned back, and arched her brows in surprise. “You gotta let the others say good-bye.”

“Why?”

Argh. The weird thing was, she was honestly puzzled. She wanted to go, we all knew she was going, she would be back, the end. Why draw it out? For what purpose?

(Werewolves are weird.)

She scowled at me. “You’re not going in for a hug, are you? Are you going to cry? You’d better not cry.”

“Don’t worry; you’ve killed the thing inside me that thought this was going to be a tender farewell.”

“Oh. Good. Besides, we’re not saying good-bye forever. We’ll head on back after a few months. Maybe a year. Okay, two years … anyway … you’re not crying, are you?”

“Only from the stress of
not
kicking you until you’ve got bruises the size of softballs.”

“Ha! Okay. Good. You only ever have to call. We’ll come on the run. Don’t lose that number—I keep that cell on me most of the time. I know you can’t help being kind of stupid sometimes, but make a real effort not to lose that number.”

Wow. For Antonia, this was downright warm and fuzzy. Still, it was hard to keep swallowing my irritation. Did vampires get peptic ulcers? “Yeah, thanks, and … say! Don’t you think it’s time you climbed into your car and drove and drove and drove away from here?”

“Past time.” She started to swing the door shut, then paused and glanced at me once more. “Um … Betsy … there’s one more thing…”

I braced myself, or tried, for what had to be coming: I hate your breath, I think you’re dumb, pay attention, mind your own business, don’t you dare cry, drop dead, stop obsessing over what to put on your feet, don’t call after ten p.m., don’t call at all, you can’t pull off pigtails, you can’t pull off plaid walking shorts, shut up, go away, get the hell out of here, can’t you see we’re having sex…

“I’m so happy I know you. Nothing in my life was as good as the time I spent here with you guys. Hell itself wasn’t even so bad compared with how the Pack used to … well.” She shrugged, and her smile trembled. “I’d … I’d do anything you asked, is what I wanted to say. Just … whatever you need, you only ever have to…” She shrugged again, embarrassed to be saying it, but unwilling to leave it out. “I’d do anything for you.”

Before I could recover (My heart! Cut down in the prime of life from a shock-induced heart attack! Woe, the humanity), she was out the door and screeching, “Garrett! We can’t bring another dozen boxes of yarn; we didn’t rent a big enough truck! You’re gonna have to choose, weirdo!”

I cried. Sure I did; it was all part of my sinister plan. I told her I wouldn’t, then willfully went ahead and bawled for ten minutes after that stupid pink and white truck pulled out of our driveway.

That oughta show her.